Bitten by Desire by Marguerite Kaye Read Free Book Online Page A

feel for her what you feel for me? Was it the same?”
    â€œIn the way as a shadow is the same as its owner. No, it wasn’t the same. What I feel for you I have never felt for anyone.”
    Imogen’s heart jumped, plumping with hope. “So, you see, it could work.” Excitement tinged her voice. Pleading sparked in her eyes. She gripped his sleeve in supplication.
    But Vaelen flinched from her beguiling—too beguiling—supplication, the lines of his face harsh with pain. “I can’t. Imogen, I can’t risk you. That you love me enough to offer will be my solace.” He looked down at her, his eyes glowing, a vibrant green she had not seen before. He stroked her brow, planted a kiss there. “I could not risk harming a hair on your head.”
    Her tears overflowed, tracking a silvery path down her cheeks but she ignored them. “My life means nothing to me without you.” She gripped his hand fiercely. “Please, Vaelen, I love you. I love you more than life itself. Without you I am a shadow too, living but barely alive. The only difference between us is that there is an end to my sentence.”
    â€œYou would do this for me, even though you know who I am and how I have lived?”
    â€œI would do it for us. You will no longer be a slave to that way of living if you are mortal. I love you as I know you can be, as the man you will be, for the honourable man you are, who has fought his very nature to survive on his own terms. I love you, Vaelen. Can’t you see that? I love you. My heart and my soul are yours.”
    â€œImogen, my own Imogen, you can’t love me half as much as I love you. I wish—if only—I wish… But I can’t.” He kissed her then, fluttering kisses on her brow, her lids, her cheeks, the soft line of her jaw, licking away the salt of her tears, with every kiss saying it over and over like a spell. I love you, I love you, I love you.
    He loved her. He had loved her from the moment he cast his eyes upon her. He could see that clearly now, now that he allowed himself to look for the signs. And she loved him, of that he was certain. He could see his own feelings reflected in her eyes, echoing in her touch. When he thought of the sacrifice she offered him, he felt as if his heart were being squeezed in a vice. The sweet temptation of the legend was overpowering. What if it was true after all? There could be no doubt that his love for Lucilla was but a pale shadow of what he felt for Imogen. What if it worked?
    â€œImogen. In all my lifetimes there has never been a woman like you. I love you.” He kissed her delectable lips.
    She smiled. “Never? Do you really mean that?”
    â€œYou know I do.”
    Her smile curved further. “Then I am the one?”
    The one. She was the one. Could it really be that simple? Vaelen swallowed hard. Every part of his being told him it was. Certainty flooded him like light, but still he hesitated. So much to risk. So much more to lose?
    â€œVaelen?”
    If he did not take the risk, they would both regret it. He forever, she for a more human lifetime, but regret it they would. “Imogen. The one. My one. The only one. Are you sure?”
    â€œKiss me, Vaelen, I have never been more sure.”
    â€œI love you,” he said huskily, and did as she bid him.
    It was not like before. Not at all like before. His kisses were tender, shaping the words of love she knew he was thinking, for he opened his mind to her as well as his heart. She found she could do the same, telling him she loved him over and over as she responded to the gentle urging of his mouth and his hands, shaken by the depth of feeling he was rousing in her so that she trembled all over, heating him until they were both burning.
    He laid her back on the bed and quickly discarded his clothing. His body gleamed, the broad contours of his chest, the dip of his stomach, his muscled thighs, his manhood standing