For several long seconds he didn’t say anything. And she still couldn’t read his expression, had no idea what he was thinking or feeling. And then he frowned. “You are seriously fucked in the head, you know that?”
Her defenses came up. The same ones she’d used to protect her heart for far too long. A heart that was now battered and bruised and aching because she’d taken a chance and it had all been for nothing. “I—”
He closed the distance between them, grasped both sides of her face with his large, warm hands, then lowered his mouth to hers.
The air left her lungs on a whoosh. The fight slid right out of her body. As his tongue dipped into her mouth and she tasted the sweetness of him, she wrapped her hands around the guardian markings on his forearms and told herself not to let go.
There was urgency in the kiss. Mixed with relief and need. So much need it curled her stomach and made her whole body ache.
“Skyla, Skyla, Skyla…” She loved the way he mouthed her name against her lips, drew her closer with his arms until the long lean line of his well-defined body pressed up against hers. “They’ll never let you leave because of me.”
“It’s not their decision to make.” When he eased back and looked down at her with those soft gray eyes, her confidence shot up again. A confidence she now couldn’t believe she’d been lacking. “It’s mine. And I choose you. Daemon or no daemon. Argonaut or not. Zeus and Athena are wrong about you, Orpheus. You’re not evil.”
“How can you be so sure?” he whispered.
“Because I watched you with Maelea. I saw the way you protected her when you didn’t have to. The way you protected me even though you knew what I was. And I saw the lengths you went to, to save your brother. An evil soul can’t love like that.”
“I don’t have a soul—”
“Yes, you do.” She tightened her fingers around his forearms. “One that deserves so much more than you’ve been given.”
Emotion turned his eyes to shimmering silver. “Skyla—”
She rose up on her toes and kissed him, sliding her arms around his neck and drawing him even closer. “Let me love you, Orpheus.”
She kissed him long and deep, groaned into his mouth when his arms circled her waist and his warmth surrounded her. She stepped back toward the bed, pulling him with her, loving the way he couldn’t seem to stop kissing her, couldn’t seem to stop touching her just as she was touching him. When her legs bumped the mattress, she eased back, tugged him down with her until they fell on the mattress and his weight pressed into her, the heat from his erection pressing into her lower belly, warming her from the outside in.
She yanked at his shirt, broke the kiss long enough to pull it over his head. His mouth was back on hers, kissing, licking, sucking as he found the buttons on her shirt and undid them, then tugged her torso up enough so he could wrench the shirt from her arms and toss it on the floor behind him.
The Orb fell against her chest. Warm and enticing. She ignored it and focused on him, sliding her hand over his rough jaw.
His gaze ran over the red bra she wore, down to her waistband. “Gods, you are so beautiful.”
His hand followed, skimming over her cleavage, then down the line of her abdomen to trail heat to her belly button. She sucked in a breath even as a shiver raced down her spine. “It’s not real. Once I leave the Sirens, I won’t look like this anymore.”
His warm, desire-filled eyes slid back to hers. “What do you mean?”
“I mean this Barbie-doll body is part of the gig. Once a Siren leaves, her body transforms back to the way it was before she joined the order.”
His eyes narrowed with mischief. “Is this your way of telling me you were three hundred pounds with a hook nose before joining the Sirens?”
She ran her hands up his impressive arms. “Maybe not quite three hundred.” When his eyebrows lifted in question, she smiled. “It’ll be the same me. This is just the enhanced version.”
“Explain ‘enhanced.’”
“Well, for one, I’m not really this tall. Take about three inches off my legs. My hair isn’t normally this blond, and if memory serves—and remember, it’s been quite a while—my waist isn’t quite this small.”
“What about these?” His large palm slid up to cup her right breast.
Warmth puckered her nipple beneath the red lace. “Now those will likely stay the same.”
That mischievous grin widened as he flicked the clasp, freeing her breasts to spill out into his hand. “I had a feeling they were real. I can always tell.”
Her stomach tightened, and the humor faded as he lowered his mouth to her right breast, laved his tongue over her nipple, then drew her deep into his mouth to suckle.
Her fingers found their way into his thick brown hair and she arched her back, offering whatever he wanted. As much as he wanted.