her train of thought.
She had no leverage, nothing but her aching wrists and chilled fingers to hold her steady, propped behind her. When Sebastian moved closer, bringing that familiar scent of clove that always clung to him and setting her heart to pounding, Victoria had nowhere to go except down to the floor…and that was one place she didn’t want to go.
He missed her mouth that first time, his lips brushing just above his fingers, in the middle of her cheek. But he soon rectified the error and drew her forward, up on her knees and toward him, chest to bosom, as he covered her mouth with his.
Eleven
In Which Michalas’s Wish Is Granted
As so often occurred when kissing Sebastian, Victoria found herself more helpless than not, with her hands still tied and her balance precarious. Yet she closed her eyes there in the dark and opened her mouth when he opened his, accepting his slick tongue and offering her own. The aches in her hand and leg eased, fading away in the wake of the deep kiss that reminded her how much she had missed this—intimate touching, passionate kissing, Sebastian himself.
She couldn’t see him, just barely the dark shape of a shadow close to her, blocking her vision. But she pictured his handsome face and the sensual curling of his tawny, lion’s-mane hair, surely tousled from battle with the vampires. His eyes were a darker shade of the same hue, a chestnut, and his skin—so unlike his grandfather’s pale visage—was golden. He looked like a bronze angel, she’d often thought. An ironic description. His lips were soft and smooth, fitting to hers and then drawing closed to lick and then nibble at the corner of her mouth, his teeth gnawing gently at her bottom lip, right where his grandfather had bitten her the night before. Victoria started when she realized this, when she felt his teeth on the tender part of her lip, and tried to turn away. But he was cradling her face in his hands and only kissed her more deeply than ever.
“I thought…you preferred…carriages,” came a raspy, annoyed voice from across the room, “Vioget. ”
Victoria started and twisted her face violently from Sebastian, who seemed to have no inclination to release her. “Max? Oh, thank God, you’re alive!”
“Your…concern…overwhelms me. ” There was a soft shuffling sound, a sharp intake of breath. “Perhaps…you could be…so kind as to…bring that knife…here. When”—his voice trailed off, then picked up more strongly—“you’ve finished…of course. I cannot…imagine…it should take…very long…at all. ”
“Carriages, parlors, dungeons,” Sebastian said carelessly, “wherever the opportunity presents itself. Which it does rather more often than I would expect you’d imagine—or be familiar with. ”
But as he spoke Sebastian had released her, mainly, Victoria thought, because she’d mutinously kept her face away from his seeking fingers and mouth, twisting back when he tried to renew the kiss. Now he moved behind her, his hands on her hips as he found his position.
Too late, she realized she was at an even greater disadvantage with him kneeling behind her, knife in hands. “Don’t move now, Victoria,” he said, his voice curling in her ear like soft smoke, his breath warm on her skin. “This knife is very sharp, and I cannot see what I’m doing. I’d hate to slice into your beautiful flesh…the fresh blood would draw the hungry vampires here in a moment. ”
One of his hands moved aside the great mass of hair that had fallen down from her coiffure, when her stake had been removed, and now his lips pressed gently to the sensitive skin there on the top of her shoulder, at the juncture of her neck. Featherlight at first, then heavier, then with a sleek brush of tongue, he kissed her flesh while he sawed away, one-handed, at her ropes.
She couldn’t help the smallest of gasps when he mauled and sucked at the tendon there, where he knew she was most sensitive. And Max couldn’t help but hear her reaction, the faint sound of breaking suction, the quiet lapping of Sebastian’s mouth.
He did it purposely—whether it was to titillate and arouse her or to annoy Max, she wasn’t certain, but the only thing she could try to do was ignore the swipe of his lips, the warm slide over the top of her shoulder, up along her neck. But when one of his hands—the one not holding the knife, fortunately, slid around to cover one of her breasts, Victoria couldn’t hold back a sudden intake of breath.
Sebastian laughed softly against her skin, leaving a hot, moist puff there at the side of her throat, and Victoria pulled so hard to the side that she lost her balance and tumbled to the floor. But as she fell her hands moved automatically to catch herself, pulling at the ropes. She was strong enough—and they were already frayed enough from the knife—that they tore free, and even though she landed half on her cheek on the cold, gritty floor, her hands were loose.
She rolled away from Sebastian before he could grab her again, though she felt his swipe through the air. “Your games are at an end, Sebastian. May I have the knife back?”
Half expecting him to taunt her with it, to demand a kiss or some other payment, Victoria was surprised when she heard it drop to the floor in front of her.
“If we only had something for illumination,” she said, feeling on the floor until her fingers brushed the stiletto. Gingerly she followed the blade until she found the handle and picked up the knife. It was no longer than the length of her longest finger to the end of her palm, and about the same width as her little finger. The entire dagger was nearly as flat as the piece of boning it had replaced, but was deathly sharp.
Miro had made the weapon specially for her, casting it to certain specifications. The silver handle was very short, extending only one knuckle’s length from the small, flat hand guard. This was so that the blade could slide into the slit in her corset, and the handle would protrude just a small distance past the bottom end of her stays, keeping the metal from poking into her leg when she walked or bent. The other unique thing about the knife was that for perhaps another inch past the hand guard, the blade itself was covered with the same silver as the handle, so that Victoria could wrap her fingers around the hand guard and allow the blade to protrude between them without cutting herself. Since the handle was so short, it was the only way she could comfortably hold the dagger.
It certainly had worked, cutting easily through the ropes.
“I have something for light,” Max’s voice rumbled, a bit stronger now. “But I’ll need…some help. ”
Victoria felt Sebastian moving, but he seemed to be farther away. “Sebastian? What are you doing?”
“I’m examining the door to determine whether there might be a way to open it, of course. ”
Victoria wanted to protest that she would need his help with Max, but she did not. Instead, she felt around on the floor and finally brushed against something solid and warm. And very, very wet. Stickily wet.
“My God, Max…” She started in shock, moving her hands frantically around, trying to determine what part of him had been injured, and accidentally poked him in the face.
“Christ, Victoria…are you trying to blind me?”
She slowed her jerky movements, brushing over his warm, moist cheek and down along his neck, staying far away from his sharp mouth. “You needn’t be so profane. I cannot see a thing!”
“Obviously,” he grumbled on a long breath. “I have a light. After you cut these blasted ropes. ” His breathing was heavy, and she could feel it now, feel the exertion in his body as he struggled to keep it steady.