Page 32 of The Vampire Kingpin (The Vampire Syndicate #7)

I slapped the stack back in the drawer and closed it with a snap. “You think you have to buy me?”

He recoiled. “No! It’s…security. You can take that money and walk out of here tonight.”

I twisted away from him, hands on my hips. “Really,” I said, my brows raised. “And you’d just let me go.”

“Fuck, no.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “Did it feel like I’d ever let you go tonight in the shower? Or last night when I had you bent over the chair?”

Lust stabbed through me all over again, remembering. I swallowed. “No.”

“Damn right, I won’t,” he said between gritted teeth. “Because if you leave, I’ll be right behind you. But I want you to know you can.” Something vulnerable flashed over his face. “I…I need to know you’re staying because you want to. Not because it’s your only option.”

My heart pounded against my rib cage. For the first time, I felt how susceptible he was when it came to me, how he’d do anything for me.

And it scared him, but then, it scared me a little, too. The vulnerability went both ways.

Neither of us had brought up the M-word yet, but I’d bet that drawer full of cash that both of us were thinking about it. We were mates. The bond had already started to form. You don’t sense another supernatural’s emotions without it.

Now, I realized that he was trying to make a big gesture—that even the thought of losing me terrified him.

Wonder spilled into me like a cascade of fireworks.

“Thank you.” I interlinked my fingers around the back of his neck.

“But you’re crazy if you think I’d leave.

I have a home and friends and you. You’re stuck with me, Spider-Dude.

And that drawer is the sweetest, most generous thing anyone has ever done for me.

I don’t need it, but that you thought of it means everything. ”

“I mean it.” He slapped my bottom. “That money is yours to use however or whenever you want. And if you need more, just ask—or hell, take it. You’re my queen, baby. Anything I have is yours.” His dark eyes warmed, his expression so, so tender. “I love you, Lark.”

I dug my teeth into my lower lip. It was the first time he’d said it aloud. “I love you even more,” I managed to say around the lump obstructing my voice.

“That’s not possible,” he returned. His long fingers speared into my hair, tipping my head back. His teeth scraped down my throat, sending a hot thrill over my skin. “So that’s settled. We should plan our mating ritual—Yule would be a good night, I think. Zayne can help.”

I blinked, laughter bubbling up in me. “Did you just ask me to accept your mate bond?”

“No, baby.” He nipped me beneath my jaw. “I told you.”

I moaned and angled my head to the side, giving him better access. “I…don’t think that’s how it works,” I managed to say.

“It does for us. Now stop teasing. You feel it. You know you do.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “I wasn’t sure.”

“Because we haven’t said it out loud. We need to speak the words in front of witnesses.”

I pulled back so I could see his expression. “What about Amina?”

“She was never my mate,” he said without hesitation. “Now that I have you, I know the difference. I loved Amina, but she wasn’t my mate. You’re it for me, thief.”

My heart squeezed. He meant it. I felt his love and need wrapping around me like an extra pair of arms.

“You’re it for me, too.” I kissed him hard. “And Yule sounds like the perfect night to make things formal.”

“Mm.” He palmed my butt through my leggings. “Have I told you about this fantasy I have?”

“What’s that?”

He walked me backward until the top of my thighs hit his desk. “You’re a thrall and I’m your master.”

I giggled. “That’s a fantasy?”

“Quiet, woman. All I want to hear out of you is ‘Yes, sir.’”

“Oh, that kind of fantasy.”

He turned me around and bent me over the desk, shoving the bowl of diamonds out of the way. His hand landed on my ass. “Did I say you could talk?”

“Why do I always end up bent over the furniture?”

Another swat. “Because it makes you hot.”

The heat between my legs proved his point. “Fair,” I admitted.

He smacked me again. “Sir.”

My inner thighs constricted. “Sir,” I hurried to say.

“Good girl,” he praised, and I smiled at the desk.

He peeled my leggings and panties down and helped me off with my shoes and socks. Next went my shirt. No bra, since Spider liked me without it.

Now I was naked, while he was fully clothed. Maybe we were playing at being master and thrall, but we were both invested in the fantasy, and acting it out in his office had made me so turned on I would’ve begged if he’d required it.

He guided me down onto the smooth gray surface of the desk again.

I quivered, expecting another spank. Instead, he dropped to his knees and pressed a kiss to the curve of my ass where it was warm and probably pink from his smacks.

He teased me with a finger, then his tongue, then twisted so his head was between my thighs and started eating me out, his finger toying with my puckered hole.

Waves of pleasure flooded me, one after another.

I babbled something and pressed against the desk, arching my back, half of me trying to get closer, half of me trying to escape.

He gripped my butt cheeks and kept me where I was.

Sharp teeth sank into my inner thigh next to my pussy, taking a tiny sip.

“Fu-uck,” I keened, and went up on my toes as an orgasm smashed into me like a wrecking ball, taking me apart so that it felt like pieces of me ended up all over the room.

When I came back to myself, I was lying on the table, my cheek and breasts pressed to the cold metal.

Spider rose to his feet. “Turn over.”

I sucked in a breath and obeyed, watching as he reached behind his shoulders and dragged off his T-shirt in a single smooth, hot-as-fuck move.

Then his pants and boxers were around his ankles and he was in me again, his hands pressing my wrists to the desk on either side of my head, his powerful body covering mine.

My pieces reassembled into a woman who felt so incredibly lucky. If I hadn’t moved to New York… If Grimclaw hadn’t sucked at being an alpha… If I’d refused to steal Spider’s dagger…

Spider shoved into me, slamming me against the unforgiving metal. Then he did it again, and again.

It was raw and erotic and wild, and made me feel so wanted.

No, not just wanted. Necessary .

His gaze caught mine. “Who do you belong to?”

I tightened my thighs on him. “You.”

“That’s right.” He pushed me again, then did this twist with his hips that made me gasp. “And I’m never, ever letting you go.”

“No,” I said, climbing toward another orgasm.

“Mine,” he said.

“Yours,” I said.

And in that moment, the mate bond snapped into place, pulling us together, stronger than anything I’d ever known.

Yeah, we’d speak the words, make it formal. Throw a party, celebrate with our friends.

But we were already mates. The bond was real, and it was ours.

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