Dark Challenge (13 page)

Desari moved her hips restlessly, mindlessly, needing all of him, wanting so much more. At once there was pain, and she gasped and went rigid. Julian became perfectly still, not withdrawing, holding her close to him, his arms strong bands of protection. He framed her face with his hands, his eyes burning molten gold, so intense, so mesmerizing she couldn’t look away. “Look at me,
piccola
. Look only at me. Merge your mind with mine.”

“You are too big, Julian. We do not fit together.” De-sari wanted to pull her gaze away from the heat of his, but she was drowning in his naked hunger. “Julian.” She just said his name, a whisper of sound, a blend of fear and aching desire.

“We are meant only for one another,” Julian reassured her gently. He bent to kiss the corner of her mouth. “Merge with me, fully merge with me.” His mouth moved down her chin to her throat. Her pulse was calling to the wildness deep within him. Teeth traced a path along her throat to the swell of her breast, stopping to rest over her racing heart. “Relax for me, Desari. When you look into my eyes, you see into my soul, and you know you can trust me with your life, with your body. Relax for me.” The words were hypnotic, his voice so beautiful and pure, so husky with desire. His golden eyes met hers, a blaze of searing heat, and then he gathered her hips into his hands. His body surged forward, one powerful stroke, and his teeth pierced deeply making her cry out with the exquisite fire of it, tears glittering like jewels in her eyes. He filled her completely, filled the terrible emptiness in her soul. As his body withdrew and thrust a second time, she felt his mind take hers.

The intensity of his feelings, the burning pleasure he was experiencing, were there for her to share, just as he could feel the rapture of her own body, reveling in his possession. He began to move, surging into her with sure, hard strokes that seemed to build in intensity, causing a fiery friction between them so hot they were consumed with the flames.

Desari clung to him, her safe anchor, as he transported them higher, ever higher, to a place of such ecstasy she wasn’t certain she could stand it. His mouth fed at her, his hips drove into her, a frenzy of lust and love, of reverence and craving. It went on and on until her body
seemed to belong to him rather than her, until she heard herself give a soft cry of sheer shock as her body seemed to fragment into a thousand pieces, to shatter, as wave after wave of fire rocked her, convulsing her muscles so that she tightened around him even more, gripping and demanding.

Julian swept his tongue over the curve of her breast, closing the tiny evidence of his assault, yet deliberately leaving his brand on her soft skin. “I need you, Desari,” he whispered, his voice erotic and hoarse with his husky demand. “I need you.”

She was merged deeply in his mind and knew what he craved, what his body longed for. It was almost too much, the hard thrust of his hips, driving him so fiercely into her. With each hard stroke he was delving deeper and deeper into her body, her very soul. She knew it was happening but felt helpless to resist, unable to deny him anything. Her tongue tasted his damp skin, swirled over the heavy muscles guarding his heart. She felt the instant response, his body, buried within her tight sheath, swelling, hardening even more, the leap of his heart beneath her seeking mouth.

Julian gripped her slender hips tightly, crushing her to him, his body so hot and hard and slick with her fiery cream that he was drowning in pure, scorching heat. He could feel her surrounding him, tight velvet fire, a steamy, torrid passion beyond anything he had ever conceived he could feel. White-hot lightning lashed him as her teeth finally pierced his skin. His throat convulsed, his body in a frenzy of pounding, merciless need. He threw back his head, his golden eyes blazing at her with both possession and a fierce commitment. His mind held hers, and his body grew hotter and harder as she took the very essence of his life’s blood into her. Her sheath gripped him, milking insistently so that he erupted into
a torrent of passion, spilling his seed deep within her. All around him her body was fiery hot and tight, rocking with its own response to the deep fever raging between them. The earth itself seemed to rock, a rolling quake, the atmosphere split apart; their world narrowed until there was only one another. Two beings merged so deeply, locked so closely together, they had become one, as they were meant to be.

Julian held her tightly, his face as harsh and relentless as time itself. “I can never let you go away from me. You must know that.”

Desari was too stunned by the fire in her body, by his addicting taste, by the little erotic aftershocks in her sheath that made her body refused to release his, to reply. It felt so perfect, so right, with Julian buried deep within her. She reached up, touched his mouth with a trembling fingertip, and traced his lips. She could drown in the molten gold of his eyes, live forever sheltered in his heart. “I had no idea we would be like this, that it could ever be like this.”

Julian slowly lowered his head, his long hair sweeping across her shoulders, brushing the swell of her breast, touching his mark on her. “You are so incredibly beautiful, Desari, you turn me inside out.”

A soft smile curved her mouth. “I want you to remember that when I do something you object to.” His hair on her sensitized skin was fanning embers still smoldering deep within her. She was shocked at her abandoned behavior, deliberately tightening her muscles so that she was tormenting him, teasing him, her body already slick with their combined liquid heat and the faint stain of innocence. “I have the feeling, Julian, that you are the type that objects often to things.”

His eyebrows shot up. Her body was doing delicious things to his. He kissed the corner of her mouth, then
found the fullness of her breast. He could feed there forever. The feel of her was so exquisite, so perfect, her body created exclusively for him. He reveled in that knowledge, that she was his alone, that no other male, human or Carpathian, could satisfy her. With the ritual words he had bound them together, body and soul. He had taken her blood, given her his, and claimed her body. The ritual was now complete. She could never escape him, not for all eternity.

And he had placed her in terrible danger
. He closed his mind to that thought, to the echo of a warning uttered centuries earlier. Julian wanted to lose himself in Dara’s body, in her soul. He needed to burrow deep into her, to bathe himself in her light so that, at least for a time, the shadow would recede from his soul. His tongue lapped at her nipple, part playful, part possessive. Her body was his to explore, to arouse, to satisfy, to complete.

Julian was driving her crazy with his lazy, slow-handed exploration. His palm was moving deliberately over every inch of her body, finding every curve, memorizing every hollow. Desari was already restless again, but when she would have caught his hips with demanding hands, he shook his head, his golden hair brushing her skin, inflaming her even more.

“I want to know every inch of you,
cara mia
,” he whispered, sliding his thick heat out of her.

“Julian!” Desari’s dark eyes censured him, her slender hips moving on the quilt beneath him, determined to entice him back to her. Just the feel of him, hard and hot, against her thigh was erotic. She wanted him.

His hands simply caught at her and turned her over so that his lips could follow the flawless curve of her back. He took his time, kissing the nape of her neck, her shoulders, kissing his way down her spine. All the while
his thighs trapped her beneath him, his body swelling, pushing against her buttocks, the tip of him so hot she was squirming against him, needing him.

Julian was determined not to allow anything to shatter his tenuous control. He would know her body as well as his own, know every secret point that could arouse her, every curve and hollow that ached for his touch. His teeth found the rounded muscle of her buttocks, felt her jump beneath his caressing hands. His palm beneath her found her moist invitation, so hot with urgent need he smiled, satisfied with his knowledge now. He simply lifted her hips and pressed against her waiting entrance, waiting a heartbeat until he had the reaction he craved. Desari pushed back, frantic for his invasion.

He caught her hips and surged forward, penetrating deeply, burying himself in that tight, wet, velvet-soft sheath that fit him so perfectly, so uniquely. The feel of it was unlike anything he had ever experienced in his long centuries of existence. He found his hands moving over her beautiful body, cupping her breasts, caressing her bottom, his mouth tasting her back. Her long ebony hair cascaded in waves to pool on the quilt around her, and it was a sight he knew he would never forget. And then the fire took hold, so hot, so fast, he found himself gripping her hips and plunging into her, harder and faster and deeper until the fiery friction was poised on the knife edge between pleasure and pain. Her body wound tighter and tighter, and she cried out to him for release. He wanted to stay, poised forever on that edge, her soft body burning with his, her mind sharing the ecstasy of it all. The savage demands of his race erupted to the surface, and he bent over her smaller body, completely dominant, his teeth finding her shoulder to pin her submissively in place.

Desari allowed it, feeling the compulsion riding him
so hard. There was a desperate need in him she could nearly touch, nearly see, hidden deep but swirling close to the surface, an elusive shadow she couldn’t quite catch. Then she lost her train of thought completely as his body swelled even more in hers, so thick and hard he was driving out all sanity, and they exploded together into time and space. Colors burst around them like the most wondrous fireworks imaginable. There was no room for air in their lungs.

Julian would have collapsed on top of her, but he was far too conscious of how delicate she was. He rolled to one side, taking her with him because he couldn’t tolerate the slightest separation. He had seen as much of her mind as she had seen of his. She thought, incorrectly, that she would now go back to her family and meet with him every now and then. Or, worse, that he would leave her because she refused to go off with him. His arm was heavy over her narrow rib cage; his thigh held her still. Lazily his hand cupped her breast, his thumb feathering gently, first over her nipple, then tracing the curving fullness.

Desari felt her body clench in reaction. It would always be that way. She knew it. Julian Savage had some dominion over her body, some perfect union with her no one else could ever match. She had read about sex, knew every detail, every position, every intriguing intimacy that could possibly be shared. Yet her body had never once felt desire. It was as if that part of her had been dead. She simply assumed most Carpathian women did not have urges and desires like human women. But her body had been waiting for this one man. Her other half.

Julian kissed her gently. “I will not allow you to leave me, Desari.” He said it softly, his voice a hypnotic spell of enchantment.

She could feel it brush at her mind like butterfly wings. Pure and gentle. Almost tender. So insidious that for a brief instant she did not recognize the elegant touch of compulsion. Desari sighed, not wanting to shatter such a perfect interlude with a disagreement. She might never have such a moment again. Still, she had a duty; she could not be selfish no matter how perfect this seemed.

Julian was a renegade, someone who rarely recognized authority, preferring to go his own way. He intended to take her away to some remote place, somewhere far from her family and her singing. But that was not even remotely possible. A soft smile curved her mouth. She knew him, knew what he was. Julian had merged his mind with hers. She knew there was a dark place, a shadow she had not yet entered. Still, she knew he was not capable of allowing her to be unhappy.

He was definitely an outlaw. He had pushed the limits of Carpathian laws many times in his existence in his relentless quest for knowledge. Julian had an active brain; he was quick and intelligent. He was so used to his own power, he wore it like a second skin. He knew things of which many of his kind were still ignorant. He was an extraordinary warrior, a hunter of vampires, and he had destroyed many of them.

Deep within him she touched on the darkness. He seemed to believe he was different from most Carpathian males, that his darkness had not developed over centuries but had always been present in him, had begun to grow even when he was a child. Desari believed that whatever the difference that set him apart from those of his race was also in her own brother. It was what allowed them to possess the iron will and relentless drive to continue without turning when others would falter.

Desari had touched the emptiness of his life, the sense
of meaningless, barren existence. He had made his choice to end it all, had believed there was no chance he would find his lifemate. For one moment she touched on the strange shadow in his mind. There was a shimmer of regret at not succeeding in his mission to self-destruct, but then it was gone, as elusive as before. She felt his joy in finding her, the intensity of his feelings for her. He had a possessive streak a mile wide. Desari had never before heard of a lifemate. She didn’t even know if she believed in the concept, but Julian did.

Julian lay stretched out on the bed, propped up on one elbow so that he could study every expression that crossed Desari’s face, taking it into his being like the very air he breathed. It was incredible to him that this woman, so beautiful, could be his. It seemed a dream, a fantasy he had somehow brought to life. He had never allowed himself the luxury of wishing or hoping. From the beginning he had known he would make the choice to walk into the sun. This was a priceless gift of life itself, a treasure beyond the realm of his imagination.
And he had brought her into a world of darkness and danger when she had only known light
.

Desari could hear the steady rhythm of his heart. She was very aware of his hard muscles close to her, his posture somehow protective and possessive at the same time. Skin to skin. The door was still open, allowing the night breeze to swirl through the room, to cool the heat of their skin. She smiled, her breath stirring the fine golden hairs roughening the roped muscles along his arm. “You changed your clothes for me.” He had come to meet her at the tavern elegantly dressed.