Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #8)(14)

For a crazed moment, he simply savored the sensation of her slim body pressed beneath him. God, it had been so long since he’d felt genuine desire.

Not since Morgana le Bitch had taken him into her harem.

Now his body was determined to make up for lost time.

Still, for all his rampaging desire, he wasn’t so lost to reason that he didn’t recall this female posed an extreme danger to him.

“How the hell did you get here?” he growled, keeping the knife poised near her throat even as he made certain it didn’t mar the perfection of her alabaster skin.

Her hands pressed against his chest, but she made no attempt to kill him.

Progress.

“Get off me, you ass,” she hissed.

“Not until I’m certain you don’t intend to alert all of London to our presence.”

Something that might have been embarrassment at her less than graceful entrance rippled over her starkly beautiful face before she was glaring at him in outrage.

“Don’t blame me. It was your little spirit who dumped me here.”

“Spirit?”

“Yannah.”

He scowled. He had occasionally conjured a spirit who went by the name of Yannah, but she wouldn’t be able to enter Avalon. And certainly she couldn’t have brought Jaelyn to London.

“Spirits are incapable of forming portals.”

“Spooks are your specialty, not mine,” she muttered, her expression abruptly shuttered. “All I know is that she made an unexpected appearance in Avalon and shoved me through a portal. Next thing I knew I was making a face-first landing in London.”

She was lying.

He was certain of that much.

The question was whether anything she told him was the truth.

“I sensed there was something different about Yannah when I summoned her from the underworld,” he at last admitted.

“Obviously you should be more careful when you’re inviting in creatures from hell,” she taunted.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to argue with her logic.

“I was distracted at the time, if you’ll recall. And it was you who allowed her to escape before I could properly banish her.”

“Whatever.” She refused to meet his gaze. “Now will you get off of me?”

Damn. What the hell was she hiding from him?

“Spirit or not, why would Yannah follow us to Avalon and then conveniently be around to help you escape?”

There was a barely perceptible pause. “She owed me for releasing her from your bondage. I called in my debt.”

“I don’t believe you.”

She struggled, the sensation of her hard muscles squirming against him nearly sending him up in flames. Holy shit. If only he could turn all that pent-up aggression to passion she’d be naked and riding him like a bucking bronco.

The image burned into his brain, making him so hard and ready he feared he might explode.

“Tough,” she growled.

He ground his teeth. Dammit, he wouldn’t let himself be distracted.

At least, not without the promise of satisfaction.

“Why did you follow me here?”

“You know why.”

He smiled without humor, pressing his aching arousal against her hip.

“Tempting, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to have your wicked way with my body,” he mocked. “At least until I’ve halted Armageddon.”

Her eyes flashed with indigo fire, her struggles becoming serious.

“My only interest in your body is hauling it to the Commission.”

He pressed the knife against her throat, refusing to regret the smell of burning flesh.

If she tried to take him to the Commission then he’d have to do a hell of a lot worse than singe a bit of skin.

“Wrong answer.”

“Shit, that burns.”

“Hold still and you won’t be hurt,” he informed her, lifting his free hand to form a portal.

Instantly the familiar shimmer floated beside him. No other fairy could match his speed in forming a portal. Or his tolerance to iron.

Which were only two of many reasons he’d been chosen to lead his people.

Jaelyn froze, her gaze trained on the magical opening that hung near her head.

“What are you doing?”

“Returning you to Avalon.” His gaze narrowed. “And this time I will make certain no one will be coming to your rescue.”

She cursed, grudgingly turning her head to meet his ruthless gaze.

“Wait.”

“Why should I?”

“We ...” She looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. “... might be able to negotiate.”

Instinctively he lifted the dagger from her neck, absently watching her skin heal the small burn.

He should return her to Avalon. No ifs, ands, or freaking buts. The odds were that she was either there to haul his ass to the Commission.

Or kill him.

Neither possibility was particularly pleasant.

Still, he hesitated.

Wasn’t there some human saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?

It was surely wiser to have her in sight until he discovered how she truly had escaped from Avalon?

Dubious logic, but he was going with it.

“Another bargain, poppet?”