Chapter 19
Alexion spent the entire day watching Danger sleep. He sat in the cream jacquard padded chair beside her bed, completely absorbed by the pale beauty of her. She was without flaw. Without guile. Without cruelty inside. She would never hurt someone she loved. Indeed, she'd died trying to save her family when it would have been easy enough for her to have turned her back on them and saved herself.
It was part of why he loved her so.
"I don't want to leave her." He whispered the heartfelt words knowing that in the end he had no choice. Damn him for not being able to control his emotions where she was concerned. All he had done was ruin his own future.
Why was that?
Why did such pain have to exist in this world? Love should be easy. It should be simple. A person should be allowed to find that one person they couldn't live without and just go on their merry way to happily-ever-after.
But it didn't work that way. He was living, or dead, proof of it. Liora had sworn she loved him and look how that had turned out. It was hard to trust another person not to hurt you. There was still a part of him, even now, that wondered if he could go free, would Danger drop the medallion to save herself?
Would her own personal pain be so great that she would help herself before him?
There was no way to know the answer. Especially not now.
He sighed. He knew from Acheron that it was useless to dwell on wants or what could have been. He had to deal with the present and that meant keeping Danger safe from whatever Stryker had planned.
He had Xirena with him now. Surely the two of them were capable of protecting one woman. Weren't they?
But when dealing with a crafty god bent on vengeance, it didn't pay to get cocky.
"C'mon, boss man," he said under his breath, "talk to me."
Alexion shook his head at the irony. In the past, he'd always hated it whenever Acheron had intruded into his thoughts or space. Now that he wanted him, the Atlantean was nowhere to be found.
It figured...
"Alexion?"
He got up and went to the bed where Danger was stirring. She stretched and yawned as she watched him. "Do you always rise so early?"
"Yes," he said, not wanting her to know that because he was more or less a ghost, he didn't need sleep. His rest wasn't quite the same as a human's.
She yawned again before offering him a smile. "So what's on the agenda for tonight?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Migraine, futility, possible death. Same as every night, I guess."
Danger laughed. "That sounds like my life, all right." She glanced toward the door. "So how's our demon doing?"
"I haven't been to the media room in about two hours, but last I checked, she was knee deep in Kirk's Folly orders. Good thing Acheron is loaded. Then again, the way these demons shop, I'm not even sure he has enough money to cover it."
Danger was amused by his words. It was so nice to wake up to see his handsome face smiling at her.
She took his hand in hers so that she could feel the masculine roughness of it. She didn't know what it was about the sensation of a man's skin that was so appealing, but there was no denying that she enjoyed how different it was from her own.
She breathed deeply against her fingers, delighting in the warm, pleasant scent of them. His hands were powerful and yet tender. Wonderful and delectable. Opening her lips, she gently nipped his forefinger.
He hissed in response. "You keep doing that, and I won't let you out of that bed."
"Then why don't you join me?" she said, pulling back the covers so that he could see her naked body. She'd never done anything so bold with a man before, not even her husband. But for some reason, she didn't mind sharing herself with Alexion.
Her sense of modesty had flown and she wasn't really sure why.
His eyes sparked green fire. "We have a job to do."
"And we have three more days to meet with the Dark-Hunters, who are going to insult and aggravate you." She ran her tongue over the pad of his thumb, then pulled back. "They're not going anywhere. Like you said, it's just an exercise in futility. I vote we take one night off and just enjoy it." She licked the back of his knuckles.
Pure pleasure darkened his gaze, but still he resisted her. "To what purpose?"
She sat up in the bed and wrapped her legs around his lean waist, pulling him closer to her. "You've changed since you've been here, Alexion. When you first arrived, you were so cold and distant. You're not like that now. You're warm and fun. I don't want to lose that. I don't want you to lose that."
Alexion swallowed. She was absolutely right. She had changed him.
Danger brushed the hair back from his face. "I want you to have memories of me that will help keep you warm after you leave."
Those memories would only hurt him more, and yet his heart was thrilled by the idea of it. He hadn't had a night of normality since he'd been human, and for some reason, being with this woman made him crave it viciously.
What would it be like?
"And what will we do?"
She gave him a seductive grin that made him harden while she trailed her hand down the front of his shirt. "Have you ever been to a real movie?"
He shook his head. Acheron and Simi went all the time, but the last time he'd been in the human realm, movies hadn't been invented yet.
"Then that's what we're going to do," she said in a tone that let him know she wouldn't take no for an answer. "Dinner and a movie... Just like everyday Jane and Jack."
Alexion shook his head. "I think you've lost your mind."
She was slowly unbuttoning his shirt as she talked to him. Every brush of her hand against his flesh sent chills over his body. "Perhaps, but do you know what Jack and Jane would do to start off their night?"
"I have no idea."
"They'd start it off with blindingly great sex."
Alexion hissed as she sank her hand down under his waistband to stroke his hard cock. His body was already throbbing and craving hers in the worst sort of way. Or maybe it was the best sort of way.
There was truly nothing better than her hands on his body. Nothing better than the feel of Danger.
Alexion laughed as that thought went through his mind.
"What are you laughing at?" Danger asked as she stopped her sweet torture.
"I just had a bad pun go through my mind."
"And that is?"
"That I live for Danger."
Danger's heart pounded at his corny words. They shouldn't please her and yet they did. Oh, yeah, there was really something wrong with her. She was head over heels for this man and sinking in deeper by the minute.
"How do you always know the right thing to say?" she asked him.
"I didn't know that I did."
"Take my word for it, you do."
He closed his eyes as she ran her fingertips over the tip of his shaft. She loved pleasing him. But as she watched the ecstasy on his face, it fired her desire even more.
Undoing his fly, she slid his pants down his legs, then pulled his lips to hers so that she could taste him.