“What point?”
“Terak, quit this. We’ll talk tomorrow, after you’ve calmed down.”
He came before her, his eyes hot and unwavering. “What point?”
“That I’m a danger to you.” And tears fell, as they’d been wanting to since her father thrust the thought at her. “That you’re in danger because of me. That they’re going to come after me again. Maybe they can’t do the spell they wanted me for back then, but what I can do is so rare, they have to come after me again. That I’m selfish to be here with you.”
*
She met his gaze, thick lashes surrounding her stunning eyes, that cornflower blue which would now and forever be the color he associated only with her. In those eyes was a violent swirl of pain, and fear, but what loomed largest when she looked at him was love. Always love. She spoke again, and her words rocked against him with their unexpected force. “I would have died with you.”
Ripping pain punched through his chest at the return of those memories, those moments when she had looked at him with such calm intent as the mountain began to crash around them. He cradled her face in his hands. “Never again, little human,” he said, his voice roughened. “You must live. That is my one truth in this world. You must live, even should all others die.”
She shook her head, an instant negation of his words. “But I can’t live without you. I don’t want to. And I’m terrified to think I might end up being the cause of your death.”
With cat-quick feet, rage began to overtake pain. She could not…she could not… “What are you suggesting? That you leave? Me?”
His hands prevented her from turning her head, so she settled for closing her eyes, the circles beneath them a blue-black smudge against her pale skin. “I’m not saying that – don’t put words in my mouth. But it still hurts, that my selfishness endangers you. I love you so much, I can’t bare-”
“No!” How could this evening have gone so horribly wrong? His woman, his mate, thinking of leaving him? Never.
Never.
She had taken him into her heart and her body, had pushed past all barriers and filled the empty places within him with laughter and warmth, and now she talked of taking that away? For what? Pathetic fear? Fear for him? No, she should fear for any enemy who would dare approach her, fear the pain and death he would bring to them.
He was gargoyle. Skin and marrow and bone he offered for protection, a path awash with the red tide of enemy’s blood.
Instinct, ancient and demanding, hot and molten, flared within him.
He was gargoyle. Tonight, his mate would learn exactly what that meant.
Chapter Four
‡
Before her, Terak’s wings flared as they did in battle, and the sense of danger she’d been experiencing all night increased a hundredfold. “Terak?”
“You think me so weak I cannot protect my mate?” His voice was a low wash of sound, a growl which caused enemies to tremble in fear.
She was trembling. But fear? No. No, it was something else in her responding to the vibrations of his tone, a deep feminine instinct to this side of him – a side she had often seen in battle, but never here in their bedchamber.
He loomed over her, huge and hard, a male in his prime, a leader who bowed to no one. A warrior god, and she stood before him a sacrifice.
How had she ever forgotten how overwhelming he was? Those hands, strong enough to crush her, stroked the length of her throat in slow, deliberate movement, the light press of calloused fingertips scraping against her flesh accelerating her heartbeat.
He stepped closer, engulfing her, surrounding her, and now his claws, light and sure, running over the thin fabric of her shirt – over her arms, down her back, the slow strokes prickling the skin underneath which strained towards his touch. “This is mine,” he said, his voice low and rough. “I will lay low any who seek to separate me from you.”
“Terak?” Was that her voice, so high and unsure?
“Take these off,” and dark warning threaded itself through his words. “Or have them ripped off.”
His face was inches above her, the hard glint in his eyes assuring her nothing he said tonight was for effect. Without conscious thought trembling fingers came to the buttons on her shirt, and one by one she undid the fastenings, all the while his eyes followed the movement with fearsome intensity.
The shirt skimmed her arms and fell from her body, and now her bra…and here she paused to take in the pure possession in his face, which only grew as his gaze rested on the slope of her breast, still covered in sky-blue satin.
His arms shot out, gathering her wrists above her head in one hand, and his mouth descended over her nipple. The rough wetness of his tongue could be felt through the thin material, and Larissa groaned, head falling back and eyes shutting against his ministrations.