When Darkness Ends (Guardians of Eternity #12)(52)

Nothing to fear? Perhaps not for him. He’d made seduction an art form that he practiced on a routine basis. She wasn’t a laughably naïve princess who was ripe to tumble in love with the first man who aroused her desire.

Not that she was about to confess the truth.

At least not the full truth.

“It’s not just passion. You make me . . .” She lost track of her words as she studied his starkly chiseled face. Dear heaven, he was just so beautiful.

Not pretty. Not like Magnus. He was too male for that. But there was a compelling savagery to his features that reminded her of the lethal beauty of a wild animal.

Predator.

His lips twitched as if he suspected he’d managed to disrupt her thoughts. “You were saying?”

An instant stab of annoyance jerked her out of her brief reverie.

“You make me psychotic,” she said. It wasn’t a lie. “One minute I’m furious with you.”

“And the next?” he prompted.

“I want to rip off your clothes,” she bluntly admitted. “Until I met you I never lost my temper.”

“Boring.” He urged her back down so his mouth could return to its torment of her nipple. “I like when you forget to be the perfect princess.”

She shuddered, her fingers somehow finding their way into the thick satin of his hair.

“It’s not boring. It’s peaceful.”

As if sensing her struggle against the demands of her body, Cyn tilted back his head to study Fallon with a gaze that sent tiny tremors down her spine.

“Is that what you want? Peace?”

She bit her lip.

Of course it wasn’t. She’d endured enough peace to last an eternity.

And if she was brutally honest with herself, she would admit that the ferocious tangle of emotions that catapulted her from one extreme to another was exactly what she’d always wanted.

Oh, she hadn’t hoped for a threat to the world. Or the potential shunning.

But she was eager to experience the thrill of never knowing what was going to happen from one minute to the next. To opening herself up to a life that wasn’t neatly planned and had the potential to break her heart.

She wasn’t going to be a coward.

“No, I don’t want peace.”

He reached up to frame her face in his hands, tugging her down to kiss her with an urgency that spoke of need and yearning and . . . possession.

“What do you want?”

Fallon sighed. She didn’t know what the future held with this vampire, but she would be a fool not to savor every moment he remained with her.

Her hands smoothed over the sculpted muscles of his chest. His skin was a cool, silken temptation. Yum. She gave a small moan of need, allowing her lips to glide over his face and down the strong column of his throat.

She shivered as she sucked in a deep breath of his erotic male scent.

Storm clouds and lightning.

“I love how you smell,” she whispered as she continued her provoking caresses.

“I’m supposed to be seducing you,” he growled, his hands clutching her hips as he sought to regain command.

Bossy.

“You seduced me last time,” she whispered, moving steadily lower. “It’s my turn.”

“I wasn’t finished.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

He muttered a curse as she reached the taut muscles of his lower stomach. “Hell, no.”

She gave a soft laugh, oddly pleased by his violent reaction to her touch. Feminine power. Who knew it could be so intoxicating?

Deliberately rubbing her body back up the length of his, she shivered at the sensation of their naked skin rubbing together.

“Tell me how to please you,” she murmured.

“Just having you near pleases me,” he said in thick tones. “Christ, I’ve waited for you for longer than you could ever possibly imagine,” he murmured.

Oh. She faltered, not knowing how to react.

As if realizing he’d revealed more than he intended, he slid his arms up the curve of her spine.

“Now, my turn to play,” he informed her, drawing her toward his waiting lips.

“But—”

Not giving her time to protest, Cyn branded her lips with a kiss of pure hunger. Bolts of pleasure sizzled through her, making her feel as if she were struck by lightning.

The power felt wild . . . untamed.

As if Cyn had released the berserker who lived deep inside him.

Planting tiny, restless kisses over her face, he slid his lips down the length of her arched neck. Fallon’s breath was slammed from her lungs as he tugged her upward, catching the puckered nipple between his teeth. She gave a soft gasp as he licked and tormented her, her back arching as excitement buzzed through her. He turned his attention to the other breast, deliberately urging her desire to a fever pitch.

Oh . . . Lord. She needed more.

She needed to feel him stretching her as he slid his cock deep into her body.

But even as she struggled to slide onto his waiting erection, he was ruthlessly hauling her up to her knees. With a strangled moan she glanced down to watch his mouth explore the clenched muscles of her stomach, his tongue darting out to send shivers of delight through her.

She hissed, her fingers tangling in his hair as his lips explored the curve of her hip and down the inside of her thigh.