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  His body was hot and hard. Muscles in his back bunched and rippled as he moved within her. He lifted his head and those silvery eyes looked into hers as the first wave of completion hovered near. She couldn’t look away. Couldn’t tear her gaze from his any more than she could get up and run from what she was experiencing.

  Then she felt him in her mind, murmuring erotic enticements, wild and dark words that tumbled through her with abandon.

  Come, Julie. Let go and come. Take me into your heat, hold me there and let me feel your tremors.

  Pressure built and built inside her, she couldn’t breathe and didn’t care. Couldn’t move and didn’t need to. All she needed, all she could ever want, was Kieran and what he could do to her.

  He took her up and up, pushing her body higher and faster than it had ever gone before and when the waiting was too much, when her need was greater than her want, he took her over the edge of sanity. When she shouted his name on the crest of her release, Kieran finally allowed himself to follow.

  11

  K ieran’s head dropped to her breasts as he struggled for air. He felt drained, sated and yet his body was already growing and hardening within her velvety heat again. In centuries of living he’d never known anything like this. Going up on his elbows, he stared down at her as if he’d never seen her before.

  And in a way, he hadn’t.

  He’d known her only as the woman who opposed him at every turn. As the woman who might or might not be his Mate.

  But now, he knew. There could be no more doubts. Becoming one with her had opened up new worlds for him. He felt staggered by the raw strength and power coursing through his veins. His body seemed alive in a way it hadn’t been in centuries.

  His mind was still connected to hers and Kieran gasped as new and wondrous feelings raced through his mind. He felt her joy and shared it, saw explosions of color through her eyes and lost himself in them. Felt her body’s reaction to his and sensed her renewed arousal. The bonds of connection swirled in the air around them, hovering close, ready to tighten and he couldn’t fight them. Didn’t want to. His body nearly vibrated with the newness of what he was experiencing. No one had ever told him that finding a Destined Mate would be like this. But even if they had, he wouldn’t have believed. Wouldn’t have wanted it. Now, he couldn’t imagine the coming centuries without it. She struggled for air and a soft smile curved her mouth as she reached up, combed her fingers through his hair and whispered, “That was incredible.”

  “It was,” he said, dipping his head to take a kiss, then another.

  “I felt what you were feeling,” she said, licking her lips, taking another slow, shuddering breath. “I saw myself through your eyes. Experienced the slide of your body into mine. I actually felt my climax and yours. How is that possible?”

  “We are joined,” he murmured and rocked his hips into hers.

  “Joined,” she repeated and swallowed hard. Kieran sensed her trepidation and knew when she gave up the worry that would niggle at her later. Knew when she gave herself up to the expectation that was already flowering inside her.

  She tipped her head back, her neck curved, her lips parted and a soft sigh slid from her throat. “This is amazing, Kieran. I hear your voice in my head. I sense what you’re feeling.” Her eyes opened and locked on his as a wicked smile danced briefly over her face. “Oh. My. Goodness.”

  Kieran bent low and licked the long line of her slender neck, tasting her skin, nibbling at her flesh as his body filled hers again. “Your desire feeds me,” he muttered, his breath dancing across her skin like a caress. “Your body melds with mine and we become one.”

  Her body welcomed him, her mind opened for him, showing him all he’d missed for centuries. He reveled in the rush of sensations, gloried in the flow of her knowledge and experiences that filled his mind with all she’d experienced and felt in her life. And when he thought he couldn’t feel any more, another layer of his solitude peeled away to be eased by all that she was.

  Kieran embraced it all and sought more, like a man whose thirst was so bone-deep he couldn’t get enough water. But he would never have enough. Never be able to go deeply enough inside her. Never know enough about her. For all his size and strength, for all his power and knowledge, he knew that he would always want more than he could have of her.

  “Kieran,” she whispered, lifting both legs to wrap them around his hips and pull him closer, deeper. “I can see you. See all of you. All of the years. The hurts. The pain.”

  He caught her hand as she cupped his cheek and just for a moment, turned his face into her palm, shame rippling through him. He didn’t want her to know all that he’d done in the name of duty. All those he’d killed in battle, all those he’d injured in the name of the hunts that had become all he knew. But he could no more stop her from entering his mind than he could prevent himself from entering hers.

  Her thumb stroked his cheek and that simple caress touched him more deeply than anything he’d ever known before. The dark, jagged corners of his soul were soothed and eased, old pains fading away and Kieran had to fight to hold on to his sense of control.

  “I want you so much,” she whispered, hands sweeping up and down his bare back, fingernails scraping his skin as she arched into him again and again, demanding all he had to give.

  She was small and tight and hot. Her bones felt fragile beneath him and he was mindful that a man his size could injure her without meaning to. He needed as he’d never needed before. Every cell in his body, every nerve, every muscle, was strained to the breaking point as he moved within her slowly, keeping a tight rein on the urge to take her hard and fast, to feel her heart beating and her body bowing to his. Gritting his teeth, he hissed in air, shifted to take hold of her hips and held her still while he moved within her. He was so close, so dangerously close to the edge, he needed to gather all the strength he possessed to hold himself back.

  But then she lifted her head and stared into his gaze, desire flashing in her sharp green eyes. “Kieran, I’m not fragile. You won’t hurt me.” She pushed her body down onto his, grinding her hips as he tried to hold her in place. “Don’t be gentle. Take me fast and hard. Make me scream, Kieran. Make me scream.”

  Groaning, he grabbed her up off of his coat, sat back on his heels and held her pinned to his lap. His fingers dug into her skin as his body speared hard and high inside her. She twisted in his grasp, clinging to him, tearing at his shoulders, his hair, taking his mouth with hers and tangling her tongue with his.

  Outside their bubble of secrecy, the wind howled, clouds scudded across the black sky and the moon shone fitfully onto an ocean that began to roil in the wind.

  He took her breath and muffled her cries with his mouth as he pushed them both as high as they could go. His mind opened wider as his body erupted into hers. He felt everything she felt. Knew everything there was to know about her. And he knew that the same thing was happening to her. He could shield her from nothing, had no choice but to share with her as completely as she did with him.

  Her body shuddered and he tore his mouth from hers, bent his head and took one hard, pebbly nipple into his mouth. Teeth and tongue tormented her, suckling, nibbling, licking. She moved on him like a wild woman, demanding, taking, giving, and he silently thanked whatever fates had sent her to him.

  And in the instant when their bodies exploded simultaneously, Kieran felt the threads of Destiny swirl around them, binding them together for the rest of time.

  Something new.

  The beast tasted the wind and felt a shift in the balance. Smiling, it reached out with its mind, found the source and responded.

  As they dressed in silence, Kieran sensed Julie’s unease. Now that their passion was spent, there were questions bubbling in her mind. Questions he didn’t know if he could answer.

  “This is such a cliché,” Julie said quietly as she lifted her gaze to meet his, “but we really do need to talk.”

  Scowling, Kieran picked up his coat, shoo
k the sand from its folds, then slipped into it. “Why do you need to ask me anything? You have already seen the answers in my mind.”

  “Seeing them is one thing,” she said, pushing her hair back from her face,

  “understanding them is something else.”

  “Julie—” He stopped speaking, narrowed his eyes and held up one hand to silence her.

  “What?”

  He frowned at her. “Quiet. There is something here. Something…”

  “The demon.” Julie spun in a slow circle, scanning the nearly empty beach.

  “It’s here?”

  “Yes.” Picking up the sword he had thrown to the sand earlier, he fisted it in his right hand, gave her one long, hard look and said, “You will stay here. Do not try to move. Do not speak.”

  Julie’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “You’re leaving me here? Alone?”

  “You will be safe.” He reached out, laid one heavy hand on her shoulder and despite the sudden threat of danger, she felt a quickening of her pulse at his touch. “We have mated. You share my energy and so the cloak of secrecy I forged will remain with you. As long as you stay here.”

  She nodded, not really trusting herself to speak at the moment. Her throat was tight and a cold ball of fear settled in the pit of her stomach. As if their bond suddenly tightened between them, Kieran looked into her eyes, read her uneasiness and reached out to touch her cheek. “I will keep you safe. I swear it.”

  Julie drew in one shaky breath and managed to say, “Who keeps you safe, Kieran?”

  His eyes shuttered, the pale blue color suddenly filling with shadows.

  “Stay.”

  He left her then and Julie watched from the shelter of secrecy he’d left behind. And even following his movements, she had a hard time keeping track of him. He seemed to become a part of the night. One more shadow in a sea of them. He moved with a liquid grace and deadly strength that left her shivering with both fear and a weird sense of pride. Moonlight swam over the beach with a silvery glow that only defined the long spears of darkness stretching out from beneath the pier. The ocean’s soft, murmuring roar as it lapped at the shore became another heartbeat, pulsing just beneath the rush of sound from the boardwalk above. She wrapped her arms around her middle and hung on tightly, straining to keep Kieran in sight. And as she waited, Julie realized just how deep the hole she’d dug for herself really was.

  She was bonded to a man who really didn’t want her for himself—only for the strength she could give him. A demon of all things had apparently targeted her because of her link to Kieran. And worst of all, she was falling in love with her sword-carrying warrior.

  And what woman wouldn’t? The old pain in his eyes urged her to ease it. The aching solitude that he’d experienced for centuries still resonated inside her. He supported countless charities with his staggering wealth and yet never accepted any of the accolades most men would demand. He had spent countless years doing battle with all kinds of evil in an effort to keep the mortal world, that knew nothing about him, safe. He was unlike anyone else she’d ever known and—

  Someone new, a voice, not Kieran’s, whispered to her mind. A surprise for me. The Guardian’s lady. How sublime.

  Julie started, cold sweeping through her system as she turned, trying to focus, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. Who was trying to reach her?

  See me soon, the voice promised.

  “Kieran!” She screamed for him, her voice raw, scraping against her throat as she shrieked his name over and over again, giving in to the shuddering fear that iced her veins and set her heart pounding. He was with her in an instant and she flew into his arms, greedily accepting his solid strength, his warmth and the feel of one of his arms closing around her like a vise. In the other hand he held his sword, ready for whatever came their way.

  “What is it?” he demanded, holding her tightly while his gaze scanned the area.

  “The demon.” She shook her head and buried her face in the curve of his neck. Her voice was muffled, but she couldn’t seem to help it. “It was in my mind. I thought at first, it was you, but then the feel of it was wrong. Like something evil crawled over me. Cold, Kieran. I’m so cold.”

  He sheathed his sword even as his mind searched the area. The demon wasn’t close. If it had been, it was gone now. But the knowledge that it had reached out to Julie left Kieran more shaken than he would have thought. He hadn’t expected that the demon would be able to invade Julie’s mind and the fact that it obviously could, would make this hunt all the more deadly.

  He must keep her safe. And he must find the beast before it found Julie.

  “And Nathan lives?” Santos’s voice, as clear through the satellite phone as if he were in the room with Kieran, sounded surprised.

  “I didn’t have to say anything to him,” Kieran admitted, disgusted. “His own guilt has punished him more than I could.”

  In fact, the Navy SEAL had been so furious that a woman—a civilian at that—had outsmarted him, tricked him into letting her escape, he’d locked himself into the castle’s gym and was even now doing his best to destroy the equipment.

  “His pride is shaken. He’ll recover.”

  “Don’t know if I will,” Kieran muttered and blurted out the truth that had him more worried than he wanted to admit. “The demon linked with Julie’s mind.”

  A long, silent, thoughtful pause and then Santos’s voice came, a low growl of concern. “How is this possible?”

  “I don’t know.” Striding around the perimeter of his favorite room in the castle, the library, Kieran didn’t even notice the floor to ceiling bookshelves, the burgundy leather armchairs and couches, the soft lighting glancing off the cut crystal bottles of liquor. He shoved one hand through his hair and kept talking, voicing the thoughts that had plagued him for hours. “This demon is telepathic,” he said tightly, “so maybe when Julie and I—” He stopped talking.

  “You bonded?” Santos couldn’t have sounded more shocked if Kieran had said he’d sprouted wings and learned to fly.

  “Yes.” And he was still dealing with the repercussions of that himself. Knowing that by bonding with Julie he might very well have put her in even more danger was just one more thing to be troubled about. Santos chuckled and Kieran scowled fiercely at the satellite phone.

  “Ah, my friend, I would never have thought that you would be the first of us to slip into a bridle and chain.”

  “There are no bridles. No chains.” He wouldn’t allow there to be any. “I did what I had to do to capture this demon.”

  “I understand,” Santos said and damned if Kieran couldn’t hear the humor in his voice, “you sacrificed yourself for your duty. Very courageous of you my friend.”

  “Spaniard, you walk a fine line.”

  “Always, Kieran. It is what makes eternity interesting.”

  “It’s more interesting than it should be around here.”

  Kieran stopped in front of a pane of glass and stared out into the night. Julie was upstairs in her room and he knew, because he could feel it, that she was still terrified by the demon’s intrusion on her thoughts.

  “Is your new Mate willing to help you capture the beast?”

  Kieran stiffened at the mere thought of allowing Julie anywhere near the demon. “She will be no part of the hunt.”

  “So you do care for her.”

  Disgusted, Kieran snapped, “Why do I call you only to be irritated?”

  “Because, my friend, you need me to tell you the truths you don’t want to acknowledge for yourself.”

  Kieran slapped one hand to the cold glass and stared out at the night beyond. “I don’t want her in my life, Santos.”

  “That is unfortunate,” Santos said softly, “for both of you.”

  “Yes. It is,” Kieran said and hung up, still staring into the night but seeing instead Julie’s eyes when his body entered hers.

  Hunger reared up inside him again and he experienced a need so fierce
it was as if he hadn’t touched her. Hadn’t had her in and around him only an hour before. He was a man possessed and damned if he could find a way to regret it.

  Julie couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t seem to sit still long enough to rest. Couldn’t even think without wondering if Kieran was hearing her thoughts, feeling what she was feeling, sensing her anxiety.

  The night crouched outside the French doors, and she wondered if the demon was out there, waiting for an opportunity to attack her again. Fear fisted in her stomach and she hated herself for being so scared. Hated feeling as though she had to hide. Hated knowing that some nameless beast was determining how she lived her life.

  As if to prove to herself that she wasn’t afraid, she walked to the terrace doors and deliberately flung them open. The cold night air rushed in as if it had been perched on the stone floor, just waiting for its chance to pounce.

  She shivered, despite the thick robe she wore and knew it was the fear as much as the cold that was racking her body with chills. Taking a few long, deep breaths, Julie stepped forward, easing her way onto the terrace, forcing herself to move when all she really wanted to do was go hide under the bed.

  The stones felt cold and rough against her bare feet and her knees wobbled a little as she took another step and then another, moving inexorably to the gray stone railing. Her fingers grabbed hold of that railing and dug in, as if that grip meant her life. Or at least, her sanity.

  Kieran. She thought his name, and the want she felt colored the call. Closing her eyes, she opened her mind for him, even though a part of her feared the demon would reappear, sliding through her thoughts like black silk, easing into every crevice of her being until—

  “Don’t.”

  She turned her head as Kieran approached behind her. “You heard me.”

  Yes. One word, reassurance and promise.

  “I needed you,” Julie admitted, turning her back on the night and the city lights in the distance. A sigh of wind drifted over her and she hunched deeper into the folds of her luxurious robe.