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“I’ve instructed my cousins to do whatever it takes to save you should I fall. Three Dacians have vowed to protect you eternally. And, Bride, there’s little three Dacians can’t do if they actually unite in a cause.”
She must’ve looked stunned, because he grated, “When I said I’d protect you, female, I meant it. I’ll do it from the godsdamned grave if I have to.”
“You’ve only known me for a week.” “Time enough to know we’re connected.” “Because I’m your fated, mystical Bride.” “Yes, you brought me back to life,” he said wryly, “an event that shouldn’t be discounted so easily. But we’re connected by more than that. I felt you, long before I first saw you.”
“At the very time you were attacked, I was roused from sleep. My chest ached with the need to protect . . . something.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “It was an unformed, chaotic urge, but, gods, it was strong. I thought I’d go mad from it. Had I been out in the world, I could have sensed you better, could have found you sooner. It was my fault you were vulnerable to those four. That’s why I was so determined to discover who they were—to right the wrong I did to you.”
“You expect me to believe you don’t plan to seduce me? You’ve gone and set up all those precautions to protect me from Goürlav, and yet you’re not confident enough to have sex with me?” In a husky voice he said, “Do you desire me to do so this night?”
I fantasize about it without cease!” He leaned down to rasp at her ear, “How I’ll prepare your sweet little body to receive me, how I’ll ease you into lovemaking so you crave me as much as I do you.”
But his gaze followed her every move. A guy who likes you wants to watch you all the time. Daciano stared at her—as if there was nothing else to behold.
“Nothing can ever touch you when you’re with me,” he said in a comforting tone, placing his palms over her back.
“Bett, you’re teaching me how to see the world; the least I can do is help you see yourself. I’ve delved far into your mind. Deep down you know you’re remarkably intelligent; you’ve considered that your talents are unequaled; you suspect that I find you the most exquisite creature ever fashioned. You are; they are; I do.”
“Greatness resides in you. Power or not, you can become empowered.”
Power is where you find it, where you seize it, how you wield it.
“Come, Bettina, you know what comes next.” “You’d fight them?” “I would do to them—what I did to the four.” He leaned his shoulder against a carved basilisk column; at that moment he looked far more terrifying than any dragon. “You’ll have a ring of bodies around you, more heads than you could ever fit in a sack. I’ll let you pick which Vrekener to spare—for torture.”
“If there are no Vrekeners, then you’ll walk out there and reclaim this place from your enemies. If they are here—which I’m hoping for—you’ll get to witness firsthand what happens to those who think to harm my female. Win-win; either way makes for a memorable picnic,”
But pride lit Daciano’s masculine face, his green eyes aglow with it, his chest bowed. Great. Now I have to do this thing, if only for more of that addictive look.
“I-I made it,” she tentatively called, half disbelieving. “Out to the middle.” “And so you did, love,” he called back. He couldn’t possibly sound prouder.
Never looking down, he reached for her hand again, clasping it in his. “You’re lifting a film from my eyes, Bett. I never want to go back to the way I was before.”
She stopped looking at the sky, turning her attention to something just as remarkable—the vampire’s face tipped up to the moon. So handsome she nearly lost her breath. His eyes were heavy-lidded as he admired the scene, as if he was experiencing bliss. Dear gods, that’s how he looks at me.
Dalit. Again that word entered her consciousness. Lightning. In quaint old Demonish, it also meant the bolt of desire one felt—before falling in love.
“What would you do if I died? If I was . . . murdered?” His brows drew together. “I don’t want to speak of that.” “You said you’d answer any question.” His hand squeezed hers. “Avenge you.” He pinned her gaze with his own. “Follow you.”
“Are we about to go up to a point?” “Almighty gods, we are!”
“What do you want me to do?” “Bare yourself. Show me your pretty breasts as you did that first night.” This time, to me. Only to me. She bit her bottom lip. “You think about that night a lot.” “You don’t?”
He broke away, but only to admire the gift he was unwrapping. “Loveliness itself,” he declared when he saw her in only a scrap of black lace.
Am I to have this prize?
Gods, yes, he would survive tomorrow! He would live to know the full power of her desire. He’d live to claim his stunning female, to master her body with his own, to win her eternally—
In an unrecognizable voice, he repeated what he’d told her the first night he’d found her: “I’ve had a sample of your taste, dragă mea. Now I feast. . . .”
With his first hungry lick of her heat, he groaned, “A mea! Dulcea mea.” Mine! My sweet.
My Bride, my prize, my feast.
“Harder, vampire,” she breathed, gone wanton with need. “Deeper.” “Bett!” He couldn’t give her what she needed, couldn’t penetrate her body in any way. Not with his fingers, his fangs, his cock. Frustration seized him—I want to be so deep in you, fucking you so hard! His hips instinctively thrust, but his shaft found no softness to sink into.
Even in the throes, Bettina knew that this secreted place on her body—a place no other male had ever touched—was now his.
Was the vampire rasping words to her between each lick? “Tell me you’ll let me . . . do anything to you!”
Once her second release subsided, he finally began kissing up her body, rasping something in Dacian, something that sounded like a promise—or a threat. She didn’t recognize the words, but she recognized the So help me . . . tone. “Soon, Bett.” She thought he grated, “As deep and hard as you need me.”
“But I figure I’ll make up for my lack of experience with enthusiasm.” Another groan. “If you’re enthusiastic about this, I won’t last long to enjoy it.”
“Do you know how many times I’ve come while imagining those lips of yours around my shaft?”
“Then you must have blooded the living hell out of me because I’m hard for you constantly. Releasing the pressure has been the only thing keeping me in check with you.”
This powerful warrior pleasured himself to fantasies of her? Bettina, the femme fatale? The idea melted away any hesitation.
“You touch me like you do your golds. I watched you in your workshop and wanted you to handle me with such attention.”
“It aches for you.” He curled his finger under her chin, catching her gaze. “Forever only for you. Do you understand me? There will be no other.”
“Is this like you imagined?” He bit out, “Better than. Impossibly better.”
His cock was under her thrall. She had more control over it than he did.
Between gnashed teeth, he said, “See what you’ve done to me.”
“It’s for you,” he groaned as his back bowed and his spend lashed up his chest. “Always for you.”
Warm, sated Bride. Rain. Peace. Yes, he felt at peace when he held her. Again, he asked himself, Why not this place? This could be his, she could be his. Together, he and Bettina would start a new house.
And of the other royal cousin so few knew about? That tale was better left for another night.
Right now, all she could think about was her vampire. My vampire. Maybe his blooding was doing a number on her own sense of possessiveness. Maybe after last night, she was helpless not to picture herself with him.
“My brave girl!” He took her in his arms and spun her around, before setting her on her feet. “My chest swells with pride, dragă mea.”
You’re my truest friend. The one who’s always there for me. Even when we quarrel, you’re still in my heart.” In a quiet tone, Cas said, “And so is he?”
I may have begun to fall for that gorgeous, patient, brave vampire who wants me to be his wife. Who’s about to risk his life for me.
Trehan Daciano was . . . magnificent. The crowd of mighty Deathly Ones started chanting, “Prince of Shadow.” And for a few wonderful moments, she was high from the victory, from pride in her vampire, from the roars of her people. She narrowed her eyes to the sky. I dare the Vrekeners to attack.
Instead of acknowledging all the crowd’s praise, Daciano kept his eyes on the prize, staring up at Bettina with that dark, arresting gaze. At the end of each match in the past, his expression had said: I’m fighting for you. Soon you’ll be mine. Now his expression said: I’m coming for you. You are mine.
“Off we go. You must get ready.” “For what?” “The Prince of Shadow will be coming for you,” she said, ushering Bettina away from the ring, Inferi trailing. “To stake his claim.”
