I paused and poked him hard in the chest, glad for the anger that darkened his face. “After all the Djinn have done for you, if you do become overking, you’d better not forget us.” I forgot for the moment that I had no interest in Djinn affairs. “Jonas and my father put their lives on the line for you, as have the others. So try to have a bit of princely decorum when you get back. Recognize their efforts at least, even if they are just, and I quote, ‘unclean, Dark deviants.’”
He stared at me in silence, and I wondered if I’d gone too far.
After a moment, he replied, his voice husky with apology. “I said those things to you in anger, and for that I apologize. I certainly never meant that you were any of that. The Djinn I’ve met since being stuck with Jonas are different from what I’m used to. I can’t — I won’t — in good conscience ever call you evil or unclean.” He cleared his throat. “When you first confessed what you were —”
“Who I was helping,” I corrected.
“— okay, who you were helping, I felt betrayed. I trusted you, Ellie. I told you things I’d never told anyone else, only to find I’d given vital information on the Storm Lords to the enemy. To a woman I thought was the enemy,” he amended before I could protest my allegiance once more.
I guessed he did have a right to distrust me. I’d done a favor for my father by befriending Cadmus. And in my dad’s defense, what would be best for Foreia and the Storm Lords in the long run. But Cadmus only knew he’d confided in Ellie Markham, a human woman who smiled and talked with him.
“It was a bit more than smiling and talking.” Cadmus reached up to caress my cheek, reading the stray thought. “I’m sure your father never asked you to go so far distracting me.”
His finger grazed my lip, and I did my best not to tremble. “Ethim il Ruethe would no more allow his daughter to touch a Light Bringer than make love to one. Cadmus, stop touching me.”
“No. Don’t forget what we once shared. I don’t.”
Before I could protest, he planted a gentle kiss on my lips and pulled back to study me.
I felt it all. Tenderness, care, and inhumanly hot, dark possession.
This time when he lowered himself for a second kiss, I met him more than halfway. I could barely think as he buried me in feeling. He clenched my shoulders, pulling me closer. My breasts pushed against him, my nipples prodding through cotton to feel the hard wall of muscle under sprigs of dark, silky chest hair.
He pulled away from the kiss to stare at me. “By the Light, Ellie. I can’t stop thinking about this. About you,” he admitted and kissed the curve of my cheek.
His hands slid down my shoulders, caressing and stroking before moving toward my breasts. I wanted to stop him, but he found my nipples and toyed with them until I couldn’t think.
His erection strained against his jeans. With every touch of his lips and tongue, he thrust against me, his urgency increasing. I gripped his thick hair to hold him close. Slanting my mouth under his, I slowly took control of the kiss, causing him to groan my name.
“Ellie. Baby, more.” He gasped when my mouth left his to trail down his throat.
Unfortunately, his words and the way he’d said them sparked a memory.
“More,” he said before pulling me on top of him. I slowly eased down, encasing his hot cock inside me. Riding him as he teased my breasts, I stared into dark brown eyes filled with heat, with power, and with affection I returned far more than was good for me.
Another image. His eyes clouded then darkened with rage when he learned my father’s identity and my real reason for being at Outpour. He refused to listen to me after that, refused to hear the painful truth I was a heartbeat from declaring. Instead he shouted at me and shocked me with words that turned my world upside down.
“No,” I rasped and pushed away from him. What was I doing letting Cadmus Storm back into my good graces?
“Ellie,” he cajoled. “We’re just getting started.”
Oh no, not that slumberous look that made me melt into a puddle at his feet. I deliberately focused on the pulse beating at his neck.
“I’m not doing this again. Not with you.” I refuse to let you hurt me like you did before. I kept my thoughts to myself, deliberately shielding myself from him.
“Ellie, I hate to break it to you.” His soft voice lured my into looking back at him. “But you can no more deny this than I can.”
“You’re wrong.” I took a deep breath, aware the movement created a delicious friction against my taut nipples.
“Am I? You want me.” He flashed a dimple that made him even more enticing. “I remember how much you like my touch.” He studied me, fixating between my thighs. “You get so wet for me. Remember how I licked you all over, then made my way back up your body to suck your nipples into hard little points? How I brought you to orgasm over and over again with just my mouth and hands?”
I wished I could forget. As it was, I ached to revisit the past.
His eyes wandered to my navel. “Still wearing it?”
He’d been fascinated by my belly ring and apparently still was. I had no intention of telling or showing him I never took it off.
“Look, Cadmus,” I said, trying to catch my breath. My hands itched. I could still feel him beneath my palms. “It’s way too early for this.”
