He put his hand around her waist and kissed her. “Let’s go.”
She allowed him to guide her out of the room and to the stairs.
“Good morning, Master Jaden, Lady Moira. Will you be having breakfast?”
Moira turned to face Ian, surprised to find herself blushing under the butler’s knowing gaze. “Um. In a little bit. Duncan and Jaden will be sleeping in.”
One of the butler’s eyebrows rose. “Very good, Lady Moira.” His lips quirked. “Sleep well, Lord Jaden.” He turned and headed back for the servant’s quarters, his shoulders suspiciously rigid.
“Good grief.” Jaden sagged against the banister. “Now he’s going to Lord me to death, isn’t he?”
Moira shrugged. “That’s what you get when you truebond a lord, Jaden.”
He sighed. “We aren’t truebonded yet.”
She stiffened, narrowing her eyes at him. “Meaning?” If he thought he was getting out of the bond, he had another thing coming.
“Down, tiger. I just meant we haven’t completed the Sidhe ceremony.” He took her hand and pulled her up the steps. “The Vampiric one is already done. You and Duncan belong to me, and no one can change that.”
She blinked. The Vampiric bond was a great deal more simplistic than the Sidhe bond. “You do know the Vows, right?”
“Yup.” He continued forward, his stride easy, his voice low and full of promise. “I vow that from this day forward you shall not walk alone. My strength is your protection, my heart is your shelter, and my arms are your home. I shall serve you in all those ways that you require. I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care. Yours is the name I whisper at the close of each day and the eyes into which I smile each morning. I give you all that is mine to give. My heart and my soul I pledge to you. You are my Chosen One, you are my mate, and you are bound to me for eternity.”
Moira shuddered. To hear the Vows spoken in his rich, deep voice while she and Duncan held him was one of her deepest wishes. It wouldn’t mean shit in the cosmic scheme of things, but damn if she didn’t need that from him. “Yeah. Those are the Vows.” She longed to say them to both her men, but the time wasn’t quite right. She wanted her family there when they exchanged Vows, Binding them together through shared Sidhe magic, entwining their life forces for all eternity.
She blinked. “How long do vampires live?” Vampires were long lived and difficult to kill, but she had no idea if they aged at all.
“Forever, unless we’re killed. Luckily we’re very difficult to kill.”
Forever? “Do I want to know?”
He opened the bedroom door and pulled her through. “Every vampire, upon creation, is both blessed and cursed.” He kept his voice quiet so as not to wake Duncan. “Blessed with long life, but cursed with a weakness that will kill us instantly. That weakness is whispered over our bodies as we change, a magic so devastating not even the gods can remove it. The so-called gift of the Dark Queen to her chosen warriors.” The acidic contempt in his voice was mirrored in his face. “For each of us it’s something different. It could be as simple as a wooden stake through the heart, or as complex as a rowan branch, blessed in a sacred grove by a druid under a blue moon, thrust through your liver. The reasons that the folklore on how to kill a vampire varies wildly are because of that.” He dropped her hand and removed his jeans. “If I ever created another vampire I would be forced to name the way he dies. The magic would make me.”
She began removing her own clothes, eager to finish what they’d started. Where was her bra? She must have dropped it on the sofa. Ian would probably have a heart attack when he found it. “Have you thought about it?”
“Some. When the loneliness was bad.”
She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, and his expression didn’t exactly invite her to ask. “Oh.” She got up on her toes and kissed him. “You know you’ll never be alone again, right?”
“It’s okay, Moira.” He pointed toward the bed, where Duncan slept soundly. “Get in. I want to see if I can fuck you without waking the old… hmm.” He chuckled softly. “I have to remember not to call him that anymore.”
She slid into the bed, careful not to jar Duncan. “Why not?”
“He told me he doesn’t like it when his lover calls him that.” From the way he stood she could tell he still didn’t quite believe what was happening. True, he’d made them his bondmates, but she bet part of him still expected to be repudiated. His cheeks held an intriguing blush, though, so maybe Duncan had finally begun to get through to him. How could such a strong man be so vulnerable at the same time? It melted her heart to see that vulnerability, to know that she was one of the few people graced with the honor of seeing it. That made the gift of it all the more precious.
Well, she’d just have to prove to him that she wasn’t going anywhere. She crooked her finger at him. “C’mere, you. Let’s see what we can do without waking Duncan.” Jaden shot her one hell of a sexy grin before crawling over her. He stopped once they were nose to nose. Moira spread her legs, cradling him between her thighs. “You’re mine. You know that, right?” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m never going to let you go.”
He frowned. “We haven’t completed the Vows yet.”
She almost laughed. “Duncan and I discussed this. I want to say the Vows in front of my family and claim you both with them as witnesses.”
He paled. “You’re kidding, right?”
She shook her head. “No, love.”
“Your father will kill me.”
She tightened her arms. “No, he won’t.” Moira wouldn’t let him.
“Oh, yes he will. If he doesn’t, Leo will.”
Moira scoffed. “You forget something.”
“That would be?”
She smiled. “I’m half-Sidhe.” She pulled him down to her, letting her sparkling green lights envelope him. He jumped, startled at the soft caress of her light. “I protect what’s mine, even from my family.” She kissed him but wouldn’t allow him to deepen it. “But I don’t think it will be the issue you seem to think it will be.”
He looked skeptical. “We’ll see.” He leaned down and licked the side of her neck. “Are we going to make love or not?”
He was changing the subject, but that was all right. He’d see, and in the end they’d both get what they wanted. All three of them in one happy family knot.
Speaking of… “Can vampires have children?”
He stiffened. “No.”
She heard the question, and the pain, behind that word. “It’s all right. Any children Duncan and I have will be yours as well.” She petted his hair. “Yours to protect.”
His arms tightened around her to the point where she could barely breathe. “Mine.” His fangs sank deep, a white-hot pain that quickly became a blinding pleasure. He drew her into him, his mouth working against her flesh. Goosebumps ran up and down her body. Her arms tightened around him convulsively, holding him to her. His fangs lifted away from her neck, his tongue darting out. He licked the wounds, sealing them closed. “You’re so beautiful. My leprechaun. I thought I’d lost you.”
The thick voice told her just how much her acceptance meant to him. “You will never lose me, Jaden. We’re bondmates. You’ve held half my heart since the day we met.”
“I’d better be the one holding the other half,” Duncan muttered, rolling over to face them.
“Damn. Busted.” Jaden lifted his head, laughing down at her. There was a suspicious dampness to his lashes that she chose to ignore.
Duncan kissed Jaden’s shoulder. “I want to watch you fuck her, Jaden. I want you to know we’re both yours.”