“Of course,” I said, knowing she had much on her mind.
I wanted to hold her tight on top of that luscious bed of hers.Stroke her hair and let her spill her thoughts and worries and ramblings to me.But she did not seem keen on receiving such treatment, as she pulled me down for a kiss and told me she was going to retire for the evening.
“Good night,” she whispered against my lips, and I could have sworn I heard her voice shake.
“You don’t want me to escort you to your room?”I asked, only marginally hurt by the fact she didn’t ask.
I would have done it without asking, but I didn’t want to impose.I didn’t want to smother her, and the feelings I’d been having—the borderline obsession to be near her always—was starting to take a toll on me.
Perhaps it was the claiming mark, perhaps it was the stress of the situation, perhaps it was the impending start of the school year and all the uncertainty before us.But whatever it was, I managed to stave off the desire to attach myself to Violet like a damn parasite.
“You should make sure Desmond is okay,” she said softly.“Tomorrow.”
“What?”I asked.
“You should go over all of that with him.His spell books, clothes, all the things he’ll need as a first year.Go over it with him.”
“Violet, that could take all fucking day,” I said, because truthfully it could.I didn’t know all of what he brought for his stay at the castle, and I certainly didn’t know where or how he placed at the academy.
“I just...I know what it was like to not have much of a orientation beyond that of what I got when I arrived, and?—”
Watching her face falter, suddenly I wanted nothing more than to do as she asked, if only so I could see the smile on her face, period.
“All right.I’ll bridge the topic, but do not be surprised if I find you and let off some steam,” I teased her.
I leaned down to kiss her once more and she stilled, frozen like a statue.
“Tell me what’s on your mind, little faerie,” I whispered against her lips.“Tell me and I will burn it away.”
“I know you would,” she said softly.
She looked up at me, licking her lips.
“Would you marry me?”she asked, and my eyes widened at the words.
“Are you proposing to me?”I asked, my lips curling into a grin as a laugh escaped my throat.
Her cheeks pinkened and her eyes widened of their own accord.
“No!I just...What I meant was?—”
I kissed her softly, taking her bottom lip between my teeth.
“What a pity.If you were asking me to marry you, I would have said yes.”I kissed her once more, sliding my tongue into her mouth as I pulled her close.
I did not have to think twice about such things.I’d already claimed her; she was alreadyminein every sense of the word where incubus law was concerned.A claiming bite, a mate bond, was the incubi equivalent of getting married.It was a binding spell of sorts.Violet’s blood belonged to me, and I to her.
My consort title bound us by royal decree.
What was a little paperwork in the grand scheme of things?
“But you didn’t ask, so...”I kissed her cheek and she wrapped her arms around me, holding me tight.
Tighter than usual.
“I love you,” she murmured into my shirt.
I brought my arms up to hold her, rubbing her back.Whatever was on her mind was weighing heavily on her, but I did not want to push her.If she wanted to tell me, she would.
