Page 33

A continual whooshing noise brought my consciousness to awareness. My fingers slowly traced an infinity symbol over my lower abdomen. Lifting my hand, my eyelids pried apart, gazing into azure depths that promised violence. Warmth shot through me, issuing a delicious shiver through my entire frame.

Rhys’ hair was disheveled. His suit jacket was hung over the back of the chair he occupied. He’d rolled up his sleeves and unbuttoned several of the buttons on his shirt. The skin beneath his eyes was dark, as if he’d not slept enough.

“Nyota?” I whispered through the dryness of my mouth.

He studied my face before slowly shaking his head. Turning away from me, he reached for something out of sight. When he turned toward me, he held a glass filled with water in his hand. Slipping the other behind my back, he assisted me as he brought the glass up to my lips.

“Never again, Love. Do you fucking understand? Her life isn’t worth the price you’d have paid if Talia hadn’t been here. You could’ve died.” The fear exposed in his voice had my eyebrows pushing up on my forehead.

“I didn’t intend to die,” I admitted and saw the flash of anger in his gaze as it lit. “I didn’t kill the healer, either. I swear it to you, Van Helsing.”

“You’re fucking me. I think you and I are past using last names at this stage of our relationship.” Leaning forward, Rhys’ lips brushed against my forehead.

Fear trickled down my spine as the question posed on my tongue. “Bullet?”

“Our child’s a fighter, just like his mother,” he murmured.

My heart fluttered as relief washed through me. “His mother?”

Rhys’ mouth curved into a smirk. “Or her mother. I refused the healer’s offer to know what you carried. That’s something we should learn together, Love.” Using his fingers, he tucked an unruly curl behind my ear.

“Rhys,” I whispered thickly, knowing he wasn’t telling me everything.

Sitting back in his chair, he steepled his fingers in front of his face. “Nyota’s condition isn’t clear. She’s no longer in crippling pain, but she hasn’t regained consciousness yet, either.”

The corners of my lips slanted down into a frown. “I didn’t save her.”

“What you did was reckless and selfish, Remi. You could’ve died. You could’ve lost our child. Why would you be so damn foolish to even attempt such a thing in a weakened state?” His voice shook as he scolded me.

Swallowing past the narrowing in my throat, I shook my head. “Nyota’s my friend. My silver—” I paused, gulping past the lump forming. “—It’s not an easy death, Rhys. She didn’t deserve to die for protecting me or our child. She saved us and in doing so she was suffering undreamed of agony.” Tears pricked my eyes as he snorted, then pushed his long, slender fingers through his tousled, dark silken strands.

“It was idiotic,” he chided, as if he thought I wasn’t processing what he said.

Snorting, I shook my head from side to side, closing my eyes against the way he stared at me. “I couldn’t do that to our child.” Swallowing past the guilt, I struggled against tears.

“Do what, Love?”

The area behind my nose burned as tears rolled free of the delicate hold that I held them back with. “You’d have looked at our babe and only seen Nyota’s agonizing death. You and our child deserve a bond that isn’t tainted with the history of our bloodlines or the death of your baby sister.” A sob bubbled from my throat as I turned away, lying on my side.

A bevy of healers rushed through the door as the chaotic whooshing noises stalled. Hands pushed me back flat onto the bed. Another pair of hands adjusted the instrument attached to my belly, causing the butterflies in my abdomen to take flight once more.

“You need to remain on your back, ma’am. Until we’re done monitoring the lord’s heir, it’s required you remain so,” the oldest of the healers scolded, her tone beaming with disapproval. “If you can’t, I’ll restrain you to the bed myself, happily. If you want the truth, the likes of you shouldn’t be housing the heir. You don’t deserve to breathe the same air as the Van Helsing.” Lifting her chin, I forcibly bit my tongue to not issue slurs or insults back at her.

Rhys bolted from his chair, gripping the healer by the collar of her green gown. Twisting it in his fist, he lifted her from the floor. “Hold your sharp tongue, healer. You’ll speak to her with the respect she’s both earned and deserves. Remington is my mate and the mother of my child. Illeron murdered the girl. I watched the footage myself. Twice. He ran from my challenge, but when or if he returns, I’ll personally ensure he suffers for what he did to her. She’s under the same vow of protection I gave you. She’s the Lady of House Van Helsing. Nod if you understand me,” Rhys demanded coldly. The healer’s head bobbed slowly as her mouth mimicked a fish-out-of-water.

“I understand, Van Helsing! My mistake!” She howled.

Rhys released her, then took a step back before curling his fingers into his palms, forming angry fists at his sides. His shoulders rose and fell with angry breaths, and his terrifying glare burned into the woman he directed his simmering rage at.

“See that you tread carefully where she’s concerned. I hear anything about you harassing or treating her like anything other than a queen, you’ll be packing and leaving this household so quickly your head will fucking spin. Nod if you understand,” he demanded, until her head continually bounced up and down like a bobblehead. Rhys shoved her away from him, as if he didn’t trust himself.

My eyes rounded as my lips parted in shock. The other healers inside the room had flattened against the wall, fearing he’d aim his anger at them next. Rhys reached for my hand, threading his fingers through mine before pulling it up, kissing my knuckles.

Warmth flooded throughout my being as his eyes held mine. Cupping my cheek, he peered straight into my soul.

“I know you didn’t murder her. Each room is equipped with both video and audio feed. It’s how I was alerted to what you were attempting to do so quickly,” he admitted, before running his nose up and down my cheek. “You’re trembling, Love. Are you afraid of my anger or desiring something else from me?” he whispered for my ears alone.

“I’m undecided,” I admitted sheepishly, uncertain why the display of physical strength made me so hot and bothered. It was definitely a turn-on for me. I wasn’t opposed to getting a hand necklace from him or being bent over the hospital bed, either.

Rhys turned his head, eyeing the healers. “Get out,” he demanded, turning back to studying my face. “I feel your need rushing through me. The heat accumulating between your lovely thighs is for me. Isn’t it?” he asked in a rough whisper that grated over my tender flesh.

Rhys’ heated lips trailed over my jawline, then nipped at it as a needy moan escaped my lips. His hand slowly lowered to my throat. Using his thumb to press beneath my chin, he forced my head to tip back, allowing him room to ravish my lips.

“I want to spank your ass until my palm burns. I don’t like to feel helpless, Love. I broke the law of hospitality and protection I offered Talia in my fear of losing you. You may not have killed Gloria, but you placed her in danger by using her as your hostage,” he purred as his other hand slid to my abdomen.

“I don’t think I deserve a spanking,” I susurrated through the need thickening in my throat.

“We could have lost our child.

“We didn’t lose our child.”

“No, we didn’t. You deserve to be punished. But my hunger and avaricious need to be inside your deliciously wet cunt is stronger than my anger.” Long, skilled fingers leisurely drew the infinity symbol over my abdomen, repeatedly.

“I’m not opposed to being hate fucked . . . occasionally,” I croaked out past the lust flooding through my veins.

“How often would you like me to fuck you like I hate you, love?” His voice was smooth like silk as it drifted to my ears. Rhys’ hand lowered, then gripped my swollen apex. “Such a needy wet cunt. You want me to fill it until it aches?” His filthy mouth forced a needy moan from my lungs. “Answer me.”

“Please. Yes. I need you, Rhys.”

“Good girl,” he growled, but his hand released my growing need. “Too bad your punishment is to be left wanting tonight. Tomorrow is a different matter, unless you do something like this again. In which case, I’ll make you beg for me to fuck you.”

Closing my eyes, I groaned as the ache between my thighs pulsed with need. Rhys stood up, smirking as he returned to the chair he’d abandoned earlier. Lowering himself into it, he adjusted his cock in his slacks, then leaned back, stretching his arms over his head before aiming a look of raw, unguarded desire toward me.

“Feel free to manage it yourself. I assure you that it’s impossible to find a release without me. Don’t worry though. I cannot finish without you either, Love. If I were you, I’d think of anything else before Nyx arrives. She’s on her way now. Any newborn incubus could smell the current state of need oozing from that deliciously pretty, wet pussy.”