“More! Harder!”

“Anything you want.”

Cain’s thrusts turned more ferocious, his chest heaving from the effort to hold her immobile against the wall, his breath coming in rapid pants. His jaw was clenched tightly, and his fangs had pushed past his lips. The sight made her heart beat even faster. She remembered how he’d bitten her just before he’d disappeared, and she’d never felt anything as exhilarating as the sensation of his fangs lodging in her skin and his mouth drawing on her vein.

Faye tilted her head to the side, offering him her neck.

He kissed her there, licked his tongue over her skin, while his cock pounded into her relentlessly. She felt his fangs scrape at her skin, making her shiver with pleasure.

“Tell me you love me,” she demanded and cupped his head.

He ripped his head from her and captured her lips instead, drowning her request in a passionate kiss. As if something had angered him, he drove into her with even more force, his pelvic bone slamming against her clit so rapidly that she instantly exploded. An orgasm more powerful than she’d ever experienced crashed into her, just as she felt his cock spasm inside her. The warm spray of his semen filled her, lubricated her channel even further and allowed him to increase his tempo even more, until his thrusts finally slowed. He severed the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers, breathing heavily.

“I don’t know how I ever got any work done as king with you around me.”

Faye felt her forehead furrow. Cain had always put his duties as king first. She’d always known that and accepted it. But his words seemed to suggest otherwise. And what was even stranger was that while back then he’d always freely confessed his love to her and in the same breath excused himself to deal with king business, now the opposite was happening: he hadn’t once said that he loved her, yet he was showering her with more attention than ever before.

Cain had changed. And she needed to understand why.

30

An urgent knock by Haven had ripped Cain from Faye’s arms, and he’d dressed rapidly and dashed upstairs to meet him in the office. Cain was, however, grateful for the interruption. Faye had demanded to hear that he loved her when he’d been about to bite her and drink her blood, and in that moment he hadn’t been able to go through with it. Neither with the bite, nor with a declaration of his love. It wouldn’t have been fair to her. He couldn’t take her blood or tell her he loved her while he was deceiving her about himself.

Yes, he’d never felt better than when he was with her. The sex was out of this world amazing, and his jealousy when another man so much as even looked at her was spiraling out of control. He knew he had feelings for her, emotions that were deeper than seemed possible after such a short time. But he knew he was also lying to her. He was keeping the fact from her that he didn’t remember anything about her, yet pretended to her that everything was all right. It wasn’t. And he didn’t know how to tell her. Would she reject him if she found out? Would she think he was only half a man now, not the hero she came to make love to in the shower? Not the strong warrior she looked up to? Because if she rejected him now, he would be devastated.

Cain tried to push away the thoughts and opened the door to his office.

Haven wasn’t alone. Robert stood in the middle of the room, flanked by Wesley and one of the king’s guards.

“What’s going on?” Cain asked, looking at Haven as he closed the door behind him.

“Simon, tell the king what you told me,” Haven instructed the guard.

“I found a copy of the palace’s blueprints in the supply cellar. It was hidden between the pages of the ledger Robert keeps. There was an envelope, too.”

Cain looked at the papers in Simon’s hands and pointed to them. “That it?”

Simon nodded and handed him the folded piece of the paper and the envelope. Cain unfolded and examined it. It was indeed a blueprint of the palace, indicating all entrances and exits on all levels, though to his relief it didn’t indicate where the secret tunnels were located. He folded it again, then looked at the envelope. It was addressed to a PO Box in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Cain whistled through his teeth and stared at Robert. “Explain yourself, Robert!”

“I don’t know how that copy got into my books. It’s not mine!” Robert spat indignantly.

“Of course it’s not yours,” Cain ground out. “That’s why it should have never been in your ledger. So what the fuck were you planning to do with it, huh?” He could venture a guess what Robert’s plan had been.