She moaned with delight, and so did he, loving the way she felt in his hand, loving her smell and the sounds she made and the expression on her beautiful face.
But it wasn’t enough. Not for either of them.
Saying nothing, Raine reached for his jeans, quickly unbuttoning and unzipping. He grabbed a condom out of his pocket, lifted the packet to his mouth and tore it open with his teeth, then shoved his jeans down his hips. Ashlynn sighed with pleasure when she saw his hard cock jutting toward her. Her hand shook as she brushed her fingertips down the length of him, all cool, soft skin against hot, hard need.
“I’ve been dreaming about this,” she admitted.
“Truly?”
She nodded. “After I saw you, that first day in the store, you filled my dreams.”
His chest swelled. “That’s only fair, considering after the first time I saw you, you’ve been filling my fantasies.”
She sighed with pleasure at his admission. “Raine, I want you so much I think I’m going to die if I can’t have you inside me.”
“I’ve gone to too much damn trouble protecting you to let you die now,” he muttered as he rolled the condom into place.
He grabbed her hips, tilting her toward him and plunged hard, fast, deep. She let out a little scream, which he caught with a kiss, swallowing her cries of delight.
No more words. No thought. No time. Just hunger, need and excitement. She was tight, welcoming and hot, and he let himself be consumed by her, sucked into her, body and soul. He lost who he was and where he was and everything except the need to plunge deep into pleasure, pull out, then plunge again.
They were both panting, thrusting, crying out. She took every stroke, the dig of her nails in his back demanding even more.
“Can you come this way?” he asked her between gasps.
“I don’t care if I can or not, it feels too good to stop.”
“I care,” he insisted.
Giving her no warning, he pulled out of her and dropped to his knees on the ground. He grabbed one of her thighs and hooked it over his shoulder. Taking one pleasurable moment to look at her pretty curls and those pink, plump lips, he buried his face in her wet sex.
She positively purred.
His tongue found her clit and flicked it hungrily, as though he hadn’t eaten in days. He gained almost as much pleasure from this as he did from being inside her…and, judging by her cries and the sudden stiffening of her body as she climaxed, so did she.
“Now we can finish,” he muttered, straightening and going right back to what he’d been doing before.
“Oh, yes,” she cried as he thrust into her again.
There was no stopping things this time. Nature and instinct took over. His brain wasn’t even part of the equation anymore. His body strove for release, pounding and driving until, finally, he attained it. He came in a hot rush, sure he’d never felt so good. And then, spent, he wrapped her legs around his waist and sat down on the ground, holding her as the two of them slowly left the stolen moment of hot sex and primitive passion and returned to the here and now.
5
THOUGH WHAT ASHLYNN most wanted to do was spend the day naked in Raine’s strong arms, she knew she couldn’t. They’d taken a terrible chance stopping for as long as they had. As sanity returned, they both acknowledged it with a few last kisses.
They gathered their clothes in silence. She wasn’t sure whether he was deep in thought or merely needed the rest after that amazing show of endurance. Mercy, she didn’t think she’d ever get over what the man had just done to her. Certainly no man had ever done anything like it before. Oh, she’d been no virgin, but never had she felt so utterly, completely taken.
It had been magnificent. Unforgettable. And she would never—no matter what happened, no matter how long she lived—regret it.
“You okay?” he asked, watching as she pulled her bra into place. He touched her shoulder, frowning. “You’re scratched up.”
“Tree bark,” she said. Then, lowering her voice, added, “Thank goodness that tree didn’t mind being used as a bed.”
He cupped her face in his hand and bent to brush a soft kiss on her lips. “Believe me, beautiful, when I make love to you in a bed, you won’t end up with any scratches.”
“Maybe I like scratches,” she said, her voice throaty.
He swallowed visibly. “You like it rough, wild?”
“I do now.” Thinking of all the ways she’d like to have sex with him, she leaned in close, then stood on tiptoe to nibble on his earlobe. “I saw some interesting movies on the late-night cable station in that motel room.”
He closed his eyes, made a helpless sound and pressed against her, as if unable to help it. She could feel through his jeans that he was already getting hard again, and half regretted taunting him when they needed to leave. But some wicked inner spirit made her add, “I’d like to try some of the things I saw.”
“Like?”
“Maybe yours will be the back scratched up this time.”
He laughed. “Believe me, it was.” He turned, showing her the scratches on his back—marks she’d put on his body while he pleasured her.
She didn’t apologize. He’d driven her out of her mind, she’d been helpless. Nor did he look as though he minded. “I meant scratched by a tree or the ground. I’d like to be on top of you, to ride you…how do they call it, cowgirl style?”
“Lord have mercy,” he said with a groan.
But she wasn’t finished. “I think I’d also like to be on my knees and have you come into me from behind.”
He rubbed his mouth. “I was thinking about that last night.”
“Truly?”
“Oh, yeah,” he admitted. “So, I take it we aren’t going to get to missionary position anytime soon?”
“What’s that?” she asked, unfamiliar with the term.
He laughed softly, then gently stroked the small of her back, his fingertips sizzling against her skin. “It’s when we’re in a soft bed, and I lay you on your back. I worship every inch of your body, touching you, tasting you for hours.”
She liked the sound of this.
“Then I move on top of you, between your parted thighs and slide into you slowly, making love to you all night long.”
Ashlynn fanned herself with her hand. The position sounded familiar and was, in fact, how she’d always had sex before. But the way he described it made it sound much more interesting.
She didn’t know how long this was going to last—if Raine Fowler was going to be in her life long enough to do all the things they’d talked about. But, oh, she hoped so. Not only because of how good it would be. But because, since she’d met him, Ashlynn felt more alive than she had in years. Vibrant and excited, aroused and, despite the circumstances, happy.
She could become addicted to this man.
“Okay, historian,” he said, sounding rueful. “Much as I’d like to stay and help you experiment, we’d better hit the road before those goons pull out their magical map and find us.”
The map. Gods, she’d forgotten all about the map. She had been thinking of nothing else during their escape from Foxglen, then he’d touched her and nothing else had mattered. “Tell me about this map.”
He shrugged. “It was old.”
She tensed, wondering if it was even possible. “How old?”
“It was on antique-looking parchment, pretty faded.”
“Were the edges smooth or jagged?”
“Two were jagged, like it had been torn in two places. It almost looked like the corner of a bigger map.”
Feeling her strength drain, she sunk to her knees, acting as if she’d done it to reach into her bag for clean clothes. “Do you remember any details about the map? Could you describe it?”
“Probably. I got a good look.”
She rose and slipped into a pair of loose-fitting pants and a top, wondering if he could hear the thumping of her heart. So the thugs had the last piece of the map—she had already d
ecided it probably didn’t matter, that she could find the castle without it. But if Raine had seen it enough to remember any details....
“Tell me.”
Raine opened his mouth, as if to answer, then closed it. “How about you tell me why you want to know so badly?”
Something in her rebelled at answering. Ashlynn had been on this quest alone for a long time. She’d wanted it that way, knowing the prize she sought could bring out the worst in people. She’d seen priceless artifacts stolen from the museum, knew there were those who tended to get a little crazy when gold was at stake. She just wasn’t used to trusting new people.
“Can I really trust you?” she whispered, talking more to herself than to him.
He flinched. “Jeez, you are some piece of work.”
She held out a hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Considering I’ve saved your life and you just let me bang your brains out up against a tree, I’d hope you’d trust me by now.”
“I do. It’s just…this is a sensitive subject.” Steeling her will, she reached into her satchel and withdrew the packet. She opened it carefully, revealing the folded map inside.
He gaped. “Did you steal that from them? Are you crazy?”
“No, it’s mine. I hid it in the tavern last month.”
She lifted the page to reveal the second sheet beneath, then said, “The third one’s in my bag, too, tucked inside a book.”
“Let me guess. You found it in a bookshop in Philadelphia.”
She nodded.
“This map was your quest…the reason you went to Earth. And you now have three quarters of it?”
“Exactly. And it sounds like those men have the last piece.”
“It looked just like yours,” he admitted. “So that’s why they’re after you? They want to put the whole map together?”
“Yes.”
“They didn’t look like the type who would offer to buy it.”
Oh, no doubt about it. They probably intended to take it from her, using whatever force was necessary.
“It must lead to something pretty important.”
“It does.”
He didn’t ask the question; she heard it anyway. Ashlynn was left to rely on her instincts that had told her from almost their first meeting that she could trust this man. And she did trust Raine. He might have a bit of larceny in him, but she knew he wouldn’t try to take this map from her if she told him the truth.
Taking a leap of faith, she carefully unfolded a piece of the map—the piece that showed the castle, naming it in elaborate, if faded, script. “This is what it leads to.”
He stared at it, his brow scrunching as he tried to make out the words. Then it hit him and his jaw dropped. “You’re serious?”
“Extremely.”
“Sleeping Beauty, the story—you’re saying it’s true?”
“Aren’t all the other ones true, in one form or another?”
“Well, yeah, but, I mean, even over here that story has always sounded like a fairy tale.”
“The lost kingdom of Seaside is not a fairy tale.” She elaborated, quickly schooling him on the subject, which she’d studied for years. She concluded, “Everything I’ve learned, every instinct I have, tells me this map is authentic. And that it leads to the castle where the lost royals of Seaside lived.”
He swept a hand through his hair, looking unconvinced.
“If you’ve heard the story whispered about, here in Elatyria, you must know what they say about this castle.”
He nodded slowly, a gleam appearing in those purplish eyes. “That it’s filled with jewels and gold. Do you believe it?”
“No.”
“But you’re going to try to find this place, anyway?”
“Yes. The treasure I seek isn’t measured in carats or ounces. An entire civilization’s history is what I’m after. I’ve dreamed about discovering Seaside my whole life—the way people on your world long to find the lost city of Atlantis.”
“I’ve always kind of figured Atlantis was over here,” he admitted. “That somebody just got their stories crossed.”
“Me, too.”
He looked away, staring out into the forest. Raine was silent for a long moment, evaluating, considering the options. As if her revelation had changed everything.
Well, it had. For both of them. She knew Raine was determined to protect her. She even suspected he was no longer doing it just for money. So it wasn’t as if she could continue her quest without him—he would insist on seeing her back to her home in Riverdale.
Now, with his knowledge of the fourth quarter of the map, and the fact that she’d opened herself up to him the way she never had with anyone, there seemed to be only one option.
“So, Raine Fowler, finder of many things. Do you want to join me?”
“Join you?”
“Will you help me find Sleeping Beauty’s castle?”
Their stares locked. The excitement she felt was mirrored in his expression. And he answered with no hesitation.
“Yes, Ashlynn Scott. I will definitely help you.”
RAINE HAD WANTED ASHLYNN from the minute he’d seen her. He’d desired her, admired her. Lusted after her. And had her.
But as they set out on their quest, he realized how truly remarkable she was. They walked for hours without rest. Stopped in villages only long enough to buy food, then kept going. They slept on the ground, with nothing but each other for warmth—oh, they definitely kept each other warm, especially trying out all those positions she’d learned on late-night cable TV.
Throughout it all, she never complained. Strong, relentless, she matched him stride for stride, her enthusiasm when they would spot a familiar landmark from the map absolutely contagious.
The map. He hadn’t totally wrapped his head around it. Still, he had no doubt that the men who were after her had the fourth quarter of it. When he sketched out everything he remembered, the lines matched perfectly with those that trailed off the edge of hers.
They soon realized how fortunate it was that he’d seen it. Because if Ashlynn had gone with her original plan, to find the castle using just her three pieces, she would have failed. There was one very tricky crossroads—shown only on the quarter she didn’t possess—that would have tripped her up. So, despite having come in late on this venture, Raine felt they were equal partners. He had brought something to the table, too.
As for what they’d find when they got there, he honestly didn’t know. Part of him worried they’d find nothing, that the whole thing was an ancient prank…some mass-produced map sold in joke shops many centuries ago.
Another part—the instinct that served him so well when he was on the hunt for what others said was unattainable—told him they were on the path to something magnificent. In his mind, that meant gold and jewels. In hers, it meant a remarkable archeological site. He hoped they were both right.
It was late afternoon when they reached a lake that, in America, would probably be full of toxic runoff or sewage. This one didn’t look as green and fresh as most others he’d seen in Elatyria, but it was water. It should at least wash off sweat.
Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a bar of coarse soap he’d bought in the last village. That seemed like forever ago. They’d walked for nearly two days since then, not seeing a soul, or a cottage, or a single plowed field. The landscape had grown more rough, thick trees giving way to skeletal stumps, and the temperature felt as if it had gone up fifty degrees.
“Want to take a dip?” he asked, gesturing toward the small body of still water. “Wash off some of the dust?”
“Absolutely.”
He extended the soap toward her upraised hand, but instead of taking it, she slowly dropped that hand to her side. Ashlynn was looking past him, staring rapt at something in the distance. Her mouth slowly fell open.
“Ash? What is it?” he asked, swinging around, his heart pounding. Had the thugs caught up with them? He’d thought more than on
ce in recent days that someone was following them.
Nobody was there, but he didn’t let his guard down. This was no longer about getting paid, or finishing a job. It was about protecting Ashlynn.
Because he was falling for her. Big time.
Every hour they spent together drove that certainty harder into his mind…and his heart. Raine had never paid much attention to that particular organ before, but since the other day when he’d wiped off her dirty face with his shirt and finally tasted that beautiful mouth, he’d known Ashlynn Scott was someone he could care about. Every minute they’d spent together since had pushed her just a little deeper into his life.
He didn’t know how he was going to say goodbye when this was all over. And a big part of him hoped he wouldn’t have to. Hey, people had relationships across the U.S. He knew a guy from New York whose wife commuted out to L.A. every week. So why not an Earth to Elatyria relationship?
Relationship? Get real, dude.
But he was being real. Maybe for the first time in his life.
“Am I really seeing that?” she asked, sounding dazed.
“Seeing what?”
“Look at that hillside.”
He followed her stare, seeing the rocky outline of a hill in the distance. The day had grown cloudy, the air moist, and he couldn’t make it out very well at first. Then a breeze shifted some of the clouds, and he saw what she was talking about.
“It’s a dragon,” she whispered.
It didn’t take much imagination to see what she meant. The rocks and ground had arranged themselves into a shape that resembled a dragon, head back, wings unfurled. If it had remained cloudy, or if they’d gotten much closer before seeing it, they probably wouldn’t have been able to make out the resemblance at all. Right now, though, it was obvious.
Ashlynn grabbed the satchel, yanking it open and retrieving the map pieces. She quickly leafed through them until she found the one she wanted. He knew what she was looking for even before she unfolded the thing and tapped her finger on an image.
“The Dragon’s Lair,” he said, his excitement growing.
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