Dark Fire by Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 6

Her breath was coming in little gasps, and he had to hold her up to prevent her shaky legs from giving way. She turned her head to look at him, her green eyes glittering jewels. “I had no idea it could be like this, Darius. You’re incredible.” She meant it sincerely. She had read books-who hadn’t? She’d lived on the streets, grown up around hookers. Naturally she’d asked a few questions. No one had described anything like the feelings Darius produced in her. The graphic mechanics, perhaps, but not the beauty and passion of what they did together.

“It is us together,” he explained patiently, wanting her to understand. Tempest was so programmed to be alone, to live her a solitary existence, that her mind refused to comprehend the true meaning of their joining.

“You don’t feel this way when you make love to other women?” she asked, struggling to believe that a man as virile, a man who made love as often and as vigorously as Darius did, had not needed hundreds of partners in the past. How could any one woman possibly keep up with his demands, possibly satisfy him? She had no real experience. How could she keep him happy?

He found himself frowning as he read her thoughts. Darius swept her into his arms and waded back into the pool to rinse her off one more time. “You keep up with my every demand,” he pointed out. “And you satisfy me perfectly. There can be no other woman, Tempest. You can touch my mind with yours. I cannot lie to you. Read my thoughts. I speak the truth. There is only you in my heart. It is only you my body will accept. There will never be another. It is for all time.”

“I will grow old and die, Darius,” she pointed out. “In another hundred years you will find someone else.” She laughed softly at her own ego. “Notice I gave you plenty of time to grieve for me.”

“Put your arms around my neck. Look at me.” He commanded it, wanting her complete attention. “I love you, Tempest, not any other woman. It is not the love of humans; it is more encompassing and violent than that, yet more pure and cherishing.”

She shook her head. “You haven’t known me long enough to feel real love. You’re attracted to me sexually, that’s all.” She sounded desperate even to her own ears.

“I have been inside your mind countless times, Tempest. I know everything about you. Every childhood memory, good and bad. I know your secret thoughts, thoughts humans never share with anyone else. I know the things you do not like about yourself. I know your strengths and the things you consider weaknesses. I know more about you in the time we have had together than any human male could know in a lifetime. I love you. The entire you.”

His hand moved to wash the evidence of their love-making from between her legs, his fingers soothing, gentle. “I know you think I am the sexiest man you have ever met. You think I am handsome. You love the sound of my voice. You particularly like my mouth and my eyes and the way I look at you.” His black gaze moved over her face, the faint humor fleeting as he continued. “You fear my powers, yet you accept them and the differences in me with surprising ease. I make you feel safe and protected, and you fear that feeling because you do not trust such a concept. You do not want to tie yourself to me fully because you do not trust that you could ever hold a man as powerful as myself, and you cannot allow yourself the pain of losing me.”

She was attempting to pull out of his arms, but he held her tightly to him, so she glared at him instead. “While you were inspecting the inside of my head, did you find out just what I want to do to you half the time?”

His mouth softened with mocking male amusement. “You mean when you are not wanting my body in yours?”

Furious, she nodded. “Like now, for instance.”