Page 57

My arms snake around her waist as my tongue urges her mouth open, and our kiss deepens. Her thoughts barrel into me, and they’re just the faint hum of mine mine mine.

When we part, she wags her finger at me, grinning. “Don’t even think about seducing me, Quill Godrickson. I have far too many questions to be thwarted by such a delicious distraction.”

I arch a brow. “Shall we make a game of it then?”

“I don’t see any cards here.”

“We don’t need them,” I say simply. “A question for a question. You can go first.”

Chapter 21

QUILL

Rory wades into the pool, her dress a puddle of spilled silk on the limestone. I may have admired her silhouette as she descended the stairs into the water, may have hardened at the sight of her breasts floating in front of her as she leaned back to wet her hair.

If I still believed in the gods, I’d pray for them to not fuck this up.

She scrubs her hands over her face. The rivulets of water dripping down her flawless skin run pink. “Did you kill everyone at the rite?”

Her thoughts give away the truth. She doesn’t actually care about their fate.

What she really wants to know is whether we killed Vivian.

Water sloshes against my chest. “Vivian and your father were left alive.”

Alive but not unharmed. I luxuriated in the nightmares I plagued them with through my illusions, fed on their terror as they screamed their throats raw and bloody, as dirt and skin bunched under their fingernails as they clawed their greatest fears away.

She nods slowly. “Thank you.”

“Don’t.” Regret twists in my stomach. “The only reason we spared them is because I tasted your memories, and if they are to die, it should be by your hand. I would never take that opportunity from you.”

“You… what?”

“Vampires can relive memories when they drink straight from the vein,” I explain. “When I drank your blood, I saw… everything you endured growing up with them.”

Her lips flatten into a thin line as she looks anywhere but at me.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur. “For how they treated you.”

She juts her chin. “It’s your turn.”

“Are you still hungry?”

“That is a pathetic question.”

“Pathetic or not, you still have to answer it.”

Her eyes darken with delight as her gaze dips beneath the water and snaps back to meet mine. “I’m as full as I can be without some additional help.”

“I thought we agreed on no distractions.” I reach for one of the bottles on the ledge. “You’ve still got blood in your hair.”

She swims close to me and turns around, purposefully brushing her bottom against my erection. I bite back a groan at the contact. Tiny monster, indeed. My fingertips work the fragrant soap into a lather as I massage it onto her scalp. I will take care of her like this for the rest of our days if she’d let me.

She’s unusually quiet before she asks, “After we secure Nerissa’s backing, who will you approach next?”

My cock twitches at her use of the word “we,” but I remain focused on the task at hand.

Cleansing her, relaxing her, worshiping her.