The snakes coiled inside him began to writhe. And bite. “Here’s plain speaking. Get out.”

“I see I’ve surprised you.” She wandered, running a finger over a stack of books. “That’s not easy to do, so as Blair would say, points for me.” She turned again, smiled again. “I’m green at this, so tell me, why would a man be angry to have a woman want to lie with him?”

“I’m not a man.”

“Ah.” She lifted a finger to acknowledge his point. “But still, you have needs, desires. You’ve desired me.”

“A man will put his hand on nearly any female.”

“You’re not a man,” she shot back, then grinned. “More points for me. You’re not keeping up.”

“If you’ve been drinking again—”

“I haven’t. You know I haven’t. But I’ve been thinking. I’m going to war, into battle. I may not live through it. None of us may. Good men died today, in mud and blood, and left broken hearts behind them.”

“And sex reaffirms life. I know the psychology of it.”

“That, aye that, true enough. And on a more personal level, I’m damned—I swear it—if I’ll die a virgin. I want to know what it is. I want to feel it.”

“Then order up a subject for stud, Majesty. I’m not interested.”

“I don’t want anyone else. I never wanted anyone before you, and haven’t wanted any but you since I first saw you. It shocked me, that I could have any such feelings for you, knowing what you are. But they’re inside me, and they won’t leave. I have needs, like anyone. And wiles enough, I think, to overcome your resistance if need be—though you may no longer be a randy young man.”

“Found your feet, haven’t you?” he muttered.

“Oh, I’ve always had them. I’m just careful where I step.” Watching him, measuring him, she trailed a hand down one of the bedposts. “Tell me, what difference would it make to you? An hour or two. You haven’t had a woman in some time, I’m thinking.”

He felt like an idiot. Stiff and foolish and needy. “That wouldn’t be your concern.”

“It might be. I’ve read that when a man’s been denied, we’ll say, for a while, it can affect his performance. But you shouldn’t worry about that, as I’ve nothing to compare it to.”

“Isn’t that lucky for me? Or would be if I wanted you.”

Her head cocked, and all he could see on her face was curiosity and confidence.

“You think you can insult me away. I wager—any price you name—that you’re hard as stone right now.” She moved toward him. “I want so much, Cian, for you to touch me. I’m tired of dreaming of it, and want to feel it.”

The ground was crumbling under his feet. Had been, he knew, since the moment she’d walked in. “You don’t know what you’re asking, what you’re risking. The consequences are beyond you.”

“A vampire can lie with a human. You won’t hurt me.” She reached up, drew the cross over her head, set it aside on the table.

“Trusting soul.” He tried for sarcasm, but the gesture had moved him.

“Confident. I don’t need or want a shield against you. Why do you never say my name?”

“What? Of course, I do.”

“No, you don’t. You refer to me, but you never look at me and say my name.” Her eyes were smoke now, and full of knowledge. “Names have power, taken or given. Are you afraid of what I might take from you?”

“There’s nothing for you to take.”

“Then say my name.”

“Moira.”

“Again, please.” She took his hand, laid it on her heart.

“Don’t do this.”

“Cian. There’s your name from me. Cian. I think if you don’t touch me, if you don’t take me, a part of me will die before I ever go to battle. Please.” She framed his face in her hands, and saw—at last—what she needed to see in his eyes. “Say my name.”

“Moira.” Lost, he took her wrist, turned his lips into her palm. “Moira. If I wasn’t damned already, this would send me to hell.”

“I’ll try to take you to heaven first, if you teach me.”

She rose to her toes, drawing him down. Her sigh trembled out when his lips met hers.

Chapter 10

H e’d believed his will would prevent this. A thousand years, he thought, and sank into her, and the male still deluded itself it could control the female.

She was leading him, and had in her way been leading him to this from the first instant. Now he would take what she offered him, what she demanded from him, however selfish the act. But he would use the skill of a dozen lifetimes to give her what she wanted in return.

“You’re foolish, reckless to give up your innocence to such as me.” He skimmed a fingertip across her collarbone. “But you won’t leave now until you have.”

“Virginity and innocence aren’t always the same. I lost my innocence before I met you.” The night her mother had been murdered, she thought. But memories of that weren’t for tonight.

Tonight was for knowing him.

“Should I disrobe for you, or is that for you to do?”

He gave a short, almost pained laugh before resting his brow to hers in a gesture she found surprisingly tender. “In such a hurry,” he murmured. “Some things, especially the first time they’re tasted, are better savored than gulped.”

“There, you see. I’ve learned something already. When you kiss me, things wake up inside my body. Things I didn’t know were sleeping there until you. I don’t know what you feel.”

“More than I’d like.” He combed his fingers through her hair as he’d longed to for weeks. “More than could be good for either of us. This... ” He kissed her, softly. “Is a mistake.” And again, deeper.

Like her scent, her taste was of springtime, of sunlight and youth. He craved the flavor of it, filled himself on it and the quick catch of her breath as he skimmed his teeth lightly, very light, over her bottom lip.

He let his hands plunge into her hair, the long, sleek fall of it, then under it to tease and waken the nerves along her spine.

When she trembled, he brought his hands to her shoulders to slide the robes down and bare that soft flesh for his lips. He could feel the yielding in her as well as the tremors, and when his mouth brushed along her throat, that seductive pulsing of blood under the skin.