When he covered her mouth with his, she met him gladly, and the concussion of arousal that blasted through her was deeper and more profound than anything she had ever experienced before.

Not even what they had shared twenty years ago came close. Things had been powerful before, but so much simpler, and even at times naive, at least on her part.

Now, complexity of emotion played through her like a symphony, the familiar juxtaposed with the new. She wasn’t sure that her skin could contain it all, and she shook from the force of it, her mouth working under his.

In response, he muttered something against her lips. It sounded like a curse. Hooking one arm underneath her knees, he lifted her all the way onto the bed and climbed over her, while slanting his mouth over hers. He speared her with his tongue, hard and deep, while he supported his weight on one elbow and ran a hand down her torso.

His fingers were shaking. Or maybe she was shaking. Breaking away from his kiss, she plunged upward. She had so many competing impulses, she tried to do everything at once — rubbing her face against the sprinkle of hair on the wide expanse of his chest, reaching between his legs to cup him again.

He sank a fist in her hair and pulled her head back, wordlessly demanding she offer her neck to him. She loved — loved — his barbarism. Gasping, she let her head fall back, trusting to his hold, while she arched her body up to him.

Her gesture caused him to growl deep in his throat. He bit her neck — not as a Vampyre, not breaking the skin — but quick, erotic nips that shivered down the length of her body and escalated her growing need.

In response, she clenched her fist on his cock. Part of her knew she was being clumsy and rough, but she couldn’t control herself. He didn’t act like he minded in the slightest. Instead, he hissed against her shoulder, bucking into her hand.

When he pulled away from her hold, it was her turn to growl in frustration, but he was only shifting down her body so that he could kiss and suckle at her breasts. As his tongue teased and flicked at her sensitive nipples, he ran his hand along the inside of her thighs, urging her to part her legs for him.

She did so gladly, anticipating the magic he could make with his fingers, the pressure and penetration, but then he teased her some more, barely stroking the surface of her private flesh, making her arousal spike so sharply, it became outright pain.

She felt his fingers grow slick with her response. He raised his fingers to his mouth to lick them with relish, then he went down even further to settle between her legs and tongue her most sensitive place.

His caress was knowledgeable, electric. It lifted her head off of the bed, while a shaking cry broke from her lips. The reaction inside her body was so volcanic, she had to hold on to something, somehow. She tried to grasp the back of his head, but his hair was too short. Tickling her clitoris with his tongue, he reached up to grab her hands and pin them at her sides.

She was trapped, exposed. The confinement made everything too intense. She tried to jerk her hands free, but he was much too strong for her. All the while, he feasted on her, flicking and sucking in turns at her delicate, stiff little bud, until she bucked in his hold and almost fought him.

Except she wasn’t really fighting him. It was just that the pleasure was intolerable, and he knew, he knew what he was doing. He knew how she felt.

“I can’t stand it,” she managed to gasp.

“Mmm,” he crooned against her. “You can.”

“Seriously. Julian, please.” She lifted her hips to his wise, wicked mouth. It was literally the only thing she could do. With every caress, he stripped her down until she was even more naked, more in need, and the pleasure built and built…

Until the most glorious sensation flared up, blooming through her body like a glowing lotus flower.

A ragged cry broke out of her. She was not in control of it. She wasn’t in control of anything. After the first wave of pleasure, her climax pulsed rhythmically. He found the secret of it, tonguing her in rhythm with the pulse, and oh my God, how did he know to do that, and she couldn’t take any more.

“Holy shit,” she said. Her voice was shaking badly, while tears spilled out the corners of her eyes. “Okay, okay — Julian, I can’t do any more —”

Yes, you can, he said in her head.

He didn’t let go of her hands.

He didn’t lift his mouth from her, or stop.

Oh, God.

Her next climax didn’t bloom like a flower. It cracked through her body like lightning. Lifting her head from the force of it, she would have screamed except she had lost her breath. All that came out of her mouth was a helpless, mewling cry. She tried to swear. Inside her head, she was going off like a sailor, but what came out of her mouth was begging.

“Please. Please.”

Oh, baby, he said gently. I’m not going to quit until you give me another one.

“I c-can’t!”

You can, he murmured. You will. Tell me what you’re feeling.

He was the darkest of voices inside her head, the Nightkind King, and when he turned his gift of persuasion onto her, she wanted to take her soul out of her body and hand it to him.

Somehow she made her shaking mouth form words. She whispered, “I love you.”

He stilled. The world stopped.

Then, while she lay totally open and shivering uncontrollably, he released her hands and lifted up to settle on her fully. The weight of his big body was such a relief, she wrapped her arms and legs around him.

Another, softer man might have stopped at that point.

But he wasn’t a soft man, and he didn’t stop.

Stroking her hair off her forehead, he played his lips over hers, with such light, ravishing voluptuousness, she lost even more of herself to him.

“Say it again,” he said against her mouth.

That time, she couldn’t articulate verbally and had to switch to telepathy. I love you.

He reached between them to bring the broad head of his cock to her opening, stroking her until she was ready for him. Then he pushed in and didn’t stop rocking until he had planted himself, all the way to the root.

He felt so big and good, nestled inside. He pulled out and pushed in again. Pressing her face against his shoulder, lifting her hips for each thrust of his, she reveled in his penetration.

Gradually he picked up his pace until he was fucking her with long, sure strokes. At first she simply enjoyed it, but his pace was so relentless, so inescapable, it reached her deep inside, and the pleasure began to intensify again.

She couldn’t reach another peak. She was spent. But then he reached between them again and found her clitoris.

“Look at me,” he said.

She met the Vampyre’s red, fierce gaze.

Baring his fangs, he said, I told you. I’m not going to quit until you give me another one.

She whimpered and gave it up to him. This third climax went bone deep, soul deep. It stamped itself onto her DNA. While she shook from it, he pistoned into her, hard and fast, until his back arched and he twisted with a gasp.

Inside, she felt his erection pulse, which was when she remembered how the whole thing had started.

Damn it, she was going to suck on that.

As quickly as the thought occurred to her, it ghosted away again. She was left watching him, feeling him climax. It was so beautiful to watch the power of what he experienced transform him. Greedy for every moment, she soaked it all in.

Afterward, he rested his forehead on the pillow beside her. She realized he was breathing heavily and smiled to herself.

That was when he whispered in her ear, “I love you too, Melly. Always have, you know.”

All of her filters had been stripped away. At times, that could be a good thing.