The servant performed a theatrical bow. “With your permission, my lord. I shall leave you alone to bestow your affections upon your beloved feline who has just returned to your warm embrace.”
With graceful, measured steps and that ever-present broad smile on her lips, she glided out of the room and closed the door behind her.
For a few moments, a heavy silence ruled the room. A silence in which only the woman’s ragged breathing and the wild, irregular beating of her heart could be heard. The gray eyes of the vampire lord were fixed upon her—on her long, black, wavy hair, her marble-white skin, her feline green eyes, and her full, crimson lips that seemed to silently call out to him.
As though in a daze, the vampire slowly raised his hands and placed them gently on either side of the woman’s face. In a soft, murmuring voice, he said, “So beautiful…”
A shiver ran through the woman. A mixture of pleasure and fear slithered through her like a serpent. She looked at the curve of the vampire’s lips—lips that seemed to have a will of their own, speaking to her without words—and now, they were inching closer to her own. She wanted to close her eyes, but something inside her resisted. A part of her wanted to flee from what was about to happen, while another part craved it with insatiable desire.
Finally, the vampire’s lips met hers, and in that moment, she felt as though her heart was clenched in his fist. The overwhelming storm of emotions coursing through her made her feel as if she were on the brink of shattering.
What was this dark lord, this being? What was he made of that he could stir such powerful sensations in her body and soul? The woman knew that even the vampire himself did not fully understand how his very existence could unravel her so completely. He did not know who he was to her.
But the vampire did not need to know. He simply was—an eternal force, flowing through the endless darkness of the night, a shadow that fell upon defenseless souls and claimed them as his own. And the woman… she had surrendered to that darkness. Or perhaps… a part of her had always harbored a space for it.
The vampire’s lips pressed against hers with a firmness that spoke of possession, as if he intended to claim her very soul through the quiet yet devastating kiss. His tongue slipped softly between her parted lips, tasting her like forbidden nectar—bitter and sweet, warm and cold, death and life, all at once.
She felt as though time had ceased to exist, her entire being distilled into this one, prolonged kiss. Her hands, almost involuntarily, rested against the vampire’s firm chest, as though trying to push him away, but her trembling fingers merely grasped the velvety fabric of his cloak and, in the end, rested gently upon it.
With his characteristic calm, the vampire slid his hand from her face down to her waist, pulling her closer with such tenderness that the space between them narrowed to the breath they shared.
A whisper echoed in the woman’s ear—the vampire’s voice, soft yet tinged with an undercurrent of command and dominance: “You cannot escape me…”
The woman blinked, but her green eyes remained locked on the infinite gray depths of his gaze. She felt those words reverberate not only in her ears but in the very core of her being, resonating in her cells.
“You are mine. You always have been. You always will be.”
And though her heart pounded furiously in her chest, though her soul screamed against this truth, she could not deny that the words the vampire gently etched into her being were a bitter yet undeniable reality.
The vampire’s lips moved once more, this time drifting toward her neck, to the place where blood coursed just beneath her cool, pale skin. The woman’s breath caught in her throat. She had lived this moment before, countless times, and yet each time felt like the first. The venom of pleasure and pain seeped slowly into her veins once again.
The vampire’s sharp fangs sank gently into her flesh. A soft moan slipped from between the woman’s lips, a shiver ran through her body, and her heart seemed to melt in the vampire’s hands.
But this time, something was different. Something deeper, darker.
Her half-closed eyes caught a glimpse of the flicker in the vampire’s gray gaze… now laced with the scent of satisfaction and triumph.
And deep within her soul, the woman realized…
This was only the beginning.
