come alive with just a look or a touch. Rachael could make him feel like a poet or a warrior, and she could steal the breath from his body at the mere thought of losing her.
Rachael wanted to weep with happiness: Rio was standing there waiting for her, looking like the god of the forest. She loved everything about him. She said his name softly to herself, amazed at how he had wound himself so tightly into her heart and mind. She had come to the forest with such a grim future, but Rio had changed all that. He had given her a gift more precious than all the money in the world. He'd given her himself.
Rio felt Elijah place her hand in his, felt his fingers close around hers. Hard. Tight. A lifeline. He drew her to him, beneath the protection of his shoulder, into the shelter of his heart. Rachael tilted her head to look up at him, her black eyes laughing, soft with love. He leaned down, his lips brushing her skin. 'You did this. You gave me this. You changed my entire life, Rachael.' He whispered the words, meaning them. Astonished by them. How could one person, one woman, have made such a difference?
She touched his face, her fingertips moving intimately over every feature. 'And you changed mine, Rio.'
Delgrotto cleared his throat to draw their attention to him. He began the ceremony of joining.
'The circle of life continues. The lair grows stronger with the joining of these two. No couple stands alone. The lair protects the safety of our mated pairs so that the circle of life continues and the lair grows ever stronger…'
Christine Feehan
