Page 5 of Crimson Mourning

“We can’t. We need to go. This will be fun for both of us.”

I released myself from his hold and walked away, swaying my ass more than necessary to get him to follow. He was a boob man by nature, but I had other assets to put to use, and I was going to use every one of them.

Damon sped by me and opened the front door. Being a vampire, he was stronger and faster than me as a human. It was such a turn-on. I stepped out onto the porch and waited for him to close and lock the door before he held my hand and led me to our car parked in the circular driveway.

He opened my door and waited for me to get in. As he walked to the driver’s side, the butterflies in my stomach crashed into me nonstop.

Here goes nothing, I thought to myself as he opened his door and slid into the seat.

Damon was still. I looked over and could see the wheels as they spun in his head. I’m not one to make a big fuss over things, and this was out of my wheelhouse of predictability, even for an anniversary. I was fucked and not in the way I hoped.

“What’s this all about, Cassie?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“You know I don’t go for surprises. They never work on me, so spill it.”

When I didn't answer, Damon rested his hands on the steering wheel and started the car. I wasn’t sure how to bring this up without him flipping his lid. It wasn’t going to be aneasy subject to broach, but I had to try. I'd spent all day walking myself through this, there was no turning back now.

“Damon, do this for me, and don’t ask so many questions.”

“Okay," he sighed. "Okay. But can you at least tell me where we're going?”

I sucked in a deep breath, looked down at my shoes, and pretended to smooth out my dress as it clung to my body. Mustering up the courage to say the one little word I needed to, almost made me call the whole thing off.

“Crimson’s.”

There, I said it. I didn’t look at him as I did, but I said it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his knuckles turn white as they gripped the steering wheel. My breath caught in my chest as I waited for him to pull the damn thing off the column. His jaw set, and I swear if the man could get red in the face with anger he would have done so.

“Cassie, look at me.”

I stared at my shoes.

“Cassie.”

My head raised in time to see his nostrils flare and a vein pulse across his forehead. It was all I could do to maintain eye contact with him as he glared. I prepared myself for the coming lecture.

After a few long moments, Damon spoke. I was used to hearing my husband speak with the authority of the head of a clan of vampires who bent to his will. I longed for the nights when he spoke with a tone full of love as the husband of a human wife. But this? This was a tone I never heard come from him before.

It was a tone drenched with concern.

CHAPTER FIVE

DAMON

Crimson’s was the place where the familiars gathered. It was a club of debauchery and blood. And a place I told herweshould never go. She was my wife, but our relationships had its limits, because I was also the clan leader.Wecould not go to Crimson’s because I’d been there earlier in the day. The back of the club led to the council’s chambers, and showing up at Crimson’s, with my wife, would be the very definition of flaunting our relationship. To do that on council territory could be interpreted as an act of war.

Why would she attempt to defy me like this?

Cassie was well aware of the risks we had as a married couple. It was insane. The council frowned upon the marriage and it took all my wealth and influence to keep them at bay. Every time we stepped out together, the uneasy truce between me and my kind hung in the balance. If anyone made a move on Cassie, I would kill them. I would kill them all.

“No,” I said, my hands on the steering wheel. “I’d rather take you to a nice,humanrestaurant. Crimson’s is a non-starter.”

Cassie bit her lip in just the right way. I hated when she did that, because she knew how much it excited me. Her poutyexpression accentuated her full lips, and piercing her bottom one with her teeth drew a single drop of blood to the surface. The smell immediately captured my senses and my fangs descended. Her blood was intoxicating. I placed my hand behind her head and fisted her hair, drawing her head back and exposing her neck. Her gasp made my cock stiffen.

“You’re mine,” I growled. “Crimson’s is out of the question.”

CHAPTER SIX

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