"You're angry with me, vampire?" She was walking on her knees toward him.

Don't look at her.His hands were fists by his sides. "Not angry."Bloody confused, exasperated."No, I'm-" He broke off when she was kneeling inches before him. In a strangled voice, he said, "What the hell is happening to you?"

Here in the cold, her appearance had begun to change. She wastransforming.

Her hair had become laced with ice and lighter in color, so blond it was almost white. Shining tendrils were frozen in long streams, descending to cover her breasts or spreading out from her head as though whipped in the wind.

Her lashes were tipped with ice crystals, and more crystals formed semicircles around her eyes. Her lips were pale, bluish even, and were parted, but no smoke came from her breaths. Because they were freezing as well.

Delicate cobalt blue tracings swirled around her wrists in wispy patterns. Her eyes were bright beneath the aurora, a fiery blue matching that in the sky. They burned with anancient knowledge.

Everything about this moment with her should feel foreign. But it ... didn't.I've dreamed of this. Would she think him mad if he told her he'd seen her like this in a vision?

He'd been hard for her before, but now he was throbbing. These changes attracted him fiercely. He feared he could go off right in his pants.No, I never lose control.

Keep telling yourself that, Murdoch.

"You like?" she murmured.

"What is this?"

"This is how I'm supposed to look. And how I'm supposed to feel."

The cold clearly aroused her. His greedy gaze took in her shallow breaths, her trembling lithe body. Her little claws had turned blue and were curling sharply.

I know what that means now. At the thought of her sinking those claws into his back as he plunged inside her, he had to stifle a groan.

Behind her, lightning speared through the aurora. "The lightning isyours." He was surprised his voice was steady. Her gaze was mesmerizing.

She nodded. "Valkyrie give it off with emotion."

"I dreamed of you like this, Daniela."Connection.

When she cast him a doubting expression, he said, "Don't believe me? Those lines of blue trace along your lower back as well."

Her eyes widened. "What else did you dream?"

"I took your virginity," he blurted out.

She shivered. "And how did I react?"

"You wanted me to. You wanted ... me."You let me take your neck.His eyes fixed on her supple flesh, and his fangs ached for her. He raked his tongue along one of them for a shot of blood, pretended it was hers.

"Come closer, vampire."

In a flash, he was up on his knees before her.

Without removing his coat, she began unbuttoning the shirt underneath, spreading the edges. "Will you be too cold?"

"I can take it."

Once his chest was bared, she drew closer until her lips were less than an inch away from him. She eased down his torso like this, her breaths like little bites of frost, as if she were running an ice cube along his skin. He shivered-but not from cold.

As she made her way back up, she said, "Murdoch?"

"Uh?" was all he could manage.

She leaned up to whisper right at his ear, "You're going to let me stay in this place." When she nipped his earlobe with her teeth, his cock jerked in his pants, his sac tightening.

Wait, what had she just said?

She moved to his other ear. "Would you like to do that?" she breathed, making him shudder with want. "I'm going to install myself-a female-in one of your properties. And I'm going to decorate it as I see fit."

Can't ... form ... words.

"You want me to, don't you?" She slowly gazed up, looking at him from under a lock of shining, icy hair. She nibbled her plump lip, and he was finished, defeated. He watched, bewildered, as his gloved fingertips traced the crystals at her temple.

"Yes."I can't believe I'm saying this."You can stay." He'd always wanted to discard females-not move them into his home.

He was dimly aware that the seducer was being seduced. The player had just gotten played.

Yet he was still in the game. "You'll stay here. But first we need to seal this deal, Valkyrie. And I know just how."

"Oh?"

He took out the gloves Loa had given him. "Put these on."

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

HE BOUGHT ME GLOVES?"What did you have in mind?" Danii asked as she gamely drew them on. For the first time in ages, she felt powerful. The ability to bring this massive warrior to his knees was heady.

"You'll see." His voice was rough with need, his expression one of single-minded intent.

With each second, she grew more aroused for him. Yet then the wind came up, and the snow-covered limbs raked the drafts. They soughed like music, like secrets. The sounds, the scents, teased her. Something within the dark depths of that cold beckoned... .

"Daniela?"

Murdoch competed with the pull. She faced him once more, gazing up into eyes grown black with desire.

Anticipation.Danii felt it, was getting caught up in it.

When he took a lock of her hair and used a curl to stroke her nipple, she gave a cry and arched her back. The cold amplified every whisper of touch-she needed more. "Put your hands on me, vampire."

He groaned, covering both of her breasts with his gloved palms, molding them, cupping as she panted. With a master's skill, he tormented the tips, puckering one, then the other. Once he'd made them throb, he placed a hand flat against her chest, pressing her back.

As she stretched out in the snow, he curled his fingers in her panties, dragging them from her. Yet then he merely gazed over her naked body for long moments, his shaft bulging.

She reached forward, stroking his erection through his pants as his head fell back. Eager to use her gloves, she murmured, "Take it out, Murdoch."

"It will freeze," he said, facing her.

"If it did, then I could suckle you at my leisure."

He groaned. "Would you?"

"For hours. But for now, I'll be sure to rub you really fast, keep it warm with friction."

With a hard shake of his head, he set her hand away. "I want to see you come first. When you're like this. Want to see your face," he said, moving to kneel between her legs. "Daniela, put your arms over your head. Part your thighs for me."

Following his commands, she eased her arms back, then spread her legs.

"That's it," he rasped, his gaze riveted to her sex. He might as well have been petting her there, because her body responded.

When he licked his lips, looking desperate to taste her, her hips rolled.What would his kiss be like?Would he be gentle with her? Or ravenous ... ?

"Wider," he grated, and she let her knees fall open. With a harsh groan, he lowered his head to run his face alongside her thigh, never touching her. But she could feel his breath, making her tremble.

Over and over his breaths trailed up and down her thighs as his gloved hands fondled her breasts. She was shameless, undulating for his mouth, nearly ready to endure the burn just for a brief touch of his tongue.

"I want to kiss you so much." His mouth was an inch from her sex, his fogging breaths tickling her clitoris. "Spread you before me and lick you till you scream for me."

"Murdoch," she moaned. "I can't take much more of this."

"Do you want me to make you come?" he asked, leaning up.

"Yes!"

"You told me the ice feels wicked against your skin." He reached to his side and plucked a long, thick icicle from a twig. "Were you hinting to me?"

His eyes were dark and fierce. Hers went wide. Ah, gods, did he plan to touch her with that?

She held her breath ... until he grazed the smooth end over her cheek, making her shiver.

"It doesn't melt against your skin," he murmured, seeming fascinated as he traced it lower to her parted lips.

With her gaze holding his, her tongue darted out to lick the tip just before she sucked the phallus-shaped ice between her lips.

A strangled sound broke from his chest.Heady power.

When she relinquished it with a last darting lick, he skimmed it down her chest to the beginning swell of her breasts. They were heaving with excitement, her nipples begging for attention.

With the ice, he circled one taut peak, then the other, until her back was arching up to meet each frozen caress.So sensual, so perfect."Yes, Murdoch ... clever vampire." Now he was using his mind, delighting her by taking her here, pleasuring her body with the ice.

She swallowed when he trailed it along her torso, past her navel. He repeatedly teased it just above her curls, making her undulate for it, sometimes holding it just out of reach to play with her. "Do you want this?"

"Yes!"

"How badly?" He smoothed the edge of the ice down until it was just against her aching clitoris.

"Please, please ..." When he began lazily rolling it over the bud, she gasped, then moaned low.

"My female likes this." His smoldering gaze was rapt on his ministrations.

"Ah, gods, yes!" Again and again, he worked it back and forth, sending her closer each time. Between ragged breaths, she said, "More, Murdoch."

He skimmed her slick opening, making her cry out with bliss. Lightning streaked across the sky.

Their gazes met; his held a question. "Yes, do it! Inside me ..."

Then ... he slipped it into her wetness. She arched her back, moaning with abandon.Cold. Exquisite.

Emboldened by her response, he began languidly thrusting the phallus inside her sheath.

Her gloved hands dug into the snow, her head thrashing. She'd never been brought to come by another.

I'm about to be.

He'd meant to tease her. To send her out of her mind with pleasure.

But nowhismind was in turmoil, his shaft rampant in his pants, about to erupt.

"Don't stop ..." When she rolled up her hips to drive the ice deeper, his own hips bucked uncontrollably in response.

Sex. Want sex. Want to plunge hard into her.He needed to replace the ice with his cock so badly he thought he'd go mad.

"Murdoch,"she moaned. "I'm coming!" As she climaxed, her body writhed in a wanton display-and he felt the beginning tremors in his shaft.

Her cries made him frenzied. Now, for the first time, this encounter wouldn't be about building his reputation so he could secure pleasure for himself.

This was going to be rough and unplanned and dirty. Because he was about to spill in his pants.

As soon as she pushed his hand away, spent, he said, "You're going to make me come, Bride." He tore open his zipper, took his cock in hand, and almost went off. He had to squeeze down tight on the head to stop his seed. "Do you want to?"

She breathed, "Oh, yes."

"Then stroke it." He didn't recognize his own snarling voice.

As he held on to the head, she cupped the shaft in her fingers, running her fist up and back.