Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
“As good as it could go. The good news is that our mating and that of Kael and Shayla in Northern Ireland has the Electorate Council more committed than ever to what we need from humankind.” He pressed a kiss to her throat, one that spoke of needing comfort rather than wanting something of a more physical nature. “What are you doing down here?”
“Just practicing. Look at that. I’m getting good.”
“Fuck good, angel. You’re getting great. Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
She threw her head back on a laugh, until she was resting against his broad shoulder. “You mean by, like, throwing me in your dungeon?”
He took the Sig from her grip and secured it, then urged her to turn to face him. “Not everything that happened in the dungeon was bad, was it, Katya? I still get hard remembering you up against the bars.” A glow flashed from behind those sapphire eyes.
She felt the proof of his words growing against her belly. “Do you now?” she said, trying to play it like she was all nonchalant when she knew she was failing because him talking dirty and getting aroused made her aroused, which he had multiple ways of determining that she couldn’t control—he could smell her arousal, see her eyes dilating, and hear her heart beat faster.
She really couldn’t hide much from her vampire. Not that she wanted to.
“Mmhmm. Everything about you makes me hard.”
Kate grinned, just feeling so damn happy. Every single thing that had happened since that winter night had been unexpected—and in some cases things she thought she didn’t want—but standing here with the man, the vampire, the king she loved, she couldn’t imagine her life any other way. Didn’t want to imagine it, either. “Surely not everything.”
Dark humor crept over his expression, and damn did he wear humor and happiness well. In the months since they’d met and mated, it was almost as if a weight had lifted off Nikolai. It wasn’t that he wasn’t still grieving his brothers, because he was and that might never stop, but everyday he was getting closer to being able to admit it wasn’t his fault. And Kate was doing everything she could to make him believe he was lovable and worthy of being loved.
It all showed. On his handsome face. In the brightness of his eyes. In the straightness of his shoulders. In the way he joked and laughed with his brothers. And when she and Nikolai fed from each other, she could sense and feel his growing peace from inside the very heart of him. And she loved that for him.
She just…loved him.
“Yes, everything.” He arched an eyebrow, affecting a stern countenance that was so freaking hot.
Grinning, Kate looked down between them. “Really? My growing belly?”
“Fuck, yes,” he said, dropping to a knee, lifting her shirt, and pressing his lips to her stomach. “Knowing you carry our newling absolutely turns me on. You and our son give me hope and solace and make me so damn proud. I can’t wait to hold him in a few months.”
Kate placed her hands over where his rested on her sides. One of the weirdest things to get used to was the ways in which vampire pregnancies—and apparently vampire maturation—differed from that of humans. Everything was faster. Vampire pregnancies were just six months instead of humans’ nine. And vampire young achieved the human equivalent of adult development by the annual age of twelve. So it was hard to believe she was already halfway through her pregnancy, and sometimes actually dizzying how fast her body was changing.
“I can’t wait to see you with a little baby in your arms, either. You are going to be such a hot father—I mean good father!”
“A hot father, huh?”
“I meant good. Freudian slip.” Her cheeks hurt an absolutely stupid amount from smiling so much.
“No way you’re taking that back. And now the fact that you’re going to think it’s hot when I hold Kolya is something else that’s going to make me hard. See?” He boxed her in tighter against the wall that separated the empaneled shooting booth from the firing lane and let her feel every hard inch of him.
Kolya. Short for Nikolai. Like father, like son. And she was completely and utterly okay with that.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Fine. I suppose you’re a little hot.”
He growled. Literally growled. And the sound ricocheted an urgent heat into her lower belly.
Nikolai let her see his fangs extend and then made slow, slow work of lowering his face to her throat. And then his bite penetrated her skin and claimed her. Only a little?, came her vampire’s voice in her mind.
God, she loved the intimacy of their connection. And once she’d worried that a relationship with a vampire would be nothing more than convenient biology.