I guess the condom was too much, and he needed to clean up.
My eyes feel heavy, and I swear I could go to sleep right here. Maybe the dreams wouldn’t even bother me tonight …
But before I can drift off, Alaric is back. He scoops me off the bed, pressing me into his chest as he carries me across the room.
“Alaric, what are you doing?” I squeal.
The scent of lavender permeates the air. He walks both of us into the shower, his broad shoulders almost touching the sides of the glass door. Warm water sluices over us. He leans me against the wall, running a soapy flannel over my sore and heated body.
“I never said I was done worshipping you,” he murmurs, his fingers darting between my legs again.
“You don’t have to,” I whisper.
His dark stare locks on mine. “But I want to. I want such dark and wild things from you, Winnie, you cannot imagine.”
He holds me against that wall, kissing my protests away as his fingers work their magic until I come apartfor him once more.
When I emerge from the bathroom a few minutes later, Alaric is sitting in one of the chairs at the window. Moonlight falls over his face as he reads a book.
“The bathroom’s free if you?—”
“Hmmm.” He turns a page.
I march over and snatch the book from his hands. My skin flushes as I realise that it’s next week’s smutty vampire book club pick, and the page Alaric’s reading is a particularly racy scene between the vampire prince and his human bride …
“I was reading that.”
“You’re a vampire who’s lived for over five hundred years. There’s nothing in that book you haven’t done before.”
“That’s not true. Page sixty-four wasmostenlightening.”
My ears are burning. I drop the book onto the nightstand and jab a finger at the bathroom. “Get in there and brush your fangs or whatever it is vampires need to do so we can go to sleep.”
Alaric flashes me one final infuriating smirk before shutting the bathroom door behind him.
By the time he returns to my room, I’m beneath the sheets and struggling to keep my eyes open. “I know this is usually the time when you get up and do things, but I need a night off. Someone wore me out.”
“I understand. You must rest.” He pulls the covers up to my neck and lays a chaste kiss on my forehead. He picks up his coat and starts for the door.
“Alaric?”
He turns.
I lift up the corner of the duvet. “Will you stay with me tonight?”
“I do not sleep during the midnight hours.”
“Fine, then will you lay beside me and stare at the ceiling while I sleep?”
He smiles, dropping his coat and pulling backthe sheets. There’s a slight heat in his skin from the shower water as he presses against me, his arms wrapping around my waist.
“I will stay because it pleases you,” he whispers in my ear. “I cannot say no to you, my wife.”
Alaric clicks off his light.
“Alaric?”
“Mmm?” His voice rumbles through my chest.
