Tears began to leak out of the corners of her eyes, her chest so full she thought it would burst. She buried her fingers in his hair, pulled his mouth back to hers, and kissed him deeply, drowning in his taste, in his scent, in the sheer joy of his love.

Her hands slid down to his massive shoulders, to the hard muscle that played along their sculpted breadth. “I want to touch you.”

He pulled back, a smile playing at his mouth, then sat up and pulled the black shirt over his head, revealing the most beautiful male chest ever made. As her fingers found his abs and began an upward slide, luxuriating in the feel of the hard planes beneath her palms, his own fingers found the buttons of her blouse and began unbuttoning it with slow deliberation, as if he savored every new glimpse of her skin.

When he had her shirt undone, he parted it slowly, his gaze intent as he reached for the front clasp of her bra and flicked it open. With cool fingers, he parted the cups, freeing her to his gaze. His eyes feasted.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he breathed, reaching for her, claiming her breasts with his fingers, his palms, and, finally, his mouth. Cool lips closed over one taut nipple and he sucked her fully into his mouth making her moan and arch with pleasure. Her hands slid once more into his hair, and she held him close, loving the feel of him in her arms again. Loving him, fangs and all.

“Lukas?”

He lifted slowly, licking across her nipple, tightening things low inside her body. His gaze flicked up to meet hers. “Hmm?”

“When you bite me, do you ever hurt me?”

“Never.”

“Then promise me something. Please?”

“Anything.”

“Don’t enthrall me anymore. Don’t take my memories, again. Not unless I ask you to. Please?”

He leaned up, kissing her mouth thoroughly before pulling back. His gaze bore into hers. “I promise, Elizabeth. No more secrets between us.” His eyes turned tender, a boyish smile lifting his mouth as his expression took on a look of wonder. “I was so afraid for you to learn the truth.”

“That you’re a vampire?”

He kissed her again. “It’s not an easy thing to overlook.”

She laughed. “No, I suppose it’s not.” Lifting a hand, she stroked his beloved cheek. “You’re still my Lukas.”

“Always.” He turned and kissed her palm.

“Lukas, do you ever . . . ?” Her cheeks began to heat, making him smile. “Do you ever bite me . . . places other than my neck?”

His eyes warmed, heated. “I haven’t, no, though I’ve wanted to. I wouldn’t engage in that kind of intimacy with you when you weren’t fully aware.”

“But you still drank from me.”

“Yes. I brought us both incredible pleasure.”

“Why didn’t your bite hurt me, when Butch’s fangs . . .” She shuddered. “They burned, Lukas. It was horrible.”

His eyes darkened. “He’s . . . he was a pain-feeder. It was his gift to cause pain with his bite. My gift is to offer only pleasure with mine.”

“I’m glad.” She smiled shyly. “Perhaps we can take it one step at a time since this is all so new to me.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “We’ll take it however you wish, Lizzy-mine.” His fingers went to the button of her pants. “But I need to taste you again, if only with my tongue. Will you let me?”

Heat rushed through her body. “Yes.”

As he tugged off her shoes, she shrugged off her shirt and bra, then watched as he slid her pants down over her hips and legs, pulling them off, leaving her in nothing but a pair of silky black panties.

A growl of need rumbled in his throat, the corners of his mouth lifting as he shot her a look of pure masculine approval. His blue eyes flashing with white heat, he held her gaze as he dipped his head between her legs, then licked her right through the silk. His rough tongue made her arch with pleasure.

“Oh, Lukas, how I’ve missed you, too.”

With a low laugh, he slid one finger beneath the edge of her panties, pulling the crotch aside, then laved her bare flesh with his tongue, making her cry out with joy. He was teasing her, playing with her, and, as she watched him, his eyes once more began to turn white where his pupils should be black.

“Why are your eyes changing?”

His lashes swept down.

“Don’t, Lukas. No secrets.”

He looked up again, worry in that beautiful face. “I’m a pleasure-feeder though no one’s pleasure has ever pleased me more than yours. When I taste it, the need inside of me, the hunger, awakens. And that’s when my eyes change.”

“And your fangs lengthen?”

“Not always at the same time, but soon, yes.” His expression turned achingly tender. “I will never hurt you, Lizzy. Do you believe me?”

“Yes.” Then she gasped again as his hand moved, his finger sliding deep inside her. “Oh, yes. Oh, Lukas.”

Tired of the game, he pulled her panties down and off, then eased her legs apart, eyeing her with a hunger that stole her breath. His face lowered, his mouth kissing her, licking her, sucking at the core of her pleasure until she was rocking against him, gasping, her head thrown back. His hands caressed her hips, her thighs, as the pleasure mounted, as her body tightened, rising, rising.

The orgasm broke over her, shattering in its brilliance, her body clenching and contracting deep, deep inside in a glorious explosion of joy. And then his mouth was on her abdomen, rising to suckle her breast.

Her fingers dug into his hair. “Inside, Lukas,” she gasped, still riding the aftershocks. “I need you inside me.”

When he lifted his head, his pupils were still white, his fangs long and sharp, though she’d felt no prick, no pain. But those inhuman eyes gleamed with love, and she wasn’t even the slightest bit afraid.

“Did you bite my breast?” she asked, curious.

“No. You’ll know when I do.” He smiled. “You’ll enjoy it.”

Pulling away, he stood beside the sofa, unbuckled his belt, then removed his boots and socks, and pushed his pants down over lean, hard hips, revealing white Jockey shorts that barely held his massive erection.

Her thighs dampened, a low moan escaping her throat as he pushed down his shorts and that erection sprang free. It was huge, straight, thick, and gorgeous. Oh how she’d missed this man.

Lowering himself over her, his bare chest brushing the tips of her breasts, he slowly positioned his big body until the tip of him pressed at her slick gates. Resting on his elbows, staring into her eyes, he slid firmly, yet gently inside her.

His eyes nearly rolled back into his head. Her own almost did the same as the thickness of him stretched her, claimed her, thrilled her.

Her breath left on a groan as he pulled most of the way out, then slid in again and again, setting up a gradually escalating rhythm until he was pounding into her, and she was thrusting against him, needing him deeper, deeper.

Fingers in his hair, she watched him, loved him.

“Give me your neck, Lizzy-mine.”

His words shivered through her on a thrill of danger, but she didn’t hesitate. The dark thought rose that if she were going to die, this was the way she wanted to go.

She tipped her head sideways, giving him access, then tensed ever so slightly as his head dipped, as his lips kissed her neck, as his fangs sank into her flesh.

As he’d promised, she felt no pain at all, just a weird and wonderful sensation of . . . connection. And then his lips closed onto her skin and he sucked, pulled, and she cried out with the incredible erotic pleasure. How she felt it there, she couldn’t begin to guess, but with every pull of his mouth, she felt the tug more strongly between her legs. Again and again he sucked, and she cried out, her body rising, climbing, preparing to shatter all over again.

He rode the crest with her, driving into her harder and harder, his body straining toward that ultimate release. And, suddenly, they were flying together, soaring, shattering, then floating slowly and blissfully back down to Earth.

Lukas lifted his head, then managed to roll them over on the sofa until he was on the bottom, and she was lying atop him, cradled in his arms, her head tucked against his chin.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked quietly.

“No. I never imagined anything so wonderful.” As she stroked his chest, she wondered how this male could be real. And how, even if he lived, they could ever have a life together, coming as they did, from such totally different worlds.

Chapter Nine

LUKAS STROKED THE warm, silken back of the beauty in his arms, the precious darling of a woman who’d stolen his heart the first time she’d smiled at him. Sweet and beautiful, his Lizzy. Never had he known anyone so full of life, so full of love.

“You are mine,” he said quietly, wonder in his voice that she could love him at all, let alone after he’d revealed himself completely—his fangs, his eyes, his need for blood.

Lifting up, she propped her forearms on his chest and met his gaze, softness glowing in her lovely brown eyes. “As you’re mine, Lukas Olsson. Since you can’t leave here, neither will I.”

His heart clutched. “No, sweetheart.” His hands slid down her back to her buttocks, reveling in the feel of her soft curves, then up again. “You must go, Lizzy-mine. You aren’t safe here, and I can’t keep you so. Too many vampires within Vamp City have lost hold of their consciences. Too many want only to feed off your fear or your pain. And if I try to protect you and fail, too many will enjoy hurting you just to get at me. I’ve never been a fan of the kovena to which I’ve been forced to pledge allegiance, and many know it.”

He reached for her hand, pulled it to his mouth, and kissed it. “Somehow, I will find a way to set you free, then you must go. For me.”

That stubborn light ignited in her eyes, and as much as he wished it hadn’t—not over this—he loved that she treated him no differently than she ever had, even knowing what he was.

“I won’t be separated from you again,” she insisted.

He gripped the back of her head and lifted his own, kissing her. When he pulled back, he found tears in her eyes, and they were almost more than he could bear. “I would give anything to keep you by my side, Lizzy-mine, but my mission is to hunt for the sorceress, to find her before Cristoff Gonzaga’s vamps do. My master’s own liege wishes to control the power, and, at the moment, the sorceress is that power.”

She nestled against him again, her cheek pressed against his heart. He stroked her hair, his heart melting.

“Vampires don’t sleep, Lizzy. We work day and night, hunt day and night. I haven’t stopped in more than a week. What would I do with you?” His fingers weaved into her silken hair. “I would have to hide you, but then I wouldn’t be able to protect you. And there are far too many here who would do you harm.”

He placed a kiss against her hair. “You have to go back to the real world. Then I want you to leave Washington and not come back until I contact you.”

“What?” Her head popped back up as she frowned at him. “You said I needed to stay out of the Vamp City area. Not all of D.C.”

“I know. But you’d be safest far away from both Washingtons. Outside the Vamp City area, you won’t accidentally walk in through a sunbeam again, but there are still those who hunt humans to sell at the slave auction. You’d be safest away from here.” He held her gaze, willing her to hear the truth of his heart. “I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, sweetheart. I couldn’t bear it.”

Her gaze turning pained, she tucked her precious head once more beneath his chin, then plucked gently at his nipple with her fingers, making him smile even as he stifled a groan. His body began to stir all over again, but hers was softening in that way it always did when she was tired and ready for sleep.

“You have to come back to me, Lukas,” she said quietly.

He kissed her hair. “That is my only life’s goal, sweetheart.”

Her hand stilled, tucking beneath her chin. Peace enveloped him, a peace he’d never known in Vamp City. A peace woven with steely resolve to keep her safe.

Love pulsed inside him as he held her, stroking her back, listening to her precious heartbeat. If it was the last gift he gave her, if it was the last good thing he did in this too-long life of his, he would see this woman safely out of Vamp City once and for all.

Even if he could never follow.

Chapter Ten

SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Elizabeth rode nestled against Lukas’s chest through a dimly lit forest on their way to meet someone. A vampire named Arturo. Lukas’s arm curled around her waist, his thumb gently stroking the underside of her breast. The ride itself wasn’t particularly comfortable, but there was no place she’d rather be than here, with Lukas. The thought of saying good-bye to him again filled her with an aching misery.

Forcing her mind on other things, she studied the twisted, gnarled trunks of the trees all around them, trees totally lacking in foliage despite the fact that it was only early September.

“The trees look dead,” she murmured.

“They are dead. They grow that way.”

“That isn’t possible.”

“Magic, dearest,” he said, giving her waist a gentle squeeze.

Magic. The evidence of it continually boggled her mind. And yet this world’s very existence was the greatest evidence that it did. She was glad to be getting the opportunity to see a little more of Vamp City before she left. Assuming Lukas could really get her out of here. As badly as she didn’t want to leave him, neither did she want to make his existence an ordeal, as she could if he were forced to constantly try to hide her. He needed to be able to concentrate on finding the sorceress who would save him so that he could come back to her.