Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang(44)

 

He groaned again as I found a rhythm he liked, his eyes burning so hot I felt as if they were lighting my skin on fire.

 

I need more than just sex , I said with a little mental sob, my heart suddenly feeling as if it would shatter. I need you.

 

And suddenly, the floodgate was opened. I gasped as his emotions, tangled with sensations he was feeling as I stroked him, filled me with a lightness that burned through to my soul. There was sexual desire there, almost indiscernible from the always burning urges of the hunter. I reveled in the sensations, accepting his feelings and giving him everything I had.

 

His teeth pierced my shoulder, the pain an exquisite moment that lit bright in my mind as he filled me with thoughts that were both carnal and profound, a strange mixture of bodily needs and emotional desire.

 

Now do you believe me? he asked, his voice just as silky and beautiful when it was spoken only in my head. You cannot doubt any longer that I desire you.

 

I kissed a path over to his earlobe. His entire body jerked as I bit down on his ear, his head pulling back from me for a moment, an explosion of shock and rapture and sexual need swamping both of us.

 

His eyes flashed at me for a second before I found myself once more hoisted against the wall, his fingers biting hard into my thighs as I wrapped them around his hips. He growled low in his chest, his teeth piercing the skin of my neck at the same time he thrust hard into my body.

 

I went into sensory overload, my mind reeling from our shared sensations. His need just fed my own, which in turn drove him harder until we both seemed to spin out of control, my body moving of its own accord against him, straining now not just for my own moment of completion, but for his as well. And when that moment arrived, it pushed me over the edge to the single most profound moment in my life. I exploded in a nova of joint rapture, my mind a whirl of sensation and thought and feelings. Out of the confusing mass came one stark thought that shook me to my very core.

 

There was no question of having a life without Kristoff. He held my heart just as surely as I held him in my arms. I loved him, with every inch of my being I loved him, and nothing would ever change that.

 

Without realizing it, I’d slowly shut him out of my mind, not wanting him to see the truth. It was too new a realization, too raw to examine closely.

 

As his tongue swept over the bite mark, I let my legs drop down, my muscles trembling with the strength of our shared orgasm.

 

I stared at him silently as he gazed at me, my feminine ego pleased by the somewhat dazed glint in his eyes, but another part wept tears of purest sorrow. I would spend the rest of my life loving a man who might feel a certain amount of affection for me-he was not the sort of man who could make love to a woman as he had without feeling some sort of affection-but I would never wholly hold his heart.

 

“ Dio, ” he said, but it was more a reverential statement than an oath.

 

I looked away. It hurt too much to look at his bright eyes.

 

His fingers turned my chin back to make me face him. “What is it?”

 

“What is what?” I held on to his shoulders, my legs still too shaky to support me.

 

With a little noise of annoyance he picked me up and carried me over to the bed. I stifled yet another moment of amazement that he could heft me without so much as a grunt.

 

“What is it you are hiding?”

 

His mind probed at mine, seeking to penetrate its depths. Just as he had done earlier, I locked away a secret little part of me, the part that acknowledged my love. Despite my desire to shout it from the balcony, to tell everyone I knew that I was madly, insanely, body-and-soul in love with him, I knew that would only bring more grief.

 

“Everyone has secrets,” I said, paraphrasing what he had said to me earlier.

 

You are my Beloved. You should not have secrets from me . He followed me down to the bed, his body leaning over mine as he continued to peer into my eyes.

 

“You and I both know that we’re not the ideal couple,” I said, pushing gently into his mind. Quickly he erected a guard over some part of himself. You see? There are parts of you that you don’t want to share.

 

You have not lived the life I have, he answered slowly. You have lived a blameless life. Your soul is not stained as mine is.

 

I stared at him in surprise, unable to keep from touching him. I rubbed my thumb over the tiny little frown lines between his sleek chocolaty brows until they eased. “What have you done to stain your soul?”

 

His head dipped down as he claimed me in another toe-curling kiss, his body draped over mine. His tongue was as sweet as ever, dancing around my mouth, letting me reciprocate for a few moments before taking charge again. Kristoff, I noted to myself, liked to be the aggressive one. I didn’t really mind that, although I expected that I would have to show him the joys of being on the receiving end .