“But you’d have to leave the circle to do that.”
“Yes.”
Her heart squeezed and her chest tightened as she remembered what that thing had tried to do to her on the street earlier. “No. I don’t want you to take that chance. Tell me if I’m wrong, but if you cross that circle, the elemental can get at you.”
“I’m not worried about that. I
“This is a fine kettle of fish,” she said acidly. “We’re trapped in a circle of salt.”
“Not indefinitely. If the elemental doesn’t withdraw as daylight approaches, I’ll get Jude over here to do some more warding of his own. He’s already outside the circle, so he won’t expose you.”
She leaned forward, sensing that thing just beyond the circle. “Why the hell is it trying so hard now? It must know I can’t do a thing about it.”
“You’d have to ask the bokor, and since we still haven’t found him—or her—that question will have to wait. For whatever reason, you personally became a target. And now the bokor knows you’ve been pushing the elemental back. Whatever his goal, he seems determined to deal with you.”
“I feel like I keep running around the same maypole, never getting any real answers.”
He half smiled. “I agree. It’s becoming a very familiar maypole. If Jude doesn’t find the bokor tonight, we’ll certainly find him once we enhance our powers.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“Because when I’m in that state I’ve
“Really? And you didn’t bother to mention this sooner? Like days ago?”
He eyed her skeptically. “And what would you have said days ago if I had suggested this ceremony? I think I’d have been lucky to escape with my head still on my shoulders.”
She frowned, knowing he was right. “And you can’t just have your ceremony with someone else?”
“It does me little good if I meld my power with the powerless. You have power, Caro. You know that now. We’ll build on it for both of us. We’ll both become much stronger.”
“I admit I don’t really get how this works.”
“I’m not exactly an expert on the how or why. I just know it works. Just as you know you’re alive and you breathe, I know how to enhance my powers. And yours. I’ve told you before, there are mysteries. Not everything has a specific answer.
“I like answers,” she admitted.
“I have none. Mysteries all.”
“I guess human life is a mystery, too, when you come right down to it.”
“All the chemicals and atoms don’t add up to the mind or soul,” he agreed.
She cocked a brow at him. “Do you think you still have a soul?”
“My old tradition held that I do. Who knows what others would think these days. I shall assume I do until proven otherwise.”
At that she grinned. “I can agree with that.” Then on impulse, she swung around until she straddled his lap, facing him. She liked the look of astonishment on his face. “You told me to be a free spirit.”
A laugh escaped him, dying as she wiggled until his manhood was nestled against the most sensitive part of her womanhood. She felt him hardening against her and savored the sensation.
“So,” she asked, being deliberately provocative, “just how limited are we because of this upcoming rite?”
“Perhaps not as limited as you might think,
“Maybe I’m ready for the ceremony.” Even as she said it, the butterflies resumed flapping in her stomach. It was amazing how nervous about it she was while still wanting it so much.
“Not yet,” he murmured. “Your heat patterns aren’t fully recovered.”
“You see my aura?”
“Only your body heat. It’s not quite the same. I can still detect some coldness in you. But maybe we can do something about that.”
She did like the sound of that.
His mouth sought hers hungrily. He knew her mouth now, knew just how to slip his tongue around hers to draw an eager shiver from her. He learned fast, she thought dimly. Very fast.
And he used what he had learned. His tongue mated with hers, finding delicate nerve endings and taunting them in a parody of union, causing her body to rock against him in time with the rhythm he set. The ache he always awakened in her with such ease blossomed to full force almost instantly.
Then he slipped his cool hands up under her sweater, finding the bare skin of her midriff and stroking it lightly, teasingly, hinting at more delights to come, but withholding them. This time when she put her arms around his shoulders, trying to bring him closer, he didn’t react like a scalded cat. Instead he deepened his kiss, depriving her of breath, encouraging her to madness.
He must have moved with lightning speed, because she felt her breasts spill free of the confinement of her bra. She dragged her head back to gasp for air, then he claimed her mouth again.
He cupped the weight of her breasts, almost as if testing, then began to brush his thumbs over her nipples. Back and forth, in time with his plundering tongue until she felt as if a fiery arc ran from her mouth to her nipples.
She pressed her hips harder against him, needing stronger touches down there, and a jolt went through her as he arched upward, answering her search for one long, exquisite moment.
His mouth left hers and trailed to the shell of her ear, his cool breath whispering against her cheek and then into her ear until new spasms ripped through her. He ran his tongue around the outside of her ear, teasing, then tucked it inside, setting off new sparks.
Her head fell backward so that her breasts arched into his hands. His thumbs continued to play lightly over her aching nipples, building her needs with every touch.
Then, a jolt so strong that she cried out ran through her as he caught her nipples and pinched them, at first gently, then harder.
She became a slave to desire, right then. Pain and pleasure melded so exquisitely they left her helpless. He was teaching her new things about herself and she was loving it.
The hard clenching throb that gripped her between her legs drove her nearly insane. She became raw need. She dampened until she could feel her own wetness, and it just made her hungrier.
And still he tormented her, driving her ever higher up the steep slope of passion, never giving her all that her body demanded. She felt strung like a bow, drawn and ready to release the arrow, but he kept her there, in a torture so divine she never wanted it to end.
Then cool air whispered over her skin, and the next thing she knew, his mouth had clamped to her breast, sucking strongly. A deep groan escaped her, and she released his shoulders, feeling with her hands for any part of him so that she could return at least some of what he was giving her.
But he caught her wrists and stilled her exploration while he continued to lick and suck first one breast and then the other. She felt her breasts grow heavy, her labia engorging until the merest touch, the merest whisper of sensation grew acute.
Just at the instant when she felt she could take no more of this exquisite torture, he released her wrists, seized her hips with his hands and drew her hard against his staff.
That was all it took. A cry left her lips, winging toward the moon as she reached the crest in an orgasm so intense it hurt.
Then slowly, her body still throbbing, she collapsed against him and felt his arms wrap around her, holding her close.
A long time later, she found enough voice and breath to murmur, “That was incredible.”
“It was,” he agreed.
“But you. I didn’t do anything for you.”
