Page 81 of Bond of Passion

Her heart jumped into her throat and clogged any words that might have come out.

His eyes darkened, becoming the color of the stormy Irish sea, and floating on the currents were glints of gold as his arousal built.

“You came back.”

Surprise broke the clog in her throat, and she let out a hurt breath. “Did you really think I wouldn’t?”

“I didn’t know.” A hungry, masculine sound rumbled in his chest. “But know this. If you choose to stay, I won’t let you go again.”

His irises were fully engulfed in gold now, a sign of intense desire she’d been hypnotized by more than once. “What are you saying?” she whispered.

He crossed to her in three strides and took her shoulders in a brutal grip that stopped just short of pain. She could sense his restraint through the bond, but she could also see it in the strained tendons in his neck, and the tight, ropey muscles in his biceps.

“I don’t deserve you. And you don’t deserve me for completely different reasons. So, I’m giving you the choice right now. If we do what I have been wanting to do to you since this morning, I won’t be strong enough to let you go. But if you turn around right now—”

“You’ll die!” she blurted, unable to believe he was saying this.

“For you,” he swore, “I will. But I need to know now. I’m…having a hard time controlling myself.”

She gaped at him in disbelief. He was actually willing to die to keep her from being trapped in the bond.

Not long ago, she’d have declared victory. She’d have laughed, admitted who she was, and left him to die a horrible death.

Would you really?

Would she? If Azagoth was right, and there was no reason to think he wasn’t, her soul was decent. So even if she had done that, could she have lived with it later?

She knew the answer to that.

With all the fierceness she could muster, she stepped into him and met him eye to eye. “I’m not going anywhere, Tavin. I swear.”

The tension released from him in a palpable wave. No, that wasn’t entirely right. It didn’t leave. It morphed into something less dark but no less intense.

He rocked his hips into her, the erection behind the fly of his jeans making erotic promises she knew he could keep.

“Show me,” he rasped.

Reaching down, she released his cock and gripped it hard, the way he liked. He rewarded her with a moan, and then his fingers were stroking her core over the wet fabric of her panties.

A low, sensual rumble rolled up from his chest like a distant storm, and then he kissed her. His tongue met hers in a rough tangle as he pulled her down to the ground.

“You’re so beautiful.” He nibbled at her lips, licked them lightly, and then he rolled her onto her back and took her face in his hands, so tenderly she wanted to cry.

He kissed her again. Deeply. Slowly. His tongue danced with hers, sucking and stroking. Sensation streamed from his mouth to her core, intensifying with every change of tempo, every vibrating purr. Deep inside her chest, his emotions were laid bare, his appreciation for her, but even more intensely, his love.

She dragged her hands up his back, mapping the scars on top of layers of rigid muscle, and then she scratched her nails over his skin on the way down. He hissed in pleasure and threw back his head as she gripped the taut globes of his ass.

He was magnificent, a creature of art, a being of pure sex. She arched against him, loving the sensation of his shaft against the silky barrier of her panties.

He rocked into her, pumping his hips to create a slick friction that brought her to the edge of orgasm before he was breaking away to kiss a trail down her body. He was so good at that, taking his time with her breasts before his patience— and hers—broke, and he made good on the promise to tear off her underwear with his teeth.

She actually came the first time at the sound of the fabric ripping, and he dove into her, tasting her orgasm on his tongue. He made her come two more times with his mouth, and she was so glad he didn’t have neighbors.

When he finally mounted her, it was from behind. He pushed her head down gently and covered her with his big body, one arm wrapped possessively around her waist. Lifting her hips, he entered her in a single, smooth thrust, shouting as her walls clenched around him. He moved slowly at first, torturing her with long, leisurely strokes.

Pleasure soared as she let herself go, feeling his weight and the slap of his thighs against her legs. Her orgasm was close, so close, and he must have known, because he groaned and started moving faster.

He was pure flame, igniting her from within. She burned, and when she felt him splash inside her, she went off in a frenzied explosion of ecstasy. They both shouted into the ocean breeze, letting it swallow the sounds of their lovemaking or carry it to the next county, she didn’t care.