The Vampire's Bride (Atlantis #4)(70)

Her eyes, then. What about them transported him back to that bloody field?

She peered down at him, hair hanging over her shoulders like damp velvet. Her eyelids were at half-mast, her expression soft and luminous. Needy as he now was, the screams were a nuisance rather than a hindrance.

"Touch me," he commanded her again, but there was a plea to the words. He flattened his palms against the cool rocks beneath him.

"Not yet." She reached up and tugged at the shoulder strap of her robe. The sapphire material floated to her stomach, revealing full, proud breasts with sweet, pink nipples.

His mouth watered as though he were starving and had just been offered a banquet. "Release me." He could barely work the words past his thickening throat. "I want to touch you."

Her eyes narrowed. "You're lying again."

"Look at my body. I'm not lying. Desire beats through me."

Her gaze remained locked on his face. "I can feel it," she said, her cheeks growing bright with color.

A blush? From this fierce warrior woman? Even that fueled his desire.

"But it's there because you're thinking of another," she added. "I know you lied."

"Only you, I swear it."

"What's changed?" she demanded. She traced her fingertip over the head of his penis, which was sticking out from between her legs, and spread a sheen of moisture on his stomach.

Sweet heaven. He opened his mouth to reply - how, he didn't know - when she stopped him.

"Never mind. It doesn't matter. As I said, you will find pleasure with me this time." She scooted farther back and then - sweet gods, then - she took his cock into her mouth, sucking him all the way to the base.

Every muscle in his body went taut, his blood molten. "Alyssa," he gasped.

The sound of her name must have been startling to her, for she stopped. With her mouth a mere whisper away from his cock, she stared up at him. He saw pleasure in those lovely eyes, but only a little. There was too much hurt and determination standing in the way. The screams increased in volume in his mind, but still they didn't affect him. Just then, something else mattered more. That hurt...

That didn't sit well with him. He wanted her wild. Out of control. Not so that he could regain his strength and escape, he realized, but because...with his private admission that he liked having her in his life, that he liked her, with the flashes of blood and screams overshadowed, he was beginning to sense something else...something shocking. Wondrous. Unbelievable.

Something that swept through him, infusing his cells, his organs, imprinting her essence inside him.

He closed his eyes and pictured Twila, a female nymph he liked to bed. His penis withered as it used to do with Alyssa. He pictured Helen, a siren he had spent a month pleasuring. Nothing, not even a twitch. He pictured Brenna, the human he'd wanted above all others. Again, he remained flaccid.

"Shivawn?" Alyssa asked hesitantly.

Just like that, he was hard as a rock, her voice the fuel needed to spark his desire.

Dear gods. She was his mate, his one and only. No other would do. She was it for him. She was a part of his life, always had been. He could no longer deny it - why had he ever? - for all he could suddenly think about was her pleasure. Her protection. Her smile, her laughter, her body. Him, inside of her. Her, and no other. All these years, and he'd allowed painful memories, memories that had nothing to do with her, to cloud his judgment. All these years, he'd pushed her away, treated her horribly, hurt her deeply.

She was a vampire. That no longer mattered.

She would have to bite him to live. He was glad.

She had stolen him. Merely loveplay.

My mate, he thought, shocked to his very core. How he'd mixed his past with her, he didn't know, but he would act the fool no longer. Besides, now wasn't the time to figure it out. He'd ponder it later. Much, much later. "Alyssa," he said.

Something in his tone caused tears to spring to her eyes. He knew women well enough to know they were not tears of happiness. What had brought them on? "Unchain me, love. Please." His tone was gentle. He had to caress her face. Perhaps lick those tears away. Hold her. Apologize for all he'd done to her.

She wiped the moisture away with the back of her wrist and shook her head. Her chin trembled, her gaze lowering once again to his cock. "No."

"Strip for me, then." There would be time later to convince her of his new feelings. Right now, anything he said would most likely be dismissed as a lie he told to ensure his escape. "Let me taste you while you taste me."

Again, she shook her head. But there was intrigue and passion blended in her eyes now. She nibbled on her lower lip, something he suddenly wanted to do. "Last time, I found fulfillment and you didn't," she said. "This time, you will find it and I will not. Equal ground, Shivawn, remember?"

"Alyssa." Oh, yes. He had hurt her, and he hated himself for it. "No!"

"Keep me chained, then. But at least allow me to kiss you. Somewhere. You may choose where. Your mouth...your breasts...between your legs...I will not find pleasure unless you allow me to do so."

Her pupils dilated, delighting him. "You don't really want to pleasure me," she said, even more hurt drifting from the undertone.

"You and no other," he assured her. He could not explain this change in him, even to himself. All he knew was that he was changed. Later, he told himself again. He would reason it out later, when their mutual passion was sated. "If you want me to beg, I will beg."