Amy

AMY

My heart hammered in my chest as Razov swept me into his arms and carried me through the club's back area toward his quarters.

Was I so worked up because it was going to be the first time we made love after confessing our feelings for each other?

Or was it because I was apprehensive about the claiming?

Vinduthi were always the objects of rumor, so I'd heard a little bit about the process.

I knew I would be bitten. I knew a change of some kind would come over me.

And…that was about it.

I didn't fear the pain of his teeth so much as the idea that I would no longer be the woman I had been before.

But the more I thought about it, the more I was all right with the idea.

Besides, that human woman with the purple marks sure didn't seem to be suffering after being claimed.

I wrapped my arms around Razov's neck and kissed him on his cheek. I couldn't hold him tight enough. I felt his puzzlement as much as anything, as he carried me with exquisite tenderness toward his chambers.

"What's wrong?" I didn't let up my fierce embrace one iota. If anything, I grew even more cuddly.

"Nothing, it's just…no one has ever held me like that before."

I pulled back away to gaze at his teal eyes, his markings brighter than ever.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, you cling to me as if, as if…" I noticed him grasping for the right words.

"As if I love you? As if I have affection for you? Why would you think that's so strange?"

Poor Razov looked confused for a long moment. He didn't know how to deal with his new feelings, I supposed.

Love was new to him, as it was to me. We had a lot of adjustments to make, but I didn't fear the change any longer.

"Razov, I've never wanted to commit to anything before, relationship or otherwise, because I didn't believe in anything before."

He paused outside of his door as I felt the words tumbling out of my mouth in a torrent.

"I couldn't have put it this way before I met you, but that's the way it is. I never thought anything good could possibly last. But this thing between us, it's deep. You shouldn't be afraid to feel it with me. It's okay to be overwhelmed once in a while."

I almost saw the wheels turning in his head, then, a smile blossomed on his face, a smile that made my heart melt even more.

"I never thought someone like me, a man who had sent so many to an early grave, could ever know this kind of love. I don't think any other woman in the galaxy could have shown me, Amelia. You are more precious to me than my clumsy words can possibly attest."

I kissed him on the bridge of his nose.

"I don't know, I think you're doing pretty good with your words. I'm about half seduced already."

His eyebrow shot up. "Only half?"

"Well, you didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"

Razov used his elbow to hit the control panel beside the door without taking his eyes off of me. The door opened up in a spiral, like an iris, revealing his quarters beyond.

I braced myself for something awful. I mean, he was a Vinduthi warrior, not to mention he had been a bachelor until very recently.

But this was worse than I'd expected.

"Razov, what the hell, man?"

He gave me a puzzled look. "What? My quarters are impeccably clean and hygienic."

"Your quarters are empty! You have a bed, a punching bag and some other gravity based gym equipment, and a…is that a starship buttress core you're using as a nightstand?"

"I don't spend much time here," he said with a shrug. "But if you wish to redecorate, you have my blessing."

"If I wish to?" I sputtered, pretending to be far more aghast than I actually was.

"Let me show you the bed before you decide my quarters have nothing to offer."

He laid me down on the bedspread, and our nervous joking slipped away. Without another word, he kissed me, his swift approach belying the sweetness of the gesture.

I melted into him, but then I felt his fangs on my skin and remembered I was about to be claimed. My trepidations came roaring back like the heads of the legendary Hydra, regrowing twofold from the sundered stump.

He felt the change in my mood. I still wanted him, badly, desperately, but I shivered like a captive mouse in his arms.

Razov pulled back, his fingers gently cupping my chin and lifting my gaze to meet his.

"Are you afraid of the claiming?"

I nodded, feeling as if I almost wanted to cry. I didn't want to make him feel rejected in any way.

"Amelia, I'm sorry I have done a poor job of proving to you that you will always, always, always be safe in my company." His lips twisted into a worried frown. "I only hope that you continue to give me chances to prove it."

This savage killer, this drinker of blood, this notorious gangster Razov made me feel safer than anyone or anything else in the galaxy. I stopped fighting the feeling and surrendered to it utterly.

Suddenly, I wasn't afraid any longer. I moved forward and kissed him, my hands going to his cheeks, sliding up to trace the base of his horns. Razov was taken aback only for a moment, then he took over.

With a hungry growl, he pushed me back onto the bed. His hand curled around my thigh, squeezing tight until the tip of his finger nestled gently against my already throbbing mound. Razov's weight pinned me down, and I gasped at the first caress of his hips against me.

Razov kissed my neck, the butterfly softness of his lips a sublime dream without beginning or end. I exulted in being the object of his desire. I swept my hands up his muscled, lean flanks. His warm, soft skin felt so good against mine, I bumped right up to the edge of an orgasm and he had barely touched me yet.

His warm breath raised goosebumps across my skin and his tender kisses grew more intimate, his tongue sliding over my flesh. A moan hissed from my core unbidden.

"Oh god, I love that so much," I gasped. "I love you so much."

"You are love, Amelia," he breathed into my skin. I ground my body against him, lifting my hips wantonly. His teeth nipped me, just hard enough to sting but not enough to break the skin.

Not yet.

He spread out steamy kisses, sensual licks, and nipping bites along my neck and shoulder.

He stopped long enough to tear my top off. I reached down and undid his belt so he could squirm out of his pants. I ran my hands over the hard bulge in his undergarments and a delighted purr rumbled from my lips as I felt his cock through his underwear. Razov squirmed out of them as well, his flanged cock now pinned between our bodies.

Looking up past the hard knots of muscle in his abdomen, to his chiseled pecs and big, thick shoulders, I realized just how beautiful Razov's body really was, that otherworldly tracery highlighting his perfection.

Damn, Amelia, you did well for yourself indeed.

"Mother Night, you're so fucking gorgeous," he hissed through clenched teeth. His fangs were fully out, his eyes blazing with desire beneath his sharpened horns. The devil had me in his grasp and wasn't going to let go…at least, I sure hoped he wouldn't.

Amelia, you sold your soul to him, remember?

Now that I no longer feared the claiming, I anticipated it. Even with the wildly ecstatic sensation of his thick cock gliding against me, I couldn't wait for him to go back to my neck.

He groaned, eyes squeezing shut as he pushed his way inside of me fully. I threw my head back, a sigh from deep inside issuing forth.

I was exactly where I needed to be.

No questions, no doubts.

Razov thrust into me and my limbs turned to jelly. I stampeded off the cliffside of mount orgasm and rolled all the way to the bottom, my body losing all control as pulse after pulse of ecstasy sizzled into my soul.

I hadn't even gotten over the aftershocks of the first climax when I realized his slow, deliberate thrusting had me flying toward another. I was hungry for it, greedy. I wrapped my legs around his waist, crossing my ankles together as we moved our bodies in concert.

For a moment, we seemed like one soul with two bodies conjoined. Opposite sides of the same coin, twins in essence who had finally, irrevocably, become one.

"My Amelia. My mate."

He bore down on me, his thrusts taking on an animalistic quality. I trusted him to make me feel good without losing control. I knew he would always take care of me. Always.

I felt his cock grow even harder inside of me right before he came. The throbbing as he filled me with his hot seed pushed me over the precipice once more. I clung to him until my legs turned to rubber and I could do nothing but ride the waves of full body ecstasy racking through me to the core.

"Now, please, Razov. Now!" I moaned.

His fangs sank into my neck. I gasped, my body contorting, not with pain, but pleasure. I felt lightheaded, but I wasn't afraid. I was so far past fear that it wasn't an option.

Liquid heat had been poured into my veins, spreading like wildfire throughout my entire body.

The warmth roiled through me, and everywhere it touched I came alive. The shadows in his chambers grew less distinct, as if someone had turned up the illumination level. Suddenly, I smelled the difference between my sweat and his own, between my blood and his own.

I came harder than I ever had in my life, until at last, I melted into a puddle in his arms.

"Sleep, my love," he whispered in my ear. "When you awaken, it will all be over."

"No," I said with my last, flagging strength. "It's only just begun."