Midnight Blues by Lynn Viehl Read Free Book Online Page B

could always go into the jungle. My mother is here. So is life.” Dani felt a cold, icy touch along the length of her spine, and on impulse she hugged him. The pain it caused in her arms was worth seeing the startled pleasure in his eyes. “Now you are, too.”
    I’m not what you think I am
. He moved as if to set her away, and then brought one of his hands to her face. Compelled to touch, as she was.
You are so young and innocent. I must leave you alone
.
    Joy deepened into feelings Dani had never experienced, even when the Father had tried to force her to feel such things. He had wanted to breed her like a cow, to see if her children would be as she was, only to discover that she could not make children. Rafael didn’t care that she had numbers for a name. He saw her as she saw the jungle, and that was a dream she had never expected to come true.
    He was the one, the meaning, the reason to go on.
    She brought her arms up and encircled his neck. “I don’t want to be alone any more.”
    Instead of bending down, he lifted her up to his mouth. Dani felt her feet dangling for an instant, and then his lips touched hers. She could taste his breath blending with hers, felt the silken abrasion of his mustache and beard against her face. Before she was ready, he lifted his mouth and began to lower her to the ground.
    He wasn’t afraid of her. He feared what he might do to her. What his hunger might do to her. It was so ridiculous that she almost laughed.
    Dani wrapped her legs around his waist and clutched at his shoulders. “That was a terrible kiss. Here.” She used her hand to draw his mouth again to hers. “Let me show you.”
    She tilted her head, making a new angle, and teased his lips with the tip of her tongue. He tasted of sunlight and shadow, and in that moment before he took her kiss and made it his, Dani knew it wouldn’t be enough, it could never be enough, and that was why he was the one, the meaning, and the reason.
    Dani could feel the cold touch of death again, but pushed it away.
This is my mate, my love, and I have been waiting for him for so long that I hardly know what to do
.
    The floor of the jungle became a silken twist of sheets and clothes, and the kiss he gave her came with the weight of his body on hers. For a long, luxurious interval Dani moved against the searching caress of his hands, content to drift along on a haze of not-quite-waking need. She felt something sharp against the edge of her tongue, tasted blood, and heard him groan.
    The dream ebbed, casting them both back into the now.
     
    Lucan felt his sygkenis before he smelled her, something he could do only when one of them was angry. Since the wine glass in his hand remained whole, he assumed the temper about to explode was hers.
    “If you punch me,” he told her before she came into sight, “your hand will hurt longer than my nose. What is wrong?”
    “Wrong? What could be wrong? My life is all hearts and flowers, Lord and Master Lucan.” She came around the side of the white leather couch and stood before him. “You’ve done a great job of that.”
    “So I have… made you happy?” He contemplated his bloodwine to avoid looking into her furious eyes. “Apparently not. May God have mercy on my soul.”
    “Not until I’m done with you, pal. Let’s start with ‘Say nothing to Samantha,’ ” she said with a very accurate imitation of his native English accent. “Or how about, ‘While Samantha is sleeping, replace all of the ammunition in her weapons.’ ”
    He stared at her. “I’ve soundproofed every inch of this building, so I know you weren’t listening at the keyhole.” Then it occurred to him. “You bugged my office. You bitch. How could you do such a thing?”
    “You’re replacing my ammo and lying to me, you bastard, so what’s the difference?” She shook her head and went to the closet he had surrendered when she had moved in with him. “I know we still have trust issues,” she said as she began