At Ely’s provocative smile, Nate bit back his own.
His gaze roved her flushed face and pleasure-brightened eyes. And the spark which lit deep within him from the moment they met burned brighter, bowling him over and knocking out what little air remained in his lungs.
She straddled him, gently pressing the edges of the dressing on his chest, miles of shimmering pale hair cascading to her hips. Ely might appear slender, but her body was honed with sinuous muscles and a forceful strength, doubtless from her training and fighting evil when out on the street. Oh, he wanted to feel that power when he claimed her, wanted her so godsdamn badly.
“You would taunt me?” he asked softly, holding her hips.
She cast him an innocent look, trailing a finger down to his navel, and his cock jerked. “Besides it being fun, why not—eeep!” She squealed as he flipped her on her back again, then gasped as his weight landed on her, and laughed, wrapping her long sexy legs around his hips, locking him in place.
While he reveled in the sensation of her trapping him, it was brutal torture for his throbbing cock pressed on her stomach. But the sound of her laughter made him smile.
The beast within stirred.
Nate tightened his mental shields, didn’t want the fucker intruding on this incredible moment.
“You were saying?” He cocked an eyebrow at her.
The grin still in place, she trailed a finger along his unshaven jaw. “Merely that we Empyreans are hot-blooded and have needs, but yeah, I did.”
Nate frowned. He hadn’t heard of her species, mostly because he hadn’t cared about the other realms or their denizens when he had his own nightmare to live through, but he was curious. “Empyrean?” he asked. “Not a Fallen?”
The smile lingered. “No, but we’re angels, too, just of a different genus.”
He stared at her, her teasing words of surviving eons without carnal pleasure, a punch to his gut. Was she truly an innocent in this seduction game? “Are you saying you’ve never been with anyone?”
Her smile faded. “A long time ago, yes…”
Her admission nailed him like a bolt to the chest.
However, at the flash of hurt in her eyes, he wanted to find the worthless fuckers and throttle them for putting the pain there.
“Nate.” She stroked his whiskered jaw. “Your irises are bleeding red. Just know they didn’t matter. I was looking for something none of them possessed. Love, acceptance. They only wanted me for what they could get.”
“What do you mean? Ely, I know you haven’t been a Guardian for long. How didthathappen, by the way?”
A massive sigh escaped her. “I lived on another realm until two Earth years ago.”
“Empyrea,” he said softly. “It would account for your accent. I like it.”
That made her smile. She shifted and pulled her long hair out from under her, sweeping the mass away from her shoulders. Against his navy sheets, the pale strands appeared like glimmering rays of silver. “My parents are the rulers of Ademéras, a dominion in Empyrea. They wanted me mated to a well-connected family, and I don’t mean in Ademéras but from another dominion. First, it was to the prince of Empyrea, but that didn’t happen—”
“Why?”
“He left and mated someone else. Then my parents arranged two more betrothals, and I refused both. The fourth, they were determined I would go through with, so I left.”
He frowned. “You opened a portal and ended up here?”
“Yes. Well, actually, the mage of my world told me to seek what it was I desired. And more than anything, I wanted to find my brother. He’d been gone a long time from Ademéras. In the end, I not only got a job I find fulfilling, but I also found Reynner, too.”
“Then I’m glad. Or our paths would never have crossed. But you are mine now…” He kissed the tip of her nose. Hell, he’d accepted he would never have a consort, not for one like him, and then he saw her. “Mine, Ely, ” he whispered, kissing the corner of her mouth. “Say it.”
“Yes, I am yours, and you are mine,” she murmured with the same need he felt for her. She wrapped her legs around him again, her hot core pressing against his belly, stroking the furnace within. “Kiss me, Nate.”
His mouth returned to hers in a tender meeting of lips, and then it wasn’t enough, and he drew her tongue into his mouth with a raw, carnal need. He palmed her breast, squeezing the delectable mound—
A rush of prickles coasted over his psyche. Nate lifted his head and went motionless. A faint whiff of burning tar and acrid copper drifted to him from the open window. The same smell he’d sniffed earlier. The bastards who hurt his sire were back.
He didn’t want to leave Ely, but he couldn’t let them escape twice. He leaped off the bed. “I won’t be long.”
