Dark Fire by Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 6

His tongue stroked across her breast. “Do this for me, my love. Give me what I have given you.” It was sheer, blatant seduction, the devil’s own temptation.

He thrust his hips deeper still, turning her to molten fire. His chest was over her head, pressed against her seeking mouth. Her tongue found his skin. She felt the jolt go right through his mind. Felt his body within hers throb. Her teeth moved back and forth over his beating heart. Hunger consumed her. The need to give him whatever he desired. One large hand caught her bottom, lifting her hips so that he could bury himself over and over in her; the other went to the nape of her neck, holding her tightly against his chest.

“God, baby, you are killing me here. Do this for me. I need this as I have never needed anything else in my life. Please, baby.” The words came out raw with need, between clenched teeth, his body straining to convince hers. Then his hoarse cry filled the cave, his head thrown back in sheer ecstasy as her teeth pierced his flesh. She felt it, felt the intensity of his pleasure as he flowed into her, hot and rich with the essence of life and passion. His body began pumping into hers, hotter and faster, swelling and hardening until she was so tight, the friction threatened to send them both up in flames. He felt her body convulse around his, grip his, squeeze tighter and tighter until he was pouring his hot seed into her, filling her mind and body, her veins, with his life.

Darius cried out, afraid he might shatter with the pleasure, afraid she would. “I claim you as my lifemate. I belong to you. I offer my life for you. I give to you my protection, my allegiance, my heart, my soul, and my body. I take into my keeping the same that is yours. Your life, happiness, and welfare will be cherished and placed above my own for all time. You are my lifemate, bound to me for all eternity and always in my care.” He forced each word out between his teeth, between each beat of his heart, so that there could be no mistake, ever, no way that the ritual was not complete. He wanted her to feel each word in their united soul, their united bodies, in their mind, their heart, and their skin. She was his, and he belonged to her. He would never give her up, never let her go, never allow anything to harm her.

Darius held her to him, his body still hot and hard in the velvet fire of hers. She was slick with his seed, her tongue closing the pinpricks over his heart, her body so exhausted that she couldn’t move. He rolled off her, taking her with him, keeping their bodies locked together. “Thank you, Tempest. I do not deserve you, but thank you.”

She lay listening to their combined heartbeats, resting in his mind. She saw his implacable resolve to keep her, the deep ties between them that could never be broken, and she was reassured of their future together. She saw that the ritual heat of Carpathian mating only increased over time. She could not see how that was possible without inducing heart failure, but she accepted it. She could also see beyond that possession and that hot hunger for her body. Darius loved her. Tempest. He loved her so deeply, so completely, that it filled his entire being. He loved her enough to give up his life for her. He loved her without reservation, unconditionally.

She lay in his arms, savoring the feel of him beside her, strong and real. “Are the others all right, Darius?”

He pushed the hair from her face with gentle, caressing fingers. “Of course. Julian has a twin brother, Aidan, who lives in San Francisco with his lifemate, Alexandria, and Julian has taken Desari there to meet his family.” Because he had to, Darius found the hollow of her neck and scraped his teeth along her skin lightly, his tongue swirling to ease any ache. Then he smiled against her neck. “They took the leopards with them, which should be something, as Aidan has human caretakers, and Alexandria has a little brother.”