“Probably not,” Vlad said. “But I didn’t marry her to make her my prisoner. Our marriage is to further the peace.”
Bartholomew nodded, accepting his answer, but bile burned Vlad’s throat at his lie. He hadn’t married her for peace. He’d married her because he wanted her with an unholy desire. The kind of need one only experienced when they found their mate.
Has anyone seen my phone?” Vlad asked as he buttoned up his black shirt. It was Halloween Eve, and he was a man of his word. Belladonna’s parents were due to arrive for dinner any minute now, causing him to sweat like a vampire in the sunlight, and his men were watching him with expressions that hid nothing. They thought him insane for welcoming the enemy into the mansion, and as he stormed through the house looking for his cell, he had to agree.
“It was in the fridge!” Belladonna shouted from the kitchen. She’d been cooking all day, the mansion was decorated within an inch of its life, and Vlad wasn’t sure if he was thrilled or horrified at the changes. The stunning decor ranged from cozy to witchy to downright horrifying, and it amazed him she’d pulled this off in a matter of days. He was also terrified to check his credit card statement and witness just how much his wife had cost him. In truth, she’d been costing him for months because he had a weakness for gifting her anything she wanted… and everything helonged to see her in, and she didn’t disappoint. He found himself on multiple occasions wishing it was illegal to look that delicious every second of every damn day.
“What the hell was it doing in the fridge?” Vlad shouted as he stormed into the kitchen, but he barely made it two feet into the room before he tripped on something soft. An ear-piercing shriek emanated from the object, and he stumbled to regain his balance while not killing the poor creature. “And is that a fifth cat?” He scanned the floor, hoping he was hallucinating, but his eyes didn’t lie. There was a fifth black cat swarming around his wife’s ankles; the newcomer currently hissing at him.
“You shoved it in the fridge when you were looking for a snack earlier.” Belladonna handed him his phone, but he didn’t take it. He couldn’t. Not when she was dressed like that.
“And yes, that is a fifth cat. He showed up as I was cooking. He seemed pretty hungry, so I fed him, and he keeps hanging around Cauldron. I think they came from the same place, my poor babies.” She bent over to scratch the new kitten, and Vlad tried to focus on the animal that had lived an abused life until his saint of a wife welcomed him into their home, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her ass. What on earth was she thinking wearing that to dinner with her parents? Did she want her mom to witness him become a barbarian?
“I haven’t named him yet, but since you tripped on him and made him mad, I figure a cranky vamp name is an order. What do you think of Batty?”
“What are you wearing?”
“What’s with the twenty questions?” Belladonna whirled on him. “It’s a dress. You bought it for me.”
“I know I bought it for you. But not to wear around your parents. To wear during dinner with me.”
“I am having dinner with you.” She grabbed the salad bowl and walked to the dining room on her designer stilettos, and that sight made her outfit worse. He remembered buying those impossibly thin heels, but he hadn’t gifted them to her for functional use. He’d purchased those specifically to bend her over in front of his massive mirror and take her from behind while she wore nothing else.
“That’s not what I meant,” he growled as she placed the salad on the table and started distributing the plates and silverware. The dress was floor length, so at first glance it was modest, but upon closer inspection, it was clear the fabric was sheer. The black long sleeves gave her a vintage movie-witch vibe, but the sheerness left little to the imagination. She’d thankfully donned a sexy black teddy he’d purchased on a whim under it, but all of her—and then again none of her—was covered, and combined with the heels, he thought he might pass out.
“Vlad, it’s just dinner with my parents.” She pinned him with a glare that said she knew he was panicking. “It’s not anything scary. This isn’t some threat. It’s a girl asking to see her family, okay? And my mom doesn’t care about this dress. Have you seen her? The woman is how old, but she looks barely forty? Trust me, my parents are very much in love. Disgustingly so, which means my mother has worn more than her fair share of sexy outfits. Besides, revealing clothes are literally all I own thanks to some crazy vampire I know.” She patted his chest as she left the room, and he charged after her.
“For you, this is just dinner with Mom, but you need to see it from my perspective. This woman has tried to kill me.”
“And you’ve tried to kill her.” Belladonna grabbed the basket of sliced bread and aimed back for the dining room, vampire hard on herfuck-meheels. “And you stole me. Both of you have done horrible things, but this isn’t about you.This is about me. The girl who did nothing but get married.”
“I know, I know.” He ran his hand through his hair, feeling like an asshole… again. “I just?—”
“Need to calm down.”
He growled at her, but she whirled on him and shoved him forcefully against the table. He grunted at her sudden movements, but it was the fire in her eyes that froze him in place.
“I said…” she spoke slowly, her perfectly manicured black nails dragging down his chest to his belt. “You need to calm down.”
Belladonna undid his buckle before he could process what she was doing, and then she was on her knees, unzipping his pants as if she were unwrapping a treat.
“Little witch,” Vlad hissed. “What are you doing?”
“Helping my husband relax,” she cooed, reaching into his pants, but he grabbed her hand before she could grip him.
“Are you insane?” he grunted, unbelievably hard at the sight of her kneeling. “Your parents will be here any second. I can’t have them walking in on us with my cock in your mouth.”
“Then you better come quickly,” she said, her voice dangerous as she tugged her arm from his grasp. Belladonna yanked his pants down further, and then with those lovely hands, she pulled him out.
“Fuck, husband,” she moaned obscenely. “I knew you were big, but this is the most beautiful cock I’ve ever seen.”
“Don’t talk about other men when I’m in your hands,” he snarled, and she looked up at him with a teasing expression.
“Careful, Vlad. It almost sounds like you’re jealous.”
“You are playing a dangerous game, little witch.” He gripped her chin gently with his tattooed hand and forced her to hold hisstern gaze. “Are you trying to make me hunt down every man who has so much as flirted with you, because I will? I’m a jealous man, and you are my wife. Mine. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.” She nodded with flushed cheeks.
