There was never enough. The storm raged ferociously, wild and out of control and so hot they had to feed each other air. She wanted to share his skin. She needed him in her body. He had to touch every inch of her, hear her gasp, the soft little cry that escaped when his hands found every spot that sent her reeling with pleasure.
Outside the wind lashed the windows of the villa. Lightning streaked across the sky, and thunder cracked and boomed, shaking the earth. The dark sky lit up with fiery sparks, a shower of star gems, raining from the sky into the churning sea.
Byron took her to the carpet, unable to make it to the bed with his body raging at him and his mind swamped with her hunger. Immediately he indulged his need for intimate exploration, leaving the haven of her mouth to rain kisses over her breasts and stomach, teasing her navel, lifting her hips and plunging his tongue deep.
Antonietta screamed, her orgasm so intense her hips bucked. He rode it out, holding her in strong arms, laving and teasing, working carefully around her hottest spot until she pushed hard against him, squirming for more. The instant he touched her, her body spiraled out of control again, even wilder than before.
Byron dragged her hips close to him, pressing tightly against her wet, slick entrance. He could hear her heart pounding. She writhed against the thick carpet, pushing into him, trying to impale herself, seeking relief. He wanted the image in his mind for all time, her black hair a stark contrast to the white carpet, her body sprawled out, flushed with excitement, her breasts a tantalizing sight, and the soft demand in her voice as she ordered him to take possession of her.
He surged forward, a hard, deep stroke, filling her with the thick length of him, just for the joy of hearing her scream again. She was always uninhibited with him, wild and passionate, wanting him with every fiber of her being. With their minds so deeply merged, he could feel her hunger for him. He knew exactly what she wanted, thrusting deeper with every stroke. The carpeted floor had no give to it, so his body pounded into hers and still it wasn’t enough.
Antonietta clutched him to her, dragging him even closer, lifting her hips to meet him in a wild, sensual ride. She couldn’t tell where one orgasm left off and the next one started. A tidal wave swept through her body that went on and on, each stronger than the last, yet never enough. Her appetite for him seemed insatiable. Her fingernails dug into his skin, dragging his hips into her while her entire body rose up to meet his, bucking beneath him in the thrall of total pleasure.
Byron reveled in the way she gave herself completely, without reservation, to him. His body swelled beyond his expectations. There was a roaring in his ears, a dark storm of sensual hunger overtaking him a rush.
I want you to hear the words,
cara mia,
to know what I am giving you, what you give me. This is the mating ritual. The words that have the power to restore the two halves of our souls to one. I claim you as my lifemate. I belong to you. I offer my life for you. I give you my protection, my allegiance, my heart, my soul, and my body. I take into my keeping the same that is yours. Your life, happiness, and welfare will be cherished and placed above my own for all time. You are my lifemate, bound to me for all eternity and always in my care.
Her feminine sheath was tight and hot, a velvet friction driving him utterly mad. He felt the fiery blast start somewhere around his toes and drive up through his body with the force of a battering ram. Antonietta took him deeper, driving her hips up to meet the fury of his body so that they were welded together in the midst of explosion. He thought he might have disintegrated, holding fast to Antonietta and his sanity.
Antonietta lay beneath him, clinging to his arms, fingertips rubbing at his biceps, exploring the shape and definition of his muscles as she tried to regain her ability to breathe and her equilibrium. Byron buried his face against her neck, his lips soothing on her pulse, his body so deeply buried in hers she was certain they were locked together forever.
“Do you think we know the meaning of the words take it easy and slow?” There was humor in her voice. “I thought we were going to set the room on fire.”
“My skin is scorched,” he said. He propped himself up on one elbow to take some of his weight off of her, his other hand shaping her breast.
Antonietta felt the ripple of reaction through her entire body. “Don’t even breathe on me. I’ve melted into the carpet.” Her lashes drifted down. “I’m going to go to sleep right here on the floor, and I want to wake up with you still inside of me.” She sighed blissfully. “You may just be the greatest lover in the history of the world.”
He bent his head to the temptation of her breasts, his tongue swirling around her nipple. The way her body tightened around his made him smile. “May be the greatest lover?” He sucked hard on her breast to punish her, laughed when her hips thrashed again, the rippling of an orgasm washing over her. “You respond so beautifully, Antonietta.” She was soft and giving, her body so welcoming of his.
She tangled her fingers in his hair as his mouth worked greedily at her breast. “Do you plan on spending the night lavishing attention on my breast? Not that I’m complaining, but you’re making me crazy. I can’t afford to get any hotter. Now I know why there are rare cases of spontaneous combustion.”
“I was thinking I might spend the night chewing on other parts of your anatomy,” he answered. “I have decided I want to try every way in the world there is to make love to you. What is that famous book with all those intriguing positions and ideas?”
Her fingers caressed his hair, laughter bubbling up so that her muscles clenched around him intimately. “Well, not tonight. Tonight you are somehow going to figure out how to get me from here to the Jacuzzi without both of us falling in a heap on the floor.”
“We are already on the floor. In any case, it would require me removing my body from yours, and I think I have found a home. You are the hottest thing on the face of the earth. I am staying right where I am.”
“Lazy man. I promise to make love to you all night, but if I don’t get into some soothing water, I might not be able to keep that promise. We were a bit on the vigorous side.” For a moment she held his head to her breast, allowing waves of pleasure to wash over her. She felt cocooned in sensual delight.
He kissed her nipple with a soft sigh of regret. “I suppose you are right, but I want you to know, I was enjoying myself.”
“When we go to bed, I’ll let you have all the fun you want. You can indulge your every fantasy.” She had been in his mind; she saw each fantasy and was excited with the knowledge of his intentions. “I wish I had your stamina, but I don’t. I need to rest. I don’t want to be sore.”
“My saliva contains a healing agent. We do not have to worry about that. I will not allow you to feel discomfort.” He slowly began to withdraw from her body. Her muscles reacted, gripping at him, trying to hold him to her. Byron kissed her throat. “See how you are? Even your body does not want us to separate.”
“Don’t listen.” She wrapped her arms around his neck when he scooped her up to cradle her against his chest. “I can’t move. I may not ever again.”
Chapter 14
The water in the Jacuzzi was hot and foamy, bursting around her and against her most sensitive parts. Even that sensation seemed to be highly erotic. Antonietta sighed blissfully. “This is perfection. Do you have candles?”
“If you want them.”
“I can’t see them, but if they’re scented, it’s always nice.”
Almost at once the room was filled with the fragrance of honeysuckle and rain. Antonietta smiled and allowed her legs to drift to the surface, her arms spread wide to embrace the atmosphere. “My very own sorcerer.”
Water washed over her breasts, across her belly button, over the triangle of dark, curls and the shadow between her legs. Byron leaned back and watched her, a peculiar emotion stabbing at the pit of his stomach. She was so tightly bound to him, so entrenched in his heart and soul, he wasn’t certain how it happened. Just looking at
her sent a spear piercing his body. It was a strange sensation, a physical pain, aching with love when he looked at her.
“So what kind of music do you like?” Antonietta floated in the gently rippling water, her hair spread around her like so much seaweed. Her head bumped against Byron’s chest. His arms locked around hers to hold her in place while the water bubbled and fizzed over her sensitized skin.
“Josef sings a particularly interesting version of rap,” he said.
Her mouth opened wide in a gasp of alarm. She slid beneath the water as she spluttered a protest. He caught her and pulled her to the surface, his soft laughter mocking. “I have all your music,” he assured.
“That was really mean,” she said. “In retaliation, I might point out we didn’t use birth control. I don’t even think about birth control when I’m around you, which is silly, because I’m always responsible. I can’t see your face, and I hope you’re frowning.”
He took her hand, brought her fingertips to shape his mouth. “Does it feel as if I am frowning?”
She snatched her hand away. “You are impossible to upset. You’d probably be thrilled if I got pregnant, which isn’t logical at all.”
“I would prefer you wait until I convert you.”
Antonietta sat up, scooted to the small hollowed-out seat beside him. “All this talk of conversion sounds suspiciously like a vampire. What’s the difference?”
“A vampire is wholly evil. Carpathian males lose emotions around two hundred years when they are fully adults. At that time, the lure of power begins to work at them, whispers to feel the rush of the kill. We are predators, with some animal traits. We can be dangerous when provoked, but we do not kill indiscriminately. A vampire lives to bring pain and torment and ultimately death to others. We take blood but do not harm those we take from. A vampire kills for the adrenaline in the blood and also the rush of power, a momentary thrill, when he kills. It is the duty of our hunters to bring these males to justice and protect our species by concealing their existence.”
“That was what you meant by a hunter. A vampire hunter.”
“Yes, among other things. I have done so, but it is not my calling.”
“For which I’m grateful. How long do you live?”
He shrugged, a lazy shift of his shoulders causing the water to wash over her skin. His hand caught her foot, pulled it into his lap so his fingers could massage her. “Unless there is a mortal wound and no one to supply blood, we can live as long as we wish.”
“So if I became as you are, I would live, but I would watch my family die, and eventually even their children.”
“Unfortunately, that is one of the difficulties we all face. We have people we lose, but then, everyone does. Don Giovanni is not going to live forever. You will have to face his death, no matter what. And young Margurite could have been killed when the shield fell. Anything can happen in life.” His fingers moved up to her calf.
Antonietta slid down further beneath the water to extend her leg to him. “That’s true; I can’t argue with that. I wouldn’t be able to be awake during daylight hours?”
“No, and you would have to acclimate your skin to the early morning hours slowly before you could be out during that time.”
“But I would have you.”
“You are my lifemate, Antonietta. You will always have me.”
“Men leave women all the time, Byron. You’re asking me to change my entire way of life for you. I love my family. I love the palazzo. I don’t want to leave my home. And I don’t want to quit my career. Music defines who and what I am.”
“It is impossible for lifemates to leave one another. I have not asked you to give up your career or to leave your home. There are some Carpathians who live with humans, and it works out very well.”
“How does conversion work?”
“We exchange blood three times. The blood works on your organs, reshaping and changing you to what you should be. Already there are signs of it.”
She idly flicked the surface of the water, popping bubbles as they churned around her. “What about my eyes? The strangest things have happened lately. I’ve seen flashes of light, shadows, even colors, as if I’m seeing body heat. I thought it was because we’re so closely connected.”
Byron turned the information over in his mind. “I saw color through Jacques. It was not my memory I was tapping into, but his vision of his lifemate. That is unusual. We tap into memories to feel emotion, but it does not work that way with vision as a rule. Perhaps there is something in my lineage that allows for such a thing. I would think your sight would be restored as the blood heals and reshapes. Our eyes are different, more functional for night vision. Is the thought of seeing again more tempting than choosing to be with me?”
Antonietta laughed. “You are such a male. That’s such a little-boy thing to say.”
He tugged on her foot until she slid underwater. Antoinetta pulled her leg away from him and reversed direction beneath the water to bump her head against his stomach. She circled his waist with her arms to anchor herself and rested her head in his lap, her mouth closing over his floating penis.
Byron looked down at the wealth of silky hair floating in the churning water. Her mouth provided a strong suction that brought him to instant attention. Her tongue danced and teased and stroked until his body trembled and hungered all over again. She seemed to be pulling a volcano from the very center of his being. His blood thickened and pooled, and his every nerve ending seemed to be centered where her hot, passionate mouth was working. The breath slammed out of his lungs. She came up for air, a water nymph laughing at him.
“Come here, you crazy woman.” He reached for her, pulled her to him. “We will live in your house with your family. You will travel the world playing your music for people, and I will once again make art from the gems I call to me. Live your life with me. I cannot bear to be without you. lifemates are for eternity, Antonietta. We can be married in the way of your people and live and seem to age. At times we may have to go away, but we will always return if that is your wish.”
She tilted her head, a small siren’s smile playing around her mouth. “Can you really make it so I’m not uncomfortable and we can make love all night?”
“Absolutely.”
“I think I need proof before I commit to any more biting.”
In answer, he lifted her, seating her on the rim of the Jacuzzi, parting her thighs wide enough to allow his broad shoulders between her legs. “A challenge I cannot resist.” He bent his head to her, teeth nipping gently on the insides of her thighs, his breath warm on her most vulnerable entrance.
His hands gathered her hips and simply slid her into his mouth so that she cried out, grabbed fistfuls of his hair for an anchor.
Antonietta allowed her head to fall back. Her breasts seemed to ache with fullness. Every muscle in her body went taut. His tongue did incredible things, caressing, and stroking, and probing. Everywhere he touched, he soothed and heightened her pleasure. Her body coiled tighter and tighter, winding like a spring. She was wet and hot and impatient for him. She wanted to cry with the wonder and beauty of the way he could make her feel. And yet she needed. And hungered. For him.
Byron lifted his head, brought her mouth to his, sharing her taste, his tongue teasing hers before he spun her around and bent her over the edge. “Is that enough proof? I can give you more.” His hands cupped her breasts while he pressed against her buttocks, deliberately showing her the fullness of his desire. “Do you need more?”
She reached back in an effort to guide him into her. Byron avoided her hand, rubbed again, his teeth nipping her firm bottom. Antonietta began to turn around, determined two could play. Byron held her against the rim, caught her hips, and pushed into her tight sheath with exquisite slowness. “You want slow and easy, remember?”
He was so thick, she could feel him stretching her, pushing his way into her folds, the slow friction driving her to the edge of madness. “I didn’t say that. I’m sure I
didn’t say that.” He was very strong, holding her with a gentle but completely unbreakable grip, all the while moving with leisurely, long strokes. Each surge forward made her shudder with pleasure. She had to remain completely still while he did the work.
She stopped trying to struggle back into him, just allowing the pleasure to wash over her in waves. Her breasts tightened, and Byron’s every movement enhanced her experience, just as he meant it to. Antonietta reached for his mind to share her every orgasm, the beauty of giving herself up to heat and fire. To him. She could feel his growing exhilaration as her body became more and more stimulated, gripping him tightly and taking him with her right over the edge.
When she could breathe again, Antonietta found herself laughing as he stepped carefully backward, taking her with him into the bubbling water. “Are we permanently stuck together? My legs are going to give out, and I didn’t do any of the work.” The water bubbled over her buttocks, fizzed between their bodies, and teased her feminine core. “I hope you know you’re never going to persuade me using sex. You can try, I hope you do try, but I’m going to make a decision based on other things. Important things like your choice of music.” The laughter faded from inside of her. Antonietta went very still.
Byron slipped out of her body, turned her around to face him, his hands resting lightly on her hips. “What is it, Antonietta?”
“Do I have a choice, Byron? Are you asking me if I want this conversion or telling me about it because you intend to convert me, no matter how I feel?”
Her fingernails dug into his arms. He could feel the beat of her heart, hear the steady, frightened rhythm. Byron curled one hand around the nape of her neck. “I brought you here with every intention of converting you.” His voice was very low. “My first duty to you and to my people is to protect you.”
“I need to sit down.” Her breath was trapped somewhere in her lungs, and her legs were rubbery. She felt behind her for one of the seats. Byron helped her to sit in the foaming water. “Turn off the jets.”
Dark Symphony (Dark Series - book 10) Page 29