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.Always more.Time slipped away from her.There was only Vikirnoff and his hands and mouth and body.Each time she thought it was over and they would rest, he was there again, demanding again, wanting her.Hungry for her.She felt the scrape of his teeth and swirl of his tongue.There wasn’t an inch of her that didn’t go untouched, untasted, unused, but all the while he was wringing gasps of pleasure, moans and pleas for more.He carried her to the hot springs and settled her on his lap where he could bathe her.Limp with fatigue, deliciously sore, she buried her face in his neck.“Thank you for not taking my blood.I feel the need in you, but you were so careful.” His pulse pounded beneath her lips, the strong ebb and flow of life that beckoned and called and tempted.“I told you I would not.”“Still, I would have let you,” she confessed.“I wasn’t thinking straight.”“I told you I would not,” he reiterated.“If it is important to you, I will always remember, even when I am not thinking clearly either.”She turned her head to lie against his shoulder so she could look up at his face.There was male beauty in the lines etched there as well as other traits she was becoming familiar with.Vikirnoff wore power and dominance as easily as other men wore clothes, yet it was so natural to him, so intrinsic to his personality, she had accepted it in him without much thought, because he tempered those things with integrity and fairness.“I’m beginning to like you.”His smile was brief, but it flared in his eyes and her heart, as tired as she was, responded with a quick beat.She smoothed her fingertip across his lips.“That is a start.” He tugged on her wet hair.“You could be hard on a man’s ego if he allowed it.”She laughed.She couldn’t help it.She wanted to spend all night making love every way they could and feasting on each other’s body.“I doubt anything could dent your ego, Vikirnoff.The water feels so good.”“I do not want you to be sore.I intend to make certain you are properly healed before you go to sleep.”There was a note in his voice, husky, sexy, a promise of something sinfully wonderful that sent heat spreading through her veins.“I’m all for that.Are we going to stay here?” She didn’t want to be separated from him.She couldn’t go through another day without him.“I think it is best.The vampire cannot send human enemies against you and I can better protect us here.”“How is Gabrielle doing? Is she still alive?”“Yes.I hold her spirit with mine.They have sent her to sleep.Falcon will give her blood on rising.If her body can wait, Mikhail will do the third exchange on the following rising.The wait will give her plenty of time for several healing sessions with the others and a chance for her body to adjust to the ancient blood.”“How will she be connected to you, Vikirnoff?” She stifled the small pang of jealousy she was ashamed of feeling.She hadn’t had anyone for herself in so long and she wanted to be his only.His teeth nibbled at her shoulder.“Not in a sexual way, or in the way of a lifemate, Natalya.She will have a private path to my thoughts, as I will to hers.Our spirits will maintain a connection, as she will have been in my keeping for over twenty-four hours.Gabrielle will awaken as one of us.She will not have a lifemate to turn to for support in her new world.Her sister and brother-kin are returning as quickly as possible to aid her, but she is half in love with Gary, a human.The males will not want her to continue a relationship with him as there are so few Carpathian women and they will hope she can be a lifemate to one of them.She will awaken to many problems and will need aid.”“And you have to be there for her.”“You wished me to save her life,” he reminded gently, even as his teeth bit down over the pulse beating so frantically in her throat.“I could devour you, Natalya, and never get enough.”She laughed again because she could hear the truth in his voice and felt the stirring of his body against her.It reassured her when she felt so vulnerable.“I believe you.I’m exhausted.We can’t possibly, not again.I need to sleep for a week or two.And so do you.”Vikirnoff lifted her with casual ease and carried her to the far side of the cavern where he had prepared a large bed on the ground [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]