“How long, Raphael? You said weeks before. It’s been over two months since the eclipse.”
“What I told you is it could vary. Weeks was only a guess. The bond makes certain I’m nearby to keep you safe, at least until you’ve settled as a vampire.” Though he’d seldom heard of a fledgling bond as tight as this one. It hadn’t given an inch.
He was a selfish bastard—he wanted her close. But he also wanted Samara to be happy and tochooseto stay close. Those were not the same thing.
“I’mtrying, Raphael. I’m not fighting this new nature as much as I was. But Ihaveto break this bond.” She sucked in a breath, eyes suddenly widening.
His little viper, so desperate to get away. It just made him step closer.
“You’re very focused on what youhaveto do instead of what youwantto do.”
“Semantics. I want to break this bond,” she retorted.
A world of truth could be buried in semantics. “And is that all you want?” He knew it wasn’t. Beast’s blood, it frustrated him to no end that she refused to even consider what she might truly want.
But he could show her. He could teach her what it was to want, and just how good it could be to have those wants satisfied instead of burying them as phantoms that haunted.
And that would make it all the sweeter.
He stepped even closer. Her scent was a sweet taunt of everything he himself wanted. “You have centuries at your disposal, continents available to you to explore, music halls you could dance in until dawn every night. You can want more, Samara, because you can have it.”
Because he would give it all to her.
She wavered. Could she even fathom what lengths he would go to if he thought it would please her? “Then what do you want, little viper? Do you want me to lay jewels at your feet, books, inventions? Or perhaps what you want most is me.”
Her breath caught. Damn subtlety. Seeing her stand there, trying to act unaffected, was exquisite torture. “I don’t—no.”
“No to which part?” he asked innocently. “The jewels? I can understand, they can be rather trite. Or are you saying you don’t love the thought of me kneeling in front of you, willing to give you anything you want?”
She swallowed sharply, and he couldn’t look away from the small bob of her throat. “Don’t toy with me.”
He held in a dark laugh. He was completely serious. “Have I done anything to give you the impression I was toying with you?”
Indecision warred across her face. “Those things aren’t for me.”
What she meant was thathewasn’t for her. A point he firmly disagreed with. “They could be.” He resisted the urge to pull a strand of her hair loose, to curl it around his finger. To tilt her neck to the side and bite.
They were close now. She could back up, could run from the room, but she just stared him down. “No matter how you work to suppress your feelings, you can’t hide them. Not from me. I know you want me—even now, I can scent it.” His lids slid half closed as he inhaled, tasting the truth of his words. She was sosweet on his tongue, her body unable to lie about what being that close did to her. He was equally affected, his cock straining tight in his breeches.
Her eyes darted away. “Perhaps what you scent is just my body’s natural reaction to being in proximity to a… a reasonably attractive male. Not you particularly.”
Perhaps. His viper had learned how to twist her words exceptionally well as a fledgling, even if she struggled with all other aspects. If she ever had this reaction to another male, Raphael would likely kill him. Not out of insecurity, because being so jealous was unbecoming. Just on principle.
But he decided against telling her that now. He couldn’t pass up the chance to keep teasing her.
“Reasonablyattractive. Damned with faint praise, but I’ll accept it.”
“It wasn’t meant as a compliment.”
He didn’t doubt it, but he took it as one all the same. He knew how he looked, knew his appeal, but there was something thrilling about hearing even the faintest admission from her lips.
“I don’t need any flattery from you, viper. The way you kiss me like you’ll die without it, clawing at my skin, grinding against me like you want everything I could give you—that’s plenty for my ego.”
“That will never happen again.”
“It’s impressive you believe that.” She must have, to have been able to get the words out. Raphael wouldn’t have been able to say them. He held her gaze steady, abandoning the teasing note in his voice. “What are you so afraid of?”
He wanted her to confide in him, to trust both him and her feelings for him.
