She wasn’t sure why she was keeping her voice low, just that it felt right. There was something off about this place.
He grunted. “It’ll be fine. I just rolled it.”
A frown tugged at her lips. “If it hurts?—”
“It’s okay, Viv.”
She went to protest further, but his hand landed on her thigh. Her chest seized, and it was like she forgot to breathe. The prince’s touch earlier had been warm, but now, it was searing. Sparks ran through her, and her entire lower body warmed.
Vivienne’s argument dried up in her mouth, and she stared at her thigh. Her earlier objections about why this was a bad idea seemed so far away that she couldn’t even remember them.
She couldn’t see his hand, but by the gods, she could feel it. Did he know how much his touch was affecting her?
“I… okay.” Forcing words out of her mouth took far more effort than it should have. “If you’re sure.”
“I am,” he said, his voice brokering no room for discussion.
Several minutes passed in silence, and the prince kept his hand on her the whole time. She tried not to concentrate on his touch, but that was like asking a vampire not to need blood.
Especially when he started rubbing his thumb across her thigh. The movement was so slow that she wasn’t sure he was intentionally doing it. Purposeful or not, Vivienne couldn’t stop thinking about it, even if she tried.
Her entire world was centered on that small point of contact. Nothing could distract her from it, not even the constant hum coming from somewhere deep within the House of Forgotten Shadows.
Vivienne tried to relax. Shifting her position and stretching her legs in front of her, she settled in for a long day. She’d already anticipated that she wouldn’t be sleeping for the foreseeable future. That was why she’d ensured her hunger was fully satiated before they left. Declining the royals’ offer to find her a Source, she’d hunted several deer instead.
For some reason, the thought of drinking from a random, willing mortal had turned her stomach.
She tilted her head in Marius’s direction. He was shrouded in shadows, but the longer she looked at him, the more she could make out the general shape of his body.
Even in the darkness, she could feel his attention on her.
Before Vivienne could think too hard about why this was probably a bad idea—because there were a multitude of reasons, her blood vow being one of them—she whispered his name.
“Hmm?” he said.
“I really don’t like heights.” She’d been thinking about fears ever since he told her the story of the sea monster earlier.
His thumb paused its trail across her thigh, and he chuckled. “Can’t you fly?”
“I do, but it’s different when I’m flying because I’m in control.”She could land at any time. From the first time she jumped off a rooftop, her wings supporting her as she flew, she’d loved being in the air.
“I can see that.” His thumb started rubbing her leg again, and several minutes passed before he murmured, “I used to be afraid that I would be trapped in Castle Sanguis for the rest of my life, watching everyone else live around me.”
Her heart ached at the pain in his words. “That sounds awful.”
After having recently been a prisoner, she could relate to his fears. She’d be happy if she never saw the interior of a cell again.
“It would’ve been,” he agreed, his voice low. “But now I’m here.”
With her. A lightness filled her despite their dark surroundings.
She leaned her head back and let her eyes fall shut. “What was growing up in Castle Sanguis like?”
His hand flattened on her thigh, and his breath hitched. For a long moment, she wasn’t sure he’d answer her.
When he did, his voice was softer than before. “It was… well, sometimes it was a lot.”
Traces of pain were woven through Marius’s words, and before she realized what she was doing, she placed her hand on his.
