“I... thank you for... just thank you.” She leaned across and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
Loren’s heart galloped and he stared beyond her, unsure what to do. Olivia lingered, her lips against his cheek, burning him and igniting a need he had been fighting from the moment he had come around to find her watching over him.
He wanted to kiss her.
“Olivia,” he whispered, surprised by the gravelly dark sound of his voice.
She eased back and he fought to voice what he wanted to tell her.
She didn’t give him a chance to get the words out.
She burned them and all reason away with a kiss that scorched him right down to his bones.
CHAPTER 12
Loren stared wide-eyed into the distance, the world around him blurring as Olivia’s lips claimed his, her ferocity startling him. Before he could bring himself to believe this was really happening, and begin to respond, she jerked away. Her enormous brown eyes and her emotions warned that she was going to bolt, and his very soul cried out in protest. She had kissed him. She couldn’t undo what she had done and he wasn’t going to let her run.
He was going to kiss her.
He had her in his arms before she could blink, pulled her awkwardly against his body, and claimed her mouth. She resisted at first and then she was kissing him again, her lips clashing desperately with his, driven by the same need that echoed within him. He groaned and deepened the kiss, tangling his tongue with hers and tasting her. Sweet, intoxicating, Olivia.
Her hands pressed against his bare chest, burning his flesh, and her kiss branded her name on his heart, an indelible mark that he would bear forever.
She owned it now.
He was a slave to her, lost in the pleasure of their kiss and how incredible it felt. It overwhelmed him, bringing forth emotions so intense that he shook from them, barely able to control himself. He needed her now, needed to satisfy his soul-deep hunger to claim her as his female and to give her pleasure the likes of which she had never known. He wanted to make her belong to him, steal the heart she guarded so well, shake her to her very foundations as she stripped him down to his.
Olivia moaned, the sound bliss to his ears, guiding him and telling him that she enjoyed the fierce way he kissed her, mastering her mouth and giving her no quarter.
He hadn’t kissed in over four thousand years, but he could remember the times he had been with a female, and it hadn’t felt like this. Olivia created feelings in him that were beyond powerful, emotions that detonated and rocked him, and that were addictive. He wanted more. He needed more.
Loren laid her down on the bed, across the white coat that she had dropped on the pale blue covers, and pressed his hands into the mattress, keeping himself off her. He feared he would lose control with her if their bodies came into contact now. He had been alone too long, and she felt too good.
“Loren,” she whispered and arched towards him, her hands clutching his bare arms. She slowed their kiss, teasing him with bare sweeps of her lips across his that sent shivers through him and lightened his insides.
He couldn’t take it.
He growled, the points of his ears extending, and swooped on her mouth, his kiss aggressive and hard, reclaiming her lips, designed to let her know that she was his now and he would have her.
No more dancing.
She writhed beneath him, her frantic actions bringing her body into contact with his as she clutched his biceps and raised her hips. Her thigh brushed between his legs and his fangs sharpened in response, his hunger for her spiralling ever deeper. He wanted to bite her again.
He wanted her to bite him.
He needed to complete this bond.
Loren tore away from her and breathed hard, kneeling on the bed astride her left leg.
“Loren?” she said, her soft voice edged with hunger that he wanted to satisfy.
He held his hand up and continued his struggle against his deepest desire. “A moment.”
He had bitten her against her will, bonding her to him. He couldn’t forcibly complete the bond, sealing it for eternity, changing her irrevocably. She would hate him for it. He had sworn to break this bond and only complete it as a last resort. He wouldn’t go back on his word.
Olivia sat up and reached for him, sliding one warm hand around the nape of his neck. “Come back to me.”
He read between the lines to the feelings she hid in them. She needed him to kiss her again before she changed her mind. She wanted him but she was fighting her desire, driven to push him away. Why?
She wanted him. He wanted her.
Why would she fight their mutual attraction?
Her brown eyes gained an edge that warned she was close to bolting, her fear getting the better of her. Her fingers tightened against his nape and he was powerless to resist her. She drew him back to her, her lips seizing his, driving all reason back out of his mind. Olivia wanted this. He would give her what she needed, but no more. He wouldn’t overstep the line again.