“Do you see me in your dream? Did you see me last night?” he demanded to know.
I shook my head.
“Did you feel heat?”
That confused me.
Heat? I asked.
“Like a fire.”
My head jerked back and I looked up at him with wide eyes.
Yes, I breathed.
I watched as his eyes closed slowly and his jaw got tight, not like he was angry, like he was in pain.
I felt his pain. It hurt.
His look was also familiar. I didn’t know why but it was very familiar like I’d seen it before and it scared me.
Lucien! I cried.
His eyes opened.
What? I asked.
His hand at the back of my head tucked my face in his throat again as he answered, “Nothing, sweetling.”
That wasn’t nothing!
“Just relax,” he ordered.
Yeah, right, you relax. I’m freaking out!
“Everything will be fine.”
Sure. Everything will be fine. You’re a vampire renegade, breaking laws and getting carted in to talk to The Council in the middle of the night. Your estranged mate wants me dead. Creepy Marcello-with-a-death-wish nearly touches me and you morph into Super Lucien, the Mighty Concubine Protector. And even my dreams want me dead! Yep, all’s normal! Nothing to worry about here!
After my mental tirade delivered directly to his brain which was totally bizarre in itself, the most bizarre of all was that I was communicating with him like this and it didn’t feel bizarre in the slightest, I felt his body shaking.
He was laughing.
It started silently then it became chuckles. He pulled me up, lifted his head and buried his face in my neck.
This isn’t f**king funny, I declared, and it sure as hell wasn’t.
He kept laughing.
What happened last night? I demanded to know.
“I’ll tell you later.” His voice was still filled with mirth as he spoke against my neck.
Now.
“Later,” he murmured.
Now, Lucien! I insisted. You can’t just leave me after that drama, all worried about you and then not…