Darian didn’t return for two days.

As soon he came back though, Cara felt his eyes on her before she saw him. She was so embarrassed over what she’d done she couldn’t bear to look at him.

She’d offered him her body after he’d already told her he didn’t want to be stuck being her destined mate. All that talk about refusing to mate with her because she didn’t desire him was just an excuse. Women didn’t get desire. Not like men.

He knew she would never come to him hoping he’d stab into her body with his. Why couldn’t he just continue being honest with her? Why didn’t he just admit that he didn’t want to mate with her.

The pack greeted him and he asked them questions about the community and about Aldrich Town. He didn’t ask about Cara. It was Jules who volunteered the information.

“She said you told her she could train to kill Aldrich. Rafi, and I have stepped up to make amends for our lack of support.”

“Thank you, Jules. Darian,” Cara heard him say.

When no one said anything else, Cara figured Darian was behind her as she picked at her lunch. A pull to turn around and greet him had Cara standing up.

Stop it. Cara scolded her spirit wolf.

“Are you going to welcome me back, Cara?” Darian asked. He was standing directly behind her as she suspected.

Cara knew if they were going to move past the embarrassment she had to face him. Her heart skipped a beat as she turned around to look at him.

I missed you.

“Welcome back,” she said.

He was holding a brown bag in his hand and looking at her like maybe he missed her too. “I brought something back for you.”

“From Aldrich Town?”

“No,” Darian said. He reached out and took her hand. “I want to give it to you while we’re alone.’ He led her out of the dining room, across the courtyard and into a room that was not his. Darian led her past the bed and out a door at the back of the room.

Cara didn’t explore each and every room yet and was surprised when they stepped out onto a private enclosed garden. “This is beautiful,” Cara said forgetting that she was humiliated.

“I bought you this from a store in the city of Sacramento.”

Cara smiled at the brown bag. “Is it a fully functional city?”

“Yes, one of many. I know when you climbed that mountain that you wanted to see something like Sacramento. You wanted to know that there is still hope for more than just existing.” Darian handed Cara the bag. “I couldn’t bring you back the city but I thought you might like this.”

Cara smiled holding the bag in her lap and enjoying the anticipation of what might be inside the bag. Darian sat down next to Cara on the bench, his leg against hers. “Aren’t you going to open it?”

“Yes, of course. Thank you for this gift.”

“You don’t know what it is yet.”

Cara parted the bag and pulled out a round crystal bulb with a busy city inside. Tiny round balls of snow falling around the busy roads.

“It’s beautiful. Does it look like this, Sacramento, I mean?”

“Yes. It still does.”

She turned the bulb over and then back watching the snow fall again over the city. “Thank you. I love it.”

“Do you?” He asked taking her hand in his again.

“Yes.”

Darian smiled. “I’m glad.”

“Don’t worry,” Cara said slipping her hand from his. “I understand what you were trying to say before. I won’t do that again and put you in that position.”

His smile fell. “I don’t get the feeling you do know what I was saying.”

Cara carefully wrapped the bulb of the snowing city in the bag. She wished he wouldn’t demand going back over it all but, she supposed it would be best if he confirmed that he didn’t want her.

“Tell me what you think I meant.”

Her face burned but she refused to continue avoiding his gaze. “You don’t want to mate with me.”

“Yes, I do.”

The heat in her cheeks stung with the added humiliation he was adding with his denial of the truth. “Women don’t want men the way you said I would have to want you. It hurts for the woman during mating. I don’t understand why you won’t just admit that you don’t want to mate.”

“Cara, there is more than pain for the woman during mating. It feels good for the woman too.”

Cara clenched her teeth. “I love this present. Thank you.” She started to stand but Darian stopped her. “Jules told you that I’m training. I agreed to resume after lunch. I don’t want to keep them waiting.”

“They’ll wait, Cara,” Darian said.

She could see he was upset. The vein at his forehead was pulsing.

“Do you trust me at all?”

“Yes. I trust you when you said you’d let me leave if it was what I really wanted. I trust that you’re going to let me help to fight Aldrich.”

Darian’s nostrils flared, his gold eyes intent on her face. “Will you trust me enough to show you that it doesn’t all hurt?”

Cara stiffened, she couldn’t help it. And she could see in Darian’s eyes that it upset him to see her react the way she was. “How? Do you intend to mate with me out here?”

“I want you to let me touch you.”

The look on Aldrich’s face as his hands opened and closed when he’d ordered her to strip came to her mind making her feel sick.

He’s not Aldrich.

“If you don’t like it you can tell me to stop.”

Cara didn’t understand why he was insisting on this but it seemed important to him. “Okay.”

Darian stood and closed the door leading back into the bedroom. When he returned, he straddled the bench as he sat down facing her. “Come here, Cara,” he said and gathered her in his arms.

She waited for him to continue but he was just holding her.

“I know that a hug doesn’t hurt,” Cara said turning in his arms to unpeel his arms from around her. His arms tightened around her keeping her where she was.

“I’m just waiting for you to relax.”

“Oh,” Cara said. “I’m relaxed.”

He exhaled and his hot breath tickled the skin on her neck. “No, you’re not. You’re tense. I won’t hurt you.”

Cara again remembered Aldrich and that look on his face.

“Stop it,” Darian said surprising her. “Wherever you’re going in that head of yours, stop it,” he said his voice full of authority. “Look at me. Stay here in this moment with me and decide for yourself.”

She nodded. “I’ll try.”

His eyes lowered to her mouth and he slowly came closer keeping eye contact with her until his lips touched hers. She nearly broke the kiss to tell him to stop making fun of her. She knew a kiss didn’t hurt, but as he ran his tongue over her lower lip, Cara felt herself leaning into him.

Darian sank his fingers into her hair as he continued to kiss her. The sensation was like getting away with a stolen cookie, delicious and too good to feel sorry about it.

His tongue pushed inside her mouth and she opened up to him as his tongue caressed hers. An intimate caress she didn’t know she’d like so much.

When his warm hand cupped her breast through the shirt she was wearing she drew back in surprise.

“Does this hurt, Cara?” He asked, his voice sounding oddly thick.

She looked down at his hand as his thumb began to circle the peak. It didn’t hurt. In fact, it felt good and strange too. As if there was a string running from within her breast to the place between her legs. Every tug and pinch sending an electric pulse through the string.

“My father would kill me if he knew I was letting you touch me like this,” Cara said surprised at how breathless she sounded.

“Your father will never raise a finger against you again. Forget him right now. Do you like the way this feels?”

Cara nodded.

“Good,” he said in that same thick voice that made the center of her body begin to vibrate and stir. His hand remained on her breast but the other began to open the buttons of her shirt.

She sat up a little straighter. Cara looked at his face trying to stay in the moment and not think about anything else. He was looking at his hand with a warm honey hue to his golden eyes. His eyes met hears as he lowered his head. His mouth closed around her nipple. His hot tongue flicking her tight bud as he sucked her into his mouth.

The string inside was on fire with heat and electrified sensations that she didn’t know what to do with. She gasped as she continued to watch him sucking on her breast.

“Darian,” she gasped as that feeling continued to intensify. His mouth crossed to her other breast where he sucked and licked her with long hungry strokes. That feeling was growing stronger, it was good but it also felt like some kind of pressure.

“You’re so beautiful, Cara. Mmm,” he said sucking her deeper into his mouth. “You taste so good.”

Her breathing was coming even faster.

“Darian, something’s wrong.”

He withdrew from her breast. “Does it hurt?”

“I don’t know. It’s kind of like raw nerves gathering.”

Darian made a groaning sound as he clenched his teeth together. His hand ran up her thigh and rounded over the mound between her legs. “Here?” He asked.

Cara nodded. The heat of his hand was penetrating her pants and panties and the feeling was still growing.

“That’s good.”

“It feels like it’s getting to tight,” Cara breathed.

“Fuck, Cara, you’re going to make me come in my pants,” he said as his hand began to squeeze her.

Cara pressed her legs together when he unbuttoned the button on her pants. “Wait, I thought you were just going to touch.”

“I am,” He said as he pushed and pulled her knees open until she was sitting with her legs spread apart. Darian slid his hand under her panties and his fingers slid in between her folds.

She started closing her legs, knowing she really shouldn’t be allowing him to touch her there.

Darian set his over her leg and in between her feet, effectively holding her open for his fingers to continue exploring her most intimate center.

His fingers circled and teased the sensitive nub at her core, pulling that string so tight it felt close to breaking. Cara grabbed his wrist to pull his hand out, but he was too strong. His teeth were clenched so tight as he continued massaging her. “Trust me, Cara.”

She tried to wiggle away. The feeling was too strong. It was going to hurt when the string broke.

“Cara, look at my hand buried under your panties. You like the way that feels, don’t you?”

Her hips pressed forward against his hand as the string pulled tighter and the nerves nearly burned with sensitivity.

“You’re so wet for me Cara. You’re making me thirsty.” He lifted Cara up onto her feet, and pulled her pants and panties from her waist to her ankles.

She lowered her hands trying to cover herself as he lifted her again. This time when he pushed her legs apart he had her sitting on his hands as he lowered her onto his mouth.

Cara gasped as his tongue delved between her slick folds. He groaned against her as his hot tongue explored her with a hunger that felt so good it snapped the string.

Her body seemed to burst from the inside out in hot, delicious, pulsing, demanding, sensations that pulled a cry from her as she watched him kissing, and eating her into a magic kind of bliss that obliterated all coherent thought.

Slowly the amazing, all-encompassing, ecstasy calmed to a feeling of deep satisfaction. Darian lowered her gently back down onto his lap. The warm honey of his eyes now a smoldering gold melting pot.

He gathered her close as they both tried to catch their breath.

“I’m glad you trusted me Cara.”

She smiled against his chest.

Me too.