Chapter 31
DANTE
Ember nodded off again, lashes trembling against her cheeks, full lips parting enough for me to glimpse the tips of her fangs. I watched her sleep, counting off the minutes before she jerked awake.
For a second, she looked disoriented and confused, scanning the darkness, caught between worlds. Then reality slammed into her. I saw it happen—the way her pupils tightened, her jaw clenched, her shoulders stiffened into a tight line.
“Unfortunately,” I whispered, “you weren’t dreaming. This is real.”
Her gaze narrowed. “I was hoping I’d wake up and find out I hallucinated the part where I married the wrong brother.” She groaned hoarsely. “Sad to discover I’m wrong.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“Sorry doesn’t begin to cover my disappointment, stronzo.”
We stared at each other across the rumpled expanse of white.
She sat upright in the chair, cataloguing the room with quick, efficient sweeps of her eyes—the door, the windows, the fireplace, the distance between us, the position of the knives on the table, the likelihood she could reach them before me.
Her lips tightened. “Your father and his guards are still trying to get through the wards,” she observed. “I can hear the pounding on the other side.”
“They won’t.” I pushed up on one elbow, marveling at her composure. “There is nobody in this family strong enough to override my magic, and as far as brute force… even Nico couldn’t batter his way through.”
Her gaze flicked to the door. “So, no one can get in.” I couldn’t tell if she sounded relieved or disappointed and decided, for the sake of my ego, to go with relieved. But truthfully… she should be scared witless locked in here with me. I was well aware I looked like a rabid dog.
“No. You should sleep, if you can.” I held her stare. “You’re safe.”
She snorted, and I stopped myself from trying to convince her I was telling the truth. Because that would be pathetic.
Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. The movement was small, but fuck.
My cock needed to get on board with the fact this was just pretend, and she was nothing but a means to an end. Except there was also a dark ache in her stare, the way it lingered on my throat a moment too long.
That dark, unholy thing trapped inside me roused, dragging a sharpened talon down the prison that kept it contained. I dragged a finger down the tattoo on my neck and he faded away.
“You’re starving; I can smell your hunger from here.” I stretched, showing her more of my throat, and she shivered, her entire body trembling beneath that black dress that didn’t show an inch of creamy, kissable skin except for her hands and her face. “You need to feed, tesoro.”
Yes, I was a bastard.
Yes, I would do it again if given the chance, just to watch the way her mouth parted, how her tongue rimmed her bottom lip. My body responded as if I was a trained dog, cock so hard my balls were probably blue.
She bristled. “Worry about yourself, asshole. I’m fine,” she muttered, turned away, her head whipping back when I uttered just one word…
“Liar.”
“I’m fucking fine,” she snapped. “Haven’t you done enough without turning this into more of a shitshow? Let’s get through your family’s little gauntlet in the morning, then I will go back to my home, and I’ll feed and…”
“No,” I cut in.
Her eyes narrowed, everything about her turning hard. “I don’t take orders…”
“From your husband?” I lifted my eyebrow, swung my legs off the bed, and pushed to my feet.
I put all my damage on display, from the ancient burns peppering my chest and left arm to the old knife scars crisscrossing my stomach.
Her widening gaze snagged on them for a long moment before she turned that salted glare back to my face.
“An act, Emberline,” I reminded her, moving a step closer.
Her eyes were so big, I saw myself inside them.
“That is what comes next. And since neither of us is going to sleep anyway, this is what will happen the moment I drop those wards. The Don of this entire Dynasty will demand retribution; his soldiers will be given orders to seize both of us. We’ll have about twenty seconds to convince everyone out there we’ve consummated this marriage.
What comes after will be easier the better we sell the lie. ”
Color rose in her cheeks. Whether she was embarrassed, furious, or both, I didn’t know, but her emotions heated the air.
“You are going to feed from me,” I added, a little quieter, tapping the artery on the side of my throat. “From right here. You are going to be rough and leave a mark, so there will be no question you drank from your husband. And I enjoyed it.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, all the prickliness disappearing beneath a wash of shame.
“I… there’s a slight problem with your plan.
” One reluctant huff burst between her lips, full of wry embarrassment.
“I’ve never… I only drink out of uhm… bags.
Never directly from a… from someone else,” she admitted, not making eye contact.
I went very still.
That wasn’t possible. There was no way this fierce, regal creature, possessing a virtual armory of weapons, had never partaken in the most basic act that made her vampire.
“Never? Not even once?” She shook her head while I tried to understand the reasoning behind such an improbable decision. “Your family kept you on bagged blood,” I echoed, trying to estimate how old she was. Thirty? “All this time?”
My cock was already hard, just thinking about her teeth in my neck, and now, knowing this would be her first time, arousal turned into something more primitive. Something primal.
She shrugged one shoulder, the motion brittle. “My uncle advised my father that feeding was… dangerous. A way for our enemies to insinuate themselves inside the family. To get too close. Feeding off bagged blood was… safer. Less political risk.”
“Less political risk,” I repeated flatly. “Or perhaps your uncle didn’t want you to know what real power feels like.”
Her jaw tightened, arms wrapping around herself as I shoved down the guilt that threatened to make me walk away. Right now, before I did something regrettable.
I was a bad male. Down to my core, I was ruined, and I’d done violent, terrible things. She was a virginal-looking princess who’d never drunk straight from the vein, and it was obscene how thrilled I was about that fact.
There were about a hundred questions I wanted to ask right now, but carnal excitement wrapped around my ribs and squeezed.
The firstborn daughter of one of the five great Houses, and they’d never let Emberline taste blood straight from the source.
They’d never let her explore the most basic part of what she was.
What the fuck was Giovanni’s game?
His game didn’t matter. Turning my full attention to my wife, I felt like I was about to open up a treasure chest, because if this really was her first time…
I blew out a long, unsteady breath, every inch of me on fire, cock hard as a rock because I hadn’t had a female in years. Hadn’t trusted myself with anyone, not with how depraved, how fucking feral I’d been after escaping the pits.
And here she was, close enough to touch… I shut my eyes, took a breath, and told my cock to stand the fuck down. I shouldn’t even be considering this, but…
If I was her first, then I would make sure this was fucking good for her.
“Okay,” I choked out. “New plan.”
She eyed me warily. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“We’re not waiting until morning. You’re going to feed from me right now.” My voice was ragged, my self-control shredding. “Same rules apply. From the throat, deep and bloody, and you’re going to leave a mark. I don’t want one of those fuckers to so much as question the fact I fed my own wife.”
My own wife…
Could I even fucking hear myself right now?
“When we walk out and face these vultures, you are going to feel so fucking good, you won’t give two godsdamns about the sheets or any of this other bullshit. That, I promise you.”
Shock flared across her features, followed by raw interest. She covered her reaction quickly, but she couldn’t hide her blush or the way those heavy-lidded eyes kept drifting down my body, filled with everything she was trying not to feel right now—lust, fear, curiosity, hunger.
“From you?” she echoed. “That’s…” She shook her head, curls catching in the light. “That’s… I can’t feed from your throat. What about your wrist?”
“Too clinical,” I explained. “We have one chance to convince them we truly consummated this union, or the blood on the sheets won’t be enough.
My father will be looking for any reason—every reason—to annul this marriage, and if he does, I go to the dungeons, and you…
you’ll lose your chance to infiltrate my family and have your revenge. ”
“I’m not sure I can do this.” For the first time since I first laid eyes on her, Emberline faltered.
I’d seen her face down my father, the entire Dynasty, a marriage to my brother, then to me, without breaking a sweat, but now, faced with the most basic, biological act a vampire could do, she was a bundle of nerves.
And selfish bastard that I was, I had to feel her teeth in me.
I wanted to feel her body pressed into mine, her fingers digging into the back of my neck, her breath against my skin, and I wanted it so badly, I was dangerously close to getting on my knees and begging.
“If you’re going to pretend to be my wife,” I muttered instead, “you’re going to be well fed. Strong. Dangerous. Not some half-starved symbol to be paraded around like a trophy.”
Her throat worked. “I’m not half-starved, but I don’t know how to do this.” She was so quiet, I barely heard her, raw doubt filling the space between us. “I’ve heard descriptions, but… no one ever… I’ve only seen it done from a distance. Once. A long time ago.”
“I’ll walk you through it,” I told her through grit teeth, my cock throbbing like a motherfucker behind my zipper. “Do you trust me?”