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  “Adrik?” It took him a second before he responded. “Is everything okay?”

  “No.” That one word was filled with hatred. He looked down at her. Whatever he saw in her expression made his whole demeanor change. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t act this way, especially not in front of you. I guess I’m just too possessive for my own good.” He smirked.

  Although she didn’t condone fighting, she couldn’t deny the thrill of excitement she got at the knowledge that Adrik wanted her all to himself.

  He led her to the SUV and helped her in. His big hands slipped smoothly around her waist and sent heat through her whole body. He was around to the driver’s side and in his seat before she could blink.

  She let her eyes roam down his long, hard body. The simple tee he wore molded to his huge muscles. She swallowed and licked her lips, aware that he hadn’t started the vehicle.

  “Is everything okay?” Her heart pounded as he turned and stared at her. The blue of his eyes seemed to glow in the darkened car.

  “Your scent has saturated everything.”

  She swallowed again, her cheeks becoming red as embarrassment flooded her. His words had sounded lazy, dreamy almost, as she watched him scan her body with his gaze. She shifted uneasily in her seat, knowing she was wet just from looking at him.

  “What does it smell like?” The words just flowed out of her mouth, and she instantly wished she hadn’t said them.

  “Like nothing I’ve ever smelt before. Like the sweetest flower or the finest aged wine.”

  His eyes still roamed over her as he spoke. Kayla got wetter. He inhaled and closed his eyes. The soft groan that came from him made her hotter. Her nipples tingled, and her clit throbbed. Could she honestly wait until they got to his place?

  They stared at each other for a moment. He ever so slightly leaned in until she could feel his warm breath against her ear. “You intoxicate me, Kayla. I’m going to ravish you tonight.”

  A little noise left her. He started the vehicle and pulled out, their breathing ragged as he drove off.

  Thirty minutes later, the SUV pulled into the gravel driveway in front of Adrik’s cabin. They both got out of the car and made their way toward the cabin. Once inside, she shut the door behind her and walked to where Adrik was lighting a few candles on the dining room table. She smiled even though he couldn’t see her. The table was dressed elegantly.

  He took a step back and went into the kitchen. “I hope you’re hungry. Although, I haven’t cooked in ages, so if you don’t like it, we can go out.” He opened the oven, and a delicious aroma wafted out. “I thought eating in would be more quiet and relaxing.”

  “You actually cooked dinner for me?” She leaned against the island and watched as he pulled out aluminum-covered dishes from the oven. “I can’t believe you actually cooked dinner and left to come pick me up.”

  He turned around, confusion clear on his face. “Why would you come to me?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, weren’t you worried your house could have burnt down leaving the oven on like that?”

  He laughed, a rich and deep sound that made her heart stutter. “I wasn’t worried about leaving the oven on. I wanted to make sure you got here safely.” He set the rag on the counter and turned toward her. “Besides, I love seeing you. It feels like forever since I’ve seen you.”

  Again, her heart sped up at his words.

  “Would you like something to drink? Perhaps a glass of kvass?”

  “What is k-vahs?” She sounded the word out. It sounded much better coming from his lips, lips she was now staring at. He didn’t answer right away, and she brought her gaze to his—caught red-handed. Although from the look he was giving her, he didn’t mind.

  Adrik cleared his throat as he stared at her for a suspended moment. He turned around and opened one of the cupboards. He grabbed an unlabeled wine bottle and poured a dark liquid into a flute glass.

  “Kvass is a Russian drink. It’s made from berries and juice.”

  He handed her the glass, and she smelled it. The fruity aroma hit her nose like an ocean wave. She took a tentative sip, surprised at how smooth and sweet it was as it slipped down her throat. “It’s wonderful.”

  He gestured for her to have a seat at the table. “I wanted to make you something traditional, something from Russia, but I realized I didn’t know what you liked and didn’t want to risk it.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll love anything you make.” She took another sip and noticed that despite how sweet the liquid was, it packed quite a punch.

  “I am actually ashamed that I don’t already know everything about you.” He brought tray after tray of food over to the table before finally sitting across from her.

  She looked at the food and then at him, shocked. “You made all of this?” There was enough food to feed an army.

  “I didn’t know what you liked, so I made a little bit of everything.” He started taking the foil and lids off the dishes.

  Spaghetti, lasagna, fish, chicken, and red meat were displayed, along with an array of side dishes.

  “If you don’t like it, we can go out. I saw you order a spaghetti dish at the restaurant, so I started off making that, but then I thought you might not like my version, so I made the other things.”

  “How sweet.” She reached her hand across the table. Her heart swelled with love. Sure, it was just a few meals, but the fact that he had thought of what she would and wouldn’t like touched her deeply.

  Kayla leaned back in her seat feeling full and satisfied. She had tried a little bit of everything, which might not have been such a good idea. Adrik watched her with a strange look covering his face. She had thought she knew him, but with the revelations that had surfaced about him and her, she wasn’t sure what she knew anymore.

  “That was delicious.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it.” He leaned back in his chair lazily and smiled at her.

  Question after question moved through her mind, each one sounding crazier than the last. She averted her gaze to the dishes on the table.

  “What are you thinking?”

  She looked up, not really knowing how to answer. “A lot of things.”

  “Well, why not start from the beginning?”

  “Are you sure you want to hear?” She stared into his blue eyes, the color so light, yet intense, it was as if she were lying in the sand on the Caribbean. She felt as though she could get lost in those blue depths, just drift away and never come back.

  “I want to hear anything you have to say.”

  She contemplated if delving into his past was a good idea. True, she wanted to know everything, but was she ready to hear all of it? She didn’t think there was anything else that could surprise her, at least she hoped not.

  Chapter 17

  “How old are you really?”

  Adrik was quiet after she asked the question, yet his gaze never wavered from hers. “I’m two hundred and fifty-eight years old.” He didn’t say anything else after that, just stared at her as if he were letting her absorb the information.

  She let out a breath. Actually hearing Adrik say it was a shock. “Wow, that’s unbelievable.”

  A smirk covered his lips. “Is it?”

  She chuckled. “Maybe I should find someone my own age. You are kind of old for me.” She chuckled again at the serious look that covered his face.

  “There will be no other male, younger or not.”

  He sounded so serious, but she broke out into a laugh, not able to hide her amusement. “So, you’re Russian, I know that much. What was life like that long ago?” A haunted look crossed his face, and all of her amusement dried up.

  He masked his feelings. No doubt the years had taught him how to hide his emotions well. “Those times were hard.”

  She felt sorrow for him and wanted nothing more than to comfort him when it was clear how upset he was. “We don’t have to talk about it.”

  “No. I have nothing to hide.” He grabbed her
hand from across the table and helped her stand.

  Adrik led them over to the couch, where she sat down and watched him retrieve the bottle of kvass and their glasses. He came back over and set them on the table. She slipped her heels off and tucked her feet under her bottom.

  “I was born in seventeen fifty-two in Siberia. The village was known as Daravnya and had less than two hundred inhabitants. My mother and father wanted me to live a ‘normal’ life, as normal as a vampire child could have, at least.” He ran a hand through his hair and breathed out. “Although we didn’t live near the Blood Breed village, my parents kept in contact with the royal family. I didn’t even meet the royal family until I was a teenager.”

  “Why did your family wait so long?”

  He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. Kayla was beginning to think he did that when he got nervous.

  “My parents were loyal to our kind, but they wanted a different life for me. I guess it was kind of how your parents treated you, although I knew about my heritage.”

  He handed her the glass, and she took a sip of the kvass.

  “It was when I turned twenty that I chose to join the royal army. Up until that time, I had lived a fairly normal life. My father had crops that I helped him tend to, and my mother ran the household. We were like any other villager, even though we lived on the border of Daravnya. Mostly the other villagers thought we were a recluse family and didn’t pay much attention to us, but then a man moved into the village on my nineteenth birthday and changed everything.”

  Kayla saw the change in Adrik’s posture and demeanor. His face seemed to become dark, and his voice changed to a deeper tone. Whatever he was remembering was certainly not good.

  “The stranger hadn’t been there long, but already I could tell from observation that he was on to my family and what we really were. Neither my mother nor father could read minds, but we didn’t need to. We could easily see his intent on his face.” He took a long swallow of his drink before pouring his glass full again. “He was a Vampirdzhija, a vampire hunter.”

  Kayla didn’t even know vampire hunters existed, although she didn’t know why she was so surprised. If there were creatures of myth and lore out there, couldn’t there be beings that wanted to destroy them? She took his free hand and moved closer to him.

  “I had gone hunting one night. I had grown up on animal blood, never actually tasting human blood while living with my parents.”

  “You can survive off of any kind of blood?”

  He nodded and brought her hand to his lips for a gentle kiss. “My kind can survive off of any blood, but human or immortal blood is composed of exactly what we need to be completely at our strongest.”

  Adrik had never drunk from her, and Kayla had a strong yearning to experience that. It set her pulse skyrocketing.

  “I went out hunting that night, sensing a herd of red deer close by. I found a lone deer grazing in a hidden meadow. Once I killed it and made my way back toward our cottage, it was nearing sunrise. Before I even made it to my home, I could sense something was wrong. I was about half a mile away when I dropped the deer and ran to my cottage.”

  He cleared his throat and ran his palm over his jaw. “I stopped before the trees broke and watched the home I had grown up in burn brightly. I could feel the heat from the fire from where I stood. I knew my mother and father were already dead. I felt it in my very bones.” Adrik took another long drink and continued. “I had seen him standing off in the distance, smirking as he held his bloodied sword.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I wanted nothing more than to tear his body apart. I could have killed him so easily.”

  “What stopped you?”

  He didn’t look at her, just stared off in the distance as he clearly thought about his past. “The sun. I moved forward, getting ready to strike him down, but the sun was already peaking over the horizon. I shouldn’t have left to go hunting so late in the evening. If only I had gone out earlier, I could have protected my family. The hunter had caught my parents off guard, had killed them as they were preparing for bed.”

  Kayla moved closer to him until their bodies touched. She leaned in and gently kissed him on the forehead as he had done to her so many times before. She ran her hand over the side of his face and let tears of sorrow fall as she stared into his eyes. She kissed him again, letting out all of her love. He brushed her tears away with the pad of his thumb, and she cried harder. He was always so gentle with her, always trying to make her feel better despite the pain he felt.

  “His name was Oleg Vastric. He was a vile human, killing my kind, as well as other beings of the Otherworld, simply because he thought they were from the bowels of hell.”

  “How did you know that?”

  “After that night, I ended up living in the woods. I had found a small cave nestled away and fed off of the surrounding wildlife. I lived in that hole for a year, hunting and tracking the hunter. He was a very well-trained hunter, though. He always seemed to evade me. It wasn’t until after that time that I realized my parents would have wanted me to live like a strong male, not hide away in a cave like an animal. So, a year later, I decided to join the royal army. My brethren welcomed me with open arms and trained me into the warrior I am today. They introduced me to Breed blood so that I could increase my strength. They are the ones who told me about Oleg and how they, too, had searched for him because he had killed so many of our kind.”

  “So why hadn’t you ever drank a human’s blood before that? I mean, if you knew it would increase your strength, why wouldn’t you drink from a human?”

  His silence was torture. He just stared at her, making her anxiety climb higher and higher. “I still held my parents’ morals above all else. They didn’t believe in drinking human blood, and I followed in their ways. When the Breed came for me, I knew that I had to make a change in my lifestyle. I had to be stronger if I wanted to exact revenge for the ones I loved. It was a hard road to take, but once my mind was made up, I knew I had to drink human blood.”

  As they stared at each other, something in the air changed. No longer did he seem sad and lost. Adrik stared at her like a starving man.

  Is he thinking the same thing I am? Does he want to taste my blood as much as I want him to taste it?

  As if she had spoken the words aloud, he said, “There is only one neck that I’d like to see my lips on.” His words were low as his eyes dipped to her neck. His voice dropped to a whisper. “I’ve thought about how your pulse would feel under my tongue, what your blood would taste like in my mouth.” He dipped his head closer. “It makes me hard just thinking about it.”

  She shivered, knowing that after everything he had told her, she shouldn’t be feeling the things she felt. She was wet, thinking about how that hard cock would feel moving inside of her. Her nipples beaded up, and he closed his eyes and inhaled. A stab of guilt assaulted her. She should comfort him, not lust after him.

  “Help me take away the pain of my past, Kayla.”

  She could tell he spoke from the heart, could tell he wanted her just as much as she wanted him.

  “I love you so much.”

  She couldn’t breathe. Their mouths were mere inches apart, and their breath mingled as their respirations increased.

  “Do you need me as much as I need you, Kayla? Do you ache for me as I ache for you?” His words were deep and soft, moving through her and inflaming her thirst for him.

  “Yes.” The single word was spoken in a whisper, and she leaned in, needing to have their lips touching.

  Before that could happen, Adrik moved away and stood. She instantly felt cold and bereft as she looked down at his outstretched hand. She slipped hers into his. The coldness she momentarily felt vanished as the heat from his hand seeped into her. He led them up the stairs and into the loft and stopped once they reached the top. He took her mouth in a possessive kiss. She gasped from the intensity before she closed her eyes and let herself be dominated by the man, the vampire, she loved.

>   Chapter 18

  He moved his tongue slowly over her bottom lip. Adrik pulled her closer until their pelvises touched and she could feel the stiff outline of his cock. Kayla placed her hands on Adrik’s wide shoulders and felt the muscles flex and bunch beneath his skin with every move he made. He swept his tongue inside of her mouth and moved it erotically against her own. The taste of him was so very male.

  His hands slid down to her ass, and he gripped both cheeks in his large palms. When he gave them a squeeze, he moaned and deepened the kiss. She needed his thick, long cock inside of her.

  She tentatively moved her hands between their bodies and felt Adrik tense. His heart was beating so hard that she felt it right through his chest. It beat as hard and fast as hers did. Feeling a little more confident, Kayla ran her hand down the length of his shaft until she felt the flared head through his trousers. He thrust his hips gently against her hand. Without breaking their kiss, she worked his belt undone. Her hands shook, but she refused to let her nerves win.

  Adrik was still thrusting against her hand as she slowly worked the button open and slid the zipper down. He suddenly broke the kiss, and she gasped for air. He buried his head in the hollow of her neck, and she tilted it to the side.

  Oh, God. This is exactly what I’ve been craving.

  She pushed his pants down until they were a pool of material at his feet. Adrik continued to lick and kiss the hollow of her throat until she couldn’t think straight. Her breath stalled in her lungs as she felt him slide his hand between their bodies. He undid the button on her skirt and pushed the material past her hips.

  He skimmed his fingers over the edge of her thong before tearing it away. The sound of ripping material was loud and had her sucking in her breath.

  “Those were my favorite.”

  “I’ll buy you ten more just like it. They were blocking what I want.” His baritone voice was a deep whisper against her skin and sent goose bumps along her flesh and caused her nipples to harden.