"My G.o.d."

And again.

"Nickolai."

He made a low husky sound against her neck. "Mmmm ..."

His mouth laved her neck and throat, kissing, licking, as he hugged her close to him and began a steady, vigorous rhythm.

His spicy scent surrounded her, steaming her hot. Little mewing sounds issued from her throat. He acknowledged them by catching her earlobe in his teeth with a quick, tugging motion. Watching him in the mirror. Lilac could not prevent the moan that escaped her lips.

The rhythm he set became a harmonic chant to his pagan saturnalia.

He excited, he touched, he moved, he awakened.

Each thrust came more powerful than the last. She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming out loud. He was a raging storm.

The tempest of his s.e.xual fury called forth her latent pa.s.sion. Longing flared up from deep within, burst through her and, in turn, him. He fueled their hunger higher and higher with every yearning stroke, then, like his kind, mastered the ferocity he unleashed.

His hands came over hers on the mirror, his strong fingers interlacing with hers. She could feel the sinews of his muscular arms slide along her own, straining and bunching with his erotic movements. The fiery heat of him covered her like a second skin. He thrust and thrust and thrust.

She couldn't catch her breath! Torrid sensations spiraled through her, wave upon wave ... the pleasure, she would surely die of it!

"I... I can't ... I-" was all she could seem to utter. Her head fell back against his chest. She was near to swooning.

He bit her shoulder.

"Have mercy! Have mercy, Nickolai!" she cried out.

With a final thrust that nearly lifted her off her feet, he growled savagely into the nape of her neck, "Rejar. I am Rejar."

Then everything exploded around her and within her. Including him.

Chapter Ten.

She collapsed into his arms.

Rejar easily scooped her up. Walking over to the bed, he tossed back the covers and carefully laid her down. Lilac's eyes fluttered open. Dazed, her pupils were still dilated with her recent desire. Catching sight of them inflamed him anew.

She watched him silently, her lips gently parted. There was wonder on her face as well as apprehension and shock.

He stood beside the bed, letting his gaze trail a possessive path down the length of her body. He flinched slightly when he spotted the splatters of blood on her thighs.

Embarra.s.sed, Lilac tried to cover herself. His hand shot out, clasping her wrist. "No."

She turned away too shy to look at him. "I need to wash; let me-"

"Leave it for now." His lids lowered halfway. "The sight of it stimulates me."

Lilac didn't think he needed any more stimulation. She purposely threw him a scathing look to dampen that line of thinking. "Proof of how you hurt me? Does that make you feel good?"

He shook his head. "Proof of how you belong to me alone. Where I come from, it is not a common sight. I apologize for the pain I gave you; although, I must admit, I savored the rarity of the experience."

Lilac blushed red as a beet. She didn't want to think about what he had done to her. Well, it was over with now. She had survived the encounter. It was time to put it behind them and go on about their lives. The Prince had gotten what he wanted. He could go his merry way.

"How nice for you, your Highness. Now, if you'll just-What do you think you're doing?!" she yelped. Nickolai had come down full length on top of her.

Rejar chuckled low. "What do you think I am doing?"

"You can't be serious! We already did it! I have no intentions of standing up to lean, against that mirror again!"

Rejar threw back his head and let out a roar of laughter.

"I fail to see what you find humorous in the situation. I-oh!" He slid into her completely, the moistness from their previous encounter easing his entry. "This way too?" she squeaked.

His deep laugh rumbled against her.

"Every way, souk-souk." He nipped her bottom lip.

"No, Nickolai, you mustn't!"

He grinned down at her. "I am afraid I must." He started to move in her, then suddenly stopped when he remembered her untried state. Raising his head, his face was intent on hers. "Does it hurt?"

If Lilac had been thinking more clearly she would've realized that if she responded in the affirmative, he would have stopped immediately. As it was, her honest nature won out. "Not now... it's just that I thought you were done with this"-she wiggled against him-"business." Her squirming movements made him flex deep inside her. A little sigh of enjoyment escaped her lips.

Rejar smiled knowingly. "As long as I am breathing I will never be done with this 'business.' " One black eyebrow lifted. "You will just have to suffer through it, souk-souk." So saying, he dropped his head to capture her nipple.

On hearing his prognosis, her lower lip pouted mutinously. "But Nickolai, I don't like you!" She moaned as his white teeth grazed the peak of her breast.

"It is all right, Lilac. You do not have to like me to do this-you just have to want me." He pressed in on her and Lilac shivered in response.

Rejar had no way of knowing how his casual words would later come back to haunt him. Distracted by their pa.s.sion, he proceeded to give her a small taste of what it meant to be the mate of a Familiar, At close to one in the morning, she began to shyly whisper her encouragement to him.

Around two, she started moaning in ecstasy.

At three o'clock, she was screaming her pleasure.

And by four, she was begging him for it.

Lilac was in a dead sleep.

She lay curled against him, her cheek resting against one side of his chest, her fingers splayed against the other side. Their legs were tangled up and every now and then her little toe twitched against the inside of his ankle as it did now. Rejar kissed the top of her head.

For her sake, he had held back.

Lovemaking was very new to her and he thought it best to introduce her only to the basic essentials this first night.

Even so, it had been a surprisingly satisfying beginning.

The memory of it was enough to get him started all over again, and if Lilac was not so exhausted he might do just that. The palm of his hand unconsciously rubbed her back. A Familiar woman would not be so tired. Then again, a Familiar woman would not be in a maiden state by this age. The one thought led to another ...

The primary reason Familiar men stayed close to home when it came time to mate was that they believed a non-Familiar woman could not satisfy them over the long term. Rejar disagreed. In his travels, it had been his experience that pa.s.sion was contagious and tended to rise to its highest form, whatever that form may be. He would simply have to guide Lilac to his own level of physicality.

Already his very existence had set a precedence in the Familiar race, being the first child conceived of Charl and Familiar. Now he was setting a second precedent as the first Familiar male to take a non-Familiar wife. An untouched woman. He smiled. Perhaps it is my destiny to forge new pathways.

He chuckled at the incongruous idea. He was a man who cared little about forging pathways; he just liked to enjoy life.

Temporarily sated, Rejar's thoughts drifted pleasantly. He never would have believed introducing a woman to her sensuality could be so erotic. Never would he forget the look in her eyes when he first moved in her; the wonder on her face when she experienced the beginnings of feminine desire; the joy in her eyes when he gave her her first release. These were gifts to him alone and he would carry them with him in his heart forever.

Much of his restlessness was gone.

But not all.

There had been no Transference.

Despite his Familiar blood, he had wondered whether it would occur. Aviaran men had a tendency to spark when they made love. And when they mated, they really sparked. The Charl, of course, by their nature, were high sparkers.

Even though he did not outwardly display any of his father's Aviaran characteristics, Krue still insisted on teaching his Familiar son the ways of the Transference when he was but a boy.

Nevertheless, Yaniff had been wrong; there was not the least bit of Charl in him.

The fingers of the hand which held her to him traveled up her back under her hair to lightly stroke the soft skin at the nape of her neck. Still, it had been an unparalleled experience for him.

Unparalleled.

He gave a short purr before he, too, fell asleep.

Completely ravaged.

He was like a wild, pagan beast!

After the second time, he just kept going. The third and fourth times blurred together. She didn't want to think about what he had done to her the fifth time.

Images of the way he had looked filtered across her mind: those astonishing eyes of his teasing her, luring her, tempting her-blue and gold flashing with desire, then softening with satisfaction; that sultry, silken mouth-smiling with delight, seducing with a caress, softly sipping as if she were the finest delicacy; his head thrown back-eyes clouded with pa.s.sion-the cords of his neck straining with the strength of his fire.

Yes, that was him: teasing, tempting, laughing, and igniting. It appeared her new husband was a sensual storm of considerable tenacity.

With every loving stroke, he had worn her down.

With every hot kiss, each slow lick of his tongue, he had reduced her to a moaning, quivering creature as wild as himself.

It was ... an unexpected bonus.

Perhaps this marriage business wouldn't be quite the horror she had imagined it to be.

Lilac sneaked a peek over her shoulder. Nickolai's face was burrowed into her neck. He was sleeping like a baby. She remembered the last time he had fallen asleep next to her; it was in the carriage during their ride through Hyde Park.

It seemed the Prince had a penchant for sticking his nose in her neck.

She giggled as he gave a little lap to the soft skin under her ear.

He had done it three times already in his sleep during the night. She had noticed that at those times when he seemed particularly comfortable, nestled cozily into her, and she had decided to change her position, he gave her a small lick in his sleep to quiet her movements down. It was really rather sweet.

Odd, but it seemed to work for his benefit-it did calm her.

"Does that little laugh mean that I have pleased you, souk-souk?" he purred sleepily, snuggling against her.

"Nickolai." She placed her hands over the strong arms which were encircling her, watching him over her shoulder.

"Yes, you have pleased me." Realizing what she had said, she quickly faked a yawn in case he was thinking of getting frisky again. It wouldn't do to give in too easily. Not that she hadn't already demeaned herself the previous night by downright begging for him.

"I am glad." He kissed her shoulder. "Now you can please me by calling me by my true name-Rejar."

Lilac stiffened. "Please don't tease me, Nickolai. I thought we could begin anew this morning since we probably have to spend the rest of our lives together." The irritating thought did not put her in the best of moods. She still wasn't quite able to figure out how he had maneuvered the situation.

"I am not teasing you, my heart." His cheek caressed her own. "Did you not understand what I was telling you last night?"

Lilac turned in his embrace to face him. "That nonsense about you being ..." She couldn't even say it, it was so foolish.

Rejar frowned. "It is not nonsense-it is the truth. The cat and I are one and the same!"

He seemed to believe what he was saying.

Oh, dear. This was worse than she thought. The man was delusional. If anyone should hear him speak this way, they would take him to Bedlam! Just the stories she had heard of the horrible place made her shudder. Even though he wasn't her favorite person, the thought of him there-suffering who knows what kind of torture-made her inexplicably ill.

She placed her fingertips gently against his well-shaped lips. "Nickolai, you must never, ever, say this again."

He looked down at her through lazy-lidded eyes. "You do not believe me."

"Of course I don't believe you! What person in their right mind would believe such a-What are you doing?" He had rolled away from her. Throwing the covers aside, he jumped from the bed.

"Watch," he said, standing before her.

"Really, Nickolai, I wish you would-" A strange aura seemed to be shimmering around him. No-from him.

Lilac watched in astonishment as arcs of light began twirling around and through him, faster and faster, like a dance of sparks, illuminating his entire form in a halo of brilliant glimmer. The pulsating light entirely engulfed him; it was so bright, she almost had to shield her eyes from the intense glare. What was happening?

As quickly as it started, the light display faded. Nickolai was gone and there, on the rug, was a cat.