“And why exactly do you think it’s just up to me?” I took a long drink, savoring the dark, heady flavors of the Guinness. “Accepting a mating bond goes both ways.”
As if she’d felt my stare caressing the delicate line of her bare shoulder, Valor looked back at me and smiled.
Now the semi I carried around constantly was a full-blown hard on. Awesome. All the woman had to do was look at me and I was ready for sex. I bit back a groan, and drained the glass as she walked over.
“Maybe I’m wrong, and she’s the predator,” Ransom murmured. “Because it sure as hell looks like she’s the one hunting you.”
I slammed the empty glass down on the table next to us a little too hard but didn’t break it.
“Hey, Valor,” Ransom greeted my mate with an easy smile that faded when he caught my dark expression. “I’m, um. Going somewhere else. Anywhere else.” He took off, beelining it for a group of nobles that had Alek ensnared with their list of political wants. Thank God I wasn’t king, because I would have killed them all out of boredom by now.
“Lachlan,” Valor said as she looked up at me, a slow smile playing over her lips.
“Valor,” I replied, trying to look anywhere else. My self-control was at an all-time low.
Her smile only grew, and the second I looked, I was hooked.
“What?” The word came out nearly at a growl.
“Just counting to see how long it takes for you to run away,” she teased. “Last night, you made it a whole thirty seconds.” Her eyes danced, but there was something else there, and a scent that burrowed deep into my lungs and reminded me of my own, sharp and bitter…desperation.
The pieces clicked.
“Since when do you wear dresses?” I asked, thinking back over the last three nights.
She blinked. “I wear dresses whenever I feel like it.”
A corner of my mouth tweaked upward. “Eh, but you don’t, lass. Not until the last few days.”
“Nice of you to notice.” She rolled her eyes and swept her hand out, gesturing toward the nobles that mingled all around us. “I don’t see you harassing any of the other women in cocktail dresses even though they’re all in them.”
“I don’t concern myself with what the other females are wearing.”
She scoffed, shaking her head. “Just me?”
“Just you.”
Heat bloomed in her cheeks. “I thought the dresses might be a little more…feminine. That’s all.”
There was something else going on here, and I was missing it. My eyes narrowed slightly, and I tried to remember if any other males were sniffing around my mate. “Are you trying to catch the attention of a male?”
“What if I was?” Her head tilted slightly as those green eyes burrowed into my soul.
That’s all it took, just that contact between us, and the air shifted, thickening just like my dick. My throat caught fire, parched like I hadn’t just swallowed down an entire pint, but I knew it wasn’t ale or water I was thirsting for…it was her.
I’d fed earlier this evening, but the blood had tasted like ash and cinders, churning in my stomach, and I hadn’t taken a full feed. I hadn’t fed fully in months, if I was being honest with myself, and it was only getting worse with Valor here, in my sight but not my arms. My body knew exactly what it wanted, and I was expecting it to go on full hunger-strike at any moment, just like Alek’s had when Lyric showed up.
God help us all, then.
What if I was?
Wait. What the fuck?
My vision flickered to thermal, and for a moment, every single being in that dining hall was prey. I was going to slaughter them all, especially whichever male she was trying to attract. That fucker would die first. Painfully.
“Lachlan?” Valor asked, concern dripping from her voice as she stepped closer.
Fuck, I could feel the heat of her skin through my clothing. Her bergamot and lime scent filling my lungs as I breathed her in. She was wearing dresses for some other male.
Because she’d made it more than fucking clear that she didn’t want me.
“My friend.” Alek’s voice pushed through the fog of my bloodlust, but he didn’t put a physical hand on me. Even he knew better. He’d broken through with his mental powers. “Valor, if you’ll excuse us, there’s something urgent I need to talk to my second about.”
“Of course,” she murmured.
“Outside. Now.” Alek’s order was low and quiet enough so that only I heard.
My feet moved, carrying me out of the dining hall and into the night air of the courtyard, Alek at my side.
One step. A second. A third.
We were almost to the residence before my vision came back to normal, and the waves of red and blue disappeared. I heaved a sigh of relief, sucking in lungful’s of air that smelled like the night-blooming roses of the garden to the right. Again and again, I breathed, trying to exchange that scent for Valor’s.
“There was a second there where I thought you might go on a blood rampage.” Alek put his hands in his pockets as we continued our slow walk.
“There was a second there I was,” I admitted. “I think I might be losing my mind.”
“Mates do that to you,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m not going to waste my time by trying to talk you into accepting the bond. But I am going to ask you to go the fuck to bed before you take out half the aristocracy in this region.”
My jaw ticked, but I saw his logic, and had I been any other vampire, even I would have told myself to get my shit together. My position as the general of Alek’s armies meant I couldn’t allow a female to fuck with my head like this, even if she was my mate.
“Aye. I’ll go.” My stomach pitched sideways. “But as your best friend…” Was I really going to ask this? Yep. “If you see another male and sense his intentions around Valor—”
Alek snorted. “Like any other male would come close to your mate. Lachlan, your scent is all over that woman. They know they’d be courting death if they so much as looked her direction. Just because you two are ignoring the bond doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t see it.”
I grunted.
“Go. I have to get back to Lord Marcos’s baseless pleas to allow all aristocratic boys to train for the Order.” Alek flashed a sarcastic smile. “Like that’s going to fucking happen.”
“Enjoy that.” We both knew it took a specific kind of male to join the Order, and aristocracy had nothing to do with it. Were Alek, Ransom, and I from noble houses? Absolutely. But Benedict came from a middle-class family of mechanics, and Hawke was as far from nobility as fucking possible.
The Order came down to superior genetics, abilities, skill, and loyalty. Other than the genetics—we were fucking huge—none of that came from breeding.
“Always do.” He waved me off and started back to the dining hall.
I headed for my room, nodding to Owen as he opened the residence door. Once I made it to my room, I discarded my clothes and went for the shower.
The hot water beat against the tattooed lines of my back as I stood under the scalding streams, bracing my palms against the stone of the shower wall as the mirror in my bathroom fogged with steam.
I was on the kind of edge that was as sharp as a knife’s blade and just as unforgiving. It was the kind of tension I would usually fuck out of my system, but there was only one female I wanted, one female I fucking hungered for.
Just thinking of Valor had my cock tight and swollen, my fangs pulsing with need.
My head jerked at the sound of my door opening, and I cursed the heavily steamed room, which only seemed to carry her scent even more efficiently.
Valor.
“You can’t just walk out on me like that!” she snapped as she strode into the bathroom, crossing her arms under her breasts and glaring at me through the glass door of the shower. “Do you have any idea how many dresses I tried—” Her eyes widened, and her lips parted as she gazed over my body from nape to toes, her attentio
n lingering on my ass. “Oh.”
“You were saying?” My fingers dug into the stone wall, leaving divots in their wake.
“You’re in the shower.” She ran her tongue over her lower lip.
My entire body jerked. Fuck me. I pushed off the wall and killed the water. The silence that filled the room was louder than a jet engine. “And naked, just in case we were taking turns making obvious statements. Turn around.”
She didn’t.
“Have it your way,” I muttered, pushing open the glass door and striding out of the shower.
“Holyfuckingshityourehuge,” she gushed as her breath rushed out, her eyes locked on my cock, which was more than happy to have the attention.
“What are you doing here, Valor?” I ground out, reaching for a towel and wrapping it around my hips. My dick did its best to escape. What the hell was Valor thinking? That I needed to have my lack of self-restraint tested even further?
Every cell in my body demanded I strip that dress off and fill her. Fangs. Cock. Tongue. All of it. I took another towel and dried off my hair, just to keep my hands busy.
“Well, the dresses didn’t work, so now I’m in your bathroom!” Her voice pitched high.
I stilled.
She squeezed her eyes shut, and her lips pursed for a second. “Shit,” she whispered.
“What do you mean the dresses didn’t work?” I tossed the smaller towel into the hamper as I stalked across the tile to where she leaned against the bathroom counter.
“Oh, you know what I mean.” She blasted me with a look of pure, undeniable frustration.
“Oh, but lass, I don’t.” Even if I’d told my body to stay on the other side of the room, I’m not sure it would have listened. We were magnets, pulling at each other until it was painful to keep even an inch between us, and I gave in. I got all up in her personal space and bracketed her with my hands on the counter on either side of her. “Why don’t you tell me?”
She inhaled deeply and brought her eyes to mine. “Every woman you talk to at dinner is in a dress.”
“Most females in my culture wear dresses to dinners with royalty.” I shrugged. “You’ve seen everyone in jeans here in the residence.”
“But you don’t talk to…” She shook her head. “I thought maybe you were attracted to more feminine wo—females,” she caught herself, correcting her language.
“You were trying to attract me?” Okay, so that sounded even more asinine aloud than in my head.
“Obviously!” She shoved at my chest, but I didn’t move, not when I was so close to figuring her out.
“Valor, I’m the last man you need to attract.” My body practically vibrated with how much I wanted her.
“Right, because you’d rather fuck anyone else than your mate,” she grumbled, looking away.
“What the hell?” I took her chin between my thumb and forefinger and tilted her face toward mine.
“It’s true, isn’t it? Sure, I know the second you get close to me, this”— she pressed her stomach against my erection, and I bit back a groan —“happens because of the bond, but I thought maybe if I put on a dress and looked a little more like one of your females, you might look at me like one. It’s not like the women—fuck—females don’t talk, Lachlan. I know your reputation.”
“Oh, you do?” My fangs ached. She was so close, and the smell of her was driving me to the breaking point.
“Yeah, I do. You’re not exactly celibate.”
“I have been since you got here.” A side of my mouth lifted into a smirk. “You’re the only woman I’m remotely interested in fucking, and it has nothing to do with a dress. Is it sexy as hell to know that I could yank this dress to your waist and slide inside you? Yes. But don’t think you’re not just as sexy to me in those little outfits you favor, or even in your goddamned sweatpants.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened, and her arms fell to her sides.
“Really. Valor, you don’t look anything like one of our females,” I said quietly, keeping her caged in when she tried to jerk her face away from mine. “Your skin is soft as silk.” I released her chin and trailed my knuckle down her jawline to her neck. “Your tongue is sharper than your teeth.” My hand splayed, and I rested it above her pounding heart. “Your heart is strong, but mortal, and all that urgency that comes from within it—from knowing you won’t live forever, is fucking beautiful.”
She drew in a breath. “But I’m breakable, right? And you don’t like breakable things.”
My jaw flexed. “You aren’t breakable, but you are…fragile compared to my kind. And I know you have no desire to become one of my kind, so it’s my job to make sure you don’t break. Unless you’ve changed your mind?” I cocked an eyebrow at her, keeping my voice low and level.
We were on some kind of precipice here, I just wasn’t sure what kind, and for the first time in my life, I envied Alek’s ability to read minds. I would have killed to know exactly what she was thinking in that moment.
“No,” she whispered. “Well, not about that.”
“And what have you changed your mind about, Valor?” I released the counter and palmed her hip, stroking my thumb over her hipbone. “Do you want the bond?” Do you want me?
“No.” She shook her head.
My stomach curdled, and I stepped back, breaking the contact, my hands falling to my sides. “Then you need to walk out that door, Valor.”
“You don’t want it either!” Her hands formed fists, and her pulse leaped in her neck. “You don’t want to be mated to me. You want some biddable female who will listen when you get all growly and bark orders. You want someone who will keep her ass safely tucked away in the house while she gives you kids and waits for you to come home. I’m the last person you want!”
“You’re the only woman I want!” Did I want a female to listen when I needed to keep her safe? Hell yes. A female to bear my young and raise them while I defended our species? My chest tightened at the thought. The only female I could even see in that role wasn’t even a female…she was a woman. She was Valor.
“Lachlan,” she whispered, her cheeks blooming with the kind of color that only reached her cheeks when she was with me.
I laced my fingers behind my neck to keep from reaching for her.
Her eyes raked down my chest, her scent sweetening with a rush of arousal that triggered everything primal in my body. Everything hurt. My muscles. My chest. My fangs. My cock. Everything. And I knew she was the answer to it all.
“I don’t know if I want the bond,” I admitted. “And that has nothing to do with you and everything to do with rearranging my priorities—my life. But don’t for one second think that means I don’t want you. I ache for you in every way possible. I wake in the evening hard, knowing it’s only that wall that separates us. I scent the air for you. I listen for you. My mouth waters at the memory of the taste of you. My once-focused mind is now a fogged-up mess because the physical need for you invades every thought. So please believe me when I say that you need to walk out of that door before something happens that neither of us can take back.”
Her lips parted. “And what if I want it to happen?”
My breath froze in my lungs. She doesn’t mean it.
“We can act on what we want without accepting the bond, right?” she asked.
Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Shit, you have to answer her. “In theory.”
She swallowed and nodded. “Okay, then what if we just…took the edge off? Gave ourselves one night to indulge in each other?”
Fuck yes, my cock answered.
Nope. No. Run now. That was my brain.
“The bond would only intensify with physical contact,” I growled, trying like hell to keep a leash on myself.
“But it won’t be complete, right? We wouldn’t be…locked into it or anything?” Her gaze fell to my abs and glazed over. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
“You’re fucking killing me.” I shut my eyes, but it didn’t help. The scent
of her was all around, filling my lungs, my nose, my mouth.
“Good, because I’m dying over here!” she snapped. “I’m not like you, Lachlan! I don’t have three hundred years of experience under my belt to give me that god-like self-control you’re working with over there!”
My eyes flashed open. “God-like, hmm?”
“Of course, that’s what you pick up on.” She slammed her hand into the granite, and I winced. “I want you all of the time. It’s like you flipped on the switch to my sex drive, and I can’t turn the damned thing off! My body hums when you walk in a room, and the second you touch me, I go hot and achy—”
“Valor,” I groaned. “You have to stop.”
“I don’t want to stop. I want you!”
“Physically,” I managed to say. The logical side of my brain was shutting down, shifting to the part that only wanted to focus on getting her to scream my name again.
“Physically,” she agreed. “Like I said, it doesn’t have to mean anything.”
“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” I repeated. My chest tightened like a fucking vise, but I ignored the flash of pain. What would one night hurt? I’d already kissed her, already put my hands on her, already brought her to climax. It wasn’t like the bond could possibly hurt any more than it already did, right? So what if we’d been ill-matched. In this regard—our attraction, we were a perfect fit.
But she was human, and I was most certainly not.
“I’m going to give you one last chance to walk out that door.” My voice sounded like it had been dragged over broken glass. “Because I’d like to think I’m a good enough man to hold back, but I’m not sure anymore. So let me be as blunt as possible.”
“Okay,” she whispered, her heart rate accelerating.
“If you don’t walk out right now, I’m going to be all over you.” I dropped my arms to my sides. “I’m going to strip you bare, lay you out like a banquet, and then feast.”
Her eyes darkened.
“I’m going to fuck you with my fingers, my tongue, and only after you’ve come once, maybe twice—my cock. Don’t worry, you’ll be slick, wet, and ready for me, begging for me.” I moved forward, reaching for my towel.
Crimson Highlander: An Onyx Assassins Novel Page 11
