TWISTED (Eternal Guardians Book 7) (34 page)

He brushed his hand down her naked spine, feeling pretty much the same way about the Council himself, hating that she knew and understood. “My given name is Nikomedes. I know you’ve heard others call me Niko. I don’t usually answer to it because all it does is remind me of the Council and my days here.”

“Nikomedes,” she whispered. “Victory of the people.” She pushed up and looked him in the eyes again. “You have a great name, Nick. One with depth of meaning. The Council knew that even when you were a boy. Look at you now. You’re here. Look at your people. They live.”

He still wasn’t sure how that had happened, but he knew they weren’t alive because of him. He’d been shocked when he’d seen so many familiar faces in the settlement when he’d gone after Cynna, then utterly thankful they’d been there. But his need to get to Cynna had been so strong, he’d barely spared them a glance. And that need now to keep her with him was even stronger, pushing aside every other thought, even those for the people she foolishly thought he’d saved.

He leaned forward and framed her face with his hands. “I need you, Cynna.”

Her hands rested on his marked forearms, and her eyes softened, so much so he felt her gaze boring deep into his soul. “I’m right here.”

Urgency pushed at him. Only this urgency suddenly wasn’t linked to some crazy debt to protect her. It was centered solely on the fact she was the first person in forever who’d come to matter to him. “No. Not just this. I need you to stay in Argolea. And to come back to the castle with me, tonight.”

The softness rushed from her eyes. Her body stiffened, and she tried to pull away, but he held her firmly, not letting her go.
 

“I heard everything you said about Isadora,” he went on. “And I know you don’t want to be near her. But I have to go back. And you…you keep me centered. In a way nothing else ever has. I need you with me so I don’t lose it like I almost did at the colony. I don’t want to go back. Just the thought of doing so turns my stomach. I don’t want to be near any of them. I just want to be with you. But I promised my brother I’d give him and the others a few days to try to figure out what’s going on with the whole stupid soul mate curse, and, well…”

The words died on his lips, and doubt pressed in as he glanced down at the couch beside them, making his hands sweat and his pulse race. Shit, how could he explain this? Why would she even agree after everything she’d lived through?

“And because you can’t leave,” she finished for him.

Surprise rippled through him. He looked back into her deep brown eyes, searching for something to say. For some kind of answer that made sense. But came up empty.

Gently, she tugged his hands from her face and lowered them against her thighs. “Answer one question for me. Are you in love with her?”

“No.”

“Not at all?”

He hesitated. Tried to decide how to answer. “I feel a pull that keeps me connected to her, but I don’t think it’s love. It’s…duty.” Something he’d always fucking hated. Now more than ever.
 

She didn’t respond, but her eyes searched his, and he knew she was looking for the truth. He just hoped she couldn’t see what he’d omitted. That though he didn’t love Isadora
now
, the soul mate curse kept the possibility open. All it would take was one simple little act.

“Okay,” she finally said in a soft voice. “I’ll go back with you.”

Air filled his lungs, and he reached for her, sliding his arms around her slim back, dragging her close to the heat of his body. “You will?”

She braced her hands on his shoulders. “It makes me certifiable, but yeah. I will.” When he leaned forward to kiss her, she stopped him by pushing her index finger against his lips. “On one condition.”

“Anything.”

“You keep her away from me. I’ll go back for you. As long as I can handle it. But not for her. Never for her. And if at any time it’s too much for me, I’m out of there. No questions asked.”

“Done.”

“Done?”

She obviously hadn’t expected him to capitulate so quickly. But he didn’t care. Because as long as she was with him, he felt like he could handle anything.

He pressed his mouth to hers, then shifted and laid her out on the couch beneath him. “Almost done.” He kissed his way across her jaw to her ear, reached for her hands, and pinned them to the cushions above her head, loving the way she shivered in anticipation. “First, I need to make you come again.”

A slow, sexy smile spread across her gorgeous face, and her legs fell open, giving him full access to any and every part of her. “How will you do that?”

He held her wrists still with one hand and slid the other between her legs to find her already wet and swollen. Then he groaned and, with a wicked grin, lowered his mouth to hers. “Any and every way I want, female.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

C
ynna kicked the covers off her bare leg and breathed deep as she stared up at the dark-paneled ceiling.

She was hot, agitated, and she couldn’t sleep. Not here. Not in this place. Gods almighty, she never should have agreed to this insanity.

Nick lay on his side beside her, softly snoring, the intoxicating scent of his skin and his alluring body heat drifting across the monstrous mattress to slide along her overheated flesh. She glanced at him in the spacious suite. Moonlight shone in through the arching windows, highlighting his square jawline covered in a thin layer of scruff and the jagged scar on his cheek he’d gotten during that horrific cleansing ritual.

His eyes were closed, his dark-blond hair mussed on the pillow, his muscular chest bare in the dim light and his jeans riding low on his lean hips. He was the picture of sex and sin and salvation, and though she wanted nothing more than to roll him to his back, climb over him, and do to him what he’d done to her on that couch at Delia’s house, she couldn’t. Not just because she knew he deserved a moment of rest, but because with every second she stayed in this castle, her anxiety inched up and the desire to claw her skin off grew that much stronger.

Sighing, she looked back up at the ceiling. After getting her situated in this room—this massive, fancy, way too expensive suite—he’d rustled up some dinner for them to share, then disappeared to do she didn’t know what. She’d assumed he’d gone to talk to the queen, or maybe the Argonauts, but she hadn’t wanted to ask. Not just because it wasn’t her business, but because that bandage he’d returned with, the one covering the bend in his right arm, indicated he’d gotten some kind of injection or given a blood draw. And knowing the people here were messing with him physically was too much of a reminder of what Zagreus had done to him. It was also an in-your-face red flag that this whole soul mate thing was way more involved than Cynna had first assumed.

Skata
. She pressed her fingers against her closed eyelids and breathed deep. She was in over her fucking head. Way past the point of reason. She’d let good—no, really hot, mind-numbing—sex color her thinking and derail her common sense. Forget about the fact she couldn’t stomach being anywhere near Isadora. Every second she stayed with Nick pushed her that much closer to falling head over heels in love with the male. And though he’d said he needed only her, she knew in the center of her chest the kind of need he was talking about wasn’t love. It never would be. Not when a part of him would always belong to his soul mate.

Fuck it
. She tossed the covers back and carefully slid from the bed. Finding her jeans, she pulled them on, then spotted her boots and the lightweight jacket she’d tossed over a chair earlier. When he’d come back from doing gods knows what, Cynna had already been under the covers, pretending to sleep. If he’d used his god powers and figured out she was faking it, he hadn’t said. He’d simply gone to take a shower, come back, and climbed in next to her. Then fallen asleep while she lay there, continuing to suffer.

Well, she was done suffering. She couldn’t help him anymore. She’d been stupid to think she ever could. Crossing the floor as quietly as she could, she told herself not to look back. But her chest grew tight as she pulled the door closed softly behind her, and a lump she couldn’t quite swallow took up space in her throat as she headed down the long corridor searching for the ornate staircase she’d walked up earlier.

Columns flanked the hallway. A thick, expensive carpet ran the length of the wide corridor, and closed double doors led to other rooms…probably other bedroom suites. Though she knew they were in the same wing as before, they were several floors up, and she couldn’t help but wonder who was sleeping on the other side of these doors, past these walls. Was the queen’s room somewhere close? Or did she have an entire floor all to herself?

Skata. Stop worrying about her and just get the hell out of here.

She passed three arches that opened to some kind of common living area. Just as she went by the last column, a sound drew her feet to a stop. A voice of some kind.

She peered into the dimly lit room. Several couches were arranged in front of a dark fireplace, and one lamp near the black windows was illuminated, but she couldn’t see anyone. The room looked empty and quiet. Just when she was sure she’d imagined the sound and was about to leave, a gurgle drifted to her ears. Almost…a coo.

Brow lowered, she stepped farther into the room and came to a stop when she spotted the baby wearing pink footie pajamas, lying face-up on a blanket spread out in the middle of the carpet.
 

The baby spotted Cynna and cooed again, then kicked her legs in the air several times as if she were excited, reached for her feet, and grabbed both with her chubby little hands.
 

Apprehension slid through Cynna. She looked right and left, searching for the owner or parent or whatever you called the person who took care of a baby like this, but the room was completely empty.

The baby continued to stare at Cynna, cooed louder and swatted her arms and legs in the air faster. Then she opened her mouth and blew a raspberry that echoed all through the hall.

Cynna stepped closer until she was standing over the blanket. She didn’t like kids. Didn’t like babies, especially. They were loud and messy and so demanding.

“What are you doing out here all alone?” she said aloud. The baby didn’t answer—of course she couldn’t answer—but for some strange reason, that didn’t stop Cynna from asking.

The baby kicked her legs and blew another raspberry. Then stretched her arms up as if reaching for Cynna.

Slowly, Cynna lowered to her knees. “Who leaves a baby all alone, anyway?” Reaching out, she touched the back of the baby’s hand. Her skin was velvety soft. The softest thing Cynna was sure she’d ever felt. A jolt of awareness rushed through her. “Did someone forget about you?”

The baby wrapped her little hand around Cynna’s finger and squeezed tight. For a tiny thing, she had an incredibly strong grip. And the way she held on made Cynna think she didn’t want to be left alone again.
 

“Aw, you poor thing. I bet you’re scared.” She pulled her finger from the baby’s fist, leaned forward, then slid one hand under the baby’s neck and the other under her back. Lifting her from the floor, she sat back on her heels and looked down at the little bundle in her arms.

She couldn’t be more than six or seven months old. Her hair was jet black, thick, and already curling past her ears, and her skin was like alabaster—shades lighter than Cynna’s flesh. But what slowed Cynna’s pulse were the baby’s eyes. Irises like warm chocolate with flecks of black and gold. Eyes that were eerily similar to the ones Cynna saw in the mirror every day.

Footsteps sounded somewhere close, but Cynna was so entranced, she didn’t have a chance to set the baby back down before a voice said, “Oh. I didn’t know anyone else was awake.”

Slowly she looked to her right. To where Isadora stood with one hand against an open door that looked like it led to a small kitchen, holding a bottle in the other.

Cynna’s heart rate kicked up, and her face grew hot. Quickly, she looked away, laid the baby back down on the blanket, but didn’t push to her feet and run. Which was weird, because…she didn’t want to be anywhere near this female.

The baby kicked out her little legs and blew another raspberry. Then reached for Cynna’s hand again. And she didn’t know why, but Cynna gave the baby her index finger and let the infant close her fist around the digit.

“Let me guess,” Isadora said, her bare feet crossing the floor to stop next to Cynna near the blanket. “You couldn’t stop yourself from picking her up.”