Page 122 of Temptation Unleashed

“Good.” Rori threw her leg over Thaddeus’s hips, straddling him as he pushed upright. “Moira said we cut our palms and vow ourselves to each other for eternity.”

“Aye.” He gently removed the dagger from her grip andreplaced it with his hand, folding his fingers between hers, all the while watching her like a man torn between an insatiable hunger and a desire for tenderness. He separated their palms and slipped the tip of his blade between them. “’Tis but a second, a sting. You tell me when you’re ready.”

“I’m ready,” she said without hesitation.

Thaddeus paused.

Then pulled the dagger back.

Rori sucked in a sharp breath as the sting of the cut spread up her arm.

For a moment.

The pain melted into a tingling warmth, a soothing peace. She sighed as the sensations ran through her like a wave of warm honey. The pulsing bond that entwined with Thaddeus stretched and swayed, finding the free-flowing wound along their palms. It blazed with renewed force, thickening, shimmering, forging a strong, unbreakable connection.

Rori closed her eyes, listened to the steady beat of her heart, echoed by another in perfect synchrony. She pressed her hand to his chest, felt the deft rhythm that matched her own. Threads of power laced around their entwined hands, branches from their bond. A faint shimmer of golden light encompassed them, the slow-burning arousal coiling tighter and tighter.

“Moghráálainn,anamcara, this is my oath to you. From this day forth, until the end of eternity. Through all trials and tribulations. My heart is your heart. My soul, your soul. My body for you, to find comfort, security, and pleasure. I shall forever be your shield, to protect you from harm, to ensure your safety. My strength is your strength, to lift you up when you have fallen. I shall forever love you, cherish you, provide for you, shelter you. You shall want for naught, need fornaught, desire naught within my care. With my blood, of heart and soul, to you I pledge my oath.”

Rori moistened her lips, his gaze darkening, encouraging. How many nights had she imagined this happening? Speaking an oath of eternity with Thaddeus, believing her chance as lost as he?

The Goddess granted you your chance now.

“To you, my infuriating Faery man, my oath. To love for all time, through this life and all that follow. To cherish you, support you. To provide a home within my arms, a sanctuary within my heart. My loyalty is to you, my undying devotion to you, my eternal gratitude for the gift of you and in all you have bound in blood to me, I shall pledge to you.”

Thaddeus cast his dagger to the floor as he rolled her onto her back, capturing her jaw in the palm of his hand, and devouring her in a kiss that snapped the coiled arousal and had her craving anything and everything Thaddeus could offer.

“I forgot to tell you,” he breathed against her lips, lifting their folded hands and pinning them above her head. “Forging a blood bond ignites that insatiable hunger between soul mates.”

Rori arched into his body, his wicked mouth stirring wild desires alive. “More than we already experience?”

He lifted himself over her, his hair tumbling around her head in a white-gold cape. “We shall have an eternity to find out.”

Catching the back of his neck, she guided him down to her. “I’m feeling quite insatiable as we speak.”

“Alas,storín, so am I.”

THE END

---