Her hands rested on his marked forearms, and her eyes softened, so much so he felt her gaze boring deep into his soul. “I’m right here.”
Urgency pushed at him. Only this urgency suddenly wasn’t linked to some crazy debt to protect her. It was centered solely on the fact she was the first person in forever who’d come to matter to him. “No. Not just this. I need you to stay in Argolea. And to come back to the castle with me, tonight.”
The softness rushed from her eyes. Her body stiffened, and she tried to pull away, but he held her firmly, not letting her go.
“I heard everything you said about Isadora,” he went on. “And I know you don’t want to be near her. But I have to go back. And you…you keep me centered. In a way nothing else ever has. I need you with me so I don’t lose it like I almost did at the colony. I don’t want to go back. Just the thought of doing so turns my stomach. I don’t want to be near any of them. I just want to be with you. But I promised my brother I’d give him and the others a few days to try to figure out what’s going on with the whole stupid soul mate curse, and, well…”
The words died on his lips, and doubt pressed in as he glanced down at the couch beside them, making his hands sweat and his pulse race. Shit, how could he explain this? Why would she even agree after everything she’d lived through?
“And because you can’t leave,” she finished for him.
Surprise rippled through him. He looked back into her deep brown eyes, searching for something to say. For some kind of answer that made sense. But came up empty.
Gently, she tugged his hands from her face and lowered them against her thighs. “Answer one question for me. Are you in love with her?”
“No.”
“Not at all?”
He hesitated. Tried to decide how to answer. “I feel a pull that keeps me connected to her, but I don’t think it’s love. It’s…duty.” Something he’d always fucking hated. Now more than ever.
She didn’t respond, but her eyes searched his, and he knew she was looking for the truth. He just hoped she couldn’t see what he’d omitted. That though he didn’t love Isadora now, the soul mate curse kept the possibility open. All it would take was one simple little act.
“Okay,” she finally said in a soft voice. “I’ll go back with you.”
Air filled his lungs, and he reached for her, sliding his arms around her slim back, dragging her close to the heat of his body. “You will?”
She braced her hands on his shoulders. “It makes me certifiable, but yeah. I will.” When he leaned forward to kiss her, she stopped him by pushing her index finger against his lips. “On one condition.”
“Anything.”
“You keep her away from me. I’ll go back for you. As long as I can handle it. But not for her. Never for her. And if at any time it’s too much for me, I’m out of there. No questions asked.”
“Done.”
“Done?”
She obviously hadn’t expected him to capitulate so quickly. But he didn’t care. Because as long as she was with him, he felt like he could handle anything.
He pressed his mouth to hers, then shifted and laid her out on the couch beneath him. “Almost done.” He kissed his way across her jaw to her ear, reached for her hands, and pinned them to the cushions above her head, loving the way she shivered in anticipation. “First, I need to make you come again.”
A slow, sexy smile spread across her gorgeous face, and her legs fell open, giving him full access to any and every part of her. “How will you do that?”
He held her wrists still with one hand and slid the other between her legs to find her already wet and swollen. Then he groaned and, with a wicked grin, lowered his mouth to hers. “Any and every way I want, female.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Cynna kicked the covers off her bare leg and breathed deep as she stared up at the dark-paneled ceiling.
She was hot, agitated, and she couldn’t sleep. Not here. Not in this place. Gods almighty, she never should have agreed to this insanity.
Nick lay on his side beside her, softly snoring, the intoxicating scent of his skin and his alluring body heat drifting across the monstrous mattress to slide along her overheated flesh. She glanced at him in the spacious suite. Moonlight shone in through the arching windows, highlighting his square jawline covered in a thin layer of scruff and the jagged scar on his cheek he’d gotten during that horrific cleansing ritual.