Ash gently pushed her toward her bedroom. "Go get some sleep."
Amanda took a step away, then paused and turned back to face him. "Ash?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you put Tabitha with Valerius?"
"For the same reason I handed you Kyrian's soul on the day we first met."
"You have to know that there will never be peace between the two of them. Ever. Tabitha can't bring Valerius into our family. It's just not fair to Kyrian."
"Maybe, but the real question is this: Had you met Valerius before Kyrian, would you still feel the same way toward the Roman? And if Tabitha had married Valerius and then you found Kyrian, how would you feel if she told you that you had to let him go?"
Amanda looked away.
"Exactly, Amanda. In order to have a future, Kyrian needs to let go of the past."
Tabitha sucked her breath in sharply between her teeth as Valerius licked the salted garlic butter off her breast. He laughed playfully with her nipple between his teeth as he looked up at her.
He pulled back long enough to dip another piece of shrimp in butter before holding it up for her to bite into. Tabitha licked his fingers sensuously as she ate from his hand.
"I think we set a record for longest meal in history."
Valerius smiled at that as he placed another shrimp on her right nipple. The butter ran down the side of her breast. He licked it off her skin before he went after the shrimp and devoured it.
Tabitha smoothed his hair back from his face. "See, I knew you Romans were raw with this kind of stuff. I was right, wasn't I?"
"You were right," he said as he squeezed a lemon over her stomach.
Her toes actually curled as he lapped the juice off her.
His whiskers gently brushed her stomach, sending chills all over her. "You are so wonderful," she said quietly.
Valerius froze at her words. No one had ever said such a thing to him before.
No one.
And in that moment, he had a terrifying thought. He was going to have to let her go.
Some unknown force slammed into his chest at the thought. It stole the breath completely away from him.
Life without Tabitha.
How could such a thought slice through him when he'd only just met her? And yet as he tried to imagine going back to his cold, sterile world where people ignored, mocked, and disregarded him, he wanted to shout at the injustice.
He wanted to keep her.
The desire to bind her to him was feral and unreasoning. It was also selfish and wrong.
Tabitha had a family who loved her. Her family had always been a major part of her life. He'd seen it himself. The love. The care.
His family had been a nightmare of jealousy and cruelty. But hers...
He couldn't take her away from them. It wouldn't be right.
"Valerius? Is something wrong?"
He offered her a half-smile. "No."