Her green eyes were haunted, making his heart soften. “It matters,” she admitted. “I know it does.”
Relief rushed through him. They were making progress, then. The angel was not made of cold steel after all. “Good.” He traced his thumb over her lower lip, then feathered a kiss over it. “Then stop shutting me out.”
She pressed her palms to her eyes, as if she were fighting back tears. “Don’t you understand, Ian? What you give me is an incredible gift. It’s so beautiful the way I can feel your emotions, and the way you make me feel things, too. That’s so rare for me. It’s so much more than I ever knew it could be.”
Ian almost smiled at her words. “I’ve got more than that to show you, sweetheart. Just give me a few minutes to recover and I’ll be ready to go.”
She pulled her hands down and glared at him. “How can you make a sex joke? I was talking about more than sex—”
“I know.” He grinned and kissed the tip of her nose, thoroughly enjoying her discomfiture and irritation. Her tension was good, because it showed him she wasn’t as unaffected by him as she wanted to be. The connection and attraction wasn’t one-sided, and that felt damn good.
“So, why are you being intentionally obtuse about it? I’m trying to talk about things that matter, and you’re making it about sex.” She frowned at him. “This is a big deal to me.”
“And to me,” he agreed, feeling inordinately pleased by the entire conversation. For the first time ever, Alice was admitting that the connection developing between them was real. “My life, yours, the future of the Order. It matters.”
She blinked. “Then why are you teasing me?”
“I just made love to the most incredible woman I’ve ever met, and her crankiness tells me that she’s not as immune to me as she pretends.” He gave her a wicked grin, delighted to see the flush of awareness flood her cheeks. “I’m a guy. Amazing sex is enough to put me in a good mood, and the fact that it was with my sheva who is starting to fall madly in love with me… well… it’s a good day.”
“What?” Her eyes widened in outrage, and she smacked his chest. “I’m not falling in love with you.”
“I know, I know. It’s impossible for you to do, and all that stuff.” He shrugged. “So is telling me your angel secrets, but we’re getting around that. Makes me realize that if I’m a stubborn enough bastard, I might get what I want.”
Her eyes widened. “And what exactly is that?”
You. Ian’s amusement faded at the word that had burst into his mind. Her? What kind of answer was that? The answer was supposed to be that he wanted to break the curse, restore his family’s honor, and reclaim his place on the Order of the Blade team. The answer was not supposed to be some mooning adulation of one particular almost-fallen angel.
Alice was simply the key to getting what he truly wanted. His interest in Alice couldn’t be more than that. If he started having true feelings for her, the curse would destroy him before he got close to Cardiff. And if the curse didn’t, then the sheva destiny would. With the way he’d reacted to losing her when they weren’t even bonded, he knew damn well that if he lost her after they were bonded, he wouldn’t be one of those rare exceptions who didn’t go rogue and destroy everything that mattered. He’d lose his marbles and bring everything around them down into ruin. And then some.
So, then, what was he doing getting up close and intimate with her? Talking about love and getting all starry-eyed? He had to tread that fine line of keeping her close enough to keep the curse at bay, but not so close that it gave the curse too much power.
He needed some man-space. And now.
Swearing, he rolled off her and grabbed his jeans off the floor. “Jada will be back soon. We need to get dressed.” He picked up her tank top and handed it to her. “Here.”
Alice sat up, embarrassment flooding her at Ian’s sudden coolness after she’d tried to get personal. For a split second, when she’d asked him what he really wanted, she’d thought she’d heard him whisper “you” in her mind, but his rapid withdrawal made it clear that she’d heard wrong.
Which was good. She couldn’t get involved with him emotionally, and it was already pretty clear that she had minimal defenses against him. She quickly tugged her tank top on, pulling the built-in bra over her breasts that were still tender from his kisses. Her breasts were sore from being nibbled on by an immortal warrior? Really? That was so not her.
But there was no way to pretend she’d fabricated that lovemaking session. She could remember every delicious detail, and her skin still hummed from his kisses and his touch. Oh, yes, it was true. She, Alice Shaw, dedicated angel, had flagrantly thrown herself into a man’s arms and loved every single minute of it.
Oy. She was becoming a wanton woman, and that was just not good for an angel of life who wasn’t allowed to have any connections with anyone else.
She scratched her forearm, and realized her skin was burning hot. Quickly, she looked down and saw that her flesh was bright red. There was no brand, but there was no doubt that her skin was fighting it, that his influence was growing stronger. What if the brand appeared? Would that mean she’d transferred her loyalty from her angel duties to Ian? That couldn’t be a good thing. That brand had to stay away. He couldn’t claim her. He just couldn’t. Nervously, she pressed her palm to her arm, as if she could will it away—
Then she frowned as she noticed new markings on her skin. A tangle of blue and green vines was tattooed all the way around each wrist. Almost five inches wide, they looked like gladiator wrist cuffs. Her stomach dropped in fear as she recalled Jada’s comment about what would happen if she became the leader of the Mageaan. “Ian! Look!”
He looked up sharply, and his eyes became hooded when he saw what she was pointing to. “Yeah,” he said, holding up his arm. “I have them, too.”
Alice realized he had the same thing around each wrist. “What is it?” If Ian had them too, it couldn’t be that she’d been conscripted by the Mageaan into being their leader.
Ian looked at her grimly. “You didn’t hear it?”
Her heart started to pound. “Hear what?”
“When you were drowning, I made a deal with Jada so I could save you.”
She sat up straighter. “What kind of deal?”
Ian fetched his shirt from the floor and pulled it over his muscular shoulders. “She wants us to get Cardiff to use his magic to save Chloe’s life. Our passport out of here expires in three days. At that point…” He held up his arms. “I’m guessing these will magically haul us back here regardless of whether or not we’re finished. If Chloe’s life is saved by then, we get to go free. If not…” He shrugged. “I agreed that we would die here.”
Alice leapt to her feet. “What? What kind of deal is that? How are we supposed to save Chloe? Isn’t she dead already?”
“Apparently not.” Ian fished her shorts out from under the bed and tossed them at her, but there was no mistaking the heat in his eyes as his gaze sizzled over her body. She responded instantly with need and desire that seemed to come alive inside her with only the slightest provocation from him. “So, that’s good,” he said. “One less death on your shoulders.”
Hope rippled through her at his words. Was it possible she could change fate and save someone, at least once? She pulled the shorts on, her spirits falling when she realized the impossibility of what Jada was asking. “Warwick can’t bring people back to life.” That was why he’d wanted Alice, but he’d been sorely disappointed to discover the angel of life he’d kidnapped hadn’t been able to bring his beloved back to life after a couple millennia of being dead.
She’d become expendable, and he’d immediately traded her life for more black magic from the demons. She had to give Cardiff credit. He was a pretty flexible guy, and the moment he’d realized that his former love wasn’t going to be waltzing across his ballroom with him again, he’d recycled Alice to a more lucrative use and decided to keep Catherine for more nefarious purposes.
&n
bsp; “I know he can’t bring people back to life. That’s not something that can be done by magic.” Ian shoved his feet into his boots, giving her a thoughtful look.
Alice buttoned her shorts, her thighs still feeling sensitive from his attentions. “So, what does Jada think we’re going to do?” she asked, trying not to think of all they had just done. Her arms were brand-free, and that was what mattered.
“I think,” he said, as he stood up, meeting her gaze, “she believes that you will find a way to do it with your angel of life powers.”
Alice’s heart dropped. “But I can’t save anyone. You know that.”
“She doesn’t believe you.” Ian walked over to her and caught her chin. “And you know what, sweetheart?”
Her heart began to race at his nearness, hammering frantically. “What?” she whispered, her very breath taken away by his touch.
“I don’t believe you either.”
Chapter Eleven
The look on Alice’s face told Ian all he needed to know: she hadn’t told him everything about her ability to save lives. Or her lack thereof. What the hell was she hiding from him? “I’m tired of the lies,” he said. “What gives, Alice?”
She raised her chin, anger flashing in her eyes. “I didn’t lie. I can’t save lives—”
“No. It’s not that you can’t. It’s that you won’t.” He took her hand and held it to his chest, placing it over his heart. He could feel the pulsing warmth of her hand. “I can feel the life force beating inside you. I felt it when we made love this time. You hid it before, but this time, I felt it. You’re more than simply a bad angel, Alice. You’re more than an angel of life. You are life. I know it, because the ability to squeeze life from a stone is the only way that I’ve fought off death a thousand times over the last six hundred years. I know life, and if I was dying, you would save me.” It was a challenge, words he hadn’t even thought over before he’d said them, but as he spoke, he knew they were true.
Alice could save the world if she wanted to. She had that much power.
And when she shook her head in denial, it was too much for him. Too fucking much. Why was she denying who she was? Why was she cutting off her own power? “You have a gift,” he snapped, tightening his grip on her hand. “And yet you sit there in fear, afraid to use it because you’re so afraid of rules. Fuck rules. You’re an angel. No one can strip that from you if you don’t want to lose it.”
“No one can strip it from me? Are you serious?” Alice gaped at him in apparent disbelief. “You didn’t see the Mageaan? Are you refusing to understand just to irritate me? Because I don’t know how you can deny what you’ve seen with your own eyes.”
“You can never fully trust what you see with your own eyes,” he retorted. “Any warrior knows that.”
“I’m not a warrior!”
“Because you’re too afraid to be one.” He threw out the challenge, frustrated as hell by her continued adherence to the path of keeping him out, of refusing to acknowledge her power. The woman practically bled strength. When she’d climaxed, he’d felt a burst of white light so intense his heart still burned from being seared. Yeah, he’d felt her anguish at not being able to save Chloe, and he knew that had been real. She’d wanted to save the girl, but hadn’t been able to. So what was really going on with her? Fear?
Ire flashed in her eyes. “I’m not afraid,” she snapped, but he didn’t believe it. Not one bit. “I’m trying to find out how to do what I was born to do. I’m trying to be the angel I’m supposed to be, and you’re trying to get me to reveal secrets to you is not helping.”
Adrenaline raced through him at her anger. She’d been so careful with her emotions, and to see such passion on her face ignited something in him. He grabbed her around the hips. “Come alive, Alice,” he challenged as he hauled her against him. “Stop being afraid, and come alive.” She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could speak, he slammed his mouth down over hers.
This time, it wasn’t a tender, seductive kiss. It was raw, angry passion. It was dangerous lust. It was unbridled sex and untamed testosterone that needed to unleash themselves onto the world, and onto her. It was the raw, ugly emotions of humanity, exactly what Alice needed to accept about herself.
Alice gasped at his aggression, but he gave her no room. He shoved her against the wall, using his weight to pin her there as he grabbed her thighs and yanked them around his hips. He kept up his assault, his kisses too relentless for her to escape them.
He knew the moment he accomplished his goal. Suddenly, Alice seemed to suck in all the energy in the room, like she was harvesting every ounce of power out of the environment and into her. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Her kisses were fierce and desperate, screaming with the raw aggression of a woman unleashed into her own being.
With a growl of triumph, he unzipped his fly and shoved the crotch of her shorts to the side. He wasted no time and plunged himself inside her. Her body was so primed and ready for him that he was instantly sheathed so deeply he felt his entire world shift.
“God, Ian,” she groaned, her fingernails raking across his back, as she trembled in his arms. “What are you doing?”
“Showing you what it’s like when you stop fighting who you are.” He plundered her mouth with kisses as he thrust himself even deeper, buried inside her until there was nowhere else to go. Then he grabbed her thighs and jerked them upward, and he went even deeper. “Do you want more, Alice? Tell me you want more.” He fisted her hair, pulling her head back as he savaged her throat with kisses.
“I can’t do this—” she gasped.
“Fuck that!” He withdrew and thrust again, and Alice screamed as her body convulsed. The orgasm tore through her, but he didn’t stop. He caught her screams with his lips, and grabbed her hips with his palms, holding her at his mercy while he withdrew and thrust again, prolonging the climax, giving her no relief, no mercy, driving her to the point of insanity, from which he knew that she would no longer be able to stop what was inside her.
Alice shuddered in his arms, and then the orgasm finally faded, but already he was stoking a new fire inside her, a fire that was igniting desire and lust inside him that he’d never allowed to come to life before. Never had he embraced his need for a woman like this. Never had he allowed his lust and desire to rule him. Never had he embraced his hunger for the feel of a woman’s skin against his. Never had he allowed himself to be consumed by a woman the way Alice was doing to him right now. It was too dangerous, but to allow things between them to continue as they were was even more risky.
Alice needed to come to life, and it needed to happen right now. Alice. He demanded her response with a kiss of ruthlessness and passion as his hips moved in an undulating motion, faster and slower, hard then soft, a constant assault on her senses, giving her no room to adjust or predict his moves. How badly do you want this? How much do you want to explode?
Her fingers were digging into his shoulders, her breath coming in deep gasps, her body trembling violently. “It’s too much, Ian. It’s too much.”
“No, it’s not enough. Not yet.” He kissed her again, and then hoisted her higher, his mouth clamping down on her nipple. He was merciless with his attentions, taking advantage of every shudder of her body that told him what she wanted and what she needed. He preyed upon her vulnerabilities. He took advantage of her need. He ruthlessly used her body to force her mind to stop fighting so hard.
Her body began to tremble more violently, and tremors raced down her legs. Her nipples were taut peaks, and heat was rising from her skin. He could feel the power straining to be released, the hugeness of the energy that was amassing inside her, and yet it was still locked down. Fear. So much fear. “Come on, Alice.” He grabbed her face. “Look at me. See whose arms are wrapped around you. Who are you with? Who?”
She opened her eyes, the green depths pulsing with fire and need. “Ian,” she gasped even as her thighs tightened around his hips. “It’s you.”
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br /> “Damn right, it’s me. Your soul mate. The man destined to protect you and keep you safe.” He palmed her forearms, where they were wrapped around his neck. Her skin was fiery, so hot he could smell burned flesh. The brand was searing her as it fought to break through. “You’re killing yourself by fighting me,” he said. “Stop it.” Need and possession rushed through him, so intense he almost shouted with rage. He shoved her harder against the wall and thrust again.
This time, he couldn’t stop the orgasm for either of them, and it ripped through them with merciless ferocity, unleashing its wrath into both of them like a tornado ripped from the earth itself. He shouted her name, his fingers digging into her forearm.
Heat burned through his hand, and with a furious roar, he lifted her arm and pressed his lips against the burned flesh, taking the heat and the pain away and drawing it into his own body. The moment he did it, an electric shock exploded through them both. Alice yelped, and he gripped her, fighting to hold onto her as the violent current tore through him.
Smoke burned through the air, and he stumbled, using all the strength he could summon in his thighs to keep them upright. Alice clung to him, her face buried in his shoulder as her body convulsed, almost in perfect sync to the contractions of his own muscles. It was out of control, so far out of his control that all he could do was hold onto her and hope he could protect them both until it finally ended.
Minutes…seconds…hours later, it ended. Everything faded into stillness and silence, until all that was left was the sound of them both panting. Steam rose from their sweat-slicked bodies, and the room was filled with the scent of lovemaking and burned flesh.
Alice’s face was still buried in the crook of his neck, her arms and legs wrapped around him so tightly he felt like she’d never let go. His arms were locked so hard around her, they were beginning to cramp, but he didn’t move.
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