He looked like he would question her more about this, but then he let it drop. "Why didn't you tell me you'd begun to feel something for me? I've been flying fairly blind here."
"I wasn't certain about it. And how would I know that I should? I've never been in a relationship, and it's not as if I see declarations of feeling everyday in Tornin." Her arms twined around his head. "I've been flying fairly blind here."
"There's still much you aren't telling me."
"Yes. But I'm trusting you more than I have anyone except for Lanthe. Can't we take this in steps?" His
scent was making her melt, and she felt herself easing closer to him. "Maybe it could be enough for you to know that I didn't want to leave before, and that I won't want to in the future?" she asked, their lips now inches apart.
He rasped, "Do you want me to make love to you?" "Right now, I want that more than anything." The last covenant remained.
41
The demon clutched her in his arms, hastening toward their room. He bounded up the stairs two at a time, breathing hard against her neck.
Inside, he dropped her on the bed, stripping the shirt from her. She'd thought this would be a frantic joining, but again, he eased the pace.
"Need to slow down." He leaned down to kiss her, grasping her nape in that possessive way. "I want to savor this."
His lips slanted over hers, and he slipped his tongue in her mouth, but not to flick it against her own. He thrust it wickedly, deepening the kiss into a thorough taking.
He means to claim me, all of me.
Once he broke the kiss, she found herself lying back on the bed under the firm press of his hands. Those obsidian eyes roamed over every curve as if he was making love to her for the first time.
Already, she was trembling, needing her demon's touch.
He finally reached down to graze his callused palms over her hips, her belly, her br**sts. He unhurriedly explored every nuance of her flesh, rasping to her, "So
fair."
When he rolled her ni**les between his fingers, pinching, then soothing them, illusions of flames smoldered all around them. "Rydstrom," she breathed. "I need you."
With a nod, he stripped off his jeans, then lay beside her. "Have to make you ready for me." His muscles were tense, his eyes black, but his appearance was somehow different than before. Not as mindless. His eyes were burning with intent.
Her demon looked very focused on what he was
after.
Once he guided her legs apart, she let them fall wide in blatant invitation. He teased her flesh with seeking fingers, caressing her so sensuously. Then he worked one inside her. She moaned as he withdrew his finger and returned with two.
Bliss welling up, strengthening.
He cupped her sex, pressing the heel of his palm against her clitoris, stirring those fingers so deep within her. "Demon, please!"
"Come for your male." He gave a thrust of his fingers to punctuate his words.
Need mounted, building . . . building . . . until it peaked and finally shattered.
Her fires soared as she came, her blue eyes reflecting the light. Her flesh was hot and wet in his hold, her sheath
gripping his fingers hungrily, making his c**k ache to replace them.
But he had to take this slow. He had to make this into something she couldn't live without. The look he'd just seen in her eyes said he could.
Once he'd wrung every last shudder from her, he knelt between her thighs, then fisted his c**k to run the crown up and down her plump folds. He placed the swollen head against her entrance, but stopped there. "Relax, cwena. I will go slow."
She nodded up at him.
Leaning over her, he rested his elbows beside her head. With every ounce of will he possessed he made himself inch into her tightness, holding her gaze as he entered her. Her breath hitched in, but she never looked away.
He went awash in feeling as he seated himself deep inside his woman. "Did I hurt you?"
She shook her head. "No, Rydstrom, no."
He let her get used to him, holding himself still, sweating from the effort it took not to thrust into her lush little body. He had to make this last, but already his seed was climbing for her.
"It's different this time, so perfect...."
Once she began to rock her hips, he rasped, "Give you more?"
"I'm ready ... I need more."
He rose up on straightened arms. Sweat dripped from his forehead, splatting hard onto her br**sts. She arched her back in delight.
He couldn't help stirring himself in her, savoring all her wetness around him. She moaned when he withdrew, then cried out as he drove inside for the first time.
The pressure . . . her tight heat.
"Deep inside you." He tilted his hips up, plunging home. "So hot!"
"Rydstrom ... yes!" She was already close again. He could feel her body quivering beneath him, her thighs tightening and relaxing around his hips.
Another exquisite thrust made him shudder violently over her. When he withdrew, her flesh squeezed his c**k like it'd never let him go.
Once more, he drove inside, needing to bury himself to the hilt. He ground against her, wanting in deeper, needing to possess her completely... .
When Rydstrom had first entered her, she'd tensed. So big, the fit too tight. Yet there was no pain this time- only pleasure.
Now he laid his body over hers, pressing every inch of his skin that he could against hers. He guided her arms over her head, covering them with his own as he threaded his fingers through hers.
His chest was slick and rubbed over her aching ni**les. When he slowly rocked into her like this, she was bombarded with sensation, shivering with wonder at what he was doing to her.
Another rapturous thrust, more of his rumbling words in her ear, "Couldn't please me more. ..."
Like this, the friction against her sex was delicious,
every movement of his hips intensifying it. She arched beneath him, gasping, "I need you, Rydstrom."
His fingers tightened around hers. "Say it again."
"I need you."
He lifted his head, his dark gaze rapt on her neck. "Then take my claim."
Ah, gods, he was going to mark her. She knew it was coming, and still her body strained toward the orgasm he was building with each measured thrust.
With his arms capturing hers over her head, he kissed her neck, his tongue flicking over her skin, lulling her. "Waited so long . . ." In a flash, he bit her, his upper and lower fangs piercing her flesh.
Her body fell limp beneath his, powerless to do more than come for him and accept his hot seed as he marked her.