3 Lethal Rider-Lords Of Deliverance by Larissa Ione Page B

badly.
    “If Reseph had wanted you dead, you would be,” he said levelly. “His arrows don’t miss.”
    “Maybe the baby was protecting me.”
    Than frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. “Doesn’t matter. If you hadn’t taken off like that, he wouldn’t have had an opportunity to try.”
    “Well, maybe you shouldn’t have kidnapped me.”
    “Maybe you shouldn’t have seduced me,” he shot back, fully aware that they sounded like a couple of children.
    Taking her bottom lip between her teeth, Regan looked down at her bare feet. “I really am sorry, Thanatos. I know you don’t believe me, but I am.”
    Bitterness welled up like bile. “I told you how you can make me believe you, and since you have no trouble whoring for The Aegis, whoring for me shouldn’t be a problem.”
    Something sad flashed in her eyes, and his bitterness boomeranged back at him, filling him with regret. Especially when, instead of snarking at him like he expected, she turned away.
    Dammit. He tempered his voice so they could continue without the schoolyard squabbling. “Why did you do it?”
    “I told you, we got information—”
    “Yeah, yeah, save the world. But I mean, why did
you
do it? What made you agree?”
    “Saving billions of people isn’t enough of a reason?”
    “There’s always a personal consideration. I don’t care how selfless anyone’s actions are. There is
always
another reason.”
    She turned to him, her fingers fluttering over her belly. “I was the only one who
could
do it. My colleagues figured that my ability to rip souls from people could protect me from the ones in your armor.”
    “Even if that were true, it’s still not answering the question about your personal angle. What was it?”
    “Nothing—”
    “
Bull. Shit
.”
    The scars at her temple and chin, scars he found so sexy, darkened like barometers for her temper. “Maybe I was desperate for a cock, like you said. Maybe the idea of screwing a legend tempted me.”
    She was lying, although he couldn’t say how he knew. What was clear was that she wasn’t going to tell him the truth. Fine. He’d fling the crap right back at her.
    “Good. Being desperate to fuck a legend will make the coming months go much better for you.”
    Once again he expected her to snark back, and once again she did the opposite. But this time, instead of falling silent, she changed the subject. “What happened to the vampire who tried to stop me from leaving?”
    Instant anger flamed hot at the memory of Serkhama launching an attack on Regan. The daywalker had deserved punishment for that, but Than had been too crazed to consider any option but death. His little self-gratification session hadn’t done a thing to dial back his tension. Only killing Serkhama and the frost demons had done that.
    “He’s gone.”
    “Gone as in dead or gone as in no longer here?”
    “Yes.”
    “You’re such a jerk sometimes.”
    “You think I haven’t heard that before?”
    She smiled sweetly, but her words were tart. “I’m sure you have.”
    There was the fire he’d been looking for. He hated that he liked it. That he found it intriguing. His brain searched for a suitable retort, but when she winced and reached behind her, he passed on the comeback.
    “What is it? What’s wrong?”
    “It’s just my back,” she sighed. “Back pain is a pregnancy thing, apparently.”
    Without thinking, he crossed to her and nudged her hand out of the way, replacing it with his. “Let me.” She tensed, but as he began to massage her lower back, alternating a kneading motion with lighter strokes, she relaxed with a groan.
    “Oh, that’s good,” she moaned.
    He loved that sound. Loved the way it both eased his mood and stirred his blood. He wanted to purr like a big cat. And then rub himself all over her.
    Fucking idiot.
Rubbing was what got them into this mess.
    She arched her spine, pushing back into his massaging fingers, letting out a purr of her own. And yeah, that caused an