Lily’s eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed. Then she raised her chin and set her hands on her hips. “Yes, it’s a problem. You’re a Calydon.”
“So?” He couldn’t take his eyes off the curve of her mouth. He knew what she tasted like: sin, temptation, and all the colors of the damn rainbow. Not that he’d ever tasted a rainbow, but he knew that it would taste like her.
Lily threw up her arms in frustration. “So, you’re dangerous! I mean, I knew I responded to any Calydon, but that…that was so far over the top I can’t even deal with it.” She grabbed the sleeping bag and threw it over his hips, covering his erection that was already primed for her. “And stop tempting me by lying there naked. Damn all of you Calydons and your sexuality.” She stalked a short distance away and sat down on a boulder.
He scowled, something dark and not so playful rumbling through him at her comment. “You respond to any Calydon? What does that mean?” She was his. He knew it in every cell of his body. There would be no other Calydons for her. Ever. “You respond only to me.”
He wasn’t saying it as a threat or a warning. He was saying it as the truth. Just as she was the single force that had penetrated his walls, he knew it was the same for her.
This was a first for both of them, and any further thought of other warriors needed to be off the table. Now.
“Well, yes, that’s my point. You’re different.” Her cheeks were still flushed, and he could smell her arousal, felt it pulsing through her, still seeking fulfillment. He knew, with absolute certainty, that it would take only one kiss and she’d be his again. And this time, he’d make sure he lasted long enough to take her.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Lily’s eyes widened and she pointed her finger at him as she scooted to a boulder a little further away. “I’m not getting caught up in some crazy sex thing with you. Stay right there and tell me why you came to get me. Even if Ana sent you, I know the Order has more important things to do than rescue random women. You have a reason. I want to know what it is.” Her words were heavy with desire, but he sensed her determination with her questions.
She wasn’t simply avoiding talking about sex. Gideon could tell she actually needed answers, as if information would give her strength.
And shit, she was right about what they needed to focus on. He groaned and rubbed his hand over his eyes. How the hell had he forgotten about that? He didn’t have time for a sex marathon with anyone, even Lily. Because that’s what it would be. Once he got another taste of her, he knew he wouldn’t stop until they were both too tired to move.
“Gideon?”
“Yeah.” He tossed the blanket aside and stood up, ignoring his erection as he walked over to the clothes he’d tossed over a branch last night. Still wet, but he didn’t care. He needed to pull his head back together and get focused. He ditched the idea of wet boxers bunching under his jeans and grabbed his pants instead. “What do you know about the stone?”
“The one in the handle of Nate’s knife?” Lily eyed his chest as he pulled his jeans up over his hips. The yearning on her face was evident, and Gideon had to steel himself to keep from marching over to her and finishing what he’d tried to start.
“Yeah,” he said. “What’s so important about the knife?”
Lily frowned. “I don’t know anything about it. All I know is that both Nate and Frank wanted it, so I figured it was important. Is that how Ana got free? Did she get it?”
Gideon cursed and ignored her question. “Seriously? You know nothing?”
She stiffened at the frustration in his voice. “That’s why you came to get me? So I could give you answers about the stone?”
He met her gaze. “I came to get you because you needed help.” It was the truth, and he knew it. Yeah, he’d been sent there on Order business once the team had realized Lily might be able to help them. But that wasn’t why he was there. He was there because the night they’d rescued Ana, when she’d told him about Lily and begged him so desperately to retrieve her, Gideon had been consumed by a fierce, burning need to find Lily and save her. No woman could suffer what Ana had suffered, and he’d known instantly that he was the one who had to retrieve this woman that Ana had entrusted to his safekeeping.
He’d come for Lily, pure and simple.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Lily’s face softened, and she smiled. “Thank you,” she said quietly. Something passed between them. A connection. An understanding.
He nodded. Nothing more needed to be said. They both got it.
Shit. He’d never been so in tune with anyone before. Yeah, sure, he’d done a blood bond with two of his Order brothers so they could connect telepathically, but he’d never been hit with their emotions like he was with Lily.
He knew what she was feeling, even when he tried to block it, which was damned inconvenient when he was trying to concentrate on his mission. Shit. He had to focus. The mission was critical. “We have to find out what the deal is with the stone,” he said. “There’s writing carved on it. Ana said you would be able to tell us what the writings mean.”
“Oh…” Excitement lit up Lily’s face, giving such a spark of life to her that Gideon was riveted. “I never had an opportunity to decipher the carvings, but I think I could if I had time. I’d love to have the opportunity to study it. Do you have it?” She leaned forward with eagerness. “I mean, do you have it with you now?”
Hell, she was radiant, the way her eyes were glowing with anticipation and intelligence. “Damn, you’re beautiful.”
Lily’s cheeks flushed, but her fear of him was gone, chased away by her enthusiasm about the stone. “Seriously, Gideon. Can I see it? I know a lot about Calydon history, and I bet I can figure it out.”
Gideon picked up his damp shirt, energized by the excitement emanating from her. “Yeah, I noticed that you knew a lot about us. How do you know so much?”
A slow flush rose to her cheeks. “You don’t know who I am?”
He raised his brows. He knew a hell of a lot about her, actually. He knew she was afraid. He’d felt the demons from her past. She’d shown him her fear and her courage, and he knew she was spooked by his kind. He was also well aware of her intense sensuality and the heat that lit up between them. It was actually sort of surprising to realize that he didn’t even know her last name. “No. Who are you?”
She cleared her throat, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I’m Lily Davenport.”
He rolled the familiar name around in his head for a minute while he tried to place it, and then he figured it out. “You’re Dr. Davenport? The leading expert on Calydons, who travels the world to lecture on us?”
“Yes.” Lily watched carefully, wondering how much Gideon knew. How much had the Order paid attention to her? How much did they know about what she’d spent her life doing?
Lily knew the moment Gideon realized exactly who she was. His face darkened and a scowl creased his features as everything clicked into place in his mind. “You’re the crazy professor who’s been vilifying Calydons for twenty years,” he growled as he yanked his shirt over his head. “The one who screwed up some of our missions by telling secrets we didn’t want told.” Realization flickered in his eyes, and his voice softened. “The one who disappeared two years ago. Shit, Lily. We had no idea what happened to you.”
She was surprised by his ability to offer honest sympathy. Lily hadn’t expected him to be the kind of person who could communicate such a heartfelt apology simply with the tone of his voice. He was sorry for not realizing she’d needed help, when she’d never even met him? This was the man she’d spent her life accusing of being so cold, so merciless, so heartless?
Standing here with Gideon, with her skin still tingling from his kisses, suddenly all Lily’s convictions about the Calydon lack of humanity seemed so unfounded. He wasn’t the remote, faceless monster she’d spent her life cultivating. He was real, he was living, and he was the most passionate person she’d ever experienced. “Did I really screw up some of your missions?”
“Yeah.” His expression was deadpan. “We have a dartboard with your face on it, and if we weren’t bound by our oath to protect innocents, you’d be dead. Until you disappeared, we were all hoping you’d wind up being an Order sheva so we could kill you.”
She blinked. “Are you joking?”
Gideon walked over to her, his bulk intimidating and daunting. “You’ve been stalking me for years.” His eyes were relentless and hard, exactly how she’d imagined he would be. This was the Gideon she’d expected, not the passionate lover who could evoke so much desire in her. “Why?”
A sudden sense of dread welled within her as she sat up more stiffly on the rock, realizing what he’d just asked. “You knew I was focused on you, specifically?”
“Of course I knew. You weren’t just seeking information about the Order or Calydons in general.” His gaze narrowed. “You wanted me.” He crouched down so he was level with her, his quad muscles flexing like rods of steel beneath the wet denim. “That’s why you freaked in the car when you realized who I was. Because you’re Lily Davenport, famous researcher with an agenda when it comes to Gideon Roarke.” He caught his fingers under her chin, his touch light, his blue eyes intense. “Tell me, Dr. Davenport, why do I matter so much to you?”
Lily felt her stomach roll at his direct question, at the searing heat from his touch. The Gideon she’d spent her life researching was a man so ruthless that no one was safe from him if he thought killing you would fulfill his mission. He was death. He was destruction. He was utterly without mercy. He took women with ruthless pleasure to satisfy his own needs, free to indulge all the lustful urges of a Calydon warrior, without restraint since he’d already found his sheva.
He was the only Calydon in history who had stood back and watched his sheva be slaughtered without remorse. Most Calydons couldn’t even survive the loss of their sheva, yet Gideon was so hard that he’d watched her death and walked away unaffected.
How could that stoic warrior possibly be the male kneeling before her, his touch so electrifying she could barely keep from closing the distance between them? His eyes searched hers so intently, as if he could feel every emotion churning inside her. But it was the same Gideon. She knew him so well, from years of research, and from the intensity of his emotions which she could feel so clearly.
Lily brushed her finger over his jaw, unable to keep herself from bridging the distance between them, despite all she knew about him. “I can’t believe you’re…him.”
Gideon’s hands went to her knees. His touch was firm and steady, a caress that sent heat spiraling up her thighs and right into her belly. “Who exactly do you think I am?” His voice was husky and deep, his blue eyes churning with intensity.
Lily wanted to push him away and shove his hands off her legs, but instead, she slid forward, unable to deny the intensity of her response to him. “You murdered my grandmother,” she whispered as his hands slid further up her thighs. “You’re the warrior who destroyed my family.”
Gideon’s hands stilled on her legs. “What are you talking about?”
“My grandma was Elizabeth Ridley. She was the sheva of an Order member named Cade.” Lily lifted her chin, forcing herself to say the words that had haunted her for so long, that suddenly didn’t make complete sense anymore. She couldn’t reconcile the past and the present. “They had a son named Trig. You killed both Cade and my grandma, leaving Trig without any parents. You murdered my grandparents, Gideon, in cold blood, in front of their children.”
For a moment, Gideon looked confused, then she saw him remember. He cursed and ran his hand through his hair, and looked utterly at a loss for what to say. “Yeah, I remember,” he said finally. No apologies. No excuses. Just the grim truth of what he was.
Long-held anger boiled through Lily at his lack of remorse and at his ability to look her in the eye and not apologize. “My grandmother was happily married before Cade came into her life. He used the bond to force her to leave her husband and daughter, who was my mom. Cade took her away, then he got her pregnant.”
Gideon’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sure he treasured her.”
“Treasured her? Are you kidding?” Lily shoved at his chest, wanting space from Gideon and from her confusing attraction to the man who had haunted her for so long. “He stole her from her family. My grandpa went to their house to get her back, and Cade murdered him.”
Gideon’s jaw tightened. “Cade went rogue when another man tried to claim her. That’s the sheva destiny. He will be destined to lose her—”
“What happened next, Gideon? Do you remember?” Lily leaned forward, anger pulsing in her, fury at this man who had torn apart her family with so little remorse. “You showed up and killed not only Cade, but my grandma, leaving her seventeen-year-old daughter to raise Trig herself.”
His eyes met hers without flinching. They were hard, cold, unfathomable oceans of darkness. “Your mom was there? She saw it and told you?”
“Yes.” Tears suddenly filled Lily’s eyes. “Trig was only two years older than me. My mom raised the two of us together. He died when he was eighteen because he didn’t survive the dream which would have brought him into his powers as a Calydon. Your race destroyed my family, at all levels.” Lily closed her eyes for a minute against the pain of losing Trig, who had been her best friend and brother. Yes, technically, he was her uncle, but in her heart and soul, he was her brother and he always would be.
She felt Gideon’s hands on her shoulders, and she wrenched her eyes open to look at him. His eyes were dark, and his face was raw with emotion. “I am truly sorry.”
She was startled by the intensity on his face and by her belief in his words. “But you…you couldn’t be. You believe in your mission. You have no mercy. You regret no action if it serves your Oath. You simply aren’t capable of remorse or any kind of human emotion.”
His grip tightened. “You know so much about me, do you?”
She swallowed. “Yes, I do. I’ve studied you for twenty years.”
He looked disgusted. “For someone who’s obsessed with Calydons, you know very little.”
She tensed. “I’m not obsessed.”
He gave her an impatient look. “Not obsessed? Exactly how many articles have you published on the Calydons? Somewhere between six and seven hundred maybe, starting when you were about five years old?”
She felt her cheeks turn red, realizing his guess wasn’t that far off. “Okay, maybe a little obsessed.” She gave him a hard look, trying to hide the fact that she wanted to do nothing more than slide into the heat of his body and hug him, burying her pain in him, trying to take his away. Because she felt his pain. She really did. But it simply didn’t make sense. He wasn’t capable of it. “I researched the Calydons because I wanted to understand why my grandmother had died, why my mother was so freaked out about Calydons that she was warning me off them since birth, why my brother had to die. I wanted to understand how to survive it if I became someone’s sheva like my grandmother.” She met Gideon’s gaze. “I needed to understand, so I could find a way to keep the nightmare from repeating itself, from having someone like you destroy everything I cared about.”
Gideon growled and grabbed the back of her neck, yanking her toward him. She tumbled off the rock and fell against him, her hands bracing on his waist as he cupped her hips with his hands. He glared down at her, his face inches from hers.
His eyes were dark, bubbling with a rage that made her stomach ripple with fear…and excitement. He was every bit as dangerous as the fictional Gideon who’d haunted her dreams and nightmares for years. And twice as handsome. “Lily.” His voice was harsh, a growl worthy of the brutal warrior she’d studied for so long.
She swallowed. “What?” As terrifying as he was, she wasn’t afraid of him anymore. She should be, on so many levels, but she wasn’t. Why not? Where was her sense of self-preservation? Her intelligence? Her ordered world?
Gideon’s voice was low, vibrating through her body, his bre
ath warm on her mouth. “You’re right that I never regret anything I do to fulfill my oath, even if it’s killing an innocent. I do what I have to do, and I stand behind it.”
“Even murdering my grandmother?” she challenged, desperate to have him do something to enable her to pull back from him and remember that he was the enemy.
“Yes. Even that. I do what I have to do.” His voice became harder. “But my Calydon heritage demands I protect innocents at all costs. It doesn’t understand the concept of sacrificing one innocent to save millions, so every time I go against our heritage and kill an innocent, it’s…” A muscle ticked in his cheek. “It sucks to kill an innocent, and that’s the truth.”
Lily swallowed hard, unable to deny the harsh reality in his voice and his eyes. He meant it. She could feel his regret and his anguish beating her, twisting the air like some poisoned taint. “Oh, Gideon.” She touched his arm, staggered by the pain rolling off him. “I’m so sorry,” she said quietly. “I had no idea.”
His tight grip didn’t loosen. “It’s brutal what you endured. I get that, and I wish you hadn’t had to deal with it. I really do. But if I hadn’t killed them, you wouldn’t be here today. Cade would have killed your mother, his son, and her daughter. You never would have existed.”
She bit her lip at the flash of agony on his face, at the way he pulled her closer, as if he were afraid she would disappear right then. “Gideon—”
“Cade would have destroyed everything he or your grandmother cared about, and any innocent that came within reach would have been brutally murdered. It was his destiny, Lily. Once bonded, the Calydon will go rogue. The only way to stop him is for his sheva to kill him, then she dies utterly broken, knowing she took the life of the man she loved.” He shook his head. “Until you’ve seen a rogue Calydon on a rampage, you’ll never understand how bad it gets. My job is to protect the innocents from them, and I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Darkness Seduced (Primal Heat Trilogy #2) (Order of the Blade) Page 10
