Enlightened (Love and Light Series) (24 page)

“What do you want, Wolf?” she whispered.

“You.”

She waited for him to make some kind of move: to kiss her, to caress his hands over her, something. When he didn’t, she couldn’t tell if that annoyed her or made her want him more. For some awful reason, her father popped into her head. After Calla died, he barely spoke to Loti, and then one day, he didn’t come home from work. She leaned her forehead against Wolf’s, needing to touch him, to shake the disturbing train of thought. At the shift in her thoughts, he stroked her hand. His fingers wandered up her arm and over her shoulder until his hand cupped her slender neck. She sighed and searched his eyes.

“I’m not a toy,” she said.

“I didn’t think you were.” He looked perplexed as his hand dropped to the bed; his hair still tied back in the loose ponytail, a few stray strands around his face.

Loti wanted, beyond reason, to smooth the furrow from his brow. Uncertain and needing to do something, she tucked a strand of his hair behind an ear, but that didn’t satisfy at all. Giving in to the need, she ran a thumb across his forehead, wiping away his uncertainty. He ran his fingers down her arm and brought her hand to his mouth. He pressed his lips to her palm. She inhaled. Wolf turned her hand over and kissed the soft back of it. Cold shivers. He turned it over, kissed the inside of her wrist. Hot prickles. She licked her lips, wanting to tell him something.

“I’m listening,” Wolf murmured into her wrist.

She knew he could hear her heart beat and smell the hormones surging through her blood. Hell,
she
smelled the reek. He knew the focus of her thoughts, but she chickened out. “I don’t know how to do this.”

Wolf kissed the inside of her arm up to her elbow. The quiver in her stomach slid into her pelvis and thighs as he licked the soft spot on the inside of her elbow.

“I do.” He blew softly.

Against her will, Loti moaned. Wolf turned to the inside of her upper arm, where the skin was so soft and the scent of her so strong. As he brushed his cheek over her shoulder, he felt the flutter of her breath. He licked the place under her ear, and when she gasped, he clutched her close, burying his head in her neck.

 Her lips parted—
David
—and she held very still.

“Loti,” Wolf whispered into her neck as the unbidden tears slid down, collecting on her chin.

She squeezed her eyes tight, pressing her cheek into Wolf’s as he kissed the same sensitive place under her ear again and again. He licked the tears as they dripped down her neck
.

 If I let myself feel this now, I’ll never come back.

“Yes, you will.”

At his murmur, a sob escaped. The tears ran hotter as her body trembled. Wolf held on, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, letting him kiss her, touch her wherever he wanted
.

Oh, David.
She gritted her teeth.
Go away.

“What do you see?” His voice soothed like his hands, with a gentle want and craving.

 “David. The way he looked—” She choked on the words. “The day he died.” Loti convulsed as the pain erupted like a geyser, Wolf’s eyes popping open. Jolting away from her like he’d been zapped with a cattle prod, his hands gripped her shoulders. His face contorted as the thought passed through her mind,
He’ll get up now and walk away
. Something fierce and primal twisted his features. He smashed his mouth over hers. Claiming the back of her head with one hand, his other arm crushed her against him as the cold grief and the hot lust churned between them. Wolf’s hungry mouth ran over her. Through salty tears and with swollen lips she sought his mouth and lost herself in the glide of hands. Her chest and belly melded to his and her flanneled thigh slid over the smooth skin of his hip.

“It’s like I’m trying to absorb you through my skin,” she whispered.

He growled low in his chest as he switched their position. Loti found herself lying on her back looking up into Wolf’s glittering eyes.

“You’re mine,” he growled, and she heard exactly what he said and felt exactly what he meant. He covered her mouth with his—his kiss gentle and hard. His tongue explored her, and she surrendered to it, to his beautiful hands, to the piercing sadness as he rolled her t-shirt up over her bare breasts. He yanked it over her head and tossed it aside. Sitting up, he held her wrists above her head as his eyes and free hand grazed her bare skin. Goose bumps bloomed wherever he touched. Tears flowed as his hands slid down her arms, his fingers tracing the dip of her waist and sliding the flannel bottoms off. He ran his hands over the tops of her shaking thighs and up until his palms cupped her full breasts. His thumbs swirled over hard nipples. The pleasure was so sharp, it stung. It had been so miserably long since she’d been touched like this, and every cell thrummed because it was Wolf.

“You are so beautiful,” he murmured.

She slid the elastic band from his hair, and it swung heavily around his shoulders. She ran her fingers through it as his hand slid over her quivering stomach and lower. Her fingers traced the contour of a bicep, palms smoothed out his bunched chest. He watched her hands wander mindlessly down, and she jumped as he found her wet and swollen. Wolf lowered his head to her breast and raked fangs around a hard nipple. A flush warmed her neck and burned her cheeks as his fingers stroked and filled her. She arched her back as his tongue trailed over her taut skin, his mouth enveloping a nipple. Her body rolled against his.

Wolf bit hard and deep, and she whimpered as he sucked both nipple and blood. Her release rolled through her, contracting and pulsing down her thighs as Wolf fed—even her bones throbbed with peaceful undulations. Saturated in endorphins, Loti’s focus drifted to his feeding as she stroked the back of his head. He groaned, releasing her and licking the wounds. He slid up her body and spread her thighs with one knee. She gasped as her body opened to him.

“Look at me, Loti.”

She opened bleary eyes to a pulsing light show and his irises melted away. Their eyes locked as he moved slowly inside her. Her body thrummed and pulsed with their love making and all the pent-up grief. Panting, Wolf buried his face in her neck, and pressing her cheek to him, she whispered, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

He bit.

“Wolf,” she exhaled, closing her eyes and drowning in the sensation of him suckling her neck. He moved faster, harder, and she cried out his name as he brought her with him. He yelled something disjointed then whispered, “Loti.”

His weight gradually slumped onto her as their bodies yielded and softened. She didn’t mind. She felt safe, protected. He licked the bite wounds on her neck rhythmically, and Loti opened eyes to a night sky. Stars twinkled. A streak flashed across the scene, and Loti sucked in a breath.

“What is it?” Wolf ‘s voice was sleepy and relaxed.

“A shooting star.” Loti stroked his back. “How? What happened to the ceiling?”

“Magic.” His lips brushed her ear. “Rachel did it. She cast a spell that mirrors the sky.”

“When was Rachel here?”

“That night . . . the night we met. We had just gotten back when you showed up.”

“You brought her here to do this?”

 “To work on the protection wards. She did this as a gift.”

She snaked her arms around his back, hugging him tight. Little aftershocks rippled through them as they lay under the open sky for long minutes without talking. “What will that do to me?”

Wolf shifted his weight off of her, to her disappointment. “You’ll feel a little weak, but it won’t hurt you—I didn’t take that much.” He paused. “You’ll want to be around me more.”

“I still have a choice?” She snorted.

“Yes, you do.” He rolled to his side, propping the pillow under his neck. Pulling the blankets over them, Loti rolled to face him, but shot straight up instead.

“Oh my god, Wolf. Your aura!”

Wolf’s aura was a huge pulsating cloud of color—an animated rainbow flowing red from his legs and groin to the spinning crown of white above his head.

She looked down at her aura. It was brighter and bigger, but the oddest thing, the thing that scared her, was the heart chakra. The green vortex spun out to Wolf and swirled
in
him.

“Stand up.” She jumped up yanking him to his feet beside her on the bed, steadying herself with a hand on his arm as she looked them both up and down. “They’re mixing, Wolf. Our energies are mixing.”

“That explains a lot.” His voice was distracted as he mirrored her movements, although he couldn’t see what Loti was seeing—not exactly. “Why didn’t you see this before?” he said more to himself than to her. He could sense what was going on in her head—actually, now that he focused on it he could hear it.
I don’t think this was happening before,
she thought.

I can hear your thoughts.

Loti’s head snapped up.
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue,
she experimented.

“Red, orange, yellow, green, blue,” Wolf said out loud, just a hair behind the thought. “My turn.” He leaped off the bed. “Close your eyes.”

 She did, but something wrenched in her chest, and she suspected the cause. “What are you doing?” she yelped.

“Try to see what I’m seeing,” his voice drifted from the living room.

“Oh. I can see the fireplace and the glowing coals under the ash.” She jumped off the bed, running to the living room to see what he was seeing and to stop the sharp tug. She peered into the fireplace seeing black, banked coals because she didn’t have his vampire eyes.

“Okay, now you. Close your eyes.” Careful not to go too far too fast, Loti edged up to the breakfast bar and turned back to study the translucent taffy that stretched between them.

“I see it. That’s what you’ve been seeing? How the hell do you look at that all day?” He opened his eyes, beautiful with awe, and walked toward her.

 “I don’t know. It sort of blends into everything, but it wasn’t anything like this yesterday. This is intense.”

A sudden cold sweat broke out all over her, her knees going limp. She grabbed the counter. Nauseous, she fought against the narrowing tunnel of light as her chest fluttered, and she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Wolf hurried around the counter and opened the fridge. Suddenly, she was in his arms and being carried, something cold and damp against her back.

“Hey, what’s that?” she protested.

He carried her back to the bedroom, lowering her to the bed and handing her a carton of coconut water. “You need to drink this. I shouldn’t have fed on you.” He ran an agitated hand through his hair. “You’re still weak from exposure.” He flipped on the reading lamp on her side of the bed.

“No, Wolf, it’s okay. Don’t say that. It makes me feel like you regret it.”

He huffed out his nose, rubbing his face with a hand. “That’s not what I meant.” Climbing into bed, he jerked the covers up around them, dropping his head back to the pillow.

 She kept wary eyes on him as she took a slug from the cartoon. It tasted damn good.

 From his back, he watched her chug the cold sweetness and lick her lips. Looking around for somewhere to put the carton, she noticed that the bed was a king and there were two plain night stands beside it. Across the room on the opposite wall was a simple wooden chair and desk with full bookshelves on either side. It took her a moment to figure out what was wrong with the wall; it was curved rock. She turned her head to follow its contour around the room.

Her insecurity forgotten, she asked, “What is this room? It’s not like the living area.” Her eyes still on the stone wall and starry sky ceiling, she reached behind her to set the carton down on the night stand, almost dropping it on the floor.

“When we dug down, we found a cave. We incorporated it into the design.” He shuffled the blue pillows so he could lie on his side.

“Neat.” She turned her eyes back to Wolf, her anxiety returning. “Anything like this ever happen when you feed on others?” Loti rolled onto her side and tucked her arms under her head.

“Nothing like this.” Wolf’s voice was subdued as he watched her face flick through emotions.