Page 13 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness

He had yet to be able to connect with Harker again. He’d even tried more traditional means—like the phone. Whatever had happened to him had left him unreachable mentally. As far as Vlad knew, Lucian hadn’t had any success reaching out that way to him either.

“Agree to water…just water to start,” he murmured, his voice a quiet threat. “Just water to start.”

She hissed again.

“Lumini?a mea,” he warned, his voice dropping lower. “You will soon find I am not easily bested in a test of wills,” he stressed.

Her breathing slowed, as did her pulse—fierce still, yet no longer frantic.

Progress.

He released her wrists, half-expecting her to claw at his face and neck.

Her hands shot to his shoulders but she didn’t tear into his flesh. She did, however, rip something—his shirt. She tore it right off him in one swift motion.

Vlad had no shame about his body and knew it was toned and something others found greatly appealing, even with his scars. Prior to becoming a creature of the night, Vlad would spend hours upon hours a day training, always ready for battle. It had been that way since he’d been in his teens. Then, when darkness came for him, leaving him sharing his body with a demon, it increased his strength, speed, and agility.

Something he never took for granted.

Never once in all his years had he worried what another thought of him—until now. Did Ponytail Girl like what she saw? Did she find him as visually pleasing as he found her? Did she yearn to touch him as he did her?

Her pulse quickened again.

At first, Vlad assumed she’d attack—again.

Instead, her hands found his chest. Her touch sent fire shooting through him. He made a move to grab her wrists to pull her hands away, but his demon shot up, nearly breaking free.

No!it shouted.Permit her to touch us. She may drink something even.

Vlad highly doubted hydration was on the demon’s mind.

Her fingers followed the lines of the numerous scars crisscrossing his upper body. Most were from swords, some daggers, a few had been from women hell bent on clawing him open to prove how good of a lover he was. All had been givento him when he was alive. Before the demon merged with him, gifting him supernatural healing.

Ponytail Girl’s fingers mapped each scar, her brows furrowing. She leaned in, putting her face close to his chest.

It was Vlad’s pulse that raced now.

“Lumini?a mea, I have only so much control,” he whispered, struggling to maintain his composure. “I would rather you attack me than this.”

Speak for yourself, huffed the demon.I happen to prefer this. Encourage her to do more.

“She is too young for us,” warned Vlad, earning him a confused look from Ponytail Girl.

The demon laughed.She is of age.

“That may be so but it is younger than I prefer. You have never shown an interest in a woman her age before.”

None of them were her and I have already told you, she is of age. I sense at least eighteen years of life on her. She may be nineteen even,the demon offered like that made a difference.

“And I am six hundred. You are far, far older than that,” reminded Vlad. “Nineteen is a million miles apart from us.”

Some famed lover of women you are.The demon grunted.There are very few, if any, women who are my age.

Vlad rolled his eyes.

Ponytail Girl’s tongue slid out and over the scar on Vlad’s chest from the killing blow Radu had delivered. The one that matched locations with her scar.

The act left Vlad jerking back, trying to put space between them.

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