Page 29 of Seduced By Darkness

This is the start of forever.

She just doesn’t know it yet.

But first, I need to make amends for how I took her tonight. And she will have my apology from my hands and tongue, until she can barely take any more.

* * *

Morninglight creeps over the clearing, gilding the pair of us. Vi’s shoulders rise and fall as she sleeps in my arms. There’s something about the innocent way her lashes lie closed over her eyes that makes me want to hold her here forever, where I can protect her.

My fingers trail down her flank.

Her lashes flutter, her hip shifting in response to the stroke of my fingers. Not quite asleep, not quite fully awake.

But completely aware of my touch.

“You were a virgin.” I kiss her shoulder, stealing a shiver from her. None of this makes sense. Lammastide is often a night for stolen pleasure, and events such as this occur regularly, but I never expected her to be a maid.

I like it though.

I like it too much.

She has never known another and now she never will. The Darkness within me purrs and stretches with contentment. For once we’re in perfect agreement.

Vi is mine—ours—and nothing is going to tear her from my arms.

“Mmm.” Her lashes flutter open.

“I should have spanked your ass for not warning me.”

Dark eyes the color of midnight come into focus as she turns her head to look at me. There’s a moment where she realizes where she is and who she’s with, and then her eyes go very wide and she stills.

“Good morning.” I can feel her heart hammering in her chest and I can’t help kissing her shoulder so she knows there’s nothing to fear. “You have blue eyes. I didn’t know you had blue eyes.”

They’d been midnight-dark in the vision Maia gave to me, and over the years I guess I’d let memory soften them to the darkest of browns.

The tension slides out of her. Both our masks are long gone. It added a certain kind of spice to the encounter, but I want to know who she is.

“You have green eyes,” she whispers, staring deep into my soul.

I don’t know why, but instinct tells me she’s the watchful sort. The way she looks at me tells me she sees everything. A not entirely comfortable situation, but somehow…. Nobody has ever seen the whole of me.

And I want them to, I realize.

I want her to.

Vi turns her head. “Where’s my dress?”

Oh no. I’ve only just found you.I curl up as she pushes herself upright, tangling my arms around her. “There’s no hurry.”

She glances toward the sky. Dawn. I can almost read her thoughts and so I sweep her hair over one shoulder and brush a kiss against the nape of her neck.

“Stay with me,” I breathe as she shudders.

“Ican’t.”

“Yes, you can.” Slowly, I drag her back down to the heather.Forever,if need be.

Forever, whispers the Darkness and my gut goes tight with tension because I hadn’t realized I’d let it slip through the cracks in my wards.We can fuck her forever.