“No,” I told him, meeting his gaze. “I got there in time. Her stuff is down there, her jewels and—but we didn’t even think to look for her earrings or whatever. She has her seal, of course, I have mine, and that was the only thing that was important.”
He nodded, eyes narrowing to slits, something—I wasn’t sure what—having crossed his mind as I was speaking.
“But her dress was just gone, and my jacket got all ripped up before that, or I would’ve given her that instead of my crappy shirt.”
He did the same thing Varic did, breathed in through his nose.
“You were not…,” Varic husked, not able to finish, and I turned in time to see his eyes open to reveal the gold of his wolf. He was on the razor’s edge of devouring wrath.
Lifting my hand to his cheek, I caressed his skin before sliding my hand around the side of his neck, easing him close until I could press my forehead to his. “No, I was not.”
He shuddered, and I gave him a quick kiss before I turned back to Jarah. “You should take her. She told me she needed blood, but she wasn’t gonna take it from me, and I didn’t offer. I couldn’t,” I told him. “I hope you understand.”
“I more than understand,” he assured me, leaning over to take her in his arms, accepting the blanket Tiago offered him, and the help to wrap her in it so no one would see her in only my shirt. “You have my enduring gratitude for being the champion of my princess when I was not.”
“Well, like I said, I think it’s mostly my fault that she was taken, and whoever took her, they weren’t the same guys in the room with her when I finally caught up. The men in the room, they hit her and stripped her, and I couldn’t stop that, but like I said, I made it in time before––” I tipped my head. “––anything else.”
“Yes.”
“She has such a good heart,” I told him. “And I mean, you know that, of course, but she was more worried about my neck.”
“What happened to your neck?”
Varic’s voice sounded strangled when he asked the question, and now that I wasn’t holding Nerilla anymore, I turned to face him and twisted my head to the right so he could see where the man’s fangs had grazed my skin.
“I didn’t let him bite down; you see? There’s no puncture.”
“I do see,” Varic said softly, his eyes lifting to Jarah. “Take your leave, hendr.”
I twisted back around to Jarah. “You’ll make sure she eats?”
“I will, my consort,” he promised, bowing to me like her weight in his arms was nothing.
“Thank you,” I said, and it hit me that I was rambling and perhaps in just a bit of shock. I turned back to Varic. “I’d really love to take a shower, and then, I’m sorry, but I’m gonna need to eat something.”
He put both hands on my shoulders as he looked at me. “I’ve made the mistake of allowing you to believe that your dietary requirements are some sort of inconvenience. If not for my mother earlier, you would be starved by now and, I suspect, not have been able to fight your way out of––” He took a breath. “––tell me what you want.”
I smiled at him. “Whatever you can find at––”
“No,” he ordered, standing up and then offering me his hand. “You tell me whatever it is you desire.”
Taking his hand, I let him pull me up beside him, and I weaved for a moment, and he moved to put his arm around me.
“No,” I said, turning so he couldn’t. “I’m gross and I smell bad, and you’re still in your beautiful suit and––”
“Jason,” he choked, and I could tell then that he was having trouble getting words out. “I must touch you, do you understand? I need to touch every inch of your skin.”
I grinned at him, and I heard his breath catch. “I’m dying for a roast beef sandwich. I have no idea why, but I really want one.”
Varic turned to Tiago.
“Of course,” he said, sounding like he was in pain.
When I tried to look at him, Varic took my chin in his hand and kept me looking at him. “Let’s get you showered, all right?”
I nodded, and when he put his arm around me, I leaned. “I dropped my shoes on, like, the billionth flight of stairs, so that might be weird for whoever finds them.”
“Yes,” he agreed, walking me through the king’s grotto, filled with reflecting pools and a large koi pond. Even as lights were turned off and the darkness returned, it was still not as dark as it had been. There were lights on in the rooms we walked toward, and once we were inside, there was so much to look at, the opulence of the rooms, that I closed my eyes because I just couldn’t take in anything else. I needed quiet and normal and a space that I could be comfortable in.
I stumbled and Varic caught me, and then there were spots in front of my eyes and I felt the ground tilt.
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Jason.” His voice cracked.
There was only a drop and then black.
Nine
Warm water sluicing over my back felt like heaven. I opened my eyes, and it took a second before I realized I was in the shower, naked, with an equally naked Varic. He looked really good wet.
“God, you’re beautiful,” I said in awe, staring at his face, feeling drunk.
His gaze held mine, and I leaned in and kissed him, licking into his mouth, taking his tongue, craving his heat and his taste.
He kissed me back, hungrily, deeply, making me shiver under the water, his hands running over my skin. When he broke the kiss and turned me around, pressing my cheek to the cool marble wall, I rubbed my slowly hardening cock over the smooth surface.
“What did you do?” I asked him, luxuriating in his ministrations, lathering me from head to toe with a soft cloth, missing no part, massaging my scalp and the back of my head, washing my hair before putting me back under the water, all the grit and sweat and blood running off me and down the drain. “Varic,” I said, already feeling so much better. “Tell me.”
“I gave you more of my blood,” he revealed, turning me so my face was out of the water and having me walk forward to a pile of thick towels, folded and stacked and now soaked with hot water. “That’s why you feel so good. You have more blood than I’ve ever given you before rushing through your veins.”
“I like having you in me,” I teased him, understanding what I was saying.
“That’s good,” he said, putting me on my knees and then dropping down beside me, taking my mouth in a mauling kiss, all domination, demanding submission from me.
When his hand closed around my cock, stroking me slowly, I smiled against his lips and was rewarded with stroking that was harder, faster, exactly as I craved.
I gasped when he broke the kiss, tangling his other hand in my hair, leaning my head slowly to the right, holding me still, ready for him.
“There are marks all over you.”
“Yes,” I agreed, somehow knowing what he needed.
“Marks from others.”
“There should only ever be yours.”
“Yes,” he rasped, the sound fractured and angry. He was in pain and drowning in his need to claim what was his.