Page 87 of Ruby Red Sky

Lukas transitioned us to the foyer of the castle we visited earlier. A uniformed woman strolled up to us before I could get my bearings. “My name is Amanda, I’m your maid. I will show you to your rooms. Please, follow me.”

I glanced at Lukas, and we followed her up a staircase, down a corridor, and then up three more staircases. My legs felt like they were about to fall off after all the walking we’d done recently. Lukas motioned to me like he’d pick me up. I shook my head and trudged along, muscles screaming at me. Maybe if there weren’t so many people around, I would have insisted he carried me.

Already, this castle was vastly different from the one I’d grown used to. There was life here, laughter, and I even heard a violin playing somewhere in the distance. Various scents drifted past us. Roasted meats, fresh flowers, and the crisp scent of freshly cut grass. My spirits lifted a bit, injecting me with a vibrant infusion I hadn’t felt for a while outside of Lukas’s arms.

Sneaking a peek at him, he was rubbing his chin again, watching everything we passed contemplatively. He wasn’t anymore unaffected than I. What he thought about all of this, I wasn’t sure, but it was making some sort of impression.

At long last, Amanda opened a door. “Here we are,” she announced. She went across the room to a window and unlatched it, pushing the panel open.

“The room has been closed up for a while, but there’s fresh linens and toiletries. Just let me know if you need anything.”

Lukas turned around in a circle. “Thank you, this will do for now.”

The woman bobbed a curtsey and smiled at us before she left.

The moment she was gone, I toed off my boots and flopped face down on the bed. The mattress dipped beside me, and I felt Lukas’s hip pressing against me. The bed moved again, and his hand came down on my back before he began massaging the muscles. I think I groaned. Maybe even fell asleep, if only for a few minutes.

When I came to, he was gently removing the strands of my hair that caught in my eyelashes and laid against my cheek. “You know I won’t let anything happen to you, right?” He asked softly.

I reached for him and missed, my arm flopping back down on the bed. “I know.”

His hand traveled down my back and followed the curve of my ass before he began kneading my thighs. “Everything I do is for a reason.”

I may have groaned. Loudly, as my thigh muscles sighed with relief. “I like what you’re doing right now. Other things, not so much. But this, yes, please do this.”

A noise that sounded like a brief laugh whispered from his lips. “Oww. Maybe not that hard,” I whined.

When I woke up, what felt like hours later, my head was on his lap, and he was sitting up against the headboard. I would have been annoyed, but then I remembered he didn’t really need to sleep. My best guess was that his brain had kept him up, trying to deal with his position of hypocrisy when it came to me. I didn’t really have any sympathy, but I could understand his pain. It had to have been miserable to be caught in the same situation that he ruined someone else’s life over.

That being said, Elijah and Selena appeared happy.

“Are you hungry?” He asked. I sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

Everything was bright and airy, displaying the large room in a way that last night’s candlelight couldn’t. The window was still open, and I could feel a pleasant, light breeze.

My stomach growled loudly, making me press my palm on my abdomen. “I guess I am.”

Lukas got off the bed, clasping my shoulder for a second before he stood. As I shoved the blanket from my lap, I realized that the man touched me every chance he got. The amount of affection he showed was foreign to me. I’d never had it with Bryan and it’d been so long since my parents passed away, I’d forgotten what it felt like to be loved so completely.

He disappeared into the ensuite bathroom, and I stared after him as he ran his hand through his hair. Soon, I heard the water turn on.

While I waited for him to finish, I walked over to the window and peered over the edge. The windowsill was wide and deep, and I had to step on my tiptoes to look down. I spotted gardens, and a koi pond I instantly decided I wanted to go look at, and multiple people milling about. They were far away, but I could hear the echo of their voices.

The sun was warm; the air was the perfect temperature. I quickly decided I rather liked this Realm.

When I backed away, hard and warm flesh was right behind me. A curtain of damp, blond hair fell into view as Lukas leaned and kissed my temple. A breathy sigh left my lungs and a cozy warmth bloomed in my chest. My eyes watered and I swallowed it down as I turned around.

“Lukas,” I started, swallowing again, “I⁠—”

My sentence was never finished as his mouth crashed down on mine. He lifted me onto the window ledge and swept his tongue into my mouth. I could feel his heart beneath my palm, pounding strong and sure, heat emanating from the organ.

His skin had a slightly static quality to it that wasn’t there before we first arrived here at the castle, or before we entered that mansion. It wasn’t uncomfortable or offensive; it was just different. I could have sworn I felt it mingling with something invisible around myself that I just couldn’t see. The pull was the strongest, right over my own heart. The fact hit me like a sledgehammer the second he deepened our kiss and my arms wrapped around his waist.

It had been sneaking up on me, all sly and evasive, poking at me in quiet moments in the still of the night.

I loved this man. I loved the stubborn, boundary crossing, endlessly frustrating vampire lord. As I admitted it to myself, his fingers tightened around my neck, and he nipped my bottom lip. He pulled away just a fraction and bit his own, before kissing me once more.

My hands shook, but I met him and swallowed his offering.