Page 67 of Temptation Unleashed (Talaenian Fae #3)

R ori’s head spun. Her stomach rocked, bile rising in the back of her throat as she ran through the corridors.

“You’ve got to talk sense into him! He’s planning to turn himself in!”

Cael’s panic struck a shocking chord in her chest. Like an arrow through her heart.

He didn’t even give her a chance to try and surmise a reason for Thaddeus to suggest such a thing.

Cael rambled breathlessly, the air stirring with his power.

Plates had rattled, papers flew from tables, her bed shook, the gauzy curtains billowed.

She’d never witnessed Cael in such a frenzy. Not even Cassy could calm him, watching helplessly as he paced Rori’s room, tearing his fingers through his hair over and over. The raw strikes of desperation and disbelief cut across her nerves like a white-hot whip.

“This plan is suicide, and Shaye is allowing him to do it!”

She ran. Frightened it would be too late. Sick that he truly believed this was the only way. The only end.

All afternoon yesterday, and most of the day today, she and Cassy threw around every possible idea with Rihanna and Moira, trying to come up with a different outcome.

One that would save Thaddeus. She felt in the depths of her soul that they were closing in on a solution.

Both women were eager to help, which boosted Rori’s confidence that even the monster of a man Thaddeus had once been could be redeemed.

Moira told her everyone deserved a second chance, when earned.

Had Thaddeus not earned his second chance?

What more did he have to do?

The door to his room was ajar when she finally arrived. She burst into the room, twisted to take the empty area in, and almost left when her attention hitched on the doorway to the bathroom. Her feet carried her across the room within seconds, and she caught herself on the stone archway.

Her angel.

Arms spread over the wall of the bathing pool, locks of his hair draped over the edge while others disappeared into the water. Soothing music as water trickled down the stone-and-moss wall, dribbling into the pool along multiple places.

“Cael will never learn how to keep his mouth shut,” Thaddeus murmured, his voice deceptively relaxed for a man walked alongside death. “Come, love.”

“Why would you do this?”

She shuffled over to the pool, treading a dream on the verge of transitioning into a nightmare. She braced her hands on the wall beside his forearm, clinging to the peaceful vision of his face as his eyes remained closed, head leaning against the stone.

Peaceful.

He was content with this decision.

“Do you really think this is going to save my heart from pain? Do you honestly think any of this is in my best interest?” A wave of weakness spread down her legs. She rocked forward with a distressed whimper. “Do you truly love me?”

“Aye, storín . I love you. I love you so entirely and completely that I’m willing to give my life for you.”

“Then look at me!”

One second, she was staring down into a closed-eye Thaddeus.

The next, her feet were ripped off the floor, her body airborne as pale gold blurred around her. A shriek fled her mouth, steel wrapping around her waist.

Water came up around her, reaching her neck.

She found purchase in damp hair and strong shoulders as she tried to calm her fright.

She kicked her legs, tangled in the heavy skirts, seeking the pool’s floor until Thaddeus dropped his thigh between hers, lifting up to pressed hard to her core, keeping her head above the water that splashed over the edge of the pool and across the bathroom floor.

Her back hit the stone wall, his arm the only barrier keeping her from the rock.

She snapped her chin up, stole a brief glance of his glowing dark eyes.

His mouth came down on hers, merciless in each hungry sweep of his tongue.

Starved in each plunder and drink of her mouth.

Famished to the point of taking her breath and giving his own to replenish her lungs.

Her muscles melted beneath his beautiful assault, one she’d happily suffer under his skillful hands.

Hands that cupped the back of her head and worked deftly through the laces of her dress until they’d loosened enough for him to shove the burdensome garment down to her waist.

A guttural rumble vibrated through his chest, resonated within her own blood.

He lifted her up, water pouring down her body, their kiss breaking, as he completely removed the dress and threw it to the floor with a loud slap, then settled her back into the water.

He hovered over her, tracing her jaw with a tender finger.

“I would do anything for you, love.” He leaned over, brushing a light kiss between her brows. “Anything to make you smile, fill your heart with joy, warm your soul.”

Rori reached up and cupped his face between her palms, forcing him back before he kissed her again.

“Then live for me.”

Sadness struck his eyes, a flash of gold that fizzled as his pupils began to recede. His thumb outlined her bottom lip, a different storm churning within the predatory hunger.

“Every second I’m with you, I’m alive. My heart soars to the highest heights, overflowing with love and happiness.”

He lifted her away from the wall, guiding her to straddle his legs. The water lapped around her shoulders as she settled against him, the length of his cock sliding through her seam. He threatened to dismantle her fight, but she clung to her determination, her frustration, over his recklessness.

“I live for you, Rori. As such, I’ll die for you.”

“Give me time, Thaddeus.” She brought her face close, her forehead touching his. “ Please . I beg you, give me time.”

“Time is not a luxury I’ve been given. Not anymore.”

“I won’t accept that.”

She started to draw her bottom lip between her teeth, to stave off these endless tears that seemed to flow freely as of late, but he captured her mouth before she had the chance.

This kiss filled her with the hidden tenderness Thaddeus reserved for her alone.

The ease of his caresses over her breasts and her belly, the stroke of his palm down her spine and the splay of his hand against the globe of her bottom.

His mouth trailed away, burning a path of kisses to her ear. Beneath the water, his fingers found her seam and began a languid rhythm of strokes and circles against her clit.

“Don’t ever beg me for anything, Rori, unless it’s to drive you to the height of pleasure,” he whispered against her ear as she bit her fingers into his shoulders, the coils of heat tightening in her belly. “I will give you the universe, the heavens, everything , if ’tis within my power to do so.”

The first flicker of sparks touched her nerves, the pressure building around her clit. She rolled her hips when he slipped his fingers inside her body, sitting hard against his hand. She arched into him with a moan, biting her lip as the weakened threads holding her together began to snap.

He replaced his fingers with his cock, filling her with one slow thrust.

She cried out, her body singing with bliss. The powerful orgasm shook her to the core as she pulsed and squeezed his cock.

“Goddess, how I love the feel of your orgasm around me,” he murmured against her neck, leading a trail of kisses over her shoulder.

“The bite of your fingernails into my skin.” His fingers pressed into her ass, guiding her hips as she rode through the tremors of her climax. “Your adorable mewls and cries.”

She dropped her head forward, struggling to breathe as the flush of pleasure warmed her skin.

He drove her at a steady pace, his cock gliding from tip to hilt, stroking her tender nerves without a thought to allowing them to recover.

He angled her just right, tipped her hips to tease her clit and hit that sacred spot deep inside at the same time.

Again and again, as he watched her barely touch the ground before mercilessly driving her back to the skies.

“You do this to me,” she sighed, closing her eyes as the first gentle wave of heat lapped along her nerves. A furrow creased her brows as her belly clenched. “Make me burn. Make me shatter. Come with me.”

“Aye.” He dragged his lips up her neck, crested her chin and hovered against her mouth. “Anything for you.”

Rori drowned in his kiss, releasing the tenuous string of restraint as he drove into her, fanning the inferno hotter and hotter until the sparks caught and the blaze spread.

He drove deeper, playing her naturally, every single nerve without missing a stroke.

She met each thrust, grinding against him, bringing her closer to the precipice of delight.

Shattered.

No other could ever make her soul sing the way he did as she was, once again, consumed by blinding bliss where nothing existed except raw ecstasy riding on heightened frequencies.

Where everything burst in whites and golds.

The physical world was nothing but an impression as her body beat beneath a frenzied rhythm that intensified as fire filled her and the distant growl of her soul mate’s release entwined with her moans.

“My most precious love,” Thaddeus whispered, nuzzling his nose in her hair, his cheek against hers.

Caught in the cradle of his arms, her legs locked around his waist, she worked to settle her breathing, the rapid pulse of her heart, and the tremors that continued to shake her limbs.

He held her tight, his embrace a security blanket protecting her from the world while she lay weak and vulnerable, satiated in this post-climactic aftermath.

Her cheek lowered to his shoulder and she rested, filling her lungs with the spiced scent of his skin, her fingers lazily tracing over the corded muscles along his back, tangling in his wet hair.

All of this man, every facet of his character—the icy cold, immovable force to the sweetest, most tender creature ever to live—would die if she couldn’t find a way to save him.

Her mind refused to process a world without Thaddeus. Her life without her soul mate.

“I’m not strong enough to lose you,” she murmured.

“Let’s not discuss this while my heart still beats, storín .

” His fingers trailed down her spine, light as feathers, and drew back to her nape.

Up and down, such a soothing, methodical stroke that suffused her with calm while her mild spun with turmoil.

“You have me now. Let’s not waste what time I’ve left on a future we cannot change. ”

“I’ll change it. For us.”

His lips found her head and placed a gentle kiss to her hair.

“You are capable of all you put your heart into. Alas, this is beyond the control of either of us.” His arm tightened around her waist, the fingers of his other hand still stroking her spine, as he sighed.

“I accepted my fate when I woke after being struck down during battle. At that time, I had naught to live for. Then you stormed my life, and I want naught more than to live, if only to see your eyes sparkle with joy and to hear your laughter. Our time together has been fraught with horror and strife. Heartbreak and sorrow. I would give anything to make you happy without the fear of attacks and past nightmares. ’Tis why I made my decision. ”

Rori pressed her lips together, her jaw growing stiff. He lifted his hands to her face, raising her up to him and smoothing his thumbs beneath her eyes.

“’Twould be suffering to drag out the inevitable, knowing my death lingers over our heads.

There is no joy in anticipating grief. You may find momentary happiness with me now, but your mind is a storm of uncertainty and anxiety, waiting for this to end.

Each day that passes, I sense your apprehension intensifying.

You’ve been so caught up trying to devise a plan to save me when there is no saving a condemned man from a being as powerful as the King of Realms. There is no corner of the realms where I can hide that he shall not find me, in time.

Life is not meant to be lived looking over your shoulder.

You, Rori, deserve everything I can’t give you. Ohh, Goddess, the tears.”

“They’re for you,” she sniffled, pressing her face into his hands as he wiped the stray tears from her cheeks. “They’ve always been for you.”

“This is what we’ve built our relationship on—loathing and sorrow.”

She shook her head. “You’re wrong. We fought through the facade that was loathing and faced the burden that is sorrow. We found peace with each other. We found resilience.”

Thaddeus smiled sadly. “I’m undeserving of your tears, love.

I’m undeserving of you, but I cherish you more than you’ll ever know.

” He kissed her forehead. “Let me carry you to bed so I can lay your dress by the fire to dry while I hold you tight. Trinkets of our most precious moments for you to carry with you.”