Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4 (19 page)

Teagh lowered her to her feet but kept an arm around her waist before he turned off the faucets and tested the water. It was warm, but not hot enough to burn. He wished he could say the same about the blood running straight to his groin.

“Thank you.”

He watched in amusement as she braced herself against the tiny porcelain sink and tried to remove her pants without dropping the sheet. She didn’t make the mistake of asking him to leave. That alone told him how hurt she must be.

“Let me help you.” He knelt in front of her, his hands resting at her waist as he waited for permission.

She sighed and looked him in the eye. Knowledge resided in her dark chocolate gaze. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears and pain, not physical pain, the deep torment only the heart could inflict on a person’s soul.

She thought she knew what he wanted…and didn’t think she could give it to him.

He wanted to kiss her pain away, take her in his arms and protect her from the dark, from the Immortals, from her destiny.

Her gaze held no hope for either of them. He agreed. There would be no escaping the dark, or their desire. He needed her as much as she needed him. e needed her to help him take control of the dark and close the Gate. He needed her to confide in him, to trust him. He needed not just her body, but her soul.

Sensual awareness clouded her gaze as she raised her palm to his cheek. He held his breath, waiting for her to speak. Gods help him, he wouldn’t be seducing her. She knew what he was truly asking as he knelt before her on the floor, and what it would mean if she said “Yes”.

Chapter Eight

Katherine stared down into Teagh’s upturned face and nearly gave in to temptation. He was a god among men, an Adonis with a perfectly chiseled face, lips sculpted for kissing, and skin a deep mocha so perfect she wanted to lick him up and down for hours. It would be such an easy thing to surrender to one night of physical pleasure.

Who would know? Who would care? Who would sit in judgment?

She would. Could she share her body with a traitor? Kiss him and forget all about Ajax trapped in an eternal prison of darkness?

She stared into Teagh’s sinful eyes. The heat of his hands where they rested on her hips drove her mad. Bloody hell. She was more than a little afraid that she could do all that and more.

When had she sold her soul to the devil? When had she become so weak?

She felt the tears gather and hated herself even more. Before her knelt a man whom Ajax believed to be the ultimate betrayer. A maestro of untruth. A master of deceit.

And she wanted him anyway.

She’d never hated herself before now, had always considered herself to be strong, independent, and intelligent enough to see the truth. Everything about this situation made her doubt. If he were truly evil, how could she want him so badly? Wouldn’t her soul scream some kind of warning? Wouldn’t her instincts rage with fury at his touch?

Apparently not. But worse, how could she leave him behind if she couldn’t function without his touch, if his absence left her a weak, shivering mess?

Could she make love to him and keep her heart and soul safely outside the bedroom? Could she allow him to seduce her and walk away unscathed?

No. He’d leave scars, deep scars. But she would do it anyway. She had to be able to function. She had to free Ajax. Based on Sarah’s experience with Tim, and what she’d heard of Mari and Raiden, making love had strengthened their energy bond. If she could draw strength from Teagh without touching him, then she could leave him behind and free the Lost King. She would do what she had to, even if it tore her apart inside.

She held his face in her hand and leaned forward until their lips were nearly touching. He didn’t move, just looked into her eyes and waited for her to close the distance between them. There would be no lying to herself about this, no gray area where she could blame hormones or claim that she lost control in the heat of the moment.

She was going to make love to a stranger. To an enemy. Her body already sang in anticipation. Her blood was on fire and her legs trembled, not with fatigue, with need. This longing, this weakness, would crush her soul, she knew that. But she would walk away stronger, physically tough enough to do what needed to be done. Nothing else could matter. Duty called. Duty always called, always buried her beneath a mountain. Nothing had changed.

Teagh thought to control her, to tame her, to keep her dependent and locked to his side. He wanted her soul. She saw it in his eyes, felt it in his touch. He wanted more from her than she had to give.

She’d sold her soul a long time ago. It belonged to her mother’s people, to Frank and the boys, to the Timewalker descendants. She’d been forced to kill to protect them and their secrets. She’d bloodied her hands. Her soul was chained to their fate. The blood she’d spilled to keep their secrets tainted her soul blacker than the claw marks in her back.

Sex. It was just sex…with the most luscious, desirable man she’d ever met.

Shifting to her right, she kissed the side of Teagh’s full mouth, then his cheek. He closed his eyes and she pressed her lips to each eyelid in turn working her way back down the other side of his face.

His hands tightened their grip and dug into the bones of her hips as he pulled her closer. She was twenty-nine years old. She wasn’t an innocent. She was a killer. What was one more sin on a soul the darkness already wanted to claim for its own?

Traitor or not, she’d be doing the man a favor when she walked away. But not tonight. Tonight she was going to be as close to him as she could get. Tonight she was going to take what only he could give her.

Freedom.

Katherine pressed her lips to his in a soft, slow glide. Power radiated from him in waves and pulsed through her body straight to her core. His hands traversed the dip of her waist and grazed the outsides of her breasts as he rose from his knees to stand before her. His grip formed a fist on both sides of the gray sheet just below her arms and she gave it to him, released her hold on it to raise her arms so she could wrap them around his head and bury her hands in his black hair.

Anticipation forced a groan from her throat as she wrapped him up and devoured his mouth. There was nothing tender left inside for her to offer him. She was molten lava, pure lust, raw kindling set on fire and completely out of control. A primitive beast rose from deep within her, a dark animal that was hungry for its mate. She couldn’t remember where she was, or why she was supposed to hold back. She couldn’t remember her own name beneath the relentless passion of his kiss. She didn’t want to remember. She only wanted to feel.

The sheet slid to the floor at her feet and she pressed her sensitive breasts to his chest, annoyed with the thin layer of his cotton shirt that kept him just out of reach.

She abandoned his hair to tear at the buttons on his shirt. They popped off and flew to hit the wall. She didn’t care, and apparently, neither did he. He helped her remove it before wrapping her up and pressing her full length to his front. His skin was hot, so very hot. She rubbed against him like a cat, licked her way up his chest to his neck, nibbled on his jaw and tasted the flesh there with little flicks of her tongue as his heated hands explored her bare back, roamed over her ass and lifted her up so that his erection pressed at the juncture of her thighs.

She jumped up and wrapped her legs around him, sought his lips as her aggressive leap made him stumbled backward into the wall. She rode his heat like a goddess demanding tribute as the Mark on her side drew his power into her body in a tight bundle. The Shen pulled power inside and consumed Teagh’s strength like a vacuum attached to his soul. A hard knot of energy formed over her sacrum and burned hotter with every kiss, every shared breath. The heat slipped down each nerve ending, wrapped around her pelvis and dove into her heated core until she thought she’d scream if he didn’t fill her.

Katherine reached for his shorts. She wanted him. Now. Up against the wall.

She’d managed to bare one of his hip bones before his hand covered hers and he broke their kiss. “Stop.”

The command didn’t register, couldn’t register over the roaring in her ears and the pounding of her blood. She whimpered and tried to drag his lips back to her mouth. She needed more. “Kiss me.” She squeezed her legs where they remained around his waist and ground against his cock, desperate to have it inside her. “Teagh, please.”

God, she literally couldn’t stop. It was like an animal had taken over her body and her intellect lay trapped in a cage, locked up tight with no key in sight.

“Gods be damned, woman. You really are going to kill me.” The words had barely registered when he doused her half-clothed body in the giant bathtub and walked out. Katherine fought to clear her mind, to gain some semblance of control as she surfaced. The soft and very deliberate click of the door’s latch was like a bucket of ice-cold water dumped over her head.

Fuck. What the hell was wrong with her? Her only goal had been to seduce him. Pathetic. She hadn’t been able to manage the task even though she’d already been half naked and he’d been practically begging to take her. What the hell happened? Shame flared and heat rose in her cheeks. She ducked her head back under the water. If she couldn’t feel the wet evidence of tears rolling down her face, she wouldn’t have to admit they’d ever existed.

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Teagh remained calm until he hit the surf’s edge. He dove into the warm saltwater and tried to rinse the taste of her kiss from his mouth, tried to wash the heat of her touch from his skin.

He was in fucking deep trouble here.

With long, fast strokes he swam out into the water until his home was a dot along the shore. When he’d reached a safe distance to do a purge, he dove for the sandy bottom and tried to block the link he still had to Katherine through the Mark. Her tears were shredding him, but he didn’t dare go back to the house. He had to blow off some steam first, get rid of the evil that had accumulated in his body through his blood oath to the Ajax.

With a silent scream, he let the energy at his core fill him until it shined through his skin, turned his body into a dark star under the water. This was the only safe way he could release the darkness that consumed the King. The blood bond he and Bran shared with the King had been both a blessing and a curse over the centuries. The evil that seeped into him from the King was hard to control. Especially when he allowed his emotions to come to the surface. He’d left the ship, and his brother, behind for a reason. He had no idea how many lost souls his King had consumed during the final battle. Most days it seemed that no matter how many times he purged the evil that gathered in his blood, there was ever more. An endless river of hate, regret, and pain, the mighty Niagara Falls trying to force its way through a drinking straw. He was sure his half-brother felt the same.

Only Mother Earth’s oceans were large enough, strong enough, to take the power from his body and dilute it, absorb it back into the never-ending cycle of birth and death, creation and destruction. Katherine.

She’d offered him everything. And there was no way in hell he could fully bond with her right now, not without risking her life. Oh, the process had already begun. Lust and need like he’d never known had taken over his body when their souls touched, their minds mingled.

And he saw her intention. She meant to bond with him and leave.

She was going to run. She didn’t want him. Didn’t trust him. She simply wanted to permanently Mark him so she would be strong enough to leave him behind. So she could go back to the dark alone and keep her secrets. He was a fucking job. Her “duty”. And all the while her heart and her loyalty belonged to the others. Her men. Her family. Her people.

He’d disregarded the warnings of the most powerful Seer on Itara for her. Held her life in his hands and protected her instead of killing her. Followed her into the dark and taken on three Triscani Hunters to keep her safe. And still, all she wanted to do was run as far and as fast as she could.

He should just let her go, but she wouldn’t survive her wounds, or the Gate’s demands on her body without their link. But if he bonded with her completely? Then she’d feel the agony that was Ajax’s tortured soul, the evil that ate at Teagh’s mind like maggots. He wouldn’t be able to keep it from her, not for long.

He couldn’t bond with her and couldn’t risk her life by letting her go. He was stuck, and still, she’d managed to hurt him. Hell, it felt like the mercenary female had ripped his heart out and eaten her first bite right in front of him. And why? It shouldn’t matter at all. He’d known her one day out of thousands. One fucking day.

And she’d ruined him. Made him weak.

Made him want.

Dark power exploded from his body to completely saturate the water that surrounded him. Fueled by his anger at her for her duplicity, and at himself for wanting her despite the risks, every drop of water within twenty body lengths of him turned black. How many Triscani souls did it take to turn an ocean black? He’d been forced to purge almost every other day for centuries, and still the echoes of evil seeped into his system in a slow, steady flow. Constant. Unending.

He had no idea how his King had contained them at all.

After several minutes, when holding his breath became painful, he kicked for the surface and headed for shore. What was he going to do now? She’d called his bluff. He couldn’t kill her. He couldn’t make love to her. And he damn well couldn’t let her out of his sight to charge headfirst into gods only knew what kind of danger.