Page 162 of Tiger's Dream
Her dark brows lifted and she wet her lips. Then, her voice catching, our hot breaths mingling together, she said, “I want…I want…”
Before she could finish, I slammed my mouth against hers. I expected her to push me away or disappear, but the exact opposite happened. She whimpered and cupped the back of my head, pulling me closer. When her lips opened, it was my turn to groan. Threading my fingers through hers, I slapped her hands onto the stone. Her entire body was wriggling and straining as her lips danced with mine with as much roughness as she’d shown during the fight.
Though I was aware of nothing at first except her mouth and her body, soon I recognized the telltale tingle of power that signified our bond. It was muted and stifled at first, but the longer the kiss went on, the more it invigorated our connection. I was intoxicated by it. By her.
A part of my mind knew there would be a consequence. That this bond would become permanent between us if I allowed it to fully develop. I growled in the back of my throat, knowing she deserved to choose. It was all I could do to stem the tide and ask if it was what she wanted.
Ana? My body thrummed but I locked thoughts with her, sending her a vague image of what was happening.
Yes, was her only reply.
It was like pouring gas on a fire. There was no more doubt. No more hesitancy. No more asking. Only taking. And the pressing need to forge into unbreakable steel the sizzling chains that connected us. Soon my limbs crackled with a silvery energy. The humming of our bond brightened and intensified, matching the crash of passion as we tormented one another, stoking the fires of desire.
She escaped my grip and yanked on my hair while I wrapped an arm around her waist and picked her up, slipping my other hand into her wild tresses and angling her head so the kiss could deepen. When one of her legs slid up my thigh, I was seriously close to losing the feeble grasp on control I had.
The unending kiss was bruising and brutal, dangerous and fiery. Very different from the one in the forest, but no less powerful and no less life-changing. It was both punishing and promising. And it whispered of things neither of us was quite ready for. So I pushed her back against the wall to pin her body and calm her feverish response. It didn’t do much to cool my heated blood, but it did work on her.
Breaking the kiss, I touched my forehead to hers. Both of us were panting. And I feared that whatever I said next could ruin everything and take us right back to where we were when she’d thrown me the sword. Before I could speak, she warned, “If you try to apologize, I will banish you to the darkest abyss I can find.”
“Good to know,” I said, a sort of relief washing through me. Raising my head, I found she wouldn’t meet my eyes. I lifted the hair that fell across her damp cheek and pushed it over her shoulder, then gently ran a hand over her shoulder and down her arm, relishing in the familiar tingles.
“Our bond is back,” I said, lifting the corner of my mouth. A bond seemed like such a tiny word for something so intimate, so indefinably powerful.
“It would seem to be,” she said. Ana’s expression did not give me any indication that she was as affected by our kiss as I was. Her muscles were tense and her skin was hot. She was a coil ready to spring.
I leaned back but was unwilling to remove my hands from her skin. “Why won’t you open your mind to me?” I asked quietly, reveling in the thrum of our connection as it shot warm tingles into my palm where I touched her. My body was sore, my muscles tired, but my nerves were invigorated just by being close to her. “I need to understand what’s happening here. I want to know what you’re thinking,” I said. “Share your thoughts with me, Ana. Please.”
Pushing away from me, she turned and walked out of the temple. Every inch she put between us felt like a mile. I wanted her back in my arms with an intensity that shocked me. I’d never in my long life felt as possessive of a woman as I did with her. In that moment, I realized I never wanted to part with her. With Yesubai and Kelsey I’d felt attraction and tenderness. Both girls were sweet and loving. I returned their affections and thought I might have been happy with either one of them.
But with Ana there was an aching. It was raw and painful. She had the power to make me so angry that my vision went red and all I wanted to do was…was push her against a wall and kiss her until she stopped talking. When she was sad, I wanted to wrap my arms around her and hold her until all her sorrow leached into me instead, sharing her pain as she had done when I suffered. The very thought of making her happy was a wish that haunted me.
She was the woman in my dream. I knew the curve of her cheek, the feel of her hair, and the taste of her kiss. I had absolutely no doubt of it now. And I would do anything to make that sweet vision come true.
My emotions were out of control with Ana in a way they had never been with the other two girls. Loving them had felt easy. But with Ana, it was complicated. Difficult. Even as a young boy, I’d cried when she left me. It seemed she’d always been able to wrest emotional responses from me. As I watched her leave, I was acutely aware of the staccato tempo of my pulse.
She was all I could see. All I could think of. I didn’t know what to label my feelings. Love felt not quite right. Not quite enough. I needed Ana’s help to define us. What we were, what we could be, was too big, too significant a thing to attempt to identify it on my own.
When I joined her outside, I was astonished to see the thick snow and ice all around the temple had melted. It had happened before. I remembered it now, but at the time I’d thought it was due to the fire or the power of the goddess. Now I knew it had been caused by something else. Steam shot up from the ground and the land blossomed with new life. Like with the tree in Shangri-La, the change in the landscape was the direct result of our kiss.
As I was marveling at the effect of our passionate embrace, she said, “There is a darkness that eats away at me in my weaker moments. I will not have you see it, Sohan.”
Frowning and wishing she could trust me, I said, “There is nothing you can show me that I would find ugly, Ana.”
I stepped closer, wanting to be near her. She’d wrapped her arms around her middle as if protecting herself. The fire and the wrath and the passion were spent, and what was left was something woeful and desperate and fragile. Hesitantly, I cupped my hands around her arms, pulling her back into my chest and giving her plenty of room to escape should she choose to leave.
Ana leaned her head against me and I slowly ran my lips down the side of her creamy neck. My hands slid down her arms and encircled hers. A bright warmth, languid and peaceful, hummed along my skin. I tried to turn her toward me, wanting to show her a different side, not a man lost to appetite but one who could be considerate and doting. Her body stiffened and she raised her head. Immediately, I let go. I noticed the slump in her shoulders.Talk to me, I begged her. If she heard me, she didn’t respond.
The atmosphere of the area surrounding the temple became hushed, and I realized how cold it was in the air. It wouldn’t be long before the area was once again covered by snow and ice. My breath fogged and I saw the telltale cloud of her own puffing around her head as she exhaled. Still, she didn’t look at me. “Since I technically beat you, I think you should tell me where you got those swords.” I winced as I said it, knowing it was the wrong thing to say, but trying to lighten the mood.
“I lied,” she answered quietly. “Well, not really. They were given to me by a warlord when I defeated him in battle. They are part of my collection.”
“So, you zapped home while I was waiting for you?”
“I do not know zapped, but if you are asking if I left, the answer is no. I summoned them.”
“You can do that without disappearing?” I asked.
“I did the same thing when I produced a shard of the truth stone to put in the Grove of Dreams. My powers have grown,” she answered sadly, almost as if she despaired to think of it. “It’s like using my abilities without the gifts being nearby. Even when you separate yourself from me by centuries and a distance that would take months to cross on horseback, I can still access and use the Damon Amulet.”
