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hunger that threatened to consume her and overshadow all reasoning.
    Kathrina knew the exact moment that the ice returned. His trembling ceased and he pulled away from her. When she looked into his eyes, she saw none of the passion she’d felt in his arms. Instead she stared into cold - hard granite.
    “Why did you do that?” he asked. Though his voice was low, there was no missing the harshness in it.
    “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully.
    Why had she done it?
    Why did she feel the need to extract emotion from her executioner?
    “Well you kissed me back so you must have liked it,” she blurted out.
    “You are a foolish girl,” he glared at her. “It is not your touch that I crave, but your blood.”
    Stung by his words, a single tear crept from her eye.
    “If you want to stay alive long enough to have the opportunity to kill Omar, you’ll want to keep your distance,” he told her.
    Kathrina suddenly felt shamed by her actions. She had forced herself on him, and actually imagined that he enjoyed it. All along, the reaction she’d felt had been his hunger for her blood.
    How could she have been so stupid to believe that he might actually have feelings that went beyond his need for blood?
    “Fine,” she told him through clenched teeth. “That won’t be a problem.”
    Luciano extinguished the candle and then wrapped his fingers around her arm. Kathrina tried to pull away, but his grip tightened painfully. He began dragging her toward the only door in the room.
    “Where are you taking me?”
    “We need to sleep and renew our strength,” he told her.
    Luciano threw open the door and led her down a steep staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was another room, but on this level the windows were boarded up.
    It was so black that at first Kathrina could see nothing. When her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could see a large coffin in the corner of the room. What little light that was seeping through the cracks around the boarded up windows, made the coffin’s gold finish seem to almost glow.
    When Luciano lifted the lid of the coffin, Kathrina saw that the inside was just as lavish as the outside. The padding was too thick to be practical, at least if the coffin had actually been meant to hold a corpse. The black satin inside would feel heavenly against the skin.
    “Get in,” he ordered.
    Kathrina stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “You’re kidding … right?”
    Luciano shook his head. “I told you that you would be at my side at all times.”
    “Okay, but this is a little ridiculous … not to mention warped. I’d prefer to wait for the coffin until I’m actually dead.”
    “Get in.” Though it was a whisper, she didn’t miss the underlying danger in his voice.
    Steeling herself against the repulsion she felt at getting into a coffin, Kathrina lifted one leg and swung it over the side. Once inside, she turned to look at Luciano, hoping she could find a way to talk him out of keeping her in a casket.
    He waved one hand and motioned for her to lie down.
    Kathrina shook her head. “You know … I could just stay out here. I won’t go anywhere … I promise!”
    “Lie down.”
    Though she did as he commanded, her mind was still looking for a way to change his mind.
    Luciano slipped in beside her and lowered the lid.
    “You know I will suffocate in here. Unlike you, I do need oxygen,” Kathrina told him, hoping that he would realize that he was making a mistake and let her out.
    “Are you so sure that I don’t need oxygen?” he asked.
    “Of course you don’t.” Kathrina was angry that he still felt the need to play with her, especially after he’d disregarded her kiss so callously, and now he’d decided to keep her prisoner in a coffin. “You are nothing but a reanimated corpse … a glorified zombie really.”
    “I resent that comparison,” Luciano reached around to pinch her playfully.
    “Ouch!” Kathrina blurted out.
    “Relax,” he told her. “There is enough