I nod as my eyes sting. No crying, not here, not now. “Like I’d go to war for you.”
“Then kiss me like that.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and probe his mouth, sipping at his lips like they are my altar. He groans and drags me closer so our bodies are flush against one another. It would be so easy to fall into this man, like I’ve done so many times before; but there are other factors in play, bigger demands on my time. There are people relying on me getting this done. I release a fraction of the raging emotions I have bubbling below my surface, feeding his demand to taste my soul.
“Why do I taste sorrow on your lips, Natia?” he asks, nibbling my ear.
“I am mourning the loss of my immortality. It changes everything.”
“It changes nothing,” he says, holding my face between his hands. “I can sustain you as a mortal for an eternity. Once we are fully mated, I can share my life force with you.”
I blink back tears. Mating, right. Life-force sharing was new. Just dump that on the pile ofblow my mindrevelations this week. “You still haven’t explained the fine print.”
“You will be mine, and I will be yours. Eternity is where we start, but not where we finish. You will be at my side when this world is merely a memory.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “That’s a really long time. I need to be able to trust you for that to happen.”
“I’m your fucked up Prince Charming. What more do you need?” he says with a chuckle before he licks along the column of my throat.
“We need to go,” I mutter. He grips my hips tighter, clinging to me like that will stop what is coming. A flush of desire runs down my spine.
“You really want to have sex in the devil’s bed?” I state.
He chuckles against the mark on my shoulder. “At this point I don’t care where, so long as I’m inside you.”
I shake my head and pinch his arm. “Come on, Archan.”
He huffs and drops his head into the crook of my shoulder. “Fine, but this is to be continued.”
He grabs my hand and tugs me off the bed and out of the room, along the dark corridor, and into the main club. Frank arches an eyebrow at me from the bar. “You guys look like you are modelling for a swimwear catalogue,” he says.
I stick my tongue out at him. “Not like we can go swimming in leathers.”
“No, but a modest one-piece would have done the same job.”
“Blame Lulu,” I state, jerking my head towards Lucifer, who’s hanging over Aaden’s shoulder, pointing to something on his laptop screen.
The man in questions snaps his head towards me, a small grin playing on his sinful lips. Archan may be the man for me, but I can appreciate a good-looking guy, even if he is the devil.
“It’s your color,” Lucifer explains, straightening up.
Zee spins around, looking me up and down. “I should send you back to your room to get some actual clothes on.”
I roll my eyes. “You find this indecent? I’m naked more often than not. At least I have my lady bits covered.”
Zee spits his drink back into the glass, coughing. “Lady bits?”
“You forgot what they are?” I ask with a wink.
“Fucking apocalypse is a cock blocker of the biggest proportion.”
My smile drops as I glance around the room. “Maybe you should take tonight for yourselves? Spend it with that special someone.” My gaze lands on Emi and Aaden. “Or find someone to get lost in for a night,” I state.
“We need to leave,” Archan says. “But she’s right—there’s little you can do until we return. Take the night to cling to someone who makes you want to win this fight, be it a lover or stranger.” He pulls me towards the exit, pausing in the narrow corridor that leads outside, backing me up against the wall. His hands grip my wrists and he pins them next to my head, caging me in.
“That goes for you too,” he says. “After we’ve retrieved the trident, we get lost in each other. We remind ourselves what we are fighting for.”
I blink. “I already know what and whom I am fighting for, I don’t need reminding.”
