Free PerpetualPleasure by Dita Parker Page A

suffocated until I passed out. When I came to on
the floor I remembered what had happened. I was fine but waited for some deadly
disease to strike. Thought I’d been impregnated by a demon spirit. Something.
Anything. Nothing happened. I felt fine, always healthy of body. Absolutely unbreakable.
    “It took me a couple of years to understand that’s what I
would be, indefinitely, and that’s when I had to tell my mother. That’s when
the isolation began. Travel, exile… I periodically return back home as an heir
to this estate, never aging, never changing.
    “It seemed like a miracle at first because I felt
invincible. I went beyond what women were expected to behave like. I took on
the world as my father once had knowing I could survive anything. It got me
into trouble, big trouble, the hurtful kind, as all kinds of…misunderstandings
ensued. So I took great pains to learn to defend myself.”
    Lucie lifted her eyes to look at MacCale and saw something
had shifted in him. His passion was breaking through the cool collectedness as
he swallowed hard, his eyes boring into hers.
    “I saw the scars on your back, Lucie. What happened?”
    “Three men with cigars and a horse whip in Marseilles.”
    Naked horror and fury emanated from him as she watched him
put two and two together.
    “It’s ancient history, MacCale. Literally.”
    He shook his head, his mouth opening as if he wanted to
speak. For the longest moment, he couldn’t.
    “I’m so sorry, Lucie,” he finally whispered. “Oh god. You
tried telling me, didn’t you? You said you couldn’t. Oh god.”
    “MacCale, it’s okay, really.”
    His jaw tightened, his hands clenching into two massive
rocks.
    “ No. It’s. Not. That’s why you panicked when I
restrained you, isn’t it?” His calm demeanor was definitely gone, leaving in
its wake a rattled man brimming with ill-contained aggression and anger.
    And it was all centered on MacCale himself.
    He was a minute away from shouting, a few words shy of
getting physical and smashing something but Lucie could not bring herself to
fear him.
    She knew without a shadow of a doubt he would never hurt
her.
    She looked him square in the eye. “No, that’s not why I
panicked.”
    He started pacing back and forth like a caged animal. He was
so achingly beautiful even in his fury, all Lucie could do was stare at him in
awe.
    He came to a sudden stop and turned back to her, his eyes
feverish. “Bullshit. Bullshit, Lucie. I was there. I tied you up and made you
beg. Oh god.” His piercing gaze averted hers for several seconds as he fought
for composure. “You don’t have to forgive me but you have to believe me when I
say I never meant for you to feel helpless.”
    “I wasn’t traumatized by it, if that’s what you’re driving
at.”
    “Well, I was,” he said under his breath.
    He sounded genuinely sorry and so shaken Lucie wanted to
explain, pacify him somehow. She wasn’t feeling used or abused and she didn’t
want him to think that’s what he’d done.
    “You never hurt me. It’s just that…I’m used to being the one
in charge.” Lucie smiled at him reassuringly, needing for him to relax, needing
one more moment of his unwavering strength and power. He was sure to leave
soon. He had to.
    And she had to will herself to let him go.
    “Just calm that perfect butt of yours down, okay?”
    Watching her with slanted eyes, he pasted on a smile Lucie
wasn’t sure reflected what he was feeling at all.
    “A perfect butt. Really?”
    “Come on, Mac. You know you’re a hottie.”
    “Anything else you’d like to comment on or maybe know about
me?”
    Lucie looked at him, a playful smile curving his lovely
mouth. The less she knew the less she would have to miss when he was gone. He
had already given her plenty to chew on.
    “No. I think it’s time for you to go.”
    MacCale nodded, his smile fading. “You sure are in a hurry
to throw me out.”
    Lucie threw him a dirty look that made him grin before