But she refused to give him up to play it safe. They"d overcome whatever stood between them together. No curse would beat them.
Grabbing his face in her hands, she pulled Ronan"s mouth to hers and kissed him, pouring all her love into the gesture. He stiffened, gripping her shoulders with tight fingers.
“Kari, no. I love you but—”
She cut off whatever he"d planned to say with another kiss, this one deeper, dancing her tongue around his, teasing him, tempting him.
He tore his mouth away. “I won"t risk disaster. The curse…”
“Won"t come between us again. ”
“I don"t know how it can be otherwise. ” He backed away.
“Ronan…” She taunted in her sexiest, come-hither voice. Then she began to unbutton her shirt, one button at a time.
His eyes bulged, and he looked as if he swallowed his tongue. “Oh, don"t. Kari… I can only resist so much. ”
“Then stop trying. ” She reached around him and pushed the door to her back room open, fumbling until she found the stark overhead light. Then she yanked on his shirt and pulled him inside, slamming the door behind her.
Kari drew her shirt off her shoulders, and Ronan closed his eyes, looking as if he was praying for strength.
“I won"t risk you. ”
And she loved for his concern. “It"s my life to risk. ”
“It"s not that simple. ”
“I disagree. ” She unsnapped her jeans and toed off her trainers, wriggling her hips until she could kick away her clothes, knickers and all.
Ronan stared. Hard. He swallowed, his fists clenching at his sides. “God help me, woman, you could test a saint. And that"s something no one has ever accused me of being. ”
Thrusting his hands into her hair, he tugged until her mouth was just beneath his. Then he devoured her.
The kiss went soul deep, and Kari swore she could taste his anxiety, concern, determination…and love. Her heart flipped in her chest, and she knew she"d made the right choice. They must be together, curse bedamned, starting tonight.
With nimble fingers, she attacked his clothes, determined to pull them off his body as quickly as possible. Ronan ended the kiss and stared at her with eyes so green, they sizzled with hunger and promise. The look ignited an ache between her legs.
A flick of his wrist later, and his clothes melted off his body, piled in a corner of the room. Kari gasped and took in every amazing bit of his body, wide shoulders, hard chest, ridged abdomen, and the thick stalk of his cock standing up for her.
Eager to love all of him, she sank to her knees and gripped his thighs, taking him in her mouth before he could do more than cry out her name. She stretched her lips wide to take him, and sank deep until he touched the back of her throat.
“Yeeeessss. Oh, love. Your mouth…” He bucked up, sliding against her tongue.
“Heaven. ”
She wanted everything between them to be like that. Perfect. It was up to her to demonstrate that it could be, that they couldn"t let a curse stop them.
“Stop. ” His voice cut into her thoughts. “I must get inside you now. ”
Kari was still guessing his intention when he lifted her and set her on a nearby crate, draped with a moving blanket. Inside were bottles of liquor, waiting for her to unpack. Instead, he gripped her thighs and spread them wide, crooking his hands in her knees and pulling her bottom to the edge of the crate.
“Put your hands behind you. Lean back,” he demanded.
His voice alone made her shiver, and she complied.
“Good girl. ”
“Hurry,” she demanded.
Wrapping her legs around his waist, he shifted one hand to her hip. “Look at me. ”
Ronan waited until she lifted her bedazzled, heavy-lidded stare. Their gazes met, and her insides crackled with heat. Sensual need poured through her veins, making them rich and heavy, even as her heart beat with utter devotion.
A moment later, Ronan drove home, filling her to the hilt in one demanding stroke. She absorbed him with a cry, feeling complete. Whole. Ecstatic.
Groaning, he set a fast pace, nearly harsh, as if he could claim her so thoroughly that nothing could ever take her from him.
Kari melted all over again.
He held her gaze as he filled her body repeatedly. “You please me as no other has. As no other could. ”
Then his mouth crashed over hers again, and Kari was lost in a storm of passion.
Admittedly, before Ronan her sex life had been brief at best, but even with her relative inexperience she knew the feelings they shared, the sensations their lovemaking produced, were different. Special.
She threw herself into the kiss, gasping against his lips when his thumb slid over the swollen bud of her clit and lingered, pushing her toward the edge of pleasure in rhythmic circles.
Burning with need, Kari felt her body tighten around him. Swelling with need and love, she hurtled straight into a chasm of pleasure so deep and wide, she screamed. Her cries echoed in the large room. Breath, thought, and sanity eluded her until he raised her hips, leaned over her body, and filled her with his most demanding strokes yet. Then, with a shout, he followed her into the abyss.
For long moments afterward, they remained wrapped in one another"s arms, struggling to catch their breath and reclaim their ability to think. Ronan savored the bliss of holding her…because he knew reality and regret would quickly set in. “I won"t let you go. ” Kari wrapped her arms around his shoulders even tighter, despite the fact he was still inside her. “I want to speak the Binding. ”
Her insistence and loyalty was touching, but futile. “Kari, love, I want that as well. I have to research the curse more, find out if it"s possible—”
“I refuse to believe it"s im possible. If we heed the curse we"ll be separated, and it will have beaten us. Together, we have a chance. ”
Why couldn"t he make her understand? “One that may cost you your life!”
“What sort of life would it be if we"re apart?”
A miserable one. She would, perhaps, fall in love again and marry some human. As much as the thought made him murderous, he knew it would be best to release her so she might find happiness. He, however, would be alone for the rest of his centuries.
Year after bleak year, that stretched into empty decades, lay before him. Ronan swallowed the bitter pill. Damn his foolish ancestor who had betrayed a witch willing to curse him. Damn his family—himself—for never researching the curse, doing anything necessary to break it, discerning if it was possible that believing in a curse gave it strength.
He was motivated to end it now.
Ronan kissed the tip of her nose and pulled away, clothing them both with a wave of his hand and a quick bit of magic.
“If there is a way for us to be together, one that ensures you"ll not be at risk, I will seize it with both hands and never let go,” he vowed.
Kari threw her arms around him and clung, and Ronan found himself grasping her just as desperately. She"d become his heart—his everything. If the curse forced him to give her up, he had no idea how he would bear it.
He leaned in to kiss her softly—and felt a disturbance in the air.
Quickly, he thrust Kari behind him and faced the threat. Instead, he found Tynan.