Guy’s first thought was that he wanted to take the woman and finally give her that spanking he’d always dreamed of. She was whiny, hotheaded, and too naive for her own good. She was also filled with a delightful, fiery, unstoppable life force and would stand up to anyone, even the most powerful being on the planet. Even one whose gift was killing.
So brave. So full of light. Adorable.
His second thought was how badly he wanted her to understand. If he could get her to calm down, he could start explaining how things worked in his world. For gods, mankind came first. Responsibility came first. He truly didn’t mean to hurt her, but something about Tommaso made him uneasy. Maybe he simply wasn’t good enough for her, but then again, no one was.
Guy had been ready to tell her everything, including why he’d rejected her. He felt she deserved the truth. But when she broke the bond, something snapped. It wasn’t simply the hit to his male ego because, yes, he’d never been rejected in such a monolithic manner. Instead, it was the excruciating pain as she ripped her essence away. A piece of their souls dwelled inside the other’s. That’s how the bond formed. Severing something so strong was like cracking an atom. His atoms.
Worst of all was the giant gaping hole left behind. Her light was the only piece of him that felt peaceful and warm. Without this tiny fragment of Emma, he was nothing but a savage, a coldhearted deity.
I need her, he finally realized. More than he cared to admit and for reasons he’d yet to fully understand. He needed her. And she needed him, too; he’d felt it through their connection on endless occasions. So why did she torment him like this? Why couldn’t she understand that everything he was doing was to protect her? “You’re always so full of surprises, my sweet.” He reached out and roughly stroked the light copper spirals that framed her delicate face and vibrant dark green eyes—eyes that were, at the moment, filled with a cocktail of anger and lust.
She turned her head away from him.
“Can’t you feel it now?” he said in a low voice. “The emptiness? You. Need. Me.”
“No. You’re a killer, a demon. You forced yourself into my life and don’t ever forget it.”
“Emma, I am the darkness that makes light possible. I kill because someone has to destroy those born soulless and evil, those who rape, murder, and breed darkness. And for this, you reject me? Judge me? You have no clue what I’ve endured, what I’ve sacrificed for humanity.”
Her gaze was white-hot. “No, I don’t. But how could I? You never tell me anything!”
“Because I want to shield you from such drudgery. Trust me, I have given everything!” His anger quickly spiraled as more of Emma’s calming essence abandoned him and returned to her.
Guy pushed her against the wall, pinning her with his hard body. “Say it again, Emma,” he snarled in her ear. “Say it, dammit. Say you don’t need me to keep those Maaskab from finding you and tearing out your heart or keeping them from killing your family. Say. It. Because without the bond, without me, you’re as good as dead, just like Gabriela.”
She tightened her lips and ground her teeth before stiffly turning her head to meet his smoldering glare. “I will never fucking need you. You’re nothing but a medieval bastard. The Uchben will still protect me. Tommaso will protect me.”
Guy could feel her slipping further away and his savage side becoming more dominant. He could take no more. He pulled back his body a fraction of an inch and pinned her arms above her head to peer into her eyes. Her pupils were wide and inviting.
Yes. Lust and anger, matching his own, he thought. He could smell the intoxicating cocktail of emotions wafting from her skin.
He sucked in a deep breath, wanting to pull some piece of her, any piece of her back inside him. Thoughts of their bare, sweaty flesh sliding against each other flashed in his mind. He felt his cock stiffen and his humanlike body flood with need. “Tell me, Emma.” He exhaled into her ear and then ran his lips down her neck. “Tell me that you don’t need me, that you don’t want me.”
He moved his mouth to that sensitive spot just below her earlobe. “Tell me you don’t ache to have my tongue inside your mouth, licking every inch of your body. That you don’t want the tip of my hard cock slipping inside you, dipping in and out, until I break you of that horrible, distasteful attitude of yours. Tell me you don’t want me to fill you over and over again, making you come so hard that I brand myself in your mind. That after I’ve made you swollen from riding you for hours, how you abhor the thought of me taking you slowly, slipping between your hot thighs until you moan one last time and convulse underneath me. Say you don’t want it, little virgin, say it.”
Her body collapsed against him, but Emma’s eyes were shut tight, her face a fortress of flushed turmoil.
No female could resist the potent pheromones radiating from his body; it was one of his best tricks of the trade. Even better than his voice or the categorical perfection of his male form. All he had to do was focus, and his body turned into a seduction factory. He could hypnotize an entire city block of women with it if he wanted. This was how he would get Emma to return the bond, to need him again like he needed her. Oh yes. He could already smell her pungent desire leaking from every pore in her body, from between her legs. Each molecule vibrated with one unified message: I want you, they said.
“I. Don’t. Want. You.” Emma panted.
What? Guy slammed his fist past her head and into the wall. Stubborn woman! She was driving him mad. And she was lying.
“You’ll regret saying that,” he growled.
“Go ahead.” She lifted her chin. “Hurt me. I know you’re not capable of anything else.”
He took several calming breaths to get ahold of himself. What was he doing? He didn’t need her. He didn’t need anyone. As painful as it was for him to go back to his old self, it did give him back his freedom—freedom from this painful neediness for a human. No. This is good, he thought. I’ve lived all but twenty-two years of my existence without being bonded to Emma. I’ll be heartless, never again know peace, but fine.
He gathered himself together, burying his pain. I still need to protect her. I still need her help. He suddenly felt drained, like someone had pulled the plug from his body and every ounce of energy had been ripped away. His heart ached, and his head throbbed. He wanted to simply wither away quietly. Alone. Facing eternity as the coldhearted God of Death and War.
Her eyes flipped open, and her gorgeous mouth held a wicked smile. “It’s your move, Mr. War and Death. The bond is broken, and I’m not putting up with your bully tactics any longer. I’m not your plaything, and if you ever cared for me, even with one tiny, arrogant cell in your pea-sized brain, you’d let me go.”
“Fine. You win,” he said, removing his grip. “You’re on your own. I only ask that you do one thing.”
“What?” She remained against the wall, holding herself upright.
“Remember when I told you in the car that the other gods are trapped in the cenotes?”
She nodded yes.
He shoved his hands through his hair. “We need you to go back to Mexico and free them.”
Her expression was unreadable, and without the bond, he couldn’t sense her emotions like before. Was she frightened or just angry?
“Are you serious?” she responded. “That place is crawling with Scabs.”
“You were able to free me, so you can free them, too. There is no one else to do it.”
“I almost drowned, Guy,” she protested.
“We’ll take precautions, but I need the other gods free, Emma. I can’t coordinate the Uchben, hunt Cimil, and take care of the Maaskab by myself. It’s ultimately your choice, but know if you don’t do this, women will continue being stolen from their families and slaughtered. Your family will continue to be in danger.”
“Sure. No pressure. Can I ask you something?”
Guy nodded.
“Did you ever care about me? Or was it always about this?”
“Emma, I care more than you’ll ever know. But you’re right to push me away. I’m a coldhearted being, incapable of truly caring for anyone. As soon as this is over, you shall be free from me.”