He tugged her into the shadows of a shop. “Promise me. You will never, ever do that again.” He engulfed her in his arms, burying his face into her hair. The musky scent of his leather jacket filled her senses. He always smelled so good.
“Give an autograph?” Her voice shook now that the threat was gone. Like now was a good time for her heart to panic.
He groaned. “No. I almost was not fast enough. That man, Tenorio, he knows what you are. He is the threat I felt last night.”
“What?” she squeaked. She groaned when it hit her with force. Flashes of the last few minutes popped into her thoughts. “He was trying to hypnotize me.”
“Yes,
cara
.”
“Oh, God,” she whimpered. She didn’t argue when he tucked her into his solid chest. “I had no idea.”
“Because you do not expect it, you do not purposely look for it. And not for it to happen to you.”
“I should have known. I knew he didn’t feel right.”
She felt him smile into her hair. “It is not in you to think that way.”
“But how did he know where…I mean, I just wanted to take a walk.”
“He is watching the hotel, honey. If you had been where I left you last night, I would have had a chance to warn you.” She winced imperceptibly at the scolding.
“I know,” she said, her tone apologetic. She tilted her head back and found his pale gaze. “How did you know where I was? I didn’t tell anyone.”
“
Cara
, I always know where you are,” he said as his mouth captured hers.
There was no restraint this time as desire flooded her, exploded from him. Her heart felt like it would burst under the onslaught of his lips, of his tongue as he demanded her surrender, and she gave in to it easily, completely. His lips blazed a trail as flames licked into life on her skin. Her insides turned molten when his hands smoothed down her back, then fisted into her loose hair. Desire grew into a heated ball of need that spread through her stomach and lower.
He groaned deeply, rising from her lips. He let his head rise to rest on the wall of the building. “I am taking you back now. No arguments.” His eyes were closed.
Titania’s fingers glided from the curl of his rich hair to trail a path to his lips. She felt a shudder travel through his great chest at her exploratory torture.
“
Cara
, you cannot do that.” His voice rumbled, it was so low. Her heart jumped when he snagged the tip of her finger between his perfect white teeth.
She drew her hand down his front, splaying her fingers over the strength of his chest. She knew she’d burn down to an ember if he didn’t kiss her again.
She felt the sound as it grew beneath her palm. A growl. A roar. It didn’t matter because his lips were finding hers again, and she was lost.
Diego’s world exploded. His heart raced. His lungs ached. His body burned. And he controlled none of it. Her kiss was the heaven he had always dreamed of, but knew he had been cursed from for eternity. He knew there was no chance of reprieve for them this night. No chance of an interruption, of an irate, suspicious Houston to bring out a Herculean strength to avoid confrontation or discovery.
The need outweighed the reasons. His hunger had outgrown his apprehensions. He held beauty in his arms, unlike any other in his long lifetime.
He had fed quickly on his way to the wharf. That delay was why he had almost been too late. He dared not be around Titania while still suffering from his rising hunger. She was too close to converting as it was. He had not missed the addition of her sunglasses that evening either.
There would have been no one who could control him then. He had no idea how he would have reacted to finding her in danger if he had still been feeling that hunger.
As it was, he had nearly killed Tenorio on sight for even touching his woman. Possessive rage. Jealousy like he’d never tasted had reared its ugly head and bitten down hard. Fear for her once he realized what Tenorio had planned, was going to do to her, engulfed him.
Yes, he admitted it, finally to himself. He had laid complete and total claim to her. She had been his since that first meeting. Without right. Without her knowledge. Without hope. She was his, and he felt no remorse in that fact.
His breath whispered against her sweet, lush mouth. “Hang on.” Within one thought and the next, the wharf was gone and he marched down the hotel hall.
Diego knew as he carried her to her room that he should turn away, but his reasons were gone. She deserved the whole truth. He did not blink as he opened her door with a whispered command, securing the locks with no more than a thought, with the warmth of her body still pressed against him. He was a living, breathing flame beneath her trusting touch.
Her lips were a soft petal pink, her skin flushed with desire, her heart beating wildly. He had forced himself to leave her side more than once, although his hunger for this one woman raged through him. It had not ceased since their first kiss.
She pressed herself into his hold when her feet touched solid ground beneath them, her curves molding to him deliciously. He loved the way her hair slid through his fingers, weaving them through the dark mass, absorbing the heat of her into his body.
His lips trailed along her jaw to settle near her ear, her scent filling his mind, his every nerve, until he crackled like a live wire filled with want. He pressed his forehead to hers.
“Titania. Tell me now, tell me no, and I will leave.”
Please,
he silently begged. He had left the last of his strength on the wharf. Even recriminations did not hold enough power to stop him.
Her blue eyes were bright with an untapped passion when he searched her face. Her features shined in the moonlight passing through the open curtains. She was so beautiful to him. His heart beat with a wild rhythm, all the while feelings he had forgotten tore through him: possessiveness, tenderness, enjoyment in another’s voice, in her touch. His world was flying apart, shattering, and even as it frightened him, his desire to answer the call of her darkening gaze was not ignorable.
His hands shook when he cradled her face. His voice was gone, all the promises he wanted to make to alleviate fears unsaid. He was lost in the darkened need of her eyes.
Sweet lips molded to his when he lowered to them, caressing, brushing with tenderness. An unknown urge to lay his mark, to announce his claim for her, was rising, becoming a heated brand on his thoughts. He knew she was innocent, but she accepted him. She trusted him. That stunned his brain, freezing him for the merest slice of time.
How could she trust death? He had ruined her life! But even that was a fleeting reprimand with her hands roaming over his body, eradicating thought completely. Diego delved between the sweet shape of her lips, feeling her arms wrap around him. Her body fit perfectly with his. He knew it in a way that seemed inarguable. Somehow, this one woman had been made for him.
He forced himself to move slowly, to savor every caress, every whispered breath. He slid fingers down her arms, felt her answering shiver, heard the racing of her heart. His touch gentled more as he began to slide her shirt up, pulling it away.
All he could do was stare. Soft, pale globes of flesh encased in red satin. “My favorite color,” he praised. “Beautiful,
cara
.” He dipped his head and graced each with a slow, moving kiss. Her arms found him, clinging tightly.
He lowered and braced an arm under her knees, finding her mouth as he lifted her. Like a precious treasure, he laid her on the bed, simply looking at the beauty he had been granted. He stretched out with her, his fingers following the curve of her shoulder and down her body to trail away gently on her thigh.
He thrilled at her sigh of surrender, which turned into a heated moan when he lowered his head to tease the hard peak of one nipple between tender teeth. He maneuvered his hand behind her and removed her bra, letting it slide down her arms to be tossed away. He groaned, finding the lusciousness of her body exposed to him.
There were no words to describe what was happening inside him, what he felt. So he told her with his touch, his lips, his gaze. Lush, kiss-pinked lips curved in answer. She knew. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew she was in his thoughts, entrenched, as he was in hers. She would always know.
He kissed a trail from her jaw to the valley of her breasts, inhaling her fragrance, her body like the garden she was to his senses. Soft, flushed skin, her lush hair, the call of her feminine scent. Diego absorbed it all.
He painted languid kisses to her breasts, their fullness fitting perfectly into his touch. She writhed and moaned when he drew one hard tip into the damp heat of his mouth. Keening sounds of passion were growing with each caress.
He pressed a palm against her center, and she tensed. “I need to see you. All of you.” She relaxed as he nipped at her stomach, muscles jumping once when he found her belly button. His touch was as slow as he could make it, fighting the growing urgency to make her his. The need was a growing, burning thing, crawling through him.
Jeans slid away, the red strip of cloth that covered her center insignificant as it disappeared with a single pull. He swallowed as he gazed upon her, lying trusting beneath his touch.
“I do not deserve you.” Her eyes glowed for him, sexy, dark, and heady in the moon’s glow through the hotel window.
Her hands gripped the bed sheets when he let his mouth move again, when he delicately probed her heat with his tongue. He was bathed in the feeling of her trust, the newness arcing all around her with brilliant, electric color, without a taint of fear anywhere.
For the first time in centuries, during a life of loneliness and solitude that had known no bounds, he forgot he was cursed. Forgot everything except that he was a man and she was a woman whom he desperately needed as he sought her pleasure.
Her touch was tentative, but growing surer as hungers rose and her needs became unbearable, desiring. Clothes disappeared with a thought.
Lightning arced between them as he rose above her, his fingers tracing the delicate shape of her hips, of her breasts, until he lay cradled between her thighs. He clenched his teeth as blinding ecstasy surged through him, her wet heat beckoning. He found her mouth, then found his home as he possessed her. He swallowed her sharp cry, absorbing the pain. She was his.
His movements were slow, building her up again. Nails raked his sides as passion flared through her to engulf him. He tasted her skin with his tongue. Heat consumed them.
Hunger like he’d never felt knifed through him, clawed at him. A taste. Just a taste of her. He gritted his teeth, fought against it. He could not endanger her.
He thrust deeper, fighting the call, needing to feel her to keep him grounded as wave after wave of rapture flowed from her, enveloping him in her joy. Sharp need sliced through his bliss, becoming stronger the harder he tried to deny it. The pressure grew, a white-hot hunger demanding fulfillment.
His lips flowed over the gentle slope of her jaw, his tongue traveling feminine features, finding every trace of her sensual heat. She arched immediately into the sensation, throwing her head back in invitation. She called to him. Deep. Primal.
He could smell the sweet call of blood, felt the raging way it pulsed through her body, heard the staccato pulsating of her heart. Hot. Needy. Hungry. His lips glided down her throat, and she moaned in answer. She accepted his need as a part of him. He couldn’t deny himself any longer.
Reason was gone. There was only Titania. There was only need. He
needed
to taste, to savor. To claim. She shivered when he caressed her skin, his tongue stroking sensually against her pulse. She whimpered once in answer, in acceptance. Incisors exploded into his mouth. For the first time in his dark life, when his teeth sank deep, he left his mark, branding her for eternity.
Ecstasy. Sweet divinity. His mind filled with radiant color. Lightning seared him, wrapped around him. Her taste was like no other. Hot, sweet, addictive. She poured into him, filled him, filled the aching, empty void of his soul as he devoured her. Pleasure like he’d never known sped through his body, through his mind. He thrust deeper, filling her, feeling her release as her body moved with his.
He closed the narrow wounds with a tender caress, gripping her closer when she cried out, barely able to restrain the glory of the moment from exploding from his body. He shattered into a kaleidoscope of colors, yelling her name.
Her breathing was ragged while he cradled her in his arms, pressing his face to her skin, bracing his weight off her slimmer body. A languorous feeling he had never experienced stole through him.
For the first time ever, his insatiable needs, his burning hunger, was sated. His insides were not clawing apart with thirst. He felt completely at peace.
Aftershocks traveled up and down her delicate frame, soft moans, sliding from between kiss-swollen lips. His scent mingled with hers, the mixture of sex and first blood blended strongly on his senses, in the room.
Something had been different from the very beginning. He was powerless to fight destiny. Others would look for her specifically now that she had been claimed. She was an oddity, a miracle. And Brakka was out there, waiting. He had essentially put a
do not touch, trespassers will be destroyed
sign on her. He knew she was not a stay inside kind of woman. That thought terrified him.
Guilt slammed into him anew. He had stolen so much from her. Her freedom, her career. She could not possibly continue with her life at risk for each appearance. She was going to hate him. There was no doubt.
Fingers ghosted across his shoulder. “What is it?” Her voice was seductive, husky with sated desire. He could not believe when his body reacted to it. After so long without a soul to match his, he was beginning to understand what a miracle she was to him.
He rose on his elbows, looking down at her beautiful face. His fingers automatically found the warm richness of her hair, spread like a thick, black blanket around them. “I will not let you go. Not now, not ever. It is bound to cause problems.”
Dazzling eyes stared into his. “Like Houston?”
He brushed a kiss across each lid. “He is only one. I knew when I found you that things were going to happen. I did not know how.”
She studied him. “You’re not telling me everything, are you?” Her fingers traced his mouth. He smiled, kissing each fingertip. She really liked his mouth.
He slid from above her, keeping her cradled, his legs imprisoning her. Keeping her close, he rolled until he lay on his back and she covered his chest. “No. Not yet. I do not know how,” he admitted. “But we will work through this.”
I will always protect what is mine,
he silently vowed.
His eyes drifted closed, and the delicate touch of a hand roamed over his brow. “Whatever it is, it can’t be as bad as I feel you worrying over.”