Bright sunlight streamed across Essa’s face. She groaned, lifted one heavy eyelid, and slammed it shut again. Wincing, she curled her fingers into her palms and then pried her eyes open. The tips of her fingers were bloodied, her nails scraped to stumps. Her groggy mind registered the hard wooden floor and the ache of her bones pressing against it.
She gripped either side of her head as she settled onto her elbows and scanned her surroundings. Nazrin’s cabin. How did she come to be here? The last thing she recalled was leaping from a waterfall.
Scrubbing her face, she observed the cabin. Books were scattered on the floor. A chair was overturned. The bed sheets were torn to shreds. And the door… She twisted her neck to get a better view. Long claw marks scraped down its surface. Bloodied, like her fingers.
Jolting, she shifted to sit. The movement sent nausea roiling through her stomach. She heaved in and out, deep breaths until it passed. Good gods, what had she done last night?
Eek, the Tide.
Where was Nazrin? Her gaze narrowed as flashes of the night before broke free from her memory. He’d refused her. Agony flared anew in her chest. Wait. What if her dream in Apollo’s temple had been just that? A dream?
The doorknob jiggled. She shuffled backward and drew her knees to her chest, arms wrapped around them to shield her nudity.
“Essa. You came back to me,” Nazrin rasped, staggering into the room. He paused inside and cocked his head at her.
As he advanced toward her, she pressed out her hand. “Stay right there. Where I can see you.” She didn’t dare trust in this vision.
He smiled despite the dark circles beneath his eyes and the tension in his jaw. Two scraggly wings dangled on either side of him. She winced, recalling his bloodied stumps. Hmm. Perhaps, he was real. “Yes, milady. What would you command me next?”
Her anger flared. If he was real, then so was the agony of last night. Traces of her suffering filtered through her memory. “To stay away from me, of course.” He dared to waltz in here, after he’d abandoned her?
He crossed his arms and stiffened. “I can’t do that.”
“I’m not asking you. Stay away from me, Nazrin.” She scowled at him.
“And I’m not asking you, Essa. You are mine.” He rolled the words over his tongue, articulating them.
She pursed her lips, unable to decide whether to laugh or to slap him.
He scraped the back of his neck. “Why do you fight this so hard?”
She shuddered. “I don’t belong to anyone. Not to you, not to Kai. Not to anyone except myself.”
Tilting his head, he stalked closer. “What’s this about not belonging to Kai anymore?” A smirk tugged at his lips and he prowled yet nearer. Inches away, he knelt before her, and murmured, “You cannot fathom how I have suffered, waiting for you, Sirena. You are mine, as I am yours. I have always been yours. Permit me to prove myself worthy, and I will. Command me, and whatever it is, I’ll gladly obey.”
Damn him. Her body quivered. “Yet you abandoned me to suffer as well.” A tear tumbled down her cheek.
Nazrin brushed it aside with his thumb. “Oh, sweetling, I had no choice.”
“What do you mean?” She resisted the urge to rub her cheek into his palm.
He let out a deep sigh. “We never discussed children, and you warned me you couldn’t.”
Oh. She clutched her hand to the amulet. “That’s right, I did. But of course I wish for children, one day.”
A smile played across his lips.
“Even so, I won’t breed with you until you’re immortal. I can’t bear the risk of losing you.”
“Cassandra could. She killed my mother, and she would have killed me too, after she made this son of Apollo, Andreas, breed with me,” she whispered, shuddering. “She had a vision that our offspring would be a warrior for Apollo.” Gripping the amulet, she tilted it toward him. “This amulet is worthless. Its power lives in me. The amulet passed them to me at my birth, and would do so again to any child I bore.” Devastation struck her. “You coaxed me to leave, so I wouldn’t breed this monster for them.”
“Nay, Sirena. I had no notion of this.” His arms enclosed her with their steely warmth. “And I meant every word.”
More falsehoods. “You don’t love me.” She shielded her hands protectively above her heart. Nazrin chuckled; she cringed in humiliation. This was her worst nightmare. She was so foolish, so naïve.
“Sweet, sweet Essa. Look at me.” She shook her head, so he continued, “That isn’t the truth of it at all. What is between you and I, has nothing to do with Hades. Or Apollo. When I met you in your dream, I didn’t have the time to explain further, but I will now. I’ve never found words adequate, but let me try.” He paused for a moment. “I am nigh five hundred years old. My existence, my longevity, has been unbearably empty. I envied my brother so much for what he has found in Aedre. Many times, I despaired I’d forever be alone. That this darkness would devour my soul. I begged Hades to grant me death.” His lips curved into a wry grin. “He gave me you instead.”
She tensed. Was it true? Had he feared himself so greatly that death had been the answer he sought?
“Everything that happened between us, I didn’t expect,” he murmured. “I didn’t expect you. I’ve never met anyone like you, never been so consumed before.” He exhaled a deep puff of air. “My people—our language—we don’t even have a word for love. Want, desire, affection—yes, but not love. There’s no word to describe the depths of my affection for you. I want you, need you, breathe you. You are mine and I am yours. I would never ask of you anything I wouldn’t offer of myself. I have long awaited my mate—you, Essa. Bond with me and save me from an eternity of darkness. An eternity without your love.”
At his first mention of the word love, Essa had stopped breathing. She inhaled sharply now. Was he jesting or telling her the truth? She lifted her face toward those warm coppery depths. Tenderness and devotion so pure shone at her. How had she never seen it before?
He swept her into his arms and kissed her with passionate force. Sighing, she released her reservations. There was only Nazrin, and he loved her. Nothing else in the world mattered. Joy burst through her and she couldn’t hold still for him to properly kiss her. She threw her arms around his neck and they tumbled to the floor, her on top of him.
Nazrin clutched his arms around her and barked a laugh. “It pleases you, does it, Sirena? To have stolen my heart?”
“Indeed, it does, but why would you ever think you couldn’t fall in love?”
He shrugged. “It’s not common for my kind. Some claim we can’t feel the emotion.”
“You love your brother, Aedre, and Amaya.”
“That’s different.” He pressed his nose to hers. “They’re my family.”
“Sweet Nazrin, falling in love just means bringing someone new into your family. Sharing with them the kind of devoted, selfless, unconditional affection as you would anyone else in your family.”
“Clever lass, you may be right. Still, let me show you.” He opened his mind to hers, sharing with her the feelings he couldn’t express in words.
The passion and intensity inside his mind inundated her. She sensed the utter emptiness, his desolation and loneliness. She’d experienced this turmoil of emotions for three and twenty years. How devastating would five hundred be?
Nazrin shared with her how exhilarated he’d been when he’d finally met her, how determined he’d been to discover the truth of love. She was his last hope for redemption from the bitterness that engulfed him. He’d never experienced anything as pure, as selfless, as the mating bond. His world was different. No one ever did anything without thought of attaining something better in return.
She drank him in, marveling at how the Fates smiled on them. They were from two different worlds. This life together wouldn’t always be easy.
But their love was strong enough to face every hardship.
Essa flattened her palms against his muscled chest, shifting to straddle his large, hard body. She loved the feel of him. Her heart beat so rapidly, she barely remembered to keep breathing.
He growled as his hands slid over her breasts and cupped them. His fingertips brushed her nipples. She gasped at the intimacy and pressed into his grasp.
Nazrin glided his hands lower, to frame her hips, rocking her along his hardness.
She whimpered, her body begging for more. Clutching the waist of his breeches, she tugged them down. His thick, proud shaft sprung free and she curled her hand around him.
He roared as the battle was lost. Or won. Essa wasn’t quite sure which. His eyes darkened, the would-be bonded male inside him seizing control.
She pressed her lips against his, whispering, “Nazrin, no longer will I fight you. Or fight myself. I am yours.”
He nipped at her lips. “Good, because after last night, I can’t bear another moment apart from you.”
She laughed and arched a brow toward the ravaged cabin. “That was some night.”
“Aye.” He rubbed his neck again and she recalled something about biting him. Ack. “One let’s never repeat again.” A rumble vibrated in his throat as he caressed his hand along the length of her body. “Essa, you are not only beautiful. You are exquisite. Perfection.” Then his mouth was on hers, hot and demanding.
Mine, the word resounded in her mind.
“Yes,” she murmured.
Last night, Sirena, you threw me to pits of Tartarus. Today, you’ll submit to everything. I’ll make love to every inch of your body, but only when you beg for me will I claim you.
The graze of his fingers seared her skin. His kiss scorched her throat, her collarbone. Lingering on her breasts, his tongue teased their peaks. He slipped one hand lower, across the silky bud between her thighs. One single stroke shattered her into a thousand pieces and she cried a long note, rocking against him.
Shifting to sit, he clasped her, pressing delicate kisses on her shoulders, on the inside of her arms, and down to her wrists, nipping at her fingers.
She glowered at him. This wasn’t what she craved. “Inside me, now.”
Nazrin chuckled, so she eased backward to rest on her elbows, parting her thighs and tilting her hips to him. He couldn’t resist her forever.
He groaned and it was her turn to laugh.
“Not…yet,” his always-in-control voice broke and he glided his hand up her calf, then between her thighs. As he delicately slid first one, then a second finger inside her sheath, she arched her back. This wave he created inside her was on the verge of breaking, yet he wouldn’t release her.
“More, please,” she begged him.
His lips quirked and he purred, “Easy, Essa. You’re too tense.”
How was she supposed to be at ease when he set her being on fire? Who was he to comment on her state? Look at how tight his muscles were, how he concealed the trembling of his hands while he tugged off his shirt. He was fighting losing control with her.
He was fighting the beast.
She’d pushed him over the edge before and shown him that true control was in accepting both halves of himself. She was only too eager to repeat the lesson.
At last, he crouched forward and swept his tongue across her bud, suckling her into submission. The wave crashed through her and she tossed back her head, trilling in delight.
He whispered huskily between her thighs, “Aye, sing for me, Sirena.”
Love for this man who was now hers consumed her. She yearned for nothing more than to be with him forever. Her hesitation, her fears, he’d extinguished them.
He loves me.
Nazrin climbed atop her and claimed her mouth with a deep kiss, possessive and bruising. He cupped her breasts and rubbed the tip of his thickness across her sex, making her slick with desire.
“Yes, please,” she whimpered.
His eyes glinted copper as he thrust once, deep and rough, inside her. “I love you.”
She cradled her hand against his cheek. “And I love you.”
***
Nazrin never dreamed hearing those words would send him higher than the clouds. Yet there he was.
Soaring above the world, Essa in his arms.
Well, in his heart at least.
His cock throbbed and reminded him of their actual situation, on the floor of his cabin. He smoothed his hands across her face and, gazing into her sparkling eyes, pushed inside her.
His mate loved him.
The torment of the night before blurred in the face of this present ecstasy. Her thighs spread wide to welcome him and her lips sought his with passionate frenzy.
He braced his weight on his elbows and pumped into her with long, tender strokes.
Essa mewled, exploring the muscles of his back with her delicate hands. They glided down his buttocks and squeezed tight, pressing him deeper into her and urging him faster.
He obeyed, as any bonded male was driven to follow the commands of his mate.
My mate. The notion spread a grin across his lips. Never had he imagined he’d have a mate, and certainly not the fiery minx beneath him.
With several rough, demanding thrusts he coaxed her core to clench and spasm around him. Slamming into her, he spilled his seed and shuddered, collapsing on her.
“Sirena,” he purred as profound satisfaction filled him. “You’re mine. Molded to me. None other shall claim you.” He kissed her hard and growled, “Mine alone.”
Essa wrapped her arms and legs around him. “Mine,” she retaliated.
He chuckled at her declaration. “Always.” He rolled them to their sides and clutched her in his arms. The fear of losing her to her mortality still gnawed at his gut. Nazrin kissed her lips and then her forehead. He’d make her immortal.
Or he’d make himself mortal.
Either way, they would live or die together.