and rolled onto the bed beside her. “Now? I spent five agonizing weeks without you.”
“You just had me, vampire.” She rolled over and perched her breasts on his chest.
His hand flopped onto his forehead. “What question could be more important than sex?”
“Plenty.”
Quinn shifted onto his left side and threaded his fingers through her hair. Watching it drift from his fingers, he nodded.
“That bottled stuff that you drink. Where does it come from?”
Her vampire-king-in-the-making stared at the wood ceiling. “Donnor acquires what I need. It’s meant for emergencies, but I use the B-juice when I have to drink.”
“And why won’t you drink from me?”
Silence followed. “I did. Once. In the line shack during the storm.”
“I remember.” Her orgasm had been explosive.
“If my secretion or blood is in your human veins and I drink from you, there’s a reaction. A violent one.”
Violent. That sounded ominous. “What kind of reaction?”
He turned his head to gaze at her. “The kind I would not be able to resist.”
She shimmied to a cross-legged position. “As in you’d…”
He nodded. “As in the fury becomes unbearable.”
She raised her hand. “Wait a second. You said during the mating ritual you would drink my blood from a cup. Is that the something you were talking about? You’d take my life?”
He smiled. “No, because I am Ágiros and you are human, the Council expects that we will have children. To protect you, I will be tied down and restrained by four of the strongest of my kind.”
“Quinn! Just tell me what the ‘something’ is.”
He shook his head calmly. “It is forbidden.”
“You remember I was a journalist.”
He laughed. “This isn’t something even Derrick can find on the Dark Web.”
“So, you’re saying the ‘something’ will happen, and then while four muscle-bound vampires hold you down, I have to screw your brains out in front of them and the Council?”
“If you are my mate, you won’t have to, you’ll want to.” He pursed his lips. “It will be different for us, since I am the first born. Which means it will be different for you as well.”
Ari didn’t know much about vampire law but if someone wanted to rip her throat out and drain her dry, even if it was Quinn, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be in the mood for sex. “So, Cian wasn’t pulling my leg. If your father dies while I’m still alive…”
Quinn rubbed his jaw with an open palm. “Queen of our species, yes.”
She shook her head. “Does that make any sense at all to you? I mean seriously, Quinn.”
Placing his finger beneath her chin, he stretched and kissed her. “How about you not fret about something you don’t need to fret about right now. Our lineage is nothing like its human royal counterpart. As you can imagine, it’s based on our blood.”
She thought about it. Made sense. Besides, she wasn’t his mate. Not officially. And Naomi was technically his vampire wife. If no other female trumped her—
Ari stopped plotting when Quinn shook his head. “What? Makes sense to me.” She knew he’d read her thoughts.
“Only a mate can be queen. Naomi doesn’t count.”
She grinned. “Okay, then I have nothing to worry about. I can’t be queen. I’m not…” She stopped again with the shaking of his head. “What now?” Then her hand jumped to her neck and her eyes rounded. “The mark?”
“Exactly.”
“Nobody knows. Well, your brothers, but nobody else. We just won’t tell anyone.”
“Remember when I told you that no other vampire will touch you with my mark? It’s because they can smell it. Smell me—in you.” Quinn’s attention veered to his hand which cupped her breast, his thumb brushing her nipple. “Any more questions?”
She had plenty but while she pondered which to ask first, his lips plucked the firm peak, and this time his fangs pricked her breast while his tongue laved the tip.
The roar of lust in her blood became unstoppable. “Oh, shit. Oh, shit. That’s not fair.”
He chuckled, shifting his firm body over hers. “Until you choose immortality, you’ll never be as strong as me.”
“And if I do?” She sighed as her vampire’s shaft ignited her ecstasy.
She barely heard him say, “Mate with me or not. Marry me or not, we are eternal.”
Chapter Six
Lynn sat under the covered patio of the Vyro Creek ranch house, holding a glass of ice-cold lemonade against her forehead, a welcome relief from the stifling heat. Inhaling was like consuming a breath from a blast furnace. The constant buzz from bugs unhindered by the sweltering air created a comforting white