She could only swallow, afraid her voice would give away her desire. He buried his hands under her dress, cupping the back of her legs and brushing his fingers along the line where her ass and thighs met. Heat pooled between her legs. She throbbed with need.
“This reminds me of the first time I tasted your blood,” he said.
He skimmed his lips over her ear, barely touching her, but every inch of her skin contracted. Goosebumps ran down her arms. She shouldn’t let him do this, should push him—
“That day in the woods, when I saw you bleeding,” he continued, “I wanted to kill him.” He continued stroking her thighs, his fingers a swipe away from her core. “I knew that day you’d haunt me. Did you know what I thought when I tasted your blood?”
She shook her head, unable to look away from his mercurial eyes.
“I wanted to make you mine. Just mine. My own little stalker. I wanted nobody else’s hands on your body but mine.”
He brushed a finger over the silk of her panties, tracing her slit. Her legs trembled. She clenched her knees and leaned her head back against the tree. He traced her folds with a finger, up and down, light like a feather, before pausing on her clit. She gasped when he pressed down the pad of his thumb, massaging in slow circles. The pressure was delicious.
“Open your eyes for me, Cle.”
A part of her, the part that mourned her first and only love, was still eager to please him. She peeled open her eyes, trying to focus when everything was hazy.
His breath fell warm on her face. “Look into my eyes. I need to see what you feel. Understand?”
The only thing she understood was the hard-on that pressed against her stomach. Torturing her with one hand, he fastened the other on her ass and yanked her against him. Like this, his hand was trapped between their bodies. She gripped his forearms for balance, holding on as she spiraled out of control.
His eyes darkened. “Promise me you’ll never wander the woods alone again. Promise me from now on you’ll never leave my sight.” He pressed harder against her. “Promise you’ll come with me wherever I go.”
This part of him she understood. When she’d told him in the car he couldn’t just take her to New York, she’d pushed the button of his insecurity.
“Joss.” She sighed, a sound of frustration and need. “You can’t ask me for a promise I can’t make.”
“You’re mine,” he growled. “I won’t let you go.” The pace of his hand matched the urgency of his tone. “The thought of letting you go scares me more than the evil of my past.”
The statement surprised her. Appealing to his reason, she said, “You can’t keep me against my will forever.”
His chest deflated with a breath even as wildness invaded his eyes. She was so close. Heat erupted, pushing her over the edge and making her body convulse with pleasure. She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him while the orgasm wracked her body. He didn’t let go. He kept working her clit with his thumb even when the aftershocks had passed.
Too sensitive, she pushed with her palms on his chest. “It’s too much.”
“Shh.” He leaned closer, trapping her against the tree with his weight. “You can take it. Just feel.”
It wasn’t possible to feel that much. The onslaught of sensations was overwhelming. “I can’t.”
He studied her face. “You’re already so close again.”
“Joss,” she exclaimed. He was taking her pleasure to an unbearable limit.
“Trust me.”
She moaned as he moved his thumb in circles again. Trust him? Could she? After what he’d done?
“You’re perfect when you come,” he said in a husky voice. “Show me again.”
Despite how sensitive she was, the pleasure built again. It wasn’t a slow journey from her clit to her abdomen. It was an explosion that hit her everywhere at once, a fierce convulsion that ended as abruptly as it had started, leaving her weak and shaking.
Pulling her against him, he stroked her back. They remained like that for a while with him simply holding her. When she could stand on her own again, he rested his forehead against hers. Their breaths made puffs of vapor in the dark. She should’ve been freezing, but her body was still burning up.
He pulled away and gripped her chin, his stare intense as he searched her eyes. “You belong to me. You’re mine. I am keeping you forever.” His voice dropped with a note of warning. “It’ll be easier if you hold onto that love you’ve harbored for me for so long.”
Still finding her bearings after the orgasms, she battled to process the statement. His lips no longer made white puffs in the air. He was holding his breath. For what?
He offered her a hand. “Come.”
The tenseness radiating from his body frightened her. “Where?”
“The chapel.”
When she didn’t move, he folded his fingers around hers and pulled her onto the path.
Visions of obscure rituals conjured in her mind. Her heart started racing. “Why?”
He didn’t answer or slow down.
“Joss!”
Without giving her as much as a glance, he pulled her behind him to the light.
Chapter 29
With wide eyes and cheeks pale, Clelia took in the candles that burned on either side of the chapel aisle and the white roses on the stone pillars along the path. She hung back, trying to free herself from his hold, but he couldn’t afford to let her go. She’d run. He also didn’t slow down to still her fear. There wasn’t time. Besides, he doubted he’d be able to still it now that she grasped why they were here.
The priest waited at the ruins of the altar. It had taken a lot of convincing to get him out here, but he was an old priest who knew the history of Joss’s ancestors and who valued tradition. This was where all his predecessors had taken their wives and made their vows.
She flung herself sideways, a move
