Even now, she could still taste his lips from the kiss he’d given her. And when he met her gaze, she knew that those thoughts were bare to his sage dragon sense.
Before she even realized what she was doing, she leaned in to kiss him again.
Falcyn closed his eyes as he tasted her and the sweetest passion he’d ever known. Unlike Tisiphone, she didn’t judge him for a birth he couldn’t help. Or think him unnecessarily harsh for the feelings and grudges he had against a brutal world.
She understood. Especially since she now knew he was a war god. A secret he never let anyone else know.
And he’d never been held by a similar creature before. Because dragons shared a common gene pool and history, he’d avoided sleeping with one, as he viewed all their females as his sisters.
His hatred for his mother had kept him away from demons. So most of his lovers had come from humans and the fey. Never had he been with an Apollite or Daimon. Since they were Greek in origin and he despised the Greeks for what they’d done to his race and his brethren, he considered them disgusting creatures.
Yet there was no scorn inside him for this woman. Not even a tiny morsel of it.
She fisted her hands in his shirt, pressing him closer against her body. Breathless, he deepened their kiss, wanting her more than he’d ever wanted anything.
Terrified of where those feelings might lead him, he tore away from her lips.
“Push me away, Medea,” Falcyn said raggedly. “Tell me how much I repulse you and that you don’t want anything to do with a sullen, self-pitying bastard who has no use for this world or any other.”
Medea frowned at his unexpected words. Who had said such to him?
“I don’t find you repulsive, dragonfly. Far from it.”
He cupped her face and stared at her. His eyes were dark and filled with a soul-deep torment she didn’t quite understand.
“Say it, Medea,” he insisted. “Because right now, all I want is to be inside you out here in the woods like the animal I am. And I know how very wrong it is to crave you when there’s nothing for either one of us. I know you deserve better and that we don’t have time for it. But honestly, I don’t give a shit about that or anything else. All I can think about right now is you and how much I want you.”
His words shocked her as much for his sincerity as for the ragged desperation she heard in his voice.
Worse, it made her body hot and shivery. Needful. Things she hadn’t felt in so long that she’d almost forgotten what it was like to be this way with another. This wasn’t just a biological itch. There was more to her feelings for him.
Something scary and demanding.
Something she didn’t want to deny.
She’d felt it since the moment she’d walked into Sanctuary and first seen him in the crowd.
Strange, she’d always wondered what it would be like to lay with one of the other species—either a man or Were. In her wildest fantasies, she’d sometimes imagined how they would take a woman. If they’d be violent or tender. Or as gentle as her own husband, who’d won her heart when she’d been nothing more than an innocent girl so long ago in their ancient world.
But it was this fearsome dragon who called out to her now. A fierce, harsh beast who held tolerance for none. His anger was so evident, it was practically tangible.
Don’t.
The word hovered in her mind like a breathless phantom. It would be all kinds of foolish to sleep with him. He was the son of two of the most powerful ancient bloodlines and she was the daughter of a cursed race and a god at war with his pantheon.
A race he hated. They had no future together at all. How could they?
She might even conceive his child. And then where would they be?
But instead of horrifying her as it’d always done in the past, the thought actually made her heart leap. The fear of having another child was no longer there. Because she knew that Falcyn would protect their baby with the same insanity that he used to keep Blaise safe.
That he used so that he could shield her.
How much more determination would Falcyn show for his own?
No …
This dragon wouldn’t allow a mere human to harm their baby. Ever. He would give his life before he saw it skin its knee. He’d be the kind of father she’d dreamed of. Unlike her own, he would never leave. Never allow his child to be alone or be harmed.
And for the first time in centuries, she saw a future for herself where she wasn’t alone. One that wasn’t bitter.
Stop it, Medea!
It was too late. The floodgate was open and all those repressed dreams rushed over her. All she’d ever wanted was a baby to love. A life to share with someone else.
Her mother had always said her reckless heart would lead her astray.
Today it had led her straight to Falcyn Drakos. And even though she knew this was complete and utter insanity, she refused to back down.
“Make love to me, Falcyn.”
9
Falcyn was completely stunned by her words. Medea was supposed to curse him and shove him away from her. Slap his face or cut out his heart.
She wasn’t supposed to want him.
A decent man would pull away from her. But he wasn’t decent. Nor was he a man. He was feral to the core of his dragon being and harder than hell. A dragon who took what he wanted, consequences be damned.
It was what had gotten him into trouble with Igraine. Drugged and reeling, he’d acted out with her in the heat of passion, and then paid dearly for it.
In the blink of an eye, and as a result, he’d lost everything.
Because he didn’t believe in rules or refinement. Those were for Max and his brothers and sisters. They were the ones who paid attention to Savitar’s rules and dictates. Those who abided by the pacts and politics of the gods.
As a god himself, he’d always thought himself above such petty, irritating things that had been relegated to mortals and lesser creatures.
Just as he’d been above emotions and wants. He didn’t need companionship. He was drakomai. They were solitary and happy to be such.
Until now.
In the one instant of her walking into his circle, Medea had changed everything in his bleak world. He craved her with a madness he didn’t understand. Wanted her with him in a way he’d never wanted anything else.
Now he wished he knew what words could convey how much this moment meant.
How much she meant to him.
He’d lived his whole life without the warmth of a tender caress. How could he walk away now? He traced the curve of her swollen lips with his fingertip, before he parted her lips and kissed her deeply.
Falcyn closed his eyes and inhaled the sweetness of her breath as he let loose his tongue to dart against hers, to sweep up to the palate of her mouth until she moaned and writhed from it. The feel of her supple body pressed against his while he pulled her black shirt free of her pants.
“You really should push me away,” he said, lifting his head to stare down into her gentle, dark eyes.
She quirked an adorable grin that exposed her fangs. “Never been one to do what I’m supposed to. Goes with my whole evil villain title.”
“Yeah, and sicko me finds that one of your more endearing qualities.”