Magical passion wasn’t enough to create a real relationship.
“You want a relationship with me.” Ariana suddenly knew as she reached out, touching Quinn’s cheek. “You really want this.”
“I do.” Quinn spoke as he watched her, somber. “I ruined things with Lucca when I went off seeking power when I should have been nourishing my lover. I ruined budding love again when I pushed my Royal Siren Reginald Durant away, to save him from my inner darkness and Emiliana’s manipulations. I don’t want to ruin this feeling I have now for you, Ariana. I want to nourish what we’re discovering and give us a chance. I want to do this, honestly and openly, though it challenges me through every fiber of my being. Would you like to try with me?”
And as Ariana’s breath caught, something so powerful and so beautiful opened up inside her that she was just suddenly nodding to Quinn’s words. Never had entering into a relationship been so clear as right now – and it gave her hope that things could be this open and honest between them. Maybe not always, maybe they would still struggle with wounds and compromise and all the things relationships faced, but she was willing to try. Quinn was a big bad Master Vampire, but he was also deep in his love. He’d only had to stash it away for so very long to survive – but was now beginning to re-learn that love.
In a way that made his darkness so very bright.
“I do.” Ariana answered, feeling strangely like she accepted a marriage proposal, even though it was just an honest pact for them to actually try being partners. “I do want to try. With you.”
“Do you have any requests?” Quinn asked as he searched her gaze. “Anything you would like for me to do… as we enter into this new phase with each other?”
Ariana had never been faced with such a question in a relationship before and she blinked, thinking about Quinn’s words. But like moonlight pouring all through her, vivid and illuminating, she suddenly had an answer. “I have two things. Two requests.”
“Go ahead.” Quinn nodded.
“One – that you are always truthful with me, to the best of your ability.” Ariana spoke softly, knowing that for a Master Vampire who regularly hid information thanks to his devastating past, that was already going to be hard.
“And two?” Quinn asked, digesting her request with composure even though Ariana felt him swirl deep inside, knowing how difficult that was going to be.
“That like I said before, you never ask me to choose between you and Lucca. Because I just… can’t.” Ariana stated with a sigh, even as she hoped it wasn’t a dealbreaker.
But the softest smile lifted Quinn’s lips, beautiful and complex as he reached out, cupping her cheek and stroking her lips with his thumb. “And as I already told you, I willneverask you to choose between myself and Lucca. I love him too, Ariana. I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye-to-eye again, but I still wish him happiness. And if that means being with you but not me… I will accept it. I will weather my jealousy when the two of you are together. But I may need to take it out on you in the bedroom. In the best possible way, of course.”
And the luscious, expertly dangerous way he said it suddenly made Ariana’s breath catch – hard. Just like that, she was heating all over again as she stared into his dark onyx eyes. “I think I would be into that.” She spoke breathlessly.
“Good.” Quinn smiled with his dark sexiness now. “Because desire and passion are complex things, and love and commitment are even more complex. But I want to try it all with you. I want to learn and grow with you… and unlearn some of these dark, awful habits I learned with my old Master. Will you help me? Will you do this with me… even if we both struggle sometimes?”
“Yes.” Ariana breathed, her heart thundering in her chest now.
“Good.” He breathed again as he ran his thumb across her lips.
And then he leaned in, kissing her deep and slow.
Reveling in Quinn’s kiss, a moonlit glow opened up all through Ariana as a dark, loving beauty filled her. Pulling back, Quinn’s eyes blazed as his nimbus of power surged all around them now with flickers of fire. Still kneeling before Ariana half-undressed, he slowly unbuckled his belt now, sliding it out in a decidedly erotic motion and tossing it aside. He didn’t toss it too far, however, giving Ariana a darkly scintillating look as if he might have a use for it later. Her breath came fast, her blood hot inside her veins. As her magic rose, seething strongly through the room as it entwined with Quinn’s, he gave her a disastrously sexy look.
“I can feel how hot this is making you, Ariana. I can feel how much you want me.” He spoke low, watching her with a vicious, almost predatory delight with his darkly seductive dominance now, even though he hadn’t hardly touched her at all yet. He had a hotly mean shine in his eyes, decadent, and Ariana shuddered, loving this erotic foreplay after the honest talk they’d just had. Sliding his fingertips in the waistband of his pants, Quinn touched his viciously fit abdomen as Ariana watched, permitting her to glimpse slightly more of his lower torso as he touched his skin.
She flushed hard – wanting those to be her fingertips exploring him rather than his.
“Do you want to touch me?” Quinn breathed as he penetrated her with his gaze.
“Yes.” Ariana breathed back, her heart beating hard and her body trembling just to watch him slide his fingertips over his lusciously alabaster skin and all the rock-hard muscle beneath. Quinn was sculpted like a statue, not an inch of fat on him though he didn’t look gaunt or unhealthy. He was simply lean, mean, and gorgeous like some god of pale marble – and Ariana got lost for a moment as she watched him touch himself. Blinking, she realized she had lost time again, simply watching Quinn’s erotic hands glide over his beautiful, flawless skin.
“Come closer. Take my shirt off.” Quinn spoke as he held Ariana with his dark, fiery gaze.
“Okay.” Ariana wasn’t used to being ordered around in the bedroom, but she found it wasn’t strange with Quinn especially after everything they had just shared; easing forward on the coverlet, she came within touching range. But as she reached up, taking hold of his unbuttoned shirt to strip it off his shoulders, Quinn reached up, trapping her hands with his. Gazing into her eyes, he held her hands, his touch scalding now as he mesmerized her suddenly with his Vampire magics, his deeply suggestive power taking her.
“Not like that.” He murmured, luscious. “Touch me slower. Strip my shirt from me with your hands, and drink in every inch of me as you do it. Explore me with your fingertips. And leave no plane or crevasse untouched.”
Ariana’s breath was so high now she felt like butterflies were going to jump from her stomach as she nodded. As Quinn gently moved her hands underneath his shirt, sliding them over his skin until they rested on his full, sculpted chest, her breath caught. With a deep look, he released her to explore. And as her fingers glided over the hard planes of his pecs, she watched his dark eyelashes close.
Fluttering deeply as she touched him.
“Slow.” He breathed as she glided her fingertips over his collarbones and shoulders, easing his shirt off until it draped around his elbows and strong back. Quinn was marble perfection as he glowed beneath the chandeliers; for a moment, Ariana just stared at him, her fingers motionless as she took him in. He was alabaster beauty, a bright-dark Adonis in the night as she watched him and he waited for her touch.
As her slow fingers perused him again, it was decadent for both of them, as a deep shudder passed between them in the night. Ariana could feel Quinn’s heartbeat thundering now as he breathed harder, their magics roiling through one another as they touched. She could see his body respond to her slow, deft glide over his cut shoulders and fit biceps, then down to his inner elbows, touching the strong veins there.
