Page 16

“ A bsolutely fucking not!”

Millie’s been screaming at whoever’s on the phone for the past five minutes. She hid away in her office, but the walls are no match for my queen’s wrath. When she finally emerges, her fangs are out, and she has murder on her face. The killer emotion fades when she spots me.

“I’m afraid I have some royal business to attend to.”

She’s changed as well, now dressed in a red blouse and black pencil skirt. Her black hair is up in a high ponytail. Her makeup is light and natural and flawless.

She embodies every aspect of a queen as she walks to where I stand with her head held high. I grab her by the waist, and she relaxes slightly, draping her arms over my shoulders. She tries to kiss me, but I pull back .

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

She scrunches her nose and snarls her lip, simultaneously appearing adorable and fierce, before looking away.

“It’s… nothing.”

I chuckle. “Did you know when you lie, you can’t make eye contact? You fidget too. And your voice goes up ever so slightly.”

She rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, well, I only struggle lying to you . I’m an excellent liar when necessary. And when I don’t feel like lying, I use compulsion. Which is another issue with you not being able to be hypnotized.”

I smile at her using the word I love saying when describing compulsion. I do it to antagonize her because I love seeing her pissed off…. Because she ends up taking it out on me in the bedroom.

But my smile drops, and I stare her down, raising a brow, until she relents with a sigh. The silent treatment always works when she’s trying to avoid speaking about something.

I rarely use the move, but I’ve learned over the past two weeks that Millie has never shared the details of her vampire life with anyone other than Layla. Getting ‘personal’ as she likes to call it, makes her uncomfortable. Sometimes I sense she wants to talk but just needs my patience and encouragement.

“There’s been another body,” she says, slipping out of my hold.

I close my eyes and curse.

“I need to meet with the council tonight so we can go over a plan of capture. We’ve employed the gargoyles, who stand guard over this city, but they’ve had no luck. We’ve asked other vampires and supernatural beings to be on the lookout, but Henry is powerful. He’s feared. No one will risk death to turn him in. If he’s been spotted, nobody is saying a word.”

“How could anyone be afraid of a man named Henry?”

Millie snorts. Not exactly the laugh I was hoping for, but I know she’s stressed. She steps away to walk into the kitchen where she pours herself a glass of wine.

“Henry is what I called him because it pissed him off. Heinrich de la Nova is the cold-blooded killer who has murdered not only humans, but vampires alike. He has no remorse. He kills for fun, and he is starved for power.”

I comb my hand through my hair, then scrub it down my face. “How do you plan to catch him? It sounds impossible.”

She winces. Another sign that she wants to lie to me. Or that she regrets something she’s done or is about to say .

“I need to figure out what he wants. If it’s me, then I will draw him out. The council will have to approve a security team. Plant snipers on rooftops—”

“He can die by a bullet?”

“A wooden one, yes.”

“What if he captures you?”

“Then I’ll escape. I’ve outsmarted him once. I can do it again.”

“How did you escape him?”

“He became bored of me,” she begins, sipping her wine and resting a hip on the kitchen island. “He’d disappear for days, weeks. During one of these hiatuses, I sought a witch to break his sire hold over me. Then I packed up the few belongings to my name and left. I didn’t imagine he’d care, but after a few months, I got word he was searching for me. I boarded a boat to America as soon as I could. He hated the new settlement. I knew it’d be the last place he’d come looking for me. I asked acquaintances to spread rumors of spotting me in various countries in Europe and the Middle East. Even Asia. It kept him busy.”

And likely infuriated him.

“Then he finally finds you and sees you with a human.”

She sets her glass down and returns to where I stand. She wraps her arms around my torso and leans her head on my chest. I cocoon her in my own arms, kissing the top of her head.

“Stabbing you was a warning. He was letting me know that he’s still in control, even after all these years with the sire bond broken.”

“Use me.”

She lifts her head. “What?”

“Let me be bait.”

“Did you hear my conversation with Layla?”

“No. Did she suggest the same thing? Then it sounds like—”

“It’s not going to happen. I need to be the one to face Henry. I can draw him out. He will not get anywhere near you.”

“What if he kills you?”

She peels herself out of my arms and turns her back to me. “And, what? You lose your ticket to immortality?”

My heart drops.

“Is that what you think I care about?”

“Is it not? It’s what you want.”

“Of course it is!”

She turns at my raised voice, shock riddling her face. I never raise my voice.

“I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to leave you.”

My eyes burn and my throat aches with unshed tears .

She reaches out for me, but I step back.

“I want to spend the rest of my life loving you. I know it’s too soon for both of us to say we’re in love, but isn’t the chance that we could fall in love worth exploring? Isn’t it worth living for?”

A tear falls down my cheek and I wipe it away.

Millie says nothing, letting me get everything out.

“I want you to turn me for you, not just for me. Because you deserve love too. You lived all these years thinking you’re a monster, but a monster wouldn’t feel remorse for the lives it’s taken. A monster wouldn’t feel compassion. And a monster wouldn’t put their life on the line to protect someone else.

“But turn me because you want this too. Make me a vampire so you will no longer be alone. I don’t want you to ever feel as if you don’t deserve to be happy.”

She’s crying now too and seeing the lines of red against her pale skin reminds me of winter… a rose in the snow. My cold-skinned queen who turns my body into flames with how much I desire her.

She’s mentioned the lack of a soul, but I don’t believe it. How could I feel such a connection to an empty shell? She’s more than this monster she claims to be.

If she’s cursed, then I’ll gladly be damned with her .

She wipes the blood off her cheeks, and I grab her by the wrist, taking her soiled fingers into my mouth and sucking them clean.

I cup her cheek and graze my thumb over her lips. My touch draws out her fangs, and I press the pad of my thumb over the point until piercing a hole in my skin. I shove the bleeding tip into her mouth. Her tongue flicks over the wound.

When I remove the digit, I spin Millie around and fold her over the top of the kitchen table.

She grunts at the unexpected action, which I find amusing that my slow human speed surprised her.

“Teddy,” she warns. “You’re insatiable. You just laid me out on top of the counter and made me come.”

I smooth my hand up her spine, then back down to grab the hem of her pencil skirt. I roll the fabric up over her hips, revealing her plump bare ass because she’s wearing a thong. My hand crashes down and she arches away from the table.

“And now I’m going to fuck you on the table.”

“Layla will be here soon,” she groans.

I take my cock out of my sweats and pull the thong to the side.

“Then you better come fast. ”

I slide into her with one hard thrust and she screams, clutching the edge of the table while I ream into her from behind.

“You feel so good, Millie. Your cunt was made for me. Only me.”

I use the bunched-up material of her pencil skirt like the horn of a saddle and drive into her.

“No one else will ever feel this pussy clench again. No one else will ever get to taste you again. Only me.”

With my free hand, I strike her ass cheeks, one after the other, at least a dozen times on each side.

“Fuck, Teddy,” she wails.

She may be a vampire… any wound she receives heals within minutes… but she can still feel pain.

She loves it. My lashes turn her on, and her pussy walls tighten, letting me know she’s getting closer to orgasm.

Millie’s cellphone rings. Layla is here.

“What did I say, Millie?”

I clutch her long hair and wrap it around my wrist, tugging her head back. She whimpers.

“Come. Fast.”

“That’s right, Your Majesty.”

That does it.

She erupts with her release. Her body shakes and her cunt milks my cock, sending me over the edge as well .

I rest my head on her back as I try to catch my breath. But I barely have time to recuperate before Layla is pounding on the door.

“Five minutes,” Millie says to Layla. She doesn’t even need to raise her voice because she knows her friend will be able to hear her.

I’m reluctant to let my queen go, especially since she wants to use herself as bait to capture her ex. But I stand and slowly remove myself from her.

“Wait,” I say before allowing her to get up.

I watch as my cum leaks out and I lap some of it up with two fingers. Then I walk around the table to where Millie’s head rests and clutch her ponytail to tug her head back. I shove my fingers in her mouth, and she moans around them but dutifully licks them clean.

“That’s my girl.”

Layla pounds on the door again, likely annoyed for having to wait.

“Stand.” I help her off the table, then grip her by the chin. “I would clean you up, but I want you dripping with my release while addressing the council, letting them smell me on you. Because you’re mine.”

She whimpers at my words, struggling to sheath her fangs. Her eyes are still black as well.

My hot as fuck vampy babe .

I kneel to adjust her skirt, rolling it back down and smoothing it out while Millie fixes her blouse. She’ll need to redo her ponytail and touch up her makeup.

The thought of me causing this disheveled appearance makes me smile as I look up at her from where I kneel.

Her palm covers my cheek.

“I like seeing you on your knees before me.” She moves her hand up to my forehead to push back my hair. “I’ll petition the council tonight to approve your turning.”

I stand and wrap my arm around her waist to bring her flush with my body.

“Really?”

“The only sun I need is you.”

“Ugh,” Layla says, deciding she’s tired of waiting and lets herself in. “Could you two be any more disgustingly sweet?”

“We could,” I say and grin.

Layla rolls her eyes but smiles. I’ve noticed she’s rarely angry like me. She might try to put on the scary grumpy vampire act sometimes, but I can see past that mask.

“I’m afraid I have to steal your mate away,” Layla says to me.

Millie sighs and brings me in for one more kiss .

“I will have guards stationed outside the penthouse door and around the building. Do not go anywhere while I’m away.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “You’ll pay for that.”

Maybe I should call her ma’am more often.

“Looking forward to it, ma’am .”