"Andreas, wait." He kept going, long strides carrying him farther and farther away from her. She couldn't have held back from him if she herself were chained and dumped and forgotten behind him. Claire ran up the grass and caught his hand. She turned him around to face her, so many words and regrets clogging her throat. "Don't go" was all she managed to say. It was threadbare, a plea. His dark eyes glittered with sparks of amber. His golden skin seemed tighter in the moonlight, his mouth a stern, determined line that didn't quite conceal the swell of fangs behind his lips. "Andre, please ... don't go."
Claire lifted up onto her toes and curved her fingers around his strong nape, dragging him down to meet her lips. She kissed him with all the passion she'd always held for him--all the desperate, impossible yearnings that had lived in her heart all these long years. He kissed her back with even greater ardor. His arms went around her, crushing her to him so that she could feel the hard heat of his chest and thighs against her and the harder, hotter part of him that pressed like a length of thick steel at her hip. Claire reveled in his arousal, in the warm, rough moan that vibrated in her bones as he broke their kiss to bury his face in the curve of her neck and shoulder. He wanted her, as much or more than she wanted--needed--him. This was no dream now. This was real and raw and so, so right. "God, Claire," he rasped, the tips of his fangs abrading the tender skin of her collarbone.
"Why couldn't you have just let me go?" She shook her head, too lost for words or reason. All she knew was the desire she had for this man, this incredible, honorable Breed male who should have been hers. Who might never be hers again, once his search for the justice that consumed him finally did take him away from her. Claire stroked her hands over the muscled ridges of his body, tipping her head back to let his mouth roam wherever it wanted on her skin. She was panting with hunger, her legs melting beneath her from the heat that was detonating in her core. Andreas drew back to gaze down into her face. He looked so beautiful, so wild and powerful, it made her heart ache. She saw the na**d passion in his crackling amber eyes and knew that he saw the same need in her. She couldn't deny it. She wasn't nearly strong enough to try. Too much time had kept them apart. Too many obstacles that now seemed impossible to surpass. But they had desire. Claire trembled with it, and felt a similar vibration coursing through Andreas as she clung to him. "Please," she whispered, needing to feel his weight against her. She needed to feel his body merged with hers, not in a dream or memory, but flesh to flesh. Naked and carnal.
"Oh, God, Andre ... please be with me again now." He growled against her throat, a rough profanity that only made her pulse throb harder. With a sure, fluid grace of movement, he swept her up, lifting her feet off the ground and cradling her in the muscled strength of his arms. He carried her across the lawn, to the open French doors of the house. Inside, he slowly set her down amid the shrouded, ghostly furniture. He kissed her tenderly, sweetly, as he grabbed the edge of a white sheet that draped an antique, cushioned chaise and cast it aside. Claire let him guide her down onto the elegant seat, lying back as he loomed over her like some kind of immense, otherworldly god. He kissed her some more, while his fingers began unfastening the buttons of her prim sweater. Unlike their encounter in his dream, this time clothing did not simply dissolve away. Andreas took his time undressing her, his mouth skimming worshipfully over every inch of her skin as he unveiled her. He suckled her br**sts and teased the curve of her belly and hip.
When he painstakingly peeled away her slacks and panties, he dipped his head into the juncture of her thighs and nipped maddeningly at the tender skin, his tongue cleaving the wet petals of her core. Claire threw her head back and moaned in pleasure as he loved her with his mouth and teased her with the sharp white points of his fangs. Her first orgasm took her by total surprise. It rushed up on her and swept her high, pleasure she could not contain any more than the broken cry she sent up to the ceiling as her cl**ax overcame her. Andreas lapped at her lovingly, patiently, even though his hands trembled as they skated over her bare flesh, kneading and caressing her heated skin. "You taste so good," he murmured against her wetness. "Even sweeter than I remembered. Better than any dream." Claire put her palms on his shoulders, pushing him back as she drew herself up. She eased him down, then crawled up over him, straddling his legs with her bare thighs. She ran her hands under his loose shirt, baring him for her mouth to explore.
When she had worked her way up to his throat, she stripped the shirt off completely and let her eyes take in the unique beauty of his dermaglyph patterns. Right now, with desire etched in Andreas's every taut muscle and expression, his glyphs were flooded with indigo, burgundy, and darkest autumn gold. Claire traced them with her fingertip, then bent her head and followed the intricate swirls and flourishes with her tongue as she'd been dying to do since she saw him sitting on the moonlit lakeshore of his dream. Some of those glyphs tracked farther down his body, as she vividly recalled. Not wanting to neglect any part of him, Claire unfastened the button of his pants and loosened the zipper. He sucked in his breath as she nuzzled the soft skin of his groin and nipped at his tender flesh.
When she tugged his pants down lower, past the smooth, jutting head of his penis, then lower still, he exhaled a pleading oath. Claire kissed her way around his thick cock, admiring the breadth and length and power of him before she dipped her head and caught the blunt tip of him in her mouth. She only teased for now, loving the silky, salty taste of him. She didn't want to rush. She wanted to prolong this moment, this stolen night that she'd dreamed of for so long. When she spoke, her voice was husky from passion and a fresh, kindling need. "Do you have any idea how many times I wanted to seek you out when I was sleeping? There were days, sometimes weeks at a time, when it was all I thought of... all I wanted to do was run away to find you. To know this pleasure again with you. You were the only one, Andre. It's always been you."