Darkness Eternal (6 page)

It wasn’t just the loneliness that plagued her, no matter what she claimed. Or the random lust of a woman who’d been without sex for a very, very long time.

No, this gnawing desire had started the moment she’d first laid eyes on Uriel. And as much as it pissed her off to admit it, he was the only one who could ease her torment.

Dismissing the countless reasons this was “the worst idea ever,” Kata skimmed her hands upward to frame his beautiful face, drowning in the velvet heat of his gaze.

“Uriel,” she breathed.

Stark hunger flared through his eyes. He lowered his head and nuzzled a path of destruction down the curve of her throat. Kata quivered, squeezing her eyes shut at the erotic feel of his fangs scraping against her tender flesh.

Oh . . . goddess.

She should be terrified by the threat of those enormous weapons so close to her veins, but instead she lifted her hips to rub against the hard thrust of his cock.

Uriel groaned, his fingers easily tugging down the straps of her gown and stripping it from her willing body. Then with the same swift efficiency he shed his own clothes, tossing them aside before cupping her breasts in his hands, his thumbs teasing her nipples to tight beads.

Kata kept her eyes tightly closed, basking in the sensation of the warm sunlight that spilled over their entwined bodies and the soft moss beneath her back. Illusion or not, she’d been trapped in that dark, spartan cell for centuries. The sense of being free and returned to her beloved homeland was nearly as heady as the feel of Uriel’s gentle touch.

She sucked in a sharp breath as his lips traced the line of her collarbone and then over the curve of her breasts, swiftly revising her thoughts.

The sun and illusion of freedom were delightful, but Uriel’s touch . . .

It was magic.

The cool, clever fingers that skimmed down her body with a heart-melting skill. The seeking lips that closed over the tip of her aching breast. The press of his erection against the precise point of her pleasure.

She threaded her fingers through thick curls, her back arching in silent encouragement.

Uriel growled in appreciation, his tongue flicking over the sensitive tip of her breast as his hand explored the generous curve of her hip. Slowly his hand skimmed downward until he could tug her legs further apart, his fingers running a lazy path up and down her inner thigh. Kata forgot to breathe as she restlessly stirred beneath him, her body trembling with need.

“Please,” she moaned.

He nibbled a path to her other breast. “Say it,” he husked.

“Say what?”

“That you want me.”

She didn’t even hesitate. What would be the point? Even if he weren’t a vampire he would know that she was desperate to ease her burning lust.

“I want you.”

A smug smile curved his lips. “Mine.”

Kata stilled. She wasn’t disturbed by his claim of possession. It sounded unnervingly right, even if she wasn’t ready to admit it. But, she’d be damned if he thought he could make her go up in flames without feeling a few sparks himself.

Lifting her heavy lids her stomach clenched in anticipation at the need blazing in his dark eyes. Deliberately she shifted her hands to trace the smooth planes of his back. Beneath her fingers she could feel his muscles flex at her touch, his fangs flashing in the sunlight as his lips parted in pleasure.

“Kata.”

“Do you like?” she teased.

He growled low in his throat. “I like.”

She chuckled, her fingers skimming over the curve of his ribs and then discovered the hard ridges of his stomach. She savored the feel of his muscles clenching beneath her exploration before lowering her hand to the thick jut of his erection. Just for a moment she hesitated, a strange voice in the back of her mind warning that making love with Uriel was one of those life changing decisions.

“Please . . .” Uriel muttered, his voice a harsh rasp.

Shrugging off the premonition, Kata allowed her fingers to curl around the straining cock, amazed by the cool perfection of his skin that sheathed the rigid length. Heat pooled in the pit of her stomach as she stroked downward, reaching the soft sack before exploring back to the blunt tip.

Uriel’s groans filled the air as she pushed downward again, his lips capturing her mouth in a kiss of raw desperation. Pleasure jolted through her. So much for his smug conceit.

Now he trembled with a need that matched hers.

Lost in her heady sense of power, Kata continued her daring caresses, only halting when Uriel abruptly grasped her wrist, a low growl rumbling in his throat.

“Enough.”

“And I thought vampires were famous for their stamina,” she teased.

“Don’t worry your pretty head about my stamina.”

“Are you certain?”

“I’ll be happy to demonstrate it as long and as often as you want. But first . . . you had your fun, now it’s my turn,” he warned, smiling down at her with a predatory expression. “And payback is a bitch.”

Kata shivered, her eyes sliding shut as he lowered his head and nibbled his way down the curve of her neck. Her body bowed in pleasure as he paused to tease the aching tips of her breasts, his tongue sending a blaze of passion through her veins. Gently he captured one nipple between his teeth, chuckling softly as she cried out in delight.

“Damn, that feels good,” she whispered, lifting her hands to grasp his shoulders.

“We can do better than good.” With slow, savoring kisses, Uriel journeyed down the shallow curve of her stomach, smiling against her flesh as she wriggled beneath his teasing caresses. “I want you to scream for me, Kata.”

Kata’s hips lifted off the soft ground as he stroked his mouth over her hip bone and down the tender skin of her inner thigh.

“Scream? You’re not that . . . oh. Oh.” Her chest was so tight she could not breathe. “Do something, Uriel, I can’t take much more.”

“Tyrant.” Uriel relentlessly tugged her legs apart, slipping down the bank to kneel between her thighs. “I need to taste you.”

“But . . .” Her protest died in her throat as he shifted and stroked his tongue through her damp curls.

She cried out at the pure bliss that trembled through her body. Oh, this was decadent. Decadent and wicked. And if anything or anyone tried to interrupt, she’d rip out their hearts with her bare hands.

Quivering, she allowed herself to drown in the exquisite sensations. Over and over his tongue dipped into her gathering dampness, stroking with a steady rhythm that was custom designed for maximum pleasure.

Oh, he was fantastic.

A top of the line, first-class lover that made all the years of waiting worthwhile.

Then, gently he sucked the hidden nub into his mouth and Kata screamed as the entire world shattered in a burst of shimmering stars.

Caught off guard by the sheer force of her release, Kata was barely aware of Uriel sliding up her body and entering her in one smooth thrust. But as he captured her lips in a demanding kiss, she instinctively wrapped her arms about his shoulders and arched her back to meet the plundering strokes of his erection.

“Perfect,” he husked against her lips, his entire body trembling as he jerkily surged in and out of her body. “You’re perfect.”

Kata barely registered his soft words, lost in the mind-numbing pleasure that was once again building in her lower body. With every thrust he pressed deeper into her body, his fullness creating a delectable friction.

“Yes, Uriel . . . yes . . .” She urged him to a faster pace, raking her nails down his back as he drove into her with a single minded purpose.

“Mine,” he rasped as he scraped his fangs down the line of her throat. “My sweet Kata.”

With one last surge he tumbled them both over the edge of reason, remaining buried deep inside her as her scream of fulfillment echoed through the glade.

Chapter 7

Uriel smiled as Kata’s cries became soft moans of completion, his body still trembling from the pleasure of her wild passion.

Bloody hell.

He expected the explosion of bliss. He’d never experienced a woman with such a savage desire. And with Kata’s eager response to his touch, the resulting earth-rocking, mind-blowing, the-best-orgasm-ever had been inevitable.

But what he hadn’t expected was the primitive surge of possession that had settled in the center of his heart.

Mine
.

The word had whispered over and over in his mind, settling deep in his soul.

Feeling Kata stir beneath him, he reluctantly rolled to the side, tightly tucking her against him. He growled at the satin slide of her naked skin and the beat of her heart that echoed in his own.

He hadn’t shared her blood, but already she was an intimate part of him.

A smile curved his lips as Kata tilted back her head, a shell-shocked expression on her beautiful face.

“That was . . .”

“Only the beginning,” he promised, his hand cupping her full breast.

The dark eyes flashed with ready fire. “Hey, don’t be making plans that include me, vampire.”

He chuckled, his finger circling the dusky nipple into a hard peak.

“Then don’t be making promises you don’t intend to keep.”

She moaned, her back arching and her hands running up the bare planes of his chest. But even as he shivered with a raw jolt of anticipation, she gave a startled gasp pulling back to study his chest with a frown.

“Oh, Uriel,” she breathed.

“What?”

Her fingers tenderly stroked the scar that marred his skin.

“You’ve been injured.”

With a hiss Uriel was on his feet, his hand instinctively covering the wound.

Christ, he’d forgotten.

Lost in the stunning power of his awareness of Kata, his mind had refused to remember that this was an impossible dream.

No.

It was worse than impossible, he fiercely reminded himself.

It was dangerous.

She studied his tight expression with a frown, slowly sitting upright.

“Uriel?”

“It was a long time ago,” he muttered.

Her eyes narrowed. “Then why are you still angry?”

Angry?

He wanted to fall to his knees and howl at the bleak desolation that filled his heart.

It was one thing to know he was denied the promise of a mate when she was a mythical creature that might or might not make an appearance in his life. It was another to be given a glimpse of paradise only to have it snatched away.

“Because it’s a reminder that my future is no longer my own,” he said in stark tones.

Cautiously she rose to her feet, her hand reaching toward his chest.

“You sound like Yannah.”

“Don’t,” he growled, jerking away.

“Tell me what happened.”

He hesitated, before giving a faint shrug. He admired her courage too much to lie.

“I had a rather nasty encounter with a Jinn beneath the docks of London,” he grimly confessed.

She paled, her hand trembling as she pushed back the heavy tumble of her dark curls.

“A Jinn?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Two centuries ago, give or take.”

Her expression was impossible to read, although she was too intelligent not to realize the significance of the date.

“You battled?”

He made a sound of disgust. Even after two centuries it still rankled he’d made such a pansy-ass showing against the Jinn.

Hell, a dew fairy could have done more damage.

“You could call it that,” he groused. “As much as I hate to admit it, there wasn’t much of a fight. I barely sensed the Jinn’s approach before he’d killed my brother and captured me.”

“And he did this to you when you tried to escape?” she husked.

Uriel’s bitter laugh echoed through the nearby trees. “No, he allowed me to leave. This was his curse.”

“A curse?” She looked genuinely confused. No big surprise. Uriel was still trying to puzzle out what the hell had happened. “Are you certain?”

He rubbed the scar that had throbbed with a low intensity ache since his escape from the London docks, belatedly realizing that the throb had become more pronounced since his unexpected journey into the underworld.

A coincidence?

It had to be.

He couldn’t allow himself to consider anything else.

If he went postal and hurt Kata . . .

Yeah, he so wasn’t going to go there.

Not even in his darkest ‘what ifs’.

“Painfully certain,” he said, his voice clipped.

“What did he do?”

“The bastard made me his slave.”

Dropping his bomb of shame, Uriel abruptly turned to dive into the water of the stream. The cool, crystal clear water washed over his skin, although it couldn’t wash away the helpless fury that pulsed through him.

Surfacing, he shook the hair out of his eyes and turned to find Kata standing at the edge of the stream, her dark eyes troubled.

She was so beautiful that she made his heart ache.

The dark curls wildly tumbled around her lovely face. The ivory satin skin. The lush curves.

An intoxicating, earthy woman that called to a man’s most primitive desires.

“What did he do to you?” she softly asked.

He clenched his teeth against the savage longing that clutched at him.

He had to keep her safe.

Nothing else mattered.

“He said that I was to be
the instrument of his revenge
,” Uriel repeated the words he’d shared with Victor almost two weeks ago.

She averted her face, wading into the water until it lapped over the full curve of her breasts.

“You think this Jinn is the father of Laylah?”

He couldn’t deny her accusation. “Since there’s only been one Jinn sighting in London for the past millennium it seems like a safe assumption.”

“And that’s why you treated me like I carried the plague.”

He flinched at her harsh accusation, not wanting to remember his arrogant disdain.

“I’ve done everything in my power to rescue you.”

She refused to look at him. “You think I’m a Jinn whore.”

Even knowing it was a truly stupid idea, Uriel couldn’t stop himself from moving through the water to stand directly before her. Gently he grabbed her shoulders, battling back his surge of lust.

“I know that Marika held you against your will.”

She turned her head, her eyes snapping with her ready temper.

Kata would never be a soothing female. She was passionate, turbulent, and unpredictable.

She was also intensely loyal, courageous, and the very essence of female temptation, he acknowledged with a bleak sense of loss.

“And yet you suspect I might actually have enjoyed being trapped with the handsome demon?” she accused him.

He wouldn’t lie. Not to this woman.

“At first.”

“And now?”

“Now it doesn’t matter,” he said with simple honesty.

She once again turned away, studying the trees that lined the far bank as if she had a sudden fascination with the tiny violets that were hidden among the moss.

“Right.”

“Kata. Look at me,” he said softly.

“No.”

“Please.”

Grudgingly she snapped her gaze back to glare at him. “Satisfied?”

“No. I’m . . .” Words failed him.

“What?”

“Furious,” he at last managed to rasp.

She jerked as if she’d been slapped. “I didn’t ask you to soil your vampire hands with my tainted . . .”

“Shut up and listen to me,” he interrupted her.

The very air vibrated the force of her anger. “You’re an idiot if you think I won’t hurt you just because we had sex.”

“We didn’t have sex, we made love.” He cupped her face in his hands, shuddering at the erotic sensation of the water stroking over their nude bodies. He moved close enough that the tips of her breasts brushed his chest. “Or do I need to remind you?”

Her breath caught, the scent of her swift arousal perfuming the air.

“Uriel,” she growled in warning. “Don’t.”

His lips twisted, but he refused to release his grasp on her face. He wouldn’t let her believe he thought she was anything but glorious.

“Kata, what happened between you and the Jinn . . .”

She poked a finger into the center of his chest, her expression stubborn.

“I won’t discuss it.”

“Fair enough,” he swiftly agreed. “Someday you will trust me enough to share your past, but for now you can keep your secrets.”

“Big of you.”

He ignored her sarcasm. “All I care about is the Jinn’s curse. And what he might force me to do.”

Her anger faltered at his blunt confession. With a frown, she lowered her gaze to his scar.

“The demon is dead.” Impossible to know what she felt about the creature’s violent demise. “How do you know that his curse didn’t die with him?”

“Because I can still feel his power.”

“That doesn’t mean the spell remains active.”

“It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” He held her gaze, his expression somber. “Not with you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’re mine.”

Something flared to life deep in her eyes.

Something hot and wild and shockingly primal.

Then, with an obvious surge of panic, she was swiftly trying to disguise her instinctive response.

“So you’ve said, but then you remembered I’m the mother of a Jinn half-breed,” she accused him, her voice brittle.

He shook his head. “No, then I remembered that I couldn’t risk my mate just because I desire you beyond all reason.”