Chapter 19

Kayla

Damn the flush of heat that slammed into me over his words.

“You have a shitload of questions, and I have all the time in the world to answer them.”

I narrowed my eyes again. “All the time, huh?” I didn’t know why I was being sassy to him. After everything he’d said, after knowing what and who he was, it was clear that snapping back was probably a bad idea.

But it was like I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, so this push and pull that we were doing, this game of will and wits made me brave.

He was silent for long moments, just watching me, my words hanging in the air between us. “For you I have all the fucking time in the world.”

His words—that declaration—did something funny and exciting to my insides.

I cleared my throat and didn’t respond, just started eating. And the more I ate, the more my appetite surged. When I was finished with as much as I could stomach, I pushed my plate away and reached for my wineglass.

With my first swallow of the red liquid, the sweetness covered my tongue and slid seamlessly down my throat. It was heady and full-bodied.

I could feel Adryan watching me. He’d been doing it the entire time I was eating. Ignoring him was harder than it should’ve been, but I refused to let him know he had one hell of an effect on me. Even if he is already fully aware.

I looked at him then, keeping my expression neutral. He kept running his fingers around the rim of his glass, slow… so slow that my mind instantly went into the gutter, thinking about what else he could do with that finger.

“So if I’m playing along and accept that you’re a vampire”—holy shit, how weird did that sound?—“how old are you? Like Dracula old, or are we talking decrepit like Nosferatu?”

He tipped his head back and laughed loud and hard, his thickly corded neck coming into view. His Adam’s apple bobbed for a second before he sobered.

“One hundred twenty years.”

It was my turn to sober so hard and fast I might have died. “Goddamn,” I murmured. “You take ‘robbing the cradle’ to a whole new level. You do know I’m not even twenty-five?”

He hummed as if that turned him on. “You could have been old and wasted away when we first met, and I’d still find you the most gorgeous female to ever walk the planet.”

Okay. That was… beautiful. And weird. Definitely weird, but whatever.

“You don’t eat?” I asked instead of saying anything in response to that. My voice was a squeaky whisper before I cleared it and pulled my shoulders back.

Adryan made sure to keep his glass full, and damn him for even making that look sexy.

He leaned back in his chair but didn’t respond, just watched me as he lifted his glass, peering at me over the rim, and took a pull of the alcohol. When he set the crystal down, his fingers still wrapped loosely around it, the smirk he gave me had equal parts of annoyance and arousal raging against each other.

“Oh, I eat.” He was still smirking as he lowered his gaze down my body. He couldn’t see much because of how the table was situated, but I knew if he could, he’d be looking at one particular spot.

“I’m just not eating right now, kitty. I’m more concerned with you and your needs.”

I cleared my throat and shifted on the chair, looking everywhere butat him.

Stay focused. Stay focused.

“So why don’t you tell me what kind of man you are.” Of course I knew, or at least had a pretty good notion by the way he held himself, the things he said, hell, the clear abundance of money, judging by his place. Then there was the whole “import and export” business that seemed super shady, given his evasiveness about it.

I expected him to smirk arrogantly again, but his expression stayed stoic.

“What kind of man do you think I am?”

I pursed my lips. “You want me to be honest?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely. I don’t ever lie and wouldn’t want my mate to either.”

My throat was so tight and dry. “I think you do bad stuff.” He didn’t respond, didn’t even breathe. “You’re a criminal, among other things, and you’re not going to let me leave.”

“No.” His tone was so… final. “I won’t let you leave. And yes. I am all those things… and more.”

My eyes narrowed at his cockiness. “You’re an arrogant asshole.”

“I am.” He grinned slowly. “But that’s one of the nicer things I’ve been called, princess.”

I didn’t bother correcting him on all these damn endearments he called me, because it wasn’t even at the top of my priority list, as I had other things more important. At least that’s what I told myself instead of the truth.

That I liked hearing him call me princess and baby and kitty.

“How do I know you’re not just as dangerous as those men who broke into my home?”

His expression became deadly as he leaned in close, bringing us damn near nose to nose. “I could have hurt you ten times over by now. You know that.” Yes. Yes, I did. “What I can assure you is I’m not as dangerous as those motherfuckers.” A heavy stretch of silence pushed and pulled between us. Instantly, instinctively I wanted to deny what he’d said and call him a liar. “I’m far more dangerous than them. Didn’t you know, sweet girl? You’re mated to the leader of the American Vampire Clan, the king of assholes and bastards.”

Yeah. That sounded more like it.

“You can’t keep me here like a prisoner.” I tipped my chin up and tried to act like I could, in fact, do whatever I wanted. But I wasn’t a fool, not just in the fact that Adryan could physically overpower me, but also because I knew how dangerous things had been back at my place.

“I can. And I will if I have to.” His unwavering stare stayed on me. “You’re mine, and nothing and no one—not even you trying to run—will stop me from keeping you as mine.”

“You’re insane,” I whispered.

He didn’t respond again, and I found his silence infuriating.

“This is not just wrong on every level, but it’s also illegal.”

He held his hands out, palms up in a surrendering motion. I knew better though. “I’m a vicious fucking vampire. Nothing can touch me, especially not the pathetic human police.”

“People will be looking for me. I called 911 when they broke in. They would have come to the house, investigated.”

His smile this time was knowing, almost condescending. “You have one friend. Sasha. She’ll wonder where you are, and maybe your professors at the university might take note at first…” He was silent for a long second. “Or maybe I took care of that, had calls made so you not going to classes is smoothed over. Maybe I also handled that 911 call.”

I kept shaking my head, sweat beading along my brow.

“You underestimate the lengths I’ll go to for you, the things I’d do to make sure you’re safe.” He shrugged as if he was talking about the damn weather. “The lengths I’ll go to, to keep you with me, because there are men out there who would hurt you simply because of who you are, Kayla, because you’re mine.” I felt a shiver at the expression on his face. “And they’ll hurt you. They’ll hurt you because it would destroy me. Do you understand, baby? Do you really understand?”

I couldn’t answer, had no words to respond.

“I only care about one thing, and that’s keeping you close to me. I only care about you?—”

“—because I’m your mate.”

“Look at you,” he purred, and his words were laced with so much pleasure. “Now you’re getting it, kitty.” He reached out for the bottle of bourbon and poured himself another glass. “Ask more. I know there’s a shitload of questions in that gorgeous head of yours.”

His compliment shouldn’t have pleased me as much as it did. I should have let it piss me off to the point I lashed out. But instead I did what he said.

“You keep calling me your mate. What does that mean exactly? Like we’re married?”

I both hated and loved the way he just stared at me after I asked him something, his expression hard and unyielding, like we were on his time and he’d answer me when he was good and ready to.

“In my world, a mate is everything. You mean everything to me.”

“We don’t even know each other,” I whispered.

“Doesn”t matter that we only met days ago. I don’t have to know your name or anything about you. I know you’re my mate, and that’s enough to tie us together irrevocably. You were born to be mine, and I was born to be yours. Destiny, fate, the fucking stars aligning, whatever human terms you want to call it, we’re meant to be together.”

The rational part of me wanted to deny it, the whole fated mates concept obviously foreign and something you only read in books, maybe see in a fantasy movie, but I couldn’t deny there was a very real connection between us, one that I’d felt the moment I saw Adryan. And that only grew when he touched me. What he said seemed like such a logical explanation… the only one that made sense.

He was the first man I could stand to touch me, the first man who brought arousal out in me. And since our first meeting, I’d started to crave him more and more. And then he’d given me my first orgasm up against a tree, the wilderness surrounding us, the moon high in the sky.

So yeah, being his mate in this crazy supernatural world made perfect sense—and in the same breath made absolutely no sense. But I was starting to realize that my world wasn’t all that I thought it was.

There were things hidden, secrets buried so deep I didn’t think they’d ever see the light of day. But maybe that’s why it seemed so “easy” to accept all this? Because I felt like I wasn’t meant to be part of my world, but part of Adryan’s world. I mean, I should’ve been freaking out more, denying any paranormal existence.

Yet here I was, sitting beside a vampire, eating his food, the remembrance of his mouth on my pussy, his fangs in my body, replaying over and over in my mind and lighting me up all over again.

“Fated mates.” I slowly looked up at him then, wondering how I would even phrase any of this, explain my darker desires, how he’d known exactly how to get me off, how to touch me.

“Coveted Female. That’s what you are to my kind. That’s how I knew what you liked up against that tree,” he growled in clear arousal. “That’s how I knew what to give to you, not because I can read minds, not because I have any kind of premonition, but because we are linked in a way that no other two beings are.”

I felt so… raw, bared, opened, my mind and heart splayed to the elements.

“I’m the sadist. You’re my masochist. Yin and yang. A perfect combination.” He leaned in close again, and faster than I could anticipate, he had my chin between his finger and thumb, tipping my head up slightly so we could lock gazes. “I can still taste you on my lips, on my tongue, baby.”

His focus was on my mouth, and I forced myself not to lick my lips. But his gaze was like a physical touch, and I felt it in every single part of my body.

“I can still taste you sliding down my throat as I swallowed your orgasm.” He slowly, sensually trailed his gaze back up to my face so he could stare into my eyes. “I’m dangerous, Kayla. Prone to violent tendencies and outbursts. Hell, even I can admit I’m a damn serial killer. I don’t have a heart to give, but I have my existence devoted to you. I’ll protect you with my life, bring you pleasure, keep you safe. It’s what I was born to do, even if love isn’t something I can give you.”

I nodded slowly but wasn’t sure what I was agreeing to. “Okay.” It was all I could muster at the moment. “I’m not safe unless I’m with you.” Was that a question? Was I asking him to try to reassure myself? “Are there other creatures? Werewolves, witches, things like that?” I couldn’t believe I was entertaining any of this.

“There are more creatures than I could ever tell you about over bourbon and wine. Vampires and werewolves, although the latter prefer the politically correct term ‘Lycan.’ But I like to fuck with them and don’t give two shits what’s politically correct, so I call them whatever the fuck I want, even if they do want to tear my throat out after.” He flashed a grin. “There are nymphs, wood and water ones. There are also demons, shifters of all kinds. Then there are the rarer pieces, Angelis, which are part celestial beings and demonic entities—well, celestial in our belief system, that is.”

All I could do was blink. And blink. And blink.

“I’ve never actually seen an Angelis in person, so who the hell knows if any are even still around. Then you have your standard sirens and fae, merfolk, incubi. And so on and so forth.”

I wanted to say something, anything, but my mind was churning around all this new information.

“Then there are the creatures in the Katara Faction.” At my furrowed brow, no doubt my expression looking even more confused, he continued, “The ‘evil’ ones of the Otherworld.”

“And I assume you specifically are at the front and center of this Katara group?”

“Goddamn, I think I love that fucking mouth of yours.” I got really hot in all the right—or maybe wrong—places at his praise. “I’m so hard right now, princess.”

Don’t imagine it. Don’t imagine it.

He started laughing deeply. “Anyway, not to get off track, yeah?” At my silence, he went on. “There are the Therabus, these annoying fuckers who can shift into human visages and suck the energy from others. They are like the leeches of our world to those who are weaker. Then you have one of the craziest fucking species I’ve ever seen. A Diablos, which I’ve only ever met one in my lifetime, and he was a prickly bastard. Fucker had horns and these weird-ass eyes, fangs that make my pearly whites look like they belong to a child. Just all kinds of fucked-up shit going on with that species.” He leaned in all conspiratorially. “And dude had the biggest cock I have ever seen, and that’s saying something, since I’m packing, baby.”

I felt my eyes flare. I didn”t know why I was surprised by his brazen, crude attitude and personality, but he kept astonishing me, it seemed.

He moved back but was smirking, and I had no doubt he loved the way he kept shocking me.

“This is so fucked up,” I whispered.

He hummed after I spoke.“Only way to live, princess. But doesn’t it make everything feel sooo much better?”