Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #8)(33)

It was ... intoxicating.

“Admit the truth. You want me.”

His commanding words were imprisoned against his lips as she once again claimed his mouth in a kiss that demanded capitulation. He was prepared to react to her touch, but the sheer power of it caught him off guard.

God, yes. This was precisely what he’d wanted from the first minute he’d caught sight of this female stalking him.

He pressed her against the mattress, drinking in the cool enticement that was uniquely Jaelyn. And still she was not close enough. He growled deep in his throat as he reached down to grasp her top and with one tug ripped it over her head to reveal the smooth perfection of her alabaster br**sts tipped with pale rose ni**les.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered in aching tones, his head dipping down to capture the tip of her beaded nipple between his lips.

With a whimper, Jaelyn shifted beneath him, wrapping her legs around his hips.

“This is insanity,” she muttered.

He lifted his head to meet her glittering gaze. “Do you want me to stop?”

“Stop and I’ll kill you,” she rasped, wrenching her arms from his confining grasp to reach for his T-shirt. With one motion she was wrestling it off him with obvious impatience.

Ariyal had imagined the sensation of her hands running over his skin a hundred times, but nothing could prepare him for the actual reality. He shuddered beneath her exploring touch, his erection straining against the zipper of his jeans.

“Then tell me what you want, Jaelyn.”

“You.” She trembled as he kissed his way over the curve of her ear. “I want you.”

“Now?”

“Yes.”

His hands trailed up her bare arms, savoring the cool silk of her skin.

“No regrets.” He gave a small nip at the lobe of her ear, smiling as she jerked beneath him.

“Did I mention you talk too much?”

He gave her another nip. “Yes.”

“I ...”

Her sharp retort was lost as his hands shifted to cup her br**sts, his thumbs circling her straining ni**les.

“Yes?” he prompted.

“I don’t remember.”

He softly chuckled as his lips drifted over her cheek before nuzzling the edge of her mouth.

“I want you naked,” he murmured as he forced his reluctant hands to leave the delicious temptation of her br**sts to skim down her slender hips, pushing off the spandex pants before jerking off the rest of his own clothes. Then, urging her legs to wrap back around his hips, he settled until his arousal was pressed directly against her point of pleasure. “Perfect.”

Jaelyn shuddered at the feel of his hard erection rubbing against her. Holy shit. She’d always been in control on the rare occasions she’d taken a lover.

She found it oddly erotic to be in bed with a man who could equal her in strength.

And stubborn determination.

His power was as heady as the rarest aphrodisiac.

“Jaelyn, look at me.”

She shivered at his soft command; then at last she lifted her gaze. Any lingering hesitation was seared away by the smoldering heat that filled his bronzed eyes.

“Satisfied?” she murmured.

“Not nearly.” A slow, wicked smile curved his lips. “Touch me, beautiful Jaelyn.”

Jaelyn’s head tilted back as she eagerly allowed her hands to explore the hard plane of his back.

She wasn’t beautiful. She was too skinny. Her muscles too hard. Her br**sts too small.

But beneath his predatory gaze she felt desired.

Growling deep in his throat Ariyal lowered his head, his lips kissing a hungry path down her throat to her collarbone. He pressed hard enough for Jaelyn to feel the blunt edge of his teeth, but she made no effort to pull away.

She shifted her hands to his chest in a restless path, reveling in the satin heat of his skin. It was a fascinating contrast to the vampire lovers she’d taken in the past.

Intrigued with exploring his body, Jaelyn barely noticed when Ariyal lowered his head. Not until he captured a nipple between his lips.

She sighed in approval as his tongue swirled over the sensitized tip, teasing it until her back was arched in delight. Oh, he was good. So amazingly good.

Now if only he would stop tormenting her with the hard brush of his c**k and actually enter her.

“Are you going to finish this or not?” she moaned, shivering as his lips traced the curve between the mounds of her br**sts before moving to taste her neglected nipple.

“Patience, poppet.”

She hissed, her fingers tugging at the clasp holding back his hair to allow the chestnut strands to spill over her skin, heightening the pleasure that pulsed through her body.

Don’t bite, she fiercely reminded herself, as his hands branded a path down the curve of her hips and over her thighs. Things were complicated enough without taking his vein.

It was a compulsion that was becoming increasingly difficult to resist as Ariyal eased his hand between her legs and sought the aching cleft between them. Her hands shifted to his shoulders, her fingers unwittingly digging into his flesh to draw a pinprick of blood.

The potent scent of herbs filled the air even as his finger stroked over the sweet spot of her pleasure. She was falling into a maelstrom of sensations that were almost overwhelming.

“Ariyal.”