Dark Heart of the Sun (Dark Destinies Book 1) (38 page)

“I told you why. Why won’t you believe me?”

“Because if you freed me out of guilt or even self-preservation, I have no place in your life. I must leave you in peace, not infect you again and again and keep you by my side.”

The tears spilled from her eyes now. “Why can’t you just leave well enough alone?”

“Your future—your life—depends on it,” he whispered, and saw in her face that she understood. He wouldn’t let her bind her life to his for anything but the most sacred of reasons. And guilt wasn’t it. Not even friendship.

She wiped at her face with quick, angry motions. “Fine. The unvarnished truth is that all my life, everyone I’ve ever loved has broken my heart in one way or another. They’ve either left, died, or lied. Only you have come back to me. You can’t die. You’ve not only been there for me and let me into your life, you’ve let me into your
soul
. You’ve been honest with me. The way you are right now. Whether I like it or not.” She drew an unsteady breath. “And that’s why I freed you, Dominic. Because I can’t imagine my world without you. I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you. You mean too much to me.”

He placed a hand on hers and squeezed. “And you to me,” he murmured, shaken by her words—the words he had dared not hope for. “Wherever you go, Cassidy, I will be by your side, and I will share my heart and soul with you. For as long as you will have me.”

She gave him a watery smile. “That could be a while.”

Only the rest of her mortal life. Guilt edged his joy. “You understand that I will never be able to give you all that you deserve?”

“But you give me all that I need.”

“I can never give you the day.”

“We’ll have the nights.”

“Or children.”

“Seems to me we already adopted one. He’s three . . . hundred.”

In spite of himself, Dominic relaxed. “I suspect he has adopted us.”

Cassidy twined her fingers with his. “Make love to me, Dominic.”

He stifled the impulse to retreat, wary. “I cannot be a true lover to you without risking your life. You know this.”

“When are you going to stop arguing with me?” She tugged at his hand, pulling him into her arms. Dominic shook with the effort not to crush the life out of her by holding her too tightly. She sighed and tilted her head aside, exposing her neck. “Make love to me . . . like only you can.”

With a soft moan, he kissed the pulse in her throat. Kissed it again, more deeply, and went faint with the ecstasy of her sweet, hot blood in his mouth, the warm embrace of her soul. In his dark heart, the scattered pieces of his being tumbled together, making a new whole. He was home.

My life is yours,
he vowed
. Always.

Cassidy thought she knew what to expect when her blood flowed in
to Dominic and he flowed into her mind. She was wrong.

A flare of cool light obliterated the dim reality of her bedroom. Thunder followed, rumbling in her bones. From nowhere, a mighty river hurtled toward her, falling without end out of a cobalt-blue sky. She struggled to breathe in the presence of so much free-falling water. Silky moist wind swept over her, laden with the intoxicating aromas of wet earth and lush vegetation—and snow.

When she stirred in his arms, Dominic eased his embrace enough to be able to meet her eyes. They were both naked. Not that it mattered. She could feel their joined minds humming together in this, their world, their shared dream. There were no secrets here, no inhibitions. His sleek, muscular limbs curled around her soft curves in a comfortable gesture that was as protective as it was possessive.

Warmth infused his hazel eyes. “Do you like it?”

“I’m . . . breathless.”

They were cocooned in a tropical meadow that might have been Eden. The waterfall was at least a hundred feet tall and crashed into a dark, clear pool in a perpetual explosion of sound. In the sunlight slanting through the jungle canopy, mist swirled like diamond dust against the leafy green darkness of impenetrable rainforest.

Cassidy and Dominic nestled together on a boulder dripping with spongy moss by the pool’s edge. The waterfall’s winds rustled in the foliage all around them, bathed their skin in dew, and seeded their tousled hair with glistening droplets.

“It’s gorgeous.” A pale word for so much raw natural splendor. “Is it a real place?”

“
Oui. Et non
.”

She followed his gaze up past the edge of the falls and beyond the treetops. Turning slowly in the sky was the silver spiral that was Dominic’s true self. The water, the endless falling river thundering into this protected jungle alcove . . . it flowed from the spiral’s core. And in truth, it was no river. It was pure emotion flowing from his soul. Into hers.

Cassidy drew a shaky breath when she realized that this had always been there just beneath the surface of his words and smiles. On some level, she had known from the beginning what she was to him, and without realizing it, she had drawn comfort and strength from that deep well of devotion.

She took his face into both hands, caressing the unusual whiskers shadowing his cheeks, mute testimony to the vast quantities of blood he had consumed in order to heal. He appeared almost rosy and even felt warm beneath her fingertips. No words from her mouth could do her feelings justice, so she let them flow from her heart instead.

Smiling, Dominic leaned his forehead against hers, then nipped at her lips until they tingled. When she pushed her fingers into his damp hair, the kiss grew bolder, and she surrendered to his carefully leashed strength, drowning in his clean male essence as he savored the warm sweetness of her mouth.

The slow, simmering burn in their blood turned to ferocious desire when he gripped her bare bottom and pulled her close. The ache in his cock bordered on painful. Liquid heat pooled in her groin. She pushed closer, relishing the sensations quivering through her as he stroked her buttocks, her thighs, and reached beneath . . .

All reason left her, all thought but one. “Dominic . . . I need you.”

He rubbed his face against her cheek, entranced, his skin as rough as his voice. “How do you need me,
mon petit trésor
?”

Inside me
, she thought, no longer capable of forming words. Her whole being yearned for him—as his did for her.

Dominic nudged his nose against her jaw, forcing her face up, exposing her throat to his mouth.
I am inside you.
Even his thoughts felt husky and dark with craving.
And you are inside me.

His fingers played over her body with breathtaking skill, light and teasing one moment, strong and direct the next. She leaned back, arching her back, giving her hungry body to the wind and the sun, the falling water and his hands and mouth. The thick moss prickled at her back. Her toes dug into the muddy gravel at the edge of the pool. She moaned without shame.

I know you want me, chèrie. You always have.
Dominic’s dimpled smile was soft and knowing, his gaze as impenetrable as the jungle. The ebony hair blew around his face, wet with mist.

In the sky far above, the spiral pulsed.

And you’re a cocky bastard, Dominic. You always have been.
To emphasize her point, Cassidy slid her hand down his tightly muscled chest and abdomen and took firm hold of him.

He closed his eyes and made a sound somewhere between a groan and a growl.
But you love that about me . . .
He felt more than a little distracted. The spiral spun faster.

Cassidy grasped the back of his neck and pulled him down until their noses touched. “
Oui,
” she whispered. “I do.”

His eyes filled with icy shadows, amusement fading. The waterfall roared ever louder, hammering the earth, tearing apart the world. The gusting winds wailed.
Know me . . .

“I do,” she said again. “I do know you, Dominic. All of you. And with all of my heart, I accept . . . and love all of you.”

Moving as if in a dream, he covered her slick body with his own, pressing her down into the moss, the rock, the very fabric of this place—absorbing her into his being—and pushed into her slick heat. They trembled and clung to each other. Emotion welled in his eyes, spilled from hers. He caught her throaty moan in a fiercely passionate kiss. Slowly, savoring, then with ever greater urgency, they surrendered to the primal rhythm pounding in the water and throbbing in their blood.

What remained of their boundaries, their sense of self, dissolved. They melted into each other, heedless of where one ended and the other began. The heat burning in Dominic scorched through her. The need building in Cassidy devoured him. With sweet savagery, they demanded everything of each other and gave all in return. When Cassidy raced past the brink of ecstasy, Dominic held to her tight, strained deeper, took her higher still, until his own climax tore through them both and the crashing torrents could no longer drown out their cries.

They clung together, wondering if they had died and caring not at all.

The pearlescent mist thickened into a fog, dissolving the jungle and muting the waters. They lay entwined, spent and dazed, a single mind in two bodies falling free in space and time. After a while, the fog thinned and the light drained away. The wind became the lazy breeze from the overhead fan. The waterfall’s roar faded to the sea murmuring outside. The scent of snow mingled with the muted tropical decay of the cottage—and sex.

Cassidy’s eyes snapped open.

Dominic lay spilled across the bed with her in a tangle of long, lean limbs. One hand twined with hers, the other under her butt. His bare hips were wedged between her bare thighs, his pants nowhere to be seen. Ditto for her sleep shirt.

She gulped. “Guess we proved you wrong. Lover.”

He raised his head, panic shimmering through him.
I lost myself in you. I almost . . . I could have killed—

But you didn’t. And you won’t.
She touched his cheek.
I know you won’t.

Moving with great care, he drew her closer. Nuzzling into her neck, he licked the wounds there, healing them. She could taste her blood through their bond, a passionate elixir of life. He practically vibrated with relief and awe as she stroked his thick, wild hair. He considered her the very heartbeat of his existence. If she died . . . he would die with her.

A memory floated up of how she appeared to him that first night, sweaty, furious and determined. Even then he had hungered for her in every way. Yet she refused his compulsions without knowing she was doing it.

You are aware of me, Cassidy. You always have been. That is how you refused me then, and why you survive me now. Even the beast knows you as a part of me. As long as our bond remains, it can no more harm you than it can harm me.

And I can feel the bond getting stronger every time you feed from me.

Dominic’s mind swerved to the treasure trove of information he had gleaned from Garrett’s mind. The serum in his bite was more than an anesthetic or hallucinogenic. It carried a virus that attuned the human’s mind with the blood-drinker’s. Once it reached a critical mass in the bloodstream, it also began a process of transformation that would culminate in death if not completed with a dose of vampire blood. This change, once complete, was genetic. For this, there could be no cure.

It’s all right, Dominic. You’re getting the hang of it. And I’m here for you. If you can’t go back, we’ll go forward together. One day . . . one night at a time.

He settled his head on her shoulder, his fingers squeezing hers in mute gratitude, but worry gnawed at him. He almost didn’t register the first whispers of dawn cresting the horizon.

“You’d have to feed from me every night for at least a week before I was weak enough to be turned,” she said, voicing the information in his mind to clarify it to herself. “We know the serum dissipates if you don’t. And it wears off completely after a couple of weeks.” Yet the shiver of unease up her spine was mutual. This bond meant everything. There was nothing they wouldn’t do to maintain it—except sacrifice her humanity, whether on purpose or by accident. If she became like him, the sun that was their union would be dead and the darkness complete.

“Maybe we are only delaying the inevitable,” he said, looking up. “Maybe this will turn you regardless. Only more slowly.”

“Or maybe you’re just—what?—enslaving me?”

“Never like this, no.” A tentative smile played on his lips as he trailed one fingertip down her nose. “The only way I will have you enslaved to me is by your own free will. Not because I command it, but because you crave . . . my touch.” He gave a gentle squeeze to one of her nipples, sending a hot zing straight to her groin where it was met with a slow, tantalizing grind of his pelvis. She gasped. A nip at her throat with blunt teeth, then he was at her ear, his voice like warm honey. “You,
mon amour
, will never again judge my cooking to be better than sex. This I promise you.”

Her whole body tingled under the caress of those sensual words. Beneath the playful seduction, she heard the thunder of the waterfall, the true magnitude of his feelings for her. He would stand by her without question—as her lover, her partner, her protector, her friend. Until death do them part.

“It’s not true,” she said in a strangled whisper.

He pulled back to look at her, his face an open book of raw emotion.

“There is one part of me that is your slave, Dominic, and has been ever since the night you first cooked dinner for me. When you told me that love has no secrets.”

He said nothing. He already knew the truth. She told him again anyway.

“My heart, Dominic. It was yours then. And now . . . now you
are
my heart.”

He looked like he might say something, but there was nothing, no words to express what his soul told hers so much more eloquently already.

So he gathered her into his arms and quietly breathed her.

Until dawn.