Time Eternal (21 page)

He straightened himself up and walked out of her room, repeating his demand, “One week. Or I’ll destroy everything you have ever loved and treasured. And I can assure you that being my wife is a much, much better alternative than being my whore. Your choice. But I’ll have you either way.”

She was stunned. Tears she’d held back were now gushing all over her bruised face. She sat still for a long moment, processing what had just happened and Fernando’s vicious threats. His cruelty and malice were even more severe than she had thought possible. Did Antonio know how sick Fernando was? If her cousin knew, would he have still sold her to Fernando? As the enormity of the situation gradually sank in, she began to hyperventilate. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” Hugging her knees to her chest, realizing the life she had known was over and the bargain she made with the devil was more than she was willing to sacrifice, she whispered to herself, “What am I going to do…?”

“Skyla, wake up.” Rei gently brushed his hand over her forehead.

When he crashed into her room, Antonio, her bastard cousin, was standing right in front of her. Rei couldn’t believe his eyes, even though he had already suspected Antonio was behind this whole fucking mess—ever since Sloan told him that his men had spotted Antonio and about the mechanical residue found at the dock. He rushed Antonio like a bull, not only to get him away from Skyla but also because he needed information from him. If Antonio was here, Fernando would not be far behind. A few blows were exchanged, but Antonio came prepared. Out of nowhere, a revolver was pulled out, and Rei twisted to get away just in time, barely missing the bullet aimed for his head. It gave Antonio the chance to jump out of the window. Rei would have gone after the bastard, but Skyla was lying motionless on the floor. His heart almost stopped beating, thinking the worst. Fortunately, he found her face was warm, and her chest rose with almost imperceptible breaths.

By then Knox and Sloan were rushing in, bare knuckles ready to fight.

“Help her.” Before he could finish his sentence, Knox was already kneeling down next to him.

“What happened?” Knox asked him as he methodically checked Skyla for injury.

“Antonio, her cousin, was here.” Rei spat out the name and felt Sloan tense next to him. It was odd. Rei expected his brother to growl or curse, but the tension was a strange reaction. He dismissed his brother’s odd reaction and focused on Skyla’s unconscious state.

After what felt like an eternity, Knox finally said. “It doesn’t look like she’s sustained any injury. She fainted the last time her mind was bombarded with images from the past. Probably the same happened this time if seeing her cousin triggered another memory overload.”

Letting out the breath he didn’t know he was holding in, Rei ordered Sloan to check the grounds and double their men for patrol and security. Knox offered to help and left with his brother. That was half an hour ago, and Skyla was still out of it.

“Come on, love. Wake up for me.” He lowered his forehead to hers and whispered. “Please.” Right then he felt a sharp inhale from her. He pulled back, and her color came back. Her eyelids fluttered, and she was muttering something.

“Skyla,” he called out to her softly. “Can’t you hear me? Wake up, baby.” He pulled her palm to his face, scrapping his day-old beard against her soft fingers before kissing them gently. He remembered the first time he kissed Elizabeth’s fingertips in a seductive, sensual way. Her eyes went impossibly rounder and brighter, an innocent surprise, followed instantly with heated passion shimmering across her face. He was hard immediately, and it took all his well-honed discipline not to drag her on the grass field, claim her, love her, make her his.

“Rei…”

His heartbeat picked up, and his eyes opened. He hadn’t even realized they were closed, so deep was his longing for their past.

“I’m here, love.” He immediately helped her sit up. When he looked into her eyes, the luminous chocolate-brown eyes that had captured his heart and soul centuries ago, they were full of fear and tears.
Shit.
The last time he had seen her tears was the day he had told her who he was and the day she had traded her life for his. If he could, he would go back to that day and rip Antonio apart, limb from limb. But the gods had forbidden him and his men to travel back in time to exact revenge on their enemies. They were only allowed to exact their vengeance in a future time and only when the gods thought it was appropriate. In Rei’s case, the gods had forbidden him to go near Fernando altogether because the Medici family wielded too much power in shaping the future of the world. Even the gods were reluctant to cross the family. They had only promised him that when the time came for his vengeance, he would know.

He reached for the water pitcher next to the bed and poured her a glass. “Here.”

She took it and sipped the water slowly. She was silent for a few moments. “Thank you. How long was I out?”

“About half an hour. Do you remember what happened before your blackout?”

Grief and anger flew across her face. “Yes. My cousin Antonio was here.”

“So you remember more of the past. What else do you remember?”

“I remember what happened.” She took another sip of the water and looked straight at him. “What happened to my family and me after they took you away.” Her expression changed from neutral to hard. “I traded my life for yours, for my family.”

Rei should’ve been ecstatic that more of her memory was coming back to her, but he also knew something terrifying had happened after they dumped him on a ship homebound. He wanted to erase the horrible past from her mind. His primal instinct was always to protect what belonged to him, yet he knew there was nothing he could do to alleviate the horror and the pain Skyla was now remembering. So he simply nodded at her, asking her to continue.

“I agreed to married Fernando di Medici so they would not execute you and my papa and uncle.”

There was a pregnant silence. As if they both realized what just happened. “Skyla…you just…” He didn’t have to finish. She finished it for him. “Yes, I said it. I called them my papa and my uncle. I’m acknowledging my past out loud.”

Rei wrapped his arms tightly around her as if he was afraid she might take back what she had just admitted. Her admission of her past, a past not just Elizabeth’s but also hers, Skyla Gray’s.

Finally, my Elizabeth!
He wanted to jump up and shout from the joy he hadn’t experienced for far too long. He held her tighter, relishing her soft body, savoring her scent, sunshine and warmth, while her head leaned against his chest, trusting him, loving him like centuries ago.

“Fernando threatened to destroy my family and sell me to the whorehouse if I did not go to his bed willingly. The rumors about his depravity were true.” Her shoulder shook a little. A storm of rage surged through him. Skyla sounded so vulnerable, so defenseless, nothing like the agent she had become. He wanted to go back in time, to kill Fernando over and over again for daring to threaten what was his. Consequences be damned. Damn the gods and their self-serving rules.

Skyla pulled away from him all too soon. She pushed off the sheet and got out of bed. Chill immediately cloaked him, the same chill that had been his only companion these past centuries without her.

“If Antonio’s here, there could only be two possible explanations.” Her cool voice returned. It should have been a relief that she was back to her normal self, but he was too distracted by her slim ankles, padding barefoot away from him into the en-suite bathroom. Was it possible that naked ankles could be that sexy and arousing? If the size and pounding ache of his cock was the indication, the answer would be a resounding
yes
.

His guttered mind started coming up with all sorts of naughty thoughts. The temperature seemed to have gone up twenty degrees within seconds. And Skyla was not helping at all. She left the bathroom door wide open while stripping off her tank top and shorts without a care.

He swallowed involuntarily from the sight. “Skyla, what did I say about the next time I saw your naked skin?” It was the low growl of a predator, hungry and aroused, right before it pounced on its prey.

If she had heard his growl, she didn’t give any indication. She stepped through the clear glass door and let the water cascade down her face to her breasts and onto her flat stomach. The streams of water gathered into a single gushing river, rushing past the dark nest of hair that shielded her womanhood. The water caressed her lower core like a lover’s hand. She was a water nymph personified, teasing her admirer with her sexuality, her feminine power.

Rei wasn’t sure if he was having hallucinations. But he swore she just turned toward him, smiling at him invitingly. She was his perfect siren. And he would answer her call through eternity. Next thing he knew, he was in the middle of the bathroom, gawking at her like a teenage boy seeing his first peep show or something.

His dick was ruling over his brain now. It was demanding he close the last few paces between them, to go claim what was his once and for all. Instead, his honor chided him, reminding him of her innocence, no matter what a badass agent she had become. How ironic that he still had an honorable conscience at this moment when he should have chosen abandonment over anything else.

He sucked in a deep breath before clearing his throat. “What else do you remember? Do you…” But he completely forgot what he was going to ask her. The steamed up glass shower door was now showing a graceful silhouette. She was soaping herself, and her movement was like an erotic dancer, enticing, seducing her audience. Rei choked out a silent groan. His mind was already seeing himself stepping into the shower, bending her forward, and pushing his now impossibly engorged cock slowly, sensuously into her tight channel.

Without any conscious thought, he pulled the shower door open as she was stepping out at the same time. Her cheeks flushed immediately. He had always loved her pretty blushes, so innocent. Rei couldn’t help but smile because his ass-kicking Elizabeth was still a maiden at heart.

No longer caring what Skyla remembered or didn’t remember, his instincts took over. He picked her up out of the shower and lifted her slippery, wet body onto the vanity table.

“Mine” he declared solemnly before his mouth clamped down on hers, devouring her with a searing, open-mouthed kiss. A marking he should have put on her centuries ago, but he never had because she was so young and tender. She had been only sixteen years old. And that bastard Fernando had threatened her with rape and death. A feral growl escaped him. He knew he should be going easy on her, on her untried body. He received confirmation from his men yesterday, after their extensive recon, in the years since she had arrived in the twenty-first century, there was no evidence of her having any lovers.

Skyla tried to push him away. Her body struggled against his demanding, unrelenting kiss, but the heat slowly simmered in her eyes, which were answering his claim with the same fervor. He swiftly took hold of her wrists and raised them above her head. He looked intensely into her fiery brown eyes, daring her to deny him, deny them. “Mine.” He said it again quietly, irrefutably. He was relieved to see the same longing and heat flaring on her angelic face, mirroring his own. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her. He didn’t know how he could have stopped himself if she showed otherwise. He didn’t have the will to fight against the undeniable need of her.

Moving one of his hands from hers, he feathered his fingers over her collarbone and slowly down the swell of her sweet breasts. Her eyes fluttered shut when his thumb swiped against one of her beaded nipples. Her pearly white teeth clamped down on her full lower lip, stifling a groan. He wanted to suck on those lips himself, but his mouth had other ideas when she unknowingly arched her delectable soft body against his, silently demanding more of his touch. Her aroused scent was overpowering. He was drunk from tasting her soft, petal-like skin. His lips followed the path of his hand before clamping on a hard, rosy nipple. Loud moans escaped both of them. He pressed his swollen cock against her core. He swore he could feel how wet and ready she was for him, even through his leather pants. This was home. She was his home. “Elizabeth.” He whispered her name in broken breaths.

Her body was on fire. Skyla already knew that the pull between her and Rei was intense, but now that she had remembered more of their past, the intensity had reached a new height. Gone was the wariness of who he was, who they were to each other. Here now was the uncontrollable need to be consumed by him. Her logical mind couldn’t resist any longer. Her breasts pushed out more, begging for his mouth to slick and suck them, to ease the ache. The infuriating man kept his leisurely pace, eating her up as if she was the most delectable dessert. “Rei…” Now it was her turn to growl at him. She pulled at his hair, demanding more.

“Shh…love. Let me.” She could feel the unspoken words from him, “…love you.” He bit her erotically at the underside of her breasts while his hand moved lower to her waist and brushed over the side of her hip. All her erogenous zones were flaring up like the Fourth of July. This was unchartered water for her body and her heart.

“Wrap your legs around me, baby.” Her fuzzy brain took a moment to comply. Rei’s raspy voice sounded as desperate as she felt. It gave her a surprising sense of power, feminine power, knowing she could do that to him, make the big bad wolf lose his mind.

Before her legs securely locked behind his back, he was already pushing his bulging cock against her wet core, mimicking the plunging movements of his tongue in her mouth. Her breaths become more labored by the second. She had never felt so frantic and needy. And when his fingers finally reached down between them and thumbed against her clit, she whimpered. Her virginal muscles tightened against the emptiness. “Rei, please…”

“Elizabeth,” he moaned into her mouth while he started fumbling the fly on his pants.