The suggestion stunned her. But myriad thoughts instantly snapped to attention in her mind. “Meaning I would adv
ocate for a less volatile coexistence and you would help us find better, safer ways for humans to live?”
“You can confer with the villagers and present ideas to me for consideration. In turn, I’ll make an effort to improve human-demon relations. But I’m not just talking about Ryleigh. We would take our movement to other villages, different regions.”
Her spirits soared. “You really want to promote goodwill? Together?”
“Yes I do.”
He let out a low laugh that held a hint of irony in it.
Then he continued. “That night Michael almost kissed you… Later, I contemplated whether my unrequited feelings for you had become the price I had to pay for letting the demon wars go too far. I thought of restitution and redemption. I hadn’t stopped the battles when I should have and I regret that. In the back of my mind, I’ve always wondered how I could make amends. Now, months following that night outside the tavern, I still consider you to be the key to my salvation.”
She stared at him, her thoughts too jumbled to process. Her heart, however, did not stutter. Rather, it picked up several beats.
“Maybe,” he added, “we were destined to meet. Team up to forge our own Reconstruction Era, as we’d previously discussed.”
“You might be right. I told you, I spent fifteen years just going through the motions every day. But since that first time you came to the village… Yes, there have been some painful moments, yet I’ve started to see things differently. Become more involved. It feels as if that’s precisely what I’m supposed to do.”
He grinned at her. “We could help each other if we worked together.”
“Not just each other. We could improve a lot of lives. Make the villages and traveling safer, while still allowing the demons to roam at will outside the community borders. Your alliance hasn’t faltered,” she said. “It’s those who haven’t banded with you that present the most trouble.”
“I agree. And I’ll have to place a greater penalty on them. I want this insurgency stopped. Attacks on the slayers and villagers can’t be tolerated.”
She leaned toward him and kissed him. “Thank you for seeing beyond me and accepting a bigger picture.”
“I want you protected. And comfortable. My idea of making that happen was to whisk you away to the castle. But now I know how fiercely dedicated you are to the village. As your father had been. I respect that, Jade. I’ll try to be less controlling. However,” he said, with a hefty dose of warning in his voice, “when I know there’s danger close by, I don’t want you doing anything hasty. You need to maintain your partnership with Tanner and watch each other’s backs. Do you understand?”
“You have my word.” Triumph rippled through her. “I don’t want to divert your attention by causing you to worry about me because I’ve gone off half-cocked. I’ll be more level-headed and cognizant of hazardous situations. I swear.”
Relief crossed his handsome face. “I’m holding you to that. I’ve enough to deal with at the moment. In fact, I need to rally this next charge to find the shifter that attacked Walker. Something tells me tracking it will lead us directly to the rogue army. When they materialize, that is.”
“You don’t have to leave just yet, do you?”
His gaze slid over her. “No. Not just yet.”
She stood and held her hand out to him. He took it and she tugged until he was on his feet and following her into the bedroom.
“I’ve read in my romance novels that make-up sex can be particularly exciting,” she told him.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. Her own cravings were ravenous. She slipped her hands under his sweater and reveled in the feel of his warm skin against hers. His muscles bunched beneath her fingertips.
His hand cupped the back of her head and he deepened the kiss, conveying emotion and need but also clearly establishing the fact she belonged to him. As though she might have forgotten that while he’d been away and she’d been off with Tanner, honing her slaying skills.
He broke the kiss and turned her so her back was to him. His arms slid around her at the waist, then he palmed her breasts and massaged them with a titillating amount of pressure. She sighed dreamily as his lips grazed her neck.
“I’m still angry with you, by the way,” he murmured in her ear.
“I have no delusions about that.”
Releasing her breasts, he gripped the long hem of her sweater and pulled the material upward, stripping it off her. He promptly heaped the rest of her clothing on the floor. Then he yanked the satin sash from the robe she’d draped along the foot of the bed.
Standing behind her, he said, “I’m going to punish you for disobeying me. I told you to stay safe, and you became a slayer.”
Her stomach flipped at his sexy tone and implication. “I’ve been very bad.”
“Indeed.” Deftly, he wrapped the satin around her wrists, securing them behind her back.