“What if I want a guard?” She asked quietly.
Lucian braced himself against the mantle and hung his head low.
“I would understand your desire for safety and I would make the necessary arrangements with the elders.”
Katherine stood and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing a kiss to the smooth skin between his shoulder blades.
“What if I want you to be my guard?”
His back expanded as he drew in a shaking breath.
“I can’t be your guard, Katherine. I’ve tasted your blood, I yearn for it. It’s a powerful siren call that I burn for.”
His words sent a shiver of heat to coil low in her belly. She longed for him to drink from her again, to feel that delicious pull on her body that demanded she give herself over to the pulsing connection that drew them together.
“I am what you would need to be guarded against the most. We cannot be allowed to be together, it will only end one way, regardless of how strong my will is, eventually I will be unable to resist tasting you again, and eventually, I won’t be able to stop.”
“Do I get a say in any of this? What if I don’t want you to resist? What if I want you to taste me again?” Katherine argued.
Lucian turned with a pained groan and gripped her shoulders.
“Katherine, please. I’m trying my best to give you what you deserve, it’s why I pushed you away. I hoped you’d believe I had lied, used you, and that you’d use your hatred of me to spur you on to do the things you wanted.”
“And what? I’d be out there unprotected? How long would it have been until someone else stumbled across me and I would’ve become someone else’s tasty snack?”
Lucian growled, his eyes darkening further. “No one else will taste you, Katherine. You would’ve been protected. I had arranged for it.”
“I know, the Darkhills pack were supposed to protect me. But I gave them the slip easily enough.”
“Something that I will be taking up with the Alpha,” he growled.
“No, you won’t. It wasn’t Cayden’s fault,” Katherine snapped back, planting her hands on her hips, “I’ve had enough Lucian. You don’t get to decide who protects me, and nor will a bunch of crabby, old vampires decide how I should live my life.”
Katherine stepped forward and glared directly into Lucian’s eyes, tilting her chin up in defiance.
“I get to decide what happens to me. I get to choose. And I’m choosing you, Lucian Nightingale.”
“Katherine, you don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Yes, I do. I want to be with you, I want to be free to love you and be loved by you and if I just so happen to want you to bite me, then that is exactly what you will do.”
Lucian growled and pulled her against him, his hands gripping her firmly.
“And when we’re discovered and torn apart from each other, what then?”
“Then we will fight them. I love you Lucian and I want to love you for the rest of my life.”
Lucian’s mouth crashed down upon hers with a fierce hunger that threatened to steal her breath.
“And what if something were to happen to you? What if I couldn’t protect you and your precious mortal life was snatched from us too soon. I can’t risk losing you like that Katherine,” Lucian grit out with a voice filled with raw desperation.
“Then you had better make my precious life a little less mortal,” Katherine argued back and jumped up into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him with a strength that she didn’t know she possessed.
“You can’t want to live in the darkness, Katherine,” Lucian broke away from her kiss, pain, and confusion etched over his face, “why would you choose such an existence?”
“Because I would have you. Why can’t I finish my degree and forge a career as a vampire?”
“Because your classes happen during the day, your clients would want to work with you during the day, the law courts sit during the day,” Lucian frowned at her.
“Classes happen online,” Katherine argued back. The more she thought about it, the more she could see herself making it work. “Who says my clients couldn’t meet with me during the day? I’d just need an office with the same fancy glass windows that you have at the penthouse.”
“And what happens when you’re required in court?”
“Not all legal work happens in a courtroom, Lucian. And not all courtrooms have windows,” She glared back at him, and the quiet stretched between them in a silent battle of wills.
“We are not making this decision in a moment of reconciliation.” Lucian finally replied.
“But it is worth considering,” Katherine pressed, sensing her victory was within her reach.
“You would be less of a target and more…resilient as a vampire but that does not mean it is the right course of action for us to take.”
“Doesn’t mean it's the wrong course of action either.”
Lucian growled out his frustration.
“Will our lives always be this way? One argument after the other, you persistently determined to rile me?”
“Most likely, why? Is that a deal-breaker?” Katherine grinned.
Lucian suddenly launched her across the room and she landed squarely on the bed with a bounce, the air leaving her in a rush. He was on her in an instant, his lips claiming hers in a punishing kiss. His hands pulled at her robe until she was bared to him, her body squirming under his heated scrutiny. He bent his head and began to hungrily lavish her breasts with hot kisses, pulling each of her nipples into his mouth and teasing them into stiff peaks between his teeth.
“Will our lives always be this way? Making love to me like this, with you determined to overwhelm me?” She cried out, her voice coming out as breathy and desperate.
“Always,” Lucian
