by Bonnie Vanak
She averted her gaze, shed her clothing and stepped into the shower. Warm water cascaded over her. Dipping her head beneath the spray, she closed her eyes.
The shower door closed behind her. Sounds of soap squishing into hands, lathering…
Two wet, soapy hands cupped her shoulders. Daimon began to wash her thoroughly. Shivers raced through her as he soaped her breasts, palming the nipples until they puckered, begging for his touch. Daimon bent his head to her shoulder, licking her.
His tongue followed the trail his hands had.
Damon licked her back, dipped lower. She felt him spread her buttocks….
A wet tongue stroked between her legs. Ariana pressed her palms flat against the tile, a moan escaping her. He slid a finger between her cleft, teasing, lightly flicking.
He kissed every inch of her skin, ran his tongue over her thoroughly. As they stepped out of the shower, he reached for a huge towel to dry her off. It felt warm against her cooling skin. Ariana watched Daimon as he towel-dried his own hair, his muscled legs spread slightly apart, his sex strong and erect. A humming began deep inside her, tension vibrating like a tuning fork. She was the fork, drawn to the sensuality of this big cat.
“I think maybe you should do it again. Just to make sure.”
She brought his hand to her mouth, gave his palm a slow lick.
His eyes darkened. Daimon kissed the corners of her mouth. Her nose. His lips hovered near yours. “Be with me, Ariana. Lie with me. I want to mate with you, and seal myself to you.”
She could only nod as his lips descended on hers in a warm, authoritative kiss. Passion sizzled along her veins as her heart sang. This was the emotional connection she’d craved, the heat and the sense of bonding missed in Jarrett’s touch.
In the bedroom, he tipped her back onto the mattress. Ariana’s hungry gaze took in his lean body, the rippling muscles of his flat stomach and the strong legs dusted with dark hair. A thick pale penis, roped with blue veins, thrust up from a nest of dark curls.
He joined her on the bed, kissing her, his hands fisting in her hair. Ariana gripped the hard muscles of his shoulders, explored his body. Beneath her touch, he gave a low, coughing growl.
The beast, wanting release.
She tasted the tangy salt where his shoulder and neck met. Bit lightly, tasting his skin. He gave another growl as he kissed the tiny hollow of her throat. Catlike, he nuzzled her neck and then traced the slender column with his mouth.
Tiny, sizzling kisses trailed along her skin. His teeth sank lightly, the erotic sting sending shivers through her.
When Daimon put his hand between her thighs, she cried out and jerked. He quieted her with a soft murmur, pushing a long finger between her soaked cleft. Hot need coursed through her as he thumbed her clit. Coiled tension wound her tighter and tighter, until she became a spring ready to explode from each caress that burned her inside.
He was a devil and she was going to hell with him.
A pleading whimper arose in her throat.
“Shh,” he murmured. “Just let go. Surrender to it.”
The tension exploded, and she clung to him, crying out as it shattered her.
When her eyes opened, he grinned in satisfaction. “You’re so beautiful when you come. I adore watching you, your mouth pouting like that, your back arching. Makes me want to do it again. And again. And I will.”
When he’d made her come yet again, she collapsed, quivering on the bed.
“Now,” he murmured, pushing open her trembling thighs.
She was ripe, slick beneath his fingers, drenched and ready for him. Daimon trembled with lust as he mounted her. Ariana’s whimpers of excitement shot daggers straight into his heart.
This wasn’t quick, fast sex. This was something more and he knew it.
He caged her with his body and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight as his mouth met hers. The kiss was punishing, demanding, a maelstrom of unleashed lust as he took her mouth in masterful strokes, his tongue plunging inside. Tasting her, taking all and leaving nothing, only her own fervent and growing ardor.
He intended to strip away everything, baring her down to the bones. Turn her into a woman who was mindless with pleasure, and reckless with need. Make her as wanton as he was.
Bring her demon raging to the surface.
Guilt raced through him. He pushed it aside.
This was too important, dammit, she was too important. He needed to care only about invading her body, capturing her in his grasp so her sweetness would feed his starved soul. And her darkness would feed his powers.
He parted her shaking thighs and nudged his lean hips between them. Breath caught in her throat. Daimon dominated her with sheer strength, a sinful promise of dark pleasure in his eyes.
Giving a low grunt, he guided his shaft to her wet opening. Sank partly inside.
Ariana tensed, nails digging into his shoulders. He looked down.
“I promise, it won’t hurt like the first time did, sunshine.”
With a heavy thrust, he sealed them to the hilt.
A delicious friction combined with the smoky heat of his intense gaze made her breath hitch. She slid her hands around his neck, arching her hips upward in nameless yearning. He obliged her, creating more of the languid, slow strokes. Sliding against her, possessing her.
Ariana tilted her head back and saw them in the overhead mirror. Daimon’s taut buttocks clenching as he pushed into her body, the muscles on his back moving smoothly beneath damp skin. She saw herself, her legs splayed open, heels digging firmly into the mattress.
His hips began to piston, his penis sliding in and out until his breath finally came in rapid pants as she climaxed. Stiffening, Daimon’s jaw ground as he shouted her name, the cords on his neck standing out as his shaft thickened. Warm seed jettisoned inside her as he bucked and shuddered.
With a groan, he collapsed atop her, pinning her to the mattress with his heavy, muscled body. His head pillowed next to her as their ragged breaths mingled. She stroked the sweating, quivering muscles of his back, her legs cradling him tenderly.
When he shifted his weight off her, she curled next to him, putting her head on his shoulder.
“I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
Me too, she wanted to say, but felt too languid and dreamy. And then he opened his eyes.
They flamed red. Demon-red.
Chapter Eight
The darkness had risen with her climax, and Daimon pounced on it like a starving cat. A small smile curved his sensual mouth. The smile of the jaguar who’d lapped up all the cream.
“Not all of it.” Daimon leaned forward, a teasing glint in his eyes. “Just enough to get a taste of your sweet honey.”
Ariana put hands on her heated cheeks and sat up. “Stop reading my mind, dammit.”
“Sorry, sunshine. Hard not to read you, now that you’re mine.”
“That’s what this was about, Daimon? Claiming me so Jarrett couldn’t have me? No, you already had me in your bed. It was just my powers you desired.”
He watched her warily, the fierce glow fading from his eyes.
“Your demon struggled to be free, Ariana. Your passion coaxed it out. Sex became a conduit, and I plugged myself in, so to speak.”
As if she were an electrical socket. “Is that all it was, Daimon? Sex, to get your way. Nothing more?”
Hadn’t he felt the connection, the sense that they flowed seamlessly into each other? She’d stared into his eyes and seen the joy dancing there, felt the sensuality of his cat stroke over her.
Yet now he was distant and cold as winter.
“Don’t you feel what’s happened between us?” she whispered.
“I can’t give you what you desire most, Ariana.” He went quiet, tension riding his big shoulders. “What you need most. It’s not in me to love. I’ll protect you, give my life to keep you safe. But don’t ask that of me.”
I can’t ask anything less.
Ariana swung her legs ov
er the bed’s side. “You have my demon strength now, Daimon. You got what you needed. Enjoy it. I need to clear my head. I’m going for a walk.”
She reached for her clothing.
“Ariana, please, you must understand, this is for the best.” His face flushed as his jaw tightened. “It’s not solely for them. Not anymore. If you won’t use your dark strength, then I will. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Anger surged through her, filling her body with rapier-sharp awareness. “Not like what happened to your men? What did happen here, Daimon? Why are you shutting yourself away with them when you can walk out of here any time you please?”
His expression shuttered. Daimon avoided her gaze. “Enjoy your walk. Stick to the path in the woods. Don’t veer off it and disturb my men.”
“I’ll be quiet and won’t interrupt their sleep,” she muttered.
Pain shadowed his face. “They don’t sleep. They can’t. Haven’t, for a long while now.”
Then he turned his back, as if regretting sharing that fact.
Daimon was wrong, Ariana realized. He thought he’d absorbed all her darkness.
But it still lurked deep in her soul, tangled intricately in the threads of white light. Only a small portion was released during sex. He’d find out soon enough.
She went outside, slamming the door behind her. A crack showed in the finely grained wood.
Ariana lifted her face to the leaden sky. A light rain sprayed her cheeks. She glanced at the meadow and headed for the forest.
The darkness loomed, thick shadows dancing with menace as she entered the thick woods on the dirt path. Majestic pine and fir trees flanked her. Leafless maple trees nodded their branches as a cold wind caressed them. Inhaling the loamy earth, she gazed at the lush green moss and ferns. The dank forest was dark, rich with secrets.
Secrets like those kept by Daimon.
She pressed on.
Off the path, tall firs stretched to the sky like pointing green fingers. The scent of animal musk lingered there. Ariana hesitated, then stepped off the path and walked toward them.
When she reached one, she pressed a palm against the rugged purplish-brown bark. A coughing grunt drew her attention upward.
In the lowest branch, about twenty feet above, a black jaguar lay. Its laser blue gaze glinted as he stared at her. Ariana looked around and saw several more cats lying on the limbs of the other trees. Emotion tightened her throat as she leaned against the tree.
“I can sense how tired you are, how much pain you are in,” she murmured to the cats. “Come down, please. I wish to talk to you.”
The blue-eyed jaguar gave another grunt, turned away.
“Please, Theo. Come down and bring the others.”
Even from her vantage point, she sensed the distrust, the hesitancy. No matter that her touch had given them strength. They didn’t like her intruding on their privacy, their sacred place.
“I can help you.”
With a powerful lunge, the cat leaped twenty feet to the surface, landing on all fours. Theo padded toward her as the other jaguars climbed down the trees.
They gathered in a circle around her. She felt a touch of natural fear, but pushed it down. The cats’ nostrils flared. They sensed the fear, too.
“I’m not afraid.” She smiled. “Well, a tiny bit. But I know you would never hurt me. If you wanted, you would have before. I trust you.”
Tension fled the cats. They sat on their haunches, studying her.
“Let me help you. Listen to the sound of my voice. Be at peace.”
Ariana sang with all her heart, for once using her gift to soothe and aid instead of defend herself. She sang to the trees, the melody echoing through the quiet forest. The jaguars’ eyes slowly closed. One by one, they lay down.
Soon, the sound of their snores became a cadence to her song. Ariana stopped singing and smiled.
“Sleep well.”
Strength fled her. Ariana gulped down a breath, her limbs feeling like jelly. She couldn’t do this anymore, or she’d need many hours of sleep herself. Now that the demon strength inside her was partly gone, she felt weaker than ever.
Leaving them fast asleep, she made it back to the house. Daimon sat on the living room sofa, watching a rain begin to splatter on the porch. He turned, his expression guarded as she collapsed into an overstuffed chair.
When he saw her face, he grunted, shoved a hand through his thick, dark hair. “You put my men to sleep.”
“They were exhausted. They need the rest. I gather they haven’t slept well in a long time. No wonder they are weakened.”
“They can’t rest. They’re always on guard, always watching for another attack since Lawson’s pack tested the perimeters of our fence and a few got inside.” His face darkened. “Theo and his brothers killed them, but the attack made them wary. I was gone that day. Should have been here.”
Ariana studied her lover, his guarded expression. She sensed guilt eating through him like acid.
“It’s time, Daimon. You owe me something.”
His jaw tightened.
“The truth. What happened between you and Jarrett Lawson that caused his pregnant mate Chloe to die?”
Truth. It slashed across Daimon’s spirit like a hot razor. But she needed to know, if it meant stopping her from any more foolish stunts like running off again.
Ariana’s safety came first, before even his men’s needs.
Perhaps Jarrett didn’t want to hurt her. But if his men did, and if they decided to turn her into jaguar bait… His chest constricted as he thought of the wolves ripping her to pieces.
Ariana tucked her long legs beneath her. The beast growled again, remembering those silky legs wrapped around his hips. Remembering the sweetness of her heart-shaped ass beneath his questing palms.
He paced before the stone fireplace and went to the window overlooking the cracked, dried meadow.
“I broke a rule. A very big one.”
Daimon thrust his hands into his jeans pockets. He stared out the window, every muscle in his body clenched. He felt like a tightly wound spring. If Ariana touched him, he’d snap. Inside, his beast gave a fierce coughing growl, wanting out.
Hating this admission as much as the man did.
She was sweetness and light, waiting quietly. She had infinite patience. Her white light hummed gently, sending soothing tendrils to snake around his body. Some of the tension fled, but he still could not meet her gaze.
Taking a deep breath, he plunged in.
“I’m the reason the Lawson pack hates us. It’s not territory.” He stared at his reflection in the polished glass. “You must have figured that out by now. All our food is brought here once a week. There’s plenty, and game in the forest, too.”
Energy filled the air. In the window, he saw thicker ribbons of white light wrap around Ariana. They wended through the room like delicate wisps of smoke and wrapped around him.
Soothing peace eased the tension at their touch. She was doing this, his dark angel with her shining goodness. And all he wanted was the darkness inside her.
Guilt ate at him. He didn’t deserve peace. Daimon paced over to the stone fireplace.
“Thirty years ago, the Society sent me on a difficult assignment. A rogue werewolf had killed two humans. They wanted the werewolf removed, permanently. It was tricky because the werewolf’s pack refused to surrender the rogue.”
“The Lawson pack,” she guessed.
“The situation called for diplomacy.” Daimon sighed. “I was far from a diplomatic person, but perhaps that’s why I was sent, to teach me restraint. Bad idea. It backfired. I was arrogant and proud.”
“Instead of talking with Jarrett, I went uninvited into the Lawson territory. Found the rogue, and killed her.”
Screwing up all his courage, he turned to face her. Turned to see the blood draining from Ariana’s lovely face. “Her?”
Sorrow churned his guts. Sometimes you wished you could turn back time, never make
the mistakes that haunted you. Never see the pained disbelief on the face of the woman you…
He couldn’t love her. He didn’t deserve love. Sweet hellfire, his feelings for her tangled him in knots.
“Jarrett’s older sister. She had two young. The humans she’d killed, they had shot her mate. That’s why she went rogue. I didn’t realize this until after.”
“But you only did your duty.”
Pain lanced his clenched fists as the jaguar’s talons emerged. Daimon glanced down and saw blood splattering the stone hearth. “My duty was to remove her. She could have been sent to a penal colony. Had I talked with Jarrett first, we could have struck a mutual solution that would satisfy the Society and his pack. Instead, I killed her.”
“What did Jarrett do?”
“He saw his sister dead and his entire pack chased me through the woods. I refused to kill again. They attacked me.”
Grief and shame knotted his stomach. He could not look her in the eye, couldn’t tell her his darkest secret. Daimon dragged in a deep breath. “Theo was out hunting with his father and brothers and came to my rescue. They risked their lives for me.”
Daimon unclenched his fists, saw them stained red. Remembering the blood that flowed that day, the screams of death. “I tried to stop it. Ever try to stop a fight between wolves and jungle cats? I used my powers, but couldn’t leash both packs in time. Chloe, Jarrett’s mate, and Theo’s father were killed. I remember seeing the look on Jarrett’s face as he held Chloe in his arms, the blood on her face…”
“She was pregnant with their first,” she whispered.
“And then he looked at me and I knew he wanted me dead, at all costs. The Society set up two penal colonies side by side, to imprison only the males. The females could never visit. Only when the two warring packs learned to live in peace would the sentence be lifted.”
“Theo and his brothers came here. That’s why this is a prison,” she realized. “What about you?”
Daimon’s shoulders turned rigid. “As an Ancient, I was exonerated from punishment since my assignment was carried out. But Theo and his brothers were losing spirit and strength. They refused to eat, to drink.”
