Текст книги "Born in Chains"

Автор книги: Caris Roane

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“We need to know what they know,” she said. “Maybe they have information about the weapon.”

At these words, both Adrien and Rumy yelled at the guard to stop hurting the robed reptiles, but he got one last hit in before he stepped back.

Rumy glared at the men on the floor. “Nothing I hate worse than fanatics. I don’t even despise a rat in my organization as much as these assholes who use religion to persecute those who can’t protect themselves. Fucking bastards.”

Adrien chuckled. “Rumy, I knew there was something about you I liked.”

“Aw, can the flattery. Just tell me how the fuck you did that altered flight shit. Usually, you glide out of here. This time you vanished. Whoa. Hold the fucking phone.” He looked him over, his gaze landing on the chain at Adrien’s neck. “You’ve bumped up your power level with a double blood-chain, and there’s only one way you can do that. Well damn my ass, you finally made the leap. You’re on the Ancestral path.” He glanced at the chain Lily wore. “And you’re all bound up with a human and now you’ve got more power. A lot of it, too.” For half a second, panic hit Rumy’s eye.

Adrien held up a hand. “Not to worry. I have no takeover plans for you or your business. Trust me, I’m not that man.”

“Good. That’s good.” He plucked at a couple of curls above his ears then patted them flat.

The assassins had grown quiet, which meant both had dipped into vampire-healing mode and would be back at full strength in a couple of hours.

Adrien thought about killing them, and in any other circumstances that’s just what he would have done. He and his brothers dealt swiftly with fanatics who murdered the innocent. So long as there was irrefutable evidence of the crime, they held a brief trial, took off the head, and burned the bastards to ashes just to make sure they couldn’t come back to do more damage.

Their leader, Silas, knew what Adrien and his brothers did to fanatics proven to kill the innocent, who laid waste to some of the outlying cavern systems when average vampires refused to agree to Silas’s decrees. The man and his followers were spiritual tyrants, and Adrien and his brothers had sworn to battle them to the death, if need be.

Rumy sat down on the side of his desk, one leg swinging free. “I take it the trip north didn’t help much for what you’re lookin’ for.”

“Not much, which is why we’re here.”

“I kind of figured.”

Lily ventured, “So, what exactly do you know about the extinction weapon?”

A hush fell over the room. All the vampires stilled, which made the space a room full of statues for at least ten long seconds.

When the breathing resumed, Rumy shook his head. “I haven’t got a clue. I mean, there’s not been a peep about the weapon in decades, not since the nineteen fifties when everybody and their uncle was doing experiments in hidden caves all over the world. Jesus-Buddha-and-Confucius all wrapped up in a fishnet, I hate even thinking about something so powerful that it could wipe us off the face of the earth.”

He huffed a sigh, his gaze fixed to Lily. “I don’t know what Adrien here has told you, but our kind doesn’t have big numbers—less than a million against your virus-like billions.

“Our people are spread out over every country in the world. Most of us never procreate. We’re so damn long-lived that our genetics decided early on we’d better not be a fertile race. So why are you after the extinction weapon anyway?” Rumy stared hard at Lily.

Adrien nodded to her and watched her take a deep breath.

“I’ve been contracted to get the weapon … for a price.”

A single oily brow rose. “That’s a language I can understand. So you’ll turn it over and get paid for your troubles.”

Lily nodded. Adrien watched her closely. The new chain had enhanced what passed between them but in this case what he felt from her remained the same, just a powerful level of determination.

One of the vampires on the floor moved and Adrien felt his quick sudden distress. He shifted his gaze from Lily, then shoved at the man’s arm with the toe of his boot. “What do you know? And don’t tell me nothing, or I’ll let Rumy’s guards start pounding on you again.”

His eyes lit up suddenly, the fervent light of the devoted. “The human, Lily, is destined to destroy all vampire-kind. You must listen to me. The great one, Master Silas, whose visions always prove true, has seen her coming, has been able to predict where she would be with tremendous accuracy, like this moment. He said this would happen. And I’ve heard you say you’re looking for the extinction weapon. Don’t listen to her. She means harm to our race. She intends to destroy us all.”

Rumy glanced at Lily. “Do you intend to destroy our race?”

Lily shook her head. “No. I’m only here for the weapon.”

Rumy turned back to the fanatic and brought the butt down hard on his head. “Asshole.”

CHAPTER 10

Lily didn’t know which was worse, that she’d actually heard the man’s skull crack or that she just didn’t care. Of course, it was hard to be compassionate toward a person who wanted her in the ground, or maybe burned at the stake. Still, it bothered her that she wasn’t more upset.

She might even have voiced the thought, just to get it out in the open and have a look, but at that moment the part of her born from the chain around her neck activated her revisiting power.

By now she had some command over it and knew she had a choice whether to allow the vision to come or not.

“What’s going on, Lily?”

She glanced at Adrien, but switched to telepathy. A vision, but I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to waste our time with something from the past. She glanced at the two fanatics on the floor, then her gaze flitted to Rumy and his bodyguards.

Adrien narrowed his gaze. A lot has happened over the years in this room, and you just heard the fanatic say that you’ve been seen here by Silas. I think you should give it a shot.

Thoughts about her son, always roaming the edges of her mind anyway, flowed to the forefront. She’d do anything to get Josh back, including allowing a vision in a place like this, with two beat-up vampires on the floor and more weapons than she’d seen in the whole course of her life.

She opened herself up and the edges of the room began to spin, only faster this time than before, something she attributed to Adrien’s new set of chains and increased power.

She held her arms wide and the scene emerged, like watching a movie, of a vampire in a fine black suit, a pure white silk shirt, and a gold tie.

The man towered over Rumy, the way Adrien towered over other men. His hair was dark and slicked back and he had a tightly trimmed black goatee. He was achingly handsome and something about him seemed familiar, even though she was sure she’d never seen him before.

In the vision, the vampire leaned down close to Rumy’s cheek. “So, little man, have you found the right woman for me yet? I’ve grown impatient. You know my needs.”

Rumy shook in his fine leather shoes. “I … I have a lead from Nairobi. Perfect dark skin, white teeth, and thin sharp fangs.”

“Tell me of her breasts.”

“I don’t know anything yet, just that she’s a beauty.”

He held his hand open, palm up. “But you know what I like: very full, voluptuous, more than my hand or my mouth can hold. Don’t fail me, Rumy, or my appetites may extend to this club and I’ll take the whole thing over before you can even blink.”

Lily felt Rumy’s fear, then her own. This man, so elegant, so beautiful even in profile, defined malevolence—something so evil that his dark presence, even in a revisiting vision, had the power to reach her, to frighten her.

At that moment he leaned back, closed his eyes, and turned slowly toward her. When he opened his eyes, he looked right at her, stepping in her direction until he was only a few feet away. The vampire could see her—all the way from the past, he could see her.

He met and held her gaze, then looked her up and down. She trembled and could feel that Adrien had slipped his arm around her waist, that he held her close to his side in the present, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from what she knew to be a monster from the past.

His eyes were a strange yet beautiful color, almost a teal like Adrien’s, but lighter and flecked with hints of green and gold.

His nostrils flared. “I smell a human female. Yes, definitely human. But tell me, lovely one, why are you here at The Erotic Passage?”

She felt very strange, the way she had felt with Giselle. She understood then that even from the past the vampire had enough power to enthrall her. “I’m here looking for the extinction weapon.”

“How intriguing.” The man smiled, showing large, even teeth. “What is your name, lovely one?”

“Lily. Lily Haven.”

“Where are you from?”

“Arizona, near Phoenix. Deer Valley. But I have a place in Manhattan as well.”

His smile broadened. “So you’re a woman of wealth?”

“Some wealth, yes.”

She began to weave on her feet, back and forth, rocking harder and harder. Her name came to her from a great distance, and suddenly the vision disappeared and Adrien was shouting at her and shaking her.

She felt herself falling backward, falling and falling, yet she never hit the floor.

Sometime later, she opened her eyes, expecting to be on the floor. Instead, Adrien held her in his arms, his brow furrowed.

As she blinked, her brain finally righted itself. “How long was I out?”

“Just a couple of minutes. Are you all right? What happened?”

“A man spoke to me.”

Adrien’s brows rose. “From a revisiting vision? A man spoke to you from inside a vision?” He seemed incredulous.

Lily nodded.

“What did he look like?”

Lily described him. “He scared me, Adrien.”

“And his eyes were similar to mine, but lighter?”

“Yes, goldish flecks.”

Adrien turned around and dropped into the large leather chair by the door. “Fuck.” His scowl formed a deep furrow between his brows.

Lily had a sinking sensation in her gut. “Who was he?”

He met her gaze. “You probably already know.”

But it was Rumy who enlightened her. “I guess you’re screwed, because you just met our equivalent of the Prince of Darkness, Daniel the A-hole. He gives vampires a bad name, and that was long before I opened The Erotic Passage, long before an underworld, long before anything of importance, really. Some say he built the black market himself, that he keeps as many rogue vampires drugged out and in service to him as he can, and he has more sex-slave rackets going than hills have ants.”

“Daniel,” Adrien murmured in a low voice. He shaded his eyes with his hand.

“Okay,” Lily said, moving carefully through what felt like an emotional minefield. “I’ve just met the evil one.”

He grabbed the chain at his neck and shook it, his rage flowing in waves. Daniel is the most powerful vampire on the planet, and has been living at this power level for over two thousand years, maybe longer. But Daniel—His thoughts ceased like a wall falling down between them, as though the memories were too painful to continue.

He took a deep breath. “These problems with our world won’t be solved in a day or a week. Maybe not even in a millennium. What disturbs me right now is that you told him your name and where you live.”

“Yes, I did. He had control of me in that moment, the way Giselle did earlier. I can’t even fathom that level of power—that he could speak to me and reach me from the past.”

She staggered on her feet, and Adrien suddenly rose up and caught her as she listed. “Oh, God, Adrien, please don’t tell me that in this moment Daniel discovered who I am and because of it he hunted for me until he found me and two years ago destroyed my family. Please, don’t tell me it’s true. Please don’t tell me that I was the cause of my family’s destruction?”

He drew her hard against him, holding her tight in his arms. She buried her face in his shoulder. She didn’t need him to answer these questions; she felt them to be true. Somehow Daniel had reached into the future and seen this day, using it to exploit her.

He tilted his head, and compassion filled his eyes. He drew her into an embrace, holding her fast. She forced air in and out of her lungs, and choked back the tears that wanted to escape.

Lily, what happened to your family isn’t your fault, because you can’t protect against crazy. It’s not possible. Do you hear me?

Lily nodded against his shoulder. On the deepest level, she knew he was right. She’d thought the same thing every time some madman went on a killing spree. All the details would come out in the news, and everyone would try to figure out how to prevent it from happening again.

But when people were out of their minds, they were still going to run the red light.

I’m so sorry, Lily.

And Daniel is insane, isn’t he?

The worst kind of insanity.

As the seconds passed, however, something new entered her mind, her thinking, a kind of cold hatred that found in Daniel a single pertinent object.

She drew back from Adrien slowly, crossing her hand over his chest to flow down his opposite arm until she had his hand in a tight grip, right palm to right palm.

He seemed to know, to understand her meaning and her intention. They’d each been wounded by Daniel, as had the entire vampire world. “He needs to be taken from the face of the earth.”

Adrien nodded. “Yes, he does.”

“I’ll help you. I swear it, Adrien, by all that I hold dear, I swear that I’ll help you.”

Rumy called out, “I’m glad you two lovebirds have gotten everything settled between you, but what do you want me to do with these assholes?” He inclined his head toward the floor.

Adrien waved a hand in their direction. “Get rid of them.”

Rumy’s security uttered several approving grunts, grabbed up the fanatics, and vanished with them through the walls.

“Good riddance.” Rumy clapped his hand and took a deep breath. “Ah, that’s much better. The air smells fresher now, cleaner somehow.”

She met Rumy’s gaze. “So, do you know anyone here who might know where we should look for the weapon? As you can see, we’ve got a shitfest going on.”

At that Rumy grinned, the tips of his fangs sliding over his lower lip. “I like you.” To Adrien, “She’s a keeper.” Back to Lily. “Since I’ve basically told you all I know, which is why I sent you to that prick Hardesty, your best bet would be to ask Eve. She knows even more than I do about the underworld. If anyone has information that I don’t, Eve will.”

“So where do we find her? Is she working tonight?”

“She’s here every night.” Rumy slid off the desk, which he then rounded to flip open a laptop. He started tapping keys. “She’ll probably be in her theater right now, but I’ll check for you.” He continued tapping the keys and after a moment a strange, rhythmic slapping sound ricocheted through the room.

“Nice. She’s flog-fucking one of her subs, big motherfucker, too. Listen to the rhythm. She knows how to use a flogger like no other dom I know.”

Lily felt the air in the room change.

She glanced around. All the men had become fixated on the sound and the deep moans that accompanied the slaps. There was something else, something in the background, soft and low. Not music exactly, but close.

To her surprise, she turned her ear toward the screen and with a power that only made sense because of the shared blood-chain, she stretched her hearing.

The background sound proved to be a woman chanting softly, but the words seemed to be in a different language.

“What is she saying?”

All the men glanced at her, predatory shifts of attention, and she suddenly became acutely aware how short her skirt was, how much leg she revealed, and the exact height of her boot-heels.

Yep, sex charged the air, a blatant raw sensation that plucked at her body in several places at once.

Adrien drew close, turning to face her and standing slightly in front of her, to shield her from the other men. “Eve is a dom and she’s reciting Ancestral chants that affect a male vampire’s desire.”

“We need to talk to her now.”

He searched her eyes carefully. “I don’t know you very well, Lily, but Eve’s theater can be hard to take if you aren’t prepared.”

“I don’t care about that,” Lily said. “It can’t possibly be worse than anything else we’ve been through so far.”

“You’ve got a point.” He turned back to Rumy. “Is she still using The Ruby Cave?”

At that Rumy smiled, a crooked tilt to his scarred-up lips that looked lascivious and cute at the same time. “Yep.”

Adrien thanked him for his help.

Rumy called out, “I’ll keep my ear to the ground. If I hear anything you need to know, I’ll give you a holler.”

Adrien nodded, turning back when he reached the doorway. “You’ve been a good friend to me.”

“You’re all right, Adrien. You’re always welcome here, you and your brothers.”

He thanked him again, then took Lily by the hand.

Once in the cool hallway, she asked, “What did they do to those men?”

“I won’t pull any punches here, Lily. They killed them.”

“No prison time?”

“That’s part of the problem. We don’t have dedicated prisons and no real justice system.”

“What about that cavern where you were held?”

Adrien snorted. “That’s not a prison, just one of several locations Daniel uses to inflict pain, or couldn’t you tell?”

“How would I even know what’s true or not true about your world?”

“Another good point.”

He led her back the way they’d come, crossing to the other branch of the tunnel, which led deeper into the Como system.

The tunnel widened and intersected with a broad avenue-like hallway, richly appointed with crystals in patterns over the walls and an opalescent gleam to the floor.

A number of sounds assaulted her at once. First was a low level of music that had a strong bass beat, very rhythmic, like Eve’s floggers, very sexual. She had to keep reminding herself that this was essentially a sex club.

Adrien led her down the broad hall, which opened up into a massive cavern, definitely the biggest one she’d seen so far.

Much to Lily’s surprise the music was live, performed by a band of musicians composed of beautiful men in elegant leather outfits, studded, exposing muscular arms and chests.

She watched them for a moment, and noticed that the audience listened while seated at small intimate tables, candlelight casting a soft glow throughout the space.

She opened her mind to his. Everything is so tasteful. I thought—But she broke off the rest of it. Maybe he was getting tired of all the slurs she cast on his kind.

Adrien smiled, however, something he didn’t do much, as he glanced down at her. You thought it would be one big orgy? He still had hold of her hand.

She couldn’t help but chuckle. Yes, that’s exactly what I thought. I mean, the flogger—

Rumy has dozens of specialists. He runs a tight ship, everything by appointment, each theater with doors that close. His hand was on her waist and she felt the sudden tension in him as he guided her to yet another hall. “This staircase takes us to a new level of the cavern system.” She descended what proved to be about a hundred steps that circled down and down.

Once the music grew faint, he said quietly, “The club extends several miles deep into the surrounding hills. Many of the workers have homes here, including Eve. Rumy has numerous guest suites and even has a villa somewhere deep in the earth and hidden. I’ve never even been there. Again, everything is very private. I’m going to use altered flight to get us to The Ruby Cave where Eve presents her Dominance Theater. Just wanted you to be prepared.”

“For what? Your new version of altered flight or Eve’s act?”

He laughed. “Both.”

A moment later the flight began.

Lily had expected to arrive in a room with a red theme, since Adrien had called it The Ruby Cave. But she hadn’t expected the entire theater, except for a black onyx ceiling, to be a rich scarlet. Although ruby was the right word, as though the walls had been covered in the precious gem.

What’s this made of? she asked, mind to mind, her gaze fixed to the glittering walls.

But nothing returned to her.

Adrien’s lack of response sharpened her attention. Pivoting toward him, she saw that he stared hard at the scene on the stage below, of a tall woman, her blond hair in a long ponytail that hung past her buttocks, slowly rubbing with one hand the thighs and backside of a large, powerful, and very naked man chained facedown on a table.

The theater was unusual in its layout. Those nearest the stage sat in a small cluster, but almost everyone else stood in loose pairs and groups throughout the angled room.

Lily felt her cheeks heat up. The air here, as in the office earlier, was charged with sex. The man’s face was turned toward the audience. His eyes were closed, his face squeezed up as though he was in pain. But she knew it was much more than that.

The soft chanting once more filled the air as Eve lifted her flogger and once more began a rhythmic beating of the man’s back, thighs, and ass. She kept up her indistinguishable, singsong words.

Lily thought the woman’s voice mesmerizing.

The next moment, however, Adrien tugged on her hand and pulled her out of the room the way they’d come.

The hall was cool, and for that she was grateful. She took a deep breath and was about to express her gratitude that Adrien had brought her back out here when she realized something was wrong. He was turned away from her, one hand on the smooth wall of more polished granite, this time in flecks of brown and black, the candle sconces in bronze.

Her chain vibrated strongly once more and she opened to Adrien, to what he was feeling and experiencing.

What returned to her was a level of arousal that astonished her.

He was close. That was why he leaned against the wall, his forehead pressed to his wrist.

Bondage? Chains? Flogging?

And yet what flew through her mind was a fantasy of seeing him chained up like that, held immobile and worked over. She touched the chains on her neck. Was this his fantasy or hers?

Her breathing hitched as she felt the depth of his need. Maybe she didn’t understand why Eve’s theater had affected him like this, taking him to the edge so fast, but the scent he exuded, so masculine and full of erotic herbs, had given her a new idea.

“Adrien,” she said softly. She laid a hand on his back and he arched at her touch then groaned. “Take me. Now.”

* * *

Adrien felt Lily’s hand like a hot coal against his back. He hadn’t expected to become aroused like this. He didn’t even understand what had triggered the intensity of sensation this time. He’d seen dominance shows before, but not with Lily so close, not with the chains vibrating against his neck and chest, not with his increased power.

Within seconds he’d become fully aroused, and though he tried to calm himself down, he couldn’t.

Of course he was in a near-constant state of arousal around Lily as it was, but her clubbing clothes didn’t help. How many times had his gaze taken in her naked back, half hidden by the waterfall of her exquisite hair. He’d wanted his lips on her back and lower, over her ass, then lower still, parting her legs from behind, God help him.

Now she was offering herself, and he didn’t deserve her right now. Shame ripped through him at the source of his desire—that he wanted Lily binding him and taking him, maybe even hurting him like he’d been hurt repeatedly throughout his life.

Her hand floated up and down his back and her scent thickened through the air. He could sense her desire as well and smell it, so he knew he wasn’t alone in his need.

I’d like to have you chained on that table.

Oh, God, had she really just pressed those erotic words into his mind? Lily, this isn’t right.

Fuck what’s right, came straight back at him. I need you. And I don’t care the why of it. Adrien, fuck me now. I’m aching for you and I’m all yours.

He turned into her and dragged her roughly into his arms, slanting a kiss over her lips.

Can we do this here? In the hallway?

Holy fuck, even her voice in his head did something to him. The vibration of the chain seemed to enhance his ability to feel what she felt. He could tell that her need had sharpened to match his.

What had she asked him? Could they do this here?

Rumy had several rules about the where of an encounter. Hallways were forbidden, but Adrien knew his way around this labyrinth of a club. The cavern had three significant layers, miles of tunnels, and at least a dozen secret niches, all of which he’d used at one time or another.

I have to fly you to a private place. You sure you want to do this?

God, yes.

She panted against him as he set them in motion. Though he wanted to kiss her while he flew, the new level of his power demanded that he be careful right now.

He only overshot the location once, but he finally made it, landing on the last scrap of tile laid out at the end point of the system. He took a quick glance around. The space was as he remembered: a crevice in the mountain, still undeveloped and very private.

The problem with caves, though, was how well noise traveled. “No sounds,” he said.

Got it. Just do me, Adrien. Oh, my God, your need is flowing over me in waves. It must be the chains but it feels so damn good.

Your scent. You don’t know what you smell like to me, all female and ready. I could come just breathing along your neck.

With one hand supporting her around her waist, he unbuttoned and unzipped his leathers, shoving them down his hips and thighs. She pulled her short skirt up, blessing the polished walls behind her because he needed leverage right now.

He lifted her leg, tucked his hips, and thrust, easily pushing past her thong.

She slung an arm around his neck and held on. She got her mouth close to his ear. “Adrien, fuck me.”

The words, her scent, the feel of her wetness that allowed him to glide as he thrust hard, sent him into a frenzy. Her arm became a vise around his neck. He could feel she was close and when her body jerked and she pressed her open mouth to his cheek, her breath came out in a harsh agonized whisper of “Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God.”

As she came, her well was a fist around his cock. An image flashed through his mind, maybe a kind of knowing, he wasn’t sure, but he saw himself chained to a table, her mouth surrounding his cock.

That heady image was all it took. He came hard, seeing himself chained up, thrusting into her mouth—her pussy—her mouth, the future vision and the present sensations trading places at light-speed so that he felt as though he released down her throat while at the same time he spent himself inside her.

He was breathing hard as the last pleasurable pulse jerked through his cock. He felt her gasping for breath as well.

But as he came back to himself, she kissed his cheek then dipped lower to his mouth. That was exquisite, she said within his mind as her tongue circled his lips.

Gratitude flowed through him as he kissed her in return, dipping his tongue inside. Thank you. Lily, you’re one of the most generous women I’ve ever known. You didn’t have to do this, but I’m so glad you did. You have every reason to hate me for what I am. Instead, you’ve offered yourself to me repeatedly.

To his surprise, she chuckled and with her hands encircled the back of his neck, tugging at him playfully. “I could say the same thing to you. I’ve never felt so needy before. I guess it’s the chains.”

“Not just because I’m pretty?” The words sounded stupid to his ears, but he felt such a powerful well of emotion flowing toward her that nothing else would do.

But she smiled and with one hand petted his cheek. “You’re damn gorgeous and you know it. Worse, I like you. I admire you. That goes a long way to making me this willing to give in to all these sensations. But I have to admit, it didn’t help to see that man enjoying what was happening to him.”

His heart skipped a beat. “You weren’t disgusted?” He needed to know the answer.

She searched his eyes and squeezed the back of his neck. “Truth? I thought it was hot as hell because of how he felt. And how you felt watching him. I think that turned me on more than anything.”

He almost felt compelled to tell her of his fantasy of the table and the chains, her mouth and his cock. But something held him back, that sick feeling that the whole thing was wrapped up with the shit of his past.

“And now, my good vampire, I have a little problem. I didn’t think we’d be doing this or I would have come prepared, but you can imagine my present difficulty.” She rolled her hips against his.

He thumbed her cheek and kissed her. He dipped down and tugged at his pants, dragging them up his thighs one-handed as he stayed connected to her. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out several folded tissues. He showed her then reached between them and wiped his cock as he withdrew from her. He then pressed the tissues against her opening. He didn’t remove his hand, though. He pressed now and again and felt the tissues grow damper. He knew the drill, especially since he’d left a lot of himself inside her.

She released a sigh. “Thank you. I just didn’t think. Hey, does your kind use condoms much?”

He smiled and shook his head. “Not much. Disease doesn’t affect us and as Rumy explained, children are rare.”

“Right.”

After a moment, he removed the tissues. “How’s that feel?”

“Good.” She adjusted her thong then her skirt.

He then pulled up his pants and slid the used-up tissues into his pocket.

“I’m liking your battle leathers more and more,” she said. “You’re a man who’s ready for anything.”

“Hell, yeah.” But for a moment, he was caught by the light in her eyes, the warmth, the humanness that he’d come to value, her grace, her willingness to take care of him, and that she wasn’t embarrassed by the mess that sex could make.

But then she’d been married and she’d given birth. A woman with children was used to a lot of things.

On impulse, he leaned in and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her fully, willing her to understand that he valued her, all that she was in this moment, all that she’d done for him, the sharing of her body and her blood, the sacrifice of binding herself to him.

She held him tightly in response and he felt her intensity, almost her desperation. “Oh, Adrien,” she whispered against his neck. “What’s happening here, between us?”