“Paris,” she whispered. His skin was fever-bright, flushed and beaded with sweat. He was gloriously naked, and thickly aroused. His eyes were calm behind his lids, his chest barely rising with his breaths. “Oh, Paris.” I can’t let him get like this again. Have to do something.
“Sienna?”
She rushed over to him and kissed him, knowing even so small a gesture would help revive him. The more their tongues dueled, the more aggressive he became. When his lids flipped open, eyes of brilliant red pinned her. With a growl, he grabbed her by the waist and tossed her to her back. Her heart sped into a superbeat as her wings flared to avoid being crushed.
He ripped at her clothes, shredding them. The very moment she was naked, he had her legs spread and was inside her, thrusting hard and deep.
As he worked her, he threw back his head and roared. She arched up and took him even deeper. Brutally, wondrously.
She’d missed this, missed him. Needed this, needed him. Her nails went to his ass and guided him into a faster rhythm. The passion swept her up, overwhelmed her, consumed her, broke her heart and fit the pieces back together. Her love for him knew no bounds, had no limits.
Just as climax loomed, he stopped. Just stopped, and peered down at her, panting breaths bursting over her. The flush had drained from his cheeks, and realization now flooded his eyes, followed by concern and horror.
“Oh, baby. Did I hurt you?” His thumbs dusted over her lips with exquisite care.
“Talk later. Make love now.” So close. Any second now, she would hurtle into satisfaction.
His cock jerked inside her, as if the command had sparked all kinds of naughty desires. “How are you here?”
“Later!” She squeezed at his massive length.
“Yesss.” His hips pistoned once, pistoned again, and then he was slamming in and out, and they were both moaning. Then his lips were on hers, and their tongues were intertwining, and she was swallowing his taste, and it was better than ever, and she couldn’t get enough, never wanted this to end, and…and…and… Oh!
Little pleasure bombs exploded through every inch of her. His name left her mouth over and over again, the chorus joined by his shouting of her name as he came. He jetted white-hot, giving her every drop of his passion. She relished the moment, savoring him, thrilled by all that he was.
When he fell on top of her, she cradled his weight, exactly where she wanted to be. Where she wanted to stay, forever. She’d left him once. She didn’t think she could leave him again.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
“You better,” he murmured against her ear.
That’s my man. Such a Paris thing to say, and she grinned.
He disengaged and rolled to his side, but kept her close, his arm wrapped around her. “And now that I’m not dying,” he announced, expression growing somber, “we talk.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
PARIS KEPT HIS BODY LAX, not wanting to make Sienna uncomfortable, or aware of the fact that he basically had her in a choke hold. A gentle choke hold, one that did nothing to impair her ability to breathe, but a choke hold all the same.
She wasn’t going anywhere, and that was that.
Thankfully, Sex was out for the count and unable to comment.
“All right,” she said. “Let’s talk. I’ll start. Do you hate me now?”
“Hate you? Baby, that might be the stupidest thing you’ve ever said. No offense.”
“None taken. I’m too relieved. After what I did to you…”
“All you did was remind me that I need to up my game where you’re concerned.” And honestly? Her actions had given him hope that she felt as deeply for him as he felt for her.
“You’re not mad at me for going to Galen?”
When he would have done the same thing? “Only at myself. I should have sated you so sublimely, you were never again able to walk.”
“A little more practice on your end,” she teased, “and that’ll be a possibility.”
“Witch.”
When she reached up to brush her hair off her face, he saw that she was cut up and bruised. He swallowed back a bark of fury. Having been restrained a time or twelve throughout his life, he recognized the markings for what they were. Rope burns. “Did Galen do this to you?”
Dread shuttered her features. “No, and I don’t want to talk about it.”
Very well. He wanted to reassure her about a few things first, anyway. But he would find out who had harmed her afterward, and as soon as he did, he was going on a rampage for revenge.
“That means you’re ready for talk, part two,” he said, all hint of his amusement gone.
“I—I don’t know about that.”
“Too bad. You need to know that I didn’t sleep with anyone while we were apart.” No matter how weak he’d gotten, no matter how many females his friends had shoved at him. Finally, all but Lucien had continued on their quest to find Sienna.
Mental note: tell Death to call off the search party.
Speaking of, he was pretty sure Lucien had popped in while they were having sex, thinking to protect him from whatever had come to kill him, then had popped back out when he realized what was going on.
“I know.” The tips of her fingers traced languid circles around his nipples. “I trust you. But Paris, you were so near death.” She kissed his chest, just above his heart. “I don’t like that you allowed yourself to get in that condition.”
“Don’t care. And just so you know, Sex missed you, too. You wear a lot of hats, and he wants to do them all.”
She chuckled, a warm, rich sound that acted as manna for his ears. “Right now I’ve got my stern taskmaster hat on, so you two better listen. I have to leave. I just have to, but I need to know you’re taking care of yourself and—”
“No.”
“Don’t be that way.”
“Try to leave. Just try it. See what happens.”
“Paris—”
“You stay or I let myself fade. End of story. Promise me.”
Such heavy silence. “I have a plan I have to see through.”
“Plans change. Deal.”
She banged her fist against his chest. “You are so frustrating.”
“Tell me what I want to hear, Sienna.”
A sigh slipped from her, seeming to drain the fight out of her. “Fine. I’m staying with you, but we’re going to have to brainstorm a solution to our Cronus and Rhea problem, our Galen problem, and our you’re-gonna-die-prophecy problem. Because, did I tell you? Cronus told me that if Galen dies, you and your friends die. If Cronus dies, you and your friends die.”
“I’m not saying I doubt what you’ve heard, but I do doubt the source. But even if what he said is true, there will be a way around this prophecy. There always is. I’m not worried in the least.” In fact, he was overjoyed. And were those tears in his eyes? Yeah. Yeah, they were. If that made him a wuss, that made him a wuss. He didn’t care. She was here, she was staying. She was his.
He glided his arm from around her neck to her lower back, splaying his fingers over her curves. “Thank you,” he said, but the words weren’t enough. They didn’t convey enough. “And now that we’re officially together, I want to tell you some things about me. I want everything out in the open, nothing hidden. I want to share all that I am.”
She must have sensed the direction he headed. “You don’t have to. What happened in the past is the past.”
“Full disclosure. I want you to know what you’re getting with me. That way, if Wrath ever shows you something, or my friends ever say anything, we’ll already have dealt with it.”
“Whatever you say won’t change the way I feel about you.”
“I’m glad, but I’m doing it anyway.”