Page 114 of Edge of Darkness (Night Prowler 4)
“Wait,” she whispered, turning her head a fraction to look at Caesar. “I have a proposal for you.”
Caesar snorted. “As if you’d have anything to bargain with. And I’ve already told you, rabbit, no negotiating.” He removed the gun from her face and pointed it at Christian’s chest, and every cell in Ember’s body jumped shrieking to its toes.
“I can take a lot of pain,” she whispered, staring with laser-like intensity at Caesar’s profile. “You’ve already seen it—you dug a metal plate out of my arm. It takes much more pain for me to pass out than a regular person. The doctor who put those plates in my arms said I had the highest pain tolerance of any patient he’d ever had.”
He hesitated just long enough to let her know he was listening. Remembering the way he’d grown hard at the sight of her blood and his own, remembering the dark excitement in his voice when he’d hurt Marguerite and the flare of lust in his eyes when he’d broken her nose, Ember breathed, “Because I like it.”
Caesar slid his gaze to hers, and she slowly nodded, looking deep into his eyes.
“Just like you need to give pain, I need to receive it. I used to cut myself just so I could feel it, just so I could watch myself bleed. We’re the same, you and I. We’re opposite sides of the same coin.”
Caesar’s breathing had grown uneven. His pupils had dilated. He moistened his lips.
This was working. This could actually work!
Very throaty, she asked, “Have you ever had a woman beg you to hit her harder?”
“Stop this, Ember!” shouted Christian, but he was ignored by both of them. Caesar’s eyes were locked on hers.
She leaned into him, brushing her breasts against his chest. “Have you…sire?”
He stared at her, frozen, color rising to ruddy his cheeks, and she pressed her advantage.
“If you let him go, I promise you I will never try to run from you. I will never disobey you. I will serve you in any way you like for as long as you like.” She whispered into his ear, “I will bleed for you, and scream for you, and worship you forever.”
He held still for a moment. Ember felt his heart pounding in his chest. He whispered, “You’re lying.”
She tilted her head back, exposing her throat. “I know you can smell the difference between a lie and the truth. Go ahead. You decide.”
Then she closed her eyes and crossed her fingers that all the things broken inside her were broken enough to convince him this wasn’t just a ploy to get Christian to safety…and him alone.
Behind her back, gripped in her shaking hand, the detonator was a cool, slender weight.
He bent nearer. She felt the fleet brush of his lips over the pulse in her throat. She heard him inhale against her skin, and then she heard his exhalation, and his next words, spoken in a tense, husky whisper.
“Well, well…not such a scared little rabbit after all.”
He pulled away and gazed at her with hooded eyes, jaw twitching. The pulse in his neck throbbed.
Then he turned back to Christian and fired a round into the air above his head.
Ember jumped but Christian didn’t move at all. He merely stared at her, motionless, taut as a bowstring as he knelt over the unconscious Nico.
“Overboard,” directed Caesar, and Ember felt a rush of relief so profound she almost sank to her knees. The hand Caesar still had fisted in her hair helped her to stay on her feet.
When Christian didn’t move, Caesar said, “Make me say it again and you’ll still go overboard, but it will be with a bullet in your head.”
Smoothly and silently, Christian rose from his knees and stepped over Nico’s unconscious form. He looked back and forth between her and Caesar, then said to her, “Just stay alive. I’ll find you.”
Caesar leveled the gun at Christian’s face. “One more word, friend—just one, and it’s all over.”
With his chest heaving, nostrils flared, and fury burning in his eyes, Christian slowly backed up against the low wall of the deck. He leaned against it, calculating, looking for any opportunity, his body tensed for flight.
Ember knew he was stalling. He wasn’t going to jump overboard; this was the final calm before the storm broke and he charged.
“And if I don’t hear a splash and see you floating behind us, all bets are off,” Caesar hissed.
Christian raised his hands and the air around him warped and shimmered. His rage was a palpable thing, washing over her in heated waves, and it brought a smile to Caesar’s face.
