The Complete Tempted Series

by Selene Charles

  She bit down on her lower lip. “We’ll be permanently sealed. I get it. God, I get it.”

  She felt the shudders take him, and she knew he loved what she was doing. He grabbed her wrist and held her still, forcing her to meet his gaze.

  When she did, she was amazed to find his eyes entirely blue.

  “I can hardly think with you touching me,” he whispered, and not sure what exactly that meant, she relaxed her grip.

  His jaw clenched and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Day and night. Forever. Do you really understand that, princess?” His fingers fluttered across the tops of her cheekbones. “The way you’ll be anchored to me. Even if the love dies for you, it never will for me. I’ll be like a dog chasing a bone for the rest of my life. You try to leave me, I’ll find you. You try to move on, I won’t let you. If I shove myself inside you—”

  Holy freaking crap, had he just said that? Just the thought of him shoving deep inside her made her stomach twist so deliciously painfully that she almost croaked an unintelligible yes back at him.

  “My soul will literally bond to yours and yours to mine. But unlike you, the monster part of me will never be able to let go. Do you really understand the magnitude of this, Flint?”

  She knew. It wasn’t like she didn’t know. She might have only learned the particulars of monster bonding tonight, but she’d been thinking about this for days. Flint knew what she was getting into.

  “And you would do this? Now? You would bind yourself to me this way? How do you know, Cain? How do you know that I’m the one and that this isn’t some phase that’ll pass with—”

  He framed her face with his large, warm hands, and she realized that no longer was it thundering and lightning or sheeting water down on them. There was just a light sprinkle of rain in the air, and the sweet perfume of wildflowers and rain-soaked grass wrapped them up in a scented embrace. Broad-leafed vines feathered along her naked back.

  For a second she wondered if he’d tell her anything. Cain was always so private, withholding so much of himself, even from her—and he told her probably more than he had anybody.

  “Because every time my heart beats, it screams your name. Because when I’m gripped by fury, you’re the only one in the world who can bring me off the ledge, and because you see what I really am and still you can tell me you love me.” He took a deep breath, and Flint could swear she no longer felt her toes. “You own me, princess, and that will never change for me. Even if you never pledge yourself to me in this way, you already own me.”

  Sobbing and not quite sure why, she threw her arms around his neck. He rubbed his hand down her back.

  “Flint?” Her name was full of a question and even twinged with a hint of fear in it.

  But she didn’t trust herself to speak. Maybe the wildfire of passion they now felt would fade, just like her mom had once said, but beneath that passion beat something real and profound.

  They might be young, but that didn’t make it any less genuine. She started to kiss the side of his neck.

  He grunted, and the rigid length of him that hadn’t gone down even a little was now pressed firmly into her thigh, teasing the heated center of her body.

  “Princess?” He moaned when she added nips and nibbles to the mix. “Oh God.” He shuddered, then his hands once more were digging into her hip bones, and she rocked into him.

  “I’m just—” He grunted when she shoved her hand back down his boxers. “Gonna take this as a—”

  “You talk too much,” she mumbled and bit his lower lip. Hard.

  With a move that could only be classified as supernatural, Cain moved at a speed that defied natural order, causing the world around her to blur together for a brief second. And then they were no longer standing, but now she was blanketed on a bed of soft moss, and he was leaning above her, smiling down at her.

  Romance was all well and good. But she’d waited almost a year for this. With a shake of her head, she began to wiggle out of her pants.

  His eyes grew heated as he took over, tugging the soggy jeans off until she could finally kick them to the side. His finger slipped beneath the band of her pink silk underwear, the stupid things Rhiannon had made her buy for a dance that now seemed like a lifetime ago. And now she so much wanted to thank her for it, because Cain’s eyes were wide and his jaw hanging open.

  She grinned. “Just tug on the bows and they’ll come off.”

  “What?” He grunted, voice gone thick, though not guttural exactly. He’d been reduced to a fool at the sight of her silly underwear.

  Flint was pretty sure when this was all over, she’d be buying Rhi a bouquet of roses.

  “Like this,” she said and then gently undid the knot. She was a virgin, not some sex kitten seductress. She didn’t have a clue what she was doing. All she knew was she wanted to do it with him.

  Which only seemed to excite Cain more. His eyes went from blue to pure red in an instant. But his body wasn’t growing or changing.

  She feathered her fingers down the side of his face. “I love your eyes.”

  “Princess,” he moaned.

  And in that one word, she heard his pledge. His devotion. His love.

  She undid the other knot, completely revealed to him now and nervous as all get-out.

  Cain jolted into action then.

  He made quick work of kicking off his jeans and boxers, and she finally got her first good look at him.

  Dressed, he was the epitome of sexy. But nude, holy crap, he was a god. Every inch of him was a sculpted framework of smooth, rock-solid muscle. His chest was wide, his arms big but not enormous. The shredded moth’s wing wrapped around his bicep almost seemed to glow in the light of the full moon.

  Heat blossomed in her cheek when she peeked below his waist, swallowing hard as she wondered how it was possible for that thing to go inside her. It wasn’t that she hadn’t messed around with boys, but she’d never gone all the way. He wasn’t even the first naked guy she’d ever seen, but he was definitely the biggest.

  Cain seemed to know that she needed a moment to take it all in. He stood there for her, silent for what had to be a solid minute before he finally crawled over her, resting his weight on his elbows.

  “Are you scared?” he asked, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw.

  “A little,” she admitted, clutching his waist, terrified he might try to leave her, but he didn’t. “Do you have a condom?”

  His smile was reassuring. “Don’t need one.”

  She frowned.

  “Berserkers can’t sire children until we’ve bonded.”

  “So Eli and Seth can never—”

  He shook his head. “No. Since they’ve bonded to each other, they’ll never be able to have kids.”

  “How sad.”

  He shrugged as his fingers feathered along her left collarbone. “It’s the luck of the draw. We don’t get to choose how it happens, Flint. But I’m so glad it’s happened with you.”

  She smiled, heart growing warm from his words. Needing to add a little levity to the sudden heaviness, she teased him. “So, you shoot blanks, huh? How interesting.”

  Chuckling, he nipped at her nose. “If you want to get technical about it…” He rolled his eyes. “For the first time, yes.”

  Getting more comfortable with his body pressing down on hers and no longer so anxious about that big thing trying to shove its way inside her—wow, could her stomach flutter any more violently than it already was—she wrapped her arms around his neck, trapping him in.

  He could break her hold, of course, Cain was stronger than her. Well, considering what’d happened to her recently, that might not entirely be true anymore. And someday, when things finally settled down, maybe she’d roll with him just to figure out who could take who.

  But spiritually she owned him completely. And that was a heady, powerful thought.

  “So that’s why Adam wanted you to stay away from me when we first met? Not because he hated me—”

  Settlin
g himself more fully between her thighs, he began to tease between her legs, making her breathing hitch just a little.

  “I don’t think Adam ever hated you, princess.” He lowered his head until his lips were just a hairsbreadth from hers. “But to bond ourselves is no small thing. He would never even do it with Mo—”

  His words cut off then and he stopped moving, and Flint knew that he was once again crippled by the pain of his mother’s betrayal, of what she’d done to Abel.

  “He’s safe now, Cain. We’ve got Abel back. We’ll fix whatever she’s done to him, I promise.”

  But even as she said it, she worried it might not be true. Abel was unlike anything she’d ever seen before.

  Eyes blazing with pain, Cain kissed her.

  And this time it wasn’t fire and brimstone, but something deep. It was soul baring, but without words to do it. He peeled himself open to her, telling her with each caress of his lips, each swipe of his tongue, that he trusted her. That he believed in her the way she believed in him.

  And as their kiss deepened, their hunger grew. Flint moved her hips, just a fraction of an inch, but it was enough for him to slowly slip inside, stretching her and making her wince as the burn of pain temporarily replaced the buzz of desire.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered, kissing her cheeks, her nose, the corner of her jaw. “I’m sorry, princess.”

  Cain started to move out of her, but she stopped him, digging her nails into his bicep. Because when he’d moved, the burn started to slowly ripple, morphing from something painful to something amazing.

  “Move again,” she whispered and then shook her head when he made to apologize again. “Doesn’t hurt now. It was just a shock.”

  Flint knew she’d lost her “virgin barrier” years ago. Because of Flint’s profession and her high level of activity, her mom had warned her that her first time would probably not be as unpleasant as it was for others.

  And boy was her mom right, because this time when Cain glided in, she felt the pleasure of it whip all the way through her, from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet.

  Hissing, she arched her spine, clawing at him with a fierceness of need she was almost terrified by.

  He settled into her, not moving again, just deep inside her, and it took her at least three breaths before the stars in her vision cleared.

  “Good?” he asked, seeming more concerned for her than anything.

  But she knew he wasn’t unfazed, she could see it by the sweat dotting his brow and the rigid cording of his shoulders. Cain was on a razor’s edge of losing control. Even though his eyes were a frosty blue, she knew him well enough to know that.

  A slow, smoldering smile took hold of her and she nodded. “Do it again. And next time, whatever you do”—she waited until she knew she had his full attention—“don’t stop.”

  The relief that suddenly transformed his face almost made her laugh until he thrust deep inside her again and again.

  And it was like… she was suddenly two different people. The one lying beneath him, hearing his heated words of devotion mingle with her own. And the one standing outside herself, watching it all as if from a distance. But not like the vision she’d had with Layla or the fae presence in her dreams. It was bizarre and not something she could adequately describe.

  It was as though, she—a soulless creature—had been rooted within the very earth itself, and the pulse of its life and hers had joined to make her part of the very fabric of the universe.

  But then she forgot about all that quasi-philosophical mumbo jumbo when he kissed the hollow of her throat.

  His scent reached out to her. Pine, and Cain, and so much more, it wrapped her up, invaded her senses. Gripped her soul. She shuddered in his arms when he shoved in deeper, hitting the very depths of her body.

  “Cain,” she grunted, and then grabbing his face, she forced his lips to hers, feeling like her body was being infected by madness and need.

  Their teeth collided; their sweat mingled.

  “Princess. My angel,” he whispered, then slid his tongue deep into the warm recesses of her mouth.

  His tongue was velvet and tasted of candy. Sighing, she met him thrust for thrust and then just as the darkness of the taking completely engulfed her, there was light.

  And it came from inside him.

  A silvery sheen of brilliant light poured from him into her, and she was bathed in its warmth. In its beauty.

  Cain never stopped moving, and neither could she, but she wanted to admire the light. Wanted to run her fingers through it.

  “Beautiful,” she whispered. “It’s so beautiful.” Her fingers wiggled through the shimmering iridescence.

  Only when she pulled away did she realize that light was coming out of her too, and it was sinking into him.

  And then she couldn’t think anymore because she was going to crest the pinnacle of a terrifyingly high cliff.

  “Are you there?” He grunted. “Can’t hang on.” He swiveled his hips one more time, and that final movement touched off a spark inside her.

  They shattered in each other’s arms at the same time, and when she blinked again, she felt the very essence of Cain breathe inside her.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Flint and Cain wound up being found by Adam an hour later. The greed Nephilim wouldn’t look either of them in the eye, but every so often he’d cast them dubious glances and she knew he knew.

  Cain’s fingers were clutched tightly in hers as they walked toward the sole remaining tent of what’d once been a thriving night circus. Shouts and roars trembled the earth beneath their feet with each step.

  Apart from Abel’s obvious cries, the night was hushed. The twins and Rhi glanced up the minute she and Cain got to the entrance, all of them giving the couple a brief once-over, and Flint didn’t know whether to squirm or hold still, so she held still.

  She’d expected words, expected someone to tsk-tsk her and ask her what in the hell she’d been thinking bonding with Cain, but none of them said anything about that.

  Rhiannon jerked her chin in the direction of the noise. “Grace is inside there.”

  Flint frowned. “Grace?”

  She hated how coldhearted she and Cain must look. It was obvious she and Cain had done… stuff. Gah, just thinking about sex made her stomach flip. She wanted to tell them it wasn’t what they were thinking, that she and Cain hadn’t planned any of it. That it’d happened mostly to save her life, but the little seed of conscience pricked at her, because she’d be a liar if she claimed that was the only reason why it’d happened.

  To everyone else, though, it must look like she and Cain didn’t care enough to come back with the rest of them and make sure Abel was safe, make sure the rest of them had come out of it relatively unscathed.

  She blew out a deep breath when no one looked at them.

  “How did Grace find out about Abel already?” Cain asked a second later with a voice much less harsh than usual.

  Seth’s brow twitched, and Flint’s cheeks continued to burn.

  Eli was picking at his thumbnail as he said without looking up, “Adam went and grabbed her.”

  “Is Abel okay?” she asked.

  Rhiannon gave her an ugly scowl. The sight of it curled like black ice down Flint’s spine.

  “You would have known if you guys hadn’t run off to go sex it up like two pumped-up lust demons,” she snapped.

  “Hey.” Cain stepped in front of Flint, blocking her just slightly from Rhiannon’s furious glare. “You need to just relax. Right now. You don’t even know what happened or—”

  “What, Cain, what?” she snapped, her eyes aglow with flame. “You gonna make up some excuse why that was okay, huh? What you guys do is none of my effing business, but when it comes to your brother, you should have at least kept that thing in your pan—”

  Another roar, much louder than the last one, caused everyone to stumble back on their heels.

  Cain didn’t wait to hear the rest o
f what Rhiannon said; still holding tight to Flint’s hand, he slapped the tent flap aside and dragged her in behind him, and Flint’s heart sank to her knees.

  At the center of the ring was a large metal cage, and locked inside it was Abel, still a pillar of ebony monstrosity, howling and slamming repeatedly into the bars with the madness of a rabid dog.

  She sniffed, heart breaking for her friend. “We should have been here,” she whispered, not so much to anyone else as much as simply stating a fact.

  Cain squeezed her fingers tight. “This isn’t your fault, Flint. I thought he would be okay, I thought he was in safe hands, I didn’t mean to—”

  He didn’t get a chance to finish his words before Grace snuck up on them. For such an old woman, she could be ninja stealthy when she wanted to be.

  Flint hadn’t seen her grandmother since touring the cave—what was it now, like a week ago? Not long at all, and yet her grandmother looked haggard and more tired than she remembered her being.

  Grace latched onto their hands.

  “Nana.” She slipped into old familiar names, needing the comfort of family in that moment. “What’s wrong with him?”

  Adam sat kneeling in front of the cage, hanging his head, a powerful man who skated the edge of violence in everything he did. And right now Flint couldn’t help but feel that in this moment, Adam was as broken as his wife’s soul.

  Her grandmother’s lips thinned. “Come. Come sit, please, dear.” Grace gestured at an overturned stack of crates.

  She didn’t speak again until they’d both taken a seat.

  Blue eyes met blue eyes as Grace said directly to Cain, “He opened the darkness inside his mind.”

  Flint had no idea what that even meant, but Cain jumped to his feet, running down the long aisle to Adam, and her heart fractured further as he dropped to his knees beside the man he’d never once called his father. Adam didn’t glance up but clapped Cain’s back as they knelt in front of Abel.

  Abel was clawing his fist through the bars. With a little more light on him, it was easy to see that what Abel had become was an abomination.