Her career as a Squire was over, but she didn't care. The only thing that mattered right then was being with Rafael. She shivered as he pulled her shirt over her head and cupped her breast through her bra.
Closing her eyes, she savored the heat of his hand as he pushed the satin aside to touch her flesh. She captured his lips with hers as she feverishly opened his fly, then dipped her hand down to touch him. He hissed in response, making her soar in satisfaction.
"Boy," he whispered against her lips, "When you break the rules, you seriously break the rules."
Celena didn't respond as he pulled her pants down her legs. She sucked her breath in sharply between her teeth as she saw him kneeling on the ground at her feet. Lifting her foot, she let him remove her shoes, which he tossed over his shoulder before he undressed her.
His dark eyes flashed an instant before he reached up to remove her panties. Her entire body burned as he bared her to his hungry gaze. Reaching down, she traced the outline of his lips as he gently tongued her fingertips. She'd dreamed of this moment a thousand times.
He was the main reason she'd never really dated. After she'd met him, other men never seemed to compare. They weren't as handsome. Weren't as dangerous.
Weren't as forbidden.
And now she was finally going to know what it felt like to hold him. . . .
Rafael couldn't breathe as he slowly rose to his feet. He still couldn't believe that Celena was here with him. That she who lived for rules and regulations was willing to sacrifice her Squire's oath.
His heart pounding, he reached down to brush his hand against the softness of her abdomen, then lower to the short, crisp hairs until he found what he sought. He groaned at the sensation of her wet heat against his fingers while she stroked him with her hand.
Unable to stand it anymore, he pinned her back against the wall and kissed her passionately.
Celena clung to him as she lifted one leg to wrap it around his hips. Taking the invitation, he drove himself deep inside her.
Rafael's head spun as an unimagined ecstasy tore through him. Celena had almost died to protect him. No woman had ever done such a thing for him before. Her strength, her courage . . .
It was unlike anything he'd ever known.
And now she met him stroke for stroke as they made love furiously. He smiled as each thrust was punctuated by the sound of the beads on the ends of her braids scraping against the wall.
Celena buried her lips against Rafael's throat as she forced herself not to think about what was going to happen tomorrow. She couldn't stay with him. She knew it. He was a Dark-Hunter. But here for the moment, he was hers, and that was all that mattered.
Arching her back, she cried out with every powerful thrust of him inside her as she clutched him to her. He dipped his head down to capture her breast and tongue it in time to his strokes. She cradled his head to her as her body was overwhelmed by pleasure. With every stroke it increased until she finally couldn't stand it anymore. Her body burst into a thousand tendrils of ecstasy.
Rafael growled as he felt Celena climaxing. Wanting to give her even more, he quickened his strokes and watched as she threw her head back and moaned.
His smile faded as he lost himself to his own orgasm. Burying himself deep inside her, he shook with the force of it. Her breathing ragged in his ear, she gently stroked his back as he slowly drifted back into himself. This was one of the most amazing moments in his life. Not because of the sex, but because he was being held by a woman who was willing to sacrifice herself for him. A woman who was willing to break the rules. . . .
Most of all, a woman who loved him.
He kissed her tenderly on the lips. "Don't leave, Celena."
"I'll be here until morning."
"No," he said, his voice thick with the emotions that were churning inside him. "I mean don't leave. Ever."
Her mouth opened ever so slightly. "What are you saying, Rafael?"
"I love you."
She couldn't believe her ears. It was more than she'd ever hoped for. "You don't have to say that."
"It's not that I'm saying it. It's that I'm feeling it."
Thrilled by his words, she squeezed him tight. "So what's to become of us now?"
"Looks like I'll be joining the human race again."
"Are you sure?"
Rafael grew quiet as he considered it. If he continued being a Dark-Hunter, he'd have to let her go.
The Apollite's words rang in Rafael's head. He'd been alone for all these centuries. Not once in all this time had any woman ever made him feel his emotions more strongly than Celena. She made him crazy, angry happy. . . .
But most of all, she made him feel like he could fly.
He didn't want to live without this. Without her.
"Yeah, I'm sure. That is, if you're willing to take Artemis's test."
"For you, my pirate, I'd walk through the fires of hell."
Epilogue
TWO MONTHS LATER
Celena stared at Acheron, the Dark-Hunter leader, as he explained that in order to free Rafael from Artemis's service she would have to kill him. "You've got to be kidding me." "Do I look like I'm joking?"
She raked her gaze from the top of his long black hair to the tips of his custom-made Goth biker boots with bat buckles. And at six foot eight there was a lot of him to rake, too, but every bit of his long, lean frame was deadly sincere, which made her sick to her stomach.
How could she kill the man she loved? What kind of psycho had instituted that policy?
Then she looked to Rafael, who was standing behind Acheron, in the hallway. His handsome face betrayed nothing but trust. His black eyes were kind and gentle, encouraging, and that made the love she felt for him swell.
"I can't kill him."
Acheron let out a patient breath. "He won't be dead long. You simply stop his heart from beating, then you hold the stone against his bow and arrow tattoo. His soul will leave the stone and return to his body."
"You can do it, baby," Rafael said with that decadent accent of his. "You told me just last night that you wanted to choke the life out of me."
Instead of smiling, she grimaced at him. "That was for hogging the remote, and I wasn't serious. This is entirely different."
Acheron shrugged. "Fine then, he continues being a Dark-Hunter, and the Council will reassign you away from him."
Her heart stopped at the mere thought of not seeing him anymore. "You can't let them do that."
"I control the Dark-Hunters. The Squires are their concern, not mine. I have no jurisdiction there, which is why Jeff is now cooling his heels in Squire jail for writing that story. I personally thought it was funny, but the Council doesn't really have a sense of humor, do they?"
Frustrated, Celena wanted to argue, but she knew better. If she and Rafael were to ever have a normal life, he would have to be human again.
Right now, the Council knew nothing about their relationship, but sooner or later they were bound to find out and then there would be hell for her to pay.
Unless she and Rafael were already married. Then there was nothing the Council could do. There was no law prohibiting her from marrying a human male. It was the only loophole they could hope for.
"Okay," she said with a determined sigh. "I can do this."
This time it was Acheron who hesitated. "There's one more thing you need to know."
She gave Acheron a peeved stare. "And that would be?"
"The stone with his soul in it will burn your skin the minute you touch it, and it won't stop until his soul has returned to his body. If you drop the stone before that time, he'll be a Shade."