Dark Storm (42 page)

Dax had created a bedroom. The chamber was warm and inviting. The sound of water dropping into a deep blue steaming pool only added to the ambience.

“This is where I live,” he whispered. He wanted her to love the night the way he did. She had gotten inside of him, wrapped herself around his heart. Her smile lit his world. Turned his body hard and filled him with such love, such emotion, that he felt shaken, vulnerable even, when he never had.

One woman. It amazed him that he could feel such intense emotion after feeling barely anything for centuries. She just had a way about her that took every sane thought from his head and replaced them with … her. He found he was uncomfortable when others were close, because the wealth of emotion for her was nearly impossible to hide. It made him feel … exposed.

He looked down into her earth-colored eyes. Her lashes were long and feathery, half concealing the heat of desire looking back at him. “You’re so tempting,” he said. Her lips were full and curved and made for kissing.

She moved in his arms, her silky skin rubbing over his, sending little electrical charges arcing between them. “I’m hoping you’re tempted,” she admitted.

He set her feet on the smooth floor he’d created for her, walking her backward until the backs of her legs hit the platform placed in the center of the chamber. She sank down, sitting on the edge of the hard surface. The action placed her exactly at the height he’d intended. Her head was just a little below him, just enough.

Dax widened his stance, stepping close to her, his hands going to the back of her head, guiding her forward. There was never hesitation in Riley. She cupped the weight of his balls in her palms, rolling and kneading before sucking gently. The breath left his body in a rush as her tongue traced a path up from his sac, along his thick, swollen shaft to the underside of the flared head.

He reached down and tugged at the binding around her long hair, releasing it so that black silk cascaded like a waterfall down around her. The contrast between her soft glowing skin and her blue-black hair was beautiful to him. Her lashes rose, and for one moment their eyes met. Watching him, she opened her mouth and took him in. Fire burned down his shaft. She tightened her mouth and sucked hard for a moment or two and then danced her tongue over him.

Riley had fantasized about loving Dax with her mouth. Tasting him this way. Her skin felt hot and sensitized. Her breasts ached and swelled, nipples twin taut peaks—for him. Every breath she took, every swipe of her tongue, made her crazier for him. The flower ceremony had shown her how addicting he could be and tasting him only made her crave him more.

She could taste his hunger, barely held at bay—for her. His shaft pulsed and throbbed, filling her mouth, stretching it in the same way he stretched her feminine sheath. He was hotter than a volcano. Her tongue curled around him again and again, lashed and danced and then her mouth sucked wildly, drawing the spicy nectar out of him.

The sounds he made, low and feral, only added to the wild need rising in her like a dark storm. She was desperate for him, desperate to feel him inside her mouth, her mind, her body. She wanted his mouth on her, feeding from her veins, taking the very essence of her life. She wanted to be his substance, his air, his everything.

His hips jerked. His hands did the same, tugging at her scalp. A low, dark moan escaped his throat. A growl rumbled deep in his chest. His breath sounded ragged and harsh. Riley lifted her lashes again, to watch his face as she pulled slowly off of him, licked around the flared head and then gradually, tightly swallowed him again. The flames in his eyes had gone red-hot, nearly consuming his entire eye surface in a haze of lust.

“O köd bels
,”
he uttered between clenched teeth. His voice was harsh. Demanding.
Darkness take it.

She laughed softly around the mouthful of a very hot spike. More like humming than a laugh, the vibration moving through him as she slid her mouth tightly up and down, his hands rough in her hair.
Is that a Carpathian curse? Are you cursing at me?

There was such power in bringing him to the edge of control. Joy burst through her. She loved having him at her mercy. He was driving her just as crazy, her body so aroused she could feel the wet evidence of her desire on her thighs.
Fill me.
She whispered the urgent need into his mind.
I need you inside of me. Hard. Fast. Rough. I want to be yours.

You are mine.
He made it a declaration as he thrust deep one last time, feeling the heat of her silken mouth wrap him in glory. Using the fist bunched in her hair, he jerked her head back, forcing her to break the exquisite, tight suction.

He didn’t wait. Couldn’t wait, as desperate for her as she was for him. He pushed her back on the platform, so that she sprawled out, panting, her breasts rising and falling with her agitated breathing. She brought up her knees, planting her feet a good distance apart, lifting her hips in invitation.

“Hurry, Dax. Hurry.”

He dropped over top of her, slamming his cock deep so that she screamed, arching her back and pressing harder into him. He thrust hard and fast, burying himself deep while her hot sheath suckled and gripped, the friction building their release fast. Too fast. He wanted this to last forever, but already he could feel her tightening, clamping down on him, the hot wash of her body, and the strong waves rippling through her, taking him with her. He surged forward again and again, slamming deep as her body locked down on his, squeezing and milking, demanding his hot release. His hoarse shout joined hers, and he collapsed over her, fighting for breath.

He wrapped his arms around her and rolled, taking her weight, loving how she sprawled over him like melted lava. “I think I left a little gold dust in your hair.”

Her laughter was muffled. She didn’t lift her head. “Everyone will think I have body glitter on. Those scales of yours are beautiful, but they do leave evidence behind.” She yawned lazily. “It might come in handy if you ever decide to stray.”

“Carpathians don’t stray,” he said, and bit her earlobe. He rubbed her enticing butt. “Sit up, we need to talk. We’re racing the sun.”

She yawned again. “I see how you are. Get what you can from a woman and then insist on
talking
.” She rolled off of him reluctantly and watched him rise in his fluid, easy way.

“I want to talk to you about what will happen when I convert you,” he said. “It’s important for you to know. I looked into Gary’s mind to find answers to why you, a human, would be my lifemate. In my time, there was no such thing. No one ever conceived of such a thing. The few times anyone tried to save the life of a human by converting them, it was disastrous.”

Riley sat up slowly, pushing her hands through her cascading hair. The action lifted her breasts and made him hungry for her all over again. “That might be pertinent. What kind of disaster happened?”

He leaned forward and brushed a kiss over the sweet slope of her creamy breast. “I think you’re going to have to put clothes on if we’re going to discuss this. I have to go to ground and that means I have to put you safely in Gary and Jubal’s care, so we don’t have much time left.” Before she could protest, and he was a weak man when it came to her desires, he covered up temptation with a wave of his hand.

“If you converted me, we would have plenty of time.” She moved like a siren, in spite of her clothing, her hot gaze drifting over him.

“You are a very wicked woman,” he decreed, catching her wandering hand. He needed clothes as well, a good distance from her if he was going to have a chance to resist her. “You need this information.”

She made a little moue with her lips, those lips he always found irresistible. She definitely had an unfair advantage over him. If she pouted, or cried, he’d be lost.

“All right. I’ll behave,” she conceded with the smallest of teasing smiles. “Bring on your worst. But I won’t change my mind.”

He hoped not. He’d told her once started, there was no going back, and she was well on her way to being in his world. He couldn’t reverse the process.

The smile faded from her face. “I’m listening Dax. I can see this is upsetting to you.” She sat up straight and folded her hands in her lap. “Get on with it. I’m listening. What kind of disaster?”

Dax felt tension gathering in the pit of his stomach. “The men and women they tried to save over the last few centuries apparently became deranged and had to be terminated. It wasn’t until the prince discovered his woman could be turned because she had psychic gifts that our species became aware a few human women might save us.”

There.
He’d said it. He’d told her the horrible truth he’d found in Gary’s memories. There was more, but he needed to see her face. Feel her reaction. Check that he wasn’t showing how, for the first time he could remember, fear held him in its deadly grip.

She nodded her head. “I see. As in deranged, you mean like those people in the village? Mindless? Intent on murder?”

He nodded. “Drinking blood much like a vampire. Sometimes turning cannibal.”

She reached for her hair, bringing it over her shoulder, beginning to weave it into a long, thick braid. It was something to do with her hands, he knew. She hadn’t blinked, but her hands were trembling.

“Okay then. Is that it? Because you haven’t settled down.”

“It’s painful.” He nearly blurted out the information when he didn’t blurt. Ever. She was turning him inside out with the stoic look on her face. “
Very
painful.” Just to clarify. And adhere strictly to the truth. “It’s like dying, convulsions, I can show you the memories if you wish.” He made the offer reluctantly.

She studied his face in silence. He worked at being completely expressionless, not wanting to persuade her one way or the other with his aversion to revealing the actual images.

Riley threw her braid back over her shoulder and stood up. “I don’t want to see. I’m not stupid. I knew in order to cross into your world, I’d have to leave mine. Your body is very different from mine. I knew from the beginning that a change wouldn’t be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is.” Her eyes met his. “Believe me, Dax, you’re worthwhile.”

She stood up and crossed to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. “Women have babies knowing it could hurt, but that a small few moments are nothing compared to the joy they’ll receive when they have their child in their arms. Whatever I have to do, I’ll do.” There was absolute resolve in her voice and in her eyes.

Her face blurred for a moment, forcing him to blink rapidly.

“When you deem it safe, I’m ready. I want you to just finish, and while you’re doing it, remember the kind of woman you tied yourself to. I take responsibility for my own choices. I don’t do what other people tell me to. I like information shared with me, and I want respect and a partnership.” She lifted her chin. “I would never be silly enough to argue with you over safety, or even health, which I’ve observed are your two big issues, but I like to make my own decisions.”

He gripped her upper arms. “Is that a warning?” His heart felt as if it had swelled so large it was too big for his chest.

“Take it any way you like. I know you’re afraid I haven’t really looked at the real you. I have. You tend to be a very dominant man, and that’s okay with me, it really is. But I’m just as afraid that you haven’t taken a good look at who
I
really am. I make my own decisions and I’ve never done well with someone telling me what to do.”

He read the small hint of fear quite easily and it turned his heart over. Heat skittered through his belly and settled low. He pulled her tight against him. “I’ll cherish you forever, Riley.”

She had made up her mind, but she still feared her decision. It was a huge one, and her life would be changed forever. If he abandoned her …

“It is impossible for me to abandon you,” he assured softly. “I’m taking you back to Jubal and Gary, but I’ll be sleeping just beneath you. Reach for me if you have need and I’ll wake.” He kissed her thoroughly, wanting to remove every doubt from her mind. He knew it was impossible, but he would keep trying until she was just as certain of him as a Carpathian lifemate would be.

She wrapped her arms around his neck when he lifted her into his arms. “I hate to leave this place. You made our time together beautiful for me. Thank you.”

“I want you to remember that I love you, Riley. You. The person you are. This is going to get uglier, and you’ll need to hold on to any good moments we can find,” he warned.

He took her through the hallway back out into the early morning light. The sun, obscured by the haze overhead created by the ash, still hurt his eyes. The light on his skin burned, but the scales moving beneath the surface protected his body, allowing him the freedom to take to the sky. He took in the early morning, breathing in the rain and scent of the forest.

Movement was constant in the canopy below. The sounds were far different as the birds called to one another. Monkeys scolded and added to the chaotic movement. The forest was waking up just as he was going to sleep. He could see it would be difficult for Jubal and Gary to sleep during the day and his respect for them grew. They were going out of their way to protect what was his.