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  Thea stared up at him.

  The vampire was giving her a choice. Yet he always had. Over the past two years, he could have enthralled her in order to further his seductions and she would have succumbed. Instead, he had played fair with her. Even when she had come to request the amulet, she had known the rules.

  But it was more than his sense of fairness that had softened her heart. She rubbed the raised scar tissue on her neck, the mark he’d given her that had saved her life.

  “Mais, Gabriel,” she said, echoing his French speech. “What about you? I know you’re opposed to the binding. Are you sure this is what you want?”

  He kissed her. “I want you, Thea. I thought this was a simple seduction, but it is not. When I was trapped in the stone ruin, awaiting my death as the sun began to rise, what troubled me most deeply was that I would never see you again, never be with you, never enjoy the delights of your company or the pleasure of your body. Please, cherie, I desire the binding now as I never thought I would, but it is because of you, because of this love that I feel for you. I have only one desire in this moment, to be bound to you forever.”

  She smiled and caressed his face. “You love me?”

  His green eyes softened and he kissed her. “More than my poor vampire life itself. And you? Can you love a vampire?”

  Her turn to smile. Her heart swelled as she leaned up and kissed him. “I believe I have loved you since you rescued the troll child.”

  “What child?”

  “I think it must have been about two years ago.”

  She reminded him of the incident, but he shook his head. “I have forgotten all about that. I was merely doing my duty for those in my domain.”

  There it was again, the deepest truth of who he was. And he had done no less for her by slaying Drachyn and saving her life.

  “I understand you now as I never did before. I love you and I want to be bound to you.”

  “Then it is settled between us that we will complete the tendril binding?”

  She nodded.

  He smiled and kissed her again, his lips sensuous and moist, as they always were. He eased her onto her back and stretched out on top of her, kissing her deeply. She could feel the tendrils moving within her body, slowly and sensuously, even deep within her well.

  She gasped and pushed at Gabriel so that he rose up slightly to look down at her. Supporting himself on his forearms, he asked, “What is it, cherie?”

  “The tendrils. I’m surprised by how they’re touching me.”

  He smiled and his eyes fell to half-mast. “It is a great secret but yes, the tendrils become part of sex.”

  “I feel them here.” She slid her hand low, grazing his cock as she reached her bare, lower flesh.

  He drew back, falling to one side of her. Using his hand, he rubbed her mound. “Here?”

  “Everywhere.”

  He slid two fingers inside. The tendrils within her body moved through her sex, teasing her as his fingers plunged in and out.

  “Oh, my God,” she said, her head rocking back and forth. “The sensation is incredible.” Her back arched and she moaned.

  “Well, if you like that, cherie, I know something that you will enjoy even more.”

  Her breath hitched as his fingers left her body. She watched him move down the bed until he was between her legs. She groaned as he swept his tongue over all her tender folds, exploring and licking. She dove her hands into his long wavy hair. Her breathing hitched again and again as the tendrils flicked within her, wherever his tongue touched her.

  “This is amazing.” She panted now.

  When he drove his tongue inside her, the tendrils moved within her body, flowing to the sides of her well as though reaching for his tongue.

  She thrashed on the bed.

  He groaned heavily and continued to thrust hard, his hands gripping her hips to hold her in place.

  Cherie, the tendrils drag over my tongue.

  His words sent her flying into the most exquisite release, the tendrils pulsing within her. She screamed at the ceiling, bucking into him. The orgasm reached a pinnacle, pulsing and streaking.

  When at last she settled down, he looked up at her. He blinked twice then crawled over her body, his long hair dragging like fingers over her thighs, her abdomen, her breasts.

  “That was beautiful, Gabriel.” She was still out of breath.

  He nodded. “You are beautiful, ma cherie, so beautiful.”

  He leaned down and kissed her. She tasted herself on his tongue which caused her body to arch again with pleasure. When he deepened the kiss, she could feel the tendrils once more writhing deep inside her as though begging for more.

  She surrounded him with her arms and held him tight. “I can’t begin to explain what that felt like, but it was unbelievable. Do you know what it will be like when you’re inside me?”

  He glanced down at his cock. “I have heard that the tendrils tighten and release around the cock like a fist, even when buried inside a woman.” He shuddered.

  “If this is true, then my only question is why weren’t you tempted to complete the binding sooner?”

  He smiled and kissed her again. “I do not usually resort to philosophy or to fate, but right now I believe I was waiting for you.”

  Gabriel never spoke like this, which moved her. Wonder glimmered in his eye as he looked down at her and once more her heart swelled within her chest. “Then how about we complete the binding?”

  His smile broadened. His cock touched her entrance and began to push, making his way inside.

  Thea loved the connection of sex. She always had. This was what she had missed so very much for the past five years.

  But now Gabriel was here and his cock filled all her emptiness. Her hands stroked his arms, savoring the feel of his muscles, of his maleness.

  He spoke to her telepathically. And now the tendrils, cherie. Coax them as I enter you.

  How beautiful his thoughts were within her mind.

  The tendrils glided toward her sex from all over her body.

  She met his emerald gaze as he looked down at her. “Je t’aime, cherie.”

  “And I love you.”

  His back arched and at the same time, the tendrils slid into place, lining her deep so that when he pushed, the sensation caused her to cry out and grab his arms, holding him tight.

  The tendrils that moved through his cock suddenly touched her tendrils. An electric sensation shot through her and she gasped.

  He paused in his movements. “Do you feel that, cherie?”

  The binding spread like a soft tingling through her body. She saw his face as in a beautiful glow. Her heart beat hard in her chest. Her lips parted. “I can feel that I’m bound to you.”

  He nodded. “I feel it as well. We are one.”

  “Oui,” she said, smiling but tears touched her eyes, a gentle burn that drifted low and seared her heart. How she loved him.

  He began to move within her again, thrusting, pulling back, then driving into her. Her tendrils disengaged from his only going so far as to tease her damp well, stroking her muscles as he drove within her.

  “Oh, my God.” She tried to explain what it was like. “I feel as though all my tendrils are reaching for you in a rhythm.”

  “Oui, like a fist. Oh, cherie, this is incroyable.”

  He pumped hard now. She wouldn’t last long, not with so much intense sensation. Several tendrils now plucked higher on her sensitive flesh, stroking her clitoris, and she began to cry out with each thrust.

  “Like a fist over me,” he reiterated. “Ah, ma cherie, we may never leave this bed.”

  “I know.”

  He moved faster.

  The orgasm barreled down on her this time, stronger than before. The tendrils increased the muscular pulses until she screamed at the ceiling all over again and the pleasure kept rolling in strong waves, one orgasm after the next.

  Gabriel shouted as he released into her, his pelvis slamming into her, draw
ing her pleasure out. He rocked into her, grunting with each thrust.

  Finally, he began to settle and she relaxed against the sheets. She embraced him as he nuzzled her neck, his thick hair covering her arms.

  “I love you so much,” he murmured.

  What a miracle this was that love had found her again in such a surprising way, even with a vampire. She smiled and hugged him.

  After a moment, he rose up to look at her, his expression serious. “I wish more than anything to keep you beside me throughout the day and to make love to you again. But I know you must take the amulet to your mother.”

  Thea leaned up and kissed him. “You’re right, I must go, but I’m having the hardest time leaving you.”

  “It is the binding.”

  He dipped down, kissed her once, then withdrew from her body. “Go, Thea, your mother needs you and if it were not daylight outside, I would join you.”

  She took a deep breath and forced herself to slide off the bed. She gathered up her clothes, cleaned up and once dressed, moved to the hall.

  From the doorway, she turned and said, “As soon as I’m assured that my mother’s health is no longer in danger, I’ll return to you.”

  “Go,” he whispered softly.

  Thea left Gabriel’s compound, the amulet in hand. She made her way swiftly to her mother’s cottage and hurried to her bedside. She was asleep, or perhaps even in a coma, her complexion deathly pale. The witch, Sol-Brenna, sat in a chair on the opposite side of the bed, tears tracking down her cheeks.

  Thea showed her the amulet.

  “Oh, thank the goddess of life,” she whispered, wiping her eyes. She was a great beauty with thick red hair that hung in a mass of waves and curls to her waist.

  “All will be well,” Thea assured her. She could sense the amulet reaching out to the illness that possessed her mother. Thea pressed the amulet into the palm of her mother’s hand and healing power flowed.

  A moment later, her mother’s eyes opened and her fingers closed around the amulet. “Thea,” she whispered softly, turning toward her.

  Thea smiled and she let out a deep breath. “I’m here.”

  The healing worked swiftly so that by the noon hour, her mother was sitting up in bed and eating a bowl of potato-leek soup. Sol-Brenna had long since left and even Thea had enjoyed a bite to eat.

  “Did you have much trouble getting the amulet from Master Gabriel?”

  Thea could only smile. “Well, yes, a little trouble.”

  Her mother tilted her head. “You seem different, my daughter.”

  “I suppose I am.”

  Thea then shared all that had happened overnight, from having gone to Gabriel in the first place, then the adventures in both Eligio’s castle and Drachyn’s feasting room. She had always been close to her parent, so she also told her about the binding.

  Her mother didn’t speak for a long moment, then she smiled. “I won’t chide you about taking a vampire into your bed, not when I can tell that love has found you again. Only tell me that you’re happy.”

  “More than I can say.” Thea sat down on the side of the bed and took her mother’s hand, the same one that had held the amulet. “I owe Gabriel everything, mama. Everything, including your life. Without him, I could never have gotten the amulet for you. But beyond that, I respect him and I know that he’s an honorable man. I love him with all my heart.”

  Her mother nodded. “There is never just one perfect path in life. And though I would not have thought you would love a vampire, your obvious happiness eases any concerns I might have had.”

  After another hour of sitting and chatting with her mother, Thea left to return to Gabriel’s bed.

  *** *** ***

  A week later, Gabriel supported Thea as she floated in the pool. He had brought her to Isabella Falls after all, in the warm southern shire of Eaglenton. He’d accomplished his primary goal: he’d been making love to her for hours.

  Swimming in the cool waters was but a respite between.

  She released a deep sigh.

  “Content?” he asked.

  “Tres, tres, content,” she said, laughing.

  He moved her in a circle, his hands beneath her back, as she floated and trailed her fingers in the water.

  “And you, my love?” she asked. “Are you content?”

  “I like that you call my ‘my love’, cherie. And, oui, I am very content.”

  At that she turned, sliding from his hands. She stood up in the water, which was only waist deep. He glanced down at her puckered nipples and the rivulets flowing over her bare skin. At the mere sight of her, even though he had released into her just a few minutes ago, the familiar binding tendrils began to move within his body. His arousal was swift.

  She slid her arms around him. “I know when you said you intended to make love to me all night, I was pretty sure it was a lovely piece of exaggeration.” She reached low and stroked him. “But I’m beginning to think that the bonds we share won’t let us do anything else.”

  “Do you object?”

  She chuckled and kissed him, pressing her abdomen against his erection. “No, not at all but this is going to be one long wicked night.”

  “Oui, cherie,” he said. “It certainly will be.”

  He kissed her again until she moaned against his lips. Savoring the love that had come to him in the form of a woman, mostly human and a little fae, he thanked his forebears for creating the amulets of his world, which in turn had brought Thea to him.

  He hoped he would always be worthy of Thea and swore by the ancient vampire lords that he would spend his life making sure that he was all that she desired him to be as a friend, as a lover, and as a bound mate, now and forever.

  The End

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Caris Roane is the award-winning author of five published novels for St. Martin’s Press. She is also known under the pen name, Valerie King, having published almost fifty novels and novellas for Kensington Publishing.

  The second installment of the World of the Amulet Series is DARK NIGHT and is currently scheduled as a summer 2012 release.

  For more information about all things Caris Roane, please visit her website at:

  www.CarisRoane.com

  To be the first to learn about all upcoming Caris Roane releases, be sure to sign up for her newsletter!

  And finally, if you enjoy sweet Regency Romance or sensual Regency Historicals, you can learn more about Valerie King at:

  www.ValerieKing-Romance.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR