Because of the hope she held that she would reunite with her son one day. Nathan had become her lifeline.
How would she survive if the time came - as Mira's vision had predicted - when Hunter would deny Corinne's pleas for mercy and deliver the blow that would finally take her hope away from her forever?
It was an eventuality that ate at him like poison, all the worse when he was feeding at Corinne's open vein, bonding himself to her inextricably, despite the knowledge that he was destined to break her heart.
The thought shamed him. With a self-loathing growl, he ceased drinking and gently lapped at the punctures he'd made in her throat, knowing he should seal them and release her. This hadn't been about pleasure or bonding; she'd come to him for help and he'd gleaned all he could from her memories. There was no need to continue, no matter how pleasurable it felt to be holding this female.
His female.
The declaration came from somewhere deep inside him, somewhere out of his control. He reasoned that it was only the bond speaking. His body, his senses, everything Breed within him, was attuned to Corinne now that her blood had fed him. It was merely a biological response, his primal nature staking a claim he had no right to hold.
And yet there was another part of him that recognized his feelings for Corinne were intensifying, and had been even before he'd taken the first drop from her vein. He cared for her. He wanted her to be safe, to be happy. He wanted her suffering to finally be at an end. All things he could not promise her, so long as Mira's vision lurked like a specter in the back of his mind.
He drew away from Corinne's delicate throat and started to sweep his tongue across the punctures his fangs had left in her skin. Before he could seal the tiny wounds closed, Corinne moaned a soft protest. Her body arched into him more fevered now, hot and arousing, her slender limbs clinging to him and preventing his retreat.
He'd heard the other warriors talk about the blood bond before, but nothing had prepared him for the swamping rush of sensation - of erotic awareness - that engulfed him now. Through his talent, Corinne's blood had given him brutal glimpses of her memories, but it was a deeper connection that spoke to him now. He felt her desire. He felt her aching need, her arousal amplified by the bite that had awakened this unbreakable bond.
He pressed his mouth to her throat once more, taking another small taste of her sweetly exotic blood. He could feel it racing through his body, nourishing him, enlivening him. Her pulse beat in his own ears and in his veins as well, a shared tempo that was as strong as a war drum, driving him on.
"Ah, God ... Corinne," he murmured against her velvety skin. Despite that the decent thing to do, the honorable thing, would be to set her away from him, he found it impossible to let her go. She writhed against him, clutching him closer. Her breath raced out of her in rapid pants as he drew slowly at her vein.
"Make love to me, Hunter," she whispered, and all of his will deserted him in an instant. She didn't care how desperate she sounded - couldn't care. Not when her senses were filled with the erotic pleasure of Hunter feeding at her neck.
Corinne closed her eyes and arched against him as the pressure of his mouth at her throat - the tender graze of his fangs - made the slow melt of her body begin to boil with heightened need.
This wasn't supposed to be about pleasure. She had asked Hunter to drink from her as a necessity, very likely the only means she had of finding clues about her son. She had gone into this with the expectation that it would be unpleasant, perhaps even painful, if her past experience had taught her anything.
She should have known it would be different with Hunter. As gentle as he had been when he'd made love to her the night before, he was equally tender with her now. His hands held her carefully. His immense body, so powerful - lethal when needed - was wrapped around her protectively, his arms a comforting shelter that made her feel both safe and cherished. She was no virgin, not her body or her blood, both having been stolen from her in Dragos's lab, but with Hunter she felt new. She felt clean.
Despite that he had agreed to drink from her, willingly bonding himself when there was no promise between them, for one reckless, utterly selfish moment, Corinne allowed herself to pretend it was real. Heaven help her, but it was easy to forget it wasn't, when he made her feel so incredibly good.
"Make love to me, Hunter," she whispered again, desperate to feel him inside her. He gave a low, strangled moan as he swept his tongue across the twin punctures in her neck and sealed them closed. He undressed her in mere moments, his strong hands caressing her body as she floated on the intoxicating wave of pleasure induced by his bite. When she was naked, he stood at the edge of the bed and gazed down at her, his amberhot eyes glowing both from his feeding and from desire. The fangs that had penetrated her throat a moment ago gleamed as white as pearls, sharp points filling his mouth. His thick, jutting sex stood fully erect, as glorious as the rest of him. He looked predatory and powerful, and she had never seen anything as magnificent as this beautiful Breed male.
Corinne lay back and drank in the sight of him, marveling that he looked even more formidable unclothed than he did when fully dressed and armed for combat. Every inch of him was flawless muscle and smooth golden skin. His dermaglyphs tracked from nape to ankle, an intricate webwork of elaborate twists and swirls, arcs, and tapers. The Gen One skin markings pulsed like living tattoos, flooded with the rich, variegating hues of his desire. He prowled back onto the bed, gliding his hands up the length of her legs and spreading her thighs open to receive him as he covered her body with his own. She was wet and ready for him, eager to feel him filling her. He did not disappoint. The blunt head of his penis found her core and drove home in one long, breath-stealing thrust.
"Oh," she sighed, her blood quickening as her body welcomed his sensual invasion. She gasped his name as he moved within her, not the sweet, restrained pairing of the night before but an impassioned, animal mating that had her speeding toward a swift climax. Hunter must have known the urgency of her need. He seemed to share it. With his amberbright eyes fixed on hers, he held himself above her and surged in and out with a passion that left her panting and boneless beneath him. Higher and higher he pushed her senses, each masterful stroke sending her reeling. She watched him through the haze of her oncoming climax, their gazes locked as he drove on, deep and hard and strong.
Chapter Twenty-six
"Oh, God," she whispered, more breathless pant than words. And then she had no breath or words at all.
Her orgasm flooded through her. The hot wave of bliss was made all the more intense for the fierce look of pure male satisfaction that spread over Hunter's handsome face as he rocked above her. She gasped his name, her body clinging to him, her senses lost in pleasure. He kept going, even as her climax broke and left her spiraling weightless, tingling from deep within. Hunter curled his lip back from his teeth and fangs, letting loose a throaty growl that vibrated into her marrow. His eyes searing her, his hot amber gaze possessing her, he crushed her to him and thrust with relentless vigor, pushing her to reach for another delicious wave of release ... and still another.
He didn't stop, not until they were both drenched and sated, exhausted and breathless in each other's arms.
And then, when their desire reawakened to take hold of them once more, they started all over again.
Amelie, let me help you with that."
It was dark by 5 P.M., a couple of hours after Corinne and Hunter had finally come out of their shared bedroom at the safe house. If Amelie had noticed their absence for most of the day, she had been too polite to mention it.
Now, as Corinne finished setting the kitchen table, she turned to assist at the stove, where Amelie was pulling on oven mitts, about to reach in and retrieve their dinner from the broiler.
"Here," Corinne said. "Let me get that for you."
Amelie gave her a dismissive little cluck of her tongue. "Don't you worry about it, child. I know my way around this old kitchen like the back of my hand."
It seemed unnecessary to point out to Amelie that she didn't have the benefit of sight to guide her. As she had the day before, the gray-haired woman navigated her living space as though she knew every square inch of it by instinct alone. Corinne stood back as Amelie served up two beautifully browned slabs of buttery white fish crusted with a fragrant smattering of peppers and spices. The aroma wafted up from the broiler, making Corinne's stomach growl in anticipation.