I gave him a watery laugh. “And what if I do leave?”

Anger rolled across his face before he regained control. A heaviness filled the moment. He blew out a slow breath. “I’ll take up yoga.” A crooked smile tweaked his lips. “Honestly, it’ll kill me. It’ll drive me to rage. I do have my father in me, and I am possessive to a fault.” His thumb trailed across my cheek. “But I do not own you. You are free to do as you please. I will not hurt you. I will never hurt you. I’ll put checks and balances in place in case I should lose my mind. I will never make a woman suffer as my father made my mother suffer.” His fist clenched. “Never.”

I hadn’t needed to hear any of that. I already believed it, or I wouldn’t have let things go this far in the first place.

He looked at me for a long beat. Finally, he whispered, “I still don’t know where we go from here.”

I fought back laughter. As he sat there, looking to me for guidance, he seemed almost like a normal man, sitting with the woman he loved, wondering if he was in the dog house.

“I thought Demigods were supposed to have all the answers,” I hedged. I snuck my fist up and tapped the window sill. Just in case.

His mouth-watering smile made my stomach flip. “Sometimes we need a little help deciphering which way the wind is blowing.”

I shrugged, finally letting relief take hold of me. He’d told me the truth of his situation, and now it was probably fair for me to be equally open with him.

“You had me going there. I thought you regretted the mark. I freaked out a little more than is probably normal.”

He leaned closer and trailed his thumb across my jaw. “I will never regret that mark. Unlike my father, I don’t see my connection to you as a weakness. I’ve just attached myself to one of the wildest, most unpredictable women I’ve ever met. It’ll be a crazy ride, I have no doubt.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You marked Bria, too? Because I’m not down with sharing.”

He chuckled and brushed his lips against mine. “Tell me plainly, Alexis. Are you okay with my…accidentally marking you?”

I shook my head and the tip of my nose brushed back and forth against his. “Accidentally? No. If you’re going to do something right, you need to do it on purpose.”

He pulled back a little, his eyes searching mine. Fire lit within them and eagerness crossed his expression.

“Claim me for reals this time,” I said in a breathy voice.

28

Alexis

Kieran crashed his lips onto mine, needy and sensual. His sexy magic blistered across my skin before soaking down into me, driving out a moan. He ran his palm up my stomach and across my breast, but his fingers continued their upward path—wrapping around the back of my neck and then sliding down to my shoulder. He was backing off.

“Wrong direction,” I said, nearly panting.

I tried to lean back and drag him on top of me, but he got to his feet.

“You said to do this right.” He took my hand and helped me to stand.

My legs gave out and I tipped into him.

“You need to stand,” he said softly, putting me to rights and steadying me.

His stormy eyes teased me as he clutched the base of my shirt and pulled it over my head. He tossed the fabric away.

“I’m not a true Demigod, did you know that?” he asked, stepping a little closer. His heat blanketed me. His sexy magic vibrated across my skin, boosting my pleasure higher without him even touching me. “Demi is half, and I am but a quarter. Like you.”

He lightly trailed his fingertips down my chest and over my budded nipples. A shock of pleasure zipped straight to my core.

“Oh Kieran, please, fuck me,” I groaned.

“I will, love. Good and hard, believe me. But first…” He ran his soft touch down my stomach and then, with inhuman speed, flicked my pants open and pulled down the zipper. Moving slowly again, he slid my pants down over my thighs, following his fingertips with his lips, until my pants pooled on the floor.

“It is rare for someone like me to inherit a Demigod’s magic,” he continued, making his way back up my body in the same slow, sensual, worshipful manner. His palm grazed the inside of my right thigh. His tongue grazed the other. I couldn’t breathe as he neared my apex. “I am the only Demigod who has access to my other parent’s magic.” His lips skimmed my left hip and his fingers caressed the other. “Even a true Demigod from two godly lineages will only manifest one god’s magic. Yet I wield the magic of a Demigod, and that of a selkie.”

Another wave of his sexy magic nearly drove me to my knees. He caught me and held me up, staring at me intently as his magic traveled across my body like two vibrating hands. It dipped between my legs and pushed up through me.

“Oh!” I clung to his wide shoulders, my eyes closed, gyrating my hips in time to the sexy magic massaging my core. “Oh holy fuck.”

“Yes, exactly. I can fuck you anywhere, anytime, without even touching you.” He bent and bit my nipple through my bra. The sensation blasted through me, and without warning, an orgasm swept me away. “Oh God.”

I exalted in the pleasure, but the magic didn’t let up. It kept pumping me higher still. Giving me no break.

“Of course, my selkie magic is minuscule compared to what I can do with Poseidon’s lineage.” The sound of crashing waves was so loud in the enclosed space that I jerked away from him, wondering if a tsunami had slammed into the cliff and was coming for the house. It hadn’t, of course, but the room seemed to fill with the power and energy of the ocean—rip tides pulling, salt water bubbling, waves rolling. If I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn water was pouring in through the windows.

My heart surged, blanketed by the sweet song of the ocean. In awe of its power. His power.

Kieran’s warm palm slid up my suddenly chilled skin and stopped at my bra clasp. In a moment, the material was falling loosely to the ground. “Maybe it is because I am not a true Demigod that I want to share my power with you.” He bent and then rose quickly, almost too fast to notice, and suddenly I stood bare before him. “More likely, it is because I trust you implicitly, and I know that giving you more tools can only help me in the long run.”

“Always with a strategy.” I had to yell in order to be heard over the noise of the rolling, tumbling chaos. Air swirled around me, fog so thick it was almost solid.

He grinned, and then he was gone, having disappeared into the swirling mists. A moment later he was back, completely nude and drop-dead gorgeous. His deliciously cut pecs led down into that devastating six-nearly-eight pack. His large cock stood rigid. But something told me he wasn’t ready for me yet. He had an agenda, and I needed to let him set the pace.

Only as he reached me did I notice the needle in his hand. He held up one of his fingers, pricked it, and closed his eyes.

Power to a degree I could barely comprehend drummed around me, pushing against my body and electrifying the air. The tides ripped and surged around us. Fog rolled and boiled. The crash of waves was deafening.

He held out his hand and the drop of crimson quivered on his finger. “Ingest this.”

I barely stopped from recoiling—until I met his eyes. The gravity I saw there, the openness, had me leaning forward. I trusted him with everything in me.

I wrapped my lips around the end of his finger and swallowed down the salty, metallic bite of his blood.

His magic burned a path across my skin, strangely pleasant and deliciously erotic. I moaned as I fell into the sensation, the feeling of his desire, and his devotion, evident through the buzz of our soul connection.

My magic surged out of me and the colors in the room changed. Spirit lined the walls and swirled within the fog. The Line pulsed, sending a shock wave of magic coursing through my veins.

“Yes,” Kieran said softly, his voice a low hum. “Your magic feels so damn good.”

His magic responded in kind and the pressure in the room built to a new high. The walls trembled. The ground shook. The fog swirled, so thick I felt the wetness slide across my face and coat my hair. I looked back again, wondering if I’d see that tsunami thundering toward us. I wanted to run. To hide. My primal instincts couldn’t handle the onslaught of so much unbridled force and power.

Without warning, my ears popped, and then everything stilled. The fog dissipated and the crashing of the waves subsided until it was mere background noise. Silence drifted down between us.

It was as if nothing had ever happened.

I took a deep, shuddering breath, and though I stood naked by the open window, I no longer felt the chill of the night. My usual awareness of Kieran felt amplified, but that wasn’t what had my eyes widening.

Power pounded through my veins. He’d increased the intensity of the mark, so I blanketed the already solid soul connection between us with more spirit.

“You have the gifts of my blood,” he said softly, looking down on me with a gaze opened up all the way to his soul. “You will see it manifest in different ways. You will grow stronger, faster, and more capable. Your magic will…” His words stumbled, interrupting what had sounded like rehearsed information. “…might,” he corrected, “see a boost in power. You will no longer feel temperature like a human, or lose your breath so easily. The pressure of the deep ocean will no longer trouble you. These gifts are bestowed so that you can better protect me…” He stopped altogether and ran his palms down my arms. “Sorry, that bit doesn’t apply to you.”

I shook my head, confused and feeling strangely…invincible. For some primal reason, I wanted to lift something heavy, like the couch, and then throw it through the window.

“What’s happening?” I asked, feeling the throb of spirit. Feeling the call of the place where physical bodies weren’t needed—the place that pushy jerk kept shoving me out of.

His smile tickled me way down deep. “I told you, I want to share everything I have with you. I trust you.”

I slid my hands up his chest and stepped closer, smiling like a lunatic. “Does this mean I’m the first girl in your Six?”