cara.
I should have been far more restrained in possessing you.”
Her hand brushed his throat, sending heat coursing through him, a sense of belonging and acceptance he had never known. Her smile tugged at his heart. “You are my love, Julian. You would never harm me. I know that as surely as I know I would be incapable of harming you. I was quite satisfied, if you must hear me say it, although I suspect you know that you provided me with pleasure such as I could not have imagined before.”
He stroked her hair, his eyes like molten gold. “It is more than giving you pleasure that I want, it is sharing something beautiful beyond compare, and that I cannot do if I cannot control my desire for you.” His expression held infinite tenderness as he watched her face.
Desari found she couldn’t breathe for a moment. Julian Savage was a beautiful male of their species, but he always looked so remote and rather harsh. She could not believe she was now seeing such tenderness in the depths of his eyes, in the curve of his mouth, in the touch of his hand. “Do you think that I would trade you for someone gentler?” she asked very softly.
He closed his eyes for a moment to hide the pain those words caused. “You have no choice who your lifemate is; we both know that, Desari. If you had, perhaps you would have wanted someone far different than me.”
Her smile robbed him of air. “I believe in God, Julian. I always have. Living through the centuries as we have, I have witnessed many wonderful, miraculous things he has wrought. I believe we were created two halves of the same whole. I had no idea this was so until I met you, but I am now convinced. I would never want another, never fit with another. I can feel that we are right together, and I do not believe God would put together two creatures who did not suit one another.” She rubbed at the frown on his face with the pad of her thumb. “I find your enthusiasm for me very sexy, Julian. You can want me like that anytime.” Her smile was a siren’s teasing enticement.
Effortlessly he shifted her in his arms so that he could press her against his heart, and he found himself breathing again after holding his breath. “I do not ever want to be without you, Desari,” he admitted softly. The words were torn from his heart; he felt them leave his body, felt the truth in them.
She wound her arms around his neck, liking the feel of his long hair against her skin. “I do not expect you to ever allow us to be apart. I am counting on that, lifemate. Now stop talking so much and find us a place to rest this night. Tomorrow we will proceed to Konocti in the bus with the others. They will remain at the campsite we have established this night.” A faint grin curved her soft mouth. “That is, if the bus will actually run. It is a disgrace that none of us have mechanical abilities. Even I read the owner’s manual, and found it too boring.”
“We do not need mechanical abilities,” Julian reminded her as he spun around, taking her with him as if she weighed no more than a feather. “We were meant to travel differently, under our own power.”
“If we want to blend in with the rest of the world,” she pointed out, “we can do no other than travel in the mortals’ machines.”
“It is much faster to travel our way through time and space.”
She laughed softly, the sound a husky blend of velvet and wine pouring over him, into him, so that Julian knew the meaning of joy. It was a woman’s laughter, her smile, the glow in her dancing eyes. “It certainly is less frustrating to simply join the wind and go where we wish without following those endless ribbons of highway,” she agreed.
He took the right-hand tunnel entrance, drawing the directions from her mind. The path opened almost immediately into a wide chamber. At once he waved a hand to open the earth. “It is early dawn,
cara,
and I would spend more time enjoying your company, but you have performed in front of so many people, and you are tired.”
“I do not mind, Julian,” she told him. “I rather like the way you spend your time with me.” She pressed closer to him, her naked breasts against his bare chest. His answering kiss was slow and tender, a gentle exploration. “In this one thing I will have to insist. Your health must come before all things, even our pleasure. On the next rising we will have more time together. This dawn you must rest.”
She tried to keep the amusement out of her mind. He was so positive he was giving her an order. “Of course, Julian,” she murmured softly, her long lashes feathering down to cover her dark eyes. Her body moved restlessly against his, her full breasts pushing into the heavy muscles of his chest. “If you say we cannot, then I must agree with you, but I am sorry to hear that it is so.” Her hands were moving over his buttocks, her fingers tracing their toned muscles. Her fingers moved to his hips, caressed his thighs, worked their way to cup the weight of his rising desire in her palm. “I will do as you say, lifemate, if that is what truly pleases you.” Her mouth drifted down over his throat and chest, following the pattern of golden hair to the taut muscles of his belly.
Beneath her caressing fingers, his body thickened and hardened in response, his gut clenched hotly, and the breath seemed to slam out of him. “You are deliberately testing my resolve,
piccola,
and I am failing the test miserably.”
“That is exactly what I wanted to hear,” she answered complacently, her mind already occupied with much more interesting matters.
Chapter Fifteen
The bus limped along, the engine sputtering and coughing, growing louder and louder with each passing mile, leaving thin trails of dark smoke. Even the air inside the vehicle seemed thick, making it difficult to breathe. The two leopards growled uneasily from time to time, the tips of their tails twitching in protest.
The entire experience was making Julian wary. He was restless in such proximity to so many of his kind. The leopards had to be watched and controlled. They had quick, unreliable tempers and even among the Carpathians they were quite capable of doing great damage if riled within such close confines. In any case, Julian felt a disturbance in the balance of power around him and knew the other males were also aware of it. The crowded dimensions of the bus gave him the feeling of being trapped, although he could easily dissolve into molecules and flow through the open windows if he so desired. The edginess of the males was communicating itself to the animals, making it all the more difficult to control their wild natures. Darius was wasting precious energy keeping the cats in check. Julian shook his head at the insanity of the way this family unit lived.
Desari drummed her fingers impatiently on the back of her seat, wanting to kick her brother. The entire mood inside the bus was one of intense frustration. Darius had insisted they travel together, leaving the other vehicles in a campground. It was uncomfortable to say the least. She wanted to be alone with Julian, and she knew he was unused to being so confined with others. He would be hating this.
Darius glanced at his sister just once, his black eyes empty. “I do not have to explain myself,” he reminded her quietly. He didn’t bother to point out the disturbance in the air. One of their kind was near, but one who had long ago chosen to trade honor, his very soul, for a few moments of high during a kill. Darius knew the enemy was far too close to avoid a confrontation, and the women were the target. All of them knew it. Desari also needed more time to be alone with Julian. The couple needed space to get to know one another. Darius watched Julian closely. He respected his sister’s lifemate, his casual strength, the way he chose to keep Desari happy at the cost of his own comfort.
The troupe had taken so long trying to patch up their faltering vehicles again that they had little time to make their way to Konocti for their next concert appearance. Darius liked to get to concert sites a day ahead of time to scout around and be certain the security was to his liking. That balance of power was now gone, and the air was groaning with the presence of evil. All of them could smell the stench of a recent fire, the smoke and odor trapped in place by the absence of a breeze. This time, at least, they would be in familiar territory.