Page 61 of Venice Vampyr: The Beginning

But none of that mattered.

Viola was alive, and she’d accepted him for what he was.

Dante captured his soon-to-be wife between his body and the door at her back, pressing her against it.

“Is your brother angry with us?”

“Raphael? Hardly. I’m sure he got a kick out of it himself, knowing we watched him and Isabella.”

“But we can’t do it again?” A wicked smile curved around her pretty mouth.

Dante pressed his hardening cock against her soft stomach. “No. But I’m sure I can arrange other things for us to watch if you’d like.”

His heart skipped a beat when he saw Viola raise an eyebrow in interest. Her breathless voice only underscored her excitement. “Yes?”

“Anything you want, my love. Because keeping you satisfied is my mission.” He willed his fingers to turn into claws. Slowly, making sure she saw what he was about to do, he placed his claws at the spot where her décolleté revealed her lush breasts.

She inhaled, the action pressing the flesh closer to his sharp claws, but she didn’t pull away. “What are you going to do?”

Not a question—not the way she said it. It was a challenge. One he was more than happy to meet. Faster than a human’s eye could process, he sliced through the front of her bodice, ripping it in half.

“You mean what did I just do?” he corrected.

Viola looked down at her torn dress then raised her head and looked at him, her eyes shimmering golden. He sensed the power in her, the power of a vampire, and the knowledge that she was his—that she would be his for eternity—overwhelmed him.

“God, you’re beautiful.”

She raised her hand. Before his eyes, her elegant fingers turned into claws. She touched his neck with it, stroked down to where the top button of his shirt was undone. With a wicked smile, she sliced it down the middle. And her claws didn’t stop there, only paused for a moment of anticipation.

Dante growled out his approval. She was his match—fearless, daring, and insatiable.

Viola sliced through the fabric of his breeches, carefully avoiding his hard length. He sucked in a breath when cool air hit his arousal and her suddenly soft fingers curled around him.

“You’re beautiful,” she whispered in that husky voice he’d come to love, because it gave him a window into her soul, laying bare what she felt for him.

Unable to hold back, he tore her dress off her and exposed her nakedness to his hungry eyes. “Mine, all mine!” Pressing her harder against the door, he captured her thighs with his hands, and spread and raised them. The scent of her arousal was drugging now, overwhelming, impossible to resist.

With a deep groan, he positioned his cock at her core and thrust into her heat, pounding her against the door.

“Yes!” she cried out, her arms slung around his neck, her legs wrapped around his hips.

Lust and desire coursed through him, as did the knowledge that he didn’t have to hold back anymore. It fired his loins to pound harder. Viola was a vampire now, as strong as he was and as indestructible. He couldn’t hurt her. Now he could finally show her everything he felt: the ferocity with which he loved her, desired her, and needed her.

She was his everything.

“Tomorrow,” he ground out, “you’ll be my wife.”

Her eyes blinked in agreement.

“But tonight, I’ll make you my mate.” He raised his hand to her face and rubbed his finger over her lips, nudging them open wider.

“I want you,” she said breathlessly. As if she knew what he wanted, she opened her mouth and bared her teeth.

“Yes,” he encouraged her as his cock pistoned harder into her.

Her fangs lengthened as instinct guided her. Her irises were a pure golden hue now, just like his.

He tilted his head to the side, offering her his neck. “Later, I’ll take you out hunting,” he rasped, “but right now, I want you to drink from me.”