In her mind, Sandu circled her a second time and halted in front of her. Leaning close to her, he put his lips against her ear. “Am I the one with these ideas, or is it you?” At the same time, he trailed one hand from her collarbone over the curve of her breast.
She honestly didn’t know whose images were in their minds, but she felt his hand on her. Felt his breath in her ear. The air was on her skin, and when she looked down, her bra was in his free hand, and he was shoving it in his pocket. The sight of him doing that, just taking her underwear and casually pushing it inside his clothing, made her so hot, it was ridiculous, but she didn’t care. Evidently, he didn’t, either.
Sandu reached for her, caught her up in his arms and lifted her. “Wrap your legs around me, Adalasia. I have a need to feel my lifemate surrounding me. Hot and tight the way you do.”
She had a need of feeling him filling her, joining them together, and she obeyed him, grateful for the Carpathian ability to rid their bodies of clothes. She settled over his cock, gasping as his wide girth invaded, pushing through her slick folds, and then she was seeing stars, little explosions behind her eyes as he moved in her.
He was strong, and his hips surged over and over. She ground down, riding him while the streaks of fire burst through her veins. Her sheath coiled tighter and tighter around his heavy cock like a silken fist.
“I can’t hold back, Sandu,” she whispered.
“You do not have to, Sivamet.” His voice was hoarse. “Fly with me.”
She let go, soaring, the waves crashing through her, so formidable, her sheath clamping down on his cock like a vise, feeling the wonder of them together, hot and powerful, exquisite beyond belief. Perfect.
Adalasia rested her head on his shoulder, her arms around him, her heart beating the same rhythm as his. “Tet vigyázam,” she whispered, deliberately in the ancient language.
“I love you, too, Adalasia,” he whispered back. He lowered her legs to the forest floor with the gentleness only he gave her, cleaning and clothing both of them.
The rain forest suddenly became still, as if for a moment there was a pause in the never-ending life cycle. Adalasia knew it was deliberate, a heralding of Luiz’s coming. He moved silently through the trees, using the arboreal highway, his Jaguar form powerful and majestic, a predator at ease in the environment. He leapt from branch to branch, making his way down the trees until he landed smoothly on the forest floor in front of the couple, shifting and clothing himself as he did so.
“Adalasia. Sandu. You called for me.”
There was no censure in his voice. No emotion whatsoever. Adalasia felt Sandu merge tighter with her. The guardians did as well, although they were mere shadows in the small crevices of her mind. They were ancients, and yet they didn’t seem to realize that if Luiz inspected her mind, he would know they were there.
“I’m sorry to once again ask for your help,” Adalasia said. “We are searching for memories that have been lost to us. It is vital we recover them, and it has been suggested that it’s possible you would be able, if you were willing, to look to those warriors in your past for answers for us. I have no idea what that would entail, so I don’t honestly know what I’m asking of you. If it is too much, Luiz, please say so.”
Luiz had startling green eyes that darkened to a forest green or lightened to a jade, depending on his mood. Right at that moment as he studied them, he had jade eyes that seemed to glow like those of a cat.
“If we are to speak of such things, we must go somewhere safe, not out in the open.”
He turned his back on them, something Adalasia could tell not only Sandu found shocking, but also her guardians. Ancients didn’t casually turn their backs on one another. Luiz took several steps and then shifted again, settling into the form of a jaguar with ease, taking to the trees.
Are you comfortable in this form? Sandu asked.
Adalasia hadn’t tried the form of a cat often, but she had worked hard on shape-shifting. She quickly shifted, became a female jaguar and leapt for the lower branches of a tree to pull herself up. I will be once I have moved in it a bit.
Sandu shifted and stayed close behind her. He didn’t hold the form for her, but he did stay in her mind. He needn’t have worried. She thought it was a little silly. Her mind was a bit crowded with the four guardians and Sandu there.
Luiz is helping us. Don’t get him upset by your mistrust. He saved your life many times over, she reminded him.
I am aware, Sandu replied, but he didn’t back off.