Did she want him? He inhaled, desperate to see—

“Why do I feel this way?” Her voice was a husky stroke right over his skin. “No matter what happened before, I shouldn’t want you this badly.”

Yes, you should. “There’s nothing wrong with desire.” Not a damn thing.

Her wet hair spread behind her on the bed. The towel was knotted between her br**sts.

She stared up at him. Her eyes were so blue. As blue as the skies over Ireland, the home she’d once had. “I don’t know you,” she whispered.

You did. “Then get to know me.” At first, he’d wanted her to get all of her memories back. But now, in truth, there were parts of their past that he never wanted her to remember. Selfish? Yeah, but it would be easier to forget those parts.

The betrayals. The lies.

He reached for her hand. Brought it to his lips. He kissed her knuckles and turned her hand over so that he could score his teeth over her palm.

Her breath hissed out.

“Your body knows me, and I know it.” That towel needs to come off. He had to make this good for her, before the beast took over for him.

Too long.

“I’ve dreamed of you in this bed.” A stark confession from him.

Jane shook her head. “I never have dreams. Only darkness.”

When he’d lost his sight, she’d been the only light in his darkness.

He licked her palm. Then Alerac inhaled the tempting scent of her arousal. She wanted him. She feared him, but she wanted him.

He put her hand back on the bed. Let his fingers trail up the silken skin of her thighs.

“J-just so you know…” she told him, watching him with desire shadowing her eyes. “This isn’t because I owe you for my life.”

His fingers eased up a few more inches, pushing away that towel. “Then what is it about?”

She rasped out a quick breath. “Desire.”

Oh, he was well acquainted with desire.

“It’s not natural, the way I feel about you,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t want you this much.”

Yes, she should. “Maybe your body just remembers what your mind can’t.”

“Don’t…”

The one word had his head jerking up. If she was telling him to stop, to back away, he would.

For her, he’d do anything.

But then she said, “Don’t hurt me.”

She f**kin’ broke his heart. The heart too many had tried to carve right out of his chest. The heart he’d given to her two centuries before.

“I won’t.” Then he was unknotting that towel. Peeling it away from her body. She was just as she’d been in his dreams. Those perfect, round br**sts with their pink-tipped ni**les. The soft curve of her stomach. The lush flare of her hips.

The temptation of her sex—soft and pink and waiting.

He bent his head and took a breast between his lips. Licking. Sucking. Tasting. The nipple was hard and tight and he loved the way she gasped and arched toward him.

He kept tasting her, sampling her, even as his fingers slid down her stomach and pushed between her legs.

She was wet for him.

Already.

Yes.

Her hands were on his back, her nails lightly raking over his skin. He’d wanted her touch for too long.

His eyes squeezed shut as he kissed his way down her stomach.

“Alerac?”

He kept kissing her. He’d taste the need she had for him. He’d make sure to give her pleasure before the beast broke free.

Her pleasure mattered. If he made it good enough for him, maybe she’d stay, once she learned the truth.

He’d seduced her to his side before.

Can I do it again?

His hands pushed her legs apart. Her scent—so good—was making him light-headed with raw need and lust. He stroked her with his fingers, learning the secrets of her sex once more. Her hips rose helplessly toward him.

Her body tightened.

He put his mouth on her. He damn well feasted.

She jerked beneath him. Tried to pull away.

“Alerac—it’s too much!”

No, not even close.

He used his lips and his tongue and he worked that sweet flesh until he knew that her release was at hand. He could feel it approaching in the stiffness of her body, the gasps that broke from her mouth.

He pushed his finger into her. Licked the center of her need.

Jane came against his mouth.

The taste of her pleasure broke his control.

He surged back over her. When she reached for him, Alerac grabbed her wrists and pinned her hands to the bed. He could see the edge of her fangs peeking out behind her red lips. Her eyes were shining with pleasure.

Mine.

He drove into her, plunging as deep as he could go, lost to everything but her. The bed heaved beneath them. The slats groaned as he thrust. Faster. Harder.

A growl built in his throat. The wolf was pushing through his control, demanding that he mark the mate he’d lost so long ago.

He wanted to put his teeth on her, right there where her neck curved into her shoulder. The bite would claim her. Show all others that Jane belonged only to him.

And it would give him her blood. The powerful, intoxicating blood that had first addicted him.

His canines were burning in his mouth. Stretching. Sharpening. He parted his lips. Put his mouth right over that sweet spot. He sucked the flesh.

A choked scream came from Jane as she bucked beneath him. Another release. Pleasure that shuddered through her—through him.

Don’t bite her. Not yet. Not. Yet.

He yanked his mouth away from her and erupted into the core of her body. The pleasure was more than he remembered. Stronger. Consuming. Obliterating all that had come before.

Linking them.

Bonding them.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears, a mad drumbeat that wouldn’t slow. Sweat slickened his back as he slowly lifted his head.

He stared down at Jane, lost.

“Y-you’re still doing it,” she whispered, her words a husky tremble.

His brows lifted. His c**k was in her body, sated, but…I want more of her. “Doing what?”

“L-looking at me…like you could devour me…”

He smiled. That was exactly what he wanted to do.

Alerac began to thrust again.

Her legs curled around his.

She met him.

The pleasure rose once more.

***

She didn’t dream of darkness.