Quivering, she allowed herself to drown in the exquisite sensations. Over and over his tongue dipped into her gathering dampness, stroking with a steady rhythm that was custom designed for maximum pleasure.
Oh, he was fantastic.
A top of the line, first-class lover that made all the years of waiting worthwhile.
Then, gently he sucked the hidden nub into his mouth and Kata screamed as the entire world shattered in a burst of shimmering stars.
Caught off guard by the sheer force of her release, Kata was barely aware of Uriel sliding up her body and entering her in one smooth thrust. But as he captured her lips in a demanding kiss, she instinctively wrapped her arms about his shoulders and arched her back to meet the plundering strokes of his erection.
“Perfect,” he husked against her lips, his entire body trembling as he jerkily surged in and out of her body. “You’re perfect.”
Kata barely registered his soft words, lost in the mind-numbing pleasure that was once again building in her lower body. With every thrust he pressed deeper into her body, his fullness creating a delectable friction.
“Yes, Uriel . . . yes . . .” She urged him to a faster pace, raking her nails down his back as he drove into her with a single minded purpose.
“Mine,” he rasped as he scraped his fangs down the line of her throat. “My sweet Kata.”
With one last surge he tumbled them both over the edge of reason, remaining buried deep inside her as her scream of fulfillment echoed through the glade.
Chapter 7
Uriel smiled as Kata’s cries became soft moans of completion, his body still trembling from the pleasure of her wild passion.
Bloody hell.
He expected the explosion of bliss. He’d never experienced a woman with such a savage desire. And with Kata’s eager response to his touch, the resulting earth-rocking, mind-blowing, the-best-orgasm-ever had been inevitable.
But what he hadn’t expected was the primitive surge of possession that had settled in the center of his heart.
Mine.
The word had whispered over and over in his mind, settling deep in his soul.
Feeling Kata stir beneath him, he reluctantly rolled to the side, tightly tucking her against him. He growled at the satin slide of her naked skin and the beat of her heart that echoed in his own.
He hadn’t shared her blood, but already she was an intimate part of him.
A smile curved his lips as Kata tilted back her head, a shell-shocked expression on her beautiful face.
“That was . . .”
“Only the beginning,” he promised, his hand cupping her full breast.
The dark eyes flashed with ready fire. “Hey, don’t be making plans that include me, vampire.”
He chuckled, his finger circling the dusky nipple into a hard peak.
“Then don’t be making promises you don’t intend to keep.”
She moaned, her back arching and her hands running up the bare planes of his chest. But even as he shivered with a raw jolt of anticipation, she gave a startled gasp pulling back to study his chest with a frown.
“Oh, Uriel,” she breathed.
“What?”
Her fingers tenderly stroked the scar that marred his skin. “You’ve been injured.”
With a hiss Uriel was on his feet, his hand instinctively covering the wound.
Christ, he’d forgotten.
Lost in the stunning power of his awareness of Kata, his mind had refused to remember that this was an impossible dream.
No.
It was worse than impossible, he fiercely reminded himself.
It was dangerous.
She studied his tight expression with a frown, slowly sitting upright.
“Uriel?”
“It was a long time ago,” he muttered.
Her eyes narrowed. “Then why are you still angry?” Angry?
He wanted to fall to his knees and howl at the bleak desolation that filled his heart.
It was one thing to know he was denied the promise of a mate when she was a mythical creature that might or might not make an appearance in his life. It was another to be given a glimpse of paradise only to have it snatched away.
“Because it’s a reminder that my future is no longer my own,” he said in stark tones.
Cautiously she rose to her feet, her hand reaching toward his chest.
“You sound like Yannah.”
“Don’t,” he growled, jerking away.
“Tell me what happened.”
He hesitated, before giving a faint shrug. He admired her courage too much to lie.
“I had a rather nasty encounter with a Jinn beneath the docks of London,” he grimly confessed.
She paled, her hand trembling as she pushed back the heavy tumble of her dark curls.
“A Jinn?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two centuries ago, give or take.”
Her expression was impossible to read, although she was too intelligent not to realize the significance of the date.
“You battled?”
He made a sound of disgust. Even after two centuries it still rankled he’d made such a pansy-ass showing against the Jinn.
Hell, a dew fairy could have done more damage.
“You could call it that,” he groused. “As much as I hate to admit it, there wasn’t much of a fight. I barely sensed the Jinn’s approach before he’d killed my brother and captured me.”
“And he did this to you when you tried to escape?” she husked.
Uriel’s bitter laugh echoed through the nearby trees. “No, he allowed me to leave. This was his curse.”
“A curse?” She looked genuinely confused. No big surprise. Uriel was still trying to puzzle out what the hell had happened. “Are you certain?”
He rubbed the scar that had throbbed with a low intensity ache since his escape from the London docks, belatedly realizing that the throb had become more pronounced since his unexpected journey into the underworld.
A coincidence?
It had to be.
He couldn’t allow himself to consider anything else.
If he went postal and hurt Kata . . .
Yeah, he so wasn’t going to go there.
Not even in his darkest ‘what ifs’.
“Painfully certain,” he said, his voice clipped.
“What did he do?”
“The bastard made me his slave.”
Dropping his bomb of shame, Uriel abruptly turned to dive into the water of the stream. The cool, crystal clear water washed over his skin, although it couldn’t wash away the helpless fury that pulsed through him.
Surfacing, he shook the hair out of his eyes and turned to find Kata standing at the edge of the stream, her dark eyes troubled.
She was so beautiful that she made his heart ache.
The dark curls wildly tumbled around her lovely face. The ivory satin skin. The lush curves.
An intoxicating, earthy woman that called to a man’s most primitive desires.
“What did he do to you?” she softly asked.
He clenched his teeth against the savage longing that clutched at him.
He had to keep her safe.
Nothing else mattered.
“He said that I was to be the instrument of his revenge,” Uriel repeated the words he’d shared with Victor almost two weeks ago.
She averted her face, wading into the water until it lapped over the full curve of her breasts.
“You think this Jinn is the father of Laylah?”
He couldn’t deny her accusation. “Since there’s only been one Jinn sighting in London for the past millennium it seems like a safe assumption.”
“And that’s why you treated me like I carried the plague.”
He flinched at her harsh accusation, not wanting to remember his arrogant disdain.
“I’ve done everything in my power to rescue you.”
She refused to look at him. “You think
I’m a Jinn whore.” Even knowing it was a truly stupid idea, Uriel couldn’t stop himself from moving through the water to stand directly before her. Gently he grabbed her shoulders, battling back his surge of lust.
“I know that Marika held you against your will.”
She turned her head, her eyes snapping with her ready temper.
Kata would never be a soothing female. She was passionate, turbulent, and unpredictable.
She was also intensely loyal, courageous, and the very essence of female temptation, he acknowledged with a bleak sense of loss.
“And yet you suspect I might actually have enjoyed being trapped with the handsome demon?” she accused him.
He wouldn’t lie. Not to this woman.
“At first.”
“And now?”
“Now it doesn’t matter,” he said with simple honesty.
She once again turned away, studying the trees that lined the far bank as if she had a sudden fascination with the tiny violets that were hidden among the moss.
“Right.”
“Kata. Look at me,” he said softly.
“No.”
“Please.”
Grudgingly she snapped her gaze back to glare at him. “Satisfied?”
“No. I’m . . .” Words failed him.
“What?”
“Furious,” he at last managed to rasp.
She jerked as if she’d been slapped. “I didn’t ask you to soil your vampire hands with my tainted . . .”
“Shut up and listen to me,” he interrupted her.
The very air vibrated the force of her anger. “You’re an idiot if you think I won’t hurt you just because we had sex.”
“We didn’t have sex, we made love.” He cupped her face in his hands, shuddering at the erotic sensation of the water stroking over their nude bodies. He moved close enough that the tips of her breasts brushed his chest. “Or do I need to remind you?”
Her breath caught, the scent of her swift arousal perfuming the air.
“Uriel,” she growled in warning. “Don’t.”
His lips twisted, but he refused to release his grasp on her face. He wouldn’t let her believe he thought she was anything but glorious.
“Kata, what happened between you and the Jinn . . .”
She poked a finger into the center of his chest, her expression stubborn.
“I won’t discuss it.”
“Fair enough,” he swiftly agreed. “Someday you will trust me enough to share your past, but for now you can keep your secrets.”
“Big of you.”
He ignored her sarcasm. “All I care about is the Jinn’s curse. And what he might force me to do.”
Her anger faltered at his blunt confession. With a frown, she lowered her gaze to his scar.
“The demon is dead.” Impossible to know what she felt about the creature’s violent demise. “How do you know that his curse didn’t die with him?”
“Because I can still feel his power.”
“That doesn’t mean the spell remains active.”
“It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” He held her gaze, his expression somber. “Not with you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re mine.”
Something flared to life deep in her eyes.
Something hot and wild and shockingly primal.
Then, with an obvious surge of panic, she was swiftly trying to disguise her instinctive response.
“So you’ve said, but then you remembered I’m the mother of a Jinn half-breed,” she accused him, her voice brittle.
He shook his head. “No, then I remembered that I couldn’t risk my mate just because I desire you beyond all reason.”
Chapter 8
As show-stoppers went, this one was a doozie.
She was supposed to be angry with him.
Who the hell did he think he was judging her for what had happened two centuries ago?
Did he think that she’d asked to be kidnapped and held captive by her nutcracker of a sister? Or that she’d wanted to be involved in the evil scheme to create a Jinn half-breed for the sole purpose of returning the Dark Lord to the world?
It was bad enough that a part of her would always feel guilty that the Jinn had made certain their time together hadn’t been rape. Did Uriel have to dredge up the memories she wanted to keep buried far in the back of her mind?
Now, however, she was . . .
Hell, she didn’t know what she was.
Flabbergasted? Gobsmacked?
Full on monty, had-to-be-losing-her-mind excited?
With a shiver, she studied the unearthly beauty of his face, wondering if this was some sort of painful joke.
“Mate?” she croaked.
His lips twisted in a humorless smile. “Does the thought horrify you because I’m a vampire?”
“I’m not horrified,” she swiftly denied. “I’m shocked.”
“Why?”
“Why?” She snorted. “Do you want a list?”
His velvet gaze skimmed down to the thrust of her breasts, lingering on the nipples that hardened beneath the feral heat of his inspection.
“The top three should be sufficient,” he said, his voice thick.
She yanked away from his lingering touch.
How was she supposed to think of anything besides wrapping herself around him and doing lovely, wicked things when he was so close?
“We barely know each other,” she finally managed to choke out.
He shrugged. “A vampire often recognizes his mate within the first hours of their meeting.”
Her pulse stuttered, a perilous warmth exploding in the center of her heart.
Mate.
Oh . . . shit.
It was madness. Complete and utter madness.
So why wasn’t she shrieking in outrage instead of feeling like she’d just drunk an entire keg of her father’s ale?
She gave a dismissive toss of her head, even knowing she wasn’t fooling Uriel.
“Well gypsies prefer a long courtship that includes a lot of bling.”
“Some perhaps.” He reached to brazenly cup one breast in his hand, a smile curving his lips as she gasped in pleasure. “Others enjoy being swept off their feet.”
She shivered, heat blazing through her. “Arrogant.”
His eyes smoldered with a ready passion. “Lie to yourself if you want, but you can’t hide the truth from a vampire.”
She couldn’t lie to herself either as it turned out. Not when sensual anticipation flowed through her veins like warm honey. Or when she was instinctively moving back toward him to press against the welcomed strength of his male form.
Not that she was ready to accept his shocking claim that she was his mate.
Was she?
“Fine, we’re sexually compatible,” she conceded.
“More than compatible,” he growled, his erection pressed against her lower stomach. “Combustible.”
Combustible. Yeah. That just about summed it up, Kata acknowledged, vividly aware of the silken slide of the cool water across her highly sensitized skin and the golden spill of sunlight that only intensified the heat blazing through her.
She craved this man with an insatiable hunger that she sensed would plague her for the rest of her life.
Regardless of how long or short that life might be.
“What about the fact that you hate anything and everyone connected with Jinns and I hate vampires?”
His arm circled her waist, squeezing her so tight not even the water could come between their entwined bodies.
“They say love conquers all,” he growled.
Kata wrinkled her nose, not nearly so confident.
She loved her sister only to discover that she’d become the enemy.
She loved her daughter, only to have to sacrifice everything to keep her safe.
Love was . . . dangerous and painful and messy.
Now, however, didn’t seem the time to argue the point
.
“I’m human again,” she instead pointed out. “Within a few years I’ll be old and gray.”
The dark eyes flashed with an intimidating ferocity. “Never.”
She frowned. “I won’t be turned.”
He shrugged, undeterred by her refusal to be made into a vampire. Understandable. Once a vampire was created they lost all memory of their previous life. She would no longer be Kata, but a new creature that was as likely to try and rip out his throat as to be his mate.
“The fey can brew potions to keep you young.”
She shifted her gaze to the delicate wildflowers that lined the bank of the stream.
His soft words were reminding her of when she’d been young and the world had been filled with possibilities. Including the hopes of a loving husband and a small tribe of children.
Blessed mother. She’d gone through the misery of having those dreams crushed once.
Was she willing to put herself in the position of having them destroyed again?
“This is a ridiculous conversation,” she muttered, more in an effort to convince herself than him.
Uriel stiffened, then with a low groan he lowered his head, pressing his lips to the pulse beating at the base of her throat.
“More than that,” he rasped, “it’s futile.”
“Futile?”
Slowly he pulled back, his expression somber. “If the Jinn’s curse is still active then I’m a walking time bomb. I won’t put you at risk.”
Contrarily, she was offended by his attempt at self-sacrifice.
Did he think he could claim she was his mate in one breath and then toss her aside in the next?
“Shouldn’t that be my decision?”
“No.”
“That’s it? Just no?”
“That’s it.”
She scowled, glimpsing the ruthless warrior who first came searching for her.
“Look, you stubborn vampire, if I decide you’re going to be my . . .” She struggled to form the word. “Mate, then that’s what you’ll be.” She leaned forward to nip his chin. “Got it?”
He shuddered, his fangs erupting as his hands skimmed down her back to cup her ass.
“And you call me stubborn?” he muttered.