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He'd found himself craving a hunt unlike anything he'd experienced before ... and Rosalie fit the bill perfectly.
Unfortunately, his desire for her had nothing to do with why he'd demanded that she stay behind after dinner. His fingers lingered on her arm until the doors slammed shut, and then she yanked her arm free.
He could have held onto her, but he let her go. There was no point when she despised him about as equally as he lusted after her.
As a human, she wasn't quite as capable of hiding her emotions from him as his vampire subjects were. Her heart was hammering with anxiety, and he wanted to know why.
Normally, she was far more composed than this.
Not only was she lying about the reason she was late ... she was hiding something from him. Something big. He could feel it.
"Come with me," Dominick commanded, leading her away from the dining room and into one of the parlors. It was a smaller room, more intimate, with a fire burning in the grate and a few lamps casting a warm glow around the space. It was not a room meant for entertaining guests, far from fancy or elaborate like the rest of his palace. It felt more authentic, and he hoped the familiar atmosphere would encourage Rosalie to open up to him.
He sat at one of the armchairs by the fire, and Rosalie went to the other, perching on the edge of the chair and keeping her spine straight and alert. Her hands folded in her lap, knuckles whitening from how tight she was holding them. Every move she made was telling a story, but he didn’t know the plot.
She remained silent as he watched her, nervously twisting her hands into knots. Even as anxious as she was, Rosalie was by far the most beautiful woman he'd laid eyes on—human, fae, vampire, or otherwise. She had the shiniest blonde hair, which was currently curled into ringlets that fell down her shoulders, and her bare back, which was left open by the glamorous silk dress that hugged every other inch of her perfect body.
Dominick sank deeper into his chair. The sight of her like this, so close to him, in this intimate space ... it triggered memories of dark nights spent here, her panting beneath him as she moaned his name.
If only they could go back to those days, life would be so much simpler. The days where Rosalie looked at him with unparalleled joy in those sweet eyes of hers ... not the fear and disdain that rippled in them when she finally tilted her head up to look at him now.
"You wished to speak with me?" she finally said, made uncomfortable enough by the silence to break it.
Dominick considered dancing around the subject for a while, drawing out his time in her presence ... but he didn't see the point in that, either. There was only so much fun to be had when she could scarcely look at him.
It'd been this way the entire time since she'd been trapped here with him. At first, he thought it would finally be an opportunity to woo her again, to make up for his past mistakes ... but she'd never given him a chance, and he knew that wasn't about to change right now.
"What is the real reason you were late?" Dominick asked. "You are no frail human, Rosalie. My court might believe that pitiful lie you spun, but I don't. I know when you're hiding something."
"I'm sorry," Rosalie said automatically. "It won't happen again."
"That's not good enough. I want to know why you were late."
He watched the bob of Rosalie's throat as she swallowed and considered her options. Was she crafting a new story as the seconds ticked by, or was she drawing out her response for another reason? The Rosalie he knew was a brilliant and careful woman, so much so that vampires often made the mistake of underestimating her. Dominick had never made the same mistake ... until he did and ruined everything between them. Everything good, at least.
For all he knew, the nervousness could be a show put on to get something out ofhim. He wouldn't put that past her, either.
"Well?" he prompted again when she didn't say anything.
Rosalie's long, elegant fingers trembled ever so slightly where they grasped her dress. He imaged them quivering around his cock instead, and with a reluctant sigh, he let the image flit away. It wasn't going to happen.
Not tonight, at least.
Slowly, she took a deep breath and looked up at Dominick, her eyes locking with his. There was no fear in them now, only determination and resolve.
"I was trying to escape," Rosalie said, her voice perfectly even.
While her pulse had been erratic like a terrified bird moments before, now it was steady and calm. Dominick frowned, unsure what to make of that or her admission.
"You know no one can escape," Dominick said carefully. "So why would you try? Again? We haven't been mistreating you, have we?"
"No," she answered too quickly. "Not at all. But ... I have a life to live, Dominick. A business that is very likely crumbling as we speak because I haven't been there to manage it for the past four months. The longer I'm kept away, the more likely it becomes I'll have nothing to go home to."
She didn't elaborate on how exactly she had tried to flee from the palace, but the details didn't matter. Dominick could sense the urgency of her words, the desperation behind them. She wasn't just trying to avoid another dinner party.
"That's not true," Dominick said. "No one would rise to take your position when I mandate the role as slave warden over the entire kingdom."
Rosalie scoffed. "Doubtful. Many have already tried to assassinate me and remove me from power to force your hand. Many believe a human should not rule over an important sector of the vampire economy. It would be naive to believe vampires are not conspiring to take over my position while I am trapped here. I expect all of my men were murdered and replaced the moment news of my imprisonment became public."
