Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
“He has it guarded,” Meg says with a helpless shake of her head.
“We’ll find a way.” My mind is filled with possibilities.
Meg pats my leg. “I don’t want to think about this now. It’s coming for me soon enough. Tell me about Kaja. You two seem to be getting along.”
“Yes, she’s a lovely woman.” My chest feels too tight for another reason now. Kaja is so much deeper, smarter, more complex than I thought. I thought I could make a deal with her, but I don’t have anything Kaja will want. She doesn’t even really understand the concept of money. What do I have to offer her except money she doesn’t need and an impressive cock?
“When I make love to Kaja, I can feel her,” I admit quietly. It isn’t something I expected. No one had warned me in sex ed class about some mystical connection that would form when I make love to my consort.
“Well, I would hope so,” Meg says.
I don’t want to exchange sarcastic remarks with her. “I mean I can feel her past or her soul or something. Sometimes it’s flashes of her history, like a movie in my head, except that I am her and I feel what she felt. I know what it was like to be Kaja, and it sucked before, but she’s still here and still trying. I don’t know if I would still be trying.”
Meg’s face bunches in concern. “I didn’t think that happened between vampires and consorts. I thought that was something that only happened between bondmates and psychic Fae.”
Bondmates tend to boost the powers of psychic Fae, and in Meg’s case, she actually bridges her husbands’ shared soul so they each have access to the other half. “I don’t know why. I only know it’s happening and it’s gotten harder to shut it down. Every time I feed, it gets harder and harder to put a wall between us.”
Meg studies me for a moment. “Kaja isn’t from a plane we know a lot about. Maybe her bonding powers are different from others. Maybe that’s why the connection is different. Why would you try to shut it down?”
I don’t even like to admit that to myself. “I didn’t marry Kaja because I wanted to. My father forced me to. I had to get married or he was going to kick me out of the business.”
“Well, I suppose lots of marriages start off as marriages of convenience. So you explained all this to Kaja?”
Not exactly. “I told her that we would be married for a while and then she could have her freedom back.”
There it is. I can say the words, but there’s something inside me that knows I’m not going to let her go. I’m really only fighting myself now.
Meg pulls her hand back, and I can see her withdraw. “Well, that’s disappointing. I thought there wasn’t a whole lot of divorce outside the Earth plane.”
“I wasn’t planning on divorcing her. I was planning on going my own way and letting Kaja go hers.”
Meg’s head shakes slightly, but I can feel her derision. “After you slept with her and fed from her. And does Kaja understand this?”
I think about Kaja’s eyes. When I make love to her they’re lit with desire and life. But then I’ll catch her when she thinks no one is looking, and there’s resignation there, as though she knows it won’t work out. “I think she understands far too well.”
“So, you’re going to use her.”
Yes, that was the plan. “I don’t know anymore.”
“Really?” Meg looks at me again, her right brow rising in question.
“Yeah. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know I feel more for her than I’ve ever felt for anyone in my life. I don’t know if it’s going to last.” I don’t even know if I want it to. Kaja seems to be all I can think about. She’s rapidly becoming an obsession. Even now, I can see her laying in the grass, her pearly skin in sharp contrast to the green around her, the twin holes in her neck on full display. When I get her back home, I’ll have to give her some of my own blood. It will heal the marks, but damn, I like looking at them. It’s barbaric. It’s fucking hot.
“Uh, Dante, you having some trouble there?” Meg asks, her eyes on my mouth.
Fuck. My fangs are out again. This is why I don’t want this passion to last. I can’t walk around the rest of my life with a hard-on and full fangs—and this weird, soft place in my heart that clenches every time I look at her or think about all she’s been through.
She’s so strong. “She deserves more than me.”
Meg shakes her head, her hand back on my knee. “No. She deserves you, but she deserves the best you. Don’t you see? This is what happens. I’ve been where you are. I fell in love, and it changed me for the better. It forced me to grow up. It made me a better person. This is wonderful, Dante.”