He frowned. “My own prejudices shielded me from the truth. I don’t know how you haven’t killed me when so many times you could have. Why didn’t you let Sin Garu take me out? The Light Bringers, the only people you’d ever known, banished you from your friends and life in Tanselm. The man who supposedly loved you rejected you.”
Arim kissed me, his sorrow unfathomably deep. My Darkness radiated with his pain.
“I’m so sorry, Blue. You’ll never know how sorry I am for what happened.”
“You — you’re saying you believe me now?” My heart raced, and I told myself not to hope. His belief or disbelief means nothing.
Yet it meant everything.
Desperate not to cling to even a shred of expectation, I tried to rile him. “Wait, this is some ploy to get me to confide in you, right? I’m just supposed to believe that after some hot sex, you now believe me?” I snorted. “Nice try. I don’t know a hell of a lot about Sin Garu’s plans, so this great big ball of ‘I believe you now’ is wasted. Sorry, Arim, but once again you’ve misjudged me.”
“No, Blue. This has nothing to do with Sin Garu unless he’s the one who killed your family. This is about you and me. Period.”
I swallowed, uneasy that he refused to take the bait. He acted as if he really believed me, as if he wanted my…forgiveness?
I tried to look tough. “So what do you want from me?”
“Nothing. I just want to show you how sorry I am for all that you’ve suffered. For all that you were made to do.” He sounded sad, and my heart dipped.
Hell. A little bit — okay, a lot — of Light Bringer dick and I’d been reduced to a pitiful mass of neediness. I struggled against the urge to tell him to forget the past, to put it all behind us and start over.
I am so weak, it’s pathetic.
“Now hold on.” I tugged again on my ropes. “Arim, release me.”
To my surprise, he did. But he wouldn’t budge from his position on top of me.
“What happened all those years ago was tragic,” I continued. “But it showed me who I really am and where I belong.”
“Oh?” He lifted a brow in that conceited way of his and, like clockwork, had my back up. “So all those rumors about you devouring small children and roasting Light Bringers for fun are true? Do you normally play tug-of-war with the Malinta demons for the souls of those you steal?”
Still such a dickhead. “You are way, way off.”
“I know,” he said smoothly and kissed the hollow between my neck and shoulder. To my dismay, his touch sent a bolt of lust straight through my body. “I know a woman who hated me, who would love to see me dead, wouldn’t have put herself between me and punishment at the hands of a mad Dark Lord. A woman who hated me wouldn’t have ignored a chance to humiliate me by outing my sexual deviancy to Tanselm’s populace.”
I squirmed, wanting him to share those deviant urges with me all over again. How could I be so infuriated and so in lust with him at the same time?
“Arim, let’s just forget —”
“No. I don’t want to forget a moment with you. Not when we’ve spent a lifetime apart. I want more, Blue. I need more. I need you.”
I stared in shock, not sure what I saw in his eyes when he took possession of me yet again.
In Arim’s kiss, I felt desire, love, and the tendrils of possibilities snaking over my body, heart, and mind.
Not even the demonic curse overshadowing my soul could stop me from reaching out to grasp at a foolish hope so close, and so long denied.
Chapter 16
Arim
I groaned, wanting everything from Lexa we’d once had. It broke my heart that she’d been so alone for so long and hadn’t deserved a moment of it. I knew she’d never been a saint, but she wasn’t the monster the Church and others had painted her to be.
In my heart of hearts, I’d never believed the horrible tales spread about her, and my conflicting feelings had only exacerbated my anger.
But now, her Darkness embraced my Light, and despite the tension radiating between us, I wanted her even more. As if I hadn’t just emptied inside her, my cock hardened again, needing to fill the sweet woman moaning my name.
Her small hands clasped my shoulders with surprising strength. Despite no longer being tied up, she remained in my control. But that didn’t matter. I clamored to engage a woman who could withstand my raw power. Only Lexa had ever been my equal.
