Chapter Thirty-Two
Mircea
“I thought he might never leave.” I said, my eyes on Adonis as he slowly walked away from my mate.
“Well he might not have if you hadn’t been looking at him with murder in your eyes.” Vali replied, and I turned my eyes to her honey-brown irises.
“It was getting hard to ignore him, he’s been all over you all night.” I said, and I heard her sigh over the music.
“That was the plan, and it worked. He’s giving us his strongest warriors which means we’ll have the manpower to defeat your father.” She replied, and I licked my lips as I looked her up and down.
“Well, I’m sure it would be hard to say no to you in that dress.” I responded, trying not to let it get to me. Much easier said than done.
It was a blood-red dress, the colour similar to my own shirt. The shape was a low v-line that ran down to her stomach, showing off more of her cleavage than I wanted anyone else to see and cutting down the same depth on her back. And it didn’t stop there. The skirt was just strategically placed pieces of material hanging from her waist, showing slivers of her legs from every angle…
Maybe I did want people to see her like this, to see exactly what she looked like and what she had to offer; as long as they saw she was mine.
“Have you thought about what I said?” I asked her, my eyes once again trailing over her body, taking in every curve and wondering what it would feel like to have her skin on mine.
“Dance with me.” She said, holding her hand towards me with a smirk on her painted red lips.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” I replied, she shook her head.
“Please, would you dance with me?" Well, when one is asked in such a pretty manner, how could one refuse?
“Of course.” I replied, taking her hand and leading her into the middle of the room as a new song began playing. The rhythm was one I recognised, so leading her into the moves was easy to do.
“I obviously thought about what you said…” Her voice was barely audible over the music, over the pounding of my heart in my ears. This was the closest we had been, my hand holding hers and my other on her waist. Her breath fanned over my chest, still bare from the undone buttons.
“You did?” I asked as our bodies moved together without thought.
“Yes.” She said, her body seeming to come closer to mine a millimetre at a time as our feet stepped in sync, as we spun around the room. “I had this silly notion in my head, that I had to earn what we have together. That I hadn’t done enough to deserve the Bond, to be worthy of someone who would love me unconditionally and for the rest of my life.”
“It is not something you earn…”
“Marcy and Jackson helped me realise that back in Australia, but I knew I’d have to wait to talk to you until after speaking to Adonis. He seems to be attracted to me, so it was best to lead him on to be sure he would join us. It would be difficult for me to do that if I had everything sorted out with you.” She said before I spun her away from my body and back in again, to match the movement of the room. When she returned to me her chest was against mine, our hips touching as our feet danced between each other, the hand I had rested on her waist stretched to rest on the small of her back.
“Was it difficult?” I asked her, tilting my head to the side as I stared into her honey eyes. The colour softened as she stared right back at me, shaking her head.
“He knew.” She said, our eyes never breaking from each other as we kept pace with those dancing around us.
“Knew what?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper as the hand she had rested on my shoulder trailed down my arm and back up once more.
“That my thoughts were focused on you.” She replied, taking a slow and deep breath. “That all I want is you.” I didn’t know how to respond, not coherently anyway. The fae wine that had accompanied dinner was finally reaching through my body, forcing me into a trance-like state with her in my arms.
With each step we took my head was becoming lighter, each spin should have been making me dizzy but it wasn’t. It was honing my focus on her, on her eyes and her lips and her neck. On how she moved. The strings of the violin were pulling the chords that made my body feel like it was pure electricity, although that could also be from the contact of Vali’s skin on mine.
“And I have to say, the way you reached out to me before you came to dinner did not help matters.” She said, I furrowed my brow.
“I reached out to you? I thought…” I trailed off, she shook her head with a sly smile.
“You wanted me in that room with you, in the shower with you, so you brought me there. But of course you had to do it the second I sat down at that table. Do you know how hard it was to keep myself under control? While you were asking me if I felt what you did, did you even bother trying to feel what I felt? Or do you not know how yet?” She asked, and I shook my head before I spun her out and in once more in time with the music.
“Reach out to me then. Wish me to be a part of you.” She instructed as her body melded with mine, so I did. With everything I had in me I wished her to be a part of my very soul, her honey eyes the only thing I saw as I felt the sensation of our minds melding.
“Now what?” I whispered.
“Close your eyes, I’ll lead the dancing, you just need to focus on the string that connects us.” She said, and without hesitation I closed my eyes. Even in the darkness I still saw her honey irises, could feel them reaching into the deepest parts of me that I hid from even myself. But I wasn’t afraid of her seeing them, no. I knew she would nurture them, would handle them with the care I wished I could give them.
“Pull the string, and follow it.” Her voice echoed through my body, a calling to my soul that I followed. An imagined piece of red string that I held onto to guide my way. “There you are…” she whispered as new sensations and emotions flooded my body. I saw flashes of the world through her eyes, saw my own face with eyes closed and lips parted as I fell into her.
“What do you feel?” She asked, rising onto her toes to whisper into my ear. I hummed my contentment at the feeling of her warm breath fan over my neck.
“I feel…” putting it into words was impossible. To feel all of her emotions, the way her entire body was elated at my touch, it was both too much and not enough.
“The way you pulled me in while you were in that damned shower, it was so deep into you that I felt everything. Every emotion, every water drop that landed on the back of your shoulders, how your body reacted to my voice. I understand that you can’t describe it, because it’s exactly what I felt when you wrapped your mind around me.” She said, and I opened my eyes as my body began to feel heavy.
While the wine and her touch made me feel as light as air, like nothing could hold me down, it was having the opposite affect on her and it was leaking out to me. It didn’t weigh her down, but rather made her want to sink into me. Made her want to lay down all of her worries and the weight that sat upon her shoulders, to completely unburden herself and give into the pull between us.
Do you see what you’re doing to me? Her voice was in my head, the connection was causing a shiver to run through my entire body. A reaction to the pure thrill of her accepting what was between us.
Do you see how much I crave you? She asked next, and I felt the all too familiar burn in my body being amplified by her own. The ghost of fingers running over each other’s bodies made that burn grow stronger, the both of us imagining the same thing was becoming dangerous. I knew that much was true when her eyes began glowing pure gold, and I knew mine were blood red.
Do you feel it? Her voice in my mind was gravelly, like she wasn’t getting enough air to her lungs to speak clearly. The point of her asking was just to tip me over the edge, because she already knew the answer.
"Yes." I replied before I held the back of her neck and kissed her in the middle of the room.
And everything around us faded to nothing.