14. Alandra

I snuggled closer into warmth, seeking solace. In dreams, I watched my aunt being mauled by a Dark Lord, a being very like Sin Garu. He was someone I'd never seen before.

Queen Lidra had a reputation as a woman who liked her passion rough. But she'd never catered to blood drinkers. And something about the Dark Lord with her had seemed familiar.

A hand stroked my belly, and I lost hold of the dream in favor of a sexy Light Bringer.

"Alandra, love. Wake with me."

We lay on our sides, and Aerolus caressed me from my stomach to my breasts and over my shoulder. My bare shoulder.

I opened my eyes, confused that no clothing lay between us.

"Are you feeling better?" He stroked my arms with a touch so light I wondered if I'd imagined it.

My answer came out in a whisper, my throat dry, my body locked tight. "Yes."

He rubbed my muscles with care, his touch like magic, a seduction by the very fact it asked so little yet demanded everything, and gently pushed me onto my back.

"Where did your wings go?"

"They're always with me, inside me." I stared at his silver eyes, taken with the sweetness behind the somber expression he usually wore. He outwardly showed a calm assurance, but I'd seen him laugh and smile with his brothers, be aggressive in defending those he loved.

Aerolus had so many layers.

Shadows, but I wanted him. "Aerolus…"

"Hmm?"

I held my breath as he toyed with my belly before his hand drifted lower.

I instinctively parted my thighs.

"Yes, love?" He grazed my clit and stroked me with a slow, agonizing pleasure.

"Shadows, but I can't think when you do that," I blurted.

He laughed and kissed my neck, nipping lightly at my pulse. "So open. Yet so closed in other ways." His fingers kept moving, as did his mouth as he kissed me into a bundle of feeling.

Focus, Alandra. Remember, you're in charge here.

"Mmm." My body overrode my mind. "You kill me when you do that," I moaned as he destroyed me one kiss and caress at a time. Arching into his touch, I couldn't stop the small protest that slipped out. "I'm in ch-charge." I should have protested his amusement but couldn't summon the will to argue, caught up in need.

"Sure you are, purie." He teethed my lower lip. "You'll be in control." He blew in my ear, and I shivered. "Just as soon as I've taken my pleasure. Then we'll do things your way."

Something about him bossing me around should have bothered me, but I started to clamp around his fingers, nearing orgasm.

"And it pleases me—" he paused in his conquest over my mouth "—to please you."

He trailed his mouth to my breasts and sucked just as he increased the friction over my sex and added a breath of Light to skim over me.

I cried out his name as he pushed me into a climax I wasn't ready for.

Colors burst behind my closed lids as I arched into a taut bow. I felt his heavy erection against my thigh and marveled at his restraint. Despite my orgasm, I needed more. I wanted him with me, inside me, sharing his soul and that special magic only he possessed.

Aerolus ignored my pleas and continued to torment me. Withdrawing his talented fingers, he kissed his way down my belly to the apex of my thighs.

"Light, but I love your smell." He inhaled and closed his eyes, then opened them to show sparks of lavender amid the gray. "Your taste is divine."

His lips closed over my clit and his tongue speared me, so good yet not what I really needed. I was swimming in pleasure and growing needier as a second climax promised to storm through me.

"Aerolus, please. I need you in me."

He stilled for a moment. Need and something more lit his eyes, and he stared at me like a predator eyeing its next meal.

"I love your cream," he rasped, licking at the shine on his lips. "You're so wet, so hot and waiting, aren't you, love?"

I was mesmerized by the seduction in his voice.

He licked my clit, and I arched uncontrollably, spiraling toward a bigger climax. "Answer me, purie. You want me, yes. But you need me, don't you?"

Aerolus was playing with me, and he made my blood even hotter. My kind lived for games, and this Light Bringer thought to play one with me. The best of the best.

I sighed and clutched at the strands of his hair I could reach. "I don't know what you mean."

His eyes darkened, and wind ripped through the room, centering on my body, my will. The blasted man was making me crazed with lust, so powerful and…tricky.

A part of the wall I'd been holding deep inside gave way. Affection tearing it down.

"Tell me, love. Tell me you need me." He eased his way up my body, his cock like a pike as it stroked my thigh when he moved.

He loomed over me, his biceps straining.

Waiting motionless above me, waiting for victory.

Hell. I surrendered. He'd bested me…somehow. I was weak and didn't care. "I need you, Wind Mage. Inside me. A part of me," I couldn't help admitting.

"Now?"

"Now." I wrapped my legs around his waist and pushed my hips up, feeling his bruising erection, so hot and hard. And still not where it belonged.

"Now and forever?" Aerolus prodded.

"Forever," I agreed. Anything to have him.

"Pledge it," he demanded, his voice deep. "Pledge your forever, and I'll give you what you need."

Wind rippled over my body, a cool breath over my clit that came not from his mouth, but from his element.

I trembled, on the verge of something wondrous. Nothing existed for me but Aerolus. I wanted — no, I needed — his body, heart, and soul.

"I pledge you my forever. You and only you."

He groaned and thrust deep, so hard that I immediately climaxed, clenching around him to never let him go.

"Alandra, yes. Yes." He kissed me and moaned, thrusting in and out. Faster. Deeper. And when I tried to clasp him to me, he grasped my wrists and held them over my head on the bed, his domination complete.

I was his. Totally.

"You're mine," he growled, a rainbow of magic in his gaze. "And you belong to me."

He thrust once more and jetted into me, his release a warm magic that turned me inside out.

Magic and wind and emotion flooded the room, surrounding us in a haze of ecstasy that made everything around us unimportant.

There was only Aerolus and me. A perfect union of forged souls.

When I could finally think again, I worked to catch my breath and stared up at him.

That had been much more than sex. The intimacy had gone soul-deep.

My body tingled and my mind buzzed. But my magic… Shadows, it flickered with winks of Light that should have burned but didn't. I could see our auras entwined.

I lifted my arm and stared at the blend of Light and Shadow encasing my limb.

What had he done to me?

"We're joined," I said blankly, not understanding anything right now.

"I know." He flexed within me, still semihard, and groaned. "You're perfect."

"No, Aerolus. We're joined." I cupped his chin in my hand and pointed him toward my arm. As I shared with him my ability to see, I expected some kind of reaction.

But he seemed curiously relaxed. "We're joined." He smiled. "As if our two halves are now whole."

"What?" Whole? I didn't feel his calm. Far from it. I sensed his masculine, Light Bringer energy within me. That sense of intrusion, of overwhelming intimacy, seriously freaked me out.

He just stared and smiled in wonder.

So I took advantage of his preoccupation and wriggled out from under him. Our bodies parted, and I waited for my aura to clear.

Shocked, I could only stare as we remained tied. My Shadow smothered under his Light. United. Combined.

Imprisoned.