Zael wanted to roar with his rage over what she had endured.

Never again. Not so long as he was alive to stop it would she ever know pain or mistreatment.

She would never have to be alone, locked in a prison of her own making because of fear for what she was.

It was a ridiculous promise for him to make even to himself—and all the more so when he knew his actions in the alley may have jeopardized everything. Using his power in the open as he had was tantamount to broadcasting his location to every Atlantean around the globe. His kind were all connected by the light within them. It was their strength as a people, but for fugitives like Zael, it was also a weakness that could have led his enemies right to him tonight.

But the need to help Brynne had eclipsed any risk to himself.

They had made it out of the city despite his carelessness, and she was safe.

So long as he drew breath, she would always be safe. He swore it with every fiber of his being as he brought her to the edge of the bed and carefully placed her there.

He thought she would lie back, but instead she came up on her knees in front of him as he stood at the edge of the bed. Unable to keep from touching her, from kissing her, he cupped the back of her neck beneath the tendrils of her damp hair and brought her mouth up to meet his.

She tasted even sweeter tonight, her vulnerability twining with the sexy strength that had attracted him to her from the start.

That she had trusted him with her past humbled him. It made the connection he felt toward her deepen, despite old habits that not so long ago would have urged him to get out while he could.

Too late for that and he knew it. He was in deep with this woman. And the baffling thing was, he couldn’t think of anywhere else he wanted to be.

When he lifted his head from her lips, she was staring up at him with searching eyes. Although fire simmered within her dark green irises, he saw hesitancy in her gaze.

“You still want me?” Her voice sounded so small and uncertain, it raked at him. “After everything you saw tonight? After everything I told you?”

His lips curved with the arching of his brow. “Isn’t it obvious?”

He could hardly hide how much he wanted her. His arousal had been achingly evident from the moment he first stepped into the shower with her. It had taken all of his self-control to simply comfort and listen to her as he lathered her beautiful body and held her in his embrace. But she had needed his understanding in those moments more than anything else he had to give her.

Now, her smoldering gaze and awakening glyphs told him something different.

“Yes, I want you, Brynne.” He kissed her again, reaching down to stroke her naked breasts. “Nothing you said tonight diminishes that.”

She swallowed hard. “But you saw—”

“Yes, I saw. But when I look at you now, I see a woman who’s been through hell and back and hasn’t broken. What I see when I look at you is the woman I crave more than any other.” He caressed her cheek, brushing his thumb over her parted lips, noting the bright glint of her emerging fangs. “I see you, Brynne. And, hell yes, I want you.”

His name was a jagged sigh on her lips as he reached out and framed her lovely face in his palms. He drew her toward him for a deeper claiming of her mouth. Their tongues tangled, breaths mingling in hot gusts. Her hands roamed his body, tracing the droplets of water that still clung to him from the shower. Her fingernails raked over his skin, turning his already rigid cock to heat-forged steel.

Their mouths still joined in a fevered kiss, he reached down to caress her, too, hungry to feel her naked flesh in his hands. Her nipples were pebbled and hot as he rolled and tweaked them between his fingers. Her belly was firm and smooth like velvet under his palms as he skimmed lower, nudging her thighs apart when he reached the silkiness of her sex.

She moaned as he delved into the wet cleft of her body. She moved in soft undulations as he stroked her, his fingers slipping between her satiny folds. Her clit was ripe and swollen, a temptation he could not resist. She writhed as he teased and caressed her, her spine arching when he entered her with one finger, then another.

“Zael,” she whispered breathlessly against his mouth as he thrust in and out, his thumb working her clit in a relentless rhythm. “Oh, God.”

He didn’t let up until she came. And when she shuddered and broke with her release, he swallowed her sharp cry with a possessive, claiming kiss.

He wanted to be inside her. His cock was more than eager, engorged and dripping with need for her.

But Brynne had other plans.

Still panting from her climax, she reached down to grasp his heavy shaft. Her fingers slid up and down his length, over the broad crown that was slick with his juices. He hissed with the pleasure of her touch, the firm and steady power of her strokes.

She moved in closer to him, taking one of his nipples into her mouth as she continued to torment him with her hands on him. And then she moved lower, her pink little tongue lapping at stray water droplets on his abdomen and hip before her mouth closed around the head of his cock.

Her lips held him firmly as her tongue flicked along the underside of his shaft with each deep stroke of her mouth. “Fuck, that feels good,” he groaned, coiling her hair around his fist like a rope because he needed something to ground him as she licked and sucked every hard inch of him.

He moaned sharply at the light graze of her teeth and fangs against his flesh—not because it startled him, but because of how badly he wanted to know her bite. Anywhere. Everywhere. He just didn’t want her to stop.

When she glanced up at him, her eyes glowed with hot amber sparks. She was beautiful, even like this. Hell, especially like this.

Fierce.

Carnal.

His.

He held her transformed gaze, needing her to see that he was still with her. Ready to take her as far as she wanted to go.

It stunned him how deeply he felt it.

From the flicker of understanding in her eyes, he saw that it stunned her too.

But while he wasn’t uncertain, she drew back from him, averting her gaze. He refused to let her retreat. And he needed to be inside her.

Catching her shoulders in his hands, he eased her back onto the bed and followed her down, spreading her legs as he positioned himself between them. She closed her eyes as he settled atop her.

“No, Brynne.” He stroked her cheek. “Look at me, love. See me now.”

Her lids flicked open, the glow of her transformed eyes radiating otherworldly heat.