“Because I more than earned me damnation, Miss Jack. Youdidn’t. It wasn’t right that you should suffer when you’d done nothing to be punished for.”
How strange that those words wrought disappointment in her breast. They should bring her happiness. Yet a part of her had wanted something else. She wasn’t quite sure what, but there was no denying that in her heart, his answer hurt. “Is that the only reason?”
“Honestly?”
She swallowed in expectation before she nodded. “I prefer it to a lie.”
“Then nay, ’tis not the only reason I saved you, for I’m a much more selfish bastard than that. Thinking of others has never come easily for me.”
Her heart quickened again as her mind went to a place it shouldn’t and she warned herself against hoping for something that was ridiculous and foolish. Something that could only lead her to more hurt and disappointment. Still, she couldn’t help wanting the impossible. Dreaming of things she knew she didn’t deserve. Things that were beyond her reach. Things not meant for lowly tavern wenches who’d been kicked down by life since the hour of their births.
“Why then would you risk yourself for me?”
Kalder hesitated as every last vestige of decency inside his vacant and hollow soul screamed for him to walk away and leave her in peace. To do what was right and not taint her by words or actions.
It was what heshoulddo.
But never once in his life had he done what heoughtto do. Never once had he lived his life by anyone’s expectations or societal rules. Such things weren’t in him.
Now he was too old to change his ways.
Fuck it…
His most commonly uttered phrase and thought before making any life-altering decision.
And with that, he lowered his lips to hers and tasted the one thing he’d been craving above all. The one thing he’d never known. Not even as a child.
Pure, sweet innocence.
More than that, Cameron’s unique flavor that was sweeter than any bit of cake or heaven. Her warmth that fed a part of his soul he hadn’t even known was cold until she’d touched it and made it thrive. It was like that summer day as a boy when he’d first discovered his legs, and had learned to run. Before that, he hadn’t missed what he’d never known.
How could he?
Yet once he’d learned to run, he’d needed that freedom with a madness that still coursed through his blood like wildfire. It was as intrinsic as breathing.
And a part of him needed her that way.
Aye, this was crazy. But then so was he. He’d died for her, for no real good reason, other than he’d wanted her to live more than he’d craved it for himself. Against all common sense, really. Against his true, surly, contrary nature.
Was it so much to ask for this one wee bit of comfort, when nothing else in his screwed-up life made sense?
Cameron trembled as she felt Kalder’s tongue sweep against her own. She’d never tasted a man’s passion before. Never known a man’s embrace other than that of family. While she’d suspectedKalder was well experienced, this left no doubt to the extent of said expertise. He was a master of the craft and she was helpless in the face of the overwhelming desire that raced through her entire being.
Every part of her turned hot and molten. Alive. Breathless, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and delighted in the way his muscles bunched beneath her hands in a wicked symphony.
When he finally pulled away, they stood nose to nose so that he could stare down with that piercing steel-gray gaze that defied her best attempt to define its true stormy color.
A teasing grin spread across his face as he cupped her cheek and placed a much more sedate kiss to her lips. “Well now, mephearse,not sure what it says about either of us that me kiss turned your hair back to its normal hue. Think I’ll take it as a good sign, though.”
Gasping, Cameron looked down to verify that he was right. Her hair was again its true chestnut shade. “How is that possible?”
“Not sure. Me guess is that me evil ways rubbed off on you and took away some of your pure Seraph blood from you.”
She scoffed at his reasoning. “Doubtful.”
“You think not? I’ve corrupted… well, I can’t really saybettersouls than yours, as I’ve never met your equal in me life, but they were decent enough before they took up company with me sorry hide.”
She shook her head at him and his deprecating humor. “No one can be tempted to anything that isn’t already in them. You can trust me to that. Good or bad. There are lines that no one will cross, no matter the seduction.”
