Dark Lycan (45 page)

He stirred her toward a spot where a series of natural pools had developed. The sound of water was calming and he knew the night sky would help to make her feel less claustrophobic. Going to a place of such natural beauty with waterfalls and pools, so entirely different than her prison had been, he hoped would ease the tension from her. He knew she was drawn by the sound and feel of water. He wanted to turn the rest of the night into something beautiful to erase what had come before.

“You were amazing,” he said, meaning it. “I know you were frightened.”

“Anyone would be afraid, knowing the traps and the hideous creatures locked away in that mountain,” Tatijana said, “but more, I was sickened. I couldn’t believe how nauseated I was. My stomach was in knots and a couple of times the smell actually made me gag. I locked away most of those memories so I could survive.”

“I’m sorry our fight with Bardolf led us to the ice caves,” he said as gently as he could. He tightened his arm around her shoulders. “I know I’ve got a lot of rough edges, Tatijana. You deserve a man who is gentle and always considerate, but know that I love you above all else and I will do anything to make you happy.” He regretted that he hadn’t figured out a way to keep her out of Xavier’s labyrinth of evil. He’d brought all those terrible memories crashing down on her. Where Branislava took to the ground, allowing the healing soil to keep the trauma at bay, Tatijana embraced the night, needing the freedom of the open air.

Tatijana frowned up at him. She lifted one hand to trace the lines in his face. “Why would you think I would want any other? Your words are sweet enough when I need to hear them. I feel surrounded by your love, enveloped in it and I need no one else. I chose to go back to that cave with you. It was my choice, and I appreciate that you understood it had to be my choice. More than anything, Fen, I fell in love with that trait in you. You let me be me.”

He took her deeper into the forest, listening for every sound. He wanted them safe and after the hunt for the werewolves, he was certain they would be. Branislava had found another unit of sixteen and Zev and the others had wiped them out. Abel was slowly losing his army. He would be much more wary of sacrificing his pawns until he had a concrete plan to carry out his mission.

More and more, Fen feared that Abel was working with someone else—someone far away. It would be rare for a master vampire to take orders from another, and in spite of being the
Sange rau
that Abel was.

“Where are we going?” Tatijana asked as he lifted her over a fallen tree trunk covered in moss. “I’ve never been out this way.”

“I’m glad. I wanted to surprise you.”

Already the sound of the falls was beginning to be heard. She turned her head toward it. “A waterfall? I had no idea.”

He felt the lightness in her heart lift away some of the shadows pressing down on her. “A series of waterfalls. They fall into natural pools. Two of the pools are fed from underground springs that are hot. The others are very cold.”

“Temperature matters little to a Carpathian,” she said.

He grinned at her. “Unless your lifemate can surprise you and toss you into a cold pool before you can regulate.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, her emerald eyes beginning to sparkle.

“Probably not,” he soothed, “but you never know. I am a wolf man, after all, and they do like their pranks.”

The sound of the falls grew louder, water cascading down the mountainside and dropping several meters into the pools formed below by rock. Over time the pounding water had smoothed the boulders and bottom of the pools until they were polished and even.

“Strange that I didn’t notice that jokester trait in the Lycans,” Tatijana said. “They looked like a sober lot to me.” She sent him a warning from under her lashes, but her eyes couldn’t contain her amusement.

He pushed aside fronds from a fern as tall as he was so she could get her first look at the waterfall and pools. They were hidden from view by a grove of old-growth trees whose trunks were as wide and thick as a small car. He watched her face as he held the lacy leaves back. Her entire face lit up. Her hair actually streaked with deeper shades of red. Her emerald eyes deepened in color until they were nearly the same as the deepest pool.

Tatijana gave a little gasp as she stepped forward. “It’s so beautiful, Fen. Truly beautiful. You couldn’t have found a place I would like more.”

She turned into his body, circling his neck with her slender arms and bringing his head down to hers, leaning into him until she was pressed tight. “I love you, Fenris Dalka. Everything about you, but especially that you always seem to know exactly what I need. This is perfect.”

Fen framed her face with his large hands. She looked up at him with her incredible, dazzling eyes and he let himself fall into the deep depths. He wanted to live there inside her, with her, be one with her.

Her fingers brushed his mouth, and then, featherlight, traced his lips. He felt the jolt of shock go through his body straight to his groin. As gentle as her fingers on his face were, the lightning bolt slamming through his body was exactly the opposite, a punch hard and mean.

The intensity of his love for her was terrifying. Wonderful. A miracle. He had never envisioned that emotions could run so deep. Love and lust were a potent combination, heightening every sense and inflaming every nerve ending.

He was aware of every breath she drew. The subtle rise and fall of her breasts beneath her clothing. He inhaled her fragrance, the wild of the forest and clean of the rain. His hand bunched in the thick silk of her hair.

Fen pressed his mouth close to her ear. “I don’t want a single stitch of clothing between your skin and mine.”

Her long lashes swept down, veiling her expression, but her lips curved and her clothes disappeared, leaving her standing in front of him completely naked. He took a breath. Her body was beautiful to him. The full curves, the tucked-in waist, her flaring hips and the small dragon low and to the left below her waist, just faintly visible. She had shapely legs and small, bare feet. Her hair, usually kept in a braid, tumbled passed her waist like a riot of fine silk.

He removed his own clothing, suddenly finding the material too tight to contain his hard body. He leaned his head down to hers and took possession of that oh-so-incredibly-generous mouth. Soft. Cool against the fire of his. Everything he could possibly want was right there in his arms.

Her mouth moved under his, giving him everything he asked of her. His fingers tightened in her hair, burying deep to anchor her to him, to hold her still. In spite of the blood surging hotly in his veins and his cock hard and thick and making its own demands, he was patient, savoring each moment of time with her.

He felt her lips tremble as he deepened the kiss, exploring all that cool sweetness that was his alone. His skin felt burning hot, hers cool and soft. A whip of lightning cracked and snapped through his bloodstream, sending flames licking at his groin. The rush was all encompassing.

She gave herself to him as generous as always, pouring herself into his mind and heart, her mouth giving him everything he craved. He tasted passion. Love. A world he hadn’t known existed opened up the moment he’d met her, and this, her mouth, her kiss, was his passport there. His belly tightened, every muscle hardening, yet he wanted slow and gentle. He wanted to savor every moment, imprint the feel and taste of her into him for all time.

He lifted his head, pressing his forehead into hers. His lungs burned, whether for air or just the miracle of finding her after centuries of loneliness—after believing his world would always be one of darkness, killing and a continuous struggle.

“You saved me. You did, Tatijana. No matter what you think, you saved my soul. I still can’t believe what a perfect miracle you are or what I ever did to deserve you.”

She ran both hands up his flat belly to his chest, her mouth following, kissing every defined muscle until she was teasing his flat nipple with her tongue. “Perhaps, wolf man, you saved me,” she murmured, licking at his pounding pulse.

Before he could answer, her teeth sank deep. He threw his head back and growled in ecstasy. Her hands smoothed his shoulders, traced his ribs and dropped lower to find the girth of his burgeoning cock. She danced her fingers over his sensitive skin, then wrapped her fist tightly and slid the length of him from base to head in that firm grip. Her other hand dropped a little lower to find his heavy sac. She rolled and caressed, squeezing gently.

The sensations she created, between her hands and her mouth, turned his brain to absolute mush. Thunder roared in his ears. Blood pounded through his body. He had set out to give her a night of pleasure, only to have her turn the tables. She licked across the small wound in his chest her teeth had caused, her eyes nearly glowing as she lifted her lashes.

“I need more of you, lifemate,” she said softly.

If it was possible, his cock hardened even more.

She tugged very gently, not relinquishing her hold on him. “I think you’d better come with me.”

He did. How could he not? She got as far as the first pool where the rocks were smooth all around it and stepped into it. The water came to her waist.

“Sit right here.” She patted the edge where the rock was the smoothest.

He complied with her command, sitting right on the edge. His cock was rock hard against his stomach, but his sac hung down toward that steaming water. Standing so much lower than him, her head was perfectly aligned with his groin.

“This night was meant for you,” he said, his voice raspy and raw.

Tatijana gave him a siren’s smile, one that made him hotter than ever. “Exactly. I want more of you, and it’s time I got what I wanted. Ever since our night in the field, tasting you on that flower, I’ve been craving that exact taste. I could be addicted.”

Her mouth slid over him like a silken glove. His entire body shuddered with pleasure. He was hot, his skin, his blood, his desire. Her mouth was cool silk, wrapped tightly around him, drawing him deeper into her with every movement she made. She didn’t take her eyes from his, so that he could see her pleasure.

Fen cupped her breasts, his fingers finding her nipples. He rolled and tugged, watching the glaze come into the very depths of her eyes. Her hands moved over his groin, soft hands, but her touch drove him wild.

Tatijana had butterflies in her stomach. She’d never been nervous, but this time, she wanted to give Fen as much pleasure as he always gave her. More, she wanted this for herself. She wanted to make her own demands of him and know he found everything as pleasurable as she did.

She looked up at Fen’s rugged features. He was a man who had seen more in life than he ever should have. There was the stamp of confidence, of dominance, an alpha who took control when necessary. He was beautiful to her, wholly masculine, his face sensual. She loved his eyes. Those amazing, glacier-blue eyes. When he focused on her, there was no one else in the world and she knew it. He made her feel alive and vibrant and beautiful herself.

She loved the control she had, driving him wild, and she knew he was nearly crazy with pleasure. Her mouth and tongue teased and tortured, and clamped around him, tighter, urging him deeper, his hands on her breasts making her just as wild for him. She hadn’t known she was so sensitive there, but every tug on her nipples sent fresh, welcoming liquid between her legs.

Fen bunched Tatijana’s hair in his fist, groaning, his body swelling more. He tried to keep his hips still, giving her the control, but her tongue teased his most sensitive spot under the head of his cock and then suddenly flicked back and forth. Fire sizzled through his veins, settling in his groin, roaring as it grew out of control. She used the edge of her teeth, scraping gently, and then her tongue danced again. She slid her lips up and down his shaft, over his tight sac and the very base of his cock and then swirled her tongue around the head.

She sipped at the pearly drops leaking almost continually, keeping him so off balance he knew he would be lost. She took him deeper, her mouth constricting around him, and he took over, thrusting into her, giving her what she wanted most. Both hands gripped her hair, holding her still, drawing her into him as he thrust upward. She braced herself with one hand on his thigh while the other cuddled his sac, her hold intimate.

His body tightened, the fire roaring. He could feel flames from his feet to the top of his head. Blood pounded through him. His pulse thundered in his ears. She flattened her tongue, keeping her mouth tight while he thrust deep over and over. He felt the blast coming and there was no way to stop, not when she felt like heaven.

Nothing prepared him for the way she suckled him, the constriction and the feel of her silken mouth clamped around him. He threw back his head and howled like a wolf as he poured down her throat. His hands gripped her hair hard, but she didn’t pull away, only licked gently at his shaft and the exquisitely sensitive head until he felt thoroughly loved.

“Yep. That’s definitely the taste I remember,” Tatijana said. “Definitely addicting.”

He couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t certain he could ever breathe again. She smiled her siren’s smile and swam away from him, her bare buttocks flashing white. She rolled over and leisurely floated, her breasts thrust up toward the sky. The mist had come in, so soft and light, it was barely noticeable, or he’d been preoccupied and hadn’t observed it.

Now it was becoming thicker, denser, falling lightly into the steaming pool. He watched her for a few minutes, clearly enjoying the feel of the water against her skin. Even in the heat of the pool, Fen knew her skin would feel cool and inviting against his. He leaned back and let the mist fall on his face, watching the tiny drops fall like glittering diamonds from the sky.

He would always associate Tatijana with fresh rain, with the feel of cool water against hot skin. There was a sensual feeling he couldn’t deny with the mist falling softly over him. He’d never connected rain or fog to sensuality, but would forever more.

Tatijana sent a wall of water shooting at him. He ducked under it using the speed of his mixed blood and did a shallow dive into the water. The heat after the cool rain was shocking. He gave chase, catching her just near the far side, nearest the mountain where icy cold drops from the waterfall splashed over them to hiss in the heat of the pool.