Page 57 of Shattered Silence

There was too much going on for her to process all at once, and she needed time.

Enki stiffened, and for a moment Layla wondered if she’d put him off, but then he lifted his head and captured her lips with his.

He kissed her gently, reverently, taking his time, grazing his fangs against her lower lip. Layla closed her eyes and responded in kind, her thoughts shattering into a million fragments of pure bliss. His lips were warm and demanding against her own cracked ones. His tongue was insistent. His kiss was the best fucking thing she’d felt in longer than she could remember.

Finally, he drew away, looking down at her with eyes that were pure amber, with not a trace of eerie green to be seen. “That’s how much I notice,” he whispered, his voice raw and rough and full of hunger. Ooh, that level of intensity was toe-curling. “But I know how much you have suffered. I can wait until you are ready.”

The strain in his voice told her otherwise, and it made Layla appreciate his restraint all the more. Clearly, he was a man who was used to doing what he wanted, but for her, he was willing to hold back.

That meant everything.

Layla leaned in and kissed him, not quite believing her audacity when it came to this lethal otherworldly creature.

“We have time, Layla,” he murmured, looking fierce and intense and all kinds of sexy. He stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb, edging his fingers beneath her chin. She became lost in the depths of his gaze, which was a portal to another reality.

Suddenly, Enki was moving, lifting her into his arms so fluidly and quickly that he stole her breath away. She didn’t quite understand how he went from siting on the floor to standing in a single motion, but she went with it, simply content to let him take over and whisk her away.

“You are with me now, Layla of Earth. That means you are part of the Darkstar network, and we take care of our own.” He took her away from the airlock, striding through dark rooms and corridors that looked very similar to the ones on the warship they’d just escaped. “Nobody can touch you here.”

Layla got the feeling she’d accidentally stumbled onto something huge. “I really don’t understand what’s going on. I thought the Kordolian Empire was finished. Are you guys from the Empire, or are you…?”

“Former Empire,” he said, his voice turning dangerously soft. “We were their enforcers, until we decided we didn’t want to serve the Empire anymore.”

“So you deserted?”

“We tried. They didn’t want to let us leave. So we destroyed them.”

“You…” Were responsible for the downfall of the entire Kordolian Empire? Layla went silent as she tried to wrap her head around what Enki had just told her. Obviously, there was a lot more to the story, but the way he said it—with such brutal conviction—made her feel as if Enki and his people could do anything they wanted in the Universe and get away with it.

Who the hell are these people?

And more importantly, who was Enki, really? Rescuer. Protector. Badass. Tortured soul with a demon inside. Soon-to-be lover. “I have so many questions,” she whispered as he brought her inside a small, dark chamber. Confined spaces on Kordolian ships weren’t exactly Layla’s favorite places in the Universe, but by now she was too far gone to care. She was in his arms, and that was all that mattered.

Enki gently laid her down in a dark cocoon of softness—sheets that felt like pure silk and smelled of him. Her body sank into the bed, or pod, or whatever it was, her arms and legs suddenly feeling heavy. God, she was tired.

In that moment, everything else became inconsequential. She no longer cared about the fact that she didn’t even know where she was, or her dirty and disheveled state, or the question of where she would end up after this was all over…

None of it mattered. She was here with Enki, with desire slowly permeating through every cell and pore of her body, and she felt warm and fuzzy and safe.

Her eyelids slipped, turning her world into a blue-and-dark haze; limned with silver, shot through with amber. She fought to stay awake. Her breathing deepened. She reached out with one lazy hand and found the smooth, hard planes of Enki’s chest. Still naked.

“Aren’t you going to rest?” Her voice was hoarse, her words slightly slurred. “I’m probably taking up all the space in your bed. I don’t mind if you want to…” She didn’t really know what she was saying anymore, only that she craved his warmth.

“Later,” he whispered. “Rest.” He wrapped his fingers around hers and gently kissed her knuckles, sealing the sudden spell he’d cast over her.

Bone-weary but content, Layla drifted into dreams of stars and dark infinity, feeling at peace for the first time in ages.

Chapter Twenty-One

Enki sank into the chair opposite his pod, bone-tired himself, but utterly entranced by the creature he’d claimed and whisked away to his quarters.

A human female.

His Layla.

As soon as they’d escaped the clutches of danger, the feeling had come upon him so quickly, so fiercely, that the intensity of it had surprised him.

And now his horn-buds throbbed, and a terrible headache was spreading through his temples, and part of him wanted to rage against the stars and fight and kill anything and everything that could possibly cause her harm.

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