Page 76 of Vanquished Gods

“I am confident. You’re in control of it. I can feel when the magic is there and when it isn’t. Test it on me if it will put you at ease.”

I arched an eyebrow. “And how will I know you’re not lying?”

He leaned in closer, his scent enveloping me. “Do you still not trust me?”

The question hung in the air, and I studied his perfect face. My mind glittered with some of those buried memories from the time before, when I’d met him in the forest.

With a shock, I realized I did trust him. “I do.”

His shadows wrapped around me like a caress. My skin ached for him, hypersensitive. “I won’t hide anything from you again.”

I sighed. “Fine. I won’t, either.”

“Including yourself. Hiding behind the gloves, running from your magic, cloaking yourself in isolation…”

My gaze brushed down his bare chest, my breath quickening at the sight of him. With my sharpened vampire senses, his beauty was almost shocking. Breathtaking, lighting a spark inside me.

Tomorrow, we might die. Why waste what might be our last moments?

I reached out, my fingers grazing the sharp line of his jaw. “Anything?” I whispered.

“Just you.”

“Tell me if you feel my magic.” My hand drifted over the solid planes of his chest. His muscles tensed beneath my touch, and I rested my palm over the place where his heart had once beat. Where I’d stabbed him.

For a brief, aching moment, I could almost see him as he had been—a living man, fighting for his life on a battlefield centuries ago. Bleeding out and terrified. I was shocked by how desperately I wanted to go back in time and take care of him.

My thumb brushed over the spot where I’d jammed the stake in, where he’d crowned himself king with a tattoo. I lifted my eyes to his, searching for some unspoken answer.

“No magic, love,” he said in a low, rough tone, a smile tugging at his lips. “But you should keep testing.”

I let my hand drift lower, skimming over the hard ridges of his abs, and his eyes darkened, simmering with dangerous shadows. When my fingers brushed lower still, a growl escaped him—a sound that sent a shiver down my spine.

I took a step closer and reached up, sliding my arms around his neck. The silk of my dress brushed against his bare skin. Everything was heightened as a vampire—sight, smell, hearing—and the way his body felt against mine was enough to make me lose my mind.

Desire swept through my body as the roughness of his palm skimmed over my thighs.

“Anything?”

“Just you,” he whispered again. His eyes had taken on a hungry expression. “Still, only you.”

His eyes burned, and he leaned down, brushing his lips over mine. At the light touch, pleasure slid through my body, making my skin sensitive, my nipples hard against the silk of the dress. I opened my mouth to him, my tongue brushing against his. Stroking his.

He pulled away from the kiss, staring into my eyes. “You have been haunting my thoughts like a ghost since the first time I laid eyes on you.”

“I can’t exactly say the same.” And yet, recently, I’d started to realize that being with him felt like coming home. Once, I’d been terrified of him. Now, he felt like a safe haven. “If we survive tomorrow, we will need to make new memories.”

Sion gripped the hem of my dress in one of his hands. With his other, he reached around for the neckline, brushing his fingertips under the silky fabric. At his touch, pleasure flared over my skin. I felt a desperate need to rip the silk off. He must have read the lust on my face because his breath grew heavier, his eyes darkening to pure black.

In my fevered mind, my thoughts flashed with an image of him fucking me hard against the window, my legs wrapped around his waist.

As slowly as dripping honey, he began to tug down the neckline of my dress. My body ached for him.

I hooked my leg around his, my dress riding all the way up to my waist, and I threaded my fingers into his long hair.

With a languid pace, he eased down one side of my dress, exposing my shoulder, the arch of my neck. He lowered his mouth to my throat, and he ran his tongue over my skin.

He moved to where his mark stood out starkly on my pale skin. He lowered his mouth to the mark, then ran his tongue over it, sparking a wave of wild, liquid heat through my body. My neck arched back, my head resting against the windowpane, as he kissed my throat.