Chapter 9
"I guess you'll be leaving now," Sunshine said quietly even though part of her didn't want him to go. Her large loft suddenly seemed a bit desolate as she thought of him leaving.
They'd had a lot of fun at his cabin, creating their platter of food, making love to each other.
But now her sexcapade with him was over. It was time for them to go their separate ways.
Why, then, did it hurt so much to think of never seeing him again?
Talon nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."
He let go of her hand and started for the door. He could find someplace to sleep in the abandoned building next door to her. Find a floor that wasn't too far from this one so that he could keep watch over her until dawn. Then he could sleep in the building until tomorrow night.
It would be easier that way. Easier for both of them if he just broke off the relationship now.
There was no point in spending another day with her. Not when he knew he couldn't give her anything more of himself.
Not so long as he posed a danger to her.
Sunshine ached as he reached for her doorknob.
He was going.
It was over.
She couldn't breathe. A vicious pain stabbed her in the stomach at the thought of not seeing him anymore.
She couldn't just sit here and let him leave like this. "Talon?"
He paused and looked back at her.
"Why don't you stay the night? I know you can't get back home before sunup."
"No, I better not."
"But where will you go?"
He shrugged.
Let him go...
She couldn't. Not like this. It just didn't seem right. "C'mon. I'll be out of the loft early tomorrow morning and you'll have the place all to yourself while I work. No one will disturb you. I promise."
Talon hesitated.
Leave.
The command echoed in his head. He needed to.
He couldn't.
"You sure you don't mind?" he asked.
"Not at all."
Talon took a deep breath and headed back toward her.
His wife.
His ultimate salvation.
His ultimate destruction.
Nynia had been everything to him. He'd thought all these centuries that he was safe from his emotions. Safe from the pain that came with the memories of his wife.
Now it was all back. Even more painful than before.
"Is something wrong?" Sunshine asked.
"I'm just tired, I guess," he said, pulling his jacket off and setting it down.
Sunshine swallowed at the sight of his tight T-shirt that displayed his well-developed body. She was riveted by his impressive form. The man had the best butt leather had ever cupped. His legs were long, well shaped, and gorgeous, and all too well she remembered what they felt like when they were entangled with hers.
The feel of all his masculine power and beauty lying in her arms... thrusting between her legs...
She almost moaned aloud at imagining it.
But there was a wall between them now. As if he had closed part of himself off from her.
Gone was the tender man who had shared his body and laughter with her. Now she saw the powerful beast who had clobbered her attackers and sent them running in terror.
How she missed the gentler side of him.
"You've gone all stiff on me, haven't you?"
He arched a puzzled brow at her and looked baffled by her question. "Lady, I get stiff every time you come near me."
Heat rose in her cheeks and she scoffed. "I don't mean that kind of stiff. Though that kind of stiff is much better than the other one. At least with that one I know you like me."
Talon groaned as she glanced down at his pants where he was sure his erection was plainly visible. He felt his barriers crumbling. Felt a desire to be the man with her that he had always been with Nynia.
With Nynia he had been himself. She'd never expected that he be anything other than her friend.
Nyn had never seen the pathetic little boy who was spat upon and rejected. The one who had been made to clean up after his betters.
The one they had forced to grovel.
She had never seen the cold-hearted lad he had become because he was tired of being beaten and abused.
As a child, he had hardened his heart and learned to take their punches. He had learned to spit back and take down anyone who cast a jaundiced eye or who made a comment about either him, his mother, or his sister.
He'd told himself that he didn't need anyone's love or caring. And so he had learned to live like a feral animal, always ready to strike out when someone tried to touch him.
Until Nynia. She had tamed the beast in him. Had allowed him to be gentle with her. To be something other than hard and unyielding. Defensive and brutal.
With her he had just been Speirr. The boy/man who wanted someone to love him. Who wanted someone to love.
It had been so long since Talon had been himself with anyone.
His Dark-Hunter brethren turned to him for advice. Acheron depended on him for his strength, wisdom, and calm leadership.
None of them, not even Wulf, really knew him. He had never opened his heart up to anyone other than the woman who sat before him now.
A woman he didn't dare open himself up to in this lifetime.
"You are insatiable, aren't you?" she asked.
"Only with you," he whispered, moving closer to her as he tried to reconcile the woman she had been with the woman she was now. "I never could resist touching you. Being inside you. Feeling your breath on my skin. Your beautiful hands on my body."
Sunshine shivered at his words.
He approached her like some great stalking beast. His body was a symphony of movement.
His masculine, leather scent invaded her senses and made her mouth water.
Her head swam at his kiss, but she pushed him back, perplexed by his comments. "You say that as if you've known me for a long time. Why is that?"
"I feel like I've known you forever. Like I've held you in my heart for centuries."
She trembled at the words. This was the man who haunted her dreams. The Celtic poet and chieftain. The man she remembered riding out to battle, then riding home to love her.
But that couldn't be this man, could it?
And yet as she thought about it, she realized just how weird her dreams really were. In them, she was blond and blue-eyed, but Talon...
Talon looked the same.
Right down to the tattoo on his body. The braids at his temple. He even wore the same tore. The only thing different was his eye color.
This couldn't be right. There was something strange about all this. Something that scared her on a level she'd never known existed.
Could he be the same man?
Could he?
It didn't seem possible, and yet living with her father and mother, she'd seen a lot of impossible things in her life. There were otherworldly powers at work in this world.
She pulled back from Talon's kiss and tilted his head so that she could see the skin just below his right ear.
There was a small scar there. A small scar that she, as Nynia, had once given to Speirr when they were fishing as children. She'd drawn back her rod to cast it and the hook had caught his ear.
The star-shaped scar was still there.
Just as it had always been.
Just as it was now.
No, it wasn't possible.
Was it?
She trembled in uncertainty.
His eyes were hooded as he stared hungrily at her. His breath fell gently against her face. She could feel his heart pounding under her hands, feel his strength and heat reaching out to her.
"I've missed you so much, Nyn... Nyn... neighbor."
Sunshine froze as he pulled back instantly. By his face, she could tell he was as surprised at what he'd said as she was.