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Tabitha could not find fault in his logic. “You are as good a confidante as the Italian cat. Although his silence was often his strongest recommendation—ah!” Her duke wrestled the blanket down to rub his face on her belly, which, with his abundance of hair, tickled mightily. “Your Grace. Your Grace! I accept your gloss of the situation. I had not considered it that way.” She smoothed down his hair, and her fingers teased the crinkles around his eyes. “Thank you for your insight. I will rely upon it.”
He rolled over and settled her on his chest, heart to heart, and she asked the one question she dreaded. “Will we go to Wales, after London? To settle there?”
***
Alwyn rested his cheek on the top of her head. “If you wish.” His mate did not sound as though she wished it. “I rather thought we would travel the world.”
Her heartbeat kicked up, and his matched it. “The whole world? That will cost a fortune.”
“There is no need for concern. The Llewellyn title may be empty, but the coffers are full.”
“We shall fill the title with new pride. In more ways than one.” Tabitha’s whole body relaxed. “I do not understand money, which as a grown woman is ridiculous, but it was always Timothy’s forte. How do you have money if you didn’t earn it?”
“Dukes do not earn money,cariad.” He explained the circumstances around his family’s royal stipend and their investments until, having clearly lost interest, Tabitha sat up to run a finger over his belly muscles; she seemed enamored of them. “Do not distract me,” he rumbled. “Here, now, speaking of money. Did you charge a single client for your services?”
“Do not distractme.” Tabitha peeped up at him, her big brown eyes sultry. “Is there to be a bite?”
“Any old bite?”
“Your old bite. What age are you, I’d like to know.”
Alwyn lifted her onto the bed, while mumbling into her neck, “You wouldn’t, not really,” and snuggled between her thighs, leaning on an elbow and trailing the fingers of his other hand up and down her side. “You know of the increase in lifespan you will gain, once bitten?” She nodded and tucked her nose in the dip of his collarbone. “You will also gain the ability to have as many cubs as you wish, if you wish.”
“I do not wish.” She hesitated then lay back, holding his gaze.
His fearless mate. Alwyn ran a finger over the little round patch of blush on her cheek. “That is understandable, given your mother’s woes. I would have you know that you will be gifted with strength uncommon inhomo plenum, should that make a difference.”
“It does not. Not at this moment. I cannot say whether my mind will change.” She trembled against him, and he held her close. “Does this disappoint you?”
“Only insofar as I foresaw more than one gray hair in my future, at the thought of a daughter of yours as a lion cub.” He smiled into her shoulder.
“You may prefer a mate who wishes to give you that.”
“It is your decision, and I honor it.” Alwyn ran his fingers through her hair, thick and lush and straight as a pin. “I have the mate I prefer, and when our desires do not align, then it is well we are able for theconiunctio, for we shall ever be finding our balance, for the rest of our lives.”
“Until death do us part.”
He recognized the words from the human bonding service. “That is a long way away, for we have much work to do.” He cupped her breast and idly swirled his thumb around her nipple. “But let me apply myself to the task at hand. My love, my mate.”
Tabitha wrapped her arms around his neck and her calves around his hips. “Where will you bite? Felicity’s is hidden, while Beatrice’s is not.”
“It will be as you prefer.”
His mate lay a string of kisses around his throat. “It must be seen. If we are to earn the trust of those we find, it must be seen by all.”
Alwyn ran his lips, then his tongue, low on her neck, where it met her shoulder. “It may be seen when you wish to show it. It is yours to make known or not. If you wrap yourself up in shawls and coats as you are wont to do, then here”—he nipped lightly, and her entire body shook—“can be covered as you see fit and displayed when you think it required.”
“Then I choose that place.” Tabitha leaned up for a kiss. “As I choose you.”
He had no idea what it would feel like when he gave his bite to hisvera amoris. His father had not thought to tell him; Alwyn’s time to consider it had been so far in the future. It was too personal to ask his peers. Since Tabitha was hisconiunctioas well, he did not know how that would affect the process.
Time to trust his instincts. His lion rolled once, twice in his aura before withdrawing, to wait until it was afait accompli.
They moved together with the ease of seasoned lovers and the thrill of new love. Her scents rose to tantalize him, her arousal wedded with her signature scents of the rose water, the fire, the bracing cool of the spring dawn. She hitched her hips, and he slid home, her sighs of pleasure sending him higher until suddenly, he knew: he knew to cradle her protectively in his arms, to wait, wait, wait, until she was about to reach the crest; to whisper words of love and encouragement in her ear as she did; to allow his fangs to drop and to trace them on her neck that she may be accustomed to them, and then, only then, when her release was upon her, and his was upon him, did he bite.
His fangs slipped into her neck as though the grooves were already there. She flinched, for it could not be without pain; he felt hers through theirsentio, and surely his exultation roared down the connection to her to alleviate it. He bit, and their release was the most exhilarating yet as their bond took and set, forever and ever.
Twenty-Two
