just wanted you to see what you were missing…” The torrent of words tumbled through a rocky channel of aggravation and despair. “But I swear, I never let him lay a finger on me.”
Pressing his mouth to hers was the only way to stop the tide. She welcomed the kiss, matching his intensity until his mind swam from the contact. Their hearts beat in steady tempo together.
The noisy crowd pressed toward them again, and she pulled back, grabbing his hand and ran toward the stage. He followed, easily jumping up the few feet to land on the polished wood. She guided Richard behind the curtains and into the wings, the heavy fabric muting the throng outside.
“I mean it,” she began again as soon as they were alone. “I was going to torment you with him—be petty and stupid—but I didn’t. I just wanted to make you think I had—”
“Kristina.” He gave her the tiniest of shakes and her mouth snapped shut. “I know, darling. I never thought you would have.”
“Oh yes you did.” She snorted, inelegant and amused. “I saw you trash that dresser, my love. I may not have recognized your temper then, but I know you well enough to know you only get destructive when you want to kill someone.”
“No, I have no problems with killing him. But I didn’t believe you would have taken him to your bed— maybe—” His heart sank. No, he would not ask it. What happened in the last few years…
“Not even when I didn’t remember you, Richard. I looked for you everywhere. In every magazine article, every photograph and every face in the crowd. I would sneak out to dance and to play in the casino. I flirted and tormented other men, but not one did I have sex with. Not until I found you again.”
Relief left his muscles weak. He bowed his head to hers. “I do not deserve you.”
“You never have.” She grinned. “But I want no one else. Your loyalty, your devotion to your tasks—the responsibility you carry so close to your heart—I love you all the more for them.”
“Never again.” He shook his head. “You will never feel like I place others above you, I swear it.”
“Shh.” She caressed his cheek. “No foolish promises. I knew what you were—who you were—when I agreed to marry you. I have never wanted you to change, but sometimes…”
“…you were lonely, and I failed to see it.” He gathered her hands in his and kissed them. “You will never feel that loneliness again.”
“Damn right I won’t.” Her gaze sparked with renewed humor. “You’re going to buy me a Cabaret.”
He paused, frowning.
She pursed her lips and stared.
“Nuh uh.” She tapped his lips. “You will buy it for me. It will be mine, no interference, and when I need to play, I’ll play.”
“Done.” She could have asked for his crown, and he would have given it to her.
“That was almost too easy.”
“You can persuade me on the terms of purchase later.” He teased, his heart lighter than it had been in years. He didn’t even care that they were necking in the back of the stage’s wings.
“And as soon as we can, I want to invite Pandora to go—”
“Mr. Casere.” The cool tones of the Argentinean intruded. Kristina whirled and Richard barely got an arm around her in time to keep her from launching at the vampire.
“Shh,” he murmured to her hair, but keeping his grip firm. “Overseer.”
“Your presence is requested.” The world slid sideways. Kristina’s hands closed on his. He hated magic. He hated anything to do with it.
They arrived in a sickening rush in the same plain paneled room he’d visited earlier in the evening. Four figures waited on the dais, not five. Nostrils flaring, he detected no hint of the witch. Too bad for her. She should have been friendlier when he stood there as a supplicant.
Kristina went still as she gazed from the gray figures to him and back. Tucking her firmly against his side, he freed his right arm. If this came to a fight, he suspected he could take at least two of them. That left Kristina to fend off another two. Not good odds when she still needed to feed. He didn’t have to look around to know neither Anton nor David had been invited to the private soiree.
He’d hoped they would accept his offer, but not this soon. He smoothed away the anxiety knotting inside. They would face the Prince of New York, not a husband facing separation from his wife for the second time in a century.
“What’s going on?” Kristina asked, her voice somber and quiet.
“What is going on, Mrs. Casere, is a rare event—one you are being invited to witness because of our complicity in your imprisonment.” This came from the fourth figure, the one who hadn’t spoken during the earlier conversation. Richard hated the gray faces and blurred appearances. Harder to judge words and actions when he couldn’t read the body language.
“Does that mean I’m free?” She found his left hand with her right, fingers threading through his. She rubbed against his wedding ring, and a small smile turned up the corners of her mouth.
“Conditionally.”
The single word erased Richard’s joy and hardened his resolve. The banked fires of his anger surged through his blood. “Conditionally?” He demanded, abandoning polite protocol.
“You made us a provocative offer, Prince Richard. We have one to make you in return.”
“What is he talking about?” Kristina hissed the words in a quiet whisper from the corner of her mouth.
“He offered to trade his freedom for yours.” The Argentinean answered before Richard could. Kristina stiffened. “We were intrigued—the Prince of a City, arguably one of the few truly elite vampires in the entire nation, with an army at his beckoning—and he supplicates himself to us.”
“Richard,” Kristina turned away from the Overseers and stared up at him. “You can’t—we just—”
“I know. But I want your freedom more than I want my own. You have been trapped here for decades, my love, and I blame myself for that.”
Her expression softened. “I blame me for that too. But what good does my freedom do if you’re here and I’m not?”
“What are a few decades when I know you are safe and I will be able to return to you?” He smiled. “You have given up everything for me time and again. How can I do less for you?”
“No, I forbid you to do this—”
“Forbid me?” The mild disapproval in his voice just incensed her.
“Yes, I forbid you. You promised to put no one else above me and now you’re just going to make this decision without me? Choose to give your life to these…these…chickenshit power mongers in their gray shrouds of oblivion? How the hell does that bring us together?” She waved a hand toward the Overseers. “You forget, I have been here for fifty years. No one gets the better end of a bargain with them. The house always wins—”
“Except when it doesn’t.” He bowed his head, meeting her gaze. “I know. I will not agree without your consent, but, Kristina, I must leave Las Vegas before the next sun sets. Please do not make me leave you here. I would do anything for you, but I can’t do that.” He could survive whatever hell they plunged him into, if he knew she was safe. Malcolm would watch over her, and the families would keep her safe until he could join her again.
“I didn’t remember you for fifty years, and in five minutes I fell in love with you all over again. Please don’t make me leave without you. I’d rather be here, at least then we’d be cursed together…”
One of the Overseers cleared their throat, and Richard glared at him. “What?”
“This is very sweet, the declarations and passion, but you haven’t heard our offer.”
Kristina scowled and leaned into his arm. “We don’t want to hear your offer unless it includes the two of us being together.”
“Sweetheart…” While he shared her desire, he didn’t want her in the casino—much less the meeting—and they didn’t need to risk pissing off the keepers to the keys of this particular kingdom.
“No.” She stomped her foot. “Just no. Together or not at all.”
“Very well.” He acquiesced. It was a hell of a lot easier than he expected, and didn’t leave him feeling weaker as it might have in the first centuries of their relationship. He’d tasted life without her—it wasn’t worth living. He turned his attention to the Overseers. “Grant your boon, and then make your offer.”
Their impatience seemed to color the air around them. “What we are about to share with you must never
