Free Love Like Blood: (Royal Blood #5) by Amity Cross Page B

brown eyes, her tattooed shoulders and arms… The Lorelei I had come to know in the past few weeks was all that remained of the woman I’d wanted to bring here.
    “I’m tired of beating you at hand-to-hand combat in the field,” she said, ignoring my temper tantrum. “I haven’t lost control once.”
    I sighed heavily. No, she hadn’t. She was much better than I was, but we were almost matched in skill when it came to shooting someone’s face off.
    Her gaze met mine. “This place was never going to be a long-term solution.”
    “I hoped.”
    “There is no hope ,” she said, beginning to show signs of annoyance. “Only facts.”
    I narrowed my eyes. How could I show someone who was so fixated on facts and clinical observations that it was possible to love . I’d been a cold man, but I’d warmed the fuck up for the right woman. Even as I thought it, I knew it was selfish to think of her that way.
    Shoving the chair back, I stood and strode into the lounge where the hearth was full of the warm light from the fire she’d built earlier.
    Sinking down onto the couch, I stared into the flames, not knowing what I was supposed to do next. She needed answers, and only Lafayette could give them to her. She had to leave sooner or later, or the unknowns of her past would eat her up from the inside. What was the lesser of two evils? Hearing the truth, or remembering it?
    There was movement at my back, and Lorelei sat beside me, her gaze fixed on the fire.
    “Do you want me to come with you?” I asked, fearing that this was where we would part and she would fade into the ether like the specter she was.
    “I need to see him alone,” she replied, the firelight flickering wildly across her features.
    I closed my eyes as her words hit home. I wasn’t ready to give her up. If she left without me…
    “I thought I would’ve remembered something by now,” she said. “But nothing has changed. I’ve only seen two things. The red and white lights and the blonde woman. They do nothing but go around and around in my mind until they’re all I can see.”
    I waited, keeping a tight hold on my emotions as she formulated her thoughts.
    “The only time I’ve seen things was when…” She glanced at me, her gaze flickering to my lips.
    Slowly, she leaned forward, her breathing becoming shallow with anticipation. Then her mouth was on mine, caressing, teasing, and my control almost slipped.
    Something was different. Her kiss was soft, and a tiny flicker of lust began to spark inside me in response. She was the one unraveling, but she was the strongest of us all.
    Her lips moved from my own and brushed against my jaw, her gaze holding mine with a curiousness that seemed strange given the circumstances. She hesitated like a girl with a crush, like she had hardly touched a man before. I knew that wasn’t true from firsthand experience, and her touch then had spoken volumes.
    Had she grown to care for me? Was that what she was so hesitant about? Those were selfish thoughts. I knew she wanted to see more, and the only time she’d remembered things from her past was when we’d been fucking.
    I didn’t want to push her, yet I wanted to take her with reckless force and fuck her right here on this couch. I loathed my uncertainty. I was a man who took what he wanted, no matter the consequences.
    I knew I’d told her again and again that I was here for her, that she could use me, but in this moment, I almost hated her for it. I loved her, yet she was using those feelings for her own end. My love for her wasn’t something to be manipulated.
    Fisting my hand in her hair, I twisted sharply and forced her lips back to mine. She gasped as I plunged my tongue into her mouth, devouring the sound like I sliced up the souls of my victims. With hunger and skilled precision. I knew all the places that would make her bleed slowly and all the places that would erupt and paint the world red in a matter of seconds. And then there were all the places