Wicked (Eternal Guardians #9) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,129
he felt her heart rate kick up. And he knew he wasn’t fooling her. Not completely. His mono mia was too smart for that. Too smart for him.
He let go of her with one arm and reached for the comforter at their feet. “This will help.”
Doubt flashed in her eyes as he tugged the blanket up to his chest and wrapped it around her. Before he could pull her close again and convince her of his lie, she pushed him to his back and straddled his hips.
“I have a better way to heat you up.”
His stomach tightened as she pressed a kiss to the center of his chest, one that reignited those tingles all through his flesh. She glanced up with a wicked gleam in her eyes. One he’d seen before. One that sent blood rushing straight into his cock and made him rock-hard all over again.
“You just lie there and focus on being warm.” A sexy smile tugged at her lips as she grasped the blanket at her back, tugged it up over her head, and lowered her lips to his chest again, working wet, sinful kisses straight down his abdomen as she scooted back. “You’re going to be so hot by the time I’m done with you. A roiling, bubbling, sizzling mess of a god on the verge of exploding. And when I have you completely at my mercy, do you know what I’m going to do with you then, dios?”
With his fingers in her hair, his body already sizzling because of her sultry words and decadent lips, he looked down and met her eyes.
Eyes that had the power to change everything for him, and already had. Eyes that were going to linger in his mind—and his heart—long after this night was through. “What?”
“Anything I want. Because you’re mine. All and only mine.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Talisa sat up and looked down at Zagreus asleep on his side against her.
The candles had burned down to virtually nothing, and only a few flickering flames remained, leaving the lookout dark and still, but she could easily see him. Moonlight shone through the wide windows to highlight his dark hair against the white pillow, his thick lashes feathering the soft skin beneath his eyes, and the long, lean muscles in his arms and chest that could have been sculpted from clay.
She should be thoroughly exhausted—he’d worn her out with his delicious lovemaking—but she wasn’t. She hadn’t slept a minute, not even after he’d rolled into her, pulled her close, and drifted off. Hadn’t because she knew he was holding something back. The same something she’d sensed had kept him away from her all day when she’d only wanted him.
Rising quietly so she wouldn’t wake him, she grasped the soft throw from the foot of the bed and wrapped it around her. After crossing the room, she leaned against the stone wall near the middle arch and gazed out at the falling water that dropped into the dark lake far below, the village lights dotting the lakeshore, and finally the castle torches, burning brightly, even at this hour.
She thought of the nymphs asleep in the village. The silens. Nyssa and Rhen in the castle. Her parents, and the rest of the Argonauts. About what lurked beyond their borders, just waiting to strike in the dark. All because of her.
Zagreus’s arms closed around her from behind, startling her. “You’re supposed to be sleeping.”
“I know.” She wrapped her fingers around his forearms, relieved at the way he closed in at her back and pressed a gentle kiss to her throat, thankful that it warmed the chill growing inside.
He exhaled a long breath, pressed his face into her hair, and just held her.
And though she loved this, though she never wanted him to let go, fear slithered through her chest because she sensed—again—that he was holding back.
“Tell me,” she finally whispered, unable to stand it any longer.
He didn’t answer. Just tightened his arms around her and held her even closer.
Silence stretched between them. A silence that caused all the shocks of the last day to tumble through her mind.
His disappearance. Returning with the Argonauts. Her parents’ arrival. Her father not seeming the least bit concerned that she wouldn’t listen and go home. The way Zagreus had looked at her tonight. The way he’d touched her. The regret she’d seen lingering in his eyes when they’d made love that last time, which she’d told herself she’d misread…
Her throat grew thick, her chest tight. Panic pushed in because she knew