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She slid her hand beneath his shirt and fondled his neck. “And I don’t want him near me. I loathed the blood rose part of me that responded to him.”
“If it’s any consolation, I knew exactly what had happened, and that you would never willingly choose that man.”
“This part is really upsetting to me.”
“I know. Me, too. I can’t remember the last time I brawled with another vampire.” He glanced at the cuts on his arms and his torn shirt. He then sighed heavily and met her gaze once more. “I know I should move things along, but I hate the thought of separating from you right now.”
“I feel the same way.”
He kissed her, a long lingering kiss, sliding his arms around her again and pulling her close. She’d been so long without a man in her life that she’d forgotten how wonderful these moments could be.
After he slowly withdrew from her body, he reached down and tore a fairly clean portion of his shirt apart, handing her the remnant. “Thought this might help.”
Her cheeks grew warm again as she tucked the cloth between her legs. She’d forgotten this part as
well, that when a man left his seed behind, it wasn’t always a simple matter to get on with things.
She quickly donned her thong and her jeans, socks and shoes.
He was looking around at the vines, when she was finally ready to face him. “So, we’re in the middle of the entrance to the protected part of your property.”
“Yes,” she said. “This is a very short tunnel through the granite monolith.” Once more, she debated how much she should tell him about the wraith colony, but decided he should just see everything for himself. “Malik, I think it might be best if you got to know these families before you made a final decision about relocation.”
“I’d like that, but you should know that I’m set on this course.”
“I understand, which is why I really want you to meet all of them. But first, I need you to take me back to my treehouse because we both need to get cleaned up. You have blood on your arms and on your uniform, for one thing. And I’ll want to wear something very different from my jeans.”
~ ~ ~
As Malik flew Willow back to her treehouse, his mind began to clear. The powerful, animal-like drive he’d experienced that had caused him to battle Axton, had also sent a strange, sludge-like hormone through his veins.
When he’d left the vine-laden entrance with her, he’d half-expected to be dragging his fists on the ground. Fortunately, he seemed to have come back to himself.
Once he arrived at her bedroom treehouse, he took stock of his Guardsman coat and shirt, as well as the blood on his skin and a few painful lacerations that he needed to heal. Just scrubbing up in the bathroom was not going to make him very presentable.
As he watched her pull a long, light green silk dress from the cupboard, his eyes widened. “You’re going to wear that?”
Willow laid the gown out on the bed. “One of the couples will receive us formally.”
Though it wasn’t a full-out ball gown, it was the type of dress the fae often wore during ceremonies. He hardly knew what to make of this except that he now had a strong suspicion that the families Willow protected weren’t your average wraiths. “We aren’t talking about a couple of farmers and their families, are we?”
She shrugged. “Two or three of them work the land, but otherwise, no.”
He moved closer. “Willow, what the fuck is going on here?”
She glanced up at him. “I’m breaking a big rule by taking you to see these people, but I swear I don’t want to say more than that. I just need you to see and to judge this for yourself.”
He stared at her for a long moment. He could have demanded more information, but something in her serious demeanor told him to go with the flow. “All right, that’s fine. I get it; your restraint comes from your commitment to protect these families.”
“That’s exactly right.”
“There’s only one problem.”
“What’s that?” She actually looked confused.
He held up the torn sleeve of his shirt, then displayed the rip down the side of his Guardsman coat as well as the deep lacerations on his arm only partially healed.
She frowned slightly and he swore she’d never looked prettier, even though she, too, was smudged with battle stains because of what they’d done in the vines. “That is a problem.”
