Page 8 of Veradel
Together.
She’s alive,I repeat to myself for the hundredth time. A breathing, walking, talking, deliciously-sweet-smelling human right in front of me.
But I almost lost her so many times.
Saskia whips around like the fury in me lashed out and twisted her body to face me.
The chain around her neck snakes down to where the vial rests between her breasts. I have a hard time tearing my eyes away. They’re even better inperson than the hazy images through our mind-to-mind connection. Her curves look like they were made for my hands, which flex in response.
For a second, I crave her voice in my head, butthis? Having her in the flesh, wondering what she’s thinking, deciphering her feelings from the expression she wears? This is so much better, because I realize I still know her without having to read her mind.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, voice low, one eyebrow hitched. Almost like she senses my battle of pleasure and displeasure pressing in from all sides, and it exhilarates her.
“What’swrong?” I repeat. “You almost died. You shouldbedead.”
“But I’m not,” she counters.
A growl rises in my throat. I take a step toward her, clenching my fists to stop myself from running my fingers along her smooth skin, from feeling her heartbeat thump under my palm.
I can hear it though—that uptick of excitement racing beneath her sternum, thanks to my exceptional hearing. I pause to take it in, listening closely to the flooding adrenaline rhythmically pumping through her heart.
With a sly smile, Saskia takes a half-step back like this is a game to her. Her back hits my dresser, sending a vibrating thud through the wall. Her hands wrap around the edge, her knuckles going white as she grips it hard.
“You didn’t listen,” I shoot back. “Running around that palace like you’re invincible. You had me worried out of my goddamn mind. And when thatvampirehad his hands on you, I didn’t know what he was going to do to you. He wasthisclose, Saskia.” I take another step into her, crowding around her and caging her with my arms. I drop my voice to a gravelly whisper next to her ear and watch goosebumps pebble along her neck where my words land. “And that made me feel like a helpless fuckinganimal.”
When I pull back to look at her, Saskia’s eyes twinkle. Her pupils expand.
The warmth from her body curls around me like a trap, even though she’s the one who couldn’t squirm out of the position I have her in—if she wanted to.
I tip my head down, hovering my mouth over hers. Baring my canines only elicits a thrill, not fear, in her eyes.
She tilts her chin up. And after a sharp inhale that tugs at my lips, she breathes out, “So, punish me then.”
My gasp sticks in my lungs as Lucan drags one finger from my cleavage to my feet with lightning speed.
I blink, and my dress falls to the floor—like he sliced right through it with ease.
But when I inspect his index finger, it looks human. Although his hands are larger than any man’s I’ve ever witnessed before.
His eyes rove down my body, now only clad in undergarments, with a hunger that makes me feel more exposed and vulnerable than ever. My eyes drop to make sure my skin is even still intact, but there’s not a single mark on me.
Now I can’t keep the grin off my face, the rush pulsing through my body. In another lifetime, I’d have been terrified.
But this? This menace of a male towering over me, looking so fearsome despite the fact that I know he’d never hurt me? It justmakes me pulse between my legs.
Lucan crouches and gathers the fabric he’s torn to shreds into his arms before he calmly walks over to the fireplace and throws my dress into the simmering coals. Right before my eyes, the fabric catches fire and flames crackle to life.
When he turns back to me, a look of depraved satisfaction twists across his face. “You’re not wearing anything else picked out by any more Guardians ever again.”
I nod, my body suddenly aching to obey him just from the tone of his voice.
He cocks his head, eyes dark. “You want to follow orders now, little nightmare?”
A small smile plays on my lips as I consider it, make him wait for my answer. Back in the palace, I was in charge of myself, with other people counting on me. The thought of how I failed at saving them makes the smile slip off my face just as quickly. I failed, and just for one night, here in this bedroom, I don’t want to have to take control anymore. I need someone I trust to take charge—of my body, of my mind, of my soul.
I nod.
“Fair warning…” Lucan’s eyes gleam. “I don’t know how tonotbe intense.”
