HeartMate Read online

  She looked deep.

  She found his bottommost secrets.

  She grasped his heart, and the dark and dreary fear harbored by Rand was extinguished under her touch, replaced by a rapidly growing tenderness and love.

  He moaned with love and sparking desire. He was hers. His power, status, wealth, Flair, were nothing. All that mattered was Danith and her love for him.

  Her telepathic touch disappeared.

  He shuddered with emotion and saw tracks of tears on her face.

  "Rand," she said, raising her hand to slip her fingers in his hair, and comb through it. "My love."

  His heart jolted, his wits spun. With everything he had, he wanted to take her, bind her to him. He fisted his hands and kept them at his sides. He wanted more, but she deserved to set the pace.

  She blinked rapidly. "You were right. I ran away from problems. I was afraid of all the new things that were changing my life so quickly. Afraid of our life together. Afraid of your Flair and Noble status. But mostly, I was afraid I would never be able to match you, that your power and Flair would overwhelm me. My real self would be lost."

  "My match. My HeartMate."

  She tugged at his hair. "I know that now. With my mind as well as my heart."

  She let him go and ran out the open door.

  His insides pinched. What was happening?

  Her footsteps stopped. "Come, Rand. Follow me. To the bedroom."

  He caught up with her in seconds.

  By the time they reached his bedroom in the MasterSuite, he'd teleported his two HeartGifts there. A simple glisten tray floated in midair, holding the necklace and the earrings in it.

  Danith gasped, placed a hand over her heart. Her cheeks flushed with desire, and he felt blood pool heavily in his groin, making his sex harder than ever.

  She touched the necklace, put it over her head, and lifted the roseamber heart to turn it back and forth. She licked her lips, swallowed, looked at him.

  Her eyes were wide with yearning. For him. His breathing matched the unsteady tempo of her own. He gazed at the necklace, then at her breasts, and saw her pointed nipples.

  "The flaw." She cleared her throat and spoke again, her voice low and slow. "What does the flaw look like to you?"

  He felt a smile spread, knew it wanned his eyes because her question made a tenderness he'd rarely experienced well up inside him. She understood. Everyone saw the flaw differently. Only he, only she, as HeartMates, would see the flaw deep in the roseamber heart as it truly appeared.

  "Entwined lovers," he replied, not daring to touch the necklace.

  "Yes," she whispered.

  "You and me," he said. He took the thin wire redgold knotted earrings and inserted them in her ears, clamping his teeth tight to restrain his passion. He inhaled deeply and smelled the fragrance of womanly readiness. His woman. His HeartMate. His hands trembled.

  "And these," he said, dropping his hands and stepping away. "These are the HeartBond knots, they are etched on our marriage armbands, too."

  Her entire body quivered before him. She closed her eyes.

  He watched her for a moment. Nothing in his entire life was as beautiful as she, awaiting him. She had accepted his HeartGifts, she was legally his. But he wanted the words.

  "Danith?"

  She opened her eyes, licked her lips.

  He remembered how she tasted. His shaft ached, strained against his trous. He didn't want his clothes. So he let the heat from his skin, from all his inner desire, burn them away.

  Danith stared at him. He felt large, ugly, scarred, but her eyes widened and when she raised her gaze to his he only saw a soul-deep longing. And tenderness.

  She swallowed again, then lifted her chin. She locked her stare with his. "Rand Ash, HeartBond with me."

  He closed his eyes and shuddered.

  Danith watched her love's eyes flutter open. An intense blue gaze enveloped her.

  Now it was time for her to open herself to him—her body, her heart, her mind, her soul. Now it was time for the HeartBond.

  The necklace pulsed desire between them. The earrings, encompassing the emotions of Rand as well as T'Ash, vibrated to the beat of the necklace.

  In dazed desire she slipped from her gown, took off the necklace, and placed it on the side table. She lay naked on the bed, awaiting him, legs slightly spread. She was his and his alone, forever. She stretched out an inviting hand.

  A feral, desperate groan tore from his throat. He pounced, making room for himself between her legs. She felt the heated, throbbing tip of him and gasped, passion and anticipation spiking.

  "Now. Can't wait. Not gentle!" His voice held both desire and despair.

  "Don't wait. Come to me, Rand."

  He forged into her. They rocked in thrusting passion together, bodies rubbing, hands caressing, hearts beating as one, minds and emotions coming ever closer.

  They shattered together and through the ecstasy, Danith heard a distant clang. A reverberating sound of warm comfort, of everlasting love. The HeartBond, chaining them together stronger than marriage cuffs.

  She would always be loved.

  She would never be alone again.

  She would always love him.

  He would never suffer a solitary life without her.

  She looked up. He looked at her with love.

  "Mine. My HeartMate."

  "Yes."

  "My woman."

  "Yes."

  "My wife."

  "Yes."

  "My GreatLady D'Ash."

  "Yes."

  He smiled, a gleeful, boyish smile she'd never seen before. "I like 'yes.' "

  She giggled, then stopped abruptly as he smoothly began to stroke his renewed hardness inside her. Then she whimpered. Before pleasure swept her away, she sighed, "My Rand."

  "Yes," he replied between gritted teeth, wildness held in check in his gaze. "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes." He obviously wanted to extend the sweet delight as long as possible.

  Danith endured the acutely pleasurable torture for as long as she could, but she broke first, wanting all of his power thrusting into her, bringing her to the fabulous peak. Wanting his body hard and heavy on hers. Wanting their Flair to mix and mingle and explode around them in a shower of fireballs.

  He groaned at her pumping hips, cried out as she grabbed him close and took what she wanted.

  They fell together.

  They landed in soft comfort and love.

  His long hair tangled around his face, his light blue eyes looked wide, unguarded, exposed in his need. He hid nothing.

  She cradled his body on hers and wrapped her arms around him.

  After a long while he drew away and rolled over.

  Danith lay limp. She felt as if she'd melted into the bed.

  T'Ash stroked her head. "We will have a marriage ceremony within the week. This Ioho, a good omen that it is so near Summer Solstice. I purchased that land I saw in your mind, where you had your lonesome rituals. We will marry there. The Clovers and the Hollys will be invited. No one else."

  Danith didn't have the energy to utter a sound.

  T'Ash leaned over her, tracing a finger over her face, down her neck, around her breasts, to place his palm over her still-thumping heart.

  "I made us marriage cuffs."

  "Uhhhn."

  He laughed. Rand actually laughed. Free and easily and his smile was so enchanting Danith sniffed and swallowed tears.

  "I know how to control this wild woman of mine," he rumbled, leaning closer. "I love you."

  She saw it in his eyes. "I love you, too."

  Family, Zanth trilled, bounding through the cat door and leaving the flap swinging noisily behind him.

  "Greetyou, Zanth," T'Ash said.

  Zanth cocked his head at his person. You happy. Never see you happy. Good. Good. Good.

  The cat looked at Danith. You happy too. D'Ash. He grinned. Life is good.

  "Zanth, what do you want?" she asked, pulling a cover over her
breasts.

  Want Mate for Self.

  Danith gasped.

  Zanth flicked his tail back and forth.

  Want Holly hunting Cat.

  Rand shouted with laughter.

  And, Zanth smiled smugly. Want last word.