“Now?” he asked, wrapping an arm around her waist.
Yes, God, yes. Now. Unwilling to pull away from his neck, she pushed down, and he groaned. Barely there. Just the head of him was inside her now, and she thought she would die from the overwhelming pleasure. She swallowed and lifted her head, power surging through her as her body hummed with change and need.
“What did I say in the cabin?” he asked.
She took a deep breath and pushed down several more inches. Moaning, she reveled in the fullness as he stretched her. So large. So right. She paused as his blood and body filled her.
He reached between them and rubbed his thumb against her core. “I made a prediction, did I not?”
She couldn’t answer. She could only survive, as she struggled to breathe and the pressure built from the fullness and the relentless circle he made with his thumb. His blood filled her with electricity and his body with the promise of spectacular release.
“I said you would come before I was fully inside you. You’re there. Let go,” he whispered, pulling her down, forcing himself farther into her, massaging her with his thumb.
She gasped for breath as her body hummed with pleasure. So perfect. So right. Just there. You will not call his name this time. This…exercise is for the sole purpose of escape and survival. Follow the plan. Then, he increased the pressure of his thumb, and she tumbled over that edge, escape and the plan completely obliterated momentarily by pleasure.
Nikolai almost spilled when she convulsed around him, ecstasy on her face as she came silently in wave after wave, but he held on. She deserved more.
And she was tight. So impossibly tight. As her climax receded and her body relaxed, he pushed a little farther into her and she moaned. It was almost more than he could stand. Perhaps it was because it had been so long, or maybe it was because the blood sharing was programmed in his body to be mind-blowing, but part of him suspected it was because it was her. And he needed her so badly.
This was not how he had wanted their first time to be—rushed and in a caravan in the middle of nowhere. He had wanted to pamper her and make it perfect, but fate had decided otherwise and stopping now was impossible. His body and soul screamed to truly claim her and not hold back. His was on fire to the point of near mindlessness, which was bad.
But she was immortal now. She could take anything. Still, he didn’t want to hurt her. He grabbed her pelvis and pushed her up to where he was barely inside, and she gasped, and then, using every ounce of self-control he possessed, he pulled down gently, gaining more entrance. She moaned. Just a little more and he’d be fully inside.
Arm tight around her waist, careful not to get the cord tangled on anything, he rolled her under him. She planted her feet and pushed up. Yes. She wanted more. He pulled out, then slid back in. Almost there. “Okay?”
She opened her blood-red eyes, and it was all he could do to not lose it. So hot. So…
He thrust hard and she gasped. Then she smiled. So he did it again and again and again. He was fully seated now, and she met him thrust for thrust—harder and harder until he was mindless from the feel of her, wet and tight around him. His body slammed against hers in a fast and steady rhythm until he thought he couldn’t hold on anymore, and then she pulled him down and bit him on the other side of his neck.
And that was it. The minute she pierced his skin, she came. He stilled as she clenched around him, squeezing him while she drew from his neck. The pain was so right. Everything about her was exactly right. He thrust into her one last time, and in a resplendent burst of light, he found the release he’d longed for since he met her. Complete, total, and absolute release.
Once he came back down to earth, he rolled to his side and pulled her against him. The cord had been right. She was his. For the first time ever, he could envision spending his life with someone. She was powerful, and smart…and his.
Still breathing hard, she shifted and held up her right arm. “It worked. The cord is gone.”
“Not really.” He buried his face in her hair and pulled a blanket over them. “We’re bound, you and I. I won’t ever let you go. You’re mine.”
A pained expression crossed her face and a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. “Step six,” she whispered.
And just like that, Nikolai found himself alone in the wagon with nothing in his arms but the empty air.
Chapter Sixteen
Nikolai shot bolt upright. What the hell had just happened? He shouted Elena’s name as he yanked his jeans on. It was as if she had just disappeared. No. Not as if. She had disappeared. He picked up his shirt from off of her parka. Shit. She was still naked, wherever she was.
Fully dressed, he bounded from the back of the cart. “Elena!” he shouted. He put his arms through the straps of his sword sheath and called her name again. Nothing answered but the wind through the snow-laden trees.