The man pushed back against the pistoning fingers with a low, primal sound. “Right there… I’m going to—” His shoulders moved up and down with his heavy breaths, and his tightened muscles relaxed.
I heard the pop as the man sucking his dick finished the job. My mind was just catching up with the fact that I shouldn’t be watching now that they were done when the man on his knees peered around his lover’s hips.
My eyes widened, and my jaw threatened to come unhinged. He looked just as shell-shocked as I did.
This couldn’t be happening.
I took off down the hall, refusing to look behind me eventhough I could sense that he was stalking after me. The hairs on my neck prickled with awareness, and my pulse hammered in my ears, drowning out everything except the slight shift in the air that told me he was following. Of course he was. Val was a hunter, and right now, I was definitely his prey.
The weight of embarrassment pressed down on my shoulders, along with the image of what I’d watched burned into my mind.
I rounded a corner and could see my bedroom door, the familiar carved wood a beacon in the shadowy corridor. Safety was within my reach. Just a few more steps and I could slam the door, slide the lock into place, and pretend this mortifying encounter had never happened.
At least until the council meeting, where I’d be forced to sit across from him and somehow maintain my composure while memories of the library threatened to consume me.
Before I could make it halfway to the door, I was pulled into a window alcove and pushed against the stone wall. He tensed behind me, and damn it if my body didn’t get more worked up over the feel of the hard planes of him.
Hard planes that I knew well.
“Dios mío, bruja…” His lips brushed against the shell of my ear, and goosebumps erupted across my skin. “I’d recognize those eyes anywhere.”
His erection pressed against my lower back as he swept the hair off my neck and lowered his lips to a vein. He ran his tongue along its length, and I let out a whimper.
“Don’t.” More words refused to come out. Instead, a breathy sigh escaped as he scraped one of his fangs along the crease between my neck and shoulder.
“I thought you were dead.” He spun me around, and his blue eyes searched mine for answers. “Where have you been?”
I got lost in his eyes, just as I had years ago. They held the same magnetic pull they always had, drawing me in despite every instinct screaming to resist. His hand came to my cheek, the cool touch of his skin making me shiver. His thumb rubbed across it with surprising gentleness, tracing the curve where my face had changed in the years since he’d last touched me. The pad of his thumb lingered near the corner of my mouth, hesitating as if debating whether to explore further.
I wanted to hate the way my body leaned into his touch, seeking more contact despite the time apart. I never thought I’d see Valentino Sangre again. Not only was his father the leader of the northern vampires, but I was also promised to him.
As much as it had pissed me off that my father made a decision that should have been mine, Val had surprised me. He was charismatic, sexy as hell, and did wicked deeds with his tongue.
“I…” I was flustered and found speaking difficult.
“You what?” His eyes darkened, and he tilted his head to the side. “You ran but didn’t come to me for help? You made no contact with me?”
“You’re gay?” Of all the things I could have said, my mind kept flashing back to the damn library.
His eyes narrowed, and his hand came to my throat. It hovered there, threatening. “You. Left. Me.” He punctuated each word and looked at me in disgust. “If you’re here to claim the throne, you can forget about it.”
Before I could respond with the fury that had replaced every other emotion, Nico’s tattooed hand grabbed Val by the shoulder and sent him flying into the hallway and against the opposite wall.
“Are you all right?” Nico touched my cheek, and when I nodded, he turned back to Val and headed for him.
Val was rubbing the back of his head, and his fangs were on display. “You picked the wrong tree, squirrel.”
The venom in his voice made me cringe, and I quickly put myself between the two men. Just as I did, so did the man who had been getting his dick sucked by Val.
We stared each other down before I finally broke and backed up a step. I couldn’t exactly tell what he was, but he definitely wasn’t a vampire. He was also burly enough to snap me in two. He and Nico would be an even match in a hand-to-hand fight.
“Do you want me to take care of them?” the man Val had been pleasuring asked. His voice was smooth and deep. It was a voice that a woman wanted to be whispered in her ear all night.
“No need, Amari.” Val stepped around him and narrowed his eyes at Nico, who was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. “They were just leaving.”
“You’re the only ones who will be leaving,” Nico spat, taking a step forward. I put my arm out to stop him. “And don’t call me squirrel again. My name is Nicolas.”
This confrontation was going nowhere fast. Nico was strong, but Val was lethal. I couldn’t let this escalate farther than it already had. “What are you doing here, Val?”
