Page 13 of Peacemaker

He smiled down at me. “It makes me happy to have you there.”

I slid my hand over his chest to his defined abs and then lower, pushing just the tips of my fingers into the waistband of his underwear. He sucked in a breath and his body tightened, but before I could go farther he caught my wrist.

“Not yet,” he said. “As badly as I want you, it’s not the right time.”

I stepped back, crossing my arms to keep from touching him. “Why is it not the right time?” I was genuinely curious. Rhys was different, and he was mysterious. I wanted to know his motivations. I wanted to know him. “And for the record,” I added, “I want you, too.”

His grin flashed wide and white, then he sobered. “I wanted you to come in here because I need to tell you some things. I can’t tell you what I am, but I can tell you the reason why I can’t tell you.”

“Okay.”

“My power lies in my…secrecy. I was told—as was my father and his father before him—that we were cursed centuries ago. Each time someone sees my power, part of it trickles away.”

I walked to the tub and turned off the water. “Your abilities weaken when you show them?”

“Yes.”

“That sucks, Rhys.”

He laughed. “Indeed it does.”

I gestured at the bathtub. “Climb in. We can talk as you soak, then I’ll find another bathroom and take my shower.”

He didn’t argue. “I adore the tension between us, but having you naked with me in my bath would be too much, even for me. And I have had decades to practice control.”

I swallowed hard as he started to take off his loose boxers, which, in my opinion, hid way too much. I looked up at him when he hesitated.

“Could you…?” he asked.

Surprised, and not a little disappointed, I averted my hot gaze. Dammit.

“May I ask why?” I murmured, when he was in the bathtub, hidden beneath tons of froth and bubbles. “Why I can’t see it?”

He closed his eyes and leaned back with a groan, then opened one eye to peek at me. “Some of my power is in my cock. And the last thing on earth I want is to lose any of that.”

I gaped at him. “I…you’re saying…” I couldn’t seem to get the words out. “Power in your…” I gestured at his hidden parts, then perched once more on the rim of the tub. “If I see your dick it will weaken your power? Its power?”

“Yes. Until after we physically join.”

“How have you kept from losing its power before when you…” I swallowed hard, shocked at how painfully the image of him between someone else’s legs stabbed me in the heart. “Or is it just me?”

“It isn’t connected to my power as a supernatural,” he said, amusement in his dark eyes. “They are separate. Were someone to see me in a different state—as you did on the island—it would not affect the power of my sex.”

I shivered. The power of his sex.

I licked my lips, a little overheated. That he affected me—without even touching me—was extremely obvious. And exciting.

And hot.

“You were weakened because I saw you on the island?”

“Yes.”

“What about when you fought the demon? We all saw you change into those…” I shivered. “Those blades. Did that also weaken you?”

“How do you think a group of human men got the upper hand on me?”

“Understandable if you can’t shift or anything in front of them…”