Livia Reasoner - Dark Nights - Mistress of the Underground / The Vampire Affair

“Damn it, Paige,” he cursed her, “you shocked the hell out of me.”

Out of herself, too. After she’d been released from the hospital, she had insisted Sebastian drop her here. She couldn’t believe she’d actually come back to this house. She’d been reeling from the memories and emotions since she’d walked in the door, the one where Ben had carried her over the threshold when they’d moved in ten years ago. Having lived in a loft the first few years of their marriage, it had been their first real home.

Ever. Except for the foster homes in which Ben had lived, their single mothers had never been able to afford a house, or to provide them with security. Ben’s because she’d been too sick and physically weak; Paige’s because she’d just been too weak.

With as much as they’d had in common, it was no wonder that Paige had fallen for him. They should have been able to make their marriage work; they should have been able to have a lasting relationship.

She struggled again, not to awaken, but to bury the memories and the emotions. What they had now wasn’t about the past or the future. It was the here and now, and that was all she would allow herself to think about.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Fine. It was just a scratch.”

“A scratch doesn’t require stitches.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “In fact, I think I’m better than you are.” She couldn’t see him in the darkened room, but there was something about his tone that revealed his tension.

“I’m…just shocked that you’re here,” he said.

“You’re not used to women sneaking into your house to wait naked in your bed for you to come home?” she teased, willing to play any role—even the jealous ex-wife.

“The alarm usually stops them.”

Her heartbeat accelerated as the emotions crept back in. “You didn’t change the code.” And she couldn’t help but wonder why. For the same reason she’d used it as hers, probably because it was easy to remember.

“No,” he said, his body taut next to hers, as if he didn’t dare touch her. “I didn’t.”

She had to know. “Because you didn’t think I’d come back or you didn’t want to keep me out if I did?” she asked, holding her breath for his answer.

“Probably both.”

“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I’m not here to stay.” She was brave enough now to visit, but she could never come home again even though he had asked her to move back in. To protect her. Only to protect her…

“Why are you here, Paige?” He kept to his side of the bed, something he’d never done when they were married. “Is this about playing another game? Who are you tonight?”

Someone who owed him an apology and, damn him, he was going to make her say it.

“I have something I need to tell you,” she admitted.

Taking off her clothes and crawling into his bed had been insurance so that he would accept her apology, and so that things could go back to the uncomplicated fun and games they’d been having. Well, as uncomplicated as anything could ever be between the two of them.

“You want to talk?” he asked, his voice deepening with surprise.

She sucked in a breath and confessed, “I owe you an apology.”

“Really?”

Damn him. He was going to force her to say all of it.

“You were right,” she admitted with a grimace she hoped he couldn’t see in the dark room, the only light spilling through the partially open bathroom door. “You had every reason to be worried about me, about my safety.”

He expelled a weary-sounding sigh. “I’m sorry…that I was…right.”

“Yeah, me, too. I just don’t understand…I don’t know why someone would come after me now. I’m not practicing law anymore.”

“Why?” he asked again. “Why did you quit now?”

“When I hadn’t when you asked me to?”

“I just wanted you to take it easy.”

Would it have made a difference? Now she’d never know, and she would never forgive herself for taking the risk. “I didn’t leave by choice,” she admitted, too tired and scared to worry about her pride.

“Turrell fired you? After all those years you worked your ass off for him?”

She could have argued the point about her ass, as she still had plenty of it left. But she shrugged instead. “He probably thinks I had something to do with his wife finally deciding to divorce him.”

“Did you?”

“I wouldn’t have been a good friend if I hadn’t.” If only she’d been as good a wife…

“You can still practice law,” Ben pointed out.

She shrugged again. “Maybe I finally took your advice. I thought owning the club would be easy.”

“You couldn’t have been more wrong,” he remarked with a ragged sigh. “After all that’s happened, do you see now that you need to stay away from Club Underground?”

Flashing back to the attack in the dark, she couldn’t argue with him. She had to concede, “I hate being scared.”

Ben rolled onto his side so that he faced her, his eyes aglow in the dark. “I want you to be scared, Paige.”

She tensed with her own shock. “Why?”

“Then you’ll be more aware and more careful,” he explained, “and this stalker won’t be able to hurt you. Again.”

But Ben would. She shouldn’t have come here. She should have left things between them as they were, with Ben thinking she wanted him to stay away from her. But then he touched her, sliding his hand over her bare shoulder, down her arm to her hip. Desire flooded her, heating her skin and hardening her nipples, and she remembered why she hadn’t been able to stay away.

“I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you,” he said, his voice raspy as emotion choked him. His fingers clenched her hip, pulling her closer.

Paige’s heart contracted, and she fought for breath. “You don’t know me,” she said.

“God, isn’t that the truth?” he murmured against her shoulder as he nibbled her skin.

She shivered. “No, I’m a stranger who’s broken into your house.”

Amusement lifted his lips, against her skin. “Are you looking for the safe under my pillow?”

She shook her head, sending her hair cascading around her shoulders, across his face. “No, you caught me, so I’m trying to convince you to let me go.”

“Oh, Paige…”

“Shh,” she said, pressing her finger against his lips. “You don’t know me. I’m just a desperate thief, trying to change your mind about calling the cops on me.”

“So—” he flopped on his back and linked his hands behind his head “—convince me.”

Paige sat up and leaned over him, so that first her hair, then her nipples brushed his skin. His breath shuddered out, and the muscles in his arms flexed as he gripped the pillow beneath his head. She rubbed her breasts against his chest, where his heart beat as wildly as hers. Then she kissed him, making love to his mouth with her lips and her tongue. Soft, sipping kisses, then hot, slippery ones as their tongues mated.

Still he refused to touch her, keeping his hands behind his head. So she moved. Sliding her lips down his throat, then along his shoulder, nipping and laving the bitten areas with her tongue.

His chest rose and fell with harsh breaths as she continued her torture: kissing every inch of his chest, sliding her tongue over his hard, flat nipples. She moved lower, dipping her tongue into his navel, sliding her mouth over the rippling muscles of his stomach. Then she gave her attention to the part of him that begged for her touch, throbbing and pulsing. She licked and lapped at the hard, long length of his erection before closing her lips around his cock and taking him deep in her mouth.

His head thrashed on the pillows as groans tore from his throat. She teased him, bringing him to the brink again and again, until his control snapped.