“Haven’t you had enough, Lilith?” he said, his deep voice brimming with irony. “Stop playing the fucking games, because I ain’t playing. I am not wired like other men. There’s no one for me but my Lamb.” He sent a dismissive gesture toward the sexy nymphs who still pranced toward him in waves.
From the burning lust in their eyes, I could tell they wanted to ride him wildly. They wanted to have my man.
“Be gone, wenches,” he barked at them. “You’re a sore sight. Not in a million years would I desire to touch another save my mate. You’re going to kiss the fucking wall, getting bruises or a broken limb if you don’t take me to my woman the next second. Now, where’s my Lamb?”
“That’s no way to talk to ladies,” Lilith purred in her silvery, husky voice as she appeared at the door to the pool garden.
She’d changed to a strapless red gown that showed her every lovely, alluring curve. She didn’t wear a crown this time. Her silver horns radiated crimson, which had caused Lucifer to have a hard-on in my illusion. Her beauty was perfection, unmatchable in any era and any corner of the universe. Even from here, I could detect my mother’s perfume—night rose and sex.
Was my mother going to seduce my mortal mate?
Bitch!
“Lilith, how kind of you to finally show up,” Héctor said.
“You’re a mortal now, Héctor.” Lilith strolled toward him in all her dark glory.
“So?” He arched an eyebrow, which I found very sexy. He didn’t seem to be taken by the beauty of the Queen of Hell.
The interest in Lilith’s eyes increased. Of course, he posed a challenge to her since no one had turned down the ringleader of the succubi before. “You’ll only get to spend a short ten or twenty years with Marigold,” she said.
“I’ll spend one lifetime with my Lamb, which is much greater than all the eons I spent without her. And that’ll be enough for me.”
“Will it be enough for her?”
“My brothers will take care of my mate. They’ll be with her to eternity, making sure she lacks nothing. My Lamb will be happy.”
Lilith sauntered closer, a smirk on her lips. “You underestimate the depth of my daughter’s love for you. Once you’re gone, she’ll never feel complete. What’s good for you isn’t good for her. You’ll break her heart forever and it’ll never mend.”
I shuddered in dread, thinking of the future years without Héctor.
Héctor was silent, pain etching his hard face.
“You didn’t see how she sought death when she thought you were gone,” Lilith said. “You can change things for her and you. I can make you an immortal.”
My heart stuttered. I’d vowed to find a way to make my Héctor an immortal again, and now Mom had just presented him the rare opportunity.
“Take the deal, Héctor,” I shouted, “no matter the cost.”
But he couldn’t hear me.
“How?” Héctor drawled.
Her eyes glittered. “Bed me, once.”
I shut my eyes as pain spread and soaked my every cell. I couldn’t bear for Héctor to touch any woman, let alone Mom, but I wanted him to live forever. It’d be extremely hard to see him and my mother tangled in the sheets, yet it was also the easiest way for him to become immortal again.
“No,” Héctor said coldly. He didn’t even blink.
“Marigold will forgive you for anything. That’s how much she loves you. She’ll take you back and you get to have eternity with her.”
“Not at the cost of betraying my Lamb,” Héctor said. “The love between us is purer than gold. How dare you, her own mother, try to get between us? Try to harm my mate again and you’ll make an enemy out of me.”
And then, he was behind her, his blade pressed against her white throat. I hadn’t even seen him move.
“Where is my mate?” he roared.
She laughed. It was the most sensual laughter I’d ever heard, and I hated it.