Hearts Aflame Collection IV: 4-Book Bundle (6 page)

He wasn't trying to show her his scars, however,
and after a shocked moment, she realized that there were a series of small
black tattoos over his heart. He knelt down in front of her so she could see
them better, and now she could see that they were a series of triangles, point
down, like a line of fangs across his skin. There were five of them, and she
could tell that they were old.

“
The triangle stands for the Cairn Rock pack,”
Mads
said. “Each one is someone I could not protect.”

He took her small hand in his large one, and he
brought her fingertips to the first mark.

“
This was for Dag. We grew up together, and the
angels killed him while we were on patrol.”

He moved her hand to the second mark.

“
This is for
Alfhilde
, who
was like a sister to me and a daughter to my parents. We took her in after
angels killed her parents, and she went out looking to revenge them. She never
came back.”

Tara shivered at the grief in his voice, but even
though a part of her wanted to pull away, another part of her wanted to draw
even closer.

“
This was for
Halli
, who
died laughing, and this is for Inga, who howled loudest of any of us and swore
that she would outlive the moon.”

Mads
paused, and he had to swallow twice before he
could continue.

“
This last, this was for
Gyda
.
She was my youngest sister, the baby of our family. She wasn't yet eight when
the angels took her. Do you believe me now?”

Tears clouded Tara's eyes, and she found herself
nodding.

“
Yes, yes,” she said softly, and because she did not
know what else to do, she drew him close, pressing his head against her
shoulder.

She thought he would pull away, shocked at the pity
and tears of a stranger, but instead he rested against her, pressing against
her hard. His shoulders rose and fell twice, and though she could feel no
tears, she knew that there was a weight that had been lifted from his
shoulders, something that he had carried for so long.

“
I understand,” she whispered. “I will help you.
I promise, I will help you.”

Her words unleashed something inside him, and
suddenly, it was not a grief-stricken man in her arms. Something indefinable
changed, and suddenly he was pressing against her. She found herself holding on
to him more tightly until it felt like she must crush him, and suddenly
Mads
lifted his face to meet hers.

His mouth was hot, and when he kissed her, there
was something feral about it, something so wild that it took her breath away.
Her seeking hand landed at the base of his throat, and she could feel a growl
there. She had seen him turn into a wolf before her very eyes, but now she
could feel the wolf that was always in him. It lay in the watchful grace of his
motions, in the taut muscles of his frame and the heat of his body. It lay in
his desire for her, and now she knew that it could be nothing else.

There was a lifetime of doubt holding her back. A
litany of “not good enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough” ran through
her head like it always had, but in the presence of this man, the one who knelt
on the floor in front of her and who was kissing her with such passionate
tenderness, those words evaporated from her head as if they had never been.

Tara flung her arms around his shoulders, and she
kissed him the way that she had always wanted to kiss someone, with no fear and
no hesitancy at all.

Instead, it was
Mads
who
drew back, and the look on his face was torn between desire and shock.

“
What?” Tara asked, suddenly fearful. Had she
misread him, was she not good enough after all?

“
I ask you to risk your life for me, I show you
things that you thought less than twenty-four hours ago to be mere stories, and
now I decide that I want to do this?”

He shook his
head,
and
pulled away slightly, making Tara whimper in surprise.

“
I'm sorry,” he said softly. “I did not mean this. I
have asked too much of you, and now... this abuse... Please, you must forgive
me.”

“
Do you want me?” Tara's voice, strong and clear,
cut through his apology.

“
I...can't, Tara, I shouldn't...”

Her fingertips fluttered across his mouth, which
was still damp with their kisses, and she felt his breath sigh against her
skin.

“
I'll ask you again,” she said, “
do
you want me?”

“
Yes
.”
Mads
hissed the answer as if it was being
drawn out of him with tongs, and his entire body went tense.

“
By God and all the saints I want you,” he growled.
“From the moment you broke that vase over that bastard's head, I wanted you. I
can smell you, and Tara, I know you better now than anyone has in your life,
and I can say that I have never wanted someone more.”

“
No one?” she asked challengingly, and he snapped
his teeth at her.

“
No one,” he agreed, something so aggressive in his
posture that a part of her shivered.

“
But if I told you to stop?”

“
I would,” he said immediately. “If you tell me no,
if you look at me crossways, I would slink off to lick my wounds in the corner
and howl my sadness to the skies. Tara, you must believe that I would never
hurt you, not a hair on your precious head.”

“
That's all I needed to know,” she said firmly, and
she leaned down to kiss him again.

It was as if she had let a demon off the leash. He
rose up and dragged her up on the bed, and before she could speak, he pressed
his weight down on top of her. He supported himself with his arms so that he
would not crush her, but pinned underneath his bulk, she had never felt safer
or more aroused.

“
You must tell me,” he warned her. “I want you, and
then you went and stared me down as if I were a little yearling cub. That's no
laughing matter when you are playing with the leader of a pack.”

“
Oh, is it?” Tara
asked,
her voice soft and full of laughter. She never acted like this, and though a
part of her was shocked at how she was acting, another, far larger part had
been freed by the happenings of the evening. The marks over
Mads
'
chest reminded her that life was short, and if hers was going to be, she wanted
this.

“
You must be very sure to tell me no when you need
to,” he whispered in her ear, “because for me, all I can see now is you, and
how much I want you, and how much I want you to want me...”

She would have replied, but suddenly there was his
mouth in her ear, and his tongue tracing maddening sensations over the
sensitive flesh there. She whimpered, and she would have thrashed if he hadn't
been holding her down. His breath was hot in her ear, and she could only sigh
and press up against him.

His mouth was on hers again, and this time there
was no timidity to it at all. His tongue swept between her lips, claiming her
with a brutal rhythm. There was something primal to it, and a part of
herself
that she had never known existed woke up, wanting
more.

“
Please,” she whimpered, pushing up against
him,
and his answering laugh was ragged.

“
I would give you everything if I could,” he said
softly, and the honesty in his voice made her long for him.

There was a certain restraint in his motions, and
she knew that he would never hurt her, but still she needed more. She realized
that her nails were pressed hard into his shoulders, and on impulse, she raked
her nails down his back. That simple motion made him groan and now she could
feel his cock press against the tender skin of her belly, hard and wanting.
Some part of her was embarrassed that she was being taken in her flannel
pajamas, and another part of was too maddened by desire to care.

“
More, I need more of you,” she whispered, and his
responding groan made her pull him even closer.

She felt his body rock against hers, and then he
pulled away. She made a mewling, wanting sound, but then he fisted his hand in
the front of her pajama top, tearing it away as if it were paper and leaving
her nude from the waist up.

“
Oh...” she said softly, and when she would have
gone to cover herself, he took both her hands in one of his and pinned them
above her head on the bed.

“
Never think that you are less,” he whispered
softly. “You're beautiful to me, and by god, I want to see all of you.”

Tara held herself still as he brought his mouth
down to the curve of her breasts. She was small on top, but her nipples were
deliciously sensitive, and when she felt the dampness of his mouth on her skin,
she arched up to meet him.

“
I can smell you,” he growled against her soft
flesh. “Do you understand me? I can smell
you,
I know
how much your body wants me....”

Another savage pull and her pajama pants were off
of her as well. Now she was completely naked underneath his weight, and she
couldn't resist lifting her legs and wrapping them around his hips. She
relished the rough texture of his jeans against the sensitive skin of her inner
thighs, and when she used her strong legs to pull him close, he bit down gently
on her nipple, making her wail.

Mads
' laugh was more a moan of need, and he bit her
again, this time on the curve of her breast. They were light and gentle, and
she had the idea that he could have broken skin if he wished, but instead, his
bites were just hard enough to make her entire body vibrate with pleasure.

No one had ever given her sensation that was this
intense, and it was like her entire body was lit up with pleasure.

“
Now, now please, I want you,” she whimpered, and
she felt a deep shudder wrack his body.

“
I can't wait,” he groaned.

With a few deft motions, he opened his jeans and
pulled out his cock, and Tara whimpered. It was dark and thick, and she wanted it
with an animal longing that shocked her to her core.

He pressed her to the bed again, and this time, she
knew that there was nothing in the world that would stop them, nothing that
could keep them apart. His weight coming down on her felt like heaven, and when
she felt the head of his cock sliding against the damp lips of her sex, her
belly twisted with heat.

“
Are you ready?” he whispered in her ear, and she
could only nod and hope that it was enough. His bites, his smell, his strength
and his passion all conspired to prepare her for him, and still he was careful
about it.

With aching care, he stroked the length of his cock
along the lips of her sex, wetting it, and making her body yearn for him.

Tara's hands trembled as she took his face between
her palms, looking him deeply in the eye. She had never felt so close to a
lover, so much as if he were a part of her.

“
Don't make me wait,” she said softly, and the sweet
plea in her voice made him shake.

“
At this point, I couldn't if I tried,”
Mads
admitted.

He pressed the head of his cock into her, but when
she whimpered, he hesitated. She shook her head frantically. She was tight, it
had been some time, but this was an ache that she craved, one she would bear
because she simply could not do without him for another moment.

Bracing her heels on the bed underneath them, she
lifted her hips to his, and that was all it took. He sunk into her, closing
against her so tightly that for a moment, she couldn't breathe.

“
Please, please, please,” she heard herself whispering,
and it was like she had broken something inside him. He thrust into her hard,
pulled out halfway and then pushed in again, pushing her into the bed.

He was saying something, but she couldn't hear him.
All she wanted was more of the sensation that he was giving her. She tightened
her legs around his hips to draw him even closer, and then he was moving, each
smooth, hard thrust driving her harder and harder.

She knew that he was going to climax before she
did, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him close.

“
Do it,” she hissed, “I want to feel it...”

With a loud groan, he spilled inside her, marking
her in a way that felt entirely new and completely right.

She sighed softly, her body still thrumming with
desire, and she loosened her arms, planting a soft kiss on his head. She
started to say something, but then she yelped when he pulled out and slid a
firm hand down her belly.