“In every way.” He gripped her by the waist, carried her to the bed and tossed her atop the mattress. As she bounced, he placed his knees on the edge and crawled toward her. “Spread your legs.”

She smiled at him, slow and seductive. “Are you saying it’s on till dawn, pekný?”

“I’m saying I’m finally taking what’s mine.”

20

“The only reason a woman should kick her man out of bed is to make love to him on the floor.”

—Amun, keeper of Secrets

BADEN ROSE TO his knees. Katarina was, without a doubt, the most erotic female in creation. With her naked body angled toward him, she leaned back on her elbows, thrusting up her breasts and drawing his attention to the dusky crests in the center.

Destruction purred his approval, issuing no demands. He wanted what Baden wanted. Perhaps even needed it.

Unable to resist her magnetic allure, he traced his gaze down the flat plane of her stomach to the tiny thatch of dark curls already wet with arousal. As commanded, she parted her mile-long legs and bent them at the knees, placing her feet outside his thighs, offering a full-frontal view of his new paradise.

“Do you like this? Want it?” The husky quality of her voice as she parroted his words back to him...she knew the power she wielded over him and reveled in it.

He couldn’t fault her. His shaft, already throbbing with want, wept at the tip. “Like is too mild a word.” He trembled. He ached. And he no longer cared about the pain of skin-to-skin contact. The pain of not having his hands on this woman had already proven far worse. He’d tossed and turned last night, a man haunted.

“I have to taste you.” He sounded drugged, his words slightly slurred.

“You already have,” she teased. But she wasn’t as calm as she appeared. Her nails dug into the mattress. “Or have you forgotten?”

As if he could ever forget. “This time, I want to tap straight from the source. Let me.”

Her eyelids lowered to half mast, too heavy to hold up. “Drink from me, then.”

He slowly threaded his fingers around her ankles to tug her toward him. She was his to devour. Their gazes held as he placed her feet on his shoulders, leaving her completely open to him.

He leaned in, anticipation burning him alive. Waiting...waiting until...she gasped his name, a benediction, and writhed her hips. Then he did it. Stroked his tongue over the heart of her pleasure. She cried out, her passion too great for her small body to contain. I did this, caused this.

Pride coursed through him, even as the sweet, sweet taste of her threatened to unman him. She was like candy, a nectar he would crave all the days of his life. An aphrodisiac. A torch to his discipline.

Destruction demanded more, and Baden was all too happy to obey. He dove in for another taste but ended up staying for the entire meal. He licked, sucked and nibbled, and even thrust his tongue deep inside her, mimicking sex. She writhed her hips faster, harder, grinding against his face, chasing his mouth whenever he lifted his head.

“Baden...I want...I need...”

“I know.” Yesterday and today she’d reduced him to a quivering mass of sensation. A live wire in need of contact. An outlet for the desire burning him from the inside out. It was only fair he should now return the favor.

As he sucked on her sweet little bundle of nerves, her thighs pressed against his temples. Goose bumps broke out over her luscious skin, and he knew she was close to climaxing. He eased the pressure and began to lap at her, easing her back from the ledge.

Not going to let her fall. Not yet, not yet.

“Kretén,” she snarled, beating the mattress. Candlelight set her features aglow.

“Curse me all you like, krásavica. It won’t do you any good. But don’t worry. I’ll let you have an orgasm...eventually.”

She shivered. She cursed him again. “Such a cruel man. I may have to punish you.”

“No, darling. You may have to beg me.” He wanted her badly, wanted her more than he’d wanted anything or anyone, ever. And he wanted everything from her—including her total surrender. He stood and stroked his shaft from base to tip, knowing she liked when he did it. Her eyes gave her away. “You want this? Then ask me nicely.”

The soft warmth of her chuckle proved as potent as a caress. “If you aren’t careful,” she said, pinching her nipples and arching her hips, “I’ll make you watch me take my own pleasure—then I’ll make you watch me leave you hard and aching.”

He laughed, low and husky, surprised to find humor in an act that had only driven him mad since his return to life. “Walking away will never be an option for you, krásavica. Let me show you why.” He slid a finger deep inside her, for the first time feeling her inner walls clench around him without any kind of barrier. The heat...the wet...the softness...better than he’d imagined. “You need me inside you.”

“And you need to be inside me.”

More than anything. He fed her a second finger, thrilled as she stretched to accommodate him.

Moaning, she arched to follow his in-and-out glide. Though every cell in his body screamed with urgency, he set an easy pace.

“You were made for this,” he praised. Made for me.

His sense of possession amplified—mine, mine, all mine. Will never share.

Will never let go.

He would keep her, now and forever, he decided. She would be more than a war prize. She would be the prize. Having endured a life of war and loss, a death that had brought him centuries of helplessness and captivity, a resurrection that had done the same, he deserved to have a woman—this woman—in his bed every night and in his arms every morning.

She was worth any hardship.

“Need more of you inside me,” she gasped. “All of you. Please. I’m asking...begging so nicely.”

She’s killing me...but what a magnificent way to go. He worked in another finger, this time preparing her for his width.

“Wait.” Gasping, she tried to shy away from his invasion. “Wait. Baden! Hold still for a second. That’s not exactly pleasant.”

He did as requested, but it cost him threads of his sanity.

Give me everything! Destruction demanded. Now. Now!

Won’t hurt her. If we scare her, we’ll never have this again.

A crackling pause. Ease her, Destruction commanded next.

She breathed in and out, her walls remaining locked tight around his fingers, refusing to give. He bent and once again flicked his tongue against her tiny bundle of nerves. Another gasp left her, this one more about pleasure than pain.