Christine Feehan - Dark Challenge (Dark Series - book 5)

“It is the way you are inside, Desari, not just the outside package, that makes you so beautiful.” His tongue tasted her throat, his lips sliding up to her chin, to the corner of her mouth.

“You cannot possibly know what I am like,” she protested, even as she turned her mouth blindly to his. She had to taste him, had to know if this was real, this black magic spell he was weaving so effortlessly around her.

Desari expected a savage ravishment, his hunger ran so deep and strong. The first touch of his lips was incredibly tender, his mouth moving over hers, memorizing the feel and shape of her, as if he were being swept away, as if he loved the taste of her. It disarmed her as nothing else could. Her legs went rubbery, but he simply gathered her tightly against him, protectively, as if sheltering her with his heart. His hand encircled her throat lovingly, his fingertips moving in a tender caress that sent heat pooling low and a wave of weakness flowing through her body. She made a sound, a low moan of alarm. He was stealing her soul, taking her heart with his gentleness. Desari found his thick mane of golden hair with her fists, clung to him for support. He was ensnaring her for all time, and she was giving herself to him without a fight.

He was a dangerous, violent predator, yet he held her protectively, kissed her as if she were the most precious thing in the world. It was as if he needed the taste and feel of her just to breathe. How could she not fall under his spell? His voice was low and seductive, a murmur of Italian that took possession of her heart, stole it right out of her body. The world was dissolving into a strange mist around her, the earth shifting beneath her feet. Their bodies were swaying to the music, the shadows hiding them from prying eyes. Desari had the strange feeling he was making love to her. Not sex, but making love to the one woman in the world who mattered to him. Everything in her rose in response to the gentleness of his possession.

His kiss deepened so that he was feeding on the sweetness of her mouth, his hand spanning her throat, his body trapping hers against a wall, holding her still while he ignited the fire in her blood and turned her body into a living flame.

“Come with me away from here,” he whispered, his beautiful voice raw with need, a sorcerer’s seduction.

Desari rested her head on his shoulder, confused and vulnerable. She wanted him, wanted to be with him. The need was so strong, it was almost a compulsion. She couldn’t understand it. Nothing in all her long centuries had prepared her for the force of his magnetism. “I do not even know you.”

Julian’s fingers stroked her silky hair, a small, masculine smile softening the hard edge to his mouth. “You insist on believing that, Desari, but you have been in my mind as I have been in yours. I know you are beautiful from the inside out because I hear it in your voice, see it so clearly in your heart and mind. You are a little troublemaker, but you would never hurt a single soul. You are the light to my darkness, my lifemate.”

She shook her head. “I do not know what you mean.”

“You feel it. Do not try to deny it.” His thumbs were rubbing silky strands of her hair against his fingers. His burning eyes were molten gold, alive with hunger, relentless need, fierce possessiveness.

“What is a lifemate? I have not heard such a term.”

Julian studied her upturned face, shaped her classic bone structure with his palms. “How is it that you are Carpathian and you do not know this? We have much to learn about one another. Tonight I will explain to you what lifemates are to the people of our homeland.” His hand slipped to her throat, then glided down her shoulders and the length of her arm to lace his fingers through hers. “But we are hunted,

piccola.

Let us leave this place and go elsewhere to talk.”

Her breath caught in her throat. “Darius? My brother? He is hunting us?” He had not yet called to her, demanding her return, as she had expected him to do when he found her gone. She thought she would have time to lay a false trail away from Julian. “I must leave you. He can track me straight to you.”

Julian pulled her toward the door of the tavern, and Desari felt almost helpless under his spell. It was insanity to defy Darius like this. He would find this man, and there would be a terrible battle.

“Come with me, Desari. There will be no battle unless you choose to force the issue by staying here. I have a need to talk with you. You promised me this night, and I will not release you from your word.”

They were moving quickly now, out the door and into the darkness of the night. Had she promised him? He had her so bemused, she couldn’t remember exactly what she had said. “There is no way to deceive Darius,” she pointed out. “My blood flows in his veins. He can track me at will, and he is very powerful.”

Julian slipped an arm around her slender shoulders. “It is true he presents an interesting challenge, but we can give ourselves time if you wish it, Desari.”

Despite herself, the possibility intrigued her. She had never really tasted freedom. Darius and the others watched over her as if she were a mere fledgling. At times it was galling. “I do not wish to put you in danger.” Her large velvet eyes didn’t meet his hot gaze as she made the admission. She felt she was giving away her true feelings.

Julian’s hard mouth curved in satisfaction. “I am pleased you worry for my safety,

cara”

he said, a seductive caress in the deep timbre of his voice, his Italian accent very much in evidence. “But there is no need. I am not without power of my own. I know this man is someone you love. There will be no real confrontation between us. Perhaps a game of cat and mouse.”

Desari shivered, the cool of the night wreaking havoc with her heated skin. It had to be the air; his voice alone couldn’t possibly cause the fever in her blood. And it wasn’t just the strong chemistry between them drawing her, she decided, her chin going up, it was the knowledge he could impart to her. This was a true Carpathian, raised in their homeland. He knew things she desperately wanted to know, things that could be important to her family.

“Tell me how we can do this.”

There was a natural haughtiness in her voice, a note of imperious demand. Desari was used to getting her way when she chose to push it. Julian’s arms circled her small waist. Electricity sizzled and crackled between them. She might try to deny it to herself, but he could see her response in her eyes, feel it in her body, in her scent calling to him. “Merge your mind fully with mine, so that there is nothing of you he can find.”

She tried to jerk out of his arms. “No! I cannot.”

That infuriating smile was curving his mouth, taunting her. “What are you afraid of,

piccola?

My resolve? I have made no attempt to hide my intentions from you. I want you in every way. I am relentless when something is important to me, and you are the most important thing in my life, in all the centuries of my existence. Merge with me. We will fly far from here and talk of important things.”

It was a dare of sorts. He was making no secret of his amusement. Desari’s dark eyes flashed at him. “I do not fear you,” she snapped. “I am powerful in my own right. You cannot seduce me if I do not give my consent. I will go with you to learn from you.” She sounded like a princess bestowing a favor on a peasant.

Julian knew better than to allow his triumph to show on his face. He caught both her hands in his. “Now,

cara mia,

come with me, merge with me.” His voice was a caress that sent flames moving through her, flames she had no way of dousing.

His blood ran in her veins. She reached out with her mind and immersed it completely, decisively into his so that she could not panic and change her mind. At once she knew she was lost. He had enticed her into an erotic world of heat and hunger and fierce need. And he was every bit as ruthless as Darius. A loner. A great warrior with centuries of battles behind him. He appeared to hide nothing from her. Nothing, not even the terrible, relentless darkness. He had always been alone, even in his own world. Always alone. Until now. Desari moved into that darkness, suddenly uneasy.