“No, I didn’t fall in love with you,” he whispered, and my heart shattered a little more.
“Good, because that would probably make leaving you impossible,” I whispered, and started to pull away from him. He didn’t allow it. Instead, he pulled me closer until I had no choice but to straddle to his lap. “Ryder,” I shook my head, fighting the tears that threatened to fall.
“You’ve left a mark on me that will never be replaced. I’m incapable of loving anyone. You have turned my world upside down, Pet. I want you—the visions don’t change that. Let me make love to you, Synthia. Let me show you what you make me feel. I need to be with you now. I need to feel you beneath me. I need to touch your soul and leave my mark on you, so that you never forget me.”
His mouth was soft and searching as he kissed me. His hands held me immobile in his arms. His warmth sank in to my bones, as his erection pressed against me. His power vibrated through me, and I didn’t want him to stop. I didn’t want this to stop, this, well, whatever we had together. I wanted him to keep me. I wanted him.
His mouth drove me insane as his tongue caressed mine, as his clothes melted away with his magic. He didn’t remove mine with magic. Instead, he took each piece off slowly as if he was trying to commit every fine detail to memory.
I captured his head with my hands, and opened myself for him to ravish. I spread my legs in open invitation, and he growled hungrily with approval. We were together in this moment, and the vision could wait. In this place and time, we were living in the present, and not with what we both knew would happen soon.
Chapter Twenty Nine
I was scheduled to meet the Light Fae in the presence of Adam and his father. Ryder and his men would also be present. I wasn’t looking forward to this, and, personally, I could have gone the rest of my life without meeting them. I’d worn a skirt and a sleeveless blouse at Ryder’s request, but had skipped putting on any make-up, since I had absolutely no desire to impress the Light Fae. I was sitting at the bar waiting for the inevitable to happen when a strong hand landed reassuringly on my shoulder.
“You look like you’re about to throw up, or run away. Which one is it, Kid?” Alden said, seating himself beside me.
“It might be both. Why are you here?” I asked, wondering how he’d gotten away to come here.
“This old man has ways of finding things out, Synthia. Besides, I couldn’t let my only family meet her other family without me here to support her,” he said before reaching for my hand, and squeezing after shooting me a reassuring look. “I’m here for you, Kid, always and forever. I told you, McKenna’s stick together, Kid. It doesn’t matter if you’re my family by blood, or not. You’re my niece in here,” Alden thumped his heart and smiled reassuringly. “That’s all that matters to me.”
“Thanks,” I said, grinning into his gentle, smiling blue eyes.
The commotion at the club’s doors wiped the smile from my lips, as a huge group of people entered. Adam and his father were close to the doors, and the first to their feet with the arrival of the Light Fae. Ryder swiftly walked over to stand in front of me as the crowd came in.
They were all impossibly beautiful. Their hair was varying shades of whitish blonde, while their eyes ranged from shades of sky blue, to my own electric blue and lilac colored eyes. Power radiated from them, but it lacked Ryder’s raw current that sometimes resembled a downed power line.
“Only address them if they speak directly to you. Let me do the talking,” Ryder hissed against my ear, before he grabbed my hand, and pulled me across the room to stand by his men. Once again, they created a wall around me.
“You had better have a damn good reason for calling us here. Kier, this is a direct breach of etiquette. Next time you summon us, it had damn well better follow the rules of protocol,” the tallest of the group growled out to Kier who was, even now, waiting to greet to the Light Fae.
“You wouldn’t know protocol, Dresden, if it slapped you upside the head and said hello,” Adam’s father replied innocently. Oh yes, he had been waiting for this showdown for a while.
“I see you haven’t changed a bit. So tell me, what has you breaking protocol this time, Kier?”
“I found something you lost,” he said with a mischievous smile on his lips.
“And what would that be? I didn’t come here to play word games with you. Spit it out already,” the Light King demanded.
“Your daughter. The real one. We found her.”