Primal Temptation

The ancient one’s gaze moved to Lucan where he continued to try to reach Briana. “He’s protective of you,” she mused. “Unusual.”

Something in her eyes had Briana growling.

“I have no interest in your mate, gargoyle.” She released her hold on Elena at the same moment the water receded, draining back into the earth faster than seemed possible.

With the water gone, Lucan slogged across the muddy ground to reach Briana’s side.

The Lady of the Lake sighed, her expression so still Lucan almost missed the blink of sadness that crossed her face. “I will honor my vow.”

Briana glanced at him, equally confused. Vow?

A length of chain appeared at Briana’s feet, and he nodded to where the thick ropes of silver all but hummed with old magic. She glanced from the chains to the Lady of the Lake. “What are they for?”

“Not what. Who.” The Lady of the Lake’s gaze shifted to Lucan. “He will not be taken without them.”

“I don’t understand.” The chains offered no clue as to who they were meant for.

Briana frowned. “Where do we find him?” Whoever he is, went unsaid.

Shaking her head, the ancient one burst apart in a blinding white cloud of light, receding into the trees like a fog moving back out to sea.

Alone once more, the other immortals digested what just happened, looking at each other—and then Kel charged.

Lunging forward, Lucan struck the dragon’s body, barely slowing him down. But it gave Briana the few seconds she needed to snap the chains off the ground.

One minute he was trying to hold off a wall bent on trampling both he and Briana to get the Lady of the Lake’s chains, and the next he was slamming into an entirely different one.

Lucan stumbled back, spinning around in his room at the mansion. Briana wasn’t with him.

The wraith stirred, claws raking along Lucan’s awareness wanting to find her, but not nearly as much as the man still reeling from her confession.

He should have figured it out on his own, should have realized her feelings were as genuine as his own. If hadn’t been so determined to protect her from himself…

He stopped, bracing his hands on the door, old doubts surfacing.

We’ll find a way.

Her words haunted him now. It didn’t matter how certain he was that Rhiannon would find a way to end him before she’d ever willingly release him, he refused to let Briana down again.

If he won the Gauntlet—

No. He cut off that line of thinking. No more what ifs. The only woman to get under his skin, to mark a place so deep inside him he’d have to cut out his heart to loosen her hold, wanted to be with him. Loved him.

And that was more than enough.

Despite the ties to Rhiannon, for the first time in centuries he felt free. Because of Briana.

He wrenched open the door, took a few steps into the hall, stopped.

Briana walked toward him, every tentative step taking way too long. He couldn’t wait anymore.

He strode toward her, extinguishing the distance that separated them, determined that nothing else would part them again.

She met him halfway, leaping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist. Her mouth came down on his, her hands caging his face, the fierce tenderness threatening to take him to the floor.

His hands tangled in the hair at her nape, both of them tired, cold and wet—and he’d never known a better moment in his life.

Breathing hard, her eyes were shiny as they met his. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come to me or if you’d changed your mind.”

He silenced her with another kiss, dragging it out with long, thorough sweeps of lips and tongue until he’d convinced them both he was done pushing her away. She belonged with him.

Always had.

“I’m scared too,” she murmured, reading him too easily.

He was pretty sure that scared didn’t come close to describing the fear that drilled through his middle. The thought of something happening to her before had scared him. But now…

The wraith snarled, hungry to destroy a world that would dare hurt her in any way.

He kissed her again, carefully touching his lips to hers, more testing the waters than diving in. Everything between them had always felt rushed, stolen moments snatched from their real lives, and he didn’t want to rush this one.

He could never undo what happened in the past, couldn’t wipe out the memories of hurting her, but he could replace every single one of them with something so much better.

Her arms tightened around him, eating up every millimeter of space between them. “Are you going to invite me in?”

Tucking his face against her throat, breathing deeply, he carried her inside.

Chapter Thirteen

Briana held on for dear life. If she could feel the weight of Lucan’s arms, the slow caress of his mouth, then maybe she could convince herself this wasn’t another illusion. They were truly together.

It didn’t matter if the odds were stacked against them—a territorial goddess, a competition that could kill them before it was all over, her brothers—he was here because he wanted to be. Finally.

Lucan set her beside the bed, her body sliding down his in what felt like slow motion, touching every part of him. He left her long enough to close the door and then he was back. He turned his face into her hair, then her cheek, her neck.

She didn’t know how he could move so slow, touch so soft and still seem like he wanted to devour her whole. She could feel his hunger in the tremble of his fingers skimming down and up her back as he tugged her shirt off, in the way he kept constant contact with her skin, in the devastating gaze that rarely left her face.

It should have been too much, staring into eyes that revealed…everything. There were no secrets left, no misunderstandings. Everything was different and yet nothing had changed. She couldn’t get enough air, yet felt energized, alive in a way she only knew when they were together.

Lucan’s hands went to the button on her pants, working them over her hips and down, inch by inch. On his knees, he tugged off her footwear and freed her legs of the wet material, then folded his arms around her waist. He pressed his face to her abdomen and drew her even closer.

Neither of them moved for a long moment, and never in her immortal life had an embrace so humbled or rocked her. Centuries of bottled-up emotion and excitement ignited in her stomach—and that was before he opened his mouth on her skin.

A kiss. Then another. And another. Then he slid her underwear down and off. He nudged her back to the bed, and she let her shaky knees go and sat.

Broad shoulders widened her legs, then more kisses—wet, teasing and setting every nerve ending on fire— followed up the inside of each thigh, his lips slowing, lingering the higher he went.

“Don’t hold your breath.” A carnal grin curved his lips, and she realized she’d been doing exactly that, every cell in her body waiting.

He bent his head, parting her folds with a long, silken stroke of his tongue. Gripping the edge of the bed, she squirmed beneath him. The next pass was even softer than the last, so soft she could barely stand it.

She lifted her hands to touch him, and he caught her wrists, pressing them back to the bed.

“Keep them there.”

The rough command unleashed a rush of heat that wrapped around her body, pulling taut with every lazy flick of his tongue, every swirl across her clit.

He pushed a finger inside her, then two, and she nearly came off the bed.