Dayan lifted the hair from the back of her neck to press a series of little kisses against the warmth of her skin. “Cullen will decide what to do.”
Corinne savored the feel of his mouth for a moment, then bent to put little Jennifer in the incubator. The action pressed her bottom tightly against Dayan, who took advantage, catching her hips to drag her even closer. She took her time, her happiness spilling out as she gently kissed her daughter and enclosed the sleeping baby in the incubator. She stood up, still looking down at the baby. “Isn’t she beautiful, Dayan?”
His hands moved slowly up her body from behind, sliding from her hips to her tucked-in waist, traversing her narrow rib cage to cup her breasts in his palms. “She is truly beautiful, Corinne, just like her mother.” He whispered the words against her ear, his tongue touching her skin, tasting her because sometimes he had to.
She leaned her weight into him, her hands covering his as his thumbs teased her nipples into hard peaks and her breasts swelled, aching with need for him. “Sometimes, when I first awake, my heart is pounding in terror because I’m so afraid this isn’t real.” She turned her face to look up at him over her shoulder. “I’m afraid you can’t possibly be real, that I’ll wake up and it will all be a dream.”
His mouth wandered up the side of her neck. His teeth found her earlobe and nipped sharply. She yelped and glared at him. Dayan grinned without repentance. “Just wanted you to see I am very real.” He swirled his tongue on her ear to ease the ache.
“I want to visit Lisa and Cullen today. I know Barack and Syndil are being very reassuring about his condition, but I want to see for myself. And even though Lisa is told I’m fine, I know she’s anxious.”
“All right, then, honey, we will go when Shea comes in to check on Jennifer.” He buried his face in her neck, inhaling her fragrance. He was sending chills down her spine, while molten lava spread through her blood. He had only to look at her and she found she wanted him. More than wanted him. Corinne craved the scent of him. The feel of him. The sight of his naked body. The sound of his beautiful voice. She wanted to watch him making love to her, see his face etched with sensual beauty. She turned in his arms and blindly found his mouth with hers, arms circling his neck, her body at once soft and pliant and instantly inviting. “You are amazing,” she whispered into the heat of his mouth.
His hand bunched her hair, tipping her head back to give him better access for exploration. He took his time, kissing her thoroughly, savoring the taste of her. “You are the amazing one,” he corrected, finding her pulse with his tongue. “The way you trust me. The way you have thrown yourself into our world and embraced it with your arms wide open. You have required little aid even when you feed.”
She raised her head. “I thought I was doing that all by myself. I admit I was shocked at myself. If I think about it, the idea repulses me, but when we’re together...” She trailed off, leaning her body into his.
“I enhance your need and desire to feed,” he admitted. “I do not want you to be uncomfortable. Over the centuries I have been in a few situations where the illusion of eating was not enough and I was forced to consume human food. Vegetables were not so bad, although my body immediately rejected them, but the flesh of animals that had been killed was wholly repugnant to me. I know you feel this way about taking blood. To our people, it is sacred and very natural.”
Dayan groaned suddenly, caught her face in his hands and brought his mouth down once more on hers. He could hear Corinne’s silent laughter echoing warmly in his mind. Her hearing was acute now, and she had picked up Shea’s deliberate noise as she approached the chamber.
It was nice of her to warn us. It was necessary, but not nice. We have wasted our time alone here.
There was another groan, his breath hot on her neck.
Stop laughing, I might have to walk all bent over.
He allowed her to feel the painful fullness, the little jackhammers tripping in his head. Deliberately he groaned again, just for good measure.
Corinne laughed out loud, the sound carefree and happy. “Poor baby. Welcome to real life.”
He wrapped his arms around her tightly. “I do not want real life. I want sex.” He leaned close to her. “Hot sex, scorching sex.” His voice was wicked in her ear, his breath stirring tendrils of hair and sending shivers along her spine.
“Now I really don’t feel sorry for you at all.” She pushed at the wall of his chest to put distance between them. She was laughing, her eyes dancing as she teased him. “You’re a wicked man and you deserve to be hurting.” He knew very well what he was doing to her body — the rush of heat, the spread of fire. He was totally unrepentant.
Shea moved into the chamber, still making noise to warn them of her coming. She could hear them laughing together, could smell the age-old call to mate with her heightened senses. She grinned at them as they broke guiltily apart. “I’ll watch over Jennifer while she sleeps. Are you visiting Cullen and Lisa today? I checked on Cullen while they were sleeping just to make sure he was healing nicely. He’s already wanting to get up. Gregori went twice too, just to make certain.”
Dayan’s hand slipped down Corinne’s arm, his fingers shackling her wrist to his side. “That sounds like Cullen.”
“Lisa has been very anxious to see Corinne,” Shea admitted. “Cullen doesn’t want her to be worried, so he’s decided to get up and find you both.”
“That is where we are going now,” Dayan assured the healer.
Corinne nodded. “I’ve been worried about Lisa, but Dayan thought it would be too soon for Lisa to think I could travel after all that’s happened.”
Shea shrugged as she bent over the incubator. “I think at this point, Lisa will be so glad to see you she won’t question anything. She prefers not to confront anything that doesn’t fit her view of the world.”
Corinne tugged at Dayan. “Come on. I really want to see her. Jennifer’s asleep — now is our chance.” She suddenly grinned at him, her teeth very white and her eyes dancing with excitement. “We can fly. You can teach me to fly. Hurry, Dayan, I can’t wait.” She was dragging him toward the entrance to the chamber.
Dayan couldn’t help catching her exuberance. She was bringing back memories of his childhood when he had first experienced his abilities as a boy. He stopped her. “See that chimney going up the vent? It is far faster to go up that way.”
She studied it for a moment, uncertain whether he was teasing her. “It looks very narrow. How can we fit, even if we were birds?”
“Bats live in caves. They are small and can get into very tight places.”
“No way. You can actually make yourself that small?”
“I can be the mist on the wind, molecules in the air. Of course I can do small. So can you. It is exactly like the leopard. Study the image in my head so you have the exact replica in detail, then focus and hold that image. You can do it.” He would help her to hold the image, just as he had done with the leopard.
Corinne followed his lead without hesitation, willing to experience everything life had to offer. The sensations were completely different: the information pouring into the bat’s body came differently than the leopard’s senses. When she burst into the night sky, Dayan was already providing the next image, that of an owl. In midair, she made the transformation, this time aware of his aid, and accepting of it.
To soar across the sky was so incredible, she lost the image more than once and had to rely on Dayan to hold it for her. It didn’t matter — she was entranced. High above the trees she circled, dipping her silent wings and scanning the earth for all she could see and hear.
‘I could stay here forever!
He was experiencing flying and shape-shifting through her eyes. It was such a part of him, he had forgotten the joy of it. Or maybe he had never been able to feel it as strongly as Corinne did until now, not even as a child when his emotions were still intact. Or maybe the intensity of his feelings was because Corinne was with him, by his side, in his heart and soul, and he had someone to share every pleasure, every sorrow. Maybe that was the difference. He only knew she had made him whole, had changed the world into something new and shiny, and her joy was constantly spilling over to him.