Page 49 of Crimson Oath
—ur so bad at this game
—thx I know. Can we just play cat café next week?
—lol no
“You’re leaving me again.”He brushed a piece of her hair away from her face. “Come back.”
“You can’t keep showing up in my dreams without my permission.” Her words tried to push him away, but she clung to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, heating her body against the burning pillar of his muscular frame.
He was like a fireplace, warming her skin in the cold chamber in the mountains. She let her fingers take liberties in the dream, running her hands along the ridges of muscle at the small of his back. His skinwas smooth, the fine hair that should have softened his skin burned away by the fire that ran through his veins.
She leaned into the rough texture of his beard on her neck.
His soft lips brushed against her skin when he spoke. “Stay with me.”
“Why did you look for me?” Cold tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. Tatyana felt cold. All the time, she felt cold. “Why do you make me remember missing you?”
“Because you’re mine.”
It sounded so simple in her dreams, and she knew she was dreaming. He was too gentle. Too comforting.
Dream Oleg was the lover she craved, his gentle strength wrapping around her like a heavy blanket. When she was in her dreams, he drove the cold away.
“Closer.”
Her skin was bare and pressed to his. His arms encircled her. His hands soothed her skin, stroking up and down her back, his fingers dancing over the rise of her hips and teasing the delicate skin of her inner thigh.
Delicious desire danced in her blood, and when he lifted her leg, spread her thighs, and slid into her body, she let out a soft sigh.
Yes.
This was what she needed. He filled her, and his steady, thrusting hips drove the cold from her body. Delicious pleasure started at her toes, filling her as he whispered unintelligible sweetness in her ear.
When the pleasure crested, she cried out, and he swallowed her sighs with his mouth. Their kiss went on and on and on until it was everything and all she felt was his body in hers, his blood in her mouth, his amnis twisting and melding with her own.
When Tatyana opened her eyes,the room around her was black and empty.
Cold tears lingered on her cheeks.
“Are you sure about this?”
“I’m not sure about anything.” She was meeting with Kato in the watery fortress on Arosh’s mountain where her mentor had hidden for centuries when his mind went blank.
The Kato she knew was not the powerful emperor of the ancient world because that immortal’s mind had been wiped and rewritten by a poison centuries before. Even with an antidote, it had taken years to recover a fraction of his memories.
“The Poshanicanbe trusted,” Kato said. “The human did not lie to you. But you’ll be cut off from the world for six months at least. Are you sure you want that?”
“That’s the best part.” Tatyana waded into the water, wearing a simple black bathing suit she’d found in the clothing supplies for the harem. “It will get me out of Arosh’s long and lustrous hair.”
Kato smiled. “He’s very proud of his hair, you know. It’s hard for fire vampires to keep their hair when they light themselves on fire so regularly.”
She smiled. “Barbarians.”
He winked at her. “The worst of them.”
Kato’s quarters contained a vast, Roman-style bath built with marble and gold. Warm, rose-scented steam suffused the air, and marble benches lined the walls. She could see Alexander lounging in one alcove, holding an open book and talking with someone she couldn’t see.
This was Kato’s domain, and Arosh didn’t trespass unless his old friend allowed it, which meant it was Tatyana’s favorite place on the mountain.
