But I like seeing her smile and laugh and dance around. Letting Arabella win means we both get exactly what we want.
There are no windows in the dungeon. I glance down at my watch. I checked the time of today’s sunrise – 4.43 am. I’d normally be crawling into bed by 4 am. It’s now 6.59 and Celeste is still a wolf. Dreamless sleep tugs at my limbs, but I can’t imagine closing my eyes while in Arabella’s presence. Partly because I think she’ll do something unspeakable to me while I’m unconscious. (She does have prior form.)
But mostly, I don’t want to spend a single moment asleep around her.
“Are we playing again?” I reset the board. “Do you fancy a little rule change? Strip Catan? Every time one of us builds a city, the other loses a layer. I can promise you plentiful wood—”
“Makeone more resource punand I will do something unspeakable to you.”
I lean close and hold up a sheep card. “It’s a baaaaaad idea to keep flirting with me like that.”
I expect her to slap me, but she doesn’t. We stay like this a beat too long, our noses practically touching.
“You never needed jewels or fine dresses,” I whisper. “You shine so brightly you make the moon jealous.”
“Will youshut up?”
“Make me.”
I brace myself for her to thrust a city into my eyeball. Instead, her lips brush mine, so light and soft that I almost can’t believe it’s real, that she’s real.
But it’s all the permission I need.
Catan pieces fly everywhere as I throw aside the table. I pull her from her chair and settle her over my knees. She kneels on me, grinding herself down against me.
“Iwillmake you,” she growls. “I will make you come apart so you will never annoy me again.”
“I amwheatfor you,” I manage to groan out.
She grinds down harder, her fangs knocking against mine. Her tongue is vicious, stealing any further puns I’ve saved. My cock strains as she brushes me through my trousers, desperate to discard the fabric between us.
The spark that flares when we kiss wakes the magic in my veins. The blood of ancient vampires pulse within us, whispering of sins that taste like heaven.We are the same.
She cups my cheeks, her sharp nails digging in. My fingers roam over the planes of her body that I memorised on our first night together. The ones I’ve hungered for ever since.
Arabella breaks our kiss abruptly, her breathing heavy as she narrows her eyes, staring me down. “This means nothing. It’s like scratching an itch, you understand? I still hate you.”
I smile, trailing my fingers down the length of her until I cup her clothed pussy. The heat in my hand is almost more than a vampire can bear.
“You’re kind of ruining the vibe when I’m about to build my longest road to your settlement.”
“You…” Her eyes drift downward to my straining cock and my finger running over her through the fabric of her tailored linen trousers. “I can’t believe you’re still using Catan puns. It’s as if you’re asking me to punish you.”
“They’re turning you on,” I whisper, leaning forward and running my lips down her neck.
“That’s a stretch,” she says through a laugh.
“I mean, I’m not judging you. To wheat her own—”
She grips my shoulder, wrenching herself off my lap. The chair hits the door of Celeste’s cell and shatters into splinters as Arabella presses my back against the wall, holding me with her talons at my throat. She melts against me, her curves fitting perfectly as she holds me beneath her spell, exactly where I want to be.
The smile barely touches her lips as she leans forward, her words a cool breath against my cheek. “Why do you like to play with fire, Gideon Blake? I could easily take your life right now and disappear forever, and no one would even know. I could run to Alaric’s mother or the Conclave with word of your crimes. So why aren’t you afraid of me?”
“Is that what you want, for me to fear you?” I reach up, placing my hand beneath her chin, tilting her head up so she has no choice but to meet my gaze. “Now that you’ve come back to me, the only thing I’m afraid of is losing you again.”
“Then you should probably stop making terrible Catan puns.”
“Probably,” I nibble her bottom lip. “But you said I couldn’t make snake puns, so I don’t know what else to do with my talents. Plus, I enjoy being afraid. That’s how I know I’m still alive. From the way your heart is beating in time with mine, I know we’re the same.”
