Part 10 (1/2)

The golden fire of him suddenly burned a deep russet, almost the color of her hair. In some elemental way, she recognized that he was blus.h.i.+ng. Feeling her compliment to his very core.

Kelsey. He sighed, but said nothing more. Lovely, lovely. Human beautiful. Strange.

As with the first night, she realized that to keep his true form, he had to sacrifice his facility with human language. So she chose to stand before him, as quiet as she felt him to be, and gaze upon him, watching the reddish hue morph back to the recognizable blaze of fire. Reaching out one hand, she wanted to touch him, but again like the first night, he admonished her: No touch!

Why was he always so adamant that she not touch him? Maybe he was, in some way, like that stone that he wore, capable of blistering her with a single touch.

She held her palms out to him, opening them. ”Then touch me, Jared. You touch me... like that other time.

When we... well, when we made the bond, like you said. I want to feel that bonding again.”

Her eyes were closed against his wildness, but she sensed him whispering within her soul at that moment. Some sort of promise, or a.s.surance, or pledge. She didn't think to question it, because at that precise moment, the low burn began-just as it had that first night between them- winding its way up her legs, parting her thighs, searing her until her lips opened with a quiet oh sound of pleasure. The closer he pressed within her, the more she could feel his memories. She saw unearthly sunsets and flashes of people in his life-dark-haired men and women and his beautiful cousin. Then she saw, oddly enough, an image of herself.

Now he's in my heart, she realized, feeling him burrow in, his soul pus.h.i.+ng upon hers. Her nipples grew erect within her bra, pressing against the thin silk. He eased farther apart from her, careening toward the far side of the room, but she understood somehow that he wished her to lie down on the large throw pillows. A single alien word whispered through her consciousness. Instinctively she knew its meaning: Open.

”Open?” she repeated. ”Open what?

Then she felt him tease her, coaxing her open. Her soul, her body. She arched beneath the seduction, lifting her hips, her eyes drifting closed again. One by one, she un-snapped the b.u.t.tons of her sweater until it fell open for him, revealing her human body. She stripped out of her bra, and he sighed across her skin-all the while keeping his distance on the other side of the room.

Sitting up, she managed to open her eyes and stare at him, and without ever allowing her gaze to waver, she slipped out of her jeans until she stood before her lover in nothing more than her panties.

He whispered a few words within her spirit, then her name, which sounded a bit like ”Kelsha.”

Down! he urged. Pillows.

So she obeyed, spreading across the silken throw pillows, flat on her back. At that precise moment he moved, now hovering directly over her against the ceiling. His fire overtook her in the s.p.a.ce of a single heartbeat, snaking across her abdomen, coiling about her loins and tightening. She bucked her hips upward, crying out loudly. His fiery fingers reached between her legs, inside, touching, caressing, working their way to the very center of her being.

She couldn't breathe; couldn't think. There was just so much of him, all inside of her, and she couldn't stop shaking, her entire body shuddering. ”More!” she cried, bunching silk within her hands, her back arching. ”Jared, more!”

And he obviously sensed her longing, moving quickly apart from her-no longer hovering over her body. From across the room, even with her eyes closed, she knew he was s.h.i.+fting again, closing the distance that separated them with one quick stride. ”Kelsey,” he moaned, falling upon her. ”Kelsey, Kelsey.”

His body was hot to the touch, burning her fingertips as she ran them over his strong, muscled shoulders, his dark forearms.

For a moment, he tugged at her underwear, scowling in deep and obvious consternation. A low growl rumbled from his chest, something primitive that she welcomed from him. Taking one fingertip, he used his power to separate her from the silken material.

”This... patch,” he observed, stroking the silken red hair that graced the area between her legs. ”It is red. But blond some, too.”

”You've never been with a redhead, I take it.” She gasped. His eyes lifted to hers, mischievous with desire, and he teased his fingers through the thatch of auburn curls that had caught his fancy, dipping his fingers into her wet warmth.

With a satisfied, slow smile, he told her, ”I like red. Everyone knows this.” In response, she s.h.i.+mmied back against the pillows. ”Yes,” he said, pressing a burning kiss against her abdomen. ”I definitely like red.”

”And I like you out of those jeans,” she shot back.

Glancing down with sudden self-consciousness, he seemed almost surprised to discover himself still dressed. With a flick of his wrist, he unsnapped the Levi's and snaked right out of them until he stood before her in all of his glorious naked form. Wow, so the alien warrior goes commando? Good to know.

”You are quite naughty, human.”

”How could you hear that?”

Pressing his long, sinewy body on top of her smaller one, he nuzzled her, slipping right between her legs. Because I could, he answered with a heady little sound inside her soul.

”Is this because we are bound?” she managed to pant into his ear. ”Because we're tied together, like you said?”

”No, Kelsey,” he whispered, pulling her back into the pillows, spread like an offering to the king. ”It is not because we are bound,” he managed to groan, desire and heat reaching a mad crescendo inside his body. He would do anything to take this human, anything to mate with her, anything to satisfy this pulsing intensity that the. bond had created in his Refarian bloodstream. It is far more than the bond, he told himself. It is Kelsey-you have fallen for the human. You feel love.

With that inner admission came another. He could no longer hold back: He would bed' her tonight, no matter the cost. Even if such a joining would mean they could not go back, could not reverse the bond that had been formed.

”Then why, Jared?” She gasped as he pushed between her legs. ”Why can we not stop these feelings? This fire?”

”Because, sweet Kelsey.” He sighed, knowing that his next words would be true, once they had completed what they'd already begun a week ago. ”We are more than bond-mates,” he said. ”A bond is beautiful, powerful. Special. Sacred. But this is more.”

”What more is it?” she asked, breathless.

”I believe we are destined,” he whispered in her ear. ”I wish you for my lifemate.”

Oh, my goodness. Kelsey drew in a breath as he pushed against her opening like sculpted stone sheathed in silk.

For long seconds he hesitated, hovered there, pushed a bit, pulled back. ”Jared!” she cried aloud, clutching at his broad, shoulders.

Drawing in ragged breaths, he stared down into her eyes. ”We'll never have this moment again,” he told her huskily. ”Never can we go back.”

”I don't think I want to,” she said, stroking his hair, his shoulders, needing all of him.

Sucking in gulps of air, he worked to steady himself, then, cupping her face, whispered, ”Until we seal our bond, it can be broken, sweet Kelsey. Do you understand? After, we are bound forever. If we cross this boundary, if we take this step-”

She pressed her fingertips against his lips, silencing him. ”Then we become lifemates. Don't we?”

He nodded, closing his eyes. ”You speak truth,” he whispered, swallowing. ”And perhaps we should wait. Too fast, too soon.”

”I won't wait,” she insisted, clasping his hips and urging him onward, feeling something strange boil in her blood. Something that she understood was the very alien compulsion to mate.

”Yes, love.” He sighed, and then did something unexpected. He whispered a line of poetry into her ear, something about changing states with kings. Shakespeare! she realized with a giddy laugh. ”Yes again, my love,” he purred, and then, without another word, plunged deep inside of her.

At first they rocked quietly together; then they intensified their motions, crying out, pus.h.i.+ng, chasing each other's need to the very brink of ecstasy; later, as they neared the end, they couldn't stop cradling each other's faces, showering each other with sweet kisses. But neither spoke a word; neither wanted to communicate that way. Jared began to feel Kelsey's soul; imperceptible at first, the softest brus.h.i.+ng of hers against his-but then the sensations intensified until he lost himself in it, seeing the beautiful purples and crimsons of her energy. Drinking in her scent, drawing it deep into his lungs with every thrust he made into her human body.

At last, he could no longer hold back-and judging by the way she moaned beneath him, she didn't want him to. He allowed the bond between them to finally roar to life- allowed it to solidify hard within his chest as it took root forever. Alien bound to human. He belonged to Kelsey Wells. For the first time in his adult life, the solemn, lone warrior no longer stood on his own.

Afterward, they stepped silently into his bath and he drew warm water for them in his large, claw-foot bathtub. Sliding in after him, she slipped backward against him, sated and drowsy in his strong arms. Neither seemed to want to speak at first, seemed only to require the quiet. She nestled back against him, and he took the large sea sponge and began using it along her arms, stroking her with it.

”Jared, I have a question,” she asked after a time, startling him.

”Yes, love.”

”How is it that you're two people at once?” she asked, and his throat constricted. Did she still wonder about him? It was too late for fear or doubt, he wanted to tell her, but he had said that before they made love. Very carefully, he framed his answer.

”I am Refarian. I am also of the House of D'Aravni. That is my royal line, and I am the last,” he explained hoa.r.s.ely. ”The being you saw at the lake-in this bedroom tonight? That is one self. The man who holds you now is the other. There is a duality, you see.”