“No, I’m here.” The soft tone sounded husky to his ears. Reese sat on the edge of the bed and caressed his cheek.
Closing his tired eyes, Dagan turned his face into her hand. The sight of her brought comfort, the smell of her brought yearning. Having her near settled his body into a lull.
“You should not be here,” he croaked.
“Shh, don’t speak. Let me get you something to drink.”
She rose and walked a short distance. He heard her pour something into a cup then she appeared back at his side, touching the moisture to his lips.
“Drink this, but only a little at first.”
He let her tilt the glass so cool liquid ran down his parched throat. Immediately, he suffered a jag of coughing.
Again, he felt her soft hand caress his cheek and a cold rag lay across his forehead. She hummed some quiet tune as she rinsed out the rag and placed it on his chest.
“You’ve been out a long time. I didn’t think you would ever wake.”
He stilled the hand she used to touch his face. “What are you doing here? How did you get here? No human can enter Dilmun.”
She again helped him drink some of the water. He felt a little stronger.
“I came here to be trained by Gilgamesh. Enki brought me.”
Anger washed over him. “Damn him. You can’t stay.”
Reese stood and perched her hands on her hips. “You can’t make me leave, Dagan. I’m here to learn to protect myself, since it appears that I’ll need the knowledge.”
He glared at her. “You have protection.”
“No, I do not. Scion will only be around for a short while, I don’t live with my father anymore, and my
blethred
would rather die than be around me. Therefore, I need to learn to protect myself.” She turned away from him.
He watched her shoulders shake and her hands move to hug around her waist. Her angry words sent shivers across his damp skin.
Dagan rolled his face away from her. “How did you find out?”
“What, that you’d rather die than tell me the truth?” Her muffled voice was scolding.
“It’s not like that, Reese.”
“It very well looks like that to me.”
“Look at me.” He used his flagging energy to grasp the denim on her leg with his fingertips. “Reese.”
Haltingly, she turned. Tears glistened on her lashes in the dim light coming through the window. The sight of her wrenched the breath from his lungs. He opened his fingers and left his hand open wanting her to reach for him.
“I did it to protect you.” He let his hand flop to the bed.
“You ran away.”
The accusing tone made him wince. He would much rather have her anger.
“I had to leave. The Pantheon had ordered me to turn you over to Scion and come back here.”
“Why?”
“A Naruki has never had a human life mate. It breaks rules and boundaries that should never have been broken.”
Words of the Pantheon spilled from his lips though he himself did not believe them. He wanted Reese to believe and go home. He needed to finish this.
A slow burn, starting in his stomach and crawling up his ribcage, his chest, his neck warned him that the
fury
built and soon another attack would engulf him. Reese had to be gone before that happened.
“It is wrong—forbidden. I broke the rules and will be punished. After that, I won’t be fit for anything for a long time. You need to go now!”
She grasped his hand. “Does this feel wrong?”
He inhaled. The heat from her touch enflamed the
fury
and it consumed oxygen desperately needed to breathe and argue and push her away.
His body spasmed and jerked wildly on the bed.
Reese screamed and slapped her hands over her mouth. She watched his body writhe with pain.
Dagan used the last of his strength to fight a losing battle. He knew in the end he would die. He was vaguely aware when Flame appeared by Reese’s side.
“What can I do?” she cried.
“Go to him, Reese. It’s the
fury
that is claiming his life. You must get it back.”
“How?”
Flamed grabbed her by the arms and turned her away from the bed. “Do you love him?”
“Yes.”
“Then show him. Don’t let him push you away or it will kill him.”
With one last look, Flame left.
Dagan’s agonizing scream reverberated into the depth of her soul. She climbed on top of him and straddled his waist. He tried to buck her off. His hands came down hard and shoved at her chest making her fall backwards slightly. She grabbed his hands and righted herself but he continued to throw her off him.
“Get out, Reese,” he managed through tight lips. “Go home.”
She knew she couldn’t hold him for very long, even in his weakened state, he was too strong. She was running out of options and she didn’t know how long the fit or seizure would last, so she did the only thing that came to mind. She kissed him.
Reese bolted forward and planted her lips on his. Dagan stopped writhing. She slid her hands forward and clasped fingers with him, lying on his chest. He heaved deep breaths and held on tight. When his eyes opened, she eased back.
“I love you, Dagan.”
“Stop,” he huffed. “You have no idea what you’re saying.”
“I love you.”
He bucked his hips, trying to dislodge her. He stared at her with tortured eyes. “Get out of here, go away.”
Now she was just pissed. “Fine,” she growled. Getting up and standing by the bed, she looked down at him and said, “You don’t want me here. I get it. I’ll go stay with Enki and work with Gilgamesh until my training is done.”
She had only taken a couple of steps before Dagan roared and flew off the bed. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his naked body, then pushed her up against the wall. She flattened her hands against the smooth surface and pushed away but his body held her in place.
Placing both hands roughly on her hips, he inched them up, taking her shirt with them. When he got to her breasts, he cupped them in his hands and squeezed. He shoved the flimsy material aside to pluck her nipples before lifting the shirt over her head and tossing it away.
“Reese,” he whispered against her neck.
“Oh, Dagan,” she sighed.
He coaxed her around but still kept her plastered against the wall. His lips captured hers. The kiss became ravenous, a dying hunger. She shivered from the forcefulness of it.
Pulling away, he laid his forehead against hers and breathed heavily. “If you don’t go, I’ll not be able to stop the
fury
. I’m too weak.”
“Will it hurt you?”
He chuckled. “No, but I fear it will consume you.”
“And if you don’t let go, it will kill you.”
“My choice,” he rasped.
“Not gonna happen,” she retorted.
Easing back, he raked a searching, desperate, hopeful gaze first across her exposed breasts then into her eyes. “You know not what you’re doing.”
“Kiss me.”
He growled low in his throat. “It’ll be rough and hard and very long.”
“I already knew that.” She ran her fingers up his gloriously naked length.
A faint smile twitched at his lips. “I’ll have no control once I let loose. It may not be pleasant for you since I’ve held it off so long. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Will it hurt more than when you left and never told me the truth of it, Dagan? If you love me…kiss me.”
He clutched her hips as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, the tension in his body like a bow string ready to snap.
“Dagan,” she murmured against his lips.
“What?”
Reese ran her hands up his spine to his shoulders and back down again, squeezing his butt cheeks. Slowly, she felt some of the tension leave his body. His mouth lit a path of wetness down her neck to her breasts where his teeth lightly bit her nipples. She cried out.
With a strength she thought he no longer possessed, Dagan lifted her up. She circled her legs around his waist. He sucked one nipple into his mouth, bit it then licked the pain away. He moved to the next and repeated the wonderful torture.
His eyes darkened and a pained expression marred his features.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
He didn’t speak. She noticed how hot his skin became. She somehow knew that meant the
fury
was coming.
“Don’t fight it. Don’t fight this.” She laid her hand against his heart.
Again, his mouth took hers. He grabbed at the button on her jeans and ripped them open. Roughly, he set her feet on the floor and tore the pants from her body then ripped the panties away. He spun her to face the wall, lifted her high.
“Dagan, what are you doing?”
“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he ground out. “Now!”
She awkwardly encircled his waist with her legs. He quickly lowered her so she could feel the tip of his shaft at her entrance. He plunged inside.
It wasn’t pain she felt. She braced herself against the wall for each thrust. Dagan had been truthful when he’d said hard. He entered her with a hungry, driving force.
With his hands at her hips, he lifted and lowered her body in time with his thrusts, going deeper and deeper. She felt her muscles tighten and the release violently convulse around him.
Reese shook from the explosive passion. How could Dagan still be standing and holding her weight in his weakened state? Dagan leaned into her, lightly compressing her body to the wall with his own. He kissed her shoulder blade.
“I’m sorry, baby. Did I hurt you?” he murmured.
She gave a soft chuckle and lazily tilted her head back to meet his heated gaze. “Are you kidding? That was incredible.”
A smug smile curved his lips. “I’m glad you thought so.” He slid her legs down to the floor, then picked her up and carried her to the bed. “That was only the beginning.”
Hours—or days—later, Reese awoke wrapped in Dagan’s arms in the middle of his enormous bed. She felt weary and pleasantly sated. Dagan had been right when he said she didn’t know what she was getting herself into. She’d lost count of how many times he reached for her through the night or day. Over and over, he eagerly made love to her. When she thought she couldn’t take anymore, he produced a soothing lubricant to ease her body for his invasion.
She lightly stroked his chest, making circles around his taut, brown nipples.
“What are you thinking?” he asked in a husky, sleepy voice.
Her hand stilled. “I didn’t know you were awake.”
“You expect me to sleep when your exquisite fingers are stoking my body?”
“Surely, you can’t—I mean after all that—again?”
He answered her question by brushing his lips against hers and grasping her hand to move it lower. She felt the hard ridge of his erection through the thin sheet.
She breathed a faint sigh. “Is it always like this?”
A crooked smiled curved his lips. “Yes and no.”
“What does that mean?” She snuggled closer.
“If you mean will I always love you with such ferocity? Yes, because I can’t help myself.” He rolled them so she lay beneath him. “If you mean will we have these relentless bouts of sex, not unless we want them. Generally, the consummation is the most ferocious of the joining. It will taper off over time.”
Reese wrapped her arms around his neck as he settled himself between her legs. “So what happens now?”
He laid his head on her chest. “I go before the Pantheon to receive their punishment.”
“No.” She framed his face and brought it up to see his bright green eyes.
“I must. It is our law, Reese. I have defied them more than once. It’s time.”
She clutched onto him. “What will they do?”
“I don’t know.” He rose up to look into her eyes. “I want you to go home, Reese.”
“I’ll wait.”
He rested his head between her breasts. “You’re an exasperating female.”
“So I’ve heard.”
She snuggled him closer, liking the way it felt to have him here like this.
When Reese woke, she knew she was alone. A sick dread filled her. Dagan had gone to face the Pantheon for their punishment. Jumping up, she retrieved her clothes from the floor and hastily put them on.
“Flame,” she called out.
Nothing happened.
“Flame!”
Dagan’s friend appeared before her. “You called, my lady?”
“He’s gone. He was gone when I woke up. He told me he had to go before the Pantheon for punishment.
“It has begun.”
“Yes,” she retorted hotly. “I need you to get me there.”
His face sobered. “I cannot.”
She grabbed his shirt in fisted hands and pulled him to her face. “You can and you will.”
“No one is allowed, especially humans.”
“Look, buster, I’ve recently found out my father is a
nephili
, I’ve faced demons, Kur, and the man I’m in love with is a demigod who walks through time. I can face the Pantheon.”