Bloodlust 00 The Talisman Page 15

  Derri slowly lowered the lid of one eye. “Seduce him. Tell him you've changed your mind. You're an attractive woman. You're allowed to change your mind.”

  “What if he tells me to go to hell?”

  “After the money he's spent showering you with gifts? I have two words for you: not likely. Obviously the man is as hot for you as you are for him.” She leered at Cassy. “The two of you must be hot stuff in bed.”

  Remembering their love making, she grinned. “You have no idea.”

  Derri lifted the menu and fanned herself in dramatic fashion. “Worse luck!” she exclaimed and they both laughed.

  Derri sobered first. “Just one thing, Cass. Don't give it up so easy this time. Make him work hard to earn a spot in your bed. He'll appreciate it more.”

  She frowned. “Assuming of course, he's still interested.”

  “Go find out.”

  * * * * *

  Buoyed by her conversation with Derri, Cassy headed home. She came to an abrupt halt when she rounded the corner of her street. Chandler's car was parked in front of her building.

  Her heart thumped and she slowly resumed her stride as he got out of the car. They met in front of her building and he extended a bouquet of roses to her.

  She looked up at him, her lips parting in surprise. “I didn't expect to see you here.”

  He nodded, looking weary. “I'm sure you didn't. I didn't expect to be here.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  He extended the roses to her again. “I wanted to see you.”

  “After what I said?”

  He shrugged. “I deserved that.”

  She accepted the flowers. “Well...what if I tell you I meant it?”

  He sighed. “I hope you don't mean that.”

  “And if I do?”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “I'm going to be a very unhappy camper. And I'll have to see what I can do to change your mind. Cassy, I really want another chance.” He shook his head. “No. I need another chance.”

  She felt a sense of power as she looked at him. “I'll think about it.”

  As they were sizing each other up, Frank arrived. He joined them on the pavement, his dark gaze quickly moving over them before meeting Cassy's gaze.

  “Everything all right?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” She clutched the roses against her chest. “This is my boss, Chandler Raven.” She looked at Chandler, delighting in the narrowing of his gaze. “This is Frank Wilson. A friend of mine.”

  The two men shook hands. Chandler turned to look at her. “A friend, Cassy?”

  “Who wants to be more,” Frank added.

  Chandler's lips tightened. “How much more?”

  “A lot more, but I'm sure you know that already.”

  “Really? Well, I think you're going to find that a little difficult.”

  Frank's left brow rose. “And why is that?”

  “Because I was here first and I don't plan to make room for you.”

  “That's my decision to make, Chandler, not yours,” she reminded him.

  He looked at her, his gray eyes bleak. “Cassy...“

  “Actually, Cassy, I was hoping you'd have dinner with me tonight,” Frank said. “I know it's short notice, but—”

  “I'd love to have dinner with you.” She slipped an arm through Frank's and looked at Chandler. “You'll excuse us?”

  “Cassy...“ Chandler spread his hands, looking helpless. “Don't do this. Please?”

  “You had your chance, Chandler and you blew it. Thanks for the flowers.” She looked at Frank. “I'm ready, if we go casual.”

  “Okay. Casual it is.”

  Chandler watched Cassy walk away with another man and strolled back to his car. He slipped inside and slammed the door angrily. A feeling of despair overwhelmed him. Until he remembered how responsive she'd been when they made love. How miserable she'd looked when he'd told her sleeping with her had been a mistake. All that passion and misery couldn't have just disappeared.

  He'd treated her badly and now she was going to make him eat crow and crawl on his hands and knees. She wanted him to eat crow? So be it. It was a small price to pay to win her back.

  He thought of the man Cassy had left with and felt a rage like none he'd ever felt before. If he didn't back off, just maybe Chandler would have to take care of him, ala Serge. He shook his head. Okay, Chandler, calm down. You can not go around grabbing your competition by the throat and throttling the life out of them. He took a deep, calming breath. He was really going to have to stop hanging out with a short-tempered vampire.

  * * * * *

  Cassy and Deb were in the café two days later having lunch when Chandler walked in. She tensed as he stopped by her table. He nodded at Deb before looking at her. “Cassy. How are you?”

  “I'm fine...sir.”

  “How did your date go?”

  Rather badly. Frank had pushed to go to bed with her, she had refused, and they had parted in a cool silence. But he didn't need to know that. “Great.” She smiled up at him. “We had a great time.”

  “I'm sorry to hear that.”

  She treated him to a cool smile. “I thought you might be.”

  “Are you busy tonight? If not, I wondered if you'd have dinner with me?”

  “Dinner with you? Tonight?”

  “Yes. Dinner tonight.”

  She hesitated. She wanted to shout yes, but she should probably play hard to get. “Thanks, but I have other plans.”

  He swore softly. “I'll call you?”

  She shrugged. “If you like.”

  He sighed and nodded at them both before walking away.

  “What was that?”

  She took a long sip of her water before looking across the table at Deb. “What was what?”

  “Cassy! The boss just asked you out!”

  “Oh, that.” She shrugged and grinned. “I think he likes me.”

  When they returned to their workstations, there was a vase full of red roses on Cassy's desk. She lifted the card and read it:

  Cassy,

  Pardonnez-moi. Give me another chance. Please.

  Chandler

  Deb looked at her. “Who are they from?”

  She grinned at Deb. “The boss.”

  “Wow! Way to go, Cassy!”

  Way to go indeed. His need for her had forced him to openly acknowledge his feelings for her. Pardonnez-moi, indeed. Oh, she'd forgive him—eventually. After she'd made him suffer a little.

  Chapter Ten

  As soon as Cassy walked into the lobby of her apartment building, her senses were overwhelmed with the fragrance of flowers. She saw why immediately: the desk where the doorman sat was covered with dozens of red roses.

  He grinned, shaking his head when he saw her. “These, madam, are for you.”

  Her lips parted in a silent ‘oh’, “For me? All of them?”

  “Every last one of them.”

  In her apartment, surrounded by the roses, she took a quick shower, covered the bed with roses petals, put on some soft music, and sank naked amongst the roses. She closed her eyes and thought of Chandler.

  “God, what a beautiful sight.”

  Startled, she gasped and sat up. Chandler stood in the doorway of her bedroom, holding a bottle of wine. “How...how did you get in here?”

  Smiling, he held up a set of keys. “You gave these to me the last weekend we spent together.” His gaze moved slowly down her body to center on her vagina.

  She resisted the urge to cover herself. He'd already seen and kissed every part of her body. “You should have given them back.”

  “I would have, if you'd asked for them.” He advanced slowly into the room. He placed the bottle of wine on her nightstand before sitting on the side of the bed. He brushed the back of his hand against her cheek. “Hello.”

  She needed to order him out of her apartment and take him back into her life and her bed on her terms. But one look into his eyes and she knew she wanted him in
her life, in her bed, and in her body—immediately. She turned her head and kissed his palm. “Hi.”

  “I need you, Cassy. Come back to me. Be mine?”

  She lay back on the bed, leisurely spreading her legs so that he had a good view of her already heated passage. “Why would I want to be yours, Chandler? You didn't treat me very well before.”

  She watched in amused delight as he tried to keep his gaze from locking on her vagina. He failed and he took several deep gulping breaths. “I'll make it up to you, sweet. I promise.”

  “How?”

  He reached out a trembling hand to touch her breasts, but she slapped it away and sat up in bed, glaring at him. “Oh, no you don't! You don't get to touch me unless and until I say you do.”

  He drew back his hand, clenching it into a fist at his side. He brought his gaze to hers. “Cassy, please. Don't do this. Don't torture me. Revenu.”

  “Revenu? Come back to you? Don't torture you, Chandler? You mean like you tortured me when I was the needy one? How does it feel, Chandler, to want someone who doesn't want you?”

  “I want you! I've wanted you from the moment I set eyes on you! There was never a time since I met you that I haven't wanted and needed you, cher.”

  “Cher? Is that you talking, Chandler or Philippe?”

  “It's me. It's always been me, mon cher.”

  “Then why was it so easy for you to hurt me?”

  He shook his head, closing his eyes briefly. “It wasn't easy and I'm so sorry that I did.” Although he didn't touch her, he leaned closer to her. “I need you to try and understand and forgive me. Please.”

  “Understand what? That you're sorry I'm not white?” She balled a hand into a fist and hit it against the bed. “Just as your great grandfather was sorry my great grandmother was Creole?”

  “He wasn't sorry she wasn't white, Cassy. He was just sorry he wasn't strong enough to stand by her. He did love her. He never stopped loving her. “

  “Well his loving her didn't do her much good, Chandler. And neither does your being sorry and asking for forgiveness. I'm proud of who I am and what color I am, Chandler!”

  “That is not what I meant!” he snapped. “I want you—just as you are. Okay, I'll admit there was a time when I...regretted that you weren't white. But that time is long past, sweet. It isn't your skin color that makes me feel as I do about you.”

  “And just how is it that you feel about me, Chandler? What is it that you feel? Lust? Desire? Passion?”

  He looked directly into her eyes. “I feel all of that,” he admitted. “But that's not all I feel. I feel tenderness, warmth, need...and love, Cassy.”

  “Love?” Her heart thumped in her chest. “Did you say love?”

  “Yes. Love.” He stroked her cheek. “Je t'aime, Cassy.”

  She swallowed quickly and licked her lips. “You...love me? You're in love with me?”

  “Yes.” His gaze was tender and he'd spoken without the slightest hesitation. He leaned forward until his lips were just a breath away from hers. “It's taken me awhile to realize that it is love, but that's what it is. I need and want you so much because I'm in love with you, mon cher. Love me too?”

  Her heart beat so fast she could barely breathe. He loved her! Chandler Raven loved her too! Or did he?

  She drew back and stared at him. “How do I know it's Chandler talking to me and not Philippe telling Marie he loves her?”

  “He does still love her and he would like one last chance to tell her so. But I promise you, this is me talking.”

  “But how can we be sure?”

  “I'm sure because there's a ritual attached to the Ebony Venus. While I admit that I did...occasionally touch and kiss her, I did not go through the ritual my grandfather told me about.”

  “What was that?”

  “I was supposed to stroke her pussy until I could get my finger in her and eventually my cock. But there was no way I was sticking my cock into a lacquered statuette. What about you?”

  She blushed. “I felt the pull, but it was a little too...much.”

  “Really? What were you supposed to do?”

  “I was supposed to touch his behind until he came out of her and then I was supposed to...“

  “To what? Cassy, after everything we've shared, how can you be embarrassed to tell me anything?”

  “It's just...when he came out of her, I was supposed to put him...in me. And there was no way I was going to do that.”

  He stroked her hot cheeks. “There you see? Neither of us followed the ritual. What I feel are my feelings. I love you.”

  Her eyes welled with tears; tears for her and tears for Marie and Philippe who still loved each other after nearly a century of being apart. “Oh, Chandler. I do love you. I think I have from the moment I saw you.”

  He kissed her damp cheeks. “Don't cry, love. It's all right. As long as you want and love me, everything is all right.” He slipped his hands on her shoulders and gently urged her back on the bed, amongst the rose petals.

  As she lay with tears streaming down her cheeks, he rose and began to undress. Her heart began a painful thumping when he stood next to the bed, nude.

  She stretched out a hand to gently caress the hard, muscled thigh nearest her before closing her fingers around his semi-erect cock. It pulsed warm and vibrant under her touch. She looked up at him. “Chandler, hold me...make love to me...baisez-moi, amoureux.”

  He joined her on the bed, pulling her onto her side so that he could lay on his with his big body pressed warm and close against hers. He tipped up her chin and looked down into her eyes. “I'll hold you and I'll make love to you, but I won't fuck you.” He brushed his mouth against hers, sending shivers of pleasure and desire through her. “Tonight I want to show you only the tender side of love. Later, when I've romanced you and you understand and fully believe how much I love you just because you're you, we can fuck until we're both senseless. Tonight, mon cher, we make love.”

  Every fiber of her body ached for this man with whom she'd fallen so deeply and utterly in love. “Oh, Chandler.”

  He urged her on her back and lay on top of her. He began kissing her slowly, softly; nibbling at her lips; stroking his hands down the sides of her body.

  Her eyes fluttered closed and she surrendered her body and her senses to him. The tenderness of his kisses, his hands and body brought tears to her eyes.

  He kissed them away, all the while whispering to her: “Je t'aime. I love you. I love you, sweet. Always.”

  Emotion choked her ability to talk or to think. But she could and did feel his cock hardening against her, the muscles of her stomach clenched in response; her pussy pulsed and ached to be filled with his cock.

  She thrust up her hips, moaning in a soft, mindless murmur. He responded by slipping his thighs betweens her legs and rubbing his cock against the outside of her cunt. Then he deliberately rubbed it against her clit.

  A shock of pleasure and need shook her body and she gasped, clutching his shoulders. Her whole body burned with a need, a love, and a lust that only he could fully satisfy.

  Pressing his lips against hers in a warm, tender kiss, he slowly began to push the head of his cock into her channel. Impatient, she shoved her hips upward. Deepening the kiss so that he could suck on her tongue, he propelled his hips down against her; driving his full length into her. Finally. Finally, he was one with her again. He was hers. And hers alone.

  He lingered over their love making, alternating between short, forceful thrusts and slow, languid slides into her vagina. Waves of delight rippled through every part of her body. Feelings, unimaginable and inexplicable cascaded over her; overwhelming her until the world and everything in it exploded in one delicious, incredible burst of joy and bliss.

  “Sweet? Are you all right?”

  She slowly opened her eyes. Although he lay above her, his cock still inside her, he rested most of his weight on his extended arms. She felt dazed, but completely happy. This wonderful sense of love
and oneness was what Marie had spent the rest of her life longing for after Philippe left her. She blinked up at him. “Wow! What was that?”

  He grinned and leaned down to kiss her lips gently. “That, my sweet, was love the way it was meant to be between a man and the woman he loves.”