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"I just need this to be okay," Ehlena said. "Between you and me. I want you to feel something, too."
"I do. I can't believe it myself sometimes, but I so do."
Rehv shut the door behind them, balanced his cane on the wall, and removed his sable coat. The suit underneath the duster was yet another exquisitely cut double-breasted masterpiece, this time a dove gray with black pinstripes. The shirt underneath was black with the top two buttons undone.
Silk, she thought. That shirt had to be made of silk. No other fabric gave off that luminescent glow.
"You are so beautiful," he said as he stared at her, "standing there in the light like that."
She glanced at her Gap black pants and her two-year-old knit turtleneck. "You must be blind."
"Why?" he asked, coming over to her.
"Well, I feel like such an ass for saying this." She smoothed the front of her off-the-rack-and-then-some slacks. "But I wish I had better clothes. Then I'd be beautiful."
Rehvenge paused.
And then shocked the crap out of her by kneeling before her.
As he looked up, he had a slight smile on his lips.
"Don't you get it, Ehlena." With gentle hands, he stroked down her calf and brought her foot forward, balancing it on his thigh. As he undid the laces on her cheapo Keds sneaker, he whispered, "No matter what you wear...to me, you will always have diamonds on the soles of your shoes."
As he slid her sneaker off and stared up at her, she studied his hard, handsome face, from those spectacular eyes of his to his thick jaw to his proud cheekbones.
She was falling in love with him.
And like any trip through thin air, there was nothing she could do to stop it. The leap had been made.
Rehvenge bowed his head. "I'm just glad you'll have me."
The words were so quiet and humble, at odds with the incredible breadth of his shoulders.
"How could I not?"
He shook his head back and forth slowly. "Ehlena..."
Her name was spoken roughly, as if there were a lot more words behind it, words he couldn't bear to speak. She didn't understand, but she knew what she wanted to do.
Ehlena took her foot from him, got down on her own knees, and wrapped her arms around him. She held him as he leaned into her, running one hand up the back of his neck to his mohawk's stripe of soft hair.
He seemed so fragile as he gave himself up to her, and she realized that if anyone tried to hurt him, even though he could more than take care of himself, she would commit murder. To protect him, she would kill.
The conviction was as solid as the bones beneath her skin:
Even the powerful needed protection sometimes.
Chapter FORTY-THREE
Rehv was the kind of male who took pride in his work, whether it was putting French-bread pizzas into the oven and cooking them to perfection or pouring wine...or pleasuring his Ehlena until she was nothing but a limp, resplendent stretch of utterly satisfied, naked female.
"I can't feel my toes," she murmured as he kissed his way up from between her thighs.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Not. At. All."
As he paused to lick at one of her br**sts, she undulated, and he felt the movement against his own body. By now, he was used to sensation breaking through his numb fog, and he relished the echoing warmth and friction, no longer concerned that his bad side might break out of its dopamine cage. Even though what registered wasn't as sharp as what he felt when he was unmedicated, it was enough so that his body became undeniably aroused.
Rehv couldn't believe it, but there were a number of times when he thought he might orgasm. Between her taste as he lollipopped her sex and the way her hips rocked into the mattress, he nearly lost it.
Except it was better to keep his c**k out of the picture. Seriously, how was that going to work: I'm not impotent, miracle of miracles, because you've triggered my marking instinct, so the vampire in me wins out over the symphath. Yay! Of course, this means you have to deal with my barb, along with where that piece of meat hanging between my legs has been on a regular basis for the last twenty-five years. But come on, that's hot, right.
Yeah, he was in a big hurry to put Ehlena in that position.
Riiiiiiight.
Besides, this was enough for him. To pleasure her, to serve her sexually, was enough-
"Rehv...?"
He looked up from her breast. Given the husky tone in her voice and the erotic glaze in her eyes, he was prepared to agree to anything.
"Yes?" He licked at her nipple.
"Open your mouth for me."
He frowned, but did as she said, wondering why-
Ehlena reached out and touched one of his fully extended canines. "You said you liked pleasing me, and it shows. These are so long...and sharp...and white..."
As she moved her thighs together like all of the above was turning her on, he knew where this was headed. "Yeah, but-"
"So it would please me if you used them on me. Now."
"Ehlena-"
The special glow started to leave her face. "Do you have something against my blood?"
"God, no."
"So why don't you want to feed from me." Sitting up, she put a pillow over her br**sts, her strawberry blond hair falling down and shielding her face. "Oh. Right. Did you already feed from...her?"
"Christ, no." He'd rather suck blood out of a lesser. Fuck that, he'd drink out of the bloated carcass of a deer at the side of a highway before he'd take the vein of the princess.
"You don't take her vein?"
He looked Ehlena dead in the eyes and shook his head. "I do not. And I never will."
Ehlena sighed and swept her hair back. "I'm sorry. I don't know if I have the right to ask those kinds of questions."
"You do." He took her hand. "You totally do. It's not...that you can't ask..."
As his words dangled, his worlds slammed into each other, all kinds of rubble falling around him. Sure, she could ask...he just couldn't answer her.
Or could he?
"You are the one I want," he said simply, sticking with as much truth as he could reveal. "You are the only one I want to be in." He shook his head, realizing what he'd said. "With. I mean, with. Look, about the feeding. Do I want it from you? Fuck, yes. But-"
"Then there is no but."
The hell there wasn't. He had a feeling he was going to mount her if he took her vein. His c**k was ready even now, and they were only talking about it.
"This is enough for me, Ehlena. Pleasing you is enough."
She frowned. "Then you must have some problem with my background."
"I'm sorry?"
"Do you think my blood's weak? Because for what it's worth, I can trace my line well into the aristocracy. My father and I may have fallen on hard times, but for generations and most of his life, we were members of the glymera." As Rehv winced, she got up off the bed, using the pillow to shield herself. "I don't know exactly where your people descend from, but I can assure you, what is in my veins is acceptable."
"Ehlena, that's not the point."
"You sure about that?" She went over to where he'd taken her clothes off. The panties and the bra went on first, and then she picked up her black slacks.
He couldn't fathom why serving his blood need was so important to her-because what could possibly be in it for her? But maybe that was the divide between them. She wasn't hardwired to take advantage of people, so her calculus wasn't locked on what she got out of things. To him, even when it came to pleasuring her, he was getting something tangible back: Watching her writhe under his mouth made him feel powerful and strong, a real male, not some sexless, sociopathic monster.
She wasn't like him. And that was why he loved her.
Oh...Christ. Did he...
Yeah, he did.
The realization had Rehv rising up from the bed, walking over to her, and taking her hand as she finished doing up her pants. She paused and looked up at him.
"It's not you," he said. "You can trust me on that."
He gave her a tug and drew her against his body.
"Then prove it," she said softly.
Pulling back, he stared at her face for a long time. His fangs were throbbing in his mouth; he knew that much. And he could feel the hunger in the pit of his stomach, grinding, demanding.
"Ehlena-"
"Prove. It."
He couldn't say no. Just didn't have the strength to turn her down. It was wrong on so many levels, but she was everything he wanted, needed, desired.
