Chapter 27
EMBERLINE
Ibarely closed the door when Dante crowded through it, followed by Gabriel.
“What’s the matter? Can’t you find anyone else to take your anger out on?” I split my glare between them. “A small puppy perhaps? A tiny, defenseless kitten?”
“We came to apologize.” Gabriel elbowed past his brother, making a beeline for me until I crossed my arms over my chest, the universal sign for take-another-step-and-I’ll-stab-you.
He stopped in place, jaw working.
Smart male.
“We came to apologize,” he repeated. “You’re right about Nico. He has saved our lives. But he kept a big secret from us, Emberline. Information Blackwood could have used against us with catastrophic consequences. At any time.”
“Yet he didn’t. And that blade cuts both ways. You could have used Nico’s parentage against Lord Blackwood, but that’s not the real issue, is it? You’re hurt and betrayed that Nico didn’t trust you with the truth.”
Silence. That’s right, because there’s no arguing with facts.
Obviously not afraid of a pair of crossed arms or being stabbed, Dante prowled closer.
“As someone who’s kept plenty of secrets himself, I understand.
And I also know there’s a path back to forgiveness, but it takes time.
We’ve known Nico a long time, tesoro. If he didn’t feel like he could tell us who he really was, then what does that say about us? ”
“It says he was raised by a psychopath and never learned how to trust anyone. Nico was alone until he met you, and the fear of losing his brothers, the only real family he’d ever known… can you blame him? You two were all he had.”
“Forgiving him isn’t the issue.” Dante tugged me to his chest, resting his chin on the top of my head. “And the responsibility doesn’t fall completely on us. Nico has some explaining to do.”
“You’re right, he does,” I conceded, relaxing into my husband’s embrace, searching for the elusive right words. There was a deep, ragged pain inside me, the sense our time was running out.
While we wasted precious minutes fighting over… ancestry.
“All I know is, the future is never promised. We’re fighting for our lives,” I said plainly.
“We don’t have room for doubts. I know who I want beside me when the real battle starts.
I know who I trust, and in whose hands I will gladly—fucking gladly—place my life.
I have chosen my family. I know what my path is. Do you?”
“With you,” my husband murmured, lips on my neck, followed by the delicious scrape of fangs. “Always with you.”
“What do you say,” Gabriel asked, hand skimming up my ribcage, cradling my breast, “we make a proper apology?”
“I might be persuaded to accept,” I said archly. Dante chuckled as his fangs sank into my vein. I gasped when warm lips sealed around the bite, then I was riding a wave of euphoria, pinned between the two of them, Gabriel’s hips flush against my ass as he teased my hard nipples through my shirt.
Gabriel stripped my clothes off slowly, his hungry mouth skimming over my bared skin—my shoulder, the top of my breast, the curve of my back. Dante sealed me up with a long lick, then together, they laid me on the bed.
“Let us make you feel good,” my husband husked. “To tell you how sorry I am. I want… no, I need to put my mouth on you, Emberline.”
He dropped between my legs, pushed my knees wider, then he paused, eyes growing unfocused as he breathed deep.
“You are so beautiful,” Dante murmured, leaning in to plant a long, slow kiss at the top of one thigh. Then the other. “The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I can’t believe…” He shook his head. “I don’t deserve you.”
Then he lifted my right leg over his shoulder and dragged his broad tongue through my pussy, fastening his lips around my swollen nub and sucking hard enough, my hips bucked up.
I wound my fingers in his silken hair and dragged my husband closer, grinding myself against his hungry mouth, not caring what this looked like, only that I needed more.
Gods, so much more.
I must have said the words out loud because Dante obliged, licking and sucking, his tongue circling gently, then lashing hard until I sobbed out his name and writhed back and forth on the bed until Gabriel flattened his warm palm over my belly.
“Stay still and let your husband feast, bella. Gods, you look so…” Gabriel’s eyes drifted down my body, cerulean darkening to indigo, mouth falling open as his fangs descended.
With a groan, Gabriel dove in, pulling my nipple into his hot, demanding mouth, working me at the same pace as his brother.
I completely dissolved, trapped by his roving lips and my husband, devouring me like he was starving.
“Gods… yes, yes, just like that.” I moaned, wild for more, all of this an assault on every one of my raw, aching senses.
I was a quivering mess of need, desperate for that final, beckoning pleasure that was just out of reach.
I moaned out both their names as Dante worked me relentlessly towards release, Gabriel knowing exactly how hard to bite, how soft to lick.
Then Dante closed his teeth around my clit and pushed two thick fingers into my slick cunt.
“Dante… fuck.” A scream tore from my throat, then a curse as my core pulsed around his stroking fingers, clever tongue working my clit faster and faster. My orgasm tore through me in dark, dangerous waves, a sweet, vicious pleasure that left me completely ruined in its wake.
Only when I was boneless did they stop. Dante rocked back on his heels, wiping the back of his hand across his wet mouth with a supremely satisfied expression, while Gabriel sprinkled kisses all over my sensitive skin, then carefully arranged me between them and pulled the blankets up over us.
“What about you?” I murmured, my body heavier than lead, my head stuffed with cotton.
“This was all for you, tesoro.” Dante curled up beside me, threading his fingers through my hair, working out the knots. “An apology, remember? Now go to sleep; we’ll both be right here when you wake up.”
I woke in the dreamworld, breath stalling in my lungs when a murky shape materialized out of the mist, impossibly tall, broad enough to part the shifting fog like a leviathan breaching the surface of churning ocean tides.
Then the illusion broke, vapor clearing to reveal it was only Nico striding toward me, and my chest tightened.
“There you are. I’ve been waiting,” he said quietly, extending his hand for me to take. “I thought you’d never fall asleep.”
Loneliness echoed in his voice, tinged with a bitterness that tugged at my heart, but I slid my hand into his, skin sliding against skin before I let him lead me deeper into the mists, my nightgown wrapping tighter around my calves with every step, wondering where we were going.
“I’ve ruined everything,” he finally said, a muscle clenching in the side of his jaw. “I shouldn’t have kept the truth from them all this time. I was afraid of losing the only two friends I have, yet that’s exactly what happened.”
“They could have accepted the truth with a little more grace,” I pointed out. “You have more than proven yourself a good friend, Nico. Give them time; they will come to see that, and when they do, they’ll forgive you.”
“Ever the optimist,” he sighed, as if that were a bad thing.
The mists thickened around us, Nico’s dark, inky shadows twining with the pale tendrils as if they were dancing.
“Everyone has secrets, Nico, even me. Yours are just… bigger than most.” I bumped my elbow into his side. “If that asshole was my father, I wouldn’t have told anyone, either.”
“Have your feelings changed toward me?” he asked in a low voice. “Because if they have, I understand. The truth is, his blood runs in my veins and short of draining myself dry and starting over, I can’t change that fact.”
“Nothing has changed except I understand you a bit better now.”
We kept walking, the air ripe with tension as something towering big took form in front of us. A building. No… a castle. A castle that would be an impossibility in the real world, but here…here delicate spires rose over my head, and two immense doors swung open as if they were welcoming me home.
“This is a dream. This has to be a dream,” I muttered, stumbling over my own feet as Nico tugged me forward until my bare toes sank into a soft, wool carpet the color of sapphires.
Towering walnut bookshelves climbed three stories toward a painted ceiling where constellations shimmered in gold leaf, velvet draperies the color of garnets pooled around leaded-glass windows that overlooked a dark sky twinkling with stars.
Carved fireplaces crackled happily in every room we passed, mantels crowded with priceless clocks and ancient elegant bronzes, chairs made for relaxing positioned in front of the flames, the leather invitingly soft.
The air carried the familiar scent of old paper, beeswax, and cigar smoke. Tears burned hot in my eyes—this place smelled exactly like my father’s old study.
Like home.
We passed a fantastical conservatory overflowing with roses and lemon trees, the sweet scent of citrus blossoms heavy in the air, and white marble bathing chambers with steaming, deep copper tubs where warm, fluffy towels and shelves of fragrant oils waited to be used.
Nico’s hand trembled when he pushed open the final door, revealing a vaulted bedroom of pure, sensual indulgence.
The bed was big enough for ten people, covered in embroidered velvet so rich, it absorbed all the light, layered with mountains of down pillows.
A dressing table with a gilt mirror took up half a wall and a long writing desk the other half, stacks of gold-embossed books waiting to be read.
Every last detail bore the quiet weight of thoughtful selection—hand-knotted tapestries, rich, detailed paintings, centuries-old manuscripts, carved furniture polished to a mirror shine—every last detail chosen specifically… for me.
Wracked by shivers, I pulled in a shaky breath and turned to Nico, shifting his weight back and forth on his feet.
“You did all this for me?” I asked softly, my chest tight, not trusting my own voice. “It’s too much, Nico. Far too much.”
“Last time was… not a mistake exactly, but I was rough, and you deserve so much more, Emberline.” He shut his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, his gaze was clear.
Focused.
“I was wrong about you. You are no princess.” He carefully tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, tracing his fingers down the side of my throat to press the flat of his palm over my thudding heart.
“You are a queen, and you deserve to be treated like one. I’m a Draconi soldier, Emberline.
I’m not a mafia Don or a Dominico heir. Out in the real world, I have nothing to offer you, except my name.
And that…” He shook his head. “The name I was born with is a blight on the world, and the other I bear… well, Draconi is a designation, not a name.”
“Nico, you don’t have to…”
“Let me finish. In here, I can give you the world. Anything you want. So… I understand if your feelings have changed, I understand if you’ll never look at me the same way, but this is yours, no matter what. A place to keep you safe, where the nightmares can’t find you.”
His words settled into places I didn’t think could hurt.
But they did hurt—not for me, but for him.
For the boy who had to die in order to live. For the son who never knew what it was like to have a father who loved him. For the male who wore a smirk to hide the pain etched into him with fists and cruelty.
And yes, he’d done all of this.
For me.