Vance slowly stands, dragging the back of his hand across his damp lips. He seems unworried by her depending scowl. I veer upright, about to slide off the lounge, but he stops me with a wave of his fingers.
“I want you to watch. Consider it a birthday gift to me.” He moves to a low futon on the other side of the table, and with a push of a button, the sofa flattens into a bed. Shooting Lilith a pointed glance, he issues a challenge in the jut of his chin.
“I already told you,” she says, shaking her head. “I won’t do it while she watches.”
“I think you’ll change your mind.” His attention stalls on the elixir, and Lilith’s eyes widen.
“No!” She whirls, ebony hair flying, and disappears into the hall. Vance gives chase, a satisfied grin distorting his features, and not ten seconds later I detect shouting and what sounds like fists pounding the wall, the thump, thump, thump more urgent as purposeful footfalls approach the room.
Vance reenters and dumps her flailing body onto the sofa bed.
“What makes you think you can manhandle me like this?” She gives him a hissing sneer, the glare in her eyes apparent from where I’m stunned into silence on the lounge. She tries to get up, but he shoves her back to the mattress.
“Stop fighting me,” he says, crawling over her and holding her down by the throat. His use of force shocks me, because Vance never once hinted at beholding such brutality during the three weeks I’ve been in his house.
“You can’t make me take it!”
“I won’t make you, but I will offer you a deal.” He lowers his face, nearly forehead to forehead with her. Beyond the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears, it’s so quiet in the room that a pin could drop and we’d all hear it.
“Do you take me for a fool? Your deals only benefit you.”
“I know you want my cock.” He settles between her legs, hips thrusting against hers as if to make his point.
She shakes her head. “Not like this.”
“Take the elixir. If you don’t beg me to fuck you tonight in this room, with her watching, then I’ll let you go. I’ll even give you another chance after the queen leaves.”
That nugget of promise steals the fight from her bones. With a groan of frustration, she goes limp on the mattress. “You’re infuriating!”
“So infuriating you can’t resist me.”
“Fine. I’ll take one teaspoon.”
“You’ll take two.”
“I will not.”
“Unless you’d rather have three?” His devious smile flashes my way. “Novalee took the full dose. She’ll get no prize out of this evening.” He pauses a beat, lips grazing her stubborn jawline. “Would you like to join her in a little sexual denial?”
“How did you become such an ass?”
“You created the monster, love. For years, you teased the hell out of me knowing I couldn’t do a thing about it.”
“Wrong,” she seethes. “You wouldn’t do anything about it.”
“I’m doing something about it now.”
Suspense falls over the room, interspersed with heavy breathing and too much sexual tension in the air. Headiness trills through my veins, my skin tingling with arousal, and I’m waiting for her response with bated breath, much too curious about the outcome of their quarrel.
“You win,” Lilith finally says, turning her head away from Vance in defeat. Her eyes meet mine for an instant, and behind the hatred, I detect something else, though I can’t put a name to it at first.
Something that isn’t hatred but isn’t kindness either. It’s an understanding, a kinship of sorts—a shared membership to an exclusive club for women where men rule.
Vance rises, pulling her into a sitting position, and then he grabs the elixir and pours a teaspoon before bringing it to her lips. For three long seconds, she refuses to open her mouth, and I almost expect her to take off running again.
Instead, she leans back on her elbows and opens for him. But the way she closes her mouth around the spoon, with a coy smile and mischief in her eyes, speaks of her intent. If Vance notices it, he doesn’t call her on it.
Propping one knee on the sofa, he feeds her another dose before setting the bottle and teaspoon back on the table. “Take off your clothes,” he orders.
“If you want them off, you do it.”
“Mmm.” His gaze travels over her heaving breasts, cleavage threatening to spill over the lace-up bodice. “Eager for my hands, are you?”
“No! That’s not what I—”
He silences her with a finger to her mouth. “I’m happy to oblige.” Running a hand between her breasts, he works at the laces of her top, and I feel my nipples tighten in response.
I want to avert my eyes, to pretend Vance isn’t about to screw her on that couch, but I’m riveted, my body hostage to his wicked potion as it storms through my veins. Lilith’s breasts spill into his deft hands, and she whimpers at the skin-on-skin contact.