Page 30 of Temptation Unleashed (Talaenian Fae #3)

“You’d best be careful with your hands, lest you wish to lose them. Dare to try such a thing again, I’ll make certain you lose your tongue as well.”

The music blared in her ears once more, making her cringe at the onslaught of noise, leaving her no time to resist Thaddeus’s decided exit from the dancefloor, the bar, the entire building, Rori in tow.

She stumbled down the stairs, half pulling back against his grip, half hanging onto his arm for dear life.

Each one of his long, infuriated strides forced two of her own to keep up.

In her inebriated state, walking was proving to be a chore, let alone jogging at the heels of a mad Fae.

“Stop!” she finally barked. What the hell was he babbling about? What language was he speaking? “Thaddeus!”

He spun on her so suddenly, she slammed into his solid form mercilessly.

The breath fled her lungs with a squeak, stunning her into a backpedal as he prowled into her, still holding her arm.

She tried to focus on his face, but her brain had become too saturated to focus for more than a second here and there before he wobbled and blurred.

One thing that cut through her drunken state was the furious glow of his eyes and the chill in the air around him. What was wrong with him?

“Stop backing away, little human,” he growled, and fuck her if it didn’t ignite a wildfire of desire.

“You’re trying to trample me, overbearing brute!

” She bunched his shirt over his chest and tried to shove him away.

She almost missed the skittering of blue lines crossing the V of his exposed chest, his magic wild and barely contained.

The faintest scowl drew his lips taut, his nostrils flared.

She pounded his chest, grunting with the futile effort to put distance between them. “What’s gotten into you?”

Thaddeus’s top lip pulled back. He slung an arm around her waist, crushing her to him.

He cupped the back of her skull, forcing her head still, angled to stare up into his forbiddingly beautiful face.

A wave of heat spread from the nape of her neck, flooding every inch of her body, washing through the haze of alcohol and delirium.

Her lips parted on a sharp exhale.

Like a switch, the fog in her brain cleared, along with any and all signs of alcohol having taken over her logical mind.

“You bastard.” She smacked his shoulder, managing to wedge another inch of space between them. “You took away my buzz.”

“You’re making a bloody fool of yourself, drunk to the point you can barely walk. Letting another man touch you, kiss you.”

The hiss in his words unleashed a flood of heat and prickles, and a mounting explosion. She smacked him with both her fists, a fierce groan rushing from her lips.

“Because I deserve it! I want to forget and know I’m safe with the person I forget with! I want the nightmares to leave me the fuck alone for a single god-damned night so I can feel free! I don’t want to care, Thaddeus! I don’t want to feel because feeling hurts !”

She sieved each breath between clenched teeth, fists pressed to his shoulders.

A strangeness twisted his expression beneath shadows and stoic resolution.

Cracks in his usual unreadable mask. A light in his eyes flashed.

A light that made her realize too late what she’d done.

What card she’d shown. God, he had no right to know any of that.

It touched too deep, too personal. It was a vulnerability, a weakness he would certainly exploit .

Dammit.

“You have no say, no business, in what I do.” She pressed up on her toes. The corner of her mouth twitched. “ Nothing .”

She swore his teeth ground behind those sensual lips. A small victory.

“So little you understand. So very, very little.” His grip on the base of her skull lifted her even higher on her toes until she gave up her fists to hold his shoulders for leverage.

His arm had yet to unwrap from her waist. Instead, he tightened his embrace.

She swallowed hard when she felt the thick mound of his cock dig into her belly, a not-so-small detail she’d somehow missed pre-sobering spell.

“No one is allowed carefree liberties with you.”

“Watch your words, Faery man. You fall into the category of ‘no one,’” she pointed out quietly, her words edged with warning. “You’re right, though. I choose who, when, and where. You didn’t make the list.”

“Are you certain?” He inhaled slowly. Rori’s breath caught in her throat as she witnessed the true predator emerge from behind the angelic perfection, and he was no less appealing and delicious than the cold, emotionless version.

This creature defined the very meaning of forbidden temptation.

“I sense clarity in your decision without the alcohol present.”

Oh, you want to play? We can play.

“Is this what you want, Thaddeus?” She nuzzled her cheek to his chest, fighting the swell of desire that threatened to consume her.

His fingers tightened against her skull, his body tense.

“A weak, foolish mortal falling at your feet? I didn’t think you’d lower yourself to the likes of vermin like me.

” She tilted her face up, catching his smoldering gaze.

“But.” A cool smile pulled at her lips. “You’ll never have it. ”

Thaddeus’s lips curled, a devilish smile that sent her libido into a full-blown meltdown. She’d never seen his pupils so wide, his eyes so dark, his expression so clear, and it scared her more than anything.

She wanted what he held back.

“Careful, storín . I find your resistance”—he brought his face close, eyes narrowing, teeth bared—“ fascinating .”

He’s going to tear me to shreds.

Rori held her ground, his gaze, the hairsbreadth of space between them.

Fingers tightened on his shirt, knuckles pressing hard into his smooth skin.

His magic left her skin tingling, the whisper of his strength both frightening and utterly tempting.

He was everything she dreamed of without understanding what she wanted most and everything she dreamed never to cross out of fear for her safety, sanity, and self-worth.

He was her biggest internal conflict. The one entity who could give her the universe or stamp her out of it.

A moment later, he provided an answer she least expected, but drowned in as he consumed her mouth with a kiss that struck straight through to her soul.

His kiss was far from soft and gentle, claiming her mouth beneath each full sweep of his tongue, the unspoken prowess of seduction unraveling her by the second.

The tension in her body, the front to keep him away, weakened.

She leaned into him, softened in his strengthening hold, melting beneath his kiss.

He tasted delectable, a potent mix of sweet and sultry and spice.

His lips were far softer than she’d imagined, his kiss far more powerful and demanding than she had the will to resist.

She gave in to him against every screaming cell in her head. She gave in to the heat of his body, the steel of his muscles, the possession in each crush of his lips and plunder of his tongue. He did more than kiss her.

He claimed her .

His fingers loosened against her skull to spread upward into her hair.

The softest moan fled her chest. She slipped her arms around his neck, the thick fall of his hair tangling in her fingers like cool silk.

His flighty magic teased her skin, rushing across him, caressing her, entwining an unseen connection between them.

His kiss faltered, a brief hesitation.

Rori opened her eyes and began to lean back. He held her firm, keeping their lips together. His eyes opened a mere slit, but she caught the reflective blue cut to the corners of his eyes as if he sensed something behind him.

His lips curled. A pulse of power rippled along her blood.

Their mouths tore apart.

He wrapped an arm around her upper body, twisting them around as he swung his free arm up, his dagger— wait, what?

— perpendicular to his forearm as he cut it with lightning speed across a man’s throat.

She shrieked, wetness splattering across her face, the potent scent of metal and minerals stinging her nostrils.

She looked up in time to see Thaddeus twist the dagger in his hand with ease and stab the bloodied blade into the dying man’s chest. A plume of magic erupted from the man’s hands and mouth, but dissipated before it reached them.

The force of a car plowed into her from behind, stealing the air from her lungs. She flew through the air, arms and legs flailing wildly, pain spearing through her chest.

Iron cocooned her body as she plummeted to the ground.

The hit wasn’t nearly as hard as she anticipated, but panic seized her as she stared up at the frightening vision hovering over her from where she lay on her back.

A feral beast, his entire body covering hers, feet dug into the cement, fist beside her head, blade-wielding hand out at his side, prepared to attack.

Thaddeus’s eyes sparked blue bolts of icy energy that rushed over his face, his chest, his hands.

Every exposed area of skin thickened with evidence of building magic.

Those fierce eyes cut down to her, her chest, her legs before his head snapped up.

She tipped her head back. Her heart sank.

The dead man lay in a puddle of shimmering crimson laced with gold. Such strange coloring for blood. But the half-dozen new golden Faerymen who surrounded them sent her into a full-blown anxiety attack, their magic-wielding hands sporting different sizes of smoky purple orbs.

Six against one, because she held nothing against magical creatures. And that was if Thaddeus cared to step in on her behalf.

I’m going to die.

All at once, orbs rained down on them.

Rori curled up, covering her head with her arms as she screamed.