The Darkest Secret (Lords of the Underworld #7)(54)
Author: Gena Showalter

“What’s wrong?”

You always cal ed me “baby” when you thought I was…

Micah. Just then, he had trouble even thinking the loathsome name. The scope of his understanding extended to Haidee and only Haidee. Besides being a Hunter, the bastard had held her, tasted her, and while Amun knew he was being irrational, he despised every man who’d ever had this pleasure. His pleasure. Yet you cal me by my name, he finished darkly.

Her expression softened, il uminating the delicacy of her features. “The only person I’ve ever cal ed baby is you.”

Wel , okay, then. That was acceptable. He reclaimed her mouth in a rush. Their tongues rol ed together, taking, giving, their teeth scraping. Hands began roaming, every new touch increasing their fervency. He cupped her br**sts, her ni**les beading under his palm, and he moaned.

“I wish they were bigger,” she said between licks.

Her br**sts? Why?

“Men like bigger.”

Someone had made her self-conscious, he realized, and he wanted to kil that someone. This man likes these. He squeezed. They were smal , as she’d implied, but firm and wonderful y tipped. And they truly were the sweetest little morsels, as he had implied. They’re perfect.

In fact…he whipped her shirt over her head and ripped the front clasp of her bra. The backpack would provide her with another one. As the material sagged apart, he caught a glimpse of ni**les the prettiest shade of pink he’d ever seen.

You’re so beautiful. He sounded drugged, didn’t care.

“Th-thank you.”

He bent his head and sucked one of the little pearls harder than he’d intended. A gasp escaped her, but she didn’t push him away. No, she tangled her fingers in his hair and held him against her.

He switched his attention from one to the other, laving them equal y until goose bumps broke out over her skin. Until her bel y quivered in anticipation every time he moved. Until breathy groans were fal ing from her lips, interwoven with his name, with pleas for mercy—for more.

Amun hadn’t had a lover in a very long time, but he hadn’t forgotten the basics, and he’d never been so driven by instinct. Touch, taste, possess, own. He could have been a virgin, and he would have found a way to please this woman, because making her come wasn’t simply a desire.

Making her come was a necessity.

Her pleasure was his pleasure, and that’s just the way it was.

Touch…taste…yes, taste. He straightened, meshing their lips. He had to taste her again.

He wanted to go slowly, to savor every inch of her. To learn what she liked, what she didn’t. But just as before, with a single kiss and a few caresses, the passion between them went nuclear. Those roaming hands clutched, nails scraped. He rubbed his erection between her legs, and she arched into every slide.

After everything she’d told him, he felt as if he could lose her at any moment. As if someone would take her from him, and she would wake up in that cave in Greece, unable to remember him or this kiss.

They were both shirtless, and when her br**sts brushed his chest, he hissed out a breath. The kiss never slowed, their tongues continual y rol ing, seeking, demanding.

Possess…own… He cupped her ass and slammed her against him, the rubbing becoming a frantic seeking. A fever.

No, not a fever. His blood was on fire, true, racing through his veins with a swiftness that would have kil ed a lesser man, but the woman he held was becoming colder with every second that passed. Her skin was like ice, her mouth the storm, and as he sucked on her tongue, that icy storm fil ed him.

The demons had been hiding in the back of his mind, afraid to make themselves known. Now they shrieked, her touch affecting them as if they’d just been hooked to an electric generator. Each one—and gods, there were hundreds—scrambled through his head, doing their best to avoid the renewing of Haidee’s pul …the unavoidable cold.

Final y the kiss slowed…slowed…and then Haidee leaned back. “Are you okay?” Soft knuckles stroked his cheek.

Just need…a moment… Amun closed his eyes and settled on his haunches, inhaling unhurriedly, exhaling with care.

Every muscle in his body was locked in a desperate tug-of-war with his bones, lancing thousands of aches through every part of him. Al at the same time. From the demons, yes, but also from unfulfil ed desire. He hadn’t been ready to stop.

“My internal thermometer gets the better of me sometimes.

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to—I could feel it… I’m sorry,”

she said again, a trace of misery in her tone. “I’l control it, I promise.”

No apologies, he told her. You did nothing wrong. Besides, I like it.

He wasn’t sure why the demons were calmed by her one moment, then roused by her the next. He wasn’t sure how she pul ed on them or why they reacted that way, but he would puzzle over the answer later. With the distance between him and Haidee—minute though it was—the heat returned to him and the demons ceased fighting so stringently. For the moment, that was enough.

Secrets, though, had remained unaffected throughout the entire ordeal. Amun didn’t think his soul-companion had liked the change in temperature, but the beast hadn’t been—and stil wasn’t, because yes, Amun planned to have another go at his woman—screeching in fear. His woman.

The phrase delighted him in a way he never would have expected. But she was. His. In every way that mattered—and soon in every way imaginable. His friends wouldn’t understand. Might even hate him, might consider him a traitor. He couldn’t make himself care. Just then, her wel –

being came before his own.

The change in his mind-set was radical, even to him, and he wasn’t quite used to it yet. That didn’t lessen the impact, though. He’d held her in his lap, listened to her story of loss, had heard the heartbreak in her voice, and something inside him had broken. He’d begun to comprehend the truth. They were alike in so many ways. Determined, constantly bombarded by the worst the world had to offer—people, places, circumstances—yet finding joy where they could.

He wanted this woman. Would have her. And yeah, maybe he was driven purely by desire right now, convincing himself of feelings he wouldn’t normal y entertain to ease the shame of being with the enemy, but he didn’t think so.

“Maybe it’s best that we stopped,” she whispered on a trembling breath. “I—I stil can’t sleep with you.”

Amun’s eyelids sprang open, and he knew flickers of firelight showcased the dark menace in his eyes.