Her hard kiss crushed away his words, but to her surprise, he yanked out of her hold and held her cheek firmly, now on top of her, looking at her eye to eye.
"Not like this. Hand me the rod. You need the healing balm, not for me to add insult to your injury by f**king you. I will make love to you, but never f**k you. Now hand me the rod."
She could feel her face begin to crumble as his words and wisdom slapped her hard. It was the kindest, noblest thing any man had ever done for her, and she could no more reach for the rod than stop sobbing. She gathered up the front of Cain's robe and buried her face in it, as she felt him grip her with one arm and reach to something just out of his grasp with the other.
His calm, repetitive, shushing sounds made her cry harder as every indignity she'd experienced in dealing with Carlos and all his female side deals and shenanigans suddenly crested over the edge of her heart with bitter tears and wiped out a major portion of her respect for him. She saw it all. Cain had meant him no harm, had tried to take him to court, but, noooo... Carlos's pride and his side-dealing ways had him balling some dragon broad in Cain's house to get a passport home. Could he wait for her to break through--no--and why? Because he didn't give her credit as a Neteru to be able to quickly figure out a strategy. So doing some broad was an acceptable excuse? Not!
"I am so tired!" she shouted at Cain's chest.
"I know, sweet one. Light of my world, it will pass. Give me the pain. I will hold it."
"No," she finally said, as the fast-moving storm quickly ebbed.
She struggled to sit up and disengage their bodies, which he obliged as he laid the rod over his legs. She wiped her eyes and face and let out a cleansing breath.
"This isn't your mess. I need to go home and clean it up myself. You were right. I needed to be clear and make decisions. Being conflicted is a waste of energy. Clean break." She stood with effort and grabbed her Isis.
Cain gave her a spurious look. "Do not jeopardize your soul by goring him in vengeance, dear one."
"You keep the healing rod. I'll keep the blade when I have the conversation. If I lose my temper during the conversation--"
Cain stood so quickly that he stopped her words midsentence. His kiss crushed away her argument as his hand gently removed the Isis from her and it clattered to the floor beside them.
"Not like this," he murmured into her mouth. "Not ever like that." His tongue dueled with hers as his hands splayed instant heat against her Sankofa. "Let me take the pain."
"You can have it all . . ."
Her body hit silk sheets, blanketed by his radiant warmth. Sound fused with sensation as each fiber in the threads produced delirium-level pleasure. Lightning arced between each crystal pyramid on the four golden posts of the bed, and formed a central, blue-white globe of energy that rained down a sheet of erotic tempest that encased them. Her fingers tangled in his locks while her legs became a vise around his waist. The burn from his kiss became one with the throbbing tattoo on his chest, seizing her heart into pleasure arrhythmia as he moved against her, kissing her deeply.
The vibrations emanating from him, the perfect-pitch tonal vibrations of the bed, and everything around him, turned her gasp into a near shriek. Intoxicating scents released from the flowers and ferns, sending music into the depths of her soul with his low groans. Urgency combined with gentleness began to strip away her clothes as she arched to his touch, each caress falling upon her skin like liquid fire.
"Become my wife," he whispered, his voice ragged with desire. She could barely breathe, let alone answer as she forced herself to open her eyes and stare into his silver-gold gaze. Her hand trembled as it cupped his cheek and touched a jaw packed with what felt like pure steel. Before she could answer, his fangs crested and he knocked her head back so hard that she literally saw stars.
Hot, steaming, desire-filled breath covered her throat where Carlos had once marked her, and her hands gripped a pair of foreign shoulders, urging the bite.
"You must answer me," Cain said, his voice faltering with need. "I cannot deliver a divorce bite to a councilman's wife without it." He licked the overly sensitive pulse point and kissed each now-visible puncture wound before poising his fangs a quarter inch wider than Carlos's at her jugular.
A divorce bite? Sudden clarity sliced at her mind. Wait... that wasn't from the realms of Light. Her body tensed. Cain drew away just enough to look at her and then took her mouth so hard that his fangs nearly split her lip.
"I'll replace it with pure silver and gold," he murmured harshly against her forehead, and then nuzzled her throat until she writhed under him. "Devastation... God as my witness, you'll never have to go home to him again!" "Uhmmm . . ."
Lyrics filled her head, her spirit, and her very soul as a mind-altering orgasm shattered her with his kiss.
"Oh, God, I don't know--a divorce is--"
"Permanent. I don't want an affair! I want your all." Cain's tense whisper contracted her womb, spilling her wet readiness as her body flamed to another cl**ax.
Jesus help her, she couldn't speak. The man was working on her in stereophonic sound waves of pleasure, driving ecstasy insanity to a level that made her weep. "But permanent is--"
"You are a queen . . ." he murmured into her mouth, and then swallowed her gasp. "I am a king. We both deserve the best--each other."
His kisses became more aggressive as her body began to yield again under his hold. Golden sweat dripped from his forehead to her br**sts as his mouth found the V in her throat and his palms slid beneath her shoulder blades with a scorching caress.
"Damali, I can feel something just beneath the surface of your wondrous skin," he breathed out, his expression awed. "Please, do not deny me, lover; I must have your permission--you know this," he whispered, pressing hard, hot kisses to her shoulder as she arched and tried to think at the same time. "There must be complete acceptance of all that I am to you. Your body and mouth have already said yes... your mind is already near vapor... let me take you to the V-point and show you the cosmos as you have never dreamed of witnessing it. My angel of redemption, just say yes in your spirit," he moaned, now stuttering the request as he nuzzled her throat.
Cain's hands went at her skull. "Mind lock... while we are so close to the edge. You know how that will shatter us. Oh, Damali, what claim does that betrayer have to your soul?" Cain's words had become a frantic plea broken by a pleasure gasp. "Give me your trinity, baby. Let me take it." His head was thrown back, eyes shut tightly, the pulse in his jugular a magnet for a sudden strike.
She couldn't help herself, the bite was reflex, carnal instinct that released his voice in a thousand splinters of pure white light that bounced off the lair walls and refracted in a blinding essence behind her lids. Her black box collapsed in on itself. Only a small line of silver arc blocked him from Carlos's domain in her mind. The rumble of frustration that thundered up from Cain's groan almost melted it away.