Page 106 of The Wolf of Mayfair
Her declaration ended on a gasp as Anthony shot a hand out.
He caught her wrist in a gentle but completely unbreakable grip.
“I’d cut out the eyes of any man who ever dared to look at you,” he whispered. His scorching eyes drilled all the way through Helia. “I’d chop off the hands of anyone so stupid as to touch the woman who belongs to me.”
Helia shivered with a shamefully wicked thrill at that lethal, protective promise. Since her parents’ passing, she’d been on her own, reliant upon herself to stay alive and keep herself safe.
How very alluring it was being in the care of a man who’d declare himself her steadfast sentinel.
He placed a fierce, unapologetic kiss upon the inside of her wrist. “Marry me.”
Even though Anthony’s wasn’t a request but rather a lordly demand, she went warm all over.
“You’ll want for nothing. As my queen, your crown will drip with diamonds, and the shine of gold will blind the mere mortals who dare look at you. Everyone will live to serve you.”
Some shameful, wicked part hidden deep inside her reveled at the fantastical world he painted with his evocative imagery. “These are th-things, Anthony,” she said softly, reminding him as much as herself.
“I will fill your every day and night with mindless pleasure,” he murmured.
She did not doubt it.
Suddenly, he tightened his grip and fiery rage filled his eyes. “No man will ever dare touch what is mine, and you will never want anyone other than me, because I will assuage your every yearning so just thinking of the things I do to you will make you come.”
Helia’s heart missed a beat as she recalled how he’d encouraged his former betrothed to keep a lover after they wed.
That this virile man should expectHelia’sfidelity sent another rush of heat between her legs and brought her eyes shut.
Anthony wasn’t done with her.
“I will protect you with my very life. I will kill for you.” With each vow, his eyes blazed brighter and brighter from the gleam of every promise made. “And if needed, I would give my life so you may live.”
She fell further and deeper under his spell.
Anthony wrapped a hand about her waist, and as he pulled her against him, Helia went unresistingly.
“Then, in the afterlife,” he whispered against her temple, “I will be your watchman, whose only purpose in death is to stalk and destroy every person who so much as walked in your shadow.”
She drew in an unsteady breath.
In the bastion of his arms, Helia truly knew what it was to be protected and safe. He was a savage, muscle-bound warrior of old. With Anthony near, no harm would ever befall her.
Anthony made to take her mouth in another possessive kiss.
Helia pressed her fingertips to his lips, stopping Anthony as much as herself from surrendering to him.
His low, feral, angry growl vibrated against her fingers.
“Why do ye wish to marry me, Anthony? I would have you tell me.” She delivered that as much a demand as any of the many he’d put to her.
As if enflamed by Helia’s boldness, he moved his eyes over her face with a savage intensity.
“I have never known any woman like you, Helia. I have never metanyonelike you. You possess a strength, fire, and spirit that somehow make me stronger. Align yourself with me,” he urged, shadowy, like they were a medieval couple of old, forging an alliance in the now.
Anthony withdrew his gold watch fob.
Helia stared on confusedly as, in quick order, he freed his gold timepiece and let it fall forgotten to the mattress. Anthony removed his signet ring and wordlessly held it up to Helia.
He slipped the gilded intaglio piece upon the fob. “Bind yourself to me in name, soul, and body, Helia.”
