Amazon Awakening by Caridad Piñeiro

before.
    Her one consolation was that Rey was in a similar state. His deep brown masculine nipples were hard little buds she ached to suck and his erection was impossible to miss.
    At the French doors to her room, she turned to face him and parted the fabric of her robe, but he kept his distance, his fists clenched at his sides.
    â€œI want you. Do you not want me again?” she asked, wondering at his reluctance. Any other man would have accepted her invitation without hesitation.
    â€œI do, only this desire is from the shift again. I worry that it’s too much too soon.” He finally released his restraint enough to reach up and cradle her cheek.
    The desire raging through her was even stronger than before, but she wished to honor his self-control as well as give herself time to consider all that had happened in the span of the last few hours.
    â€œI understand why you want to wait. I do, too.”
    â€œLet’s sleep on it, then. If in the morning we feel the same—”
    â€œStay the night with me so the morning won’t seem so far away. You can explain to me what Emilio meant earlier.”
    She took hold of his hand and led him into her bedroom. At the side of the bed she tossed aside her robe and climbed beneath the sheets. Lying on her back, she held her hand out in invitation.
    Rey wavered for a moment, as if considering the wisdom of joining her, but then he took her hand and slipped in beside her. He faced her, eased one arm around her waist and urged her close. She pillowed her head on the muscled strength of the arm he had tucked beneath his head so he could look at her. Splaying her hand across the warm flesh of his pectoral muscle, his masculine nipple was hard beneath her palm. Lightly, she stroked her hand back and forth, needing to feel him. Needing to maintain some kind of connection to him because it seemed to bring balance deep within her.
    â€œWhat did Emilio mean about the jaguar spirit claiming me?”
    â€œYour father was a very powerful Guardian and so are you. It was how you were able to move from this physical plane to the realm of the sacred space so easily.”
    â€œWhere is that realm? We didn’t go far and yet it became day—”
    â€œBecause it is in a different plane and time, but in the same physical space as we are. It is an alternate version of our world,” he replied.
    â€œAnd only Guardians can see it?” she asked, wanting to understand.
    â€œOnly we can see it and visit it, but only for short periods of time because it is not truly our world.”
    She thought about what her mother had said about her father’s many absences. That he had seemed to almost disappear before her eyes. She recalled the way she had felt at the village earlier, as if she was being physically torn in half. “My father…he visited too often, didn’t he?”
    â€œYour grandmother believes that he did. The constant shifting between worlds disrupts our physical beings. Weakens us if we do it repeatedly.”
    â€œSo he didn’t die from a logger’s attack?” she pressed, beginning to wonder how much of what she knew about her father was true and how much had been faked to shelter the existence of the Guardians.
    â€œHe did die at the hands of intruders, but if he hadn’t been as weak as he was, maybe he could have defended himself.”
    â€œAnd your parents? They were killed with him,” she said and cupped his cheek, brushing her thumb along the sharp edge of his jaw.
    â€œMy father was a relatively new Guardian and my mother had no abilities. Because of that they did not have the power to protect the boundaries of the sacred place.”
    â€œIs that what you do?” she asked, wondering yet again who they were and what their role was in this world.
    Rey laid a hand at her waist, wanting to maintain the connection between them. Needing to feel the smoothness of her skin. Beneath his palm he felt the