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Okay, he knew he was rationalizing, but he’d come to a decision. He would have this woman, at least in part. Here. Now.
His heart once more slammed against his ribs.
He knelt beside the couch, moved in close, and dipped his face into her neck. He breathed in her fragrant skin, her intoxicating lavender. She had asked why vampirism? As he thought about driving his thoughts deep, sinking his fangs, and plunging into her, he knew why. He knew what it would be like with her, to take her fully, his body, mind, and blood engaged, the oneness, the connection.
Hunger swamped him, a tidal wave, relentless, powerful, demanding. He craved her.
Alison, he sent, drawing her out of sleep. He drew back, unbuckled his weapons harness, and slid it off his shoulders. He laid it carefully on the adjacent love seat. He removed his cadroen and set his long warrior hair free.
* * *
Alison opened her eyes, her mind loose, her vision unfocused. Her head felt stuffed with cotton. She looked up at some kind of ceiling. The room was dark except for the dim light from one nearby lamp. Something heavy, though not unpleasant, rested on her stomach. Warm puffs of air teased her neck and raked shivers down the right side of her body.
Weird. Maybe she was still dreaming.
After a long moment, the ceiling took better shape and she recognized the texture pattern of her home in Carefree. Oh, she was home … in Carefree.
So, how did she get here?
Where had she been? Why was her mind so unfocused?
Oh, yeah. The alley, falling men, a bomb, and her Nova.
Oh, God. Kerrick.
He had kissed her like he needed to explain to her in precise detail just what kinds of things made up a real kiss. Then she had seen his fangs, and her mind had started unraveling.
On the way home, he’d put his hand on her forehead and she had drifted into the most beautiful, peaceful sleep.
She blinked a couple more times and came fully awake. Kerrick’s arm rested on her stomach and he was suckling the right side of her neck. A wicked streak of desire flowed from the point of his lips all the way down her body. She slid her hands into his thick black hair, now loose around his bare shoulders. Without thinking, she slipped into his mind, bypassing his shields, and going beyond the level of mere telepathic communication. She was inside his head.
She retreated, shocked. Her vampire warrior was in a state of full arousal, his mind a tornado of need and desire. He had told her something had hold of him, breh-hedden. Evidently. He gave off heat in waves.
I need you, he sent, his deep voice saturating her mind, like water soaking into thirsty ground. I want you, to be inside you, to have your blood in me.
She rasped a heavy breath. My blood in you?
I won’t hurt you.
He wanted to take her vein. I know you won’t. I can see into your soul, vampire. You have a golden heart.
The words once conveyed to his mind seemed so inadequate to express what she had seen in him: his dedication to Second Earth, his perfect submission to Endelle, his love for his warrior brothers, his desire to do the right thing, always, his desperate guilt.
How could she resist a man she could admire like this?
He sighed and kissed her neck. “I love that you were inside my head, but I can’t believe you pushed past my shields and I didn’t even know it! Damn, what power.”
“You couldn’t tell I was there?”
“No, which means you must have abilities like Endelle. She can do that, too.”
“And you don’t mind?”
“Truth? I loved it.”
She drew in another deep breath, and his cardamom male scent flooded her nostrils. Desire, pure and simple, drifted over her body like a warm breeze. Beautiful, exquisite pheromones. She would have fallen backward if she hadn’t already been stretched out on the couch.
Are you feeling better? he asked.
Much.
He rested on his knees beside the sofa and must have been bent at an awkward angle over her, but he wasn’t complaining.
He dragged his fangs over her neck. The sensation caused her heart to skip a beat and her body to clench … hard.
Alison?
She heard the question beneath her whispered name. Was she really going to do this? To allow such an invasion? Such a release of herself into him?
He lifted up and looked at her. Lavender, he whispered over her mind.
The sight of him did her in, beautiful, fully masculine, incredible green eyes, thick black hair now framing his god-like face.
Desire flowed through her like a river. She wanted to throw herself into the current and swim.
He nodded as though understanding.
He bent down to again nuzzle her neck.
She moaned at the new set of chills whipping over her body. She touched his hair and pulled the coarse strands through her fingers.
He growled against her neck. More shivers. Her fingers wound through his hair.
Be strong for me, he whispered in vaporous trails that condensed in her mind. He shifted slightly and kissed her neck. She rolled her head to allow more room. He groaned heavily and moved in closer. He pulled her hips toward him then slid her head away from the back of the sofa to give him even more access.
His tongue flattened and rasped up the side of her neck as though drawing forward what he wanted. Again and again he licked. Her pulse throbbed. The duller sides of his fangs scraped the skin above her vein. She had touched one of them when he’d been unconscious on the hood of her car. The sharp tip had drawn blood. How little it would take to puncture her throat.
Was she really going to do this thing? Allow this penetration?
He nuzzled, kissed, licked.
An ache formed deep within. Desire gripped her and again she clenched internally. She moaned. What had he said about the sharing of blood? An act of reverence.
Reverence? she sent.
Yes. God, yes.
He slid his hand over her stomach, pushed aside her sweater, then lifted her T-shirt. The callused pads of his warrior fingers drifted over her ribs, creating sliding jolts of pleasure. He found the waistband of her jeans, unhooked the button, and unzipped. He slid his palm lower beneath the fabric and rubbed in circles, moving deeper with each pass, digging his fingers into her flesh. Her hips rose and fell in response.
He scraped her neck again. I tasted the blood on your finger. I want more. I need more. More of you. Will you give me what I desire?
She wanted to. Was this what he meant when he said the woman had to be willing? She was so absurdly willing.
Do you have me in thrall?
No, but I can put you there if you want.
No, she whispered through the rugged contours of his mind. I want everything just like this, awake and aware.
She arched her neck.
