Riley stared up at Dax. Flames leapt and burned in his eyes. His skin glowed crimson and gold, radiating light, as if deep inside beneath the hard frame, a fire raged. He looked absolutely confident and so beautiful she couldn't believe she hadn't conjured him up in a dream. He was the hottest, sexiest man she'd ever come across. Just looking at him made her weak, desire lashing inside her belly with curling hot licks.
Gently he ran his fingers down her cheek to the corner of her mouth. "I want you so much, Riley, even my deep slumber was disturbed by the thought of the things I want to do to you."
Deep inside, her muscles clenched tightly, arousal teasing her thighs and breasts. His eyes glowed, mesmerizing her. The fire leapt wildly behind the many facets so instead of one, there were multiple flames burning with a mixture of lust and such intense hunger a shiver of fear slipped down her spine.
"There is no one safer in this world from me, than you, Riley," he assured, a hint of tenderness creeping into his voice. "I would never harm you."
He cupped her chin, his thumb sliding back and forth across the small dent there hypnotically. She couldn't look away from him, away from that perfect mouth with his lengthening teeth. He made no attempt to hide his teeth or his desire from her. Her heart slammed hard in her chest.
Dax laid his hand over her breast, exquisitely gentle. "Let your heart hear mine, sivamet. Mine calls to yours, allow yours to answer."
Her heart felt as though it was being squeezed in a vise. His voice was smoky, velvet soft, playing along her nerve endings. And his palm, barely there, curving around her left breast left her lungs burning for air.
"Take a breath," he advised, his voice wrapping her up in sheer seduction.
Riley tried to do what he said, inhaling when he did, exhaling to keep from fainting at his feet. Never in her life had she been so affected by a man. He was so in control and she was both terrified and desperate for him.
I am not altogether certain I'm fully in control, he confessed. The words brushed against the inside of her mind, a slow molasses that poured into every shy and lonely crack, filling her with anticipation. And desperation does not begin to describe how much I want you.
Her gaze locked with his. Those flames burned intensely-for her. Her heart settled into the rhythm of his. Her breathing followed his. He was her anchor as he led her into an unfamiliar world.
"I want this, Dax," she said as firmly as her trembling body would allow. She meant it. The shivering was a mixture of fear and anticipation.
He waved his hand, and in the middle of the field of night flowers, there, in the veils of mist on the mountain where she was born, was a large four-poster bed, draped in white. She recognized the canopy as one from a picture she'd shown her mother from a magazine when she'd been a teen. The bed was just as beautiful as the one in the photograph, the wood a deep golden hue and carved with waves and whorls.
Dax took her hand and led her through the flowers, the scent of him, so potent, surrounding her, making her a little light-headed. Deep inside her most feminine core, the ache was sweet and terrible, as she wound through that narrow trail to come to stand by the side of her fantasy bed.
He bent his head, his mouth finding hers with urgent demand even as his hands slipped to the hem of her shirt. His kiss left her dizzy with need. When he lifted his head, he slowly pulled her shirt off, leaving her standing in her lacy lavender bra. She shivered as the mist touched her skin. Dax stepped back, looking down at her with his blazing eyes, and at once she was warm, the temperature in her body soaring in spite of the cool vapor surrounding them.
He brushed his skin over the swell of her breasts. "You're so beautiful. Your skin is unbelievable, soft and flawless." He breathed the words. "I lay awake, unable to move, my body locked in stone, and I went over and over what I hungered to do to you. I knew every inch of you. I want to taste every inch of you, kiss every inch, claim every inch."
Riley drew her breath in swiftly. Every move he made, everything he said, the way he said it in that hot, sexy voice, even the way he looked at her, made her weak, left her body damp and throbbing. She was more than willing to give herself to him in any way that he wanted.
"Te avio palafertiilam," he whispered softly in his own language. His hand found the scrunchy in her hair and pulled it free from the end of her long braid. "You are my lifemate." His fingers tugged at the weave until her hair cascaded to her waist in a long flowing waterfall of blue-black silk.
The timbre of his voice changed as he spoke in the ancient language. The words sounded like a command, the deep masculine voice coming from somewhere inside of him. As he spoke everything in her responded, a flight-or-fight instinct, yet at the same time, her inner muscles clenched tightly, a spasm of sensuous pleasure she couldn't prevent.
He bunched her hair in one fist, pulling her head back as his mouth came down on hers, demanding entrance. He swallowed her soft gasp as she stroked her tongue along his a little tentatively. He pulled her closer, his other hand shaping her body, smoothing down her back to the curve of her buttocks, his palm sliding over her rounded cheek to press her even closer as he pushed his heavy erection against her. A small keening moan escaped her throat.
A part of her was still terrified of what she was doing, especially when she could feel his lengthened teeth with her tongue, or scraping along her skin ever so gently. She knew he was using restraint, going slow for her, but her body was raging at her, desperate for his possession.
Dax feathered kisses from the corner of her mouth, across her jaw to her chin. His teeth nipped at the small dent there. "entolam kuulua, avio palafertiilam." He said the words against her chin, his voice deep and commanding. "I claim you as my lifemate," he translated as his hands slipped around to unlatch her bra. He drew the lace from her body and tossed it aside. His heated gaze dropped to her exposed breasts, his breath catching in his lungs.
Standing in front of him, half naked, with the way he was looking at her, made Riley feel both wanton and sexy. She reached up and traced the lines in his face, the shape of his jaw and his contoured lips.
"You truly are the most beautiful man I've ever seen," she admitted.
He cupped her breasts in his hands, his thumbs brushing her nipples before he dipped his head and ran a trail of fire from her chin down her throat to the tips of her breasts. His mouth was hotly erotic, tugging and pulling, his tongue stroking, teeth scraping gently. Just when she thought her legs would give out, he feathered kisses down her ribs to her flat stomach.