Page 146 of The Vampire's Bride

“You can hear me?” His eyes light with wonder.

I nod. “How is this possible?”

“The fated bond,” he explains. “But I did not think it would be possible for us, because you are human. I had hoped but… I was not sure.”

I don’t quite know how I feel about having him listen in on my every thought. As he looks at me, the same feeling of bliss and happiness I felt a few moments earlier washes through me. “Is that you?” I ask. “That feeling of—”

“Blissful joy,” he finishes my sentence, a handsome smile on his face. “Yes, it is me.”

Worry settles in my chest, and his expression falls.

“You do not like this.” His brow furrows deeply. “I can sense your discomfort.” He touches my cheek. “There is a way to break this connection, if you wish. It would have to be done by a priestess, but if this is what you want, we will do it.”

“No.” I take his hand and place it over my heart. “I do not hate it,” I answer honestly, and I can sense his relief across the bond. “It’s just a bit strange and new. Is there a way to”—I hesitate, unsure how to say it before finally settling on—“mute it just a bit, while I get used to it?”

Hope unfurls like a flower in my mind, and I know it is coming from him. He loves being connected to me in this way, and he’s glad that I want to keep our connection. “Yes.”

As the word leaves his mouth, an odd sensation—almost like a door closing in my mind—settles over me, and I can no longer feel him as strongly.

“Are you still there?”I ask, reaching out with my thoughts, wondering if he will receive it.

“Yes,”he whispers in my head, but it’s faint, a mere shadow of what it was before.“Is that better?”

“Much,” I reply, a smile cresting my lips.

I shift in his arms, wincing slightly at the dull ache between my thighs.

He cups my cheek. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” I reach up and smooth my fingers over the deep line furrowing his brow. “Just a bit sore.”

“Did I hurt you?” A small wave of panic washes through me. It takes me a moment to realize it is coming from him.

As if realizing that he has projected this to me, he quickly clamps it back down and the feeling disappears entirely. But in his eyes, it is easy to read his concern.

“No,” I reassure him. “It was my first time. I was warned it might ache a bit afterward. But it’s very slight.”

“And this?” he touches the puncture marks over my heart. “Does this hurt you as well?”

I place my hand atop his, flattening his palm to my chest. “No.”

He growls low and nuzzles my breast, pressing a kiss directly over his mark. “You carry my scent, my beautiful wife. All will know you are mine and mine alone.”

Reaching up, I run my fingers through the hair that falls across his forehead, gently brushing it back as I allow my gaze to travel over his handsome face.

He skims the tip of his nose alongside mine. “I have been yours from the start, Juliet.”

A smile crests my lips as he trails a line of suctioning kisses down my neck to my chest and then traces his tongue along the gentle slope of my left breast before closing his mouth over the already stiff peak.

I moan and arch up into him as he laves his tongue over my sensitive flesh and he purrs low in approval.

When he moves down my body, he nuzzles at the juncture of my thighs. “Open for me,” he whispers.

I do as he asks, and he dips his head between my thighs. Pleasure ripples through me as he drags his tongue through my folds and then teases the small pearl of flesh at the apex.

He replaces his lips with his thumb as he kisses a heated trail up my inner thigh. The sharp points of his fangs graze over myskin, and his eyes snap up to mine, a question burning in their depths.

I nod, and his gaze holds my own as he sinks his fangs into my tender flesh. Intense pleasure moves over and through me at the gentle suction of his mouth, and the brush of his thumb over the small bundle of nerves between my thighs.

---