“Harder, baby,” she purred in his ear, wanting him to love her with everything he had. This was the most incredible moment of her life and when he finally came, she joined him.
Completely spent and sated, she leaned back onto the bed while he was still inside her. Her breathing ragged, she kept her legs wrapped around his waist while he stared into her eyes and toyed with her belly button. “That was incredible.”
He flashed a devilish grin. “Glad I could oblige.” He ran his hand around her breast, traced the line of her intricate tattoo, then gave it a light squeeze as he brushed her hardened nipple with his thumb. A smile curved his lips as he remembered when she’d had her tattoo done.
It was of a black sword wrapped with a pink rose for her strength. At the bottom was a redheaded pixielike woman and above her a half dragon rising up to shield and protect her.
The dragon matched his shield.
And beneath the dragon’s wings she’d placed the words, I am woman. Born of Pain. Hear me roar. Done to remind herself that while she was dragon born and capable of extreme and utter violence, she was also capable of mercy and compassion.
But what made him smile were the words that had been added since the last time he’d seen her that went down the back of the sword. “You took my advice?”
She picked his hand up and lifted it to her lips so that she could nip his fingertips. “Only because I wanted something to remind me of you, and I love the way you see me. Don’t agree, mind you. But I love that you think of me that way.”
“That I do.” He kissed the words that were there now. I Am Invincible. Then he shivered as her tongue darted between his fingers. He didn’t know why, but it brought out a tenderness inside him. Something protective and scary.
But then she’d always done that. It was like the demon in him wanted to claim her and kill anyone who came near her. Anyone who hurt her or even looked at her wrong. It was feral and powerful.
And she owned that part of him. She always had.
Right now, he felt like his entire body was made of thrumming electricity that needed to ignite and explode. Sex with her had always heightened and strengthened his psychic abilities, but this was different.
He’d never felt anything like it before.
She nibbled his knuckle. “Is that one part about your Daimon-ness still true?”
“Yes. We all have a second penis hidden in our thigh.”
She laughed out loud. “Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know. You hear all kinds of stupidity coming out of the mouths of Dark-Hunters when you hang out with them. I’m always appalled and offended by about ninety percent of everything they say.”
Xyn shook her head. “I mean can you still go all night and have multiple orgasms?”
He pressed himself deeper inside her so that she could tell he was already hard again and ready for more. “Oh, yes, ma’am. The one definite perk for my people.” Which he’d always assumed had been done either as a punishment or a way to ensure that they could procreate in their exceedingly short life spans.
She tightened her thighs around him. “You telling me you’re at the ready?”
He kissed her lightly on the lips. “Dearest Lady Dragon, I’m ready to go until neither of us can walk.”
She sucked her breath in sharply as he teased her nipple with his tongue. Oh, he felt so good. “I intend to hold you to that.”
“Then far be it from me to disappoint you…”
Xyn had just finished her third orgasm when a strange buzzing started. “What is that?”
“Hold on a second.” Urian used his powers to pull a peculiar thing to his hand that illuminated. He held it up to his ear. “Hey, little buddy, whatcha need?”
That was a strange tone she’d never heard him use before.
“Well, no. I can’t kill your brother. I can give him a stern talking to for taking your Legos. What did your dad say?”
Xyn sat up and frowned as she tried to make sense of his conversation.
“I see. And Uncle Chris?”
Crossing her legs, she bit her lip at the perplexed frown on his face.
“No. No, Erik! Don’t kill your brother. You might need bail money one day and I might not be available for it, and Phoebe could hold that whole Barbie incident from last year against you. Just calm down and breathe. Your brother’s life is worth more than a video game, I promise. I know it doesn’t seem that way right now, but in an hour, you will move past this.”
She heard someone yelling on the other end.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll talk soon. Love you.” Laughing, he lowered the little rectangle.
“Should I ask?”
He used his finger to swipe at the box, then held up a painting of a dark-haired boy with a huge, exaggerated smile on his face. “My nephew Erik.”
“He’s adorable.”
“Some days.” He pulled it back to swipe again. “He was about to kill this little guy.” He showed a brown-haired boy with similar features who was a few years younger. “Tyr.”
“Which of your brothers do they belong to?”
All the humor left his face then, and a deep, dark sadness swallowed the light in his eyes. The turmoil was so tragic that it made her gut tighten. “Urian?”
He flipped to another image. This one of a beautiful girl with reddish hair. “Little Phoebe.”
“She’s beautiful.”
Urian drew a ragged breath. “I thought you were dead, Xyn.”
“I know. You had no way of knowing what had happened.” And then she saw the guilt in his eyes. “You found someone?”
He nodded.
Anger shot through her. For the merest instant she feared Urian had tricked her, but she caught herself before she reacted. Urian wouldn’t do that. Granted, she’d been gone a long time. Still, integrity like his didn’t vanish. And she had her own guilt to carry, even if it had been to help her family. She couldn’t imagine the pain and sorrow that Urian had experienced for the centuries that they had been apart.
She knew that. Plus, he’d told her that he hadn’t been with anyone. Not in a long while.
“What happened?”
“Phoebe died fourteen years ago.” A tear slid from the corner of his eye and he quickly wiped it away.
Grateful she hadn’t reacted, Xyn pulled him against her. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
No, it wasn’t. Not the way her Urian loved. She held him close and rubbed his back.
“Their mother is her sister.”
“And you watch over them?”
He nodded. “I promised her I would.”
“What of your brothers? How are they?”
Urian drew another ragged breath. “All gone.”
“What?” she gasped in shock.
He nodded. “Atreus was the last to fall. I lost him in 1962 to a Dark-Hunter.”
Sympathetic grief brought tears to her eyes as she brushed the hair back from his face. “I’m so sorry.”
He kissed her hand. “It’s okay. We’re Daimons, right? Loss is what we’re born for.”
“So you’ve been alone all this time?”
“I still have Davyn,” he said with a smile. But it quickly faded. “We’ve got to get your brother’s egg. That’s Davyn’s only hope for a cure. I need you to talk sense into him, Xyn. Please?”
“A cure?”
Fury darkened his eyes as a tic started in his jaw. “Apollo sent a plague to wipe out the Daimons. Whatever it is, Davyn has it. I can’t lose him.”
“I won’t let you.” She kissed him. “Come. Let me go smack my brother around.”
When she started to get up, Urian stopped her. She glanced back with a frown. “Something wrong?”
“I’m not a Daimon anymore. Do you remember what you said?”
“I remember.”
“Good, because I plan to hold you to it.”
Smiling, Xyn watched as he conjured his clothes and then handed her some the likes of which she’d never seen.
“What is this?”
“Modern clothing.”
She wrinkled her nose at it. “Looks itchy.”
“It is itchy. You’ll get used to it. Besides, once we get this squared away, I intend to get you out of it as quickly as possible.”
She arched a brow at his tone. “There better be a ‘please’ in that.”
He snorted. “There will be as much begging in there as you require, I promise.” He poked his lip out to prove it.