Page 38 of Fated to the Vampire Prince
Natalia narrowed her eyes. “Did she tell you that?”
I considered lying, but instead, gritted out, “No.”
This was an impossible situation, and I was beginning to understand why there were laws around leaving your duchy and returning to the capital when you found your mate. Having them around made a vampire impulsive and distracted. I was strong enough to keep my urges in check. I wasn’t giving in to her. I was just…watching over her. Keeping her safe. When the year was up, I’d send her off to a palatial home in the south where she could live a happy and well cared for life far away from me.
“Your Grace, not that I trust this woman or even really like her, but it’s your job to ensure she has all her needs met. That includes thisparticularneed. You can’t have her sneaking around with random strangers in dark corners, putting herself in mortal jeopardy. Or trying to leave the castle for a midnight rendezvous.”
I turned away from her, trying to imagine a situation where Claire ran into the arms of another man, and I didn’t rip that man to shreds.
“If she keeps consorts,” Natalia continued, “her lovers will be well-vetted and paid handsomely for their services.”
My hands were shaking and I shoved them into my pocketsto keep her from seeing how angry I was. How could I refuse when my other sanguine partners had consorts? It would show her I thought Claire was different, and I couldn’t have that.
“Fine,” I said at last. “Make the arrangements. But this is the last I want to hear of it.”
Natalia made a note, then closed her book. “Very well, Your Grace. I will meet with Claire when we arrive at Château Rose, and we’ll select her consorts.” She laughed, and I gritted my teeth. “I always enjoy this part of my job.”
“I’m sure.”
I pushed the heavy tent flaps open and stormed out. I stared at my tent for a few moments, breathing hard, trying to decide what to do or how to proceed. Did I go in the tent and feed from her, knowing that any day now, she would have another man between her legs? Feasting on parts of her that I wasn’t allowed to taste?
I couldn’t stand the idea. If I saw her now, I’d do something I’d regret. So, I didn’t return to my tent. Instead, I secluded myself in one of the feeding tents. I needed to release some of the pressure building inside me before I saw her again. I needed to work out this primal urge to fuck her. That’s all this was.An urge. An urge that I could satisfy myself.
Undoing the buttons on my pants and letting them fall to my ankles, I sank onto one of the cushions. My stiff cock sprang free, ready and waiting. Fisting my length, I told myself this was truly unhelpful to my cause. Imagining Claire’s hands and mouth, so supple and sweet, fitted around me, wouldn’t make being around her any easier. But despite everything, it’s what I wanted.What I needed.
Stroking myself, I gave in to every desire I had about my mate. I imagined pulling her into my lap, watching her ride me. Her tits bouncing up and down as my hips bucked into her sweet center. Again and again. Claiming her as mine. Mine. Allmine. Hearing her moan my name as I sucked one of her nipples into my mouth.
“Claire.”I whispered her name inside my head, working my stiff length harder. Faster.“I’m going to come so deep inside you. I’m going to give you all of me.”
Chapter 19
Découvrir
CLAIRE
An unexpected gust of cold wind howled through the tent. I closed my book and rose onto my elbow, causing one of the heavy furs I was cuddled beneath to slip off my shoulder. I hadn’t anticipated the council meeting running this late.
“Your Grace?” I called, anticipation tightening in my belly.
For the past two weeks, I’d been doing my best to get closer to the Duke. Every night, after camp was made and he’d finished his council meetings, we’d stay up late, talking about the types of plants he grew in the glass greenhouses at Château Rose.
My love of flowers and working in the dirt and his love of science intersected, and I found I could talk to him for hours about how he managed to grow anything that far north. Last night, he’d sat beside me and sketched out one of his greenhouses, telling me how difficult it was to lay each massive pane of glass. I hung on each word, impressed with his dedication to growing food and herbs for the surrounding villages and his human staff, even though he ate neither.
“It sounds like a lot of work,” I’d said, meeting his ice-blue eyes, which held a measure of warmth I hadn’t seen before. Like the sky over an ocean on a clear summer day.
“It was,” he replied. He watched me for a moment that stole my breath, then canted his head to one side and ever so carefully pushed a stray strand of hair away from my face. My cheeks heated at his touch. “But,” he said softly, “I’m not afraid of hard work. Especially when the result is something that could last forever.”
His words opened a chasm in my chest, and I swore he wasn’t talking about a greenhouse, but about something else. Something that I didn’t quite understand but that I felt in my bones.
The ghost of a kiss we only shared in my dreams warmed my lips, causing my breath to stutter.
“You want to say something,” Bastien said. Leaning in an inch.
It wasn’t words I craved. I ached to close the distance between his lips and mine. Was desperate to curl his long hair around my fingers and pull him closer against my body. To devour him. To let him devour me. Bite by bite until my eyes rolled back and my body shuddered, and he finally showed me what it meant to be wanted.
I’d decided to woo him into trusting me so I could kill him, but it was getting harder to reconcile what I’d grown up understanding about his kind with the things he said and did. Bastien was forcing me to see him for who he was, night after night, and it was all very confusing. Especially with the heady way his presence affected me.
“I think I’m ready for bed,” I said.
