Hot Blooded

get him out of the mood.
    Lance stared into her narrowed eyes like a wolf sizing up a deer, then
laughed, throwing up his hands. "You win. Let me get my shirt and I'll go."
    Chuckling, he sauntered toward the living room. Before he stepped out, he
aimed a wicked look at her over his shoulder. "But I'll be back."
    When he'd stepped from view, Grace blew out a breath and muttered, "That's
what I'm afraid of."
    She realized she hadn't spoken softly enough when she heard his rich,
tempting laugh.
    Â 
    DRESSED again, Lance strode out of Grace's house. He'd parked the Jag a block
or two away, not wanting her to spot it before she walked into his sensual
ambush.
    Which, as such things went, had been a delicious success. Grace had a very
strong will, but being Latent her body responded to his instinctively. The fact
that it had obviously been so long since she'd had a partner of any kind also
worked in his favor.
    Unfortunately, he had no illusion that getting her into bed the second and
third times would be as easy. When she said she didn't want the Gift, she meant
it. And there was no guarantee that even if he managed two more seductions,
they'd be enough to trigger her change. With some of the Line, it took up to ten
encounters, though it never took less than three.
    Unfortunately, Morgana had been serious when she'd told him she wanted Grace
Gifted even if he had to use force. God, he hated that idea. The very thought of
hurting any woman like that—especially Grace—made his stomach twist.
    Besides, he admired her. The courage, the blunt wit, the utter lack of
artifice. He'd known Majae with that kind of bedrock integrity, but most of them
were already True-bonded. The ones who weren't tended to be so focused on the
Mission, they could have given a Borgia pope lessons in ruthless manipulation.
    Which was why he couldn't afford to fail. He might end up facing the Table
but Grace's fate would be even worse. He wouldn't put it past Morgana to order a
gang rape that would trigger Grace's Gift in one swoop. And he knew three or
four of the Knights who were just fanatical enough to do it.
    Lance understood all too well the philosophy behind that cold-blooded
willingness to do whatever it took to get the job done. He lived by it himself.
Chivalry was a lovely ideal, but preventing the extinction of the human race was
much more important. If you had to commit a few gut-churning atrocities along
the way, so be it. And he had, though none of his own midnight regrets had
included the rape of an innocent. He'd killed men the Council wanted dead, and
not always in fair battle. He'd seduced, he'd lied, he'd schemed, he'd planted
evidence, he'd ruined reputations.
    And he'd saved a lot of lives in the process. That thought had always kept
him going, despite the nasty taste his assignments often left in his mouth.
    But he absolutely refused to rape Grace. He remembered the child who'd adored
him far too well, and admired the woman she was now far too much. He wasn't sure
he could survive adding that particular regret to his collection.
    On the other hand, he wanted to watch her become the centerpiece of a Round
Table gangbang even less. Which meant he needed to craft at least two of the
most skillful, creative, wicked seductions of a very long, wicked, creative
career.
    A grin of anticipation spreading over his face, Lance slid behind the wheel
of his Jag and drove off to plot.

----
Chapter 4
    Â« ^ »
    GRACE stood slumped under the hot, pounding shower spray, hoping its stinging
stream would erase the vivid sense memory of Lancelot's hands, mouth…
    Thick, beautiful cock…
    Damn, the man was lethal. She'd never experienced anything like the passion
she'd shared with him. Even aside from the whole biting-the-neck thing, the
intensity had been staggering.
    And what was worse, she wanted more. A lot more. She wanted to be engulfed by
the erotic storm of his hunger again, wanted to let him sweep away her
self-control. Wanted him to turn her back into that burning creature she'd
become in his arms, the Grace she'd never even glimpsed before. When she'd
imagined making love to him as a horny, lonely teenager, it had never been
anything like that.
    She could still remember the first time she'd seen him. He'd been trying to
teach swordplay to some newly Gifted young vampire who'd never picked up a blade
in his life. Lance had taken his shirt off sometime before she'd