Obsession Untamed (Feral Warriors #2)(77)

“You asked why this is important to me.” His eyes throbbed with emotion. “Because I love you, D.”

Bittersweet happiness twisted through her misery. “Tighe.”

He lifted his hand and caressed her head. “I love you. It’s not going to hurt me to bind myself to you. Because I’m bound, whether through ritual or the emotion in my heart, I’m yours. Always. No matter how long that is.”

The tears started down her cheeks. “Tighe, I love you, too.”

His expression tightened into something close to pain. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her, the kiss shattering in its anguished tenderness.

The saltiness of her tears mixed with the sweet wildness of his taste as she kissed him back, running her fingers along the back of his neck and into his hair, holding on. Holding on.

Tighe pulled away. “Lie down, brown eyes.” Their gazes met, and for one awful instant, she saw the clone in his eyes. Her heart stuttered.

“What is it, D? You’re scared.”

“It’s…I felt like he was here. Like he was watching me.”

“He can’t reach you here, sweetheart.” But he swung away and went to retrieve a knife from the shelf where he’d found the lighter. With a quick swipe, he slit open his palm. Bright red blood ran down his hand.

Delaney held out her hand, ready to do the same. Or at least, the human version of it.

Tighe shook his head as he grabbed one of the towels and wiped the blood off his hand. “I would know the moment I looked in your eyes, D. I know you’re not him.”

Delaney frowned. “I should have known. I shouldn’t have had that moment of doubt either.”

His hands slid into her hair. “There’s a difference, brown eyes. I look like him. Plus the fact, he terrorized you. It would be surprising if you didn’t have moments like that.” Stepping between her thighs, he pulled her against him and gently stroked her head. “Now, lie down.”

As he stepped back, she did as he asked, positioning herself in the middle of the platform. Tighe pulled himself up from the end. She spread her legs, and he knelt between them. But the memory of the last time she was naked in front of a man stabbed at her, and she froze.

Tighe shook his head, his expression unhappy. “He’s not here, D. Don’t let him be here. Not now.”

“I can’t help it. I can’t forget.”

“I know, sweetheart. Maybe this is too soon.” He sighed and moved as if to leave.

She reached for him. “Tighe, wait. I need you to help me forget. Touch me. With your warmth. With your love. Touch me everywhere and erase his cold touch. Please?”

A small smile flashed shallow dimples. “There’s nothing I want more, brown eyes. Nothing.” He grasped her ankles gently with his warm, strong hands, touching. Caressing. Slowly, he worked his way up her calves and her thighs, his touch warm and tender and so very different from that other touch. His hands slid over her hips, skimming her abdomen to tenderly cover her br**sts. “Like this?”

She smiled for him. “Yes. Exactly like this.”

He caressed her br**sts, softly kneading and plucking until her breathing became slowly ragged. One hand left her breast to travel between her thighs.

But at the first stroke, she flinched. “I’m sorry.”

“D. Look at me. Look into my eyes. He never looked at you with eyes like mine.”

She stared into his golden tiger eyes and felt only warmth. Only love.

His warm fingers moved back to caress her inner thigh, sliding higher, one millimeter at a time, pulling her back to that place of heat and need.

“I’m going to touch you, sweetheart. I’m going to slide my finger into your honey. It’s going to feel good, as it always does when I touch you. Because I love you.”

His finger stroked her lightly, then pressed, warm and gentle, into her, so different from that last cold invasion.

She shuddered with revulsion at the memory, even as she lifted her hips, embracing the touch of the man she loved. He probed her slowly, with infinite gentleness, then quicker as she heated, as her body opened and wept for him. Over and over he slid his finger in and out until heat coursed through her, until desire raged through her veins, until she was rocking her hips, gasping with need.

Finally, he withdrew his finger and came to her, bracing himself on his arms, yet not entering her. Not yet.

His gaze held hers. He didn’t have to tell her this time to watch him. His eyes were so tender, so full of love, she couldn’t have looked away if she’d wanted to.

“I love you, Delaney Randall. I bind myself to you, heart and soul.” As he began to chant, he slid deep inside her, stretching her, filling her, then out again, in rhythm with the ancient sounds coming from his throat. Her heart took up the beat until it pounded through her, lifting her in passion and excitement as if she were part of something beyond the body, beyond the earth, far beyond anything any human had ever known.

As he entered her over and over, she felt the warmth of a hundred angel wings brushing her mind. And saw the tiger lift his head to the skies with a roar of keen satisfaction.

A flicker of a smile lit Tighe’s mouth as if he, too, felt the tiger watching. His eyes bored into her, holding her. Claiming her as he drove into her, driving her higher and higher, faster and faster, until the ritual pounded through her blood like ancient drums, lifting her, launching her…