Page 10 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

“My life—I offered it to save yours.” I bit my lip, aware of his piercing, unblinking stare. “Your life is tied to mine now. It was the only way.” I waited for him to respond but he only stood there. “Do you mind?”

After a moment of silence that seemed to stretch on forever, his throat bobbed. His voice was awed as he answered. “Do I mind?” he repeated. “I’m honored, but I don’t want you to make that sacrifice for me. I want you to live.”

“How could I live without my heart?” I whispered. “Could you?”

Another beat of silence followed and then he was striding toward me. When he reached me, his palms cradled my face. “I will never live another day without you,” he swore, and I knew that this wasn’t about the price I’d paid to save him. It was about what had happened before—it was why we’d found ourselves standing here now. “I am not a perfect male. I’ve made mistakes.” The smirk returned, and I sagged with relief as he added, “I might even make more.”

Might? I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help but smile.

“But I will face them with you,” he finished. “No secrets. You don’t need me to protect you from the truth.”

I took a deep breath as the full meaning of what he’d said sank in. He had kept things from me, and I’d done the same. Both of us thinking we were protecting the other. Instead, we’d found ourselves ripped apart and why? It was a risk I was unwilling to take no matter how uncomfortable the situation we found ourselves in.

“No secrets,” I vowed. But if there were to be no secrets… “Julian, my father is a vampire.”

His gaze hardened into sapphires. “I know.”

“Then you know what I might become. What I might already be.” Terror welled inside me as I admitted the fear I’d barely corked since the moment I awakened on the throne.

“I don’t care.” He brushed a tear from my cheek with the rough pad of his thumb.

“You should. What if—” A choked sob cut me off, but he shook his head.

“I love you. I don’t care what blood runs in your veins. I don’t care about your magic or how powerful it will make you. I love you—all of you. The power and the weakness and the human and the creature. Nothing will change that.”

“What if I change?” I forced myself to ask even as my heart pounded inside me.

“If you change, I will love you more just as I do with every minute that passes,” he murmured. He paused before smiling, “Now, can I get you out of these bloody clothes?”

I nodded, tears still leaking down my cheeks. He walked to the shower and flipped on the water before turning back to me. My breath hitched as he circled me and found my gown’s zipper. He drew it down slowly—so slowly that I felt his worshipful gaze on my bare skin. Expectation rippled across me and pooled in my core until I was molten. His long fingers slipped under its straps and slid it from my shoulders to puddle at my feet.

The gown itself had been too low cut for a bra, so I stood before him in nothing but a scrap of lace masquerading as panties, stockings, and my heels. Julian knelt, his mouth brushing along the column of my spine, and hooked his thumbs around the elastic band at my waist. He took his time removing them, allowing his mouth to explore their wake. It felt as if I was being wound around again and again, each flicker of his tongue, each caress of his lips coiling me tighter until I thought I might explode under the tension.

He removed my heels and then my stockings, at last gripping my hips and urging me to face him. I closed my eyes, my entire being centered on the spots where his fingertips touched me. When his grip tightened, I felt something crackle in the air between us. I opened my eyes to find him staring at my chest—at the blood dried there. The blood I’d spilled as I’d died with him. When he finally looked up at me, his blue eyes were haunted.

He released me and reached behind his neck to undo the chain he wore. When it was off, he slid the emerald ring free and reached for my hand. Neither of us spoke as he slid it onto my finger, but I vowed silently to never take it off again. His palm flattened against mine, and he twined our fingers. Energy crackled between us, proof of the new magic we carried, but neither of us pulled away. And when Julian lowered his head to rest on the center of my rib cage, I knew he was counting my heartbeats, even as magic surged and sparked between us.

I lost track of how long we stood there, each of us cherishing the other. I never wanted it to end. And when he finally moved it was only to stand and lift me into his arms. He carried me into the shower. Steam billowed around me as he lowered me to my feet and reached for the soap. He lathered it between his palms before he began to wash me. His touch was so tender, I could hardly breathe. When he reached between my breasts, he slowed, his eyes narrowing on the red-tinged water.

His jaw worked for a moment before he brought his scorching gaze to meet mine. “You shouldn’t…”

“I don’t regret it,” I said fiercely, “and I would do it again.”

His answering smile was full of sorrowful understanding.

“You are my mate,” I whispered, my tears mixing with the shower.

Julian growled, a primal hunger twisting his features. In one swift move, he swept me into his arms. He didn’t bother with a towel as he carried me to the bed in the adjoining room. He laid me across it, leaving my bare legs to dangle over the edge, but he didn’t join me.

“I told you earlier that I would be the first to kneel before you and offer my allegiance, My Queen.” A smile wrapped itself around his words, but I still made a face. His chuckle slid down me, making my body clench. “But you are my Queen. You always have been. Now I just have to share you.”

“Will you?” I asked shyly.

“As long as I am the only one who gets to do this.” The huskiness is his voice sent a bolt of pleasure through me. It pooled between my legs as he lowered himself one knee at a time to the floor. His palms sent pulses of magic up my sensitive thighs as he pushed them apart. I stopped breathing entirely as he lowered his head between them, his hands spreading me wide open before him. One hot lash of the tongue sent me arching off the bed. He loosed another sinful chuckle as he pinned me to the mattress with one hand.

This time he took his time as he dragged his tongue all the way down. Lightning followed in its wake and my hands shot out to grab hold of the sheets. I gripped them more tightly as he continued to pleasure me with long, lazy strokes. He only slowed to circle the ache pulsing at my apex. But as I climbed, climbed, climbed, each tremble of pleasure only reminded me of the hollow need inside me.

“Please,” I finally gritted out as I writhed under the palm pinning me to the bed. “I want you.”

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