“Did you know shifters have a higher body temperature? I could get you warm again.”
She shot him a suspicious look. “How often does that line work for you?”
“No line. Feel my arm.” He held it out and waited. “Ah well. If you want to chatter your teeth all night, it’s none of my affair.”
“The rain will stop soon. We’ll be able to walk until dark.”
“Once the rain comes it sets in for the afternoon. It won’t stop before nightfall.”
“But it might.”
“You’re welcome to go out on your own. Of course, we don’t know what type of animals might be lurking in the forest. There could be more birds.”
“You’re just trying to scare me.”
Saber wanted to smile even though the expression was pretty foreign to him. Hell, he’d smiled more today than he had since leaving Earth. “Is it working?”
“I-I hope I never come face-to-face with those birds again.”
“Me too.”
She met his gaze for an instant before looking away. Another shiver worked through her. Saber didn’t know if it was from the cold or the remembered terror of the bird seizing them. Before he even knew what he was doing, he was reaching for her.
Fuck, she was freezing.
He stripped off her socks. “I’m going to take off the shirt. Give it a chance to dry,” he said.
Her gaze was wary as she trembled harder. “I’m so cold.”
“I know, kitten. Let me get you warm again.” When she didn’t argue, he pulled up his wet shirt and tugged it over her head. The nightgown came with it. He arranged the garments over a large rock then settled on the ground with her soft weight atop him, in his arms. She cuddled against him, her nipples hard, cold points poking his chest.
Gradually the chill dispersed from her body along with the tension in her muscles. Her breathing became softer, and Saber smiled against her hair. Given time she’d become used to him, learn to trust him. She’d make him a good mate, and in return he’d give her a secure home, friendship and loyalty. Maybe they’d even come to love each other.
The thought gave him pause. No. He didn’t want love, didn’t want to make himself vulnerable in that way again. When Lori had died, it had almost killed him too. Only his family’s need for him had forced him to keep going, to step into his current leadership role.
He lightly stroked her body. She needed more flesh on her bones, but she fit against him perfectly. Yeah, they’d fall into friendship, and that would be enough.
* * * * *
Eva woke feeling warm and toasty. The pillow beneath her head was firm while her surroundings were a true black, which nothing pierced. Where the jumping jackabee jitters was she?
The hard surface beneath her head moved. A hand moved down her back and settled on her bare bottom. Her breath caught halfway up her throat while she sprinted through her memory files. Holiday. Resort. Big freakin’ bird. Cat-man. Rain. Cold. Toasty warm…
The hand on her backside lingered, heat emanating from the palm pressed against her tender skin. The warmth flowed into her body. Her skin tingled while her female parts, her pussy… Eva bit back a sudden urge to cackle. Cat-man. Pussy. They certainly went together. Maybe it was a sign.
A tiny snort escaped her, and the arm around her back tightened momentarily. “You’re awake.”
She could hardly pretend otherwise now that she’d revealed her alertness. “What time is it?”
“Not long until solar rise.” His warm breath whispered across her cheek and added another degree to the fever burning beneath her skin. It had been so long since someone held her, comforted and protected her without expecting something in return. And if she hadn’t met Pryce, she’d never have known what she was missing. The burst of guilt dissipated some of her ease. She stiffened.
“I’m not going to hurt you. It wouldn’t be good for resort business if reports surfaced that we abuse our customers.”
“But you’d kidnap them,” she retorted.
“In fairness, we catnapped you,” he said. “A fine distinction, to be sure, but we should get the facts right.”
Eva sputtered and the sound was a close cousin to humor. This…man, she decided, didn’t behave like the males in the market where she’d grown up. He didn’t behave like the customers in her restaurant. He had a weird sense of honor. She gave a mental shrug, unable to get a handle on Saber.
The hand on her buttocks shifted, and she almost let out a sound of complaint. Holy Finnian bats. What was wrong with her? She had to move away.
Yeah, she’d move any second now.
His hand resettled on her back and smoothed down her spine in an exquisitely slow journey before it came to a halt on her butt again. For long seconds his palm warmed her skin before he lifted it again to repeat the process. Frying fungus, that felt so good. She wanted to arch beneath his touch and encourage him to press harder, to go faster.
A low chuckle, not far from her ear, made her freeze.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
Eva became aware of something else, something other than the hardness of his chest. Tension bolted through her muscles and the hand stroking her came to a halt on her butt cheeks.
“Ah, you’ve noticed,” he said in a cheerful tone.
“Difficult not to when it’s poking into me.”
“Yet you haven’t moved.” The whisper held a note of taunting. Maybe a hint of dare.
Fear and disappointment coiled her guts into a tight knot. “If you intend to rape me, you’d better get started. I want to get moving.”
“Eva. Kitten.” Strong arms lifted her, held her away from the steely erection that burned her skin like a hot poker. “I do not, nor will I ever, force myself on women.” He spoke slowly and his words contained an underpinning of pissed. “For some reason, women adore my green eyes and my muscles. I do have a brain, but they don’t seem to appreciate that nearly as much as my sexy body.”
A snort escaped Eva before her mind had the chance to censor. Humor. React. The thought sprinted from her brain to settle on her lips in a grin. She found herself relaxing, and after a long moment, he pressed her against his body again. He was so warm, and Eva melted into his comfort with relief. It was even better when he placed his hand on her back and resumed his casual petting.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m averse to the idea of fucking you. You’re soft and your skin feels like silk. I bet your pussy would feel perfect around my cock.”
A flush swarmed over her body and converged at her breasts and the spot between her legs that had ached insistently since she’d first woken in his arms. “Are you always so…so…direct in your communications with women?”
He chuckled. “I enjoy fucking a woman’s mind as well as her body. A little dirty talk works for me. Twice the pleasure.”
“Oh.” Holy Finnian bats.
“The moment you give consent, I’m going to suck those pretty tits into my mouth. I’m going to suck hard until you feel it right here…” His fingers drifted low on her buttocks to where her thighs and ass met, and he cupped her warmth. “I’m going to finger your pussy, and when you’re squirming with need and panting with pleasure, I’ll stick my cock inside you. I’ll shove deep and give you the best fuck I can. Once we’re finished, you’ll feel as if you’ve been possessed, you’ll have screamed in pleasure—and you’ll beg me to do it all over again.”
Eva sucked in a huge breath, more turned-on than she could ever recall. Those damn tingles were back, now all over her torso, her arms, her legs. Frying fungus, her body voted for his plan.
“You came to the resort to relax,” he said, the rough gravel in his voice stirring nerve endings the length of her traitorous body. “I know we’re in the middle of the jungle, but I’m happy to fuck you. At the resort you’d only have the reality room.”
His implication brought another twist of humor to her lips. The man had a healthy ego, implying he was better.
Eva lift
ed her head, tried to discern his face but the darkness of the cave foiled her sight. She resettled against his chest. “Prove it,” she said.
“You’ve told me—very insistently, I might add—you’re not interested in sex. And now you’re daring me to prove my prowess?”
“You’ve made several claims.” Eva licked her lips and found that damn grin had set up shop again. “I’m suggesting you prove you can do everything you claim. I bet other women just accept your boasts.” Eva drilled a finger into the middle of his muscular chest. “I have to experience your claims myself before I can believe. Proof.”
Eva bit her bottom lip as silence fell between them. She wondered if she’d pushed too hard, punctured his masculine ego beyond repair.
Without warning, Saber slid her body upward, his tongue playing with the tip of one breast, tracing patterns around the areola until her nipple became an achy peak. Unhurried, he played with her breasts until she wanted to protest. He hadn’t said anything about slow. In fact, she’d expected he was all boast, and he’d turn into a two-, maybe three-second wonder. Shove it in and pull it out, ready to get on with his day.
Chagrin belted her over the head even as she finished the thought.
Saber chose to move to the next step on his agenda. He sucked one nipple deep into his mouth, pulling strongly until her body communicated its pleasure, every nerve ending standing to salute.
She groaned, felt the surge of wetness between her thighs. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
A hard thigh chafed her pussy, and she found herself squirming against the resistance, rubbing against him in order to release the tightly wound tension creating havoc with her mind and body.
“Saber, please. Please. I need…I need…” Frying fungus, she needed his hard cock, the one that had made her wary because she knew men, had experience that warranted such wariness.
This. Saber. He made her feel quite different emotions.
He released her nipple and she felt bereft. A pained groan of protest whispered past her lips.
“Tell me what you need, Eva.”
“You.” Gods help her, but she needed him.
“How do you need me? Tell me what you want me to do.”
Eva bit her lip. No one had ever asked her that before. They’d always taken…even Pryce. She stiffened and a flashflood of guilt roared on the heels of this betrayal.
Saber licked her other nipple, lightly bit it, but didn’t suck with the intensity of earlier. “You have to tell me, Eva. I can’t read your mind.”
Lucky for her. She’d die of mortification if anyone else saw the inside of her head, listened to her innermost thoughts.
“Eva.” The quiet insistence in his tone told her he wouldn’t budge from his stance.
“I want you to suck my other breast.” Suddenly she was glad of the lack of lighting. He wouldn’t see the blaze of embarrassment coloring her cheeks. “And maybe you could touch me down there too.”
He barked out a laugh, sharp with a hint of rust, as if he hadn’t had much to laugh about recently. “You want me to suck your breast and tickle your feet?”
“No!” The word came out in an explosion of air. “I want you to touch my pussy, finger my clit and stick your cock inside me. I want you to fuck me and make this edgy feeling go away. It’s only fair since you started it.”
“I can do that.” A definite growl.
He sucked her breast, and she felt his sharp teeth marking her flesh. If anything, it made her hotter, more desperate for him to fill the empty ache that was driving her insane. His hands wandered her body, leaving heat and tingles in their wake. She jumped a little when fingers slipped between her legs and slid across her wet folds. Eva shuddered. Gamboling griffins, he excelled at this sex stuff. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt when he shoved his thing inside her.
His fingers strummed her, and he seemed to know the right spot to touch to ratchet up the achy need. He released her nipple and lifted her body until she sat astride him.
“Lift up. Take me inside you.”
An order. A helpful order, because she’d never done it this way before. Of course, living in the market she’d seen sex in all its forms, but the actual doing was different from a visual. Awkwardly, she rose on her knees then grasped his cock in her hands. He was hard and hot and much larger than she recalled.
She fumbled, half expected harsh words or a quick slap.
When neither scenario occurred, she gave in to her curiosity and stroked his cock. She explored the hard length of him from tip to root. A rumble sounded and she halted her petting.
“Keep going,” he ordered.
She repeated the move, discovered a bead of moisture on his tip. The rumble reoccurred, and she realized it was a purr—his way of indicating pleasure.
“Put me inside you.”
Eva directed his cock to her entrance and sank down. His flesh pierced her an inch at a time, filling the gnawing ache and replacing it with another one as he stretched her to the point of pain. His large hands spanned her hips, lifted her body a fraction then filled her a little more. His raised her again and forced her down, driving deeper into her flesh. The sensation wasn’t as uncomfortable as she’d expected, and after several slow repeats, he filled her, balls-deep.
“Eva,” he whispered.
When she looked in his direction, she found the cave had lightened slightly. She could see the outline of his face, the flash of sharp white teeth. “Yes?”
“Start moving, kitten. Up and down. Take what you want.”
“I thought you were going to fuck me?”
He chuckled, and she found her lips curving into a smile. “I can’t do that on this stone floor. I’d rub a layer of skin off your back. Wait until later today.”
“A shower and a soft sleep-bed.”
“Exactly,” he said after a brief pause. “My hide is tougher than yours. Do your worst.”
Eva rose and sank, taking him back inside to the root. She paused, sighed. Although he filled her to the point of pain, it registered on the good side. She lifted, felt his hands band her hips again and guide her into a faster pace. Threads of pleasure chased from her core, raced across her skin. She’d felt the same phantoms before with Pryce, knew they’d lead nowhere, but she was determined to enjoy them while they skated through her body.
“Wriggle around to get the right angle,” Saber said. “Touch yourself. It makes me hot when a woman goes after her pleasure. Knows what she wants.”
Eva frowned, felt her brow crease in an echo of her mouth. She wanted to follow the phantoms. She lifted up, still guided by his hands at her hips, flexed her hips and changed the tilt of her body.
This time his cock touched a sensitive place deep inside her body. She groaned and repeated the motion. Flying friggin’ Finnian bats!
Saber shuddered and the shiver reverberated through her, hit that sweet spot deep inside. Her fingers slid down to trace over the base of his cock. Her knuckle scraped across her own hot flesh and a spasm shot through her cunt. She tightened around Saber’s cock. A tendril of pleasure streaked down her legs to her toes, filled her with exhilaration.
She lifted and slammed down, combining the move with the glide of her fingers over her damp flesh. The musky scent of sex filled the air, while the sounds of fucking brought heat to her cheeks. She repeated the quick shove, the prickles of heat and phantom feelings solidifying into a mass of painful pleasure.
Hellfire and poxy whores. She didn’t know whether to stop because it hurt or keep going in case it got better.
Saber took the decision from her, his hips thrusting upward repeatedly, his cock filling her with brutal intent. The painful pressure intensified then exploded without warning.
Eva cried out as Saber plunged into her hard and fast, man-grunts echoing off the cave walls while her flesh rippled around his shaft, the spasms going on for long pleasurable seconds before trailing off. Saber stilled, his hands bruising her hips, his head thrown back and his eyes firmly closed.<
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Eva let her gaze run over the savage beauty of his face and couldn’t regret giving in to his sexual allure. She’d never felt this relaxed before.
Saber released his grip and tugged her down until she sprawled on his chest. Their bodies were still connected but Eva couldn’t summon the energy to move. Not even thoughts of his sexual history, the vague curiosity about where he’d learned his skillful ways, plagued her mind, which was surprising. The possibility of disease or pregnancy wasn’t a worry either since every woman visiting the resort was required to have medical shots and produce a certificate to prove their clean bill of health.
No, she could return to Dalcon secure in the knowledge that only memories—good memories—would chase her from this casual liaison.
“It’s lighter out. We should think about moving,” Saber said, loath to move, but knowing they should.
“I guess.” Eva’s stomach complained in a thunderous rumble. Embarrassing enough to heat her cheeks. “What are the chances of finding something to eat?”
Saber hid his amusement. “Think positive. We’re bound to find edible fruit on the trees.” He’d seen the odd fruit tree yesterday, but wildlife had stripped them of their bounty. “I’m starving.”
“What’s your favorite food?”
“I enjoy a good juicy steak, on the rare side.” A shifter’s favorite food involved anything with meat. She’d learn that soon enough.
“What do you eat with the steak?”
“I prefer my steak to cover the plate, which doesn’t leave room for green stuff. My mother says our ancestors ate vegetables with their meat. She says if it’s good enough for them, we should follow suit.” And he recalled the arguments around the dinner table. Vegetables first then the meat. Happier times. Easier times. Times before the virus had broken families, broken dreams, broken the future. Killed Lori.
He must’ve made a sound because Eva lifted her head to stare at him. Her blue eyes looked sleepy, satiated, which pushed a bolt of satisfaction through him. He’d pleased her and released the cork on his own sexual frustration. Fuck, she’d almost blown his brains clear of his skull with her throaty cries and sexy shudders.
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