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With a sigh, Neo forsakes my side and wanders to the corner table. At once, I feel the hollow invading my chest from his absence, prompting my Halo to dim at first before it strains against my rib cage. But I’m not strong enough to move toward him yet. He grips a bottle of venom-laced wine and pours each of us a goblet.
“Yes, Lux is my first wife,” he mentions. “If it eases your jealousy or greed or whatever violent emotions stir inside you, consider it a mere historical repercussion rather than a positional one. She is first because I married her in 1220.” He returns to my side and offers me a goblet.
My fingers brush along the chalice, clutching its familiar, warm heat. Neo coils his arm around mine, circling, and I hesitate before mirroring his action so we may both share a drink—as if it’s our first bridal taste. Neo’s pupils swell with the taste, eyes roaming down to my neck, no doubt imagining my blood in its place. Hope flutters in my stomach, competing with the tingling butterflies. Still, I test him.
“You were going to whip me, Neo,” I bring up the memory, shuddering, assessing his reaction as his arm rubs against mine. “Before your whole Court. Before Quillion and Nita.” No, I refuse to let it go. His regret is not enough for me.
Neo grits his teeth and downs the last of his wine, eyes burning to flaming blades. “I was a damned fool. And I am…eternally remorseful. I won’t ask for your forgiveness, my bride, but I will vow to you never again. Ivowto you, Elysia: I will never raise my hand or a whip to you again in public or in private.”
To drive the matter home, Neo drags a fang against his palm, weeping his silver blood to me, offering me a new blood oath. A whimper loosens from my mouth. I take that vow without equivocation. But as he presses his hand to mine, as he folds his fingers down, Neo is quick to add with that beguiling smirk I love, “Never in punishment, Elysia. Only ever for pleasure, according to your desire. Tit for tat, angel.” He winks, and I remember the one night we spent together when I’d first trussed him up with my Halo whips.
“Perhaps.” I flush at the indication. A fleeting image passes through my mind—of his hand on my ample bottom, swathed in his flames to impart a burning pain before stroking it with his shades for a cooling pleasure. My fingers close around his just as he thrusts my arm to the side, brows bobbing up and down to my words. “Or perhaps, dear Prince, I’ll have you on your knees so hard until you beg to spread my legs and plant your masterful tongue between them.”
“There’s that whip-smart mouth I love.” Neo rubs a finger across my lower lip. Devious, I snap my teeth, just missing it while giving him an angelic beam as he retorts, “Rest assured, I’d give as well as I got and have you walking bow-legged for a week.”
I blush but measure his eyes for any manipulation. “Are you doing all this just to get in my pants?”
Those pupils dilate, steadfast upon mine, muscle in his cheek ticking in betrayal. “I won’t deny my desire to take you to bed, Elysia. But I made a promise to my sister. I could not deny what I saw that day in Court, what she did for youandwhatyoudid forher.”
“I didn’t—”
Neo touches his fingers to my mouth, cuts off my words, and lowers his voice to a deep, sultry warning, “Elysia…” He closes the distance between us until I’m pressed to his bare chest, his shadow enveloping me. Warm streams of Halo light consume me, triggering my heat to whet my orgasmic appetite.
But I can’t help but wonder, “Where is Lux, Neo?”
“If you must know, Lux has fallen ill. It’s nothing extreme, but I’m allowing her to rest and take her strength in anticipation of Valentine’s Day.”
I chew on my lower lip. “So, I’m just backup then.”
Neo rolls his eyes and captures my chin in his hand. “If I wanted backup, Elysia, I’d hire a troop of minstrels. I wanted you the moment you returned to my suite after your untimely disappearance and your tampering with my mind. I was far too furious with you, so I needed the retreat with Lux to settle down.” He thumbs the front of my chin before tracing my mouth. “Whenever I would look upon you, I could not seem to rid myself of a paradox ofviolent emotions.”
I pin my eyes to his, but I don’t latch onto his words, especially when he narrows his eyes, blinking and shaking his head out to add, “But with the blood harvest moon approaching and due to your bond with my sister and Quillion, I am willing to put aside my anger and hurt as I hope you may.”
“What is the significance of the blood harvest moon?” I ask, noting how he raises the goblet with his other hand.
After finishing the wine, Neo lowers the goblet to the edge of his lower mouth to state, “It increases my appetite.”
Somehow, I manage to breathe while asking, “For blood?”
“For everything.” His eyes descend, voyaging across my throat and lower to my breasts.
“So, Lux has fallen ill…” I muse, earning Neo’s nod, and he pours another goblet of wine. “And the blood moon…” my voice is raspy when I probe, “How much?” I thumb the lip of the goblet, raising one brow, anticipating, my lungs shriveling.
“Much.” Neo grunts, and I tremble. “Come the harvest moon on Valentine’s Day, my full blood-thirst will be unleashed…along with every other craving. Every night leading up to it will build to that mania.” He downs his third glass, hardening his jaw before thrusting his hands around my waist and causing me to crash against his frame, upsetting my wine so it spills onto my front. I shriek to his hot tongue pillaging my skin, lapping up the wine as if it’s a precursor symbol to his true desire.
“Stop!” I shove his face from me and wipe the remaining splatter with my robe. I deny the heat swirling through me. Neo cocks his head to the side, brows lowering as if confused. Backing away, I point a finger at him to challenge, “I don’t care if you’ve got some raging hormonal vampire cycle. It doesn’t give you an excuse to act like an animal.”
“What would you prefer, Princess? Roses and candles? Romance and rapture? I can provide all that.” He chuckles darkly, brows lowering to a smolder.
“Contrary to popular opinion, not every woman needs or wants roses and romance…” I chastise myself for my hypocrisy of loving Thanatos’ dead roses. But as Neo’s silver eyes turn to hot flames when he positions himself before me, I continue with my hands along his chest, on that halo brand. “I don’t need your jewels or your protection or your finery, Neo. I wantyou. I want the warrior you truly are behind all the masks. I want your solemn oath to understand my darkness as I seek to understand yours. I want to know you’ll fight beside me, with me, andforme.”
The Prince cups my face, rubbing away the gold-flecked tears plundering my cheeks as I strain to go on. “I want to know you’ll honor me when it’s time for me to be your shield and protect you from danger. And the only gift that I’ll accept is your flesh, your blood, yourheart.” I tap that brand with a smile.
Bristling, Neo’s eyes dart back and forth between mine. “You hold my soul already, Elysia.” He slides one hand down to the halo ring, shifting aside the neckline of my dress ever so little. A feverish chill class my skin at his touch. “What will ever be enough for you?”
I tip my head up, inches from his mouth to whisper my Halo butterflies, so they titillate on his cheeks to my word, “Everything.”
Sighing, Neo swipes at the kissing butterflies and drags a hand through his hair, blowing out frustration, “What the fuck am I going to do with you?” He takes the decanter in his hands once again.
