Dark Promises (Dark #29) (20 page)

“Come here.”

She didn't stop. She kept working him. He reached down and caught her under her arms, so close to losing control he was afraid he would fill her mouth when he wanted to fill her body.

“I said, come here,” he snapped, dragging her up his body.

He rolled her under him, caught her thighs and jerked them apart. He took one moment to lean down and take a taste. Her body bucked. She was delicious. His. All of that was his. He shoved her legs over his shoulders, braced himself on his hands and thrust into her. Hard. Deep. Rough.

She was tight, as if he hadn't already stretched and opened her. He could barely force his cock inside her narrow tunnel. He groaned with the effort. With how good the scorching heat was. How great the friction was. Her little mewling cries and ragged breathing added to the fire engulfing him.
He withdrew and her tight muscles grasped and clung, clamped down around him in a stranglehold that felt like heaven.

He looked at her face, the beauty there, all feminine. Soft, perfect skin. Her large eyes, framed with far too long and thick black lashes. Like the silk of her hair. All that hair that he loved feeling against his body.

“This dawn,
kessake
, I want to lie with you in the earth, your head in my lap. Your hair falling across my hips, my cock and my thighs. I want to wake up feeling that, feeling what is mine surrounding me.”

The moment he began speaking, her gaze had jumped to his and clung there. His admitted need fed the fire in her. He knew because he felt the sudden rush of fiery liquid bathing his cock, and saw the hunger in her eyes build all the more.

“You are going to give that to me.” He made it a statement, an order, because he could see that she would. She took his breath. His mind. She was taking his heart. Stealing it a little piece at a time. He didn't want that, not with her, not until he knew she would be faithful to him. Loyal to him.

“Don't,” she said softly. “Please don't. You said not to bring him here with us and you're doing it.”

He realized his hold on her had gone from rough to brutal. His hips had gone savage, driving deep and hard, over and over like a piston. She hadn't fought him or tried to escape; instead, she lifted her hips to meet each thrust, helping him to go even deeper. Her hand touched his face, fingers smoothing the fury from his features.

“Tell me who you belong to,” he bit out between his teeth.

She didn't hesitate. “You, Aleksei. I belong to you.”

“Who do I belong to?” he demanded, his body jolting hers with every deep stroke.

Her eyes softened. Moved over his face. There was a hint of possession in her soft features. A hint that liked where she belonged even if she didn't know it yet. Again she didn't hesitate. “Me. Aleksei, you belong to me.”

His woman was mixed up, but she was willing to be straightened out. He had to let it go. He wasn't the kind of man to let another poaching on his territory go, but it had to be done. He just hadn't figured out how yet. He wanted to kill Gary Daratrazanoff. He wanted to have a few words with the reigning prince about what he should have done and what his mistake
had cost all of them. Most of all he wanted to believe the woman he had his cock buried so deeply in. Surrounding him with heaven.

He took her up fast and hard, keeping his eyes on her face, wanting to watch the helpless pleasure on her face as she came apart. He loved that dazed look in her eyes and he kept moving in her, not allowing her to come down, feeding that fire so one orgasm ran into the next and she turned into his little cat. Writhing. Claws raking, her body demanding. Her hips rising to meet his, her need and hunger etched into her beautiful face. He loved that.
Loved
it.

She gave him her surrender three times, and he watched each time. Feeling it. Satisfaction. Knowing he gave that to her. Knowing the addiction was every bit as strong in her as it was in him. The fourth time he took her up he went with her, allowing the tidal wave consuming her to sweep him along with her. He took her mouth, groaning down her throat, pouring himself into her, feeding his own hunger.

Take my blood. Feed from me.
He needed her mouth on him. More, he wanted her to know she could do that without aid. The hunger was in her. He felt it beating at him. She needed. He provided.

She didn't move. Aleksei lifted his head and looked down at her, his body still hard in hers. Still feeling every afterquake. Every ripple.

Her gaze moved over his face, assessing his mood. “I can't.” She whispered the denial. “I'm sorry. I can't.”

He kissed her. Hard. Wet. Demanding. He kept kissing her until she melted into him again. Until her body clamped down on his and she was kissing him back. He kissed his way down her chin to her throat.

Remember how I tasted? Taste me now, Gabrielle
. He whispered the temptation in her ear, sent it into her mind. Into her body.

Gabrielle closed her eyes against the power in Aleksei's voice. Her body clenched hard around his. He was sin. Pure sin. She could taste him in her mouth.

I belong to you. That taste, kessake, that is all yours. Just yours.

For the first time, she felt the slide of teeth, the sharpness there. She cried out, closing her eyes, shaking her head.

There is no need to be afraid. Give this to me, Gabrielle. I need this from you.

She could hear her heart pounding. She wanted to give him anything
he wanted. She didn't have any other way of pleasing him. Of giving back to him what she'd taken away, but if she did this . . . If she gave this to him she would be giving more of her humanity away. Piece by piece they were taking her until she didn't know who she was anymore. Tears burned behind her eyes. She was so lost. Fear choked her. She needed to scream. To run. To fight. For self-preservation.

“Stop.”

The one word spoken aloud shocked her. His voice was a whip of an order and she realized she was fighting him. She was choking on her own screams. The tears did fall even though she was so certain she had controlled them. Her hands were pinned to the carpet on either side of her head. His body was on hers, covering her, allowing her to feel his full weight and his immense strength. His cock was still buried deep and she felt him like a steel spike, growing even thicker and longer, the dominant in him responding to the fight.

“I'm sorry.”

“Talk to me. Right now, Gabrielle. Give me truth.”

Ohgodohgodohgod.
She had sworn she would tell him the truth. She had
sworn
it. To him. To herself. How could she possibly put this into words he'd understand? She licked her lips. Swallowed hard.

“Give me your eyes and give me the truth.” It was a demand.

“Aleksei.” She whispered his name, a plea, needing to touch him. Needing an anchor. He held her hands down and his face was implacable. His eyes burned into her. Seeing her. Seeing the mess that was her.

“Give me you.”

She shook her head. “You don't understand. There is no more me. I'm so lost I don't know who or what I am anymore. I woke and I was buried in the ground. Like death. You said Carpathians don't dream, but I do. I have that horrible nightmare over and over and I can't get out of it. Humans don't take blood. They don't crave it or need it and yet I do. But if I do this for you, on my own, without your help, there is another piece of me gone and there are already so many pieces gone, I can't find me.”

She felt the tears on her face. She hated admitting how truly screwed up she was to him, but then again, he had the right to know. He knew he wasn't getting a bargain with her. He knew she had forced him so close to
becoming the very thing he'd hunted for centuries. She could barely look at him; her gaze kept sliding away because she was ashamed. She was humiliated. Embarrassed. She wanted him but she didn't. She loved his body, but she didn't know how to give him anything more than sex, and he deserved so much more.

“Keep your eyes on mine.”

“I'm trying.” She gave him that.

“Kislány.”
He released her hands and rolled so that she was on top, sprawled over him, still connected. He brushed at her tears very gently with his thumb. The movement forced his cock deeper into her and she felt her sheath spasm around him.

Her heart turned over at the gentleness from him. At the sound of his voice. That wasn't his
little
cat
endearment. She knew it was more like the human form of
baby
. Or
little girl
. Whatever it was, it caught at her heart.

“No matter how lost you are, I will find you. No matter how many pieces are scattered or lost, I will find them for you and give them back to you one at a time. I am your lifemate. You are safe now, Gabrielle. You will always be safe with me.”

She shook her head. “How can you find me when I don't even know who I am?”

“It does not matter, little one. I have you. You can shatter into a million pieces. You can feel torn apart and lost. I will hold you safe. You cannot go anywhere that I cannot find you. Let go, Gabrielle. Let go of what you cling to. Your body trusts me or you would not be able to fly so high. You ignite for me. When I touch you. When I kiss you. When I take you so hard, so rough, you still trust me. Let go. Give all of you to me, not just your body. I will keep you safe.”

“I don't know if I can, Aleksei,” she whispered, more tears spilling over. “I want to give you everything. I do. I'm not being stubborn. I'm so terrified. I have been my entire life.”

“Tell me the earliest memory of being afraid.”

His voice was too gentle for her to stand. Her heart melted. She didn't want that. She didn't want a connection other than sex. He was too . . .
everything
. He was too dominant. Too scary. Too capable of losing his temper.

She moistened her lips. Her mother had a terrible temper and she threw
tantrums. “I was very young.” She tried to pull up the memory. When had it first started? She had never thought to go back and figure that out. “My mother was very over the top emotionally. She would fly into a rage, kicking, hitting, throwing things, and then five minutes later be laughing and kissing us.”

That was so true. She never knew what mood her mother was going to be in. “Her tantrums never bothered my brother or sister or my father.” She fell silent.

“But they upset you, and that made you feel as if you were wrong to feel afraid.”

She nodded slowly. “When I was really little she got mad at me for breaking one of her favorite vases. I didn't mean to. I was running and I bumped it and one of the pieces cut me. It hurt and I started crying. She was furious and she started throwing things. Breaking them all around me. Glass rained down. I couldn't move. I was so afraid, and I got cut on my arms and my legs and feet. She suddenly snatched me up and ran into the bathroom with me and then my dad was there. I didn't tell him what she did, because he would have smiled, shrugged and said, ‘That's your mother, the drama queen.'”

“O köd belső,”
Aleksei swore. “Your father does not want to meet me. What kind of man allows his woman to behave in such a way? It is no wonder you are afraid of becoming what you are.”

“And you,” she whispered. “You have no problems expressing your anger.”

He stroked his hand over her hair. “Do you think that I would ever harm you? We are fully bonded. I am beyond the temptation of darkness.”

“You're very scary, Aleksei. And you have a temper.” That seemed a mild way to express the fury that could overtake him.

“That is so,” he agreed calmly. “I will definitely get angry over things, and you will learn to be all right with that. What I will
not
do is throw things at you or our children. If you are punished for something, I will make certain in the end, you are all right with your punishment and with me.”

She couldn't help the shiver that went through her body. “Punishment? I'm a grown woman. Men do not punish women anymore. That went out a century or two ago.” She was a little wrong with her math, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to have this man think he could treat her like a child.

He lifted his head toward her ear. His tongue stroked and his teeth caught her earlobe and tugged. “But then I am not a modern man. My lifemate does not run wild nor does she run over me. You are my woman and you have given yourself to me. You will live in my world with me. There will be no more mistakes such as betraying me with another man.”

Gabrielle winced when he delivered the full body blow. She'd tried to make up for her mistake. She had done everything she knew how to do and even forced herself to do things she had no clue about, just to make this man realize she hadn't betrayed him on purpose. She wasn't that kind of person. She tried to sit up, to pull away from him, but his arms locked her to him, preventing movement.

She turned her face away from him. She had no idea what she was doing there. With him. Clearly she didn't belong there, either. She wasn't human. She wasn't Carpathian. She wasn't even fully in her own family—the one she'd been born into. She didn't fit anywhere. The dawn was looking better and better.

He growled. His hand spanned her throat. “Do. Not. Even. Think. That. Not ever.” He bit out each word. Snarled it. His eyes held a kind of fury. “You will fight for our relationship. You gave me your word. Is your word no good? Tell me now. Tell me now and I will end this for both of us.”

She knew she should never have tried to give even a part of herself away to him. If she'd just kept it to sex, she could handle it. She loved sex with him. Not her brain, but her body. She couldn't help it. She melted when he touched or kissed her. But this, this other, she didn't have the strength anymore to keep losing bits and pieces of herself.

Aleksei's fingers tightened around Gabrielle's throat. Her pulse beat into his palm. “Look at me,” he hissed.