Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 81867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“You may now kiss the bride.”
His eyes search mine for the briefest moment, and then he swoops down and crushes his lips to mine.
My stomach drops to the floor as his soft lips meet mine for the first time. Gentle but demanding. He’s kissing me. Really kissing me.
Holy shit, I’m kissing Layden. My brain can’t connect the thought together with how my body is coming alive. My fingertips tingle. My toes. My stomach. Between my thighs.
Is it just for show? To please my grandfather and assure him he’ll fulfill his part of the deal?
A second later I can’t care, because Layden has dipped me low. My fingers dig into his shoulders when the very tips of our tongues connect and I think—oh god, is this what it would have been like to kiss him all those years ago?
Because this feels like the kiss we never had.
When he finally pulls us back upright, I’m blinking and gasping for breath. I tear my eyes away from him because again, I can’t bear to see whatever I might find on his face. Was that kiss for revenge? Or because he actually… could he actually feel something for me after all this time?
It’s impossible and besides, none of it matters because I can’t allow any of this to continue.
I look back to the priest, still breathing hard. My hands are trembling now so I clench them into fists. I can’t believe Vlad actually allowed a man of the cloth into the grounds of his compound. No doubt he wants this to be absolutely legitimate in the eyes of the law, so he can have so-called legal claim to whatever offspring Layden and I might produce.
Layden’s an angel and I’m… whatever I am. If we had a child, they would be strong, it’s true.
Which is why I can never allow that to happen.
Chapter One
LAYDEN
Phoenix slams the door shut to our newlywed suite and leans back against it, her eyes closed. My new wife is so beautiful in her wedding dress, with her long black hair pinned back, her full lips pink, and her blue eyes flashing.
“Thank fuck that’s done with!” she says, expelling a loud breath.
Not exactly the reaction I might have hoped for on my wedding night, but what the hell do I know? I’ve never done this before. And my brothers’ back slaps, winks, and bawdy jokes about not breaking the bed on the first night weren’t exactly helpful.
It’s ridiculous—we’re grown men, thousands of years old, but just because I was last born, they’ve always treated me as if I’m a perpetual schoolboy. Even though I was the only one of us courageous enough to stand up to our tyrant of a father two hundred years ago. An act I still pay for to this day. There’s not an hour that goes by that the wound on my shoulders doesn’t ache from where my father cut off my wings with his burning sword. The molten hell-metal he poured overtop them ensured they’d never grow back.
None of my brothers did a thing to stop it, but they still have the gall to try to play the “big brother” act with me? It pisses me off even on a supposed day of unity like today.
My wedding day.
I look over at my bride, who’s yanking the pins out of her hair. Her beauty makes me ache in the way I always do when I’m around her. Deep in my empty belly. With hunger. I want to walk closer. I want to touch her.
But my hunger has always been dangerous, so I stay back and ask, “Can I help?”
“Do I look like I need help with anything?”
I’ll take that as a no.
Today’s “celebration” wasn’t anything like an ordinary wedding day. More like a merger between two powerful families, solidifying the blood oath that Phoenix’s vampire grandfather tricked one of my brothers into. Although no, I suppose the terms of that won’t be contractually fulfilled until Phoenix has a baby by me. She’s not a vampire, but she’s still a powerful being. Any progeny we produce would be highly coveted.
My mouth goes suddenly dry as my gaze shoots toward the central piece of furniture in a newlywed suite Vlad had set up in a north room of the compound—a giant four-poster bed.
“So,” I say, and swallow so she can’t hear the craving edge to my voice.
Phoenix’s head comes up, and she stares at me before pursing her lips. “We might as well go ahead and get it over with.” She walks toward me and sits down on the edge of the suddenly looming bed, leaning over to unbuckle the strap of her white high heels.
“Um.” I blink a couple times. I will stay calm. I will not be a ravenous beast. “Right.”
I shrug off my suit coat, undo some buttons at the top of my shirt and then tug it off over my head. Except I didn’t undo enough buttons so it gets caught, and I have to wrestle with it a bit before finally managing to yank it all the way off.