91. Clash of Stone and Steel #3
Her face softened. “No, he’s not. I’m volunteering to go, but I’m coming back. I promise. I’m not leaving you.”
The breath rushed out of Samhail in a long, deep exhale, and he knew she’d hit on the real reason this sent panic surging through him. It wasn’t that she was going. It was that he was afraid she wouldn’t be coming back.
“I need you,” he said, the words more choked than he wanted.
She smiled and put a hand to his cheek. “I need you too, and I fought too hard to get you to just give you up.”
Talyn took his hand that bore her mark and held it up for him to see.
“This means you belong to me,” she said. “Trust me when I tell you I’ll be back whenever I can to claim what’s mine.”
The smile that spread across Samhail’s face was smug, and she gave him a look that warned him not to be an ass. He reached up and ran his fingers gently over the bite marks on her shoulder.
“At least you have something to remember me by when you’re gone,” he said huskily.
She smiled. “Oh, I have more than those marks.” She reached up and opened the locket that always hung at her neck to pull something out.
Samhail frowned, not understanding at first what the object was. Then recognition hit him. It was the lock of his hair she’d cut off with his own sword when he’d first caught up with her after her escape. She’d braided the strands into a small plait, rolled it into a coil, and put it in the locket.
“You kept my hair?” he asked incredulously.
She shrugged, blushing. “At first it was a trophy. Evidence I’d fought the great Samhail and lived to tell the tale.”
He raised an eyebrow as she wound the braided locks absently around her finger. She had no idea how appropriate the gesture really was.
She met his eyes. “After a while, keeping it meant something different. I tried to get rid of it when I thought I was leaving, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.” She hesitated. “I needed a piece of you to take with me.”
A lump formed in his throat. Gods above. What this woman did to him. He reached out, pulled her close, and kissed her, more tenderly than he’d ever kissed her before. It was a kiss of love, not lust.
Samhail let out a deep breath as he pulled back from her. “I suppose that’s acceptable,” he said, “but there’s still one more thing. Who’s going to protect me while you’re gone?”
She blinked. “Protect you? What are you talking about?” she asked as she put the hair back in her locket.
“I accepted your Right of Primacy claim. That means you’re responsible for my protection. Had you accepted my claim, it would’ve been my job to always keep you safe, but since you rejected mine and forced me to accept yours, it’s now your job to keep me safe.”
“Forced you?” she sputtered.
He crossed his arms. “As I recall, you’d stabbed me in the heart and were looming over me while I bled out when you claimed the Right of Primacy.
I was hardly in a position to resist. You even threatened me if I didn’t accept your claim.
” He shrugged. “I was afraid for my life. What else could I do?”
Talyn rolled her eyes. “I changed my mind about coming back.”
She tried to walk past him, but he spun her back around and pulled her close to kiss her.
“So about that protection,” he prompted as he lifted his lips.
“I’ll leave Axenus in charge of that while I’m gone,” she said.
“Oh, fuck no,” he said, and she laughed.
“I’m not letting Bressen take you away just yet, in any case,” he said. “I need at least a little time to enjoy my victory.”
Talyn raised a brow. “Your victory? You lost the challenge.”
He smirked. “Did I?”
She started to answer then paused. “Son of a bitch,” she said finally.
Samhail chuckled and swept her up to toss her back on the bed. She squeaked in protest at his manhandling, but his huge body came down to cover hers, and she arched into him.
“It took longer than expected, but I knew I could crack that stone heart of yours,” he said as he laid a hand against her heart. He slid it lower to begin kneading her breast, and she moaned. His mouth replaced his hand, but he looked up when she swore.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I just realized Surgeon and Serise are now my in-laws,” she said.
Samhail growled. “First of all, don’t mention my siblings in this bed,” he said. “Second, the only thing you should be thinking about right now are the benefits of being mated to a gargoyle.”
“There are benefits?” she asked.
He grinned. “Oh yes.” He moved further down her body and slid his hands between her thighs to push her legs open. “For one, we have incredible stamina.”
She cocked her head in interest. “Oh?”
He snaked his gargoyle tongue out to lick his lips. “Then, of course, there’s my tongue, and-”
Talyn put a finger to his lips to silence him. “You can stop there. The tongue alone is worth it.”
He chuckled as he lowered his head between her thighs. “I belong to you, Talyn of Avril, and I intend to spend the rest of my life showing you exactly what that means.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but she gasped instead as his tongue went to work, and he spent the next few hours treating her to all the benefits of having a gargoyle of her own.