Page 100 of The Vampire's Bride

I’m surprised by his suddenly somber mood. “What is wrong?”

Lowering his gaze, he shakes his head softly but he does not speak.

“Please,” I say softly. “Tell me.”

CHAPTER 39

VALARIC

How do I explain the fear that grips my heart when I think of how close I came to losing her before we even met? That sometimes, I make my way to her room during the day, just so I can see the rise and fall of her chest as she sleeps, my mind demanding proof that she is alive and safe.

“The first time I saw you, you were so close to death.” I touch her face. “That terrible image is burned in my mind, and I have relived that moment a thousand times in my head.” Closing my eyes, I struggle to push away the dark memory. She was so broken; lying so still, that I thought for a moment I had arrived too late. “If I had not come, you would be gone.”

Her eyes search mine. “You truly do care, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do.” I’m taken aback by her question. “Why do you question this?”

She looks away, softly biting her lower lip—a gesture she often makes when in deep contemplation. After a moment, she lifts her gaze back to mine. “Sometimes, I wonder how you truly feel about me because you hold back.”

I still. “What do you mean?”

“After what happened between us on the beach… I thought—” She hesitates a moment before continuing. “I do not understand why we still sleep in separate rooms.”

My heart stutters. I cannot tell her the truth—that I worry if we share a bed, I could easily succumb to the temptation to mark her as my mate. And once the witch found out, it would only endanger her.

But it is more than that. I am on the razor’s edge of my control, balanced between my love for her and the dark hunger that lurks deep within, writhing beneath the surface. My need for Juliet is all-consuming.

Everything about her calls to the most primitive core of my very being, a siren song that tests my control every moment we are together. I want her more than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my entire life. The need to take her… to possess her entirely is nearly overwhelming.

“It is already so difficult to maintain my control when I take your blood.” I drop my forehead to hers. “I don’t want to hurt you or make you afraid.”

“You won’t.” Her luminous eyes stare deep into mine. “I’m not afraid of you, Valaric.”

Her words are meant to reassure me, but instead they only convince me that she still does not understand the truth of what I am. “You should be.”

“Why?”

“Because I am a Vampire.” I clench my jaw. “And the part of me that craves your blood is as strong as the part of me that desires you the way a man desires his wife.” Even now, venom floods my mouth at the mere thought of marking and claiming her as mine. “You make me want things I do not deserve. Things I should not have.”

“You can have them, Valaric.” She reaches up and touches my face. “You can have me.”

I turn my head, pulling away. “You don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Yes, I do.”

Gods help me, I want her so much. The temptation is nearly more than I can bear. But if I want to protect her, she needs the hard truth.

“Look at me.” My voice is firm as I allow my fangs and claws to extend. In the reflection of her eyes, I see my own—twin obsidian pools of darkness stare back me, my feral appearance more that of a monster than a man. “You do not understand the darkness within me. Even now”—my nostrils flare—“I can scent your blood. It calls to me.”

I place two claw-tipped fingers up under her chin, careful to not puncture her delicate skin as I force her gaze to mine. “You are everything that is light and pure, and I am a creature of darkness and hunger. When I take from you and you cling to me, gasping and writhing in pleasure as I drink, the darkness within me delights in your surrender.”

I clench my jaw. “And when you lie so trustingly in my arms, in my bed, I can barely think when all I want to do is to take you—all of you: mind, body, heart, and soul—making you mine completely.”

I stare deep into her luminous green eyes. Instead of fear, I see only trust, and it nearly brings me to my knees. “When I look at you, it is like staring at the sun. I have no right to even touch you, and yet you still allow it.”

Unable to stop myself, I reverently touch her face, watching in wonder as a lovely pink flush blooms across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. “You consume my every thought, and I long to claimand possess every part of you, marking you so that no one will ever doubt that you are mine.”

She stretches up on her toes until her face is nearly level with my own. Her gaze drops to my mouth, our lips so close each breath she takes becomes mine.

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