JaguarintheSun (7 page)

His admission was shocking, sent another wave of anger and
fear into her bloodstream. Damn him for saying it aloud, for laying it out in
words so it couldn’t be ignored or passively negated.

“Don’t even try it.” He didn’t need to know he’d already invaded
her heart and soul as he took her body. The fact she would forever be his, as
she had never been any others’, was her secret to hold. “I told you from the
beginning it’s just one afternoon. And just sex.”

For a long moment he said nothing in reply. Although she
didn’t see any change in his expression, she was suddenly more aware than ever
of the primitive nature beneath his urbane exterior and her heartbeat
escalated.

“Do you still really believe that, Cassandra?” With an
almost leisurely tilt of his hips, he pushed his cock deeper into her, fusing
them even tighter together. “Can you really lie to yourself so effectively?”

“It’s how it has to be.”
By Sol
, she wouldn’t cry. No
matter how badly she wanted to. No matter how saying the words tore at the core
of her being, shredding her emotionally. “I’m not lying. There can’t be
anything more between us.”

“Why?”

The single word was like a gunshot cracking in the room,
startling her with its ferocity. All she could do was shake her head, biting
her tongue so as not to give in and tell him the truth. There was more at stake
than just the two of them, their needs and feelings. What she was going to do
when she left him was actually illegal, the instigators—including her own
parents—liable to punishment so severe she didn’t dare tell anyone what was
planned. Yet it had to happen. The fate of the entire world, both on this side
of the Veil and the other, depended on her.

That knowledge was the only thing holding her together. If
she reneged on her duty even Xbal would cease to exist, and that was a thought
so heinous she refused to contemplate it.

“Tell me why.” The demand in his voice was unmistakable.
“Tell me why you won’t acknowledge the connection between us, won’t even
consider there is more to what’s happening between us than just the physical.”

“I can’t.” The words were jerked from her throat, a hoarse
plea. “Just take me at my word, Xbal. This afternoon is all we have. This—” She
lifted her lower body to press against his, gasping as the motion brought a
sharp, somehow surprising spasm of desire. “This is all I can give you.”

He searched her eyes, his body growing tenser with each
second that passed, until he seemed coiled to the breaking point. A beast about
to strike, full of untamed intent. Yet she felt no fear, only a rapid rise of
renewed passion and even more powerful need. It was only when he spoke again,
the words little more than a growl, that she knew the first frisson of unease.

“Then I’ll take it all. Everything you have, Cassandra. More
than you ever thought you could give.”

There was a hard slam of magic, which stole her breath and
made her stomach drop and roll. Everything around them warped, only Xbal’s eyes
remaining in focus. When the magic dissipated Cassie realized the softness of
the bed beneath her and the brightness of the afternoon sun were gone. Instead
she was lying on cool, slightly rough stone and they were surrounded by dim,
green-hued light.

Xbal was still above her, but as she tried to get her
bearings he straightened and pulled back, disengaging their bodies and leaving
her feeling empty.

When he walked away she was bereft, unable to fight a rush
of sadness and loss.

After a moment she forced back the emotions and sat up,
looking around. The sight that met her eyes made her gasp.

It was a temple, apparently long abandoned. The roof was
gone, replaced with thick, twisted vines which, with the sunlight filtering
through them, gave the space its green glow. At the opposite end of the temple
was a thick, raised stone slab, an altar of some type she thought, with a
throne-like stone seat behind it. On either side of the wide room was a
colonnade, freestanding columns at least thirty feet high, and through the
encroaching vines carved figures and unfamiliar symbols were visible. High up
on the outer walls and set between each column were niches, each one containing
a huge stone statue she easily recognized as the figure she’d often seen on the
interior of the Music Roars elevator.

And every one of those stone Xbals seemed to be looking
right at her.

It made a strange shiver—not quite apprehension, not quite
excitement—trickle down her spine.

Xbal was walking toward the altar, his feet making no sound
despite the thick carpet of fallen leaves and other detritus on the ground. In
that instant she saw his jaguar nature clearly, as though man and cat were
transposed, one atop the other, stalking toward some battle only he could see.
A rush of heat, which owed nothing to the humid jungle air, flared over her
skin, and her mouth went dry.

With a graceful, effortless leap Xbal jumped up onto the
altar and turned to face her, his gorgeous, aroused body unselfconsciously
displayed by his wide-legged stance. Even with the entire length of the massive
room between them, Cassie felt his gaze settle on her and she shivered, her
nipples tightening, passion unfurling to twist through her veins. Just like
that, within the space of a heartbeat, she was ready for him again, craving a
sweet ache in her belly and between her legs.

Licking her lips, she found the wherewithal to ask, “Where
are we?”

“Deep in the jungles of South America, on the human side of
the Veil.” He tilted his head slightly, a small smile flirting at the corners
of his lips. “Strangely enough, this is where I am most at home, where my power
is strongest.” The smile faded, and Cassie saw his eyes begin to glow. “Don’t
you feel it, Cassandra?”

When she paid attention she did, recognizing the magic
potent in the air, pulsing and twirling, making her scalp prickle and goose
bumps flare across her arms and torso. What she’d taken at first to be just the
heat and dampness of the jungle was actually a manifestation of natural power
rising from the earth. Reaching out to it with her own abilities brought no
increase in her magic, and she realized she was, for want of a better
description, on the wrong frequency. This magic was for Xbal alone and she
shivered again, wondering what he planned to do with it. What he planned for
her.

It seemed she was about to find out, as he held out one hand
to her, fingers crooked in command. “Come to me.”

Before she could get up from the stone ledge she was on
Cassie felt it drop away and she was floating upright through the air toward
the altar. Toward Xbal’s open arms. He caught her, holding her so tightly she
found it hard to take a breath.

Yet breathing wasn’t high on the list of her priorities
anyway. There was something about being in the seat of his power, having his
rigid, aroused body pressed so tightly to hers and knowing herself to be truly
at his mercy that made her shake with passion.

“I’ve never brought anyone here.” His breath was hot against
her skin and ruffled the hair near her ear. “Never done
atraspa
within
the confines of the temple once sacred to me.” He pulled back, cupping her
cheek so their eyes met, the glow of need in his making her want to moan with
pleasure. “Be warned,
querida
. I won’t stop until I’ve wrung the last
orgasm I can from your body.”

She thought he might say more, but instead he kissed her,
his mouth firm and demanding, pressing her head back as their tongues dueled
and danced together. Drinking him in, reveling in the sensations of his cock
hard against her belly, one hand kneading her ass and the other tangled in her
hair, Cassie knew she’d give him whatever he desired, let him do whatever he
wanted. And although it went against every instinct she had, there was nothing
she’d do to change it.

These were the memories she’d take with her into the
unknown, the only ones that would completely break her heart and the only ones
she’d be glad to have.

Xbal ended the kiss, and she was glad to see she wasn’t the
only one finding it hard to catch a full breath. The air rasped in and out of
his throat, and his ribcage heaved beneath her questing hands.

“You destroy me, Cassandra.” The growled words went through
her like a flash-fire, and she leaned back in his arms, blatantly offering
herself to him. “I want you more than I want food, air or even my magic.”

“Then take me.” She’d never offered herself this way, meaning
it completely, utterly. “Take me, Xbal.”

“I will.” With one more hard kiss he turned her so her back
nestled against his chest, then guided her to sit, so she was between his
thighs, their legs hanging over the edge of the altar. “Repeatedly.”

Leaning her head back on his shoulder, Cassie let go of all
misgivings, all control, and surrendered. As though feeling her capitulation,
Xbal growled low in his chest and swept her hair aside so as to bite the tender
flesh at the start of her shoulder. The sweet sting jolted her and she gasped,
making Xbal growl again.

“When I watched you come in the restaurant, when I felt and
smelled and tasted you through the
atraspa
I almost lost control.”
Reaching down he grasped her thighs, lifted them so they lay over his. Then he
moved his legs farther apart, opening her to the first soft twist of magic as
it glided over her breasts and down to lightly brush her labia. “I cursed
myself for starting something I couldn’t finish the way I wanted to, but here
there’s nothing to stop me.” The magic grew stronger, pinching at her nipples
so her back arched and her belly trembled. “I can love you with my magic and my
hands and my cock, all at once. Do to you all the things I’ve dreamed of doing
over the years I’ve known you.”

He already had her quivering, climbing toward orgasm, his
words as potent and exciting as the sensations overtaking her body. Strong
hands cupped the undersides of her breasts, lifting and kneading, adding a new
layer of sensation to the hard clasp of the
atraspa
on her nipples. His
tongue traced the edge of her ear and he used his magic to echo the movement on
the other side, so it was as though she were sandwiched between two men, both
intent on nothing but her pleasure.

“You’d come to my office and I’d imagine bending you over my
desk, lifting that beautiful ass to lick and suck your pussy, rim your ass,
make you come over and over until you were begging me to fuck you.”

He lifted his thighs slightly, opening her wider, tilting
her pelvis up, as the magic put his words into actions. There were tongues and
lips tormenting her pussy and ass, circling and flicking, pressing for
entrance, forcing her to open for them. Undone by a whirling rush of bliss, she
jerked and cried out, unable to stop the sudden, overwhelming orgasm building
within.

“Come for me, baby.” Lost in the maddening grip of his
caresses she could hardly hear the words but her body reacted, tightening to
the breaking point. “Let me feel you lose control.”

His fingers tightened on her breasts. There was the sharp
nip of teeth on her neck, which was echoed with thrilling effect on her
nipples. The mouths between her legs became more insistent, sucking at her
clit, a tongue sliding in and out of her ass, another circling the entrance to
her pussy. Unable to withstand even a second more, Cassie cried out again,
ecstasy firing through her veins like a solar flare, scorching her from the
inside out, burning away everything but Xbal and the erotic havoc he was
creating.

“Yes,” he growled, not letting up, keeping the torment of
pleasure going so just as she thought she’d found the crest he flung her up a
higher wave. “More.”

It was too much, but she never wanted it to end. Her body no
longer belonged to her but was one with Xbal and his magic, taken beyond the
borders of purely physical release to a place she’d never been before. It was
as though she felt not only her pleasure but his too. And something more.
Something as strong and sure as the man holding her, and just as thrilling. An
emotion that only served to heighten her explosion of ecstasy, making it
sublime.

Little by little he brought her down, gentling her with soft
kisses and equally soft words, letting the magic slowly subside, until she lay
boneless in his arms.

“A good start,
querida
.” He stroked her arms, drawing
a little wake of goose bumps behind his fingers and making her still
oversensitive body tremble. “I love how you react to me. But now I want to
watch you when you come, not just feel it.”

She wanted to tell him she couldn’t take any more but, even
sated and still quivering from her orgasm, she knew it would be a lie. It would
take more than a lifetime to get enough of Xbal, and she only had today. There
was no way she’d refuse him.

Taking her legs off his, he eased out from behind her then
lowered her to lie back on the altar. Bending, he dropped a hard kiss on her
lips.

“Hold on,
cariño
.” There was a brief flash of teeth,
white against his bronze skin. “Now it really begins.”

And immediately, with that promise, she was aroused and hot
for him again.

Xbal knew her now, knew what she liked, what took her to the
heights. A little pain to put a keener edge on her need and a lot of tenderness
to counterbalance it. Enough magic to put her body into hyperawareness and some
dirty talk to keep it there.

Exactly the things he liked to do.

Cassandra was perfect for him in every way, and if he could
just get her to admit that or explain why she hesitated to do so, allowing him
to blast through whatever her objections might be, his joy would be complete.

It wasn’t as though he’d been looking for someone to love.
On the contrary, he’d been avoiding just that scenario for a long time. His
existence seemed eternal. Hell, he’d been alive for more than three thousand
years and showed no signs of aging, much less dying. Twice before he’d loved.
His first love had been a human woman whose life, although long by the
standards of her kind, had seemed to pass in the blink of his eyes, leaving him
grief-stricken for centuries. The second woman had been Fey, and they’d lived
happily together for five hundred years. But eventually she too had died, and
he’d known he didn’t have the strength to go through that pain again.

Then he’d met Cassandra, and something in her had called to
him on the most primal level. Oh, he’d ignored it as best he could but it had
been there, shimmering in his chest, boiling in his blood. Every conversation,
every touch, no matter how casual or fleeting, had pulled him deeper under her
spell. There was a part of him that had been glad she’d showed no particular
interest in getting closer. Deep inside he’d known she had heartbreak written
all over her, and he hadn’t wanted any more of that. But by coming to him today
she’d loosed the jaguar, and there was no putting it back under wraps.

So now he held her sprawled on his altar, letting the
untamed power of the magic that had brought him into being run amok through his
body, using it to take her from plateau to plateau of desire. Laving her
nipples with his roughened tongue had her squirming and panting, those sweet
little gasps and moans breaking from her lips. When he added a little
atraspa
,
insinuating it into her pulsing cunt, she’d gripped his hair so hard he thought
she might pull it out.

But he hadn’t cared. The end result was worth the pain.
Cassandra was arching up to meet each lick, her hips undulating in time to the
slow fucking motion of his magic. And he wanted her so badly right then Xbal
thought he might lose his mind.

Lifting his head, he looked at her flushed, damp face, her
swollen, parted lips, and knew he’d never seen anything so beautiful.

“Xbal…” Her voice was rough, just a thread of sound. “I
can’t…”

“Yes, you can,
cariño
.” He wasn’t ready to stop,
couldn’t bear the thought of the day coming to an end, irrespective of the fact
that it would have to eventually. Making love to her would keep her with him a
little longer. “You must.”

But he knew she was at saturation point. Too much more would
tip the pain to an unbearable state. He needed to let her breathe for a little
while before taking her to the next level.

Withdrawing his magic from her body caused a lessening in
their bond and when he heard her little sob of disappointment his heart leapt.
It wasn’t his imagination then. The connection between them had grown to the
point where it wasn’t just him getting feedback through the connection. She was
feeling it too.

Gathering her up, he wrapped her in his arms and magic, not
stimulating her but just holding her close. With a shuddering sigh she nestled
her cheek against his chest, the periodic tremors shivering over her skin
lessening incrementally until she was still and her heart rate slowed almost to
normal.