Page 58 of The Guardian (Dark-Hunter 20)
He would never get used to the way endearments for him rolled off her tongue. "No, sšn." How could he be after that?
She jerked back as if he'd slapped her. Then her eyes darkened with a fury he didn't understand the source of. "Um ... um ... Seth?"
That icy tone made him extremely wary. Especially since he was still tied down and at her mercy. "Lydia?"
"Did you just call me Su-san?"
He scowled at the foreign word. "Susan? What's that?"
Her voice was still coated with icy venom. "A woman's name."
"I've never heard of such a name."
"Then what did you just call me a minute ago?"
It took him a minute to figure it out. "You mean sšn?"
Lydia narrowed her gaze as he said it again. And as before, it made her want to kick him because it sounded kind of like Ses-sahn-the way someone with his accent might say the name Susan or Suzanne. "Yes. Who is that?"
"Not a who. It means lily in Egyptian."
"Lily? Really?"
He nodded.
What an odd thing to call her. "Why lily?"
"It's the most sacred and beautiful of all flowers in Egypt. They bloom in mud and shine in the darkness like a gift from the gods to remind you that no matter how bad something is, it will get better. That no matter how dark the night, the light will come for you. If you partake of them, they have the power to calm and soothe you, and to heal your wounds." When he spoke his next words, they were laced with emotion and sincerity. "You are, and will always be, my sšn."
Lydia pressed her lips together as tears gathered in her eyes. Those words set her heart pounding as she realized that sšn was so much more than a random endearment that he'd tossed at her.
He'd given it thought and chosen it with purpose.
Seth writhed on the bed as if he was trying to reach her. "I didn't mean to sadden you, Lydia. I'm sorry if I did. If you'll untie me, I'll please you now."
She sniffed back her tears and offered him a shaking smile. "You haven't made me sad. Not at all." She moved his necklace aside so that she lick his nipple again. "This isn't about you pleasing me. It's about me giving you pleasure. And baby, I'm about to rock your world."
* * *
Hours later, Seth lay on the bed with Lydia curled against him while she slept. He'd wrapped himself completely around her so that her hips pressed against his groin and her breasts rested on his arms.
All he could smell or feel was her, and it was all he wanted.
He still couldn't believe all the incredible things she'd done to him this day.
It was ...
Words failed him.
Now he was completely sated and calm in a way he'd have never thought possible. Everything was right in the world and he didn't possess hardly a single god power.
Who would have ever thought that could happen?
He, the most feral of Guardians, the only one who had withstood the worst torture Noir could dish out, was tamed by the tiniest woman he'd ever seen.
And she hadn't done it with beatings or insults.
She'd broken him with a single kiss.
It didn't make a bit of sense. He'd been sold to Noir against his will and had fought that possession every day since. But he'd willingly given himself to her. Without question or regret.
Seth rubbed his cheek against her hair and smiled. This day had been the only happiness he'd ever known. And unlike her, he was afraid to close his eyes and sleep.
He was terrified that if he did, he'd awaken to find it all a dream. Or worse, have it all snatched away from him again.
Never had the gods allowed him to be happy. Why should that change now?
Suddenly, Lydia jumped up in the bed as if something had shocked her. Her breathing ragged, she reached for him and started searching his bare body.
Her actions worried him. "What are you doing?"
She clenched the necklace Ma'at had given him in her palm, and finally calmed down a degree. "Why didn't this work?"
"I don't understand."
She tightened her grip on it. "Remember what your aunt said when she gave it to you? That it would protect you-and yet it didn't. The Dream-Hunters attacked you and hurt you while you wore it."
He pulled on the chain until she released it and it fell back on his bare chest. "But only in my dream was I hurt. The one Dream-Hunter told me before she started to stab me that I should have been harmed outside the dream, too, but I wasn't. So maybe it did work."
Lydia calmed down a degree as she considered that. Perhaps he was right.
And yet, she couldn't shake the bad premonition she'd just had while she was sound asleep. It was of Seth being dragged back into Azmodea by Noir and put in a room like the one she'd found Solin in.
Over and over, she saw his abuse so clearly ...
In every detail.
The last time this had happened to her, her mother had died just days later.
And in the exact manner she had foreseen.
