Looking a little dazed, she said, “I… Okay, I’ll think about it.”
He nudged her shoulder. “What’s next on the list?”
“I need freedom,” she answered immediately. Before he could protest, she clarified, “Not toleave,but to have a life. I want to be able to leave the house. Go shopping. See Cecilia. Actually, that’s a must. Ihaveto see Cecilia.”
Felix blew out a breath. “Pet…”
“That’s non-negotiable,” she stressed, twisting at the waist to meet his gaze. “I have to have a life, Felix. Ihaveto.”
Scraping his claws through his hair, he muttered, “You know what I find most upsetting about that?”
“What?”
“That you thought this whole time that I actuallywantedto keep you prisoner. For fuck’s sake, Dahlia — of course not. This isn’t forever. I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m not going to make you sit at home all day for the rest of our lives or force you toask permission every time you want to go to one of your vintage swap meets.”
“Ugh!” Dahlia threw up her hands. “What— Then why were you talking like?—”
“Because,” he dragged out, pointing to her bitten thigh, “venom takes a while to settle in. It takes way more than one bite for you to become fully saturated with it and officially off-limits to any other vampires. Until then, you’re not safe. Once it settles, not even Alastair would risk taking you from me because you’d go through the worst kind of withdrawal.”
“So I’m not going to be locked away in the house like some vampire Stepford wife?”
Cupping her cheeks, he leaned in close to make sure she didn’t miss a single word. “Pet, you arenota prisoner. You’re mybride.You’re my whole fuckin’ world. As soon as it’s safe, I want you to run wild and tear United Washington up. Spend our money. Fuck with the other families. Break all the speed limits with your new car. Be vicious and beautiful and so damn smart. All I ask is that you bemine.”
He didn’t think he’d ever be used to Dahlia’s tears. They shined in her eyes, making them seem painfully blue. She curled her fingers around his wrists, holding tight. “You’re not just saying that because you need a blood bride?Anyblood bride?”
“No,” he rasped, “I’m not. I’m saying that as the luckiest vampire on this godsforsaken planet. There is no one I’ve ever wanted to share my life with other than you, Dahlia. Anything or anyone else would’ve been nothing but sacrifice. But you— How did I get so fucking lucky? My girl is mybride.”
She nodded, blinking hard. “There’s one more thing on my list.”
Smoothing his thumbs over her cheeks, he said, “Anything.”
“I want to have kids. Not, like,thissecond, but soon. I want to have kids who grow up in a home where they’re loved andcared for and they don’t feel like they have to run away to survive and…” She sucked in a deep breath, cutting off the torrent. “I want them to have the home I always dreamed of when I was a kid, Felix.”
Instead of that sharp pain in his chest, a dull, bone-deep ache settled in. It wasn’t a bad feeling, necessarily, but more like the stretch of an untried muscle.
In a thick voice, he replied, “And this is why we’re perfect for each other, pet. We want all the same things. It just takes us a second to fight it out.”
“So… I get to have a job, I get my freedom, and… a couple of kids soonish,” she summarized, sounding more skeptical than he liked.
Felix dipped his head to press a quick, fierce kiss to her lips. “Yes to all of that. A job running the family business, your freedom as soon as my venom settles, and kids whenever you want them. Anything else?”
For the first time since he brought her home, Felix had the privilege of witnessing a real megawatt smile burst across her face.
Dahlia laid a smacking kiss on his lips before she answered, “Currently, the only other thing I need is a shower. That pergola wasnotvery clean.”
“All right.” Setting her a little bit away from him, Felix stood up from the bed and began to shrug out of his suit jacket. A satisfied smile kicked up the corner of his mouth as Dahlia went very still, her wide eyes tracking his progress as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt.
“What are you doing?” she breathed.
He slowly peeled his shirt over his shoulders before he moved onto his belt. Whipping it through the loops, he replied, “You need a shower, and your man is nothing if not accommodating.”
TWENTY-TWO
Dahlia wasn’t entirelysure how things ended up the way they had. A large part of her had braced for Felix’s fury when she returned to the house. She never could’ve predicted he’d show her a glimpse of the raw turmoil beneath the mask she’d become so used to.
And then the baffling man went and agreed to everything she asked for.
She was still trying to wrap her head around that as Felix fiddled with the ludicrously complex shower panel. Steam hissed from jets in the wall, and a massive rain showerhead came on, filling the luxurious bathroom with the sound of a captive waterfall.
