She yanked at her wrists, freeing one which she quickly brought to his shoulder. Her nails clawed down his back. Cain growled, and it almost sounded as if he were purring. He smiled at her through the silvery darkness of the room. He gave her a challenging look and yanked her arm back down and trapped it again, exerting his strength in a way that made something long neglected snap deep inside of her.
Her sex gripped him in a flurry of pulses as she climaxed hard over the long, thick length of his cock. So stunned that she was actually having another orgasm and one from intercourse at that, she didn’t even consider why he was suddenly pulling out of her. Her sex tried to hold him deep inside of her, but Cain was in control. His hot seed spilled across her belly, marking her in a way that was so primitive she could only moan again.
Cain collapsed beside her, careful not to crush her with his weight. His breath panted against her shoulder, and her knees fell lifelessly to the sides. That was when it struck her. Condom. They had forgotten a condom.
Chapter 15
He was there. Close. Cybil sensed him in the darkness. Fear gripped her tight. Why? Why was he doing this? He was always there in her dreams, seemingly as blind as she was rendered mute with fear.
He should have known her, but he didn’t. She hated when he lost track of who she was. That was when he crept in on her, surrounding her. Too much!
Her hands, again not her own, sliced through the air as she frantically pleaded with him. No! I do not understand why you’re doing this. Stop.
The moment she signed the word, stop he did. He never touched her, only watched her with those seemingly unseeing eyes. There was a precarious thread on his control, and she sensed how dearly he fought not to lose himself to some greater power.
Why couldn’t he see her for who she was? He should recognize her. She knew he should.
Do you not know me? she signed with trembling fingers.
He stilled her hands, and her body shuddered. Never before had he touched her. She was on the brink of tears. She could see him when he kept his distance, but the moment he drew close to her, she lost sight of him. Nothing but blackness surrounded her, anchoring her there in this dark place with the gentle, but powerful hold of some phantom hand.
“Call my name, Cybil. Say it before it is too late, before I’ve gone too far.”
It was not her name on his lips that filled her with revulsion. It was the closeness of his warm breath upon her cheek that terrified her, excited her. She tried to tug her hands away to sign for him to go away, but his hold tightened.
“Say it. You know it. Let me hear you speak it. I cannot come to you until you speak my name. I know not what this world is to me. There is no call until it forms upon your lips. Say it. Call me to you, and when I hear your voice speak my name, our paths will be clear. Do not allow me to take another.”
Tears slowly trickled past her lashes. She couldn’t speak his name. He frightened her. He was a man, and she was a girl.
“I know nothing of you, except for here in these dreams. You’re young now, but one day you will be a woman. I’ve waited long. I will wait for you as long as it takes, but you must tell me, for I do not know. My days are restless as are my nights. The only peace I find is here in this dark place that’s our own. In the light of day, I only sense that something is missing. Something that was withheld from me and I need you to help me find my other half. Help me see you.
“I saw you, alone and frightened and I felt you in my soul, but my mind is too warped by the laws of men to understand what you are. They have set limits upon us to believe they know the way of God’s plan and we have, too long, believed what we were told. But you, Cybil, will someday call my name, and I will know there is more. We shall prove them all wrong.”
He released her hands, and she backed away. He was always beautiful, but when he was frightening she lost sight of his naturally attractive features. It would be some time before he allowed her to wake and leave this place. For what was a sanctuary for him was a prison for her. She didn’t like the dark.
Why can’t I see you? she signed.
“You will when you’re ready. Right now you’re too frightened to see me in such a light. You see me in one way and your mind won’t let you consider me as anything more than what your memory already knows.”
You scare me.
He sighed, and his banked rage made her wince. He knew he frightened her. Regretted it, but that didn’t take away the fear. He exerted great effort not to add to it. “It will ease with time. I will never hurt you, Cybil.”
There was such darkness surrounding him, but she couldn’t ignore the dim light that flickered somewhere deep inside. His days were cruel, constantly reminding him of all he did not have. She, too, could count more losses upon her fingers than gains. Life was cruel. Unfair and unseeing, punishment descended with unbiased determination on innocent, undeserving people as easily as criminals and men that were purely evil.
He was not purely evil. She saw the sins he tried to hide when he came to her in her dreams, saw them as shadowy secrets he didn’t want her to know. They were his badges of regrets, and they cloaked him in shame. She wouldn’t ask. Just as she knew she would someday speak his name, he would someday tell her his secrets. Her youth protected her from that ticking clock, but at the same time she resented having to wait.
I believe you, she signed into the darkness and sensed him relax. She sympathized with his situation. Although he seemed so confident on the outside, he was really quite broken and alone. She knew what it was to feel displaced.
“Shall I tell you the story?”
She nodded. She was never frightened when he told her tales. The cadence of his deep voice soothed her as much as repeating the familiar words somehow soothed him.
“There is one true mate for every male,” he began. “One other half to every soul. God has chosen this mate, and his choice is more powerful than the heart or mind of any man. It is our calling in this life, to fulfill God’s plan, and no other has the power to change one’s preordained destiny. It is kismet. Meant to be.
“The half of our soul that cries for the other knows she’s out there. What our eyes cannot see, our hearts know. My heart knows yours, Cybil, but my waking mind does not. My eyes do not see you as my mate because you’re still only a child. The day you say my name is the day clarity will come, and I will finally understand that my destiny has arrived. It will kill me to wait for you to come of age, but I will because only then can you be my salvation. I will know your soul is the other half I’ve been waiting for.”
Cybil liked the idea of having such purpose in life. Since her mother died, she had felt no peace. There were only small pockets of the world in which she could hide. Safe places to run. Playing with Dane was safe. Tending to the baby kittens with Gracie was safe. Cain was safe. Sometimes her dreams were safe. When he talked of God’s plan, she felt safe.
She hated when Cain left the farm. She hated when Dane was busy and he and Gracie bickered and left her out of conversations. Sometimes she felt so alone. Felt as if she were screaming for someone to notice her, to see her as something more than the sad orphan that nobody wanted to completely claim, but when she screamed no words came out and nobody saw her.
He would eventually claim her. He promised to wait, told her she would know when it was time, but also warned her that if she waited too long he would take another. She was his, and he should belong to only her, but it was still too soon.
All she needed to do was speak his name, and all would become clear. She yearned to say his name out loud, but it wasn’t time yet. She was unsure how she would know when the time was right, but he told her in their dreams that when that time came, she would know, and the moment his name crossed from her lips to his ears, she would save his soul.
Chapter 16
Cain awoke with a feeling of peace. He had a sense of accomplishment as if some sort of barrier had come down. He felt…hopeful.
Destiny made a snuffled, sleep
y sound and smiled. He turned and pulled her warm body closer to his. Her cheeks wore sheet prints, and her lips still appeared swollen from his kisses. He nibbled her soft shoulder and snuggled closer to her warm, plush curves.
He thought about the previous night. He hadn’t intended to sleep with her. He had only wanted to kiss her, but then she had been so surprised, almost shocked, but also so daring, that he found himself teasing her just to see how far he could push her outside of her comfort zone. Turned out Destiny Santos was a woman who liked being pushed and was more than capable of pushing back.
When he first scented her arousal, it was such a potent aphrodisiac he couldn’t help but strip her down to her undergarments. Unlike the dresses of the females on the farm, Destiny’s form-fitting clothing left little to the imagination about the body her attire concealed, and somehow Cain had still not been prepared to see her in all of her naked glory.
After the incident in the woods and his inability to read her, Cain acknowledged that he had been more than a little distracted in the cabin, but his surprise was not about his memory. There was something entirely different about seeing Destiny in a state of undress and then seeing her body writhing and begging for fulfillment. She was intoxicating.
Her skin was as smooth as satin and as creamy as the frothy topping on a banana cream pie. She tasted slightly of jasmine, so faint it was as if the scent were being carried on the tails of a breeze, but when he kissed her and licked at every swell and dip of her supple figure, he tasted the deep spice that was Destiny.
He loved the way her breasts spilled over his hands and filled his mouth. Her chocolate nipples were like twin peaks, once anointed by the heavens. And then there was the valley between her thighs. Never had he seen a female so exposed, so beautiful. She reminded him of some sort of dark angel, and he had worshipped her well.
His body stiffened at the memory of her taste and the softness of her hips under his palms, his fingers curling under her sides. So curvy, his hands itched to hold her again, to push himself deep within her heat. He wanted to bury himself between those warm, soft thighs.
Cain pulled her closer and pressed his length against the tenderness of her rear. His hand curled over the curve of her hip and glided upward until he found her supple breasts. The nipple was soft and flat. He gently played with her sleeping flesh. Her slow-waking welcome matched his memory of how she had responded to his touch the previous evening.
At first he told himself to be gentle. He always took care not to rut too roughly with his mortal lovers. However, the moment he had relaxed his touch, he sensed Destiny’s arousal wane. That sweet spice that had filled the air and called to him had dwindled, and he wanted it back.
It took him a moment to figure out what had caused the sudden change within her. Had he gone too far? Done something to spook her?
Recalling the previous night and how she had bloomed under his command, he quietly followed suit. “Open for me, Destiny.”
It wasn’t until he gave her a stern command the night before that he scented her arousal come flooding back. He tested other commands and soon discovered the more dominating he was with her, the more aroused she became.
He fit his way between her plush thighs. Her heat scalded his length and he dragged himself over her folds, drawing her arousal and slicking her opening.
Cain had always been an extremely domineering male. He practiced restraint with every lover he had ever known, and sometimes still was told he was being too rough or his intensity was simply too much.
Cain liked to be in control, needed to call the shots. If his female companions couldn’t cope with that dynamic, then they would call themselves friends and that would be all. There was a certain quality he required of all his intimate partners. Some understood, some didn’t, but Destiny, she not only understood the kind of lover he enjoyed, she seemed to crave the kind of lover he was.
If someone would have told him this mouthy, independent, stubborn little reporter was really submissive beneath all that bark and bite, he would have never believed it. He doubted anyone had ever really known this side of her as intimately as he had last night, yet it had been such a natural response he found it curious that she tried to hide it. Once he broke through her barriers, she had become so frantic, so under his command, she was practically begging for him to take her. She had begged, and he loved it.
Destiny Santos could be a dangerous woman. She did things to him he wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with, things he couldn’t deal with. Yet, remembering those big brown eyes looking up at him, glazed with lust, the way she obediently awaited his command and elicited every bit of discipline she possessed in order to surrender, in order to please him. It was a heady, powerful feeling. It was intoxicating, holding that sort of command over a woman, yet not having to exert force. She didn’t require any display of his authority. Somehow she simply accepted that he was the natural alpha of the two.
He would never take more than a female was willing to offer. He had never needed to. Cain had plenty of women interested in keeping him company, yet there was something so incredibly different about Destiny.
They fit. He was dominant, and she was submissive. She was only here for a short visit, but he wanted to milk her stay for all it was worth. And why shouldn’t he? He had spent the last several months trying to do right by those around him, and all he had done was alienate himself even more.
Adam was furious with him. Annalise was upset. Gracie was disappointed. Even Larissa, who had always been one of his closest peers, no longer had time for him. He had no mate, was no soldier, and in all truth, felt his tie to his Amish order fading with every dawn.
Being Amish was a devout commitment founded in faith and family. His family no longer needed him. When Gracie eventually married, he would be the only one left. And where was God when he needed Him? He certainly hadn’t done Cain any favors when selecting his mate. Anna would never belong to anyone other than Adam.
Cain decided then and there he deserved far more than the lot he had been given. He wanted to play with Destiny, and so long as she didn’t object, he decided to do just that. What was the harm in having a little fun while she and her brother were visiting the farm? It wasn’t as if sleeping with her could endanger Anna or the baby or would take time away from his other obligations. Aside from some overlooked chores, Cain really had no pressing obligations.
He was supposed to be hunting a rogue vampyre at that moment, but that had backfired. He smiled the first genuine smile he had displayed in a long time. He would much rather be passing his hours between a gorgeous woman’s thighs than out in the cold woods chasing his hairy uncle. Let the others have their band of brothers and true called mates. Cain was going to start making his own destiny, the destiny he had been denied, and he was going to start right now.
He sat up on his knees and pulled the sheet slowly off of Destiny’s body. Although her eyes were still closed, she was awake. Her fingers gripped the sheet, and her body tensed. He chuckled. “Do not deny me, Destiny.”
She opened one eye and frowned at him. “What time is it?”
“A little past dawn.”
“It’s too bright in here.”
“Ah, all the better to see you, my dear.” She laughed nervously. He tugged the sheet again, but she wouldn’t let go. “Are we shy this morning?”
“I need to shower. Where are my clothes?”
“Oh, no,” he said and grinned. “I have no intentions of letting you out of this bed for at least another hour or four.”
“Cain—”
“Destiny,” he mocked. “Stop playing shy and let me see you.”
She whined.
“What is this aversion you have to daylight? You’re much more amicable once the sun goes down.”
“What can I say, black is my color.”
He frowned. “Enough playing. I want to see you.”
“No,” she said with the hint of a smirk that belied her faked conviction.
He r
aised an eyebrow. Enough playing. “Destiny,” he said sternly. “Place your hands at the headboard, and do not let go until I give you permission.”
Her lip trembled as if she wanted to object, but she said nothing. Cain gathered her reaction wasn’t actually due to her desire to object as much as it was about her conscience telling her it was improper to surrender willingly.
Her cheeks turned a shade darker and her pupils dilated, changing the warm caramel pools of her irises to onyx. This was an entirely different kind of compulsion. This was obedience by choice, surrender because she somehow knew he would take care of her needs.
Could she actually trust him when she really knew nothing about him? He wondered if she was this trusting with other men, but found the thought of her with someone else immediately repugnant and pushed it away.
Slowly her arms rose to the headboard. Cain leaned forward and closed his hand over hers, anchoring each one to a thick wooden spindle. “Don’t move.”
Her chest lifted, and he heard the increase in her heart rate. Ever so slowly he pulled away the white sheet. Her nipples pebbled, and her breath was coming faster. Her blush spread down her cheeks, over her shoulders and across her chest. What was she embarrassed about? He looked at her face once she lay before him in nothing but the pink of her blush. Her eyes were screwed tightly shut, and her brow creased with tension.
“Destiny, open your eyes.” She did as he instructed, but wouldn’t make eye contact with him. “Look at me.” Her eyes slowly opened wider and there was an emotion there he couldn’t name. It was a certain show of vulnerability he had never witnessed from her before. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I don’t like being naked.”
“Oh, I disagree. I think last night you enjoyed it very much.”
“It was dark.”
“And?”
She clamped her lips shut tight then suddenly expelled a frustrated breath and quickly mumbled, “I’m not skinny.”