Chapter Twenty
Vil
I listened carefully for sounds of protest from Vanessa as I led the way into our shared quarters. My arguments were prepared and ready to convince her why it had to be that way. The logic was sound. All I was waiting for was the start of the conversation.
“This is worse than an arranged marriage,” she muttered before following me in.
Nearly stumbling to a halt, I rounded on her. “What?”
“At least with one of those, I would get a wedding, and my husband would properly carry me over the threshold,” she said. “You didn’t even hold the door for me.”
I looked at the door, which was perfectly capable of holding itself open.
“You know what I mean,” she said.
“Are you being serious or joking?” I asked.
“Mostly serious,” she said. “I always dreamed of that day. Walking down the aisle, white dress, everyone’s eyes on me.
Most girls have it all planned out when they’re younger, you know.
We know it won’t actually happen the way we pictured it when we were ten, mostly because renting a castle is highly unaffordable for most people, but the thought is still there. ”
The wistful tone of her voice sparked something in me. That meant a lot to Vanessa. Which meant it should mean a lot to me.
“Then we’ll have a wedding,” I stated. “In a castle. Any castle, whatever one you want. Here or on Earth. You pick it out, and it will happen. Then I’ll carry you over every threshold for every home and room for an entire day after.”
She giggled. My stomach soared. It was one of her first true laughs since I’d pulled her from the river. Hearing it sent my spirits high, and there was no retrieving them, not anytime soon.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said with a wave.
“But I do,” I corrected her. “Things that are important to you are important to me. That day is something you hold dear. So let me do it.”
She shrugged, not really giving in. “You have to propose first,” she reminded me, almost immediately holding up a finger. “And I have to accept. Which, spoiler, I’m not ready to do yet. If ever. You’ll have to win me over.”
“You’re already being won over,” I murmured, stepping closer to her, smiling. “Your body wants me. We both know it. We can both feel it.”
Vanessa inhaled sharply at the sudden change in the mood, taking a half step away. Her eyes widened as I entered her personal space, looming over her in my best sexual machismo manner.
Her lips parted ever so slightly, and I leaned in to kiss her.
A finger pressed against my lips.
“Let’s talk about sleeping arrangements,” she said.
I stared in awe at her composure. I’d thought she was ready to give in. That was why I’d made a move. I could feel the heat in her core pulsing outward. Her body was ready. But the control of her mind—it was impressive.
Standing upright, I nodded, bringing myself back under control.
“I will, of course, sleep on the floor,” I said.
“You’ll sleep on the floor,” she said at the same time.
We stared at one another.
“You were already saying that when I started speaking,” she said with a wrinkled brow.
“Of course I was,” I told her. “We’re mated, Vanessa, but you barely know me. Fate has put us together—”
“Actually, it was you pulling me out of my car, not fate,” she corrected.
“Anyway, fate has created us two halves of a whole. Our souls are drawn to one another. But whether your body wants me or not, your mind is not there yet,” I rumbled, unable to stop from looking her up and down, wishing I could get my hands on her already and show her what she was missing out on.
“So, why are you insistent we share quarters?” she asked, politely ignoring my slip of decorum.
“Because we are mated,” I said. “And we’ve gone public with it. The people are aware of it. If we slept in separate quarters, they would question it. Rumors that maybe you aren’t my mate would begin to circulate. The Nine would use those to further their own cause as well.”
“Those are all political reasons,” she pointed out.
“They are,” I said. “And as princess, you will eventually learn we have to subscribe to an entirely different set of bullshit rules on top of the normally expected ones.”
She frowned. “You don’t sound like you like that.”
It was my turn to laugh, though with a harsh undertone.
“I don’t. I wish I could just be me in public, but I often can’t.
I’m the prince, and that person and Vil do not always see eye to eye.
My father taught me that. I must be a ruler in public and with my decisions.
This,” I said, waving my hands around the rooms, “this is my sanctum. The place where I can be me, Vil, and not Prince Anvil.”
“That must be difficult, having to restrain yourself.”
“If it means a better life for my people, then I’ll gladly take on that responsibility,” I said, meeting her eyes and holding them as I spoke. “What’s some suffering on my part if the entire Iron Clan benefits from it?”
“What a lonely life you lead,” she said, reaching up to stroke my cheek.
I smiled at her. “Not as lonely with you here.”
She blushed and turned away, but I caught her hand before she could fully withdraw it and pressed it to my face, basking in her touch.
I longed to do more. To run her hand down my body until she felt the stiffness between my legs.
I wanted to do the same to her, to slowly strip the dress from her until I could explore every inch of her skin with my eyes and fingers and mouth.
I longed to taste her and listen to her soft gasps as I applied just the right pressure.
“I appreciate the honesty,” she said quietly, slipping her hand from me, her voice only barely quivering.
She went to the edge of the bed and sat down, carefully sweeping the hem of her dress to the side.
Something changed in her.
“Vanessa?” I asked, unsure of what I’d missed. Had I done something wrong?
“I’m okay.” She didn’t sound okay.
I went to her side, careful not to touch her, in case it was about me. “You can talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. I’m not the bad guy,” I promised her.
She looked up at me. “I already have,” she said weakly.
“You have?”
“When I told you it was too much. I’m trying my hardest to keep it together, Vil, but I’m struggling. Everything that has happened since the attack, it just keeps piling up. I’m so overwhelmed, and I feel like I’m sinking. Just like the car did in the river.”
A terrible shiver took her body, and I could no longer resist. I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into me.
“I understand,” I whispered, rubbing her shoulder.
She looked up sharply. “Do you? Do you really? Because yesterday, I killed a man, Vil. I shot him in the head. He’s dead.
Then I nearly died, only to be hauled off by you, without choice, without anything.
My family and friends will be wondering where I am if I’m even alive!
Meanwhile, over here, I’m being treated like royalty—”
“Because you are royalty,” I growled.
“Dragon royalty,” she said, shaking her head. “Which is just crazy. I don’t know if I’m cut out for this, Vil. I don’t want it. I don’t think. But you make me laugh, and I just don’t know.”
“It’s your destiny,” I told her confidently.
“Maybe,” she agreed. “But, Vil, it has to happen naturally even if it is. And so far, it hasn’t been natural.”
“What would you like me to do?” I asked. “I’m only acting on the information I have.”
“Information you have,” she repeated before getting up and going to stand in front of the Watching Mirror. “Information you got from this. I can see you there, sitting on the bed. But I shouldn’t. Not from this angle. But how do I know that means what you say it means?”
“You have to trust me,” I told her bluntly.
“I’m trying, but, Vil, I just … argh, I just don’t know!”
I nodded slowly. “What would help you?”
She sighed heavily. “Can we go home? Put me in my environment so that I can get to know you like that?”
I’d known the question was coming. Until the events of the Presentation Ball, I probably would have said no. But now, realizing how unhinged the Nine was becoming, it was probably best if I got Vanessa out of harm's way for a bit.
“In the morning,” I said, standing up from the side of the bed, “I will take you home. Is that okay?”
The Nine would get up to no good while I was gone, but after his public humiliation at my hands, Adamantine would be slow to make an outright move. I should have time to return before he tried anything too overt again.
Vanessa’s face opened in shock. “You’re serious?”
“Yes. I would never lie to you like that. I’m not a mean person. Not to you. Never to you.”
“Thank you,” she said, flinging her arms around me in a hug.
I welcomed her in, but the motion resulted in her pressing her hips against mine. The stiffness of my cock, something that had been rather undiscernible under my suit, was now resting against her body. Firmly.
She felt it. Every muscle in her body went taut as she pulled her head away to look up at me.
I met her blue eyes and saw them go wide as heat and lust colored mine a bright silver, reflecting clearly in her pupil.
With a growl, I smashed my lips to her mouth, unable to control myself any longer.