The Darkest Seduction (Lords of the Underworld #9)(50)
Author: Gena Showalter

Whether Paris believed her or not, he didn’t say. He carted her to the center of the enclosure, where a natural spring rested, and set her on the ledge. He arranged her wings so that their tips wouldn’t scrape the dirt floor.

A frigid breeze blasted through, filling up the entire space and making her shiver. Silent, Paris started a fire the old-fashioned way, sparking two rocks together and letting the flames catch on the twigs he’d gathered. Golden flames illuminated his face, bathing his features in a heady mix of light and shadow.

He was always beautiful, but just then he was mouthwateringly exquisite. A mythical god of the heavens, no mere mortal worthy of him. Especially not her.

“I didn’t come here to punish you,” he said.

She remembered the accusation she’d launched at him while he’d had her pinned to the wall, her lips stinging from the brutal kiss he’d forced on her. A kiss she might have enjoyed under any other circumstances. But at that moment, as scared as she’d been of the shadows and of her feelings for him, she’d needed gentle.

Until gentle hadn’t been enough for her riotous body.

“I’m glad,” she said softly.

“You believe me? Just like that?” He snapped his fingers.

“Yes.”

His gaze jerked to her, crackling with the same flickering heat as the fire. “Why?”

“Because I want to.”

An angry shake of his head, dark hair whipping against his cheeks. “Or maybe because you’re grateful to me.”

She licked her lips, tasting him in the air, knowing they were now talking about something entirely different. “No.”

“Or because you merely wish to keep me strong.”

“No.”

“Certainly not because you desire me,” he said, his tone sharp as a whip. “Not because you hunger for me.”

He wanted her to say it, wanted her to admit her desire for him while they were separated. That way, she couldn’t claim passion spoke for her. More than that, he wanted her to say it without offering her the same admission. Not at first, and maybe not after. Either way, she’d be taking a risk. While a denial could save her pride, he might turn away from her, now and always. And while agreement could cause her major embarrassment, it could also bring her a pleasure unlike any she’d known before. So, no contest.

“Yes,” she admitted. “Because I desire you, hunger for you.”

Silence once again reigned, and she wasn’t sure if he’d heard her or cared. Then his gaze shifted away from her, only to jerk back to her a second later, as if he lacked the strength to battle his own needs, the blue of his eyes mixed with glimmers of demon-red and black. Eerie and haunting, but not frightening. Not anymore.

“I wasn’t sure what I would do with you when I found you,” he said, his voice more gravel than anything. “Save you, yes. Definitely. Sleep with you, yes, that, too. I want you so badly I ache. All the time, I ache, but even though I want to keep you, part of me has always known that I would have to leave you afterward. I can’t do permanent, even with you.”

Even, he’d said, as if she were special. And the fact that he’d copped to his own feelings of desire caused her hunger for him to return in full force. Her entire body trembled, and had she been standing, she would have collapsed. “I know you’ll have to leave me,” she said. It wasn’t something she could blame him for, because she couldn’t stay with him, either.”

He dragged in a breath, his fingers clenched on the rocks he still held. “I will not lie to you, and I will not cheat on you, and if we tried for something more, I would have to do both.”

Like he’d done with that woman, Susan.

“Being with you may not affect my demon, may not strengthen me. I don’t know, because I haven’t had the same woman twice since my possession. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to leave you sooner than expected and find…someone else.”

There was no reason for him to know that the thought of him with another woman ate at her, leaving raw, oozing wounds. “I know.”

“Because you saw…”

“Susan. Yes.”

Sadness flickered in his eyes, then anger. He ran his tongue over his teeth, as though her response had somehow pricked his temper. “If that happens, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you first, before I leave, and no matter what, I’ll come back to you. I’ll make sure you reach the exit. But after that, we have to… We say goodbye, once and for all.”

The fire must have been doing its job, but the cavern seemed to warm in an instant, the cold vanquished. Perhaps her body had simply sucked that cold inside. She felt chilled to the bone. Paris wasn’t going to protest her return to the Hunters. She wondered if he would object to her involvement with Galen, if it became necessary, but wasn’t going to ask. As much as she wanted to know the answer, she didn’t want to know the answer.

“Knowing all of that, do you still want to be with me?” he asked.

His tone implied he didn’t give a shit about her answer. That he’d shrug and easily find someone else if she said no. But he was holding his breath, she realized, his cheeks flushing under the strain. He did want her, and he did care whether or not she wanted him back.

“I still want to be with you,” she said. “Still want you.”

He searched her face, clearly satisfied by what he saw, because he nodded. “Good. Now take off your clothes and get in the water.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

PARIS WATCHED AS SIENNA dropped her shirt on the floor, where she’d already kicked her pants. Now she stood in her bra and panties. Plain, white. And yet, clinging to her perfect little body, they were the sexiest garments he’d ever seen.

His erection stretched past his navel, the base wider than his wrist. Yeah, he wanted her that badly.

More, Sex pleaded.

“The rest,” he croaked. She was so beautiful…so strong. He’d come all this way, done all those terrible things, and yet she had freed herself from Cronus’s hold. When Paris looked past his own masculine pride, he was glad about that. She had fought her demon and won, something he had never been able to do. Whatever happened outside this realm, she would be okay.

What happened inside of it, however…

Shouldn’t do this, he thought, even as he repeated, “The rest. Now.”

She unhooked the bra, dropped the garment on top of the others. Rosy ni**les pearled from the lingering coolness in the air, topping off br**sts he wanted in his mouth. Her thumbs slid under the waist of her panties and tugged. Down the exquisite length of her legs, until she was a whole lot of naked. His gaze was riveted on the dark triangle of curls shielding his favorite place in this realm or any other.