I huffed. “Do you play poker, Rosie?”
She flicked a glance at Kyros, cheeks pinkening. “I dabble, miss.”
Mmm-hmm. Sure she just dabbled.
“We’d like breakfast. Better make a lot,” I said, studying the half-naked male between my thighs. His eyes were fixed on me.
“At once,” she bobbed a curtsey.
“By the pool, please.”
She curtsied again, shutting the door.
“Do you always mess with your staff like that?” Kyros rested his hands on my hips. He pulled me down hard and circled his hips.
A breathless moan slipped between my teeth as my legs shook. “Why does that feel so fucking good?”
He ground his erection into me again, and my head dropped forward until our gazes locked.
“Do you like that, my beauty?”
“I can’t think when we touch,” I said between pants.
Both of us trembled against the urge to drink blood and fuck for three days.
“You’re not the only one. To my memory, I recently forgot we were in the ocean and I should swim to keep us afloat.”
My husky laughter trailed off as I dragged my fingernails through the middle line of his torso.
His sharp inhale was music to my ears.
“We should discuss the fifth exchange,” Kyros said in a ragged voice.
I stilled, returning my hands to my lap. “Uh, that’s…” Sudden.
Fear. Resolve.
“Kyros?” I pushed backward so I was crouched between his legs. “Is everything okay? Why do you feel that way?”
He followed me up, capturing one of my hands. “There’s nothing to fear.”
“Is that so?” I scowled at him. “How about this then? I’m going to have a shower, to which you are not invited, and you can have another think about your plan of attack because the nothing to fear line didn’t work.”
Kyros’s lips twitched, and I jumped off the massive bed and snatched up my kimono on the way to the bathroom. Part of me was just proud I managed the move without face planting.
When I exited ten minutes later, feeling unusually bubbly about the day, Kyros was looking through my stuff.
“Having a good snoop?” I asked, entering my closet.
He followed close after me, inhaling deeply. “Just returning the favour. You have a lot of clothes and shoes. I like how they’re organised.”
That actually hit me in the feels. “Thanks.”
His anticipation curled around me like a litter of puppies.
“You’re excited to be here.” I grabbed jeans and a T-shirt seeing as he was just in sweatpants and a black Tee.
“To see the home of my true mate, yes. I’m excited. You continue to keep me at a distance. I’ve wished to know you better for some time.”
“Your penis entered my vagina, Kyros. Your face has been between my legs. Not sure what distance you’re talking about.” Grabbing underwear, I dropped my kimono and dressed in the black panty and bra set.
His storming lust left me breathless. “You’re purposefully being obtuse. I refer to emotional distance, not physical. And what we shared was much more than me pleasuring you, vixen. Don’t make it sound empty.”
I glared at him. Why wasn’t he letting me get away with shit this morning? I didn’t do deep emotions before midday. Or after midday. Not with him.
“I’m unsure how to respond to that.” I tugged my jeans on and slipped the see-through T-shirt over my head.
Kyros’s eyes tracked me like a hawk. “You’re beginning to relent. Soon you’ll be mine.”
Reluctant laughter fell from my lips. “Can you stop? What woman wants a man saying that to her?” I picked up a sandal and hurled it at his head.
He caught the shoe. “You see me as a man?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Stop being weird.”
Relief.
“Weren’t we discussing the fifth exchange?” I huffed, snatching the sandal from him and locating the other.
Kyros whirled me around, pressing me against the wall. “Were we?”
Good try. “You wanted the fourth exchange because it would prevent others from compelling me, but why the fifth? Why, really?”
“Things are reaching a head in Ingenium, Basilia. I wish you to have every possible advantage in case things don’t go as planned. Our blood will further merge in the fifth exchange. You will heal at an accelerated rate and become faster and stronger.”
Unease stirred within me. “I thought you said I wouldn’t become a Vissimo.”
He cocked his head. “Not through the exchanges alone, and you must be invited by the clan alpha. Am I to take it you don’t wish to join my kind?”
We’d never talked about it. But no, I didn’t.
I was human—lifespan, wrinkles, and all.
Kyros caught my frown and tilted my chin up. “The fifth exchange is all we’re discussing.”
I tried to free my face, glowering at him. Like he never downplayed anything that may freak me out.
“I’m just not sure why I’d do the fifth exchange,” I said, abandoning my attempt to shake his hold. “I’ll be better able to protect myself, yes, but each exchange makes it harder to think of anything but you. If we exchange again and you’re taken away, it will be harder to live without you.”
A hardness settled over his emotions—something I’d noticed Kyros did when he wanted to guard me from something.
“Can you say you’re immune to the drive to continue the mating exchanges?” he eventually asked. “That your entire being isn’t desperate to intertwine with mine?”
The urge to blame the urge on the blood bond stalled on my lips. Because that excuse wasn’t true anymore. Even if I hated that lines were blurring, feelings were becoming tangled.
He crowded me against the wall, threaded his hand through my hair and tugged until my head was tipped back to see his face. “When will you admit how you feel for me, my beauty?”
My breath hitched.
“You drove off a cliff for me,” he whispered, trailing his nose from jaw to temple.
My hands shook. His were in the same state.
“I…”
His growl slipped between us. “The thought of claiming you as my mate keeps me up at night. I want to bite and fuck you through the three remaining exchanges back to back.” He leaned in for a kiss that I could tell would leave me legless.
I placed a hand on his chest, mind scrambling. “Is losing Ingenium a possibility? You said winning was a certainty a few weeks ago. Why the rush to jump into the fifth exchange?”
“There are no certainties in life,” the vampire purred, slipping his leg between mine.
“Kyros, I can literally feel when you’re downplaying shit,” I said angrily.
I needed this to happen and didn’t expect Kyros to come out with it so soon. Yet I was putting up more barriers than security at a Justin Bieber concert.
In response, the vampire tapped my ear gently, his eyes sliding to the left.
Oh, right.
“Time is always slipping away. If the opportunity is now, who am I to fight my instincts?” Kyros trailed kisses between my pushed-up breasts, pulling up my thin T-shirt to continue down.
I clamped my thighs together.