When Lucien stepped into his room, the silence that greeted him was familiar, but he sensed something different tonight. A subtle shift in the air. He had assumed she'd be asleep by now. It was late. The moon was high, casting pale light through the windows and washing the elegant interior in a silver hue.
But there she was.
Sitting on the velvet couch like a painting that had come to life, her legs tucked beneath her, hair falling loosely over one shoulder, the glow of the laptop illuminating her face. She was wearing one of the nightdresses he had picked _a decent one, modest, yet it clung to her frame in all the ways that made his thoughts spiral. A soft satin blue, with delicate lace at the neckline, flowing over her thighs like water.
When the door creaked behind him,Kelsey turned her head slightly, her brown eyes catching his as he approached, but she shifted her gaze back to the screen. She didn't say a word. Not even when he crossed the room with that unnerving, elegant grace that was all his own _like a predator who never needed to rush.
He reached the laptop. Without a word, he leaned down and closed it with a soft but definitive click.
Her eyes met his.
There it was again_that darkness in them. But it wasn't cold or cruel this time. It was… yearning. Deep, untamed, and brimming with something feral and beautiful. His gaze held her captive, making her heart skip.
Then, without warning, his hand reached out and gently took hers, fingers lacing through hers .
He pulled her up with a fluid motion, her body meeting his in one swift tug. His voice came low and warm, his breath laced with desire as he leaned in.
"I want to kiss you."
There was no space between intention and action. His lips met hers before she could breathe a single protest.
At first, the kiss was slow. Almost reverent. His mouth brushed over hers with a desperate tenderness, as if he were tasting something he had craved for centuries. Then, the hunger seeped in. The gentleness gave way to possession.
His hand cupped the back of her head, angling her mouth to deepen the kiss, and the other slid down, tracing her spine with a maddening patience before resting at the curve of her bottom. He pulled her closer, pressing her body flush against his.
Kelsey gasped softly against his lips, the sensation foreign and overwhelming. She had never been kissed before _let alone like this. His lips were soft but firm, his tongue flicking teasingly before claiming her mouth in a way that made her knees weaken. His scent _an intoxicating mix of cigar, sandalwood, and something unearthly_coiled around her senses.
She tasted the faint bitterness of liquor, but beneath it, she tasted him.
And even though every instinct screamed that she should pull away, that she shouldn't let him do this_her body betrayed her.
His teeth grazed her bottom lip before giving a small, claiming bite_a mark of dominance disguised as desire. He didn't stop there. Lucien gently bucked that wounded lip between his own, drawing it in slowly, savoring it as if it were a delicacy crafted just for him. His tongue flicked out, licking the bead of blood that welled up from where his bite had broken the skin. He tucked it into his mouth, tasting her_truly tasting her_and just as he had imagined countless times in the deepest recesses of his mind, it was heavenly.
A dark shudder passed through him, his restraint hanging by a thread. Her blood was warm, rich, intoxicating and sweet. The primal part of him stirred awake, whispering to take more, to claim what was his fully. But he didn't. Barely. He forced himself to pull back, jaw clenched with tension, eyes burning with a hunger that went far beyond physical desire.
Kelsey staggered slightly, breathless. Her chest rose and fell quickly, her lips still tingling from the contact. She tasted blood. A tiny amount, just from that bite. Her fingers gripped the silk of her nightdress as if to tether herself to reality.
Lucien's expression was unreadable now. His chest moved with the rise and fall of restraint. He looked like a man who had just realized he could fall apart_with her. Because of her.
As Lucien took a step toward her, Kelsey instinctively backed away_her spine stiffening, breath catching_only for the backs of her legs to brush against the edge of the chair. Her heart stammered wildly in her chest like a trapped bird, unsure whether it wanted to flee or surrender.
"Don't do this," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, breathy and trembling. She hated how weak she sounded, but it was the only tone her throat would allow. His presence, towering yet composed, radiated heat and tension that unsettled her in ways she could hardly name.
Lucien didn't stop.
He stood there, silent and observing, and the way his eyes pinned her down made her feel as though he were peeling back her layers_seeing her not just as a body, but as a soul waiting to be unraveled.
"Do what?" he asked, his voice low and rich. His features were unreadable, but his dark eyes burned with an intensity that stripped away every piece of armor she had built around herself. It wasn't just his beauty_it was the control he exuded, the effortless confidence. That terrifying, intoxicating magnetism that made it hard to think, to breathe, to resist.
Kelsey tried to hold her composure, tried to make sense of the war that raged in her chest. Her fingers clenched at her sides, a pathetic attempt to ground herself. Her face felt hot, flushed with something dangerously close to longing. She hated how easily her body betrayed her. She hated that her skin tingled at just his nearness.
"T-This," she stammered, her eyes darting away from his. "You're doing all this because… because you're drunk."
Lucien's lips curled into a slow, ghost of a smile. That damn smile. The one that made her insides twist and unravel. The one that carried knowledge_of what he was doing to her, of how her breath hitched every time he so much as looked at her with those dark, all-knowing eyes. It faded just as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by something darker. Something real.
"Kelsey…" he whispered her name.
His eyes darkened, the lines of his jaw tightening as he watched her. He could see the way her chest rose and fell faster now, how the color on her cheeks deepened. Her lips, still bruised from his kiss, trembled with the ghost of resistance.
"If I was drunk..," he began, his voice dipping an octave lower, thick and velvet-smooth, like sin poured over honey, "we wouldn't be here talking like this. You would be on the bed behind us, with my hand tangled in your hair and your wrists pinned above your head."
Kelsey's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't move. She couldn't.
Lucien stepped closer again, his frame shadowing hers, commanding the air between them. He didn't touch her but the nearness of his body sent a thrill running through her veins.
"I'd be kissing every inch of your skin," he whispered against her ear, his breath hot. "Starting with your neck_where your pulse races the hardest_and then I'd move lower… to your collarbone, to the curve of your breasts. Slowly. Thoroughly."
Kelsey's thighs pressed together of their own accord. A heat bloomed deep within her stomach and spread in between her legs, unexpected and devastating.
"I'd make you beg," he said, his voice now more of a growl. "Beg for me to touch you. To take you apart. And when I finally did, Kelsey…" His hand brushed down her arm_lightly, as if by accident_but it sent shivers all through her. "You'd be clawing at my back. Writhing beneath me. And moaning my name like a prayer you never believed in until that very moment."
She gasped softly_barely audible_but Lucien heard it. His lips curved, not cruelly, but with a knowing that only made it worse.
"And your legs…" he added, his mouth now close to her temple, "would be wrapped tight around my waist, your voice cracking from how many times I'd pulled release from your body."
Kelsey's breath hitched. The air in the room felt too thick, her skin too sensitive, her heart too loud. That place between her thighs pulsed with a need she had never known before_raw and real and maddening.
Lucien finally leaned back just enough to see her face.
Her eyes were glassy, her lips parted, her entire body visibly trembling_not out of fear, but overwhelmed by sensations that she didn't yet know how to tame. She was silent, caught in the gravity of his words.
"You think I'm doing this because I'm drunk?" he murmured, brushing his thumb once again along the seam of her lower lip. "No, sweetheart. I'm this dangerous when I'm completely sober. Now go to bed, unless you want me to do hat I have just told you."