Crimson Kiss (Onyx Assassins 5)

“I’ve always liked the lavender ones,” she said, her back turned toward me as she moved to another rose.

“We need to talk.” I didn’t question how she knew I was here. It had always been like that between us.

“The pink ones are lovely, too, especially the ones that fade to white at their centers.” She clipped another rose.

“I know how to get you out of the pre-betrothal agreement.” My thumb rubbed my forefinger in nervous habit, but I didn’t unsheathe my knives like I usually did to solve my fidgeting.

“Because you think I want out of it.” She turned, facing me head-on in the moonlight.

Fuck, she was exquisite, the blue of her eyes ensnaring every thought in my head like I was some youngling with his first hard-on.

“But do go on and tell me how you plan to save me, Hawke.” She glided forward, so graceful it was as if her feet didn’t touch the gravel path.

My stomach twisted, and my fangs elongated, demanding blood. Her blood. It was the one genetic fuck-up of our species—vampires, especially males, who’d found their mates could successfully feed from no one else until they’d accepted their bond. And what else came with acceptance? Fucking like the primal little predators we were. Thank fuck mating bonds were rare, but warriors were more likely to form the attachment. Guess it was Darwin’s way of ensuring the strongest bloodlines continued.

“There’s only one law that supersedes any contract written or agreement made,” I said, my voice low as she came within inches of me. She was so close that I could feel the warmth radiating off her. My fangs ached.

She cocked her head to the side.

I reached forward slowly and took hold of the scrap of satin. Her breath caught as I peeled the elbow-length glove from her arm, exposing my mating mark on her hand. “We claim the bond. At least publicly.”

“Publicly?” Her brow knit.

I nodded. “All it takes is showing this mark to Alek, and any agreement is null and void. They’ll have to find some other way to make their peace.”

“And you would mate me?” Her gaze dropped to my lips as her own parted.

“Only for show,” I vowed, keeping my eyes off the black tattoo that claimed this exceptional female was mine. She wasn’t. She never would be.

“Why?” Hurt flashed in her eyes. “What about me is so unappealing to you?”

My jaw hurt from clenching it so hard, and my fangs sliced into the inside of my lower lip. “Nothing. There is nothing unappealing about you. But fate fucked up, Avi. There is no way someone like me deserves a female like you, and I sure as hell know that you could never…” I shook my head and looked away, studying the hedges that surrounded the garden.

“I could never what?” she demanded. “Love you? Need you? Make love to you?”

My gaze jerked back to hers. “Make love? That’s exactly why it would be in name only. I’m not capable of giving you what you need and you would run screaming if you even glimpsed what I would do to you.”

She swallowed, and the movement of her throat sent another agonizing wave of hunger over me, pulling me toward the edge of sanity. I was close, but I wouldn’t become like the monsters who had hunted me.

“Maybe I’d like what you’d do to me,” she whispered.

The thought of tying her fragile wrists to my bedframe and edging her for hours, keeping her just on the brink of orgasm without letting her tumble over it, had my dick straining against my leathers.

“I highly doubt it,” I bit out. “Come on, Princess. All we have to do is show your brother the mark, and you’re off the hook.”

Her shoulders fell. “But you wouldn’t be.” She shook her head and a lock of her ebony hair slid free of her braid, caressing her cheek like I wanted to. “You’d simply be the prisoner instead of me.”

“You’d be safe.”

“You’d be mated to me,” she snapped. “And if you wanted that, it would be a different story, but doing this to save me would only chain you to me. We both know Alek wouldn’t let you walk away.”

“You’d. Be. Safe.” That was all I cared about. The rest of the fucking world could burn itself to a crisp as long as Avi was tucked safely away in here, picking her roses.

“We’d doom our kingdom, Hawke.” She pursed her pretty lips. “Last night you told me not to show anyone the mark, and now I’m telling you the same. I’ve found a way to keep my brother on the throne without bloodshed, and if it requires me marrying Samuel, then so be it.” Fire and determination flashed in her eyes, and fuck me if it didn’t make me want to haul her over the little bench in the center of the garden and spank her ass raw until she listened to reason.