Of Alliance and Rebellion (27 page)

He had not thought her eyes could get any wider, but they did. “What?” she asked. Her voice was breathless and raspy, he noted with some satisfaction. His kiss had not left her unaffected.

“I love you,” he repeated. He tilted his head to the side and watched in fascination as his finger traveled over the delicate skin of her cheek and down to her neck, the fact that he was touching her again—and she wasn’t pushing him away—so heady that he was dizzy with it.

“You cannot love me,” she said, frowning. “We barely know each other!”

“You forget,” he said, his voice rumbling with the effort to hold back a smile. “I’ve had a good long time to sit and consider my behavior and what I’ve lost. I know enough of you to know that I already love you. The more I find out in the years to come, the more that will grow.”

Her forehead scrunched. “How long is
a good long time
?”

“Ten weeks,” he breathed, unable to believe he had gone that long without touching her as he was touching her now.

“That is not—” She batted his hand away. “That is an
incredibly
short amount of time, Max!”

“It was interminable.”

She began to move away. “Max—”

He placed his hands on her shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze, cutting off whatever she was about to say. “I’m sorry,” Max said.

Anahita froze.

“You don’t have to forgive me, but you more than deserve an apology, and this is it,” Max said, the words flowing quickly in an effort to get all of them out before she stopped him. “I was every kind of ass. I put others before you. I went with a plan that, had I bothered to tell you about it, you would have endorsed, and I chose instead to use you. And worse…”

He broke off and pulled in a shaky breath, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t break down and bawl again—this time in front of her. “I betrayed your trust. I took something you had told me in confidence and in a moment that I treasure, and I told others so that I could expose your weakness.” He shook his head. “You know what?
Don’t
forgive me for that one. I don’t deserve it. But, Ana—” He couldn’t stop himself from ducking in and stealing a quick kiss again. He lifted his lips and breathed, “I will never,
never
betray you again. And you don’t have to believe me. I’ll just spend the rest of my life proving it.”

Anahita licked her lips, and he felt her shoulders tremble beneath his hands. “That was ... a very good speech,” she said.

He smiled. “I had
a good long time
to think it up.” He groaned and gave up a small portion of the tight leash he had on himself, pulling Anahita into his arms and wrapping himself around her. “And, pretty baby, you don’t have to love me back. I’ll earn that, too. I know ten weeks doesn’t feel like enough to you, especially if your Compulsion didn’t allow you to think of me—”

“You were there,” she said, her words muffled against his neck. “I did not know exactly what it was that was always present in my thoughts—that I was inexorably drawn to—but ... it was
you
.”

He closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair. “That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard,” he said. Damn. His eyes were stinging something fierce. “Ana, give me a chance,” he said, not even trying to hide the fact that he was begging. “No one will ever be as devoted to someone as I will be to you. I love you.
God
, I love you.”

He felt her wings droop, and a stone landed in his belly. She pulled away and looked up at him. “I cannot Fall, Max. There is so much to do.”

Max stiffened and told himself to take it easy—keep his anger at
himself
out of his voice lest she think it was directed at her. “You will
not
Fall for me. Now or ever,” he said firmly. “That’s not how this is going to work between us. You don’t give up who you are for me”—he paused to grip her chin—“or anybody.”

She frowned, and he plowed headlong into the silence that was weighted with the implied
including yourself
. “You Fall when you create life with your Temptation or when you choose to Fall for your Temptation, yes?” he asked.

She hesitated, but finally nodded. “More or less.”

Max shrugged in a way that he hoped was casual and put her at ease. “Then don’t choose to. I’m here; I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to die like a normal human Temptation, so there’s no reason to join your life span with mine. And we will be very careful. Always. We can make sure there are no children.”

Anahita’s face blanched. “But ... I
like
children,” she muttered.

The lump in Max’s throat expanded. And she thought ten weeks was too short to fall in love with her. He’d just fallen a bit more in the last handful of heartbeats. “Then we will adopt. Or wait until a better time. We will have forever, after all.”

• • •

Anahita gazed up into Max’s face and felt her world shift. She could do this. He asked little. In fact, it seemed he asked nothing but that she be with him. She wouldn’t have to Fall. She wouldn’t have to sacrifice.

Was she truly getting everything that she wanted? Leading the Warriors but not having to deny her Guardian side? Living with and loving her Temptation but not having to Fall?

Before the universe could right itself and snatch back these boons, she decided to act. “I think,” she began, “that a chance sounds good.”

If she had any remaining doubts about taking this step, the look upon Max’s face at her words would have cleared them. The widest smile she’d ever seen on him graced his face, causing his scar to nearly disappear, and before she could catch her next breath, she was swept into his arms and twirling around the room so quickly, she was dizzy.

As often as she had felt the emotions she was forbidden to feel as a Warrior, she had never felt the one that currently flowed through her. It was so powerful and so pure that in an instant, she was able to name it though she’d never before known it in this particular way.

She loved him.

She gasped and clutched him tighter as he continued to spin her. She loved him—she did—but it was only a start, and maybe that was what made love so exciting. Love did not work the way she had always thought it did. It was not an all-at-once endeavor, but something that grew and grew. Already she loved him more now than she did five minutes ago, and tomorrow she would love him more. Next week even more. How wonderful to discover that love is a masterpiece in progress with two artists.

Max stopped twirling her about and settled her on her feet. He stared straight into her eyes without even the slightest flinch to cover his scar with his hair, and Anahita took the opportunity to look upon his face to her heart’s content. His wide, nearly silly grin sobered before her eyes, and his gaze dipped to her mouth. The mere touch of his eyes on her lips made her belly ache, and she stepped toward him, bringing their bodies together. His pupils blew, gobbling up the mismatched gold and brown, and he began to lower his head. Though she wanted his mouth on hers more than she wanted anything, she could not let him continue before giving him the same joy he had given her. “I love you too, Max,” she whispered.

He jerked into a frozen state, his lips hovering above hers, and he looked into her eyes with wide ones of his own. “I could have sworn you said…” he muttered in a raspy voice that trailed off.

“It’s true,” she said. “For a good long time, I have loved you.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Is that so?” he asked. “Define
good long time
.”

“Well,” she said, feeling her own lips turn upward. “I knew for sure about thirty seconds ago.”

Max gasped, and it took her a few hectic heartbeats to determine that he had done so dramatically. He placed his open palm over his chest. “And it took you thirty seconds to tell me? Damn, woman, why would you make me wait so long?”

“I had to be sure,” she said. “Let time tell and all of that.”

“So wise,” he whispered, his eyes crinkling around the corners in a way she had never seen before. He was happy, and she had made him so. The realization was more fulfilling than she could have ever guessed.

“You are certainly waiting a good long time to kiss me, Temptation,” she said.

His gaze sharpened on her mouth. “Apologies,” he muttered. Though they were already close enough that they were touching, he wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her in even more. Her hips came into contact with his, and she could feel that she’d already made him hard. Her skin flushed hot.

He ran his fingers over the edges of her feathers, and with his other hand, he reached up and cupped her cheek with his palm. He ran the rough pad of his thumb across her bottom lip, and Anahita felt herself shiver. He leaned down and followed the same path his thumb had taken with the velvety trace of the tip of his tongue, and Anahita was undone.

She opened her lips and breathed him in, pulling his tongue into her mouth and wrapping her own around it.

A harsh groan ripped from his chest, and the gentle hold he had on her body turned fierce. His arm around her waist snaked up between her wings; his fingers dug into her shoulder as he fastened her to him and plundered her mouth. His chest was hard and unforgiving against hers, and she could feel his quickened breathing in the billowing of his stomach. She palmed his pecs and smoothed her hands up and over his shoulders until she could wind her fingers through his hair. She found herself pressing into him more, discontent with their closeness not being close enough. A mewling sound slipped past her lips and into his mouth, and her knee began to travel up the outside of his thigh, seeking to bring her center into closer contact with his erection.

He grunted and suddenly, his hot hand was wrapped around the back of her knee, and he hiked her up, grabbing her other knee as well. She followed his lead and climbed him until her knees were straddling his hips. His head was canted far back as he refused to break their kiss, and she doubted they could hold this position for long without one of them crashing to the ground and pulling the other along. No sooner had the thought floated through her head than he turned and sat her bottom down on the table with only the slightest stumble in his step.

He deepened the kiss; she wrapped her legs around his waist fully now, crossing her ankles over the exquisite firmness of his behind. She was confused when he began leaning forward, forcing her to lean back as well, but when she discovered that he was laying them down, she was wholeheartedly on board. Her wings spread out on the table, and she wrapped her arms around him.

But he placed his palms on the table and pushed himself up. With a noise of protest, Anahita loosened her hold and allowed him to rise. His eyes flashed, and she got the feeling he had better plans in mind than even this, so Anahita relaxed into the refreshing coolness of the wood beneath her back.

He placed his pointer finger between her breasts and then slowly dragged it down her ribs and belly. She arched her back into his touch. Reaching to his right, he snagged one of the rolling office chairs from around the table. He pulled it over and sank down into it, pressing a kiss to her left knee as soon as he was settled and directing her feet to plant firmly on the chair’s armrests.

She felt a breeze caress her thighs as he grabbed great handfuls of her robe and pulled it up to drape over her waist. He then grasped an ankle with each of his hands to keep her put and rolled the chair right up to the edge of the table.

His shoulders brushed the insides of her thighs, and he stared intently at the place between her legs before casting his eyes to hers. “This is going to be the best thing I’ve ever eaten at a table.”

Anahita felt her brows draw together as she tried to puzzle out the meaning behind his words, but then he was pressing open-mouthed kisses to the inside of her left thigh. “Oh,” she breathed, sudden understanding rushing in. She repeated the single syllable, drawing it out until it turned into a moan, when his hot tongue traveled even farther up her thigh. His beard tickled the sensitive skin at the bend of her leg, and her knees fell open.

“Good girl,” he mumbled, his breath stirring the curls covering her center. She felt one of his fingers run down the middle of her sex. “I like this no-panties rule heaven seems to have. Who knew it was so naughty up there?” he teased, kissing the skin just below her navel.

“Please,” she breathed. This had to be some kind of torture. Her skin felt too tight for her body, and she arched her hips trying to find the elusive mouth he seemed intent on denying her.

He looked up and smiled wickedly before leaning in. She felt his breath first, but at the first scalding lick of his tongue, she thought she would perish of pleasure. “Max!” she exclaimed. Her back bowed, and her hands shot down and buried themselves in his hair, pulling him in until his face was pressed against her so hard that she could feel the ridge of his nose. He groaned loudly and deeply, and she snatched her hands back. “Sorry,” she said, heat filling her cheeks as she resisted the urge to cover her face.

He reached out and snagged her hands, directing them back to his hair. “You never apologize for that.” He kissed the inside of her thigh gently. “Grab on, pretty baby.”

She hesitantly wove her fingers through his hair, but when he kissed her clitoris and then opened his mouth over it to suck—
hard
—inhibitions vanished. She fisted that hair and pulled him in, grinding against his face.

He groaned anew and set in to licking her in earnest. He set a pace that reminded her very much of the way his body had rubbed hers to bring her to climax, but this was both softer and more intense in some way, and she found herself at the edge of orgasm almost immediately. “Max,” she said uneasily, her back arching. “It is too fast. I am going to—”

“Oh, God yes,” he mumbled into her flesh before licking her with the flat of his tongue and pushing her over the edge.

The oddest sound filled the air, and she realized with a start that it was her wailing. He set in with a vengeance then. “Eating her” turned out to be an apt description, and as her pleasure kept climbing and climbing, she wondered if it would never end.