“Good.”
He snorted and continued, “When I see you, all I can think of is having you beneath me, above me—on my cock, my face—anyway I can get you.”
Heat burned her cheeks.
He brushed his knuckles along her jaw. “I want more than your body, Leya. I want everything,” he said softly.
Her breath caught. She opened her mouth, then shut it and lowered her gaze from the intensity of his stare, still terrified to let go of her guard. “I…I need time.”
“You can have all the time you require as long I’m a part of it, too.” He stilled, his attention snapping toward the window. “Wait.”
The next second, he was gone, standing near the window. Then he stalked outside, the silvery moon over the sea highlighting every sculptured muscle, from his back to his tight ass and muscular legs.
Leya scrambled off the bed and rushed to the window, searching, too. But she couldn’t see anything. Warily, she stepped outside into the humid air with streams of cool air woven through it. She grabbed Aerén’s tunic from the patio table. It was a little damp, but she didn’t care, and pulled it on before hustling to where he stood near the vine-covered railing.
“What is it?” she asked.
He drew her close, and the heat faded. “I don’t know…”
She put her arm around his waist. “Is it the ghost?”
“No.” His brow furrowed. He raked back his tangled hair, the strands transformed to silver-gold hues, almost like he sported a halo under the moonlight. Gold?
Leya stroked his back, and a glimmer in her peripheral vision snagged her attention.
She glanced up at the castle roof and froze. There, above the taller tower spire…
“You have two moons.” She laughed, her attention fixed on the smaller golden moon peeping from behind the turret. Of course, they did. This was the world of the angels. “It’s beautiful. Your world’s beautiful.”
“Indeed.” The tension that eased out of him slid back again, in the subtle tightening of his jaw, as he stared out at the sea. “Beautiful and under a painful curse.”
The fading vegetation.No wildlife…and no children.
They had to be soul-joined or blessed by the missing Stone of Creation to have a child.
Her stomach knotted at the reality. She wanted children someday, but she wouldn’t have any, not with him. Her chest tightened with unexpected pain.
She might have asked Aerén for time, but she knew the truth in her heart. His world needed the magic back and for children to be born again. None of whichshecould give him.
Just how did they make their relationship work?
CHAPTER24
Immense cold consumedLeya as she fought through the miasma, yet heat burned her insides, as if it would sear the flesh off her bones.
“Help him. Please help him,” the pained cry echoed.
Terror fisting her belly, she tried to see through the thick haze. “Who?”
The smog cleared. Her gaze lifted to the suspended cage and the man trapped there. His ripped pants hung low on his lean hips. He bled profusely from his many wounds, his agony wrenching her mind.
A flicker of flame lit up the cavern, revealing his dull, matted blue hair—
She jerked upright.Oh God, oh God!She scrubbed her damp face. “Aerén?”
But she was alone in bed, and the sun was out, brightening the bedroom.
With a moan, she hugged her knees and buried her face in them, a shudder sweeping through her.
