“You really are opposed to our Joining, aren’t you?” he said without looking at me.
“I’m not sure I understand exactly what that is,” I answered, fingering the thick cotton lapel on my robe.
“For a Dark One, there are seven steps. But for me, there are only six.”
“And what are they?”
“A marking, protection, fluids exchange, trust, a second exchange, and overcoming darkness. Dark Ones have a final step: an exchange of blood.”
“Fluids exchange?” I asked, creeped out.
His lips quirked. “Saliva counts.”
“Oh, that kind of fluids,” I said, thinking about the steamy kisses we’d shared. “It seems to me that we’ve done most of those.”
“We have. All but one.”
I waited, sure he would tell me.
“Darkness.” His eyes glittered in the relative dimness of my room. “You must overcome the darkness that lives within me, the same darkness that resides in all Moravians, for us to be Joined.”
“And what happens then? We’re . . . married?” I asked, my emotions torn. I had tried to figure out in the shower what I wanted to do about Avery. Part of me wanted to keep him. He was interesting, fascinating, really, so different from other men, and yet there was something about him that resonated within me, as if he were a missing part of my being. My saner self, however, pointed out the obvious: I’d just met him, knew nothing about him, and oh yes, he was a blood-drinking, shape-shifting jaguar.
“Marriage is a mortal custom. It can be broken. Joining is for all time. You would become my Beloved, and we would be bound together for the rest of our lives, which will no doubt be for many centuries.”
“Centuries!”
“Beloveds, both those of Dark Ones and Moravians, are immortal.” He moved toward me, and my inner self almost drooled while admiring the way his muscles moved together. He took my hands, his thumbs stroking gently over my fingers. “You have seen my thoughts, so you know this is not something I had sought.”
“Oh, I’m quite aware that you were very happy seducing every woman who came within ten feet of you.”
“Not every woman,” he said with a devilish grin that melted my heart.
“Do you seriously think I want to spend the rest of my life, spend centuries bound to a man with a roving eye and worse? No,” I said, shaking my head. “Call me selfish, but no. I told you earlier that I don’t share.”
“And that is why I never thought I’d want to find a Beloved.” His lips curled into a half smile. “It just seemed so limiting. But now I see why Paen and Finn have embraced it. The idea of being bound to you isn’t just enticing; it’s necessary.” He leaned close to me, his breath brushing my lips. “You’re necessary.”
“Avery, what you’re asking—”
“I know. We’ve just met. You feel you don’t know me. You’re not ready for a commitment like this.”
“On the nose,” I said, leaning forward to rub my nose against his. “But surely you must feel the same way.”
His eyes smiled down at me. “If I said no, would you think I was lying?”
Hesitantly, I let my mind merge with his. His emotions were right there for me to examine, shining with a strength that took my breath away. “You said you weren’t in love with me.”
“I wasn’t. Then.”
“How can you fall in love with someone in just an hour?” I asked.
He made a face. “My father once told me it was something bred into Moravians, the way we are engineered. He said he fell in love with my mother two minutes after he met her, and that we’re predisposed to be happy with the one person who was born to be our mate.”
“Two minutes, huh?” I looked at the clock radio next to my bed. “It took you seven hours. Slacker.”
He laughed and let his lips linger on mine, his arms sliding around me to pull my hips against his. He was still clad in only a pair of jeans, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy spreading my fingers across the hair of his chest, my fingertips tingling at the sensation of the heavy muscles beneath the warm, silken skin. “I will obviously have to make it up to you.”
“What about the women?” I asked, nibbling on his lower lip a little. “Was your mother as quick to fall in love with your father?”
“No. Beloveds tend to put up some resistance. Dad said it has more to do with their being women than Beloveds.”
I pinched his side. He pulled me tighter, his tongue teasing my lips.
“I’m going to be starkly honest with you, Avery, because you’ve been the same with me. Right now, I don’t know what, exactly, I want for there to be between us. But I think you need me, and that appeals to me. I feel like I have something to offer you, so if you’re content to let me have a little space while I make some decisions, maybe we can find out just how things could be.”
“You can have all the time you need to work things out, love,” he murmured, kissing a steamy path over to my ear. I squirmed in delight, my fingers tightening on his shoulders. “But you’re correct that I need you.”
“I knew you were hungry,” I answered, half gasping when he found a sensitive spot behind my ear.
If you feed me now, I won’t be able to control myself, he warned, kissing the line of my throat down to my breastbone.
I’ve never, ever jumped into bed with a man I just met. I’m not at all that type of person.
His eyes were like molten sapphires, so hot I swear I could feel his gaze scorching me.
Oh, to hell with it. There’s always a first time. I pulled him toward the bed.
That was all the encouragement he needed. Before I could even blink, he had his pants and my bathrobe off, and we were lying in a tangled, erogenous heap on my bed.
His kiss was hotter than sin, the taste and feel of him sending my consciousness spiraling into a land of erotic pleasure that amazed and thrilled me. “Go ahead,” I whispered, gently biting the corded tendons on the side of his neck. “Feed.”
He reared back for a moment, his eyes wide with surprise, delight, and passion; then I was straddling his chest, my breasts at his mouth level. The sharp pain that burned my breast melted into a shock of rapture that swept through my body, pushed higher by the sensations Avery shared with me.
You like it when I touch you, I mused, sweeping my hands upward along his ribs.
God, yes. He pulled my hips over so I straddled his groin, his penis lying hard between us.
I wiggled, and he groaned in my mind, his tongue swirling on my neck. I smiled down at him as I sat up, my back arching and my eyes crossing as his hands took possession of my breasts, the pads of his thumbs gently brushing my very sensitive nipples. And you like it when I touch you.
That is clearly obvious. What do you feel if I do this? I shifted so I could take him in my hands, allowing my fingers to dance down the long length of him.
He swore in Latin, his hips thrusting upward.
That good, huh?
His eyes, which had been rolled back in ecstasy, narrowed on me in a way that bespoke retribution. Before I could move, he had me on my back, his hands spreading my thighs, his breath hot on the very center of me. That sounded very much like mocking, my love. And two can play that game.
I writhed with anticipation, prepared to enjoy myself thoroughly, but an odd tickling sensation on my inner thighs had me looking down in concern.
The blue eyes of a black-coated jaguar stared back at me in consternation.
“Um . . . Avery?”
I know. It just happened.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to take this as a rejection, but I’m not into bestiality.”
His jaguar lips thinned. Neither am I. I didn’t intend for this to happen. It just did.
“Hmm. I wonder why. What were
you thinking just before you shifted?”
He looked down at my private parts.
“Oh. You know, as enticing as it sounds to say that my genitalia turn men into animals, it’s not nearly as exciting in reality.”
His body rippled, elongated, and returned to the form that had me quivering with delight. “Nor for me. I believe it has something to do with strong emotions. When I saw Dieter attacking you earlier, I didn’t consciously decide to shift—it just happened. And you had me on the verge with the pleasure you were feeding me.”
My eyes widened. “Oh my God. Are you saying we can’t have sex without you turning into a jaguar?”
His head dipped as he swirled his tongue through sensitive parts. I clutched the sheets and bucked upward, the sensation almost pushing me over the edge. “Good Lord, Avery!”
He chuckled a breathy, hot chuckle into my groin, then suddenly moved up, wrapped my legs around his hips, and thrust into my body. It’s just a matter of focusing, I believe.
I tightened all my muscles around him and was rewarded with a groan of the most exquisite pleasure . . . and watched with amazement as black fur rippled up the arms braced on either side of my chest. Oh no!
Don’t worry—I have it under control, he said, his eyes crossing in concentration as the black fur slowly dissipated. But if you do that again, I won’t be responsible for what happens.
I pulled him down onto me, nuzzling his neck and wrapping my legs around him, angling my hips upward to better meet his thrusts, my body moving in perfect accord with his.
It sounds trite, but I had no idea that this is what my brothers experience.
I moaned nonstop, dragging my fingernails gently up his spine.
The ability to feel what you feel is incredibly sensual. I had no idea women felt things this way.
I couldn’t even think of words to answer him, so plunged into the ecstasy was I. My body was on the brink of an orgasm that I knew was going to outdo any previous one, my mind was filled with the sensations that Avery was experiencing as well as coping with my own, and my soul positively sang with happiness. Just as I was about to fall into a red well of rapture, Avery bit me, his teeth piercing flesh and tissue, a white-hot pain melting instantly to a profound sense of rightness that had me pouring into him more than just life, but every ounce of lightness I possessed to fill the black shadows I sensed within him.
Avery shouted something, but I was too busy becoming a supernova of sexual completion to know just what it was. He reared back a second time, staring at me with wild eyes. “Do you know what you just did?”
“Had an orgasm to end all orgasms,” I panted, my entire body quivering with delightful little aftershocks. “I see why the French call it the little death. I think I came very close to passing out. My God, Avery—that was . . . Words fail me. I can only say I hope it’s not like this every time, or I really will die.”
He stared at me for a moment, his body trembling as well. I stroked my hands up the damp lines of his back as he said, “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue now.”
“Hmm?”
He opened his mouth to say something but shook his head, rolling us over so he was on his back. “I think later is better in this case.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but since all conscious thought stopped with that orgasm, it’s not surprising. I’ll get back to you in a few hours, when I can brain again.”
He laughed, arranged my boneless limbs across his body, and tucked my head under his chin. “It was a hell of an experience, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, yes.” I snuggled into him, my hand on his chest, where his heart still beat wildly.
Chapter 8
“Will you stop that?” I whispered to Cora.
“Stop what? I’m not doing anything.”
“Like hell you’re not. Stop staring at me as if I were a ticking time bomb.”
“Well, pardon me for having a little sisterly concern for you. And you can just take that look and shove it, because I’ve been good. I haven’t once mentioned the fact that you and Nosferatu were doing exactly what it’s obvious you were doing,” she answered with a self-righteous sniff.
“I should hope not. I am an adult, and it’s none of your business what I do with Nosf—Avery.”
“You just remember you said that when the villagers with the torches come after you.”
“That was Frankenstein, not Dracula, you twit,” I scolded.
“If the pair of you aren’t quieter, we’ll have the entire Leshy collective down on us, complete with torches,” Avery warned, crawling back to where we were hunkered down behind a wild rhododendron bush.
“What are they doing?” I asked him, squatting next to where he was bent over my cell phone.
“Nothing sinister that I could see. The shift is about to change, which means we’ll have to watch for the new patrol. I didn’t see any sign of Baum, though.”
“Where are Sam and your brother?”
“Car trouble.”
“An accident?” Cora asked.
“They were driving over the mountain pass to the park you told them would be a good place to leave Dieter, when Sam insisted they stop for dinner.”
“Did someone hit the car while they were eating?” I asked.
“No, someone left a therion unattended in the car. He came to, managed to get the car started, and left Paen and Sam high and dry.”
“Crap,” I said, wondering how long it would take Dieter to drive back over the pass.
“My thoughts exactly. Looks like it’s just we three, ladies.”
I smiled at him, my body thrumming softly to itself whenever he was near.
Thrum. That’s a good word to describe it. I begin to see why all the Moravians are searching for their Beloveds. Thrumming is good. I could get used to it.
Even if it means giving up the legions of women you have slept with?
There weren’t that many, he said with a mental frown.
Good.
Half a legion. Three-quarters at most.
You are so going to be left to thrum to yourself, I told him, wanting to laugh and punch him at the same time.
I’ve done that, too, love. You’re much better.
I have no idea why you think it’s flattering to be told you’re better than jerking off, but that discussion is probably best left for another time.
“You’re doing it again, aren’t you? I can see you trying not to smile,” Cora accused. “What are you saying?”
“I was telling Avery that the discussion about masturbation is best left for another time,” I said complacently.
She gawked at me for a second.
“Serves you right for asking. Now, Avery, since we’re down two people, do you think we should modify the plan to get Albert alone so we can talk to him?”
“No. I can handle him.”
“Like you handled him when he turned you into a puma?” Cora asked.
“Panther,” he corrected.
“Jaguar! Honest to God, doesn’t anyone pay attention?”
“I wasn’t expecting to be turned into a jaguar,” Avery continued. “This time I’m ready for him. His tent is the big one, over there. We’ll give the patrol time to swing around to the other side of the camp, then make our move.”
“How come you’re not just flying in there with your bat friends, and flashing fang and claws and stuff and taking them out?” Cora asked in a whisper as we moved as quietly as possible to a clump of laurel that ringed one part of the camp.
“I’m from Scotland, not Hollywood,” Avery said grimly. “We don’t do those things.”
“Boy, that’s lame.”
Your sister is a big—
You don’t need to finish that thought. I am in ag
reement, although I would like to point out that she’s motivated by affection for me. She honestly is worried that you have me under some sort of hypnotic trance.
Did you tell her it was just incredibly hot sex? he asked with male smugness.
No. I told her you were lost and alone, and needed someone to repeatedly explain to you the difference between a panther and a jaguar.
He held up a hand to stop us, gesturing toward a shadowy figure moving silently ahead of us.
Patrol. We’ll have to be on guard.
I grabbed Cora’s arm and pointed at the shadow, then put my finger across my lips. She nodded her understanding.
The patrol moved off, making almost no noise, just a few whispers from the branches and leaves as he brushed past. We waited a few minutes to make sure he wasn’t doubling back, then crept slowly forward until we were behind a stack of wooden crates sitting next to a big old-fashioned canvas tent. A faint glow of light showed within it.
Avery pulled out of his black pullover sweater a small leather case containing, amongst other things, a heavy pair of shears. Quickly he set to work, and in less than a minute had a slit up the back corner of the tent. He peeled back a tiny bit and peered in, Cora and I pressed up close behind him.
What the—
He slipped into the tent without finishing the thought. I exchanged glances with my sister, then shrugged and sidled through the opening after him, Cora on my heels.
The tent was one that could hold several people, and did in fact have three cots, one of which was occupied—by a figure who was bound and gagged.
“Albert!” I whispered, hurrying over to him. Avery cut off the old man’s gag before turning his attention to the hemp rope binding his hands and feet.
“Are you all right?” I asked, keeping a wary eye on the opening of the tent. Although the flap was down, the night breeze made it flap now and again, giving us glimpses of a fire pit in the center of the compound, around which two people sat, talking in subdued voices. “Are you hurt?”
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