Found(121)

“Oh, baby.” She couldn’t stop the hot tears that rose to her eyes and overflowed onto her cheeks. “I love you,” she whispered. “Love you so much. I’m so sorry he hurt you that way.”

“It’s all right,” He pressed his face to her breasts again and inhaled deeply, as though taking comfort from the scent of her skin. “It doesn’t matter. I survived.”

“Of course it matters.” Lauren caressed him tenderly. “What happens in your childhood sticks with you as an adult. Jumping into that pool must have scared you to death—but you did it anyway. To save me.”

“How could I not?” He shook his head, his damp hair whispering against her bare skin. “I…there are many things about my existence before I met you that I didn’t want you to know. That was one of them.”

“I want you to tell me. You hear me?” Lauren lifted his chin and looked down into those familiar burning eyes. “Tell me anything you want to—anything you need to. Doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll still love you, no matter what.”

He frowned. “You think that but there are things in my past that would make any normal person ill.”

“Try me.” Lauren held his eyes with hers. “Go on.”

Xairn’s face grew grim. “Fine. You’ve seen how quickly Little One bonded herself to me, haven’t you? But I had another pet before her. One I cared for so deeply it nearly drove me mad when she died.”

“Oh, honey…” Lauren was almost afraid to ask but she knew she had to. This was some kind of test Xairn was putting her through—a trial to see if she truly loved him as much as she said. Lauren wanted desperately to pass it. “How…how did she die?” she asked hesitantly.

Xairn drew a deep breath. “I killed her,” he said quietly, still holding Lauren’s eyes with his own. “I had no choice. My father found her and threatened to torture her.”

“Oh, no!” Lauren shook her head, not wanting to believe.

“Oh yes,” Xairn said quietly. “I always knew it might happen one day. I had a poison capsule implanted beneath her skin, one activated by my voice alone. When the time came, I commanded her to die and she did, in…in my arms.”

“Xairn…” Lauren didn’t know what to say. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“I was taken from my mother as an infant and taken away from the nurse who raised me as a very young child.” Xairn’s voice was steady but his hands trembled slightly as he spoke. “My father was…cruel. I knew he didn’t care for me. Sanja was the only thing I had to love in my whole sterile existence. Killing her…nearly killed me, too. I was dead inside. Emotionally lifeless until…until I met you.”

“Oh baby…” Lauren hugged him hard and his arms around her waist tightened convulsively. “I love you,” she whispered. “I still love you, I don’t care what you had to do to survive in that horrible place. It doesn’t change how I feel about you, how much I care about you.”

“Lauren…” He said her name over and over like a prayer and she felt his mouth move, soft and slow and hot against the bare skin of her chest. A caress…a kiss. “You showed me what love was,” he whispered. “Gave me the strength to leave my old life behind. I owe you so much.” Then his lips moved to one side, trailing hot and wet over the thin, damp bikini top that covered her right breast. Lauren gasped softly as she felt the heat of his breath over her suddenly tight nipple. God, she thought. I want this so much. Want to hold him and comfort him. Want to show him how much I love him…

“I want to show you how I feel, too.” He looked up at her and placed a hot, deliberate kiss over the aching point of her nipple. “But I don’t know how I can.”

“Xairn,” she whispered, her voice tight with pleasure and hope. “Honey…” Reaching up, she pulled the damp triangle of fabric to one side, baring her breast to him. “Do it,” she murmured, stroking his hair. “Let me feel your mouth on me.”

With a low growl, Xairn sucked her nipple into his mouth at once, lapping and sucking eagerly. Lauren moaned and clutched at his thick black hair. “God, yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Xairn, yes.”

He moved to her other breast as well, pushing the bikini top aside himself this time in order to get to her full curves. Lauren thrust toward him, offering herself, breathless with desire. At last he looked up at her.

“I want you,” he whispered in a voice that was dangerously near a growl. “I need you, Lauren—need to be in you. But I don’t…don’t want to hurt you.”