Page 49

He shook his head. Pain and confusion swam in the mesmerizing amber of his eyes. Maybe it was a mage thing, or maybe it was just me, but whenever I looked into his eyes, the pattern of his irises seemed different. Like they were always swirling, changing the positions and patterns of the whorls and spots. It was hypnotizing. Relaxing.

“Then why are you even thinking about it?”

“If your aunt was sent to prison on Earth for doing terrible things, would you still feel compelled to visit her?”

“Did she do terrible things to me?”

He shook his head again. “No. She was wonderful to you. But had a dark, secret side of her that was pure evil. Then, when you confronted her about that side, it was like the wonderful side disappeared and all you saw was the evil side. Would you still go see her?”

Nibbling on my lip, I watched his irises shift and swirl. “I don’t know. It would be tough not to hold on to some kind of hope that maybe that good part of her still existed, and incarceration gave her time to reflect on her choices and experience some sort of … enlightenment.”

He scoffed at that comment, but didn’t say anything.

“I would hold on to all thegoodmemories I had with her too. It’d be impossible not to. But it’d also be hard, because to know someone one way, then find out they weren’t that way at all can be devastating.” Maxar swallowed. “I was only four when they were taken, so the memories I have of my parents are fuzzy. But they’re allgoodfuzzy memories. And it does make it harder. Then, there’s this niggling sensation at the back of my neck, that maybe they never loved me at all. That their affection to me was fake from the start, you know? They were just pretending. Playing the part. I was nothing more than a prop in their grand scheme.”

“I’ll support you either way. And if you do choose to go see them, I’ll go with you.”

His eyes lit up a little, and he smiled roguishly. “They’d flip shit if they found out you are half human.”

“And that glint in your eyes tells me you’d relish that,” I said with a small chuckle.

A muscular shoulder lifted. “Not going to lie, that would bring me joy. Because we all know that we can’t choose our mates. The Fates choose them for us.” My lips twisted and my unease must have shown on my face because he quickly said, “If we did have a choice though, I’d choose you every time, My Queen. No question.”

I stepped into his space and pressed myself against him. “You’re a good man, Maxar Rane. A good mage. And I would be more than happy to accompany you to the prison your parents are being held in and help you torture them a little.” Fire ignited in his gaze, and his cock twitched against my inner thigh. I brought my arms up and rested them on his shoulders.

“My Queen … you know all the right things to turn me on. Torture? Yes, please.”

I smirked, murmuring against his mouth, “You’re such a sick fucker, you know that?”

“Isn’t that what you love about me?” Then he took my mouth, inhaling deeply as he moved his hands from my hips to the sides of my face, holding me there, possessing me. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered, raking his teeth up myjaw.

“I’ve been here the whole time.” I blinked at him, smiling in a coquettish way because I knew what he meant.

Growling, he gripped me by the ass, lifted me up, and plunked me onto the counter, pushing my knees apart and stepping between my thighs. He trailed his nose up my jaw, inhaling deep, then groaning. “Fuck, even after showering under that disgusting water, you smell amazing.”

It was impossible for me not to smile. The man was such a charmer. A psycho with a heart of gold. Pulling down the left sleeve of my loose-fitting gray T-shirt, he pressed his mouth to my shoulder, sending tingles deep down between my legs and even into my breasts. I pushed my fingers into his hair and tugged his mouth back up to mine, moaning when his tongue probed and swept inside.

“You still bleeding?” he asked, pulling his mouth away and kissing a trail across my cheek and down my neck, his hands coming up to cup my breasts.

I shook my head. “Not anymore. No.”

His growl made my panties instantly damp.

“Maxar,” I whimpered as he pressed his cock against my thigh, “please.”

Sweeping my hair off my face, he cupped my head in his hands, so gently, I was at first startled with just how tender he could be. It was always a bit surprising given how unpredictable and chaotic he was in the rest of his world. But with me, he was impossibly sweet and gentle.

A rakish gleam entered his eyes, and he grabbed my hands in one hand and pinned them behind me on the counter, his hand around both my wrists. I could have gotten free, but I didn’t want to. Biting my bottom lip, I glanced up at him from beneath my lashes, daring him to take me right there on the kitchen counter.

His nostrils flared, and a smile ticked up on one side of his mouth. “Don’t move your hands,” he said—well, more like demanded—before dropping to a crouch and pulling my pants and underwear off with him. He shouldered my legs apart, made me scoot my butt forward and pressed his nose between my legs, inhaling deep. “Fucking hell,” he murmured before flicking out his tongue. “Gods, woman, you taste like fucking heaven.”

His tongue was speedy with the way it flicked my clit, back and forth, sending magical tingles and sparkles all through me. Then he pressed his mouth to my center and gently blew.

Yes, he fucking blew.

And dear sweet god, if heat and sparkles, and I’m guessing probably fucking flames, didn’t ignite all through my core and lower belly. It was like flames were dancing along my freaking vagina, not burning me, but making me burn.

“Holy shit,” I breathed as he blew air inside me again, sending more sexy flames into me, before standing up and lifting the hem of my shirt up to expose my breasts—I was braless, obviously, since I’d been trying to sleep. With a flick of his fingers, two little pink flames ignited and proceeded to dance and flicker over my nipples, sending more electric tingles and sparkles of pleasure all through me.