Jaci Burton - Taken by Sin

“I’m not feeling guilty about the sex. You wanted it. Why should there be any guilt?”

Okay that was stretching the truth a bit since he did have guilt, but not for making love to her.

“We need to talk about these residual feelings you’re having about Lou.”

“Doesn’t the Realm have counselors?”

“Yeah. You want to set up a talk with one?”

“No. But you’re not one, so you’re hardly equipped to hand out advice.”

God, she was difficult. “True enough, but I am your Keeper and in charge of determining whether you’re fit for duty or not. So I’m the first one you need to talk to.”

“I killed a demon. I can handle my job.”

“We’ve been over this before. You fell apart afterward. You went into shock. And don’t bother trying to deny it, because I was there to pick you up when it happened.”

She stared at the wall on the other side of the room. “It won’t happen again.”

“Yes, it will. Until you face your demons-sorry-it will. And no amount of trying to handle this on your own-not even sex-will make this go away.”

She closed her eyes, and though it was dark in there, he saw the tear slip down her cheek.

“I loved him. He was all I had.” When she opened her eyes again, she turned her head to face Michael, her lashes spiked with tears. “Why do I keep losing people I love?”

“I don’t have an answer for that.”

“He was my family after I lost my family. He was my father after my father was killed by demons. And I had to kill him.”

“No, you had to kill a demon.”

“I killed Lou, Michael. You were there.”

“I know. I know how hard it was for you.”

“Do you? How do you know? How could you possibly know how it felt?”

“Because I had to kill my father.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

He hated reliving it, but it was important she understand that she wasn’t the only one. “The Sons of Darkness had already killed my mother. They took my father and turned him into … one of them, their intent to have me killed.”

“Because you were a descendant, and they want to kill all the Keepers.”

He nodded. “So my father disappeared, and then came back. But it wasn’t him. I knew it wasn’t him. My father was warm, and this … thing was cold. He’d warned me once, told me what I had to do if there was ever a sudden change in him.”

“So you killed him?”

Michael nodded, trying to block out the visuals of that night, but the pain soared back, nearly doubling him over. He stood, walked to the other end of the boathouse. “I got one of the old swords out, and when his back was turned I beheaded him.”

“Oh, God.” Mandy stood, went to him. “Michael, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“No one knows, other than the Keepers.”

She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. “And here I’ve been whining about how I feel, never knowing that you felt the same way.”

“You didn’t need to know this. I’m just trying to give you perspective.”

Her hold on him tightened. “How do you deal with it?”

“I just remind myself that the man I knew as my father was already dead, and that’s what he would have wanted.” He drew her away so he could look at her. “And that’s what you have to remember. Lou was already gone. You didn’t kill Lou. You killed that demon. Lou would be proud of you.”

“You and I are so much alike. I never saw it.”

He slid his fingers under her chin. “I did. And maybe that’s part of why I said what I did back in Florida.”

“What do you mean?”

“Keepers’ mates are vulnerable, Mandy”

Her eyes widened. “You thought … oh.”

“Yeah.”

“I can take care of myself, Michael. You don’t have to worry about that. I’m not a housewife who’s going to be slaughtered while you’re off fighting demons.”

He closed his eyes and dropped his chin to his chest. Stupid, he knew, because his mind had gone there.

“Oh, my God. You thought that, didn’t you? About you and me.”

“Maybe.”

“That’s a pretty broad jump. From sex to forever.”

“Is it? In our line of work, hello to forever could be just days. We never know how long we have. I don’t like to waste time.”

She blew out a breath. “You scare me sometimes, Mike.”

“You infuriate me sometimes, Mandy. But you intrigue me, and you excite me, and I really like being with you.” And he knew now why he found her so irresistible. Beyond her beauty and her courage, she was just as lost as he was. He pressed his lips to hers, drawing strength from the way she kissed him back, moved into him to draw closer.

He’d prided himself on remaining aloof for years. Like Mandy, he’d lost so much.

But maybe it was time to fight back against the Sons of Darkness, and to take solace in someone else.

Maybe strength came in unity, not solitude.

He deepened the kiss, for the first time in years feeling that strength filling him. With Mandy at his side, he felt more powerful than ever.

They only had a few short hours until night fell. Isabelle felt the clock ticking even louder, the pounding echoing in her heart, tightening her throat like a noose. She tried to stay busy at the cabin as she watched the time click down to the zero hour, grateful at least that Dalton had brought her back here after telling Michael and the others that she needed a few hours’ rest before the big event. She needed to be away from the main house, felt claustrophobic around the sympathetic looks and gestures of Dalton’s friends and even her own sister. She couldn’t handle it.

Before they’d left the others, they’d gone over the ceremony with Georgie, outlining every possible scenario, though they realized that no one could predict what might really happen once things got under way. And playing the “what if” game with Isabelle’s destiny-with her and Dalton’s lives-had only ratcheted up her tension to the nth degree. By the time Dalton had called a halt to things and dragged her out of there, she’d been ready to explode.

She stared out the front window and watched the sun move over the water, every inch of its descent reminding her that time grew closer for tonight’s event. She dreaded it, didn’t look forward to it at all, wanted to just be a normal woman in love with a normal man.

She hated having no control over her own destiny, being unable to make her own choices regarding her future and what she wanted. She wanted Dalton in her life, and that wasn’t going to happen.

So unfair. She closed her eyes, and for the first time in a very long time, she whispered a prayer for his safety. If she couldn’t have him, she could only wish that he got what he wanted. No matter how things turned out for her, it was about time that she thought about someone else’s needs. Dalton had paid a severe price over so many years for doing something so incredibly noble.

His time for redemption had come. She could only hope she was the catalyst. Maybe after all the bad things she’d done in her life, all the selfish ways she’d tried to serve herself and her own desires, she could finally do something good for someone else.

When Dalton’s hands came around to encircle her waist, she melted into him, needing this more than she needed to breathe. His touch, being near him, was a balm to her psyche. She leaned against him, resting her head against his chest, wishing she could freeze this moment in time. She’d be perfectly content to stay like this, with Dalton’s hands around her, the feel of his heart beating against her back, his chin resting on the top of her head. She’d never felt so relaxed.

“Our time is running out, Dalton.”

He turned her around to face him. “Then let’s not waste a minute of it.” He kissed her, his lips barely a feather brush against hers. She sighed in utter bliss, swept off her feet from the sheer romance of his mouth sliding against hers. She poured everything she had into touching him, tasting him, knowing this would be the last time she would ever be close to him.