“Thanks, I appreciate it. Anything that might help me understand why she’s so anti becoming a vampire would be helpful. Considering she’s a fan of horror movies, you’d expect her to jump at the chance.”
“Nah, only you would think that,” Baylin said, closing the file. “The rest of us know people are more complex. Something you’d be aware of if you spent any amount of time around them.”
“I spend plenty, thanks,” Saiden replied, frost coating his words. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go sleep on the floor outside my own bedroom just to feel close to my mate.”
He pushed off the wall and headed for the door.
“Have a nice night,” Baylin called, his words swallowed up by a fit of laughter.
Saiden stalked down the hall back to his room, keeping his steps light as he got closer. He doubted Cora would hear him given that the room was sound treated, but he didn’t want to risk it. He had no believable lie for why he was going to be curled up on the floor like a guard dog.
He stopped outside her door and let his senses expand to take in the sounds inside the room. Not even soundproofing could block out vamp hearing if they were close enough, and surely it wasn’t snooping if he was just confirming she hadn’t tried to slip out the window. A flimsy excuse given their security system would have alerted them if that was the case, but an excuse nonetheless.
A tiny moan reached Saiden’s ears, and his entire body stiffened, his cock more so than anything else. It was the same sound that had been playing in his brain on repeat ever since that morning when he had his hands on her body, his fingers dancing over her delicate skin.
What exactly was happening in his bedroom?
He pulled his senses away from the intriguing noise just long enough to confirm none of his family were in the East Wing. He didn’t want anyone hearing the sounds Cora made. Not if she was doing what he hoped she was doing.
He’d never been so hard in his life, and all he wanted was to kick open the door and replace her hands with his own. She was his mate. He should be the one making her moan. His own hand started to drift toward the zipper on his jeans, but then he remembered where he was.
Fuck.
His eyes shot to the ceiling and scanned along the hall until they landed on the blinking device pointed right at his door. He flipped his brother—who was almost always watching—the middle finger, then ripped off his shirt to toss it over the lens. Jerking his phone out of his pocket, Saiden sent Baylin a quick text threatening to destroy every computer he owned if he so much as thought about coming over to fix the camera.
Keeping only half of his senses focused on listening for approaching footsteps, Saiden pressed his ear back against the door.
Cora’s soft moans were still going, and he reached his hand down to rub at the painful bulge in his jeans. He knew what he was doing was wrong. Listening to her. Violating her privacy. Touching himself to the sounds of her pleasure. He should be disgusted with himself that he would stoop to such levels. And yet…
“Saiden…”
The hand that had been palming his cock through unbearably thick jeans froze at the sound of his name coming from inside the room. He had hoped it was him she was thinking about, but to have confirmation? To know his mate was on the other side of the door touching herself to thoughts of him. It was his undoing.
He wrapped his hand around the knob, ready to yank the entire door off its hinges to get to his woman. Whether it was the mating bond or just Saiden’s own desire fueling his actions was anybody’s guess.
The only thing that saved him in the end was the soft tap ofapproaching heels.
He dropped his hand from the door and flashed across the hallway, leaning casually against the wall as if doing nothing more than simple guard duty.
Tressa rounded the corner a few seconds later, and he blurred over to meet her before she stepped within earshot of Cora’s room.
“Hey, Tress. What’s up?”
His cousin eyed him suspiciously, her gaze briefly dropping to the erection still very obvious even through his jeans.
“I could ask you the same thing, Saiden. Bay told me you blocked one of his cameras?”
“Yeah, it just felt weird having surveillance right on her door. Privacy and all that.”
Fuck, he was such a hypocrite.
“Right,” Tressa drawled. “And you needed to remove your shirt for that?”
He shrugged. “Just used what I had.”
“Okay then,” she said with a knowing smirk, turning to head back the way she came. “Oh, Saiden? You might want to listen to your own words. If you think Cora might not like having a camera on her door, I doubt she would appreciate anyone listening in either. Just a suggestion.”
Tressa disappeared around the corner, and Saiden slumped against the wall. He couldn’t believe what he had been about to do. There was no doubt in his mind that Cora would not have responded favorably to his bursting in on her.
