“If you protect me from the world, who protects me from you?” she whispered.
“You, Rori.” His thumbs swept over her cheeks again. “You’re strong enough to protect yourself from the likes of me. I infuriate you, aye? You’re the healer of those I’ll hurt, remember? Hold tight to your loathing. You’ll never regret it.”
“I thought Fae couldn’t lie.”
Thaddeus stared at her, confused. There was no falsity in his words. Her strongest armor would be her aversion for him. If she wished to protect herself, she simply need look no further than her internal disgust.
“Aye, my words hold no untruths.” ’Twould be best to leave. He’d handle Grison and any remaining threat to Rori and Cael. Rori would have naught to fear after this eve. “Don’t overthink what I say. ’Twould be a pointless endeavor, and a disservice.”
Lowering his hands—why was it so bloody hard to pull away from her?—he started to turn. Her fingers dug into his shoulder, pulling him back. She had begun to slide off the dresser but his body halted her at the edge. The sudden influx of desire caused him to stagger, opening himself for her to sink her fingers into his hair, pull him down, and brush her lips across his. An innocent, closed-mouth touch, but it unleashed a carnality he recognized only in her company. A feral hunger he fought desperately against, but had been losing control over with each encounter.
She struck a flint with no comprehension as to the decimation ’twould cause.
Walk. Away.
He twisted into her, the cradle of her legs, and gently untangled her fingers from his hair.
“Think,storín,” he growled as he pressed into her, catching the back of her neck as he pinned her wrist to the mirror behind her. Goddess, the way her body arched into him, her hips against his, the flush of desire that painted her face and darkened her eyes. Simplyirresistible. He leaned close, so close he felt the slight breath as her lips parted on a quiet gasp. “You don’t want me.”
“You can’t tell me whatIwant or don’t want.”
He flashed his teeth in frustration, but the frustration was rooted deep within his own selfish desires. Heneededher to push him away, not allow him the opportunity to get closer. And she was doing exactly the opposite of what he himself had lost the strength to do somewhere between yestereve and now. During the short time when he saw another attempt to claim what he craved and in these precious moments when he could save her from a lifetime of pain.
Thaddeus dipped his head, his cheek caressing hers as he brought his mouth to her ear.
“I will not be a means for you to forget, Rori.”
He nuzzled her ear with the tip of his nose. A sharp breath fled her lips, teasing his hair. She bowed, pressed flush against him. Through the silk of his shirt and the nearly nonexistent fabric of her top, her peaked nipples tormented the starved beast quaking with anticipation. He closed his eyes, reining in the last of his self-control.
He caught the fleshy part of her lobe between his teeth and tugged. Her soft mewl ripped away any hope for retreat.
“Nevershall you forget.”
18
The moment Rori realized Thaddeus had taken Rich away, her nerves had been shot. Memories of the previous night, the Fae fight, the repercussions Thaddeus had suffered, having witnessed that same magic brewing between his fingers, she had damn near panicked. Over him, Thaddeus, and his safety. She’d paced her room before she simply couldn’t stand the unknown, finally finding a small piece of calm in a burning hot shower.
She had felt his presence, a strange sensation of heat and relief, before she heard him shout her name. She pulled her nightclothes on faster than the wetness still coating her skin would allow, tore the towel from her hair, and sprinted out of the bathroom.
Her attention had dropped immediately to his chest, where his black silk button-down shirt lay open to his pecs. She glimpsed the outright worry in his expression, but her focus turned to those cursed scars, tugging his shirt aside and inspecting the two areas where his skin was a little lighter than the rest.
No shadows. No magic. No impending attack.
He’d not used magic, and the utter relief that had come over her snuffed every last drop of adrenaline from her system and every thread of willpower to reinforce her protective barriers against the forbidden pull she felt to the angelic devil of a Fae who now nibbled the delightfully sensitive area beneath her ear.
The hum his wicked mouth set free within her body coated her with goosebumps, and a spark of uncertainty. His grip on her wrist loosened, his fingers trailing down her arm like feathers, delivering a deft pulse and pleasurable rush between her legs. He supported her weight at the back of her neck, his hips keeping her perched precariously on the edge of the dresser, sitting against the taunting curve of his cock. Every restraint she held before eluded her as she tangled her fingers in the silk of his hair, tightening her legs around his narrow waist, moaning as he tasted her throat with teasing flicks of his tongue and gentle nips from his teeth.
Heat filled her belly. Tension swelled between her legs. A rhythm beat through her clit and had her rolling her hips hard against his cock. The low, resonant growl that filled her ears and made her tremble with this illogical need unleashed butterflies throughout her body and stole the strength from her muscles. She was at his mercy, trusting in the pulsing cord that tethered them together. Trusting in a fate rooted in magic that had not existed for her a week ago.
Trusting in a man who she knew so little about, but inexplicably knew on a deeper level, a deeper plane, a place secreted away for her alone. A place where the trivial matters of daily life held little value compared to the intimate frequency of this soul connection.
His grip on her neck shifted, his fingers combing up into her damp hair, fisting gently against her scalp. Slight pressure tipped her head back, exposing the length of her neck to hisravenous mouth and mindless seduction. A lick. A nip. A kiss. So many sensations pummeling her all at once. His fingertips playing against her scalp and tangling tighter in her hair without drawing pain. His hand exploring the curve of her torso, tracing the lines of her collarbone, hooking on the thin strap of her camisole and tugging it off her shoulder.
When his teeth scraped over her shoulder, she whimpered, locking her legs around his waist and pressing flush to his body.
“Closer,” she whispered, her fingers trembling as she fumbled with a button on his shirt. Beneath her fingertips, his heart raced. His chest rose and fell in short, shallow breaths, but his kisses remained controlled, slow, soaking in every inch of her with his mouth before he broke away and came over her. His cheeks held a rare rose, his pupils highlighted by a fiercely glowing blue ring, with the faintest hints of gold flecks having returned.
“You should push me away,” he murmured. His voice had dropped an octave, rumbled with the hunger that reflected in his expression. He cut a glance toward his hips as her legs loosened. A feral grin curled his lips. He caught her beneath one thigh, hiking her leg higher, leaning into her until she pressed back into the mirror. “You’ve no idea how completely I’ll devour you.”
