Page 47 of Rurik
Rurik murmured in assent. “It is smart, to keep you close and protected. You can’t fault them forthat.”
“Can’t I?” she challenged. “They’re so focused on keeping me alive that I’ve never had the chance tolive. I would have risked anything to feel like a normal girl for just five minutes. I couldn’t even go on a date without a background check and someone tailing me. Believe it or not, I met my best friend Meg that way. Damien had her tailing me when she was a trainee. She felt bad for me and told me about it, and we becamefriends.”
“Seriously?” Rurik burst out laughing. The sound was rich and warm, and it dispelled some of the anger that had been building inside her. She thought of the crazy things Damien and Jason had done to keep her life safe but unfulfilling, and shelaughed.
“Let’s just say my senior prom date doesn’t remember most of our date. Damien and Jason found out he had a few misdemeanors and interrogated him for the better part of an hour. With truth serum. I had to practically hold him up during our photos after thedance.”
Rurik was still laughing as they reached the glittering hallway. He stopped at the top of the stairs and brushed her hair away from her face, staring deeply into her eyes in a way that made her kneesbuckle.
“I don’t want you to ever be lonely again.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers in a deep, soft kiss that filled her with dreams of warm sunny mornings in a shared bed, whispering sweet nothings and kissing for hours. She melted into Rurik, unable to hold anything of herself back. When they finally stepped apart, his gaze had becomeserious.
“Charlotte, I have a home in the Fire Hills. It’s a few hours from here. I would love to take youthere.”
She bit her lip, considering it. She knew for sure that she didn’t want to leave, but to stay… Were they rushing this whole thing? Going toofast?
“I’d loveto…”
He picked up on her hesitation. “But?”
“Are we rushing this? I mean…I know so little about you other than that we’re mated.” When Rurik’s eyes grew shadowed, she reached out to touch him. “But Iwantto. So talk to me. Tell mesomething.”
Rurik relaxed as they ascended the stairs, and the erratic pulse of her heart calmed a little. She didn’t want to upset him, but she meant what she said. The fact was he was a stranger to her. He knew more about her than she did abouthim.
He chuckled, pausing. “Where tostart?”
“What about the nightclub? Why did you choose to go into thatbusiness?”
He stroked his chin, considering his answer. “The clubs aren’t just about dancing. They are about letting go of control, about living a fantasy, even if only one night. I’m addicted to that feeling. As a battle dragon, I have to stay in control all thetime.”
“Except with your mate?” she asked, a blush heating her face as she remembered how they’d made love the last time, with her on her hands and knees and him behind her. There hadn’t beenanythingcontrolled aboutthat.
“Yes. That’s the one time I can be me, in bed and out. But the club helps me feel close to that. It was why I had you dance in thatcage.”
“I still can’t believe you did that.” She was half teasing, halfadmonishing.
Rurik moved to the side of the stairs, cornering her against the wall,grinning.
“I gave you a mental nudge, nothing more. I could see how much you wanted to try it, but you were holding yourself back.” He trailed a fingertip down the column of her throat. What was it about him that made her feel so reckless and wild? He carried an edge of danger that made her forget her worries and want to live only in themoment.
She saw the grin on his lips and slapped his shoulder. “Stop playinggames.”
“Ah, but there are somanygames we can play,” he whispered darkly. “Games that will leave you wet and breathless, perhaps even hoarse from screaming my name.” His lips twisted in a seductive smile that weakened her knees and made her womb clench. “I’ve had thirteen hundred years to perfect my lovemaking skills.” He closed the distance between them, kissing her hungrily, as though she were the cure to a fever that was burning himup.
His chin was covered in light stubble, and it burned her skin in a wonderfully erotic way. He bit her bottom lip, tugging on it, and she moaned helplessly, always wanting more. Her body needed to be connected to him.Now.
“What kind of games?” she asked as he released her lower lip. Her breath quickened as he pressed a thigh between her legs, rubbing her sensitive clit. She clutched at hisshoulders.
He licked the shell of her ear. “Any kind you want. I admit I like the idea of you being bound. I’d love to tie you down and torture you with my hands and mouth. Any fantasy you have, I can make it come true.” He pressed his thigh against her core again, whispering all the things he wanted to do to her and how it would make her feel. The need to come was so strong she couldn’t standanother—
Smack!
He’d given her ass a little slap at just the right moment, and she exploded. He covered her mouth with his, silencing her cry of pleasure. Her eyes flew open for a few seconds as she tried to breathe through the violent riptide of her climax. Above her, the gold lights of the electric candles bounced off the mirrored walls of the hall and the tapestries lining the stairs. She’d always wanted to live a princess fantasy, but this was close enough: having an orgasm on the stairs of the Catherine Palace with her dark Russianprince.
It was a perfect dream, and she was so afraid it was going to stay just that, a dream that would never be a reality within herreach.
14
“I love whom I love,” Prince Lir repeated firmly. “You have no power over anything that matters.”?Peter S. Beagle,The Last Unicorn
