His breaths were also coming in pants, but the way he looked at me spelled trouble. “No. This is…”

One hand began tickling me on the side while the other caressed my knee caps, one of my most ticklish spots.

“No! Derek!” I shrieked before breaking into laughter. “Don’t! You’re supposed to make me smile, not laugh.”

He relished my failed attempts to pry his hands off me before my back fell on the bed and he finally stopped the playful torment.

“You’re supposed to smile when I kiss you,” he announced.

Only I was privileged to see this side of Derek Novak. He was mine and I was his. Derek had this way of making me feel like he knew me. I couldn’t help it; the thought made me smile.

“There you go…” His blue eyes twinkled upon seeing my face light up. “Lovely.”

“Now that you’ve got what you want, could you get off me now?” I tried to push him away, but as usual, failed to move him an inch. “Come on, Derek… I have a whole day planned ahead.”

“Do you now?”

I nodded. This was our day. Ever since Gregor Novak returned, he’d been keeping Derek busy with building up The Shade’s army. Being the commander-in-chief of the island’s military force, he had his work cut out. Much to his father’s disdain, he still managed to find time for me.

I pouted at him. “You promised. For the next twenty-four hours, you’re supposed to be all mine, Prince Derek.”

He frowned. He hated it whenever I called him that. “Fine, but you’re not to call me that again. Ever.”

I grinned. “I’ll try.”

He rolled his eyes in response. I watched him as he got up from the bed, admiring his chiseled form, covered only by his boxers. He grabbed his guitar and sat over the edge of the bed with his back turned to me. I listened to him expertly pluck a tune on the instrument. He must’ve felt my gaze on him, because he looked back at me. “Well? Is this what you had planned? Staring at me all day long?”

“Ha!” I threw a pillow at him. He didn’t bother to dodge it. “You wish I were that into you.”

“Oh please…you know you are.”

To that, I couldn’t think of a worthy comeback, so I just gave him a light shove on the shoulder and walked toward the bathroom to get myself ready for the day ahead. But I stopped just before the door of the bathroom and lowered the spaghetti straps of my night gown down my shoulders and let the silk gown fall to the ground. I knew I’d caught his attention the moment the melody he was strumming went grotesquely out of tune.

“Too bad you already took a shower,” I commented before shutting the door behind me.

A few minutes later, we were both in the tub, my back leaned against his chest.

“Today’s going to be a good day,” he said as he ran both hands from my shoulders down to my elbows.

I had to smile. “You have no idea.”

CHAPTER 2: DEREK

To say that I was curious over what my lovely vixen had up her sleeve was the king of understatements. The knowing smile on her face and the way she looked at me as if she knew something I didn’t was driving me crazy, but not any more than the way she was behaving as we moved around my bedroom dressing ourselves for the day ahead.

I was watching her as she picked out an outfit to wear and I began thumbing through her clothes. I saw a white dress hanging on the rack and recalled the last time I saw her wearing it. “I love the way you look in this dress.”

Sofia winked at me, took the dress from the rack and put it on. She then went and stood in front of the mirror. She lifted her locks high over her head and twisted clumps of them around as if wondering whether to tie her hair up.

“I think you’ll look lovely just wearing your hair down,” I commented.

Thus, stabbing at my curiosity even further, her long auburn locks stayed down, cascading over her waist—just the way I preferred it.

From the very first night I met her, Sofia had a mind of her own and rarely hesitated to speak out whenever she felt the need to. The fact that she never did bend to my will because of fear over the fact that I was a vampire or that I was prince of the kingdom we were residing in was one of the things that drew me to her. Thus, to have her giving in to my slightest suggestions—willingly and without question—was something that I found delightful, intriguing and slightly suspicious.

Still, my wariness over whatever she had in store was easily overpowered by the temptation to test just how far she was willing to go with catering to my “innocent suggestions”.

I approached her from behind as she continued to check her appearance on the mirror. I held her waist and pulled her back against me.

“You look incredible,” I assured her.

A soft blush highlighted the freckles on her cheeks. She laid both her hands over mine. “I’m glad you think so.”

Testing her playfully, I said, “I’d love a kiss.”

No hesitation. No objections. She spun around, snuck her arms beneath my own and around my waist, tilted her head up, stood on her tiptoes and kissed me—first, on the jawline, then the corner of my lips, then full on the mouth.

When our lips parted, I couldn’t keep myself from asking, “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if I said that I’d love a drink of your blood, would you cut yourself and hand me a vial of it?”

A knowing smile formed on her lips as she batted her eyelashes at me. “No, of course not. Why go through all that trouble when I could just offer you my neck?”

“You are driving me crazy.”

She grinned. “Good, and for the record, I’m severely overdressed for this occasion.”

“What occasion?”

“You’ll see.” She held my hand and began tugging for me to follow her.

“Not even a clue as to what you’re up to?”

“Can’t you just trust me, Prince Charming?”

“I told you not to call me that.”

“No… you told me not to call you Prince Derek.” Laughter was in her voice. “Will you just come with me?”

“As if I had any other choice…”

Excitement sparked in her green eyes. Her zest for life was one of the many things I loved about Sofia Claremont. She lit up the darkness surrounding The Shade, and for a kingdom that had no mornings, only eternal night, her light was life.

We exited my penthouse. I sighed as I looked out at three others like mine; interconnected by glass-covered walkways and hanging bridges, and built on top of the towering redwood trees. One penthouse each for the Novak family, although only two were occupied by our clan. After Vivienne was caught by the hunters, her best friend, Liana and her husband, Cameron, moved into her penthouse.

On the other hand, my older brother, Lucas, was still on the run. After he tried to kill Sofia, I began hunting him down and he left the island. The last I heard of him, he’d completely turned his back on his own flesh and blood by joining the coven of our family’s greatest vampire rivals, the Maslens.

Sofia led me to an elevator that allowed us to go from the top of the giant redwoods down to the ground below. We strolled through the woods for about an hour before reaching an open field, one of the few still undeveloped on the island.

“Okay…” I said. “Now what?”

Sofia stuck two fingers into her mouth and let out a high-pitched whistle.

I heard the distinct rumbling of a vehicle’s motor and, in the distance, saw a car drive toward us. Behind the wheel was Kyle, a vampire guard I deeply trusted. His passengers were my second guard, Sam, and the three girls belonging to my “harem”—Ashley, Paige and Rosa.

Ashley, with her blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail, looked like she was having the time of her life. The mere sight of her made my blood pound. Of all the girls in my harem, hers was the only blood I’d had a taste of and it took a lot of self-control to resist my craving to feed on her.

Having Sofia around made it much easier for me to hold myself back. I felt Sofia’s hand squeeze mine when she saw my eyes on Ashley and the craving quickly left me.

“So… what exactly is going on?” I asked as I watched Kyle park the vehicle. I’d never actually been in a car. Four hundred years robbed me of that indulgence and in The Shade, we did most of our traveling by speeding our way from one place to the other, or taking leisurely walks—like I normally preferred to do whenever I was with Sofia. I was introduced to cars through movies and magazines Sofia showed me when she first began schooling me in the ways of the 21st century.

“Since it’s your day, I had Kyle and Sam spruce up this old fixer-upper so you could finally learn to drive a car,” Sofia said with a sly smile.

“I don’t know if I should trust that smile.” I eyed her warily. “What do you mean it’s my day? And why on earth would I need to learn to drive a car?”

“Because it’s kind of pathetic that you’re five hundred years old and you still have no idea how to drive a car,” Ashley quipped as she got out of the car.

“Must you speak, Ashley? The sound of your voice really does grate on my nerves no matter how hard I try to ignore it.”

“What acerbic wit you have, your highness.”

“What despicable nonsense you have a talent for spouting out, peasant.”

Seeming to have run out of wisecracks, Ashley frowned and muttered, “Bite me.”

“Didn’t I already do that?”

Sofia began snickering beside me, as did the other two girls and the guards. They were all used to Ashley and me bickering. I knew that Ashley still hated and resented me for the things I put her through during the span of time when Sofia left the island with Ben. It was a time when I completely lost myself and did things I regretted. I couldn’t blame Ashley if she was forever unwilling to forgive me. I doubted I could ever forgive myself, but my guilt didn’t mean I’d just stand there and take it whenever she threw sarcasm and ridicule my way.