“You were hungry earlier?”
“I still am, though I feel more in control again. I don’t know how long that will last. I have to feed more regularly now, and the burning and healing took a lot out of me yesterday.”
“Then why didn’t you wake me?” she demanded, annoyed he’d denied himself when he didn’t have to. “You could have fed on me!”
“No, I couldn’t. I’ve been feeding and supplying you; the two of us exchanging blood isn’t enough to nourish us both, especially not me with my increased need for blood.”
“Oh.” Simone’s shoulders slumped as her irritation deflated. “Then we’ll find someone else.”
Killean nodded toward the window. “Sun’s still out, and I did enough crisp frying yesterday to last me a lifetime.”
He’d hoped to sound teasing, but her distress didn’t ease as she gnawed her bottom lip while staring at the covered window.
“We’ll call the office and have them send someone,” she said. “Like you did before.” She didn’t like the idea of setting someone up in such a way, but Killean came first, and he needed this.
“And if it’s a woman?”
Simone opened her mouth to respond before realization set in. “You already thought about doing that and discarded the idea because of what I requested of you earlier.”
“I rejected the idea because no matter what madness resides in me, I willnothurt you.”
“No madness resides in you,” she whispered.
“Something does, Simone. I’m not the man I once was; we both know it. But what I am now, neither of us knows, and you cannot deny that.”
“If you feed on a regular basis, you will hold these hallucinations at bay.”
“You’re so certain?”
“Yes.” And she was sure of it because she had to be. The idea of losing him to something she couldn’t stop petrified her, and if she dwelled on the possibility, it would make her insane too. “And if you stop killing, you’ll one day be able to walk in the sun again, and you’ll beat back this… this…” she fumbled for the right word, “darkness inside you.”
Killean tilted his head to study her. “And until then?”
“Until then, I will help you get through this, no matter what it takes, and we will walk in the darkness together.”
Simone didn’t have a chance to blink before he stood in front of her. Clasping her chin loosely in his fingers, he lifted her face until she was gazing into the stunning, golden pools of his eyes.
“You did not sign up for this insanity when you bound yourself to me,” he murmured.
“I signed up for you, Killean, and if you think I was foolish enough to believe it was going to be an easy journey, then you’re an idiot. I knew it would be difficult, and I did it anyway. Not only that, but I would do it again.”
Killean had never felt so humbled or lost to someone in his life. “No matter what happens, from here on out, you have to know something.”
Simone gulped as she braced herself for whatever bombshell he would drop on her next. “What?” she croaked.
“I am fucking in love with you. In all my years, I’ve never met another woman like you and haven’t loved another; I never considered myself capable of it, but you have proven me wrong yet again. You continuously amaze me, and I will love you until the day I die, Simone.”
That was the biggest bombshell of all as her muscles turned to jelly. Before she could reply, he kissed her. Tears burned her eyes as her hands encircled his forearms.
He loved her. She’d spent her entire life preparing to be the wife of another, but she never prepared herself for love. She hadn’t expected to have a husband who loved her. She’d hoped for it, but it was possible such an emotion would never develop between them.
She had love from her mate though. Even if she was wrong and she lost Killean to this madness, she would forever be grateful to have had him in her life.
“Don’t cry,” Killean whispered as he wiped the tears from Simone’s cheeks. He was aware they weren’t tears of sadness as her joy radiated against him, but he still didn’t like seeing them.
Simone smiled as she shook her head. “You’re a mess, and we’re a mess together, but you’ve made me happier than I ever dreamed I could be. I love you too.”
He smiled at her before kissing her again. Simone was beginning to lose herself to him when she recalled the events that brought them to this place. She pulled reluctantly away from him and clasped his wrists. “You have to feed.”
