Chapter 341: Kiss Me

Lilith felt tears burning behind her eyes. "I want something to take my mind off the fact that I’m possibly going to die soon. I want to stop thinking about impossible choices and dark witches and curses that want me dead. I want..."

Her voice broke. "I just want to feel something other than scared for five minutes."

Lucian cupped her face in his hands, his thumbs brushing away tears she had not realized were falling. "What do you need from me Lilith?"

Lilith looked up at him...this man who had violated her consent and broken her trust and was now standing in front of her looking at her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered.

"Kiss me," she whispered.

Lucian went very still. "Lilith...."

"Please," she interrupted. "Just...kiss me. Make me feel something other than dying."

Lucian searched her face for a long moment. Then he pulled her close and kissed her.

It was not gentle, It was desperate and fierce and absolutely consuming, the kind of kiss that came from knowing time was running out and needing to make every second count. His hands slid into her hair. Her fingers clutched at his shirt. And the bond between them exploded with heat and need and something too big to name.

When Lucian finally pulled back, they were both breathing hard.

"More," Lilith said, her voice shaking. "I want more."

"Lilith....I don’t think we should....."

"Please." She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him toward the stairs. "Please, Lucian. I need this. I need you."

Lucian let her pull him up the stairs to his room. The moment the door closed behind them, he was kissing her again, backing her toward the bed, his hands running over her body like he was trying to memorize every curve.

Lilith felt the bond singing between them. Felt Sebastian and Nicholas somewhere else in the estate suddenly going still as her arousal flooded through all three connections.

She did not care.

Lucian’s hands found the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. The moment her skin was bare, his mouth was on her....kissing down her throat, across her collarbone, lower until he took one of her nipples into his mouth.

Lilith cried out.

The sensation shot through the bonds like lightning. She felt Sebastian’s answering surge of desire. Felt Nicholas’s sharp spike of awareness.

And then she felt the mindlink open between the three brothers, a connection she could sense but not hear clearly.

"Lucian," Sebastian’s voice crackled through the bond, furious. "What the fuck do you think you’re doing Lucian?"

Lucian didn’t take his mouth off her breast. His response came through the mindlink without pause.

"She wanted something to take her mind off everything."

Lilith felt his voice in her head, not the words exactly, but the emotion behind them. Defiant. Protective. Desperate to give her what she needed even if his brothers disagreed.

"So you think fucking her when we have a death threat hanging over our heads is the best way to keep her calm?"Nicholas’s voice was sharp but not entirely disapproving.

"What other way would you suggest, brother?" Lucian challenged.

Lilith smiled despite everything. Despite the curse and the fear and the knowledge that this might be one of the last times she got to feel this.

"Arrogant bastard,"Sebastian growled. "Just let Victoria catch you fucking her niece with everything going on. She’ll fry your cock."

Nicholas laughed...the sound coming through the mindlink like sunlight breaking through storm clouds.

"Just be careful with her, brother,"Nicholas said, and his voice had softened. "Keep her happy. Because we don’t know how long we have left with her."

The words hit Lilith like a physical blow.

"We don’t know how long we have left with her."

The truth she had been trying to outrun. The reality she had been avoiding. The countdown that was ticking down whether she acknowledged it or not.

Lucian must have felt her shift....felt the sudden wave of grief that crashed through the bond, because he pulled back and looked at her with eyes that were entirely gold now.

"You’re thinking too much," he said quietly.

"I can’t help it," Lilith whispered. "Nicholas just said...."

"I know what he said," Lucian interrupted. "I felt it through the bond the same way you did. But Lilith..." He cupped her face in his hands again. "Right now, in this moment, you’re here. With me. Alive and beautiful and mine. And I’m not going to waste this time thinking about what comes after."

"How can you not think about it?"

"Because if I start thinking about losing you, I’ll go insane," Lucian said simply. "So instead I’m going to focus on right now. On making you feel good. On giving you whatever you need to survive the next five minutes and the five minutes after that until we figure out how to give you a lifetime."

Lilith felt fresh tears spill over. "I’m so scared."

"I know." Lucian kissed her forehead. Her cheeks. The tip of her nose. "I’m scared too. We’re all scared. But fear doesn’t have to be the only thing we feel."

He pulled her down onto the bed and held her, holding her while she fell apart in his arms. And through the bonds she felt Nicholas and Sebastian both reaching for her too, offering comfort from wherever they were in the estate.

All three of them surrounding her with presence and protection and desperate love.

"I don’t know what to choose," Lilith whispered against Lucian’s chest. "I don’t know how to pick between dying, giving up my magic, or watching you all go feral."

"Then don’t choose yet," Lucian said. "We still have time. Not much. But enough."

"Enough for what?"

"Enough for this." He kissed her again....softer this time, gentler. "Enough to hold you. Enough to tell you that whatever you choose, we’ll face it together."