“All my life,” she gasped. “All my life, I’ve prayed for you.”
“All my life, I’ve loved you.” He bent to her, taking her lips with his, giving her the spicy, erotic taste of his kiss and sharing the burning need threatening to sear his nerve endings.
Nothing mattered now but stilling those flames. Taking the kiss deeper, letting it get wilder as he began to thrust powerfully between her thighs, taking her cries as his own and throwing them both into the tempest racing through them.
He felt her orgasm first. The steady tightening, the tension building until she bucked beneath him, screaming into his lips as her nails dug into his back. Then he gave in to his own, tearing his lips from hers to throw his head back, a primal snarl leaving his chest as his se**n pulsed from his c**k and the barb became painfully erect, locking him inside her, stealing his mind.
He felt reborn within her. Renewed. Locked inside her, spilling his seed into the heated depths as he spilled his soul into hers. His head lowered, a growl rumbling in his throat as he locked his incisors into the mating mark he had given her at the caves.
She cried out again, spasmed around his cock, and spilled more of the sweet release that he knew was his alone. Just his. His mate. His woman.
Moments later, he collapsed against her, sweating, panting, drawing her against him as his tongue lapped at the wound on her shoulder and his senses filled with the taste and scent of her.
This was what he lived for now. Not revenge or hatred, but this. For love. For Scheme.
CHAPTER 28
Scheme hadn’t expected that the Breeds would ever throw a party such as the one she prepared for the next night. Of course, the fact that there were several reporters there to report on the “engagement” of Tanner Reynolds and Scheme Tallant had nothing to do with it. The only thing missing inside the opulent mansion was the news crews parked outside the iron gates of Sanctuary’s main entrance.
She hadn’t expected this. When Tanner had said “party,” she had assumed he meant some sort of small event. Just the main families within the estate house, not the guests that had arrived in heli-jets for the past few hours.
Of course, she should have known better. This was what she would have done herself to counter General Tallant’s accusations. And they had grown in the past twenty-four hours.
Her father was frightened. She had seen it in his eyes in the last news interview. He was terrified of what she was going to say, what she was going to do. What proof she might have of his actions. And she had plenty. Proof that she knew Jonas was now downloading from the secured site she had been storing it on over the years. Her insurance, she had always called it, just in case she needed it.
As she swept her hair into a fashionable twist, she met her own gaze in the mirror and nearly flinched at the grief in her eyes. Why should she feel grief that the monster that had haunted her living nightmare would soon be falling? It wasn’t as though he had been a loving father.
In his eyes though, he had been, and she knew that. Her father was a psychopath of the worst sort. He believed in what he was doing with total conviction. He believed he had done the best by his daughter—the daughter betraying him in what he considered the most heinous matter.
He had killed her mother, and Scheme knew he would have killed her given the chance. He would have done it with love in his heart and belief in his soul that he was saving the world.
She shook her head at the thought before securing the last pin in her hair and surveying her image carefully. She was known for her scarlet dresses, and she wore one now. Scarlet silk with a daring slit cut to the thigh and black stockings peeking through. The silk swept over her curves and molded her br**sts before the straps tightened at her shoulders and crisscrossed behind her back.
Having checked her makeup one last time, she slid her stocking feet into scarlet pumps, picked up the little evening bag that matched her stockings and left the bathroom.
“Ready?” Dressed in a tux and looking sexier than any man or Breed had a right to, Tanner rose from his seat at the bottom of the bed, his gaze moving over her with slow appreciation.
“You look good enough to eat.”
“I’m nervous as hell.” Her skin was sensitized, warning her that the mating heat was playing hell with the nerves, as Ely had warned her it would.
“Just remember to keep enough distance between you and others to keep them from accidentally touching you. You know the reporters. You’ve dealt with them before. You know how to work them. Everything’s going to be fine.”
Everything was going to be fine.
“Cabal will be keeping watch from outside,” he continued. “David is secure in Callan and Merinus’s suite. There are about two hundred guests; none are known associates of your fathers or the Council’s, but they’re influential in politics and financial affairs. The reporters are well respected and known for their impartiality where the Breeds are concerned.”
“I’ll be fine.” She was assuring them both.
She lifted her chin, reminding herself that she had done this countless times in other settings without so much as a twinge of nerves.
Tanner’s hand rode low on her back as they left the suite and moved to the wide, curving staircase that led to the crowded foyer and ballroom. Breed Enforcers were en masse, stationed with silent watchfulness every few feet up the stairs. Below, they had positioned themselves at the doors leading into the house and the ballroom, as well as the other rooms that led off the foyer. Only the ballroom was open. All other doors had been closed and carefully locked.
The ballroom doors were thrown open, and she knew the French doors leading into the gardens beyond would be open, allowing the guests to wander out for fresh air in the heavily secured and well-lit gardens.
No sooner had they stepped from the stairway into the foyer than the three reporters invited were striding toward them. Cassa Hawkins was a reporter and newcaster for INS, the International News Service; Joel Briggins from CNN was there, as well as Philippe Augustan of ENI, Euro-News International. Each reporter had his or her own cameraman following behind. The small recording devices normally uploaded their video feed live to the stations, but with the communications blackout at Sanctuary at the moment, they were on record only, to be uploaded after Jonas had previewed each disc.
“Scheme, you don’t look drugged to me.” Cassa Hawkins made a little moue of disappointment as she stepped past the Breed Enforcer that had stepped closer as they entered the foyer.