by Lexi Blake
“Kiss me.” She turned her face up as Meg had done to the sun when she’d realized her husbands were there. Dante was Kaja’s sun for now.
Dante gazed down at her, his eyes searching hers. “Are you sure? I really don’t want to hurt you. That was never, ever my intention.”
“Why did you buy me?” She needed to know the truth.
His face flushed slightly, but his hands tightened around her waist. “I needed a wife. You were the first one I found.”
She’d been convenient. She could accept that. She’d gotten something from the deal, as well. Her life. “But you don’t need a forever wife.”
He brought their bodies together with a little bang. “Damn it. I explained this to you. I’m crazy about you. I just don’t think I’m going to be good at the whole marriage thing. Look, it’s not like I’m going to toss you aside. We’re married forever. There’s no going back, but one day we might want to go our separate ways. I don’t want to lie to you. I want to be happy for now. Now is all we have.”
Yes, it was. The present was certainly all they would ever have if Dante wanted it that way. She couldn’t force him to feel for her what she felt for him. She couldn’t make him accept her forever. She could only control what was in her heart. She could only want what she wanted—and she wanted him. For as long as she could have him.
“Then kiss me.”
His face bunched up, his forehead wrinkling. “I really am crazy about you.”
Crazy wasn’t love. Even she knew that. “Kiss me.”
He lowered his head, his lips brushing hers. “I know you don’t believe me. I’ll show you.”
His hands gripped the cheeks of her ass and hauled her up. She wrapped her legs around his body as he walked her to the nearest tree and placed her back against the huge trunk.
“Gods, I really hope my cousin isn’t hanging around in this one,” Dante muttered as he took her mouth again.
She loved the way he kissed her. No one had kissed on her plane. She allowed her mouth to flower open under his. His tongue caressed her own, and she sighed. She was pressed between the hard bark of the tree and his body, but she didn’t want to be anywhere else. When he kissed her, they were the only two people in the world.
Of course, when he bit her, when her blood flowed into his body, it felt as if they were one person. She loved that above all else.
He pressed in, his erection shoving against her pussy. His hips moved as though they couldn’t help themselves. “Gods, I want you. I want you all the fucking time. How can I want you so much?”
He kissed her, his mouth dominating hers. One hand found her breast, and he cupped her, playing with her nipples. His mouth ran down the side of her neck. There were still tiny holes from where he’d fed this morning. They seemed to close quickly, but the healing bumps were still there. He licked at them, seeming to find them endlessly fascinating.
Her whole body threatened to light up when he touched her neck. She’d never thought of her neck as being particularly sensitive, but now she squirmed every time he touched her there. When he licked her neck, she felt it in her pussy.
“Please.” She was well aware she was begging. She wanted that bite. She wanted to feel him. “Please don’t shut the door between us. Please.”
His head came up. “You feel it, too?”
She clutched his shoulder, staring into his eyes. The irises were wider, but the green hadn’t totally taken over. “I need it. I need to feel it. I’ve never felt so good as when I feel those flashes of you. I don’t know what it is, but I need it, Dante.”
“It scares the fuck out of me,” he muttered.
Maybe her soul wasn’t as nice as his. If she caught glimpses of him, then he most likely saw her. It wasn’t nice to be her. It was ugly and lonely. She was being selfish.
She let her legs drop.
“Kaja?”
“Just kiss me. You can teach me later how to keep our minds apart.”
His hands softened, cupping her cheeks. “What’s wrong? Why did you shut down?”
“I wasn’t thinking,” she admitted. “I believed I was the only one who felt our joining in my mind. I understand. I don’t want you to see those parts of me. I am so sorry.”
His fangs suddenly seemed larger than before. “You want to hide yourself from me, consort?”
Yep, that other part of Dante had come out. His eyes were huge green orbs now. “You cannot wish to see me. It’s ugly. I didn’t understand. I will learn to shut it off, as you do. You can teach me.”
His hands tightened around her arms. “I will not teach you to hide yourself from me. You’ll be open. You’ll give me everything. You look at me.”
She got caught in those eyes. She felt her whole body relax. She knew she should fight him, but it felt far too good to let Dante take control. She trusted him not to harm her physically. Her heart was another manner entirely.
“It makes no sense, Kaj.” He sounded more like Dante now. “It scares the crap out of me, but the minute you start talking about putting up barriers and walls between us, I go a little crazy. Baby, you’re making me so crazy, but I can’t help myself. I fucking need you, too. Gods, you taste like sunshine.”
He gripped her hair and pulled her head back, exposing the line of her throat. Her heart skipped as he struck.
And there it was. She felt him, his soul and being brushing and mingling with hers. They tangled together.
He was beloved. His parents, his sister, his teachers. No one had been able to resist him as a child or even a teen. He’d been smart, so smart. He’d been like a magnet. Popular with everyone because everyone wanted to be near him.
When had it changed? When had his boyish charm become mere childishness?
He had his insecurities, too. What was he worth? Money? That could go away. He’d seen it a million times. What would he be left with? His intellect hadn’t gotten him far. He was lost, adrift without any real thing that mattered.
Her mind was assaulted with sex. Dante had begun young and hadn’t ever stopped. He loved to fuck, and he was good at it. But he didn’t take it seriously. He made sure that none of the women he took to bed were serious either, until he’d met a wolf.
She reached for those feelings. She was there in his soul, but her place was so uncertain. He wanted her, but he didn’t want to want her.
She was beautiful to him.
She felt his fangs in her neck, her body going languid under his, and she was assaulted with a single memory.
“What do you mean she’s dead?” Kaja spoke the words, but it was Dante’s voice that came from her mouth. She was inside his body looking at his cousin. Cian. It was Cian, and he was so pale and thin. Her heart, Dante’s heart, was sick at the sight of his cousin.
“Torin’s men killed her,” Cian said, his voice a flat monotone. “Bronwyn died in my arms. I couldn’t even get her body out. I had to leave her behind. That bastard probably burned her.”
She felt sick. Bronwyn, sweet, mischievous Bron, couldn’t be dead. Dante loved Bron. He’d spent so much time at the White Palace playing with his cousins, Cian and Bronwyn.
Torin had taken that from him. He’d taken his uncle and his aunt and his sweet cos.
He would try to take Beck and Ci.
A fire was in Dante’s belly. She could feel it. He’d buried it because he didn’t believe he could help, but this was Dante’s passion. Seeing his cousins returned to their throne.
This was the cause he was willing to die for—if only he had the courage to admit it.
She came out of the memory, her back against the soft grass and Dante thrusting gently between her legs.
“Welcome back,” he said with the sweetest smile on his face. “I thought all this work would be for nothing. Not that I was going to stop or anything.”
He pushed his cock deep inside. Kaja let herself sigh. It felt so good.
“If I ever meet your pack, you should know I’m going to kill all of them, love. I’ll eviscera
te the whole lot.” He leaned his body down, never letting up on the slow slide of his cock. Where had her clothes gone? She was utterly naked and skin to skin with Dante. His flesh pressed to hers, surrounding her with his scent and feel.
What had he seen? Had he touched her soul the way she’d touched his? Did he know how empty she’d been before she’d been filled with him?
“Don’t you pull away from me now,” Dante said with a growl. “I got through the bad part. Now I want the fun part. The connection is weird and disconcerting, but I have to admit, this part feels good.”
He pushed himself at her. Kaja gasped as she felt his pleasure. Their minds met once more, and she could feel the joy Dante took in their mating.
He loved her tight pussy. It felt so small, closing around him and claiming his cock. He could feel her muscles milking him. It was such intense pleasure, and she knew he’d never felt it quite like this before. He loved the way she held him tight. Even her nails biting into the flesh of his back felt good to him. He reveled in her.
Light. She was surrounded by it. She could see through Dante’s eyes. She was beautiful to him. There was a gorgeous golden glow surrounding her. This was how a vampire identified a consort. He thought she looked like an angel from something called the Heaven plane. She was his angel.
Her heart felt so full. She could see herself through his eyes, and she would never be able to feel ugly again. He was her warrior, even if he didn’t know it.
She opened herself and let everything out. Her pleasure, her love, her joy.
“Oh, baby, oh, baby, Kaja,” Dante said, losing his rhythm. He picked up the pace as though he could deny it no longer. His heart was racing. She could feel it. Her own started to pound in time to his. She pressed her hips up, allowed her hands to cup his ass. She loved the feel of his muscled ass pumping into her pussy. She could feel him rushing toward orgasm.
His balls drew up. There was a tingle at the base of his spine, and it started. His essence shot from him. It flowed out of his body making him twist and turn with pleasure. She was overwhelmed with Dante’s feelings and emotions. She could feel her own muscles squeezing around Dante’s cock. It was so tight. It felt so good to give her everything he had. It felt different and right. He wanted to give her all of it. He wanted to fill her up.
He ground out the last and fell on her.
Kaja could feel the door between them closing as she came back to herself, but before it winked out of existence, she felt one last thing from Dante.
Peace.
She’d brought him that.
Chapter Twelve
Dante glanced back at Kaja one last time before pushing through the bushes. He wanted to stay with her, to cuddle her and fall asleep, but he needed to check in with Meg. Despite the tree and rain cloud, she was still his responsibility until one of her husbands actually showed up in person.
And he could do with a bit of time away from Kaja. His instinct was to stay close to her every minute of the day. It was disconcerting. What the hell was happening to him? None of this was going the way he planned.
But he wouldn’t change it. He wouldn’t take it back. That kind of scared him, too.
He brushed the leaves from his clothes. The light was brighter here, so his sunglass implants flowed to cover his eyes. The world came into sharp focus, and he could hear Meg. She sat beside the river, and his heart fell when he realized she was crying. The rain cloud was gone, and the tree seemed to be just a tree again.
He rushed to her, kneeling down. “Meg? Are you all right? What’s wrong?”
She glanced up at him, her face streaked with tears. She brushed them away with the back of her hand. “I’m fine. It’s been a rough couple of days.”
He settled in beside her. “Talk to me. You can talk to me.”
She stared at her lap and took a deep breath. “It’s really happening.”
Torin. Yes, he was feeling that, too. “It’s going to be all right. Beck can handle anything Torin throws at him.”
“He sent a group of goblins to attack our village. Beck said it was horrible. We lost some of our people, and they burned down our farm. Our home is gone.”
Dante reached for her hand. He felt a strange mix of rage and sorrow. He loved that village. Beck and Ci had built it with their own hands. Dante had been there, too. They had been kids when Beck and Ci lost their throne. Dante had just started college. Dante’s father had offered them asylum, but the kings had chosen to stay with their people on the Refugee plane and build a world for themselves.
Beck and Ci had been forced to grow up fast.
“I don’t want you to worry about a thing, Meg. You and Beck and Ci can come home with me and Kaja.”
“That won’t solve anything. It will only make things worse in the end. There was a reason Beck and Ci didn’t go down that road the first time. They have people depending on them.” Her hand tightened in his. “Torin isn’t going to leave us be, is he? He’ll try again.”
“Yes,” Dante replied. It was a hard truth. No matter how much Beck and Cian wanted a peaceful existence, it wasn’t going to happen. Torin had to kill the twins or he would never feel safe. He would never be able to open the plane again. Torin had been patient, but it appeared his patience was at an end.
“Dante, I’m scared.”
He put an arm around her shoulders and held her close. They had been through a lot together, he and Meg. It looked as though they would go through much more. “Beck needs to get serious about alliances. My father has been working to move the Council toward repudiating Torin.”
“It hasn’t worked in thirteen years. The Council is closer to acknowledging Torin than they are to repudiating him.”
“Only because we need the trade. Royal vampires need consorts. If the Council realized Beck and Ci were serious about taking the throne back, I think they would change their minds. We need to talk to the Unseelie. King Fergus will never acknowledge Torin.”
“He’s heard the rumors,” Meg muttered. “Torin is enslaving the non-sidhe on the Seelie plane. He believes the Unseelie are impure. If Torin gets strong, he will go after the Unseelie on their own plane. Fergus doesn’t want that. But you know Fergus has sons, too.”
“I’ve heard the rumors,” Dante replied carefully.
“They aren’t rumors.”
Prickles of trepidation rode his arms. The Unseelie kept to themselves for the most part. Their borders were heavily guarded. Trade flowed, but the king of the Unseelie never left the plane. It was said that he had sons. Twin sons. “Are they symbiotic?”
Say no. Say no. He didn’t want to think of super-powerful Unseelie twins. Beck and Cian had been raised in the light court. He couldn’t imagine twins with their power who had been raised by monsters.
Though Dante was rapidly realizing sometimes monsters came in many forms.
“Yes. Their names are Lachlan and Shim,” Meg explained. “They need a bondmate. They aren’t as far gone as Beck and Ci were when they found me, but it’s getting bad. It’s why Fergus reached out to us. He believes placing Beck and Ci on the throne is the best shot he has at saving his sons.”
Dante’s mind was racing. Fergus would have to be dealt with carefully. The Seelie and the Unseelie had never exactly gotten along. The Unseelie had sent an emissary thirteen years before, Fergus’s daughter, Gillian. She’d died when Torin had slaughtered the royal family. Fergus had sent assassins after Torin but hadn’t had any luck getting to him. It was said he wouldn’t risk his sons in a war.
But what if Fergus blamed all the Seelie? Would Beck and Ci be in danger if they walked into the Unseelie sithein? His head was spinning. After so much waiting, it was all happening fast. There was a lot to consider. He should sit down and strategize with Cian. If Torin was making his move, it was time to get serious. Beck and Ci wouldn’t be allowed to hide anymore. They would win or they would die.
Dante meant to make certain they did not die.
And how would he do that from the d
esk of his lovely office? Who was he kidding? He’d gotten married to preserve his cushy future. He wasn’t about to throw it all away to go to war. He would make certain that his cousins had all the money he could throw at them, but he wasn’t a warrior.
Some odd emotion made his chest feel far too tight. That beast that Kaja always seemed to bring out in him was right there, pounding at him. He wasn’t a warrior.
But he could be.
“Dante, don’t worry about it,” Meg said with a sad smile, as though she could read his thoughts. “You need to worry about Kaja right now. We’ll figure all this out.”
Gods, he was sick of being treated like a kid. He was thirty years old, and everyone acted like he was a fucking teenage boy who didn’t need the stress of real life.
Maybe if you started acting like an adult, they would treat you like one.
That beast inside was starting to annoy him. If only the beast didn’t make so much sense. “I want to help. This is my family, too.”
“Well, I thank you for that,” Meg replied. “We need all the friends we can get. I can’t tell you how much it terrifies me. We don’t have an army.”
Oh, but they would. If rumors were correct, they would have an army of peasants waiting for their return to Tír na nÓg. Peasants could be dangerous. Dante couldn’t help but think of his plane’s own history. “We need to find Torin’s weaknesses. We need to get on that plane and start getting the people ready for the true kings’ return.”
“He has it guarded,” Meg said with a helpless shake of her head.
“We’ll find a way.” His mind was filled with possibilities.
Meg patted his leg. “I don’t want to think about this now. It’s coming for me soon enough. Tell me about Kaja. You two seem to be getting along.”
“Yes, she’s a lovely woman.” His chest felt too tight for another reason now. Kaja was so much deeper, smarter, more complex than he’d thought. He’d thought he could make a deal with her, but he didn’t have anything Kaja would want. She didn’t even really understand the concept of money. What did he have to offer her except money she didn’t need and an impressive cock?