“I’m going to be shunned.”
He grimaced. He didn’t know the ins and outs of fairy society—thank God—but he did know that any demon would be traumatized at being disowned by their people. Even vampires who could be solitary creatures instinctively created clans. It wasn’t just a need for protection, but a sense of belonging.
To have that torn away because she felt it was her duty to use her skills to halt a looming genocide must feel like the worst sort of betrayal.
Someday he intended to beat the shit out of Prince Magnus and King Sariel for daring to treat this exquisite creature with anything less than utter devotion. But for now he couldn’t deny that their stupidity played directly into his hands.
“Does that mean you can’t return to your homeland?” he asked, his fingers sliding from her hair to outline the faintly pointed tip of her ear.
She was such a fairy.
Licking her lips, Fallon visibly struggled to concentrate even as the warm scent of champagne drenched the air.
“I can return, but I will no longer be allowed to attend any social functions or to be seated with my family during meals. It will be . . . difficult.”
His hand glided down to cup her jaw so he could tilt back her head.
“Stay,” he said.
She stilled, an unmistakable yearning darkening her wide eyes before she was hurriedly trying to disguise her vulnerable reaction. Her life among the Chatri had taught her not to reveal her deepest desires.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Why is it ridiculous?”
“You’ve been trying to get rid of me since I—”
He brought an end to her argument by the simple process of covering her mouth with his own.
Bloody hell.
She was right. He should be encouraging her to kiss and make up with her stupid fiancé so she could return to fairyland. She was in danger here.
And if he was being brutally honest, he was doing a piss-poor job of protecting her.
But the mere thought of her leaving . . .
He shuddered, deepening the kiss as excitement exploded through him. Oh God, the taste of her. Honey. And sunshine. And pure female temptation.
He groaned, dipping his tongue into the moist heat of her mouth. She was addictive. Like a drug that had entered his system and filled him with a need that threatened to overwhelm him.
“Stay,” he whispered against her lips, his hands greedily exploring her long, slender curves.
She shivered, her hands tentatively pressing against his chest. “How can I?”
He nibbled at the edge of her lips, his hand slipping beneath the border of her lavender sweater. Instant arousal seared through him at the feel of her satin-smooth skin beneath his fingertips.
“Will you die if you don’t return to your homeland?” he demanded, tracing her lower lip with the tip of his tongue.
His elongated fangs throbbed with the need to sink deep into the tender flesh, but he was careful not to accidentally draw blood. There’s no way he would force a mating on her. Not after she’d nearly been manipulated into one by her bastard of a father.
“No, but—”
He stole her words with another kiss. Her family considered her nothing more than a pawn who could be sacrificed when she no longer served her purpose. They didn’t deserve her.
“Then stay.”
Cyn leaned back just far enough so he could pull the sweater over her head, his gut twisting at the sheer beauty of her.
Fallon didn’t possess the lush body of most fey. No. His princess was all sleek lines and graceful curves. Like a pure-blooded racehorse.
Perfect.
“Stay where?” she husked, her nails digging into his chest as he allowed his fingers to skim up her narrow rib cage to cup her small breasts with reverent care. “I have no home, no family, no one who can help me.”
Cyn struggled to concentrate. He knew it would be a difficult task to convince her that she belonged with him. Especially when she was still raw from her fiancé’s abandonment. But the hunger that had been growing from his first sight of this tempting female was thundering through him, making it almost impossible to think of anything beyond wrapping her impossibly long legs around his waist so he could sink himself into her tantalizing heat.
“You have me,” he murmured.
“You want me to become a part of your harem?”
He yanked his head up to glare at her wary expression. Was she deliberately trying to piss him off?
“Why the hell do you keep harping about my nonexistent harem?”
“Why else would you ask me to stay?”
Cyn swallowed his urge to laugh. He wasn’t about to tell her that he thought she might be his mate.
In the past few days she’d been kidnapped from her homeland, commanded to spy on the Commission, forced to share a lair with a vampire, jilted by her fiancé, and potentially shunned.
Now didn’t seem the best time to pile on the fact that he had no intention of ever letting her go.