Primal Heat 04 - Forever in Darkness

"And that means
that I can feel your emotions. I can hear your thoughts." He kissed the
bow of her upper lip. "It means, my love, that I can learn the things
you're not allowed to tell me."
    Alice's eyes flew open, and she
stared at him. "That's impossible."
    He released her wrist, and her hand
fell to her side as he took her face in his hands, framing her cheeks in his
powerful grasp. There was such intensity burning in his eyes, she felt her
whole body ignite from the fire. "You don't understand, do you?" he
asked.
    She swallowed, riveted by his
stare, by the heat of his hips still pressing against hers, by the way her
entire soul was screaming for him, for this stranger who had plunged past all
her safeguards and somehow made it into her very soul. "Understand
what?" she whispered.
    "That there is nothing on this earth that could ever stop me from tightening the connection with you
until our souls are so intertwined that each breath we take breathes life into
each other, and our own heartbeats can keep the other one alive."
    At those words, at the intensity of
his face, at the raw emotion in his voice, something inside Alice finally
broke, and she knew that with this man, she had a chance, the first one she'd
ever had. This was the man that she wasn't allowed to have, and somehow he'd
found her anyway. How long could she hold onto him? Five minutes? Ten? An hour?
"Kiss me," she whispered. "Break the spell that binds me."
    A look of intense male satisfaction
roared over his face, and then he bent his head, and kissed her.

CHAPTER FIVE
    The moment Ian felt Catherine's
lips against his, his entire world shifted. Raw, burning desire claimed him,
intensity so powerful it roared through him like the most violent summer storm,
destroying everything in its path. He growled and slid his hand around to the
back of her neck, tunneling his fingers through the soft tresses as he deepened
the kiss, consumed by the need to taste her, feel her, possess her.
    A small noise of surprise echoed
from her, and then she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
She kissed him back fiercely, with a pure, unbridled intensity. He could feel
the desire erupting from her, and it flooded his senses, overwhelming every
last bit of control he'd prided himself on for so long.
    The kiss turned frantic, desperate,
as if both of them were unable to contain their need for each other. Ian
pressed her against the wall, kissing her more deeply as he shoved her shirt
out of his way and claimed the bare skin of her stomach, her hips, her back.
Her flesh was of the softest silk, more than he'd ever imagined even in his
dreams. It was pure and elemental, as if it were born of the spring earth after
a cleansing rain. She was the gift of light that he'd been craving his whole
life, the beauty of that moment where life suddenly takes on meaning.
    He broke the kiss and trailed his
mouth down her neck, over her breastbone. Then he tugged her collar aside and
pressed his lips to the swell of her breasts.
    "Oh, God." Catherine's
head clunked against the wall, as she leaned back, gripping Ian's shoulder as
he took her nipple into his mouth. Her body shook, and her fingers dug in as he
bit the taut peak.
    The intensity of her response ricocheted
through him, and suddenly he couldn't hold back any longer. "I need
you," he growled as he kissed her again, as his hands covered her body,
touching her everywhere, learning her curves and her shapes, noting her
reaction to every touch he made. "I need to be inside you."
    "Not here," she gasped.
"Anyone could walk through that door—"
    "Fuck the door."
He called out one of his weapons with a flash and a crack of black light, then
slammed it into the door, jamming the hinge. "It's just us now."
    Catherine's green eyes widened,
desire blazing in them. "I can't believe you just did that."
    "You mind?" He pressed
his hips against hers, driving his erection into her belly as he ravished her
mouth with more kisses, not bothering to give her a chance to respond—
    Her fingers went to his waistband,
and he swore as she unbuttoned his jeans and slipped her hand inside them.
"Hell," he gasped as her hand closed around his cock. "What are
you doing?"
    "I don't even know," she
whispered, her voice throaty and raw as she stroked him with a carnal innocence
that nearly shredded the last vestiges of his self-control. "I've never
felt like this before."
    "Shit, woman, if you felt this
for another guy, I think it would tear