She removed the rest of her clothes, changed into a loose sweatshirt and faded navy sweats, then hung her clothes on a nail in the wall. Then she straightened her spine and stalked out of the minuscule bathroom in socks-clad feet. Nik sat on a wooden crate now and leaned against the wall, reading something on his cell.
He looked up as she headed for her bed, and her mind tumbled straight into their kiss.
Gah. It was as if she’d never been kissed before. No matter her lost memories, she must have locked lips with someone, somewhere in her past.
Totally ignoring him, Shadow got out the sheet and a thin comforter Eddi had provided from the steel drawers, dressed her makeshift bed, and dropped down on the mattress. Not wanting to stare at her nemesis’ annoyingly handsome face, she faced the pitted wall.
One more day, she consoled herself as she shut her eyes, and he would be gone.
* * *
Pissed, Nik watched Shadow curl up under her covers. Hell, he was a godsdamn Guardian, his control legendary. But this mere slip of a female had destroyed that record in a second.
He rubbed his unshaven jaw, his cock an aching throb against the unforgivable fly of his jeans, resisting the urge to go over and say…what? Sorry?
He wasn’t sorry about kissing her. If he were honest, he wanted her mouth on his again, even if just for a moment, so he could feel that transient bit of warmth in a life that had been endlessly cold and dead. Something she’d given him, as fleeting as it was.
However, nothing lasted forever as life had shown him. He’d learned the lesson the hard way when he was still a babe.
His mother, Maya Devi, a legendary beauty and the moon goddess from the Indian pantheon, had broken her vows of chastity, succumbing to the Greek god of love. Even though Eros was one of the primordial deities, her peers still shunned her. And Nik became her constant reminder of her fall from grace.
He’d just turned five winters when she’d summoned him. Memories slipped free…
His mata turned to him as the servant left him in her chambers.
“Nikkos,” she murmured in greeting, giving her pet cobra coiled around her neck one more slow caress before she removed the reptile and let it slither onto a boulder in the indoor rockery in the corner.
Nikkos rubbed his neck and the serpent imprint that had formed there, and his mother frowned. “Thenagawill protect you, my child.”
She always said that.
“You’re going to your sire, Nikkos.”
He lowered his hand, his heart thrashing against his ribs. “Mama?”
“I cannot keep you,mera beta.Not if I want my life to be what it should.”
“No. I want to stay with you!” He ran to her and grasped her hand, tears burning his eyes. “Don’t send me away!”
“I must.” She gently pried his fingers free. “I do this for your own good,beta.”
Her gaze drifted over his face, and he dashed his teary eyes with his knuckles, tried to be brave.
“You are so like him.” She tenderly touched his cheek. “No female should be broken because of whatyouare…”Her mouth tightened. “Youshould never, ever have a mate…” Warmth seeped through him, then darkness towed him under.
He awakened in a strange room, panic stealing his breath. “Mama!”
“Stop wailing, Nikkos. Your mother isn’t here,” a weary voice said. “I’m your sire, Eros.”
Terror squeezing his chest, he blinked at the tall stranger with the short golden-brown hair.
The male rubbed his jaw and shut his light green eyes briefly. “I think it would be better that you reside with a friend of mine. There are young there.”
Nikkos sat on the bed, pressed his lips together, struggling not to cry.Please, Mama, come take me back.
She didn’t.
A day later, a glowing figure appeared like a column of sunlight in his room.
