“Stop using titles and call me Ciprian.”
“You pointed out that it’s rude.”
“Because it is,” I inform her. “It goes against the customs of my kind. Only one person ever refers to me as Ciprian, and it’s my best friend. And only ever when we’re alone.” I start toward her, wanting to touch her. “I would like for you to call me Ciprian, too. Also… when we’re alone.”
“And when we’re not?” she asks, her wary tone not lost on me.
“For now, if we are around others, you will need to address me by my title. Otherwise, my fellow Strigoi may take offense. That’s why rules are important. Formalities, too.”
“If you’re the king, don’t you make the rules?”
“Some,” I admit. “But not all. And you’re a human. Your kind is inferior to mine.”
“Yet you’ve referred to me as yourintended mate,” she says. “How does that work?”
“It works quite well, I assure you,” I murmur, cupping her jaw and drawing her gaze up to mine. “Strigoi often take humans as mates, Viviana.”
“So your kind enjoys submissive partners?”
I shrug. “Many of us do, yes. But not all of my kind.”
“I was being sarcastic.” Her exhaustion is palpable again, as is her mounting agitation.
“Explain it to me,” I ask her. “Tell me what you mean, Viviana. Help me understand. Please.”
It’s the softest I’ve ever spoken to anyone in my entire existence.
However, this female has gifted me with a pleasure unlike anything I’ve ever known. And not just physically. Her fiery nature pleases me. It probably shouldn’t. But I like that she doesn’t fear me. It’s enthralling. It makes me feel…human.
Which is bizarre.
I’m used to invoking terror unless using the art of compulsion.
Yet Viviana studies me with interest in her gaze. Lust.Excitement.
Although, right now, she’s looking at me like she’s thinking about stabbing me. And that only intrigues me more.
“Humans are beneath your kind,” she says. “Right?”
“Mortals are not as strong or as powerful as Strigoi, yes.”
“Yet Strigoi take humans as mates, thus suggesting that your kind enjoys having an inferior partner in a relationship. Some might call that a submissive.” She bristles a little. “But even a submissive is allowed a safe word. So I suppose a slave is more accurate. Which gives credence to you calling me a pet, I guess.”
My gaze narrows a bit, understanding creeping in. “You’re offended.”
“I’m a lot of things right now, Your Highness,” she mutters, closing her eyes as she rubs the goose bumps pebbling along her arms. “This has been an overwhelming… God, has it only been twenty-four hours since I arrived here?”
“Yes. But time is a mortal construct. And our history already spans years, Viviana, making it the longest courtship of my existence.”
She blinks. “Courtship? You think this is acourtship?”
“Yes,” I repeat, then pull her into my arms and lift her into the air.
She squeals in response, her mind shouting alarm at the things she assumes I’m about to do to her.
“Relax, Ms. Dalca,” I tell her. “I’m simply carrying you into my closet to find something for you to wear so that you’ll stop shivering.”
The tension doesn’t leave her form, not even as I set her down to search for a shirt.
