that now, finally. You're running toward it as fast as you can. Am I that easy to walk away from? I must be, since you keep doing it." "What would you have me do?" he murmured. "Give up your revenge on Wilhelm Roth, here and now. Let the Order take him down when they go after Dragos, but not you. I want you to stay away from him. Can't you do that... for me?" His hand came up tenderly, his fingers curving around the quivering line of her jaw. "You're asking me to turn my back on those who've been willing to risk their lives for me in the past. You're asking me to forget everything Roth has done to me and my kin-- what he has done to numerous innocent lives. You're asking me to look the other way on a criminal who would not hesitate to take his fury out on you, Claire."
She looked into his amber-soaked eyes--a vampire's hungering eyes--and saw a flood of raw emotion swelling up inside him. "There are a thousand things I want to say to you, Claire. Promises I wish I could make you. But I've taken this too far with Roth now. I've ignited a war with him that's not going to be extinguished until one or the other of us goes down in flames. I don't want it to be me, but I'm not about to shrink away from any conflagration still to come." God help her, she didn't want to forgive him right now--not for coming back into her life, not for reminding her so vividly that she'd never stopped loving him, and most certainly not for the prospect of losing him again after having been given such an extraordinary taste of happiness. But when he carried her fingers to his lips with tender care and total reverence, Claire's anger and fear melted beneath his touch. And when he kissed the heart of her palm, then lavished the same soft worship on her mouth, she was lost to him completely. She didn't even try to resist as he drew back, panting and wild, before stripping them both of their clothing in the middle of the compound's sacred chapel. His kisses grew more demanding, more savage. She reveled in his passion, her breath catching as he lifted her legs around his waist and kissed her ever deeper. He impaled her on him in a long, hard thrust, capturing her sharp gasp of pleasure with his mouth. Then he was moving with her, flesh on flesh, as he carried her with the swift speed and strength that marked him as something more than human. Claire felt the chill of firm, carved stone come up against her naked back. And riding at the spread juncture of her thighs, she felt the warmth of rigid, hot flesh filling her so deeply, so deliciously. Andreas held her in a tight grasp as he drove into her, his tempo aggressive and unapologetic.
Claire understood his need. She felt it, too. She welcomed every crushing thrust, every furious pound and cruel withdrawal. She wanted to hear him shout his release, even if it betrayed their passion to the entire compound. She didn't care about anything else but him, and the shattering plea sure of their bodies joined together for what she prayed would not be the last time. "Fuck me," she whispered against his ear as he rocked his hips against her in a more urgent rhythm.
"Oh, God, Andre ... I need to feel this. Please, don't stop." With a snarl, he rode her harder, taking her to a level of climax she didn't know existed. Claire broke apart with a muffled cry, burying her face in his shoulder as her body contracted around him in a great, shuddering rush of sensation. He came along with her, huffing a dark curse as he bucked his pelvis tight against her and held her close, swamping her core with the hot, exploding rush of his release.
Reichen released Claire's thighs and gently placed her feet back down on solid ground. He was shaking with the aftershocks of his release, but even more so from the pounding need to bury his fangs in her tender neck. He'd never felt more alive than when he was with Claire. Being with her only amplified what a farce he'd been living all the years they'd been apart. After the curse of his pyrokinesis made itself known to him, he had been so careful to