Had Jorlan caught her before she’d hit bottom? Why wasn’t she injured?
The fresh blood splattered on the wood matched the blood on her shirt. A torn short. She must have gotten stabbed on the way down. So again, why wasn’t she injured?
The answer hit, and hit hard. Jorlan had used magic to heal her. He must have. That was why Frances had run away as if the IRS was after her.
Suddenly, everything but Jorlan’s continued slumber made sense.
Once the hour ended, his condition unchanged, Katie caressed his cheekbones, his jaw, letting him know she hadn’t left. “I’m going to do it,” she told him. “I’m going to call Brian.”
A soft, almost undetectable moan escaped him.
Finally! Hope warmed her better than sunshine.
Determined to wake him by any means necessary now, she strode to the kitchen, snatched a cup, and filled it with ice and water. Then, she returned to his side, intending to toss the contents in his face.
He woke up on his own, blinking open his eyes. “Katie,” he said, slowly smiling as if he hadn’t scared ten years off her life.
“Glory hallelujah.” Her knees went weak, and she just sort of crumpled to the floor beside him. “Welcome back, Jorlan. Welcome back.” With each second that passed, he looked stronger, healthier, the color returning to his cheeks. She drank in his masculine beauty and told him, “Don’t ever pass out on me again. You hear? You scared me to death.”
“Then I must make amends.” Never taking his eyes from her, he stretched out his arms. “Come to me.”
Dropping the cup, water splashing everywhere, she threw herself into his waiting embrace. He was alive, and nothing else mattered.
“I need you, katya. I need you now.” He breathed the words into her neck. “Do you have the strength?”
“I do.” She needed to reaffirm that they both lived, that they were still together, so she would find the strength. She captured his face in her hands. “I want you inside me, right here, right now.”
“Then take me,” he rasped.
Katie did just that. She removed her clothing, then his, straddled him, and shimmed down, until her mouth hovered just over the object of her fascination. “Jorlan?”
“Hmm?” His breath emerged unsteadily.
“I’m going to taste you.”
He arched a brow. “You think I will stop you?”
She took the bulbous head into her mouth, tasting a hint of salt. Then, she took in the rest of his massive length, as much of him as possible. He hit the back of her throat and though she gagged, she continued sucking him up and down, savoring the thickness, the heat.
Getting the hang of this! And getting turned on in the process. As soon as she found the perfect rhythm, she brought her hands in to play. One aided her mouth, and the other rubbed her clitoris.
Voice hoarse, he called, “Katie. Katie!” When he could take no more of her sweet torment, he grabbed her by the shoulders and wrenched her up. He kissed her then and positioned the tip of his shaft at her entrance, and oh!
He entered her in one thrust.
On top, she controlled the depth of his penetration. Love! At first, she rode him slowly, and not quite taking the full length of him.
“Take me deeper,” he commanded. Sweat beaded his brow, and tension creased the corners of his eyes.
“No, I want—” Oh! There! She continued to take only part of him, riding the waves of sensation.
Jorlan clasped her hips to urge her on. “Faster. Please, katya. Deeper.” He made a sound in the back of his throat, a low moan full of need and promise and desperation. “Aye, just like that.”
“Yes, yes.”
“By Elliea, you are mine. My woman.”
She bent down to flick her tongue against his nipple and…yes! He released another of those needy moans. A siren’s song.
“Say it,” he commanded. “Say you are mine.”
She tried. She did. But she could only groan and gasp with pleasure.
Rolling her over, he pinned her against the cold hardwood. She exhaled a light breath, an exclamation of wonder really, until she realized he had stopped moving. He remained still, gazing down at her, his expression soft but unflinching.
“What are you doing?” She tried to move, to finish what they had begun, but his weight ensured she remained immobile.
“I want to hear you say the words that bind you to me. You are mine. No exceptions. Say it.”
No exceptions? If she were one hundred percent sure of his feelings for her, she would tell him anything and everything he wanted to hear. But, as she’d recently learned, trust didn’t come easy for her. She was a creature who demanded proof in all things. So far, he’d only managed to prove he needed her, not that he loved her.
“I—I can’t say what you want to hear, Jorlan.”
“You can. If you think I will let another male have you, you are sorely mistaken.”
“You’re right. I can, but I shouldn’t.” But I might do it anyway. The words poised at the tip of her tongue.
His eyes narrowed with stubbornness. “You will say the words, Katie, and thus we will be life mates forevermore. I almost lost you, and I never wish to experience such a fright again. I’ve run out of time, and we belong together.”
We belong together.
How she longed to believe him. How she yearned to give him everything he desired, in every situation. Still, a part of her held back, unsure. “I’m sorry,” she told him. “I refuse to pledge my life to yours until I know you’re sincere.”
“Curse you!” He pumped into her once, twice, again and again, harder each time. “Say you are mine. You want to, need to, I can see it in your eyes.”
“No! I won’t set myself up for heartbreak.” She arched her back, chasing his length, taking all of him that he would give. Oh, he felt so good. “I won’t,” she said again, more for her benefit than for his. “I won’t, I won’t, I won’t.”
He slipped his hand between their bodies and pressed against the core of her desire. She groaned in pleasure, and exquisite pain. “So you reject me yet again?”
Only so I can survive emotionally. “Not a rejection. I want you. I’ll always want you. Now. Too much talking, not enough sex. Faster! Harder!”
He didn’t give her harder or faster. He slowed down. “Mayhap, my little witch, I will have to do something to convince you otherwise.” His voice was a husky ripple that stroked her skin, but the wicked gleam in his eyes did not bode well for her sanity.
“What—what do you mean to do?”
He flexed and surged inside her, his fingers circling her little bundle of nerves. Again. Again. Her breath grew ragged, the pleasure too much. Not enough. She lifted her head to bite his collarbone.
His ragged moan echoed in her ears. “Again. Bite me again.”
She did.
He roared his approval, still slamming inside her. Bliss. Rapture. Torment. She thrashed her head, too aroused to stay still.
“That’s right, Katie. Your body requires mine. Do you feel yourself tightening around my shaft? Can you feel how your body responds to mine, and mine alone?”
“Yes,” she shouted. “Oh, yes.”
“Say the words, then. You know what your body wants. Now listen to your heart.”