Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (67 page)

He was going to be in a sour mood for days.

A sliver of his strength slowly returned, enough that he could walk without fear of collapsing and making a fool of himself. His wings shrank into his bare back and he rolled his shoulders, grimacing as his bones cracked and his body ached. He had never thought he would miss his power to heal instantly, but he would have traded half his kingdom to have it back right now, and not only because the pain was already driving him crazy.

He feared that Mihail would return while he was weakened and snatch Nina from him.

He ascended the stairs to the second floor and followed the balcony that ran around the vestibule to the other side where his quarters were located. Nina’s weren’t far from his and he had to pass her apartment in order to reach his own one.

He slid a glance at her door as he passed.

It opened and she stood there before him, her peridot eyes growing enormous as they ran down him and took in every inch of his chest.

“What happened?” She stepped forwards before he could tell her to remain in her room, her hands coming up to flutter in front of her as if she wanted to touch him but feared what might happen.

He feared it too.

He wasn’t sure he would be able to control himself if she placed her hands on him.

“The man who took you returned. I made sure that he left.” He went to turn away but she caught his left arm.

A bolt of electricity shot through his veins from the point where she touched him, burning up his blood and leaving him breathless as he fought to master his urge to turn back to face her, slide his free hand along her jaw and dip his head to kiss her.

He managed to tamp down that need but couldn’t stop himself from looking back at her.

She stared at her hand on his arm, her eyes wider than before and her lips parted. He thought she would take her hand away when he moved his arm. She released him, but their skin was only apart for a second before she was touching him again, her fingers lightly dancing over the lacerations on his arm, following each one upwards towards his shoulder.

Making him burn for her.

He bit back a growl born of pleasure not anger and tried to evade her by moving his shoulder back.

It didn’t stop her.

It only made things worse.

She stepped fully into the hallway and pursued him, her fingers tracking across his bare chest now, making his heart thump painfully hard against his ribs.

“Did the man do this to you? What did he want?” she said, her stunning gaze filling with a flicker of fear but also concern as she stroked the line of a deeper wound that darted across his left pectoral and over the first set of abdominal muscles.

Her fingers paused.

Her eyes lifted to meet his.

A touch of colour stained her cheeks.

“He wanted you,” Lucifer murmured.

Her eyes went a little wider, the colour on her cheeks a little darker, as if she thought he was talking about himself and that he desired her.

His gaze dropped to her sweet lips, parted and open to him, begging for a kiss.

Hell, but he did want her.

And Hell, he would have her.

Nina gasped as Lucifer’s lips descended on hers and his hands clamped down on her hips, drawing her towards him. Her arms looped around his neck on instinct, tugging him closer to her as she lost herself for a moment in the heat of his kiss.

The taste of ash and blood on her tongue was a stark reminder of his injuries that threw a bucket of ice on the fire of her desire.

She reluctantly pressed her hands to his shoulders and eased him back. He broke away from her mouth with a soft huff that spoke volumes to her, telling her that he was as happy about stopping the kiss as she was.

Nina looked up at his face, dirty and bloodstained, no longer smooth pale perfection, because of her.

Because he had wanted to protect her.

Golden eyes searched hers, the heat of passion still burning in them, calling her to surrender to the fire that raged inside her too.

She wanted to give in to it.

Heaven help her, but she wanted this man who stood before her, and not only because he was beautiful on the outside.

He was beautiful on the inside too.

She could see beyond the barriers now. A single look into his eyes revealed everything to her. His guard was down, stripped of him as his eyes darted between hers, seeking something unknown, something that she felt sure he was looking for to relieve himself of the feelings she knew he was experiencing.

Because he was just like her.

He didn’t want people to see him as he was now. Hurt. Suffering. Bare.

He protected himself with a shield of perfect image and power, but that armour was gone and a different man was looking back at her, one who touched her deep in her heart because he wasn’t turning her away. He was letting her see him like this.

He was letting her see him vulnerable and weakened.

She slid her hand down to his and clasped it, and when she stepped back towards her room, he eyed their joined hands with mild surprise in his gaze and then raised it back to hers. He followed her into her apartment, his eyes still darting between hers and a touch of nerves filling them as she led him towards the bathroom beyond the four-poster double bed at the far end of the room.

Part of her expected him to pull away, to bring his shields back up to protect himself.

It humbled her when he didn’t.

He allowed her to manoeuvre him into the black-tiled sumptuous bathroom, bringing him to the wide obsidian marble sink that occupied a large section of the vanity unit in front of the huge gilt-framed mirror.

Nina released his hand, reached for the sponge on the dish and ran it under the warm tap. The water grew hot quickly so she switched to filling the bowl with it and adding cold to keep it from scalding her hand as she worked.

Lucifer watched her every move like a hawk, his gaze following her hand as she dipped it into the water, lifted it and squeezed out the sponge.

She brought it towards him and he tensed.

Nina paused, giving him a moment because she could sense that he needed one.

Because she could see that he hadn’t accepted help from anyone in a long time and she could relate to that.

When the taut muscles of his chest and stomach relaxed, she gently took hold of his left hand and carefully ran the sponge over it. She kept her eyes fixed on her work as she cleaned away the blood and dirt, revealing smooth pale skin and tiny streaks of red. They were small on his arms, barely scratches, but there were others on his torso that looked as if someone had taken a knife to him.

What had taken place during the fight?

Had Lucifer used his mysterious powers to battle the man?

If he had, did that mean that the man also possessed powers of some sort?

The man had been able to fight Lucifer, had wounded him, badly in some places. That had to mean that he also had powers. It was too much for her to comprehend. She was only just becoming accustomed to the idea that Lucifer might be able to create things with whatever power he possessed. She didn’t think she could handle the idea that he also had the ability to use his powers to fight another person.

Another person who was like him.

Lucifer had mentioned that he had driven the man away again, and that caused a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach because it told her something that terrified her.

Whoever the man was, he was as powerful as Lucifer.

He had been able to stand his ground against him.

And he was after her.

Nina pushed those thoughts away, bringing her focus back to Lucifer and using her work to keep her mind off the man and her predicament. Lucifer had protected her again and she was safe here in his castle. She was sure of that. Once she had him patched up, she would ask about the man and make him explain what was happening.

Lucifer didn’t seem to notice the pain as she cleaned his arm and began to head towards his chest. If he did feel anything, he didn’t show it. His gaze drifted to her when she had finished his shoulder and started on his pectorals, burning her with its intensity. She kept her eyes on her work, but it didn’t stop the blush from scalding her cheeks when she thought about how he had kissed her.

How it had made her feel.

Fired up.

Hungry for more.

She wanted him, and even though she wasn’t sure it was wise to sleep with him, she felt powerless to resist his pull and the lure of surrendering to her attraction to him. For the first time in years, she wanted to ignore the sensible part of herself and embrace the impulsive one.

She wanted to risk being hurt again.

Because something told her that Lucifer might be worth that risk.

She glanced up to find his gaze on her lips, dark with hunger that echoed within her. It took all of her willpower to force herself to continue and focus on cleaning him and then the task of binding his wounds. He was in no fit state for the things he was thinking about.

Things she couldn’t stop thinking about too, imagining them locked in each other’s arms, tangled in a passionate embrace.

It became harder to resist acting out those thoughts when she reached his stomach. She needed a moment to rein in her desires. Her gaze strayed to the hard compact muscles of his abdomen and heat pooled in her belly, drifted lower to the apex of her thighs. Lucifer muttered something, his voice dark magic as he leaned towards her.

She turned her cheek, her eyes fixing on the dirty water in the sink, but it didn’t stop him. It only made it worse for her. Her eyes rolled closed as he kissed her jaw and then her neck, his lips trailing fire down it, sending shiver after shiver cascading down her spine. A moan slipped from her lips and she bit her tongue, trying to contain the groan of pleasure.

Lucifer’s hands caught her waist.

Nina drew in a deep breath and somehow managed to press her hands to his chest and push him back.

His wounded look cut her to her heart and she glanced down at the chiselled muscles of his chest before finding the strength to lift her eyes back to his.

“I need to get these wounds clean. What if they get infected?” She busied herself with draining the dirty water from the sink, rinsing the bowl, and filling it again.

Lucifer stared at her the entire time, his silence making the air around her too thick to breathe. She wanted him too, he had to know that, but she couldn’t rush into this. She needed to give him time to heal. It wasn’t as if she was going anywhere.

Her eyebrows shot up.

When had she stopped thinking about leaving?

It was all she had wanted for the entire time she had been locked in the fortress, was all she had thought about, born of a desire to protect Lucifer from whatever her ex-husband might have planned for him.

But now the thought of leaving hurt her.

Her eyes slowly lifted to Lucifer’s face.

The thought of leaving him pained her.

His eyes narrowed and dropped to her lips, and she couldn’t resist him as he pulled her into his arms and claimed her mouth again. She surrendered to him this time, allowing him to tug her against his chest as his lips dominated her, filling her with heat and hunger that burned so fiercely she feared they would consume her.

When he tugged her even closer, banding his arms around her and crushing her to his chest, forcing her to tip her head back to keep their mouths together, he grunted.

The sharp sound of pain leaving his lips drove awareness back into her mind, pushing it through the haze of desire like a spear of light.

Nina sighed and didn’t have to push him back this time. He set her away from him and glared down at his chest, as if his injuries were more of an inconvenience than anything else.

“We should finish patching you up,” she whispered, and was that her voice sounding so breathless and needy?

Her fingers trailed over his chest, following the line of the nastiest cut that dashed over his pectoral and the first pair of abdominal muscles. Heck, he was perfect. She had never seen a body like his, had never looked at a man and felt this level of need purely from gazing at him.

She wanted to give in to that need, but that logical part of her mind was screaming at her again, demanding she place his welfare above her desire to get him naked.

Dark golden eyes lifted to meet hers, the wide abysses of his pupils speaking to her of his need. A need that clearly matched her own.

She had to force herself to look away and focus on her task again. The sponge floated in the clean water, calling her back to her duty. She had started taking care of him and she was determined to finish it, no matter how easily he could sway her into neglecting it again. No matter how many times she had to stop him, she would keep finding the strength to do it.

Nina picked up the sponge, squeezed it out and stared at it, awareness of what came next dawning on her.

She had to keep cleaning his stomach.

She wasn’t sure she could do it without her need to kiss him overpowering her again.

Not on the mouth this time.

She wanted to trail her lips down the taut ridges of his stomach, swirl her tongue around the sensual dip of his navel, and follow that treasure trail of dark hair that led down into the waistband of his black trousers.

Nina coughed to clear her throat, shoved that thought out of her head before it did wreck her fragile control, and set to work on cleaning his other arm. She would build back up to his stomach. Arm first. Then his back. And finally the delicious and tempting ropes of his stomach.

She carefully cleaned his arm, trying to ignore the heat of his gaze as he watched her work. When she had finished moving down from his shoulder to his hand, she paused with her fingers supporting his and stared at his black nails. They looked natural. She rubbed her thumb over them, taking in their perfection.

Lucifer drew his hand away from her and lowered it to his side, and she sensed that if she tried to look at his nails again, he would resort to hiding his hands behind his back as he had before.