“I'm bigger, stronger,me’morae,it’s expected—but you humble me.” He leaned down and kissed her. Eve slid her arms up his torso to clasp around his neck as he deepened the kiss.
***
Happiness overwhelming her, Eve simply held him. It was over. She’d freed him.
Easing back, her gaze lit on his wings. She remembered the burning feathers. In awe, she reached up and stroked the healed ones, ran her fingers inside the arch. God, but she loved the silky feel of his wings. His erection jerked against her.
He growled, his eyes flaring with desire. With love.
She smiled, and when he didn't retract his wings, her heart soared.
“You.” He nipped her bottom lip. “Have no idea—” A lick and a firmer nibble, his hands slid up her arms to grasp her hands. “What you mean to me.”
She looked up, and that sexy, barely there smile distracted her as he walked her backward. “And that is why—” he diverted her with another mindless kiss. She squirmed when he raised her hand above her head “—I'm forced to do this.”
A mental clang echoed in the stuffy air of the gloomy dungeon.
“Reynner?” Her brow puckered in puzzlement. Tugging her right hand, she found herself chained to the wall with one of the dull metal cuffs he’d been hanging onto earlier fastened on her wrist.
Her gaze snapped to him. “Reynner?”
He stood in front of her, arms crossed over his chest. “Here’s what is. You are my life, Eve, and when you put yourself in danger, I won't tolerate it. Now that I know you’ll be safe, I will deal with Inanna. Then I’ll be back.”
Her mouth dropped open. She pulled at her cuffed wrist, rattling the chain. “You’re leaving me here? Chained?”
“Not for long, a few minutes.” A wave of his hand and all the torches in the gloomy, dusty place came alight. “Don’t bruise your lovely skin, Eve, or I’ll be very angry.”
“Dammit, Reynner, let me go. Or I swear I’ll–I’ll never speak to you again.”
He didn’t react to her threats but caressed her cheek with the back of his knuckles. In a shimmer, his retracted wings vanished. He turned as his houseman somehow materialized out of the shadows.
“Izzeri, stay with my mate until I get back.” With that curt order, he strode across to the red-faced, muffled-cursing witch. A touch of his hand on Inanna's arm and they both disappeared.
“Mistress, please don’t tug the chain, you’ll hurt yourself,” Izzeri pleaded.
Eve narrowed her eyes at him. “You didn’t tell me Reynner was here.”
“My apologies, mistress.” He dipped his head in regret. “I acted on the sire’s instruction in case you turned up.”
Yes, Reynner knew she’d try to find him. And threatening Izzeri wouldn’t work. She attempted a sweet smile. “Please, Izzeri, release me.”
“I cannot, mistress. Only the sire can.”
Oh, the black-hearted fiend!
She grew more frustrated when her heating ability that aided her so often in her work didn't help. Not even a flicker of warmth. Furious, she yanked at the chain again and again.
Izzeri winced. After yelling at the several ways she intended to get even with Reynner, Eve slumped against the wall and was surprised when the chain loosened, enabling her to sit down on the dusty floor.
A bunched-up bundle of black fabric lay nearby in the dirt. Reaching for it, she discovered it was his shirt and pressed it to her face, inhaling his clean male scent with a hint of leather. Her chest cramped, a pang hit her at how close she’d come to losing him.
Then she scowled. He’d chained her in this dreadful place. Crushing the shirt in a ball, she sat on it and wrapped her arm around her knees. And waited.
***
The furious roar of the waterfalls at his back, Reynner leaned against the balustrades, his attention on Inanna restrained to the walls of his aerie. Her once attractive face blotchy with rage, topaz eyes burning with fury.
And he felt nothing.
