“To the Hive. To my regent. To you.” I looked to my feet, unsure how to describe the pain pricking at my insides. Everyone has a job. Everyone gets something. Including me. A life with a crown and riches waited for me at the end of my duty. A life I’d never dreamed of or wanted with a man I couldn’t have dreamed up. Except, Rhazien wasn’t the man I couldn’t shake. Dommik was like a stain on my mind. An itch I couldn’t scratch. Off-limits. Out of bounds.Forbidden.
The commander pushed back his dark, messy hair and the firelight cast shadows across the angles of his face, accentuating dark circles beneath his normally alert and focused eyes. I saw it now—the weight of his duty.
“Needless to say, in your condition, you can’t leave this room.” I moved to stand and before I could protest his orders, he repeated himself, insisting, “You. Cannot. Leave. This room.”
“What about Rhaz?—”
“Leave that to me,” Dommik barked, adding another brick to his already looming tower of responsibilities on this diplomatic visit.
I made an irritated sound as I folded my arms across my chest. “So I just?—”
As if he read my mind he continued, “Yes. Stay here. Don’t leave. Don’t make more trouble for me.” He softened, “Please.”
Blood was beginning to pool in my undergarments, accentuating the entire reason I needed to be kept in hiding. Dommik’s nostrils flared and his eyes went wide.
I clenched, willing my body to keep any additional blood at bay. At least, until he left.
But the commander stepped closer, hunger emanating from him.
“Dommik. What is it?” I breathed through parted lips.
“You can’t imagine what it’s like,” he growled. I retreated as he took another step closer, like we were performing a slow waltz in his private quarters. “Knowing what you taste like. Knowing you so deeply.”
Dommik’s oversized shirt fell off my shoulder, revealing the skin of my collarbone and neck with the absolute worst timing possible. I reached to fix the fabric but Dommik lifted his hand, a silent command to freeze. And despite every instinct screaming beneath my skin to cover, hide, or run, I listened. Entranced by his stormy gaze. Falling deeper into the crashing waves and enticing tide as he continued to stalk forward.
“Normally, vampires keep their human partners to themselves during their cycle.”
I couldn’t tell if it was the chill of the rough stone meeting my back or the predatory look in his eyes that sent a shiver through my body.
Dommik was inches from me and I was completely at his mercy.
He looked down with a pained, weighted gaze. “If you were mine, I wouldn’t have let anyone else near you. We wouldn’t have left my chambers.”
Heat ripped through me. Fear and excitement braided together and danced across my prickling skin, sending my senses into a fiery frenzy.
Was he hoping I would be the strong one this time? One of us usually was. But his strength had fled as soon as he’d caught my scent and mine was fraying by the second. Hearing his words and knowing he wanted me was more intoxicating than Bromport wine.
My already throbbing center only elevated when Dommik dropped to his knees in front of me, as if in worship. Any response I considered diedin an attempt to cross the vast desert that now occupied my throat. But he had no problem filling the silence.
“If you were mine, you’d be forbidden to wear any clothes at all during your bleed.” He placed his hands on the stone, framing my hips, bringing the tip of his nose to the fabric of the pants, and inhaling like he was appreciating fresh cut flowers. “And I would feast on and savor you like your courses were a forest stream and I’d been wandering for weeks without a drop to drink.”
He wouldn’t. Maybe some of these other deprived residents of the Northern Hive would. But not Dommik. He wouldn’t do anything to me. Not without my permission.
My heart pounded erratically as I imagined the sensation of Dommik’s tongue exploring and lapping at the most sensitive depths of me. I wanted to unbutton the slacks for him, place a bare leg on his shoulder, send my head backward, and welcome the pleasure.
I closed my eyes and barely gasped. “No. You shouldn’t.”
What was wrong with me?
I am Rhazien’s. Right? Am I Rhazien’s? Did I still want to be Rhazien’s?
Or had I only wanted to be Rhazien’s because I was so convinced I couldn’t be Dommik’s?
“Just a drop.” He panted. I reached down, grabbing his dark locks in protest, pausing him only briefly. Thinking to myself,absolutely notandplease yesall at once.
Both of my hands gripped his dark, wavy locks, and devious blue eyes stared up at me in question.
“You’re better than this,” I said to myself just as much as him.
