“Riley . . .” His heart protested, but he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t protect her. “You don’t have to do this.”
“It’s what I want,” she assured.
She looked at him with stars in her eyes. His belly clenched hotly. She was such a mixture of innocence and temptress.
His thumb stroked back and forth across her stubborn chin. “Once I bind us together there is no going back. It isn’t the same as in your world, Riley. You can’t choose to be with me to save me from damnation. You have to want to be with me. You have to know what you’re getting into. I’m Carpathian, not human. My rules are not always going to be the same as yours. My world is dangerous.”
When she would have protested, he laid his thumb over her lips, stilling her. “Riley, I won’t be able to take it back once we cross this bridge. You won’t be comfortable being apart from me. You can’t live in two worlds. Eventually, I’ll have to bring you fully into mine with all it entails.”
She frowned at him. “Gary told me if you don’t claim your lifemate, you’re in danger of becoming vampire.”
He shook his head. “I will not turn. That is not a consideration in your decision. I do not want you to give yourself to me because of physical attraction, or a sense of duty.”
Riley reached up to touch his face, tracing the lines there with a feather-light touch he felt all the way to his bones.
“Silly man. How can I not want to be with you? We fit. Can’t you feel it?”
Dax took her hand and pressed a kiss into the center of her palm. “There is no other for me. I know you’re the one. But we’re talking about a different world. You see one side of me, sivamet. You don’t look very carefully at anything else. You don’t want to see.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t know it’s there. I’m choosing to enter your world slowly, but I know it’s right for me. What do I have to hold me? A career I’m no longer enamored with? I have no family. I feel alive when I’m with you. I want this, Dax, for myself. I hear what everyone says when they sit around the campfire. They’re afraid of you, not Gary and Jubal, although even they’re leery, but I’m inside your head. I’m safe with you.”
He tried one more time, but already his heart sang, his blood surged and he allowed himself to believe. “It won’t always be easy. I won’t always be easy.”
“I’ll take one step at a time and as long as you’re patient with me, we’ll get there,” Riley assured.
Dax curled his fingers around the nape of her neck and drew her closer. “You don’t lack for courage, do you?”
“Actually I do,” she corrected. “You seem to make me much braver.”
“It will take great courage to come fully into my world, Riley,” he cautioned.
He bent his head to hers because it was impossible to resist her any longer. Every cell in his body cried out for her. His mouth found hers. He took his time, resisting the urgent need sweeping through him like a tidal wave. He kissed her gently, pouring himself into her, his need of her, his love of her, his knowledge that she was his world and he would always, always stand for her.
Her mouth was sinfully delicious. Hot and velvet soft. He could kiss her for an eternity, over and over and never come up for air. The wind played a song over his body, fanning that relentless fire smoldering in the pit of his belly. Crimson-golden flames rose, leaping to race beneath his skin, spreading like a firestorm through him.
Dax sucked her lower lip into the hot cavern of his mouth, groaning softly with need. His teeth tugged her lush lip, biting gently, showing restraint when he wanted to devour her. She was trembling, her breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps. Her eyes, when he pulled back to look at her face, were enormous, watching his every move. He could hear her heart pounding, her blood pumping so fast through her veins it was a wonder her heart hadn’t burst.
Riley stared up at Dax. Flames leapt and burned in his eyes. His skin glowed crimson and gold, radiating light, as if deep inside beneath the hard frame, a fire raged. He looked absolutely confident and so beautiful she couldn’t believe she hadn’t conjured him up in a dream. He was the hottest, sexiest man she’d ever come across. Just looking at him made her weak, desire lashing inside her belly with curling hot licks.
Gently he ran his fingers down her cheek to the corner of her mouth. “I want you so much, Riley, even my deep slumber was disturbed by the thought of the things I want to do to you.”
Deep inside, her muscles clenched tightly, arousal teasing her thighs and breasts. His eyes glowed, mesmerizing her. The fire leapt wildly behind the many facets so instead of one, there were multiple flames burning with a mixture of lust and such intense hunger a shiver of fear slipped down her spine.
“There is no one safer in this world from me, than you, Riley,” he assured, a hint of tenderness creeping into his voice. “I would never harm you.”
He cupped her chin, his thumb sliding back and forth across the small dent there hypnotically. She couldn’t look away from him, away from that perfect mouth with his lengthening teeth. He made no attempt to hide his teeth or his desire from her. Her heart slammed hard in her chest.
Dax laid his hand over her breast, exquisitely gentle. “Let your heart hear mine, sivamet. Mine calls to yours, allow yours to answer.”
Her heart felt as though it was being squeezed in a vise. His voice was smoky, velvet soft, playing along her nerve endings. And his palm, barely there, curving around her left breast left her lungs burning for air.
“Take a breath,” he advised, his voice wrapping her up in sheer seduction.
Riley tried to do what he said, inhaling when he did, exhaling to keep from fainting at his feet. Never in her life had she been so affected by a man. He was so in control and she was both terrified and desperate for him.
I am not altogether certain I’m fully in control, he confessed. The words brushed against the inside of her mind, a slow molasses that poured into every shy and lonely crack, filling her with anticipation. And desperation does not begin to describe how much I want you.
Her gaze locked with his. Those flames burned intensely—for her. Her heart settled into the rhythm of his. Her breathing followed his. He was her anchor as he led her into an unfamiliar world.
“I want this, Dax,” she said as firmly as her trembling body would allow. She meant it. The shivering was a mixture of fear and anticipation.
He waved his hand, and in the middle of the field of night flowers, there, in the veils of mist on the mountain where she was born, was a large four-poster bed, draped in white. She recognized the canopy as one from a picture she’d shown her mother from a magazine when she’d been a teen. The bed was just as beautiful as the one in the photograph, the wood a deep golden hue and carved with waves and whorls.
Dax took her hand and led her through the flowers, the scent of him, so potent, surrounding her, making her a little light-headed. Deep inside her most feminine core, the ache was sweet and terrible, as she wound through that narrow trail to come to stand by the side of her fantasy bed.
He bent his head, his mouth finding hers with urgent demand even as his hands slipped to the hem of her shirt. His kiss left her dizzy with need. When he lifted his head, he slowly pulled her shirt off, leaving her standing in her lacy lavender bra. She shivered as the mist touched her skin. Dax stepped back, looking down at her with his blazing eyes, and at once she was warm, the temperature in her body soaring in spite of the cool vapor surrounding them.
He brushed his skin over the swell of her breasts. “You’re so beautiful. Your skin is unbelievable, soft and flawless.” He breathed the words. “I lay awake, unable to move, my body locked in stone, and I went over and over what I hungered to do to you. I knew every inch of you. I want to taste every inch of you, kiss every inch, claim every inch.”
Riley drew h
er breath in swiftly. Every move he made, everything he said, the way he said it in that hot, sexy voice, even the way he looked at her, made her weak, left her body damp and throbbing. She was more than willing to give herself to him in any way that he wanted.
“Te avio päläfertiilam,” he whispered softly in his own language. His hand found the scrunchy in her hair and pulled it free from the end of her long braid. “You are my lifemate.” His fingers tugged at the weave until her hair cascaded to her waist in a long flowing waterfall of blue-black silk.
The timbre of his voice changed as he spoke in the ancient language. The words sounded like a command, the deep masculine voice coming from somewhere inside of him. As he spoke everything in her responded, a flight-or-fight instinct, yet at the same time, her inner muscles clenched tightly, a spasm of sensuous pleasure she couldn’t prevent.
He bunched her hair in one fist, pulling her head back as his mouth came down on hers, demanding entrance. He swallowed her soft gasp as she stroked her tongue along his a little tentatively. He pulled her closer, his other hand shaping her body, smoothing down her back to the curve of her buttocks, his palm sliding over her rounded cheek to press her even closer as he pushed his heavy erection against her. A small keening moan escaped her throat.
A part of her was still terrified of what she was doing, especially when she could feel his lengthened teeth with her tongue, or scraping along her skin ever so gently. She knew he was using restraint, going slow for her, but her body was raging at her, desperate for his possession.
Dax feathered kisses from the corner of her mouth, across her jaw to her chin. His teeth nipped at the small dent there. “Éntölam kuulua, avio päläfertiilam.” He said the words against her chin, his voice deep and commanding. “I claim you as my lifemate,” he translated as his hands slipped around to unlatch her bra. He drew the lace from her body and tossed it aside. His heated gaze dropped to her exposed breasts, his breath catching in his lungs.
Standing in front of him, half naked, with the way he was looking at her, made Riley feel both wanton and sexy. She reached up and traced the lines in his face, the shape of his jaw and his contoured lips.
“You truly are the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen,” she admitted.
He cupped her breasts in his hands, his thumbs brushing her nipples before he dipped his head and ran a trail of fire from her chin down her throat to the tips of her breasts. His mouth was hotly erotic, tugging and pulling, his tongue stroking, teeth scraping gently. Just when she thought her legs would give out, he feathered kisses down her ribs to her flat stomach.
“Ted kuuluak, kacad, kojed.” His tongue swirled around her belly button and then dipped inside her. Those crimson-flamed eyes looked up at her as he translated. “I belong to you.”
Her heart stuttered at his declaration. The idea of Dax belonging to her was an incredible rush. She brushed her fingers through his closely cropped hair. She loved how his thick hair stood in spikes, yet felt as soft as down.
Dax went to his knees, hands at the waistband of her cargo pants, undoing the button while his smoldering gaze held hers captive. She couldn’t breathe again, the sight of him kneeling in front of her, looking at her as if he was going to devour her any minute sent her body into a melting pool of feminine arousal. With almost languid movements, he unzipped the pants and slipped his hands inside, hooking his thumbs in the waistband to slowly slide them from her body. He took her lacy lavender panties right along with the cargo pants, leaving her body fully exposed and vulnerable to him.
Where had her boots gone? The thought was fleeting. She knew she had them on, but suddenly her feet were bare and she was naked. His teeth sent little stinging caresses from her navel to her hip where his tongue found an intriguing indentation and remained there for a few moments, indulging his whims and driving out any questions she might have had. Who could possibly think while he was kissing and licking her belly and hip bones, his hands kneading and massaging her buttocks?
“Élidamet andam. I offer my life for you.”
His hands went to her legs, pushing them apart, and he ran his tongue up the inside of her left thigh, while that soft, spiked hair brushed up her right.
She was not going to survive. Riley gripped his shoulders, keening softly into the night. She threw her head back as her body pulsed and throbbed. His mouth left little flames up and down both thighs, his teeth nipping, his tongue easing the sting while she held on to her sanity by a thread.
He raised his head, his hands on her bare hips, his warm breath teasing the vee of curls at the junction of her legs. “Pesämet andam.” Still retaining possession of her hips, he stood, fully clothed, making her feel all the more vulnerable and sexy. “I give you my protection.” His hands slid to her waist and he walked her backward until the backs of her knees hit the bed and her legs buckled.
Dax guided her down to the bed, helping her to lie on her back. Riley felt caught in an erotic dream. His hands were gentle as he positioned her on the soft silken sheets, but so firm and strong, she felt as if she couldn’t move, her body molten lead, heated beyond the ability to do anything but wait in desperation.
Above her, the mist hovered like a white blanket, swirling into shapes of glittering stars, great constellations untouched by the thick ash that still hovered in the air just beyond the clouds of vapor. She knew Dax had created that beautiful outdoor ceiling for her. The wind touched her heated skin, the cool brush against her burning skin only adding to the urgency of need.
He grasped her ankles and pulled her legs apart, exposing her most vulnerable entrance to him. Again, his hands were gentle, but his grip unbreakable should she have tried to twist away. Her gaze jumped to his face.
“Uskolfertiilamet andam.” He swept his shirt over his head and tossed it away. “I give you my allegiance.”
Riley felt her heart jump toward him in response to his declaration. Something inside of her shifted. She could feel the difference, but there was a roar in her ears, blood pounding in tempo with his.
One hand shackled her ankle, holding her still as he shed the rest of his clothes with a single thought as most of his kind usually did. Her gaze drifted from his face to his broad chest and flat stomach, lower still to his thick, long erection.
Her eyes widened; her skin went from raging hot to ice-cold and then back to hot again. Both fists curled into the sheets to hold herself still as he lowered his head to kiss her calf. His lips felt cool against her skin, but sent those fingers of arousal skittering up her thigh. She nearly pulled her leg away, but his grip held her firm. His mouth moved higher, his kisses interspersed with little nips of his sharp teeth and languid licks from his velvet tongue.
He paused for a moment, his lips against her inner thigh, his hair sliding over her damp opening so that streaks of lightning arced through her. “S��vamet andam.” His eyes met hers. “I give you my heart.”
Air rushed out of her lungs. Besides being the sexiest man alive to her, the sincerity in his voice—in his eyes—mesmerized her. There was something much deeper, a tenderness, that made her weak. He was handing over his heart into her keeping. The idea of it was humbling to her. Dax was an ancient warrior, a different species altogether, more feral and powerful than the animals and yet he was giving himself into her keeping.
He turned his head, a lazy languid motion, as if he had all the time in the world when she was clawing at the sheet and tossing her head, her body no longer her own.
“Your scent is intoxicating,” he whispered against her mound, his warm breath adding to the tension coiling tighter and tighter.
He was killing her slowly. Slowly. Every word he said. Every move he made. His touch. His mouth. His kisses. The feel of his body, so hard and unyielding against the softness of hers. He inhaled deeply once more and she realized that as the flowers in the field had taken on his s
cent for her, the strange petals held her scent for him.
He lifted his head to look down at her, those red-orange flames tinged with gold now. She could see stark, raw hunger stamped in the lines of his face. So sensual. Her entire body seemed to clench, waiting, anticipating. She held her breath. Her heart seemed to stop.
“Sielamet andam.” The flames in his eyes leapt and burned with a fiery glow. “I give you my soul.”
She was burning now, her head tossing back and forth on the sheet. She had his heart and soul. His allegiance. She wanted his body as well. Right. Now.
“Please, Dax,” she whispered, a plea, a prayer.
“You have to be ready for me, sivamet. I want only pleasure for you for your first time.”
“I am ready,” she nearly sobbed. Her hands went to his hair, tugging on those silky spikes, trying to bring him over the top of her. Everything in her ached for him, pulsed and throbbed and demanded him. The tension coiled tighter and tighter, the pressure building until she thought her body might just implode.
She felt his tongue swiping over her and she bucked mindlessly. He clamped one arm firmly around her hips to hold her still.
“So impatient. Don’t move.”
“You’re asking the impossible,” she gasped.
He lifted his head just enough to give her one look of reprimand. His eyes burned over her, nearly all red now, glowing with a fire threatening to burn out of control.
Riley curled her fingers tighter in his closely cropped hair, holding on for all she was worth. She truly didn’t think she would survive the gathering pressure, the intensity of the heat. Beneath the layer of his skin she caught the impression of scales and, like his eyes, his skin was fiery red. The temperature of his body, like hers, had gone soaring, as if both of them had caught fire. The red-gold dust from those scales rained down around them.
His mouth touched her again, his tongue stroked wickedly, and then stabbed deep. She nearly convulsed, bucking, her hips jerking in spite of the restraint of his arm. Her muscles clenched hard. A small keening wail escaped. He began a slow, leisurely assault, tongue and teeth, driving her out of her mind. Sounds escaped his throat, hot and desperate, as if he couldn’t get enough of the taste of her. His arms tightened, holding her still as he licked and sucked and took small nips with teeth while she writhed under him, her head tossing and her body spilling more and more hot cream into his mouth. Pleasure gripped her stomach, rising sharply as he pushed a finger into her.
Dark Storm Page 26
