Midnight Rising (Midnight Breed 4)

With her cheek resting against his bare chest, Dylan stroked his soft skin, idly tracing the elegant flourish of one of his dermaglyphs . The markings were just a shade darker than his olive skin tone now, but as she touched them, color began to infuse the intricate patterns, making them blush with a color she was learning indicated waking arousal.

Still another indication of his interest was starting to rouse as well, nudging hard against her belly.

"Keep that up, and you may never get out of this bed," he drawled, his deep voice vibrating against her cheek.

"I'm not sure I want to get out of this bed any time soon," she replied. When she glanced up at him, Rio's eyes were closed, his sensual, wickedly talented mouth curved in a satisfied smile. "I can't remember ever feeling this happy, Rio. It feels like a dream, being with you like this. I know I have to wake up sometime, but I don't want to."

His lids lifted and Dylan basked in the warmth of his dark topaz gaze. "What's happening between us has been...very unexpected, Dylan. Until you walked into that mountain cave, I thought my life was over. I knew it was, because I was prepared to end it myself. That very night, in fact."

"Rio," she whispered, heart twisting at the thought.

"Nikolai left me with a cache of explosives when the Order first discovered the hidden crypt in February. They all returned to Boston, but I stayed behind. I was supposed to seal the cave so no one else could find it. I promised I would, and told Niko I would go home to Spain for a while, once I had carried out my mission." He exhaled a short sigh. "I never intended to leave that mountain. All I had to do was set up the C-4 and detonate it from inside..."

"You were going to trap yourself in there?" Dylan asked, horrified. "My God, Rio. That would have been a long, terrible, lonely way to die."

He shrugged. "I didn't care. I thought it would have to be better than living like I was."

"But you were there for several months before I found the cave. You must have found some hope to keep you from going through with your plans."

His bitter chuckle seemed to scrape in the back of his throat. "I delayed at first because I didn't have the balls to finish it. Then my headaches and blackouts started up again, so bad I thought I was losing my mind."

"Your blackouts - you mean, like what happened to you last night by the river?"

"Yes. They can be pretty bad. I wasn't feeding anymore by then, so starvation only added to the fun. At some point, I lost track of all time."

"Then I came along."

He smiled. "Then you came along." He lifted her hand and kissed her palm, then the pulse point at her wrist. "You have been so very unexpected, Dylan. You bring me a happiness I've never known either."

"Never? Not even...before, with Eva?" Dylan hated asking him to compare them, yet she really needed to know the answer. When Rio was quiet for a moment, her heart began to sink. "I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me. I don't mean to make this awkward for you."

He shook his head, brows pinched together. "Eva was sultry and flirtatious. She was a very beautiful woman. Every male who saw her wanted her - Breed and human alike. I was astonished that she noticed me. Even more so when she made it clear that she wanted to be my mate. She pursued me like she did anything else she set her sights on, and my ego knew no bounds. Things cooled between us a bit after I joined the Order. Eva resented sharing me with my calling as a warrior."

Dylan listened, awash in a very unpleasant state of jealousy for what she was hearing, and regret that she had brought this feeling on herself by forcing him to talk about the woman he'd loved before.

"After the disaster of what happened with Eva, I wasn't looking to open myself up to another woman. But you, Dylan..." He picked up a strand of her hair, following the golden-red light in it as the silky wave curled around his finger. "You are pure flame. I touch you and I ignite. I kiss you and I burn to have more. You consume me...like no other woman before you, and, I am certain, like no other ever could again."

She rose up and kissed him, holding his face in her hands. When she drew back, she couldn't keep from blurting out just how much he meant to her. "I love you, Rio. It scares me to death to say it out loud, but I do. I love you."

"Ah, Dios, " he whispered roughly. "Dylan...I have been falling in love with you since the very beginning. How you could love me, the way I am now, I don't know..."

"The way you are now," Dylan said, slowly shaking her head in wonder, "the way you look at me, the way you touch me, how could I not love you? You, Rio. Just as you are now."

She caressed him with all the emotion she felt for him, letting her fingers skate gently down the rugged left side of the handsome face she would never tire of seeing.

She hardly noticed the scars now. Oh, tragically, there was no reversing what he'd been through. The evidence of the hell he'd survived would always be there, on his face and on his body. But when Dylan looked at Rio, she saw his courage, his strength.

She saw his honor, and to her eyes, he was the most beautiful man she'd ever seen.

"I love you, Eleuterio de la Noche Atanacio. With all my heart."

Something fiercely tender flashed across his features. With a tight sound caught in his throat, he crushed her against him and simply held her there.

"More than anything, I want your happiness," he murmured beside her ear. "I know that your family - your mother's well-being - means the world to you. I know that you need to be with her."

"Yes," Dylan whispered. She drew out of his embrace and met his gaze. "I can't leave her now, Rio. I just...I can't."

He nodded. "I know. I understand that you need to be there for her, Dylan. But there is a selfish part of me that would try to convince you that this is where you belong now. With me, bonded in blood, as my mate."