"Because I need to be inside you right now. I want to feel connected to you."
Her throat constricted at his words. How could she ever deny him so simple a request?
Astrid rose up on her knees, and straddled his hips. He cupped her face in his hands and pulled her down for a scorching kiss.
She'd never imagined a man could be like this. So tough, and yet so tender.
She nipped his lips and chin with her teeth. "You should be resting."
"I don't want to rest. I seldom sleep anyway."
She knew it was true. The only time he had slept more than a couple of hours at a stretch was when she had drugged him. Judging by what she'd seen of his dreams and what M'Adoc had said, she well understood why.
And in her heart she wanted to soothe him.
She pulled her shirt off over her head.
Zarek swallowed at the sight of her bare breasts and skin. He swelled underneath her. It had only been a few hours since they had screwed.
No, she didn't screw him.
That was why he needed to feel her now. He desperately craved her hands on his flesh. Her naked body against his.
Because they didn't screw each other. What they shared was so much more than that. It was basic and primal and it was sublime.
What had she done to him?
But then he knew.
She had done the impossible. She had slid herself inside his dead heart.
Astrid alone made him ache. Made him want.
Made him human.
In her arms, he had discovered his humanity. Even his missing soul.
She meant something to him and he could at least pretend he meant something to her.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) He reached down slowly to unzip her pants so that he could slide his hand into her pink cotton panties and sink his fingers down into her moist heat. It still amazed him that she would let him touch her like this.
Granted, women had been much more receptive to him as a Dark-Hunter than they had been when he was a human, but it hadn't changed him. He'd avoided them, knowing the only reason they were drawn to him now was because Acheron had repaired his body. So he'd snarled at the ones who offered themselves to him and he had only taken a handful of them when he had gotten tired of jerking himself off.
But in the end, they had meant nothing to him. He couldn't even remember any of their faces.
Astrid moaned as he stroked her.
"Zarek," she whispered, her breath falling lightly against his cheek. "I love the way your hands feel on my body.
"
"Even though I'm a slave and you're a goddess?
"
"I'm no more a goddess than you are a slave.
"
He started to contradict her, then stopped. He didn't want anything to spoil this moment. This could very well be the last moment he had with her.
Thanatos could come crashing through the door at any moment to kill him, and if he had to die, he wanted one moment of happiness.
And she made him happy. In a way he'd never thought possible.
When he was with her, it seemed like something inside him wanted to fly. To laugh.
He was warm through and through.
"You know," she whispered. "I think I was wrong earlier. I think you have made me a nympho.
"
Zarek smiled at that and pulled his hand away from her so that he could open his fly and free himself from his pants. He shoved them down his legs, to his knees, but didn't want to dislodge her to remove them completely.
He raised her up and then set her down on him.
They moaned in unison.
It was so erotic to watch her naked above him while he was still mostly dressed. He lifted his hips from the floor, thrusting himself deep inside her warmth while he ran his hands over her bare breasts.
Astrid gasped at Zarek's hardness inside her. She'd pushed his shirt up so that his hard, muscled
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) stomach was bare, but he was still fully clothed. His leather pants brushed against her thighs with every move he made.
His hands left her.
A few seconds later, she felt his soft fur parka against her bare skin as he draped it around her.
"I don't want you to get cold," he explained quietly.
She smiled at him, touched by his thoughtfulness. "How could I ever be cold with you inside me?"
He rose up then and wrapped his arms around her. His lips possessed hers with a fiery passion that left her breathless and weak.
Astrid cried out as she came in his arms.
Zarek waited until he'd wrung the last tremor of her orgasm from her before he sat up, still inside her and leaned her back against the floor.
Kissing her again, he quickened his thrusts, seeking his own peace.
And when he found it, he didn't close his eyes. He stared down at the woman who had given it to him.
She lay beneath him, breathing raggedly, her eyes unseeing, her touch enchanting.
He knew then there was nothing he wouldn't do for her. If she asked, he would walk through the fires of hell just to make her smile.
He cursed at the knowledge.
"Zarek?"