by Kyle, Celia
“I dunno,” she said again, suspicion dripping from her words.
Deo held her gaze and smiled. “I swear to you, no funny business. We’ll put on a little show for everyone, but that’s all it will be. A show.”
He held his breath as he watched her think. Guilt tried to gnaw at his conscience, but he brushed it aside. He wasn’t lying to her, though he had to admit he was acting in his own best interest. An evening of pretending to be her mate, in front of the entire world, sounded like heaven.
“So, what did you have in mind?” she finally asked, mischief in her smirk.
Deo closed the last inch of polite social distance between their bodies. The mask he’d kept over his expression fell away, revealing the inferno of heat blazing within him, always for her.
She blinked, even as her cheeks pinked up and her lips parted. “Um, wow. That’s some serious reverse poker face.”
“Told you I was a good actor. The crush of our bodies, some goo goo eyes—”
“Goo goo eyes? Really?”
“—and we’ll convince them all. Any time one of them comes within ten feet of you, I’ll just…”
Deo turned and bared his fangs at Emerisyn Wallfellow, who’d dared to think he could cut in. The asshole jumped back, his red face filling with fear.
“See?” he murmured in Cora’s ear. “We just have to behave like lovers in the grip of finding their mate.”
Cora followed his lead on the dance floor flawlessly. Now he prayed she’d follow his lead on this too. When she nodded against his shoulder, his heart tried to break free of his ribcage.
“Okay.”
Her whisper sent chills all the way down to his toenails. When she pulled away, the look in her eyes punched him in the gut and caused him to miss a step. Only by stint of will and dozens of years of dance training was he able to avoid colliding into another couple.
Cora gazed up at him like he was the only man in the world. As if the second she got him alone, she planned to do wonderful, filthy things to him. Her lips around his cock, her wet pussy riding his mouth, riding him to point of exhaustion.
Deo growled deep in his chest.
“You aren’t supposed to look like you want to eat me,” she whispered.
“Are you sure about that, Princess?”
Her face blazed red. “Deo.”
“Relax,” he said, laughing low and wicked. “It’s all part of the show. But you need to up your game. Your mother looks suspicious. Quick, wrap your arms around my neck.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “Like I want to throttle you? Easy.”
By the Blood, he loved her sass. “No, like you want to throw me down on the floor in front of everyone and fuck me six ways to Sunday.”
Cora gasped, and he could have sworn he felt her nipples harden against his chest. When she bit her plump lower lip and looked up at him, pupils dilated, he hardened against her hip.
“Yeah, just like that,” he sighed, unable to tear his gaze away from her mouth. The mouth he’d longed to kiss for decades. The mouth he’d longed to… well, many things.
Warm fingers crept up his arms and snaked around his neck, burying themselves in his hair. She clung to him, her attention flicking between his eyes and his lips. He suppressed a groan, but only just barely. All he could do was relish their few minutes together and pray the band kept playing.
But Deo knew the song well, so as the orchestra ran through the final notes, he let one hand slip low on her back while the other moved to her neck.
“Finale’s coming up. Let’s make this look really good.”
“H-how?” Her heart raced against his.
“No big deal, just a kiss.”
She pulled back to look up at him again, worry marring her perfect brow. “A…kiss?”
“That’s it. Just a kiss. But we should make it a good one to make it believable. Don’t you think?”
The music rose to a crescendo and as the final notes played out, Deo dipped Cora low to the ground, much lower than was appropriate for a waltz. Maybe a sexy tango, but not a prim waltz. Her eyes never left his and they stared at each other for an eternity—Cora questioning, Deo waiting for her answer. Finally, and to his great joy, she nodded her assent.
Burying his hand in her golden hair, Deo supported her head as he lowered his. Her breath came hot and fast as he closed the distance between them, and when their lips finally touched, after so many years of waiting, the world exploded.
Literally.
A pulse of magic flared from Cora, spiraling outward with the crystalline shriek of a thousand champagne glasses shattering at once. Cora’s glamour vanished, her eyes snapping open and pinning him under their swirling, aquamarine weight. Her skin paled to an iridescent sheen resembling a pearl and a salt breeze swept through the ballroom.
The silent ballroom.
Deo’s fangs descended, and it all hit him at the same time. The magic roiled in his blood, a shimmery invisible, indivisible rope stretching from his heart to hers.
Breaking their kiss, he spoke the only word his brain could think. “Beloved.”
Chapter Seven
The power rushing through her veins wasn’t her siren song or her glamour. It wasn’t even the effect of Deo’s vampiric magic. His pupils glowed red and his fangs released from their sheaths, but nothing in his aura spoke to danger or death. No, he shimmered with passion, heat, and love.
“Beloved,” he said in a low tone and then looked up, warily scanning the room. His arms tightened around her and she noticed the shift in his stance, the sudden aggressive protectiveness.
The ballroom was totally silent. No gasps of shock that she was making out with a vampire on the dance floor, no shrieks of protest from her mother, no murmurs from the gossips. The lack of noise pulled Cora’s attention away from the shimmering rope linking her to Deo. The only sound in the room was hundreds of people breathing softly, some even snoring. From the floor.
Deo lifted her upright, giving her full view of the chaos caused by their kiss. The energy that had pulsed through them had pulsed through everyone. Or into them, anyway, because everyone in the ballroom lay flat on their backs, as if bowled over by Cora and Deo’s love. One by one, each person stirred and started the slow process of regaining their senses. Including her parents.
She rubbed a hand over her forehead and tried to clear her head enough to think straight. First things first, replace her glamour. But it was gone, blown to smithereens from the power of their bond. Turning back to Deo, she smiled. Her mate.
“All this time,” she breathed, unable to believe it as tears of the most intense joy spilled down her cheeks.
After more than twenty years of denying the truth in a vain attempt to protect herself, she could now admit she loved Deo. Always had. From the moment he’d asked her to dance so very long ago, her heart had belonged to him.
“Told you so,” he teased.
She jabbed his ribs as he wrapped an arm around her waist so they could face the waking crowd together. The unique presence that was Deo enveloped her psyche like a favorite blanket, a giant bar of chocolate, and a big glass of red wine all at the same time—comfort, warmth, familiarity.
How had she not known they were destined? How could she have missed it this entire time? All the clues had been there. All the times he’d caught her with her psychic pants down and she’d had to rush to snap her glamour into place. Each time she’d simply assumed she’d shielded him before her nature had a chance to bury its claws into him. Even the last time, when he’d walked full into her song without flinching, she’d told herself he’d been lucky.
But as it turned out, he’d been immune, as he’d tried to convince her all along. It should have occurred to her that a siren’s fated mate would be immune to her false allure, but even if it had, she wouldn’t have risked losing Deo in case she was wrong.
“Coralia!”
The shrieks finally came, echoing through the chamber and waking those who still lay unconsci
ous on the parquet floor. Aquaria stumbled and fell as she tried to gain her feet, finally using Terrus’s head for leverage. When he reached a hand up for her to help him stand, she ignored it and stormed across dance floor toward Cora.
“No snarling at my parents,” she hissed at Deo as she adopted a mild smile. “Mother.”
Her father wasn’t far behind and he looked about as amused as his wife. “What’s the meaning of all this, Coralia?” he demanded.
Deo stepped forward and bowed slightly. “Your Highnesses, my apologies for the unexpected… display. Perhaps we should retire somewhere private.”
Cora admired his cool headedness under the circumstances. She wanted to do cartwheels all the way around the room, shout her love from the top of the roof, maybe set off a few thousand fireworks. Deo, the man she’d loved since they were both teenagers, was her fated mate. It was all she could do to keep from giggling like a freaking schoolgirl!
“I’ll retire you straight to the dungeon,” Aquaria snapped, looking around for a guard, but they’d all been knocked on their asses too, and the ones who were awake didn’t seemed particularly eager to confront a vampire powerful enough to pull off that feat.
“Mother,” Cora said, doing her best to not sound totally, completely, absolutely giddy. “Deo’s right, we should talk—”
“No!” Her screech bounced around the walls like a pinball. “I will not have this… this… bloodsucker in my house for another minute! Leave immediately!”
Terrus was slightly less hysterical but no less adamant. “Yes, you need to leave now.”
The muscle in Deo’s jaw clenched. Cora slipped her hand into his and squeezed tightly, silently telling him that wherever he went, she would follow. Forever.
The tension in him eased as he smiled down at her and then turned the smile on her parents. Except all the warmth had drained away, leaving the air around them chilly with a subtle threat. Beneath the annoying wit, incessant mockery, and bright-eyed mischievousness lurked a cold, hard son of a master vampire. He’d never let her go without bloodshed.
“Fine, I’ll leave,” he said coolly, “but I’m taking my beloved with me.”
When he moved toward the door, Cora at his side, Aquaria jumped in front of them, arms spread widely. “Over my dead body!”
Deo paused and leveled a hard glare on Cora’s mother. “Are you sure about that?”
As the words left his mouth, he squeezed Cora’s hand, silently communicating that he wasn’t about to eviscerate her mother and leave her for dead, though Cora couldn’t make the same promise. After nagging her daughter for decades to find a mate, Aquaria now opposed the one she’d chosen.
As if she even had a choice!
Terrus joined his wife. “You’ve been sniffing around our daughter for twenty years. I didn’t interfere, despite my wife’s urging, because we live in a new age, one of tolerance, egalitarianism—”
“Slumming,” Aquaria snapped, returning Cora’s glare while speaking to her husband. “I told you so, Terrus. Men never listen. Now look what’s happened. Our daughter’s life is ruined!”
“Mother, enough with the histrionics already. My life isn’t ruined. Quite the opposite. With Deo as my mate—”
“No!” Aquaria screamed, her eyes bulging in their sockets and her face turning beet red. “My daughter will not be bound to a filthy bloodsucker!”
“I’m afraid you have no say in the matter, Mother ó Murchadha,” Deo said smoothly. “Our bond has finally fallen into place.”
Cora almost snorted at him calling her Mother, but Aquaria didn’t seem to care for it all that much, judging by the way her mouth popped open and closed like a fish gasping for air on the riverbank.
“How is that possible?” Terrus asked, suspicion heavy in his voice. “You two have known each other since… since he was still human. If she were your beloved, you would have known about it before now. Aquaria, dear, I think this is all some kind of stunt to get us off Cora’s back about finding a mate.”
Her father had always seen through her schemes, dammit. And her mother seemed all too excited about this new theory.
“Father, I’ll admit you’re half-right. It started out that way, but once we kissed…” Her flesh warmed at the memory, but now wasn’t the time or the place. “I think my glamour must have confused Deo’s senses. As you just pointed out, he was still human when I put up my glamour, so maybe it blocked his ability to recognize me as his beloved once he was turned.”
She turned a smile on her best friend, her heart beating in time with his. She didn’t need to have her finger on his pulse to know it either. Their bond was so strong, so true, she knew she’d never doubt his love for her. Such a strange and wondrous sensation.
Aquaria gagged at the open display of affection. “Terrus, summon the guards. This has gone far enough. Guards!”
Cora wheeled around to face down her mother once and for all. She’d spent her life thinking she’d never find true love, not with the Curse of the Siren looming over her head. Now that she had, her mother was desperate to take it away, and that simply wasn’t going to happen. Not on her watch.
“Mother,” Cora said so softly that Aquaria had to quiet her wailing to listen. “Don’t make me choose between you and Deo. Please. Because as much as I love you and Father, you will lose.”
Aquaria gasped, her eyes growing wide with disbelief and pain. “You would choose this nobody over your own family, Coralia?”
“I would. And I have.” Cora reached a hand behind her and Deo grasped it instantly, giving her strength, reassurance, and above all, support. “I love him, Mother. I always have, and I think deep down you know that.”
Aquaria wouldn’t meet her eye, instead choosing to scowl at Deo. “He has no standing. For a princess to join with a pleb—”
“Mother!”
“No, she has a point,” Deo said, moving to her side, his cool fingers holding tightly onto hers. “And your parents have a right to be concerned, even if you don’t care about such matters, my beloved.”
Cora glanced up at him, every part of her wanting to take him in her arms and show him how much she loved him. How much she appreciated his patience, not only with her parents, but with her too. He’d waited so long for this day, and now that it was here, she realized she’d been waiting for it too.
“I need a drink,” Terrus grumbled, stepping over people—people who were watching this exchange very closely—to grab the first half-full glass of something alcoholic he could find. No matter that some stranger had been sipping on it just minutes before.
“I understand your concern about the strategic value of a pairing between your daughter and me. It may comfort you to learn that my father, Master of the Nicolaides Clan, has officially named me his heir.”
Several gasps could be heard through the room as their unintended audience witnessed their confrontation. Cora didn’t care, she only cared about Deo. Throwing her arms around his neck, she hugged him tightly.
“Oh, Deo, that’s fantastic! I’m so happy for you.”
He held her to him for a moment longer than propriety allowed and then released her to face her parents again with the unspoken promise that she could congratulate him more intimately later. For now, they had important matters to handle.
“And what concessions is Clan Nicolaides prepared to make for the honor of taking my daughter as your mate?” her father asked.
Cora’s eyes snapped fire. “Now I’m a commodity, to be bought and sold?”
Terrus’s gaze was clinical, calculating, and cold. “What would it say about us if we allowed just anyone to claim a female of our royal line without a symbolic show of respect?”
“Don’t get all indignant, Coralia. The same would apply to a male,” Aquaria informed her with a haughty sniff.
“I’m sure we can come to some sort of an… accommodation,” Deo said. “As the saying goes, have your people get in touch with my people.”
Aquaria licked her lips, no do
ubt curious what the heir to the powerful Nicolaides clan would offer up for their daughter’s hand. But just to prove she was no pushover, she had to have the final say.
“Just don’t think we’ll make any concessions to your kind,” she spat at Deo before turning in a huff and storming out of the ballroom, hundreds of eyes watching her go.
Terrus shook his head at his wife’s theatrics and then held his hand out to Deo. “Congratulations, son. You played a long game and against all odds somehow managed a bloodless coup.”
Deo shook his hand and then shot a quick glance at Cora. “Hopefully it won’t be bloodless for long.”
Terrus chuckled and slapped his shoulder before pulling his daughter into a gentle hug. “I’m so happy for you, sweetheart. You deserve everything this life has to give, and this boy had better give it to you.”
She clutched at her father’s shoulders and then turned a smile on him. “He will, Father. I’ll make sure of it.”
Terrus laughed outright this time and released her. “Just don’t be surprised if it takes a while for your mother to come around. She might give you the silent treatment until negotiations are finalized. Now, I think it’s about time you two take some private time.”
Terrus followed after his wife, leaving Deo and Cora alone—in front of all the gala’s guests.
“Can your father guarantee we’ll get the silent treatment?” he asked her with a pleading tone.
Cora laughed in spite of herself. “I really shouldn’t encourage you.”
Deo pulled her into his arms, his gaze drinking her in as his body hardened against her. “Hmm, what should you do with me instead?”
Need pulsed through her body, begging to be release somewhere without an audience. “Take me upstairs and you’ll find out.”
Without another word, Deo lifted her into his arms and carried her out of the room.
Chapter Eight
“This isn’t a dream. Is it?” Cora wrapped her arms tightly around Deo’s neck, her eyes locked on his as he made the climb up the stairs. He returned her gaze, smiled, and then leaned in to kiss her forehead. The touch of his lips on her skin was almost too much for her to take. She wanted more and, even though she knew she’d get it all, it was hell to wait.
