Chapter Sixteen
Halle walked out of the office as Viktor was ending his own call. She’d overheard a little bit of the end of his conversation and didn’t know how concerned she should be. The phone call to her family had gone about as well as she’d expected. They were relieved that she was okay but were kind of freaking out about the whole “mated to a well-known killer” scenario.
All she could do was plead with them to trust her cat’s instincts and be supportive. So she hoped that her father didn’t send out a lynch mob to relieve her of her new husband or anything. Especially since she’d finally found out what the big deal was about all this sex business—and she had grown rather fond of him so far. He turned towards her, and once again she found herself admiring how handsome he was. After the pleasure that Viktor had given her, she was having a hard time focusing on anything but getting his clothes off again.
“Everything okay with your family, love?” he asked, as he put his phone away and pulled her into a hug.
She loved that Viktor was affectionate without even thinking. Her cat purred as she nuzzled into her mate's strong chest. Halle didn’t want Viktor to get off on the wrong foot with her family, so she thought she’d omit their concerns for the time being. She knew they were just being protective and was confident that when they finally got to spend some time with him, they would realize he was a good man. She just smiled and nodded back in answer. Her tummy picked that moment to start to rumble, much to her eternal embarrassment.
“Sounds like you’re hungry. Shall we go and find Molly to see if dinner is ready? The smell of that prime rib has been making my mouth water all afternoon,” he said, as he leaned down to give her a quick kiss, then took her hand to lead her down the hall.
When they entered the kitchen, conversation abruptly stopped between the two brownies standing over by the sink. From how close they were standing, Halle could only assume that the older male who’d interrupted them in the library was Molly’s husband, whom the friendly brownie had been telling her all about since she’d arrived. His eyes took a look down at Viktor’s hand holding Halle’s tight, and a huge smile broke out on the slight male’s face.
“So it’s true, then?” Gerald asked excitedly. “Molly wasna’ jesting, you really have taken this little beauty as a mate?”
“Yes, Gerald, it is true.” Viktor sighed dramatically. “This is Halle. Halle, this is Gerald. He runs my household, and is Molly’s husband.”
“I’m so glad to meet you, Halle. We’ve been hoping that Master Viktor would find a nice girl like you and settle down,” the sweet little man said, as he took her hand in greeting.
Halle heard Viktor sigh beside her again and almost felt his exaggerated eye roll, but she could also tell how much these two meant to him from the change in his tone of voice when he spoke to them.
“Before you two start to do a happy dance now that you’ve finally seen me married off, can we please get some dinner? Halle is hungry.”
At those words, Molly did do a happy little hop and started to bustle around the kitchen almost faster than they could see.
Brownies. They were a little on the creepy side if you watched them work, like little Tasmanian devils, zipping around at five times the normal speed. Halle hadn’t really been up close to any before, as her father employed mostly members of their pard in his household and businesses, so she was mesmerized.
“Would you like to take supper in the dining room, sir?” Gerald asked, seeming to have recovered from the shock of Viktor’s announcement.
Halle did the calculations in her head, and while she was super hungry, her cat was also clawing at her to satisfy a different kind of appetite. She had twenty-three years of abstinence and sexual frustration to make up for, after all. If they ate in the dining room, it would take even longer before they could find some privacy and she could explore her new mate properly, and that just wouldn’t do.
“Actually, Gerald,” she asked in a sweet voice, “would it be possible for us to have dinner in Viktor’s suite? You know, so we can enjoy some private time?”
She felt Viktor’s hand tighten on hers, and when he looked over at her she knew by the heat in his eyes that he’d understood the implications of her request perfectly.
“Of course, Mistress Halle, you two go on upstairs. I’ll bring supper up in few moments for you,” the brownie answered with a wink.
Before she could thank Gerald, Viktor had scooped her up off her feet and raced to his suite at vampire speed, so fast she practically had whiplash.
“I guess you’re hungry, too, huh?” she teased, as he set her on her feet and then instantly reached for the buttons that were barely holding her shirt together.
“Indeed I am, love, but you have far too many clothes on at the moment to satisfy my appetite,” he said, as he continued to unbutton his way down her shirt.
But Halle had formulated a plan when she’d suggested this. Downstairs, her mating heat had been so overwhelming in the study that she could barely even remember what Viktor had looked like naked, other than super-hot, of course. But now that she finally had time, and a male of her very own, she wanted to explore every inch of him at her leisure. This also meant that she couldn’t let him distract her with his seductive ways.
“Hold on, mate,” she said, gently batting his huge hands away.
She almost had to laugh at the confused expression on his face when he looked up at her. It was as if someone had taken his favorite toy away and not given a reason why.
“It’s my turn to explore you. I want to kiss every inch of your delectable body,” she purred in her sexiest voice, as she turned them around and pushed him back to lie on the huge bed in his room. “So it’s your turn to get naked.”
“I supposed I wouldn’t be a very supportive mate if I argued with that, now would I?” he answered with a sexy smile as he turned those nimble fingers back on his own shirt buttons.
When his shirt finally dropped to the ground and he fell back against the bed, Halle’s heart fluttered in her chest just to look at Viktor lying there. His skin was like marble perfection, so smooth and pale, each muscle carefully chiseled out as if by a master artist. Halle had seen her fair share of naked men throughout her life. Shifters did, after all, grow up being used to nudity. It was just a natural part of shifting, and even though she’d snuck more than a peek at the handsome males in her pard during group shifts, her over-protective father and brother had made certain that she’d never had the opportunity to touch, and her fingers were itching to run all over her new mate.