The practical question should've broken the sensual spell, but all it did was unlock her tongue. "You're distracting me from my work on your DNA," she said, trying to tease him. It came out wrong - she wasn't used to this kind of play. And her mind wasn't quite functioning, her body having taken complete control.
"I'm latent, not broken."
Something stilled inside her, the primal heart of her - a heart that had come to screaming life entombed below the earth - understanding that his words weren't a statement at all. "You're a lethal, dangerously skilled sniper," she said, speaking the absolute truth because she seemed unable to lie to him. "In many ways you're tougher than those who know they can fall back on the strength of their beast."
Clever fingers slid up and under her T-shirt, stroking skin that quivered at the first touch. "So why bother?"
She drew in a shuddering breath, put her hands on his wrists. "Slower."
His fingers played over her ribs. "I told you the time for saying no was over."
Despite the harsh words, she knew he'd never hurt her. She knew in a way that she'd never before known anything. As if the truth was carved deep inside her soul. "I'm not going to say no." Against her skin, his fingertips were slightly rough, quintessentially male in a way she couldn't define. She just knew that the feel of it was an erotic sensation she'd never have expected. "But sensuality is a drug I need to get used to in small doses." She thought she might've surprised him when his fingers paused.
An instant later, they began moving again, stoking the fire within her with dark precision. "I'm patient."
"I know." He was also incredibly focused - he'd become a powerful and respected member of his pack despite being born with what many would've considered a handicap. But... "You hurt, Dorian." A whisper that froze him. "I might be Psy, but I can feel your hurt at being unable to shift." The knowing bewildered her, but that made it no less true.
Dorian felt as if she'd knocked him flat with that single quiet statement. He'd done such a damn good job of moving past his genetic flaw that he'd convinced everyone - even himself - that it didn't matter. And on one level, it didn't. He was proud of what he'd become, a changeling fully capable of defending his pack, his family. But... "I couldn't save her." A gut-wrenching confession.
Ashaya's hands slid under the tee to clench on his. "From all I know, Santano Enrique was a monster in every way. Don't allow the echo of his evil to taint your memories of your sister."
"I swore to destroy the Psy Council." Sascha's empathic gift had saved him from becoming a beast ravaged by vengeance alone, but he was a predatory changeling male. He couldn't forget. "They nurtured Enrique, protected him. I want their blood to flow in the streets."
"Hate will destroy you," she whispered. "It'll destroy... us."
He shuddered, burying his face in the curve of her neck. The electric curls of her hair cushioned him with a soft warmth that was so intrinsically female, he couldn't hope to explain it. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he simply held her, allowed himself to hold her, to accept that she was his mate. And that she came from the very race he'd made the target of all his rage, all his pain... so that he wouldn't have to face his own guilt.
A scientist's practical hand rose to press against his cheek as Ashaya tilted her head in a sweet gesture of acceptance. "People always say it's changelings who most crave touch, but that's not the truth. A long time ago, long before Silence, Psy craved it more than any other."
He let her words wash over him like affectionate rain. His mate, his mate, was trying to temper his grief, trying to tell him they weren't so very different after all.
"We were becoming so mentally inclined, living so much on the psychic plane that it scared us. We sought out physical sensation to anchor us, to bring us back to reality."
"Did it work?"
Her hand rubbed gently and he felt the cat in him shudder in surrender. "Yes," she said. "It turned the course of our history so powerfully that even Silence couldn't derail it. Not even the strongest among us retreat wholly from their physical bodies. Touch saved us."
"Then save me, Shaya." He laid his heart bare, invited her to savage it.
Dropping her hand, she turned in his arms. Then, rising up on tiptoe, she cupped his face in her palms and drew him down. Her kiss was innocent, vulnerable, a caress so gentle that it made him her slave between one breath and the next.
"Dorian," she said and it was another caress. One hand fluttered to rest on his shoulder, the fingers of the other tracing a line across his cheekbone, along his jaw and down until she splayed her hand flat against his heartbeat.
Whether she understood or not, he knew he was being marked in a very feminine way. "More," he demanded, greedy, starving, ready to take.
Chapter 36
She curled her fingers into his chest instead of complying. "You're an incredibly handsome male," she said. "Perfect bone structure, pure blond hair, eyes so blue they should be impossible. Your only 'flaw' is this tattoo." She traced the three jagged lines on his right biceps. "It's an echo of the markings on your alpha's face."
He gave a short nod.
"A symbol of absolute loyalty." Her lips parted. "Knowing that just makes you even more dangerously beautiful."
He felt a blush heat up his cheeks. His looks were simply another hurdle he'd had to overcome as far as he was concerned. "Took a long time for people to take me seriously."
"Yes, but you see, Dorian," Ashaya said, stroking her hands down his chest and back up, "you intimidate me."
"You didn't seem intimidated on the couch in the apartment." He raised a hand, fisting it in her hair. It fascinated him, it was so wild, filled with what felt like a thousand colors from pure black to a golden brown. He wanted to know what it would feel like brushing over him. It also made him wonder about the colors in other, lower places. His fingers curled in anticipation.