soaked up her feelings as surely as he would have drunk her blood. They filled him and carried him along with her until her throbbing became his, her need enhancing his own.
Some instinct told him it was time. He pulled away the last of her gown, revealing her beauty in all its glory to his eyes.
Then he bent to oil her legs, starting at her small feet, rubbing between her toes, working the muscles and joints gently until she arched with pleasure. Working his way slowly up and down her legs, he watched the thatch of hair between her legs grow dewy, filled his nose with her scents, so erotic now, and reached for paradise with her.
Finally, ages later, the moment had arrived. He parted her legs gently, turning them outward so that her lovely core was fully exposed to him.
She murmured something, but her eyes were closed, and he saw no resistance in her face.
Kneeling between her legs, so she could not clamp them together, he reached out with oiled hands and ran his fingers along her labia, first on the outermost part, drawing a deep groan from her. Again and again he repeated the caress, watching her swell for him. When at last her clitoris had engorged until it could no longer be concealed, he reached for a bundle of soft leather thongs.
Swinging them gently, he slapped them against her most tender flesh. Her eyes flew open, but her body bucked helplessly. He waited a moment, giving her a chance to object, but she didn’t.
He swung the thongs repeatedly, lightly until she was rising to meet them as if she wanted them. Then he swung them a little harder, knowing they would sting.
Again her eyes widened. “Damien...”
“I can stop, but I don’t want to,” he answered.
She looked at him, drowsy, inflamed, unsure, but then her eyes fluttered closed.
He whipped her again, harder, and a deep groan escaped her. With each flick of leather, he throbbed himself, in time with her pleasure, feeling her need grow. He didn’t know how much longer he would be able to hold out himself, but that was the point.
Caro could scarcely believe she was allowing herself to be whipped in this most intimate fashion, but disbelief gave way quickly to the incredible pleasure every stroke of that leather brought her. Stinging, yet good, carrying her to a place beyond thought and time until all that existed was the ache he kept building with every stroke. Her internal clenching grew painful, more painful than the strokes of that whip. At any moment she would...
Then he stopped. Before she registered that the stinging slaps were gone, she felt his fingers on her, stroking her, slipping inside her, feeding her frenzy with contrasting gentleness. Again and again he just barely rubbed her, opened her, then pulled away.
The next thing she realized, his mouth was on her, licking her every fold repeatedly, dancing around the most delicate bundle of nerves, a bundle that was begging for him. She felt his tongue enter her and arched up against him, wanting him deeper, wanting more, needing more, and desperate for any way he chose to give it to her.
She could no longer tell where she was, where she ended and he began. She existed out of time, in some place where there was nothing at all but passion, need, hunger, desire.
“Damien,” she heard herself groan as if from a distance. “Please...” Never before in her life had she begged.
She gasped as she felt him nip her clitoris, a pleasure-pain so intense she felt as if she had been launched from a catapult.
He murmured something and then, at last, he slid up over her, sliding into her all too ready and wet depths, filling her body, filling her soul. He pumped into her, slowly at first, giving her a chance to fully enjoy the feelings of union.
But then he speeded up, carrying her away, erasing everything from her mind but the point at which their bodies joined, making her forget everything except that intense concentration of feeling.
Up, up, until she could no longer catch her breath. Then with one deep thrust, he caused her to shatter into a million flaming pieces as if she had fallen right into the sun.
Stars exploded behind her eyelids, her body gave one last huge clench and then she fell into empty space, drifting as light as feather down.
Caro returned to reality slowly. She discovered she was unbound and wrapped in Damien’s naked body as he cradled her close.
When she opened her eyes, the view over his shoulder told her the time. Nearly three in the morning? She felt a little shock, as she had certainly not been aware of how many hours had passed.
Her movement drew his attention. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’ve never been better,” she admitted frankly. “That was something else.”
A quiet laugh escaped him.
“Did it work?” she asked.
“On which level?”
“Power?”
“Oh, definitely.” He moved a little away from her and held up his arm. “See?”
Indeed she could. Those crackles of electricity she had before seen only around his fingers now danced along his entire arm. They vanished when he lowered it and drew her back into his embrace.
“Now reach out,” he suggested. “See if you’ve been enhanced.”
She did. It grew easier every time, and moments after she closed her eyes and sent her senses forth, she gasped. “I can see through Jude’s wards now.”
“It worked,” he said quietly. “We combined to create greater power in us both.”
“We combined to have one helluva time.”
He laughed, one of those rare laughs it always made her so happy to hear. “That we did,” he agreed.
Much as she didn’t want to move a muscle yet, much as she wanted to stay wrapped in him and savor the afterglow, she said, “We need to go hunting.”
“Indeed we do, but I’m not sure there are enough hours left. So relax a little while longer.”
“I thought you said this would take only a couple of hours.”
“Usually. But I wanted to share it all with you, and take my time. Are you angry?”
“Angry? How could I be after the most amazing experience of my life?”
“You make me happy,
“No, thank
“No, it’ll last at least a few days. We’ll be as strong tomorrow night as right now. Ready to face a bokor.”
“So we won’t need to repeat this?”
Again he laughed. “We can repeat this anytime you want.”
That sounded suspiciously like a promise, but she warned herself not to take it that way. He’d already said he couldn’t give her what she wanted, that he would be returning to Cologne. She refused to think about losing him, though, because the mere thought of it made her heart ache.
Oh, crap, had she gone and given her heart to a vampire who didn’t want it?
No, she was just feeling the afterglow of the best sexual experience of her life. She was so very glad she hadn’t allowed fear to hold her back. Who would have thought that she’d respond in such a way to being bound and whipped?
The memory of the gentle whipping between her legs made her cheeks heat a little. No, that thought would
