Eternity Embraced Read Free Page B

gotten inside her.
    Delicious agony.
    He shuddered, sucked, rocked against her until the friction became nearly too hot to handle and a vibration sang through his veins.  This was crazy, but his body had hijacked his thoughts, and nothing mattered but getting inside her.  Impatient, he slid his palm down her body, but before he reached her zipper, she cried out, her orgasm hitting so hard and fast he could only hang on for the ride as she bucked beneath him.
    She called out his name, over and over, her smoky, pleasure-soaked voice nearly sending him over the edge with her.
    "I love you," she whispered.  "God, I love you."
    The words stopped him in his tracks like nothing else, not even his own will, had been able to do.  She'd never said that to him, not in the entire year they'd been together.  He'd suspected, but then, he'd suspected that he was in love with her, too.  But it was something he'd never planned to admit, not when a Guardian's lifespan was as likely to be measured in months as in years.
    Five years ago, he'd lost Gabrielle to this violent life just days after their engagement, when she'd been bitten by a werewolf, had slaughtered several other Guardians, and Kaden had been forced to kill her.
    He couldn't go through that again, and he'd guarded the words, "I love you," with the ferocity of a lion protecting his pride.  Andrea knew how he felt about love, and damn her for striking at him with a weapon every bit as dangerous and painful as a stake.
    Roaring in agony and fury, he broke away from Andrea, surprising himself at the speed with which he came to his feet.  Wide, glazed eyes blinked in confusion even as she slapped a palm over her throat.  Blood seeped from between her fingers, and shit, he was a dumbass.  A newbie vampire dumbass who must look utterly ridiculous, standing in a cell with a raging hard-on making a tent in his cargos.
    Quickly, he seized her upper arms, yanked her to her feet, and swiped his tongue over the punctures he'd made, another instinctive move.  And then he stepped away, but the cell was far too small to allow enough distance between them.  An entire ocean of distance wouldn't be enough.  Not when he still wanted her so badly it hurt, which was exactly what he'd been trying to avoid.
    "Dammit, Andrea."  He rammed his hands through his hair, needing to do something with them before he grabbed her again and this time, refused to let go.  "I told you--"
    "Yeah, you told me."  Her hands formed fists at her sides, and her face was flushed from her climax -- and from anger.  "Told me you never wanted to fall in love again, because it hurts too much when it ends.  You told me when we first fell into my bed that our relationship could go nowhere except between the sheets.  But it went a lot further than that, and you know it.  It's time to stop skirting the issue and pretending that we only have strong feelings for each other."
    Fuck.  He flicked his tongue over one fang, a new habit he'd developed.  Because he was a vampire.  Which she seemed to be forgetting, even though two seconds ago he'd been at her throat and sucking her lifeblood out of her.  How the hell could she act as though it hadn't happened?  As though she'd forgotten what he'd become?  For every second of every hour, until Gabrielle turned into a slavering beast, he'd been well aware of the fact that she had been bitten by a werewolf.
    And yet, he'd been careless.  Sloppy.  Although it was Aegis policy to kill any human who had been bitten or scratched by a were-beast, he'd let his love for her cloud his judgment.  He'd heard rumors of humans who were immune to the infection, and on the off chance that Gabrielle was one of those rare people, he'd restrained her until night fell, bringing the curse of the full moon with it.  Worse, he'd not wanted to hurt her, so he'd kept her restraints loose.  When she'd turned, she got free and killed five of their colleagues before Kaden had put a silver