She'd seen him completely undressed, and she was still getting aroused. Wanting to roar with triumph, he grew more aggressive, leaning up to brush his lips over one stiff nipple.
After a heartbeat's hesitation, she backhanded him away.
"Slower to defend on that one, no, lass?" He pinned her arms to her sides so he could nuzzle her other nipple. Though she resisted, he took it between his lips, tasting that bud, tonguing it ... With a hoarse groan, he began to suckle, his eyes rol ing back in his head.
Had she moaned? His c**k pulsed painful y.
In a siren's voice, she said, "Chase, let me go. So I can touch you."
Yes! Without releasing his suck on her nipple, he slid his hands down to rest on her hips.
"You want my touch, Blademan?" She reached back, raking those claws up his thighs, leaving bloody furrows. "That's all You'll get from me-pain!"
He sucked her harder, til her nipple throbbed to the tip of his tongue. Pain? He felt none.
Gods, Chase's mouth was so hot on her breast, his lips closed tight around the peak.
He was thrumming, the muscles of his torso flexing sensuously beneath her. She'd never truly comprehended how big Chase's body was next to hers. So like Aidan.
Yet so different. A Celt with a wicked tongue and a gravel y voice.
His kiss tempted her; but for right now, it felt better to smack him around. She shoved him back, slapping him across the face.
"That's it, Regin, do what you need to."
"Oh, I will ." The last three weeks had been like a pressure cooker, and now she was about to explode. Every hit made a knot inside her unfurl. He wasn't the only one who could feel rage-and seeing the blood she'd drawn all over his body made it ebb.
One of his eyes was swol en. His lip was busted. The skin over his broad cheek was split. His legs were bleeding.
And still he was hard as rock.
He took her h*ps and settled her lower on his torso, pressing her to his erection. "I want you so much. It's like a fever in me."
She knocked his hands away. "Why would I ever want you back? You think I'm just going to forget all you've done to me?"
"No, no' forget. But I can salvage this thing between us. I'm ready to do whatever needs to be done."
"Salvage, huh? See, I've been remembering more from last night. You suffocated me." She boxed his other ear. "Was it hard to do?"
His face went cold, evincing that cruelness she'd hoped never to see again. "Just pressed down till you went limp. What's hard about that?"
"Ugh!" She backhanded him again.
"Of course it was bloody hard," he roared, the tendons in his neck straining. "One of the hardest things I've ever done. Brandr was about to puncture your goddamned heart. Happened anyway."
"Your hands were steady enough when you were cutting off my air!" Another resounding slap.
"Because they f**kin' needed to be! Damn you, woman, you died! And there was ... nothing I could do." His voice was thick.
Was Chase feeling an emotion other than hate? Dim memories arose. Her face damp with tears?
Chase murmuring in her ear to hold on for him?
She narrowed her gaze. "Did the big bad Blademan lose control of his emotions last night?" Slap. "Did seeing me like that compwetely bwake your wittle heart?" Backhand. "Did you cry man tears?"
He flipped her to her back, rising above her. "Cried over you like a wee babe." He pinned her hands over her head. "I can feel, Regin. And it kil ed me to see you like that!" His eyes began to glow. "Which real y pissed me off, Valkyrie. Because any last hope that I could live without you vanished."
Declan wedged his h*ps between her legs as the need to make her his burned within him. "It will always be you, Regin." His free hand curled under her thigh to position his shaft.
"No, Chase!" She scrambled back from him, fighting his hold on her wrists. "Never!" She'd begun panting, br**sts rising and fal ing, her ni**les swol en. "You can't do this. No sex!"
"Does this mean you're feelin' something for me, Valkyrie? Maybe you want me to live now?" He leaned down to kiss her, but she yanked her head to the side.
"Do not kiss me," she hissed, her eyes flashing.
"No kissing of any kind, then?" As she tussled against him, he moved her bodily to a nearby bed of grass.
"What are you doing?" she snapped.
He captured her wrists in front of her, then knelt between her legs. "I just want a taste of you, Regin. I've dreamed of doing this to you."
"Forget it!" She tightened her knees.
He maneuvered his shoulders to work her thighs wider, then dipped his head to her blond curls. "One kiss, and I'll stop."
"Chase, damn you-"
He pressed his mouth to her quim and gave a lick, silencing her and shocking him. "Ah, f**k me!" She was delicious, her sex quivering and wet. He'd planned to ask her if she wanted him to stop. Impossible.
He set back in, his tongue delving for more.
She moaned and lightning struck overhead. His permission.
He released her wrists, and her hands flew to his head, not to shove him away, but to thread her fingers through his hair-the first time she'd touched him without anger.
More. He breathed her in.
"That's it, Regin. Let me do this to you." When she undulated to his mouth, his c**k pulsed even harder, moisture beading the head.
With each rol of her hips, he rocked his own, spreading his knees wider. He thrust against air, imagining his shaft was buried deep where his tongue plunged.
Heaven was pleasuring her with her lightning overhead to let him know he was doing it right. With each kiss, her skin glowed brighter, and something like ... like joy swept over him. I can satisfy her. In time, he could fix this between them.
"You're delicious." Between licks, he groaned, "Hot ... wet ... heaven."
At his words, she gave a strangled cry, and her legs fel open in total surrender. In invitation. He traced her glistening core with the pad of one finger.
"Inside," she moaned. When he eagerly slipped it into her tight sheath, her head thrashed. "Don't stop that, just don't stop. ..."
"You need these fil in' you, don't you, lass?" With a hungry flick of his tongue, he wedged another finger inside. "I'll get them nice and deep."
"Chase, I'm close!"
"Regin, come for me!" He bore down on her with his mouth, his fingers thrusting in time. "That's it, baby."
Her back bowed. A bolt of her lightning struck so close he felt the heat of it. "Chase!" she screamed as she began to orgasm.