“Please, tell me what you’re talking about. I wouldn’t hurt you. I told you...I care for you.” She hoped it was as simple as that because with the way her heart was beating it was telling her a different story.
“Some men are only so strong, Chloe. I’ve experienced my limit. By taking the
responsibility of you on, by doing what you want me to do...I just can’t. What you ask of me is impossible.”
Water sloshed as Chloe pulled herself out of the tub. “What are you talking about? Is this about your family and that, that room down the hall? Tell me about it because whether you like it or not, I’m not going anywhere.”
Jaw twitching, he shook his head, hard and brief. Chloe marched up to him, blood
coming to a boil. “Tell me, dammit! I have a right to know what the heck is going on here. I was uprooted by strange men from my hotel. I have been taken from my life. I had a job with customers I adored and who loved me. I had a nice life, but now I’m here with you, with some crazing demon thing after me, and you can’t even tell me why you won’t sleep with me!” She was fuming, her chest heaving, and hands curling into shaking fists. She realized one fatal flaw in what she said. He had slept with her. Several times, in fact. But he’d only shared one thing about himself with her. That was what she wanted. To know about him.
Tyrian stared at her, his eyes the coldest she’d ever seen. He turned on his heel and strode out of the bathroom. Chloe’s jaw dropped and she pattered on wet feet after him, uncaring of the water dripping over the floor.
“Stop right there, vampire!” She had no idea why, but he actually did. He turned around to face her and she saw the stress lines forming around his eyes and mouth. Her heart almost melted. She didn’t want to fight with him. She just wanted to know.
“Enough with the vague allusions. Just tell me, please, what your problem is. Tell me why you have a child’s room over there and a woman’s room with a painting of you in it.
Explain to me why sleeping with me is so horrible. Don’t you see that I don’t want anybody else? I don’t know anything about anyone else here except your damn frimar, a nd I don’t swing that way. Just tell me, please.” Chloe folded her arms across her stomach, feeling hopeless and dejected.
The longest minute of her life passed and she shook her head, close to tears, when he finally spoke.
“Maria and I married before the Great War, when demons roamed the earth next to
vampires and shapeshifters, and used magic to blend in with humans. There was no such thing as an Atal Warrior then. My father married a loose woman named Akiro. She had a litter of children but only me with my father. I don’t think he loved her so much as was infatuated with her. She had this way of stringing men along, always desiring her, always needing her,” said Tyrian in icy tones.
He walked to the window and looked out at the sky, his hands pulled behind his back in that familiar way. Chloe sat on the bed and waited, listening.
“I don’t know when the affair started, or perhaps it just never stopped, but when my father found out he was...furious. He might have killed her if she hadn’t left. And she did leave, with her demon lover. My father started the war after that.” Chloe gasped, her eyes huge in her face.
“Your father started the Great War because his wife left him for a demon.” The rumors were true then. The war wasn’t started because the demons were violent. It was one man’s vengeance.
Tyrian looked at her with a bitter smile on his face. “Yes, he did. See, father was charming. He could get anyone to do anything he wanted except, of course, my mother. Before I knew it, I was one of the highest generals in the newest organization, the Atal Warriors. We started a war with the demons, pushed every last one of them back into the rift.”
“What happened if they didn’t go?” Chloe asked.
“We killed them,” he said simply. “The demons grew to hate the Atal Warriors,
understandably. Some sought revenge specifically on my family. They succeeded in killing my father, but not me. Instead, they killed my wife, Maria, and my son, Aidan.”
Chloe gasped and at the sound, Tyrian rounded on her, towered over her, and said, “I keep their rooms as a reminder. See, you are but a child, an infant in my world. You just turned 29 years old,” he laughed, the sound bone chilling. “I have had to live for nearly fifteen hundred years. If I didn’t have those rooms to remember them by, I’d have nothing. I’d forget as all beings forget with time. And I can never forget them, Chloe. Not even for you.”
Chloe came to a stand, grabbing on to his shirt. “But I don’t want you to forget. I just wanted to know why, Tyrian. I want to know more about you.”
“Why, because you care? People who care are just setting themselves up to be hurt. Just leave me alone, Chloe. I don’t want you.” His cruel words were a slap to the face. Chloe blinked and felt the wetness escaping her eyes. He walked away and was nearly out the door when she ran after him, grabbing his arm and spinning him back around.
“You’re just trying to hurt me. You’re trying to push me away, but it won’t work.”
“And you have silly, romantic notions in your head.”
She didn’t know what to say to that, because he was right. So she went on her toes, pulled his head down to hers, and kissed him. He struggled against her, trying to pull away, but she held tight. Her lips clinging fervently to his, desperately trying to tell him that it was okay, that she wanted him still, no matter what.
He snapped. His tongue parted her lips and thrust inside, tasting her and filling her over and again. Chloe moaned and tore the knot free from his hair so she could grab fistfuls of it. He tasted decadent, like some sexy concoction that shouldn’t be natural.
Suddenly, hands grabbed her naked ass and lifted her, spun her so she slammed into the door. Her legs scrambled to wrap around his strong thighs, her core thrusting towards him, needing him.
“I should turn you around and fuck you like a dog. Is that what you want? My cock to appease your appetite?” Chloe saw the anger in his eyes, hot and smoldering.
“I want more than that and you know it. There’s more between us.” Tyrian slammed his hand against the door by her head. She didn’t jump.
“There is nothing between us but this.” His hand reached between them to cup a breast, his fingers naturally latching on to her nipple. Chloe couldn’t stop the moan that left her, didn’t even want to.
“There is more, Tyrian. And there could be a lot more, if you let yourself go with me.”
She cupped his face gently, trying to show him how much she wanted him.
“There will never be more between us, Chloe.” He reached between them and fumbled at his pants with quick, jerky movements. In seconds, his zipper was down and his cock sprang free. “Nothing more than this,” he said, then plunged inside.
Chloe moaned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, bringing them chest to chest.
He took her body hard, ruthlessly. Her ass beat against the door and she didn’t even care how loud they were being. There was no stopping the cries that left her throat or the savage grunts he made as he hit deep inside her again and again. Harder then quicker.
“This is all there can ever be,” he said in her ear.
“Feels so good,” Chloe gasped, feeling him pistoning through her wet sheathe. “If this is all you’ll give me, then I’ll take. I’ll take you anyway I can get you, baby.” His hold tightened on her ass, gripping each cheek like they were some anchor that kept him leveled on earth.
“Chloe,” he whispered, raggedly. The word held so much meaning, so much pain, that