Page 152 of Wedlock

“Well, if the past is anything to go on,” I chuckle, “you’d be dead right. But it isn’t. We’re starting afresh. My vow was witnessed by too many vampires for her to wriggle out of it. You can stop worrying. I want you to consider this the wedding night we should have had.”

“The kids…”

“Monsters,” I mock sigh. “Had I known how violent and loud they are I would never have asked you to return. Perhaps we should have let the Queen keep them…”

She grins and smacks me on the shoulder.

Laughing, I scoop her up into my arms, delighting at her surprised gasp as I head for the door.

“In all seriousness,” I smirk as I hold her close and leave the room, “between Yin, the nannies, Lynx’s lessons, the cat with her new kittens, and their new castle, I think they have plenty to keep themselves occupied while we get reacquainted.”

“Reacquainted,” she laughs, “is that what you call this. And just where are you taking me?”

“Outside.”

“Why?” She shivers as I nuzzle her ear while zipping along the corridors towards the entry.

“Because my bride needs to be carried across the threshold.”

“I seem to remember you already did that,” she whispers, her tone once again serious. “Only it wasn’t on our wedding night.”

“I was glad to have you back in my arms then too,” I breathe into her ear, “even though my heart was breaking at the thought I’d lost you to another. I knew I couldn’t put you in my room, as I’d planned, so I installed you one door from me. You have no idea how it tormented me knowing how close you were, but how far.”

“I was equally as aware of how close you were,” She murmurs. “This time I’ve returned on my own terms. Nobody has had to drag me back to you.”

I walk down the wide entry steps into the moonlight, turn around and head back up again, my mood slightly dampenedby her mention of having been forcefully returned, and just who brought her back to me.

My last discussion with Jag had been troubling and anything but friendly.

He’d made it clear he still loved my wife and would always be her champion. He’d found a solution for us to be together because he knew we loved one another, but he’d always be waiting for the day that changed. I’d made it clear I didn’t want him hanging around waiting with open arms to catch my wife if,when, I fucked up.

I’d given him an ultimatum, and he’d refused.

Wolf acknowledged that this time he’d truly disappeared again. Neither of us expects to hear from him for centuries, unless he capitulates and agrees to my demand, which seems unlikely. Meanwhile, my kitchens are still haunted by his memory because his brother, my procurer, is stationed there. He needs to teach my children who it’s permissible to drink from, and at Angie and Yin’s insistence, how to drink without killing. The fact that their victims would later be dispensed with isn’t something I’ve had to reveal to their mother, although I’m sure that conversation is going to be an uncomfortable one at some point in the future.

‘One of many, no doubt. But if I have to compromise to keep her happy, I will. I’ll save all humanity if it means she smiles at me like she has tonight.’

“I know what you’re thinking,” Angie says quietly as she leans up, kissing me under the jawline.

My body reacts to her nearness as it always has, and I speed up as I sprint us back towards my bedroom, my plan to seduce her slowly, beginning to unravel now that she’s back in my arms, her scent engulfing me, her warmth seeping through my clothes. AllI can think about is tearing off her clothes and fucking her to kingdom come.

“I don’t think you are,” I growl into her ear, eliciting a delightful gasp.

Reaching our bedroom I lower her feet to the floor near our bed and stand before her drinking in the sight of her radiant face, no longer lined with worry or fear, her eyes soft and full of the admiration and love I’d hoped to see for so long.

“Take your hair out, Lady Dragonspur,” I murmur.

Stretching up, she releases her hair from its ponytail as I stroke my fingers down the inside of her raised arms, her skin goose-bumping at my touch. As she lowers her arms, I run my hands up the outside of them to her hair and push it gently aside, baring her neck.

“Are you planning on having actual sex with me tonight?” She whispers, as I pace myself and plant small kisses up the side of her throat and under her jawline, towards her lips.

“I am,” I murmur, taking her lower lip between my teeth and pulling gently, my hands roaming down to slowly unbutton her shirt.

“Because,” she breathes, “if you don’t…I mean, if you do what you did on the helicopter, and nothing more, I might, you know, have to take matters into my own hands. If we’re going to start our marriage from tonight, I want to ensure consummation.”

“Is that so?” I chuckle, my mouth following the trail my fingers have left down the bare skin between her breasts, to her perfect, soft stomach.

“Yes,” she breathes.