Soft kisses danced across his face, so fleeting they barely grazed his skin before they moved on to the next place. Trembling lips pressed against his for a brief second. Her breath sighed across his mouth.
“I know. But maybe it was meant to be this way, Gard? My loneliness has helped me heal so many people over the centuries. Despite everything I would never want to give that up. They needed me and their lives were changed to something good. Maybe it was always my destiny to walk alone and share my gift until the time was right for me to find my happiness?”
He framed her face gently between his hands, scrutinising her beautiful features carefully. Her eyes were red from weeping but they shone brightly, seeing deep within his soul. Her need to heal him was like a blazing beacon and he selfishly surrendered to her because he needed her forgiveness and she needed to soothe his pain. It was who she was, who she had been born to be. A soul so pure and full of love, that no one was safe from her when she set her sights on them.
“I love you, Sarayne.” The words ripped free, his pain melting away as joy danced across the face of his beautiful mate. She was accepting him unconditionally and his releasing of his guilt was like giving her the moon and the stars.
Surrendering to his cat was all she had ever wanted. Someone to love her forever, to give her a sense of belonging, a home she could finally irrefutably call her own.
A smile tugged at those lips he could spend eternity kissing. The cat danced in her eyes as her emotions shifted to something richer. “Just as well you do, vampire, because you’re mine and I’ve no intention of letting you be free of me.”
The sensual note that crept into her tone stirred his blood instantly and his own eyes darkened as need gripped him in its painful grasp. He’d been too long without her, the need to claim her overwhelming him. He needed to show her how much he loved her, how much he cherished the very ground she walked on.
“I never want to be free of you, Kitty,” he groaned hoarsely. “I’ve waited my entire life for you. If you’d run I would have hunted you down. I would have worked out a way to see past your panther shadowing. There would have been no corner on this planet you would have been safe from me.”
His possessiveness made her purr with pleasure, her mouth hovering less than an inch from his. Soft laughter filled the cave. “That makes me so hot I want you to rip my clothes off and drive hard and deep inside me until we both scream.”
Every muscle in his body went rigid and his breath rasped out loudly into the silence. “You are going to fucking kill me,” he finally ground out, his desire warring with his need to just hold her and talk about the things they still needed to address.
In answer she shifted her seat in his lap until her damp heat was pressed across the rigid length of his arousal. She rubbed sensually against him and the air turned blue as he let out a string of curses.
“Sarayne!”
She stilled and met his gaze, a wondrous smile on her face. “I remember now, Gard. I remember my name, how much love was in my parents’ voices when they called to me. It always came out Rayne when I tried to say my name.”
Her eyes shone with moisture but her smile remained. “I want to be Sarayne again. The sound of it on your lips makes me feel complete.”
His heart melted, the thick need within him turning to something infinitely tenderer than the fierce sexual desire she sparked inside of him. “Sarayne.” It was a whispered caress against her mouth. He was unable to deny her anything her heart desired.
“Mate with me.” Rayne’s lips brushed his gently, teasing him with tiny kisses as her words washed over him causing him to still for a moment.
His hands flexed on her waist as he growled deeply. There wasn’t anything he wanted more than to be hers forever but he knew what that entailed. His venom would kill her instantly until they performed the healing ritual to mix his blood to hers. He could no more hurt her than he could Anakatrine.
She wriggled in his lap, teasing her body over the rigid steel trying to break out of his jeans and claim her. Her hands wound into his hair and her mouth took his in an aggressive kiss that was all about hot need, a desire to be joined completely with him.
He couldn’t fight her. He didn’t want to. His need was as great as hers and he opened his mouth to her searching tongue, dancing his erotically against hers as she licked at him just like the cat she was. Her kiss shook his self control until he was perilously close to losing it completely.
“Stop,” he groaned, dragging his mouth from hers, lifting her from his lap to try and get some surcease from the erotic torture she was inflicting on him. “We need to talk, Kitty.”
Rayne smiled slowly, standing up and stripping out of her clothes quickly. “Talking is so overrated, Gard. We can do that later. Right now I have other needs.”
The sight of her naked body above him was a temptation that even a saint would have struggled to withstand. He was certainly no saint. His cock throbbed impossibly hard, his hands clenched in fists to stop himself from reaching out and exploring every inch of the creamy flesh she presented to him.
Her eyes told him she would not be swayed. She was more cat than woman, the panther’s need to claim her mate taking dominance. Gard wasn’t used to being the submissive party in his sexual play. But then he wasn’t used to having a strong mate demanding it of him as her right. His cat was staking her claim. He would not deny her. He would, however, ensure that he retained enough control not to bite her no matter what she did to erode that control.
Surrendering he rested his hands behind him and flashed a sensual smile. “Seduce me then, little kitty. Make me scream.”
Heat flared deep within her as Gard gave into her. Rayne stalked her prey gracefully coming to stand so close to him she knew he could scent her need. Fire danced in his eyes, a soft lavender glow beginning as his nostrils flared. “A little licking would be a nice start,” she purred softly. “To warm me up.”
He swallowed hard, a low curse escaping him a second before he put his mouth on her and licked through her wet folds with a hunger that had her crying out instantly. Her knees trembled but she held herself upright as he eagerly began paying homage to the very heart of her body, licking greedily over every inch of her heated flesh.