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A ripple moves through his jaw. ‘Yes. And physical.’ His eyes darken as his gaze rakes even slower over me, his tongue slipping out to rest on the edge of his bottom lip. Tempting me, making me insane for him. ‘Your body must welcome mine. Your blood must take mine. Mine must take yours. The vows must be spoken freely before the bite.’

I take that in. ‘So if I panic halfway through and tell you to stop?’

‘Then I stop.’

No vampire-law loophole.

I search his face anyway because survival shaped me into a woman who checks every door twice.

He lets me look.

‘I will stop,’ he says again, lower now. ‘Even if it kills me.’

My eyes sting. ‘That is a very dramatic way to reassure a woman.’

‘It is also true.’

‘Annoying.’

‘Consistent.’

I huff a laugh, then reach for him. His hand lifts at the same time, meeting mine in the space between us. The contact sends heat through my palm, up my arm, into my chest. The runes around us brighten and the candles lean towards us as if even fire wants to watch.

Valentin draws me into the centre of the circle, and I moan as the stone warms beneath my feet.

He doesn’t kiss me yet.

Instead, shock dances through me as he… kneels.

I stare down at him, my heart punching against my ribs. ‘What are you doing?’

His hands close around my hips. ‘Beginning.’

Oh… Gods. The sight of him on his knees in front of me is like the best offering I didn’t know I craved until this moment.

And my vision blurs with stupid tears as his mouth presses to my stomach, just below my navel. Then lower. Over the curve of my hip. The inside of my thigh. His breath brushes between my legs, and I shiver so hard his fingers tighten.

‘I consent,’ he says against my skin, voice rough. ‘To the bond. To your blood. To your choice. To your fury and forgiveness when you choose to give either. To your past, your names, your knives, your future, if I am granted any place in it.’

My breath catches. He looks up.

‘And to loving you as my fated mate whether the ritual saves me or not.’

My hands are shaking when I cup his face. ‘I consent,’ I whisper. ‘To the bond. To your blood. To your impossible arrogance, your terrible decisions, your need to control the weather inside every room, and the way you look at me like I’m precious and dangerous in the same breath.’ I suck in a big, bracing breath. Because fuck me, here comes the manic part. ‘And I consent to forever by your side as your fated mate.’

A thick, decadent shudder moves through him as his mouth curves. Wicked and savage and delicious.

My voice trembles but does not break. ‘To loving you. Valentin. Vampire. King. Monster. Mine.’

The word flays him.

Mine.

His eyes flare silver. Then his mouth is on me.

I cry out, head dropping back as he levers one leg over his shoulder, and he licks into my cunt with a hunger that makes my knees buckle. He holds me up, hands firm on my hips, drawing pleasure out of me like it is another kind of vow.

The circle flares around us, sending light snapping through the runes. ‘Valentin.’