Earth Borne by Rachael Slate

Author:Rachael Slate
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Historical, Historical Romance
ISBN: 1530141990
Published: 2016-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

***

Thereus grasped the blade in front of her face and she gulped. “Easy, nymph. ’Tis you who must cut me.”

Her brows were drawn in a wary frown. He snarled at his horse to back off. His wife had no idea what the bonding ceremony entailed. This would be no simple bedding.

After he explained everything, he was certain she’d want no part of it. His horse nudged—they should indeed talk.

After he claimed her.

With her lush, willing body beneath him, Thereus possessed no strength to watch her walk away. He seized her hand and brushed her fingertips along the band on his upper left arm. Her soft gasp, combined with her delicate caress, ignited him. His band was ablaze, a ring of fire around his arm. Beads of sweat collected on his forehead and he gritted his teeth against the waves of pain.

“It hurts.” Her simple statement.

“Aye.”

“Why?”

“Security, Melita. The gods wished to ensure we wild centaurs submitted to our taming. Bonding us does that. Why we fight it so hard, I suppose.” He let out a wry laugh. “Myself more than anyone.” Confusion wrinkled her brow, so he added, “I’m done fighting. I’m finished with my wild ways, well, most of them. Though it’s in my nature, it’s also lonely, empty.” He shook his head. Damn. How had those words escaped his lips? He’d never spoken anything like this aloud to anyone, ever. “You, sweet nymph, you make me whole.”

He snorted at himself. What a fool he sounded. He’d jested about how males in love spoke, and now he was one of them. Worse, his words came out wrong. No poetry dripped from his lips to charm this woman. The sole female who deserved such fine prose was the one he couldn’t procure it for.

“Why me?”

He paused, trying to find the right way to tell her. In the end, he told her the truth. “I’d sing your praises until the sun overtakes the moon, but verily, all I know is that when I am with you, there’s nothing more right in the entire world.”

He rolled off her and brushed back a lock of her hair, tucking it behind her ear. “Only the Fates and the gods know why we’re meant to be together,” he whispered. “One thing of which I’m certain. You’re mine.”

Kalliste’s sweet lips parted. He thirsted so desperately to kiss those lips that he held his breath for an eternity, waiting for her reply. Had he pushed her too soon?

“My heart is yours, Thereus.” She smiled at him. “It always has been, though I fought it, though I’ve shed a thousand tears because of you.”

He exhaled, whistling. Bloody hell, that wasn’t the answer he’d expected. Was she taunting him? Surely she was bewitching him. He sniffed the air. Truth? “You hated me,” he accused.

“Perhaps.” She lowered her lashes, then lifted them, revealing bright, shining depths. “But every day I’ve prayed to see you again. Every day, I’ve peered into Lucian’s eyes and been haunted by the memory of you. By what could have been.

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