The Darkest Secret (Lords of the Underworld #7)(88)
Author: Gena Showalter

“Make love to me,” she said. She raised her chin and looked up at him, though she never lifted her cheek from his chest. “Remind me that I’m alive.”

No, sweetheart. No. We’re just going to hold each other.

“But why?” Was she…pouting?

His c**k twitched in response. What if there are other demons hiding inside me? Or what if you draw Secrets out this time? Secrets is a High Lord, and the demons you took from me were merely minions.

High Lords make minions look like infant children in need of a bottle.

“But there were hundreds of those minions.”

Thousands of minions could not compare with one High Lord.

She sighed. “That’s probably true.”

Is that piece of Hate stil inside you? he asked. Or did you expunge it, too?

“It’s stil with me. I can feel the emotion, weaker than before, but there.”

Good.

“Good?”

I don’t want to risk losing you. I’l die if I’m separated from Secrets, and I fear the same wil happen to you if you’re separated from Hate. Even so smal a piece.

“Oh…yeah,” she said, disappointed. “I forgot about that.”

His heart stuttered to a stop. Does it bother you that I wil always be a demon?

“Not at al .” She slid one of her hands to his neck and pressed a fingertip against his pulse, jump-starting his heart into action again. “I accept you for who and what you are.”

He hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed to hear those words until she’d said them. As I accept you.

She placed a soft kiss on his sternum. “I’m stil in shock. But God, this explains so much, you know?

Why I have so much trouble loving, why people tend to dislike me when they first meet me. Why moods are sometimes blackened in my presence.”

I’m sorry. Sorry that happened to you.

“I should be sorry, too. I want to be—wel , more than I am—but it brought me to you, so…”

He kissed her temple in thanks. I wonder how you drew that piece of Hate inside you without kil ing the host. I wonder how you took Hate, but not Secrets.

“From what you told me, the host of Hate wanted me to free him. Until the pain started. Then he changed his mind. You didn’t want me to take Secrets. Maybe that has something to do with it.”

Maybe.

“Or maybe I wanted to hurt him, but didn’t want to hurt you.”

That makes more sense. But either way, I never want you to go through a purging again.

Frowning, she sat up, turned, and straddled his waist. “So you plan to deny us both for the rest of our lives?”

Yes. Even though the word passed from his mind to hers, his tone stil managed to drip with al kinds of irritation. He wanted her, damn it, and resisting her was nearly impossible. Practical y riding him as she was, her br**sts uptilted, her ni**les hard, she wasn’t making it easy on him.

She was making it hard. Very, very hard.

One of her brows arched, and a calculating gleam entered her eyes. She flattened her palms on his pectorals and leaned forward, as if she meant to push off him and stand. “I can’t believe you’re making me resort to rape, Amun.”

Haidee—

In the next instant, she raised her hips and impaled herself on his erection. She was already wet, and took him easily.

His lips parted on a silent moan of bliss.

Her head fel back, and her nails dug deep. “A girl wil do what a girl has to do to prove to her man that the only way to hurt her is to deny her. But then, I guess I’m not a girl. I’m borderline demon, so you should have expected this kind of behavior.”

You shouldn’t have—you need to—oh, gods… Unable to stop himself, Amun arched his back and surged the rest of the way inside her, hitting her deep, so deep. A hoarse cry left him this time, echoing around him, and in the back of his mind he expected words to start fal ing from his lips.

They didn’t. So he forced himself to return to that motionless state, panting, afraid and hopeful.

As her knees squeezed his sides, her stomach quivered from the pleasure of having him inside her. She’d never looked lovelier, he thought. Never looked more pagan, more…his.

Haidee, he gasped into her mind. I shouldn’t have thrust the rest of the way. You have to…move…off me…on me…you just have to move, damn it.

She didn’t. She remained stil , watching him.

His fingers banded around her waist, holding tight. She was so wet, so wonderful y cool inside, and she was kil ing him with every second that passed, refusing to move off him—or on him.

Final y he sagged against the ground. He didn’t have the strength to push her away. And he damn sure didn’t have the courage to urge her on. He wouldn’t hurt her. He wouldn’t risk her.

Haidee, he said, trying again.

“Just hold on, baby,” she whispered huskily. “This little lady is gonna do al the work.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

ALL THE WORK…

Holy hel , she real y would kil him.

Especial y since there were no more secrets between them. Not anymore. Amun knew she could now read him as easily as he could read her, and knew why she was doing this. She had felt his fear, his determination never to touch her like this again, and even though he had felt her fear, she was wil ing to risk herself. To try this again.

But more than he wanted the exquisite pleasure he could find in her body, the utter bliss of feeling her inner wal s clamp around him, holding him close, the thril of sliding inside of her, retreating, then sliding back in, he wanted her safe.

Secrets, he gritted out. Do you know what wil happen to her if we…if I…take her again?

His demon was stil lost in her mind, soaking everything in.

Damn this! Haidee hadn’t moved since her announcement.

She merely sat there, his shaft buried deep inside her, giving him time to adjust to her plans. If he’d been a stronger man, he would have shoved her off. But he wasn’t.

He was a warrior who had final y found his woman. A warrior who wanted to possess her, body and soul. A warrior who needed to stake his claim, to warn every other man away.

“I’l go slow, al right? Just release my hips and I’l rock us both to paradise.”

No, he managed to growl into her mind. He’d grabbed her again? Yep. He had. I wil protect you. Even from myself.

“You want me to go fast, then?” she asked, ignoring the other things he’d said.

No! Gods, yes.

“Wel , what do I have to say to change your mind? I need your fire, Amun. Your heat.” As she spoke, she leaned down, shifting the slant of his erection inside her and making him groan. She braced her hands beside his head, her br**sts meshing into his chest, her ni**les stabbing at him, her wanton mouth poised about his. “And I think, maybe, you need my chil ?”