Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (66 page)

“Right. We’ll speak soon.”

Then I heard a beep and I knew he was done.

I had a second to process this before Lucien shifted. He ended settled on his side, his other arm going around me, pulling me up so my head was not on his chest but on the pillow and I was eye-to-eye with him.

God, his eyes were beautiful. Nine days and I thought I remembered everything but I forgot just how beautiful his eyes were.

“You slept deep, sweetling. How do you feel?” he asked gently, his fingers still playing in my hair, his other arm holding me close to his heat.

“Uh… what’s going on?” I whispered cautiously.

“You’re about to tell me how you feel,” he replied.

“Well… uh…” I trailed off.

He hadn’t killed me. In fact, looking at him, he didn’t look angry at all. He looked like Lucien except better.
Way
better. His eyes filled with concern and a warmth so deep I’d never seen anything like it. His face was soft. His voice was gentle and quiet.

Was this part of the taming? Your prey figured it out, took off and you got to go after her and do it all over again?

Oh God, I hoped that wasn’t it. Like, I really,
really
hoped that wasn’t it. Seriously, I preferred it if he’d kill me.

“When’s the last time you ate?” Lucien asked when I trailed off and didn’t start again.

“You mean, ate and kept something down?” I asked back and watched his eyes flash and his mouth go hard.

Oh boy.

“Yes, the last time you ate and kept it down,” he replied, his voice now tight but somehow not menacing.

“Well, the night before…” Oh shit. I didn’t want to go where I had to go. Well, I had to say it because I knew he wouldn’t let it go. “The night before I took off.”

“Ten days,” he murmured, surprising me when he looked thoughtful, not angry at my mention of my escape, his arms going tight, his eyes moving over my face then they locked on mine. “That was foolish, my pet.”

Okay. Now. Seriously.

What was happening?

“We need to get you food,” he declared. “Do you have the strength to go with me to a restaurant or do you wish for me to go and bring something back? If the latter, tell me what you’d like. And I’ll warn you, you’ve slept twelve straight hours, not counting however long you were asleep before I found you. It’s not morning. It’s one in the afternoon.”

Learning this, I felt my eyes go wide as my lips parted. Then I felt my stomach flutter when he took in this look, his face again went soft and his fingers stopped playing in my hair and fisted gently in it.

Still, he’d just asked me what I wished and inferred he’d go off and do as I asked.

Was this a new tactic?

“Uh…” I mumbled, not alert enough to process this, defend myself, figure out what was happening. Not alert enough for anything.

He rolled me so I was on my back, he was looming over me but his torso was deep in mine and his face was super close.

“Leah, my love, we cannot delay in getting you fed and rested. We need to get back home. There is much we need to discuss but more, there is much that needs to be done. Teffie and Cosmo have captured Katrina and Marcello. The Council has sanctioned their torture and burning and I need to get back and see to that. So now I need to find you food, feed you, get you in a decent bed with sheets that don’t feel like cardboard, you need to rest, we need to talk then we need to go home.”

Okay, there was a lot there.

First, he’d called me his “love”. He’d never done that. Never, ever, ever.

Second, The Council sanctioned torture and burning?

Third, Lucien was going to “see to that”?

“What’s going on?” I repeated.

“Leah –”

“Lucien,” I cut him off. “What is
going on?
”

“We’ll talk about it later, after you’ve eaten, you have some of your strength back and we’ve moved to a different hotel.”

“We’ll talk about it now.”

“Later, Leah.”

“Now, Lucien!” I snapped, still fatigued, definitely, but not so fatigued I was going to fall for his games. Not again. And he needed to know that. “I want to know what’s going on, now, not later. I don’t want to die ‘at home’ as you put it. I don’t understand why you’re delaying it. I don’t get why you’re still playing me. Just do it. Drain me and get on with your life.”

His brows shot up. “Drain you?”

“Yes,” I hissed. “I knew when I left that you’d hunt me and I knew leaving you gave you the right to feed until I was dead. So what are you waiting for?”

His brows knitted, his eyes narrowed but contradictory to the ominous look stamped on his features, his hand left my hair to frame the side of my face.

And furthering his contradictions, his voice was soft and sweet when he replied, “I’m annoyed with you for making the very unwise decision to attempt to escape me considering the danger you knew was inherent being away from me when you might dream. Not to mention, you and Edwina had been attacked by vampires who stated vile intentions so you also knew the dangers were not singular but many. Nevertheless, it would be reckless of me to punish you for carrying through this rash decision by killing you, my pet, considering that would significantly fuck with my plans for spending eternity with you.”

I stopped breathing.

Yes, stopped breathing.

Entirely.

So it came out in a gust of air when I forced a, “What?”

Lucien smiled and he used his whole face to do it. I’d never seen him smile that openly and the effect was staggering.

Then he dipped his face closer to mine and whispered, “I plan to spend eternity with you.”

I stared.

Then I whispered back, “You do?”

He nodded. “I do.”

“I… I…”

Oh my God!

Was he serious? Or was this another game?

“How? Why? When did you…? But you can’t,” I stammered.

“I can,” he replied.

“But, it’s against the rules,” I reminded him.

“The rules have changed,” he informed me.

Oh boy. Here we go again. Lucien doing whatever he wanted to do and fuck the consequences.

“Lucien –”

Then he wasn’t lying on top of me and I wasn’t on my back.

He was on his ass in the bed and I was straddling him. One of his arms was tight around my back holding my body close to his. His other hand had sifted in my hair, cupping the back of my head and holding my face super close to his.

The instant he got us in this position, before I processed I was in it and therefore was by no means ready for what he was going to say next (not that I ever would be), he stated, “I’m in love with you, sweetheart.”

Oh my God!

Was he…?

No.

No!

“Don’t,” I whispered, pain piercing through me and I watched Lucien blink.

“Don’t?” he whispered back.

“Don’t do it again. Don’t play me,” I explained quietly and I watched the gentleness fade from his features as fury infused them.

I braced.

“I’m in love with you,” he repeated.

“Don’t,” I whispered, that word breaking in the middle and his hold on me tightened mightily.

“Leah… I’m… in…
love with you,
” he growled, I opened my mouth but his arms squeezed so hard all breath left me. “He lied to you. My father
lied.
I told you I did not respect him and you knew he was not a man to be respected. Eating lunch with him, you figured it out. And at lunch, he was on his best behavior. During the attack, he treated you to exactly the vampire he really is. He lied, Leah. Edwina told me what he said and what he said to you about what’s between you and me, every bit of it, was a fucking
lie.
”

I wanted to believe that.

I really did.

But…

Before I could even think through my “but”, Lucien sensed there was one and kept talking.

“There are things I’ll explain more fully when I’ve seen to the woman I love but for now, The Council has amended the Immortal and Mortal Agreement. Vampires are again free to take mortal mates. And I’m taking my mortal as mate. You love me, I love you, we’re connected, what we have is beautiful and that’s all it’ll ever be. For eternity. Until the end of days. Until the sun falls from the sky, all you and I will share is beauty.”

I felt my heart leap, tears fill my eyes and hope suffuse my system.

But what came from my mouth was simply a whispered, breathy, “Please.”

I didn’t even know why I said it but Lucien did.

So he replied in a voice filled with tenderness, “Yes, my love. I’m not lying. I am not playing you. Swear to God, this is all truth.” He pulled me even closer. “I love you, Leah. I’ve loved you for twenty years and I’ll love you for eternity. My beautiful Leah, listen closely. What I say is pure truth. And on this truth, you have my vow.”

The tears slid out of my eyes, coursing down my cheeks. I knew Lucien saw them but his eyes never left mine.

And mine didn’t leave his.

I looked deep. I felt his arms around me, his big, strong body and I paid close attention to the wonder of his vow sinking deep.

He loved me.

The Mighty Vampire Lucien
loved me.

Oh God. That felt
great.

I pushed my hands that were trapped between us up until my fingers could curl around his neck and I whispered, “You can be bossy and annoying. I can just be annoying. We’re going to fight. So my guess is, we’ll clash, like
a lot.
Therefore it will be awesome but it won’t be an eternity of
just
beauty.”

I barely got the last syllable out before his hand at my head crushed my mouth down to his. Our lips opened, our tongues dueled and then I was on my back giving everything to my vampire and experiencing the beauty of finally,
finally
getting everything from my vampire in return.

And, let me tell you, it was
amazing.

After a long time, he lifted his head and I dazedly opened my eyes to see his heated but gentle, searing into me.

“Right. That’s done,” he declared. “Now tell me, what do you fucking want to eat?”

I stared up at my vampire.

Then I burst out laughing.

* * * * *

I blinked the sleep away hearing from a distance Lucien talking and I knew he was again on the phone.

I stared across the sheets that did not, by a long shot, feel like cardboard.

Lucien had fed me. After our kiss, suddenly ravenous in a way that didn’t mingle with nausea, I’d asked for burritos. Lucien told me burritos were out of the question considering I should have something bland and filled with vitamins and energy in my stomach after not eating for ten days. I told him I had a craving for burritos. He told me there was no way in hell I was getting burritos. I asked him why he asked me what I wanted when he was going to get me what he thought I should have anyway. He kissed me until I was dazed, left me in bed and then came back fifteen minutes later with a bunch of bananas and a jar of chunky peanut butter.

I sat cross-legged in bed, using a plastic knife to gouge out peanut butter and glop it on my two bananas, eating them all the while glaring at Lucien who was seeing to the not taxing chore of packing up my things.

I didn’t admit to him I loved bananas and peanut butter and it tasted awesome. I also didn’t admit it filled me up and made me feel human for the first time in days.

I dressed. Lucien dragged my stuff to his Porsche. We got in and he drove us forty-five minutes to the nearest city. Upon entering the city, like it had a homing beacon and Lucien was the receptor, he guided us straight to what had to be the most exclusive hotel in the city. He valet parked, grabbed one of my bags and his only bag and walked us in. He then proceeded to check us into the presidential suite which had its own butler (no joke!).

We took the elevator up and Lucien let us in. It was phenomenal. I lived in a mansion and the man who loved me was a billionaire and still, I’d never seen anything so opulent.

Lucien ordered me to take a shower and get in bed. I told Lucien I wanted to explore our sumptuous suite. He repeated he wanted me in the shower then in bed. I told him it would take ten whole minutes for me to look around so he should just keep his pants on. Approximately three second later both Lucien and I were naked, in the shower and he was turning on the water.

At least I got to see the bathroom before he led me to the bedroom and gave me one of his long sleeved tees. He then made a point by digging through my bags and depositing my new nighties right in the trash. His point being discount department store nighties were not good enough for his Leah. I rolled my eyes but I didn’t protest. They were cute and comfy. What they were not was the finest silk and lace. He then ordered me to bed.

Unfortunately, after a long, hot shower with Lucien, I had nothing in reserve.