Dark Promises(60)

He murmured something she didn’t understand, something in that language he uttered before telling her what it meant. This time there was no explanation, but she found herself licking along his chest, right over his heart. She tasted his skin. Tasted his pulse. Then she tasted him. Hot. Spicy. Addicting, just as he’d said she’d been. His hand cupped the back of her head, holding her to his chest, her mouth moving against him, drawing out the perfect blend that acted on her like an aphrodisiac.

Her body moved restlessly against his. His free hand moved down her back, into her hair, over her hips. Every place he touched went liquid so that she felt as if her bones melted right into him.

Sívamet kuuluak kaik että a ted. I take into my keeping the same that is yours.

Oh. Wow. He was taking her body into his keeping. She liked the sound of that. In her dreams, of course. In reality, she would run screaming for the hills, or try to shoot him again with her vampire-stake gun. Because . . . really . . . he couldn’t know she was practically a virgin at her age. How utterly humiliating.

Hän sívamak.

His voice was so sensual, when he whispered the words into her mind she felt beautiful and sexy. She felt his. She didn’t even know what it meant, but she knew it was something he called her and it was an endearment of some kind.

You are avio päläfertiilam, my lifemate. There is no need ever for embarrassment or humiliation. I will always take care of you. Ainaak olenszal sívambin. Your life will be cherished by me for all my time. Te élidet ainaak pide minan. Your life will be placed above my own for all time.

Tears burned her eyes. He took the breath from her lungs with the beauty of his vows to her. No one had ever cherished her or placed her life above their own. He was a stranger to her, a dream man, but still, he said all the things a woman would want to hear.

Te avio päläfertiilam. You are my lifemate. Ainaak sívamet jutta oleny. You are bound to me for all eternity. Ainaak terád vigyázak. You are always in my care.

Fane’s hand came up to slip between her mouth and his chest. She was reluctant to allow him to stop her from drinking the very essence of him. He was so perfect in every way. He tasted delicious. Still, he tipped her chin up toward his face and brought his mouth down to hers.

Her heart jumped. Jerked hard in her chest. Her feminine channel convulsed in utter shock. His kiss was hot. Hard. Wet. Sexy as hell. It went on forever. He kissed her over and over and she thought she wouldn’t remember how to kiss, but she just melted into him and he was so fine, her mouth opened for him and their tongues tangled and danced and he filled her with red-hot urgency and a terrible need that sank straight between her legs and clawed at her stomach.

“Susu,” he whispered into her mouth. “I am home.”

Home. He said he was home. Home was . . . her. She knew what he was saying to her. She knew what his kisses were saying. He wanted her. She wasn’t young. She wasn’t beautiful. She wasn’t even a stick, like the accepted norm. Her time had long since passed even for this to happen in a dream. It felt all too real.

His body was hard and hot and she couldn’t stop her hands from roaming over his skin. She found the ridges on his back, and she wanted to see what the tattoo was like. Her fingers traced the artwork. It was large, flowing across his back and up over his shoulders and arms. Not ink. At least not any ink she had ever seen. Characters. Letters. All woven into the tattoo.

She almost asked him to turn around, to let her see it, but she knew if she did, she would know too much. She would go too far with this man and not be able to pull back. Trixie had a secret that she kept strictly to herself. She wouldn’t have given it up to anyone. Ever. She had great confidence in her abilities to raise her granddaughters. To work long hard hours and provide a home. She could gossip with the best of them and she had turned sarcasm and snark into an art form. People were afraid to cross her. She exuded confidence when she confronted others. She fought for her girls in every respect and never backed down.

Truthfully, she had absolutely zero confidence in her ability to be a sexy woman. She had given up on that dream too long ago, and she had no skills and even less desire. She’d fought too hard to stop needing a man. To stop needing sex. To stop needing comfort and protection.

“You don’t understand,” she whispered. “It’s too late for me. You’re too late. You can be in my dreams, but you can’t be real.”

She was shy. She’d always been shy around men she found attractive. She got tongue-tied and she felt like a silly teenager. She didn’t know how to handle a man’s attention, and she usually ran him off fast with her sarcasm and attitude. She had a special prop she called up. Her sea hag. No one could do sea hag like she could. She was going to have to find her fast, because she couldn’t get any deeper with Fane. Not if he was real, and he felt all too real when he kissed her.