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His smile is crooked and darkly rueful. “Because I might actually go mad over it. But the bloodlust is a power all its own. A power we’ll need against what’s coming.”
“And by that you mean your batshit parents.”
“Yes.”
My eyes narrow. “You refuse to reject me because our connection makes you more able to kill and destroy?”
“Hmm. Now that you mention it, I think we’ve both enjoyed a few other perks as well, little assassin.”
“Screw you,” I mutter, but there’s no fury left in the words.
His eyes flash with pure lust, and in response, I feel the same desperate need tightening in my own core. “Unfortunately, that’s not on the table,” he says. “Though, as you know, there are other options.”
I nearly rock my hips toward him, remembering that night in the library, the way he brought me to orgasm with the friction of his hand through my clothes. But then I remember my poisonous skin. And whose bloodline caused it. And the secret he kept about it all this time.
He made my life better too. That’s what made his lie hurt so much.
“You wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy any of them,” I tell him darkly.
One touch. That’s all it would take to end this. Something tells me it wouldn’t be difficult to slip past his defenses either. To convince him to forget why we shouldn’t. To press my exposed flesh to his.
“You underestimate me, sweetheart. I’m tougher than you think.”
“Your ego is going to get you killed.”
“I have no ego when it comes to you, little assassin. But you underestimate my determination to have you.”
For some reason, his words pierce me—a final blow.
Something inside me snaps. Ten years’ worth of loss and loneliness and holding my shit together by a thread. Since the moment my parents died, I remained closed off—until Legion. He was the first and only one I ever let see the real me, including all my worries and fears and vulnerable places.
And he hurt me.
The pain he caused me becomes rage and a determination to hurt him too.
“You’re the one who underestimates,” I say, my bared hands twitching at my sides.
His smirk spikes my temper all over again. “We’ll see.”
Ugh, it’s time to wipe that disgustingly sexy smile from his face once and for all. Stepping away from him, I hold his gaze and slowly peel my armor off then my jacket. Finally, I’m standing before him wearing only a t-shirt and my jeans. Legion’s gaze is hungry as it roams my body. I don’t move, letting him look, letting the exposure of flesh distract him just enough to lower his guard.
I strike fast, using the element of surprise to my advantage as I rush at him, hands bared and reaching for his throat.
He doesn’t see it coming. I know it because I see clearly the eye-widening shock as I close the distance. His recovery is just enough for him to sidestep me, and my fingers meet only thin air.
Frustrated, I whirl and rush him again.
He dances out of my reach easily, that stupid smug smile still flashing at me. With a battle cry, I try a third time, anticipating his feint and lowering my head, tackling him with a shoulder in the gut. I feel the moment my skin touches his and my heart lurches but there’s no time to react. In the next second, he loses his footing, and we both go flying off the edge of the rocky cliff.
I scream, watching the hard ground below rising fast to meet us, too fast for anything but death. Before we have a chance to hit the bottom, Legion shifts, scales replacing flesh as large, leathery wings appear. There’s no time for a recovery, not even with wings, but he’s not trying to escape the fall.
Instead, his enormous wings curl forward, cocooning me inside them. A second later, Legion slams into the ground, and the impact jars me. The wings pull tighter, suffocating me while saving me from a fatal impact.
An impact I barely feel because Legion takes it for me.
He makes no sound as he hits the ground. His wings unfurl, and I’m dumped onto the ground in a heap of dust and pebbles. Scrambling up, I lean over Legion’s dragon form, searching for a heartbeat.
Thud… thud… thud.
