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I bend down, take her hand in mine, and kiss her knuckles. “My Snow,” I whisper against her soft skin. “Saying I am happy to see you is an understatement. Words cannot describe how I feel. What made you return? I thought since you saw the dragon—”
“—We need to discuss him, Cailian.” She laces her fingers through mine, taking me by surprise as she steps forward, initiating closer contact.
My heart grows warm in my chest, a welcome delight from the lonely cold. My veins ease from bright orange to a dull yellow with her here.
“I need you to explain everything to me. I am here, Cailian. I am not going anywhere. We need to figure this out soon because I ache for you, and now I’m aching for a dragon who hates me.”
“He hates everyone,” I say, cupping her face, and darting my eyes all over her unique face until I land in the haze of lavender. “But not you, Rarity, as you are impossible to hate.”
She looks down, her white lashes shadowing the tops of her cheeks, and when she peers up at me, I see the iridescent hue of tears.
“My Snow. What is wrong? Talk to me. I cannot stand the sight of you in such despair.” I place my free hand on top of hers and much to my surprise, she scoots closer until our bodies touch, then turns to me. “What is it?” I kiss the tip of her nose watching a ghost of a smile tilt her eyes.
“You and the dragon seem to be very comfortable with one another, as if you are already mated. I feel like I’m the extra mate, the one on the outside. I don’t want to be. It’s why I’m here. Now that I’ve been with you, being anywhere else is wrong. How can I compete with you and the dragon when you both have so much history? I don’t even know him.” She blows out a breath and tucks a wet strand of hair behind her ear. “I guess I don’t know what to do. Do we mate and I leave you two alone so you can be happy?”
“Rarity.” I pick her up and set her on my lap. She’s facing me, her breasts pressing against my chest, and I can’t help but react to her nearness.
She gasps, wrapping her arms around my neck as she settles against my cock. I know she can feel me growing harder for her.
“Cailian,” the hushed tone of my name falling from lips I dream of tests my control.
“I won’t rush this,” I struggle to say through my lack of restraint. “Not like I did with the dragon. You need to understand something, our history is an ugly one, a long one, a never-ending war of him hating me. We mated because we had to, to avoid death.” I wrap an arm around her waist and tug her against me. “I do not wish that for us, Rarity. I wish us to want one another, surpassing the need to survive and choosing to trulylive.”
I inch closer to her mouth, wanting to take advantage of her parted lips. Just as we are about to touch, her words are a breeze against my mouth.
“Why does he hate you so much?”
I sigh, leaning back on my hands to put much-needed distance between us before I rip her wet clothes off.
“He has every reason to hate me, Rarity. I killed his father.”
I expect disgust, recoil, shock, something that tells me I have lost her forever.
“You don’t seem like the killing type, Cailian. What did he do to make you feel so violent?”
I shut my eyes so she cannot see how vulnerable her question makes me feel. I want to spill it all to her. I want to tell her I didn’t feel violence, but sorrow. Killing him went against everything I believe in.
“He asked for the unthinkable,” I state, forlorn, omitting details.
This is my burden to bear. Not Rarity’s. I will not do that to her.
“You must have had a good reason. I don’t see you killing for the fun of it, Cailian.”
“The reason is mine to take to the grave, My Snow. I hope you know; I would never hurt you. You do not ever need to be afraid of me because of what I did eight hundred years ago.”
She presses her forehead against mine, the scent of the rain draping over us. “I know you wouldn’t. I can feel that in my heart.” Her hand presses against my chest, no doubt experiencing the raging beat of my own. “Just like I know you would never hurt him.”
“We cannot dwell on what we cannot change. In time, I hope he sees that I will never hurt him intentionally.”
“Time,” she whispers, grazing my cheek with her fingers. “Something I have plenty of. Something we have plenty of.”
“It is not that unheard of for vampires to live a long time, no?” I ask, ghosting my lips down her neck.
“Yes, but I never thought I would be able to get that time. I never thought I’d be here.” Her voice becomes higher when my tongue flicks out along her neck, following the vein that fills her body with life.
Something so sexy yet so overlooked.
I press a kiss against the quickening pulse. “And what are we going to do with all this time, My Snow?” I gather her hair in my hand, draping it over the other shoulder as I move to the exposed side.
