Primal Pleasure: Pendragon Gargoyles, Book 3 (3 page)

BOOK: Primal Pleasure: Pendragon Gargoyles, Book 3
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Hell, even his brief notion of putting himself out of his misery and feeding her to one of the Forgotten—gargoyles that had permanently embraced their animal halves—had turned to devouring her himself, starting at her toes and licking his way up her body…

Sweet Avalon, someone needed to knock some sense into him.

“The sun is going to be up soon.” Briana put away the food he’d ignored. It didn’t appeal to him as much as another Big Mac. “You sure you’re going to be fine on your own? I can call Tristan.”

Somehow he managed not to roll his eyes. “I don’t need anyone to mind me.”

One slim brow arched upward, and he knew she was thinking about the havoc he’d wreaked in her rooms earlier.

Cian held up his hands. “I won’t go near your wing of the house. I swear it.”

Not even the lure of a Big Mac would make him venture anywhere near his sister’s suite of rooms for a long time to come. He wasn’t afraid to admit her computers and countless other gadgets scared the hell out of him.

The only time he’d gotten curious and poked around, he’d set off a dozen alarms. By the time Briana had darted out of the bathroom, her hair still wrapped in a towel from her shower, the cat inside him had broken free at the unfamiliar threat.

Apparently his sister was rather fond of the metal boxes he’d batted across the floor. She probably would have done more than kick him out of her room if he hadn’t been gone for a century.

Remembering the look on her face when she surveyed the damage brought a smile to his face. Tristan and their oldest brother, Cale, had been inseparable when they were younger, leaving Briana at Cian’s mercy when they were cubs.

He couldn’t even begin to count the times and ways he’d tormented her in hopes of getting her riled up. Though with three older brothers, it hadn’t taken her long to adapt and turn the tables on them.

After the incident with the sorceress, his family had vowed to stick together until he was freed. Now that they’d accomplished their goal, he wasn’t sure how much longer they’d be living under one roof. Especially with both of his brothers mated now.

He hadn’t realized he’d shared that last thought aloud until Briana laughed.

“Try not to sound so happy for them,” she teased.

“I am happy for them.” Finding a mate was the only thing that gave a gargoyle control over the automatic shift to stone at sunrise.

The goddess Rhiannon had punished all gargoyles—cats, wolves and dragons—for King Arthur’s death, blaming them for failing to protect him. Rhiannon hadn’t cared that her son was prophesied to awaken when Excalibur was returned to him, and condemned the gargoyle clans to spend their daylight hours trapped in their stone form.

Rhiannon might eventually have gotten past her grief long enough to lift her punishment if Arthur’s enemy hadn’t claimed Camelot. Morgana continuing to rule the heart of Avalon was just one more reason for Cian to stay in the human world, as far as he was concerned.

“So,” Briana began. “There’s more food in the fridge. If you want to stretch out, there’s the T.V. in the den. You remember how to work the remote?”

He didn’t have a clue what the remote was, but nodded anyway. Otherwise she’d want to show him again, which would then lead to another explanation about something else and then another.

Truthfully, he’d started looking forward to sunrise an hour ago. As much as he loved his sister and how much she was trying to help, she talked—a lot. Not only did he need a break from processing everything, the headache he hadn’t been able to shake since breaking free of the stone was starting to make him nauseous.

Maybe another Big Mac would help.

“The number for Pendragon’s is on the counter and programmed into the phone I gave you,” Briana continued. “Tristan will be there most of today and tonight since Cale is still in Avalon with Sorcha.”

Cian wasn’t sure what surprised him most. That his family owned a bar that catered to both humans and immortals, or that Cale was mated to a huntress. He still shuddered over the latter even though Sorcha wasn’t as scary as he’d imagined. Her sword was, though.

Briana leaned against the counter. “You do have your phone on you, right?”

If she was referring to the compact device he’d been carrying around in his pocket until it started shaking like some kind of explosive he’d seen on television, then no. But if he admitted that she’d make him go get it, and he’d be damned if he got lost in concentration only to have that thing take him by surprise again.

She gave him a quick squeeze. “You should try to get some sleep.”

“Or not.” Even if he were tired, he wouldn’t have been able to sleep more than a few minutes at a time. Part of him worried if he fell asleep for too long, he’d find another hundred years had passed him by.

“Well, don’t go too far.”

“I may be reckless upon occasion, but I’m not stupid, Briana.”

“I just meant that we don’t know how long you’ll be immune to the sun after being imprisoned, so it’s best not to go exploring—”she glanced pointedly at the fast food bag on the table next to him, “—and turn to stone in the middle of an intersection somewhere.”

They’d all been surprised when he hadn’t gone to stone during the first sunrise after the sorceress had freed him. A temporary perk, though Emma had refused to say how long it would last.

He planted a quick kiss on Briana’s forehead. “I’ll be fine. Truly,” he added when she didn’t budge. “You’re going to end up blocking the doorway if you turn down here, you know.”

She sighed, and after one last look he swore was meant to remind him not to treat her stuff like oversize balls of yarn, she left.

Cian stayed in the kitchen another couple of hours, eventually digging out half the food that Briana had left behind. Stacks of newspapers and magazines Tristan had found him littered the tabletop and half the counter by the time he finished snacking and rifling through it all.

Leaving the kitchen, he started for the den, only to backtrack when he passed the hall leading to his rooms. Being with Emma on the roof, however briefly, had burned her scent into his brain. Nowhere in the mansion offered him enough distance to escape the lure of it.

Now, knowing she was only a few doors away…

Determined, he continued on. He made it another six steps, then stopped.

Had Briana brought her any food tonight? As angry as he was for what Emma had done to him, the idea of her going hungry didn’t sit well.

Before he could remind himself that Briana wasn’t as thoughtless as the sorceress, his animal half urged him down the hall. A quick check on her wouldn’t hurt, or so he thought until every step he took made his heart thump faster.

It took another minute to realize it was anticipation and not anger that made his blood run hot through his veins. That should have been enough to stop him in his tracks. Instead he almost snapped the handle off as he shoved the door open.

A lamp had been left on in the main room—the empty main room.

Of course she couldn’t have just been curled up on the leather couch. Right then he knew he should have listened to Tristan, who had insisted on putting Emma in the cellar. Maybe then he wouldn’t be thinking about her snuggled under his covers.

Too easily he imagined tugging the blanket down, slowly exposing her bitable neck and all the soft, creamy skin he’d been thinking about since the roof.

Lust snaked down his backbone, settling heavy and hard behind his zipper.

He cursed under his breath but didn’t try to curb the desire unleashed by the scent of her. He hadn’t had a woman in over a century, and admitting an intense attraction to Emma wasn’t the same as acting on it.

There would have to be something wrong with him if he didn’t respond to her. Women, human or immortal, had been a favorite pastime, and as soon as he became accustomed to everything, he had every intention of seeking out a willing female to satisfy the need building inside him.

The cat snarled at the edge of his mind, but Cian ignored it, crossing to his bedroom and frowning into the darkness.

She wasn’t in his bed.

He shook his head as though it would wipe away the carnal images of Emma arching beneath him, her nails raking his back, and listened.

The sound of running water registered first, then the thin slash of light that escaped the side of the bathroom door. Halfway across the room, he spotted the thin chain snaking across the floor and disappearing between the door and the frame.

Briana had anchored the other end of the chain in his room before giving him the key that was presently burning a hole in his pocket. By the time he reached the door, the flicker of disappointment at not finding her in his bed had vanished. A new hotter, hungrier tension rippled under his skin.

He tried the handle, surprised when the door moved easily. Either she hadn’t been expecting him since he’d gone out of his way to avoid her, or she realized somehow barricading the door wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Or maybe she wasn’t even in the shower, water sliding down her body, beading off her nipples, waiting for him to catch the trailing drops with his tongue.

Cian squeezed his eyes shut, but the door gave way as though he couldn’t stop it. Like a man possessed, he slipped into the room, intent on making sure she hadn’t somehow escaped before he figured out what to do with her.

As if you don’t already know.

Ignoring that thought before it could get him into trouble, he let his eyes adjust to the bright light. He noticed her clothes first—some in a pile on the floor while her shirt and jacket had been threaded through the chain next to it.

It took only a second to spot her through the frosted glass.

There, he’d seen that she hadn’t found a way to slip away on him. He should go. The cat growled in protest, wanting to be close to Emma. The man wasn’t exactly in disagreement, so he lingered another moment.

Steam clouded the air, the damp heat making him even hotter. She stayed so still he assumed she’d noticed him, then she slowly turned her face up to the spray.

He gripped the door handle tighter, prepared to leave—determined to—right up until she shook out her braid and all that long black hair. Entranced, he let his gaze follow the curling strands all the way down to the small of her back, then lower, cursing the frosted glass the whole way.

Taking another three steps into the room, he thought about sliding the door across to get a much better look at those enticing naked curves. The need only intensified when she reached for the soap. Already hard for her, he was aching by the time she slid the bar of soap over her hip and up to her breasts.

The sorceress was slaying him to pieces. Much more and she’d have to step over his body to get out of the bathroom.

“You’re staring.”

His gaze snapped to her face, and she glanced over her shoulder at him.

He shook his head. He stared at beautiful women or females with really incredible breasts. What he did now, his quick exit forgotten, wasn’t so much staring as it was devouring.

She slid the door open a couple of inches. “Here to scrub my back, gargoyle?”

Her back wasn’t a bad place to start. Then her hips perhaps, and that sweet curve leading down to the inside of her thighs…

Definitely slaying him.

“So if you’re not staring and don’t plan on scrubbing my back, what are you doing in here?”

Cian waited until she rinsed her hair before answering. There wasn’t much point in talking if her head was under running water, and if it gave him another moment to watch her through the glass, there was no harm in that either. “I wanted to see if you were hungry.”

She shut off the water. “Is stale bread and water on the menu?”

“That’s what my family has been feeding you?”

“No, but then they don’t hate me as much as you do.”

He would have nodded if not for the cat threatening to break free. The instinct to protect her, even from himself, left him uncomfortable in his own skin.

Annoyed with the present situation, one he’d put himself in the second he sought her out, he crossed his arms and leaned against the vanity.

Emma’s brows crinkled together. “Towel, please.”

He didn’t move.

She slid the glass open another few inches, her face wet and flushed from the hot water. “They’re right behind you.” She pointed over his shoulder as though to redirect his gaze from her.

Now that he was paying attention, she didn’t seem nearly at ease with him there as she let on. She shifted her weight, her breaths whispering unevenly past her lips. Despite that, she didn’t break eye contact, seeming to sense that backing down in any way would give the predator in him the edge.

Suspecting she’d just brazen it out if he were enough of an ass to pass her a hand towel, he snagged the closest oversize one. Without the water beating down her scent, it wrapped around him until he couldn’t take a breath without feeling like he was taking her in.

And it felt good. Too good for a woman who had robbed him of a hundred years.

Throwing the towel over the glass, he glared at her. “Hurry up.”

“Or what, you’ll come in here and get me? That is what you cats do, don’t you? Strong-arm your females into doing everything you say?”

“You are
not
my female.”

An unreadable emotion blinked across her face, then she smiled sweetly. “Thank the gods for that.”

Emma took her time getting dressed and towel-drying her hair. She hadn’t seen him since they’d come down from the roof, and his unexpected appearance had rattled her. Briana had warned her that Cian would decide what to do with her, and she’d been preparing herself for his anger, assuming she didn’t find a way to escape first.

But anger hadn’t been what she’d glimpsed on his face when she noticed him in the bathroom, not at first anyway. His expression had been much too…carnal.

She shivered despite the chain clinking against the vanity, reminding her of her precarious situation. She was familiar enough with the way men looked at women when they had sex on their minds to recognize it instantly.

Only Cian had taken it to another level entirely, like moving from the heat of a warming ray of sunshine to full-scale nuclear meltdown.

BOOK: Primal Pleasure: Pendragon Gargoyles, Book 3
12.85Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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