Page 63 of Temptation Unleashed (Talaenian Fae #3)

“ M o ghrá álainn .” The whispered words coaxed her to open her eyes. Thaddeus watched her through heavy-lidded eyes obscured by wayward locks of hair. His palm rested against her cheek, his thumb caressed back and forth over the bone. “My Goddess-blessed gift.”

“Promise me you won’t push me away again,” she murmured, fatigue lending a husk to her voice. She reached up and rested her hand over his. Warm metal pressed to her wrist, piquing her sudden curiosity.

“As long as you’re safe, you’ve my promise.”

Rori lifted her head from his arm as she studied the new gold band around his wrist, her brow creasing. “What’s this? You didn’t have it before.”

Thaddeus turned his hand over, observing the band.

“I believe you have a saying in the mortal world. Insurance policy?” He adjusted his arm beneath her head, pressing onto his forearm.

His tender caress resumed as he hovered over her.

“’Tis Shaye’s way to protect his family from any possible attack I might have considered launching.

These bind my power except for the use of safe, weak magic. ”

“How do they come off?”

“Shaye placed them. Shaye removes them.”

Rori reached up to his beautiful face, tracing the slant of his brow. The sharp angle of his cheek. The shell of his ear to the point. She refused to think of a time when he would be taken from her. A world without Thaddeus was a world not worth living in.

“What language do I hear you speak?”

“Gaelic. ’Tis the primary language of Fae. Dialects differ, as they do in the mortal world, depending on the age of the Fae, the realm in which they reside, and preference.”

She twisted a lock of his silky hair, soaking in the softness as it pooled over her breasts and around her shoulders. Her heart sputtered, a frequent occurrence with Thaddeus near.

“You call me things, but I’ve no idea what you mean.”

A smile, one of the first full, sincere smiles, stretched across his mouth. It lit his eyes with a new light, melting the ice and warming the gold flecks that occasionally appeared, as they did now.

“Let’s see, shall we?” He climbed over her, cupping her face between his hands. Leaning over to feather kisses to her right brow, he murmured, “ Storín . Stubborn woman.”

“Infuriating.” She pushed at his chest, but he continued feathering kisses over her face. “And I’ve been told by many that Fae don’t lie.”

Thaddeus chuckled, his soft breaths a heart-warming caress. “I cannot lie. Never did I say one word meant the other. I stated two separate items without connecting them.”

Rori huffed as he lifted up high enough to gaze down at her.

The humor that glittered in his eyes resembled a child’s joy.

Her heart tugged as she wondered whether Thaddeus had known true joy or if it was a distant memory.

But he experienced it with her now, and that alone made her fall for him more.

He tapped the tip of her nose with a finger. “Little human, I expect more from you.”

“Shaye warned me you have a gilded tongue.”

His smile grew, mischief shadowing his expression and smoldering in his eyes. He lowered himself between the cradle of her legs, dipping his head and slanting his mouth above hers. So close she could taste him.

“I’ll be sure to thank him for the compliment, but I must hear from you whether you believe me to possess this…gilded tongue.”

She leaned up, capturing his mouth with a slow, languid kiss. Ahh, yes, his tongue was magic, whether it be a kiss or driving her to the brink of world-shattering pleasure. Either way, she adored him.

“Mmm.” She hated the moment he tapered off the sweet kiss and settled back on the bed beside her, pulling her close once more. “ Storín means little treasure. You are. My little treasure. Priceless. Invaluable. Irreplaceable.”

Rori smiled against his arm. An endearment, and damn if it didn’t make her warm and fuzzy.

She played her fingers over his chest, tracing the faint scars, a stark reminder of how her life could have been so different had those arrows accomplished what they were supposed to.

She would have never known completion like she did now.

She would have never known safety and security, all she’d found with Thaddeus.

With him, and only him, she could be at her most vulnerable and never doubt that he would shield her from the universe.

“What about this last one? I heard Shaye call Moira that ‘ ghrá’ when we were at the grotto."

"Ah, so inquisitive.” He stroked her spine, his touch feather-light.

The sensation cast goosebumps down her arms while relaxing her from head-to-toe.

“ Mo ghrá álainn means my beautiful love.” His lips pressed to the top of her head.

“You are the most beautiful creature to exist. You are the only woman to own my heart and have my love. Pure, true love. Alas, you are mine . As long as I shall walk these realms, you belong to me, as I belong to you.”

Rori pressed her palm flat over his beating heart.

“I love you, too, Thaddeus. I would never have thought it possible, not so soon after…” She shook her head, deciding to leave Rich’s name unspoken.

“Feeling hurts, but you refused to let me forget how to feel. Only when I thought I’d lost you coming here did I realize how much you mean to me.

I guess what you said about the soul knowing its mate is undeniable.

I fought against everything to hate you, and I simply couldn’t. ”

“Nay, mo ghrá . You loathe me.”

Rori snorted. “Loathing became lost in the wind before I ever had a good grip on it.”

Thaddeus’s methodical stroking of her back continued, and soon enough, Rori had to fight against a heaviness that weighted her eyelids. She released a sigh, finally giving in to the soothing lure of sleep.

“Would you consider a blood bond, Thaddeus?”

His chest stilled, his breath caught. His fingers paused between her shoulder blades. The contented air stirred with unease, but it lasted a few heartbeats and disappeared.

“If I could promise you a long, loving future with me, I would hold not a moment of hesitation to offer you a blood bond. You now know the truth of my past, and the fate of my future. ’Twould be a punishment worse than death to be bound to a dead mate for all eternity, storín .

Going through life after life, possessing an emptiness you can’t explain.

Never knowing completion or contentment.

Subconsciously searching for more when more no longer exists.

” His mouth pressed to her head, not in a kiss.

“When Fae die, there is no rebirth, unlike mortals. That small reason aside, the death of one’s soul mate after a blood bond is almost certainly a death sentence to the living mate.

For those two reasons, ’twould be without consideration. ”

“What about the blood bond you gave me our first night together?”

“’Twas a one-way bond. A promise in blood.

To protect you and keep you safe, whatever the cost to me.

” He abandoned her back for her chin, lifting her face to his.

The sorrow that reflected in his gaze echoed in her soul.

If she could only figure out a way to take it away.

Change their future. “Blood is the essence of everything, love. It is virility, life, power, magic among some. A promise in blood is unbreakable. Should one be fool enough to try and break a blood-bound promise, they would suffer immense agony for decades, if not a lifetime. ’Tis why Fae do not offer such promises unless they hold no doubt in their mind that they can follow through with it for all eternity.

” He brushed aside a rebel wave that had slipped over her cheek.

“I don’t need to think twice about protecting you.

Anyone who harms you will suffer at my hands.

No one, Rori, shall hurt you and live. No one. ”

Rori tilted her head enough to press a lingering kiss to his bottom lip. “And I’ll always protect you, the best I can.”

She lowered her head back to his arm and closed her eyes.

“Protect my sanity by not stepping in front of a blade again. Or trying to stop a madman from hitting me with a pistol.”

She found enough strength to laugh quietly at his groused suggestion. “Thankfully, you aren’t asking for me to promise that in blood. I would have to decline.”

“Insufferable wench,” he grumbled.

“Infuriating Faery man,” she countered with a yawn.

His arms tightened around her. A moment later, a soft, satiny blanket pulled over them.

She nestled deeper into his chest, filling her lungs with his warm spiced scent.

“You will always be my world, my universe.” Bringing her lips to rest against his chest, she whispered, “You are my home.”