Dark Peril (50 page)

“This makes no sense, Solange.”

The conversion was always painful, some less than others, but still difficult. Her jaguar should be reacting adversely, but instead she looked at him sleepily and yawned. Solange shifted back, laughing. “She’s annoyed at me for disturbing her. She’s not at all upset with the first blood exchange—in fact, she likes it. She feels stronger and faster.” The laughter faded from her eyes and anxiety crept back in. “Check your body, Dominic. Maybe my blood is doing something to you.”

There was worry in her voice. He was already assessing his body. His hearing, like hers, seemed more acute, although he’d automatically turned down the volume. His night vision was just a little bit clearer. He didn’t feel the sun’s warning on his skin, and his body, although heavy, hadn’t gone leaden as it should have.

“
Minan
, I can detect no harm done to me. I am still fully Carpathian. Our blood does not mix. Mine does not take over yours; rather, the two strains connect. It is odd.” He sighed, frowning a little. “We know that your blood can remove any spell cast with the blood sacrifice of black magic, and it heals damage done by black magic, but I do not understand why, when I give you my blood, the cells seem mated, yet one does not take over the other.”

“I feel the worry in you.”

“I do not like anything I do not understand. It makes no sense that I can move now or that I do not feel the warning prickling beneath my skin that tells me the sun is high.”

“I actually feel rejuvenated,” Solange admitted. “I was looking forward to another blood exchange, but if you think my blood is somehow affecting you adversely, I suppose we shouldn’t try another until we figure out what is going on.”

The wistful note in her voice touched his heart. She was fully committed to him, to the Carpathian way of life. Her one fear—her jaguar—was taking the whole conversion process in stride as if nothing at all was happening. Did he dare try to bring Solange more fully into his world? Yet even as he wondered, his hand was already, of its own volition, curling around the nape of her neck, drawing her to him. He craved the essence of her, pure Solange, the taste and rush unlike any other. She was an addiction he would never get over, the craving for her deep in his bones and seared irrevocably into his heart.

She shook her head. “Not yet. First go up to the cavern floor and see if your alarm system works from there,” she insisted.

Heat flared. His Solange. Protecting him again, this time from himself, from his own needs. He floated easily toward the surface. Nearing the cavern floor, he began to feel the uneasiness of a Carpathian when the sun was high in the sky. The sensation wasn’t particularly strong, but the warning was there. He realized his strength was waning, his hovering body beginning to feel clumsy and foreign. Deep inside the earth, he was able to move with a Carpathian’s fluid grace even though the sun was high. But the closer to the surface he rose, or perhaps the longer he remained awake during the day, he was losing strength. He returned to Solange.

“If your blood is doing anything to me, it is allowing me to be alert during the day. I have no problems with that.”

His smile dispelled the anxiousness in her eyes. She returned his smile and leaned into him in a blatant invitation. “Then we should keep going. Take my blood, Dominic. Bring me closer to your world.”

His heart leapt. More than anything he wanted her to be part of his world. He wanted many lifetimes with her, not just one. He had gone so long without anyone, and now that he’d found her, he didn’t want to give her up so fast. More important, she’d never had joy in her life, and he wanted centuries to give her as much joy as possible. “You are certain, Solange?” he whispered, nuzzling her neck. He kissed his way down to the swell of her breasts.

She arched into him, her body soft and pliant. “I think we should give it a second chance. My jaguar is sleepy and annoyed that I keep asking if she is all right. She would have protested if she was hurt.” Her arms crept around his neck and she pressed her body to his.

He loved how she did that—gave herself to him without reservation.
Solange.
He whispered her name, shocked at the overwhelming love pouring through him. He sank his teeth into her tempting pulse. She cried out, a breathy little sound that sent a lash of erotic heat rushing through his body. He swept his tongue over that sweet spot and sank his teeth deep.

Her entire body shuddered. He felt the ripples starting deep in her core and spreading like a wildfire throughout her body. Her hot, sweet nectar poured into him, filling his cells with crackling energy. He fed, devouring her, taking her very life force into his body, feasting until her moan snapped him from the enthrallment. He swept his tongue across the pinpricks and, gently repositioning her, opened a line in his chest for her. He cradled her head, encouraging her, his body already shuddering with the need to feel her feeding.

Again she was tentative, but his Carpathian blood had made some changes in her. This time she licked at him with languid, sensual sweeps of her tongue. She lapped like the cat she was. Each stroke of her tongue sent shimmering fire dancing through his veins. Her mouth opened, moved over his chest, her lips soft and tender. She bit down and his entire body tightened, the rush close to an orgasm. Her teeth had extended enough to take his blood in the way Carpathians were meant to. She didn’t seem to notice, her mind hazing with passion.

It was difficult for him to give up the amazing, sensual experience of his lifemate exchanging blood, but his strength was definitely waning. When she had taken enough blood for a true exchange, he pressed his hand to her mouth and she instantly pulled back, lapping again with her tongue. He had to close the wound, but he discovered the edges were already seamlessly repairing themselves.

He kissed her again with passionate thoroughness and took her back to earth with him, tucking the comforter around her, watching carefully for signs of distress. She pulled the comforter closer around her and fell to sleep long before he allowed himself to follow suit.

Dominic woke before Solange, determined to check her health. She lay sprawled across him, her legs over his thighs, beneath the blanket of rich earth. The comforter was bunched in her hand to the side of her, but sometime during their sleep she had burrowed instinctively beneath the soil. The dark loam covered her nearly to her neck. He took that as a good sign.

The moon was high; he felt the welcoming beams even below the earth as he did each rising. He allowed himself a brief sigh of relief. That hadn’t changed. His body was completely tuned to the night. He could hear insects and even the soft rustle of mice. Outside the cave, something splashed in the stream. The kitten gave a small mewling sigh in its compulsion-induced sleep.

Dominic lay still, aware Solange had spent a lifetime in danger. She would know if he moved. He barely allowed his breath to rise and fall in his lungs as he left his body to examine hers. There were far more Carpathian cells attached to her cells now than there had been prior to their last exchange. The change was also more pronounced now. Organs were definitely reshaping. He was both satisfied and afraid. He needed to find her jaguar. So far, Solange had not experienced any discomfort and neither had her cat.

Her jaguar was completely intact, although when he studied her carefully, the organs she shared with Solange were reshaping as well. His heart beat harder, just for a moment, at his finding. The change in his rhythm was enough to awaken Solange. She was fully alert in moments, lifting her head, eyes moving quickly around them to search out any threat.

“What is it?”

“We are safe, Solange. I woke a little early to make certain you were suffering no adverse effects.” He waved his hand to clean them both before she could really process that she’d been sleeping
under
a blanket of soil.

Solange nuzzled his chest, inhaling his scent. “I love how you smell, Dominic.” She gazed up at him and smiled. “There are definite advantages to being Carpathian.”

His fingers tangled in her hair. She looked at him with stars in her eyes. He found it amazing to have a woman look at him as if he were her entire world. And maybe he was—she certainly was his.

She stroked a hand over his chest, pleasure showing openly on her face at the simple act of touching him. “Did you check to make certain my blood wasn’t doing anything freaky to you?”

He laughed softly, already caught in her spell. “Our blood together is doing something a little freaky, but I am still fully Carpathian. And your jaguar still seems to be wholly jaguar.”

“Then really, there’s no reason to wait, is there?” she asked.

He shook his head. “We should be cautious, Solange. I do not want to rush you into a decision you may regret.”

Solange sprawled across his thighs, her hair spreading like so much silk over his skin, one hand caressing the velvet sac between his legs. She propped her chin on his thigh, mouth inches from his burgeoning cock.

“I feel incredible.”

As she spoke he could feel the warmth of her breath teasing the head of his cock. It jerked in anticipation. She leaned a little closer and licked from the base of his shaft to the very sensitive spot just beneath the broad head. Every nerve ending went on alert. His entire body shuddered. He had fantasized about waking up to her mouth on him, but the reality far exceeded his fantasy.

“I see no reason not to finish the conversion, Dominic.” She licked up his long shaft a second time, engulfed the entire head for one long, heart-stopping moment, and then pulled back. “I feel great. You do, too. I think we should just make the exchange and see what happens.”

He swallowed hard, watching her every movement. She was going to seduce him into getting anything she wanted and right now, it looked as though she wanted him.

I do. I do want you so very much.

Her cat’s eyes gleamed a deep emerald green as she took him deep inside the scalding heat of her mouth. He lay back, savoring the feel of her soft mouth. She formed a tight ring with her index finger and thumb as she drew him deep, pulled back to balance him on her full lips and then completely engulfed him again.

His breath exploded out of his lungs. He tangled his fingers in her hair. “I could wake up to this forever.” As seductions went, she found the way to get anything she wanted.

That’s what I’m trying to say here. This would be a great way to start every rising for the next few centuries.

Her tongue stroked and teased, curling along the underside of the head. His hips bucked as she took him deeper with each stroke. He could already feel the explosion building. It was amazing how quickly she’d learned how to please him with an expertise he could hardly believe. She watched him with such intensity, paying complete attention to his every gasp and groan, learning from every reaction how best to drive him wild.

And she was an incredibly quick study.

“Solange . . . oh, God.” He nearly exploded when she began humming, the sound vibrating through his cock and spreading heat through his veins.

I love how this makes you feel,
she purred in his mind.
I love your scent, how soft your skin is here. Like velvet.

His stomach muscles bunched as her fingernails lightly scraped along his sac and her fingers stroked and caressed, rolling the velvety balls very gently. She was good at detail, and very focused on his pleasure. Searing fire spread through his body and took his breath.

She began to move her head to the rhythm of his hips, taking him deeper, constricting him tightly before allowing his cock to slide along the velvet rasp of her tongue. He bunched her hair in tight fists, and pushed her head down, closing his eyes as her throat opened.

“You are so beautiful, Solange. So incredibly sexy. Oh, God, that’s right,
minan
, I love when you do that with your tongue.”

You make me feel sexy.

He loved the confidence in her voice. The hunger in her, the way she enjoyed what she was doing, wanting his pleasure, learning every hot spot, using her knowledge to push him beyond his control—it all made him hotter than ever. He filled her mouth, eyes half-closed now, watching, her hair bunched in his fists, holding her while his hips thrust in and out, stretching her lips, each surge taking him farther into the hot, constricting depths.

As if reading his mind—and she probably was—she began to suck harder as he tugged her closer. His cock swelled and pulsed with wild need. Her mouth tightened around him as the quick, hard thrusts penetrated deeper. She drew each breath fast as he pulled out. He held each thrust for a longer period of time in her hot, wet mouth, the fire racing through him. He could feel his body drawing tight.

She moaned, and the sound vibrated straight through his heavy erection, sending the fire racing through his body. He realized he was pulling on her scalp, yet she was on the edge of her own orgasm, the bite of pain only adding to her drenching desire. His cock tightened, burned. He thrust hard and deep. The explosion seemed to start in his toes and rocket through his body as he emptied himself in her.