will think about it. I promise.”
He grins and sweeps me off my feet, carrying me out of the room, cradled in his arms. “The next step is a slow seduction to initiate you into the pleasures of the bedroom.”
“I love that step!”
He nuzzles into my neck, and I tense. “Stella, I’ll only bite you with your permission and only for pleasure.”
I let out a shaky breath. He did give me an orgasm that way. It’s difficult, knowing how powerful he is, potentially deadly. But I know he loves me, and that makes all the difference. “Okay. And what are the next steps?”
“I will write every one of them in your planner. But first, we must plan our wedding. Right away. I cannot wait long to have you.” He sets me on my feet by the front door. “And I want you to know I understand if you had to sell your maidenhead for a plane ticket—”
“What! Boz, I used a credit card.”
“Ah. Those are very useful, and I am most pleased to hear your maidenhead is intact.”
“But—”
He swoops in, dipping me back over his arm and kissing me. A rush of dizzying lust races through me. He rights me again and gives me a little push toward the door. “All in good time, my love. I will get everything taken care of. Good night to you.”
I turn back, hands on my hips. Seriously? He’s turning his new fiancée away from his bed? I’m still aching for him, but he’s already gone with supernatural speed. Maybe one day I’ll move like that too. Super Stella.
I walk home with a bounce in my step, love in my heart. Boz understands me; he loves my family; he loves me. He’s not like I ever dreamed my husband would be. I smile to myself.
He’s better.
Boz
I shuffle my beloved Stella from my castle in a hurry. This is not how I planned the evening to go. I wanted to dance with her until the morning light and tell her all the ways she has brought sunshine into my very long, very tedious life. She has filled me with a renewed sense of purpose and brought my humanity back. Well, some of it. I am, after all, still a vampire. A little nibble on her neck might have been a pleasant way to finish off the night.
However, all that must wait. While she and I danced, I caught wind of an intruder. “Come out!” I yell. “I can smell your foul stench, vampire!” Why any of my kind would dare to enter my castle is beyond me. I am ancient, which makes me faster and deadlier than most.
I grab a claymore from the stone wall in the hallway. The decorations in my castle are there for a reason. “I will find you! And I will remove your head!” I sniff my way down the hallway, toward the parlor that connects to the kitchen. The trail grows stronger with each step.
Blood. I smell blood. I stand in my parlor and notice the tiny people in the TV box are still awake. They truly are dedicated to their craft, rehearsing at all hours of the day, whether someone is there or not. “Shhh…” I hold my finger to my mouth. “I would not want you to be harmed. There is an intruder.”
They ignore me and continue talking amongst themselves. I press the tiny button and close the curtain for their safety.
Two more steps and I am at the door leading to the kitchen. Someone is in there drinking all my snack blood! There are rules among vampires. One, you never touch another’s mate. And two, you do not eat my snacks!
I push open the door, ready to strike with my claymore. “Relinquish my treat, you foul—” I freeze with my arm in midair. There is a vampire, caked from head to toe in mud, standing in front of the open refrigerator. Its two green eyes stare unblinkingly. “Neli? What are you doing, girl? Where have you been? And what are you doing with my food?”
Her mouth flaps for a moment, and that is when I notice her fangs.
“Neli, you—you’re a vampire?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Boz
“How did this happen?” I ask, standing on the other side of the shower curtain in Neli’s bathroom. She has yet to say a word besides “I need more blood.” I assured her that the ten bags she took from my snack bin were enough. Cold and tasteless, but enough.
“Neli, I asked you a question, and I