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He’d told me to demand what I want, to use the power I didn’t even realize I had to squeeze out every ounce of joy I could before everything came to a crashing end.
“Tonight, I want you to pretend,” I said, and he tilted his head.
“You’re in a catsuit,” he said. “You’re already pretending.”
“I want you to pretend with me,” I said. “I don’t want to be Princess Avianna tonight. I want to be Avi, a regular female vampire.” I grinned. “Maybe I’m a chef at one of our favorite restaurants in Edgemont.”
The barest hint of a grin shaped his lips. “Okay,” he said. “Then who do you want me to be?”
“You’re Hawke,” I said without hesitation. “You’re a bounty hunter, but you’re in between assignments right now, which is why you’ve asked me to be your date to this party. You’re so smitten with me you’re ready and willing to do whatever it is I might want.”
“Is that right?” he asked.
I bite my bottom lip, barely containing my smile. “Yep.”
“And what does chef Avi want?”
Demand what I want.
I trembled as I shifted up on my tiptoes, my heart racing, my mind whirling, my soul aching. Hawke’s pulse quickened as I pressed my cheek against his, my lips grazing the shell of his ear.
“The only thing I want is you.”
9
Hawke
She was fucking impossible.
Where was the biddable little princess I’d met decades ago? Where was the sweet little thing who had risked a shy smile at me while I’d helped her to her feet? Where was the mannered debutante who kept her chin a thousand yards in the air? And who the fuck was this sensual, sexual female who demanded my body like it was her fucking right?
My chest clenched with the knowledge that they were all Avianna. The schoolgirl I’d met had grown up into one hell of a determined, stubborn female.
And she had her sights set on me.
Take her. Taste Her. Claim Her.
If I could have carved up my own head to dig that voice out, I would have.
“You’re being ridiculous,” she muttered as I tugged her down the hallway to her bedroom, my hand clasped with hers.
“I’m the one being ridiculous?” I snapped, grateful no one was around to hear our argument. I’d crossed so many lines with Avianna that it would be Alek’s right to use one of my own daggers against me and then leave me out for public viewing.
And yet that wasn’t what I feared. The glowing, shiny tether between Avianna and me? That scared the shit out of me.
“You are!” She glowered at me, but didn’t fight as I pulled her along. It had taken everything I’d had to pull her little ass out of that club and get her back to the residence without a pit stop on the way to fuck her like she’d demanded.
“You’re drunk.”
“I had two drinks, Hawke! I’m not drunk! Want to give me a field sobriety test?”
“I’m debating it,” I muttered, flinging open her door.
“Of all the labels I thought you fit, old-fashioned wasn’t one of them, Hawthorne!” She yanked her wrist out of my hold, and I let her so I could shut the door and lock it behind us.
I wasn’t even going to start on the way hearing my full name on her lips turned me on.
“You think morals or chivalry have anything to do with this, Princess?” I marched past her, palming a dagger as I checked her bathroom and the rest of her suite for an intruder, already knowing there was none because I would have sensed them.
I leaned back against the wall, my eyes narrowing at her. And what the fuck was she wearing? Her costume had driven me up the wall all damned night. Every curve was on display.
Then again, she probably could have put on a paper bag, and I would have been salivating. I knew what she looked like under those clothes. I knew how her curves felt under my hands. Stop it.
And Samuel thought she’d want to be Cinderella next year? He didn’t know the first fucking thing about her. Had to give it to the guy, though, he was giving Avi her freedom before the contract was signed and he sure as hell was taking advantage of his own. I’d seen him leave with not one, but two females.
“I think you’re caught up in some stupid, chivalrous frame of mind that tells you I would be better off if I went to my upcoming nuptials a virgin.” She peeled off her boots across the room.
My eyes widened. “You think I give a shit about your virginity?” I shook my head. “We both know it’s just a meaningless social construct. Alek’s even changed the laws regarding the future queen.”
“Great! You don’t care?” She ripped off her mask and threw out her arms. “Then take it!”
