Chapter Thirteen

 

 

I SAID no, my place would be fine, but my word apparently meant nothing. Hadrian nodded a lot, but instead of driving Varic and me back to my home, he drove us to the Garden District. The house was in the Central City area on the 1400 block of Fourth Street, and though much smaller than Benny’s mansion, it was still enormous by my standards, with its six bedrooms.

“He is the prince,” Hadrian reminded me from the front seat. “And he has people who must be with him at all times, including myself and Tiago.”

“You weren’t with him when I met you the first time,” I countered, stroking Varic’s hair as he sprawled beside me in the back seat. He was groggy, zapped of his strength, and needed to eat and sleep.

“The prince was home in Malta, with his guard as well as that of the king,” Hadrian explained. “I worry not for him when he is there.”

Of course he had to go and throw logic at me.

“I need clothes,” I groused.

“Tiago is there going through your closet as we speak.”

It was not a comforting idea, having the fashion police sifting through my things.

The house, with its wrought iron fence, was beautiful. Each of the three bedrooms on the second floor had a balcony; Corinthian columns stood out front, marble floors and mantels throughout, windows so big you could use them as doors, and a private terrace off the master bedroom that overlooked a wildflower garden.

We put him in the shower. Hadrian held him up as I used the removable showerhead and washed him from head to toe. It took a while for the water to run clear, but once he was clean and dry, he looked better, more like himself, and I kissed him after we put him in the enormous bed.

“Please don’t leave the house,” he murmured, trying valiantly to keep his eyes open.

“I won’t,” I whispered, soothing him, and a slight smile curled his lips before he succumbed to sleep.

Darting back to the bathroom, I took a shower as well, needing to wash the day off. Once I was out, I heard a knock on the door before Hadrian leaned in with a pair of pajama bottoms and a T-shirt.

“Thank you.”

“If I allowed you to walk about nude or in only a robe, my prince would have my head.”

I doubted it was that serious, but I appreciated the clothes.

Back at Varic’s bedside, I watched him sleep and then turned to Hadrian when he paused beside me, towel-drying his hair and dressed in a pair of shorts. He’d been covered in as much gore as I had after helping to move all the bodies. “How long will he sleep?” I asked.

“I hope until tomorrow, but we shall see.”

I nodded.

Hadrian took hold of my shoulder, turning me to him. “I have never seen him so frightened.”

“And I’m sorry I was the cause,” I told him, thinking about being snatched off the street and strung up like a piece of meat. “I’m worried that he’ll start to think that having a human consort isn’t such a great idea.”

“Oh no,” Hadrian said quietly. Seriousness filled his voice as his cognac-colored eyes met mine. “He changed back so quickly for you. That transformation usually takes hours, but this time, mere moments.” He searched my face. “It is unheard of and tells me something extraordinary.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

He took a breath. “He needed to converse with you, to speak and be heard, and could not as the wolf and so returned to his true form. He loves you.”

And I loved him back.

“I thought he wanted you for his consort because you are a matan, and for the power that you give him. I was wrong. He wants you because you are you, because he loves you.”

I let the words wash over me, settled, once more, in my skin.

“I am sorry you had to see him like that, though.”

“I’m not,” I said, needing to feel the sun on my skin, to remind myself I was alive and safe. After climbing off the bed, I crossed to the terrace and walked into the warmth to look down at the garden before leaning forward and folding my arms on the railing. The breeze on my face felt so good, so comforting. “I want to know all of him, not just one part.”

“Well, you certainly had a trial by fire,” Hadrian grumbled. “Now we shall find you some food. I can hear your stomach growling from over here.”

 

 

HOURS LATER I was sitting in the shade of the garden when Cooke walked out and joined me, easing himself gently down onto the chaise beside me. I’d insisted he be brought wherever I was going to be so I could watch over him until he healed. No one had argued, and two of Hadrian’s men had been careful putting him in the car.

Now, he moved stiffly and looked a bit banged up, but a thousand times better than a handful of hours ago.

“How’d you do that?” I asked him.

“The rajan’s blood,” he said sheepishly. “That’s… amazing stuff.”

Shock flooded me. “Tiago let you feed from him?”

The look of horror that came over his face made me laugh. “Are you high? He filled one of the water goblets for me.”

“Gotcha.”

“Drink from him,” he scoffed. “Good God.”

“You’re right. I can’t see Hadrian letting you do that.”

“No,” he said, widening his eyes for emphasis. “He’s very protective of the rajan’s space. I can’t imagine him letting anyone put fangs in his boyfriend.”

Tiago gave Hadrian a scare chasing Rhyton and the others. Hadrian had made that clear when he brought me a meal.

“He will not be allowed to take such chances in the future,” he informed me.

“Did you tell him that?”

“I have,” he said, standing there all big and scary, scowling at me.

“And, uhm.” I snickered. “How’d he take that?”

He rolled his eyes and stormed out of the room. I could only guess I was being ridiculous for asking such a question.

When I was done eating, I’d walked out into the hall, and Tiago startled me by hurling my duffel to the floor in front of me and rounding on Hadrian right behind him. On the one hand, I was happy to have some more clothes, but on the other, his volume was daunting.

“I am not a child!” he thundered, stomping his foot, bristling with fury.

“No, you are not,” Hadrian rumbled, taking his chin in hand, forcing Tiago’s eyes to meet his. “You are a beautiful, strong man who belongs to me.” Tiago trembled in his grip, eyes fluttering for a moment before he regained his composure and met Hadrian’s stare. “Yes?”

“Yes,” Tiago whispered, then swallowed hard.

“Then,” Hadrian said, leaning forward until there was only a hairsbreadth of space between their lips, “allow me to worry.”

Tiago closed his eyes as he lifted for the kiss. They were so beautiful together, the contrast simply stunning: one taller, one shorter; one darker, one lighter; one fragile and delicate in appearance, the other carved and muscular. It was hard not to stare, but I turned away to give them their privacy.

“I feel like crap,” Cooke complained, returning me to the present. “In case you’re wondering.”

I grinned, knowing what he meant. We’d been through an ordeal together, and I hoped neither of us would be too scarred up. The outside would heal—the inside was the issue. I still had bad dreams from the war sometimes, not violent with night sweats and screaming, but the kind that jolted me awake and kept me that way. “You might need to see someone and talk that shit out,” I told him.

“We’ll see,” he murmured, closing his eyes for a moment and tipping his face up to the sun. “I’m good right now.”

I was glad he felt safe and secure. “So how’s your room?”

His eyes popped open as he turned to look at me. “It’s the most amazing room I’ve ever been in in my life.”

“Good,” I sighed, so comfortable outside in the early afternoon, loving the smell of the flowers, the warm and gentle breeze, the gurgle of the fountain farther out in the yard—just the absolute serenity of all of it together. “I think I love it here.”

“Well, yeah, it’s a palace.”

“I think we have to go to Malta to see a real palace—or castle, as the case may be.”

“I’m game,” he assured me.

As was I. Whatever Varic wanted, I was up for. He’d saved my life. Leni had run back to the shop, and Ode ordered her to call Varic. Tiago and Hadrian both told me he lost his mind when Leni told him I’d been taken.

“His reaction to her phone call was unprecedented,” Tiago said solemnly. “I have never seen him shift so fast.”

The vampyr speed was a blessing. Even across rooftops, the draugr would have been spotted if he wasn’t moving in a blur, following my scent like a beacon.

“Hadrian said,” Cooke started hesitantly, trying out the rekkr’s name, but also reminding me I was having a conversation with him, “that I should get my stuff and move in here.”

That was kind, thoughtful, and I found it endearing that Hadrian had offered my friend shelter. “Will you?”

“Is, uhm—” He coughed. “—that what you want?”

Hadrian had already invited him, and he was asking me? I had no idea how long I would be there, but whatever the time period, I wanted Cooke close. He’d clearly shown himself to be a man who needed babysitting. “Hell yeah. You know you need a keeper. I don’t know anyone who gets into more shit than you.”

“Me? Pot, kettle.”

I dismissed him with a wave of my hand. “Dude, you’re a mess.”

He didn’t say anything for a second, and when I glanced at him, he was grinning at me. “Okay, then,” he said quickly, turning away. “I can hang here for a bit.”

Neither of us said anything more.

 

 

I WAS glad I had underwear and jeans to change into before Ode and Leni showed up. They arrived right after six and Leni was so relieved to see me—even though she’d been told I was safe—that she collapsed in the middle of the foyer and sobbed. Ode, who hadn’t been freaked-out, then got freaked-out and started to yell at me for making her worry.

“You promised me you wouldn’t do this kinda shit anymore,” Ode snapped.

“I’m sorry,” I grumbled, scooping up Leni and then depositing her on the couch, where I held her hand and smiled at her. “Sweetie, I’m fine.”

“The hell was up with Avery?” she asked sharply, still sounding a bit unhinged. “He scared the crap out of me.”

“He wasn’t who any of us thought,” I told her, sighing deeply. “Thank you for calling the prince. You and Ode saved my life.”

“Which shouldn’t need saving all the time,” Ode growled as she stomped to where I sat and stood over me.

I could see how furious she was. “Why am I in trouble?”

“I don’t know! Why do you continually get into trouble?”

Telling her none of it was my fault probably wouldn’t fly, so instead I stood up and leaned over to hug her. “I’ll stop right this second.”

“That’s what you said the last time,” Ode groused under her breath.

“Yeah, but this time I mean it.”

She grunted.

“And now you’ll have other people around to give me shit if I screw up.”

“Oh?” she said, easing back to look up at me. “And who would that be?”

I was about to tell her Varic was all over taking care of me, but suddenly Duro, one of Hadrian’s guys who’d chased after Rhyton, sprinted across the room to reach us, leaving his partner, Eris, a tall willowy woman with a red braid hanging over her shoulder, by the doorway.

Slowly, gently, he took Ode’s hand in both of his. She had to tip her head back to see his face—he had to be six five, and she was five eight—but she smiled as she did.

“Don’t fear,” he said softly, staring down into her eyes. “I won’t let anything happen to him or you, my lady. On my life.”

“On your life?”

“Yes.”

She was deciding as she looked at him. I could tell. I knew when her brain was working, figuring things out. “My name’s Ode,” she told him after a moment, her voice even more melodic than usual.

His grin made his dark eyes glint. “I’m Duro, and I would be proud to be your champion.”

“I never had a champion before.”

“And you will need no other,” he promised, taking a step closer, the muscles in his jaw tightening as he gazed at her. “Ever.”

It was a nice sentiment, very romantic, and I smiled as Hadrian joined me, standing at my right.

“Interesting,” he said clinically, peering as though the two of them together was a shocking science experiment.

“What?”

Before I could press him, I felt a touch on my arm. Leni stood beside me, eyes wide, staring at her friend and the massively built man who dwarfed her.

“Uh, isn’t he a member of the dreki?” Leni asked, still sniffling as Eris joined us, on the other side of Hadrian, her eyes round as she stared at her fellow guard.

I put an arm around her and tucked her up against my side, giving her a squeeze. “Are you all right now?”

“Yeah, no, I was just worried about you, but… at the moment, I’m more worried about her.”

“Why?”

She leaned forward to look around me at Hadrian. “He is one of your men, right?”

He nodded, staring at Duro and Ode.

“And you guys—you mate for life, don’t you?”

Another nod from him.

She leaned back into my side. “I think someone better tell Ode about vampyrs right fuckin’ now, because he’s about a second away from claiming her, and no one gets between a member of the dreki and their mate.”

“Is that true?” I asked Hadrian.

He made a noise that was part grunt, part overwhelmed deer caught in a headlight. On the other side of him, Eris was slowly nodding in answer to my question.

Bumping him with my shoulder was like pushing on a brick wall, but he turned his head and regarded me. “Tell me fated mates are not a thing,” I said.

“Fated mates are not—” He swallowed hard. “—supposed to be real except in regards to the nobility, and certainly not between vampyrs and humans.”

“And yet?”

“And yet,” he repeated softly, obviously gobsmacked. “He appears quite in earnest.”

“Possibly the understatement of the year,” Eris huffed.

We watched as Ode slid her hands up the big man’s chest, lifting to her toes at the same time as he bent over so their foreheads touched and they shared breath.

“Ode,” I called to her. “Honey, we need to talk.”

“Okay,” she chirped, not listening to me one bit.

“We need to speak to you right now,” Leni insisted.

“Mmmmm-hmmm,” she murmured.

“Let go of the man and come over here so I can talk to you,” I said, using my big voice.

Eris snorted, clearly amused by the whole thing.

“In just a minute,” Ode sighed, not giving a crap that I was having a nervous breakdown.

“I’m going to drag you away from him,” I threatened.

“You have to go through Duro,” she sighed, closing her eyes.

“You have to go through me,” he echoed, closing his eyes as well as he inhaled her scent and then seemed to settle in his skin.

“Only the rekkr could get through Duro,” Eris chimed in. “I wouldn’t attempt it.”

I turned to Leni, “That’s how vampyrs take their mates?”

“Like I would know,” she said absently, smiling, then making that noise I normally made when I saw Chihuahua puppies. “Look how cute they are together.”

“That is precisely how vampyrs react to finding their mates,” Hadrian proclaimed authoritatively, crossing his arms as the studied the couple. “It was the same for me when I first saw Tiago. It was as if everything came to a halt and there was only him, all I could see.”

“Well, it’s seriously romantic.”

“I had no idea it looked like something out of a bad movie,” he said, gesturing at them. “Frankly I find it horrifying. Small wonder my entire retinue of guards was laughing at me.”

As though on cue, Brenna, another of his guards, snickered from her post at the door, and Hadrian shot her a death glare, which only made her laugh aloud before she schooled her expression and looked up and away innocently.

I smiled. “I bet it was cute.”

He did a slow pan to look at me. “Were you not the consort of my prince, I would gut you where you stand.”

My snort of laughter did nothing for his mood.

“I’m going to need a different partner for a while,” Eris muttered, though she watched Duro and Ode with a small smile.

 

 

ODE TOOK the news about vampyrs so much better than I had.

She listened to Leni, to Hadrian, to Cooke, to Tiago—whom she found especially charming—and finally to me. She held Duro’s hand as he explained about the law and how it had changed and how much she would love Malta.

“Malta?” she asked. I didn’t doubt for a moment she knew where it was. I could only assume Duro’s absolute conviction she would be going with him prompted her to look at him in question.

“No member of my family has ever left the prince’s dreki, but I would do so if that meant that I was able to remain at your side,” he promised.

“We should talk about all of this,” she told him, “but first I need to yell at Jason.”

Everyone cleared out after that, though Duro didn’t go far. He paced on the patio while Ode and I sat farther out, under an ancient magnolia tree in the garden.

“Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you knew?” she snapped from her chaise.

“You would have believed in vampyrs?” I asked drolly, one eyebrow lifted. “Really?”

“Not at first, but I would have after I met Cooke.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a shrug. “But it’s hard to know what to say.”

She gazed at nothing, lost in thought, and I had a moment to rejoice over the fact that she was in on the secret. Life would be so much easier now, and I’d watched how relieved Leni was when Ode hugged her and said nothing was changed. She almost started crying a second time.

“Hey.”

She turned to look at me.

“I know it’s a lot to process. It took me a while.”

“Certain things,” she said softly, thoughtfully, “make sense now.”

“I agree. You’ll notice them more and more. I do.”

“Well, this is good. Now we have one more thing to bond over and talk about. I think it’s helpful when you and your best friend are able to share everything.”

I took a quick breath, suddenly lost in memories because of the particular words she’d used.

Best friend.

A lot of baggage there.

She got up, rushed over to me, and took hold of my hands. “Oh, Jase, I’m not trying to take his place,” she promised, squeezing tight. “I know you loved Eddie so much, from all the stories you’ve told me about him, but I think he’d want me to take over until you see him again.”

I stared into her bottomless brown eyes.

“And I want the job real bad,” she said, bottom lip quivering and tears welling up as her gaze held mine. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” I pledged, prying the words loose, not having said them to anyone outside of my parents, ever. “You know I do.”

“I do,” she cried, dissolving as I grabbed her and hugged her tight. “And promise me, no more lies or omissions.”

“No. No more. Cross my heart.”

One other person in the house deserved a confession, and I was kidding myself if I thought it could wait even a moment longer.

“So,” she said, wiping under her eyes, sniffling a bit before straightening her button-down shirt, then smoothing her pencil skirt while we got ourselves together. “Tell me, consort of the prince, do you got a spare bedroom in this shack? ’Cause there’s a man who needs to talk to me, and then apparently bite me, right fuckin’ now.”

“You know it might hurt when he bites you.”

She tipped her head, pretending to ponder that. “I think it’ll depend on what he’s doing when he bites me—don’t you think?”

She wasn’t subtle, my girl, and I was betting Duro was about to be shown what a true goddess looked like when she claimed him as her own.

I told her to talk to Hadrian, and she left to find him as Tiago walked out onto the patio.

“You are surrounded by friends and vampyrs, Jason.”

“I think some are both, don’t you?”

“Perhaps,” he allowed, arching an eyebrow for me. “Everyone has a destiny. Perhaps this was yours all along.”

It was hard to argue.

“By the way, we received a message from the king,” he said, putting a hand on my bicep. “He wants to formally present you and Varic at court, to the dacian, so you will have to leave for Malta within the next couple of days.”

I nodded.

“Is your passport up-to-date?”

“It is.”

“Good. Benny Diallo will be in charge of all the vampyrs here in the Quarter until a suitable leader of the made vampyrs can be found.”

“Will Benny be good to the made vampyrs? Because after Varic originally talked to him, he didn’t think they were on the same page.”

“I suspect that I sound as though I am contradicting my prince, but that is only due to the act of betrayal committed by Niko.”

Varic wouldn’t just be looking to Benny to pick up the slack if Niko had been a good guy. “So now Benny is to be trusted?”

“Apparently he is not a classist and sees no difference between him and them, so perhaps it might not even be needed to find a replacement for Niko. We shall have to see,” he mused. “But as you are here, as this is your home, and the prince has taken up residence in this”—he glanced around and shuddered—“abode, I am not worried about anyone stepping out of line.”

“Not after Varic showed them what the wolf of Maedoc truly is,” I replied, enjoying being in the garden, the attack the furthest thing from my mind. Especially as dusk settled around us, it almost felt like a dream, like something that happened to someone else. Everyone was safe, Ode knew about vampyrs, and the love of my life was sleeping upstairs.

The transformation of the worst Tuesday of my life to the best was profound.

“No, not after that.”

I turned to him. “I assume you’ve seen him change shape like that many times.”

He nodded.

“Did it scare you the first time?”

“No,” he asserted, smiling. “Like you, I see him in all his forms. My love for him does not wane based on his visage.”

“That’s good,” I sighed, watching the shadows start to steal over the flowers. “Tell me, is Niko dead?”

He took a breath. “Niko, along with his family, has to be taken to court and judged by the king for his trespass against you. It is for him to decide if only Niko dies or his entire line.”

“But I thought Varic would—”

Tiago shook his head. “Not when the trespass is against the prince himself… or his consort. The king will decide.”

“No, he can’t,” I breathed, shaken. “Tiago… I won’t be responsible for the death of innocent people.”

He nodded. “Then I suggest you learn how to plead with a king, because Messina Maedoc is a kind, generous monarch who is utterly devoid of mercy when it comes to threats against his family.” He sighed deeply. “I have never heard of a line he did not put to the blade for sedition, but perhaps this will be the first.”

“It can’t be sedition. I’m not a royal.”

“You are the consort of the draugr, and clearly you need to learn your place.”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“You are the heart of the prince; you need to realize that your life will never be the same.”

I was starting to get that. I had to figure out what a consort was. I knew there would be limits to what I had a say in, and Tiago saying I had to learn my place could mean that. I would be Varic’s mate, but perhaps without any rights in his court, if he wasn’t with me. It also meant I had sway over Varic, and as his love, I had to be careful not to keep him from his duties. It would be a whole new world, and I had so much to learn. It was daunting to think about, and I didn’t want to screw up, but I also didn’t want to try to become something I wasn’t. It would be a tightrope walk, a balancing act of biblical proportions I was only agreeing to because of Varic.

I had to be with Varic.

But my hopes, fears, and all the in-between was not something to discuss with Tiago. “It’s a nice house,” I said to change the subject.

“Is it?” he asked, a pained look on his face, grimacing before he started walking away.

He was such a snob. “It’s got six bedrooms, you know!” I called after him. “And a kitchen that my apartment could fit into, and a big-ass living room, and, hello, a garden!”

“There are no pools or stables, no servants’ quarters, no library…. It is a regrettable space,” he commented tersely over his shoulder. “I heard your friend call it a shack, and she is perfectly correct in her assessment.”

“She was kidding!”

“I highly doubt that.”

“You’re such a snob!” I finished, realizing he was completely unaffected by my judgment of his character.

Alone again, I flopped down onto the closest chaise and tried to think of how I was going to save Niko’s family.

For a moment I drowned in guilt, terrified about how I would make a vampyr king understand a purely human perspective. And then I had an epiphany.

Varic.

If I could make my mate understand, he would sway the king. My only issue was making him see my side when the man in question had planned to kill me. I wasn’t sure how forgiving Varic would be, but I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t try.

I had no other option.

 

 

LATE IN the evening, I took another shower, much longer than the first time. It wasn’t just about cleaning off blood; it was more about relaxation. I stood under the hot water for what seemed like an hour and utilized all the different angled jets. It was heavenly.

Once I was done, I wiped fog off the mirror and examined myself. I was surprised to find the rope burns on my neck didn’t hurt because they had faded already. Apparently when Varic changed my blood so I could feed him, he did something to my healing ability as well. I would have to ask him.

I climbed into bed beside him and opened my iPad, which Tiago had grabbed from my apartment, and I was glad to see an email from Rachel telling me about a nice high school football coach she met when he came into the ER with a broken arm. He was funny, she said, and had a good laugh. I told her I expected to meet him soon, so happy for her. And though I didn’t know if, only a year after Eddie’s death, she would be ready to fall in love again, just the fact that she could make a new friend was wonderful.

I had an email from my mother as well, letting me know she and my father were taking my sister and her family on a cruise for Christmas. I was invited too, as long as I came alone, the meaning implicit that having me bring someone special would not be appreciated. I sent her a note thanking her and wished her good holidays. From Thanksgiving on through to the New Year, I would be traveling myself, I told her, and she wouldn’t be able to reach me.

As I closed my email, I realized what used to be gut-wrenching pain when it was new had succumbed to time and become, finally, a mild ache. When I came out to my parents, they inexorably withdrew, and the closeness never returned. I grieved that for years, but first Eddie and I became friends, and his family loved me as well, and then I moved to the Quarter and met Ode and Cooke. It all changed my life. I started seeing myself through different eyes. And now—Tiago was right. I was ready to step into a whole new life—with all the ups and downs that came with it—and follow the man I loved.

“Shit,” I groaned, smiling as I put my iPad on the nightstand before turning back to Varic, wanting to wrap myself around him. But I froze midmotion, caught in his clear green gaze. “Oh, you’re up.”

“Why are you swearing?” he asked, reaching for my face.

I laughed softly, leaned into his hand, then let him ease me into his arms.

“Tell me,” he demanded, rolling me to my back, settling his body over mine.

“Couple of things.”

“I want to know,” he said, smiling lazily, staring down at me. “Speak.”

“I’m worried about Niko’s family,” I told him. “I don’t want them to pay for his crimes. I couldn’t live with it.”

“You will live with the will of the king, as he is your sovereign now as much as mine. And as for what punishment Niko’s family receives, that will depend on them and what response they give to their king,” he explained softly, mildly, no power behind the words, instead tender with me, his voice gravelly, as he’d just woken. “Niko’s role in overseeing the extortion of his own people is keenly disturbing, and if any of his family members knew of his crime and either ignored it or participated in it, then they too are culpable and will be disqualified from mercy.”

It made sense when he explained it that way.

“However, if they can convince my father that they will never seek retribution on Niko’s behalf, and if they don’t share in his treachery, they will live. I swear to you. My father is many things, but unmerciful is not one of them. He has devoted his life to the service and defense of our race and will allow no unjust harm to come to any of his people.”

He clearly trusted his father, and since I had the same faith in him, I needed to wait and see instead of filling my mind with what-ifs.

“And you have to think: Niko would have cut your throat and left you for dead. If his family is just like him, perhaps allowing them to lead others in this city is not wise.”

On the whole, it was a valid argument.

“Ruling isn’t easy. There are hard choices to be made, and someday I, too, will have to make them for all,” he finished solemnly.

“Yes.”

“But unlike my father, I’ll be blessed with not having to make those decisions alone.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, love. I’ll have you at my side during all trials so that you’ll be able to advise me from your heart as I use my head.”

“Remember I’m a soldier too,” I told him. “I can be logical as well.”

“I know you can, but you have proven time and time again to have quite a gentle soul, and for the consort of the prince, it’s a rare and fine quality.”

“That’s a nice thing to say.”

“Well, I mean it.”

“Yeah, I know, that’s why it’s special.”

He bent and kissed me, taking my mouth slowly, seeking entrance with his tongue, which I instantly allowed. I whimpered in the back of my throat, offering, submitting, and he deepened the kiss to a ravenous yearning that became the claiming I craved.

“Such a strong and beautiful and virile man, and yet you yield to me every time,” he finished gruffly. His voice had a rough sweetness that raced through my blood and set me on fire. “I can taste the surrender when I kiss you.”

“I give in because I want to. Can’t you taste that too?”

“Of course.”

I took a breath. “I’m the consort. I give and my prince takes. That’s the way of it, and it feels right.”

He reclaimed my mouth in a mauling kiss that left no doubt that worked for him.

“You’re the only one I can be this way with,” I admitted. “I trust you.”

“And I will always be worthy of my consort’s faith.”

I knew he would. I’d already seen his heart, and it was like my own filled to bursting all at once. He was so good, so kind, so thoughtful, and so mine. He was absolutely the best man, and I was going to do my damnedest to deserve him.

“Tell me what else is on your mind,” he prodded, his smile wicked. He obviously liked us in bed, between the sheets, talking. I understood. It was an intimacy neither of us had before: someone we slept with who we shared our life with as well.

“Your father wants us at court.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” I gasped as he slid his hardening cock over my thickening one. Only the thin layer of my sleep shorts separated us. “We’ve been summoned.”

“Then we had better go,” he said, lifting off me to reach into the nightstand for a bottle of lube before rolling sideways.

“Who put that there?” I asked, chuckling, yanking my shorts down and off. “I mean, when did you even have time to buy this house?”

“Tiago placed this here, I’m sure,” he answered, lying down on his back and smiling up at me as he waved the bottle. “And I told him to find me a home—not a house—that you could make your own, one that would have room for your friends as well as him and Hadrian and the rest of my men, but still be cozy, still be warm like you.”

“This mansion is your idea of cozy?” I teased, crawling over him. I straddled his thighs, took the lube from him, and popped open the cap.

“It’s ridiculously small,” he explained, sounding just as haughty and put out as Tiago earlier. “We’ll all be on top of each other, and soon enough you’ll realize that something much bigger will be necessary.”

But I wouldn’t. “The garden is beautiful,” I told him while putting lube in my palm before taking my lover’s long, gorgeously thick cock in hand.

He dropped his head back onto the pillow, and a filthy moan came out of those full, dusky lips. He pushed up into my hand, and I squeezed and stroked, loving the feel of his slick skin sliding through my fingers.

“The whole house is beautiful,” I told him, lifting up over him. I pressed the wide head of his cock to my hole and slowly seated myself.

“You are the most beautiful thing in this house,” he groaned, grabbing hold of my thigh with one hand and my shaft with the other. “My consort, my heart… my blood.”

What he was doing with his left hand, tugging, pulling, was the perfect counterpoint to his slow push inside of me, the filling and stretching as he made certain, with the iron hold of his right hand, that I could not rush any part of being impaled on his cock.

“Are you ready to show me off?” I asked, finishing the slide down, fully seated, my ass flush with his hips, my hands flat on his chest. I lifted and repeated the motion, gasping as he filled me again. I was utterly lost in the sensation.

“I am ready to have everyone see you at my side,” he husked, lifting me off him as I protested, loudly, only to pull me down into his arms and hold me close, spooning, side by side on the bed.

The power in him was breathtaking, and I wasn’t a small man, but he moved me effortlessly, seamlessly, to our sides with him at my back. When he put his right hand under my thigh and lifted, spreading me wide to fuck me from the side, his name spilled out of me.

“Oh, yes,” he rumbled, his mouth on the side of my neck. He kissed and sucked as he cradled my head in his left arm. “I’m yours.”

He held me tight as he thrust every hard inch into me over and over. It was both erotic and grounding. I was ravaged and safe, more care and nurturing there than I had ever experienced with any other lover. He took and gave in equal measure, and as I slipped my hand up into his hair, the words cracked loose, and I was helpless to stop them. “I love you,” I confessed. The thrusts became fluid and rolling, pressing deep and pulling back, straddling that razor-thin line between pleasure and pain. But in moments my body suffused with heat, and there was pressure as my balls drew up tight, my cock leaking as he took hold of it and stroked, working my flesh in the same rhythm as he fucked me.

“And I love you,” he said darkly, his voice a husky growl before he bit me.

His fangs puncturing my skin brought me to blinding, roaring climax, and I came apart in his hands, the throbbing pleasure utterly consuming for long, endless moments. I checked out to everything but the loud beating of my heart and his cock buried inside me.

My body jolted against him as he ground into me, his thirst endless for my body and my blood.

“I’m all yours,” I murmured, and I felt his rhythm falter before he drove to my core and came deep within my body.

He withdrew his fangs from the side of my neck and licked the wound, the last drops on his tongue, and I let my head fall back and took deep breaths, cradled against him.

“I have all that I could ever need here in my arms,” he whispered into my ear. “There is no part of me that you don’t feed and nourish and love.”

When I turned so I could see him, he leaned in and kissed me.

It was a long, wet, thorough kiss, and when I twitched, oversensitized as he eased free of my body, he rolled me over and drew me close again, tucking my face into the hollow of his throat.

He pulled the sheet around us and didn’t let me go. “I like you wrapped around me,” he said, yawning.

“Well, you’ll sleep better on me,” I said, shifting around so I had my head on the pillow and his on my chest. We were still finding our spots and where we were most comfortable and how we fit.

“Oh yes,” he sighed, draping an arm over my waist, and I felt his weight sink over me. “This is better. You’re a very smart man.”

“I try,” I said, luxuriating in the feel of his skin, his warmth, his closeness, and let the idea that he was actually mine become my reality.

After long minutes of silence where I almost fell asleep, his deep, resonant voice stirred me. “I normally dread returning to Valletta, making my appearance at court, dealing with the different agendas, the gossip and the jealousy, but now….” He sighed. “Now I can’t wait to take you with me and show you my home.” He finished by lifting his arm from my side to move the seal where he wanted it, right under my collarbone. “I can’t wait to show you my world and have you take your place in it at my side.”

“I can’t either.”

“You’re my consort, but first, before anything, you’re my love.”

I couldn’t imagine there being anything I’d ever want more.