TWISTED (Eternal Guardians Book 7) (44 page)

She swiped at her eyes and slowly pushed to her feet. She’d carefully kept the truth from Nick as soon as she’d realized his connection to the Argonauts, but tonight that secret no longer mattered. And maybe if he knew who she really was, he’d stop following her. Because, gods knew, she couldn’t handle being near him after what he’d just done.

“My mother’s name was Andromeda,” she said without turning. “She lived in Argolea most of her life. She knew my father there when he served with the Council of Elders. She was bound to a very powerful
ándras
at the time who clearly didn’t love her back. She told me once she tried to make him happy, tried to give him sons, but the Fates were never on her side, and he blamed her for that. For what he called her liability. She stayed with him for hundreds of years, even though she was miserable. Divorce, from someone as powerful as him, wasn’t only frowned upon, it wasn’t allowed.”

Nick didn’t say anything, but Cynna told herself that was for the best. The sooner she got through this, the sooner they could be done. In the silence, she stared down at the remembrance stone and her mother’s name, the engraving worn from the weather of the years. Her mother had been gone so long, it was hard for Cynna to call up her image, something that made her heart ache even more.

She swallowed back the pain and forced herself to go on. “He had many affairs, but when she realized he’d been sleeping with her closest confidante, and that the female was pregnant, she couldn’t take it anymore. She left him. My father was her friend, and he helped her escape. But when her husband learned of what had happened, he wasn’t happy. He sent his soldiers to bring her back, only they couldn’t find her. To save face, he publicly announced that she’d crossed into the human realm on a shopping spree and was killed by a pack of daemons.”

“Cynna,” Nick finally said after several seconds, “are you saying—”

“Yes.” She turned to face him. He was wearing a thick gray Henley, jeans, boots, and a dark jacket. And standing before her in the moonlight with his blond hair mussed and that sexy scruff on his jaw, her heart did a little flip. Then dropped into the pit of her stomach all over again because, as much as she wanted him, she couldn’t have him. Never again.

She pushed aside the hurt. His confused expression said he’d obviously heard the stories. But knowing Demetrius was his brother, of course he’d have heard them all.

“My mother was Andromeda, the queen of Argolea. She left the king, came here, and started over. With my father’s help. They were never bound, not legally at least, but the witches didn’t care. They took them in as their own, gave them a place to live, and in return, my parents helped hundreds of other refugees who were persecuted or banished by the monarchy and the Council for different reasons.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, rubbed the chill at her arms, and looked down at the asphodel all around her feet. Life from death. She hoped that was true, because her life seemed to be filled with nothing but misery.

“I was born a few years later. I grew up with two parents who loved each other more than life itself. They didn’t have much, but they had each other. And that was all that mattered. Until the Council’s spies discovered the queen was living in Kyrenia and who she was with. They claimed it was the witches they were trying to eradicate, but it wasn’t. It was her and the former Council member she’d left with. The one who’d defied them. And the king knew. He gave his permission. He sat back and did nothing as his wife was murdered.”

“Gods.” Nick rubbed a hand over his face. “Isadora is your sister. I knew your eyes were familiar. I even noticed it tonight.”

A wave of betrayal and hurt rushed through Cynna. She didn’t want to think of him with Isadora tonight. Didn’t want the image of what they’d done together anywhere in her mind. She turned away and stalked across the field, back toward the ruins of her parents’ house. “Half sister. And now you know why I hate her so much.”

“Because her father took everything from you.”

Her feet stilled. He was behind her. Close, but not too close. And her heart pounded hard with the desire to touch him and the need to push him away. “Yes,” she whispered. “And like father, like daughter, she’s doing it again. Which is why I need you to go and never follow me again.” Her throat grew thick. “I know revenge isn’t the answer anymore, but I can’t…be around you. Not after all this. It’s too much.”

She stepped forward, desperate to get away from him.

“I didn’t sleep with her.”

She stopped, sure she had to have imagined those words.

“I couldn’t,” he said softly. “Because my heart belongs to you.”

Cynna’s pulse sped up until it was a whir in her ears, and wide-eyed, she turned to face him.

“I love you, Cynna.” He moved toward her. “Not because the gods say I should. Not because some curse tells me to. I love you because I choose to.”

He stopped inches away, and her stomach tightened, her head felt light. She was too afraid to speak, too afraid any kind of sound would wake her and prove this was a dream and not reality.

His fingers brushed the hair away from her temple. “And because you’re the only person in my life who’s never wanted anything from me except me.”

“I…” She swallowed hard. This wasn’t a dream. He was standing here. Looking down at her in the moonlight like she was…everything. Her skin grew hot. “What about Isadora?”

Sadness crept into his amber eyes, and he trailed his finger down her cheek until she trembled. “I don’t know. I can’t change the soul mate pull. I’ll always feel the need to help her if I can. But being with her like that is not the answer.”

He lifted his other hand to her face, cradling her jaw in his big palms. And his eyes grew so soft and dreamy as he gazed down at her, her heart burst to life in her chest. “You’re my answer, though. To every struggle, every heartache, every question I was too afraid to ask. You’ve drawn me back from the edge so many times, not because you have some magical quality but because you understand me. No one, not in two hundred years, has ever cared for me the way you do. Because of you, I know I can fight the darkness inside and win. All I have to do is think of you, and I’m free.”

He shifted closer until his body brushed hers, and his heat seeped into her skin, making her ache, not with loss this time, but with…hope. “I want to be that same answer for you. I know your life has been filled with pain and darkness, but I can be your balance the way you’ve been mine. If it takes my whole life, Cynna, through all of eternity, I promise to be that and more for you.”

Tears burned. Tears she couldn’t hold back. She closed her eyes as the first droplet slid down her cheek. “You big jerk. You already are.”

He lowered his mouth to hers, and she held her breath. Then sighed as his lips brushed hers and she drew him into her mouth.

She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve him after all the bad shit she’d done in her life, but she wanted him. He might have thought she’d saved him from a bitter darkness, but the truth was, he’d saved her. Because without him, she’d have become a hard, empty shell of a person. She’d have become someone just like Zagreus.

“Nick…”

He tipped his head, kissed her deeper, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into the warmth and protection of his body. And as she returned his kiss with every ounce of passion inside her, she opened the last bit of her heart to him.

Her head grew light. Her skin tingled. She felt as if his kisses were shaking the ground. And then her knees wobbled, and she drew back from his mouth and realized they weren’t standing in the field behind the ruins of her parents’ old house. They were in a bedroom. One with pale blue walls, a queen-size bed covered with a gray-and-white-checked quilt, and a small window that looked out over a dark street.

“Where…?” She glanced around and recognized the symbol hanging over the bed. The crescent moon tipped on its side with three droplets falling beneath it. The witch’s symbol for blessing. Her gaze shot back to his face. “We’re in Delia’s house. You flashed me through walls.”

A sexy, powerful grin curled his lips, pulling on the scar across his cheek. “I’m telling you, these gifts are coming in mighty handy.”

He leaned close, brushed his tempting mouth over hers again, and pushed the lightweight jacket from her shoulders, then dropped it on the floor. “But right now I don’t want to use them. I want to unwrap you like the gift that you are.”

She sucked in a breath as he drew back, as his fingers found the hem of her T-shirt and lifted it above her head. His eyes raked over the swell of her breasts, and her nipples tightened when she saw the desire in his features. He licked his lips and leaned down to kiss her again.
 

She pushed the jacket from his shoulder as he walked her backward toward the bed, every part of her aching for his touch. He laved his tongue over hers and flipped the clasp on her bra free, then tugged it from her arm and tossed it behind him.
 

The backs of her legs hit the mattress, but he caught her around the waist before she fell, then lowered her to the bed, never once breaking their kiss, never once letting her go.

She’d never wanted anyone to protect her. Never thought she’d needed it. But with Nick, she felt safe. Cherished. And even in his darkest hour, she knew in the depths of her heart that he’d never hurt her.
 

She reached for his shirt as he climbed over her. He eased back long enough for her to pull the soft cotton free of his body. Then his mouth was on hers once more, the muscles in his back rippling beneath her fingers as he kissed her again and again, as she opened her legs and he pressed her into the mattress.

“Mm, Cynna.” His hand slid up her side to cup her breast and brush his thumb over her nipple. “I’m lost without you.”

Her fingers found his waistband, and she reached between them, unbuttoning his jeans. “Then don’t ever be without me.”

He groaned into her mouth as she slipped her hand into his pants and closed her fingers around his length. He was hard, hot, already pulsing in her grip. And as he licked into her mouth and pressed into her hand, she stroked him, loving the way he trembled against her, loving that she did this to him, that she was the one who could make him weak.

He drew back from her before she was ready to let him go, crawled back off the bed, and stripped her of her own pants. Heart pounding, she pressed up on her elbows and watched as his gaze skipped across her naked flesh, as his features darkened, as he licked his lips again, then lowered to his knees and tugged her hips to the edge of the bed.

“This is what I want,” he whispered.

Anticipation and heat swirled inside her as he pushed her legs apart, as he leaned close. And then he licked the swollen flesh between her legs, and she was gone.

Pleasure rushed down her spine. She dropped her head back as that pleasure trickled through her body, groaned when he did it again and again, sending her spinning toward a release only he could make her reach. He knew exactly where to touch her with his tongue, with his fingers, knew just when to suckle to make her cry out and when to back off to heighten her arousal. Sweat slicked her skin. She fisted the quilt at her sides. Lifted to meet his wicked tongue as he pushed her closer toward oblivion. And when he finally let her go, the ecstasy was like nothing she’d ever known, so completely soul shattering, she knew nothing else but him.

He kissed his way up her body and captured her mouth before she had a chance to catch her breath. But she didn’t care, because his frantic tongue dancing across hers reignited her need, her lust, her desire. Groaning, she scrambled to free him from his jeans. He kicked them off and climbed between her legs.

“I’m not going to make love to you,” he whispered. “I’m not going to fuck you.” The head of his cock slid into her slick heat, sending pleasure arcing down her spine. “I’m going to own you, Cynna. Mind, body, soul. The way you own me.”

Her body trembled. Zagreus had wanted that—to own her. But it was nothing like this. That had been dark and controlling and one-sided. This was light and love and a mutual need to belong. To each other.

Every inch of her skin tingled. Desire roared in her veins at the sound of his husky words, from the heated, intense expression on his focused, handsome face. It was all she could do to hold still. “Nick—”
 

He lowered his mouth to hers and pushed forward until the tip of his cock pressed a fraction of an inch inside her. “You’re mine,” he whispered against her lips. “The only one I want. The only female I’ve ever loved.”

He drove deep, drew back then shoved in again, moving faster with every thrust. She groaned at the delicious friction, hooked one leg around his hip, and lifted to meet every plunge, every thrust, every press and glide and retreat. Gods, she needed him. Needed this. Was desperate for more. Desperate for him. Desperate to be his everything.
 

He was right. Her life had been nothing but darkness and despair up until this point, but no more.
 

“I am yours,” she whispered.
 

His thrusts grew harder. Faster. Longer. As if her words excited him even more. And his arousal ignited her own, pushing her right back to the peak. She held on tighter. Clenched all around him, lifted her mouth to his, and whispered, “Only yours.”

He groaned, his whole body contracted with his release, and the second his orgasm slammed into him, so did hers, twisting them down together until he was all that mattered. Until she knew he was the lone bright light dragging her back to the person she was meant to be.