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Overwhelmed with sudden grief, Olivia hesitated before stepping outside. So much had happened since their argument. She’d been adamant about casting the spell to erase their mating bond, to end his hold on her, but after the last twelve hours, after speaking with Leah, the idea had lost its shiny appeal.
The hand squeezing her heart tightened. She’d almost lost him. While she’d lain trapped in the overturned vehicle, while she’d clung to life by a thin thread, all she’d cared about was him. When she’d seen him, her chest had swelled, and she would’ve died happy knowing he was alive.
There was no use denying it anymore. She was falling in love with Marek. With an egotistical and uncompromising vampire. A vampire with an unflinching sense of right and wrong. A vampire who would do anything to protect his people. The realization terrified and thrilled her all at once.
“Olivia.”
She loved the way he whispered her name, his silky voice caressing each syllable like he couldn’t believe how lucky he was. Marek leaned against the door, his Adonis body adorned in jeans and a form-fitting black shirt, raw need evident in his marble features.
For once in her life, Olivia didn’t over-analyze, didn’t think about everything left unsaid. She launched herself at him; he caught her in his strong arms as their lips fused together in a desperate kiss. The heat of his mouth, of his tongue tangling with hers, obliterated the last traces of coldness inside her. Her hands roamed everywhere, running up and down his chest, his back, confirming he was here.
Real. With her.
Without breaking the kiss, he walked her back until her knees hit the edge of the bed.
“I thought I lost you,” she muttered, her breaths coming in shallow gasps, and planted kisses all over, on his nose, on the corner of his lips, on his jaw. God, he smelled so good, the cedar and citrus scent soaking deep into her soul.
He gave an incredulous chuckle. “You? You think you lost me?” He placed her hand over his heart, his voice trembling with restrained emotion. “When the car flipped over, I felt as though someone had torn out my heart. If anything had happened to you, I would’ve followed you into the sun.”
The love on Marek’s beautiful face had her heart expanding, so full it might burst. She wanted to hold him and never let go, to sink so deep into him until they became one. She wanted to run for the hills screaming, for nothing had ever frightened her so much as her feelings for him.
Not when her mother got pregnant with Betsy. Not when her parents passed and left her alone to raise Betsy. Not when she’d faced down a gray-skinned fae bent on murdering her.
Tears blurred her vision. Olivia cupped his face and spoke past the lump in her throat. “You’re not allowed to do something stupid like killing yourself, even if I die.”
“Then don’t die.”
Stubborn, arrogant vampire, as though he could control life and death and the future.
He kissed her again, as hungry as before, as he lowered her onto the bed and crawled above her. With his large body covering hers, her world shrunk down to only him. His touch. His scent. His love. When she wrapped her legs around him and rubbed against his erection, she moaned, he grunted, and their kiss became frenzied.
They broke apart for a second for her to tug off his shirt. A sigh of contentment left her as her hands touched his skin, but she wanted more. She wanted to rub against him, skin to skin, to touch every inch of him until the fear of losing him was completely annihilated.
“Fuck,” Marek cursed and buried his face into her neck, inhaling deeply.
“I don’t want to stop,” she gasped, her hands tugging at his waistband. Driven by the VB in her system and days of celibacy, she needed him more than ever, so much so she couldn’t think straight.
“We can’t. We must go.” Marek sounded as tortured as she felt. “They’re ready for us.”
“What?” Her brain was still too busy thinking about how to get Marek out of his clothes and back to kissing her like his very life depended on it.
“Andrea, she’s completed the circle to contain Bryan. Julian wants us to meet them now.” Marek crawled back and got to his feet.
With a frustrated groan, Olivia sat up and blew away a strand of hair. At least she had a perfect view of Marek’s taut muscles bunching and stretching as he tugged on his shirt.
“We couldn’t have done it, not unless you want me to bind us,” Marek said, catching her eye. At Olivia’s heavy sigh, Marek’s lips thinned. “You’re still not ready.”
Her impulsiveness had fled, stranding Olivia with her too-logical brain. Everything unresolved between them returned to her in a rush.
“Let’s go talk to Bryan,” was all she said.
“For the record, I’m against this,” Marek grumbled, the first words he’d said since they left her room. It was another thing she loved about him. He didn’t feel the need to chatter nonstop to fill the silence. More importantly, the quiet was comfortable, easy, and she could think and stay in her thoughts without worrying about entertaining him.
“I have to talk to him. Don’t you want to know why he tried to kill me?”
Marek had carried her to the basement of the Central Tower, where Julian Blackmore imprisoned vampire criminals awaiting judgment. The hallway, with white fluorescent lights, checkered floor, and snowy walls, gave Olivia the creeps. Metal doors, equidistant from each other, lined the hall. Beside each door was a large, rectangular window looking into the rooms, each with a cot in the back corner and concrete floors and walls.
“He’s thousands of years old. Maybe he finally snapped,” Marek said in a dark tone.
