He didn’t have to look hard inside her to feel the confliction, the thready grasp she had of what was actually happening between them.
He teased at that thread, subtle, soft, knowing brute force would never serve when it came to his mate. What point would there be in flooding her, in compelling? What satisfaction would blossom in a mate he had to constantly control or maneuver?
He’d made that mistake before.
Brenya had to come tohim, not because he created the perfect world around her, but because she cravedhim. Not sexual pleasure. Not a lifestyle. Not power.
Him.
Until she could not breathe without relishing the feeling ofhiminside her.
Where he would germinate.
The seeds of his psyche already wending their way into every last part of her being.
Weaving them together as one, by her own admission.
If….
Expression one no other would ever see, Jules flavored her feelings with melancholy, with this emotion she had yet to learn the name for as he cupped her cheek, slipping between the pillow and her skull. The hand that had just been inside her fully. “Now, give me your word that you won’t leave the Dome,ever—not by ship, not by foot—and I will make a vow in return to protect your people at all costs. So long as you live.For you. I will even tell you where I have hidden the Red Consumption. Every last location.”
Turning her head so she could meet his eyes—those unnerving eyes that left grown men weeping. He relished showing her the full ugliness of his insides and the beauty of his exterior. The honesty of every word flowing through the link. “I want your happiness above all things. So much so that I will give you complete power over me. The Dome. My life. Pleasure. Comfort. I’ll give youpeace, Brenya. In your world and in your thoughts.”
His voice came so soft, a whisper of devotion and obsession. All of the darkest parts of him folded under and between adoration so they might go unnoticed. “I’ll show you what estrous should be. Fill you with children. Teach you everythingyou desire. We could build Bernard Dome to be anything you wish.”
Jules smiled, his practiced, most gentle expression down at his beloved mate. The one he would only ever show to her. The one he’d designed for her. “Give me your word, and I will give you mine.”
In the last decade, he’d personally tortured countless men and women. Knew how to craft a string of words into a blade. How to disarm, to divert, to break. Placed phrasing in precise order. Savored the flash of confusion in Brenya’s eyes at his intentional mention of children… how it muddled the rest of his offer.
Distracted his brilliant mate.
He’d seen the recording of her with Jacques, after all.
How she’d panicked and kicked him fully in the chest when he’d made a mention of the children they would have.
How she’d ran and hidden in the bathroom. How Jacques had aggressively punished her.
Jules savored her rapid-fire mental calculations as his Omega accurately discerned that it was the second time he’d brought up children in the last twenty-four hours. Noted that she avoided the topic as if it might vanish—though it ate up her mental processes, her mind dancing right into his offer with a tentatively spoken, “Why would I try to leave the Dome?”
Again.Why would she try to leave the Domeagain.
She’d already tried twice. Once by ship. Once on foot.
That was the key to this.
Another smile—a real one—the tendrils of his mind itching to dig deeper as he held them in check.
“Why would you climb a building naked to rescue a known terrorist?” he countered, kissing the tip of her nose. Keeping his tone easy. Filling her with light, a froth, and feelings of reassurance.
Just enough to encourage her to sample each. To let her feel them, experience them, and make them her own.
She needed to learn to name these sensations. To study them. To learn what they were and what they were not.
Jules watering the seeds he planted. So that when she muttered, “To save the Dome from you,” he could lightly respond, “And now you can.”
Another kiss. A skilled thing placed upon her lips. Not to entice her sexually, but to build more of that delicious affection in her heart.
“You could rule me with one vow.”
