Carpathian 21 - Dark Peril

of her, pure Solange, the taste and rush unlike any other. She was an addiction he would never get over, the craving for her deep in his bones and seared irrevocably into his heart.

    She shook her head. “Not yet. First go up to the cavern floor and see if your alarm system works from there,” she insisted.

    Heat flared. His Solange. Protecting him again, this time from himself, from his own needs. He floated easily toward the surface. Nearing the cavern floor, he began to feel the uneasiness of a Carpathian when the sun was high in the sky. The sensation wasn’t particularly strong, but the warning was there. He realized his strength was waning, his hovering body beginning to feel clumsy and foreign. Deep inside the earth, he was able to move with a Carpathian’s fluid grace even though the sun was high. But the closer to the surface he rose, or perhaps the longer he remained awake during the day, he was losing strength. He returned to Solange.

    “If your blood is doing anything to me, it is allowing me to be alert during the day. I have no problems with that.”

    His smile dispelled the anxiousness in her eyes. She returned his smile and leaned into him in a blatant invitation. “Then we should keep going. Take my blood, Dominic. Bring me closer to your world.”

    His heart leapt. More than anything he wanted her to be part of his world. He wanted many lifetimes with her, not just one. He had gone so long without anyone, and now that he’d found her, he didn’t want to give her up so fast. More important, she’d never had joy in her life, and he wanted centuries to give her as much joy as possible. “You are certain, Solange?” he whispered, nuzzling her neck. He kissed his way down to the swell of her breasts.

    She arched into him, her body soft and pliant. “I think we should give it a second chance. My jaguar is sleepy and annoyed that I keep asking if she is all right. She would have protested if she was hurt.” Her arms crept around his neck and she pressed her body to his.

    He loved how she did that—gave herself to him without reservation. Solange. He whispered her name, shocked at the overwhelming love pouring through him. He sank his teeth into her tempting pulse. She cried out, a breathy little sound that sent a lash of erotic heat rushing through his body. He swept his tongue over that sweet spot and sank his teeth deep.

    Her entire body shuddered. He felt the ripples starting deep in her core and spreading like a wildfire throughout her body. Her hot, sweet nectar poured into him, filling his cells with crackling energy. He fed, devouring her, taking her very life force into his body, feasting until her moan snapped him from the enthrallment. He swept his tongue across the pinpricks and, gently repositioning her, opened a line in his chest for her. He cradled her head, encouraging her, his body already shuddering with the need to feel her feeding.

    Again she was tentative, but his Carpathian blood had made some changes in her. This time she licked at him with languid, sensual sweeps of her tongue. She lapped like the cat she was. Each stroke of her tongue

    sent shimmering fire dancing through his veins. Her mouth opened, moved over his chest, her lips soft and tender. She bit down and his entire body tightened, the rush close to an orgasm. Her teeth had extended enough to take his blood in the way Carpathians were meant to. She didn’t seem to notice, her mind hazing with passion.

    It was difficult for him to give up the amazing, sensual experience of his lifemate exchanging blood, but his strength was definitely waning. When she had taken enough blood for a true exchange, he pressed his hand to her mouth and she instantly pulled back, lapping again with her tongue. He had to close the wound, but he discovered the edges were already seamlessly repairing themselves.

    He kissed her again with passionate thoroughness and took her back to earth with him, tucking the comforter around her, watching carefully for signs of distress. She pulled the comforter closer around her and fell to sleep long before he allowed himself to follow suit.

    Dominic woke before Solange, determined to check her health. She lay sprawled across him, her legs over his thighs, beneath the blanket of rich earth. The comforter was bunched in her hand to the side of her, but sometime during their sleep she had burrowed instinctively beneath the soil. The dark loam covered her nearly to her neck. He took that