Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [146]
Together they rode the frenzied storm, their straining bodies finding a rhythm with equal give and take, the way she’d always imagined being with a man. When the tempest passed, it was as if Arik’s bones had turned to rubber, and he collapsed on top of her. They lay there in the aftermath, panting, sweating, and yes, this had been so worth waiting for.
“Well?” Arik rasped. “Was it all it’s cracked up to be?”
She grinned. “If you’re asking if it was good, it was.” She lost the smile. “You believe me, right?”
He rolled to the side to keep from squishing her, though in truth, she hadn’t minded his weight. “Sweetheart, I’ll never doubt you again.”
“Then I want you to know that I’m glad it was you.” She angled herself toward him and cupped his cheek. “I know it wasn’t by choice that I had to wait for my first time, but I’m glad it happened that way.”
He rubbed his face against her palm like a purring cat. “Well, now you have a lot to make up for.”
“Mmm. I can’t wait.” She smoothed her hand down his chest and over his abs. Lower… lower, and she was pleasantly surprised to discover that he was ready to get started.
He groaned. “I think I’ve created a monster.”
“I think you can handle it.” She rubbed his shaft, loving how it was swelling at her touch. “I have faith in your ability to satisfy my every need.”
“Is that so.”
“It’s so.” Throwing her leg over him, she pushed up so she was straddling him, and he watched her with half-lidded, curious eyes. “Arik?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.”
His hands slid up her calves to her thighs, leaving tingles in their wake. “For what?”
“For turning my wildest dreams into reality.”
One eyebrow raised, and he got a naughty gleam in his eye. “Wildest? Because I can tell you that we haven’t even begun to get wild.”
She shivered with appreciation. “Then what are we waiting for?”
In a surprisingly quick motion, Arik gripped her waist and flipped her, coming down on her back with his mouth to her ear. “We’re not waiting another minute.” His teeth clamped down on her earlobe, and she sucked air at the tiny pinch of pain. “You ready?”
“Ready,” she breathed. She had, after all, been waiting for this for five thousand years.
And it had been worth every minute.
A Demon-Slayer, a Lethal Rider, a Prophecy, an Unborn Child—Can they save the world, or is this a recipe for disaster?
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Lethal Rider
Available in June 2012
One
Regan Cooper was going to die.
She knew it as sure as she knew the sky was blue. Knew it as sure as she knew the baby inside her was a boy.
Knew it as sure as she knew the baby’s father would be the one to end her life.
Screaming, she bolted upright in bed, her eyes focusing on the glow of the nightlight in the bathroom. It took a second to realize she was awake, safe and secure inside The Aegis’s Berlin headquarters instead of in the middle of a nightmare.
The dream had come to her again, the one where she saw herself lying on the floor and covered in her own blood. Thanatos, known to much of the human population as Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, knelt next to her, blood coating his hands, dripping from his pale hair, and splashed on his bone armor.
She took a deep, calming breath, forcing herself to relax. Thanatos couldn’t touch her. Not here, in the apartment complex deep below the headquarters building that housed the twelve Elders who ran the ancient demon-hunting organization. Most of the Elders used their apartments only when they came to Germany for Aegis business, but Regan had called this spartan apartment home for years, and despite the fact that she was due to give birth in a month, she hadn’t done a single thing to prepare for the baby. There would be no decorating, no toys, no cribs.
She’d always hated pastels anyway.
Her hand trembled as she rubbed her belly through the cotton fabric of the maternity nightgown, hoping the baby would stay asleep. He was one hell of a kicker, and her organs were still recovering from his last round of hackeysack.
There was a tap at