Her mother had comforted her by saying that Cavanaugh would return and Eloise had believed her. She had realised too late that her mother had said whatever it had taken to keep her in the village and safe. Her mother had confessed it to her on her deathbed and Eloise had reassured her that she wasn’t angry with her, even when part of her had been. The rest of her had been filled with a need to find Cavanaugh. She had needed him so much in those dark days following her mother’s death.
She hadn’t been brave enough to go through with it and leave the village, so she had convinced herself that it would be too hard to track him down.
Eloise chastised herself for making excuses. When she had finally left the pride in order to bring him back, it had taken her two years, but she had found him. She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against her bare knees. The thought that she might have been with him for at least the last three years, living in London and maybe working at the same nightclub, ran on repeat in her head.
She should have gone after him that snowy morning and not listened to her mother.
She drew in a slow breath, lifted her head, and exhaled it. There was little point in wondering what might have been and playing the should have game. Cavanaugh should have done a lot of things differently if he truly had feelings for her too, but he hadn’t. Both of them were at fault for what had happened, back then and even now.
He had sprung something huge on her, telling her that he had left because he couldn’t bear seeing her drift away from him.
She hadn’t reacted in the smoothest way.
Gods. Now he was standing on a ledge several hundred metres up the side of a mountain and no doubt cursing her name.
She had to speak with him.
Eloise shifted onto her hands and knees, and crawled towards the narrow exit of the cave. She slowed as his bare feet came into view, her heart beginning a slow, steady thump against her chest. She had to do this. She pushed onwards and came out onto the ledge behind him.
He whirled to face her and frowned. “Go back inside. You’ll freeze out here.”
She had forgotten that she was only dressed in her underwear, but she wasn’t going to let the cold deter her.
Even if it was freezing.
Wind whipped across the wall of rock, battering her and loosening strands of her dark hair. It played in Cavanaugh’s too, tousling the silver-white tufts, and plastered his dark grey trousers to his legs.
Eloise kneeled and rubbed her arms. “I’m sorry.”
He stared at her, the question in his gaze asking whether she had come out into the frigid cold just to apologise again or whether there was anything else she had to say.
She looked out at the valley and everything she had wanted to say to Cavanaugh fled her lips. Normally, the view was spectacular, a lush green valley that followed the river as it snaked down through the mountains. The tops of those mountains were grey rock tipped with dazzling white snow. Not today.
Today heavy grey clouds hid their peaks and she couldn’t make out the valley beyond a few hundred metres below her.
Snow swallowed it.
The first few flakes drifted down and settled on the ledge, and on her bare skin, melting on contact.
This wasn’t good. A snowstorm would keep them trapped in the shelter, unable to continue their climb until it had blown over and the wind had swept the snow and ice off the rock face.
Cavanaugh stared out towards the storm as it slowly closed in on them. “We wouldn’t make it.”
Had he been reading her mind? She had been on the verge of saying they had to leave now.
She looked up at the thick clouds that were already overhead. “We have to try… if we don’t…”
“I know what happens if we don’t,” he said, a sharp edge to his deep voice. “I know what happens if we do, too. It’s over two hundred metres to the top. It would take too long to climb that far. It’s better we’re not caught in the open when it hits.”
She knew that but she didn’t care. The pride were relying on her and she was so close to having Cavanaugh back with them.
The quiet voice in her heart said that she didn’t care about that or the pride. She cared about Cavanaugh. She had already messed up once on the climb and he had somehow saved her. If she messed up again, in the middle of a snowstorm, she might end up killing both of them.
White flakes swirled on the wind, steadily drifting down towards her.
“Back inside,” Cavanaugh said and she didn’t argue with him.
Eloise turned around and crawled back into the cave. He followed her and a blush burned up her cheeks when she realised she was giving him a free show, flashing her backside at him. She hastily got onto her feet on the other side of the wall, scurrying away from him.
He made it through the entrance, rose onto his feet and went for his pack. He crouched beside it, pulled out some protein bars, clothing and other items, and then stood and carried the pack towards the door, together with hers. The snow was already creeping inside. Cavanaugh stopped it by wedging their backpacks across the bottom of the entrance, sealing the lower half of the gap.
“That should keep us warmer.” He turned back towards her and met her eyes before averting his down to his bare feet. “We might have to share body heat again… if you can bring yourself to be near a monster.”
“Cavanaugh,” Eloise snapped and his grey eyes leaped to hers. “I never said you were a monster… just… it hurt that you stayed away. It hurt that one day we were best friends and the next you were acting like a stranger.”
“Gods, Eloise…” He scrubbed his left hand over his silver-white hair. “I didn’t want it to be like that… but what was I meant to do?”
Talk to her. He was meant to talk to her. She would have listened to him and she might not have spent years believing she had meant nothing to him.
She lowered her gaze back to her feet. It was cold and she didn’t have the energy to think, let alone argue with him. She trudged to the clothes she had spotted on the floor and picked up her beige trousers. They were damp. So was her top.
“Here.” Cavanaugh rounded her, stooped and scooped up his long sleeve black thermal top. He offered it to her. “I meant to lay your clothes out to dry but I forgot.”
Because he had been focused on warming her.
“You could have talked to me,” she whispered and took the top from him, ignoring the confused crinkle of his brow. He knew damned well that she wasn’t talking about yesterday when she had been unconscious. She was talking about a decade ago. She lifted the top to her nose.
It smelled of Cavanaugh.
Gods, she wanted to rub it all over herself.
She tamped down that feline urge and put it on.
“What could I have said?” Cavanaugh stepped into her, his hands claiming her hips, guiding her backwards towards the sleeping bags.
She stared up into his grey eyes, lost in them, feeling as if he was beating down her defences all over again. Every time she reconstructed them, he went to war again, tearing them down. His eyes darted between hers and his silver eyebrows furrowed.
“Tell me, Eloise,” he husked. “If I had told you that I wanted you, what would you have done?”
She dragged her eyes away from his, dropping them to his bare chest. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know,” he echoed and she swallowed hard and nodded. He sighed. “You don’t know because there is no answer where we get what we want… is there?”
He released her and stepped back, his eyes lowering to his feet as hers rose to his.
He looked vulnerable, a male stripped of his power and strength, one who was breaking inside. She didn’t like it. It filled her with a need to step towards him and slide her arms around his neck, bringing his lips down to hers for a kiss that would relay all of her feelings for him and chase away his pain.
“There is no way for me to have you… not the way I want you.” He scrubbed his hand around the back of his neck and closed his
eyes. “If I had gone to you back then and told you that I wanted you, it wouldn’t have changed a thing… just as it doesn’t change a thing now. It doesn’t change my status or the things I did.”
She wished he hadn’t said that last part. The things he had done. A brief flash of the pride females blasted across her eyes and she shut them, wishing she could shut out the images too. They refused to go away.
“I never wanted this,” he whispered.
Eloise opened her eyes and looked at him. “What did you want?”
He lifted his gaze to hers, silver glowing around his dark pupils.
“You.”
Chapter 10
Gods help her, but when Cavanaugh looked at her like that, with desire darkening his grey eyes but making them burn at the same time, she lost all of her will to resist him.
Eloise had stepped into his arms, claimed his shoulders and pulled him down to her before she could even consider what she was doing. She fused her mouth with his in a hard kiss, one born of the need blazing through her, hunger that had been building from the moment she had set eyes on him in London. She could no longer deny it. She was surprised she had made it this far without surrendering to it.
The wind howled across the mountain and the scent of snow grew thicker, but she didn’t care. She didn’t feel the cold as Cavanaugh’s hands clamped down on her hips and he slowly drew her against him. She felt only the scorching heat of the desire that burned within her heart and her body, a need and hunger that only he could satisfy.
Tomorrow was for regrets.
Today was for living.
His tongue stroked the seam of her lips and she opened for him, earning a low husky growl as her reward for complying with his demands. She angled her head and tangled her tongue with his, the taste of him taking her back to that night a decade ago, when she had given herself to him and he had given himself to her. She moaned and clutched his shoulders, pressing her nails in as she clung to him, riding the storm that swirled in her veins and blasted through her, passion that burned hotter than it had back then.
It consumed her and she could only surrender herself to it, to the intoxicating press of his fingers against her bare hips and the fierce demand of his lips on hers. He groaned and slid one hand around to the small of her back, pinning her against him. It wasn’t enough for her. She broke free, ignored his growl as it echoed around the small low-lit cave, and cut it off when she tugged his top back off over her head and tossed it away from her. Her bra followed it and he moaned, his gaze dropping to hungrily devour what she offered.
“Eloise,” he murmured and grabbed her arm, dragging her back to him. His mouth claimed hers again, a wild edge to his kiss that told her she wasn’t the only one lost in the moment, no longer in control of themselves.
She needed more than his kiss though.
She needed all of him.
Eloise stroked her fingers down his chest and stomach, moaning into his mouth as his muscles tensed, sending a fiery shiver bolting through her and all of the fire in her veins rushing to her belly. She made swift work of his trouser buttons as her lips clashed with his, their tongues duelling. When the last button gave way, his cock sprang free and she groaned again as she rubbed her palm down the length of it, from the crown to his balls.
Cavanaugh shuddered and moaned, his big body quaking against hers. His shaft jerked in her hand and she stroked it again, teasing him with the leisurely and light caress. He seized hold of her hips and guided her backwards, but she stopped him in his tracks by cupping his balls, rolling them in her fingers. His lips froze against hers, his breathing ragged as she stroked him again, circling his length with her fingers and slowly gliding up and down. He was bigger than she remembered, hot and heavy in her hand. She rubbed her thumb over the crown, smearing the pearl of moisture into his soft skin.
He groaned and his fingers tensed against her hips. He liked that.
She smiled and kissed him as she stroked him, teasing him by alternating between light and slow, and hard and fast. He breathed hard against her lips between kisses, the scent of his arousal heavy in the cold air. She moaned at the same time as he did as he began walking with her again, inching her back towards the sleeping bags.
Eloise stopped him this time by turning with him, and seemed to surprise him by backing him towards the warm blankets, because he groaned low and long, a pained look on his face.
She pressed down on his shoulders and he obeyed, sitting on the sleeping bags and staring up at her, his cock jerking against his stomach. She slipped her fingers into the sides of her knickers and slowly eased them down her thighs, her eyes never leaving his.
“Eloise,” he whispered, his breathing coming faster and his pupils gobbling up his silver irises.
He palmed his length, the sight so sensual and wicked that it tore a moan from her. He did it again, his big hand wrapping around it this time, stroking himself as she undressed for him. She rubbed her thighs together and moaned as she realised how slick she was already, hungry for him. His eyes darkened and he drew a deep breath, his gaze turning hooded. He could smell her desire just as she could smell his. There was no denying that she wanted this and so did he.
And there would be no denying her either.
He was going to do things her way or not at all.
She kicked her knickers aside and walked towards him. His throat worked on a hard swallow, his sexy Adam’s apple dipping beneath the fine layer of silver stubble that coated his jaw and neck. She kneeled when she reached the blanket, placing one leg on either side of his and straddling them.
He reached for her.
She denied him and ran her hands up his thighs, to the top of his grey trousers. She tugged them down, not stopping until they were at his knees, and then ran her hands back up his legs, over the toned muscles of his thighs. They quivered beneath her touch.
Eloise shuffled closer to him and settled herself on his thighs. She pressed her hands to his chest, pinning him against the rock wall, and kissed him again. He growled into her mouth, seizing control of the kiss in an instant, his hands questing over her thighs. She expected him to shift them around to her bottom and draw her against him.
He did the opposite.
He slipped his hands between her legs and kept travelling upwards, to their apex, where he swept them over the top of her thighs. She moaned and kissed him harder, aching to have him touch her most private place. She needed his hands on her. She flexed her hips, eliciting a low moan from him, and his thumbs brushed her inner thighs again, stroking the neat curls covering her mound.
“Cavanaugh,” she whispered, willing to give him what he wanted if he would then give her what she needed.
He smiled against her mouth and kissed her as he dipped his hands between her thighs and stroked her wet folds. She moaned at the same time as he did, the feel of his cool fingers against her overheating flesh sending stars shooting through her.
He angled his hand and rubbed her with the pads of two fingers, tearing moan after moan from her lips as she tried to resist rocking her hips. She tensed her muscles and shuddered as she stepped dangerously close to the edge of bliss. It was hard to force herself to relax again but she managed it as she kissed him, using all of her willpower to stop herself from finding release. She wanted him inside her when it happened.
She needed him inside her again.
She seized his hands and pinned them to the wall on either side of his head. He moaned, the sound low and wicked, sending heat curling through her. She had never been assertive in the times they had been together. She had been too caught up in his primal heat to do anything but submit to him.
Now he would submit to her.
Eloise drew back and he stared at her, his grey gaze hooded, his sensual lips rosy from her kiss. He looked more satisfied now than he had ever looked back then, and she hadn’t even brought him to climax yet. She could change that.
She rose onto her knees and pressed harder against his wrists when he trie
d to move them. His eyes widened and then narrowed, setting her on fire. He approved of this side of her. He wanted to submit to her. Gods, just the thought of Cavanaugh at her mercy had her on the verge of finding release.
He groaned when she brought them into contact, rubbing her slick heat up and down his rigid length, and tipped his head back into the wall, a look of agony crossing his handsome face. She would put him out of his misery, because she couldn’t take the teasing either, not this time.
She rocked her hips upwards, rising higher on her knees at the same time, until the blunt head of his cock pressed into her aroused nub. She angled her body into his, caught the crown of his length and pressed downwards, so it slipped down towards where she needed him.
A moan escaped her when he nudged against her entrance.
Eloise shifted her hands in his, interlinking their fingers but keeping his hands pinned to the wall. She screwed her face up, pressing her forehead against Cavanaugh’s, their panted breaths mingling as she slowly eased down onto his cock, taking him inch by delicious inch into her wet heat. He half-moaned half-growled as the tip of him struck her deepest point and she rotated her hips, making sure he was in as far as he could go.
“Eloise,” he whispered and she gave him what he wanted.
She clutched his hands and kissed him as she rode him, long and fast thrusts that left no part of her untouched by him. He rocked his hips, countering her, thrusting up each time she drove down and pulling away whenever she rose off him again. She moaned into his mouth, lost in the bliss tripping through her as his cock filled her, stretching and completing her. Gods, it had never been like this.
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