Carpathian 05 - Dark Challenge

you."
    His expression held infinite tenderness as he watched her face.
    Desari found she couldn't breathe for a moment. Julian Savage was a beautiful male of their species, but he always looked so remote and rather harsh. She could not believe she was now seeing such tenderness in the depths of his eyes, in the curve of his mouth, in the touch of his hand. "Do you think that I would trade you for someone gentler?" she asked very softly.
    He closed his eyes for a moment to hide the pain those words caused. "You have no choice who your lifemate is; we both know that, Desari. If you had, perhaps you would have wanted someone far different than me."
    Her smile robbed him of air. "I believe in God, Julian. I always have. Living through the centuries as we have, I have witnessed many wonderful, miraculous things he has wrought. I believe we were created two halves of the same whole. I had no idea this was so until I met you, but I am now convinced. I would never want another, never fit with another. I can feel that we are right together, and I do not believe God Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    would put together two creatures who did not suit one another." She rubbed at the frown on his face with the pad of her thumb. "I find your enthusiasm for me very sexy, Julian. You can want me like that anytime." Her smile was a siren's teasing enticement.
    Effortlessly he shifted her in his arms so that he could press her against his heart, and he found himself breathing again after holding his breath. "I do not ever want to be without you, Desari," he admitted softly. The words were torn from his heart; he felt them leave his body, felt the truth in them.
    She wound her arms around his neck, liking the feel of his long hair against her skin. "I do not expect you to ever allow us to be apart. I am counting on that, lifemate. Now stop talking so much and find us a place to rest this night. Tomorrow we will proceed to Konocti in the bus with the others. They will remain at the campsite we have established this night." A faint grin curved her soft mouth. "That is, if the bus will actually run. It is a disgrace that none of us have mechanical abilities. Even I read the owner's manual, and found it too boring."
    "We do not need mechanical abilities," Julian reminded her as he spun around, taking her with him as if she weighed no more than a feather. "We were meant to travel differently, under our own power."
    "If we want to blend in with the rest of the world," she pointed out, "we can do no other than travel in the mortals' machines."
    "It is much faster to travel our way through time and space."
    She laughed softly, the sound a husky blend of velvet and wine pouring over him, into him, so that Julian knew the meaning of joy. It was a woman's laughter, her smile, the glow in her dancing eyes. "It certainly is less frustrating to simply join the wind and go where we wish without following those endless ribbons of highway," she agreed.
    He took the right-hand tunnel entrance, drawing the directions from her mind. The path opened almost immediately into a wide chamber. At once he waved a hand to open the earth. "It is early dawn, cara , and I would spend more time enjoying your company, but you have performed in front of so many people, and you are tired."
    "I do not mind, Julian," she told him. "I rather like the way you spend your time with me." She pressed closer to him, her naked breasts against his bare chest. His answering kiss was slow and tender, a gentle exploration. "In this one thing I will have to insist. Your health must come before all things, even our pleasure. On the next rising we will have more time together. This dawn you must rest."
    She tried to keep the amusement out of her mind. He was so positive he was giving her an order. "Of course,
    Julian," she murmured softly, her long lashes feathering down to cover her dark eyes. Her body moved restlessly against his, her full breasts pushing into the heavy muscles of his chest. "If you say we cannot, then I must agree with you, but I am sorry to hear that it is so." Her hands were moving over his buttocks, her fingers tracing their toned muscles. Her fingers moved to his hips, caressed his thighs, worked their way to cup the weight of his rising desire in her palm. "I will do as you say, lifemate, if that is what truly pleases you." Her mouth drifted down over his throat and chest, following the pattern of golden hair to the