CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Michael’s apartment had never felt so small as it did the moment Cassandra cornered him by that door, standing so close that he only had to reach out to touch her. “Is it that easy for you to walk out without a word?”
“It’s easier than being near you and knowing I can’t have you,” he confessed, his voice low, rough. Something savage and wild raked through his body, a demand that he claim his Lifebond.
“The only thing keeping you from having me, Michael, is you,” she said hoarsely. “I know about the extra chromosome, and you know what? I don’t care. I am your Lifebond. Whatever you are…we are.”
Her words twisted the hunger to gut-wrenching intensity. “There is no we, Cassandra,” he all but growled. “You said it ends or begins tonight. It ends.”
Dragging a breath, she leveled him in a challenging stare. “Be sure you mean that, Michael,” she said, her voice choked, emotional. “I waited two years for you. I didn’t even know I was waiting. I told myself I hated you. But I waited. I know that now. I looked at no other man. I wanted no other man. I knew somewhere deep inside me you would be back, that you had not betrayed me. I will not wait this time. I will move on. I will make a life for myself, and I will survive. So…if you say it ends here. It ends.”
The idea of another man touching her, holding her, making her moan…it ripped through his veins like acid boiling his blood. He shackled her wrists with his big hands and pressed her against the wall, pinning her arms over her head with one hand, the thick ridge of his cock pressed to her stomach. “You will not let another man touch you,” he growled.
Her chin lifted. “You cannot have it both ways, Michael. Either you are with me, or you are not. There is no in-between. Not anymore. I won’t live like that.”
For a moment, he squeezed his eyes closed, reached for control where there seemed none to be found. “Intentionally pushing me is dangerous, Cassandra,” he warned. “Didn’t you listen to those women at that table today?”
“I listened to them,” she said. “And I know you. You did what you had to do to survive inside Zodius. You were trying to save lives. To protect our country. You might scare some people, but you will never scare me.”
Lust climbed through every pore of his body. Her lips drew him, entranced him. A taste. One taste. He jerked his gaze to hers. “Will you never stop being a damn fool?”
“Will you?” she half panted, half whispered.
“Damn you, woman,” he hissed, his hand gliding over her slender waist to the swell of her breast that fit perfectly in his palm. “Is that what you want, Cassandra?” Her nipple stiffened beneath his touch, and he tweaked it. “You want me to touch you?”
She arched into his touch. “Yes.”
“You want me to pleasure you?” he asked, roughly tugging on her nipple. She moaned, and that only made him hotter. Harder.
He abandoned her breast and palmed that plump, delectable ass, molding her hips to his. She rewarded his boldness with a sweet, sensuous moan that vibrated through his body and thickened his cock.
He dipped his head. Inhaled deeply. “You smell like sweet honey.” He leaned back, unable to stop his lips from brushing hers, the soft, subtle texture. “I could lick you from head to toe and do it all over again. Spread you wide and taste you when you come.”
She shivered. “Do it. Do it, Michael.”
He inhaled sharply, grappled again for that hard-won control—held her hands to keep her from touching him. Her touch would undo him. He willed himself to release her. To walk away and allow her the life she deserved—a life away from the dangerous nature threatening to consume him as surely as she consumed him right now.
“I love you, Michael,” Cassandra whispered.
“Don’t,” he raged, his chin snapping down as his gaze locked with hers, his hair escaping the tie at his neck and falling wildly around his face. “Don’t love me, Cassandra.” With every bit of will he had left, he pushed away from her, distancing himself.
Her head fell back against the door, and Lord help him, his gaze swept the stiff peaks of her nipples puckered beneath her shirt, and he took another step backwards.
“I don’t know how to get through to you,” she said softly, staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t know.” Her gaze returned to his, and she stared at him with so much pain, so much helplessness etching her face, he could barely breathe knowing he’d put it there. “I need you, Michael, and I know you need me.”
Then she pushed off the door, straightened, walked to the kitchen, and left him staring after her. She returned a second later with a knife in her hand. What the hell?
Before he could stop her, before he had any idea what she intended, she had already acted. She sliced down her palm, blood spilling from the delicate pale skin. “This time is forever,” she said and then grimaced. “Ouch. Ouch. Okay, that hurt more than I thought it would.”
He was already by her side, picking her up and carrying her to the bathroom. “Are you insane, woman?” He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her hand. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking this would make you see how certain I am about a blood bond,” she said, her voice cracking with a hint of agony.
He pressed his forehead to hers, ran his hand down her hair. “Cassandra.” He stared into the green eyes that he had so adored. He couldn’t steal her humanity, her life. “We have to go get you stitches.” The cut was deep, too deep to ignore.
“You heal me,” she said. “You, Michael. I meant what I said. Whatever you are, we are together, in life or death.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “Don’t you see? I can’t breathe without you.”
Michael went utterly still, those words reaching inside his soul and speaking to him. Words he himself had thought about her a million times.
He reached down to his leg and removed the knife inside his pocket, held his hand out, and sliced it opened.
Big pearly tears glistened down Cassandra’s cheeks as he unwrapped the towel from her hand.
“And I cannot breathe without you,” he whispered. “But once this is done, there is no turning back. We really do live and die together. And whatever monster I become, you will never escape me.”
“You are not a monster, and you never will be,” she said, grabbing his hand and pressing her palm to his. “If it takes me a lifetime to make you see that, then I will fight for a lifetime.”
She sealed their hands together, blinking up at him through her tears.
He trembled with emotion, with the magnitude of what she had just done, with the trust she had in him that he did not dare have in himself.
One by one, he kissed her tears away and then cradled her cheek with his hand, repeating the vow that he never wanted her to forget. “I love you.”
“I love you, Michael.”
With all his heart and soul, he silently made yet another vow—that he would live up to that love, that he would not let his past, his family, or the darkness within him, destroy them.
Michael kissed her with tenderness, the passion of minutes before shimmering warm and ready, but without any harsh demand—because she was his, his forever, and that was something to savor. He pulled back, stared down at her as black swallowed the green of her eyes, then guided their sealed palms between them and slowly released her hand, showing Cassandra that their wounds had healed.
Cassandra stared down at her hand. Touched her palm. Looked up at him. “Is it done? That easily?”
He closed their hands together again. “It is done,” he promised, pressing his lips to hers and lingering there. Their breath mingled, warm and perfect.
She shivered and moaned, a sound so decadently erotic, he had to have more. He delved deeper, his tongue sliding against hers, a caress that turned to long, sensuous strokes, hungry and wild. Clothing disappeared, barriers gone once and for all. He turned her around, facing the mirror, and framed her soft curves with his body, his long, dark hair falling around his face and hers, the steely length of his erection settling between her thighs. The wet heat of her body drenched him in the promise of pleasure and passion.
She reached up and ran her hand through his hair. “I love how you feel.”
The thick ridge of his cock expanded, throbbed. It would be so easy to slide inside her, to sink into the deep recess of her perfect body and take her. But this was special. This was their first time lifebonded, and he shackled the urgency within him, focused on her pleasure. Filled his hands with her breasts and tugged her plump, swollen nipples—red, rosy buds that he planned to worship over and over before morning light. She moaned and leaned her head against his shoulder, closed her eyes and shivered.
“Look in the mirror,” he ordered. “Let me see how I please you.” He continued to roll the hard little buds, tugging with a sharp bite he’d come to know aroused her.
Her legs wobbled, almost buckled. “I can’t,” she confessed.
He flattened his hand on her stomach and steadied her. “You can,” he willed her. “Look at me, Cassandra.”
She tilted her chin down, her heavy-lidded stare meeting his in the reflection. His fingers plucked at her nipples. He watched her teeth sink into that full lush bottom lip, dipped his head, and pressed his lips to her ear. “I’m going to give you what you said you wanted,” he promised, nipping her lobe and placing her hands on the counter to brace herself. “I’m going to kiss you and lick you from head to toe.” He shoved her hair aside and displayed the lifebond mark. “Starting here.”
He covered the mark with his mouth, flicked his tongue around the design, his hands sliding down her silky, soft back, his lips following the same trail until he caressed her creamy white, heart-shaped butt. He lifted her hips, spread her wide, and then met her stare in the mirror, letting her see the raw hunger and promise of pleasure in his eyes, before he eased to his knees, the sight of her open for him damn near making him shake. His hands caressed her shapely hips as his lips and teeth nipped at one perfect butt cheek. Fingers sliced a path through the wet heat of her intimate flesh as he reached in front of her and thumbed her swollen nub.
“Michael,” she gasped. “I…” She lost the words. He suckled her nub into his mouth. Her hips lifted and then pressed against his mouth, moving with the licks and caresses. He filled her with his fingers, explored her, stroked her, made love to her with his mouth, his hands. She gushed in his mouth, the sweet flavor of her arousal making him lick and suckle with wild determination until she cried out, tightened around his fingers. A second later, spasms milked his fingers, her thighs quaking with her release. Gently, he pleasured her through the release, easing the pressure slowly, until she calmed.
He turned her around, kissing a path up her body until he fit his erection between her legs, tangled his hands in her hair. “You have no idea how much I love you,” he whispered, sliding inside the wet heat of her core and lifting her at the same moment.
Her arms slipped around his neck, her body wrapping his cock in warm wonderful sensation, her breasts cradled against his chest. “You have a lifetime to show me,” she promised.