“You need to tell him about us. If you want him to truly protect you, he needs to know, and if he’s any good at his job, it won’t be news to him.”
“You are likely correct.”
“I know I’m correct.”
Her eyes were uncertain and cautious. “Surprise!”
Oleg slowly walked toward her. “Surprise? I asked you if you were going to be here and?—”
“You didn’t actually.” She was trying to hold back a smile. “You mentioned it, and I changed the subject.”
His body was raging—it had been nearly a month since he’d seen her—but they were both wearing too many clothes, and they didn’t have time to disappear from the party for long. “You were with that wind vampire.”
“Samson is here representing Arosh’s court,” Tatyana said. “We’re friends. You know we are friends.”
He was standing a foot away from her, and the scent of her blood had his erection standing at attention. “He would take you back to the Fire King.”
“He knows that’s not an option.” She waved a hand. “Hello, Oleg! Isn’t it fun that we are in the same city and that we might have time to spend together?”
“If you had told me that you would be here, we could have coordinated better.”
“Oh, like you told me you were going to be in Bucharest the last time I was there?”
“That was a last-minute situation, and you had to expect that I would?—”
“I never know what to expect from you!” She threw out her hands. “That’s kind of the point. You surprise me. I thought I would surprise you. I thought it would be fun, and you are making it… not fun.”
“You were standing with a man that you know I do not like, and you weretouchinghim,” Oleg snarled.
“And you had women hanging all over you!” she hissed. “I saw you earlier with at least three women who all wanted to sink their teeth into you.” She looked him up and down. “Don’t tell me I’m overreacting.”
“Those women are playing a political game. Arosh’s son is not. He is in love with you.”
She stepped toward him and bared her fangs. “Well, I am not in love with him. I am in love with you!”
Oleg’s blood roared in his ears, and he cursed the Báthory Summit, their responsibilities, and every vampire on the first floor. “You’re in love with me?”
“Of course I am fucking in love with you!” she whisper-yelled at him. “Do you think I would go jump through all these ridiculous hoops,marryyou, take you as my mate if?—”
Oleg grabbed her arm, drew her to him, and kissed her soundly on the mouth. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her to him and pressing her heart to his chest, feeling the slow movement of blood pick up in her veins.
He wanted to plunder.
He didn’t.
Oleg took his wife’s mouth in deliberately soft kisses. His fingers wanted to rip and tear, to stake his claim on her body as she’d offered the gift of her heart.
Instead, his fingers danced over the silk of her gown, smoothing the dress over the curve of her waist and her hips.
She sighed into his mouth. “Oleg.”
“Shhh.” His body was as riotous as his mind, but this moment needed control or he would rampage through this palace and set every vampire in his way on fire. “We have to get back. You know how vampires gossip, and they will be looking for both of us.”
She took a deep breath and looked up, meeting his stormy grey eyes. “Surprise.” She ran her hands down the front of his kaftan. “This looks very cool, by the way. You look like an emperor from some historical film.”
“This was made before films were invented.” And when she was his queen, he would have a matching coat made for her so that every vampire in his aegis would bow down and worship her beauty.
“Right.” Tatyana fingered the ermine trim on his cuff. “That makes me feel a little better about the small animals that were killed.”
