Velvet Haven

giving her the space she needed. But Mairi still felt his gaze on her, roving her body and finally settling on her face. “We have much to learn about each other.”
    “And you still have to explain what I saw.”
    He smiled and raked his knuckles down her cheeks to her throat. “After. You need rest.”
    “I’ve been asleep for two days.”
    “And you will sleep as much as you need.”
    She laughed, thinking of all the people she had nursed, and now here she found herself on the receiving end. It was very strange to be the helpless one.
    “You must take every care, Mairi.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I cannot lose you again.” The words fell from his lips, wrapping around them. When their gazes met, she could not detect any regret on his part for speaking so openly. “Somehow our fates were destined to cross, and now our futures are entangled. I know we’ve only just met, but I swear to you, I need you in my life. I want to know all your secrets, your fears. I want to pleasure you, to protect you.”
    She looked at him with an expression of awe. “What are you?” she asked. “Where did you come from? Because I’ve never met a man like you before.”
    He caressed her skin, but did not answer her questions.
    “Who are you?” she asked in a low voice as she studied him, wondering how a man she didn’t know could mean so much, could break past her barriers of mistrust and crawl inside her heart.
    He pressed forward and brushed his lips below her earlobe. “Tell me who you want me to be. I can be that person.”
    “Bran,” she whispered, allowing herself to just feel the fluttering sweep of his lips against her throat, his incredibly long lashes against her earlobe. “Just Bran.”
    His big body softened against her. “I love the way you smell here. I love the way you taste.”
    His words were followed by the slow flicking motion of his tongue. Her belly flipped. Before she knew what she was doing, her hand was resting low over her belly, trying to relieve some of the empty throbbing she felt.
    “Do you feel me there?” he asked in a dark whisper. His palm rested on top of hers, then slowly began moving. Her breath left her mouth, her lips brushing his cheek, which was faintly dusted with a five-o’clock shadow.
    Lower he pushed her hand till her heel rested on her pubic bone and her fingers were between her thighs.
    “Tell me where you need me, Mairi.”
    Oh, God! Her heart was bounding and her breathing was all erratic. She couldn’t tell him what she wanted. Not when she didn’t know him, or understand what had happened. What the hell was she thinking?
    “I won’t hurt you, Mairi. Trust me.”
    “I . . . I’m trying, but . . .” She lifted her gaze to his face. “I have questions.”
    “Later,” he said, trying to catch her lips with his. “I will answer everything later.”
    She turned her face away. “I saw what you did in my apartment . . . magical stuff.”
    “Mairi, let me do this, let me make you come. Let me use my fingers, my tongue, my cock, to make you feel better.”
    “Bran—”
    “It’s the only way I know how, Mairi. The only way I know how to be with your kind. Let me . . . heal you.”
    She was melting. She truly was, but she couldn’t allow herself to weaken—especially when he said things like “your kind.” But Bran reached for the tray and set it aside. Then he grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, allowing the garment to fall to the carpet.
    Mairi looked her fill, from the thick cords in his neck to the broad shoulders, down to the defined pecs and abs, to the fine line of hair that disappeared beneath his pants. On the left side, the tangle of gold and silver tattoos snaked over his shoulder and around his nipple, then over his ribs, disappearing beneath the waistband of his pants, just like that tantalizing trail of hair.
    His skin was golden, smooth. She could smell him, as fresh as the woods after a cool spring rain. She felt the heat radiating off him and the sexual aura that seemed to wrap around her, pulling her in deep.
    “We both hunger for this,” he growled. “So why do we try to resist, pretending we don’t?”
    She shook her head, and he reached for her palm, sliding it down the tattoos on his chest. “I don’t want to resist anymore, Mairi. I don’t want to pretend that you’re just another woman. I don’t want you to treat me like a stranger.”
    “We are strangers—sexually compatible strangers.”
    He