He lapped at her core, exploring every inch of her until she was moaning without shame, without restraint, dying for him to fill her with his hardness.
She touched his hair, silky under her fingers, as he tongued her hot center. He circled her tiny blossom with his tongue, drawing it up and out over and over, a volcano of passion building and building until it was finally let loose, an explosion of pleasure rocking her body.
She cried out, lost to everything but the inferno inside her, the feel of his mouth against her wet womanhood as she came against his mouth.
She was trembling when he rose, sliding up and over her, pausing to grab the condom from the nightstand, tearing it open and throwing the wrapper aside, his eyes wild with desire. He paused between her legs, and she grabbed his hips, looking into his eyes.
“I’ll die if I don’t feel you inside me, Kane.”
He groaned, positioning his tip against her slickness until she gasped. She didn’t take her eyes off him as he slid into her, stopping only when he reached resistance.
He hesitated, looking down at her with a question she couldn’t answer. Didn't want to answer. Not now. Now, there was only him, and she wanted him like she had never wanted anything before.
She pulled his hips toward her in one thrust, opening her body to him, rising to meet him. There was a brief twinge of pain. Then only pleasure and heat and the knowledge that her body belonged to him.
He seemed to slow, and when he reached up to brush the hair back from her forehead, there was tenderness in his eyes. She moved against him, his wet shaft sliding in and out of her, and told him without words that she was okay. That she wanted this. Wanted him.
She took his mouth, parting it with her tongue as his manhood opened her, gently at first and then with more urgency, the inferno building in her again as he moved faster, growing harder and bigger inside her until she thought she would pass out from the exquisite torment of it.
His body tightened, and he lowered his head to the hollow of her collarbone, breathing her name as she shook against him, his body shuddering against her as he poured into her.
Thirteen
She was gone when he woke up, the sun fighting its way through the heavy draperies at the hotel window. He lay back down and closed his eyes, the night coming back to him in a flash of memory.
Lily’s warmth pressing into him, her legs entwined around his hips.
Her hands in his hair as he tasted her, the musky sweetness of her filling him with desire.
Her perfect body rising to meet his, the wet softness as he slid inside her.
And then, the realization that she was a virgin.
He didn’t know why he was surprised. She was Lily. Sweet—though not as innocent as he’d thought—Lily. And she was, what? Twenty? Scarlet was twenty-one and Kane knew they were close in age.
Still, it hadn’t occurred to him. He assumed she would have told him. And yet she hadn’t. Had she been afraid he would say no? Deny her?
Not much chance of that. She had him so hot he couldn’t have said no if he tried, not the way she was lifting her hips to him, breathing his name.
“I’ll die if I don’t feel you inside me, Kane.”
The memory hit him like a mac truck. He groaned, punching the pillow, and stood up, walking naked to his clothes. Her stuff was gone, including the train case that had been his excuse for coming back to the hotel.
Why had she left? Was it her way of telling him it had been a mistake? That she regretted what happened between them? He wouldn’t blame her if she did. Nothing had changed. And while he couldn’t bring himself to regret the fact that he’d been the one to claim her virginity, expecting her to be his in the harsh light of day was expecting too much.
She deserved better. A husband who wore a suit and came home for dinner every night at six. A little bakery, warm and filled with customers and the smell of cinnamon. A pack of children with rosy cheeks and all the exuberant innocence that made Lily so special.
And she wouldn’t be able to have those things with him. Not while he was a member of the Guard, and that was something he would always be.
He pulled on his clothes and left the hotel room without a backward glance. He was glad Lily had left first. Glad she was smarter than him. Smart enough to know it would never work. He told himself it was a good thing, although his heart felt unusually heavy in his chest.
He let himself into the house, glad it was still early enough to be quiet. He wasn’t ready to make small talk, might have been incapable of it in the moment. He just wanted a shower and some clean clothes. Maybe the hot water would wash away Lily’s scent, the memory of her body entwined with his.
“Late night?”
The voice came from the doorway of the front parlor that no one used. When he turned, he was surprised to see Scarlet leaning against the doorjamb, a coffee cup in her hand.
“You could say that,” Kane said, embarrassed to be caught doing the walk of shame by the sister of the girl responsible for his late night.
“That’s funny.” She smiled. “My sister came in not twenty minutes ago.”
He sighed, not wanting to lie to Scarlet.
She shrugged. “I’m not judging. Lily’s a grown woman. Now my father, on the other hand …”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said miserably. “It was a one-time thing.”
Scarlet raised one of her dark brows. “Really? Now see, that surprises me.”
“It shouldn’t. Lily and I are from different worlds.”
Scarlet looked around. “And yet you both came home to the same house.”
“She deserves better,” he said, ashamed even as he said it. Ashamed that he’d even granted himself one night with her.
“She says the exact same thing about you,” Scarlet said softly.
His head snapped up. “What do you mean?”
Scarlet took a sip of her coffee with an air of practiced boredom. “Just, you know … that you deserve better.”
He shook his head, confused. “How could she say that? How could she think it?”
Scarlet took a deep breath and crossed the foyer toward him. She looked around like she wanted to make sure they were alone.
“Did it ever occur to you that she hasn’t told you everything?”
He thought back to her resolve in the bedroom, the way she’d grabbed him, pulled him into her without fear. She hadn’t told him, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that it had been because she didn’t want to burden him. Didn’t want her virginity to be a thing between them.
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said mysteriously. “I’m just saying … sometimes there’s more to a situation than meets the eye. Trust me, I know. And when two people make excuses not to be together without actually talking it out, well … sometimes it’s just because they’re both afraid.”
“Afraid?”
She nodded. “Afraid of what the other person will say or think. And if you’re afraid of something—”
“I’m not afraid,” he interrupted, his sense of masculinity mildly affronted by the suggestion.
She smiled. “Maybe Lily is.”
“There’s nothing she could tell me that would change the way I feel about her.” He paused. “What could she be afraid of?”
Scarlet patted his shoulder and headed for the kitchen. “You’ll have to ask her.”
Fourteen
She was in the third-floor den, curled up on the edge of the sofa when she heard his voice from the doorway.
“Lily?”
His voice shot through her like an electrical surge, but it was nothing compared to the way her body came alive when she turned to look at him.
He stood in the doorway, his white t-shirt stretched taut across the chest that she knew firsthand was exquisitely chiseled, his hand shoved into the pockets of jeans that did everything to display his powerful thighs.
“Good morning,” she
said softly.
He stepped toward her. “What are you doing up here?”
“They’re working on my rooms,” she said. “I thought I’d wait here.”
“You could have waited with me at the hotel,” he said, lowering himself in front of her.
There was something sad in his eyes, something that belied the raw masculinity of his frame, the strength coiled underneath his skin. She reached out and touched his hair without thinking about it.
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “I’m not looking for an apology. I just want to know why you didn’t tell me.”
Embarrassment heated her cheeks. She had been brazen with him, emboldened by the animal lust that had tortured her for days before she finally gave into it at the hotel. But now, exposed in the daylight streaming in from the big curtained windows, she was shocked at some of the things she’d done. Some of the things she’d said.
“I didn’t want it to be a big deal,” she finally said.
“It is a big deal,” he said fiercely.
“I wanted it to be with you. And if you’d known, you probably wouldn’t have let it happen.”
“You give me too much credit,” he said. “I don’t think anything could have stopped me from being with you once I knew you wanted me, too. I just wish you’d trusted me enough to tell me.”
She looked down at her lap. “I’m sorry.”
He stood then, reaching for her hand and pulling her to her feet. She felt the call of his body, only inches away, to hers.
“What else haven’t you told me, Lily?”
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she shook her head. She didn’t want to tell him. He was an honorable man. After what had happened between them, he wouldn’t admit to wanting a life she couldn’t give him.
And she couldn’t bear for him to do the right thing for the sake of the right thing.
He took her chin gently in his hand and tipped her face to his until she had no choice but to look in his eyes. And this time, it wasn’t lust that swam in their sea-blue depths, but something else. Something tender and more complex.
“Tell me.”
“I … I can’t.”
“You can, Lily. And if you still think you can’t, it just means I’ve done a shitty job telling you what you mean to me. Telling you how much I want you. Not just in my bed. By my side, every day and every night.”
She hesitated. “I can’t … I can’t give you the life you deserve.”
Disbelief fell over his features. “How can you say that? You’re so much more than I’ve ever deserved.”
“You don’t understand.” She pulled away, pacing to the window. “You don’t even know what you’re saying.”
She heard him cross the room, felt his presence at her back. “I know exactly what I’m saying.” There was anger in his voice. He touched her arm and turned her to face him. “Now tell me, damnit.”
“I can’t have children, okay?” The tears spilled over, streaming down her cheeks. “I can never, ever have children. I would never be able to give you sons or daughters. Would never be able to give you the life you deserve.”
He looked confused. “You can’t … Wait a minute. Are you telling me you think I wouldn’t want you because you can’t have children? This is the twenty-first century. When I tell you I want you by my side, I don’t mean as some kind of breeder, for fuck’s sake.”
She looked away. “It would be half a life.”
“Lily …” He put his hand on her chin, gently forcing her to look at him. “As far as I’m concerned, my brother can have a whole bushel full of children to further the family name.” He crushed her to him, his voice so fierce she couldn’t deny the truth in his words. “I want you. And if I thought I was the man you really needed—the man you deserve—well, nothing would ever come between us.”
She tried to make sense of what he was saying. After hearing her deepest, darkest secret, was he really saying he didn’t deserve her?
“What are you talking about?”
He sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll never be the man who’s home for dinner every night at six. I’d have to leave you in the middle of the night. I’d have to risk leaving you alone—not just for a day or a week or a month, but forever if something happened to me. And we all know it can.” He shook his head. “You don’t deserve that. You deserve a man who can be by your side every day. Who can sit next to you on the couch and read at night. Who can help you do the dishes after dinner and grow old with you.”
She looked up at him, surprised to feel a smile tugging at her lips. “So we don’t deserve each other? Is that what we’re saying?”
He chuckled, rubbing a hand across his face. “I guess so.”
She looked into his eyes. “I love you, Kane. I think I’ve loved you for a long time. And after all of this, well … it kind of sounds like no one else will have either of us.”
He threw his head back and laughed, the sound like warm syrup in her veins. He twined his hands across the small of her back, pulling her closer.
“I’m not saying I agree, but I’m thinking maybe we should give it a try.”
“So you’re saying you deserve me now?” she teased.
He smiled. “I’m saying if you’re willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, I’m feeling just selfish enough to take advantage of you.”
“Take advantage of me, huh?” She stood on tiptoe, pressing her body to his. “I think I like the sound of that.”
Michelle Zink
Michelle Zink is the critically acclaimed author of the Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy (Little Brown Books for Young Readers) and A Temptation of Angels (Penguin/Dial). Her books are published in over thirty countries and translated in over twenty languages. The Shadowguard novella trilogy is her first adult work.
Visit www.michellezink.com
Table of Contents
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Four
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Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Michelle Zink, Temptation's Kiss
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