Moving to cover her, Nikolai wedged his knees between her legs and spread her wide beneath him. The head of his cock nudged into the slick cleft of her body, then plunged, long and slow and deep.
His growl as he sank down into her was fierce, a roll of thunder that echoed in her bones and in her blood. He pumped slowly, taking his time at first, even though it was clear that patience was torture. Renata could feel the intensity of his hunger for her, the depth of his pleasure as her body sheathed him, head to balls.
"You feel so good," he murmured, sucking in a hiss as he withdrew then filled her again, deeper than before. He thrust hard, shuddering with the effort. "Jesus, Renata...you feel so fucking good."
She linked her ankles around his backside as he fell into a more urgent tempo. "Harder," she whispered, wanting to feel him pound away her fears, a hammer to smash through all her guilt and pain and emptiness. "Oh, God, Nikolai...fuck me harder." His answering snarl sounded as eager as it was wild. Slipping his arm beneath her, he tilted her to meet his strokes, driving into her with all the fury she so desperately needed. He swept down on her mouth for a fevered kiss, catching her cry as her climax roared up on her like a storm. Renata quaked and shuddered, clawing at him as he continued to pump, every muscle in his back and shoulders going as hard as granite.
"Ah, Christ," he ground out between his teeth and fangs, his hips banging against her fast and furious, a reckless rhythm that felt so good. So right.
His coarse shout of release was echoed by her own as Renata came again, clinging to him as she lost herself to this delicious new sense of abandon.
She truly was adrift, but in this moment she felt no fear. She was safe with this wild, reckless man - she truly believed that. She trusted Nikolai with her body and with her life. As she lay there with him in an intimate tangle, it wasn't so difficult to imagine that she could trust him with her heart as well.
That she might, in fact, be falling in love with him.
The knocking was insistent - a frantic beat on the solid oak door of Andreas Reichen's Darkhaven in Berlin.
"Andreas, please! Are you there? It's Helene. I must see you!"
At just after 4 A.M., only a short while before the sun would first peek over the horizon, only a few stragglers in the household remained awake. The rest of Reichen's kin - nearly a dozen in all, young Breed males and mated couples with small children, some of them newborn infants - had already gone to bed for the day.
"Andreas? Anyone?" Another panicked series of knocks, followed by a terrified-sounding cry. "Hello! Some one, please... let me in!"
Inside the mansion, a young male came out of the kitchen where he'd been warming a cup of milk for his Breedmate who awaited him upstairs in the nursery, where she was tending their fussy baby son. He knew the human female who was at the door. Most of the Darkhaven knew her, and Andreas had made it clear that Helene was always welcome in his home. That she had come unannounced at such a late hour, and while Andreas was away on private business for two nights, was unusual.
Even more unusual was the fact that the typically in-control businesswoman was so obviously afraid.
Awash with concern for what may have happened to Andreas's human companion, the Darkhaven male set down the cup of steaming milk and raced across the marble floor of the vestibule, his bathrobe flying behind him like a sail.
"I'm coming," he called, raising his voice to be heard over Helene's ceaseless knocking and tear-choked pleas for help on the other side of the door. His fingers flew over the keypad of the mansion's security system. "One moment! I'll be right there, Helene. Everything's going to be fine.">There was a quiet rustle of movement in the grass nearby - a whisper of life. Renata saw something snake up from beneath Nikolai's hands and couldn't keep from gasping in awestruck wonder when she realized what she was seeing.
Tiny vines, shooting through the soil, running toward the twin pines on either side of her.
"Oh, my God," she murmured, rapt with amazement. "Nikolai...what's happening here?"
"It's all right," he said, watching the vines - commanding them, hard as it was to believe.
The tendrils spiraled around the tree trunks and climbed higher, filling in with leaves that multiplied exponentially as she watched. Well over her head some eight feet, the vines leapt across the space between the pines. They twisted together, then sent off shooting lengths of vegetation, creating a living canopy that stretched all the way to the ground where Renata and Nikolai sat. "You're doing this?" she asked, incredulous.
He gave her a nod but kept his focus on his creation, more and more leaves unfolding on the vines. Thick walls of fragrant shelter formed a haven around them, the lush greenery interspersed with the same tiny white flowers that Renata had found in Mira's room.
"Okay...how are you doing this?"
The rustle of growing plant life slowed and Nikolai turned a nonchalant look on her. "My mother's gift, passed down to her two sons."
"Who's your mom, Mother Nature?" Renata said, laughing, delighted in spite of the knowledge that the beautiful flowers and vines were just a temporary veil. Outside, all of the ugliness and violence remained.
Nikolai smiled and shook his head. "My mother was a Breedmate, like you. Your talent is the power of your mind. This was her talent."
"It's incredible." Renata ran her hand over the cool leaves and delicate petals. "God, Nikolai, your ability is...I want to say amazing, but that doesn't even come close."
He shrugged. "I've never had much use for it. Give me a clip full of hollowpoints or a few blocks of C-4 any day. Then I'll show you amazing."
He was making light of it, but she sensed that his glibness shielded something darker. "What about your brother?"
"What about him?"
"You said he can do this too?"