Obsession Untamed (32 page)

Goddess, but he loved her.

Finally, he pulled back to look down into her face. “You’re really not put off by all this?”

Her eyes shone with love, her mouth forming the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. His chest tightened until he thought it would burst.

She cupped his man’s face as she had his tiger’s. “Put offis about as far from what I’m feeling as you can get.” Her thumb moved to trace his lip. He nipped her lightly with his human teeth, stroking her thumb with his tongue.

Then he kissed her again with all the tangled emotion trapped in his heart. Her words had soaked deep inside him, healing wounds he’d lived with for hundreds of years, shattering walls and defenses he hadn’t even realized he’d built against a pain he didn’t think he’d survive twice. A pain he finally understood and perhaps, at last, could relinquish.

In what might just turn out to be the last hours of his life.

With an aching heart, he pulled back from the kiss and stared into Delaney’s precious face, into eyes he could drown in. Then he swept her into his arms and strode with her through the gym, out into the hall, and into the ritual room.

Delaney’s eyes widened. “What are we doing?”

“What I should have done the first time.”

Deep inside him, the tiger gave a savage roar.

Chapter Twenty-seven

“You’re not going to try to marry me, are you?” Delaney hooked one arm around Tighe’s neck, holding tight to her towel with the other, as he carried her into the dark ritual room. With his elbow he flipped a switch and lit the pair of electric sconces that filled the room with a golden glow.

She didn’t want this, did she? He wasn’t thinking clearly.

“Tighe.”

“Hush, D.” He carried her to the wide, cushioned altar that stood on the far side of the room and deposited her in the middle.

“I don’t think this is a good idea.” She grabbed hold as he pushed the altar, with her on top, into the middle of the room.

Tighe yanked off his towel and tossed it aside as he strode to a small shelf on the wall and grabbed something. A lighter, she realized as he squatted and lit one of the ceremonial fires that had burned during their mating ceremony.

“Can we at least discuss this?”

“No.”

With a huff of frustration, she climbed off the altar, pulled her towel tight, and followed him to the second fire.

“Tighe, you have nothing to gain from this and too much to lose.”

He lit the fire, then moved to the third. “Take off your towel, D.”

“Are you even listening to me? If they get the clone, you’ll be bound to me when you know I can’t stay.”

He rose from lighting the third fire and turned to her, taking hold of her shoulders. His eyes were the golden orange of the tiger, yet within those golden depths swam a sea of emotion and a will of steel.

He squeezed her shoulders gently. “You asked me to bare myself to you, to show you my eyes and open my past as one last gift to you. Now I’m asking for one last giftfrom you. Don’t fight me on this, D. It’s too important to me.”

“But why? What difference does it make?”

Releasing her, he lit the fourth and fifth fires before answering.

“The difference is, if I’d bound myself to you in the first place, I would have heard your cries in my head when he first captured you. I would have
been able to find you immediately. You wouldn’t have had to endure…”

Turning away, he lit the sixth and final fire, then turned off the sconces. Firelight danced on the walls, once more transforming the room into a cave of old and filling the room with whispers of magic.

Tighe ushered her back to the altar and tugged at her towel until she let go of it, then pulled it from her body. She grabbed hold of his shoulders as his hands spanned her waist, and he lifted her back onto the altar.

Stepping back, he began to chant the same odd sounds Kougar had during the mating ceremony. Three times, Tighe circled her, his powerful, naked body glowing in the firelight with strength and life, his armband gleaming.

Her gaze reveled in his raw, male beauty even as her heart clenched with the knowledge that he could be gone in a matter of hours. He could be dead. How would she live in a world without him? Any world?

Finally, he returned to her and came to stand before her. Taking her hands in his, he raised them to his mouth, one after the other, and kissed her knuckles.

“You asked why this is important to me.” His eyes throbbed with emotion. “Because I love you, D.”

Bittersweet happiness twisted through her misery. “Tighe.”

He lifted his hand and caressed her head. “I love you. It’s not going to hurt me to bind myself to
you. Because I’m bound, whether through ritual or the emotion in my heart, I’m yours. Always. No matter how long that is.”

The tears started down her cheeks. “Tighe, I love you, too.”

His expression tightened into something close to pain. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her, the kiss shattering in its anguished tenderness.

The saltiness of her tears mixed with the sweet wildness of his taste as she kissed him back, running her fingers along the back of his neck and into his hair, holding on. Holding on.

Tighe pulled away. “Lie down, brown eyes.” Their gazes met, and for one awful instant, she saw the clone in his eyes. Her heart stuttered.

“What is it, D? You’re scared.”

“It’s…I felt like he was here. Like he was watching me.”

“He can’t reach you here, sweetheart.” But he swung away and went to retrieve a knife from the shelf where he’d found the lighter. With a quick swipe, he slit open his palm. Bright red blood ran down his hand.

Delaney held out her hand, ready to do the same. Or at least, the human version of it.

Tighe shook his head as he grabbed one of the towels and wiped the blood off his hand. “I would know the moment I looked in your eyes, D. I know you’re not him.”

Delaney frowned. “I should have known. I shouldn’t have had that moment of doubt either.”

His hands slid into her hair. “There’s a difference, brown eyes. I look like him. Plus the fact, he terrorized you. It would be surprising if you didn’t have moments like that.” Stepping between her thighs, he pulled her against him and gently stroked her head. “Now, lie down.”

As he stepped back, she did as he asked, positioning herself in the middle of the platform. Tighe pulled himself up from the end. She spread her legs, and he knelt between them. But the memory of the last time she was naked in front of a man stabbed at her, and she froze.

Tighe shook his head, his expression unhappy. “He’s not here, D. Don’t let him be here. Not now.”

“I can’t help it. I can’t forget.”

“I know, sweetheart. Maybe this is too soon.” He sighed and moved as if to leave.

She reached for him. “Tighe, wait. I need you to help me forget. Touch me. With your warmth. With your love. Touch me everywhere and erase his cold touch. Please?”

A small smile flashed shallow dimples. “There’s nothing I want more, brown eyes. Nothing.” He grasped her ankles gently with his warm, strong hands, touching. Caressing. Slowly, he worked his way up her calves and her thighs, his touch warm and tender and so very different from that other touch. His hands slid over her hips, skimming her abdomen to tenderly cover her breasts. “Like this?”

She smiled for him. “Yes. Exactly like this.”

He caressed her breasts, softly kneading and plucking until her breathing became slowly ragged. One hand left her breast to travel between her thighs.

But at the first stroke, she flinched. “I’m sorry.”

“D. Look at me. Look into my eyes. He never looked at you with eyes like mine.”

She stared into his golden tiger eyes and felt only warmth. Only love.

His warm fingers moved back to caress her inner thigh, sliding higher, one millimeter at a time, pulling her back to that place of heat and need.

“I’m going to touch you, sweetheart. I’m going to slide my finger into your honey. It’s going to feel good, as it always does when I touch you. Because I love you.”

His finger stroked her lightly, then pressed, warm and gentle, into her, so different from that last cold invasion.

She shuddered with revulsion at the memory, even as she lifted her hips, embracing the touch of the man she loved. He probed her slowly, with infinite gentleness, then quicker as she heated, as her body opened and wept for him. Over and over he slid his finger in and out until heat coursed through her, until desire raged through her veins, until she was rocking her hips, gasping with need.

Finally, he withdrew his finger and came to her, bracing himself on his arms, yet not entering her. Not yet.

His gaze held hers. He didn’t have to tell her this time to watch him. His eyes were so tender, so
full of love, she couldn’t have looked away if she’d wanted to.

“I love you, Delaney Randall. I bind myself to you, heart and soul.” As he began to chant, he slid deep inside her, stretching her, filling her, then out again, in rhythm with the ancient sounds coming from his throat. Her heart took up the beat until it pounded through her, lifting her in passion and excitement as if she were part of something beyond the body, beyond the earth, far beyond anything any human had ever known.

As he entered her over and over, she felt the warmth of a hundred angel wings brushing her mind. And saw the tiger lift his head to the skies with a roar of keen satisfaction.

A flicker of a smile lit Tighe’s mouth as if he, too, felt the tiger watching. His eyes bored into her, holding her. Claiming her as he drove into her, driving her higher and higher, faster and faster, until the ritual pounded through her blood like ancient drums, lifting her, launching her…

As she stared into those beloved tiger eyes, she screamed with the roaring rush of pleasure, then gasped as Tighe’s love rushed into her, embracing her like a tender warmth riding the wings of her soul, filling her with a fullness, a rightness, acompleteness so perfect that chills raced over her skin and tears ran from her eyes.

She’d thought binding would enslave her. Instead, for the first time in her life, she felt whole.

Tighe watched her with moisture in his own eyes. He kissed her, and the sweetness, the passion, ex
ploded inside her a hundred times more brilliant than before as if she’d been living life in two dimensions, two black-and-white dimensions, and through this ritual, he’d lifted her into a stunning new existence.

She felt transformed. Reborn.

Tighe lifted his face and stared into her eyes with infinite tenderness. Infinite sadness.

And the beauty of the moment shattered in bittersweet shards of truth.

Tighe was dying.

And even if, by some miracle, he survived, they had no future together. They both knew it. She saw the knowledge in the sadness in his eyes.

He gathered her into his arms, and they held one another, clinging to a dream that couldn’t last.

“You bound yourself to me,” Delaney murmured, finally, against his collarbone.

With slow, lazy brushes of his warm palm, Tighe stroked her body. “I did.”

“How? There was no blood.”

“The previous ritual paired us. Opening myself to you, in this place, was the only thing left to do.” His lips brushed her temple. “It was the most profound thing I’ve ever done, brown eyes. The most perfect.”

“I never dreamed it would be like that. That itcould be like that.”

He brushed back her hair. “You’re okay?”

She shivered as his question brought back thoughts of the clone. “Yes. But, I swear, for a moment there I felt like he was watching me. For an awful moment, I felt like he was inside you, looking out.”

Tighe stiffened. She felt the energy going through him like a lightning bolt.

“D, that’s it! We see through his eyes, right? What if he’s seeing through mine?”

Delaney froze. “Do you meanvisions ? Like he’s seeing us?Me ?”

“Why not?”

“Now?”

“I don’t know. We see him when he feeds. I have a hard time believing he’s seeing me when I eat. Don’t get me wrong, I like to eat, but there’s nothing powerful about it for me.”

“He said he loved me. And, Tighe, he knew my name. Just before he grabbed my head, he said my name.”

“He’s getting the visions when I’m with you.”

“Withme?” Delaney croaked. “As in…?”

Tighe squeezed her shoulder. “Think, D. Maybe this is why he stopped feeding on people directly and moved back to fires.”

She gasped. “Of course. He realized we were getting visions of him when he killed. We were going to be able to trap him if he kept it up.”

His hand clenched her shoulder harder. “I know when it happened. It was while we were driving around after the Lincoln Memorial murders. He was killing the babies. I stopped at the light and looked down at you and told you what he was doing. And where he was. He stopped midstep.He heard me .”

“But you weren’t doing anything more profound than driving.”

“Wrong, sweetheart. I was looking into your eyes. And there’s nothing more profound to me.”