Page 35 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

Oleg

T he kiss lasted only for a few seconds, but it was enough to leave Oleg smoking.

Tatyana pulled away and grabbed moisture from the air, dousing the ripple of fire that rose on Oleg’s neck.

“Get yourself under control.” She looked around the dark trailer. “Do you want to kill us both?”

He could feel her cool breath on his lips, and her angry whisper touched his skin like a caress. “I would never let that happen, but well done, volchitsa. Your control is excellent.”

“I don’t need your compliments.” Her voice was scornful, but even as she spoke, her head was angling toward his again, drawn to him as he was to her.

“You have them, nonetheless.” Oleg had washed his body in a nearby river before he slipped into the camp, washing off weeks of mud and ashes.

“How did you get in here?”

“It wasn’t easy.” His palm was warm on the side of her neck, and he could feel her amnis reaching out and flowing across his skin.

The Poshani Hazar searched for elemental energy first, and for a vampire as old and powerful as Oleg was, keeping his amnis under tight control was a herculean feat. The effort it took for him to conceal his elemental power felt like a noose around his throat.

“You cannot be here.” Tatyana’s voice wavered between irritation and concern. “If the Hazar find you?—”

“They’ll only find me if you call for them.” Oleg angled his head to the side and breathed in the scent of her. Fresh water and roses. He battled the bizarre temptation to fall to his knees. “Are you going to call for them?”

Their lips weren’t joined, but they were only inches apart. “And start a fight when I know you probably have an entire army hidden somewhere in the woods?”

“Not an army.” His hand slid from the side of her neck to her shoulder, and he stroked his thumb over her collarbone. “Only a few people and all ones you know.”

It didn’t matter if she called for them. Now that Oleg had found her, he wasn’t going anywhere.

She’s nothing you want and everything you need.

He banished Lazlo’s laughing words from his mind. Tatyana was definitely what he wanted.

She looked up and met his eyes. “Oleg, what…” She shook her head. “What are you doing here?”

“You ask as if you don’t know.” While his left hand drifted over her collarbone, his right hand slid around her waist and pulled her body closer. “I told you; I missed you.”

Her jaw clenched for a moment. “You said that; then you hung up on me.”

She let him pull her closer and pressed her body into his. Her words might have been angry, but her body and blood knew exactly what they wanted, and it wasn’t a fight.

Oleg felt as if he’d been starving and now a banquet was laid out before him. He could smell her arousal, and his cock was already hard.

It took every ounce of self-control not to grab her, throw her on the wide bed, and tear her clothes off. He wanted to drape his body with hers. He wanted to taste every inch of her skin. He wanted to sink his cock into her body and his fangs into her neck.

The memory of her taste was sweet on his tongue.

“I missed you.” Now that he’d admitted it, he couldn’t stop saying it. “You have infected my mind.”

The moment Oleg had come within a mile of her, the amnis he carried in his blood woke like a roaring lion. He’d nearly torn off Mika’s head when the vampire had told him to be careful and take his time.

“I infected you?” She pushed him back. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps infection was the wrong word.”

“You cannot be here.” Her whisper was stronger this time. “You have violated your own agreement with the Poshani, and if Radu finds you?—”

“So call him.” Oleg moved back to her, crowding her against a wall and lowering his face to hers again. “Call him.” He bent and whispered, dragging his lips across her skin, “I will not stop you.”

She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him away. “I should call them. I should scream for them right now.” Despite her words, her eyes dropped to his lips.

Tatyana was as hungry for him as he was for her.

Oleg reached down, tore off the ragged T-shirt he was wearing, and threw it on the floor. Then he braced his arms around her, leaning into the wall and caging her body with his while he bent his head down and breathed in her scent.

“Do you remember what it feels like to need a breath?” He watched the expressions flicker across her endlessly fascinating face. “I don’t. It’s been too long.”

“It burns.” She fisted her hand and pressed it against her chest. “Right here.”

Oleg’s eyes dropped to her chest. “Yes, it does.”

Her energy tangled with his, and the moisture in the air drew to her body while Oleg continued to carefully leash his power.

“You can’t be here.” She repeated herself, but this time it was barely a whisper.

Her hands lifted, and her fingertips were damp when she touched his skin. Her element sizzled against his chest, and steam rose around them, redolent with the scent of woods, water, and roses.

“Tell me to leave,” Oleg murmured. “I know I have trespassed. Tell me to leave, and I will go.”

Her bright blue eyes lifted to meet his gaze. “Maybe you have infected me too.”

“Enough.” He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up as their lips met.

Tatyana wrapped her legs around his waist, and he braced his hands under her rounded bottom, kneading her delicate curves as he started walking to the bed.

Finally. Finally .

Her mouth tasted like wine. He was drunk from her kiss, and he was barely keeping his body under control. His throat was on fire, and all he wanted was to taste her blood and drink in her pleasure until she wept.

“No.” Tatyana yanked the back of his hair, and Oleg barely kept from snarling. “Shower. Water.”

“Smart.” He changed direction and headed toward the scent of water.

Sliding the door open, he realized that he’d underestimated the luxury this caravan offered.

This was no rudimentary camper. The bathing area was nearly as large as the bedroom, and as he braced Tatyana against the wall and started unbuttoning the shirt that covered her skin, she reached out and flipped on the water.

Oleg arched his back when ice-cold water hit his neck.

“Sorry.” She fumbled with the levers. “Let me just?—”

“Not important.” Nothing was as important as being in her. The water would keep his amnis at bay, which felt like an actual problem for the first time in several hundred years.

He was honestly not sure if he was going to lose control.

What was she doing to him? He gripped her shirt with one hand, tore his mouth from hers, and used his fangs to rip away the material blocking her body from his.

“Oleg!” She hissed. “Put me down.”

He curled his lip and growled in the back of his throat but placed her on the floor where she stepped out of her now-soaked clothing and lifted her chin.

There was a drop of blood on her lower lip where his fangs had cut her lip. He lifted his hand, and his fingers hovered over the small wound. His hand was trembling. “What have you done to me?”