Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) (35 page)
Read Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) Online
Authors: F E Heaton
She took her hand from his and slid them both up his chest to settle around his neck. Vivek closed his eyes and lowered his mouth to hers, claiming her lips in a slow kiss that warmed him down to his core and chased away his weariness and his lingering fear from the battle. Sophis was safe now, locked tight in his arms, and he would keep her here for as long as she would let him.
“It feels better without a mask,” he murmured against her mouth and she smiled. “It feels real.”
She pressed a solitary kiss to his lips and then pulled away and looked deep into his eyes. Her fingers stroked the damp hair at the back of his head, pushing through the short lengths.
“I’m glad it was you. When we met afterwards in the garden and I said all those things... I felt terrible. I realised that I still felt something for you, and that you felt something for me too. I didn’t know what to do then. I wasn’t sure whether to look for the man or look for you... so I did neither... and fate brought me to you, and then you kissed me and I knew it was you I had danced with.”
“I did not mean for things to go as far as they did that night. You know that, don’t you?”
She nodded and then lowered her gaze to his chest. “I know. I didn’t give you a chance to explain. I wanted a moment of fantasy. I wanted someone to look at me with desire, as though I was the most beautiful woman in the room, or the world... I wanted to know what Lady Lilith and Lady Prophecy felt whenever their mate looked at them like that... and then you danced with me and you were looking at me with so much hunger in your eyes, were saying all the right things, and it swept me along.”
Vivek smiled, ran his fingertips down the line of her jaw to her chin, and tilted her head up. She kept her gaze locked on his chest and his smile widened over how shy she looked now when she had been so bold last night. Perhaps he could make her bold again.
“It wasn’t a moment of fantasy, Sophis. It wasn’t make-believe,” he said and her gaze crept higher, reaching his jaw. “I meant every look and every word. You were the most beautiful woman at the ball... are the most beautiful woman in the world... and I need you more than anything. I crave you, hunger for you... want you. I love you.”
Sophis bit her lip and looked to her right. The open collar of her black jacket pulled away from her neck, revealing the bite marks on the left side of her throat. He sighed and brushed his fingers over them, and she shivered beneath the touch.
“This is real,” he whispered and she looked at him at last, her brown eyes round and full of need. It wasn’t passion in them but rather a desire to hear him say more, a hunger for reassurance. He couldn’t blame her. He hadn’t made things easy and hadn’t exactly been a shining example of a man in love over the past decade. She needed proof so she could chase the past from her heart and believe in him and he would give it to her. “I cannot promise that things between us will be easy, or that we won’t fight at times, but I can promise you that I love you... I love you so much that it drives me crazy... it makes me do stupid things... but I am trying harder to be a good man for you, one who knows the right responses to his feelings and makes you feel loved and cherished. This is real, and I will prove it to you every night until you believe it is more than a fantasy... and that it is more than fleeting.”
He stroked the two puncture marks on her throat and stared at them.
“I love you so much that I promise myself to you, eternally, and I will seal it with a kiss when the time is right... because I cannot live without you and need to be able to feel you, to know you are safe, and to sense when you need me so I can be there for you, fighting at your side... protecting you, because I love you. I will make you my mate if you consent to it.”
Her eyes widened and her lips parted. Her shock ran through his fingers where they rested on her throat and he smiled at her to show her that he was telling the truth. He would wait until she was ready and then he would claim her and bond with her, and he would spend the rest of his life with her at his side.
She stared at him, unblinking, her shock not subsiding.
He let slip a fragment of a mirthless laugh. “Say something?”
He felt as though he had laid his heart on the line and she was going to grab it, squeeze it and puncture it with her claws. Had he misjudged the depth of her feelings? Was he rushing her? He had said that he wouldn’t claim her until she was ready. It might be one year or one hundred. He didn’t care how long it took her to decide that she wanted to be his mate. He just wanted her to know that he was serious about her and that he would claim her one day.
A hint of a smile curved the corners of her lips and the shock left her eyes, replaced by warmth that brightened them.
“You are cruel.” He dipped his head and dropped a kiss on the marks on her throat. “You tease me when I am a man on the verge of insanity.”
Sophis wrapped her arms around him and cradled him close to her. He kissed her neck, savouring the taste of her skin and her scent, and licked the marks.
“One day?” she whispered.
“One day.” He drew back and swept his fingers across her cheek, staring down into her eyes. “I will make you mine, and I will dance with you again at a masquerade, and you will know what it is like to be deeply loved and cherished. I will be a terrible mate and won’t let any male even look at you, let alone touch you.”
She frowned. “And I will not let any woman do the same to you.”
He liked the sound of that.
He didn’t want any other woman in his life.
He only wanted Sophis.
As his lover for now, and as his mate one day.
It was both a day he couldn’t wait for and a day that would be worth the wait.
The start of their forever.
The End
Felicity Heaton writes passionate paranormal romance books as Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. In her books she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!
If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, Felicity Heaton’s best selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series she writes as F E Heaton or any of her stand alone vampire romance books she writes as Felicity Heaton. Or if you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try Felicity Heaton’s new Vampire Erotic Theatre series.
In 2011, four of her six paranormal romance books received Top Pick awards from Night Owl Reviews, Forbidden Blood was nominated as Best PNR Vampire Romance 2011 at The Romance Reviews, and many of her releases received five star reviews from numerous websites.
To see her other novels, visit:
http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk
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Covet
Crave
Seduce – out June 23rd 2012
Enslave – out August 4th 2012
Her Dark Angel
Her Fallen Angel
Her Warrior Angel
Her Guardian Angel
Her Demonic Angel – out September 15th 2012
Prophecy: Child of Light
Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea
Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising
Eternity: The Beginning (free short story available at the VR website: www.vampiresrealm.com)
Spellbound
Reunion
Seventh Circle
Winter's Kiss
Hunter's Moon
Masquerade
Love Immortal
Ascension
Forbidden Blood
Heart of Darkness
Paranormal Romance Books by Felicity Heaton
Copyright © 2012 Felicity Heaton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The right of Felicity Heaton to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First printed May 2012
First Edition
Layout and design by Felicity Heaton
All characters in this publication are purely fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover by Felicity Heaton
