“God.” Lauren whispered. “I…I didn’t know.”
“Now you do.” He looked up at her face at last. “You should not have done this just for me.”
“How could I not?” Lauren asked softly. “After all you’ve done for me.” Slowly she unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it open to expose the brand that spelled her name. “You were marked for me,” she murmured. “You let them write my name on your heart. I thought…I hope it’s still there.”
Xairn knew she was talking about more than just the brand that marked his skin. “You know it is,” he said roughly, dropping his hands from her bare breasts. “But it changes nothing.”
“Nothing at all?” She traced her name on his chest and her touch was at once cool and inflammatory. Xairn felt like he was being burned all over again, as though her slender finger was tipped with fire.
“Stop it,” he said, shaking his head. “I still have to leave. I only hope…hope that you didn’t take it upon yourself to incur any of the other marks of possession.”
Lauren raised an eyebrow. “As a matter of fact, I did. Would you like to know which I chose to have done?”
Xairn let his eyes rove over her body, drinking in her beauty. “You’re not wearing a collar so you must have had yourself pierced below or branded with my name. I can’t tell which.”
“Then maybe you should examine me and find out.” Her voice was light and teasing but there was a deep, unspoken need running beneath the soft banter. Xairn heard it and it made his secondary shaft throb with need. But he repressed his hunger for her fiercely.
“I cannot,” he said, stepping away. “I…should not.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Can you really walk away from me that easily? Can you leave without knowing? You’ll wonder all your life if you don’t at least look just once.”
Xairn felt a force rising within him—a desire that threatened to burn his self control to ashes, to demolish the cage he’d built around his true nature and let it out like a ravening beast seeking to devour. I must not let that happen! he told himself sternly. And yet…could it really hurt just to look? Lauren was right—he would wonder all his life what other mark she had taken if he didn’t find out.
“Fine,” he heard himself saying. “Go over to the bed and lay on your back with your calves hanging over the side and your arms over your head.”
Lauren went to the bed at once and arranged herself exactly as he had demanded. It gave him a strange thrill to see how willingly she obeyed but Xairn forced himself not to think about it.
“Good,” he said. Walking over, he knelt on the floor in front of her. “Now spread your legs for me.”
“All right.” She was shivering a little—with fear or excitement, he couldn’t tell which—but again she didn’t hesitate. Spreading her legs, she opened herself to him, mutely offering to give him whatever he wanted.
“Good.” Xairn heard the harsh tone of command in his voice but he couldn’t control it. He placed his hands on her knees. “Now hold still while I look at you. No matter what I say or do, you’re not to move. Do you understand?”
Her breath hissed out from between her teeth and she trembled under his touch but she spoke only one word. “Yes.”
“Yes, Master,” Xairn corrected her sternly.
“Yes, Master,” she repeated and as she spoke the word, he felt her shiver even more violently. At the same moment, the warm, feminine scent of her arousal hit him. Could it be that this was turning her on? That submitting to him was actually making her aroused? Xairn didn’t know if he could let himself believe it. Instead of trying to decipher her thoughts, he concentrated on her body.
Gods, but she smelled so damn good. Looking at her soft pussy, barely visible behind the silky red material, he could see that her little cunt lips were swollen and wet. Clearly she was aching with desire. Just as he was.
But I can’t give in. I’ll just look at her, just see what other marking she’s taken, and then I’ll leave, he told himself sternly. Slowly he untied the silk cord at her waist and slid the gauzy red pants down her long, smooth legs. Lauren moaned softly as he bared her, but made no move to cover herself or close her legs. Her unquestioning obedience stirred something in Xairn—a primal instinct he’d tried to bury for years. Take her! demanded a voice in his head. She is your female—claim her! Bond her! Grimly, he ignored it and continued with the business at hand.
“Are you all right?” He watched her face as he stroked gently up and down her thighs.