“Did you forget my element?” She snapped her fingers at him, and in a moment her hand was drenched, the water in the air drawn to her skin. “Oleg, I should be with you in case?—”
“And what if you do not wake in time?” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Do you think I would take the chance? I like the snapping, by the way.” He winked at her. “Very sexy.”
“I know what you’re trying to do.”
He was trying to distract her, trying to seduce her so she wouldn’t worry about him, but Tatyana would not be deterred.
A dream? What kind of dream would cause an inferno like this? She turned in circles, trying to imagine the horrors her mate must have seen in his very long life.
879 AD.“My birth year, or my best guess at it.”
Eleven hundred and forty-six years of life, most of it lived under a monster who used him as a weapon.
Eleven hundred and forty-six years of life, all of it holding together the closest thing he had to a family, gripping the bloody shards of his sire’s empire and fusing them into something resembling one of the beautiful works of art he pieced together from broken glass and ruined stone.
And all while wearing a crown of melted steel forged by his own flesh.
Bloody tears came to her eyes.
“What is this?” Oleg’s voice was gruff. “Stop this, Tatyana. You’ll make me angry if you cry.”
“Shut up.”
“Ah.” He lifted a finger as he walked in front of her. “If I cannot tell you to shut up, neither can you tell me to shut up. You’re correct—it’s rude.” His jaw was tense as he roughly wiped the tears that fell down her cheeks. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. I don’t want you to worry about me. Don’t you know I am too arrogant to die? Especially by my own fire. That would be truly humiliating. Mika would never let me forget it.”
He removed a silk pocket square from his suit pocket and used the red silk to dab at her eyes, brushing the silk along her cheeks.
She closed her eyes. “My love, have you ever known peace?”
Oleg froze.
Tatyana swallowed hard, blinking back more tears that wanted to flood her eyes.
“Yes.” He leaned down, pressing a soft and careful kiss to her trembling mouth. “I have.”
Tatyana wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly. She pressed her cool fingers to the burning skin at his neck, the only sign that his emotions were running high.
“You must tell me,” she said. “Even when you think it will upset me. Tell me, Oleg. I am your mate. I want to know.”
“Your ears are too unspoiled to hear my burdens.” He turned his head and kissed the tip of her ear. “And you have your own?—”
“This is my wedding present.” She leaned back and looked him square in the eye. “You asked me five years ago what gift you should give me, Oleg Sokolov. This is the gift I choose.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “The burden of my past is no gift to anyone.”
“I don’t need to know everything,” she said. “I’m not demanding all your secrets. But this?” She looked around the room. “Do not keep things like this from me. Not now. Not ever.”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Not for a hundred years?”
She stood on her tiptoes and nipped at his lower lip with her dull front teeth. “Do you really think I’ll be finished with you by then?”
The fire in his eyes was the only thing that brought her comfort.
In that moment, shewantedhim proud.
She wanted him arrogant.
Tatyana wanted him to be the most infuriatingly clever, wily, and conniving vampire that walked the earth.
