Bonds of Blood [Lords of the Expanse] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Honor James

  “No.” She looked up horrified, the truth in her eyes. “I never have doubted you, Andries. I have trusted you from the moment that I saw you so ready to throw everything away just so that I could be free. No, I would never, could never hurt you like that.” She bit her lip. A single silent tear dropped. “I was just so upset. I didn’t realize how…big…our having twins was. I mean, I should have clued in when you fainted, but until the doctor was talking about tests and blood work, I didn’t.” She shook her head. “I know you would never allow our children to be harmed, Andries. I know you would take up arms and make them run you through first. It was just, I wasn’t thinking. I was more realizing that they would try to take our children than anything.”

  That single tear broke him as nothing else could. He hated to see her cry. It cut him even deeper than her painful words and doubt could. Moving then, he cupped her cheek and brushed the tear away as he lowered his head to hers. “They can try all they want, Xandra, but no one, ever, will hurt what is mine. I’ve told you this over and over, but now you need to hear me, wife,” he said sharply. “You are mine and I will never let anyone hurt you. Our children will know only love, our love. The Alliance can try to do anything they want, and I will kill every single one of them to keep you and our son and daughter safe.”

  She nodded. She completely believed him because she knew he was more than capable. “I know, Andries.” She cupped his cheeks and smiled. “You take care of us.” Xandra leaned in a little closer, her lips a hair’s breadth from his when she whispered, “And I will keep you safe. I love you, Andries. You are everything to me.” She needed to feel him with her again, needed him to believe in her and love her once more.

  “As you are to me, Xan,” he murmured and then closed the small distance between them. He kissed her softly, keeping his need to reclaim her under wraps. He knew he had to be gentle for now, to show her that he could be gentle, that he could love her, would love her always, and did love her completely through actions alone. Shifting his arms, he picked her up gently and moved to set her on the table, his lips teasing over hers, his tongue probing deep and, now that they were free, his hands moving to stroke her body.

  She shuddered and grinned. “I think that we have a table fixation, Andries.” She would always, always have wonderful memories of tables. “I firmly believe our children were conceived on your war room table, so if we ever have to leave this ship, it comes with us.” She had no idea what she was asking, but she wanted it. To her it only made sense. “I would like to conceive each of our children on that table.”

  “I have no intention of giving up my ship anytime soon,” he told her softly, and then he had a thought. “Do you want me to leave the military, Xandra?” he asked hesitantly, unsure if that was what she’d meant by the comment and yet wary of jumping to any conclusions. He didn’t want to hurt her. He couldn’t hurt her, unlike what she’d done to him. Cupping her cheek he stroked her skin. “I will if you wish wife.”

  “No.” She shook her head madly. “No, you are military through and through, Andries. I couldn’t ask you to leave the military any more than you could ask me to allow you to be left behind.” She knew he would argue and shook her head. “No, where you go, so, too, do I, Andries. We are in this together, my love.” She cocked her head to the side. “I just thought you got a new ship anytime they came out. I know that’s what my father did.” But she should have known that wouldn’t be what Andries did. He would be one of those that would keep what he had and simply ensure it always had the latest and greatest of everything.

  “Why would I get a new ship?” he asked, his confusion obvious. “The one I have may have its problems, but they are known to me and my crew. I acquire new technology for it when it becomes available, but I could no more get rid of my vessel than I would want to let you go, Xandra.”

  And that was the sweetest thing that he ever said to her. “That’s what I thought. Well, when I stopped long enough to think about it, that is.” She watched him and then with a grin said, “I’m glad that the men of your ship know me, because they all get to be here for our children, and then when I get pregnant again, and again.” At his confused look, she said, “I’m not leaving you, Andries. Ever. If you go on a mission, so do I.” Which had her smiling. “And we will just use that war room table to get pregnant time and time again.”

  Snorting at her words, Andries shook his head. “And if it was not the table?” he asked her softly. “What if it was another place or another time we were together?” he inquired. He wasn’t quite so sure about that. By his calculations and the doctor’s, it had been the table more than likely.

  “It was the table.” She had laughter in her eyes now. It replaced the pain from before. “You know it was, too. I see it in your eyes, Andries, and you are sitting there trying to decide just how many times you will let me into your war room, how many times you will let me become pregnant.”

  “As many times as you wish, my lady wife,” he told her softly. He’d give her the world if he had it within his power to do so. “But we should wait until we have these two before you start planning the rest of our brood, love,” he suggested with a hint of a smile.

  She touched her hand over his and nodded before moving their hands to her belly. “You do know I will never let you live down passing out when we found out we were having twins, right?” Her thumb moved over the back of his hand even as his thumb moved over her belly. “And it stands, Andries, if you pass out when I’m birthing your children, I really will likely hurt you.”

  “I was shocked,” he told her honestly, needing her to understand. “Never, not once in the history of my people, have there been multiple births. I couldn’t believe that I would be responsible for not just one, but two young ones, Xandra. It was too much for me to process unfortunately, and I regret I passed out on you. I did not mean to. I tried to remain at your side, but it hit me hard.”

  She smiled and nodded. “Thank you for explaining it to me.” It was so much nicer when he talked to her and did not walk out. “Your son got a kick out of it and your daughter was worried for you.” All the way until he left and then both children had been in an uproar. “He protects her. Even now he protects her.” Why the change in subject, she didn’t know. “He doesn’t allow anyone to be able to feel her, unless he wants them to.” Which was why the twin had been missed in her first visit to the doctor and medical bay.

  It is the way of things for our people, my love,” he said softly, stroking her belly gently. “As a race, Vampire males always protect their women. He will be fiercely protective of her, likely even more so than I will be,” he teased gently with a slight smile for her.

  She grinned and shook her head. “I don’t know if that is possible, Andries.” There was amusement in her eyes as she said, “I can see you being the daddy who will follow our little girl on a date and if even one touch is given to her that she doesn’t want.” Well, she felt for the boys that would date their daughter. “But he will be very, very close.”

  “What is this ‘date’ you are referring to?” he asked as he went through the dictionary of human references in his mind, searching for the term. “And why would I follow her anywhere with a male?” Sometimes what she said was very confusing.

  “It was an ancient custom and one that I saw in the village where I lived a lot,” she explained. “A date is when a boy likes a girl, and a girl likes a boy, they will get together and go out alone to find enjoyment. I say you will follow them because the dates usually happen in dark places where the boy and girl can, well, do almost anything,” she said with a grin.

  Nodding slowly, he then froze and gave her a suspicious look. “Just what sort of anything might they be doing?” he asked her softly, his mind already leaping to highly dangerous thoughts. “What are you not telling me, Xandra, my wife?”

  “Well, in the villages”—she swallowed—“many of the girls lost their virginity on these dates.” She rushed out on a breath. “But that’s not somethin
g we have to worry about for a little while yet, Andries. Right now we will just worry over ourselves, right?”

  He couldn’t let it go, especially not now. “Are you saying that these boys would take the innocent out into the dark and just…” He couldn’t say it. It actually hit too close to home with what he’d done to her. “Our daughter will be supervised any time she should have one of these ‘dates.’ There will be no dark places for her.”

  She smiled and petted him as she nodded. “I figured as much.” She leaned in close. “Now, however, why don’t you take me into the dark, husband? Your wife needs you while your children sleep.” She needed to feel him forgiving her, needed to feel him holding her close and loving her once more.

  “Are they asleep?” he asked softly and she smiled and nodded. Shifting, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to their bed to lay her down. “One thing, Xandra,” he said as he stepped back and undressed, his eyes on her the whole time. “The next time I find you answering our door naked, we will be having very harsh words, my lady.”

  “Right, naked and door don’t go together. I love you, Andries.” With that she wrapped him into her welcoming embrace, pulled him in and close to her heart.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Kissing her over her heart lightly, he licked and nibbled up to her throat where he teased her pulse. Sliding his hands over her and over their children, he shifted to lean over her. Looking down at her, he kissed her chin before drawing back. “I am sorry I caused you pain, Xandra. I never meant to, my love,” he said softly. Not too bad for his first apology ever, or so he thought.

  She sniffed back the tears and shook her head. She couldn’t speak but instead grabbed his face in her hands and pulled him close, kissing him with everything that she had in her. She gave him her heart and soul in that kiss and the promise of hope. “I love you, Andries. If I say something stupid again, please don’t leave me but talk to me. I’m trying to learn the ways of our people, Andries. I’m trying to learn so that I don’t hurt you again, but I can’t learn if you walk away. So please, talk to me?”

  Nodding slightly, he brushed his lips over hers again. “I will attempt to remember that, wife,” he murmured softly to her. Not that he ever forgot anything she told him, but he needed to give himself a buffer for some reason, one he couldn’t truly identify. Brushing his fingers lightly over her cheeks, he pressed a kiss to the corner of her eye where the tears she was holding back shimmered. “No tears, Xandra, please.”

  “I just keep thinking that I nearly lost you.” Her heart ached. “Over a comment made in haste, over words that I never meant.” Leaning into his touch, she nodded. “Talk to me, Andries? Even when I’m being stupid.” She was rehashing things that didn’t need to be brought out again and she realized that. “Love me, Andries. While our children rest, I need you again.” She needed him to lay claim to her once more, to shore up that broken thread between them that she had so carelessly severed.

  “You are never stupid, Xandra. You are just young,” he said softly, trailing his lips down her face. “It is not easy for me to talk,” Andries clarified. “We are trained to not feel, to not speak of anything outside the now and the need to know, and yet you are breaking through every barrier I have.” Sliding his hands over her body, he stroked her gently as he moved slightly, adjusting his position.

  She nodded and smiled. “I can’t say that I’m sorry for tearing them down, Andries. I love the man that you are, that you were, and the man you will be when our children are born. For now though”—she leaned in and nuzzled lightly against his chest with a sigh of happiness—“I need you, husband. I need you to fuck me, hard.”

  Cradling her head to him gently, he stroked her hair as he slid a hand down to stroke her cunt and found her wet and needy, her hips shifting at his touch. Moving his hand, he lifted her hips and slid his cock into her pussy with no warning and more force than he normally did. He needed to mark her as his. He needed her to know that he would be there and he needed her to stop doubting him at every turn.

  A sob escaped her lips as she felt an orgasm with the first thrust of his cock in her pussy. Her body was desperate for his, her heart and soul for him as well. “Andries.” She never failed to whisper his name when they came together, never failed to give him all of her love. “I need your mark, we both do.” She bent her head to the side and bared her throat to him.

  Moving his cock in her body, he murmured soft words of his oath to her in his language, ones he was sure she would not know. She had not learned them all yet, after all. Then, with a sudden move he struck, his teeth going deep as he drank and then, from within, let the liquid that was in his teeth, something only a few knew of, slide into the wounds. It would make his mark on her flesh permanent, not of the fangs, but of a genetic design all his own much like tattoos that their people got but less painful.

  She cried out at his bite and wrapped her legs tighter around him to hold on. She screamed and lifted her hips again meeting him thrust for each of his hungry and desperate thrusts.

  Pounding into her flesh in near desperation, Andries was hanging onto the beast by the thinnest and weakest of leashes, and it was slipping. Unable to hold on, he prayed he wouldn’t hurt her and just let loose, his body moving harder and faster than ever before. Lifting her hips higher, he drove into her as he found that one spot that made her squirm and gasp.

  “No more blood, Andries.” He didn’t stop right away, so she did the only thing she could in her situation and bit into his shoulder deeply. She fed from him even as he fed from her.

  Her bite brought him back from the edge of destruction and he pulled his teeth from her throat with a curse. Licking the wounds, he moved his mouth to her ear. “I love you,” he whispered, his word holding an apology for his loss of control. Still driving into her pussy over and over, he cradled her head to his shoulder until, in the next moment, he came in a flash of pure need.

  Removing her fangs from his shoulder, she licked the wounds and turned her head to take his mouth with hers. Words weren’t exchanged, but the actions spoke as clearly as his words had.

  Kissing her as he held her close to him, he shuddered at the feeling of her body accepting everything he was and not pushing him away. He couldn’t believe she would still accept him after what he’d nearly done to her and their children, and yet, she had just accepted it and done what was necessary to keep her and their babies safe. Lifting his head slightly, he brushed his lips over hers. “I love you, my lady wife,” he whispered.

  “And I love you, my lord husband.” Her hands moved gently over his cheek. “I love you, Andries,” she repeated, using his name rather than his title. “You amaze me.” He did. He was her everything. She hoped that one day she would be able to give him as much as he gave to her on a daily basis.

  “You amaze me as well, my lady wife.” He smiled for her, the slight turn of his lips showing her how much he truly loved her. “We should get up, Xandra. If I remember correctly, we are having a meal with the ambassador as it is his last night with us before we reach his new home,” he said softly even though he didn’t move. What he did do was lightly turn her head and then stroke his fingers over the faded blue of his house marks on her throat. Leaning in, he pressed a gentle kiss to the mark that showed her as his for all time, and gods help any that tried to tear them apart.

  She shivered with the gentle kiss and felt her pussy clench his cock as it was still buried deep inside of her cunt. “Why did that feel so different from all the other kisses you have given me, Andries?” She knew something had changed, but was not sure what. “As for the ambassador, he will wait for us, darling.”

  Lifting his head, he put his weight onto his elbows and stared down at her. “I marked you,” he murmured softly, not sure how she was going to feel when she saw the mark of his house, his bloodlines, forever in her flesh in the faded dark blue color of his house.

  She smiled and nodded. “Possessive much? It’s not meant as a hurtful thing, Andr
ies. Do you…” She paused and levered herself up close so that her breasts pressed close to his chest, her nipples rubbing slightly. “You have no idea how good it feels to be the woman possessed by Andries Mauricio. To know that every time anyone now will look at me they will see the mark of our house and know that I am in a loving and committed relationship.” Touching his face, she whispered to him, “Thank you, Andries.”

  Understanding dawned. She had been teasing him and he smiled slightly. “You are welcome, my love,” he told her honestly. Kissing her softly, he lifted his head again. “We should go, my wife. The sooner this meal with the ambassador is done, the sooner we can return to our bed and rest.” The last was said with a hint of something more to it, for he didn’t plan on resting any time soon.

  “I don’t want to rest until we have to, Andries,” she complained and then, catching his eyes, smiled. “Oooh.” Nodding her approval, she let him go with first her legs, and then her arms. “Then we should go and shower before dressing so that we don’t smell of sex.”

  Slipping his relaxed cock free of her body, he stood and then helped her to her feet and guided her toward the bathing chamber. “We do need to shower, for what I do with my wife is for me alone and not another,” he said and didn’t give a damn if his tone was too possessive, as she’d accused him earlier. He was possessive of her, just as any male Vampire was of his mate and as any female Vampire was of hers. It was the nature of their inner beasts even though the male’s was always a lot closer to the surface than the female’s.

  There was a low growl from her throat. “Yes, no one needs to know what you and I share behind closed doors. You are mine, Andries. No one gets to share the scent of our pleasure but us.”