Page 124 of Burn for Her

Lena eagerly grabbed him by the belt and started unlatching the buckle.

“No,” he said. “I need to stay this way for a while.”

“Why?”

“I need that edge for what we’re about to do.”

Lena wished she could argue, but she got it. Really, she did.

Dorian’s gaze flicked to the pilot’s door then back to her. “We’ll be landing soon.”

She better get dressed.

As Lena bent down to get her jeans, Dorian grabbed them before she could. “Not these,” he said. “I had Lucian pick you up something else.”

Lena was stunned speechless when Dorian stood up and went to the back of the jet. In a storage compartment, he pulled out a garment bag. “I hope it fits okay.”

She unzippered the bag and, “Wow.”

Wow didn’t cover it.

Lena’s cheeks tingled as she pulled the dress out of the bag. It was stunning.

And eerily familiar.

The black lace number hit the floor and she nearly fainted. It was the exact dress she wore when staring at herself in the mirror in her weird, crazy ass blood dream. She didn’t know what to say.

“Do you hate it?” Dorian grabbed the other end of the material. “Shit, I… I should have asked what you liked. I just wanted to get something nice for you to have your debut in.”

“Debut?”

“With the House of Death. I… Jesus I’m an idiot.” He speared his hair with his hands. “I got a thing about this. I’ll work on it. It’s not important I just…”

She shut him up with a kiss that she hoped would make him surrender all his worries to her. “I love it.”

Dorian wasn’t buying it but seeing how he went from ten to zero on the confidence meter had shaken her. Why did it matter what she wore to see the king? They’d already met. Debut. She looked back at the dress and clung tightly to the lace. This didn’t feel like a debut. This dress said way more than “Hey guys, wuussupp, I’m a vampire like you now.” It meant something more.

Especially if this was the dress she dreamed about.

“Are premonitions common with alakhai?”

“Rarely,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “Why?”

Lena bit her lip. If premonitions were a rarity… was seeing things one minute that were gone the next a rarity too, or just a hallucination brought on by stress and fatigue?

“Lucian picked out the dress,” Dorian babbled. “I told him your measurements and what I wanted, but if you hate it, don’t wear it. It’s not important.”

“Yes, it is,” she whispered. Dragging her gaze up to meet his, Lena knew why Dorian always dressed to the nines. Same as why everything had to be clean. It was his way of covering up the filthy horrors of his past, his fight against where he’d once been trapped.

“You’re not a doll,” he blurted. “Holy Hell.” He gripped his head. “I’m an idiot. I’m such an idiot. I didn’t think when I asked for that dress. I didn’t—

Lena pressed a finger to his lips and shut him up. “Stop overthinking and letting our pasts haunt you, Reaper.”

His gaze darkened.

“It’s stunning and I love it,” she went on to say. “I’d be honored to be presented as your mate in this gown.”

He made a small choking sound in response. “I’m so sorry.” His lips brushed against her finger.