Night Embrace (Dark-Hunter 2)

Sunshine gaped as she understood what was going on. In that moment, she wanted to strangle Talon. "You tried to get him to make me hate you?"

Now Talon looked as sheepish as Eros. "Honey, I can explain."

She glared at him as rage rocked every particle of her body. "Oh, you're going to explain all right. How dare you try to monkey with my mind and heart? I don't appreciate your doing something so underhanded."

"Sunshine," her father said. "He's right. You can't have a future with him. He's not human."

"I don't care what he is. He and I have something together and I can't believe he'd do something like this."

"I forbid you to see him anymore." Her father's tone was stern.

She turned her anger toward her father. "And I'm not thirteen. I don't care what you forbid or not, Daddy. This is between me and him."

"I will not watch you die again," Talon said slowly, stressing each word.

"And I will not be manipulated. Nor will I just give you up."

Talon turned and stormed out of the club, his emotions churning. He couldn't do this. He couldn't.

He had to let her go.

It was for both their sakes.

Without looking back, he went to his motorcycle. He got on it, but before he could kick-start it, Sunshine grabbed his arm.

"You're not going to get rid of me like this."

He bared his fangs at her. "Do you not understand what I am?"

Sunshine swallowed. Suddenly everything Psyche had said made sense to her. He wasn't Speirr, the leader of his people. The frightened little boy who had turned his heart to stone in order to live. The man who had stolen Nynia's heart and then claimed her when no other would have.

This was Talon, the Dark-Hunter who spent eternity, protecting strangers from the dark evil of the night.

She loved him even more.

He made her heart sing. Without him, she couldn't even imagine her future.

She didn't know how to conquer everything that stood between them, but he was worth fighting for.

"I know what you are, Talon. You are the man I was born to love. The only man I was born to love."

"I am not a man. Not anymore."

"You are mine and I will not let you go without a fight."

Talon didn't know what to do. The tone of her voice tore through him.

He wanted to crush her to him and hold on to her forever.

He wanted to push her away and curse. To make her hate him.

She stepped into his arms and kissed him deeply.

Talon groaned at the taste of her. Although he knew he shouldn't, he pulled her across his bike and started it, then headed off into traffic.

His love and anger roiling, he drove them out of the city, all the way to the edge of his swamp. The entire time the scent and feel of her permeated him, making his emotions even more volatile. Her body was pressed so close to him that it was all he could focus on.

Her warmth, her love.

He had to have her.

Unable to stand it, he pulled up into the woods and turned the engine off.

Sunshine was partially afraid of the feral look of him as he stared at her.

His eyes were blazing with fire and passion as he seized her and kissed her roughly.

His hunger tore through her, incited her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he leaned her back over his gas tank.

She'd never seen him like this. It was as if all his emotions were out of control, as if he were living only to touch her. He kissed her neck and face as his hands loosened her blouse so that he could cup her breast in his hands.

He was wild and untamed and it seemed to her that he had more than two hands. It was as if he were touching her all over at once.

She wanted him desperately. Wanted him with the same need he had for her.

She kissed his lips, rubbing herself against his swollen groin as she pulled his T-shirt off, over his head. She ran her hands over the wide expanse of his chest, feeling his muscles bunch and flex.

He shoved her full skirt up over her hips.

"I need you, Talon," she whispered.

Talon wanted to possess her. Every part of him screamed out for it. He'd never in his entire life felt like this. He had to get inside her. Had to touch her. Had to feel her hands on his skin, her breath against his neck.

It was a need so powerful that it shook him.

She fumbled with his fly before she unzipped his pants, freeing his erection. He trembled as she sheathed him with her hands.

He choked at how wonderful her hands felt on him. "That's it, Sunshine," he breathed against her hair. "Bring me home."

She arched her back and gently guided him into the wet heat of her body. Talon growled ferociously at the feel of her.

Like an animal, he made love to her furiously.

Panting and weak from desire, Sunshine clutched him to her as he thrust himself against her until she was dizzy with pleasure. For the first time since they had met, he didn't hide his fangs from her. He let her see him as he really was.

Let her know the untamed beast that inhabited this man's body.

Their gazes locked, she watched the ecstasy on his face as he rocked himself between her thighs.

She cupped his face in her hands, mesmerized by the man and the predator he was.

All her life she'd heard tales of immortal beings, of vampires taking possession of their victims.

Tonight, she wanted to be his.

Talon was out of control with her. He knew it. His emotions surging, he couldn't think. He could only feel. She was his focal point. His everything.

Her scent permeated his head, covered his body, heightening his senses.

He heard the blood rushing through her veins, felt her heart pounding against his chest. The heat of her soft, feminine skin sliding against his.

Take her!

It was a feral command.

Primal.

Demanding.

Had he been in his right mind, he would have controlled himself. As it was, he couldn't.

Now, he was the beast that stalked the night. His only thought having her, he slid himself deep inside her and then he sank his fangs deep into her neck.

He felt her surprise for only an instant until complete sexual ecstasy tore through them both.

Their bodies and minds were united. Joined.

He felt every thought in her head. Every emotion. Every fear. Every joy.

He saw inside her heart down to her fear that he didn't love her as much as he loved Nynia. That he would never love her as much. He felt her hopelessness and her determination.

Most of all, he felt her love.

Growling fiercely, he let her essence wash over him. Let her seep into every corner of his being. There were no more secrets between them. No more places to hide.

She was as bare to him as he was to her.

And her love for him was the most incredible feeling he'd ever experienced.

Talon thrust himself in deep as his head and body exploded. Their orgasms were so fierce that he couldn't keep the motorcycle upright. Before he knew what had happened, they were lying on the ground, still entangled as his sense returned to him.

Sunshine stared up at him in the moonlight, her clothes disheveled and her face adoring.

In her mind, she could still hear his thoughts. His fear of losing her, his need to protect her.

She saw his guilt that he had allowed his sister to die. His need to right the wrong that had been done to Nynia.

The sadness and grief that lived inside him as constant companions.

Most of all, she saw his need to hold her. His need to not fail her.

She felt his power and strength, which were unlike anything she had imagined. He was a predator.

And he was the man she loved. One who loved her and one who was willing to do anything for her.

Even give up his own life.

"I love you, Talon," she breathed.

Talon couldn't believe what he had done as he brushed his hand against her neck and removed the telltale signs of blood. Her taste permeated his mind, his senses.

Zarek had been right, that was the most incredible high he'd ever known. And now that he'd seen inside her heart...

Gods, what had he done?

In one moment of careless passion, he had sown the seeds of both their destruction.