He wanted her to say it, wanted her to admit her desire for him while they were separated. That way, she couldn’t claim passion spoke for her. More than that, he wanted her to say it without offering her the same admission. Not at first, and maybe not after. Either way, she’d be taking a risk. While a denial could save her pride, he might turn away from her, now and always. And while agreement could cause her major embarrassment, it could also bring her a pleasure unlike any she’d known before. So, no contest.

“Yes,” she admitted. “Because I desire you, hunger for you.”

Silence once again reigned, and she wasn’t sure if he’d heard her or cared. Then his gaze shifted away from her, only to jerk back to her a second later, as if he lacked the strength to battle his own needs, the blue of his eyes mixed with glimmers of demon-red and black. Eerie and haunting, but not frightening. Not anymore.

“I wasn’t sure what I would do with you when I found you,” he said, his voice more gravel than anything. “Save you, yes. Definitely. Sleep with you, yes, that, too. I want you so badly I ache. All the time, I ache, but even though I want to keep you, part of me has always known that I would have to leave you afterward. I can’t do permanent, even with you.”

Even, he’d said, as if she were special. And the fact that he’d copped to his own feelings of desire caused her hunger for him to return in full force. Her entire body trembled, and had she been standing, she would have collapsed. “I know you’ll have to leave me,” she said. It wasn’t something she could blame him for, because she couldn’t stay with him, either.”

He dragged in a breath, his fingers clenched on the rocks he still held. “I will not lie to you, and I will not cheat on you, and if we tried for something more, I would have to do both.”

Like he’d done with that woman, Susan.

“Being with you may not affect my demon, may not strengthen me. I don’t know, because I haven’t had the same woman twice since my possession. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to leave you sooner than expected and find…someone else.”

There was no reason for him to know that the thought of him with another woman ate at her, leaving raw, oozing wounds. “I know.”

“Because you saw…”

“Susan. Yes.”

Sadness flickered in his eyes, then anger. He ran his tongue over his teeth, as though her response had somehow pricked his temper. “If that happens, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you first, before I leave, and no matter what, I’ll come back to you. I’ll make sure you reach the exit. But after that, we have to… We say goodbye, once and for all.”

The fire must have been doing its job, but the cavern seemed to warm in an instant, the cold vanquished. Perhaps her body had simply sucked that cold inside. She felt chilled to the bone. Paris wasn’t going to protest her return to the Hunters. She wondered if he would object to her involvement with Galen, if it became necessary, but wasn’t going to ask. As much as she wanted to know the answer, she didn’t want to know the answer.

“Knowing all of that, do you still want to be with me?” he asked.

His tone implied he didn’t give a shit about her answer. That he’d shrug and easily find someone else if she said no. But he was holding his breath, she realized, his cheeks flushing under the strain. He did want her, and he did care whether or not she wanted him back.

“I still want to be with you,” she said. “Still want you.”

He searched her face, clearly satisfied by what he saw, because he nodded. “Good. Now take off your clothes and get in the water.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

PARIS WATCHED AS SIENNA dropped her shirt on the floor, where she’d already kicked her pants. Now she stood in her bra and panties. Plain, white. And yet, clinging to her perfect little body, they were the sexiest garments he’d ever seen.

His erection stretched past his navel, the base wider than his wrist. Yeah, he wanted her that badly.

More, Sex pleaded.

“The rest,” he croaked. She was so beautiful…so strong. He’d come all this way, done all those terrible things, and yet she had freed herself from Cronus’s hold. When Paris looked past his own masculine pride, he was glad about that. She had fought her demon and won, something he had never been able to do. Whatever happened outside this realm, she would be okay.

What happened inside of it, however…

Shouldn’t do this, he thought, even as he repeated, “The rest. Now.”

She unhooked the bra, dropped the garment on top of the others. Rosy nipples pearled from the lingering coolness in the air, topping off breasts he wanted in his mouth. Her thumbs slid under the waist of her panties and tugged. Down the exquisite length of her legs, until she was a whole lot of naked. His gaze was riveted on the dark triangle of curls shielding his favorite place in this realm or any other.

She shifted uncomfortably, her arms lifting and lowering as if she wanted to cover herself but kept talking herself out of doing so.

“You’re perfect. So sweet and perfect.” Slender, finely boned, with that deliciously freckled skin, each mark reminding him of a little drop of candy. He was going to lick her from top to bottom.

When they parted, there would be no part of her he hadn’t tasted.

Frowning, she looked herself over. “How can you say that about me?”

“If you’re about to insult yourself, I suggest you zip your mouth and get in the water.”

His waspish tone had her blinking. “You’re mad.”

Hell, yeah, he was mad. “When I tell you how beautiful you are, and you express doubt, you’re basically calling me a liar.”

“No, I don’t mean… It’s just that…” She paused, reminding him of the babbling, uncertain woman he’d smacked into in Rome. The one who had fascinated him so completely, the one who’d prattled so charmingly. “Men just don’t…”

Men. He cursed with enough heat to blister. “That’s good, because otherwise I’d have to kill them.” She was his and anyone else who looked at her, anyone else who thought to touch her— Stop right there. Keep the possessiveness to a minimum. This is temporary. Has to be temporary.

“Paris,” she said, a hitch to her voice.

“Yes.” He wanted to look away, couldn’t look away.

“I think you’re beautiful, too.” With that, as if she hadn’t just undone him, she turned toward the spring. He saw the elegant, and bruised, line of her back. Saw where those violet-and-jet wings grew in two perfect rows, saw the obsidian butterfly tattoo etched between them.

The curve of her spine made his mouth water. There were two indentions at the base, just above her ass. And speaking of her ass…had he ever seen anything more lovely? Enough to grab while he pounded deep inside her, toned, four freckles forming a starlike pattern on the right cheek.

He could worship there for hours, days.

More. Please, more. Need to touch.

A moan of bliss left her as she sank into the steaming water. She disappeared underneath the surface, saturating her hair, then came back up sputtering.

“Here.” His arm shook as he withdrew a thin, wrapped bar of soap from his pocket. Embarrassment doused him when he noted he was trembling.

She accepted gratefully, her fingers brushing his palm. Beads of sweat broke out on his brow. “Thank you. You were smart to travel with one of these. I’ll have to remember to do that.”

Yeah. He wasn’t going to explain his reason for doing so. He wasn’t going there with her. Ever.

Telling her that he always carried a bar, that he never knew whose bed he’d end up in, or what kind of person he’d be with, or how dirty he’d feel afterward, or that he carried soap like other men carried condoms…not smart. A mood ruiner for sure.

And speaking of condoms, could he tell her the truth? He couldn’t catch an STD, so he couldn’t pass one on; pregnancy was rare between an immortal and a human, much less a dead human; and while he hated sleeping with strangers, hated being so intimate with them, his demon needed the skin-to-skin contact. So, no condom, even though his shaft had come into contact with thousands of people. She would be disgusted.

He shouldn’t have pushed her for a sexual relationship when he had nothing more to offer her. He should have given her time to make a more informed decision, but he didn’t have time. They didn’t have time. In two days, he would lose her. And the thing was, Sex needed fulfillment now. So, yeah, if she would let him, he would take her.

He settled at the spring’s ledge, need for her clawing at him. If they did this—they were so doing this—and Sex wasn’t satisfied immediately afterward, Paris would…what? Do what he’d told her he would do and find someone else?

Don’t think about that right now. He would lose control of his temper.

Already the darkness inside him swirled, craving a release of its own, making him feel as though he were possessed by two demons, each with separate needs. Sex, needing sex, and Violence, needing bloodshed. But Maddox carried the demon of Violence, so there went that theory.

Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Only Sienna and this moment matter.

Sienna.

Soon she would leave this realm, the heavens, and hide from Cronus. No way would Paris allow her to hunt Galen. He would convince her to remain tucked away, and that was that. She would be safe, and Paris would return to his friends. To his war. To his old life.

A sick, pitiful existence, but, hell, after all the people he’d hurt throughout the centuries, he deserved it. Especially for what he’d done to Susan.

He’d truly admired and respected Susan. Had promised her fidelity even though he couldn’t give it, and had slowly broken her heart. He wouldn’t do that to another woman.

But… He yearned for more than random couplings. He yearned for monogamy.

He yearned for Sienna.

You can have her, Sex said.

Only to lose her.

No argument there.