Amelia couldn't believe the difference in him. He was smiling and joking; he seemed to exude congeniality. She didn't like it. She had dreamed of her prince and thought he was the one she longed for, but she had fallen in love with her dark and surly warrior.

"You're frowning." He sat up and the sheet pooled at his waist.

Blushing, she realized that she had been stripped, too. She turned away, embarrassed.

"Hey, what's this? Why are you turning from me?"

She couldn't meet his eyes. It felt like she was in bed with a stranger.

"Amelia?" Darian's voice was no longer so affable. It held an edge of concern.

When she looked up, his brows were knitted together, and he was frowning. She threw her arms around his neck. "You're you!" she cried out.

"Of course I am." His arms went around her, and he pulled her into his lap to sit between his legs. "What's going on?"

"I feel like I don't know you when you're smiling. I like your frowny face better." She sniffed and used the sheet to wipe her nose.

"My frowny face? Gods above, what a mangled mating I have given you where you don't recognize me unless I'm a sullen bastard." Darian cradled her head to his chest.

"I like you grumpy," she mumbled.

He pulled back and glared at her. "How's this?"

She giggled. "Much better."

His features softened. "I'll have to introduce you to my smiling face so you recognize both."

Amelia shrugged. "You seem shifty when you're smiling."

His eyebrows shot up. "Shifty? Shifty! I'll give you shifty!" He started tickling her mercilessly.

"I give! I give!" she shouted.

"I even serenaded you," he grumbled, pulling her down to lie beside him.

"It was Michael Bolton."

"I won't begrudge a fellow bard who happened to have written the words to describe my feelings perfectly." He turned on his side and slowly began to trace his finger down her body. "How are you doing, really?"

Her breath caught in her throat, and all of her attention was on the tip of his finger making lazy circles around her breast. "Fine," she managed to squeak out. She felt moisture begin to pool between her legs. He was barely touching her and she could barely think.

"Amelia, I'd like to claim you, if you're willing," he said, laying his hand flat over her heart.

"There's nothing I'd like more!" She had been dreaming of this moment all her life. She was finally going to be claimed.

His fingers trailed down her body until they brushed her opening. He teased her while his mouth suckled and nipped at her breast.

When he moved over her, she smiled up at him. He reached down and eased himself forward. She gasped and threw her head back. There was no pain, just the pleasurable sensation of being full and complete.

"For every tear I made you shed, I promise you a million smiles," he whispered, thrusting deep.

"For every moment of doubt and pain, I will give you hours of pleasure." He kept eye contact as their bodies merged.

"I cannot change the past, but I give you my future." Slowly, he sunk himself to her very core. He was stringing out each moment until it collided with the next, each wave of pleasure unending.

"I promise to be your best friend, your lover, and the father of your children, placing your needs and their needs above my own." He stopped, now completely inside of her, and leaned down to kiss her gently.

Just when she thought she couldn't take the slow pace anymore, he began to glow. He threw his head back, the muscles in his neck pulled tight. When the sphere of light widened to include her, her body detonated. Small explosions of pleasure ran down her spine causing her to scream her satisfaction.

She felt her soul lift up and merge with his. Where they had been two incomplete pieces, they were now whole. When they separated, the light that was the piece of their combined souls drifted back into her chest, carrying a piece of him with it.

Breathing heavily, Darian withdrew from her body and collapsed to one side. "Thank you, my love."

Amelia couldn't quite catch her breath. She lay on her back staring up at the plant-covered ceiling. "Anytime."

He chuckled once then groaned as he sat up in bed. On unsteady legs, he wobbled to what she assumed was the bathroom. She was sure when he came back a few minutes later with a cream-colored linen cloth.

He stood at the foot of the bed, a smug expression on his face as he stared down at her body. "Gods, you are beautiful."

"So are you." She smiled at him.

He gently cleaned her up and returned to the bathroom with the cloth. He sat on the edge of the bed and stroked her hair away from her face.

Amelia looked around the room. It reminded her of his room back in the Alpha estate only fancier. All the furniture here was white with accents in silver and gold.

"Where are we?"

"My quarters in the palace."

"Didn't you leave almost six hundred years ago?"

He nodded, a sad look on his face. "My mother must have kept this room up all this time."

"She was very distraught earlier when she thought you were dying."

He nodded. "I can't wait to meet with her. We've been invited to an early dinner."

"Dinner? What time is it?" She blinked and looked around for a clock.

He grimaced. "I think you mean, what day?"