“And don’t forget to tell Myrddin that the answer to his riddle lies in his past. In his weakness for a fickle heart.”

  Thoroughly baffled by the cryptic statement, barely able to concentrate for the intensely pleasurable waves of lust rolling over her body, the scene changed as Meru came to sudden awareness.

  It was morning. She was awake, her body writhing on the luxurious Egyptian cotton sheets of her giant bed, her head burrowing into the softness of her pillow. Another head, covered in black, silken hair, was nuzzling into the already damp cradle of her sex.

  She opened one sleep-filled, incredulous eye to find Damon nestled comfortably between her thighs, as if he’d settled in for the duration. He was bringing her to full wakefulness with his hot, amazingly talented mouth.

  “Again?” Breathless disbelief filled her voice. They’d turned to each other several times throughout the long night, both insatiable in their need for the other.

  He felt the tensing of her thighs and looked up with a sinful grin of greeting. “I couldn’t resist.” His voice rumbled in that sexy, scratchy way that had her squirming beneath him.

  “I woke up to the smell of you, the feel of you around me. I had to have more.” He said the last on a rough growl before returning to his previous efforts with a diligence that had her arching on a groan.

  He lapped up her cream like a man starved, his broad tongue scraping against her sensitive tissues, the sensation enough to start her trembling.

  Damon lifted his head until only his heated breath touched her needy pussy, his thick fingers slipping easily through her wetness, parting her until she was opened fully to his view.

  “I love looking at you. All pink and sweet, swollen and wet just for me.” He stared down at her so intently that she shifted her hips against the bed, uncomfortable and aroused by his focus at the same time.

  His shoulders pressed her thighs wide as he flicked her clit with delicate precision, the fingers of one hand gathering her juices and spreading them lower, making Meru jerk in surprise.

  “Let me.” He growled in dark desire, his tongue thrusting deeply into her flooding pussy, his lips nipping and sucking, eating at her with delicious desperation.

  Focused on the searing ecstasy boiling through her veins, she didn’t realize what he had planned until she felt one wet, blunt-edged finger push firmly into her tingling ass. The puckered hole clenched forcefully around the digit, the feeling completely foreign. Undeniably erotic.

  Damon moaned in pleasure, enjoying her reaction. She instinctively pushed against him, taking him deeper before arching forward against his mouth.

  She was drowning in the dual edge of sharp sensation. Never in her life would she have imagined allowing any man that particular intimacy. She couldn’t fathom it being a pleasurable experience for anyone. And yet here she was, pumping her backside against his finger, reveling in the tingling, burning pressure.

  “So fucking tight.” He panted between greedy licks. “You’re squeezing my finger like a vise, Meru. You like it, don’t you? I can’t wait to sink my cock inside, to fuck your luscious ass.” He felt the shocked tensing of her muscles as she registered his words and he laughed huskily, fingers still thrusting slowly inside her.

  “Soon, baby, but not this time. This time I want back inside that hot pussy. After you come around my tongue, feed me some more of that sweet cream, I want to feel you wrapped around my cock.” He followed his hot promise with action, his head dipping down to suck her clit hard, lapping at her juices, devouring her.

  It was too much. The teasing licks, pumping finger and debauched words all combined to throw her over the edge. She heard herself scream his name as she shattered. Splintering into a million pieces that shot like stars into the atmosphere.

  She heard Damon snarl and glanced down to see a look of agonized pleasure on his face as he rooted deeply, drinking down her release as if it were the finest ambrosia.

  Still trembling, she tried to clear her muddled thoughts and focus on him. She wanted to feel him inside her again. Tugging on his shoulders, she called his name. “Damon?”

  It took two more tries, her fingers pulling his head up by his hair for him to stop feasting and lift his head. His dazed eyes had darkened in the now familiar way. Light glimmered within the swirling ebony, causing her just sated body to shiver once again with need.

  She jerked on his hair with a laugh as he attempted to return to the warmth between her thighs. Finally he focused in on her face. She would have sworn he was pouting.

  “Get up here and roll on your back.” She couldn’t believe that was her voice making demands. Neither, apparently, could Damon. He raised one eyebrow at her comment, a smile breaking through the lust etched on his features.

  She blushed, but held his stare until he lifted himself slowly, his arms bulging with power as he raised himself up on the bed, his body brushing suggestively against hers the entire way.

  He held himself over her, his lips inches from her own, his erection jerking against her thigh in excitement. She could feel the drops of pre-cum beading on the head of his cock, rubbing into her burning flesh.

  Damon seemed to be tamping down on his need to dominate, biting his lip carefully around the elongating canines that glinted at her as he grinned crookedly.

  Placing her palms against his shoulders, she smiled sweetly into his glorious face…and pushed. A whoosh of sound left him as he landed heavily beside her and she quickly scampered over his large body to straddle his hips.

  “You really are a bad girl, aren’t you, baby?” Damon chuckled at her show of force, his tone telling her he liked it.

  “Maybe you’re just a bad influence.”

  She was flooded with a rush of feminine power, of desire, in this new position. Until now, it seemed he had always taken her as she lay in one helpless, twisted position after another, unable to do anything other than submit. Not that she didn’t enjoy submitting, she thought with an inward smile.

  He was long and hard, pulsing behind her, nudging her bottom insistently. She rubbed against the taut cords of muscle lining his stomach, pressing her damp, needy flesh against him. He growled in warning.

  Their eyes met and she froze. Along with the same devastatingly volatile reaction that they’d brought out in each other from the beginning, she saw something more in his expression. And that something made her heart pound in ferocious hope against her breast, as if fighting to be free.

  Damon seemed more lighthearted, more at ease with himself than he’d been since the moment they’d met. Maybe it was their recent sexual marathon. Maybe it was the sharing of his painful past. Whatever the reason, it made her pulse leap for joy to see it.

  He looked at her through eyes filled with tender emotion. She wasn’t anywhere near brave enough to call it love. But it was infinitely promising.

  Whatever he felt, she knew Danu was right. Damon was her match, her mate. She would never love another.

  She leaned down from her position on top to kiss him, slow and tender. She conveyed through her lips her absolute adoration and devotion. She pulled back to see his expression of wonder, smiling softly into his eyes as she lifted her hips, braced herself above him, slowly sliding down his length.

  Their shouts met and merged as their bodies joined. In this position, she could feel him going further than he’d ever been. She wasn’t even sure if she could fit all of him inside her slightly sore and swollen sex.

  Damon held her hips in his squeezing grasp, trying not to pump himself up into her, to give her time to stretch around him. The honeyed heat of her pussy was scalding his cock, her panting cries killing him. He wanted to roll her over and pound her into the bed beneath him, the need to take over almost strangling him.

  He satisfied himself with focusing on retracting two claws, amazed he had that much control as he reached between their bodies to rub her clit between his fingers. He placed just enough pressure to pull a sexy whimper from between her lips, a new gush of fluid from her core easing her way as she slid a few more inches down.

  Damon took a groaning breath. Oh gods, she was so fucking tight.

  Let her take the lead. He could do this for her. He wanted to do this for her. She deserved at least this much after the way he manhandled her in the library, taking her virginity.

  And last night. He couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her, to stop fucking her, even though he knew she must be sore. But she never once complained, never denied him. In fact, more than once he’d woken to feel her hands exploring him, her tempting mouth on his skin.

  He’d never known anyone like Meru. This petite, innocent human was wilder than any oversexed Fae in the realm. She met him need for need.

  If not for his abilities, he would never have believed he’d been the first. That such an innocent would so easily rip away his control. Knowing that he’d been the only one…he had to stop this train of thought. He would keep the reins on his wolf if it killed him.

  Meru threw her head back as she raised her hips up, rising until only the very tip of his cock remained inside her. She took a deep lungful of air before sliding slowly home, not stopping until her dewy curls were tangled in the thatch of hair around his shaft, until he was all the way in.

  “Mine.” She whispered at the painfully pleasurable feeling that spread throughout her body. So deep, so full.

  She heard him cry out as he registered the soft, adamant declaration. Taking control even from beneath her as he held her hips and rammed his own upward furiously.

  Spirals of color and light, the energy she’d gotten used to over the past several days, suddenly burst before her eyes in all its deep, brilliant glory. He seemed to grow even thicker within her, stretching her impossibly wide as he pressed deep and hard and to her soul.

  Her orgasm came swiftly, shaking through her body like a storm, her inner muscles rippling around him in rapturous bliss.

  He slid from the bed, still inside her as he carried her on strong, determined legs to the bathroom.

  “Damon, what are you—”

  A low, continuous growl rumbled against her breasts and she gasped in surprise, holding on for the ride. Each strong flex of his thighs pressed their hips together, thrust his cock deeper inside her.

  Moaning open mouthed against his shoulder, she licked the salt off his glistening skin, feeling the urgency rising within her once more.

  She wrapped her quivering arms around his neck as he leaned over to adjust the temperature, stepping beneath the waterfall style spigot above their heads, drenching them both.

  The water was warm, but still she gasped as it pounded against her highly sensitized flesh. Damon hadn’t said a word, just dove into her open mouth and fed on her. Voracious.

  She tasted her desire on his tongue again, mingled with the dark spice of him that she’d grown to crave. The coppery flavor of her blood as his fangs nicked her lips, but she merely hummed appreciatively, glorying in his wild response.

  He pressed her against the tiled wall. She wrapped her legs around him, holding on tightly as he slammed his cock deep again and again. His continuous growl purred from his lips to hers and his grip on her tightened further, clutching her closer as if she would escape his pounding thrusts.

  She felt herself coming again, distantly wondering if she’d actually ever stopped, when he suddenly pulled back, looking hungrily at her throat, the muscles in his face roiling, skin growing tighter with the need to change. She must have made a small noise at the sight, because his blistering gaze jerked toward hers before looking away guiltily.

  He stilled his body for a single, charged moment, the water roaring over them, drowning out their gasping breaths, the pounding of their hearts.

  He roared her name and thrust hard against her once…twice more, his powerful release sending shock waves through her still pulsing pussy. His hips continued to pump against her for long minutes, emptying himself inside her.

  Every time. It got better every time, she marveled. It seemed impossible to her. And yet, it was nothing less than the truth. Was it because she loved him? Or did the old adage “practice makes perfect” apply even in this intimate situation?

  She was still lost in her inner musings as Damon released her to slide down his body, stepping back and turning away to lean his forehead against the wall.

  “Damon?” She reached out a hand to touch his broad, muscled back and he flinched. Unable to stem the hurt his action had caused, she leaned on the other side of the white marbled tile, crossing her arms over her breasts defensively as the steam wafted around them.

  “I lost it.” His voice sounded so gruffly defeated. Her heart melted a little in sympathy—but she knew that this was too important an issue to ignore in favor of coddling.

  “Yeah. It was awesome.” Her matter-of-fact tone of voice had him whipping around in shocked anger.

  “Awesome?” He looked her over from head to toe. His sharp eyes honed in instantly on the new bruises already forming on her pale hips.

  To match the ones she’d received from her ex, he berated himself snidely. He saw the full lower lip his kisses had bloodied, the man shouting an agonized denial even as the wolf howled in hungry triumph.

  “There is nothing awesome about what I did to you, Meru. What I almost did.” He stepped forward, unable to help himself as he placed his finger gently against her swollen lip.

  “I bruised you, cut you. Hell, I practically raped you when you were already sore because of my inability to control myself.”

  When she didn’t look impressed, he added harshly, “Baby, I almost completely changed! I almost bit you. Wanted to sink my teeth into your throat and taste your blood more than I wanted to breathe.”

  Meru did look a little startled at that. Startled…and slightly intrigued.

  He groaned in frustration. What was the matter with the woman, anyway? Didn’t she have a single ounce of self-preservation? She should be running screaming from the room, not looking at him like he was an overdramatic child throwing a pointless tantrum.

  “When was the last time you did? Completely change, I mean.” She was looking at him oddly, studying him with those piercing blue eyes as she waited for his answer.

  “Not since Myrddin taught me to control my abilities.”

  “Not since Myr—three thousand years? You haven’t fully changed in three millennia? How is that possible? What about all the battles Val was telling Sheridan about yesterday?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve learned how to take what I need from the wolf. Strength, heightened senses, weapons…” He raised his hands bitterly. “I don’t need to give myself up to the beast to defeat the Dark. I control it. It doesn’t control me.”

  His laugh was grim. “Until I met you. Since I caught your scent, I’ve been a hairsbreadth from changing practically every five minutes.”

  She rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue disappointedly. “Poor wolf.”

  “What?” Nothing she’d said could have surprised him more.

  “Poor wolf,” she repeated easily. “I feel sorry for him. Never gets to play. Never gets to fight. He must feel like he’s in Lycan purgatory.”

  The wolf inside him rolled over and whined pitifully in agreement. Damon ignored him. He couldn’t believe Meru didn’t understand. Not after all he’d told her last night. She must have read his expression.

  “Have you ever come across any other Lycans since that night?” she asked softly.

  “A few of Theron’s goons early on but none in a very long time. I’ve been told that most destroyed themselves within the first several hundred years. Many of the men were so overwhelmed, they couldn’t change back and ended up dying. Either from grief or by allowing themselves to be caught by the hunters.”

  She nodded as if she expected as much. “It must have been a shock to them all when they’d seen what they had done the next day. But why would a Lycan, in the full throes of ‘wolfiness’, be conscious enough to even be capable of remorse? Why would an animal bent on self preservation allow its weak, human predators to slaughter it without a fight?”

  He looked down at her waterlogged features, stunned.

  He had never wondered. Had never for a moment considered it from that point of view. The few that had run him down had been just as untamed, just as ferocious and grotesquely rabid as his memories of that long ago night. Then again, he recalled, the men loyal to Theron had always been a murderous, bloodthirsty lot.

  He understood what she was trying to imply. Hawk had been trying to tell him the same thing the other night. That, as a Lycan, the creature inside him was just an extension of who he was, not a separate entity. That being the case, it stood to reason that if he was not a rapist or a murderer, then the wolf was also innocent of those crimes.

  Inside him, the voice that he’d always ignored argued the point, showing him images of the gentle way the beast had carried his dying mother to safety. Of the look of horror and loss in King Lycaon’s demonic eyes as he’d begged for his own death.

  It was still a new thing, this idea rattling around in his head. That he might not be a monster. His mother’s torn body was a visual tattooed on his brain, his warning to himself, his safety. But he was remembering a bit more clearly now.

  The king had never had control of his passions where Damon’s mother was concerned. And Damon, the mortal man, had always secretly wanted to rescue her, wanted to hurt his sire for causing her pain. The hot, instinctual emotions of the Lycan had only aggravated a situation that already existed.

  He was still upset that he had hurt Meru, even remotely, even in passion. He would just have to be more careful, he thought resolutely as he realized he had taken her in his arms and was caressing her back almost absently.

  It had taken him only a few years of practice to control the change when it had first happened. Surely with all this time under his belt, all this experience, he could learn in no time to keep his head, regardless of how provocative or sexually impulsive she proved to be, with just a little bit more patience.

  Meru had been looking at him. Watching as his thoughts flowed clearly over his expressive face. He is so very beautiful, so perfectly masculine, she thought to herself on a sigh.

 

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