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  Snow frowned at Lilah and spoke so quietly that Javier was sure he had misheard him. “I will deal with it.”

  Antoine stared at his brother. Javier and Callum did too.

  Snow lifted his head and looked down at Javier. “I will take responsibility for what happened here.”

  Javier wasn’t sure what to say.

  Snow crouched beside Lilah, a strange look in his now blue eyes. “You are like family to us.”

  Javier glanced at Antoine to find the man scowling at the back of his older brother’s head. He didn’t seem to share Snow’s view and Javier was certain that Snow wasn’t taking responsibility because he felt Javier was like a brother to him. He was dreadfully certain that Snow was seeking his death.

  “It was my fault. I will take responsibility for my own actions. You are needed here more than I am and perhaps if I take Lilah with me to them they will see that we are telling the truth and that Lord Ashville had no true claim to her,” Javier said and Snow shook his head. “I will not hear of it, Snow. Let Antoine speak to them and then I will take Lilah to see them. All will be well.”

  “Let him, Brother.” Antoine’s tone was as black as midnight skies in winter and Javier could understand his anger. If Javier was in his position and it was his brother offering to face a board of vicious purebloods in place of another vampire, he would have been angry too. He would do all that he could to stop him. “I will contact them and then I will take Javier and Lilah to them personally. You need not involve yourself.”

  “I attacked him too.” Snow straightened and his icy irises slid to one side, towards his brother, but he didn’t turn to face him. He looked down at Lilah again and then turned away, heading for the stage exit. “You owe me, Javier. Tend to your pretty female and take care of her. She is yours now. Cherish the gift of her love.”

  The sound of the stage door slamming echoed around the theatre and Javier stared at it for long seconds before it opened again and Antoine stormed out of it, heading after his brother.

  Javier looked down at Lilah where she lay in his arms and hoped with all of his heart that he was wrong about Snow, and that justice would be kind and protect him from the wrath of their rulers if he wasn’t and Snow was seeking his death. Antoine would never forgive him if their rulers executed Snow. The aristocrat vampire would come for his head, or offer it in exchange for his brother’s life.

  He glanced up at Callum. The look in his green eyes was one of reassurance and Javier accepted the kind gift. He looked towards the door, his mind on what Snow had done for him. He had known the aristocrat brothers for a century now, had witnessed their closeness and the lengths they would go to in order to protect each other. A soothing wave rolled through him and he released the fear in his heart. Antoine would never come for his head because he would never allow his brother to face their rulers alone. He would travel wherever Snow chose to go, even into the jaws of Hell, and would ensure his brother returned safely. He would lie to protect him, would back up Snow’s story and blame this whole mess on bloodlust and an accidental killing, never mentioning the sacred law that had been broken. Javier only hoped their rulers believed them. He wasn’t sure how to thank Snow for what he was doing for him. He owed the vampire his life.

  Cherish the gift of her love.

  He would do just that.

  Now that Lilah was his.

  Javier slowly rose to his feet, lifting Lilah into his aching arms at the same time, ignoring the pain that tore through him. He would suffer pain one hundred times stronger for her sake if he had to. He would have faced their rulers and whatever sentence they would have given him now that he knew she was free of her master and safe.

  Callum held the door for him and waited while he walked towards him, each step more painful than the last.

  He would tend to his female.

  He would cherish her forever if she would have him.

  CHAPTER 10

  Lilah woke slowly, her head strangely free of pain and her body warm and relaxed. Why had she expected to wake in agony? She fluttered her eyes open and Javier came into focus, lying next to her on his back, his face littered with thin red lines and bruises. His lip was swollen and split, and there was a nasty dent in his nose. She frowned and lowered her gaze to what she could see of his bare chest. More red lines marred his shoulders and torso. There had been a fight. Was that why she had expected to wake in pain?

  She slowly raised her hands from under the midnight blue covers and frowned at them. They were dirty and there were cuts on them, but they were healing and had already passed the scab stage. Each mark was like a dark pink scar, several weeks’ old rather than mere hours.

  There were more marks on her dirty elbows and she could feel that her lip had split too, but it wasn’t swollen like Javier’s.

  She touched it and then her cheek, recalling that Lord Ashville had dragged her through the theatre searching for Javier and everything had turned chaotic.

  Lilah sat up abruptly and pain speared through her this time. She pressed her hands to her stomach and held down the bile and her urge to be sick. Her vision swam and she waited for it to stop wavering before she looked around Javier’s blue bedroom. The long black coat folded neatly over the chair in the corner told her that part of her memories had been real. Snow had tried to protect her.

  Had he killed Lord Ashville?

  Her gaze tracked back to Javier where he slept beside her. Every cut and bruise on his beautiful face and body told her that he had been the one to fight for her. Had he killed her master? She placed her hand over her chest between her bare breasts and tried to feel Lord Ashville in her blood.

  Her eyes widened.

  She felt something but it didn’t make her skin crawl and the presence was close to her. In this room.

  Lilah touched her lips and then drew her hand away and stared at it and the healing cuts on her arms. The bruises on her skin were faded too, and she could no longer feel the internal pain from Lord Ashville’s abusive behaviour towards her.

  Javier had given his blood to her.

  “Forgive me,” Javier uttered in a raspy voice and slowly opened his chocolate brown eyes. Concern touched his expression and he wearily raised his hand and brushed his knuckles across her cheek. The worry in his eyes turned to fatigue and his hand drooped, falling to her breast, as though he no longer had the strength to lift it. She took hold of his hand for him and brought it to her face, holding it there so he could stroke it. “I wanted to give you a choice this time.”

  Lilah closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against his hand, feeling his apology deep in her blood. She wasn’t angry with him. He had only given her blood so she would heal rapidly and he had probably saved her life by doing so. When Lord Ashville had thrown her against the wall, she had felt her life forced from her body, the pain so intense that her heart had struggled. She had expected to never wake at all. Javier hadn’t forced a bond upon her, not in the way Lord Ashville had.

  He had gifted her with life by giving his blood to her and she could feel in her veins that he wished there had been another way to save her.

  “There’s nothing to forgive.” She drew his hand away from her face. Her gaze fell to the deep bite mark on his wrist, a mark that he must have made for her. She pressed a long kiss to it, thankful for the gift that he had given her, a chance to be with him. Her heart whispered that he would never use the bond between them against her or treat her as Lord Ashville had done. He had given her blood out of love not out of a desire to own her. “I would have done the same for you.”

  She looked at the cuts and bruises on his body.

  “I will do the same for you.” She leaned over him on the bed, reached around behind her neck and pulled the hair away from her throat, revealing it to him.

  Javier stared at her throat and then at the other side where he had bitten her. “You have no bite marks other than my own.”

  Lilah frowned and then shrugged. “You were the first to bite me.”
r />   “On your neck... or ever?” Javier struggled onto his elbows, propping himself up on the bed. The covers slid downwards to reveal the top of his stomach, the taut muscles enticing her to look at them. She kept her eyes on his, giving him the attention he deserved and refusing to gawp at him when he was having a serious conversation with her.

  “Ever.”

  “Lord Ashville never took your blood?”

  Lilah shook her head. “No. He was never interested in me like that. He only ever bit the men and slept with them.”

  Javier stared at her, slack jawed, his amazement running through her blood.

  Lilah realised why he looked so surprised. “That’s why he didn’t have full control of me. You were apologising because you had taken my blood and then given me yours. That’s what completes a bond between a human and their vampire master. That’s why I still had my free will. He didn’t have my blood to complete the bond.”

  Javier nodded. “I have never been so thankful in my life.”

  He didn’t look as though he had much reason to be thankful right now. He was a mess and there were dark areas on the bedclothes where he had bled on them.

  “What happened?” Lilah carefully traced along the edge of one of the cuts on his cheek and then furrowed her eyebrows when she ghosted her finger over his broken nose. The dark shadowing under his left eye extended down over his cheek to his jaw. “Did you kill him?”

  “I didn’t mean to,” Javier whispered, his voice hoarse, and Lilah looked down at his throat and the dark purple bruises on it. It looked as though someone had strangled him. Her eyes briefly widened when she remembered coming around and seeing her master throttling Javier. It had driven her to move and she had grabbed the nearest heavy object and hit Lord Ashville with it to make him stop. “I snapped and killed him when he hit you again. It was only because of Snow that I managed it... and it is only because of Snow that I am here now.”

  Lilah frowned and looked at the black coat on the chair.

  “Snow has decided to take my place and will face the consequences. He attacked Lord Ashville too and might have been the one to kill him if Antoine hadn’t succeeded in restraining him.”

  The old vampire certainly was unpredictable. She had been surprised to see him there on the stage, telling her master to let her go or suffer death at his hands. Javier seemed equally surprised that he had decided to take responsibility for what had happened.

  “Will they kill him?” Lilah didn’t want that and the look in Javier’s eyes told her that he didn’t either. She smiled and touched his cheek, hoping to chase away the pain in his body and his heart. “Maybe I need to take your mind off it.”

  Her echoing his earlier words to her brought a smile to his lips that became a grimace and he touched his split lip and the fresh blood that glistened on it. Lilah slid her hand around the nape of his neck and helped him to sit up. She curled up beside him, so her bare breasts touched his chest and his arm, and guided him to her throat.

  “Drink from me, Javier. Heal yourself,” she whispered and he kissed her throat, sending shivers racing down her spine with each sweep of his lips over her skin.

  Lilah closed her eyes and relaxed so it wouldn’t hurt as much when he bit her. He opened his mouth and licked the curve of her throat, and then gently sank his fangs into her. Her hands tensed against his back but she didn’t flinch. She refused to when she had offered this to him. The initial stab of pain faded with his first slow pull on her blood and his second sent liquid heat surging into her veins. She settled her cheek against his and held him close to her, caressing his strong back and listening to him feeding from her vein. It didn’t disgust her as she had always thought it would. There was something sensual about it, something beautiful as the connection between them opened again, stronger than ever this time. He withdrew his fangs and continued to drink, his hands coming to press into her spine, clutching her to him as his strength returned.

  She looked down at his back and watched in fascination as the wounds on it healed before her eyes, the fresh blood in his veins accelerating the process more than she had thought it would. Each mouthful of blood he drew from her caused it to quicken, until only dark pink lines marked his skin, scars like she had on hers.

  Javier licked her throat, murmuring something in Spanish against it, and she couldn’t hide her surprise when he drew back and she saw that the cuts and bruises on his face had healed. Only faint scars remained and a darker streak over his nose where it had been broken. She touched his throat, glad to see the horrific bruises there were gone.

  “Thank you,” he whispered and kissed her before she could tell him that she should be the one thanking him for freeing her from Lord Ashville. She kissed him instead, silently thanking him with each sweep and caress of her lips against his. She could feel he was still worried about what had happened between them and wasn’t surprised when he broke the kiss and cupped her cheek, staring deep into her eyes. “I won’t act on the bond between us. If you want to leave the theatre, you can do so. You are free, Lilah. You can do as you please.”

  “I can do as I please?” She rose to her knees. A pained look crossed his face when she slipped down from the bed on the bathroom side and it turned to confusion when she held her hand out to him.

  “You are not leaving?”

  Lilah couldn’t stop herself from laughing aloud at that. “Never... but I am going to do as I please... and it pleases me that you join me in the shower, as promised.”

  Javier smiled and it warmed her to see it and the affection and happiness in his dark brown eyes. He was by her side in an instant, his hand in hers, leading her towards his en-suite bathroom. Lilah stared unabashedly at his bare bottom as he walked, loving the way it dimpled with each step, so firm and tempting. He jolted when she ran her hand over it and gave it a pat.

  “Why do I have the feeling you will be playing the role of master in this relationship?” He grinned over his shoulder at her, pulled her into his arms so her front pressed against his, and lifted her. She didn’t protest as he carried her into the large shower cubicle, his hands firmly gripping her backside. She was actually looking forward to him being in command but she had enjoyed tying him up. Perhaps they could alternate between dominant and submissive, because just the thought of chaining him up properly with shackles he couldn’t easily break had her hot as Hell.

  Javier pressed her into the cool tiles of the shower, deftly flicked the water on, and kissed her. He wasn’t the only one getting feelings. Lilah had the feeling that she wasn’t going to get to scrub the dirt off her body before Javier had had his wicked way with her. He didn’t seem to notice any of his healing cuts as he lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist. His hardening cock nudged her bottom as he kissed her, dominating her mouth and plundering it with his tongue. He tasted like blood but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Her tongue tangled with his, licking its cool length as her fingers tangled in his hair, holding his mouth against hers. She moaned when he shifted his hips backwards, allowing his erection to rise between them, and then ground against her.

  “Are you sure you’re up for this?” she whispered into his mouth and he thrust against her again, telling her without words that he was definitely up for something.

  Lilah moaned and closed her eyes as he kissed down her jaw to her throat and found the marks he had placed on her just minutes before. He closed his mouth over them and sucked, reopening the puncture wounds, drawing more blood from her. The combination of his cock rubbing her aroused nub and his mouth working on her throat had her burning up and tipping her head back into the hard white tiles of the shower. The hot water beat down on her side, cascading over her skin.

  Javier thrust again, his fingers pressing into her backside, pinning her against the wall. He groaned and she bucked her hips into his, rubbing herself on his hard cock, loving the feel of it pressing against her. He licked her neck in response and devoured it with hungry kisses.

  “I want you,” he
whispered and nibbled her earlobe, lightly biting it. “My Lilah.”

  Lilah smiled at that and the passion and intense need behind those two words. She held him to her, stroking his hair, melting into him as he kissed her throat and held her hard against his body as though he would never let her go now that he had her. She didn’t want him to.

  “I want you too,” she said and he groaned when she kissed his shoulder. When she bit down on it with her blunt teeth, his groan became a feral growl and his grip on her tightened so much that she let out a squeak. She had forgotten that it was dangerous to bite him when she had him worked up. “My Javier.”

  He growled again, the possessive edge to it thrilling her, and shifted his hips against hers, nudging the head of his cock into her folds and brushing her clit with it. She moaned and raised herself up him and then slid downwards again, catching the crown of his length and forcing it down with her. It pressed close to her slick channel, teasing her with how near he was to entering her. It felt like miles away to her as she tried to shift him closer, ached to be one with him again.

  Javier’s hand left her hip, guided his cock down to her entrance, and then he eased her onto it, slowly impaling her. The delicious sting of his hard length entering her, stretching her body to perfection, was blissful. She closed her eyes and captured Javier’s lips, kissing him as he withdrew and then thrust back into her, each stroke long and slow, filling her with more than desire. The connection between them through their blood was open, their minds as one as their bodies joined them, until she wasn’t sure where he ended and she began. She could feel all his love for her and how much he needed her. Each slow meeting of their hips, each careful stroke of his cock and word murmured against her lips between kisses, spoke to her of his fear during the fight with Lord Ashville, his devotion to her, and his intense need. Those feelings echoed within her heart and soul, perfectly matching his. She had been so afraid for him, had feared that she would lose him and that this bliss they had found would come to a terrible end. She loved him so much, needed him more than air and would do anything to be with him.