She doubted she'd ever have enough of him.
The sun was kissing the horizon as they lay in each other's arms. She was once again in the driver's seat, draped over his chest. Far off, she thought she heard her name whispered in the wind.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“I don't wear a watch,” his voice rumbled under her where she nestled on his chest. “Time is relative anyway.”
Relative. Relatives, family, sisters. That was Aerin whispering her name. Tierra listened closer hearing Moira's call over the ocean. They were searching for her. “I have to go.” She didn't want today to end.
“It seems that all great things in life never last long.”
“Can we do this—never mind, forget I asked that.”
He sat up with her still straddled over him and cupped her face in his hands. Her hair curtained around them. “I wish we could, but my…business here is brief and I can't take you with me.”
“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—”
He kissed her, telling her with his body what their words couldn't. He released her. “Come on. I'll get you back to town.” He lifted her like she was nothing and set her on her feet. He reached for his clothes, and she saw his back for the first time.
A full tattoo that seemed as ancient as time, covered his back. A black figure draped in a robe with a massive feathered wingspan, depicted a fallen angel holding a scythe. Fire and brimstone were layered behind him, and the River Styx flowed at his feet. A haunting skull looked at her from under the hooded robe.
No. Oh goddess, no. Not him.
He couldn't be, but that was the only thing that explained the Grim Reaper tattoo that stirred across his back like it had a life of its own.
He was the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse.
Death.
He yanked on his t-shirt, effectively covering the tattoo and breaking her out of the trance. He slipped on his pants and turned back toward her, buttoning his jeans. His smile faded when he caught a look at her face.
“What's your name?” she whispered.
“Now you want to know my name?”
Had he known all this time? Had he played her for a fool? Got her alone so he could dispose of her? She'd done all that with him, and had basically begged him to take her virginity. Gods. How freaking naïve could she be? Apparently more than she'd ever believed.
“Don't joke. Not now,” she said. “Do you know who I am?”
An inhuman growl escaped him as he caught on. The sound caused the hair on the back of her neck to rise.
“Don't tell me,” he said.
Okay, she wouldn't.
“Tierra de Moray,” he rasped out through clenched teeth.
Oh good goddess, her name sounded terrifying coming from lips that were swollen from kissing her.
“Does Death have a name?” she asked.
“Bane. Killian Bane.” His lips twisted into a dangerous smile that didn't hold any humor.
“How…appropriate.”
“My mother thought so.”
He had a mother? Death had a mother? That thought went around and around in her head making her dizzy.
“What happens now?” she asked, afraid she already knew the answer.
“What should have happened before.”
She swallowed to try and relieve the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. Turns out she was afraid of Death, er dying.
What the hell? Weren't they one and the same? “I don't want to die.”
“One of you has to. Pick and it will be done.”
Pick? She couldn't pick. “They are my sisters.” Her family.
“Pick, gazelle,” he growled.
“My name is Tierra de Moray and if you touch my sisters I will put you in the ground.”
“Do you realize who you are talking to?” He reached for her, and she reacted without thinking, her hands rising up and deflecting him with a simple reflection spell.
He laughed at her attempts. “I've been around for millennia, my gazelle. You think that will keep me from you now that I've tasted you?”
Holy shit.
Her heart pounded in her chest and she quickly backed away from him as he stalked toward her. Commanding the willows, roots, and vines from the forest, she beseeched them to come to her aid. They locked around his wrists and ankles holding him in place. He smiled that wicked smile like he knew all her secrets, and she was worried he might.
Just as quickly as the branches and roots had ensnared him, they withered, died, and turned to dust. Breath escaped her body in grief for the plants he'd so easily, thoughtlessly destroyed. Anger and fear merged within her, and the earth trembled