Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
Caden
B loody hell, doesn’t Sydney realize the target she’ll paint on herself if she transcasts? All of magickind—Mathias included—will see her face. His victims never stand a chance, because they’re woefully uninformed and unprepared. But for daring to warn others, he would devise unspeakable tortures for Sydney. I admire her bravery, but…
“No. Absolutely not.”
“It’s not your choice. You’ll be returning to Dallas alone, remember?” She raises that sassy ginger brow, then brushes past me.
She’s headed for the back door, determined to plunge deeper into this magical quagmire. I’ve already failed Lucan and Anka. I won’t fail Sydney by letting her court death. Even if I can’t claim her as my mate, losing her would destroy me.
I stalk after her and grab her arm. “You can’t do this. Me leaving doesn’t mean I don’t give a damn.”
“No, but the fact you refuse to be honest about your reasons for avoiding magic does.”
Blast it, she’s too clever by half. I yank her against me. “I won’t let you get hurt—or worse.”
“You may be fine running away, but I’m not. I can help prevent others from suffering like Aquarius or Anka. Since you and I are through, and you won’t battle Mathias or fight for us, we’ve nothing left to say.”
Fear clogs my throat. She doesn’t truly grasp the danger. I have to stop her. If Mathias hurts her… The thought nearly brings me to my knees.
“The hell we don’t!” Protective rage surging through me, I scoop Sydney against my body and carry her into the library, slamming the door behind us.
Sydney writhes against me. “Put me down, damn you!”
Her movements send lightning through my veins. No matter how badly I want her, we need to talk. She has to see reason.
I deposit her on Bram’s sofa. She glares up at me, sprawled and furious. Desire ignites in my blood. I struggle to ignore it.
“Let me be very clear, Sydney: You. Are. Not. Transcasting.”
She scoffs. “I’m a grown woman. How will you stop me once you’re gone?”
Her challenge hits like a sledgehammer. She’s right. If I find Anka, right Lucan’s life, and depart as planned, I’ll be leaving Sydney to her own devices.
Not bloody likely.
“Until you see reason, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Piss off.”
Her dismissal stokes my mating instinct, especially when I drink in the human signs of her arousal—her sweetly musky scent, her peaked nipples, the heat in her eyes.
“No. I’ll stay so close, you’ll feel my breath on you. Constantly.”
She stills, her breaths turning ragged. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“No, you need a keeper. That’s me.”
With an outraged gasp, she starts squirming again. Her arching and bucking inflame my already sizzling nerves.
“Stop!” I growl, my hands like vises on her hips.
“Make me.”
Her dare ignites an inferno inside me. Heat surges through me, primal instinct obliterating reason.
Mine. Take. Now!
Panting, I cover her body with mine, our lips a whisper apart. Her mouth, that luscious red temptation, beckons. The need to taste her, to finally claim those lips, nearly shatters my control. Just one kiss...
But one would seal my fate.
Would that be so terrible? a traitorous voice whispers in my head.
What if we mate, and I lose her to reckless bravery? I would become a mirror of my broken brother. Her determination to fight evil she can’t comprehend will be her death.
Gripped by fear, I clutch her tighter, as if I could absorb her into myself for safekeeping. Electricity pulses through me. She’s so warm, so alive, so perfectly female. My need for her borders on madness.
I trace kisses along her cheek, daring to brush the corner of her mouth. Her intoxicating scent nearly overwhelms me. One hand white-knuckles the sofa. The other digs into her hip as I fight the urge to devour her. Desperate for distraction, I trail kisses down her throat to the soft swell of her breasts, heaving with each rapid breath.
“Caden, this is mad. We should talk.” Her words are wise, but in my head her voice is pure sin.
“We did.”
Shoving her T-shirt aside, I inhale deeply. Since transition, my sense of smell is keener. Though I know she’s showered since we last made love, I smell myself on her, and it arouses me out of my mind. Skin. I need her bare skin—filling my hands and against my tongue.
“But—”
I yank on the clasp of her bra. It snaps into pieces. I push it aside and lave her nipple.
Sydney moans, and I smile in grim satisfaction. She can try to deny that she wants me, but her reactions—her panting, her accelerated heartbeat, her nails in my shoulders—all tell me the truth.
“Damn it, how do you reduce me to a puddle in moments?”
I pull my shirt over my head. “You do the same to me.”
With a quick tug, I remove everything she’s got on above the waist. I’m grateful she’s wearing an easy-to-flip-up skirt. Her knickers beneath are not a problem for my determined hands. Then I’m burying my fingers inside her and thumbing her clit, thrilled at how wet she is. I’m counting the seconds until my cock fills her.
Everything about this woman entices me—from her little pebbled coral-pink nipples, to her fingers tangled in my hair, to the way she looks at me as if I’m her whole world.
I rub her mercilessly in all the sweetest spots. In seconds, Sydney teeters on the precipice of ecstasy, her body a livewire under my touch. I hold her there, suspended in that exquisite moment between agony and bliss, refusing to let her tumble over or retreat. She’s mine to command, to torment with pleasure, and I revel in every tremor, every gasped breath, and every whimper.
She cries out my name. Impatiently, I make quick work of my zip and shove my jeans past my hips, spreading her thighs wider for me.
“Caden. Wait,” she gasps, her voice a mix of desire and hesitation. “We haven’t settled this.”
I freeze, torn between backing off and pressing forward. “Do you truly want to stop, firecracker?”
Sydney’s silence is deafening. Time stands still, the air between us crackling with tension, filled only by our ragged breaths and thundering hearts.
Finally, she tightens her arms around me, nails digging into my skin. “I’ll likely regret this later, but…don’t you dare leave.”
I smile. I’m playing with fire, no doubt, but bloody hell if I’m not eager for the burn.
“Last chance to change your mind,” I murmur, giving her one final out.
Her response is to arch against me, a soft, pleading whimper escaping her lips.
Right, then. Decision made.
I gather her up, lifting her hips to mine. I pause to worship one breast with my mouth, then the other, savoring her soft moans. She wraps her legs around me, urging me higher, desperate for more. She doesn’t have to invite me twice.
“Patience,” I tease, even as my own control frays.
“I need you,” she gasps. “Now.”
“Are you still sore?”
“Not enough to say no.”
With a nod, I position myself at her entrance and press in gently. When she tenses, I withdraw before easing in once more.
For endless minutes, I repeat the process, delving deeper with each measured stroke until her tight cunt surrounds me and the friction has me ready to combust.
Sydney is heaven, and I intend to lose myself in her while she’s all mine.
She kisses my cheek, my throat, my shoulder as I bury my face in her fragrant neck, inhale our mingled scents, and thrust with a tortured groan. Fuck, no woman has ever felt this good.
Something is shifting between us, transcending the physical. It’s raw, intense, bloody brilliant—and terrifying.
I exhale and push inside her again, losing myself in the sublime sensations. I drag in another breath, one blissfully full of her, as I plunge deeper into her welcoming body. Pleasure sears through me like lightning. My head spins. Christ, I can’t breathe without her.
A primal need claws at my insides, demanding release. The words of the Call burn on my tongue, threatening to spill. I fight it, knowing the consequences, but God help me, I want it.
“Become a part of me, as I become a part of you…”
Sydney, flushed and breathless, peers up at me. Those chocolate eyes, so trusting, so full of heat, nearly undo me. “I think you already have.”
I clamp my jaw shut, trapping the rest of the damning words.
“And I love it,” she murmurs, lifting her hips to meet my next thrust before she tosses her head back, lost to passion.
Bloody hell, she’s not making this easy. My resolve crumbles more with each of her breathy moans.
I increase my pace, urgency building. Bliss careens through me, shredding my self-control. The impending climax and the need to complete the Call collide in my head, tangling in a knot of desire and fear. It’s more than pleasure, more than emotion. It’s belonging. A soul-deep yearning to claim her as mine.
The next words slip out. “Ever after, I promise?—”
Myself to thee .
The words hover on the tip of my tongue, dangerous and tempting. One slip, and everything changes. Forever.
Sydney moans, tightening around me. Her pussy starts to pulse in a way no man, wizard or otherwise, could resist.
I groan, teetering on the edge. “Sydney. I?—”
Want you. Love you. Need you forever.
Ecstasy explodes through me, a supernova of pleasure that tears a primal roar from my throat. As I crest the peak, more of the Call burns my brain, begging to be spoken.
Each day we share, I will be honest, good, and true. If this you seek, heed my call...
I clamp down on the urge, even as something deeper than magic, more potent than lust, swells in my chest. The certainty that Sydney is meant for me is both terrifying and exhilarating. It’s mad. Impossible.
Inevitable?
No. I refuse to let magic dictate my fate or endanger her. And yet…this feels like more than mystical compulsion. I admire her fire, her razor-sharp mind. That sassy mouth of hers drives me wild. If I were still human, I’d move heaven and earth to make her mine.
But I can’t think like that. I have a mission: keep her safe, stop her from transcasting, fix Lucan’s life. Then it’s back to Texas, leaving the Doomsday Brethren in my dust.
But what do I have to go back to?
The thought unsettles me. I withdraw and stand, righting my jeans. Sydney adjusts her skirt and looks up at me, all flushed and tousled and utterly gorgeous. My heart clenches.
“I promise…” The words of the Call surge up again, choking me. I swallow hard, forcing them down. “I promise to do everything in my power to keep you safe. To protect you from the dangers of magickind. And I’ll be watching over you, whether you like it or not.”
The words feel inadequate, a pale shadow of what I truly want to say. But it’s all I can offer without risking everything.