“Xander, this is so beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking and refreshing. I was hoping there would be a water source out here to get cleaned up in, but this is beyond anything I could have imagined would be here.”
“Kind of like you.” His head dipped down, his nose nearly touching mine.
The water may not have been hot, but the heat was rose up within me. He had sparked something inside me that was about to blaze out of control.
“I have spent my entire life running from this place to the next, dodging anything that could have given me joy or satisfaction. I just knew that none of it meant anything. Somehow, now, I want to run to it and to you. I want to run with you, around you, beside you, and anywhere you will allow me to be.”
My hands flattened against his chest. Every part of my brain said, Push. Get out and run. Run as far and as fast as you can. If you let this man in any deeper, there will be no way to turn back.
A part of me was well aware that this thing between us couldn’t be. We were from two different worlds, and I had mine to go back to in only a few hours. How could I live with myself knowing I would be without him for an eternity?
A savage and raw look took over and the carnal desires of a wild beast started to replace the gentle and soft expression he’d had on his face that morning.
The thrill and the impatience I could see reflecting back at me through his intense eyes had my body shaking with unfamiliar sensations. Any will against my cravings was being obliterated as his wet hand came up to push a fallen lock of my hair away from my face.
The pads of his thumb slid back over the apple of my cheek. His long fingers tucked behind my ear. My breath shallowed as I found it harder and harder to breathe.
His lips parted as if he were about to say something, but I didn’t care anymore what he had to say. He didn't need words to get his point across to me.
His nostrils flared. There was no doubt he was taking in my scent and making it his own.
Pressing onto the balls of my feet, I lifted up and claimed his mouth for my own. My insides lit on fire, and I was never less afraid to get burned.
***
As he pulled me into the kiss, his erection grew against my thigh, thrilling me to the core. The hair on his chest brushed against my tender and erect nipples, lighting a fire I no longer knew how to extinguish.
Even in the hot spring, his flesh was warm as it pressed against me. The succulent kiss became anything but sweet. Xander’s tongue explored my mouth, and my heart kicked around the inside of my rib cage. It felt as if it would explode, crashing hard, over and over.
Hunger swelled in every part of my body. I wanted his hands on me. My skin hurt from the covetous need to be touched. His hands cradled my face, and the back of my head as his breath hissed through his nostrils and his lips encompassed mine. The kiss grew deeper with his probing tongue.
The taste of him was addicting, sweet, and spiced, mixed with the pine and snow scent of him. I wanted to taste every part, to consume and devour him to the last drop.
With his hands still holding me, he eased back out of the kiss and worked his mouth over my chin and down my jawline before letting his tongue find its way around the base of my ear.
“Selene.”
His voice sounded rough and broken as it rushed against my neck before his mouth sucked at the crook of my neck.
Xander’s hands slid down my back as he lowered, kissing over my collar bone. He grabbed the backs of my thighs and lifted me up and slightly out of the water. The cool air tickled my hot, wet skin.
My legs parted and wrapped around his waist as my body rose. He moved us back toward the fall of cool mountain water and pressed my back against the smooth rock wall. With one hand cradling my rear, he used the other to stroke the curves of my breast before lifting one to meet his lips.
I felt the soft tip tighten into a hard peak beneath his tongue as it flicked back and forth. A pulsing heat radiated with an aching need between my legs. I became one with the wilderness, and the animal inside of me had been awakened by wild desire.
Xander paused and looked up, meeting my gaze. His eyes were dark with predatory cognizance and a savageness that burned through me.
“You are mine. You can deny me, but in my eyes, you will forever be mine. Not as my possession, but as the keeper of my heart and my soul.”
My breath caught in my throat as my heart plummeted into my belly. The power and fortitude in his words had me melting against him. I knew I should have denied him, but he had taken possession of a part of me I’d never known existed.
My hand rose to his face and brushed a finger across his lips. The lips that had spoken words of unmatched loyalty. I could feel it resonating in me with the truth that only an animal could speak. It was truer than any devotion my handmaidens could be capable of.
His unbridled adulation clawed at my insides, tearing apart my restraints. Fiery lust pulsed through my veins. Xander’s hands flexed around the fullest part of each of my rear globes, his fingers spreading the wanting secret flesh between my legs.
The ridge of his erection pressed against the portal to my soul. Lust rolled through me like a thundering storm. Every nerve ending in my body was suspended in anticipation of becoming one with Xander. My hands gripped his shoulders as his chest grazed over my nipples, teasing them as he lowered me over his admirable length.
With a growl, he sunk himself deep into the warmth of my femininity, and I let out a whimper. Pain and pleasure mixed into a seductive nectar, and I thirsted for more as my body acclimated to his presence.
I took his depth, and his breath departed with a rough exhalation on my neck.
“Holy shit! Selene!” he cried.
The way my name rolled off his tongue had his voice thrumming through me right down to my toes.
His mouth crashed against mine again as an aching heat grew inside me. Xander's hips collided with mine, slow and in control as I rocked against him.
His fingers squeezed the globes of my buttocks, harder and harder, as his pace quickened. My back arched, and our kiss broke away only for me to find my nipples again being sucked into his mouth. His teeth tightened around the tips, and the sensation tingled down to the bud of pleasure between my legs.
I gasped and relished in the way he felt inside of me. My body trembled, and my shoulders shook as my muscles clamped around him. My hands reached around him squeezing, nails digging in and pulling him closer. He couldn’t get close enough. I wanted more. Deeper and deeper, he plunged inside me.
Friction grew as our bodies slid against each other. When he hit a tender spot, my body quaked and every muscle tightened. I released a shaky breath and met his rapid thrusts.
“Yes!” I cried as my eyes pressed together.
Suddenly, my hips bucked, and a silent scream attempted to pour out my open mouth. Waves of pleasure exploded, and a white light beamed from my chest.
I melted around him as every plane of muscle in his body flexed under me—pulsing, releasing, and driving me farther over the edge.
We cried out together.
A thundering roar escaped him.
His shoulders shook, and his body transfixed as I rode out the aftershock of pleasure.
I fell over him, my arms wrapping him in a tight embrace as he pulled back from me and released my legs. He then scooped me up and carried me the short distance to the waterfall.
“I think it is time for us to cool off.”
I let my head fall back under the stream of chilled water and then came up to catch my breath again as my feet found the earth beneath the pool.
Xander reached up and pushed the hair from my face, causing me the inability to breathe.
“You are magnificent in every single way possible,” Xander hummed with our foreheads pressed against each other.
He leaned in and laced my mouth with another sweet and soothing stroke of his tongue. Our embrace could have gone on for an eternity. The energy flowing between us could have been enoug
h for an entire civilization to live off.
Chapter 14
“I hope Xena doesn’t mind if we are a minute or two late.” I rubbed at the denim pants covering my legs. It was my first time wearing a pair of jeans. I was still unsure if they were an acceptable option for me, but they had to do for the time being.
Xander’s shoulders tightened, but a lingering smile had been splayed across his face since we’d gotten out of the hot spring.
It warmed my heart, and I couldn’t help returning the goofy smile. It was enough to make any bystander sick.
Even though we’d been cutting it close with the time, we’d had no other choice but to backtrack to Xander’s cabin and retrieve clean clothes. Most of what we’d had on in the woods was either torn to shreds or covered in blood.
“She will live if she has to stay a few minutes. She is always looking for extra time on the clock. If we weren’t on top of her about taking it easy, she would have stayed for a full shift.” He pulled into the gravel parking lot.
“Well, thank the gods we are here now to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“You can say that again. Although, I also might need to thank the gods that you are here with me as well.” He winked at me just before unlatching his door. “Wait there and let me get the door for you.”
If he only knew. It wasn’t actually the gods that needed thanking but the oracle, Elysia. It was a Goddess he had actually been fornicating with in the woods.
I was still too elated from the experience to care about the fact that I had broken my vow of chastity. I would have to come to terms with that when I got back to Olympus. I would be lucky if my devotees didn’t shun me for it all together.
Xander helped me down from the cab of his truck and never let go of my hand. We walked, joined by the fingers, all the way up to the front door of the diner.
The bell rung behind us, startling me and putting me back on edge. I scanned the small dining hall for Xena, as did Xander. I didn’t see her or her long blonde hair. With the size of her belly, she would have been hard to miss.
Xander turned to me. His eyes shifted uneasily as he stalked toward Jane. Her hand was tipping a pot of coffee over the only patron’s coffee cup.
“Is Xena in the kitchen?” he asked.
Jane rubbed her lips together, quickly retracted the pot, and moved back away from the old man.
“Jane?”
She shook her head, and her eyes darted back and forth. She looked terrified to answer him, and it wasn’t sitting well with me. A sudden empty hole seemed to open at the base of my belly. All the joy and elation that I had been filled with depleted in a matter of seconds.
“Where is she, Jane?” Xander’s voice took on a stark and dire tone.
“She isn’t here. She left with Bruno.” Jane stepped back and slid the pot onto the machine behind her, never taking her eyes off Xander.
“What?” Xander’s face flushed red and the vein running across his forehead started to pulsate. “What do you mean she left with Bruno? She would not have done that. She knew I was coming to get her, and I did not get a call or text from her.”
“I…I was going to call you, but…” Her head tipped forward, and she looked down at her feet. “He kind of didn’t give her much of a choice, and he told me if I said anything he would come back here and set this place on fire.”
Xander’s nostrils flared, and his jaw set into stone.
“I am so sorry I didn’t call you. I’m sure she is fine. For heaven's sake, he is going to be the father of her babies. They have been dating on and off for almost two years.”
Bang.
My shoulder shook along with all the condiments and silverware on the counter where Xander slammed his fist down.
“We have to go. Now!” He turned and grabbed me by the hand, nearly dragging me through the parking lot.
“How bad do you think this really is?” I asked him as we got into his truck.
Before my door was even fully shut he was peeling out of the parking lot.
“I don’t know.” He slammed his hands against the edges of the steering wheel. “This is my fault. I should have been here.”
“It isn’t your fault at all, Xander. We don’t even know how long ago she left with him.” It didn’t matter how long ago it had been, if he laid one finger on her, he would not live to tell about it. “Where do you think they went? They certainly didn’t go back to your cabin. We would have passed them.”
“We are going to the shack he likes to call home.” He pulled out his phone, pushed a few buttons, and told it to call Xena’s cell.
It rang and rang until a recording came on, telling him to leave a message.
“Dammit!” He slammed his phone down into the center console.
“How far is his shack?”
“Not too far. They live in a small compound of trailers a few miles into the woods. We are almost there. I really hope they are there.”
We pulled down another dirt road off the main stretch and traveled quite a way into the forest until we came up on a row of mail boxes. Just past the boxes was an opening with scattered trailers—some with cars and rockers out front. Others had piles of junk and old household appliances stacked up on top of what appeared to be broken down vehicles without wheels.
He came to a screeching halt at the last and most dilapidated of the homes.
“You stay here. I don’t want you to get mixed up in this. Just get Xena into the back as soon as I get her out of there. If I don’t come right out after her, take my truck and her away from here.
“Have you gone mad? I am not letting you go anywhere without me. I won’t allow harm to come to her either. And you may not believe it, but I can be way more useful than a getaway driver.” His intentions may have been to keep me from harm’s way, but I was not a mortal or a defenseless female.
“Just stay behind me, okay?” he demanded.
His fist collided with the dirt stained door. Instead of it making a loud thumping sound, the door swung inward.
“Oh!” I gasped.
“Xena?” Xander shouted as he ran into the small living space. It looked as if a tornado had taken a path directly through the interior. Furniture had been turned over and broken glass was scattered all over the floor.
He ran to the end of the short hall and slammed open the doors. “Xena! Are you here?” he shouted frantically.
“They aren’t here!”
His head tipped back, and he growled so loud that I heard the birds and other animals in the woods around us scurry away. Once he finished his animalistic cry, he kicked the old, stained couch that was already lying on its side.
“I will kill him, and when I am done, I will kill him again.”
“Xander, I am right here with you. He will do more than pay if he has harmed Xena in any way. That being said, we need to focus and find her. Tuck your rage in deep and let it come to a boil. For now, we need to find her.”
“Grrr. I don’t want to tuck my rage. I want to unleash it on his face.”
“Understandable! Listen to me. We are hunters. It is what we do. We can track them. All we need is a starting point, and we will find them.” The floor held enough crap to slow us down, and I stepped over some old cans and a pizza box to get closer to Xander.
“You ready?” I put two hands on his shoulders, then slid them down over his tense arms, and took his hands in mine. “Let’s go find her!”
***
“Look!” It didn’t take but a minute before Xander found something shiny in a small pile of mud about a foot from the front stoop.
“What is it?” I asked, even though I had a good idea.
I cringed, watching him stick his fingers into the muck. It hadn’t rained once since I had arrived, so who knew what was causing the moisture. He lifted a finger, and from it, hung a silver chain with Xena’s charm of the moon and bear cub.
“That is hers!” I gasped. “I would never forget what that looked like.”
; “Bruno likes to hunt not far from here. It is just a few miles in. Where Xena said she thought he and his cronies spotted your stag. Maybe we will be able to spot him as well.”
“I am not even worried about Ceryn right now. He can wait.” I completely forgot about him and why I was on Earth in the first place. I had become so enthralled with Xander and his sister, I didn’t much care about anything else.
“Look, I think I’m right.” He pointed as he ran to examine tracks he found.
The sight of them left me ever more uneasy, and my bow tingled at my back, itching for me to pull it out. Unclear as to how well Xander could read tracks, I didn't want to scare him by telling him what they looked like to me.
“There are quite a few tracks here, lots of large boot prints, I don’t know how fresh these are. It is possible that he and the others had been through here earlier this morning or even yesterday.” He sighed, and a sadness took a hold of his eyes. “This here is what concerns me. Even though I don’t see a track small enough to belong to Xena, this smear mark looks as if she could have been dragged through here.”
His head shook and his lips pressed together. He stood back up and balled his hands into fists. “I don’t know how fast you can run, but I can move a lot faster in my bear form. If I shift, and you can’t keep up, can you follow my tracks?”
“I can keep up with you, And, yes, I can track you if you get ahead of me for some reason. You can’t get away from me that easily.” I nodded at him and gave him the permission he needed.
Anxiously, I waited as he stripped down and tucked his clothes under a bush off the path. In awe, I watched as his body morphed into a large black bear. I hadn’t noticed it when I’d first shot him in the leg, but now that we had grown close, it was obvious to me that his eyes were still Xander’s. If he was in a pack of bears, I would know him in a heartbeat by the way he looked at me.
He angled and knocked his head in the direction away from the trailers. He didn’t need words to tell me it was time to go. When he’d said he would be faster as a bear, he hadn’t been kidding.
The Huntress (An Olympian Fallen Shifter Novel) Page 9