He nuzzled Natalya's throat, whispering to her to awaken. He caught her first breath in his mouth, took it into his lungs and held it there, feeling her heart flutter against his hand. She sighed, a soft sound of love that made his heart leap. The pads of her fingers trailed
over his chest, a wisp of movement so light it felt like the flutter of wings, yet it seemed she burned her brand forever into his skin. Her fresh scent rose up to torment him, to tease his senses and harden his body.
Natalya's long lashes lifted and her brilliant green gaze stared into his, darkening with hunger, with desire. «Hello.» Her voice was soft, incredibly sexy and every muscle in his body tightened and hardened.
«Hello.» She couldn't fail to notice the evidence of his desire, thick and pulsing with energy and heat.
«I'm alive.» Her fingertips smoothed over his face. A slow smile curved her mouth. «Hang on one minute and let me make certain everything is working properly.»
Vikirnoff frowned as she rolled over and jumped to her feet, stretching lazily. He propped himself up on one elbow, a faint smile on his face as she shifted shape. The tigress bounded around the cavern, joy in the playful leaps, before she rubbed her fur along his body. He sank his fingers into the thick pelt and caressed her face as she lay beside him.
Natalya shifted back again, laughing up at him. «She's still there.»
«I knew she would be.»
Natalya sat up, a fluid movement of grace and elegance, shifting to straddle his lap. Her body was already hot. He could feel her wet and slick pressed into his thigh. His hands caught her hips, trying to position her where he could join them, but she resisted, shaking her head. «I want luxury this evening. I think I deserve it.»
He swallowed hard. Luxury might be the death of him. «You deserve anything you want.»
«I want to touch you.» She lowered her head so her lips could skim his chest, featherlight, just enough to drive him mad. «Like this. I love touching you.» She wanted to make love to him. A long slow passionate time where every touch showed him her love. Where her new senses could heighten what she already felt when he touched her. She needed this time with him to feel loved in every way.
His hands cupped her buttocks, lifted, massaged and rubbed, pressing her closer to him, his body so eager for hers his heart was nearly exploding out of his chest. She lifted her head, her gaze slumberous and sensual, her mouth finding his, teeth tugging gently at his lower lip, her tongue teasing his with tiny stroking caresses. He felt each one vibrate through his body, coming together in his groin. The ache grew into a distinct pain, his erection heavy and stiff and throbbing for relief.
Her mouth left his and she alternated tiny kisses and bites across his throat and down his chest. Her hands pushed at the wall of his chest until he leaned back, resting against the side of the pool. Water lapped at his thighs and legs, splashed droplets over him. Natalya didn't
seem to notice, intent on tracing every muscle with her tongue and teeth. She was tortuously slow as she moved down his chest to his belly with slow licks and tiny kisses. The fire racing through his veins found its way to the building volcano in his groin. «I am not going to live through this.»
«Well, you'll just have to, because I want to feel the way I love you and the way you love me back.»
She moved her hips, sliding the moist heat of her mound back and forth over him until he groaned, his fingers digging into her hips to set her on him. Smiling, she slid lower, pressing kisses against his flat belly, her legs sliding into the water, giving him a delicious view of her curved bottom. He couldn't stop his hands from massaging her, fingers dipping low to invade her body. His breath was coming in ragged gasps.
Her breath moved over the head of his erection, warming the glistening drops there, and stilling his heart. «This is what you did to me. I couldn't think or breathe. I could only feel, Vikirnoff. I want you to feel how much I love you.»
Before he could answer, her mouth closed around him, tight and hot, her tongue doing some incredible dance while her fist grasped him with sure fingers. Lightning raced up his body, sizzled in his veins. The sound of his breathing was harsh, even to his own ears. He watched her through half-closed eyes, his body going up in flames. When he thought he would die, when he couldn't feel anymore without exploding into a million fragments, she took him deeper so that his hips thrust helplessly. The small suckling noises coupled with her tight mouth and licking tongue nearly drove him out of his mind.
Her fingernails raked his scrotum, her fingers tightening and squeezing gently, her mouth so hot it was a cauldron of fire wrapped around him. His fists bunched in her hair and he thrust deeper. Her breasts moved against his thighs, her nipples hard pinpoints of heat. He couldn't resist the invitation of her curved bottom, thrust upward in the air as she suckled. His hand came down open-palmed, stroked and caressed, massaging, his blood pumping so hard through his veins he was afraid he might spontaneously combust.
Vikirnoff groaned her name, dragged her head back, needing her body, needing the feel of her wrapped tightly around him, gripping with such force he knew she needed him every bit as much. He could devour her later, her sweetness pouring into him, her cries bringing him intense pleasure, but not now. Now he was too frenzied with lust, too high on love. The two emotions were so mixed together he couldn't separate them.
He rolled her over, coming up on top of her. Her breasts were beautiful, the full mounds tipped with darker pink nipples, rising and falling with each breath she dragged into her lungs. Water splashed around them, her hair floating in strands on the surface. The ledge held her in position, her bottom firmly lodged in the cradle of rock. He stroked her soft skin from her neck to her hip, stretching her beneath him like a sacrifice. «I love the feel of you. Do you have any idea what it is like for me to touch you like this?» He stroked her again, this time his palm taking a path over the swell of her breast to the V at the junction of her
legs. Deliberately he merged his mind with hers so she could feel the fiery sensations in his own body, the driving need of the male of his species to dominate and control.
Her eyes darkened with hunger, with excitement. The tigress in her would never accept a mate less than Vikirnoff. His touch on her breast roughened as he rolled her nipple between his thumb and finger, but he leaned forward and brushed a gentle kiss across her lips, his tongue sweeping into her mouth with stroking caresses.
The contrast between the tenderness of his mouth and the roughness of his hands sent heat sweeping through her body and left her womb clenching in desperation.
His teeth nibbled on her chin, his hair sliding like silk over her so that every nerve ending jumped to life. He licked her nipple. Paused. Lowered his head to taste again. His tongue flicked her several times making her so aware of the sensual erotic spot. Teeth scraped, lips kissed. Her head thrashed back and forth and when his mouth closed, hot and tight over her breast, suckling strongly, she cried out his name, fingers tugging at his hair, nails digging into his back.
«Hurry up.» She panted the command.
He lifted his head, his smile wicked. «You wanted slow and lazy. I am giving you what you wanted.» Deliberately he kissed his way across her belly, tonguing the ring, teeth tugging at it, before clipping lower.
«No. I need you in me. Right. Now.» She could barely get the words out.
«One taste.» He sank his finger into her, watching the shattering pleasure on her face. «That is what I need. To see you like that, Natalya, to see you come apart for me.» He pushed a second finger in, deeper this time, finding her most sensitive spot and rubbing with hard, strong strokes. «The tigress is close when you make love. Do you realize that? Your eyes go midnight blue and then opaque when you are very aroused.» It was the biggest turn-on, watching her eyes change color, watching her face and body flush for him, her nipples taut and elongated, her breath coming in ragged, harsh gasps.
His eyes, dark with sensuality held her gaze captive as he began a slow assault o
f her body. His tongue and fingers stroked and thrust into her; his licks and the tiny bites of his teeth drove her to the very edge of sanity. She couldn't think straight, couldn't find the breath to gasp out a protest as he took over her body, playing it like a finely tuned instrument. He was everywhere, claiming every inch of her as his own, building her need and hunger into a frenzied lust. She screamed through two orgasms, her body inflamed, burning out of control.
He rose above her, gripping her thighs, desperate hunger running through his body. Every muscle was strung so tight he felt coiled and ready, an explosion waiting to happen. Looking at her face, so beautiful, so filled with hunger and need for him-for him. There it was, the miracle he had been gifted with. She had been made for him. Her body, this body,
fit so perfectly with his; it was designed for pleasure, and he meant to take every drop and give her back tenfold.
He sank his shaft deep, a hard, driving stroke to take him as far into the hot inferno of her channel as he could get. She was so tight and wet, gripping him with her inner muscles, that he let loose a guttural growl of sheer bliss. Catching her legs, he wrapped them tightly around his waist, forcing her closer to him, so that he could pound deeper and harder with long, sure strokes. He felt her body tighten and shudder around him, but he kept thrusting, in and out, over and over, never wanting it to end. Her second climax began before the first had faded away, throwing her into another much more violent one.
Her hands clamped onto his shoulders, an anchor for her when he kept going, taking her even higher, forcing her into an explosive third orgasm. It shuddered through her body with the force of a freight train, rocking her, setting off the same explosion in him. He felt the drawing, the tightening until his very bones ached with the contraction. Her sheath, so hot and tight, gripped him, squeezing him to the point of pain, convulsing around him, a fist of hot velvet, until he was helpless to stop the volcanic eruption, spurting into her over and over.
Natalya stared up at him, dazed and slightly shocked. Her body refused to relax, refused to release him, every aftershock sending shudders of pleasure through her. She couldn't talk, couldn't find a way to drag air into her lungs. She could only lie there with the water lapping at her body, staring into his face.
«You are more beautiful than any woman I have ever seen.» And more sensual. She looked a siren there, spread out before him like a feast. «Again, Natalya. I want you again. And I want your blood and I want to give you mine. I want everything this time.»
She shook her head, a faint smile curving her mouth. «You already took everything. I can't move.»
«I do not want you to move. I want you to feel.»
Natalya couldn't move. Exhausted, her body still crying for more, she looked into his eyes, so dark, so intense with desire. His hands were everywhere, his teeth and mouth and his tongue. She pressed her mouth to his chest, drinking when he demanded, fire pulsing through her, multiple orgasms rocking her when his teeth pierced deep and his body thrust again and again into hers. She couldn't believe she could want more, but desire consumed her, Vikirnoff's needs feeding her own. She couldn't seem to get enough of his body and there didn't seem to be enough ways for him to sate himself with hers. «We're going to die if we keep this up,» she warned, when she could talk again.
«I have centuries to make up for.» His hands stroked her breasts. «I will never get enough of touching you like this.»
Natalya rolled over into the heat of the pool. «I'm going to be so sore I won't be able to
walk. You look pale. I think you need to feed.» Even as she said it, a flare of jealousy spurted through her. What if he bent his head toward another woman, knuckles brushing her breast? What if the woman looked at him with desire, her body growing wet and hot as he approached her? A low snarl escaped and Natalya swam toward the center of the pool. If she ever smelled another woman's scent on him, he would find out what it was like to rouse the tigress.
Something was wrong, but Natalya couldn't figure out what it was. They'd made love, she had been so happy, but with her mixture of heightened tigress and Carpathian senses, she suddenly felt the presence of another woman. She did. He might deny it all he wanted, but there was another woman in his life.
Vikirnoff watched her with speculative eyes. Very soft stripes banded her hair and flesh as she moved through the water. He touched her thoughts and smiled. How she could think he might want another woman was a puzzle to him. He followed her, pacing right beside her.
Natalya flashed him an irritated glance. «I need space.» She sent up a column of water with a single bat of her hand. Or paw. In the flickering candlelight, even with his amazing night vision, he couldn't tell whether she had partially shifted. Her blue cat's eyes had gone stormy, opaque, shimmering with translucent colors and a warning.
His body tightened all over again. Natalya's warrior woman brought out the dominating male in him. He couldn't help it or the intense desire sweeping through him. «You need me.»
Her eyes glowed with heat. «Back off, Vik, before you get into trouble. I feel her so close to you.»
He reached out and caught her to him, standing up so the water pooled around his hips. «There is no other woman and there will never be another woman.» The words hissed between clenched teeth.
«I feel her.» Tears shimmered in her eyes and she tried to push him away with the flat of her hands.
He caught her wrists, seeing her very real distress.
«This makes no sense…» His voice trailed off. «Gabrielle.» He whispered the name. «You feel Gabrielle, ainaak sivamet jutta. You feel Gabrielle calling to me.» His thumb slid over her bare arm in a caress. «You cannot hold Gabrielle against me when you asked me to save her. You knew what it entailed.»
She shook her head. «I didn't. I asked before I thought. I didn't know how it would make me feel to know she is there with you.»
«Her spirit is light. She is uncertain whether she wishes to remain when her life will be
changed for all time. I am the holder of her spirit and I can give her freedom. Release her into the other realm. Is that what you wish?»
The tigress fought for supremacy, struggled to rule when jealousy ate at her.
«You are my heart and my soul. You are my woman. It is your body I wish to possess. Your body I fantasize about and your blood I wish to taste. I do not want you to feel afraid that I will betray you, especially after all you have given for me.»
Natalya covered her face with her hands. «Stop! Don't tempt me. What a horrible person I am to even consider such a thing. Don't you dare allow her to slip away. I have every confidence in myself as a woman.» That might be more bravado than she wanted to admit. Vikirnoff's appetites had not only surprised, but slightly shocked her. He had a way of making her so out of control, so filled with desire she would do anything for him and that not only was terrifying, but fascinating to her. «If you did betray me with another woman, I doubt I could hold the tigress in check.»
«Lifemates cannot lie to one another. We are too often in each other's mind for a deception to be effective. I neither want nor need another woman.» He drew her closer, pressing his body against hers. «They call us to the healing cave. Mikhail will convert Gabrielle and bring her into our world. Once it is safe, she will be put into the ground for several days to give the soil a chance to heal her. Joie and Traian, Gabrielle's kin, will have a chance to complete their journey to be here when she rises. I will no longer be needed.» His arms went around her and he rested his cheek on the top of her head.
«I'll need you.» She rubbed her hands down his back. «I'm sorry I'm not those perfect women.»
«Perfect women?» He lifted his head to look down at her, confused as usual. He could never follow her train of thought and he even had the advantage of getting into her head. «I have no idea who you are talking about.»
«June Cleaver and Donna Reed. Your pinup fantasy women.» There was a bite in her voice, even when she tried to tease.
He groa
ned. «Are you ever going to let me off the hook? I do not want those women. Or any woman like them. I want you.» His teeth bit into her shoulder in a small reprimand. «'Only you.»
«I can hear the Carpathians calling us now. How many of them will be there?»
Vikirnoff heard the apprehension in her voice. Fighting vampires, coming into his world, being his woman, even making love to him for hours on end was undaunting to her, but meeting other Carpathians was frightening. She tried to hide it, but her body was pressed tightly against his and he could feel her trembling.
He carried her out of the water. They dried their bodies and dressed in the clothes
Vikirnoff wove for them. He provided her with her battle outfit, the one she was most comfortable wearing. She loaded up with weapons in silence and accepted the backpack from him, slipping it onto her shoulders before sliding her Amis sticks into the loops of the pack.
«Mikhail and his lifemate, Raven, will need to be present. I am certain Falcon and Sara will be there as well.» He sent a question winging to the prince, waited for the answer and relayed it. «Mikhail said that Jubal is with Slavica watching over the seven children Falcon and Sara care for.»
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