Christine Feehan - Dark Possession

«I can't breathe.» She didn't care if he knew how much she wanted him. Everything ached. Everywhere ached. There wasn't a single cell in her body that wasn't aware of him; aware of wanting-no-needing him. In that moment she knew no one else would ever satisfy her. She would crave this man's taste, his touch, his face and body, even his wicked smile. She would dream of him and lie awake at night needing him. It was a terrifying realization that her life was no longer her own and that with him, she had very little control.

«Easy, sivamet, you are in good hands.»

His voice was mesmerizing, every bit as sexy as his mouth. Strangely, he wasn't taking advantage; rather, he gathered her closer and held her protectively as if he knew her uninhibited and all-encompassing reaction to him scared her.

«I'm out of my depth with you,» MaryAnn admitted. She tried to breathe, tried not to hyperventilate, but she couldn't get her lungs to work. If it was possible, she thought she might actually be experiencing a panic attack over a kiss. Cool, unflappable MaryAnn was losing control over a man, and there wasn't even a sister close by to talk to. She was so out of her world here.

«No, you are not,» he said, the gentleness in his voice whispering over her skin. He kissed her again, breathing air into her lungs. «We are both in an unfamiliar situation.»

She wanted to laugh at the understatement, but she was too close to tears. Not because of the danger, but because this man who needed to be with some glamorous movie star or model was looking as if he had eyes only for her. She didn't dare talk about it anymore.

Lifting her chin, she brushed his sensual mouth one last time and took a deep breath. «Let's try for the house. I should be safe there. Riordan and Juliette have to go to ground like you, but Juliette told me that her sister and cousin use the house during the day when no one is there. With three of us there, we should be safe. Vampires can't walk around during the day, can they?»

«No, but they often have puppets who do their dirty work for them. The jaguar-men have been tainted by their evil.»

«How do you know?» MaryAnn took a cautious look around, aware that all the while Manolito had been kissing her, holding and comforting her, driving her wild, he had been scanning for enemies. She wasn't going to be able to resist his lovemaking if he ever got serious about it, but she really, really wanted the opportunity to try.

«I met one of them, Luiz, not too far from here. He attacked me. When I reached for his mind to calm him, I knew the vampire had been influencing him. He actually was not a bad man at all. In other circumstances, perhaps we could have been friends.»

«I felt his attack on you. I tried to stop it,» she admitted. «How bad did he get you?» She frowned. «He wanted to kill you.»

«It was brave of you to try to intervene, although you must never place yourself in harm's way. Trust me to take care of us.» He had felt her, for that one moment, standing between the leaping cat and him, and he had slammed his mind closed to prevent any injury to her, but he had felt proud of her and, most importantly, part of her. «A few scratches is all he managed.»

He lifted his shirt to show his very muscular stomach. MaryAnn licked her lips. «I didn't think men were really built like you,» she blurted out and then covered her face with one hand. He was holding the other one or she would have used that one, too.

She was so shallow. That was it. Shallow. Because she was fixating on his six-pack, his ripped muscles, and how could she not notice the impressive bulge in the front of his jeans? He wasn't even trying to hide it. She should be thinking wounds and oh no and are you all right? But no, she was thinking about stripping him naked and having her way with him. She hadn't always been shallow, so maybe it was the strange shadow land they seemed to be in. But while she was at it, she might as well go all the way. She glanced down at her once beautiful boots. Maybe she needed some thigh-highs and a good long whip to be in control of herself– or of him.

«I'm reading your mind again.» There was male amusement in his voice.

«Well good. Try to make some sense of it, because I'm not doing so well myself. Are you all right?» There. That was certainly appropriate. A little slow in coming, but she got it out there.

The rain forest surrounded them, the water still pouring out of rocks and flowing into rivers. Everything appeared the same, yet different. Fouler. Much more frightening and strangely still. Before, when she'd first entered the forest, she had noticed it was quieter than she had thought it would be, but as she walked, she began to hear the cicadas and other insects, the cries of the birds, and wind and rain in the canopy. After a time, the forest seemed loud and filled with occupants, so that she didn't feel quite so alone. Now it seemed less vivid, drabber and dark, not so alive, and ominously quiet.

Snakes slithered along the forest floor and coiled over twisted branches. Worms, leeches and ticks made the vegetation writhe and move as if alive. The beetles were large, with thick, hard shells, and the mosquitoes were ever present, searching endlessly for blood. The flowers gave off a rotten fragrance, and the scent of death seemed to cling to everything. But sometimes, when she blinked rapidly, or she thought about Manolito and how gorgeous he was, the rain forest was all vibrant color again. It made no sense, but it gave her hope that if she just took a little time, she-could unlock the secret to getting them both out of the shadows.

«Take me back to the house. Can you find your way?»

«I do not want to lead danger back to the others.»

«If a vampire is hanging around the neighborhood, my guess is he knows all about the others. We're safer in numbers, especially if you aren't going to be with us.» The idea of him leaving her alone caused instant panic. Her throat swelled until air could barely get through to her lungs, but she refused to give in to fear. He was Carpathian and she was human…

MaryAnn went rigid. «Wait a minute. Wait a minute.» She held up both hands, palms out as if she could block the information flowing into her. «Did you take my blood?»

«Of course.»

There was that puzzlement again, as if she was maybe not quite as bright as he'd expected. «And you think I'm the other half to your soul. Destiny told me that in your society the man can marry the woman without her consent and bind them together. Is that true? Did you do that to us?»

«Of course.»

MaryAnn scrubbed a hand over her face. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. «How many times does it take to convert a person to Carpathian?»

«It takes three blood exchanges if they are not already Carpathian.»

She bit down hard on the end of her thumb, memory flooding her. She looked down at her fingernail-the one she had broken earlier in the forest. It had grown to the length of the others and then some. All of her fingernails had grown. Sometimes that was a problem. She had to cut them often, but not daily. Maybe it was the Carpathian blood accelerating the growth. «How many times have you exchanged blood with me?»

Her palm slid over the mark on her breast. It still throbbed and burned as if his mouth was on it. Why could she imagine that all of a sudden? Why was she so certain his mouth had been there? Why could she feel his mouth, burning like a brand, against her skin when his lips should never have been there? Not skin to skin. He had kissed her, slid his mouth over her; she still had a warm, wet spot on the nearly nonexistent lace of her bra. As sexy as it had been, it wasn't his mouth on her skin, so why was the memory suddenly so strong?

«I would imagine many times.»