Gypsy Moon (All The Pretty Monsters #4)(76)

I stay quiet after that, wondering if it’s even possible for me to try to sleep. No such luck.

I think about Idun and wonder if she’s as obsessed and fixated on chasing them as they believe, even though she’s been up for months and hasn’t bothered to even somewhat interrupt their lives.

I wonder about Anna and if she’s miserable.

Then my mind drifts back to Arion, as he continues to just hold me with one arm that has relaxed against me.

After an hour of being perfectly still, I’m positive Arion has drifted off.

My head is in too many places at once to sleep right now.

My eyes stay fixed on the towel that is starting to naturally loosen around his hips.

He doesn’t move or react in the least when I kiss a spot on his chest, which means I should let the man rest. But when I chance a glance up, I find him quietly staring down at me with a hooded look, like that’s what he’s been doing for the past hour.

His gaze stays steady as I kiss his chest again, and he remains still, as I gently rake my lips up his chest.

Since he’s up…

“Honestly, explain the difference between Arion and Ace, aside from the alpha vampire bit,” I say quietly.

His eyes dart over mine before his gaze sweeps down to my lips that are hovering just above his chest.

“As far as you’re concerned, the alpha vampire bit is the only difference,” he says, keeping his voice low.

“And as far as everyone else is concerned?”

He just stares at me for a second, before shrugging a shoulder. “I have reasons for the things I do. You’ll eventually come to trust that. Needn’t worry, though, love.”

His hand gently cups my cheek, as his other comes up behind my head.

“Believe it or not, Violet, I was once Idun’s monster, but I am no longer,” he adds.

“As long as they’re mine, you’re mine,” I sum up.

I’m starting to believe that his love for them may just be more than his love for her.

His gaze stays fixed to mine, while he presumably thinks about the perfect way to make me see things the way he sees them.

“The next words I say, you’ll never repeat to anyone,” he tells me, and I feel the throb in my temple that feels like the familiar one there when I’m forced to obey his last order.

My eyes narrow.

“Sorry, love, but if they ever learn that I watched them privately for any amount of time, they’ll be nothing but suspicious. I can’t afford that right now. Not when things are so close to being right again.”

He darts a glance at his phone as it vibrates, but doesn’t lift it, as he returns his attention to me, seriousness in his eyes as he runs his fingers through my hair.

I stay perched against his chest, since he enjoys just the feel of skin contact so much. To be honest, I’m enjoying the comfort of his touch, and that’s another level of concern to be assessed at a saner, future moment.

“Three and a half decades ago, I was finally able to break through with my projection,” he says in the quietest tone he can muster and still allow me to hear. “I did plot revenge for the other decades I was awake before then, but it fizzled out quicker than I expected when I saw the aftermath. They didn’t hate me; they feared me, Violet.”

He glances at the clock, but I think it’s mostly to break the eye contact, as his jaw tics.

“I bloody still thought we were just playing the game, until I had no choice but to simply listen, while they remained oblivious to my unnatural intrusion. I’d never been able to witness them in their moments of truth, and until then, I didn’t realize how guarded I’d also become. It’s as though the ages rolled on, and I somehow missed where and when it all went so wrong.”

He looks at me again at last.

“Idun broke the rules. Her game’s now over.”

“You’re the one turning this into a game for us. What are your rules for me, Arion? I feel I deserve to know.”

His lips tug up in one corner, and he slowly slides my leg over his hip. When I don’t pull away or tense, he starts pushing the bottom of my shirt up.

“You’re so soft, Violet,” he murmurs as he leans down and presses his lips against my throat. “So perfectly hard on the outside, and so tender underneath.”

A small breath hisses out of me when I’m barely lifted, and in the next instant, skin slides against skin. He’s hard and pressing against me, hands on my ass, as he nips at my throat.

“You don’t need rules,” he adds as the sound of the shirt tearing registers, seconds before cool air kisses my skin that was just covered.

One of his hands slides up my bare back, as he sits up, taking me with him until I’m perfectly straddled against him, hardly room for air between our bare bodies.

“It’s we who need the rules this time,” he says as I’m suddenly moving, feeling my back hit the bed, just as he pushes inside me.

My back bows in surprise at the abrupt entry, and my nails dig into his shoulders that I’m still clinging to, as he makes a tortured sound, his hips stilling at the deepest point inside me. My body rapidly, and very happily, adjusts to the abrupt intrusion, thankfully aroused just by the intimacy of lying with each other.

I drag him down by the back of the neck, and our lips fuse together, as I swallow the rest of his really guttural sound, drinking him in, giving up the pointless fight.