Worse…
“You’re entering your fertile cycle, aren’t you?”
She answered by burrowing deeper against him. By balling her fists into his scales.
Max sucked his breath in sharply as every hormone in his body was fired by her touch. “Sera?” he tried again. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes?” That breathless tone raised chills all over his body and was its own form of a caress.
Its own form of torture.
Biting his lip, he knew this wasn’t the time or place. But it wasn’t easy to distract himself from the warmth of her pressing against him. From the curve of her lush, full breasts that practically spilled out of her top, and the invitation of those lips that he wanted to taste until he made them cry out in pleasure.
He was just about to give in when he felt a strange break in the ether around them.
It wasn’t Illarion.
Fully alert, he lifted his head to search with all his senses. The ancient, arcane evil was one he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
And it wasn’t alone.
“Maxis?”
His heart pounding from the sudden adrenaline surge, he manifested the two of them in the darkness and tucked Sera behind him to protect her. He searched the nebulous area around them that reminded him too much of Irkalla.
And now that he thought about it…
Why would they be here? Was he mistaken?
Every single nerve ending in his body crawled with warning.
Well, this can’t be good. Terrified of what Kessar intended, Max shifted back into his human form and faced Seraphina. Gods, he’d forgotten just how beautiful she was. How much she’d once meant to him.
How much she still did, in spite of his common sense and best denials. But no time now for dawdling. It was time to do what he’d brought her here to do.
Cupping her beautiful, round cheeks in his hands, he smiled down at her. “Do you trust me?”
He saw the uncertainty in those hazel eyes as she searched his gaze warily. “Yes. Why?”
Max didn’t speak. He couldn’t. What he was about to do, she might not ever forgive. Yet it was something that had to be done. Let her hate him if she must.
At least this time, her hatred would be justified.
Seraphina knew something was wrong by the light in those golden eyes, but she didn’t know what it was. Instead of speaking, Maxis tightened his arms around her and pulled her flush to his hard, muscled chest. Leaning down, he nuzzled his face against her neck. His warm breath scorched her skin and raised chills all over her body. Worse, it made her breathless with a heated longing that wanted him inside her so badly it was almost impossible to resist.
Just as she was about to ask what he was doing, she felt the sharp sting of fangs sinking into her jugular. She cried out and started to fight, but it was useless. He had her completely subdued.
Completely at his mercy.
Weak and confused, she didn’t understand why he was doing this to her. Was he trying to hurt or kill her? To punish her for what she’d done to him? Did he intend this to be his revenge? Kill her and their children?
Her head reeling, one moment she was in his arms in the darkness. The next, she was back in his bedroom, lying on the floor behind the closed curtain. Alone.
“Maxis?”
What? Why was she here?
What was he thinking?