Tempting Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 4) (9 page)

She ignored his question about siblings and asked one of her own. “What do you plan to do with us?”

No hesitation, just a softening of his eyes. “You’ll all be sent to Tetartos Realm with the other Immortals.”

“And if we don’t want that?” She doubted that was even an option, but didn’t hurt to pose the question as if it were. He didn’t know that they’d been searching for more of their kind. That they might actually want to do what he said. It was all in the choice.

“You are such a fierce little she-wolf.”

She was finding it harder to resist that seductive, pleasure-filled tone when he spoke. The sound tempted her to run her fingers over his skin and let him do the same. She needed it to release the ache. She mentally shook her head.

“Would you really rather stay here in Earth Realm and possibly deny your sisters a chance at finding a mate of their own, happiness with their own kind? A place where they wouldn’t need to hide their abilities?”

She shivered and focused on the words. She didn’t know how she felt about any of it. Not that it seemed they would have a choice, but it was a huge change. Would it truly be as he’d explained, or was he not telling her everything?

“You make it sound like Immortal Utopia.” Nothing could be without its bad qualities.

He laughed. “Not Utopia, but preferable to living in Earth Realm for an Immortal.”

“Would we be able to return?”

“The Creators set up a confinement spell for the Realm.” The reality of their situation sent a chill through her. A permanent move that could be very bad or very good.

“How do you expect us to live there? We wouldn’t have a home. I doubt our money would work?” She stared at him, curious and unsettled. Irritation not far behind, she didn’t like her choices being taken away, even if the Creators had done that with all Immortals thousands of years ago.

“There are cities and trade like here, only the population isn’t nearly that of Earth.”

Cities of Immortals? “And the beasts?”

He smiled. “There are warriors that help keep the inhabitants safe. The most dangerous beasts were moved from the inhabited areas or eradicated by the warriors.” He slid his eyes over her lips when he looked at her again. It was nearly impossible not to lick them. “I wouldn’t let anything harm you or your sisters, and their money will still work, in a way.”

She’d gotten closer to him without realizing it. It was like a magnetic pull even now, when her mind was in complete turmoil about how her family was about to be uprooted from their entire existence.

“It’s a much more beautiful place. The geography matches closely to this Realm, but more untouched and green. There isn’t pollution, just clean crisp air. Your sisters will live in the Guardian Manor until we discuss where to build them a home of their own.” He glanced at her lips again. “They will be much happier there than they could ever be here.” He seemed so sure that it was best.

She scoffed at his arrogance. “Interesting that you presume to know us well enough to know what’s in our best interest.” She frowned.

A slight growl erupted from his lips, and she nearly closed her eyes and enjoyed the sound. “You have no idea what that sweet little mouth is doing to me. Even curled. All I can imagine is having those pouty lips wrapped around my cock.” He groaned as she stared at him. Her mouth had dropped open a little, and she shut it before she realized he’d moved on. “Princess, what do your instincts tell you?”

She gritted her teeth in frustration, at him, for putting those images in her head, and the fact that her traitorous body wanted to try it. It didn’t help that he obviously knew her instincts were telling her to trust. Telling her to take, claim him. That he wouldn’t hurt her or her family.

“I protect what’s mine.” His voice grew even more decadently seductive, and her pussy clenched as desire inflamed her. “That means you as well as my new sisters. I know you don’t trust me, but they will be much happier there.”

Anger and arousal were fighting for space inside her.

She wondered if her sisters would be all that sad to leave everything they knew. If there was a chance that things would be better, she didn’t think so. It was more a matter that the decision wasn’t their own. That would grate on them as much as it did with her. They’d lived in Earth for their entire lives, but he was right, if there truly were others of their kind… Her sisters had been lonely for a long time, and to have the opportunity to find some kind of companionship would make the change easier. If that was truly how it worked there. Her main concern was whether they’d be able to contact their brothers while there? She didn’t like leaving them, but what if they were going into some kind of nightmare existence. She relayed her thoughts to Isa, Zoe and Mia. They agreed. Their brothers were snarling at their protectiveness, but she didn’t have time to listen to them.

She tilted her neck back and closed her eyes as she let the water slide over her face. She heard his intake of breath. They were so wild for each other, the longer they stayed close, the worse it seemed to get. Wild was the only description for such strong emotion. Maybe primal, feral… soul-consuming need also fit. It defied the logic she’d always applied to her world. Ironic that she’d always searched for reason and explanation for the things humans did when in this world she was the anomaly.

Her entire existence had just been upended. Thirty years of living in one way, imagining that there were other Immortals but thinking that they would exist within the parameters of her experience. Maybe different powers, but not this. An entirely new world existed, where she was not one of the most powerful beings. Where she wouldn’t have to hide who she was. She had proven weaker than she’d ever imagined possible, and that alone left her unsettled. Were the other Immortals more her equal?

She imagined Conn and his brothers were the anomaly everywhere they went. So much power and strength, yet he was giving her the illusion of control, at least on a small level, by giving her the choice to touch, to take and be claimed. She wondered if that would last. She didn’t like the idea of him snatching that from her when giving it had allowed her power of her own.

Her fingers twitched at her side. She really needed to run soon, her skin was too tight, and her wolf was quickly slipping its leash. Would her beast obey her command not to touch him, or would she refuse and claim what she wanted? Dacia hoped she could rein the animal in when the time came.

“What do you guard against?” There had to be a reason to have twelve Guardians. A threat other than beasts in another Realm, something that she needed to know about if her and her sisters would be living in Tetartos.

“You first. Were your parents alone when they escaped?” he asked, and she wondered at the hint of hardness to his tone. His eyes watched her, studied her features as his jaw clenched for a split second and relaxed. It made her hesitant; was everything he’d shown her so far a mask? When he spoke again, she felt the raw emotion behind the question. “I ask because many of us lost young to those training camps. If any others survived, they could have families that would be anxious to know they were alive.”

His response was the only one that would have loosened her tongue. Just not yet. “Not that any of my sisters and I have ever seen.” He was watching for a lie, and she hadn’t told one, but for some reason keeping the information didn’t sit well. “Tell me your duties.”

Did she have any loyalty to the missing Immortals? Her father hadn’t trusted them, and what if they were dangerous? They may also become potential allies if the Guardians proved not to be what they seemed. She was used to looking at all angles, yet for some reason it turned her stomach. It wasn’t as if she were keeping families apart. She didn’t know if the others were even still out there. They could be dead like her parents.

His deep laughter filled the air, and she shot her gaze to his. “Nice evasion.”

They were almost at the wood, thank the Creators for that. She was strung too tight, needed release, but the only one she’d get was the relief of letting her beast free. Why did he have to be so damned beautiful? He was chiseled and Godlike, but with tattoos and piercings that made him more wicked. The way his lips moved and tilted and the hard line of his jaw. She wanted to see what was under that flannel. His forearms were strong, muscular, and she wanted to see how far the ink went.

She forced her eyes to the woods ahead. Almost there… The continual beat of arousal was maddening. Her pulse thumped erratically as she imagined that sexy timbre of his whispering all the things he planned to do to her so she’d tell him her secrets. She believed what he said, that touching him would equal a frenzy of crazed sex and permanence. Though she already had a mental link to him, and that rattled her. She still couldn’t succumb to the finality of it. Not when she knew very little about him, her future, and most important, her family’s future. She took a deep breath, but that didn’t help; he was too near, and she had to clench her fists to stop from touching him.

“Say the word, princess, and I’ll gladly make it all better.” His words were a seductive whisper over her nerve endings. Her hands trembled with the need. He yanked off his flannel, and she found it settled over her shoulders without his hands touching her skin. The gesture was… chivalrous? Or calculated? She halted, and he matched her. His eyes tracked her body, and the heat there made her breath catch.

“I like the sight of you in my shirt.” He groaned. “It’ll be even better when it’s all you have on. Just silky skin and hot, wet pussy under the soft material.” His eyes rose to her face, and she saw intensity; the teasing was gone. He had to know how being wrapped in his scent would affect her body, but he seemed to be equally tormented by it. She ached and pulsed with need. She felt intoxicated by the raw scent on her skin, next to her face.

Why couldn’t she pry her fingers from the fabric? They both started moving again, and she tried to shake the feelings assailing her. The arousal was bad before, but being blanketed in his scent was only heightening it. She frowned, her beast wanted to roll in it, and she gripped the edges even tighter. It was like she’d lost her mind to her beast. The desire to keep it was compulsive. It was like a different female was setting up residence inside her body, but she refused to revert back. She tried again to pry her fingers loose and felt a snarl form in her throat at the idea of giving it up. She was too lost to the arousal for panic to even set in. She almost tripped in her shock at her responses, the underlying possessiveness for something that touched his skin. Every breath took him in and made her body heat further; the rain didn’t matter, wasn’t cooling anything. She felt snug, comfortable. She felt something in the breast pocket and looked down. A sealed pack of cookies? Her brow furrowed. That somehow made him more real. More like her and she both liked and distrusted it.

She let him inch ahead, didn’t really want a witness to her struggle, her weakness, and a demented part of her wanted to take in the sight of his body. Her eyes tracked the tattoos flowing up under his tee shirt. The cotton was pulled tight over his biceps, shoulders and back, but hung loose at his lower back and sides. The shirt covered the top of his jeans, but wasn’t nearly long enough to cover a denim-covered ass and thighs that both conspired to make her knees wobble. She could only imagine the rippling expanse of taut muscle. How much of that sculpted body was covered in ink? Closer inspection of his arms showed a lifelike blend of howling wolves staring back at her from his tantalizing flesh. It was a work of art. He was a work of art.

He turned his head, a knowing smile on his wicked lips, but tension was set in his eyes, his shoulders and the flexing of his hands. He was just as close to losing control as she was. He’d been allowing her to take in the sight of him. A proud beautiful male. She nearly moaned envisioning him standing proud and hard as she examined every hard dip and curve of his massive body.

She needed a distraction, something else to focus on as she stepped to the edge of the walkway, as far as she could from him, even though they walked side by side. Clearing her throat, she asked again, “What do you guard against?”

The way his nostrils flared and his shoulders moved showed her how much he was holding back. She just hoped that letting their beasts free would settle some of the arousal, as opposed to making it worse. “The Creators instructed us to watch over the sleeping Gods until they were needed. They also wanted to make sure superior beings, like the exiled Immortals, never got loose and tried to rule the humans as the Gods had done before they were sent to sleep. Our main duty is to make sure humanity is allowed to evolve, so they gave us enhanced power and a curse as a safeguard.”

“What curse?” The word alone had an ominous ring.

“They cursed us with tenfold any harm we inflict on a human.”

Her brows lifted. “But not Immortals?”

“Your sisters are fine, princess, and harming you is the furthest thing from my mind.” The heat infused in the words and the complete loss of his earlier teasing demeanor was not lost on her. Pleasure. So much she could revel in it, but she wouldn’t. At least not until she couldn’t take it anymore. She still had some fight left. Not much, but some.

“The Creators main concern was how fragile humans are.”

“So if you killed one?”

“I would get the same death ten times.”

She stilled. That would be an effective deterrent. They were so much more powerful than even she, an Immortal. Any human would be no more than a fly swat away from annihilation if a Guardian went bad.

“The part the Creators hadn’t bet on was the Tria.” His features seemed to lose some of the arousal, and something else flashed instead. “Do you know anything about them?”

She frowned, she’d heard of them.

He moved on. “Ares and Artemis’ triplets. They’re sick and twisted, probably the most vicious beings in existence, though Ares and Artemis would be a close second. I still don’t understand why the Creators didn’t destroy them, but it never happened, and they’re never coming back to explain why the hell not.” He shook his head and glanced her way before continuing. “A few of the Gods found a way to imprison them in Hell Realm not long before the Creators were called back to Earth. The Tria can’t leave Hell, but that doesn’t stop them from sending things out.”