Chapter Seventeen
Vanessa
Something flashed through his silvery-gray eyes, there and gone before I could make sense of it. The strength of his gaze sent a tremble down my spine, but I didn’t pull away. Whether because I didn’t want to or because of his magnetism, I wasn’t sure.
“That’s … actually a fairly deep observation,” I said, yanking my focus away from the perfect lines of his face and back to the magma my legs dangled over.
“I’ve spent a lot of time here,” Vil admitted. “Especially lately. Since my parents left.”
I tried not to let myself grow intrigued by his vulnerable side. He was still my kidnapper, and I tried to remind myself of that. Despite the pampering, the dress, and his chivalrous manner, I was still his prisoner.
Even if more and more, I wasn’t feeling trapped.
“It’s been tough, has it?” I pressed, curious as to what else he might open up about.
Vil nodded, staring out across the cavern.
“I’ve known my entire life that it was coming.
That one day, after a hundred years of their rule, they would be called away.
Just like that, they would be gone. It was no secret, and in some ways, it was nice to know their time was approaching.
We made sure to spend lots of time together so that nothing was left unsaid. No regrets about holding back.”
“That’s got to be nice, at least.”
“Yes, it was. But now that they’re gone, I have a whole new set of questions I’ll never be able to ask them.”
“Like what?”
Vil looked away for a moment. “Like how to be a strong prince. My father was a good man, but he suffered from the position he was left by his grandfather. Our people, after them, need a strong prince, one who will force us to move forward and stop being stuck in the past. I have to be that man. Not for myself, but for them. And I just don’t know how. I wish I could ask them.”
I frowned. “I mean no disrespect here, Vil, but if your father wasn’t a strong prince, then why would you want to ask him?”
He smiled. “Because the next closest person would have been my great-great-grandfather. Under him, the Iron Clan grew strong and prosperous and began to expand across our lands for the first time in centuries. After him came my great-grandfather, and it was he who created the Nine to help him administer the realm. The throne has been in need of a strong hand since then.”
I wasn’t sure what that cost him to admit, to say that his recent ancestors were perhaps not the strongest rulers, even if they were good people. It couldn’t have been an easy thing to say.
“Why not see how he ruled, then?” I suggested.
Vil frowned. “He’s been gone for hundreds of years.”
I smiled and rubbed his arm. “That’s not what I meant! Read his notebook, Vil. And any other princes who you believe were more of what your clan needs now.”
He stared at me incredulously. “That is so simple and yet brilliant. I’m ashamed to admit I never thought of it.”
“You’re welcome,” I said with a smile.
I let him wrap his mind around that for a hot second before I said the other thing on my mind.
“And Vil?”
He looked back over at me.
“The very fact that you’re already considering what type of prince you must be for your clan indicates you’re going to be a good one.”
It was his turn to thank me again.
“Can I ask you something?” I said into the silence that followed.
“Anything.”
“Why did you think kidnapping me would be a good idea?”
Vil shrugged. “It’s logical. You’re my mate. We’re meant to be together. This is where you belong, Vanessa. So I brought you here.”
“Yes, but did you ever consider me?”
“Every second. I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I said, leveling my gaze at him. “Did you consider things from my point of view? I don’t know you, Vil. I don’t know that you’re my ‘mate.’”
He smiled, and my stomach flip-flopped. “Yes, you do,” he said gently.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because,” he said, reaching out a hand and placing it on my leg, halfway between my knee and the end of the slit of my dress. “You’re feeling things for me already. Your heart races when I’m near.”
His finger began to beat with the pulse of my heart.
I tried not to tremble when he touched me, but I failed miserably. His fingers began to squeeze a faster beat. Just like my heart.
“I can sense how you react to me,” he whispered, leaning a little closer. “I can smell your arousal, your desire for me. I feel it rising in tune with my own. We match, Vanessa.”
His grip was soft but firm. Powerful, but not scarily overwhelming.
The longer his skin pressed against mine, the more the heat of his touch rolled over me, warming me from the inside out.
My breathing grew shorter. A little faster.
His fingers squeezed quicker, never losing the rhythm even as it spiked.
I shifted slightly to keep distance between us, but the movement of my leg caused his hand to slide farther up my dress.
I gasped at the sudden proximity to my pussy.
There was no way he couldn’t feel the heat roiling out from under my dress as my body turned to mush from the simple touch of his five fingers.
“Your heart is racing now,” he said in soft undertones. “What caused that?”
“Your hand,” I whispered back, unable to move, my eyes locked with his, freezing me solid even as I longed to melt into him.
His eyes darted down to where he was touching my leg, and mine followed. He didn’t move his grip.
“What are you afraid will happen?” he asked, still pulsing his grip in time with my heart.
“I don’t know,” I said, my voice so hoarse I barely got the words out.
“Are you scared of me?”
I chewed on my bottom lip, staring at him. “I don’t know. I should be.”
“But you’re not?” His eyes tightened almost imperceptibly as he awaited my answer.
I considered the question. I should be afraid of him.
I should be keeping as much distance between us as I could.
After all, as I kept reminding myself, he had kidnapped me.
Yet he wasn’t treating me like a prisoner.
In fact, he was quite literally insisting I was royalty.
It certainly made it hard to remain afraid of him when he was trying to push me into a life of luxury.
Therefore, it wasn’t fear that had my heart fluttering like the wings of a hummingbird but something else entirely.
Excitement.
“No,” I told him. “I’m not scared of you.”
“Good.”
“But I don’t know why,” I added. “Why am I not afraid?”
“Because,” Vil replied, his voice dropping an octave, “your soul recognizes me. It knows its counterpart. Just as mine does with you. That’s why my hand on your leg makes your heart race, instead of you slapping it away.”
“You’re so sure,” I whispered.
“I am,” he concurred. “And I can prove it to you.”
“How?”
With a primal growl, Vil picked me up and moved me until I was sitting in his lap.
Then his mouth found mine, covering it greedily as he kissed me without preamble.
I inhaled sharply in surprise and delight, arching up into him, my body all but pressing against his.
Strong hands gripped my waist and lower back, his fingers pressing the bare skin there, igniting a flaming desire deep within me.
“So this is why you brought me here,” I said with a sly smile as we parted for air. “No passersby, nobody to interrupt.”
“You give me far too much credit,” he rumbled, matching my look, moving one hand so it could trace the line of my dress. “But since we are all alone …”
“Mmmm,” I moaned into his ear. “Go on.”
“Well, I was thinking perhaps I could—”
Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by footsteps pounding up the corridor behind us.
Vil had us on our feet in an instant, putting his body between the opening and me. I felt the muscles in his back tense and then relax as the runner emerged.
“There you are,” a familiar redheaded female said. “Been looking for you.”
“We had a delay,” Vil said. “We’re coming.”
“Well, you might be too late,” she said.
“What are you talking about, Ferra?” Vil demanded as I edged around him to stand fully at his side.
“The Nine already announced the prince and his mate,” she said.
“Oh, good,” he chuckled. “Then I don’t even have to bother attending.”
I started to sigh with relief, but the sharp look on the woman’s face caused my stomach to tighten. This wasn’t the good news he thought it was.
“You’re missing the point, Vil,” she said, rushing on before he could speak. “They announced a different prince and his mate. Not you two.”