Page 477 of Shadowblood Souls
If Riva is surprised that we head upstairs rather than outside or into one of the many common rooms, she doesn’t show it. I lead her right into my bedroom and then stop just past the threshold, abruptly twice as uncertain.
Dominic keeps his head enough to shut the door behind us. Right. Privacy is a good thing.
Even if nothing about this can be totally private when we’ve got these fucking manacles clamped around our wrists.
To hell with Balthazar. He and his stooges don’t matter.
All that really matters is the woman in front of me.
Riva doesn’t look remotely concerned. She lifts a questioning eyebrow at me, her stance untroubled in her fleece pullover and jeans.
Casual clothes, just the stuff left in the villa for us, but she always looks gorgeous to me no matter what she’s wearing. I have the urge to tuck a stray strand of her silvery hair back behind her ear to join her braid.
I swallow thickly and ease a careful step toward her. “I—I’ve been thinking about what you said before. On the island. About… about how maybe we could try to work through my hang-ups.”
Riva blinks. Then she glances from me to the bed and back again, and her eyes widen slightly.
But there’s no horror mingled with her surprise. Her cheeks flush. “You were thinking we’d get started on that now?”
“I feel like I’ve already left the situation the way it is for too long, lost so much time with you…” My throat starts to constrict, and I pause to take a slow breath. “Unless you think it wouldn’t be a good idea to try, for reasons like before.”
Before, when our former captor shoved us together in the hopes of gathering data about the bond we could form if we have sex—like Riva has with three of my friends already.
Riva brushes her fingers over one of her manacles automatically, but she shakes her head. “I haven’t gotten the impression that we need to be worried about those things in our current situation.”
I haven’t either, but the fact that she’s confirmed it relieves me. Balthazar hasn’t shown any interest in our personal connections other than how he can use our loyalty to each other to get his way.
From what Clancy said, our current captor hasn’t been a part of the Guardianship in years. And even if he was still hearing some news about their progress, I think Clancy would have wanted to keep that particular interest of his pretty quiet.
How many of his colleagues would have approved of him acting like some kind of a supernatural pimp?
“Okay,” I say, somehow feeling both exhilarated and even more nervous at the same time. “I figured we could just start and… see how it goes. And, ah, I asked Dominic to be here too,just in case—in case I panic. So he can drain me enough to knock me out before I do anything I’d really regret.”
I tense, half expecting Riva to balk at my precaution. Her lips part, and a gleam comes into her eyes that looks more sad than anything.
It’s Dom she looks at now. “Areyouokay with all of this, if you have to step in?”
I should have known she’d ask that. She doesn’t want him pushing himself past his limits either—and there are obviously things about his own powers that he’s not totally comfortable with.
Before I can feel guilty again about asking him at all, Dominic offers her a smile as gentle as the one he gave me. “I’m glad that I can be a part of making this happen for you two.”
His gaze slides back to me. “I’ll intervene if it’s necessary, but I don’t think I’m going to have to. It’s mostly about Zee knowing he has a… a fail-safe, I guess you could call it, so that he can relax more.”
Riva takes that in. Then she aims a grin that’s both shy and sly at me. “Where did you want to start?”
Holy fuck. This is actually happening.
A shudder of apprehension races through my limbs instinctively, but I remind myself that I want this. That I’d never want to hurt Riva.
That what we’ll do here is nothing at all like that day with the woman who tried to seduce me against my will.
And if some idiotic part of my brain decides to lash out as if it is like that, Dominic is here to siphon all the vicious energy out of me.
He can heal me again later. But I wouldn’t care even if I ended up in a coma like he did.
If I try to hurt Riva, I’ll deserve it.
I resist the urge to fidget, feeling totally out of my depth. “I guess the bed would make the most sense?”
