Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(72)

“You’re disappointed.”

“No.” Smiling, I touched my forehead to his. “I’m not. Really. Nothing has changed. I am the same person I always was. That means…I don’t have to be human to have humanity. I… It seems things aren’t as black and white as I’ve been making them out to be. I don’t have to lose something to become an angel. I can gain something. Someone.” I gave him a sheepish look. “Are you mad I marked you?”

“No,” he replied without hesitation. “In fact, I have to amend my previous statement. That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. You were positively stunning. So possessive.” His hands dropped to my shoulders, sliding down my back. “So vengeful.” His lips parted in a sensual smile. “So Lethal.” His words kissed my face. “But I bet you could push yourself harder.”

“To be like you?” I gasped as his hand caught on the front zipper of my dress.

“You are just like me.” He slid the zipper halfway down. “Just as raw.”

My breasts swelled against the fabric of my top. Another half inch down with that zipper, and they’d pop right out. This is what I got for not wearing a bra.

“You will make a magnificent angel, Leda.” He closed his eyes, savoring the thought.

“So you came here to push me hard?”

“Yes.” His voice was like liquid silk—like the silk burning against my nipples.

He pushed me against the wall. Steam hissed. I realized we’d somehow stumbled halfway across the castle to the Tranquility Pools, the same place Nero had found me after flying here through the storm.

“And to save the world, of course.” He kissed me gently.

But I didn’t want him to be gentle—not now. “Aren’t you busy enough with your own promotion training without worrying about me?” I asked.

“I always worry about you.”

I arched my back.

His gazed dipped to my chest. “But I must admit that my intentions were not entirely selfless.”

“Oh?”

“They were at least fifty percent selfless.”

I caught his lip between my teeth, drawing it out slowly. A deliciously dark groan rumbled in his chest.

“Fine,” he said, his voice strained, like he was having trouble holding back the darkness. “At least twenty percent selfless. I need something from you.”

I peeled back his collar to kiss his neck, teasing his pulsing vein with my mouth. “I need something from you too.”

I slid the zipper all the way down. My dress slid off my body like a waterfall, leaving me in nothing but my panties and a pair of high heels.

“Pandora,” he said, his voice a hard, needy rumble, like sandpaper on silk. “I’m trying to be serious.”

I stepped over my dress. “I’m very serious.”

He cast a long look down the length of my body. Temptation flared in his eyes. “I need to talk.”

“Talk.” I peeled back my hair, baring my neck to him. “I’m listening.”

His hands flashed out, locking onto my arms. I gasped in delight as he turned me around roughly. My back slammed into the hard wall of his chest.

“I missed you so much,” I said.

His mouth trailed kisses across my shoulder. “I missed you too. When I came to the castle, I wasn’t sure you’d be happy to see me.”

“I was.”

His hand traced the outside of my breast, brushing down my ribcage. I could feel the hard prick of his fangs against my neck, pushing just lightly enough to not break the skin.

“After what happened in New York, I thought I’d lost you.”

“You didn’t,” I said, glancing back at him. “You have me, Nero.”

All the doors to the room clicked shut.

“Good,” he said, his eyes burning with dark desire.

He moved like lightning. He lifted me off the floor—and tossed me into the pool.

I surfaced, spitting out water. “That was not what I had in mind.”

He was already in the pool, facing me. And there wasn’t a shred of clothing on him. Water streamed down his chest like diamond tears. I shivered.

Nero slid his hand across the water’s surface. Heat spread out from his glowing fingers, warming the pool. “Better?”

“Moderately.”

“You’re so hard to please.”

“I seem to remember a certain angel who was never satisfied with my performance.”

“You would have preferred me to go easy on you?”

“Oh, did you think this was about you?” I smirked at him. “I was actually talking about Colonel Fireswift.”

His mouth hardened.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” I rose to my tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “Of course I meant you, Colonel Hardass.”

“I’m not always dissatisfied.”

“Only most of the time.”

“I’m trying to push you to be something more, something greater. I warned you from the beginning that the road you were on would be difficult, that I would have to push you hard. And that you might hate me for it.”

“I don’t hate you, Nero. I could never hate you.”

A sweat broke out on my face. The pool wasn’t just warm now; it was scorching hot. A week ago, the heat would have been too much for me. Now, with the magic of Dragon’s Storm flowing through my veins, it actually felt pretty good. It soaked into my muscles, melting the tension out of me, soothing me.