“Why?” Marek looked at him, and he shrugged.
“Maybe she wanted him to see Caterina wasn’t the enemy. Maybe she wanted him to see how you feel about her. I don’t know. Mum works in mysterious ways.”
He really hadn’t needed Valen bringing up his feelings, not in front of Caterina. He could feel her looking at him now, studying his profile as he diligently kept it towards her. If he looked at her, she would see that Valen was right, and he had feelings for her.
Deep ones.
The sort that made a man do crazy things.
Like shielding her from a god-king who could obliterate him.
Hades didn’t need anyone pushing his buttons, not since Esher had breached the Underworld to save Aiko and had ended up fighting him, and had come close to getting himself killed in the process.
“She’s meddling.” Valen scuffed the stone floor with his boot and muttered, “Told you about meddling.”
He was right. Persephone was meddling. She was always aware of them, more so than Hades was. She knew their innermost feelings.
She knew when they were in turmoil.
And she always tried to make things better for them.
She must have felt Marek’s confusion and conflict, and his love for Caterina, and his desperate need to save her, and how he had lost hope.
Not because he feared Caterina couldn’t be cured, but because he feared his family would exile him and turn on him when they discovered what had dawned on him.
If Caterina became a daemon, he would still choose to be with her.
So Persephone had summoned him, not only to see if she could find a way to cure Caterina for him, but because she had wanted Hades to see him with her. She had wanted his father to see that he loved Caterina and nothing would change that.
“At least he let you leave.” Valen pushed away from the wall. “Which is good.”
“It means our plan can go ahead.” Keras’s green eyes held a subtle note of concern as he looked at Caterina.
“I’m ready.” She straightened to her full height and tipped her chin up. “I can do this.”
Marek looked at her. “What Mother said… about Megan being able to reverse what’s happening to you. I want to take you to her now.”
“But you can’t.” She smiled softly, understanding in her eyes. “I know. For this to work, I have to be the same as when I left.”
“I worry he would be able to sense the difference in you.” He lifted his hand and stroked her right arm, aching with a need to go against what he had just said and take her to Megan. “I don’t want you to do this.”
She raised her hand and placed it over his, cupping it to her shoulder over her T-shirt. “I want to do it. I might be able to see my brother. I might be able to get him away from them.”
Hope flared in her eyes and he was glad to see it after how resigned she had been, her hazel gaze dull and sombre.
“Are you sure you’re strong enough?” He looked her over, from her caramel hair, over the T-shirt that swamped her frame, to her dark sweats and her small feet.
She looked so delicate, so easily breakable, even when he knew she was a fighter at heart, and her skills had been honed in battle against creatures far stronger than she was.
She nodded. “When Persephone touched me, I felt strength flowing into me.”
Strength that Marek could sense as he held her, and could see in her returning colour and the brightness of her eyes.
Yet he still didn’t want to let her go and face their enemy alone.
He didn’t want to have to stand by and let her fight Eva.
“I’m not sure I can do this.” He frowned and shook his head. “The thought of you fighting…”
Her smile stole his heart. “Don’t worry. I have this. It won’t be the first time I’ve taken a beating and I’ll make it look convincing.”
He wasn’t worried about that. He was worried about what came after. He was worried about what the daemons might do to her.
All of that worry condensed inside him, compounding into a need to be alone with her, to hold her without his brothers watching and judging him.
To show her that even when she was alone, she wasn’t really alone. He was right there with her.
Because he loved her.
“I’ll join you all in Tokyo.” He gave Valen and Keras a pointed look, one he felt sure would make it clear he wouldn’t change his mind, no matter what they said against the delay.
Surprisingly, Keras just sighed and stepped, leaving black vapour behind. Valen smirked, waggled his fair eyebrows and disappeared.
He hadn’t meant to give his brothers the impression that he wanted to be alone with Caterina so he could be intimate with her, but now that Valen had put it in his mind, he couldn’t think about anything else.
That desperate need to be close to her latched onto it, had him leading her from the cell and up the stairs to the ground floor, and then up the wooden staircase to his room.
She nervously glanced around it as she entered ahead of him, her eyes straying to the four-poster bed that took up most of the room.
“I thought you might want to wash. The water is warm now. I could run a bath?” He tamped down the nerves that tried to rise inside him as he moved past her, heading for the bathroom.
“That would be nice.” She padded around his room, taking it all in, even going as far as peeking in his drawers.
He didn’t call her out on it. She could be nosy all she wanted, as long as it took her mind off things. He wanted her to have a moment to breathe, away from the craziness. He wanted things to be as they had been between them, back in Barcelona, before his enemy had set their sights on her.
The relief on her face, the calm that washed over it as she moved to the leaded window and looked out, at the loch and the mountains, said that she needed it.
She needed a moment of normality.
Marek focused on running the bath, giving her some time to enjoy the scenery, aware that she needed to erase the image of the Underworld from her mind and that the lush green of the Scottish countryside would help her do it.
He peeked back in on her as the water thundered into the old clawfoot tub.
And wasn’t surprised that there were three white tulips blooming around her feet.
His mother’s way of offering comfort and showing Caterina that she wasn’t alone.
It was a relief that his mother had taken a shine to Caterina, would be keeping an eye on her from the Underworld, and hopefully working on his father to make him see that Caterina wasn’t the enemy or someone to despise.
When the bath was full, he switched the water off and gathered soap and a washcloth for her, setting them on a shelf near it. He went to her where she still stood at the window, watching the seabirds.
Or at least he thought she had been watching them.
He stopped beside her and tracked the line of her gaze, and smiled.
A seal bobbed in the water near the rocks, just its head breaking above the surface.
“There’s so much wildlife here.” She watched the seal, smiled as it dove beneath the surface, and kept her eyes on the water. “I think I saw a deer across the water too.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me.” His arm brushed hers as he moved closer, and he couldn’t resist the urge to take hold of her. He stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her, looping them over her shoulders and drawing her back against his chest. “We’re miles from any roads here and we own the land as far as the eye can see. Plenty of deer out there, as well as other things. I saw a pine marten once. I swear it was going to swim to the island to raid the larder.”
She lifted both hands and curled them over his, and gods, it felt comfortable to hold her like this.
Right.
Her back pressed against his chest as she leaned her weight on him, and he settled his chin on top of her head and just held her, savouring how she felt in his arms, relishing the quiet of the moment and the feelings it stirred in
him.
“I wish we could just stay here.” Marek let the words fall from his lips.
And waited.
Caterina didn’t keep him waiting long. She brushed her hands over his and sighed as she leaned more of her weight against him.
“I wish we could too.”
Those words were ambrosia to him, the sweet taste of heaven.
“But we can’t.” She clutched his hand and he sensed her mood shifting, darkening in a way that had him wanting to pull her back into the light and vanquish her doubts and fears, and keep her here with him.
In this moment.
“I know.” He held her tighter. “Just let me have this for a while. I need it.”
She turned in his arms and pressed her palms to his chest, her eyes on the space between them, where his heart beat for her. “I need it too.”
Her hands shook against him and doubt filled her eyes as she tilted her head back and looked up at him, edged with fear, and then pain as she looked away, turning her cheek to him.
She tried to push out of his arms but he held her closer, refusing to let her go, unwilling to let her believe whatever was spinning around her mind and tormenting her.
“Caterina,” he murmured.
When she lifted her head to look at him, he swooped on her lips and kissed her. She tensed, going rigid against him, but then she melted in his arms and her lips started a fevered dance over his. He groaned and twisted her loose T-shirt into his fists and clutched her to him as he angled his head and deepened the kiss, brushing her tongue with his and eliciting a soft moan from her.
“We shouldn’t.” She broke away from him and pushed against his chest when he tried to pull her back to him.
He loosened his hold as she locked her elbows, afraid of hurting her with his strength. “Why not?”
Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked away from him, and he knew what she wouldn’t say.
Because she hadn’t been cured yet, and she thought he would only really want her if that happened, and he would break her heart if she remained a daemon.
Well, she was mistaken.
He would never do anything to hurt her. She had become his entire world, vital to him, and he would move all the realms to keep her at his side and make her see that she belonged with him, no matter what happened.
He loved her.
He wanted to tell her that, but he could see that she wasn’t ready to hear it, and she wouldn’t believe him if he did say it. Not until Megan had reversed what had been done to her.
He would tell her then, when he was sure that hearing it wouldn’t hurt her and she would believe that he was sincere and wasn’t just saying something to make her feel better.
“Kiss me,” he husked and tried to coax her to him.
She resisted. “Why?”
He frowned at her lips, aching to take them again. “Because I need to kiss you. I need you, Caterina. You might not be afraid of what’s going to happen, but I’m going out of my mind with worry.”
And not only about what was ahead of them.
He worried about how he might react to her, that the darkness in his veins might rise to the fore and have him lashing out at her again when he didn’t want to do such a thing. He stared down at her, studied his feelings and picked them apart, and mulled over that night on the beach.
It dawned on him that he hadn’t reacted that way to her since that night and hope built inside him. Was it possible that the shock of sensing she was a daemon and his past had combined to cause that reaction?
He would still be on his guard, because he didn’t want to hurt Caterina. Just the thought of hurting her caused him pain.
And the thought of her in danger had him needing to hold her close, to savour every moment he had with her and deepen the connection they shared so she would know she wasn’t alone.
So she would know how he felt about her.
He removed his left arm from her waist and captured her cheek with his palm, ran his fingers along her jaw and brushed his thumb over her lower lip.
“Gods, Caterina, I need this. I need you. Being pulled to the Underworld… facing my father… knowing what’s about to happen. I can’t handle it. I don’t know whether I’m coming or going, but this…” He stroked her lip. “You… you ground me, and I need to feel this again… I need this.”
He wasn’t explaining it very well.
He cursed, gritted his teeth and growled, because he couldn’t translate the feeling in his heart into words.
“Déu… I need you too.” Caterina threw her arms around his neck and kissed him as she leaped into his embrace.
He caught her and clutched her to him, kissed her hard as the need building inside him reached a crescendo, surging through his veins to obliterate all reason and control.
Marek twisted with her and carried her to the bed as she kissed him, her lips playing on his, tongue teasing and stroking, driving him wild. He set her down on the mattress and covered her, caging her with his body.
Her thighs fell open, welcoming him into the cradle of them, and he groaned as she wrapped her legs around him and pressed her heels into his backside, forcing him down into contact with her.
Her heat scalded him through their sweats, had him grinding his erection against her as he mastered her mouth, a slave to the need she had awoken in him.
She tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled his head up, gazed into his eyes with ones full of passion, need that burned inside him too.
“What about my bath?” she murmured and stroked her hands down his throat, teasing his nape and then his shoulders.
“What about it?” He lowered his gaze from her lips to her neck, dropped his head and kissed it as she tilted her head back, arching her breasts into his chest.
“It’ll get cold if we don’t use it.” Her hands drifted down his spine and he groaned and licked her throat, teasing the spot below her earlobe as she tugged his T-shirt up.
“We won’t fit in there together.” He skimmed his hands down her side and mirrored her, pushing her T-shirt up to reveal the smooth plane of her stomach.
He broke away from her lips and growled as he pushed to his knees between her thighs and took her in. Her hair cascaded across the dark covers, her rosy lips beckoning him for another kiss, and her eyes were dark, hungry as they dropped to his chest.
Marek pulled his T-shirt off, obeying her unspoken command, and savoured the way her face crumpled and she bit her lower lip, as if the sight of him had just completely undone her.
Or deeply satisfied her.
Her legs lowered from his hips and her feet pressed against his thighs, pushing him backwards.
He slid off the edge of the mattress and landed on his feet, forced himself to stand there and keep still as she moved onto her hands and knees and crawled towards him, the hunger in her eyes building as she raked them over him.
A shiver tripped through him as she stroked her fingers down his chest and his stomach, swirled them around his muscles and kept tracking downwards. She leaned towards him and pressed wet kisses to each muscle on his stomach, following her hands lower.
He swallowed when they hit the waistband of his sweats, tipped his head back and groaned as she ran her fingers along it and the heel of her palms met his cock. She dipped her fingers behind the waistband and her sweet moan as she brushed the blunt head had his hips jerking towards her, hot need rushing through his veins, a desire to hear her moaning like that as he filled her.
She swirled her tongue around his navel and then disappeared. By the time he caught up and opened his eyes, she was kneeling on the bed in just her sweats, pushing them down her slender hips.
His throat worked on another hard swallow as he watched her, as she teased him with a glimpse of her before she tugged the soft material back up. He frowned and groaned as he reached for her, the ache to see her naked building into something fierce and controlling.
She smiled and a hint of blush coloured her cheeks as her eyes darkened, a
s if she had seen that need she had created inside him and knew he was on the verge of losing himself to it.
Rather than pulling her own sweats down, she reached for his, tugging them down his hips, freeing his cock. The cool air hit it and it kicked against his stomach as he imagined the warmth of her hand on it, and burned with a need to feel it.
She didn’t make him wait long. She stroked her hand down the length of him, from the blunt crown to his balls. He closed his eyes, lost in the way her hand felt, the softness of her touch as she explored him. It was too much.
He gripped her wrist when she curled her fingers around him, not sure he would withstand such torment, not without making a fool of himself.
Her eyes met his as he looked down at her, the wickedness in them saying he wasn’t going to get his way. There would be no stopping her.
Gods, he loved this woman.
She had strength, knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to take it, or fight him on it. She had stood up to his father, and had stood up to him more than once. She had courage and fire.
And, damn, her mouth was wicked.
He groaned as she wrapped her lips around him, as she suckled the head of his shaft in a way that had his eyes rolling back in his head. He sank forwards, until his knees hit the edge of the mattress, giving him some support as she went to war on him.
She gripped him with her hand, holding him at her mercy as she moved her mouth on him, slow teasing pulls that propelled him to the edge of control, had him skirting the point where need would take over, leaving him a slave to his hungers.
He wanted her right there with him.
He pushed his fingers into her hair, twisted the spun caramel around them and gripped her as he worked his hips, lost in the pleasure building inside him as she started to stroke him, obliterating his plans to push her to the edge.
He groaned and frowned, clenched his jaw and told himself to pull back on the reins, but he couldn’t convince his body to listen to him. Not when Caterina was stroking him, sucking him, her wet heat gloving him.
Release climbed to the base of his shaft.
The urge to spill was strong, but somehow he forced himself to move, to push her backwards and break contact between them.
Marek: Guardians of Hades Series Book 4 Page 28