When Darkness Ends (Guardians of Eternity #12)(56)

She made a sound of impatience. “And it doesn’t hurt?”

“Why should it?”

For some reason his flat tone pissed her off.

“God. You’re a piece of work,” she muttered. “Did you care for the poor woman at all?”

He held her gaze, his expression strangely knowing. “Would you prefer that I be suffering at the loss of my fiancée?”

Tonya’s annoyance faltered. Did she want him to be pining for Fallon?

Hell, no.

In fact, if she was being honest, a part of her was fiercely happy he wasn’t brokenhearted.

Still, she needed to know he was capable of feeling something.

“I’m just trying to understand how you could be so indifferent.”

His lips flattened. “Our engagement was not based on emotion. It was a means to improve the status of our mutual Houses,” he grudgingly admitted. “We both understood our duty.”

He was in full prince mode. Cold. Aloof. Committed to his social position.

Tonya shivered. Why did she keep searching for some indication he was more than an arrogant snob?

“So now you return to find another sacrificial lamb?”

“Eventually.”

It was exactly the response she’d expected, so why did she abruptly want to knee him in the nuts?

“Why not now?” she asked through clenched teeth. “There’s nothing to keep you here.”

Without warning the cognac eyes darkened and his fingers tangled in her hair so he could tilt back her head.

Then, swooping downward, he claimed her lips in a kiss that demanded a response.

Tonya trembled, a blast of sheer pleasure nearly sending her to her knees. God Almighty. She’d managed to provoke a response. But it wasn’t the one she expected.

Drowning in the scent of whiskey, Tonya parted her lips, allowing him greater access. Their tongues tangled, his power wrapping around her like a blanket.

For a crazed moment, Tonya forgot all the reasons she didn’t want this man.

It didn’t matter that he was a ruthless prince who had recently condemned his fiancée to a painful shunning. Or that he was on the point of returning to his homeland to choose another to become his wife.

When she was in his arms all that mattered was that she felt needed and beautiful and heart-meltingly cherished.

He eased the demanding pressure of his mouth, giving her lower lip a sharp nip. “You don’t want me to leave.”

“Of course I do,” she tried to bluff. “I told you . . .” The words were stolen as he covered her mouth with demanding lips. With a low groan she at last pulled her head back to study his flushed, impossibly beautiful face. She felt drunk on the excitement that bubbled through her like the finest nectar. “Why are you kissing me?”

His expression was brooding as his hand skimmed down the curve of her spine, cupping her backside with an intimacy that stole her breath away.

“I don’t have a damned clue.”

Lost in one another, neither heard the door opening. It was at last the blast of icy air that had them turning to discover the Anasso watching them with obvious impatience.

“Again?” Styx growled. “You two really need to get a room.”

With a low hiss, Magnus was abruptly shoving her behind him, protecting her disheveled appearance from Styx’s all too perceptive gaze.

“What do you want now, leech?” he snapped, a faint golden glow surrounding his body as his power kicked into overdrive.

Tonya gasped as Magnus’s heat surrounded her in a protective shield.

It was dangerously easy to underestimate this lethal Chatri.

Styx scowled, but perhaps sensing that Magnus was at the point of snapping, he pulled back his own aggression, careful not to glance at Tonya as she peeked around the prince’s shoulder.

“I need your help,” the Anasso said.

Magnus made a sound of impatience. “What now?”

“The imp is dead,” Styx said, his voice flat. “I need to know how the hell it happened.”

Cyn was seated in a leather wing chair, absently stroking his charcoal pencil over the sketch pad that he held in his hands. At the same time, he was keeping a careful watch on Fallon as she restlessly paced the floor.

Even dressed in jeans and a casual blue sweater, with her hair pulled into a haphazard ponytail, she managed to look stunningly beautiful.

Of course, she’d been even more exquisite when she was lying naked in his arms, he ruefully concluded.

Unfortunately, as much as he wanted to pretend that the world outside his lair didn’t exist, he couldn’t entirely ignore the imminent threat to demons. So while he’d wanted nothing more than to keep her in his bed, he’d grudgingly given in to duty. Well, first they had been in a long, delicious shower together, and then he’d insisted that she eat the dinner left in the kitchen by Lise.

Only then did he bring her to the library to sort through the vast collection of books while he struggled to clear his mind and connect the dots.

Dammit, there had to be a reason why this all felt so familiar.

Sorting through a millennium of memories, Cyn was yanked out of his inner thoughts when Fallon came to an abrupt halt in the center of the priceless carpet.

“Arrgh,” she breathed, glaring at him in exasperation.

He hid his surge of amusement. It was becoming obvious that his soon-to-be mate wasn’t a scholar, despite her shrewd intelligence.