When Darkness Ends (Guardians of Eternity #12)(49)

Her lips pressed together as a stab of . . . something sliced through her heart. God. Could it be jealousy?

“Exactly,” she forced herself to mutter. “I’m no different.”

Wrong answer.

She shivered as the temperature dropped. Climate control was a definite issue when dealing with a moody vampire.

“But those women weren’t you.” He leaned down until they were nose to nose. “Making love might not have mattered to you but it was bloody special to me.”

“Of course it mattered,” she muttered.

“Why should I believe you?” he demanded. “You did, after all, just break up with your princely fiancé. For all I know, this was revenge sex.”

Fallon pressed her hands against his naked chest, floundering as he neatly turned the tables on her.

“This had nothing to do with Magnus.”

“You did save your virginity for him. How can I be sure that you didn’t just sleep with the first man available to punish him?”

She sucked in a shocked breath, sheer horror racing through her at the mere thought of any other man touching her.

“You know that’s not true. I would never be with someone that I didn’t . . .”

Her words trailed away as she realized she was revealing far more than she wanted to.

Thankfully he didn’t press her to finish her sentence. Instead he gazed down at her with an unnerving intensity.

“Just as I would never lie to you,” he asserted. “If I tell you that you’re special, that’s exactly what I mean. You’re special.”

Her lashes fluttered downward, shielding her expressive eyes. She felt vulnerable. Stripped dangerously raw. Which was no doubt why she’d tried to convince herself that Cyn considered her nothing more than a convenient body.

She was rattled enough by the physical intensity of their lovemaking without adding in the tangle of emotions that seethed just below the surface.

“I’ve never felt special,” she breathed, her fingers unconsciously stroking over the satin-smooth skin of his chest.

He muttered a low curse, his lips skimming her furrowed brow. “Because your fiancé is an arrogant prick who wouldn’t recognize a female of worth if she bit him on the arse.”

True. But that hadn’t been her point.

“I never had expectations from Magnus,” she corrected, feeling a familiar sadness pierce her heart. It didn’t seem to matter how many years passed. She would always be that little girl who ached for her father’s love. “But it would have been nice if Sariel had bothered to notice me as more than a piece of property to be bartered for his own gain.”

“Forget him.” He lifted his head to study her with a somber expression. “He doesn’t deserve your loyalty.”

“It’s not that easy. He’s my family.”

Something flared deep in the jade eyes. “Not anymore,” he reminded her in a soft voice.

Fallon flinched at the blunt reminder that she would soon be shunned.

God Almighty. Once she’d cursed the tedious peace of her days. She hated playing the role of submissive princess. She hated having her life ruled by her father, and later by Magnus. She hated the fear that she would never travel beyond her homeland.

But now the tumultuous changes in her life were all happening too fast.

“You’re right,” she rasped, her voice thick with pain. “I’ve been . . .” She couldn’t even speak the awful words.

“Don’t,” he growled, holding her gaze as his fingers threaded through her tangled hair. “I’ve got you.”

She blinked back her tears. “You don’t understand.”

“No?” His gaze lowered to the dejected droop of her lips. “I was abandoned by my sire before I even woke as a vampire. I would have died in those caves. Hell, for all I know, he intended to kill me.”

Fallon grimaced. “Okay, maybe you do understand.”

“Aye.” His expression softened. “But I found a new family. And I’ve never stopped appreciating what they did for me.”

Shying away from the mere thought of never seeing her homeland again, she slid her hand beneath his hair, her fingers brushing over the dragon she’d seen tattooed on his shoulder blade. It was a stunningly beautiful symbol of his position.

“Is that why you became a clan chief?”

“In part.” His fingers combed through her hair, his touch soothing even as it began to stir the familiar heat in the pit of her stomach. “It was a terrifying experience to awake alone with no memory of who or what I was. I intended to make sure that I never felt that vulnerable again.”

She twitched beneath the heavy weight of his body, her mouth going dry as she felt his cock harden against her hip. The heat was beginning to spread through her, those delicious tingles of anticipation making her shiver.

Good . . . Lord.

She was supposed to be a proper princess, not a harpy in heat.

“What was the other part?” she demanded, trying to distract herself.

The jade eyes darkened as Cyn reacted to her unmistakable arousal, his fangs visible between his lips.

“I’m a bossy, conceited bastard who likes to be in charge.”

“You’ll get no argument from me,” she said, her breath hissing between her teeth as his lips brushed her forehead before skimming down her cheek.