His palm cupped her breast and she felt his touch on bare skin. That didn’t make sense because she wore clothes… didn’t she? She couldn’t think. Only feel. Her body was a living flame of terrible brutal need.

“Please.” She whispered her plea, never wanting him to stop. Needing more. Needing him. She felt empty without him. Desperate for him. Still in a dream. A hazy, wonderful, beautiful dreamworld. In it, she could do anything, including have this beautiful man for herself.

The connection between them was real. Strong. Compelling. Her body was on fire, his fingers finding her nipples, first one, then the other, tugging and rolling, pinching hard and then stroking gently, keeping her off-balance so that need only climbed higher. The flames burned out of control. A firestorm of sheer desperation.

Then his tongue swept over his brand on her, a soothing stroke to counter the erotic pain of his bite. He turned her into him, guiding her with the back of her head in his palm. His chest, that amazing, defined muscled chest was bare to her touch. To her lips. He pressed her close while one hand came up between them. His finger stroked a line above his heart and for a moment her breath caught in her throat. She could see little ruby beads there.

“For you. Dare to be with me; dare to enter my world and stay with me. I have waited so long for you, sielamet.”

His soul. She loved that. She let him press her face to his chest. She nuzzled all that hot skin. Felt his strength. Tasted a ruby drop. It tasted like ambrosia. Nectar. A spicy, heady potion made just for her. Once her tongue had taken that single drop into her mouth, it set up a craving. His hand pressed her head closer and she took the invitation, her mouth feeding at those drops. Her hands moving over his chest, dropping lower to find his heavy, thick cock so perfectly erect. So ready for her. Her fingers closed around him, thumb sliding through the droplets there, smearing so she could begin a lazy slide with her fist while her mouth took more of his offering.

He groaned. So sexy. Her body clenched with need. His voice whispered to her, not aloud, but in her mind, more intimate than ever. “Te élidet ainaak pide minan. Te avio päläfertiilam. Ainaak sívamet jutta oleny. Ainaak terád vigyázak. Your life will be placed above my own for all time. You are my lifemate. You are bound to me for all eternity. You are always in my care.”

5

Charlotte cried out when Tariq’s fingers stroked low and sinful, building her need beyond anything she had ever known. One hand gently inserted itself between her mouth and his chest; the other pulled at her hair, forcing her head up. He swept his finger across the line on his defined muscles and the ruby drops disappeared. Her head was held in position so that she stared into his blazing eyes. He appeared pure predator. Pure male. His hands cupped the bare cheeks of her bottom and he lifted her easily, his gaze holding her captive, refusing to allow her to look away from him.

God. God. Those eyes. So incredible. The color was like gemstones, that bright and pure. And then they would blaze with power, or like now, with lust. With possession. She loved that look. No man had ever looked at her as if she were the only woman on earth. The one woman who was his beginning and end. She could barely breathe watching that expression in his eyes deepen. He focused solely on her – as if she were the world. She wanted to stare into his eyes for an eternity. Lost. Cared for.

“Wrap your legs around my waist and lock your ankles.”

Tariq issued the order in his low, commanding voice. The one she couldn’t resist. Velvet soft. A little rough, but sexy rough. His voice made her shiver, sent her stomach rolling in a series of somersaults. Deep inside she was wet, needy. Totally desperate, and in that moment she would have done anything he asked.

She did as she was told, her hands at his shoulders, fingers biting deep. His hands moved to her hips, and he backed her against a table. She wasn’t certain where she was. Not the hall. Hadn’t she just been in a hallway with him? For one moment, she tried to look around her. What was she doing? Where was she? Where was everyone else?

“Charlotte.”

He whispered her name, low, commanding, and her gaze jumped back to his. She had the sensation of falling into his eyes. He mesmerized her with that look. A dark sorcerer holding her captive with his spell, and she didn’t ever want to escape. She felt the cool wood on her heated skin as he laid her back on the narrow table, her hips controlled entirely by him, and everything went out of her head again. Every sane thought until there was only Tariq and his incredible eyes, his voice and that perfect, gorgeous body.

“I cannot be gentle, sielamet, not this time, but I will make it good for you.”

She didn’t care. Couldn’t care. She needed. Craved. Was burning up without him. He had to hurry. And she told him. Whispering. Pleading. “Hurry. You have to be inside me.” There was no other place for him to be. He belonged with her. Inside her. That rough, sexy voice he used only pushed her need higher. Added an edge to the terrible hunger consuming her.

“Say my name,” he ordered. His voice whispered over her skin, causing goose bumps to rise. “Know who your lifemate is.”

She had no idea what a lifemate was, but she wanted to be that for him. She wanted to be anything he wanted. Her nipples were twin tight peaks, her breasts aching and swollen with need. Deep inside tension coiled tighter and tighter.

“I’m your man. Say it, Charlotte Vintage. Say you belong to me and that I belong to you.” His rough voice had dropped an octave until it was almost harsh, yet it still carried that sexy, velvet sound that triggered something deep inside her – a need, a hunger – to be with him. To do anything for him. To be whatever he needed.

She would have said anything to get him inside her, so claiming him wasn’t in the least difficult. She wanted that. Wanted him to be hers. “Please hurry, Tariq. I belong to Tariq Asenguard, and he definitely belongs to me.” He did belong to her. She felt the truth of that with every ragged breath she took.

He took her hard. Brutally. One desperate stroke filling her, pushing ruthlessly through tight, scorching-hot muscles, tearing through the thin barrier to fill her with his thick, hard cock. Filling her completely. Stretching her. Burning. A blazing hot stroke of pure erotic pain and pleasure.

She heard herself scream and it was a mixture of shock, pain, and so much pleasure she hadn’t known a woman could feel such a thing. Every nerve ending sizzled with pure fire. And then he was planted in her. Deep. Pulsing. She could feel his heartbeat through his cock, on the walls of her vagina as he waited, taking a breath, giving her time to adjust.