Page 41 of Blood Moon Heat

The fates had decided it was time for the centuries of emotional paralysis to be over. They had something else in store for me now, and even though I’d fought it, I knew from experience that fighting fate was a losing battle.

I stopped outside Mina’s door. It was late and she’d be asleep. The agony of resisting her was constant now. I burned for her every hour of the day and night. I was able to withstand the kind of pain lesser males would have gone mad from. The kind of torment that would have driven them to snap and do her damage that could never be repaired or forgiven.

I’d come close to losing that control, more times than should be possible. Only Mina could do that, push me to the edge, and only she had the power to stop me. I realized now, the primal instinct to mate was just as powerful as the need to protect her, even from myself.

Nothing could make me hurt my little doll. I knew that now.

Sliding the key from my pocket, I undid the padlock soundlessly and opened the door.

I’d suffered the kind of torture that shattered the most powerful of men. I never believed anything could break me after surviving that—I’d been wrong.

Mina could break me, into a million pieces, and she didn’t even know it.

Gods, I craved her love like a starved beast, even if I didn’t know how the emotion felt any longer, even though I didn’t know if I was even capable of ever returning it. All I knew was I wanted it, because I needed her to want only me. Only then could I be sure I’d never lose her, that she would never leave me.

You will never know what it feels like to be loved by me, because I could never love a monster like you.

The words she’d said that first night in the garden echoed through my mind. Did she still feel that way? Was I still that same monster in her eyes?

I closed the door behind me and approached my sleeping bride. She was covered in a mountain of blankets, her breathing slow and even, but it quickened when I got closer to her. Even in sleep she sensed me, wanted me.

Would my leaving truly distress her?

Watching the rapid rise and fall of her chest under the covers, I slid my hand down the front of my shirt, undoing the buttons as I went.

She groaned in her sleep, shoving back the covers, and her scent washed over me. She was rubbing her thighs together while she muttered and moaned in her sleep, telling me how much she needed me.

I needed her as well. I just wanted another taste of her before I left. A week without her felt like an eternity, and the mere thought stunned me. I shrugged off my shirt and stripped off the rest of my clothes.

I breathed her scent deep into my lungs as I lifted the covers, then eased onto the mattress beside her. Anticipation was coursing through me. Something else I hadn’t felt in too long to remember.

I wanted to fuck her, badly, but I wouldn’t, not tonight, not right before I left—not when I didn’t have days to glut on her like the starved monster she made me.

This would have to do until I returned.

Mina

A strong arm banded around me, while a hand clamped over my mouth.

I tried to scream behind cold fingers, to get free, but I was held too tight.

“Fight all you want, Lalka, you will never escape me,” Nero growled against my ear.

As soon as I heard his voice, a wave of desire washed over me, but I was already hot and needy, wasn’t I? I’d been dreaming of him. Of Nero here with me, of him catching me, touching me. That’s when I became aware of his bare skin against my back. My nightgown had lifted while I slept, and I could feel every hard, cool inch of him pressed against my body.

Something hard prodded my bottom. His cock. “Your word, Mina?”

My breath shook from me. We were going to play our game.

“Say it so I know you remember it.”

“Pink.”

“And if you’re unable to speak, hit me three times in quick succession and I’ll stop.”

“Why wouldn’t I be able to speak?”

“Tell me you understand?”

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