Chapter 19

The wind that swirled onto the balcony outside the library of the solitary log cabin solidified in the coming dawn into the forms of the Queen and the warrior. They were already wrapped securely around each other, almost as if supporting each other. They were worn out both mentally and physically, so they were probably doing exactly that. Elijah moved first, reaching to touch his warm, firm lips to the recently knitted cut slashing across her golden brow.

"I look forward to the time when Gideon will actually be able to assist your people in healing," he said softly against her skin, his heart clearly in the desire. He hated to see her harmed even in the slightest. It would take him a great deal of time to forget the sight of her, blistered and broken in her sickbed.

"Shh …" Siena soothed him on a soft breath, her mouth drifting to his throat. "I am in your mind, warrior." It was as much a scolding as it was a reminder. She was not accustomed to being worried over any more than he was. "Gideon is quite brilliant. I have no doubts that he will find his way into our chemistry. Meanwhile, this will heal rapidly enough on its own."

She lifted her head from his and looked around slowly, taking in the lightening darkness that surrounded them. The entire night was gone, though it had only been a few hours since they had risen for battle. Elijah had swept them through numerous time zones, following the curve of darkness until they had come there, where dawn was breaking.

"This is not Lycanthrope territory," she remarked, looking at the sprawling, treeless prairie and the moat of long grasses blowing in the natural breeze. Autumn was just beginning in this place. The first snows were due any moment in her home province.

"Exactly," Elijah murmured, pressing warm lips into her hair as he drew her closer. "No castle. No guards. No ambassadors, Counselors, or Generals …"

"No night," she pointed out dryly.

"No problem," he countered with a chuckle. "Trust me. My point is that there are no enemies, no threats, and most of all no immediate worries that cannot wait for a few hours."

"That is an impossibility to achieve with that insane creature roaming the planet," she sighed in sad response.

"Until we know exactly where she has run off to, it is momentarily out of our hands. Only Jacob and Isabella have a hope of finding out where she has gone. She has gotten too good at covering her tracks for it to be left to the skills of a warrior, no matter my power. The Enforcer was born with the innate ability to track his own. He will find her. She is cursed and blackened, mutated and poisoned, but she is still a Demon." Elijah sighed, closing his eyes as the dawn breeze brought the scent of earth and grass around them. "She will hide, will make it damn near impossible, but I have unfailing faith in Jacob. Meanwhile, kitten, we can't live our lives only to hunt and battle her. It would give her a victory the extent of which even she could not imagine."

Siena shuddered softly, reaching to wrap her slender hands around his thickly muscled biceps, her thumb stroking the band that bound him to her.

"When I think of how close you came to being killed …"

"Never. I am faster and stronger than her tricks, kitten. I was nothing but air by the time the weapon struck Mary. I only wish I'd had the time and strength to protect her as well, but with the wound on my arm …" He sighed softly as her gentle fingers traced that healing blade mark beneath her hand. "There is a part of me that will forgive Mary for what she did under the sway of her love for her parent."

"I never will," Siena insisted hotly, blinking the burn in her eyes away as she rested her cheek over his heart. "Defying your parent for what you believe is right is a hard choice, but a choice you must make if you face it. I was not much older than Mary when I made that choice. I even accepted the realization that one day my father would have to die, that he must die, if what was right was to ever come to fruition." She looked up when he tensed beneath her touch. "It is the cycle of life on this Earth that the young shall inherit their place upon it in the wake of their parents' deaths. Every living creature, animal or humanoid, fulfills this perpetual destiny. You know this," she insisted intensely, her voice falling to a hoarse whisper.

"I know this," he agreed quietly. "But for intelligent species, being a part of this cycle in so direct a manner does not come easy."

"It shouldn't. I would hope it never does for either of us."

Siena lifted her head and, breathing deep of the wind, took in all the alien scents of this part of North America that she had never been to.

"I have traveled so little in my lifetime," she noted, taking another deep breath, scenting everything from flora to fauna. "I am always amazed that the air itself can smell so different just by changing location."

"Yes. It is a remarkable phenomenon. Somewhat like you and I, and this bonding we are sharing. Unique, yet simplistic in its make-up."

"Mmm," she agreed. Then she stepped back from him with a smile. "The sun is creeping up on us. Don't you think it is time you showed me your home?"

"The tour," he said with a low, mischievous chuckle, reaching to sweep her off her feet and into his arms as he kicked open the library doors and crossed the threshold with her, "can wait until later. I have other plans that will require you to become familiar with only one room of this house."

"The bedroom?"

"The bedroom," he agreed, making her laugh that sexy, robust laugh that he loved so much. He instantly felt the fire of need for her burning the surfaces of his skin, sparked by that throaty, decadent laugh.

"Did it never occur to you that, after defeating an archenemy and routing out a forest full of necromancers, I might be a little too tired for the kind of plans you have?"

"It had," he said with a silly grin as he strode across the upper landing and into the master suite, "but you are too much like me, Siena. After the heat of battle, the heat of passion is the first thing you crave. Besides, I was promised a game of connect the dots, and I intend to collect."

"I would not be much of a Queen if I began reneging on my promises," she mused agreeably.

"You don't have it in you to go back on your word, kitten," he said with a grin as he dropped her legs and let her slide down his broad body very slowly, allowing himself the well-earned luxury of the feel of her.

Siena responded instantly to the sensation of his rock-hard muscles against her own suppleness as they contacted her sliding body everywhere. Taking a deep breath, she released it in a slow purr of pleasure as she cuddled sexily against him. She burrowed a cheek into his shoulder, absorbing with every last molecule she owned the awareness of his hands rubbing over her back.

"So this is what it is like to be truly alone," she murmured contentedly.

"You are not alone," he reminded her softly.

"No, but we are."

"We were alone at Jinaeri's."

"Time we wasted," she retorted, lifting her head to look into his eyes.

"Black," he said.

"What?" she asked.

"You are supposed to say ‘white,'" he told her in a conspiratorial whisper. "I could swear you live for the thrill of contradicting me."

Siena laughed, his humor delighting her so much that she wrapped strong arms around his neck and found his mouth with firm, insistent lips. She wooed him with silky, skillful kisses. The assertive sweep of her tongue teasing his into play captivated him completely. When she finally released him, he was breathless and warm beneath her seeking fingertips. The Queen spread eager palms over the expanse of the broad chest that was rising and falling so quickly.

"I love to feel you breathe," she whispered, closing her eyes and allowing her face to reflect her honest pleasure at the sensation, the sound, and the very essence of his life moving in and out of his body. Her passion for so simple a function stirred him all the deeper.

"Siena," he exhaled, closing his eyes as her seeking hands swept slowly over him.

"Back at the Ancient's home, when I saw Gideon and felt that he was dead, all I could think about was that if something could kill such a great being … what chance could you possibly have against it? I was certain I would never feel you breathe again," she said, her voice vibrating with the gentle rasp of remembered fear, the tightening touch of her hands on his moving chest clearly the only thing keeping that emotion at bay and in the past where it belonged.

"Siena …" he hushed gently, cradling the back of her head with both hands, interlacing his fingers through her hair as he looked into her golden eyes.

"You promised me, Elijah, that when I was well and when our enemies were defeated, I could speak aloud what I feel."

He watched her blink quickly, trying to discard the dampness in her eyes. He reached out with his thumbs to touch the soft corners of her golden lashes, making ready to catch any tear that dared to escape his vigilance. His heart tightened with her emotion and it flooded through him, radiating like sunlight and moonlight.

"Siena, before you say anything I need to ask you something."

"Yes. I know. You have been thinking hard about something you have been concerned will disturb me. I felt it the entire time we traveled here."

"I have to get used to your perception of my thoughts," he said regretfully. "Forgive me, I was not trying to be deceptive."

"I know that," she insisted. "You were doing what any wise person would. You were thinking through your thoughts before voicing them. Although I must tell you that whatever it is, I do not believe it warrants so much of your concern. I am not as unreasonable as you think I am."

"You promise to hear me out?"

"Always," she assured him.

"Very well." He began to speak, his cadence quick and clipped, the efficiency of a distasteful task but one that must be completed. "In light of today's events and all the danger I believe we are going to be facing, I must ask you to temporarily release me from my promise to resign my post with Noah. This situation is going to become much more volatile before it is resolved. As of now, there is no one I trust to replace me who will garner the respect and the power that I do with Noah's forces. Noah is a great leader, but he is more of a scholar than he is warrior. As formidable as he is in battle, it is not where his talents or his energies are best spent. He relies on me heavily to manage matters of security and defense, and I believe that if I leave, it will prove to be an advantage to this renegade we seek. I would sooner sleep in an iron coffin than give Ruth such power."

"Elijah," Siena whispered softly, reaching to frame his face with warm, long-fingered hands. "If you serve Noah, you still serve me. If you recall, I never asked you to resign your commission. You made the offer as a gesture, and I was honored by it. Just knowing that you would have made such an astounding commitment to those who don't even know or accept you yet is enough to impress on me the seriousness of your need to be a part of my life and my people's lives. That feeling will not change. Besides, you were meant to be who you are, in the position you are in, just as I am. I would no more want you to resign it than I would want you to ask me to resign as Queen.

"We will manage," she assured him. "We will muddle through with patience and as much refusal of bias and petty behaviors as we possibly can. And you are right; it is no time for extravagant changes. There will be enough adjustments as it is. Live with me, love with me. All else do as you deem necessary. Besides," she smiled, "I feel that I will be spending great amounts of time between the courts, just as I think Noah will feel compelled to do. As leaders, we must set the example for the others who will be watching us for guidance on how to discard the old scars and prejudices of the past."

"Watching longtime enemies come together in a joined effort will have an interesting impact. I believe your next overture might be best served in Damien's direction. He has been habitually solitary of other Nightwalkers for as long as I have heard of him, but of late he has come among us of his own design. He showed a singular concern for your life that I, personally, will always be grateful for."

"Elijah, I do not wish to talk about state matters all day long. Why do I have the sensation that you are avoiding what I wish to discuss with you?"

The warrior released his hold on her face, stepping back with a telling awkwardness. He turned and studied the artistically stained glass windows that were so popular with his people, surrounding the entire bedroom in their many casements. The soft-colored light was a great pleasure to sleep under, allowing just enough lethargy to make Demons sleepy and relaxed without overwhelming them and dragging them down into a state that made it impossible for them to protect themselves in the event of an attack or emergency.

Still, he realized as he looked at Siena over his shoulder, even that soft light would be harmful to her. And if he was using it as a reason to continue to avoid his emotions of the moment, then so be it. Siena was aware of his thoughts but was also aware he was using his concerns over the sunlight like a shield, preventing himself and her from seeing what had suddenly disturbed his peace of mind. She watched him with steady, neutral thoughts, though, as he closed his eyes and stirred up scudding clouds. She smiled as the darkness of them drifted over the house.

"Are you going to maintain cloud cover the entire day?"

"No." He smiled slightly. "I am not able to continue to focus my power even in my sleep. I think maybe Gideon and Noah would be the only ones who wouldn't surprise me if they could do that."

She was about to ask what his plan was, but the cloud cover suddenly split apart, pouring out a sudden rain shower of impressive weight. He turned toward her slightly and grinned, wiggling an egotistical brow of mischief.

"I did this to Jacob once. I told him I could move the Earth just like he could, and he dared me to prove it."

"Like you knew he would."

"Yup." Elijah chuckled. "So I made it rain like hell and caused a mudslide that ran right over him."

That was when mud began to splatter against the windows, darkening the room first on one side, then the next. The rain stopped so it wouldn't wash the mud away. The wet soil had been dragged from the muddy ground in a small, wet dust devil of sorts that shook the mud against the building like a wet dog. When it dried, it would form a perfect lightproof mask.

"Very ingenious," she commended him with half a smile, crossing her arms beneath her breasts, drumming fingers on her forearm as she waited with obvious expectation for him to turn back to her and face his thoughts.

"Yes, yes," he sighed, finally facing her as her knowing curiosity penetrated his mind.

"It is not like you to avoid speaking your mind," she prompted.

"My thoughts are no mystery, really. You have been having similar ones." Elijah moved to seat himself on the bed, reaching to take her hand and guide her to him until she stood between his knees and he could wrap his hands around her waist "We are married, kitten, and only know the basics about one another. How can we expect to take on the roles of bringing the Montague and Capulet families peacefully to the same table?"

She nodded once, briefly, her hands coming to brush soothingly over his shoulders. Which of them she was trying to soothe, she did not know immediately.

"And we have not even so much as thought about the issue of children," she added.

"Neither of our species is shy of children, but I disagree with bringing a child into a union where the parents are still strangers to one another in so many ways."

"If indeed we are even biologically compatible enough to have said children," she pointed out.

"Another consideration," he agreed gravely. "The heritage of your throne …"

"… is secure in Syreena's care no matter what," she interrupted smoothly. "We have time beyond measure to work all of this out. You cannot sit here and try to solve a list of the tasks ahead of us all at once. Pardon me for saying that you are thinking rather like a human. Humans are different, Elijah, because they do not have such compelling conditions as the Imprinting. This condition has propelled us together, though we are little more than strangers, but that does not make it a disadvantage. I wish to ease your mind and tell you that I am far more interested in us discovering more about one another than I am in rushing to fulfill my duty to produce royal heirs."

"I feel the same," he said quietly.

When he looked away from her once more, Siena sighed in exasperation and dropped to her knees between his feet, her hands falling to his thighs and squeezing so as to get his unwavering attention.

"Elijah, can we get to the honest point which you are still skirting?" she asked with earnest.

"Damn," he muttered, giving her a wry half smile.

"Yes, I know. It sucks having a woman in your mind."

"That could be the understatement of the century." Elijah reached out to touch his fingertips beneath her chin. "I need to know if you are willing to keep a household that is joined in the heart and the spirit, but divided in traditions," he said at last.

"To begin with," she responded softly, "our house is already joined in the heart and spirit. You would not allow me to say so, but I will tell you now. I love you, Elijah." Her voice broke, but it was from fullness of emotion rather than any hint of uncertainty. "I do not care if it takes ten years or ten centuries to know all these minor details that so concern you at times. I have seen your spirit. I have felt it mesh with mine. I know now that we are two halves of a single creature. An honorable warrior, a fierce loyalist, a powerful leader, a tenderhearted lover. All the rest becomes minor details because these basics are all I need to know about you. It is the essence of you. These things sculpt who you are and what you do just like they do me." She picked up one of his huge hands, drawing it to her face where she pressed a kiss within the palm, her golden eyes flickering with painful intensity. "And I beg you to forgive me for being too much of a coward to tell you so on our wedding night when you needed so much to exchange the words and feelings with me." Her rich voice was awash with hoarse agony. "When I think that I could have lost you to the next life without you knowing, I am ashamed of myself and doubt I even deserve this precious thing."

"Siena." He repeated her name on a sigh as he swept her tightly against himself. Elijah had never known such elation as he had felt when she had said her words of love. All of the rest, the recriminations and sorrow, could not penetrate that feeling. He nearly squeezed the breath out of her as he tried to pull her deeply into his body. "I would think you would realize that I am too stubborn and far too egotistical to die without the satisfaction of hearing you tell me these things."

He made her laugh, compelling her to reach around his waist, hugging herself even tighter to his chest, exactly what he needed and wanted her to do.

"I was trying to have a serious, loving moment, but I truly do not think you are capable of one," she announced with exasperation.

"I was entirely serious," he said, making sure he sounded serious. Siena only laughed again. "But I must tell you that …" He paused and his voice filled with infinite gentleness and tenderness. "You are so very precious to me," he whispered against her neck. "You are my heart as it beats within my chest, my soul as it moves through my mind. The breath in my body that so fascinates you is your essence pouring in and out of me in a wave that drowns me over and over again until I cannot breathe for wanting you. Needing you."

Siena tried to swallow, but her heart was stubbornly caught in her throat. He was doing it to her again, making her entire being swell with emotions beyond her capacity, her eyes burning with the overflow.

"Elijah," she whispered into the golden fall of his hair, her tears skidding down the filigree strands that fell over her cheeks as she buried her face in his neck, "I love you. I will share your traditions just as I share your heart. The Goddess brought you to me; your traditions secured you to me and mine secured me to you. If not for. both of our beliefs coming together as they did, we might never have known these feelings. Might never have had this love. Of course I will respect your beliefs and traditions. They are proving to be not so different from ours."

"Mmm," he agreed, smiling into her hair as he petted the strands softly. "I am so lucky to have so wise a wife," he told her. "Although I confess I was thinking of a specific tradition."

"Tell me," she encouraged.

"I was considering the Siddah ceremony and my responsibilities in that role when Bella's babe reaches the proper age." He pulled back to see her expression. "It will mean fostering a child. A very powerful child with very unique abilities, if our prophecy is to complete itself. I see great opportunity for learning if she shares our lives in a court of combined cultures. But I will relinquish the role of Siddah if this troubles you too much. I understand it is a hard responsibility. Though, I confess, it would pain me greatly to disappoint Bella and Jacob in such a way."

"I would never think of asking you to do such a thing," Siena scolded him. "The rearing of children is one responsibility both our species take very seriously. She would be lucky to have you as her mentor. Luckier still to have me."

She chuckled when he reached through her hair to pinch her for being impertinent. Siena responded by running warm, apologetic hands up over his back. She felt him sigh heavily and she knew it was because her touch relaxed him as much as her generous responses did. He did not have to worry so much about so many things all at once. Time would sort everything out. He was tired and weary from a battle that made the future a tenuous thing, so she understood his disquiet.

She also had a cure for it.

While his head buzzed with thoughts and questions, she began to whisper a soft litany into his mind in her native language. It was soft, imperceptible in the clamor of his thoughts, and she did not even know for certain if he knew the language. However, if he wanted to share traditions, this was one she was happy to provide. Normally, the words were spoken aloud to one's mate, but Siena had the advantage of telepathy to aid her, and this left her mouth available for other things.

She began to rub her soft mouth against his neck, finding the beat of his pulse, feeling it for a moment because it represented the beat of the life coursing through him. Then she parted her lips and touched her tongue to that steady throb. Elijah's focus immediately took hold of a single point of interest, discarding everything except the velvet slide of warmth and moisture slowly licking a path up the length of his carotid artery. Heat like a flash fire exploded in his mind, rippling over every inch of his skin, finally settling low and hot in his body. She was on her knees between his thighs, her incredible breasts cuddled against his chest, and her hands were reaching down to slide over his denim-covered thighs.

Elijah felt the instantaneous reaction that she always struck up in him so easily. He made a quiet sound of agony as her teeth came into play against his neck. She nipped at him and he felt a bolt of erotic lightning spear down the center of his body. It was then that he began to hear the words drifting in his head, in her native tongue, a language he had learned long ago, as any wise warrior would have. It had the rolling cadence of Russian to it, but it was far older than that, far more elegant, deeply reflective of the Lycanthropes with its sexy, guttural consonants and the roll of the tongue that made the words sound almost like soft growls.

You are for me. I am for you. My body is yours. Your body is mine. Touch me. Taste me …

Elijah groaned from the depths of his soul, the words a delightful enough torture all on their own, but Siena's hands were sliding into the junction of his legs, stroking him through painfully confining denim. She pressed her fingers up along the hard heat contained just beyond his fly, her palms following. She nipped at his neck again. She shifted so the sensual weight of her breasts drifted across his chest, her nipples teasing points of excitement right through her dress.

Then, quick as a twitch, she was reaching for his tank shirt, dragging it free at the waist while she surged up to find his mouth. Elijah complied, seizing her mouth in a wild, rampant kiss. She drove him mad with her aggressive tendencies, like a sexual fantasy come to life. He felt her sliding silkily through his thoughts, picking out what he would like, what drove him out of his mind. She shucked off his shirt and immediately dragged her mouth from his in a line right down his throat, over his breastbone, straight down his belly until she was back on her knees and he was a firestorm of arousal and need.

Elijah's hands were anchored in her hair, his fingertips massaging her scalp with frantic undulations. He felt her smile against his belly, knowing he had been plunged so swiftly into her surprise trap that he could hardly think. She reached up and pushed him back onto the bed, her body and mouth following all the while. Her hands slid down his sides as she leaned forward to lick a tracing line over the definition of his abdominal muscles. His entire body clenched with need, exploded with molten heat. He twitched harshly beneath the scrape of her teeth as her lips began to shadow the golden path of hair leading to his waistband.

Her fingers fell deftly to the buttons of his fly, and he was finally released from the torturously tight fabric, bursting into her waiting hands. Siena heard his savage groan as she engulfed him with her eager fingers. He was hard and thick with need. Need for her. And there was no way in the world to describe how exciting that was. How powerful. But there were thousands of ways to feed that power, to make it grow.

She stroked him softly at first, just the pads of her fingertips shaping the contours of velvet skin stretched over iron. She embraced him, wrapping both her hands around him and gliding up the length of him. Elijah's exclamation of pained pleasure echoed off the high ceiling above them. Before he could finish the outcry, she suddenly slid her tongue over the sensitive tip and then took him into the hot seduction of her mouth.

The warrior felt as though he had been run through. He was helpless with shocking sensation, his belly and loins a conflagration of torrid need. Her mouth was wickedly hot, a wet, skillful haven that sealed with perfect tightness around him. He felt that sinuous tongue of hers, tasting him hungrily, using his flavor to excite herself until she was breathing hard against him. Elijah knew she was going to kill him. His heart was pounding so hard he expected it to burst from his chest any second. She was relentless, too damn eager and full of an unholy curiosity that was just unbelievable. He couldn't take it another second.

Siena felt the demand of his hands in her hair, drawing her up his body, away from her delighted explorations of his body. He dragged her to his mouth and attacked her with a savage kiss that left her bruised and breathless. Then he disappeared from beneath her hands, and she felt herself disappearing as well seconds later. One moment she was there, and then she was air. When they shifted back to solid form, all of their clothes were gone and Elijah was trapping her beneath his heavy, powerful body. She laughed up at him when she saw the wild desire burning emerald fire in his eyes.

"So you like teasing?"

It was a threat, loud and clear and capped off with a male growl of intent. He devoured her mouth in endless chains of kisses even as his hands roamed with untamed compulsion all over her lushly curved body. He filled his hands with her breasts, taunting the sensitive nipples until she cried out into his mouth, arching her body up hard into his. He drank it up like a potent narcotic, feeling the burning of her golden skin, smelling the arousal pooling wetly between her legs. He reached up for both her hands and dragged them off his body. He cruelly captured them and pressed them flat onto the bed. It left him only with his mouth as a tool to torture her in return, but that was just what he had intended.

He dragged himself away from her addicting kisses and rushed a wet trail down her throat and sternum. He instantly seized her left nipple with his teeth, lips, and tongue, sucking hard and wild until she was moaning those feminine purrs of pleasure that he loved so much. She tried to free her hands instinctively, but he refused. He switched breasts and she cried out. Elijah licked the tender gold-and-rose point, laving her wetly, and Siena felt an almost malicious intent chuckling through his mind. Suddenly a breeze blew into the room. Not just any breeze, but a very cold one. A burst of nearly freezing air blasted over Siena's exposed, dampened body and she screeched with the erotic sensation of hot and cold contrast. She shuddered and shivered as the breeze died away. Her entire body was shaking with a fine vibration, and Elijah enjoyed it as he replaced cold with fire, burning a trail to her navel, then lower still: His lips slid through filigreed curls, and then his tongue reached out to taste her.

Siena gasped wildly, her hips wrenching upward, reaching for that velvet stroke of his tongue even as he repeated it. Fire. An inferno exploding up her body, starting at that center point where he created magic against her. He would not release her hands, but he did change his grip so their fingers interlaced. She was seeping heat and honey and Elijah cherished the confection of her even as he teased her into a numbing world of promised release. Her entire body was locked with the impending crash, even the leg she had blindly thrown over his shoulder to drag him closer when he wouldn't release her hands. He teased her relentlessly, loving the raw, primal sounds of feminine need that burst out of her.

"Elijah! Please!" she screamed out, begging him to have mercy.

He let go of her hands suddenly, grasping her hips, and held her to the precise position her wanted her to be in. He needed only to drag his beautiful mouth over her three more times before she ignited. She expelled a lusty shout that went on endlessly, even as he pushed her beyond a single peak of pleasure. He was relentless. He had no choice. The shocking jerks of her body, her cries, the hot spice of pleasure flowing over his taste buds was all too addicting.

The warrior broke under the pressure of her pleasure and his need. He had never felt so heavy and violent with it before. It raged like a berserk beast inside of him, crouching low and demanding satisfaction.

Elijah grabbed his pleasure-limp mate with rough need, dragging her off the bed and herding her with his steely body and fast strides that barely allowed her feet to touch the floor. He stopped only when her hands slammed against the log wall, her cheek pressing against the smooth surface as her hips were jerked back against his, the enthusiasm of it lifting her feet off the floor. His scent, rough and masculine, poured over her as he crowded her against that solid wall. She felt him, titanium hard against her bottom as he leaned to press his lips against her exposed ear.

"I have wanted this since I first laid eyes on you," he confessed hotly, his breath a burning wash over her ear and shoulder. "I saw you, so proud and so damn confident." He tilted her hips in his calloused hands and he slid against folds of wet, feminine flesh. He was hot enough to burn, and Siena gasped. "I knew right then that you were the sexiest, hottest woman I would ever lay eyes on. You made me hard, scorched me with those haughty golden eyes, and all I wanted to do was grab you, throw you up against a wall, and …"

He plunged into her in one violent stroke, burying himself completely in the center of fierce heat, unimaginable tightness, and sweet, slick heaven. Siena, already highly keyed to pleasure, burst into instant orgasm, crying out long and loud as his ferocity of need swept over her. Elijah felt her convulsing around him, muscles rippling like violent vises, taunting his control. Her pleasure licked at him enticingly, but he would not give up his fantasy so soon. She had unleashed this, and she would tame it. There was no other solution.

He roared inside, like a tempest, a wild hurricane that wanted to tear up everything it could get its hands on. And his hands were on her. His chest pressed to her back, his mouth falling open against the crest of her shoulder, his hands holding her hips so he could draw himself out of her and return in a thundering force of ever-hardening need and craving for depth. Siena felt it, the need, the pulse and swell of his body inside hers. Every move, every thought was erotic to him, because it was her, and it brutalized him with his own want.

"When I first saw you," she gasped as he suddenly began to search her for a rhythm, "I could not help myself from wondering. Your size and stature, your hands were so large and so calloused, and I wanted to know what it would feel like to be held between your hands, against your body, to know the feel of your powerful legs—!"

Siena released a strangled cry as Elijah found her sweet spot, the understanding in her awareness immediately flooding his thoughts, and he instantly incorporated it into the deep tempo of his thrusts. She could no longer speak or think. She couldn't even hold herself up. Elijah commanded her every movement, and he did it masterfully.

You are so tight, kitten.

Apparently he couldn't speak either, and even his thoughts were a long groan of pleasure. Siena thrust herself into his mind, into the wild haze of animal need and almost cruel dominance. This she understood. Oh, so well. It was primal. Possessive. Territorial. She was his, and he was going to make damn sure she and everyone else knew it.

That was when his teeth pierced her shoulder. It was partly to pin her in place, and also a very distinctive mark. He couldn't seem to help himself. He couldn't restrain the brutality of his body as it surged harder and harder into hers. The tempo raced faster, she was screaming with ecstasy, and he could feel the blinding force of it in her mind and body even before he felt it clutch at him, relentless and tight, her entire being shuddering around him. He kept her there, catching her thrown-back head against his shoulder, deafening him with those incredible screams, until he couldn't bear it a single second longer. He crested, exploding inside her like a violent bomb, thrusting deeply and shouting to the heavens, which answered him with a furious crash of thunder.

They both fell to the ground, a tangle of limbs, perspiration, and the unwillingness to move a single millimeter. They gasped for breath, even Elijah unable to regulate his oxygen needs in that moment. A hand rested limply against his chest, and he lifted it to kiss the palm. Instantly he saw the huge raw patch and blisters. He sat up suddenly, reaching for her other hand. It was equally damaged. As if coming out of a raging, senses-confusing storm, he looked at his mate.

"Siena!" He reached for her, gathering her against himself. What had he been thinking? She was fresh out of her sickbed, exhausted from battle. Now she lay battered, bruised, and blistered.

And bitten. Don't forget bitten if you are going for an alliteration theme.

The smart-assed thought instantly eased his impending guilt. He knew that tone well enough to know she was doing better than fine. He had half a mind to dump her out of his lap and onto her head.

Siena's eyes flew open.

"You wouldn't!"

"Don't test me!" he retorted. "Damn it, woman, you mess with my head!"

"Well, you need to learn not to worry so much. A few love bumps and bruises are all part of the game for Nightwalkers." She reached to soothe him with a warm, spicy kiss. "It's nothing to the way you turn me inside out when you make love to me like that," she murmured, her golden eyes glittering with her pleasure.

Elijah suddenly felt lighthearted. He stood up and yanked her to her feet in a single smooth motion. With one more tug she was bumping into him and they were both falling onto the bed. The Warrior Captain rolled his bride beneath himself, pinning her to the mattress with his significant weight. He leaned to catch her mouth, kissed her until her pretty cheeks were flushed a rosy red.

"Before the sun comes up, I am determined to get back to the part about my powerful legs," he said silkily against her damp, smiling lips.