What does he know? How does he always know?
Two of the girls quickly slip from the room, their heads down and not a word spoken from them. The third one, though, she holds a glare like a knife to my throat the entire time she walks toward the door. Of course, her shoulder jars into mine on her way out.
Rorrick takes his seat once more, exhaustion pressing down on his shoulders.
The weight of Christian’s gaze fully on me sends unease all through my body. All that fuck-you confidence I had moments ago scurries away and hides under a table. My thighs shift with anxious nerves, my stupid pussy wanting us to climb him like a tree while my furious mind wants us to walk right out of this room and never look at the cruel prince ever again.
“Was there something you wanted?” Christian asks on that same steely tone.
A second passes while I hold his challenging stare. That logical mind of mine is really pushing for me to walk away.
Walk. Away.
But my mouth is always faster than my mind.
“Yeah. There is. Iwantedyou to be the guy that made me forget for a little while in a dirty club in New York City.” A line pulls between his brows. “I wanted you to be the nice guy who gave me his shirt when I lay naked in a room full of hungry vampires.” My glare slides to the man sitting tired and confused,and a wounded look passes over his handsome, cutting features. “And I wanted you to be the friend you fucking pretended to be.” Tears sting my eyes when I look at Seven. His Adam’s apple bobs but he shows no full emotion. “You three may be beautiful immortals, but you’re just like human men: fucking assholes.”
“You wanted us to not feed?” Anger stings the prince’s slow, careful words. “Tell me, Pretty Pet, what would you suggest three vampires do instead of feeding off of willing village women? Do you want us to go out and take it from strangers? Chase down rabbits and lessen our strengths? Would you rather I was more like my father and fucking have a stock of women at my beck and call? I can give you anything in all the realms. But you have to tell me what do you want, Crymson!”
“I’m willing and right here!” The words rip from my lips before I can even stop them.
A sharp angle arches his brow.
Why did I say that?
Seven stands abruptly and takes a step forward as if he might stop Christian, but the prince is already stalking toward me with a smirk and a dark look in his steely eyes. My heart pounds in my chest with every step he takes. A pain thickens in my throat as I swallow down the anxious feeling that’s building inside of me.
His heavy attention slides up my bare thighs and over the fine material of the dress that hugs my hips. I can physically feel the weight of his appreciation as he takes me in ever so slowly before stopping just inches away.
“Could you repeat that, Pet?” Rasping words lick across the flesh along my throat as he leans in with violent curiosity lighting his eyes. When I look up at him fully, sharp points of his teeth are suddenly out again, but where they came from, I have no idea.
These men are mesmerizing. Strange and beautiful.
Cruel and deadly.
But they’ve only ever shown me kindness despite the hellish kingdom they live in.
It’s sick and dangerous how badly I want what he’s offering. He could kill me. I don’t even know what a bite from him could do to a human like me. Would it change me? Hurt me?
The alternative is... finding out the hard way when his disgusting father does it himself. And he most definitely will not care about my pain or feelings whatsoever.
I hold Christian’s questioning eyes and walk around him with intent. There’s an uncontrollable magnetic charge between us, my body leaning in to brush his as I pass him by. I feel their interest burning across my flesh, and their collective attention feels electric thrumming through my veins. It feels like power.
I walk with my head held high to the one person seated in the room. My gaze is locked on the prince, even as I lift my leg, my gown sliding open even more to reveal the long length of my leg, and then I straddle over Rorrick’s muscular thighs.
“Well, hello,” he rumbles on that addictive accent of his with a smile like alluring sin.
Big hands clasp low around my hips, his fingers digging in to the roundness of my ass. I love the love that shines in his sweet eyes. How is there so much good in someone so damaged? How does he hold on to the good after everything his king has done to him?
My fingers lightly slide over his broad shoulders and bulging arms. Smooth scars skim under the path of my fingertips, but I want to feel every single one. His chest and abdomen aren’t carved with lean muscle but dense, hard strength. He embodies power with an ease that most men kill themselves to obtain in gym seven days a week.
He’s beautiful. Every jagged line that scars across his body is sexy.
Even if he doesn’t see it.
My fingertips trail up to the prickling stubble along his jaw, and when his lips part with another lazy smile, two perfect points frame his white teeth with sharp incisors.
My thighs tense around him, my pussy pressing down firmer against a hardness that’s suddenly just beneath his pants.
