Her eyes clouded before she hastily lowered her lashes, as if she could hide her emotions from him.
“I was captured by trolls and sold to the highest bidder.”
Victor made no effort to contain the eruption of frigid power that filled the tunnels.
“Their names.”
She regarded him warily. “I beg your pardon?”
“Give me the names of the trolls.”
“They did not bother to share their private information and it no longer matters.” She gave a restless shrug. “I was fortunate that Lord Hawthorne was at the auction and purchased me.”
“Hardly fortunate,” he bit out. “The bastard has taken advantage of you and your talents for decades.”
“We both know how much worse it could have been.”
His jaw clenched. He wanted to deny the truth of her words. He detested the overly conceited bastard, and not just because he was a mage.
The man stood as a protector to this woman.
A position that belonged solely to Victor.
“Very well. I will concede there are worse fates than to be apprenticed to Hawthorne, but why do you continue to remain with him?” he growled. “The debt must be paid by now.”
“I have nowhere else to go.”
A dangerous emotion jolted through his heart at her soft words, his arm tightening in an unconsciously possessive motion.
“You are mistaken, little one. Your place is with me.”
A bleak smile curved her lips. “And once you weary of me in your bed, my lord? Would I become a tasty meal for your clan?”
Unthinkable.
He growled low in his throat, knowing he would readily kill any of his brothers who tried to touch her.
“Perhaps I will never weary of you.”
“I am no gullible mortal. A vampire’s hunger is as varied as it is insatiable until he has mated.”
His lips twisted in a humorless smile. “That is the common assumption.”
“Ah, no doubt you are about to convince me that you are different from every other vampire?”
“But of course I am. I expected that went without mentioning.”
“Arrogant—”
Victor swooped down to claim her lips in a kiss of na**d, unrelenting need.
“My hunger remains insatiable, but it is no longer varied,” he confessed. “I desire no woman but you.”
“For the moment.”
He pulled back to capture her wary gaze. “Since I first caught sight of you.”
“Are you implying…?” She sharply shook her head. “No, it is impossible.”