“Don’t cheat,” Dragomir said.

“I have a blindfold on,” Emeline protested laughing. “How could I possibly cheat?”

“You could look through the blindfold, but you’d better not,” he cautioned, making his voice growl to show her he meant business. He led her down the path, making certain every uneven spot was smoothed out for her. “A surprise means you don’t get to see until I’m ready for you to see.”

“You give me surprises nearly every night,” she pointed out. “You’re spoiling me.”

“You spoil me.” He leaned close to her ear, his warm breath stealing into her, pushing a tendril of desire spiraling with heat through her veins. “Every time you get down on your knees in front of me and swallow me down, your eyes locked with mine, my world turns into pure paradise. Then you do that thing with your tongue, and I’m completely lost.”

She couldn’t help the soft laughter that spilled out or the liquid heat between her legs responding to his seductive whisper. “I especially like to lick you clean. You always get that amazing look on your face.” Deliberately, she was as wicked as possible.

He groaned. “Don’t talk about that. We’re out in the open and I’m fairly certain there are dozens of pairs of eyes on us right this minute. Otherwise, I’d lift you up, have you wrap your legs around me and I’d take you right here and now.”

He made her crazy when he said things like that. Now she couldn’t think about anything but wanting him. The hand on the small of her back guiding her slid down to her bottom, caressing her right through her skirt. It was thin, but not thin enough. She wanted to feel him skin to skin, not with clothes separating them.

“I’m giving you a different kind of surprise,” he said. “So behave.”

She laughed again and this time she stopped, turned to face him and slid her hand up his chest to find his face. Her fingertips traced the curve of his lip. She didn’t want to miss his smile – and she knew he was smiling. She loved when he smiled. She did that. She gave him that. Nothing made her happier.

“You’re the one who started this. You’ve got your hand on my butt.” She leaned in to brush a kiss over that perfect bottom lip. “And you’re rubbing.”

“I’ll be spanking in a minute,” he murmured, but already his hands were in her hair and he was kissing her.

Kissing her. Like there was no tomorrow. His kiss consumed her. Devoured her. Fed her crazy addiction to him. He had so many kinds of kisses. Sweet. Tender. Gentle. Hard. Wet. Commanding. She loved every one of them. She especially loved these because they were the kind she got lost in immediately. If she was strictly honest, she got lost in all his kisses, but she loved these the best. She gave herself to him when he kissed her like this.

Her body melted into his and she circled his neck with her arms, leaning into him, letting him take her weight. She was blindfolded, but it didn’t matter, she knew he had her. He always had her. She was safe with him. Her heart was safe with him.

Dragomir lifted his head, rubbed his chin over the top of her head and then trailed his lips down the side of her face to the pulse beating in her neck. “I love the way you smell, Emeline. And the way you taste. Sometimes I can’t get enough.”

His tongue slid over her pulse and then his teeth scraped back and forth as if the temptation was too much to resist. Everything in her responded with a wicked invitation. She wanted that bite, so erotic. So beautiful. He’d taken her blood, given her his. They’d made love twice that evening, tangled together on the sheets in her bedroom, sharing the same skin. Worshiping each other.

“Keep your arms around my neck,” he whispered. “Hold tight.”

That was all the warning she got, and then she was cradled in his arms and they were moving through the air. She laughed and buried her face against his chest. She loved his surprises, although, truthfully, he was spoiling her far too much. She couldn’t keep up with him. He was good at picking her wish list right out of her head and giving her item after item. She tried to do the same, but most of his wants were about making her happy or keeping her safe, or were very intensely sexual.

Every evening he talked to the baby, his hands around the little bump, his mouth pressed to her bare skin. He whispered that she was loved and that they couldn’t wait to see her. To hold her in their arms. Emeline loved him all the more for that. She never once found a single doubt in his mind. He wanted the baby and thought of her as his. With all the blood exchanges between them, she knew his blood ran in Carisma’s veins.

I still have trouble thinking he’s really gone. She knew Dragomir would know who she was talking about just by the trepidation in her voice. He ruled my life for so many years. I was afraid for so long, I keep thinking he set us up, pretended to die just so we’d let our guards down.

Carpathians don’t let their guards down, Emeline. His brother killed him. I saw the ashes.

Could it be a trick, Dragomir? Sergey killed another vampire and Vadim is still alive?

There was a small silence. Her heart thundered in her ears. She bit down hard on her lip. She wanted reassurance, not silence, but he didn’t lie to her. Not ever. It was a blessing and a curse. Dragomir?

I am thinking. Is it possible? I took his heart and then was attacked. I saw his brother close to him. Then Sergey wielded the lightning, and Vadim was incinerated. Did I see that it was Vadim? No. I assumed it was. What reason would Sergey have for keeping Vadim alive? There is no feeling between the brothers. They are vampires.

But Sergey could feel something. Elisabeta gave him emotions and control, didn’t she? He has a plan. You said he was actually the one behind Vadim. Now she was terrified. She wanted to pull off the blindfold and look all around her. They were no longer in the safety of Tariq’s compound. Dragomir had taken her a distance.

He set her feet on the ground, but prevented her from removing the blindfold. “Vadim is not going to ruin our lives. I have you, Emeline. If he’s still alive, he’ll reveal that in time. We can weave safeguards that will not fail to protect our own. Gary found the spell they used to come through the water. They cannot do so again. We will be vigilant. We have a baby coming. We have Tariq and Maksim as neighbors, and the brotherhood is close.”

“Neighbors?” She’d caught that. “What have you done?”

He pulled her into his body, her back to his front, his arms wrapped around her. “You can remove it now.”

She forced her mind away from the thought of Vadim being alive and reached her hands up to untie the knot at the back of her head. Slowly she brought the cloth down. Straight in front of her was a large sprawling house. It was Mediterranean-style, U-shaped so that there was a large courtyard surrounded on three sides by the house. Trees were abundant as the terrain rolled upward toward the hills.

“What do you think?”

“I think you take my breath away,” she admitted. “Just when I think you can’t get any better, you do. This is perfect. Perfect. When I dreamt of a house, this is what I dreamt. One story, but large, so I could have a big family but still have privacy with my man. I can’t wait to see inside.”

“We have a good bit of forest. I need that, Emeline. I need wild country. Tariq fits here. He dresses the part and looks like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but I can’t be that man. I need freedom. My brothers need the wild as well.”

“Will they stay?” She held her breath, waiting for the answer. She wanted them to stay. It was selfish. Each of them needed to go out into the world and find their lifemate, but they added protection. She had the baby to think about.

“For a while. Until they know we’re safe. With Elisabeta here, they’ll make certain Sergey can’t get to her.”

“He’ll always try, won’t he?” She shuddered. “Just the way Vadim won’t leave me alone.”

“The underwater pathways have been found and are closed to them,” Dragomir assured. “Vadim has always been the brother that wanted to work with science and technology. He needed you for his experiments, but now that his cities have been taken from him, he will have to rebuild. You are not as important.”