Velvet Haven

the thoughts anyway. She was lovely, gazing at him like this. Perfect.
    The thought stopped him cold. He had never looked at a mortal for more than sex. He never thought of them as beautiful. Never felt any measure of warmth, or care. But he did now. All he could think about was chasing away the panic that racked her body, turning her fear into passion, making her big, wide eyes molten with desire.
    “Mairi?” he repeated, unable to hide the worry in his voice. She closed her eyes, cradling her cheek in his palm.
    “Thank you,” she whispered with a sad smile. “I . . . I can’t explain what happened, but having you here now it . . . feels . . . right. Safe .”
    His heart actually lurched. Damn it, he did not want to feel this, this softness that suddenly wrapped around his chest. He was worried about her. Which was ludicrous. He should be concerned about himself. About Carden. He should be finding Morgan and disposing of her. And Annwyn? He’d been a poor king for more than a century, and as a result of his carelessness the dark arts had returned, threatening his home, his people. There was no doubt in his mind what his priority should be. The rational part of him knew this. But the irrational urge to protect this human female continued to war with the logical side, eventually winning out.
    “Can you walk?” he asked, glancing at their surroundings. They were private enough, the hall dark, but he wanted her away from there. Away from Suriel.
    He could feel the angel’s aura surrounding them. In the dark, the angel was watching. Even with his piercing raven eyes, Bran could not find Suriel hidden in the shadows. But he sensed him.
    “Bran?” she asked, her eyes once again focusing on her surroundings. The way she looked up at him with an expression of relief and desire, it undid him.
    “I’m here, Mairi. Whatever happened, whatever it was, it is done.”
    She swallowed hard and he followed the fluid movement of her throat with his fingertips. She shivered, and the sigils on his fingers and hand began to glow in the darkness as they greedily absorbed her energy.
    Abruptly he dropped his palm from her cheek, not wanting her to see that he was not like other men she had known in the past.
    The action confused him. He’d never before cared about such things. If a mortal woman asked about his markings, he told her they were tattoos. If she pressed, he shut her mouth with his lips until she was too far gone with desire to care. But something told him Mairi would not be put off so easily. It was in her eyes. She was intelligent, but more dangerous to him than that was the fact that she was perceptive. If he were thinking with the proper head, he’d turn around now and find another mortal, a vacuous female who was looking for nothing more than a night of pleasure.
    It wasn’t like he needed Mairi. Any human female would do to satisfy the Legacy Curse. There were only two requirements. First, she must be willing, and second, she must be pleasured. He could not simply take what he needed; he had to give . That was what he hated the most. Him, king of the Sidhe, pleasuring women in exchange for energy. It made him a whore, his curse. Magic was his right by birth, but now he had to purchase it with his body.
    Humility. Need. Sacrifice. That is what Cailleach had intended to teach him when she’d cursed him. Instead, all he had learned was shame, rage, hate toward the woman who essentially held him by the balls.
    And this one. This female who was looking at him, sexual hunger replacing the veil that only seconds ago clouded her eyes. It made his chest ache. He didn’t want her this way. Didn’t want to pleasure her in exchange for energy. A fucking transaction. He wanted it to be mutual. Pleasure for pleasure.
    The thought unnerved him.
    The arousal singing within him, the need he felt to slip deep inside her, was stronger than ever.
    No, it was better to seek out another woman for the night. One he could easily forget.
    She blinked, swallowed once more, and Bran resisted the fierce urge to place his lips to her throat.
    Leave , he commanded himself. Except he couldn’t make his feet move. Couldn’t stop his hand from tingling where he had touched her. Couldn’t prevent himself from being pulled into her gaze and imagining what it would be like to look into her eyes as she shivered beneath him, his cock deep within her.
    He took a step back, intending to walk away, but he couldn’t do it. Instead, he