Dark Peril Page 0,107

known I'm going to kill someone, I feel sick inside. But if I don't do it, I know they'll harm another woman sometime, someplace, and there is no one else to stop them."

"I know that was difficult to admit to yourself, let alone to me."

The approval in his voice warmed her. She was startled to see him looming above her, but his hands began to work on her shoulders, those strong fingers digging into every tense muscle, and she subsided under his magic.

"There can be no mistake. When I heard your voice, my emotions returned. After centuries of living on memories, it was a little difficult not to be overwhelmed. My first thought was to find you and carry you off, as I believe my ancestors would have done. I see color. Your hair, all that soft, silky hair with so many colors blended together." He rubbed the strands between his fingers. "So beautiful."

She tried to stifle the little moan of pleasure his compliments elicited. She tried concentrating on the mouth of the dragon as those magic hands continued her massage right along her collarbone. The feeling was bone-melting. Her body began a delicious tingle, as if her nerve endings had begun to awaken all over again. That should have been alarming, but she was too relaxed under his ministrations to protest. He made her feel beautiful and cared for. He made her feel as if she really were his protected and safe lifemate.

"Why haven't you carried me off?" she asked. Her voice sounded faraway, drowsy. Maybe even a little sexy. Certainly not really her.

His hands cupped her breasts. Her stomach muscles bunched as he began a slow, gentle massage, and this time there was oil on his hands. Her heart pounded, drawing his attention to her accelerated pulse. "Carrying you off would not be right for you. For some women, yes, but you, my kessake, my little cat--you require seduction. Finesse. Loving. I have to earn your trust, and I would not want it any other way."

Her gaze jumped to his face when he tugged and rolled her nipples between his finger and thumb. He left behind a minty oil that began generating heat at the very tips of her breasts.

"Does that feel good, Solange? Your body is sexy, a temptation that is getting more difficult to resist. You are very responsive, and that is so seductive to me."

He bent his head and the long fall of silky midnight black hair spilled over her chest, teasing her senses as he sucked her nipple deep into his mouth and stroked with his tongue. She heard herself whimper, a soft, breathy sound that came close to a plea. He cupped both breasts, turned his head and found her other, woefully neglected nipple and drew it into his mouth, giving her left breast the same, unhurried loving attention. Pleasure was so intense she shook, her hips moving restlessly.

His hands stroked down her rib cage and over her belly. He found the tight little muscles and began his slow, leisurely massage. "Do you see, Solange, that you are the only woman in my world? The one woman who can choose life or death for me. You are the center of my world and you always will be. When I tell you that your pleasure is mine, I mean that literally. I can feel your body's response. I can feel your mind relax just as your muscles do, and it pleases me that I am the one, the only one, who can do that for you. I am the man your body responds to and your mind accepts." His fingers slipped lower to her mound, massaged ever so gently, stroked lightly over her damp sex and moved to her inner thighs. Her breath exploded in a ragged rush as his hands continued that bone-melting kneading of her tight muscles. All the way down her calves to her feet, he kept kneading and stroking until she simply melted there on the table.

His hand on her shoulder urged her to turn over. She could barely summon the strength, already drifting in a state of arousal and relaxation. She turned her head to one side as he stretched out her arms by her sides and began work on her shoulders with his clever fingers.

"Why did you say I can't accompany you when you go to the gathering of the vampires, when you know I won't be able to stay away?" She murmured the words, her lashes falling