When Darkness Ends (Guardians of Eternity #12)(46)

And if he was being brutally honest, he was doing a piss-poor job of protecting her.

But the mere thought of her leaving . . .

He shuddered, deepening the kiss as excitement exploded through him. Oh God, the taste of her. Honey. And sunshine. And pure female temptation.

He groaned, dipping his tongue into the moist heat of her mouth. She was addictive. Like a drug that had entered his system and filled him with a need that threatened to overwhelm him.

“Stay,” he whispered against her lips, his hands greedily exploring her long, slender curves.

She shivered, her hands tentatively pressing against his chest. “How can I?”

He nibbled at the edge of her lips, his hand slipping beneath the border of her lavender sweater. Instant arousal seared through him at the feel of her satin-smooth skin beneath his fingertips.

“Will you die if you don’t return to your homeland?” he demanded, tracing her lower lip with the tip of his tongue.

His elongated fangs throbbed with the need to sink deep into the tender flesh, but he was careful not to accidentally draw blood. There’s no way he would force a mating on her. Not after she’d nearly been manipulated into one by her bastard of a father.

“No, but—”

He stole her words with another kiss. Her family considered her nothing more than a pawn who could be sacrificed when she no longer served her purpose. They didn’t deserve her.

“Then stay.”

Cyn leaned back just far enough so he could pull the sweater over her head, his gut twisting at the sheer beauty of her.

Fallon didn’t possess the lush body of most fey. No. His princess was all sleek lines and graceful curves. Like a pure-blooded racehorse.

Perfect.

“Stay where?” she husked, her nails digging into his chest as he allowed his fingers to skim up her narrow rib cage to cup her small breasts with reverent care. “I have no home, no family, no one who can help me.”

Cyn struggled to concentrate. He knew it would be a difficult task to convince her that she belonged with him. Especially when she was still raw from her fiancé’s abandonment. But the hunger that had been growing from his first sight of this tempting female was thundering through him, making it almost impossible to think of anything beyond wrapping her impossibly long legs around his waist so he could sink himself into her tantalizing heat.

“You have me,” he murmured.

“You want me to become a part of your harem?”

He yanked his head up to glare at her wary expression. Was she deliberately trying to piss him off?

“Why the hell do you keep harping about my nonexistent harem?”

“Why else would you ask me to stay?”

Cyn swallowed his urge to laugh. He wasn’t about to tell her that he thought she might be his mate.

In the past few days she’d been kidnapped from her homeland, commanded to spy on the Commission, forced to share a lair with a vampire, jilted by her fiancé, and potentially shunned.

Now didn’t seem the best time to pile on the fact that he had no intention of ever letting her go.

“We still have to save the world, remember?” he asked, his gaze drifting to the unsteady line of her lips.

She tilted her head to the side, unconsciously offering the temptation of her exposed neck.

“And that’s the only reason?”

He pressed the heavy thrust of his arousal against her, groaning at the incandescent sensations that exploded through him.

“Isn’t that enough for now?” he asked, his lips feathering kisses down the length of her throat.

“No other women?” she stubbornly demanded.

“Only you, princess.” He nuzzled the pulse that raced at the base of her throat, his fingers skimming down the flat plane of her stomach to unsnap her jeans. “Only you.”

She shivered, her slender arms tentatively wrapping around his shoulders. Cyn growled in approval, dipping his head to lick a rose-tipped breast. She gasped with shocked pleasure, her fingers tunneling into his hair.

“Will you stay?” He had to hear the words. He had to know that she wasn’t going to suddenly disappear on him.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Tugging the nipple between his lips, Cyn skimmed his hand down the length of her spine, lingering on the curve of her buttocks. His cock twitched at the sensation of her soft, feminine flesh beneath his hand. He wanted to feast on her. To spend the entire night exploring her from the top of her glorious curls to the tips of her tiny toes that she never remembered to cover with shoes.

But not tonight, he conceded as he grabbed the bottom of his sweater and yanked it over his head.

His hunger was a burning force that threatened to consume him. A slow, delectable exploration would have to wait until he’d dulled the edge of his lust.

More than once.

“Touch me,” he pleaded softly, unzipping her jeans and urging them down her legs until she could step out of them.

She hesitated only a second before he felt the timid brush of her fingers down his back. He moaned, rocked by the raw pleasure at her shy caress. He did not know how it was possible that an untutored innocent could set him on fire, but there was no denying her power.

With a groan, he branded her with a kiss of possessive demand, his muscles clenching as he gained access to the warmth of her mouth.

Sweet honey. And sunshine.