“You don’t seem to mind using the phantom’s box,” she pointed out as she swept past me into the private box. I followed, shutting the door softly to outsiders.
“Perhaps I will sweep you into the bowels of this place, to my secret lake, and give you a private lesson. Would you like that, pet?”
“Do I need another lesson?” she murmured. She stood, half in shadows with her evening wrap draped off her shoulders. Even in the dimly lit box, I saw the pulse at her neck. The space darkened as blood-lust thundered inside me. Thea glanced at me and stumbled back a step, her body making contact with the red satin lining the wall. The reflection off the fabric cast a red hue over her pallid skin. I was wary of bringing her here, especially after the idea she’d planted in my head. These were close quarters for a human and a vampire. I did my best to keep distance between us as we took our seats. Still, despite my instinct to protect her, an invisible hand seemed to hook around my heart, pulling me gently but insistently back to her.
“Come,” I said with a thick voice, “and I’ll tell you where Leroux got his ideas.”
“From you?” she guessed as she took my hand.
I nodded, and she laughed.
“A cheat and a thief?”
“Don’t forget a liar when it suited him,” I said with a wry smile.
“And he was your friend?” she asked.
I moved next to a chair and waited for her to take a seat. “Acquaintance would be a better term. He couldn’t win at any game he played.”
“But you played him anyway?” Her eyes narrowed with disapproval, but she was still smiling.
“Someone had to take his money,” I said as I sat next to her. “Why not me?”
“Because you have more money than God,” she said with a snort.
“Yes, and I use it more wisely,” I told her. On the evening that Leroux had lost a considerable share of his newspaper earnings for the week, I’d purchased a woman’s freedom on the walk home. A virgin being sold on the streets. Leroux would have drunk the money away. I’d done something useful. I’d given the virgin to a convent. Apparently, my ethics had slipped in the last century because I was finding it hard to think about anything else but Thea and her problematic virginity. “Everything was for sale in Paris those days, and a man like Leroux wanted everything.”
“And how did you become the Phantom?” She tugged her wrap higher, covering some of the exposed flesh I couldn’t stop staring at.
“He had a talent for taking the truth and making it sensational,” I told her. “The reservoir below us became a hidden lake, and the passages were made for a ghost to walk about the theatre. But the reality is the reservoir is there because this used to be swampland.”
“And the passages?”
“Vampires love the opera. It can inflame us, though,” I said with a shrug. “In its early years, it was necessary to occasionally remove our human guests when a vampire lost control.”
“Remove because...” Thea swallowed, shaking her head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. Do you think there will be problems tonight?”
“There are very few humans here this evening,” I reassured her. “And there are rules about these things now. It’s frowned on to take a date to the opera and drain them now.”
“Well, when you put it like that,” she said dryly. “So Leroux knew you were a vampire?”
“No.” I laughed at the thought of telling a man like that about my world. “But I did admit the passageways were there to remove incapacitated guests. He just thought I meant drunk people.”
She giggled, but before the conversation continued, the lights in the auditorium dimmed slowly and then brightened several times. Thea turned from me toward the stage, her entire face lighting up. “I can’t believe I’m sitting at the Paris Opera with the Phantom himself.”
“I never should have told you that story,” I muttered.
“Don’t worry.” She patted my hand. “I’ve figured out what we’re going to be for next Halloween.”
I rolled my eyes as the lights went down the last time. Thea’s attention was now entirely devoted to the stage as the orchestra began to play. Her eyes closed as the music swelled through the air. She was next to me, but she’d been transported somewhere else. When a soprano took the stage and began the first aria, she opened them and craned her head to watch the action.
“I wish I understood French,” she admitted.
“She’s singing about her love that has been taken from her,” I whispered. “He has gone off to war and died.”
The soprano was talented, as Boucher had said. Pain rose in stabbing notes as she told her story. It was a misconception that vampires were without feelings. Simply, we learned to divorce ourselves from the mortal world long ago–so we wouldn’t suffer grief or loss. Until we went to the opera, where we couldn’t ignore emotion any longer.
The story continued, and a tenor entered. The young man had returned from the war, but he was no longer a human. He’d been turned into a vampire, and he didn’t recognize his love. Thea gasped when he attacked the woman, and her hand tightened on mine. Of course Sabine had approved of this new production.
Thea watched with unwavering interest, and I watched her. Each gasp and sigh she made lodged itself inside me, amplifying the emotional intensity I felt during each scene. Tears filled her eyes as the woman hid from her lost lover. She stole a glance in my direction, palpable fear on her face. Her biochemical reactions to the opera sent her blood singing in her veins until I couldn’t resist her any longer.
I gazed out across the audience and found all eyes were trained on the stage. The debut seemed to be a hit, which made it easier for me to lower onto my knees.
“What...?” Thea said softly when I released her hand. I answered her by moving to kneel before her.
“I’m right here,” I whispered as I drew off my gloves. I slid my bare palms up her calves and urged her to scoot toward the edge of her seat. “That’s a good pet. Keep your eyes on the stage and try not to let anyone know what I’m doing down here.”
“Wouldn’t want a Rousseaux to be caught on his knees?” she teased in a whisper.
“I wouldn’t want to make every male here jealous. You smell delicious. May I put my mouth on you?”
Thea sucked in a sharp breath, hesitating a moment before finally nodding. I lifted her skirt, allowing it to drape over her thighs, and discovered she’d done as I asked. Her naked sex greeted me, and I inhaled her scent as I pressed a kiss to her inner thigh. A duet began on stage, its longing mirroring the hunger I felt now. I tugged her ass to the edge of the seat, hooking my arms around her thighs to balance her, and lowered my lips to her delicate flesh. A moan slipped free from her as my tongue parted her folds. I lifted my eyes and found her straining to remain composed. Her fingers gripped the armrests as I slowly circled the tip of my tongue over her swollen clit. Another gasp, drowned by the duet to all but my ears. Her tiny sounds of pleasure blended with the opera, and I found myself devouring her, desperate to taste her climax. Thea’s legs began to tremble, and she cried out as the duet peeked, flooding my tongue with her essence.
I couldn’t stop. The song shifted into a fierce clash between the soprano and tenor, and I sucked and licked. Thea grabbed hold of my hair, her whole body trembling as I stole more pleasure. Finally, her thighs clamped around my head, a signal that she couldn’t take anymore. But I couldn’t stop. Her scent drove me, fueled by the music, and I shifted my lips to the soft inner thigh clenched around me. Thea relaxed with a sigh, her thighs blossoming open to present a new temptation.
The duet shifted to an aria parlante, and the tenor, now singing alone, grew increasingly agitated. I felt his frustration burning through me, and without thinking, I lowered my mouth to the crease of her inner thigh and did the unforgivable.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
