“Do you worry about me?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t.” He pulled her into his lap and slid his hand up her thigh, cupping her bottom with his warm hand.
Oleg was always warm. He made her feel alive, even in this brutally cold barn in the middle of the woods.
“Do you remember?” he murmured, his lips near her ear. “All those years ago, when I was seducing my pretty bookkeeper?”
She remembered it as if it were yesterday, this brilliant, mysterious monster in the back of the fanciest car she had ever seen, pulling her onto his lap. He was taller than her, so when she sat in his lap, they were eye to eye.
You don’t worry about me. You don’t take care of me. That’s not how my world works. I take care of you. I take care of all my people.
She leaned forward and sucked his lower lip into her mouth, teasing it with her tongue and her fangs.
Oleg made a short, growling sound at the back of his throat, then spun her around so she was straddling him—her back to his chest—with her bottom pressed against his growing erection. He spread her thighs and yanked her back, grinding into her backside as his fangs sank into her shoulder, through the thin sweater she had been wearing to train, and into her flesh.
Her breath puffed out, barely steaming in the cold air, as Oleg slowly slid the zipper of her pants down, and then his hands were sliding under her clothes, his heated flesh against her cold body.
“Do you remember this, volchitsa?” He slid two fingers inside her, teasing her with one hand as his other slid under her sweater and up the front of her body to capture her breast. “Do you remember what I told you?”
“Yes.” She gasped as his fingers curled inside her, teasing a bundle of nerves that sent shivers all over her body.
“What do I do?”
She felt like sobbing and screaming at the same time.
“What do I do?” he asked again.
You bring me so much pleasure I can barely think straight.
She felt like her body would shatter, her skin would catch on fire, and the top of her head might fly off unless she came. “You” —she gasped again— “take care of me.”
“That’s right.” Oleg pinched her clitoris and she shattered.
Tatyana closed her eyes and rode the wave of pleasure from Oleg’s hands, capturing the soft, dark words he whispered against her neck as she came apart in his arms.
“I take care ofyou.”
You are mine.
My queen.
My mate.
“Mywife,” he whispered. “Never doubt my loyalty. Not ever.”
“I don’t.” She didn’t need air, but her chest was heaving. “I won’t.”
“Never.” His breath was hot on her neck, and blue fire rippled softly over his hands. “Never again.”
Two nights later,Kezia agreed to meet her at a basement tavern in Krakow.
“You left the summit quickly,” her sister said. “I had to make excuses.”
They were sitting in a secluded booth, and low jazz music was playing in the background. There were a few humans in the tavern, but other than Sándor and Kezia’s personal Hazar near the door, they were alone.
“I apologize if I caused any inconvenience or extra work for you,” Tatyana said. “I know you spent a lot of time on the events, but I was?—”
