Dark Peril (51 page)

He couldn’t think or breathe with the mind-numbing pleasure, yet he was still hard and aching, needing more, needing the solace of her body. His hands in her hair tugged insistently until she moved up and over him. He caught her hips and guided her until she straddled him. Already he could feel the scorching heat of her feminine channel as, with infinite slowness, she began to impale herself on his thick, pulsing length.

The breath hissed out of his already burning lungs. She was so tight, grasping him, clamping down as she slowly opened for him and allowed his invasion. He loved the feel of all that hot silk gripping so tightly. When she tightened her muscles around him and he slid through those hot folds, the friction was incredible along his shaft.

Dominic watched her face, the dazed wonder in her eyes, the expression of shock as her desire built. Her full breasts swayed gently, and a flush spread over her body as her hips rose and fell with a steady, slow rhythm. He flexed his fingers on her hips, gripped and thrust up as she came down, all the while gazing at her face. Her breath caught as pleasure crashed through her. Her eyes went wide, almost completely cat. He watched her register the myriad of sensations as his thick, diamond-hard cock pushed through her tight, silken folds.

Dominic.
She breathed his name in a kind of awed wonder.

The look in her glowing eyes, the absolute adulation, the glittering excitement building, her need urgent and unashamed, made his heart clench. Love washed over him.

He lifted her again, hands urging her to a little faster pace. She did a small spiral with her hips on her downward path that took his breath away. Her muscles gripped, biting down so that pleasure ripped through him. She made a small, inarticulate sound, throwing her head back as he thrust deep, driving upward as she came down. The broad mushroom head, filled with nerve endings, bumped her womb, lodged tight, scalding him with heat. Locking them together, he rolled her under him, blanketing her body with his own. The action sent fire racing up into his belly and down his thighs.

Solange closed her eyes, allowing the fire to wash over her. She’d never felt so sensuous or beautiful in her life.
He
had done that. Dominic. He had made her aware of how wonderful it was to be a woman. He showed her how giving could be just as perfect as receiving. He showed her love.

He leaned over her, looking into her eyes, his expression making her pulse race. His eyes were turquoise, hot, intense, burning into her with such hungry desire and unashamed adoration that she wanted to give him everything.

Deep inside her, she felt his hard, thick shaft stretching her, filling her, sending sensation after sensation rippling through her body. He set a hard, fast rhythm that left her gasping, the friction intensifying with each deep stroke. She tightened her muscles around him, attempting to match his fierce rhythm. The streaks of fire threatened to engulf her, consume her, burn her clean until there was nothing left of her.

This
was Dominic, driving her into a frenzy of need and passion, taking her so far past what she ever thought possible, her body belonging to him, claiming his for her own. She let the haze take her, let her mind just go, flying into subspace as the building inferno began to engulf her. She writhed under him, her hips bucking, meeting his hips in frenzied need. Her orgasm washed through her like a tidal wave, building higher and higher, stronger and stronger, until she heard his hoarse shout. His hands gripped her tight as he surged into her one more time, driving her up so high the explosion was fast and hard, ripping through her, taking her breath, so that her muscles clamped down like a vise, taking him soaring with her. She fell over the top with him, struggling for breath.

They lay for some time, just breathing hard. Solange kept her hand tangled in his long hair. When she could find it in her to move, she brushed kisses along his jaw. “I think you wore me out.”

He kissed her forehead. “I think it was the other way around.”

She looked up at him, wanting him to see that she meant what she said. “I want us to complete the ritual, Dominic. I want to come wholly into your world.”

Dominic drew in his breath. This was the moment. He locked gazes with her, brushing back stray strands of her hair. “You have to be certain
, kessake
. Once this is done, there is no way to undo it.” Very tenderly he kissed her mouth, noting she was beginning to tremble. The enormity of her decision was sinking in. “I will love you with all my heart and soul just as we are. You do
not
have to do this for me.”

Solange took a breath, let it out and smiled up at him. She trailed the pads of her fingers over the lines etched into his face. “There is no one I would rather be with, in this life or the next. I have thought about this and I feel the rightness of it.”

“It may be incredibly painful. I can help you through the pain if it comes to that, but I have heard it is a terrible thing to go through.” He knew he was the one hesitating, not her, and yet he longed for this.

Her cat’s eyes stared straight into his. “I’m not afraid, Dominic, and no matter what happens, I will have no regrets.”

“Even if I cannot guarantee your jaguar?”

Her tongue touched her lips. “She will survive.”

Joy surged through him. Dominic trailed fire from her lips to the swell of her breast. His teeth tugged gently at her nipple and his tongue lapped before he suckled strongly. She gasped and arched into him. He kissed his way to the pulse beating at the creamy swell, licked once, twice, and then sank his teeth deep. She cried out, her body going soft and pliant. She tangled her hands in his hair, cradling his head while he drank, her body shuddering through a second orgasm.

She tasted like heaven. Like Solange—his lifemate. The woman he loved above all else. Spice burst over his tongue. Every cell in his body reacted, soaking up the honeyed nectar, filling him with energy. His body responded with urgent need, wanting to claim her, to join with her and be one. He slid his tongue over the pinpricks and lifted his head.

“You are absolutely certain, Solange?”

Her eyes were glazed, her lips swollen from his kisses. She smiled up at him and touched his face with gentle fingers. “More certain than I’ve ever been about anything.”

She had come so far, trusting him to do this. His heart swelled, nearly bursting with his love for her. It was such a precious gift—her trust. Her desire to please him. That she could take such a risk, that she
would
take such a risk for him, was humbling.

Dominic drew a line across his chest and cradled her head.
Come into my world, my own,
he invited.
Drink.

Solange didn’t hesitate. She wanted this. All reservations were gone. She had never truly belonged anywhere, and now she had found a home in Dominic. Her lashes drifted down and she snuggled deeper into his arms, her tongue sliding over the seam of the wound in tentative exploration. She felt Dominic’s entire body clench and shudder with pleasure, and rejoiced that she could give that to him. She was acutely aware of his shaft once more growing hard and stretching and filling her.

She felt along her teeth with her tongue, a little surprised to feel two had lengthened. Already the need was on her, a terrible craving she couldn’t resist even had she wanted to. Dominic—her own. She sank her teeth deep. He cried out hoarsely, and her body clamped down hard on his. His essence flowed into her. Hot. Powerful. Rich. She felt the connection between them, the sharing of mind and body, the very blood flowing in their veins.

Her body moved against his, soft, made for him, fitting perfectly to him. His hips thrust deep and the now-familiar fire took her. He took command so easily, his hips surging into hers, penetrating deep, dragging over inflamed nerve endings over and over. Each stroke was more powerful than the last, pushing her higher until she hovered right on the edge of great precipice.

Dominic shared her mind, stole her heart and completed her soul. With the taste of him filling her, his breath moving in and out of her lungs, she lifted her hips to meet his, tightening every muscle around his hardened length, dragging another explosive release from him as her own took her high.

She swept her tongue over the laceration and watched it close, a little awed by what she had done. The taste of him was in her mouth and she leaned in to kiss him, to share with him the very life force he had shared with her.

“I love you, Solange,” Dominic said.

She settled into his arms, knowing he was far more nervous about what was to come than she was. “It’s going to be all right,” she murmured, a little sleepily. “Making love is tiring business.”

“Your body is changing
, kessake ku toro sívamak—
beloved little wildcat. As soon as I know it is safe, I will put you to sleep in the ground so Mother Earth can do the rest.”

“You will have to watch over our kitten and feed him,” she said drowsily. “And make certain you play with him. He’s just a cub and he needs lots of attention.”

Dominic nuzzled the top of her head. Every muscle was bunched tight in anticipation of seeing her writhing in pain. “I will, Solange. Have no worries.”

“Check my cat now. Make certain she’s all right.”

He took a breath, allowed his spirit the freedom to leave his physical self behind to enter her body. Her organs were reshaping at a fast rate, both hers and the jaguar’s. She should have already been in pain, but somehow her blood was still intact and seemed to heal the organs as fast as his blood changed them.

He returned to his body. “Your jaguar is not paying any attention to what is happening.”

She turned up her face to his. “I knew she’d be fine. I’m tired, Dominic. I’m going to sleep now.”

Her lashes drifted down and she was out, trusting him to look after her and the cub. Heart pounding, mouth dry, he held her for hours, just waiting for the pain to start. She simply slept. Her jaguar slept. He kept vigil through the night and finally, when he was certain he could do so, he put her in the earth with him and closed the soil over their heads.

Dominic allowed Solange to sleep for three risings. He checked her carefully, ensuring she was healing properly. He played with the kitten, making certain it had enough food, but each rising, he awakened earlier and earlier just to see if he would feel the warning that the sun was out. He didn’t. Mostly he worried about Solange. He found, as silly as it was, that he missed her. He was used to sharing her mind, watching for her laughter, and enjoying just being with her. The world seemed far less bright without her beside him.

On the third rising he chose to wake her before the sun went down. He wanted to see the effect it had on her. He woke her gently and, cradling her against his chest, floated her out of the earth to her bath. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him.

“I want to check my cat,” she protested as he placed her in the hot water.

“Bath first,” he said firmly. Her care had to come first.

She smirked and shifted right there in the water. Solange. His miracle. Her cat chuffed her disgust and shook her head, those green eyes gleaming with mischief. His warning radar went off, but he was too entranced with the laughter building in the jaguar’s eyes. She gathered herself, her muscles rippling beneath the tawny fur, and sprang, hitting him in the chest and knocking him over. He tried to catch her, but she took him down to the ground, standing on him, her tongue rasping over his face.

He caught her muzzle in his hands and looked into her laughing eyes. “I knew you were going to be trouble from the first moment I laid eyes on you.”

She shifted in his arms, kissing him. “No, you didn’t. You thought I was going to be docile and sweet.” She jumped up. “Come on, I want to fly on my own.”

Dominic caught her arm, restraining her. “The sun is up. We need to be a little cautious.”

She ran her hand down her arm, frowning. “I don’t feel any different, Dominic. Shouldn’t I? I slept beneath the earth. I am fully Carpathian, aren’t I?”

He swept his arm around her, cleaning the water from both of them as he did so. “We are both Carpathian,
kessake
, but we are also something more.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I. Your blood is unique and remains intact. I think, somehow, although you are fully Carpathian, we both retain all the properties of your blood.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“Because of Brodrick?”

She nodded.

“Your blood also comes from your mother.”

Her cat’s eyes blinked once and a slow smile curved her mouth. “I should have known you’d say the right thing, Dominic. Thank you.”

He took her hand, waving his other one to cover her body in her jeans and tee, her warrior armor. They made their way up toward the surface of the cave, maneuvering through the narrow tunnel. As they reached the entrance, light spilled in, dappled from the surrounding trees shading the area. He remembered emerging from a cave not so long ago, the sun burning his skin in spite of the cover, burning through the feathers of the harpy eagle. Now there was no reaction whatsoever. It had been centuries since he walked in the sun.