“Yes,” she breathed, shuddering as his hands drifted over the curve of her hips.
With infinite care he explored the length of her thighs and then, with a small tug, he parted her legs until they fell on either side of his body. Juliet muttered her approval against his lips, but even prepared she gave a strangled cry when his clever fingers stroked through her damp heat.
“Sssh,” he soothed softly. “Soon we shall be one. One soul. One flesh.”
His low words seemed to echo deep inside her, but she ignored the dangerous warmth that settled in the center of her heart. Instead she concentrated on his finger that teased the tiny pulse of her pleasure.
“Not soon...now,” she muttered.
His low growl filled the air, his erection pressing eagerly against her damp heat.
“You are certain?”
Certain? Her nails dug into his chest until she drew blood. She had never been more certain of anything in her entire life.
“Please, Victor.”
“Yes.”
Victor’s hands were pressing at her lower back as his hips lifted and he was entering her in one sure stroke.
Her breath caught, but not from pain.
Searing pleasure rushed through her and she pressed her face onto his chest. She could feel him stroke into her before pulling out and returning with a slow, relentless pressure.
“Dear lord.”
“Mate,” he whispered as his hips lifted over and over. “My mate.”
“I did not know anything could feel so...”
“How does it feel, sweet Juliet?”
“Wondrous,” she breathed, her body moving in perfect rhythm with his.
His soft chuckle filled the air with a thick satisfaction.
“You are mine,” he vowed. “Mine for eternity.”
She moaned as her body began to tighten with a shimmering anticipation. His steady, relentless pace was building a fire deep within her that threatened to burst out of control.
“My mate,” he breathed, lifting his head to nuzzle at her neck.
His slight shift was enough to press him even deeper within her and with a force that caught her off guard the tension that coiled between her legs abruptly burst into a thousand pieces.
She cried out and squeezed shut her eyes, struggling not to swoon beneath the tide of sensations. It was overwhelming. A joy that edged perilously close to pain.
“Victor?”
With a moan, he laid his head on the pillows. For a moment she simply gazed into the beautiful countenance, telling herself that what had just occurred was no more than incredible sex. Victor had, after all, near a thousand years and countless women to perfect his expertise, but something deep in her heart refused to accept the lie.
Staring into the silver eyes she knew she was bound closer to him than any other person in the entire world.
They were one.
One soul.
One flesh.
Mates.
Chapter Six
Seated across the table from his mate, Victor ruefully accepted that any hope that Juliet would be more compliant now that she was his lover was doomed to abysmal failure. Polishing off the last of the roasted duck, potatoes stewed in a delicate mushroom sauce, and freshly baked bread, Juliet sat back in her chair and offered him a stubborn glare.
“You can roar and bellow all you wish. I am not going to change my mind.”
With an effort, Victor attempted to ignore the captivating sight of Juliet wearing nothing more than his brocade robe, her mane of fiery curls spilling down her back and her ivory features tinted with a delicate flush.
Not that he was particularly successful.
There would never be a moment that he would not desire his mate.
Even when she infuriated him.
“I do not comprehend why you must be so unreasonable.”
“Me?” She arched a brow. “It was your decision to go on the hunt for the Jinn.”
“Because he cannot be permitted to linger in London. Not only do his powers attract the attention of the humans, but his mere presence is a threat to my position among the demons.”
She appeared remarkably unimpressed with his logic.
“So you are allowed to risk your life to remain clan chief, but I am forbidden from rescuing a friend from potential death?”
He paused, his vast experience with women warning him this was a trap with no escape.
“I would not use the word ‘forbidden.’”
“Then what word would you use?”
“Strongly discouraged,” he suggested.
She snorted. “I do not consider a threat to tie me to the bed as strong discouragement.”
He growled, his fangs fully extended and aching with a hunger that would never be sated.
“Me either,” he husked, leaving his chair and rounding the table with a slow smile of anticipation. “I consider that an invitation to paradise.”
Juliet hastily rose to her feet, her expression stern although she could not disguise the heat simmering in her beautiful eyes as her gaze skimmed down his body, covered in nothing more than a loose pair of satin pants he had brought from his recent journey to China.
“Victor, you are not going to distract me.”
Easily scooping her off her feet, Victor headed directly for the nearby bed, tumbling them both onto the silken sheets. With a swift roll he managed to end up on top.
“I will admit that was my original intent,” he murmured, burying his face in the curve of her neck. “But I believe I have been hoisted on my own petard. You are delectable.”
Her arms circled his neck, her body instinctively arching beneath him.
“Victor.”
The intoxicating scent of peaches filled his senses. “Hmmm?”
“This changes nothing,” she muttered. “I am going with you to the docks.”
Victor pulled back at her stubborn insistence, an unfamiliar pang twisting his gut.
“Why does this Levet mean so much to you?”
She blinked. “Are you...jealous?”
“Of a stunted, outcast gargoyle? Do not be absurd.”
The emerald eyes narrowed. “Victor?”
“You belong here with me,” he said before he could halt the revealing words. “Not with Hawthorne and that creature.”
She studied him with an all too knowing gaze. “You believe if I rescue Levet I will return to Justin?”
Victor shied from the mere notion he was jealous of the mage, or the deformed gargoyle. He was a powerful vampire. A clan chief. The most honored creature in all the demon world.
“No, I believe it is a fool’s errand and I will not let you deliberately put yourself in danger.”
She smiled, not fooled for a moment.
“Justin has no claim on my affections,” she assured him softly, her fingers threading through his hair. “He offered me protection and that is all I ever desired from him.”
He studied her pale face, searching for...what?
Reassurance?
“You care for him?” he gritted.
“No.”
“Then why do you remain with him?”
Her fingers continued to stroke through his hair, no doubt sensing his unnerving vulnerability. Perhaps in a century or two he would be accustomed to his overwhelming need for this woman, but for tonight he was still raw from the aching desire to complete the bonding.
“Our arrangement was mutually beneficial. My talents offered Justin the means to acquire his magical collection and I was given a roof over my head and security from all but the most persistent demons.”
“I can offer you greater protection,” he said, infuriated at the mere thought of Juliet depending on another man. “Nothing would be allowed to harm you while you are in my care.”
She smiled wryly. “That I have never doubted.”
“Then why do you hesitate?”
She shrugged, the movement causing the robe to gape, offering a tantalizing glimpse of
her naked breasts. Victor swallowed a groan, his body fully aroused.
“At first I feared becoming another willing victim that you used and then tossed aside.”
“And now?”
She met his gaze squarely. “Now I fear becoming your puppet.”
Victor clenched his jaw, offended by her words despite the numerous women who had drifted in and out of his life. They had been mere dalliances.
Or dinner.
Juliet was the other half of his soul.
“Even if I wished such a ridiculous thing, I am not capable of enthralling you,” he informed her, his voice edged with a distinct chill.
She gave a sharp tug on his hair, a rueful amusement shimmering in her emerald eyes.
“No, but you are capable of insisting upon others obeying your every command.”
A portion of his pique was eased at her obvious teasing. “That is only because I know what is best for my people.”
“And your mate?”
“Of course.”
She rolled her eyes. “There, you have proven my point.”
Victor shifted so he could cup her face in his hand, knowing that while his instinct would be to protect his mate, he would have to learn not to ride roughshod over her.
“Juliet, if you wish me to admit that I am an overbearing brute who is accustomed to being obeyed, I will do so,” he said, giving a wry shake of his head. “I have been a clan chief for a number of centuries, while being a mate is all rather new.”
She stilled, studying his face with wide eyes. “What are you saying?”
“That your happiness is more important than my need to control you.”
“Then you will allow me to make my own decisions? Even if you do not agree with them?” She narrowed her eyes as he hesitated. “Victor?”
With a grim determination, Victor thrust aside centuries of absolute authority. To be mated meant compromise. Even if that compromise threatened to drive him to utter madness.
“Yes, but I hold the right to attempt to change your mind.”
Knowing just how difficult his concession had been, Juliet readily smiled, her hands drifting down his bare back in a sweet promise.
“Agreed.”
Shivering in ready response, he brushed his lips over the soft skin of her temple, sensing the rapid beat of her pulse. The hunger to taste her blood was near unbearable, but he ignored his ravaging thirst.
“I have conceded to your demands, little one. Now it is your turn.”
“Does this compromise include removing my robe?” she husked.
He chuckled. “It is my robe, although what is mine is now yours, and it most certainly is going to be removed.”
She allowed her nails to scrape lightly over his skin, the sensation sending pleasure jolting through him.
“So confident, my lord?”
He pressed a hard, hungry kiss on her lips before pulling back to regard her with a brooding gaze.
“Desperate. But that is not the compromise I speak of.”
“Then what do you desire of me?”
“I want you to leave Hawthorne,” he said, his voice revealing he was unwilling to bargain on this point. “Your place is in this lair with me.”
“But our bonding is not yet complete,” she said softly. “Would that not mean we were living in sin?”
He frowned at her foolish words. The connection between them was sacred.
“You are my mate.”
“But you are not yet my mate.”
A bleak, ruthless pain spread through his body. He had rarely given thought to taking a mate. Most vampires never encountered the one destined to make them whole. But on the few occasions he had considered the possibility, he had never envisioned binding himself to a woman who did not desire him in return.
“I see.”
She bit her lower lip at his frigid tone, her expression rueful.
“I do not think that you do, Victor, and it’s no wonder. I am making a complete muddle of this.”
“Of your wish to return to Hawthorne?”
“Of my very awkward proposal.”
“Proposal?”
She licked her lips, the nervous gesture astonishingly charming.
“Victor, would you be my mate?”
A wary hope replaced the icy chill of rejection, although he was careful to hide it behind a scowl. He might be mated, but that did not mean he had lost all pride.
“Juliet?”
Her breath caught, a hint of distress marring her beautiful face. “What? Did I do something wrong? Are women not allowed to—“
He captured her lips in a kiss of urgent longing, allowing her to feel just how desperately he wanted to complete their bonding.
“You are certain?” he muttered between frenzied kisses. “The mating is irrevocable.”
Her hands moved in a restless path up and down his back, each caress sending sizzling sparks of heat through his body.
“This mating has been irrevocable from the beginning,” she muttered.
“Thank the gods.” Kissing a path along her jaw, he paused to revel in the poignant scent of peaches and willing woman. “I did not believe you would ever come to your senses.”
She chuckled. “There are many who would claim I have lost them completely.”
He pulled back, his fangs throbbing in protest. This was too important a moment to rush.
“And what of you, little one?”
“Me?”
“Does the thought of becoming my mate please you?”
Her expression was somber as she framed his face in her hands. “Victor, since my parents’ death I have sought a place to call home.”
He frowned at the tender ache he could feel blooming in the center of her heart. It bothered him that he was helpless to protect her from the wounds of the past.
“You have never revealed how your parents were killed,” he said gently.
She winced, but she did not pull away. A victory, considering Juliet had never before trusted him enough to share her secrets.
“My father was considered beautiful, even among the fey,” she said, her voice so low even his acute hearing struggled to catch the words.
His gaze skimmed over her delicate features, lingering on the wide emerald eyes that spoke of her fey blood.
“That I well believe.”
A tremor shook her slender body, her nails unconsciously digging into his back. It was a pain Victor welcomed, wishing he could take away her wounds.
“Unfortunately, he attracted the attention of Morgana le Fey.”
Victor was startled by the mention of the queen. It had been centuries since she had retreated behind her protective mists.
“I did not know she ever left Avalon.”
“It was rumored she was hunting for some mystical weapon that is destined to kill her.” The emerald eyes flashed with a long-brewing hatred. “Instead she found my father.”
“And desired to take him as her lover.”
“Yes.”
Victor had heard rumors of the queen’s insatiable lust for beautiful men, as well as her habit of treating them like pretty baubles that were inevitably destroyed when she grew bored.
Juliet’s father had been destined for death from the moment he had caught the eye of the fickle Morgana le Fey.
“I presume your father declined her royal invitation?”
“He was not foolish enough to publicly reject her, but he attempted to flee with my mother and myself.”
“Morgana was no doubt displeased.”
“She commanded that we be hunted down and slaughtered.”
Victor flinched as his bond with Juliet allowed him to feel the savage intensity of her loss.
“They died to protect you.”
“Yes.” Her gaze lowered, as if she could hide the tears that filled her eyes. “They died and I was alone.”
“Never again,” Victor swore, cupping her chin and lifting her face until he could capture her bruised gaze. “I will b
e at your side for all eternity.”
Her hands swept up his back, the shadows lingering in her eyes.
“Victor.”
“Yes, my love?”
“I want you to be my mate.”
A fierce surge of savage hunger combined with pure joy in a potent explosion that left Victor reeling from the impact. Suddenly he felt as uncertain and awkward as a newly turned fledgling.
“Now?” he husked.
A smile of pure invitation curved her lips. “Now.”
“Bloody hell.”
Any hope of a slow, dignified mating that would reveal to Juliet just how much she meant to him was lost as he muttered a curse and swept her heavy curtain of hair to one side, exposing the vulnerable curve of her neck.
He had an eternity to prove just how much he adored her.
For now, he was desperate to make this woman his.
His lover, his partner, his mate.
With one smooth strike his fangs slid easily through her skin, the taste of her blood hitting his tongue with staggering force.
It was perfect.
She was perfect.
Juliet moaned as he fed from her throat, her hands impatiently lowering to tug at his pants, her body arching in silent need. A need that Victor was quite eager to sate.
Reaching down, he ripped off the pants with one vicious jerk and tugged open her robe until there was nothing left between them. They were skin to skin, her delectable heat wrapping around him.
Allowing himself one precious moment to savor the anticipation, Victor chuckled softly as Juliet wrapped her legs around his hips with obvious impatience.
“Victor...please.”
Victor reluctantly tugged his fangs from her neck, using his tongue to close the bleeding wounds. He could not afford to be greedy. Not when Juliet was determined to rescue the ridiculous gargoyle. Any loss of blood might weaken her.
Besides, there was more than one means of being a part of her.
“Yes, little one,” he husked, settling between her spread legs and entering her with a slow, steady thrust.
Closing his eyes in pure bliss, Victor sent up a prayer of thanks to whatever god had seen fit to bless him with this beautiful, magnificent woman.
Chapter Seven
After a hot bath, Juliet pulled on a clean smock and pants that Victor had borrowed from the son of one of his vast stable of human servants. Like all vampires, he considered any sort of manual labor as being beneath him.
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