“Viper,” I pleaded, all but admitting defeat. His dead weight on top of me with my legs smashed made it nearly impossible for me to even move. “Give me the book right now!” He clamped a hand over my mouth, and to my horror, he started reading aloud.
“Now that you bear my last name, Mrs. Rendfare, I want to see all of you.”
“All of me?” It was almost a plea. Her heart raced as his fingers grazed the swell of her milky white breast.
His voice was sultry—he was cruel, barbaric! I stuck out my tongue and licked his palm, hoping that would make him remove his hand. He laughed and kept going.
She pushed the straps of her gown off her shoulders, and the material pooled around her feet. She stood before her new husband as bare as the day she came into this world.
“Like this, Mr. Rendfare?”
Vander read on in silence a moment longer. I wanted to cover my head with my pillow, but watched his face in abject horror instead. This was mytrainer(who happened to be laying on topof me). The trainer that I was beginning to feel more for than I should. He finally glanced away from the page. His sparkling blue eyes found mine. “This is erotic, Bonecarver.” He grinned through every word. “And here I thought you were Miss Sweet and Naive.”
I scoffed. “How was I supposed to know what was in it?” I pushed against his chest, but it hardly budged him. “And get off of me. You’re heavy.”
He glanced at the book again. “Oh, Mr. Rendfare’s name is...Evander. Interesting. Very interesting.”
My face felt like it was on fire. I wanted to murder him... and kiss him. It was a strange emotional place to be. “Why is that interesting?”
He deadpanned, snapped the book closed and tossed it onto the bedside table. “I know thatyouknow my name is Vander.”
“I didn’t pick the book based on the man’s name being Evander, if that’s what you’re suggesting.” In fact, I’d wanted to avoid that for this very reason, but of course Celine and Falcon had cornered me. His gaze fell to my lips. I thought my heart couldn’t beat any harder, I was mistaken.
“Well, that’s good.” His voice was low and husky.
“It is?”
“Mmhmm.”
I was scared to ask why, but I had to know what he was thinking. Did he feel something for me? Did I want him to? The slow building ache for him brought irrational thoughts to my mind. The desire to feel his lips on mine, to have his tongue in my mouth pulled at my entire being. I started to tremble and couldn’t stop. “Why?”
His throat bobbed, and the intensity between us was a bubble ready to burst. “Because if you were having those kinds of fantasies about me, it might get us into trouble.”
I swallowed hard. I became very aware of my hands resting on his shoulders, of his gripping the mattress on either side of my head. I didn’t dare speak or move. I didn’t trust myself not to pull his mouth to mine. I think he was afraid too. I’d barely escaped a lashing, what would happen if we broke this rule?
I had always wished for something more than friendship with Kace, but I’d never felt an unyielding desire for a man before. Like Vander had hooked my soul with his tether and started to pull. Like I was tinder and he’d sparked me into flame.
He finally eased off me. I almost reached for him, but I gripped my sheets instead. My bed creaked as his weight lifted from it. He let out a long breath, and everything shifted. Like he’d snuffed out a flaming candle. “You don’t want anything like that with me, Bonecarver.”
How did he know what I wanted? “Why?”
“It’s dangerous, and I won’t let it happen.”
When he disappeared behind the curtain, I curled onto my side, disappointed, my mind boggling about what had happened and what he’d said. How was it dangerous? My tight muscles slowly eased like melting ice.
“Get some sleep, Bonecarver.”
Chapter 18
My dreams that night were filled withhimbut instead of pulling away and saying it was dangerous to want him, he kissed me and I relished it. I pushed my hands into his thick auburn hair and wrapped my legs around his hips. His kisses went from my mouth down to the swell of my breast. Then his nose brushed along my neck and his lips grazed the hollow. He paused until a sharp sting—teeth sunk into my neck. I screamed.
My blood poured down his lips, his chin. But it wasn’t him anymore. His beautiful face was replaced with a monster. Those bright blue eyes were as red as a crimson rose and he laughed, hideous and cruel.
In my nightshirt, I ran through the dark woods. The white fabric was half covered in scarlet and glistened in the moonlight. My bare feet carried me swiftly over the moss-covered forest floor. “Now we can be together forever.” His voice wasn’t the same. It was dark and grim. I breathed too fast. He gained on me. I felt his fingers curl around my arm.
Then suddenly I was in my assassin attire with a sword in my hand. I whirled, blade point at his throat. “Vampire bites don’t change me!”
My eyes widened, my arm shook. It was Vander again. Truly Vander. Beautiful as the rising sun, dark as an endless night. The predator I’d always known he was. “Vander?”
