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Disappointe its way in He’d clai bond didn’t matter, that what happened with it, happened Clearly that wasn’t true

It occurred to her that helove to her fully would only open the bond further That twinge of hurt disappeared, washed away in a rush of warmth as she realized what his hesitation really meant

He feared he couldn’tto herhis broad hands beneath her hips and lifting her to his h her body as his tongue stroked her upper thighs, then , sensitive flesh

As he stroked her and played with her body, she cried out, flinging her head back She’d forgotten what a talented tongue this cat had He stroked her nether lips inside and out, one after the other with long, languorous strokes, flicking the nub of her clitoris at the end of each one, just enough to elicit a gasp fro without touching, yet driving her up all the saue directly on the spot had her crying out, but then he returned to circling

"Kougar" Goddess she wanted hierous

He did enter her, though not in the way she craved His tongue slid down into her opening, deep inside, delving and fluttering and licking until she was a writhing ed on her, flicking her with his tongue until she rithing beneath hi rush of fire and pleasure And still it wasn’t enough

"More"

His finger dove inside her, and a second, thrusting in and out in a fast, hard rhythony that radiated outward like flares of light, leaving her gasping for breath and all but blind

"Ariana" Kougar’s hands left her thighs, one cradling her cheek

Her brain felt as if it were being wrenched open with a crowbar Thoughts began to spill across her inner eye, glis she’d never seen Me back"

Her first awakening hadn’t been painful, she remembered that, now

Clearly, Morwun and the te her pay

Chapter Thirteen

Kougar stripped off his pants, pushing them down over a hard, painful erection, and scooped up Ariana His body burned with the need to claim her, but it was his heart’s need to protect her that drove his actions

"What are you doing?" She still held her head with one hand, though the pain blasting hi into the shallow pool, he lowered hi Ariana on his lap He groaned at the feel of her bare hip crushing his swollen cock against his body "You said you had to be within the pillars Maybe the memories will coainst his shoulder, her soft hair brushing his chin "I hope you’re right"

He did, too Tenderness welled as he held her against his heart Inside, his cat paced and snarled at the feel of her pain The cat didn’t like it anyto see her suffer for what she’d done to him, he wasn’t entirely sure, but he had That piece of hi

His fingers slid into her hair, while his other hand stroked her hip, sliding back and forth with fingers that shook with a need to lift her, to fill her Lily of the valley and warm, soft woman filled his senses, and he wondered at his insanity in taking off his clothes Wet pantsin his body Bare flesh to bare flesh just fanned the inferno

He slid his hand from her hip up to her breast, her beautiful skin healed now fro strikes

Ariana curved her arm around his neck As he cupped her breast, she arched into his touch, telling him plainly that it pleased her He kneaded the soft flesh, then stroked it, his finger and thu on it lightly

Her sigh of pleasure changed abruptly to a gasp of pain, her body going rigid, her face tightening in a ony

Goddess, he hated this He went back to stroking her hip, wanting to cause her no additional discoar," she said when the worst was clearly past

He cupped her neck, aze "Tellelse, take my mind off it"

Pleasure her Goddess, it was all he could do just to hold her without taking what he needed He wasn’t sure he had that kind of self-control Not with her Anythingdeep into her body and joining her on that ride to ecstasy

But he didn’t want that, not at all The ot, the better he remembered why he had fallen in love with her in the first place And the ain

A ot out of this alive, he knew better than to think a place existed for them in one another’s worlds Ariana would always be queen to her people, their needs co first And he refused to be second Nor could he honestly put her first in his own life His loyalty was to the Feral Warriors, first and always, and to stopping the Mage who tried to free the Daemons

Even after a thousand years, he re love to her had beenevery single ti with her in that way, he’d never be able to walk away fro one another all over again