“And what about Emberline?” Nico’s eyes glittered. “We’re going to get her back, right?”
Your godsdamned right, I’m getting her back. She’s mine, and I’m not letting her go.
“We’ll let the newlyweds make the first move,” I decided, the words leaving a sour taste in my mouth. “See what other wrenches my brother decides to throw in the gears of progress. But yes, Nico, we’re getting her back. That’s a fucking promise.”
“Good.” He tipped his head back, and I watched as he emptied the bottle, then tossed it across the room into the wall. The shattering of glass made us both grin.
“She’s not helpless, you know,” I told him, praying I was right. “She has an agenda of her own, a bad fucking attitude, and if there’s any justice in the world, my brother won’t know what hit him when she takes him down.”
31
DANTE
Ember nodded off again, lashes trembling against her cheeks, full lips parting enough for me to glimpse the tips of her fangs. I watched her sleep, counting off the minutes before she jerked awake.
For a second, she looked disoriented and confused, scanning the darkness, caught between worlds. Then reality slammed into her. I saw it happen—the way her pupils tightened, her jaw clenched, her shoulders stiffened into a tight line.
“Unfortunately,” I whispered, “you weren’t dreaming. This is real.”
Her gaze narrowed. “I was hoping I’d wake up and find out I hallucinated the part where I married the wrong brother.” She groaned hoarsely. “Sad to discover I’m wrong.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“Sorry doesn’t begin to cover my disappointment,stronzo.”
We stared at each other across the rumpled expanse of white.
She sat upright in the chair, cataloguing the room with quick, efficient sweeps of her eyes—the door, the windows, the fireplace, the distance between us, the position of the knives on the table, the likelihood she could reach them before me.
Her lips tightened. “Your father and his guards are stilltrying to get through the wards,” she observed. “I can hear the pounding on the other side.”
“They won’t.” I pushed up on one elbow, marveling at her composure. “There is nobody in this family strong enough to override my magic, and as far as brute force… even Nico couldn’t batter his way through.”
Her gaze flicked to the door. “So, no one can get in.” I couldn’t tell if she sounded relieved or disappointed and decided, for the sake of my ego, to go with relieved. But truthfully… she should be scared witless locked in here with me. I was well aware I looked like a rabid dog.
“No. You should sleep, if you can.” I held her stare. “You’re safe.”
She snorted, and I stopped myself from trying to convince her I was telling the truth. Because that would be pathetic.
Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. The movement was small, butfuck.
My cock needed to get on board with the fact this was just pretend, and she was nothing but a means to an end. Except there was also a dark ache in her stare, the way it lingered on my throat a moment too long.
That dark, unholy thing trapped inside me roused, dragging a sharpened talon down the prison that kept it contained. I dragged a finger down the tattoo on my neck and he faded away.
“You’re starving; I can smell your hunger from here.” I stretched, showing her more of my throat, and she shivered, her entire body trembling beneath that black dress that didn’t show an inch of creamy, kissable skin except for her hands and her face. “You need to feed, tesoro.”
Yes, I was a bastard.
Yes, I would do it again if given the chance, just to watchthe way her mouth parted, how her tongue rimmed her bottom lip. My body responded as if I was a trained dog, cock so hard my balls were probably blue.
She bristled. “Worry about yourself, asshole. I’mfine,” she muttered, turned away, her head whipping back when I uttered just one word…
“Liar.”
“I’m fucking fine,” she snapped. “Haven’t you done enough without turning this into more of a shitshow? Let’s get through your family’s little gauntlet in the morning, then I will go back to my home, and I’ll feed and…”
“No,” I cut in.
