Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 23322 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23322 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
“I think it upset me because it felt like you were staking your claim, but I was scared it was only for the night.” I glance away from him a moment before admitting my insecurity. “I wanted you so badly and I was mad that it might only be for the night. I hated wanting something that could be taken from me.”
“If anyone should get to be jealous, it’s me.” His words come out in a growl. “You almost kissed another man after only having kissed me hours before. You’re lucky that’s all I did in that bar that night,” he reminds me.
“I’d kinda forgotten about that. I was only trying to see if your kiss was different.” I bite my lip to keep from smiling, enjoying his jealousy a little too much.
“At least I know I’m the only man to ever have you.” Here comes that cocky grin of his. “I can promise you this. There has never been a kiss like the ones we share.” To prove it, he kisses me deep and hard.
It’s so powerful I want to cry. I never want to be without this, and I know we’re going to have a fight ahead of us.
“Princess, it’s going to be fine,” Valen tries to reassure me.
“You getting into my head is going to be hard to get used to,” I admit. I can hear his random thoughts, too.
“I love it, but it still feels like you’re blocking something from me.” He rolls over and sits up, with me straddling him, his back to the headboard. “You know I don’t just kill vampires to kill them, right, princess? I’d never hurt your family.”
“I know.” But that’s not the reason I still have a mental wall up.
“I also want you to know that while I told you I don’t like the idea of anyone hurting a woman it’s different when I think about someone hurting you. You being hurt crosses the lines I’ve drawn for myself to live by. They start to blur.”
His hand goes to my bare stomach, over my scar. “Knowing the man that did this was in jail for his crime would normally be enough for me.” His eyes lock with mine. “It’s not.”
I swear his eyes grow even darker. “He’s a dead man. I can promise you that.” I go to respond but he stops me. “Don’t try and stop me. Please don’t ask me to leave it alone.”
“I trust you to do what you think needs to be done,” I give him. That man is in prison, but I have a feeling something like that won’t stop a man like Valen. It also makes me wonder if he isn’t just a lone slayer.
“You’re right. I do get alerts when vampires are acting badly and when they need to be dealt with. You all aren’t as secret as you think you are.”
“You love reading my thoughts, don’t you?” I smile at him. I think about how he told Bishop that some vampires need to be put down because they go mad. But I’d never thought about them needing to be put down because they were evil to their core. If a person was bad before they were turned, I’m sure they’d still be evil after. Only now they’d be more powerful. Harder to find. Harder to kill.
“I want you to know everything about me so you feel safe. Safe enough to let all those walls down because there isn't a thing I wouldn't tell you. If you ask me something, I will always give you the truth.”
I know he’s being honest with me. He has opened himself up to me and let me into his thoughts. I know this man loves me more than anything in the whole world. But the thing that does scare me a little is that his mind has already settled on the idea that we will never have children. He doesn't seem upset about it. In fact, all he wants and cares about is me.
I reach up, touching his face. He leans into my caress. I let my mind open fully and watch as surprise lights up his face. “You’re going to be a father.” I give him the words he already knows. The ones that I’m still trying to wrap my mind around.
“Princess,” he says softly. “I want this. I’m sure you can feel that already.” I can. “But you have no idea what it means to me that I could give you something you’ve wanted so badly. It makes me feel like a fucking king.”
“You’re my king.” I can’t stop the tear that falls. Valen kisses it away. “You did that without even giving me a child, Valen. I’d always thought I’d lost something the day I died. Still angry over it and making the best life I could with the aftermath of what was. But now for the first time I’m happy he took my life. It brought me to you, and I would still have picked that without us being able to have a child. I, too, want to spend eternity with you.”