Dreams of a Dark Warrior (52 page)

it. Be at ease.”

When the mad light in his eyes ebbed somewhat, she continued, “I want to be with you for longer than

one night. And to do that, we’ve got to stop this. We’ve got to pul back.”

“Nothing wil stop me from claiming you this night.
Nothing
.”

“Then you’re going to widow me again? Don’t you care about me?”

He gripped her nape. “I fuckin’ love you, Regin!” Rain spiked his lashes as he gazed down at her,

commanding her, “Love me back!”

Can’t lose him.
“J-just wait, Aidan!”

His eyes went wild again; he threw back his head and roared, his neck straining.

“Please, Aidan, be calm!”

When he faced her again, he bel owed, “I am
no’
goddamned Aidan! You’re talkin’ to
Declan
. Do you no’ see
me,
woman?”

“N-not Aidan?” She blinked against the rain. “What? How?”

He gave his head a harsh shake, clearly struggling to gain control of his emotions. “I’ve got his

memories. No’ the other way around. He’s a part of me. That’s al .”

“You’re stil … Declan?” This had never happened before! Maybe the outcome could be changed as

wel ?
Or maybe you’re grasping at straws.

Voice hoarse, he said, “Aye, it’s me. I wil never be your perfect Viking, Regin! I’ve made unforgivable

mistakes. I’ve no family or friends, and my men hold no love for me. I’m scarred inside and out. And I’m

bloody askin’ for you anyway!”

You’re the one that I want.
Yet then she shivered with fear. “But the curse—”

“Has no reign over me, no’ over us. The past has no hold!” He brushed his battered knuckles along her

cheek again and again. “Can you see
me,
see the man that I am? Accept me, Regin, because I’m holdin’

on to nothin’ but you.”

A thousand years ago, Aidan had taken her hands in his own and asked her to accept him. Tragedy

had fol owed for al his days. “Declan, I’m … afraid. I’m scared to.”

“You
know
this is different. You have to feel it too.”

Do I? Or do I just want him so much?

He dipped down, his lips slanting over hers. He gave a sharp groan at the contact, but he was gentle,

tempering his brutal strength for her. And she loved him for it.

Gods, how she loved him.

In the past, whenever the frenzy had seized him, she’d been swept up, answering his beast. Now some

long-dormant part of her was waking, clamoring for his kiss, for his claiming.

Resisting it went against her every instinct. She couldn’t deny that primal pul —not when her heart

craved him just as feverishly.

Want him so badly, love him so much. …

The conflict within her grew stronger. She feared, but she
hungered
—soon
she
was deepening the contact. Even as she lamented her weakness, she savored his firm lips and lapped at his tongue.

When he returned her forays with wicked flicks, shivers raced over her. He kissed her until they were

breathing for each other, until she got lost in the bliss, scarcely aware as he began stripping her, then

himself. She only realized she was naked when she felt the rain on her sensitive skin.

By the time she lay back on their discarded clothes, she was panting with need; he looked on the verge

of losing control as he moved between her legs.

His body was taut with readiness, his brawny arms and pecs bulging. His shaft was a heavy rod,

straining toward her.

Lightning flashed, shadowing his scars in relief, like brands over his skin. But each raised lash cal ed to mind his strength, his wil to survive.

Magnificent male.

As her gaze was lovingly tracing over every inch of his body, he’d been regarding hers just as intently.

“Look at you, my beautiful Regin. You think I’d surrender you to another? You are
mine
.” He fisted his hand in her hair, yanking her up to him. “Say
my
name, Regin.”

She breathed,
“Declan.”

He leaned forward to suck her earlobe. “I’m goin’ to fuck you til you scream it. Fuck you til we lose

count.”

She gasped, his words making her tremble.

“But I need to get you ready.” He drew back, his smoldering gaze riveted to her sex. “Spread your

thighs for me.”

When she eagerly obeyed, he bent down. She could feel his hot breath against her flesh as he nuzzled

her curls, making her nipples pucker into aching points.

“Never get enough of this.” He pressed his opened mouth to her, his tongue snaking over her clitoris.

“Ah, yes, yes!” she cried over the thunder booming through the canyon.

His low growls, his hungry mouth.
Already she grew close.

When he delved his finger inside her, he groaned,
“Gettin’ so wet, baby.”
He wedged another one in, thrusting them just enough to ready her—while keeping her on the brink.

The pleasure soon bordered on pain. Gazing up at the sky in agony, she begged, “Declan,
please
.”

“What do you want, Regin? Tel me and it’s yours.”

She couldn’t fight this.
Inevitable.
But it was different this time—because Declan remained himself. “I nneed you inside me.”

“You’re wantin’ my shaft, then,” he murmured against her. “I’l make you come so hard with it.”

She gave a strangled cry. Gods, she did want it—she ached for it, shamelessly rol ing her hips.

He rose, pressing wet kisses up her body, his dog tags trailing up her torso. A hard suck on each of

her nipples made her head thrash.

“Ah, please!”

The corded ridges down his torso rippled when he knelt between her legs, his biceps flexing as he

clamped her hips and jerked her closer.

He fisted his length. When the broad head found her wetness, she cried out; his eyes went heavy-

lidded, his jaw slack.

He began running that swol en tip up and down, groaning in anguish each time it briefly breached her

core. “You’re goin’ to be so tight and wet for me.”

Keening his name, she mindlessly undulated, rocking on the crown.

“That’s it, lass, move on me!” In that husky voice, he told her, “Get your honey al over it.”

His gravel y words sent her to the very edge. When he fitted the broad head inside her, she demanded,

“Deeper.”

He bit out, “Need to … go easy—”

“Deeper.”
Her claws sank into the tight muscles of his ass.

“Ah, Regin!” He surged home, fil ing her with thick, pulsating flesh.
“Mine!”
he roared in triumph.

His shaft was unyielding inside her, stretching her, forcing her body to accept his. When he seated

himself as deep as he could go, she surrendered with a scream, her sheath contracting around him.

“Declan!”

As her orgasm burned through her, his steely gray eyes held her gaze. “I can … can
feel
you comin’.”

When the waves of pleasure final y crested, they didn’t recede. She was stil as frantic for him, her

lightning forking out over them.

He raised himself on straightened arms. Head hanging down, his tags rattling around his neck, he gave

one forceful shove over her. Gnashing his teeth, he dug his knees into the ground to heave his big body

over her again.

The third time, his back arched, and he raised his gorgeous face. His expression was agonized.

On the fourth shove, he bel owed, “Regin!” That agonized expression transformed to one of ecstasy

just as she felt him ejaculate inside her.

Jet after jet of his scorching seed.

He bucked his hips in a frenzy, flooding her … until she helplessly came from it.

FIFTY-FOUR

“
N
eed—more,”
Declan grated between breaths, mere moments after she’d wrung from him the most mind-shattering pleasure he’d ever imagined.

He lay atop her, heart thundering overs hers, his swol en shaft stil buried deep inside her. The haze

began to lift, yet Declan was by no means sated. “I … I can no’
stop
,” he bit out.

Though he might have vague recol ections of taking her in the past, this was stil new to him. Those

memories were distant, didn’t feel real to him.

She
was real to him.
I’m not givin’ her up to anyone. Never.

“Who says you have to stop?” she murmured, her body so warm and giving beneath his. Her silvery

eyes were bril iant in the night, her blond brows drawn with passion. Her silken skin was bright with it.

“My woman’s wantin’ more?” he rasped, beginning to rock over her, reveling in their mingled wetness.

Her lids grew heavy. “Always.” Her voice was throaty from her screams.

He raised himself up on straightened arms. “Tel me what you need, Regin.” He wanted to pleasure her

more than she’d ever been, to be the male she remembered above al others. He craved learning her

body so wel he knew it like his own.

“Try me.”

Gauging her reaction, he began to languidly stir his hips between her thighs. “Do you like that?”

Arms fal ing back over her head, she purred, “I
hate
it.”

But when he gave her quick pumps deep in her core, her head thrashed, and the addictive spark

between them flared hotter.

He clasped her hip, his thumb sifting through her blond curls, seeking her swol en little clit. When he

rubbed it, she went wild, digging her heels down to buck beneath him.

He groaned, “You like to move on me, lass?” Rising up on his knees, he positioned her over his lap.

At once, she wrapped her arms around his neck, parting her lips for more of his kiss. He covered them

with his own, licking her tongue. Her mouth was indescribably sweet. …

Clutching her luscious arse, he wrenched her down his length while he thrust his hips up. She moaned

into their kiss.

Knees spread, he plunged into her with more force. When she tightened her hold around his neck, her

straining nipples raked across his chest, whipping him into a lather. He ignored the tingling in his spine, the heavy ache in his bal ocks.
Won’t come before she does.

Another harsh thrust … and another. Her moan grew continuous, her thighs locked around his waist,

her arse writhing against his palms.
On the edge.

He used al his strength to take her, pounding up into her until his skin slapped hers, until her head fel back and she could do nothing but hold on as he pistoned beneath her. Mouth against her damp neck, he

rasped, “You’re goin’ to come for me again?”

“Yes! I’m so close …”

He tugged her hair down. “Do you want more of my spend inside you?”

She sobbed, “Yes, yes, yes!”

“Then wring it from me,” he commanded at her ear. “Take it from me with your tight little quim.”

“Declan!”
she screamed, as she began to come wetly around his shaft.

A guttural sound broke from his chest when he felt her sheathe tugging him deeper, its slick clench

undeniable.

In a daze, she moaned, “I want to feel it. Ah, gods, I want
you
. Want you.”

At her words, pleasure racked him. His eyes rol ed back in his head as he growled, “Yours, everything I

am … yours.” With one last brutal thrust, the throbbing pressure in his cock gave way, erupting in a

searing rush of seed.

Chase clutched her as if he’d never let her go, one of his big hands palming the back of her head, the

other gripping her ass. His hoarse exhalations fanned against her neck.

Stil quivering with pleasure, Regin squeezed her own arms around him.

They clung to each other, as if they both feared something was about to pul them apart.

For how long they stayed like this, she didn’t know. But when she managed to lift her eyelids, she saw

that dawn had broken, the sun rising above a cloudless forest. She could hear gul s and waves. They

must be close to the shore.

“Never lettin’ you go, woman.” He ran his cheek against hers.
“Love you.
”

And stil Declan remained, his memories foremost. Which was good. Because she was in love with

Declan Chase.
I want my Irishman.

Had the sand in the hourglass started to flow?

He drew back his head, wrapping the crook of his arm around her neck. Gazing down at her with fierce

gray eyes, he said, “You belong to me, lass. It wil always be you.”

It will always be me—but will it ever be you?
The stark light of day fil ed her with dread.
What have I
done?
She’d talked herself into believing this time would be different. She should have fought him harder.