Lightning Dragon (The Bride Hunt Book 4)
Page 13
“What happened to your blanket?” Her eyes stayed focused on the path ahead.
Thunder gave a grunt. He used one hand to cover his dick. It was still standing at full attention. “The blanket?” Thunder raised his brows. “I guess I didn’t even think about it. I hightailed it after you.”
She made a snorting noise. “I should’ve been miles away by now. Too far for you to run. Definitely too far to find me.”
He let go of his junk. She’d seen him already. The flush of her cheeks gave her away. As did the hitch in her breathing. The scent of her arousal. Her hard nipples. “I meant what I said earlier. I told Cloud that I would come for you and I would have. I told him I would end him and I would have.” He gave her small hand a light squeeze. “Turns out I didn’t have to because you’re a badass.” Thunder shook his head and gave a chuckle.
She gave another little snort. “If you say so.”
“I do. It’s good to see that you’re not afraid anymore.”
She looked away, her cheeks burning up. “I’m getting there.” She glanced back in his direction, only she didn’t look at his face. She looked significantly lower and from under her lashes. His dick hardened up even more. The little human was totally checking him out.
“You can admit that I was right earlier …”
Her eyes snapped back to the horizon and she tripped on a loose rock. Thunder gripped her hand a little tighter to steady her. “Are you okay?”
She gave a nod. “Yeah … it was easier going up than it is negotiating the way down. I didn’t realize this hill had such a rise.”
“You didn’t notice on your way up because you were so set on getting up that cliff and giving me lip-to-lip to save my life that you—”
She smiled. “It’s mouth-to-mouth and I was not. Okay, maybe I wanted to save your life but …”
“Hah!” Warmth flooded him. “I knew it. You like me. Maybe you should start by admitting it along with ...”
“Fine,” she half growled. It was cute on a human. “I’ve always had a thing for men with big dicks.”
It was his turn to trip, only he didn’t do it as gracefully. His feet skidded and he landed on his ass. Damn his weakened state.
Tammy giggled and put her hand in front of her face. “Are you okay?” she finally managed to get out.
Thunder tried to give her a dirty look and failed. Then again, at least half the looks he gave her were dirty … positively filthy. He got back up. They walked in silence for a few minutes. “I call bullshit. My big dick is a serious plus but it isn’t the reason you … have a thing for me.”
“I don’t have a thing for you.” She glanced up at him before looking ahead. Then she sighed. “Okay, maybe I do have a thing for you. A small thing. Not a big thing.”
“And it has nothing to do with my dick?” She had more than just a thing for him.
She laughed. “Hopefully, at some point, it will have a lot to do with that particular piece of your anatomy, but … your dick has nothing to do with it outright. No.” Yes! Whoo hooo! He felt like punching a fist into the air.
“Good.” He could scent dragon. That and blood. It told him that they were nearing the site. He pushed Tammy behind him. “We’re going to talk about this some more later … Fuck!”
“Oh no. I swear he was here,” Tammy frowned, her eyes darting around the clearing. “That looks like blood but maybe it was further over there,” she pointed to the right. “Or maybe there.” Tammy rubbed her forehead. “I could’ve sworn.”
“You’re right. Look at the indentation,” Thunder indicated the ground. The blades of grass were bent. The weeds trampled. He walked to the site, bending over to examine the area. His chest throbbed. Thunder was sure that Cloud snapped one of his ribs earlier. Although he was healing much quicker than before, he still wasn’t at optimum. There were still traces of silver in his blood. “He bled quite profusely. Those are drag marks,” he pointed to gouges in the dirt. “Let’s follow the trail.” He grabbed Tammy’s hand and together they followed the blood and the ripped earth. “He is staying in his dragon form.”
“What does that mean?” she whispered.
“It means he’s stronger than I had hoped. If he was gravely injured or dying he wouldn’t be able to maintain his dragon form. It means he’ll heal quicker as well. Let’s hope we can find him. Are you okay to walk? I don’t want to leave you.”
She nodded. “What will you do if we catch up to him?”
Thunder clenched his teeth for a moment. “I should kill him.”
“Should?” Her voice was soft. It didn’t hold any anger or judgment.
“I should kill him. I must kill him. He won’t stop.”
“No, I don’t think he will. You won’t be able to kill him unless it’s in self-defense though.”
“I have to,” he growled, picking up the pace. It irked him that Tammy was right. He would have to force himself to act. To take care of the situation and to kill the injured male whether he retaliated or not. Dragon shifters did not do well under incarceration. Besides, Cloud’s actions were more than enough to warrant the death penalty. He only wished it could be different.
They continued for another twenty minutes. He noticed that the trail became less and less obvious. The male was already healing, hardly bleeding anymore and walking with more care. He snarled when they reached the banks of the river. The trial ended there.
“What’s wrong?”
Thunder stared into the churning current. “He’s taken to the water. I would have to track each side to find a point of exit. We wouldn’t be able to do it quickly enough and I’m not leaving you. That leaves us with one option.”
“I’m all ears.” Her eyes were wide. Her face pale. For a second he was tempted to take the easier way. Easy would mean looking over his shoulder. Not leaving Tammy’s side for a second. Mmmmm… that he could go for. It wasn’t what he wanted for her though. She was a fiercely independent female who wouldn’t take kindly to having him, or a few of his warriors, be her shadow. He also liked the idea of spending more time with her. Thunder wasn’t ready to face reality.
“We’re going to make him come to us.”
“How will we do that?”
“We’ll camp out right here,” he opened his arms and let his gaze track the clearing. It was beautiful. By the look in her eyes as she looked around them, he could see that she thought so too. He’d build a shelter, get a fire started and hunt for meat. There was plenty of fresh water.
“He will come … of that I have no doubt.” Until he did, Thunder would grow eyes in the back of his head. He wouldn’t let Tammy know that he was continually looking, watching and waiting, but that’s exactly what he would do. When Cloud came, he would be ready for the male.
Chapter 16
“You’re right,” Tammy nodded her head. “He will come. He’ll wait until he’s strong again and then he’ll blindside us.”
Thunder flashed those gorgeous eyes her way. “I’m stronger than he is.” He bounced his pecs. Not in a flashy elaborate way, but still … they bounced. Boom! Boom! If she was completely honest, it made her a little short of breath. He flexed his biceps next. Just a tad. Enough for her to notice but not so much that it was over the top. It made her look. It made her really look. Guns that could make a girl drool. Next he flexed his abs. Boom! There they were. So ribbed. So sexy.
Since her eyes were already looking down, she let them drift even lower. His cock wasn’t fully erect anymore, it was back at half-mast. It had gone from being freakin’ huge to merely really big.
“You need to stop looking at my dick,” he growled. It gave a twitch. “At least for the time being. I need to think.”
“Oh, so it’s true that a man’s brain is connected to his penis. Blood flow can either go to one head or the other, not to both?”
“What? I don’t know … then again … maybe,” he sighed. “You’re making me lose my train of thought. As much as I would love to have this conversation with you right now, we ca
“You’re forgetting,” she paused, “he took that bag of tricks with him. He has all of those silver weapons. His bag wasn’t in that clearing. Neither was the sword. It will have fallen close to the crash site.”
“He’s going to need his weapons,” Thunder’s voice was filled with such venom she felt a shiver race down her spine. “Every single one of them and more. He won’t blindside me again.”
Thunder put a finger to his lips. The universal signal to be still. They were perched up in a tree. The branch was wider than many tree trunks she’d seen in her life. They’d been up here a long time, at least an hour by her estimation. Her ass was numb and she was cold ‒ her jeans were drying somewhere back at the river. Thunder had assured her that he knew how to get back there.
She’d washed up earlier. The basics, stuff like cleaning her hair and washing her face and hands. Then she’d scrubbed her jeans. They looked like something from the set of a horror movie. That meant that she was left in her t-shirt and panties. Thankfully the shirt was pretty big. Unfortunately, her legs were unshaven but that didn’t stop Thunder from looking at them and groaning. Like they were the best naked legs he’d ever seen. His ‘you know what’ had hardened up, so he really did find her attractive despite the hairy legs.
A noise from below drew her attention. Thunder put his finger back to his lips and pointed to the right of them. A herd of deer were making their way, one by one, down a trail. Thunder had explained earlier that the trail had been made by animals to get through the forest. They used it regularly to get down to the river to drink, as well as to move around from one grazing area to the next. The deer were bigger than she expected. They were so beautiful. She’d never seen a wild animal up close like this. She held her breath as they walked closer and closer. Her heart beat faster and faster. Her hands felt sweaty. She was no longer cold as adrenaline pumped through her veins. She was tempted to shout out. To warn the poor innocent creatures. Instead, she pursed her lips together.
She glanced up at Thunder who gave her a half smile. It was tender and held apology. He looked back down at the animals which were right below them now.
The next few seconds went by quickly.
Like a whirlwind. Thunder dropped down from the branch. There one second and gone the next. He landed on one of the deer. The rest scattered in a clatter of hooves. There was leaping, clumps of ground were thrown up, animals snorted loudly. The sound of hooves became softer and then disappeared altogether.
She looked down and swallowed hard.
“I’m sorry.” Thunder wiped his brow.
She gave it nod. “I understand.”
He smiled, his big thighs straddled the dead deer, making it look small in comparison. The poor thing’s head was at a strange angle. It took brute strength to kill an animal of that size with only his bare hands. She’d offered her knife to him ‒ it was still in the sheath in the front of her jeans ‒ but he’d refused. He said he preferred to kill with his hands.
“We need to eat,” he added.
“I know. I feel bad for the poor thing. It might have been pregnant or someone’s mom or someone’s dad. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to eat it.”
Thunder laughed.
“What’s so funny?
He jumped to his feet, moving to just below where she was sitting. “This is a female.” He pointed at the deer. “She wasn’t pregnant and she wasn’t lactating. I could scent each individual animal. There were four in the group that were pregnant and one with a calf. There was a young male who will be chased from the herd soon, as he is reaching sexual maturity. There was only one other male. There were two other females that were also not pregnant. This is the older of the three. Her meat will be tougher but at least she has had more of a life.”
“Show off,” she smiled. “I’m glad you let the younger animals live. That’s really sweet.”
“I did it for you. If it was just me, I’d have succulent meat for dinner.”
She laughed. “You talk such shit.”
Thunder opened his arms. “Whenever you’re ready.”
“Seriously?” she raised her brows. “You’re going to catch me?”
He gave a nod.
“That’s really showing off. I think I can climb down.” She glanced at the route in question. It looked a lot worse from up here than it had on the way up.
“Just jump already. I’ll catch you,” Thunder said. She looked at him. “Do you trust me, Tammy?”
‘Yes,” she half groaned. “I do.”
“On three then.”
She gave a nod.
Thunder counted down. On three, she slid from the branch and Thunder caught her. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
She shook her head. Thunder kissed her on her nose and put her down. Then he hoisted the carcass onto his back. “Stay close and let me know if you can’t keep up,” he gave her a wink.
Such a show off. Tammy rolled her eyes at his retreating back. What a back it was. She’d never tire of looking at his ass either. Thunder stopped walking. “Stop checking me out.”
“I … it …” she sighed. “Fine,” she huffed. “It’s just that I thought I saw something walking on your back. A spider, or a bug or something.”
Thunder laughed. It was a rich, deep sound. “There are a lot of those in the wilderness.”
“There sure are.” Her eyes were back on his ass. She was a pervert. A total pervert. Thunder had turned her into one. She’d never found a guy more attractive. Not even Chris had had this effect on her. It excited her but it also scared her. Terrified her, but Thunder was right. She needed to be brave.
Tammy bit the last piece of meat off of the stick she was holding and threw it into the fire. “Oh my gosh!” She leaned back against the tree behind her. “That was the most delicious meal I’ve ever had. As in ever. I swear …” She looked over at Thunder who had just taken a bite out of one of the chunks of meat on his make-shift skewer. “You could take me to a fancy French restaurant and feed me five courses of food that look more like canvasses than meals and I would still prefer old-age deer.”
Thunder chuckled. “It didn’t take much to convince you to eat it.”
“Are you kidding me, just hearing the fat sizzle as it dripped in the fire and smelling that wonderful scent of cooking meat … there was no way I could say no.”
“Even after watching me gut it and helping me cut it up?” He smiled and took another bite.
She grabbed her stomach. “Don’t remind me. I didn’t love that part of the whole thing.”
“You did well, Tammy.” Thunder threw his stick into the fire and rubbed his hands together. Then he turned his eyes on her and her breath froze in her lungs, despite the heat of the fire.
“What is it?” Her voice had turned husky. Not now voice. It isn’t what it looks like.
“I’m trying to remind myself why we need to wait. We’re next to an open fire, under a blanket of stars and you’re the most beautiful female I’ve ever seen.”
“You are too charming for your own good.” Her chest still tightened at his words. He looked so sincere. “Um … we need to wait because we might not be allowed to be together and I’m a scaredy cat.” Her voice had dropped about a hundred octaves. Okay, maybe not that many but close. “Because we’re being stalked by a crazy guy, maybe even right at this very minute.” She tried to look into the darkness that surrounded them but couldn’t see a thing.
Thunder chuckled. “I am on my guard. Cloud won’t get to within a half a mile of us. My senses are restored and I’m almost at optimal strength. You cut him with a silver blade, he will not be faring nearly as well. I think we have a day or two before we need to worry.”
“Well that’s one less thing then,” she tried to smile but her muscles felt tense. Even the ones on her face.
Thunder looked really serious. “Sex would be a really bad idea.”
“Yes, it would.”
“When I asked you earlier if you were still afraid, you said you were getting there. How are you feeling now? Any changes?”
Her heart beat a little faster. Was he suggesting …? “I wish I could say differently but I guess I’m still a bit afraid. More open to the idea of something but not quite there.”
“You still think I’m going to hurt you?”
“You have a ton in common with my ex,” she paused, watching as his eyes darkened. “Let me explain. Chris is very good-looking, he is hands-down the most charming guy I’ve ever met. At least, he was before I met you. I think that if he could wink and have the same effect as a wink from you, he would develop a tic he’d do it so much. Anything to be the center of attention and to get his way. I met him and fell hard, we were living together within a month. It was all too quick. It turned out he was a huge dick. So, I clearly am a really bad judge of character. I can’t trust myself to make the right decisions when it comes to men.”
“I remind you of him,” Thunder’s voice came out sounding flat. There was an underlying anger.
“Let me finish,” she turned so that she could face him. His jaw was clenched. His eyes blazing. “You’re even better looking. Way more charming and without even trying. All of those things pissed me off so badly. My attraction to you pissed me off even more … and don’t get me started on the wink. It makes me feel weak in the knees. I never thought I would ever fall for a guy who uses his eyeballs as a means to flirt.”
“You don’t like my wink?” He looked distraught.
“I love your damned wink. You might be sexy and charming but you’re also nice. You’re sweet. You care, Thunder. You’re not the kind of guy who would fuck around while in a relationship.”
“He fucked around on you?” A muscle in Thunder’s jaw ticked and his biceps bulged as his body tensed. Oh, and those muscles on the sides of his neck pulled tight as well. Not that she was checking him out right now or anything. This conversation was too important for that.
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