My hands shook from his sudden arrival and the brush with being hurt. I didn’t want to ask what had caused it. In my heart, I already knew. “Let me clean you up.”
His hand shot out and grabbed my arm as I passed, pulling me roughly back to him.
“This,” he breathed, his fingers touching the bruise on my stomach. The crop top wasn’t long enough to hide it, though there had been a piece of me that wanted him to see it.
He had caused it. Indirectly.
If he hadn’t put me up on that auction block for whatever reason, Adrian would never have had his moment, and I wouldn’t have gotten hurt in the process.
“It was Adrian,” I stated, my voice surprisingly firm. “He hit me.”
Lucas’s grip tightened on my arm, and when I met his eyes, I saw a flicker of regret in them. I knew he had never thought that I would get hurt. But then again, he hadn’t anticipated that Adrian would be there that night.
“You have blood on your cheek,” I told him after a moment. “Let me clean it up for you.”
But Lucas didn’t relinquish his hold on my arm, instead bringing his other hand up to cup the back of my neck before his lips descended on mine. His kiss was brutal. No tenderness came with his touch as he ravaged my mouth. I felt the familiar warmth flood my lower half as he teased my lips apart and swept in with his tongue, the dangerous tango we always had between each other only igniting the fire even more.
I knew what this was. Lucas was losing control, and barely hanging onto whatever he felt was his lifeline.
Maybe I was that lifeline. Maybe I was the reason that he could exert a measure of control over his situation. After all, he was here.
I wanted to slow him down, but Lucas was having none of it, pushing me until the backs of my knees hit the bed. When he tore his mouth away from me, I gasped. “Lucas.”
His look was feral now, and he gave me a light push until I fell on the bed before Lucas loomed over me. He braced his arms on the mattress and just looked at me, his own chest heaving. Between the blood on his cheek and the wild look in his eyes, I should have been scared of him.
Yet scared wasn’t the word. There were a thousand other words that I could have used for what I was feeling right at this moment, and none of them were good for my poor heart. He was going to shatter me if he hadn’t already, and I wanted him to.
When Lucas leaned down this time, his lips weren’t as demanding, choosing to tease instead until I gasped with pleasure. I barely felt his hand tugging on the small shorts I was wearing and the cold air that rushed over my bare lower half as he succeeded in getting them off.
I tried to put my hands on him, but Lucas tore his lips from mine, grabbing my hands with one of his. “No,” he said harshly, bringing them up over my head. “This is my fucking time.”
“Lucas, please,” I begged, wanting to give him whatever he needed right now. There was some sort of desperation in the way he touched me, but I wanted to soothe the monster inside.
I wanted to give him love.
But all he wanted was animal release.
My hands were pinned against the mattress as he reached for the zipper on his pants. He let go of me briefly to slide me down to the edge of the bed, and I instinctively pushed my knees up when he nudged at my entrance. White-hot heat shot through me as he regained my hands and slowly pushed them over my head, his mouth working as he did so. I knew he was suffering from something, but he wasn’t willing to let me help him.
Not yet.
When he pushed into my warmth, I gasped and arched my back off the mattress, the fullness nearly taking my breath away. It had been too long since we had been together.
After he had put me on that auction block, I thought I would never have this again. Without thinking, I clenched to feel myself wrap around his length.
“Fuck,” he breathed, content with just being inside me as I squeezed and released.
My body was on fire, every nerve ending on edge for the relief that only Lucas could provide, and I hoped that he touched me.
I wanted to beg for him to touch me, but I held my tongue. This was what Lucas needed right now, and for once in my life, I wasn’t going to be selfish.
Still, he looked like some sort of devil incarnate over me, blood on his face and every muscle in his neck corded, straining to maintain a measure of control. Lucas wasn’t a monster; he was a devil sent to tempt my very soul. At this moment, I would give him anything.
Lucas’s other hand gripped my hip and pushed me against him, sheathing him even deeper. “Leda,” he growled, his fingers biting into my skin. “Leda.”
I wrapped my legs around him, and he hissed before he started to move inside me. No more words came from his perfect lips. Our coupling was fast and fierce, and just about the time that I felt the pressure start to build for my own orgasm, Lucas stiffened and poured into me, his fingers at my hip nearly digging into my skin.
My heart pounding in my chest, I felt him release my hands, giving me a chance to move my arms around to get the feeling back in them. I was stunned that he hadn’t given me my release. Lucas hadn’t ever been selfish in bed; all the times we had been together after our initial encounters had been a give-and-take sort of deal, but this time, it seemed he was all about the take.