When Darkness Ends (Guardians of Eternity #12)(24)

It wasn’t that he was forced to remain beneath the ground. He’d made sure the castle was sun-proofed. But he’d known that if he gave in to the urge to leave the privacy of his chambers, he’d be headed straight for this female.

A knowledge that wouldn’t have been so bad if it was sheer lust that was urging him to seek her out. He was a male. She turned him on. Simple. But it wasn’t just sexual desire that had thrummed through him as he walked in endless circles.

No, it was a niggling fear that her room was too cold, and that she didn’t have the proper food, and she might be missing her homeland.

Only sheer force of will kept him from giving in to the embarrassing need to seek her out and fuss over her as if he were some sort of demented mother hen.

Then dusk had fallen and Lise had arrived with the provisions he’d requested along with an update on his clan. He’d barely given her time to finish her report before he was heading out of his rooms and up the stairs to find the woman who’d plagued him for the past twelve hours.

The very fact that the need to see her had become a compulsion he couldn’t ignore had set his temper on edge.

Still, when he’d tossed out his childish dare, he hadn’t actually expected her to call his bluff.

Not until she was grabbing him by his hair and yanking him down for a kiss that blasted through him with enough force to wrench a groan from his throat.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he understood that this was supposed to be a “screw you” kiss. A punishment for his taunting.

But his body didn’t care why her lips were pressed against his or why her fingers were spearing into his hair as he wrapped his arms around her slender form. It only knew that the aggravating princess was at last where she was supposed to be.

Drenched in the intoxicating scent of champagne, Cyn deepened the kiss, coaxing her from frustration to hunger. With a small moan, she parted her lips, inviting his tongue to dip into the welcoming heat of her mouth.

Cyn tightened his arms until she was lifted off the floor, kissing her as if he’d been starved for a woman. As if he’d been waiting for this precise moment for centuries.

He felt his body harden in exquisite anticipation.

Bloody hell. She was warm and soft and she tasted of sweet ambrosia.

One hand slid under her silken curtain of hair, gripping her nape in a gesture that was pure male possession while being careful not to bruise her ivory skin. Holding her so close, it was impossible to miss the fragile delicacy of her bones or the fact she weighed next to nothing.

Once again he was struck by that overriding need to care for her . . . to make sure she was protected.

Even from himself.

He allowed their tongues to tangle, briefly pressing her against his aching erection before he was easing back and allowing her feet to touch the floor.

She tilted back her head, her satin hair spilling over his arm with the stunning hues of a summer sunrise. Cyn’s gaze skimmed over her flushed face, lingering on her lips that were still swollen from his kisses before meeting her stunned gaze.

“You’re full of surprises, princess,” he husked, his hands sliding up the slender curves to halt just below the gentle thrust of her breasts.

She shuddered, the scent of her arousal spicing the air before she was abruptly jerking out of his grasp, her expression guarded.

“May I have my nectar?”

Cyn battled back his instinctive compulsion to pull her back into his arms, glancing down at the bags he’d dropped when he’d been overwhelmed by the need to touch Fallon.

Bloody hell, he was in trouble.

Big-ass-scary kind of trouble.

Baffled at how his life had been turned upside down so quickly, Cyn was on the point of full retreat when the sound of tiny bells had him grasping the hilt of his dagger that was holstered at his lower back.

“What’s that?”

With obvious relief at the distraction, Fallon was turning to hurry into the room across the hall.

“My magic has activated,” she said, moving to study the dozen bowls that had been arranged on the Persian carpet in the center of the floor.

Cyn halted near the doorway, studying the bowls with open suspicion. “Activated what?”

She turned to study his rigid posture. “Are you afraid of magic?”

Of course he was afraid. Magic was every vampire’s worst nightmare. Okay, not his worst nightmare.

That would be looking like chicken shit in front of a beautiful woman.

Which was why he was squaring his shoulders and forcing his reluctant feet to carry him toward the bowls that flickered with eerie images that were as creepy as hell.

“I fear nothing.”

Fallon smiled, not fooled for a second. “Such a big, bad vampire.”

“Again with the big,” he muttered. “Would you like me to show you—”

“Good, it appears that Siljar has called the Commission into session.” She interrupted his peevish provocation, bending over a bowl closest to the stained-glass window.

Cyn frowned, forgetting his fear as he watched her tiny shiver. Dammit. He needed to find some way to keep the massive castle warm.

“Why is that good?”

“I can lock on them all at once.”

Even without much knowledge of magic, Cyn recognized the amount of sheer talent, not to mention strength, it must take to keep a lock on a dozen of the world’s most powerful demons.