Fated In Secrets (Nocturne Vampire Clan #2)

Chapter 21

21

EVANGELINE

“ L et me help get you out of those clothes, Evangeline.”

I picked at my t-shirt, sticky with blood, clinging to my skin. “I can manage.” I glanced at the half-open door leading to the outer hall, where Sylvester had disappeared.

“Actually,” I swallowed, “I’m feeling much better. I just need a good night’s sleep.”

“You need a warm bath and a good, long feeding.” Riordan corrected, crooking his finger at me. “Now come here so I can help you undress. Your hands are shaking.”

“They are not.” I hid my totally shaking hands behind my back. “Seriously, I’m…”

Between one blink and the next, Riordan was on me, one hand tangled in my hair to hold me still, the other pulling my shirt up over my head in one move, leaving me in nothing but my bra.

“Seriously, asshole?” I slapped at his roving hands. “I said I’m fine.”

With a splat, he dropped my ruined shirt onto the floor beside his coat and tie, then crowded me past the fire, past the bed and the enormous windows overlooking the gardens, through a door—I glanced over my shoulder—into his hot, humid bathroom, where steam was already rolling off a huge clawfoot tub.

Efficient bastard .

“Let me explain how the rest of tonight will go.” His soft, dangerous voice was just this side of threatening. “You will allow me to give you a long, hot bath, then you will feed. If you want me to fuck you, I gladly will. If you want to leave, I will let you go, but the first two options are non-negotiable. Understand?”

“You don’t give me orders, your majesty .”

“Tonight, I do.” Tendrils of magic swirled around him like a cape of red, curling up the walls and across the ceiling, twining with the steamy mist from the hot water.

“Tonight, Evangeline, you belong to me, and I will do whatever I goddamn want with you. If I have to tie you to my bed to get you to feed from my vein, then I will.” He scooped me up out of the doorway and dropped me—jeans, muddy shoes and all—next to the tub. “If I have to strip down and pin you in this tub to wash the blood off, I will, and believe me, I’m hard as a rock just thinking about having your soft, wet body under me. I’m done playing games. Now stop arguing and let me fucking take care of you.”

Honestly, I didn’t have the energy to fight him, so I took off my shoes and dropped them beside the bathtub, followed by my jeans, panties and bra, the hot, humid air coating me in a thin layer of sweat.

“There? Are you happy?”

“Get in the water. Now, Evangeline.” That dark, velvety tone made my entire core clench, wetness coating the inside of my thighs. Riordan’s eyes dipped to that exact spot, his tongue darting out and rimming his lips. “Don’t worry, I’m washing every filthy inch of you until you are clean. ”

Holy hell , my entire body contracted like he’d put his mouth on me.

“Fine, but only because you’re being a bossy asshole and I can see arguing will do me no good.”

“Good girl. You’re learning.” Riordan began unbuttoning his shirt, exposing more and more of those delicious tattoos and pale, perfect skin.

“That’s not really necessary.” I muttered, smothering my carnal moan when I slid beneath the hot water, swallowing my body in liquid heat.

“This is a five-hundred-dollar shirt.” He shrugged it off and my mind went blank, gaze locked on all those ab muscles, honed to absolute perfection. “Not that I particularly care, but having wet clothes stuck to my skin is a personal peeve of mine.”

“Hmmm.” Was about the most intelligent response I could muster as he knelt beside the tub and trailed his hand through the water, his fingertips skimming my knees, the swell of my breasts.

“You scared me tonight.” Riordan finally said, his shoulders sagging. “I felt your panic, and I didn’t even think. I just…had to get to you. Blake was too far away. And when I saw what they’d done to you…”

His hand stopped moving as he fell into that odd stillness our kind seemed to adopt whenever they were deep in thought. One slow, shuddering inhale, then, “A few weeks ago, I would have left you there, chased them down and killed them. But…I couldn’t.”

“Riordan, you don’t have to pretend you care.”

“I can’t care, there’s a difference.” He drew another one of those shuddering breaths, and I swore a ripple of his pain tore into my heart. “If anyone outside this castle discovered I had feelings for you, Evangeline, they would use you against me. You are already a target for Collum and Valaine, because you killed Tyrell. Your own family is hunting you, for fuck’s sake.”

He cupped a handful of water, let the warmth slowly trickle down my chest. “If any of our enemies suspected I was in love with you, they would burn this castle down to get to you. They would use you in ways that keep me awake at night. Hurt you in ways your father has not yet imagined. My feelings put you in danger, which is why I cannot love you, no matter how much I want to.”

The world ground to a halt, leaving me hanging on his words, on the undercurrent of misery running beneath them, outweighed only by the sour tang of regret in the air.

“Love is simply something I cannot afford. Not now, not when even a hint of attachment between us would become a knife that carves us apart.” His eyes rose to meet mine. “Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

I hugged my knees to my chest. “Yes, Rohr, I understand.”

I understood. How badly he wanted to feel something other than cold all the time.

How the world hurt the vulnerable, and tore apart the weak.

And I understood that Riordan Graves, king of the Nocturne Clan, loved me .

Or, at least, wanted to love me.

His chest heaved once, then he pressed my legs flat and dipped a washcloth into the water. “Give me tonight, Evie. Just one more night, and then we can…” His throat bobbed as he tenderly gathered my hair up in his hand. “Then we’ll go back to how things have to be. Because as much as I wish the world was different…it isn’t.”

“Okay.” I was so fucking tired of fighting. I couldn’t deny him— myself —any longer. I wanted Riordan, whether he was good for me or not. Whether there was a crash waiting for us at the end of tonight… or not .

He and I were like the sun setting or the moon rising—inevitable.

I closed my eyes, water streaming over my shoulders and neck as he pressed the soaked cloth to the nape of my neck. My chest, then lower. Again and again, until my body ached from the strain of holding myself back, my pussy throbbing as he washed—as promised—every single inch of me.

“You are so wet, Evangeline.” I bit down on my bottom lip when his fingers swept through my folds, hands gripping the sides of the tub as he plunged one finger, then two, in deep. “Dripping for me.” He pulled his fingers out and pushed them into his mouth, sucking off my juices. “Exactly as sweet as I remember.” He purred, while I watched his tongue work between every finger with remarkable thoroughness.

“Rohr,” a shaky sucked in breath, “ please .”

“Please, what , Evangeline?”

I lifted my head and glared. “Please stop teasing me.”

He leaned closer, and plunged his fingers back in, hard and deep as I gasped out his name., “I’m not teasing, Evangeline. I will fucking ruin you tonight. I am watching you fucking fall apart in my hands. Last time…I was a gentleman and held back. But tonight…” he ran his nose up the side of my neck, the sweep of his soft tongue accentuated by the scratch of sharp fangs.

“Tonight, I have plans .”