Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

enormous, watching his every move. He
     could hear her heart pounding, her blood pumping so fast through her veins it was
     a wonder her heart hadn’t burst.
    Riley stared up at Dax. Flames leapt and burned in his eyes. His skin glowed crimson
     and gold, radiating light, as if deep inside beneath the hard frame, a fire raged.
     He looked absolutely confident and so beautiful she couldn’t believe she hadn’t conjured
     him up in a dream. He was the hottest, sexiest man she’d ever come across. Just looking
     at him made her weak, desire lashing inside her belly with curling hot licks.
    Gently he ran his fingers down her cheek to the corner of her mouth. “I want you so
     much, Riley, even my deep slumber was disturbed by the thought of the things I want
     to do to you.”
    Deep inside, her muscles clenched tightly, arousal teasing her thighs and breasts.
     His eyes glowed, mesmerizing her. The fire leapt wildly behind the many facets so
     instead of one, there were multiple flames burning with a mixture of lust and such
     intense hunger a shiver of fear slipped down her spine.
    “There is no one safer in this world from me, than you, Riley,” he assured, a hint
     of tenderness creeping into his voice. “I would never harm you.”
    He cupped her chin, his thumb sliding back and forth across the small dent there hypnotically.
     She couldn’t look away from him, away from that perfect mouth with his lengthening
     teeth. He made no attempt to hide his teeth or his desire from her. Her heart slammed
     hard in her chest.
    Dax laid his hand over her breast, exquisitely gentle. “Let your heart hear mine, sivamet . Mine calls to yours, allow yours to answer.”
    Her heart felt as though it was being squeezed in a vise. His voice was smoky, velvet
     soft, playing along her nerve endings. And his palm, barely there, curving around
     her left breast left her lungs burning for air.
    “Take a breath,” he advised, his voice wrapping her up in sheer seduction.
    Riley tried to do what he said, inhaling when he did, exhaling to keep from fainting
     at his feet. Never in her life had she been so affected by a man. He was so in control
     and she was both terrified and desperate for him.
    I am not altogether certain I’m fully in control , he confessed. The words brushed against the inside of her mind, a slow molasses
     that poured into every shy and lonely crack, filling her with anticipation. And desperation does not begin to describe how much I want you.
    Her gaze locked with his. Those flames burned intensely—for her. Her heart settled
     into the rhythm of his. Her breathing followed his. He was her anchor as he led her
     into an unfamiliar world.
    “I want this, Dax,” she said as firmly as her trembling body would allow. She meant
     it. The shivering was a mixture of fear and anticipation.
    He waved his hand, and in the middle of the field of night flowers, there, in the
     veils of mist on the mountain where she was born, was a large four-poster bed, draped
     in white. She recognized the canopy as one from a picture she’d shown her mother from
     a magazine when she’d been a teen. The bed was just as beautiful as the one in the
     photograph, the wood a deep golden hue and carved with waves and whorls.
    Dax took her hand and led her through the flowers, the scent of him, so potent, surrounding
     her, making her a little light-headed. Deep inside her most feminine core, the ache
     was sweet and terrible, as she wound through that narrow trail to come to stand by
     the side of her fantasy bed.
    He bent his head, his mouth finding hers with urgent demand even as his hands slipped
     to the hem of her shirt. His kiss left her dizzy with need. When he lifted his head,
     he slowly pulled her shirt off, leaving her standing in her lacy lavender bra. She
     shivered as the mist touched her skin. Dax stepped back, looking down at her with
     his blazing eyes, and at once she was warm, the temperature in her body soaring in
     spite of the cool vapor surrounding them.
    He brushed his skin over the swell of her breasts. “You’re so beautiful. Your skin
     is unbelievable, soft and flawless.” He breathed the words. “I lay awake, unable to
     move, my body locked in stone, and I went over and over what I hungered to do to you.
     I knew every inch of you. I want to taste every inch of you, kiss every inch, claim
     every inch.”
    Riley drew her breath in swiftly. Every move he made, everything he said, the way he said it