She pulled him close, her arms tight and demanding as she ran her hands over his back. His body stirred, his cock hardened immediately.
Groaning, he picked her up in his arms. To his surprise, she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist.
He laughed at her response even as the heat of her body stung him. Her core was pressed against his groin, making him well aware of how close that part of her was to him.
Her eyes dark with passion, she tugged his shirt off over his head.
"Hungry, villkat?" he mumbled against her lips.
"Yes," she breathed to his delight.
Wulf laid her on his bed. She reached down between their bodies and unzipped his pants. He growled deep in his throat the instant her eager hand reached down and touched him. The sensation of her fingers stroking his shaft shook every part of him. She even remembered how he liked to be touched. Stroked.
He almost felt like weeping from the miracle of that. Maybe he should have taken an Apollite or Were lover centuries ago.
No, he thought as he buried his lips against the column of her throat and inhaled her rose scent. They wouldn't have been Cassandra, and without being her, they, too, would be lacking what he needed.
There was something about this woman that filled him. That made him burn in a way no other ever had.
Only for her would he breach the code that forbade him to take an Apollite to his bed.
Cassandra lifted her arms as Wulf pulled the T-shirt over her head. She moaned at how good the heat of his naked body felt pressed against hers. All that gloriously male skin was a divine feast for her eyes.
He ran the back of his fingers over her breasts, making them tight and aching. He took the right one into his mouth and-savored her in a way that made her heart pound. His tongue was light and gentle as he flicked it back and forth. Her stomach fluttered in response to the intense pleasure he gave her.
Then, he trailed his kisses lower, over her abdomen. He stopped to nibble her hipbone while his hands slid the sweatpants down.
Cassandra lifted her hips so that he could slide them off. He dropped them on the floor, then used his hands to spread her legs wide.
She stared at him in needful expectation as he looked at the most private part of her body. He looked feral and hungry. Possessive. And it sent an electrical surge through her.
She hissed as he ran his fingers down her cleft. His touch teased and excited her. His touch was divine. Sating and inciting.
Wulf watched the pleasure on her face as she rubbed herself against his hand. He loved the way she responded to him. The way she was completely open and unguarded.
Climbing up on the bed, he laid his body over hers, then rolled over with her. She wrapped her body around his as they kissed hungrily. Her skin slid against his in a sensuous symphony that ignited him even more. Wulf sat up with her in his lap. She wrapped her long legs around his waist while her hands caressed his scalp, her fingers tangling in his hair.
He was honestly afraid of what he felt as she lifted herself up and took him into her body. She rode him hungrily, her body milking his as she took what she needed and gave him what he craved.
He didn't want to let her go. Didn't want to ever leave this bed again.
Cassandra bit her lip at the ecstasy of having Wulf deep inside her for real. He was so hard and thick. He felt even better in the flesh than he had in her dreams.
The light hairs on his chest teased her sensitive breasts while he cupped her bottom and urged her movements. She stared at his eyes, which were dark with passion.
Their breathing was synchronized as she slammed her hips against his groin over and over again.
She'd never made love to a man like this. In his lap, their bodies wrapped together. It was the most intimate thing she'd ever experienced.
She leaned her head back as Wulf suckled her. Cradling his head, she felt overwhelmed by pleasure.
And when she came, she cried out loud.
Wulf lifted his head to watch her face as she orgasmed. She was so beautiful to him. He laid her back on the bed without leaving her body, then took control. Closing his eyes, he thought about nothing except the feel of her warm and wet underneath him.
There was no past, no tomorrow. No Dark-Hunter. No Apollites.
It was just the two of them. Her hands on his back, her legs entwined with his, as he thrust himself deep inside her.
Needing this more than he had ever needed anything else, he buried his face in her hair and released himself deep inside her.
Cassandra held Wulf tight as she felt him convulse. His breath tickled her neck. His body was damp from perspiration and his long black hair teased her skin. Neither of them moved as they breathed raggedly in the afterglow.
She took comfort in his weight pressing down on her. The feeling of his rough, masculine body prickling hers. She ran her hands over his muscular back, over his scars, then she idly traced the tattoo on his shoulder.
He lifted himself up so that he could look into her eyes. "I think I'm addicted to you."
She smiled at his declaration even though it made part of her sad to hear it. His hair fell around his face, which was soft and tender in the dim light. Tucking his hair behind his ears, she kissed him.
His arms tightened around her. She loved that feeling. It made her feel protected. Safe.
Sighing dreamily, she pulled back. "I need to go clean up."
He didn't release her. "I don't want you to."
She cocked her head at him in confusion.
"I like the sight of my seed on you, Cassandra," he said raggedly in her ear. "My scent on your skin. Yours on mine. Most of all, I like knowing that in the morning you'll remember what we did tonight and you'll still know my name."
She laid her hand on his whiskered cheek. The pain in his eyes touched her deeply. She kissed him lightly, then snuggled against him.
He withdrew only enough so that he could spoon himself behind her. She rested her head on his biceps as he cradled her tenderly. Her heart pounding with joy, she listened to him breathe.
He lifted his head, kissed her cheek, then settled down with one hand buried in her hair.
Within a few minutes, he was sound asleep. It was the most peaceful moment of her life. Deep in her heart she knew that tonight Wulf had shown her a side of himself that he had let no one else see.
He was gruff and stern. But in her arms, he was a tender lover. And in the back of her mind was the thought that she could learn to love a man like this. It wouldn't be hard.
Cassandra lay quietly in the stillness of the early morning. She wasn't sure what time it was, only that Wulf warmed a part of her she hadn't realized was cold until now.
She wondered as she lay there how many centuries Wulf had been confined to an area like this one. He had told her that this house was only a little over a hundred years old.
Looking around, she tried to imagine what it would be like to be here alone, day after day, decade after decade.
It must be lonely for him.
She reached down and placed her hand on her belly as she tried to imagine the baby there. Would it be a boy or girl? Fair in color like her or dark like its father?
She would most likely never know the baby's real hair color. Most children's baby hair fell out and it wasn't until they were toddlers that you could tell.
By then she would be dead. Dead before its first tooth. Its first step or word.
She would never know her child at all.
Don't cry . ..
But she couldn't help it.
"Cassandra?"
She didn't answer Wulf's sleepy call. Her voice would betray her if she did.
He rolled her over as if he knew she was crying and pulled her into his arms. "Don't cry."
"I don't want to die, Wulf," she sobbed against his chest. "I don't want to leave my baby. There's so much I need to tell him. He won't even know that I ever existed."
Wulf tightened his grip on her as he heard those heartfelt words.
How he wished he could tell her how foolish her fears were, but they weren't. She cried over a fate neither of them could change.
"We have time, Cassandra. Tell me all your stories about you, your mother, and your sisters, and I'll make sure the baby knows every one of them. And every baby after this one. I won't let them forget you. Ever."
"Promise?"
"I swear to you, just as I swear I'll keep them safe forever."
His words seemed to calm her. Rocking her gently in his arms, Wulf wondered which of them had it worse. The mother who wouldn't live to see the baby grow, or the father who was damned to watch the baby and all those after him die.