Andor had brought his lifemate to this beautiful cavern because he wanted to give her a gift. This was his gift to her—a place of natural beauty. He knew she understood. He could see it on her face when she’d first entered the cave and seen the walls encrusted with diamonds. When she’d realized the rock formation was a natural pool and he’d heated it for her. The sound of the water playing over the diamonds in the walls was melodic, and the way the gems looked beneath that cascading water added even more beauty to the cave.
All right. Her voice was soft. Whispery. An intimate velvet brushing through his mind.
He waved his hand and the chestnut curls were gone, leaving her skin sleek and bare to him. A woman’s form was more beautiful than all the diamonds and waterfalls in the cave. He moved to her as if an invisible magnet pulled him forward. Catching her around the nape of her neck, he tugged until she was forced into him, her face tipping up for his kiss.
His mouth claimed hers. He was gentle, because he was inherently gentle with her, but the kiss was demanding. Commanding. A ruthless takeover. Her mouth was hot and sweet. His was all fire and domination. One hand came up to cup her left breast, his thumb sliding over her nipple, brushing insistently back and forth until she arched into him with a little gasp.
He kissed his way down her throat and then over the top curves of both breasts. His teeth left little red marks, his claim on her skin. Then his mouth closed over her right breast while his fingers tugged on her left. Rolled. Kneaded. She gave a broken little cry and cradled his head to her. His tongue flicked and laved while his hand and mouth and teeth continued to drive her up higher.
Andor could see the flush on her body, and it was beautiful. There was need in her eyes. Heat. Desire. He kissed his way down to her belly button, taking the time to swirl his tongue there and nip with his teeth, to leave evidence of his passing with faint little strawberries.
Lorraine’s breath hitched as he dropped lower, crouching, nudging her thighs apart. He guided one foot over his shoulder as he circled her other ankle with one hand and ran it slowly up her calf to her thigh. He followed his hand with his mouth, kissing his way up her leg until he reached the inside of her thigh.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and she gave another broken cry when he blew warm breath on her slick sex.
I have waited for this. Carpathians do not dream, yet I dreamt of this. Of the taste of you in my mouth. Of hearing your shattered cries and feeling that place of absolute pleasure I can take you to.
He caught her bottom in his hands and pulled her to his waiting mouth. There in the cave, with no one around, Lorraine had no inhibitions and she screamed. He heard the plea in her voice and reveled in it. Now that he had the taste of her in his mouth, he wanted more. He needed more. He took his time, devouring her.
She tasted like an aphrodisiac. The more he ate at her, his tongue and teeth busy, adding his fingers to bring her pleasure, the more urgent the demands of his body. His cock had never been so hard. His blood had never run so hot. He felt her muscles begin to clamp down, heard her breath come in ragged, labored pants.
“Not yet,” he growled, lifting his head, feeling like a feral animal. His need was worse than hers. He gently put her foot back on the floor, one arm a band around her back while he removed his clothes with a single thought. Then he lifted her. “Put your legs around me.”
She complied immediately, her green eyes on his face. There was anxiety there. Hunger. Desire. Everything he was feeling reflected back at him. That need was just as hot, just as all-consuming. He guided his cock to her entrance and slowly began to invade. Those tight muscles didn’t want to allow him entry. He loved the way they gave ground reluctantly, gripping at his shaft, massaging the crown with hot, terrible friction.
He threw back his head, a guttural sound escaping. It was ecstasy just being inside her. Wrapped in a scorching hot fist of silk. He kept the pressure steady, unrelenting, pushing through her muscles, inching his way deeper and deeper until he was buried in her, fully seated. Her nails bit into his shoulder and her eyes were wide with passion. Her fingers were linked at the nape of his neck, her arms outstretched, so that he could see her breasts and where their bodies were joined together. It was the most sensual-looking image he could imagine, other than when her mouth was on his cock.
He began to move, slowly at first, listening to the way her breath hitched and she moaned. A musical rhythm punctuated each stroke of his cock as he surged into her. He picked up the pace, going from gentle to a little harder thrust, watching her breasts jolt, watching her body swallow his cock. He had enough girth that she was stretched around him, and bare the way she was, he could see that, see her take him. That added to the sensuality.
He felt her body begin to clamp down harder and harder, squeezing his shaft. Gripping him so tightly he thought he might detonate the cave when he blew. His fingers dug into the cheeks of her bottom, urging her to ride, helping her move on him while he thrust faster, deeper and much harder. Her moans had gone to a fever pitch of music, a crescendo. He heard a roaring in his ears. His balls felt on fire. His legs burned. There was a conflagration in his belly. All of it began to come together into a perfect firestorm burning right through his cock.
Her sheath was an inferno—a blazing inferno wrapped tightly around him. “Andor.” A plea. “I can’t hold back.”
“Then come with me now.” He managed to bite out the command through gritted teeth.
The explosion was already sweeping through him, both heaven and hell mixed together so it was impossible to tell which. The storm was brutal, fire lashing at them, consuming them, burning them both alive and leaving them completely spent. He didn’t know if the pleasure was that great or the pain that exquisite, but he knew he wanted to experience it again and again—with her.
Lorraine collapsed in his arms, her head on his shoulder, her body completely spent. She’d given everything to him, just as he’d given to her. He simply floated over the rock wall and sank into the water with her still seated on his cock. He found a low ledge and sat, his arms around her, while both tried to find air for their lungs again.
She didn’t move or speak for a very long time. He held her, enjoying the way her body fit into his and his fit into hers. It felt as if, for a time, they shared the same skin in the way they shared their minds. She stirred first, not moving her body, but moving through his mind.
Just checking to see if we’re both alive.
That first whisper of her voice filling his mind always got to him. His heart clenched. His stomach tightened and his cock jerked. She set off a chain reaction with just that one small murmur. It felt intimate. Like the stroke of her fingers. She was brushing his nape with the pads of her fingers, absently caressing his skin, and he felt something similar, but deep inside his mind.
If not, it was the best way to go.
I agree. I didn’t have any idea it could be like that, did you?
He knew her taste would set him off. He had her in his mouth. He wanted her there forever. He needed to take her blood. Not enough for a true exchange, but to satisfy the hunger that refused to be quenched by any other’s blood. It was not a physical hunger that he needed to feed. It was erotic. Sexual. Primal.
I saw others and felt what they experienced throughout the centuries, but like you, could not possibly know what we would be like together. I suspected.
She pulled back to look up at him, her eyes dancing with mischief. “You are such a pervert. You watched others?”
He shrugged. “How else do we learn? Not Carpathians. If I had tried that, I would not be here today. I told you we study what we need to keep our lifemates happy.” He dipped his head to kiss her chin and then blaze a trail of kisses down to her left breast. His tongue swirled there and his teeth scraped back and forth persistently.
“I don’t know whether to be turned on by that or horrified.”
He nipped at her skin. Felt the jump of her pulse. He closed his eyes, savoring her reac
tion to him. Lorraine never seemed to shy away from his needs. “Be turned on,” he suggested.
“I’m giving it thought.”
She pulled back farther to give him better access. One hand came up under her left breast, cupping it. His cock swelled, beginning to stretch that hot, delicious sheath all over again. It was just the way she looked, offering herself to him. He couldn’t resist. He sank his teeth deep, hooking into that vein, at the same time, lodging in her mind to feel everything she felt.
She cried out, pain flashing through her. It was erotic, that bite, and a flood of liquid heat surrounded his cock. Then her blood was bursting over his taste buds, filling him with an ecstasy all its own. He shared that with her. The heat. The hunger. The need and terrible craving. The way his body responded. He held nothing back from her.
You taste exquisite. I have taken blood for centuries, and never once has anything come close to what you taste like. The moment I have you in my mouth, my cock craves you the way my hunger does. It mixes together until I cannot separate one need from another.
That was pure honesty. He wanted to devour her blood. Devour her special honey, the one spilling from between her legs. He wanted his cock in her. Along with all of that, he wanted to be in her heart and mind. He needed all of those things. It was difficult, with her taste filling him, to stop. He forced discipline and drew his tongue over the twin holes on the upper curve of her left breast.
He rocked and his cock moved in her. Water rose around him, licking at his skin. At hers. He brushed a kiss on top of her head. “You amaze me, the way you have accepted my people and me so readily.”
Lorraine rubbed her chin on his shoulder. “I was sort of thrown in at the deep end, knowing those horrible men were trying to murder you. Someone had to save you.”
“I am very grateful it was you.” He bit her earlobe hard enough to make her yelp.
“Then there is the little matter of Adam and Herman, sent by Sergey to, umm—” She broke off, searching for the appropriate word. “Acquire me. He wanted to acquire me. I really thought they were decent men, Andor. I would have been fooled by them. If you hadn’t been able to stop them, they would have invited that puppet into the circle of safety you put up and for all I know, I would be dead.”
She rocked on his cock, sending waves of pleasure spiraling through him. It was enough to distract him for a moment. Just that lazy movement between them brought with it an indulgence he’d never known. There was no place they needed to be. Nothing imperative to do. They had this time together, just the two of them. They had come together earlier in heat and fire, now the slow burn felt right. Perfection. Just what both needed.
“Honey.” She turned her head to nibble on his chin and kiss her way over his throat. “I don’t know if I ever thanked you for helping me out during that fight. I was so certain I was right and those men needed help.”
“I have been tracking and destroying vampires for centuries, Lorraine. I have a little more experience than you.”
“How did Sergey even know about me in the first place? I was camping out there for a little while before I heard those men determined to kill you.”
“And you attacked them with that saucepot. Seriously, csecsemõ, I wouldn’t try that again. I can see you are determined to learn to fight these creatures, and I am trying my best to look at all the reasons why it is a good idea that you do learn, but saucepots are out.”
She laughed softly, the sound muffled against his neck. The vibration running through her body surrounded his cock, the hot, tight sheath bathing him in scorching liquid and clamping down hard enough that when she moved, the friction set his teeth on edge. The lazy heat was becoming hotter and faster than he expected.
“How did he know I was there?”
“He knew I had attacked seven of his vampires. Two were very good in a battle. Very good. They had experience and, although it didn’t match mine, Sergey could not have known that. All he knew was that a hunter had taken out seven of his crew. He knew I was wounded and guessed correctly that those wounds were mortal and I was dying. He wanted to finish the job so he sent his spies. Did you see the crows? Those were his spies. He uses birds often. If you look around the compound, outside the fenced-in area, you will see flocks of birds.”
She gave a delicate little shudder. He felt that, too. When she moved, sliding around to straddle him, she pivoted on his shaft, and the action sent flames shooting up his spine. His hands went to her waist, fingers biting deep as streaks of fire raced up his cock. The water lapped at her nipples where her breasts floated enticingly. She looked right into his eyes, smiling as she began to move her hips, riding him, sliding up and down, so that the heat and fire consumed him.
“You were talking about birds.”
“I want to talk about how you make me feel, but I can barely breathe.”
She leaned forward to press kisses over his pulse. “Imagine what I can do when I’m like you. Carpathian. I can take your blood, Andor. When I’m straddling your thighs and your cock is so deep inside me, I can just lean forward like this and help myself to that delicious taste of yours.”
His cock hardened and swelled more, stretching her, lengthening, growing to limits he hadn’t known were possible without completely detonating. Her mouth was suddenly on his, and it was like she touched a match to a hundred sticks of dynamite. Everything in him went up in flames. Completely ignited with her mouth on him.
He took over, his cock surging deep into her over and over. He lifted her and pushed her down over top of him, feeling that burn ride up his calves to his thighs. Water splashed over the top of the rock wall. She ground down as he thrust up, adding to the maelstrom of need that took over both of them.
He read that dark hunger in her eyes. Saw it in the flush over her face. Felt it in the gripping of her sheath. “Tet vigyázam. I love you, Lorraine. You bring me tremendous joy.”
He waited until he heard that singsong music that heralded the arrival of her orgasm. It washed over both of them like a tsunami, taking him with her so that his declaration was nearly lost in the shout of her name. Her soft cry was muffled by his shoulder where she collapsed again, holding him tight, pressing her breasts into his chest and her body down over his.
“I love you because you are you, Lorraine. You. Not because you were chosen as my lifemate. It is you.”
“I’m not so freaked out by the lifemate thing anymore, Andor,” she admitted. She turned her head to one side, her green eyes looking up at him. “Whatever it is, I know I would choose you with or without it. You were born for me. It was as if someone created you for me and me for you.”
He was wise enough not to say that was exactly what a lifemate was.
“I love you, too. I don’t know how that happened, but I know I do. I’m going to learn to say it perfectly in your language.” She kissed his throat. “Say it again. Teach it to me.”
So he did.
16
Emeline, Dragomir’s lifemate, was every bit as gorgeous as Genevieve had said she was. Her hair was a true black with bluish highlights shining through when the light hit it. She was definitely pregnant, although, in Lorraine’s opinion, on the small side. Andor escorted Lorraine up the steps to the porch of the home the couple occupied. Dragomir stood behind Emeline, his arms around her, both hands clasped around her baby bump, as if protecting them both.
“Lorraine,” Dragomir greeted. “This is my lifemate, Emeline. Hän sívamak, this is Lorraine, Andor’s lifemate. She’s a very brave woman and will be a tremendous asset to the compound.” There was a note of pride in his voice.
Lorraine wasn’t certain if the pride was for Emeline, or for her prowess as a fighter. In any case, Emeline burst out laughing.
“Dragomir, there is no doubt that Lorraine will be an asset to the compound, but it is so like you Carpathian males to put that first.” She turned her attention to Lorraine, although she pushed against Dragomir’s chest with the back of her head, as if nuzzling him with a
ll that long, glossy hair. “I have no doubt that we’ll get along quite well, Lorraine. Come sit down.” She waved toward the comfortable-looking chairs on the porch. “Andor, it’s nice to see you again. I’m very happy for you that you found Lorraine.”
Andor’s bow was almost courtly. “Thank you.”
That was all he said. Lorraine looked from Dragomir to Andor. They didn’t appear uncomfortable with the women. Dragomir had been one of the ancients who’d arrived to help them at the campsite. He’d given blood to the others and had never once seemed uncomfortable with her. She looked back over her experience and realized only Gary, Ferro and Sandu talked very much to her, and then only after their souls had been tied together.
Andor leaned down to kiss her as she sat in one of the chairs facing the playground. “I am going to talk with Tariq again, sívamet. Will you be all right without me?”
For a moment, her fingers, of their own will, clutched at his shirt. She realized what she was doing and forced herself to let him go. It wasn’t that she was afraid to be on her own—she wanted the opportunity to talk with Emeline—it was the fact that she didn’t want the separation from him.
You can always reach out to me. Meeting or no meeting, I will always respond.
The air left her lungs in a little rush. She thought she’d handled him sleeping belowground without a problem, but just this small panic attack made her realize she hadn’t. I’ll be fine. Just know that I will expect a full report, especially if I’m in any way the topic of conversation.
She touched the back of her head where Gary had healed the laceration on her scalp. It was smooth. There was no pain. Nothing at all to make her think Sergey had placed something inside the wound. Her body gave a little shudder. She itched between her shoulder blades as if there was an invisible target on her back. It bothered her more than she wanted to admit that none of the Carpathians examining her had found anything at all.
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