Dark Song

8

The sound of the rain woke Elisabeta, but this rising, there was a new note in the beat of the earth’s music. Entwined with that dark, persistent drumming was a sensual call that tugged at every one of her senses, bringing her entire body alive whether she wanted to feel those sensations or not. The moment she was aware, he poured into her mind. Ferro. Her lifemate. There wasn’t room for anyone else. He was larger than life, an invincible warrior of old. An ancient Carpathian hunter calling her from the soil, where she would have stayed to avoid having to learn what was expected of her in her new existence.

Trepidation filled her, yet at the same time a thrill of anticipation such as she’d never felt before. She actually looked forward to this rising, and she could honestly say she couldn’t remember feeling that way in all the centuries of her past. She wanted to go to him the way a lifemate would go to her spouse, but she knew little of the concept or what was expected.

They hadn’t gone over any other clothing, as they had discussed they were going to do, mostly because so many unexpected things had happened the rising before. She was uncertain what to wear and still couldn’t make the decision to clothe herself, especially after seeing how Julija, Lorraine and then Joie dressed. She’d paid particular attention, trying to figure out if she would feel comfortable in their modern attire, but she didn’t think so.

The soil opened above her and then she was in Ferro’s arms, her body clean, her heart beating too fast, her lungs dragging in air and his wild scent. He was as naked as she was, and she’d never been so aware of herself as a woman. Her breasts rose and fell in time to her ragged breathing. She couldn’t seem to control the way she reacted to his closeness, as much as she tried. He felt so strong and in control. He smelled good, filling every one of her senses as they floated together somewhere he wanted to take her. She didn’t care, as long as she was with him. Once they settled, she was on his lap, his arms around her, cradling her close.

“Look at me, sívamet.”

His commanding voice sent a shiver of need down her spine, arrowing from her breasts to her feminine channel. The reaction was shocking. She lifted her lashes immediately and found herself looking into his strangely colored eyes. One moment they seemed bluish-gray and the next a gray-rust. Right at that moment they were a deep blue-silver and so intense, so focused on her with a dark hunger, she could barely breathe.

“Always remember, te avio päläfertiilam. You are the keeper of my heart and soul.” He drew his palm very gently, very slowly and very possessively down her body, from her neck, over the curves of her breasts, to her mound and then the junction between her legs. His touch was barely there, but it was definitely a claiming.

Her sex clenched, a liquid heat, an awakening of a hunger she hadn’t known existed, as if by touching her, claiming her, he’d suddenly awoken the woman in her. Need spread through her, a strange tension coiling deep. Her hips would have squirmed restlessly had she allowed it, but she was far too disciplined for that. She lay passive, looking up at his face, wanting to touch him, to trace the lines carved deep, the strong jawline. He could become an obsession if she wasn’t careful.

“Every rising, when you wake, know that you are in my keeping. As my lifemate, you are first in my thoughts on rising and last when I close the soil over our heads. There are no lies between lifemates. You can hear them, Elisabeta. Believe in your ability to hear lies. You are Carpathian and you are powerful in your own right. You can hear anyone lying to you, especially your lifemate. I want you to have confidence in your ability to hear lies always. Once you know that, once you believe that, you will recognize all lies told to you in the past.”

He was beautiful. His face was so rough no one else would ever call him that, but she knew he was. She knew Julija didn’t altogether approve of him and would never have accepted him as her lifemate, nor would Lorraine. She also knew that she was seeing only one side of Ferro. He was showing her unfailing kindness and it was all very real. Eventually, she would reach further into his mind and see more of him. She wasn’t ready. She wasn’t strong enough yet; she would have to build up to that. For now, he didn’t seem to mind caring for her, and while he did, she would learn. She learned fast.

“Piŋe sarnanak.” His voice was soft. Amused. The sound played over her like the touch of fingers. His hand slid back up her body to cup her breast. “I love the way you look at me, as if I mean something to you rather than being a man to be afraid of.” He bent his head toward her, his eyes on her face, and then she lost sight of him as his lips touched her chin and then her throat.

Her heart jumped wildly. The sensation was truly without precedent. His lips were firm yet soft. His jaw had the smallest bristles that scraped along her skin, setting nerve endings alive. His teeth teased her senses into heightened awareness. He trailed more kisses down her throat to the curve of her right breast. His hand cupped her left breast, his thumb setting a mesmerizing strumming back and forth over her nipple. Each light brush sent a dark fire streaking to her clit, inflaming it until blood pounded and she could count her heartbeats there.

His teeth sank deep and she cried out at the sheer ecstasy of the erotic bite. In spite of her discipline, her hips shifted restlessly in his lap, the cheeks of her bottom sliding over his groin, rubbing, feeling the shape and size of his heavy erection. That added to the hunger coiling so deep and tight in her body. His thumb and finger tugged at her nipple while he drank, the combined sensations spreading flames through her body unlike anything she’d ever known.

Images poured into her mind. His body moving in hers. Sharing the same skin. Her legs wrapped around his waist. Her body bent over a bed while he took her from behind. On her hands and knees, his arm around her waist while he took her hard and fast. Spread out on the floor with his mouth pressed between her legs, devouring her. Her on her knees, her lips stretched wide around his cock. She felt his need. His hunger mixed with her own until she couldn’t tell who felt it more. She only knew her body was slick, hot and aching. He filled her mind and every one of her senses.

Ferro’s tongue swept across the twin holes his teeth had made in the curve of her breast, and he shifted her in his arms. “You need to feed, sívamet.”

She was already addicted to his taste. She wondered if the moisture she felt on her bottom, where his cock leaked his essence, tasted as wonderful as his blood did. The moment those images had entered her mind, she wanted to explore them one by one. Her teeth slid into place and her mouth watered at that mere thought of feeding, yet already it was so much more.

Even as he shifted her in his arms, he bent his head to her right breast, his mouth drawing the soft curve deep, flattening her nipple to the roof of his mouth, stroking and caressing and then sucking while his fingers tugged at her left nipple. His teeth scraped erotically and then nipped, a small sting his tongue soothed instantly. He kissed the upper curve of both breasts and then lifted his head, giving her access to his chest.

Elisabeta took one look around her. They were no longer in the ground beneath the house he had said would be their home. They were on the rooftop, or a balcony on the roof, where there was a large square area fenced in by a thick wooden rail. They lay together under the stars on a thick fur that felt very sensual on her legs. Everything seemed to feel sensual to her sensitive skin.

She looked at his bare chest and her breath caught in her throat. His chest was wide and thick and very muscular. She rubbed her face over the heavy muscles and then dared to kiss the spot she’d chosen to sink her teeth deep. Her tongue tasted his skin. He didn’t hurry her. He shifted her again, widening his legs so that she nestled between them, and one of her hands slid down his chest to find his thick, long cock.

She couldn’t stop herself from looking. His shape was both intimidating and thrilling. He took her hand and wrapped it around his shaft and began a slow pumping motion, guiding her fist up and down. More slick heat spread through her body and gathered at the junction of her legs. He had draped one of her legs over his thighs, opening her body to him.

“Drink, minan piŋe sarnanak,” he coaxed softly.

She scraped her teeth back and forth gently, almost in time to the rhythmic pumping of her fist on his erection, and then she bit into his chest. He threw his head back and she instantly felt his cock swell more, even as that seemed impossible. His taste was even more than she’d remembered, a spicy addiction that added to the sexual hunger spreading through her like a wildfire.

His free hand slid up the inside of her thigh draped over his lap. He rubbed back and forth for a few moments and then his fingers crept steadily closer to her slick heat.

Tell me what you are feeling. It was a command. One he made impossible to ignore.

I feel as if I am on fire.

That is how you are supposed to feel. There is more. I want you to feel more.

His hand crept higher, slowly higher up her thigh, until his fingers found her clit at the junction between her legs, where the blood pounded like mad. He circled there and then gently tugged and flicked. She jumped and cried out in her mind. It felt delicious. Scary. Unbelievable. She wanted more.

Good?

Very good.

His fingers stroked and caressed, dipped into her and then tugged and flicked again until she couldn’t breathe. She had to stop feeding. She couldn’t process the alien sensations and allow her organs to absorb the much-needed sustenance he was providing to her. She ran her tongue across the twin holes she’d made in his chest, closing the wounds.

“It gets so much better,” he promised. “Lie back for me.”

With her heart accelerating to the point she thought it might burst, Elisabeta did as he instructed. She hadn’t known her body could feel so much pleasure. Just like the songs of the earth, her body sang, so the notes were mixed together in a wild melody that couldn’t be separated now. She lay back on the thick fur while he once more shifted position. Her hand was forced, albeit reluctantly, to let his cock go.

She had loved the shape and feel of it. She wanted to believe that he belonged to her as much as she did to him. The sacred vows that had tied them together had proclaimed it so. He had given her his heart, his soul and his body. He had taken hers into his keeping. He seemed to be claiming what was rightfully his.

“Each rising, piŋe sarnanak, I will give you a lesson in something new, something important for you to learn and remember. This one is about your body and the pleasure it can feel. The pleasure I can give you and how I feel when I am giving it to you. I want you to stay merged with me the entire time so you feel everything that I am feeling. Do you understand me?”

Elisabeta gripped the fur with both fists as Ferro wedged his wide shoulders between her thighs, spreading her legs. It made her feel very vulnerable, but at the same time very excited.

“Elisabeta, I asked you a question.”

“Yes, I do understand.”

“Good. We will practice what you have learned often, and those things you enjoy I will expect you to gather your courage and ask for or initiate the act between us. Do you understand my expectations of you?”

She couldn’t imagine being that brave, but she didn’t want to disappoint him. She made up her mind that she wouldn’t ever disappoint him. “Yes.”

He lifted her legs at her knees and looped them over his arms. “Very good. This is one of the most important lessons of all. I have thought of this for centuries, Elisabeta. I studied technique and practices so I would bring my woman the greatest pleasure. Relax for me and let me show you what can be truly beautiful between spouses.”

His eyes were intense, a molten lava, almost glowing red, a cross between a liquid volcano and a carnal predator set on having her. He bent his head and his tongue swiped over her heated center. Her entire body jerked as a flame so bright and hot swept through her, encompassing her. Her sex clenched, making her wholly aware of how different her body was in comparison to his. The shape. The texture. The way they fit together.

Ferro stroked her inner thigh with his tongue and nipped with his teeth, then kissed his way up to that heated entrance that was now pulsing with her need. She tried to stop squirming, but that one swipe of his tongue had left her drenched in liquid flames. In anticipation. Her pulse beat through her clit. Through her sheath. In places she hadn’t known she had. He turned his head, the bristles on his jaw sending more sensations skittering through her body as he gave her other thigh the same attention.

Then his mouth settled between her legs, his tongue moving like a butterfly, fluttering, stroking, gentle at first, driving her out of her mind, roughening and then stabbing deep to pull at her honeyed liquid contents, to devour as if it were his favorite meal. She couldn’t stop the muffled cries from escaping. She grew hot all over as the flames spread through her body, outward from her center to her breasts and down her thighs. Nothing in her life had prepared her for such a feeling. Nothing. She tossed her head back and forth, gripping the fur until her fingernails met her palms, unable to control herself no matter how hard she tried.

Ferro. This feels like I might die, it is so good. I’m scared and happy at the same time. She had no idea what to do, and that terrified her. She didn’t want him to stop because she was doing something wrong.

You will not die. Relax. Just let yourself enjoy what I do to you. Stay merged with me. Feel what it is doing to me as well. Taste yourself on my tongue. Feel how my body reacts when I am devouring you, the pleasure it brings me to see you writhing under me this way.

Elisabeta loved his instructions. She had felt lost and now she could do exactly what he said. She kept her mind in his, allowing herself to feel his pleasure as well as her own. He loved what he was doing. Suddenly, she could taste herself, and it was like an aphrodisiac to him—orange with hints of lavender honey. He couldn’t get enough. His cock was full and aching. So hard he pulsed with need. His pleasure was heightened by the sight of her naked body writhing under his mouth, her breasts jolting, her hips bucking, the sounds of her cries escaping when she tried so hard to suppress them. Her reactions fed his own pleasure.

She did her best to relax, although deep inside that tension coiled tighter, winding together with her need and hunger for him like a strongly bound spring. She feared after a time that she might go out of her mind.

“Ferro.” She gasped his name in caution. She couldn’t stop him. She was his to do with as he pleased, but he was really going to drive her insane with pleasure. Her body didn’t know what to do.

Let go, piŋe sarnanak. Trust me to catch you. Just let go.

She wasn’t certain what he meant but she took a deep breath and forced her body to relax into the strokes of his tongue, the thrust of his finger, the sudden flick of his thumb on her clit. Her body seemed to gather into a great force and then she was swept over a giant waterfall, dropping, dropping, free-falling, the rippling waves rushing over her in rolling heights of pleasure so intense she heard herself giving him a low, keening cry of pure shock.

He rubbed his shadowed jaws on either side of her thighs before lifting his head and looking at her with his silvery-blue eyes. “Did you feel how much I loved devouring you, Elisabeta? It is important that you know I want to feed not only on your blood but on the honey between your legs. That is mine as well.”

He moved cautiously into a sitting position. She was merged very firmly in his mind and knew his cock was full and aching. He had visions of her bent over the railing, or on her hands and knees taking him hard and fast into her body, or her kneeling in front of him, his cock stretching her lips, yet he gave her no instructions. Asked nothing of her. Gave her no commands. He ached, and yet he didn’t ask or demand relief from her. That instantly took away all the pleasure she’d received.

She sat up slowly and scooted a little away from him, dropping her gaze from the length and girth of his cock. There were pearly drops on the broad head of it that she longed to taste, but he wasn’t giving her that opportunity, although she saw so clearly in his head that he wanted those things from her.

“Elisabeta?” His voice was very gentle. “What is it? Did you not enjoy what we just shared together?”

She moistened her lips. “You know I did.” She detested that he was forcing her to speak aloud. She was merged with him, which meant he could read her as easily as she could read him.

“I want you to tell me why you no longer feel the pleasure you felt moments ago.”

“You know why.” She was horrified that she sounded mutinous. There was silence. She knew instantly that he had issued her a command couched in nicer terms. He had said he wanted her to tell him. He had still decreed she tell him. She took a deep breath. “I am in your mind and can tell you are in need. I would very much like to learn how to please you.”

“That lesson is for another rising. This was for your pleasure, for you to learn about your body and the pleasure I can bring to you.”

His voice said it all. He didn’t expect her to argue with him. There was even dismissal in his mind, and it hurt. Really hurt. She felt as if he was rejecting her as a person. As a lifemate. As a lover.

“Piŋe sarnanak.” His gentle voice was nearly her undoing.

“Look at me.” She wanted to disobey him, but she couldn’t. She forced her lashes up and met his eyes. The color had gone from that blue-silver to more of a darker iron ringed with rust.

“I do not understand why you will not allow me to see to your needs. I wish to serve you, to make you happy. Your cock is full and aching. I want to learn how to use my mouth to bring you to happiness the way you did me. Or my body the way I see in your mind.”

“Women no longer have to serve their men, Elisabeta. This is a modern world and women choose when they wish to have sex with their men and when they want to accommodate them. The men do not do the choosing.”

His voice roughened, turned almost harsh, and she knew from being merged with him that her suggestions had made his cock even fuller and more demanding than it had been. The need to serve him was nearly a physical pain she couldn’t stop.

“I do not understand.” There were tears in her voice. Tears in her mind. But she didn’t shed them. They weren’t in her eyes, although she wanted to weep forever. “You said I did not have to be like the other women and yet you are trying to make me into one of them. I need to serve you. It makes me happy. It makes me feel fulfilled. I cannot contribute any other way to our relationship. That is who I am and yet you do not want that person. You want one of the more modern women like Julija or Lorraine. I will never—ever—be modern, nor do I want to be. I would try for you, but I know it is not in me and I would fail you.”

Ferro’s arms swept around her and he pulled her tight into his body, at once offering her comfort. “The last thing I want is for you to be a modern woman, Elisabeta.”

There was no denying the sincerity in his voice.

“Then I do not understand what you are trying to make me become.”

“I want you to have the opportunity to choose for yourself to grow into what you want to be. Over time, being around other women, you will learn things from them, and you will see that a life with me will not make you happy. I want you to have all the choices that were taken from you from the time you were a young girl. You deserve to be able to have every option available to you.”

Elisabeta lifted her chin in the air, her gaze fully meeting his. Challenging what he’d said to her. He sounded sincere. He said lifemates didn’t lie and that she could hear lies if they did. She heard no such thing. Then he wouldn’t, either.

“I want to be able to make you happy, Ferro. To see to your every need, almost before you know what you need. That would make me happy. When your cock is full and aching and I can feel it in your mind, that need to have my mouth around you, or have you buried deep in my body, that is what I need to do for you. It isn’t just a want. That is my happiness. That is what makes me feel good about myself. That might not be what other women feel good about, but knowing I make you happy is what makes me feel important and confident. More, my body aches for yours. I want to know of these things I see in your mind and I want them with you. If I really get to make a choice, my choice is to have you teach me to please you. That would be my choice.”

Ferro groaned, the sound breaking from him as if he were really being torn in two. “Woman, you are making this difficult for me. If you give me everything I could ever ask for in my lifemate and then, as time passes and you prefer to be a modern woman, and I cannot be a modern man, I will return alone to the monastery a broken and extremely dangerous being. You see the danger, do you not?”

“Ferro, you are my lifemate. My heart and soul. I will never be much different than I am now other than, I hope, more confident in myself and you. I wish to be with you and make you happy. Teach me how to do these things for you. Teach me to be your woman, the one you prefer me to be.”

“I want you to be yourself, Elisabeta.”

“I do not know who I am, other than that it is in me to bring you peace and that I need to see you happy at every level.”

His hand stroked caresses down the back of her head. “You are certain this is what you want above all else, minan piŋe sarnanak? You can take the time to find out who you are. Once your mouth is on my cock or it is in your body, I will not be able to resist instructing you to keep me happy every rising, perhaps more than once.”

She loved his hands in her hair and the way he sought to warn her of his intentions should she decide to continue on her set course of action. Merged within his mind, it would be impossible for her to step back. Already he was consumed with erotic images. His breathing had changed. His body was harder than ever. She had done that, just with her conversation. She loved feeling as if she had power when her Carpathian ancient was considered by so many to be so dangerous.

“More than anything, isäntä.” Deliberately, she called him “master of the house.” He was “strong heart” to her. Lifemate. Sívamet. Beloved. But she wanted to honor him with “master” so he would know she meant what she said.

He tipped her chin up and bent to kiss her. Gently at first. So gently. Then his arm locked around her back and his lips roughened, his tongue gliding into her mouth, stroking. Dueling. Flames erupted all over again. All at once her body felt on fire, her veins feeling as if he had poured redhot magma into them and that liquid flowed straight to her center, creating a firestorm of absolute need.

Lifting his head, he put one hand on her shoulder, creating pressure until she dropped to her knees in front of him. He stroked his hands over her face, her jaw and chin. “The instructions will be in images in my head. You will follow them. I will tell you when I want you to do something different. If you are frightened, you are to tell me immediately. If you do not like something, you tell me immediately. That is a command, piŋe sarnanak. Is that understood?”

“Yes.” Kneeling before him, she thought his cock looked enormous and intimidating, but so gorgeous. So much a part of him as a male. Her heart beat too fast, but she was determined to learn everything she could in this first lesson. She wanted this more than anything she had ever wanted, and kneeling on the fur under the stars, between the twin columns of his massive thighs, made her feel as if she belonged to him. She needed that feeling as much as she needed to breathe.

She could already see the pleasure she was bringing to him just by the submissive pose, her naked body, her breasts with her hard nipples showing him she was excited. Instinctively she widened her knees so he could see that between her legs, her liquid desire glistened at the mere thought of him allowing her to do this for him. She wanted him to see the signs on her body as well as read them in her mind.

Tentatively she reached out and lightly cupped his heavy sac. It was much softer than she’d expected. She stroked caresses lightly over him and then followed the images in his head. Leaning in, she stroked her tongue over the velvet folds. He reacted with a little shudder of pleasure.

“That is good, Elisabeta. Feels very good.” His hands dropped to her head.

Encouraged, she took her time exploring, lapping at him, tasting and gently sucking him into the warmth of her mouth, jiggling gently with her fingers and then tracing her way up to his thick shaft.

It seemed from the images in his head that the wetter his cock, the better, so she took her time with that as well, using her tongue to get the thick girth as wet as possible while learning the shape and heaviness of the length of him. His breathing had gone nearly labored and she felt the difference in him, as if a great, aggressive beast were rising in him. That was both exhilarating and intimidating. Her tongue found the drops leaking from the broad, velvety head, and just as his blood was an aphrodisiac and she couldn’t get enough, so was the taste of his essence. He had claimed that her body was his, and she felt the same ownership of his.

Her mouth closed over him, feeling the weight of him, the heat of him on her tongue. At the same time, she heard his roar of thunder in his mind and felt the burst of fire streaking through his body. Immediately she tightened her mouth, sucking strongly, wanting to intensify the feeling for him. Her tongue began a slow dance up and down his shaft as she took turns setting different rhythms, sucking and then stroking and caressing with her tongue. Each time she tried to take him a little deeper in her mouth to get more of him wetter, to get more of him to feel the snug, hot tunnel.

His hands fisted on either side of her hair, pulling her head back almost aggressively, and the little bite on her scalp only served to send her own body into a kind of unexpected meltdown. Her nipples felt like twin flames, her breasts felt swollen and achy. Between her legs was a living fire, one she doubted could ever be put out, but it didn’t matter to her. The only thing in her mind was making Ferro feel good. Not good. Great. Not even great. She wanted him to feel the way he’d made her feel.

She gave herself up to that purpose, putting all thoughts of herself aside. She devoted every touch, every stroke of her tongue and mouth, her lips and hands, to his desire alone. She concentrated on the images in his mind, on the reactions of his body, on the pleasure she felt in their merged minds. His rising lust felt like a reward. When his hips began to thrust shallowly and his fists held her head still, happiness burst through her.

His hips jerked and bucked. He actually growled, the sound harsh, sending shivers of excitement down her spine. Each thrust of his hips sent his cock deeper, filling her mouth so that for a moment she couldn’t breathe, and her heart pounded, her eyes burned, but the burning pleasure in his mind and body overrode her own discomfort. Her own body reacted to the fierce needs of his. She could feel his lungs burning for air. She moaned around his shaft and the vibrations drove him nearly insane, every nerve ending centering on his cock in the tight, scorching cauldron of her mouth.

If we continue, I will spill my seed down your throat. You would have to swallow all of it and it would be an enormous amount.

His voice, in her mind, was hoarse with need and hunger. She didn’t need to ask him if this would bring him pleasure because she knew it would; she could feel it in his mind. He wanted it, but would never ask her for it. She wanted all of his essence. It belonged to her in the way his blood did. If that made her primitive and old-fashioned, she didn’t care. He tasted delicious and she wanted all of him.

Please. She lifted her lashes, looking up at him to show him her eyes just in case he couldn’t read her mind through the passionate chaos of his.

He didn’t wait, or better yet, he couldn’t. He took a tighter grip in her hair and his hips thrust into her, pressing his cock deeper into her mouth. His girth stretched her lips to accommodate his size, but it felt sensual, erotic and so perfect to her. The weight of him was heavy on her tongue. The heat of him seemed to burn her mouth. He felt like a living flame. She felt the boiling in his velvety sac as his balls tightened to the point of near pain. The scorching burn rose as he neared his fiery explosion.

Look at me. Do not close your eyes. Stay merged with me so you feel what you do to me.

The fire was moving through him, through her, like magma in a volcano. She felt the thrill in him, the elation, the domination and pride. The love wrapping her up in safe arms even as he couldn’t stop the thrusts of his hips that seemed to push deeper into her mouth as his cock grew heavier and hotter, expanded wider until she was so filled with him he was everywhere, like that fire deep inside. And then he was pouring down her throat, jet after jet of his essence she tried to keep up with. So much. So good. All for her.

Each time her lashes started to drift down, his fists tightened in her hair and he tugged, forcing her head up so she stared directly into his fierce, claiming gaze.

I want you to look at me. See me, Elisabeta. See what you do to me. See what you mean to me. What a gift you are to me.

She felt tears burning behind her eyes. Not because his cock was so large and stretched her ability to take him in her mouth. Or that his essence poured down her throat in such a thick, hot torrent that she could barely swallow fast enough to keep up. It was that look of adoration on his face. The soft look in his eyes she knew had never been there for anyone else. Just her. He worried she would not want him, yet how could she not? He towered over her, strong, frightening to the rest of the world, but giving her this—his vulnerability. Letting her see that she was his world and what she meant to him.

Never think that you are not cherished. Or that you have no value. No one has ever cared for me so selflessly the way that you have.

Ferro slowly withdrew his cock from her mouth, the weight of him sliding sensuously over her lips, all the while his nearly silver gaze blazing possessively down into hers. She sank back onto her heels, staring up at him, unable to look away, drowning in her own desire for him, drenched in her need of him. Sensual hunger beat at her now and she knew it wasn’t his alone. Hers was every bit as strong. He had awakened a need in her she didn’t want to stop. She tasted him on her lips. In her mouth. Down her throat. She wanted to hold this moment to her forever.

She had given Ferro the greatest pleasure he’d ever experienced, just as he had done for her. She had done that for him and she wanted to do it again and again because in doing so, she found there hadn’t been one moment of fear. She’d been totally focused on him, only on him, and she’d refused to allow anything else in to mar this new and beautiful experience between them. She had felt as if he belonged to her and they were in their own world together.

Ferro’s hand framed the side of her face, his thumb sliding gently along her jaw, easing away a soreness she hadn’t realized had been there. “You are a treasure beyond any price, piŋe sarnanak. I had studied the erotic arts in the hopes of one day pleasing my lifemate, but there is no way to experience such a thing, and certainly not when my emotions are as passionately wrapped up with the sexual act as they are with you.”

That pleased her. His thumb slid from tracing along her jaw to strumming over her lower lip. “You have so much passion in you, Elisabeta. So much giving. You are so willing to please me.”

She kept her gaze glued to his face. He sounded brooding. Moody. He looked it, too. Those beautiful eyes had gone from the silver-blue to iron-rust, and his mind was closed off and once more sorrowful. This time, she was certain she knew his musings. He still believed that she would grow out of her need for one such as her ancient lifemate. She knew better. She also knew that as the centuries had changed them both, so would this journey they were embarking on together.

“You will obey me in this, sívamet. When you have needs, or you have hungers, you are to ask for what you want of me. Do you understand?” He waited.

Elisabeta nodded. “Of course, Ferro.”

His thumb continued back and forth again over her lips in a mesmerizing slide. “I do not want you to meet my needs at the expense of your own. Is that understood?”

She frowned, trying to comprehend what he meant. “When I meet your needs, mine are met as well.”

He shook his head. “You are happy and content in that you pleased me. You are more confident as a woman and as my lifemate, both good things. You even felt powerful that you could make an ancient warrior feel the things you made me feel, but your body screams for mine. You are now ignoring your own needs, Elisabeta. Slide your hand down your belly and curl your fingers between your legs. I want you to feel your dampness.”

She frowned, unsure what he meant. He knelt behind her, pressing close to her, wrapping his arms around her. She didn’t really have to touch her sensitive skin to react; his words alone made tension coil tightly in her. That didn’t stop her from wanting to obey him. She placed her hand on her belly a bit tentatively, looking back at him for approval to see if she was doing what he wanted. He wrapped his fingers around hers and gently guided her palm down her belly, and then skimmed them over her mound. Her breath caught in her throat as little sparks of electricity seemed to dance all over her skin.

Elisabeta let her weight rest against his body. It had become one of her favorite positions and she had begun to feel at ease with him so close to her. As he moved her fingers over her clit, he circled and then flicked the inflamed, very sensitive bud. Her entire feminine sheath clenched. Spasmed. The tension coiled tighter. Deliberately, he curled two of her fingers into her slick entrance.

Ferro’s breath was warm in her ear. “That is you, needing me. You cannot neglect your needs, sívamet. It is just as important to me to keep you happy as it is for you to keep me happy.”

His teeth tugged on her earlobe. His fingers began a slow, steady assault on her senses, using her own hand, using his. His thumb brushed her clit. He flicked hard and then brushed the sensitive bud, all the while building and building that tidal wave inside her until her body shook with tremors, and the only things holding her up were his powerful arms and the support of his body. Then he dropped his face into her shoulder and nuzzled there for a long, heart-stopping moment, his teeth scraping as his fingers plunged and receded deep inside her.

He bit down, at the same time flicking her clit with his thumb. The sting of his teeth combined with the tap of his thumb and the surging of his fingers drove her right over the edge. She heard her own keening cry. Her head fell back against his chest as the waves raced through her, rippling strongly, a million stars bursting behind her eyes as the orgasm rushed through her.

Ferro held her until it subsided and then turned her gently in his arms to allow her to bury her face against his chest. His palm stroked the back of her head, calming her, waiting for her heart to slow to the rhythm of his.

“That is what I mean, piŋe sarnanak. Your needs are every bit as important as mine. Do you understand now?”

“Yes.” She did, and she was very much on the same page about taking care of her needs as well as his.

“There is much more I will show you in future risings.” He caught her chin and tipped her face up so that she was looking straight into his eyes. “As you come to trust in your lifemate more and more, we will build on these lessons.”

Ferro, we have need of you and Elisabeta now. Dragomir and Josef are in heated battle. We need Elisabeta to calm Dragomir down. Gary reached out to him.

Merged as they were, Elisabeta heard the healer call out to Ferro. Ferro swore in the Carpathian language under his breath. O jelä peje terád, healer, we are busy at the moment.

Frowning, Ferro helped her to her feet. It was very clear he wasn’t happy at the intrusion, and that gave her some satisfaction. Telling the resident healer “sun scorch you” was considered very bad diplomacy, although apparently Ferro had never been considered diplomatic. Nevertheless, trepidation crept in. If they left the safety of their home, she would once again be exposed in a way she didn’t want to be.

Ferro waved his hand to clothe both of them. He chose a modern dress for her, but again, one that fell to her ankles. This was also formfitting, a teal color he particularly liked. He had certain colors that appealed to him. She knew he chose the more formfitting dresses because he wanted her to get used to the idea that her figure was pleasing to him. He thought she was beautiful. He wanted her to feel beautiful and to move with confidence among the other women.

Dragomir has a lifemate. He does not need Elisabeta to stop him from turning. She knew Ferro didn’t want to put more pressure on her than she already had. Each rising he hoped to practice the small things she’d worked on the rising before and add new ones. She doesn’t need to continually be thrust into the drama of Tariq’s insistence on the training of computer skills to everyone in the compound. She has enough things to worry about.

It gave her a secret little thrill that he was looking out for her, so much so that he would put her needs before his brethren. She hugged that knowledge to herself, even though she had the sinking feeling that they would have to go. Knowing he didn’t want to made it easier.

She knew from being in his mind that Ferro hoped to introduce her to Emeline, Dragomir’s lifemate, this rising. Once he did, he wanted her to be able to sit with all three of the women without him, even if just for a few minutes, and see if she could do so without summoning Sergey. She didn’t want him to leave her, even for a few moments, and take the chance of endangering the other women, no matter that he had assured her that even with her summoning Sergey, the vampire could no longer send his worm from the netherworld.

I believe this is necessary, Ferro, or I would not ask this of you, Gary said.

He was asking it of Elisabeta, but Ferro wasn’t going to point out to the ancient healer what he already knew.

“I am sorry, minan piŋe sarnanak, it seems that once again, your gifts might be needed.”

Elisabeta wrapped her arm around his waist and nodded, uncertain what to think. No matter what, if Ferro asked it of her, or commanded it—which to her was the same—she would go.