Off topic: did you know that because I was always late (if not absent) in school our class adviser (I’m thinking that would be homeroom teacher for you) decided not to take my name off the list of absentees / late comers on the blackboard? So now you know. =D
Well, anyway, enough dilly-dallying and let’s get on with it.
Here is my promised excerpt of Suit and Fangs. Hope you like it!
His shoes were the first thing I saw – hand-sewn beautifully stitched leather, un-branded because Luka wasn’t the type, and custom-made because he liked things perfect.
Swallowing, I let my gaze move up.
Gray slacks. They were typical of Luka as well since he almost never wore jeans – not unless I specifically asked him to. And of course his suit jacket – I couldn’t remember a time he hadn’t been wearing a suit the moment he hit puberty.
And finally my gaze reached his face.
My heart crashed against my chest. Shit, oh, oh, shit, I had so not bargained for this!
Power was one of our greatest turn-on, attracting us like moths to fire, and right now, Luka’s tightly harnessed power---a force that pulsed and throbbed so strongly it was impossible to ignore---it just made him the sexiest man alive in any Caro girl’s eyes.
Breathe, Caylie. It took several seconds before I could make myself look at him again. Gulp. Double gulp. Triple, quadruple---my throat stopped working with all the gulping I was doing, all intentions of being poised and unaffected in his presence thrown out of the window. Just looking at Luka made my knees quake, and the longer he stood there in waiting silence, the epitome of patience, like a freaking unshakably solid mountain, just made me want him more.
This was so not the plan.
He was just a year older than me, but now Luka felt centuries – millennia – older. What the hell had he been doing the past two years or so that he had become so powerful, so dazzling it was like he had swallowed an entire star and absorbed all its energy?
Beautiful was a blasphemy if it were used to describe Luka Georgiades now. He was so much more than that, making me itch to frame him so I wouldn’t have to share him with anyone else. Those bright locks of his hair, his pretty violet eyes, and damn it even his glasses just made Luka sexier! It made you want to be the only girl who could take them off.
“Hello, Caylie.” I started at how cold his voice was, like we didn’t have history together. I knew he sounded like this with everyone – but not with me. He wasn’t like this with me before.
Luka wasn’t smiling.
Oh, so now I didn’t even deserve a freaking smile, even one that was entirely faked?
Relax, Caylie.
I lifted my chin, saying just as coldly, “Luka.” I raised my glass to him, saying in a carelessly bored tone, “Welcome back to my life.”
His lips tightened.
Good. He hadn’t expected that. But a part of me was offended – had he actually expected I’d welcome him with open arms?
His gaze traveled all over me, staying almost uncomfortably long on the deep-V neckline of my black silk blouse and taking its time studying the length of my legs which my black-and-white polka-dot shorts flaunted.
I told myself I wasn’t bothered even though something hatefully familiar fluttered inside my stomach at his intense scrutiny. Since Luka left, I never got to feel this way again with any other guy.
“You look well,” he murmured finally. “How have you been?”
His use of small talk was something I expected, and I relaxed even more because it meant I could stick to the plan. Luka was always like that, following the rules of courtesy to the last letter. Luka was the type to die rather than be less than civilized and maybe he’d also rather kill than let someone show rudeness in his presence.
“I am fine. And you?” Slowly, I stood up, my lids drifting halfway closed as I took a sip. When I raised my gaze and lowered my glass, I saw it.
That glitter in Luka’s violet eyes was unmistakable, and wearing even the most opaque pair of glasses would never be able to hide the truth in those eyes.
Like any Caro, Luka had perfect vision, but also like any Caro his eyes had an unnatural sheen to them, making it glow like gems. Most of us could do with contacts, but Luka’s was literally shinier, enough to temporarily blind humans without being safely buffered by his eyeglasses.
Glasses or not, there was no hiding the reality of the raw and scorching hot desire in Luka’s eyes.
Oh, he wanted me.
He so fucking wanted me.
I offered him my glass, asking sweetly, “Want a sip?” I arched my neck a little, tempting his gaze to see the furiously beating pulse on my throat, knowing it would make his blood burn even more hotly.
Luka’s eyes glittered.
Yes, you bastard. Want me. Need me. Desire me. I hoped he would fantasize about me tonight and for all the nights that we would be together, so much that he would be on his fucking knees by the time I was through with him.
And then he surprised me by taking the glass, our fingers brushing against each other, and I sucked my breath in, the heat emanating from those fingers simply off the charts. My knees shook harder.
Our gazes locked with each other as he slowly took a sip, and this time he was the one arching his neck, exposing his own pulse.
I gritted my teeth. It was that or wet my lips, which would tempt me to close my eyes and imagine sucking on his pulse. I used to do that. We used to do that. It had been so, so freaking arousing that it drove us crazy with desire.
He lowered the glass from his lips and when he returned it to me, I was careful not to have our fingers touching again. I took another sip, murmuring after, “How have you been?”
Luka’s shoulders, broader than what I remembered, moved in an effortlessly elegant shrug. “My life is the usual, thank you for asking.”
My lips tightened. The usual for him now was a life without me then?
He took a step closer to me, making me want to back away and only my bitterness against what he did in the past kept me in place.
“I assume you know why I am here.”
Wrinkling my nose in feigned disgust, I said in my most bored voice, “Yeah.”
“Yes,” he corrected immediately, like I knew he would.
I gave him another sugary sweet smile. “Yeah.”
Luka’s eyes narrowed. “I see why your parents have called me. You are even more stubborn now.”
I shrugged. “Whatever.”
In a gentle voice that startled me, he murmured, “Your parents are worried about you and so am I.”
Those last words made me laugh, more bitterly than I wanted to reveal. “Worried?” I asked with a mocking smile. “After almost three years of zero communication? Puh-lease, Luka. I may not be as smart as you are but I’m not stupid either.”
His lips tightened even more. “You’ve changed.”
My smile glittered, but it also became more brittle. “Just enjoying my life the only way I know how.”
His frown darkened even more. “I know that you know what you’re doing is not a good way to enjoy life. I hear you’ve been drinking poisoned blood all the time.”
Actually, I wasn’t. It had been all for show – for him.
Again, I shrugged. “Every kid my age does it.”
His nostrils flared, and I knew he was closer to losing his temper – a rare sight, but one could hope. “Your grades are abysmal.”
“I’m a Sonora, in case you’ve forgotten. I’ll never get kicked out.”
“And you stay out late every night---”
I let out a yawn. “What good would being a Caro do if I can’t stay out late? It’s not like I can party in the sun, can I?”
Luka’s voice hardened. “Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, Caylie, but all those things have to stop now.”
Shit. That coldly commanding tone skittered over my spine, making me want to shiver. Why, why, why was everything about Luka Georgiades so much more of a turn-on now?
I raised a brow, murmuring, “Really?”
Luka’s expression became steely. “Yes.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, knowing it would push my breasts up. “And how do you propose to do that?”
For a fraction of a second, Luka’s legendary control wavered, his beautiful manners forgotten as his gaze strayed down.
Yes, yes, you cold-hearted bastard. Do you want to touch them, cup them, suck them?
I said blandly, “Well?”
When our gazes met once more, he was flushed, fists clenched, back ramrod straight – the very picture of a man in the verge of breaking.
Poor Luka.
Having one of the finest minds of our race was simply not enough to save him from what was the most common of man’s downfall – thinking with his dick instead of his brain.
“Well?”
Luka’s eyes narrowed---an indication that he didn’t like how I was talking to him. Even so, his voice was calm and matter of fact when he answered, “If I have to spend every second with you just to keep you on the right track then that is what I will do.”
Liar, you liar!
I took a deep breath, trying not to show how his words…hurt.
I wished it didn’t, but it did.
Luka, you promised.
I could remember how broken my voice sounded when I…
Luka, please, you promised.
I had begged him, and he had still left me.