Page 82 of Bond of Passion

As she came down, he flipped her over and took her that way too, pumping into her until she lost count of her climaxes.

When the storm was finally over, they lay in the grass, spent and barely able to breathe. He held her through a few more orgasms—one of the major benefits of sex with a Seminus demon—murmuring sweet things into her ear and telling her how this was his favorite thing.

“I love to hold you while you come apart,” he whispered. “And I love you.”

Spun out of her post-orgasmic bliss, she stared at him. “What did you say?” She’d felt love through the bond, but to hear him say it…

“I know it’s too soon.” He pushed up on one elbow and twirled a lock of her hair around his finger. “My moms think we’re soul mates, or maybe we were lovers in a past life,” he said. In a way, they were right. She and Tavin had been lovers—not in a past life, but in a different one. “Whatever the story, it doesn’t matter. I love you, and I know it’s love because I’ve been here before.”

“With Gristlen.” He inclined his head in a nod, and she pushed up onto her elbow to face him. “Tell me,” she said as she idly traced the hills and valleys of his abs with the tip of her finger. “If you were being forced to kill me the way you did Gristlen, would you do it? Would you do it so no one else could?”

“Never.” His face darkened and his voice dipped low under the weight of his vow. “I have options, friends, and resources now. I would send you to the safest place I could, to Ares’ island, maybe. Somewhere you wouldn’t have to live in fear.”

“And you?”

“I would trade my life for yours.” He pulled her close, wrapping himself protectively around her body. “You don’t have to fear me, Deja. And you don’t have to leave.”

“Oh, she’s leaving you.” The familiar voice made them both jump to their feet. She scrambled for her clothes, but Tavin went for weapons. “One way or another, she’s leaving you.”

“Malifik!” She stepped into her pants. “What are you doing?”

Tavin glanced over at her as he stood next to his pile of clothes, a dagger in one hand and a throwing star in the other. He’d always kept an obscene number of weapons in his pockets. Now, aware that he’d been an assassin, she knew why. “You know this asshole?”

Shit. Covering her breasts, she ignored Tavin and searched for her blouse. And didn’t it figure, it was behind her brother. Thankfully, Tavin noticed her predicament and shielded her as he handed her his shirt.

“Don’t do this, Malifik,” she told him, slipping into the tee.

He grinned, all sharp teeth. “You haven’t told him?”

“Told me what?” Tavin asked as he shuffled the weapons into one hand and tugged on his pants with the other.

“Tell him,” Malifik said. “Take off your necklace.”

“Deja.” Tavin glanced over at her. “What’s he talking about?”

In a blur of motion, Malifik snatched her necklace. The splintered links fell to the grass, the spell broken, and the glamour that had hidden her true identity dissolved in a stinging sandblast over her skin.

“No!” she cried out. She slapped her hands over her face as her brother’s smile twisted into a cruel slash.

“Recognize her now?”

“Tavin,” she whispered from between her fingers. “I’m sorry you had to find out like this.” She could feel his confusion, and she knew there was no point in dragging this out.

Everything happens for a reason.

Taking Azagoth’s words to heart, she dropped her hands from her face.

His expression went from confused to less confused…and she saw the exact moment it dawned on him that she had been lying to him.

She felt it as a stab of pain through her heart.

He made a harsh noise and stumbled back a step, his eyes wide with shock.

Malifikmade a grand, sweeping gesture. “Assassin, I believe you know your assassinee. Gristlen.”

* * * *

Tavin had experienced shock before. The hypovolemic kind where the body shuts down due to a lack of blood circulation, and the surprise kind, where the mind shuts down due to an abundance of being blown. Which could also lead to other kinds of medical shock.