She found herself on her back, him atop of her again. This time she didn’t struggle but let him hold her. It might well be the closest she got to having him touch her. The look on his face was hard for her to read. Harder still for her to think that he might not care about what came with loving her.
“You’ve held this secret for long enough, don’t you think?” She asked him what he meant. “Making sure that others around you are safe while you take on the ones who are after you all alone. You aren’t alone anymore, CJ. You have me. An entire kiss should you wish it. I’m sure that even Melisandre would give you a company of warriors should you but ask. I’m here for you, love. Will be there beside you or in front of you when the time calls for it. You may well be able to take memories of you from me, but my heart will only beat for you. I will wonder forever, should you do that, who has touched me in a way that gives me such sorrow that I cannot find you, can’t remember your scent or the touch of your skin. I might well not remember you, but this place in my heart that belongs only to you will wither and die when I cannot find you.”
“Oh, Don. You have no idea what your words have done to me.”
The magic around them seemed to wrap them up. A cocoon-like feeling made of love and happiness lifted them up higher and higher. When Don took her mouth, putting all his passion into the kiss, she knew on every level that he was all she would ever need from this day forward.
Chapter 3
Don wanted to make love to her, needed to feel her body next to his, a part of his own. To claim her as his mate. Not because it was written that was the way his kind took a mate, but because he wanted her, her heart and soul. Thinking of taking her back to the bedroom he’d been using, he heard his name called, then CJ’s. Don snarled aggressively at the person.
“I am sorry, my lord, but the meeting is about to begin. It is imperative that you both attend.” He told the man to go away. “I cannot. I have been sent to bring you to the meeting, and I cannot disappoint or go against my queen.”
He looked down at CJ. She had the strangest look on her face—glazed eyes, her mouth turned up in a smile. When he leaned down to kiss her, she turned her head away. Pain shot through his heart as if she had actually staked him.
“If you kiss me right now, I’m going to come screaming your name, and then there is no way in hell we’re going to make it to this meeting.” She looked at him. “I kid you not, Don. I’m so very close to losing it that one touch, and I’m a goner.”
Standing up, he felt like he was ten feet taller. The pain that had nearly doubled him over was now a good feeling, wrapping around his wounded heart and mending it. Pulling her up from the table, he pulled her to him, and with a quick kiss on her nose, he moved to the door to open it. He nearly let his beast go when he saw what was on the other side.
“We’re coming.” The guards were standing there, their weapons out and their body armor so bright it was nearly blinding to him. CJ walked by them and into the room, but he stood his ground. Looking at the man in front, Don let his beast go long enough to realize that he and his men would surely die if they attacked him.
“I’m sorry, my lord.” He pulled himself together then walked by the men. The man in charge stopped him with a hand to his shoulder. “We were not to harm you but to make sure you were not delayed because of someone holding you. I swear to you, it was never our intention of harming either you or the Lady CJ.”
“She’s that important to you?” The guard looked in her direction, then back at him before nodding and telling him that he was just as important now. “Why? What does she have that makes you think to come into a room with a vampire and his mate?”
“There are many that would take her to get to our queen. A great many more would lose their lives should that happen. The queen will stop at nothing to return her to her home should she be taken, but with you at her side, we all rest a little easier.” The man, he told him his name was Daniel, smiled. “We didn’t worry overly much when she was alone, my lord. She is what the queen calls feisty. Scary if you ask me, but we still will die for the two of you.”
As he returned to the big room, he looked around again, this time with an eye on security. He could see guards where he’d not before. There were warrior faeries flittering above them. Some were standing in front of paintings, so they were camouflaged. The people walking around serving drinks and small snacks were armed. Even at the balcony, he could see men and women with a quiver of arrows at their back, their eyes on the people below them. Before he could look more, someone tapped him on
