Page 81 of Cherished By the Sinners

Magnus took Darlene’s hand and brought it to his lips.“Every day I learn something new about you.Something wonderful.”

She pulled her hands away to wipe her face.

“Darlene?”Mason sat up to cup her face.“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she told him with a watery laugh.“These are happy tears.”

“May I kiss you?”he asked.

She laughed again and leaned down to kiss him.Even as she hung on to his brother with her right hand, she reached back toward Magnus with her left.He curled around her, careful to stay away from her back, leaving tiny kisses all along her neck.

Darlene moaned.

Magnus let himself relax, enjoy her sunny scent and the shivers each kiss he feathered over her skin caused.The pleasure of it, the simple joy, warmed him from the inside out.

Someone knocked on the door to their suite.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Darlene

Vampires might notbe magic, but Mason and Magnus’s lips were performing some kind of sexual sorcery on her.Despite all her years of walking the streets, she’d only kissed a handful of men.

All of them had promised to look after her and take care of her.

All of them had used her instead.

All of them had hurt her in ways that cut deeper than the slashes still healing on her back.

Words meant little, but Mason and Magnus had madeand keptpromises with their actions.Even now, their desire barely leashed by growls, they were so careful with her.She didn’t have to protect herself from them.

The realization struck her then, sharp and clear and straight through her heart.In the warehouse, surrounded by death and horror, she hadn’t been afraid for a single moment that they wouldn’t come for her.She had trusted them.Utterly.That unshakable certainty, that deep-seated faith that they were her safety, wasn’t just gratitude.It was more.

She loved them.

Love?