Page 128 of Vampires of Eden

“I gave you consent.”

“Hmm.” He leans in, licks up my flesh to clean the trail, then places his mouth on me once more. I feel him exhale a weighted sigh as he holds me. I hug him tighter in turn because this is perfect. For all my worry about being safe, I feel it here, wrapped within his firm embrace and exhilarating essence.

“I want you,” I say softly, “you want me, so I said yes. It’s simple, Rabbit. We both consent to this situation. We don’t need a formal contract with signatures and I don’t want a dowry from you. We can choose each other in private. We’ve done nothing wrong.”

He draws his head back. There’s a handsome little crease in his brow as he examines the wound where he fed. “I didn’t say it was wrong,” he amends before quickly licking me again for good measure. “I said it was dangerous.”

“You’re not in any danger. Not from me. And I trust you.” He says that he trusts me, but it’s lip service. I’ve hurt him and made him feel uncertain for too long. It’ll take time before he truly, genuinely believes in me. I’m okay with that. “Did I taste okay to your palate?”

He stares, rubbing tiny arcs against the curve of my hips with his thumbs. Like little rainbows. “Not ‘okay.’ You taste beautiful. Like something sweet and intricate that seals the cracks inside of me.”

My mouth hangs open as I blink. The residual heat coursing through my body from his loving bite centers itself in my chest and I smile. “Good.” I tilt my head and kiss him softly once more. “Do you need to leave?”

He drops his hands and his expression is apologetic. “Yes, but… it’s good because I can look at the law book back home in Father’s study. I can take the notes you’ve written and start typing up the proposal.”

“That is good,” I say, shifting from atop his lap and sitting beside him along the edge of the bed. “The proposal is important.”

“It is. And I’ve been avoiding it for too long. The meeting is coming in a few weeks.” His hand finds mine atop the rumpled bedsheets. I flip my palm so that our fingers entwine.

“When will you come back to me?” I ask.

“Monday,” he says. His eyes burn out. “I’ll stay for my second week of the trial, but after that, my leash will be shortened again. It’ll be harder to escape.”

“Your parents will be back home,” I say, remembering.

He nods.

I sigh.

God, this situation. What kinds of consequences will I inevitably face if I become Prince Alexander Ethan Kendrick’s partner? Central Eden at large, his parents, the Royal Order, his friends—no onewould accept me.

Against all the odds, we’re here, together. His nature speaks to mine and mine to his. That has to mean something, right? Somehow, this will work out. I want to believe in magnetism and karma. Maybe I’m being foolish, but I trust in the love he’s just shown me.

Alexander leans forward and kisses my cheek in my contemplative silence. I blink and am snapped out of my tumultuous thoughts.

“But I’ll still come to you,” he says. “I’ll tell them about the vineyard and wine business when they return home. I think my father will approve.”

“Okay,” I say, resigned to the circumstance. I take a deep breath. “If you need help with the proposal or for me to look something up, call me.”

“Can I call you even if I don’t need help?” he asks, smiling with his tousled hair. He tilts his head and the sunlight catches the golden flecks behind his brown irises.

This lovely and sweet purebred.

God? The universe? You better fucking work this out for me.

“Yes,” I say quietly. “Please do.” He pushes into me then,kissing me in earnest. He urges me back down against the bed and I let him.

We lie together in the warmth of the sunlight pouring in through my window, entwined and lazily kissing as if he doesn’t need to leave soon. As if the truth that we only make perfect sense within our insulated world is all that matters.

We can do this, somehow.

I have faith in us.

CHAPTER 29

Alexander

My phone buzzes and flashes on the dresser. Buttoning my shirt, I lean, peaking at the screen and reading the series of new messages.