More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) (27 page)

“I won’t ever make that mistake again, Katya.”

Her heart beat loud in her ears as she looked into his face. The intensity of those deep amber eyes. That light brown hair hanging to his shoulders. She wanted to believe him, but she had so much to lose. She’d been a girl before, and he’d been whatever she needed him to be, a shadow man to dress up in her fantasies when life wasn’t what she wanted it to be. Losing that illusion had hurt, had forced her to grow up and take responsibility for her own life. Now he was real and important to her. He was her everything. If she lost him this time, she would lose everything.

This time he’d have the power to take it all with him—all of her—and there wouldn’t be enough left to sustain her. As she looked into his glittering amber gaze, a realization rocked through her with enough power to send her hunching forward, fisted hands pressed to her deflating stomach.

She already craved him until she felt raw, until she couldn’t find herself in her overwhelming need for him. Every bit of her was so completely tangled in him that she didn’t know who she was. She’d killed for him. She glanced down, uncurling her fingers. The blood still stained her shaking hands.

Oh God!

It was too late.

The thin cotton hospital shirt hung open over her chest, the hem brushing against the thighs of her blood-encrusted black pants. Stiff clumps of hair hung around her face. Her heart beat so fast and heavy in her ears, she couldn’t hear around it. His amber gaze was the only solid thing she had to cling to as everything around her began to crumble.

Her whole body started to tremble. His was stiff, rooted to the spot as he stared back at her, the skin around his eyes white and taut. Then suddenly he was gone, turned away from her to pace to the window. The muscles in his arms rippled beneath the dark T-shirt he wore as he reached up to brace his arms against the glass, letting his head drop between them. She could clearly see the darkened stain that circled a hole in his shirt where the bullet must have exited his body.

“I fucked up. I know that, Katya. That I never meant to hurt you doesn’t fucking matter. I know that too.” His fists clenched against the glass of the window, the lights of the city rolled out in the darkness beyond. “The fact that you
were
hurt does matter. And you matter to me.”

“Raife.” Her voice sounded strangled even to her own ears as she shook her head. “I understand why you did what you did. I don’t blame –”

“Yes, you do, or I wouldn’t feel your panic like that damn bullet burning a hole in my chest every damn time you feel yourself drawn into the bond. If you didn’t, you would accept this. You would trust me. But you don’t. I can accept that.” He turned his head to glance at her over his broad shoulder, his eyes shadowed. “For now. But…” He let his sentence trail off as he turned, his body liquid with purpose as he stalked her across the carpet.

This time she did back away until her legs bumped against the edge of an overstuffed leather chair. She fell back into it, and he braced himself on the arms, leaning in close until his next words were a hiss of hot breath in her ear.

“But,” he repeated, “I will not fucking accept you putting our lives in danger by denying what we both need.” His tongue was hot and wet as it ringed the sensitive curve of her ear, and real fear sharpened her growing desire. There was something different about him. He was edgier than she’d ever seen him, his determination lethal as he pursued her.

“Raife.” Katya wasn’t sure what she intended to say, could hardly think.

“Whether you acknowledge it right now or not, you belong to me, Katya. And this time I don’t have what it takes to be noble and do what’s best for you. You won’t ever be free of me.”

A tremor rolled through his body, and his eyes flickered before he seemed to gain control again. “I knew it the moment I saw you in that cell. Hell, I think it was too late for either of us twenty years ago when I pulled you from that warehouse. When
I
killed for
you
.” He trailed the backs of his fingers over the peaked tip of one breast, his eyes following the path of his touch.

Katya gasped and jerked beneath him at the feel of those fingers grazing so lightly over her before he pulled his hand away.
Damn.
It was all she could do to stop the plea that filled her throat.

“You’ve always belonged to me. Even your body knows it, kitten.”

Raife’s eyes burned into her, flashed again, as he came to his feet and reached down to grasp a fistful of the destroyed T-shirt stretched over his chest. With a jerk, he ripped it from his body and tossed it away. Katya was drawn to the sight of those marks that stretched across his bare chest. They did something to her, awakened a feral sense of possession and satisfaction. It was frightening. She licked her lips, her tongue grazing the lethal tips of her fangs.

He slapped his palm over the mating marks. “My body knows it. Do you know what these mean to me?” His long fingers slid down the scratches. “We’re connected. Our lives are one and the same.” He leaned down to whisper those next few words into the vulnerable flesh between her shoulder and neck. “If you die, I die.” He bit down.

Katya’s hips jerked at the small pain, the ripples of pleasure rolling relentlessly over her. His hand slipped down between their bodies again, and his fingers brushed her belly as he quickly unfastened her pants and pulled them off her body. Cool air closed in around her bare skin for one brief moment before he dropped to his knees between her legs. The distinct sound of a zipper being lowered filled the silence.

She looked down between them. His large hand was wrapped around the base of his cock, several inches rising thick and dusky from his fist. He guided it to her, and she tensed in anticipation.

The tip seared her folds as he fisted the base and pressed it just past the damp seam between her thighs. “I belong to you, Katya. Every thought, every inch of my body.” His words blew warm and moist into her ear as he slid the silken head of his erection over her clit and pressed just inside her throbbing entrance. “Every drop of blood.”

“Raife.” She shook her head, her gums pulsing with the same beat as her heart. Throbbing in unison with the flesh between her legs. She couldn’t risk his life on her ability to control the hunger. Her ability to control anything right now. “No, I can’t.”

“Yes, you can, baby.” He pressed forward, stretching her, burning her until she felt the edge of his hand where his fingers wrapped around the thick base. It wasn’t enough. She needed more. When he completely withdrew, she cried out, arched her hips, following the searing heat. “I trust you.”

“You…you shouldn’t. I could—Oh!” He thrust just inside her, stretching her, and then pulled away. She reached down to grip his waist in her hands, and he caught them, pulling them over her head.

Katya jerked at her arms to no avail. She’d never seen him this way before. So intense. So demanding.

“You could what, baby? Hurt me?”

“God, yes…” Her mind yearned to merge with his, her body demanded his, and still she rolled her head back and forth in denial even as the words slipped past her lips. Oh God, how she needed. Her entire body shook with it. “What if I can’t control it?”

“Control what? There’s nothing you have to control for me.” Transferring her wrists to one hand, he reached down and slid his shaft through her folds, circling the wide tip so that it rubbed against her swollen tissue. He pressed his chest against hers and slanted his lips over hers, his tongue plunging into her. He withdrew his tongue just as his cock pulled from her body. “I trust you with my life. Just let go, baby. Trust me.”

Understanding infused the dark hunger barreling through her as he leaned forward again, and his tongue thrust past her parted lips to flick over the razor-sharp edge of one fang. That spark of heat flared red-hot through her system as the heady flavor of his blood teased over her tongue, and her body shuddered through a tiny orgasm. He’d purposely sliced his tongue on her fangs. Purposely incited her hunger.

Raife was never going to survive pushing her to the edge, trying to force her to lose that control she clung to tightly. She was so hot he couldn’t risk plunging all the way in, couldn’t risk losing his own control. He gripped the base of his penis hard enough that the tip pulsed furiously. His head felt like it was going to fucking explode, the blood throbbing heavy behind his eyes, and the edges of his vision darkening.

Her body was trembling against his, her mind chaotic, but she was finally beginning to understand. He could see it in her eyes, feel it in her mind. A tiny tendril of fear spiraled up from a hunger that lit every corner of her being. It seared him. As soon as he’d merged his mind with hers, he’d realized exactly how close to the edge she’d been treading. It infuriated and terrified him. Why would she put herself through the gnawing, aching hunger when he would have given her anything she needed? He would give her his last fucking drop of blood to spare her the nearly unbearable agony of that debilitating hunger.

Yet they’d had to bring it to this point. Desperate, he used the one thing he knew she couldn’t deny to get there. The passion that flared between them was exhilarating, undeniable. He turned her body against her. He didn’t fucking care if she was pissed off at him later. He was pissed off at her now.

His fingers tightened convulsively around her slim wrists as he thrust his hips against hers again and then withdrew. Her passion drenched the fingers clutched around his shaft as he slowly circled the tip just inside her grasping entrance and then withdrew again.

Fuck.

Luckily he was already on his knees. As it was, the arm braced against the chair holding her wrists trembled with the effort it took to keep the craving for her leashed. Even his dragon seemed to be held at bay by the torturous pleasure streaking through his balls with every fucking thrust.

“Bite me, kitten. Lose yourself in me. I will take care of you.”

The whimpers she made drove him insane. He could see the flash of gleaming white fangs just past the berry blush of her swollen lips. The sight was arousing. His cock throbbed in his fist. Her hunger and desire flowed from her into him, heavy and overwhelming in her mind. He could feel it, so alive, yet she shook her head, damp tendrils of hair sticking to her flushed cheeks. Denial stained her pleasure.

Damn stubborn woman!

Fine. If this was about who was more determined, then she was going to fucking lose. She’d obviously never listened when it was whispered just how far a Drachon male would go for his mate.

With a growl, he released her. She didn’t lower her arms, and her full breasts rose high in the position. He ripped the medical gown from her, revealing the swollen globes heaving with each gasp that surged through her lungs. She splayed her legs, knees lifted, the flush pink flesh of her was visible. The hunger to taste her there built fiercely in him. He fucking loved the silky slick feel of her on his tongue and the sharp heady taste.

Fuck.

Her pale blue eyes watched him warily, the dark pupils dilated with her hunger, the blood aurora ringing them. The tips of her fangs were just visible beneath her full top lip. “I’m damn tired of you risking yourself.” Before he could succumb to the temptation of her body spread out before him, he stood and kicked off his shoes. She swallowed audibly as he savagely thrust his jeans down his legs and kicked them free.

He easily lifted her and turned her so she was kneeling away from him in the dark leather chair. She made a small sound, a tiny gasp, as he pushed her chest to the back of the chair. A smile lifted his lips. The leather was cool. He’d bet it was a shock to those sensitive breasts.

Stepping back, he perused the position. Her ass was thrust up in the air, and he slid one hand down a pale cheek, digging his fingers into the soft flesh. When his thumb brushed down through the crack of her ass to lightly graze the tiny pucker, she tried to rise with a breathy protest.

Sliding his other hand through the silky, damp mass of hair at her neck, he guided her down to the cushioned back of the chair.
“Stay, kitten.”

The little rosette tightened beneath the pad of his thumb. Fucking sweet. Although tempting, he had other matters to take up with his stubborn mate.

Turning away, he lifted his jeans from the floor and fished out a pocketknife. Glancing back at the trembling yet determined line of her shoulders, he smiled and flicked the knife open with one hand.

He’d just have to push her harder.

Careful to keep the blade away from her beautiful flesh, he stepped up behind her and gripped her hips. The tip of his cock probed the entrance to her body, and he felt her stiffen, the tiny push of her ass into his groin telling.

Bracing himself on his elbows, he raised the blade and slid the gleaming edge over his wrist before tossing it away. The blood immediately rushed to the surface, and Katya’s head lifted sharply. Before she could turn, he drove into her, filling her with one thrust.

Hell, she was so hot and wet, and she rippled around him as her body adjusted to his size. Her smothered whimper made his balls tighten. Inhaling deeply to maintain his control, he slipped one arm under her and across her breasts to grip her opposite shoulder, pinning her back to his chest. Thrusting into her again just to indulge himself in the feeling of her body clenching around him and the sound of her strangled gasp, he held his other wrist up to her face.

Immediately she cried out deep in the recesses of her mind, and her body lunged against the restraining pressure of his arm across her soft breasts. Shit. He promised himself he’d treat himself to those beauties once this was over. Once she’d accepted him.

“Please, Raife, I need…”

Yes, that’s it, baby. End this for both of us.
“What do you need, kitten?”

“I need…” She paused, and he could see her thoughts start to coalesce. He thrust hard into her until she moaned, and her mind fractured into tiny shards of piercing hunger again. Her body shuddered hard, and she shook her head on another moan.