Savage Possession (Temple of Luna #1) (8 page)

Her legs came up, tangled around his hips so
she could grind up to meet his next rock. “With everything.”

She was his. He’d claimed
her before, but this was different. This was her accepting his
claim, accepting
him
. Taking him in.

He braced his hands on the earth on either
side of her head and raised his body so he could look at her. Her
disheveled blond hair was pale in the silvered light of the moon,
her brown eyes were wide and needy and her lips swollen from his
kisses. “You’re beautiful, Avani.”

“
I’m yours, Rais.” Her
hands still rested above her head, and she twined her fingers
together and tilted her chin up. “I’m at your mercy. Body and
heart.”

“
You were frightened
before.” It had been something more than his lack of grand words or
gestures. “Why?”

“
Because you could break my
heart so easily.” Her eyes fluttered shut as her voice dropped to a
whisper. “I loved you as a girl. And I don’t think it would take
much to love you as a woman. I’m half way there, and I didn’t want
to get too far ahead of you.”

He bit her chin lightly. “I would have
caught up.”

Her hips nudged up against his, and the soft
noise that escaped her had an impatient edge this time. “You’re not
moving very fast right now.”

“
Want me to?” Rais pulled
back and thrust into her once, hard and fast.

She jerked under him and cried out. Color
rose in her cheeks, and her eyes looked wild. “More. Again.”

Even that single thrust had taken him closer
to the edge, so he shook his head. “Not yet.”

She snarled and bit him, and he drove into
her again as his control wavered. Slow suddenly seemed unnecessary,
and he lifted his hands to cover hers. “You want more?”

“
Oh yes.” Her body embraced
him as eagerly as her magic, her cunt hot and clenching tight. “I
want
everything
.”

“
Then say it.” He froze
with his next thrust, his cock deep inside her. “Say you’ll be my
mate.”

She panted against his cheek. “Yours. Yours,
if you’ll take me.”

He teased his tongue over her lips, relief
making him weak. “I already have.” Then he let go with a growl and
rode her with hard, quick thrusts. By the third surge forward she
was wild beneath him, making frantic, needy noises. Her teeth
closed on his lower lip, hard and desperate, and she moaned into
his mouth.

He growled back and snapped his teeth close
to her lips. “Mine now, little one. Always.”

She made a choked noise of satisfaction and
came. She tightened around him, gripping his cock, and Rais buried
himself in her one more time as release overtook him as well,
sending him tumbling after her with a shout.

It took forever for her to speak, her voice
a hoarse whisper. “Mine.”

“
Yours.” He managed to roll
to his back before crushing her, and she nestled against his chest.
“Want to tell everyone, or make them wait a while?”

She laughed and nuzzled her nose against his
skin. “Make them wait. And hope you get stable video at the front.
If you don’t, I’ll write you old-fashioned letters.”

“
I’ll have the techs work
it out.” He nibbled at her ear. “I can’t go too long without seeing
you.”

“
Better not have the techs
in the room when you call me. I have every intention of being
scandalously naked.” Her voice dropped to a dirty whisper. “I find
myself enchanted by the thought of letting you tell me how to touch
myself.”

The thought was ridiculously hot. He smacked
her ass and grinned. “No more sex until we get back to my
bedroom.”

“
Why not?”

He ran his hand down her back, cherishing
the softness of her skin. “Because you’re too delicate for this, no
matter what you say. And this is no way for a king to treat his
queen.”

She shivered. “Queen. I don’t know if I’ll
be a good one. I never really thought about it, even when I thought
about you.”

“
Shh.” He held her tighter.
“You were raised to lead, Avani. Even if you hadn’t been, you’re
kind, gentle. Perfect.”

“
I’m stubborn, irreverent
and a little bit spoiled,” she countered in a sleepy voice. “And
speaking of how I was raised, you might want to reconsider this,
you know. You’re going to have to speak to my uncle.”

Dhaval would have his head if he suspected
the sorts of things Rais had been doing to Avani already. “I’ll
handle your uncle. Trust me.”

“
I do,” she whispered, the
words gentle and accepting. The tender moment shattered a second
later when she lifted her head and glared down at him. “But if you
ever imply I’m too weak for a romp in the woods again I’ll plant my
knee between your legs and see how delicate
you
feel.”

Rais laughed and tangled his hands in her
hair. “Delicate doesn’t equal weak.”

“
I’m from a family of
warriors. I wasn’t raised to be delicate either.”

“
Point taken, little one.”
He shifted her weight and sat up. “Now, were we rejoining the
celebration, or running back to my rooms?”

She laughed and rose to her feet, standing
naked and unashamed in the moonlight. “Only one way to find out.”
Two steps back and magic rose around her. With the moon high
overhead the change flowed over her until the small pale wolf stood
in front of him. She lifted her head and howled, the sound full of
joyful challenge.

Then she turned and launched herself into
the trees.

The same joy swelled inside him, and he
followed her. He always would.

Epilogue

Avani paused in the doorway and watched Rais
pace the expensive carpet in front of the receiving room’s massive
fireplace. Old-fashioned to be sure, but in the past weeks she’d
discovered that many in the royal family embraced traditions most
of their people had long since abandoned.

Rais looked striking in his formal robes,
rich fabric cut to show off the strength in his hard body.
Traditional or not, they were still a country at war. Strength and
virility were the virtues desired in a leader, and today Rais
embodied them both.

He reached the edge of the room and turned
sharply, and Avani smiled as his gaze fell on her. “I escaped your
mother’s maids. You’d better not tell me they’re likely to hover
over me all the time, because I can bathe and dress on my own.”

His gaze softened and grew warm. “You look
beautiful, as always.” He held out his hand.

She slipped her fingers into his hand and
tried not to feel nervous. Three months of courtship might have
eased her worries about the dangers to her heart, but she had
accepted Rais as a man and a king.

Today he would be king in fact as well as
name. And Avani would be his queen.

She clutched at his hand and pretended she
couldn’t hear the murmur of voices from the other side of the wide
doors, where people waited for the official coronation. “I notice
you didn’t promise me freedom from meddlesome maids.”

“
You’ll never make it into
some of your clothes unassisted,” he murmured, his eyes sparkling
with mischief. “It will cause a scandal, but I’ll dismiss them and
bathe and dress you myself if you like.”

A memory drifted up of the previous night,
of joining Rais in his oversized tub and how quickly an innocent
bath had turned into an experiment in how many times he could make
her come. Her cheeks felt warm as she laughed. “I do enjoy sharing
your bath.”

“
Then consider it done, my
queen.” He stopped just shy of the wide, ornate doors and rubbed
his thumb over her cheek. “Are you ready?”

He’d wooed her over long months apart,
calling her when he could and writing notes when he couldn’t. His
actions had bemused her uncle and perplexed the rest of the court,
who couldn’t fathom the king’s heir bestirring himself to such
effort for a mate.

But he had. And it had worked. Her heart
pounded as his soft touch stirred her body and warmed her heart.
“I’m ready for anything. I love you.”

“
And I love you.” Rais
smiled, an intimate expression meant just for her, then laid his
hand on the door. “Let’s go meet your people, Avani.
Our
people.”

There was no room for nerves when she could
feel his love in the bond that grew between them with every passing
day. Even dressed in his royal finest, she still saw the man
instead of the king, and it was the man she smiled for, even as she
let the king lead her out to meet their people.

An Excerpt from
Savage
Need

The interior of her room was dim compared
to the sunlit main hall, and Zahra shut the door behind her
and blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. “Jarek?”

He sat perched on the edge of her bed, his shoulders
tense and his gaze fixed on the wall ahead of him. “You came
back.”

“
I told you I would.” She hesitated
by the door and unfastened her outer robe. It dropped away, leaving
her clad in only the sheer white robe she wore next to her skin and
the jeweled leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles. “I wanted
to come back.”

“
I tried to remember you.” His
voice sounded rusty with disuse, but he seemed more willing to
speak now that they were alone. “I tried to remember why you feel
like you’re mine. I can’t.”

Zahra knelt at his feet, her hands clenched to hide
their shaking. “You kissed me once. At a party, the last
time I saw you.”

The memory was vivid, clearer than it should have
been. A classmate of theirs had thrown a graduation party, and
she’d sought refuge from the noisy festivities in a deserted room.
Only instead of solitude, she’d found Jarek. A conversation and too
much wine had led to a single long kiss. Zahra remembered
their tongues mingling, heat and pleasure and need.

The only other thing she remembered was that it had
ended too soon.

His gaze dropped from the wall to her face, then
lower. A look of possessive need filled his face as he lifted both
hands to cup her cheeks, heartbreakingly gentle in spite of the
violence raging just beneath the surface. “Are you scared of
me?”

She was scared of what had happened to age him, to
harden the intense blue eyes she remembered so well. She was scared
that she might not be strong enough to drag him back from the edge.
“I’m scared of a lot of things, Jarek, but not of you.”

“
Zahra.” He whispered her name as
his fingers tunneled into the long strands of her hair. “I want to
taste you. Your mouth.”