Page 77 of These Wicked Desires

Three weeks after I almost lost Ellis and Cade, I find myself standing outside my father’s estate, hand in hand with my beloved. The past two weeks have been phenomenal. We’ve done nothing but lay around the cabin, eat, drink, talk, and fuck. It was pure bliss. But time doesn’t stop, even to let us celebrate, dream, and plan.

My father has been calling me non-stop, and I’ve put off this meeting for as long as I can. I take a deep breath and step up to the door, but hesitate before opening it.

“Did you forget how to open doors? Do you need me to do it for you?” Ellis squeezes my hand, a wry tilt to her lips.

I squeeze her hand back, perhaps a tad harder than I should, but I can’t help it when she gets sassy like that. “No, I did not forget how to open doors.” I cut my stare to her and wait until she rolls her eyes. Returning my attention to the massive wooden door in front of us, my humor drops away. “Do I want to do this? Do I want to go inside and tell my dad I still want to be prince?” Ellis says nothing, but she steps closer to me, her arm brushing against mine. “Choose for me,” I say, turning to her with renewed energy. “Make this life-changing decision for me.”

She shakes her head, a small smile playing about her lips. “I’m not making this decision for you, Kai.”

I sigh. “Fine. At least blink once if you think I should. Twice if you think I shouldn’t.” She doesn’t blink at all. “What does that mean?” I ask, pointing at her face. “What does no blink mean?”

She stands on her toes and takes my face in her palms. “It means, only you can make this decision. But whatever decision that is, I will support you and be right here with you. We all talked about this the other night. No matter what choice you make, we’re all here for you.”

I sigh and turn back to the door. She’s right, unfortunately. Only I can make this decision. But it helps knowing she has my back no matter what I decide. I pull open the massive door and tug Ellis in behind me. The opulence of this place is lost on me. After having been raised in the estate, the grand marble floors, gold trim, and expensive decorations no longer phase me. But I notice Ellis looking around with wide eyes. At first I think she’s awed taking it all in, but when she tugs me to stop outside the library-turned-man cave, I detect something else from her.

She opens the door and stands in the doorway for a moment before stepping inside. Sadness and longing are the two most prominent emotions I pick up on, but I also detect hope and wonder. She walks around the room, looking at the strange dichotomy of old-fashioned grandeur and modern conveniences.

“This room holds a lot of memories,” she whispers, fingers trailing over spines of books tucked on the shelves that have been pushed to one side. “This is where I reclaimed myself. Where I decided I wouldn’t let him have a hold over me anymore.” She huffs a small laugh and picks up the stuffed wolf with painted blue eyes. Hugging it to her chest, she walks to the pool table and turns to face me. “I learned what love is in this room.” Her eyes sparkle with emotion and something I can’t quite put my finger on. “I learned that pleasure doesn’t equal pain.”

Ah. There it is. Desire. I have no doubt she’s remembering the time Cade used his magic to bind her to the pool table and I fucked her senseless. The first time magic was used not as a means to hurt her during sex, but to enhance it. I walk toward her, my fingers itching to pin her to the table again, but instead, I lift her and sit her on top, stepping between her thighs.

“Have I told you how proud I am of you?” I ask, taking her face in my hands and tipping it up with my thumbs under her chin.

“No,” she whispers, eyes turning glassy with unshed tears.

“Well, shame on me, then.” I step closer, brushing my lips lightly against her forehead. “Because I am so incredibly proud of you, Ellis. Your strength and courage leave me in awe everyday. And I am honored to have you by my side.”

A single tear escapes and slips down her cheek as she hugs that damn stuffed animal tighter to her chest. She opens her mouth to say something, but her lips tremble and she closes them, pressing them tight together. I don’t give her another chance to say something. I claim her mouth and pour all of my feelings into the kiss, making sure she understands every word I said was true.

When I pull away, I brush the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs and help her down from the table. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“You never need to thank me, baby girl. Now, let's go see if I can be as brave as you.” She snorts and I look at her with mock outrage, placing my hand on my chest. “What? You don’t think I’m brave?”

“Oh, it’s not that I don’t think you’re brave. It’s that I have no doubt you’re going to make a complete fool of yourself somehow.”

I can’t argue that, so I grunt and we leave the library behind, heading for my dad’s office. The estate is quiet, but it usually is. Most of the people who work here are human and keep to a normal schedule of sleeping at night and working during the day. Only a few selected staff members are vampires that keep nighttime hours.

When we reach my dad’s office, Ellis looks around, holding the stuffed wolf and biting her lip. Eventually she sighs and sets the thing in a potted plant. When I raise my brow at her in question, she shrugs. “I can’t look like a child holding a stuffie in front of your dad.”

My lips twitch but I keep myself from laughing, because the nerves that suddenly batter my mental shield are all hers. I take her hand and give it an encouraging squeeze. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She nods and I knock on the door before opening it. My dad, Salvatore Thorne, king of the vampires, sits behind a massive mahogany desk. The curtains that, during the day, cover the floor to ceiling windows behind him have been pulled open to let the full moon shine in. His long black hair hangs down in a shiny smooth curtain and reflects the moonlight.

His dark eyes land behind me, on Ellis, and I stiffen. “Well,” he says, his voice low and full of hunger. “What have we here?”

I tug Ellis to my side and my gaze goes hard as I stare at my dad. “Before we go any further, there are a few things I need to make clear. Ellis is my beloved, and I will not tolerate anything from you.” My dad jerks back in his seat, eyes going wide. He studies Ellis and I do my best to not shift in front of her. “You will not lay a hand on her or direct any vile comments toward her. She is off limits.”

My dad crosses his arms over his chest and nods. “Very well. Anything else?”

I blink. Okay. That went better than I thought it would. “I am no longer going to do your dirty work. And neither will Cade and Sterling. You can find someone else to be your lackeys, but it won’t be us. If you can’t accept that, I will walk out of here and never return.”

My dad smirks, something glinting in his eyes, and a weird emotion filters past my shields. Is that … pride? “Well, it’s about time.”

“What?” I ask, taken aback and thoroughly thrown off my guard.

“Sit down, Malakai.” He motions to the chairs in front of his desk, and I pull one out for Ellis before taking my own. My dad steeples his fingers and looks at me with a hard gaze. “I’ve been waiting for you to grow a backbone. Now that you’ve shown me you won’t let someone walk all over you, I can let you take up more responsibilities within the court.”

“Actually, about that,” I say, tightening my grip on the arms of the chair. “I would like to focus on the inequality between the races. Between all races. Humans included.”

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