Her fingers brushed his forehead. “You must have really taken a whack to your head.”
Rafe couldn’t make any more sense of their conversation. His head throbbed. “Well, I am feeling a little fuzzy still.”
“We should get you to a hospital. Have them check you out.”
“I’m fine.”
She pushed his face back and stared into his eyes. “Your pupils look okay. But I don’t like that you seem to have lost time. Maybe, you should get straight into bed.”
His hands settled on her hips. “Thought you’d never get down to business.”
“Oh no.” She pushed his hands away. “We’ve both had a couple of strenuous days—and I don’t like the pastiness of your skin.”
“I’m not going to the hospital,” he said flatly.
Lani’s lips thinned. “Anyone ever tell you, you’re stubborn?”
“You.” His hands slipped over her bottom. “My head is pounding. I’ll just go lie down for a while.”
“What if you’re concussed?”
“I’m fine, but if it worries you, I won’t sleep. I’d just like to get out of the light and let this headache dull a bit.” He squeezed her bottom. “Join me?”
“And you think I’m stupid?” She leaned into him and hugged his shoulders. “Later, okay? I’ll check on you. Right now, I want you to rest. I’m worried that if you don’t move soon, I’ll be carrying you to bed.”
“Think you can, little thing like you?”
Lani snorted. “You’re the only man who’d say that. And yeah, I could even manage a rock like you.”
“All right, I’ll go to bed. For a while.” The room was beginning to swim. “I hate to say this, but I think you’re right. Give me a hand?”
Lani slipped her arm beneath his shoulder, and together they made it to her bedroom. Rafe let her strip him, chagrined that her handling never raised his ardor. He was definitely feeling out of it.
Lani pulled the cover over him. “I’ll make something light. Soup, maybe. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.”
Rafe nodded and closed his eyes—not to sleep—Lani would have his hide.
He leapt to the floor, following the scent of the woman through the darkened tunnel to a bright space filled with scents that reminded him of his hunger. Peering from behind the door, he watched the woman from the cave as she stood with her back to him. Her long limbs and sun-bright hair stirred a memory in him of richer, sharper scents—of sexual fervor and mating outside in the sunlight as he’d watched her with the man.
Her shoulders and arms moved accompanied by the sounds of sharp thuds. Light glinted from the thing held in her hands. Instinctually, he shied away from that shiny object and withdrew from the room. He padded away, seeking the source of a light breeze and pressed his nose against a scratchy surface that he could peer through.
Beyond the barrier, he could see the trees as they swayed in the wind, could smell the scent of deer as they moved, foraging within the thicket.
He pushed with his nose, but the barrier didn’t shift. He reached up a paw and batted at it, but only managed to tear a hole in the surface. Feeling frustrated, he opened his mouth and emitted a growl—telling the barrier of his anger.
He heard a gasp and running feet coming from the bright space, so he turned and ran down the long tunnel to the place where he’d awakened.
The cat’s growl echoed around the house, loud and angry. Lani dropped the knife she was using to chop vegetables for the soup and ran for the pantry where the shotgun stood now, propped against the shelves.
She shook bullets from a carton, letting them spill to the floor and quickly grabbed several, pushing them into a pocket in her jeans. Two, she jammed into the barrel.
The cat was inside the house. She had to get to Rafe.
Lani’s hands trembled as she held the gun in front of her and crept from the kitchen into the living room, alert for sounds of the creature’s footfalls. She toggled the switch to the light in the ceiling fan and quickly glanced around.
No sign of the cat, but the screen door was shredded. She cursed her own carelessness at leaving the oak door open when she’d led Rafe inside earlier.
A thump sounded from deeper inside the house. Rafe!
Lani sped down the darkened hallway, her heart thundering inside her chest. Please let him be okay.
The bedroom door was open wide, and her heart stopped. She’d left it open only a crack. Her grip tightened around the weapon, and she lifted it to her shoulder. Never taking her gaze from the bed, she rubbed her back on the wall to flip the light switch, illuminating the room.
Everything looked exactly as she’d left it. Rafe lay on his side beneath the covers, turned away from her. His head was buried between her fat pillows, but his back and shoulders moved with his breaths. He shouldn’t be sleeping—but right now she prayed he’d stay that way, so he wouldn’t move and startle the cat.
Thinking the cat could be on the other side of the bed, her finger slid into the trigger housing as she slowly skirted the mattress.
She expected a noise, some sort of warning from the cat—but the only sound was her own blood pumping in her ears and the creak of the floorboards beneath her feet. When she reached the corner, she found the floor empty.
“Lani, what are you doing?” Rafe sat up, the cover slithering from his chest.
“The mountain lion.” She barely spared him a glance and looked inside the bathroom. Nothing. “I think it’s in the house.”
His expression went from sleepy confusion to fully alert in a second. “Give me that.” He held out his hand.
“Dammit, are you up for this? Your head—”
“Just give me the damn gun.”
He looked steady enough. Lani was only too happy to let him have it.
Rafe walked to the door and peered around the corner. “Close the door after me and stay put,” he said over his shoulder, and then slipped out of the room.
Lani waited, listening for sounds of any trouble. Then she wondered what she’d do if she did hear anything, other than dial 911. Rafe had her only weapon. She glanced around the room. What else could she use?
Just when she’d decided to telephone for help, the door opened. Rafe strode inside, carrying the gun. “It’s all clear. No sign of it.”
Lani launched herself at his chest.
Rafe’s arms closed around her, hugging her tight. “You scared the hell out of me.”
She breathed in his spicy man-scent and relaxed. “Did you think I was going to shoot you?” she asked, her voice muffled against his skin.
“No. I figured out really quick there must be trouble for you to be holding a gun.” He kissed the top of her head. “But your hands were holding onto it so tightly, I thought you might pull that trigger by accident.”
She shuddered. “Guns scare me.”
“They scare me, too.” He hugged her again then let her go. “I looked all around. Your screen’s a mess. I’m guessing that’s where he came in.”
She nodded and wrapped her arms around her middle, missing his warmth already.
“He must have high-tailed it back out the door.” He broke open the barrel and removed the two cartridges, and then propped the gun next to the door.
Lani glanced down his body, finally realizing he was naked. When she looked up again, his gaze was smoldering.
“Anyway, I closed the door,” he said, amusement creeping into his voice. “He’s not coming back inside.”
Lani licked her lips. “How are you feeling?”
Rafe shook his head experimentally. “Better.” He spread his hands and raised an eyebrow. “Shall I get dressed and help you in the kitchen with dinner?”
“I’m thinking…no.” She stepped toward him. “You know, I never realized how phallic a gun looks on a man.”
Rafe drew Lani back into the cradle of his thighs, fitting his hips snugly to her backside. Her head nestled on his shoulder, and her hair tickled his nose. He had the whimsic
al thought he was happiest when only a sheen of sweat separated their skin.
As his breaths grew less labored, his mind returned to the odd chain of events that had occurred over the course of the evening. The first being the cat leaping at him and suddenly disappearing. The second, the cat arriving on Lani’s porch. Could it have been the same animal? Perhaps the blow to his head had skewed his memory of the order of events.
Then there was the mountain lion entering her house. That fact disturbed him enough. But even more unsettling was the dream he’d been having just before Lani woke him, creeping into the bedroom with the shotgun.
He’d dreamt he was the cat, and that he’d spied on her as she prepared dinner. His thoughts had been…primitive, possessive. Scents had seemed more acute—the odor of the deer foraging in the woods, the perfume and musk that was Lani’s distinct fragrance. From the cat’s perspective, Lani had been no less attractive as a mate. And the cat had definitely wanted her.
If he were a man given to superstition, he might think the dreams, the cave, the presence of the mountain lion, were all somehow related—and that tonight he’d somehow entered the mix as well.
“I can hear you thinking,” Lani said, grumpily.
He smiled. “What do my thoughts sound like?”
“Well…” She turned around, sliding an arm over his side and a silky leg between his thighs. “Your heart beats faster, and your breathing gets quieter.”
He pressed a brief kiss to the side of her neck. “I couldn’t be on the verge of falling asleep?”
“No,” she moaned and pressed her groin to his. “When you fall asleep, your breathing gets so loud, it rumbles in my ear.”
He glided his hands down her back to her buttocks and gave her a playful squeeze. “Are you saying I snore?”
“Course not. You just breathe loud…and sometimes you grind your teeth.” She hid her face on his shoulder, but her voice held an edge of laughter.
“I wonder why you put up with me. If I were you, I’d make me sleep on the couch, so I could get a good night’s rest.”
“I like the noises.” Her nose nudged his ear, and then her mouth pressed a kiss just below it. “They remind me you’re here. Besides, you’re a big guy. You should make noises proportionate to your…size.” Her knee nudged his sex.
“I like being here.” He brought one hand to her breast and cupped the fullness.
She surged into his hand, and her nipple pebbled.
“I’d like to be here all the time, Lani.”
Her breath caught and held. “What are you saying?”
“You know I love you.” He waited, hoping she’d give him a little encouragement to continue. But the longer the silence stretched between them, the more resigned he grew to the fact he still had an uphill battle to fight. He palmed the other breast.
“I love you, too.”
The words were so soft he thought he’d only imagined them. He held himself perfectly still, but his heart galloped ahead. “Say it, again.”
“I love you, Rafe.”
He wrapped both arms around her and hugged her tight.
She kissed the side of his neck and whispered, “But…I’d like to take this a step at a time.”
“Not a problem.” The question would wait for a while—but now he knew in his gut, she’d eventually say yes. “I don’t want you to feel rushed off your feet.”
She laughed. “Like you haven’t already? You’ve been Viagra-man the past few days.”
“I don’t need a drug to keep it up for you, baby.” As if on cue, his cock unfurled, filling rapidly.
“Same here. I want you so much I don’t care if I can’t walk straight for a week.” Lani’s fingers combed through the hair of his chest and tugged. Her hips undulated, her legs opening to let his cock slip in between them. “Sure you’re up for this? You got a nasty bump on your head earlier.”
Rafe rolled over, until Lani’s body was tucked beneath his. “Your pussy’s the best medicine a man can buy. I feel invincible when I slide inside you, baby.”
Lani’s hands went straight for his ass. The space between her legs widened. “And I feel like the world’s sexiest woman.”
“You are.” He flexed his hips and drove his cock upward, sliding easily between her slick folds.
Lani moaned. “You have no idea how good that feels.”
He rested his head on her shoulder, forcing himself to remain still despite the heat caressing his cock. “You okay for this? Want me to take it easy?”
“No, I want it hard…fast.” Her voice was thin and strained. Her hands squeezed his buttocks hard. “I want it now!”
Rafe groaned and pushed himself off her chest to give his hips better leverage. Then he stroked deep inside her.
Lani’s breath left her body in a rush, and she planted her feet in the mattress to add resistance to his thrusts.
They slammed their hips together, countering each other’s strokes. Soon, the sounds they made were wetter—the slaps as their flesh met—and sharper.
For Rafe, this was a claiming. He slid into her tight channel, stroking upward to pound at the entrance of her womb.
He stamped his ownership with each fierce thrust. He branded her with his heat—and at the end, he left his mark, his seed, deep inside her body.
As the last tremors shook him, he rose on his arms to lift his body off hers.
“No, don’t go,” she moaned. “Let’s sleep like this.” Her legs tightened around his hips.
“I’ll crush you.”
“I’m a big girl.” She kissed his mouth, framing his face between her palms. “I want to stay like this for a while.”
Sated and pleased because he was reluctant to break the connection, too, he slumped over her, resting his face on her shoulder. “Wake me when you need to breathe.”
Her arms slid around his back. She wasn’t letting him go.
Chapter 8
He stirred.
His bed was soft, yielding. His cock was surrounded by moist heat.
He breathed in deeply, dragging in the pungent scent of sex and…the woman. He didn’t need light to know whose body cradled his manhood. Urgent, powerful desire flooded him. His shaft filled instantly, stretching the walls of her tight sheath.
Her legs moved restlessly around his hips, pulling him deeper inside her. She moaned sleepily—her sweet breath gusted on his cheek.
His chest expanded, drawing richly scented arousal into his flaring nostrils. This was life! What he’d prayed for as he lay helpless in the jaws of his enemy.
The woman from the cave had given his spirit birth and drawn him from the darkness with her sensual scent and strength of will. Now, she caressed his cock into full arousal with the tremors that rippled along her channel.
He was powerful, immortal—in her arms, in her womb. He rose, hooked her legs roughly in the crook of his elbows, and lifted her buttocks high to receive his life, his seed.
The power of his thrusts shook the soft bed beneath him, drove loud gasps from the woman’s body. Her belly and thighs tightened, her sex squeezing to milk his cock.
In a powerful explosion of energy and heat, he surged into her, merging his body to hers, searing her soul with spurts of his immortality.
Light shimmered around him, seeping from his skin, and he cried out as, suddenly, the woman shoved at his body, screams ripping from her throat.
The other raged within him, fighting to break through to the surface. He resisted, but withdrew from the woman, backing away on the mattress. Her horror wrenched at his heart, but he didn’t reach out to her to comfort her as he wished.
He let her go, and she slithered backward off the bed.
Watching her recoil from him, he lifted a hand toward her, imploring her not to fear him. Then he let himself submerge beneath the other, to wait once more.
Lani scooted off the bed, falling to the floor, but she barely registered the pain. She kept moving away until her back came up against the wall. She stare
d in horror at the man whose skin shimmered like a golden sun—the Indian from her dream!
Only she wasn’t sleeping now. And he wasn’t a figment. His come oozed from inside her body to slick her thighs.
She’d awoken in the dark, warmed by the body thrusting into hers. Her core had gushed its invitation, accepted his invasion. Her cunt had spasmed and clutched his cock, trying to pull him deeper inside.
The orgasm he’d coaxed from her had shaken her entire body.
Now, she stared in horror at the Indian kneeling on her bed. His glowing body still shuddered. His cock glistened, coated with their release. His expression as he stared at her was primal, predatory—possessive.
Then the brightness dimmed, and she was once again in darkness, listening to the sounds of ragged gasps coming from the bed.
She sobbed, fear for her safety and worry over Rafe’s disappearance holding her immobile.
“Sweet Jesus! Lani!” Rafe’s voice, hoarse and strained…came from the bed.
It was a trick! She knew what she’d seen—the stranger on the bed—in her body. Lani put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes, wanting to disappear into the darkness. This wasn’t happening. She wasn’t really here. This was a nightmare, and she’d wake—she had to wake up!
“Lani, please.” Hands—Rafe’s hands gripped her shoulders. “Stop crying, baby. I’m here.”
She shook her head and batted at his hands, trying to scoot away. Her sobs were broken, mewling. They sounded far away—she couldn’t be making them. Someone else’s heart was breaking.
Rafe’s hands shook as he reached for her. He didn’t understand what had just happened, but he needed to hold her. Christ! What had happened? What had he done? Weak and trembling though he was, he drew her into his arms and rocked with her, crooning into her hair.
Finally, her hands crept to his shoulders, and she clutched him, falling against his chest. Her sobs lost the strained edge of hysteria, until finally, she quieted. “Turn on the light,” she said, pushing against his chest. “Turn on the light!”
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