by Calista Fox
“Yeah. I know. I hadn’t thought about that. I’m sorry.”
Her head cocked to the side and she stared curiously at him. “Thought about what?”
“Protection.”
“Oh!” Holy Christ. Neither had she. And hadn’t she begged him to come inside her? “I’m on the Pill.” Perpetually.
He eyed her closely. “That’s not what you were panicked over?”
“What? Oh yes. Actually, it was.” She hated to lie to him, but it was the perfect cover for her massive faux pas, so she went with it. “I’m just… My brain’s a little scrambled.” She laughed. That part was definitely not a lie!
Cane grinned as he came further into her room, seemingly filling the large space with his broad frame and commanding presence. Good lord, he was a dreamboat of a man! Tall, hunky…gloriously naked!
And what an amazing lover!
Her body still burned from his touch, from everything he’d done to her, and now her clit tingled at the mere sight of him. And the remembrance of their wild and wicked ride.
Yes, she was definitely screwed. Especially now that the rain was falling freely.
Cane had evoked the deepest of her emotions, had pulled them all to the surface. And she’d let them consume her, run rampant. She’d experienced the gamut of the rain god’s powers as though she’d channeled Tlaloc this evening. Not a good thing when it was imperative she keep her secret to herself.
But she’d given herself this one evening and it wasn’t over yet. She’d worry about the rest tomorrow.
Good thinking, Scarlett.
Right now, she just wanted to revel in the afterglow…and then heat things up again with Cane.
“Will you stay the night?” she asked. Dangerous, yes. But surely one sleepover would be okay.
He nodded and climbed into bed with her. “I have a meeting first thing in the morning but…I’m nowhere near done with you.”
She smiled. “Lucky me.”
His jaw clenched. “We’ll see. I’m afraid you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”
Bev reached for him, loving the feel of his cool skin against her hot flesh. Loving his weight on her when his body covered hers. She spread her legs wide to accommodate him, ran her hands over the hard muscles covering his strong arms, broad shoulders and wide back.
Feeling the raised scratches, she frowned. “Shit. I dug in,” she said as the pad of one finger trailed along a fresh wound that ran from the nape of his neck to the small of his back.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said as his lips grazed her neck. “I’m a quick healer.”
She thought about her own injury earlier in the week. There wasn’t a trace of it left. He wouldn’t heal so fast. “I’ll try to be more careful.”
“Not on my account.” His pelvis ground against hers, his erection strong and full and sliding along her slick, swollen lips. “Knowing you’re turned-on makes me even harder.”
“More good fortune for me,” she said. And meant it. As complicated as this was, as careful as she needed to be to ensure she didn’t reveal too much about herself, slip up on dates or adventures or any other clue that might make him question her age, she cherished this connection she had. With this incredibly hot, sensuous man.
He lifted his head from her throat and stared down at her. His tone was deadly serious as he said, “You’re obviously not frail. Stronger than I’d ever imagined, in fact. But, Bev,” His eyes seemed to search hers before he added, “I could hurt you. I’m much stronger than you. Much more powerful than you know.”
She rubbed her thumb over the furrow of his brow. He was so damned sexy. And sweet. Protective. The way he looked at her and touched her made her feel like she belonged to him. Like he’d claimed her on some animalistic, territorial level.
For tonight, she’d be his. And would covet every second with him.
“Seriously, you haven’t hurt me and you won’t.”
“I’m just saying…” He frowned. “I lose control with you.”
“Mm, yes, you do.” Her fingers twined in his silky, obsidian hair. The strands were thick and long and unruly. “And I like it.”
No, she loved it. But perhaps that was a word best avoided.
He studied her closely, as though committing every detail of her face to memory. Then he said, “You are so beautiful. So damned sexy. And I want to be inside you again.”
A shiver of delight chased up her spine. “I’m as ready as you are.”
“No,” he said, a wicked glint in his black eyes. “Not yet.”
He slid slowly down her body, his mouth blazing a trail to her breasts. His tongue teased her nipples tighter, his palms caressed and squeezed and titillated. Her breath quickened and her body coiled tight with anticipation and the need he instantly sparked.
“Cane,” she whispered his name. Granting him permission. Reminding him of what she wanted most. He’d take his time pleasing her, she knew that now. But that wouldn’t stop her from wanting him inside her, stroking her inner depths, pushing deeper, coming inside her.
Her pussy throbbed, desperately in need of feeling him hard and full and unrelenting. Unyielding. Goddamn, he’d been so hard when he’d been inside her! He’d stretched her, filled her. Made her feel complete.
As much as she enjoyed everything he did to her, it was pure torture to know he had an erection and wasn’t using it! The foreplay was spectacular, but the main event was addictive.
He moved further south until his mouth covered her and she knew she was in for another mind-numbing orgasm—or ten!—delivered by the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on. His tongue stroked her lips in long, full movements that had her panting like she was in heat. He touched her so intimately, as though he’d always known her. Knew instinctively how to caress and pleasure. Knew the right pace, the right amount of pressure, the right everything!
Okay, she could wait for him to make love to her. Because what he did to her now felt so incredibly exquisite, she could lie here forever and let him drive her wild. He licked and sucked and flicked, his tongue working erotic magic on her tingling flesh, her hypersensitive clit.
Her fingers were still tangled in his hair. She arched her back and her head hit the pillow beneath her.
“That’s so good,” she said. And barely recognized her own voice. It was dark and sultry and full of lust.
He pushed one finger, then two, inside her and she started to unravel. The pressure increased on her clit, the pace inside her quickened. She released the strands of hair her fingers were twisted in and instead grabbed fistfuls of crisp white sheet and satiny duvet surrounding her. He made her writhe and moan. Made her want to hold onto the sinfully delicious sensations he evoked as much as she wanted to let go of them.
When he whispered, “Come for me, baby,” she did. There was no holding back when he commanded her desire. Whatever he wanted, she would give him.
Her passion-induced cry echoed all around them, but was no match for the sound of the rain that fell even harder than before, hitting the glass in a strong, steady beat.
“Oh lord,” she groaned. Her nipples tingled, her belly fluttered, her pussy pulsed. Every inch of her felt electrified. At the same time, she ached for him. Like there was a huge, gaping hole inside her only he could fill.
“Please,” she pleaded. “Make love to me.”
His head lifted and his dark eyes met hers. Clearly, he didn’t miss the change in her wording. Or the need in her voice. He saw so much, knew so much about her. With no real effort on her part. A scary yet thrilling notion. She wouldn’t dwell on the downside of that reality. Rather, she found she liked how intuitive he was. How connected they were. On a visceral level she’d never dreamed of achieving. It was warm and wondrous and she would enjoy it for one night.
Moving on the bed, he left the wide V of her parted legs and stretched his powerful body alongside hers, his hypnotic gaze giving her heart palpitations. One large hand splayed over her hip and with the gentlest of nudges, he u
rged her to roll away from him. Propping herself on the other hip and an elbow, not quite lying and not quite sitting up, she stared at him over her bare shoulder. His eyes burned with passion and need. And so much more. His features were dark and serious, telling of his constant battle to retain some control so he didn’t hurt her.
If only she could convince him he wouldn’t! Good lord, would the fire turn into a five-alarm rager then!
But there was nothing she could do to assure him she was virtually indestructible. And besides, the heat factor was already intense enough to singe her to the core of her being.
His hand moved from her hip to her throat. He massaged it gently, then the pads of his fingers caressed her dewy skin as they brushed over her shoulder and then the nape of her neck beneath the thick curtain of her damp hair. When his sensuous touch slid slowly down her spine, tracing the long line to the small of her back, she shivered with wicked delight.
His eyes burned brighter. Knowing how vehemently she responded to him. Knowing how easily he sparked her desire.
But he didn’t gloat. Merely continued to arouse her with exploring fingers pressed into her backside, then stroked her thigh, tickled the exposed underside of her knee. Her erogenous zones were ultra-sensitive to his touch and she felt prickly all over.
He leaned forward and placed a very soft, sweet kiss on her hip.
Bev melted. Her heart seemed to swell in her chest. Her mouth gaped open.
I love you too.
Whatever kept him from admitting his feelings, she couldn’t fault him for it because it was impossible for her to say the words as well. But that did not mean the emotion wasn’t there, that it wasn’t growing every single second they spent together.
She ran a hand through his hair, down his neck to his shoulder. He was so beautiful. So perfect in so many ways.
It occurred to Bev that she would give up her eternity to spend a mortal life with this man.
That thrilled and terrified her at the same time.
Trouble was, she didn’t know exactly what would happen to her once her secret was revealed, once she acknowledged it out loud. Would she instantly shrivel up and turn to ash? Would she start at thirty-one, the age she looked, and die from there in a natural, mortal progression?
She didn’t know. And was too scared to find out.
But damn it. If she could have fifty or sixty years of bliss with Cane, sans secrets and fears, she’d give up her immortality. For him. For them.
There were no guarantees, though. She only knew of the curse, not the end result. Either no immortal descendant of Tlaloc had had their gift revoked, or it hadn’t been documented. So she didn’t know what to expect.
“You’re the one drifting away now,” Cane said, his voice low yet commanding her attention.
She stared at him. Wanting him in every conceivable way. For as long as she could have him.
Impossible.
Shaking her head, she said, “I just can’t believe how incredible this night is. How perfect it is. I don’t ever want it to end.” And for the first time in six centuries, a tear welled in her eye.
How could something so beautiful and so right be so doomed?
It wasn’t fair.
Then again she was immortal. Not fair either.
His lips moved to her spine, grazing her skin as they swept upward, making her shiver. Her nipples tightened. Her insides clenched tight. God, she wanted him!
When he lifted the hair off her neck and kissed her softly behind her ear, she knew she couldn’t live another six hundred years without this. Without him.
Hell, she couldn’t live another day without this. Without him.
“Cane,” she said, breathless and so hopelessly lost.
“It’s okay, baby. We have all night.”
Thank god for that. But he didn’t understand her dismay. Didn’t know she wanted more than tonight. And couldn’t have it.
Sure, she could stick around Savannah a little while longer, but to what point? The inevitable would only chase her, and the deeper she loved him, the more addicted she was to his touch and his scent and his words… It would only be that much more agonizing to leave him when she had to.
Why would she torture herself like that?
And to walk on pins and needles to keep her identity safe when all she really wanted to do was to peel away both their layers and expose their souls to each other. She couldn’t do it.
Wouldn’t do it.
But he was right. They still had tonight. She didn’t want to squander their time together. It was much too precious.
“I didn’t realize I had such a sensitive side,” she said on a half-laugh, trying to cover her anxiety and pain and push past them.
He didn’t buy into her façade. Instead, he kissed her shoulder and said, “Believe me, Bevelyn, I never knew I could feel this way. It’s not anything I’m familiar with or even…comfortable with. This is fragile.”
She nodded. “Very much so.”
He seemed to swallow down a hard lump. Of emotion? Regret? Hope? She wished she knew.
“I don’t know how to make this last past tonight,” he said in an honest tone.
His candid words touched her heart as much as they broke it.
But how could she fight or deny or refute them?
She couldn’t, of course.
“I feel the same,” she admitted. “There’s so much about me that you don’t know.”
“And you, me.”
They were back to the conversation they’d started—and abandoned—in the foyer before passion had overcome them and no words had seemed significant enough to convey the way they felt about each other. The passion that naturally arced between them. The desire that still burned so bright.
“But…” She wanted to say there had to be a way. Yet how could she? It would be a lie. Anything they attempted to build together past this night would all be based on a lie. A monumental one. A fragile one, as he’d said.
Bev sighed. “Maybe…if…”
I knew more.
More about the curse that would revoke her immortality if she told him her secret. If she simply started a mortal life from this point… But how could that be, really? Her insides didn’t match her outsides. Even though she claimed to be thirty-one, she really looked to be no more than twenty-five or six. But internally? Good grief. Six-hundred-year-old organs. Come on. She’d die on the spot. Within seconds, no doubt.
She closed her eyes, turned away.
“I can’t just walk away come morning,” he said to her, contradicting how complex this was on his side too. Clearly he was thinking the same thing she was—that there had to be a way to make this work.
Bev’s insides coiled tight. Her heart skipped a few beats and that lone tear building in her eye crested the rim and slid slowly down her flushed cheek.
“Maybe it’s for the best.” How that could be, she didn’t know. When two people were this deeply connected, how could they simply walk away from each other?
Damn it.
She’d never faced this problem before because she’d never allowed it to happen.
No. That was totally wrong and she knew it.
This problem had never been an issue for her because she’d never met Cane. Until now. Apparently even immortals could have soul mates and he was hers. As sadistic and painful and detrimental as it was. He would always be the one to fill her heart and soul and mind. And she would spend an eternity remembering this night. And long for him. Pine for him.
She choked back a sob, lifting her head to face him. “This is so much more complicated than you can imagine. I came to Savannah to start over. But I can’t do that with you. For reasons I can’t explain, it’s just…I can’t.” And damned if the tears she’d never shed before didn’t flow like rivers from her eyes.
Cane’s arms wrapped around her. The rain outside sluiced down the windows in sheets, like the tears that streamed down her cheeks. As though the heavens and Tlaloc were weeping with her.
His lips pressed to her temple before he said, “Just take a deep breath. We’re trying to move heaven and earth in one night, Bev. We’ve got to slow down. Think this through. Figure it all out.”
She sucked in a healthy gulp of air, held it, let it out slowly. She was shaking from the inside out and knew he was right. They were moving so fast. But wasn’t that the way of it when you knew exactly what you were doing, knew exactly what you wanted?
They wanted each other. They’d embraced that realization tonight and had thrown themselves into the moment.
And then so much more had transpired.
Her eyes scanned his too-handsome-for-words face until they locked with the obsidian stones that would forever haunt her. “You’ve been so worried about hurting me. I could do the same to you.”
No need to explain it’d be emotional not physical pain. The sheer size of him was evidence enough.
Nodding his understanding, Cane said, “We both have secrets.”
“Yes.”
“Something we don’t want to tell the other.”
“No.” She stared intently at him. “Something I can’t tell you. For good reason. A really good reason. I’d give anything to change that, but… It’d only make things worse, I think.”
His jaw clenched. “Is there someone I need to know about?”
“Oh god, no.”
He looked wholly relieved. But only for a moment. New tension darkened his features. Not necessarily over the wall she was erecting between them. It was because he had his own wall to build. She could see it in his eyes. She felt his regret deep inside her. A painful inevitability enveloped them. Whatever his secret, it was as significant to him as Bev’s was to hers, regardless of relative terms.
“Let’s deal with this tomorrow,” he said. “I’m not usually one for putting things off, but… If we’re at an impasse right now, maybe we just need to let it lie. And besides,” his fingers skimmed over her cheek and he added, “I don’t want to waste a second with you, Bev. I want to touch you and taste you and love you.”
Her lids fluttered closed. Her heart constricted. Her pussy clenched tight. He affected every inch of her inside and out. Physically, emotionally. On levels she’d never known existed.