She was also starting to understand him, even like him. She wanted to be there for him, soothe him and fix all his broken pieces to make him smile again...
And that was dangerous.
All of it was harder to ignore, harder to resist, simply because she didn’t want to, dammit. She wanted a happy thing, something good in her life. Something besides rocks and minerals to distract her from the pain of losing her family. Something that could hold her and kiss her and protect her and sing to her...
Not just something, someone. She wanted Micah.
And the fact that he seemed to feel the same way, that she could have him, even for just a little while, was almost too much to resist.
But the old sting of betrayal was still there, like a tight scar pulling on healthy skin. To take what she wanted would open her up to wounding again. She couldn’t do that. There was too much at stake. If it was just her heart, her happiness, at stake, she might risk it with Micah. But her mother would be the one to suffer if Jade got distracted from her mining. Jade was here to provide for her mother’s care, and nothing else.
But... she’d found her gems, she simply had to get them out. Her mother’s future was all but secured now. The only real thing she’d be risking was her heart. She could keep everything light and fun and physical if she gave in, right? Even if she already liked him?
Right.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JADE HAD BEEN WORKING in a frenzy on her claim for days, working too hard, too long. She worked until it was dark every night and then let him lead her down the mountain. They would sit around the campfire and talk a bit, or sit there staring into the flames until she could no longer stay awake. And then she’d be back at the claim doing it again the next day until darkness forced her to stop.
Today, she would have to quit sooner. There was a storm coming.
Dark, seething clouds had shifted over the western peaks for an hour or two, but they were overhead now. Thunder rumbled, and the air smelled wet. The rain would start very soon.
Micah knelt at the entrance to the hole she’d crawled into. “Jade,” he called. “Jade!” he said louder when she didn’t answer.
A muffled “What?” came from inside.
“Time to go.”
“Already?” she asked, reluctance in her voice. “I need a little bit longer here.”
“It’s about to storm.”
She shimmied out of her hole and squinted up at the sky. “Yeah, looks like rain. Damn it.”
But it was more than rain. Sending his powers through the ground, he could feel the low-level vibration of rain and hail and thunder all together on the other peaks. The wind was picking up, a cold edge to it that hinted at winter, still weeks away.
“Just give me a few more minutes, Micah, I still need—”
“No,” he said, standing and holding out his hand to her.
Mutiny flashed across her face until a few small pieces of hail fell around them, making a strangely metallic noise against the rocks. Jade looked up at the sky and clenched her eyes and her fists shut. “Shit. Okay.”
She opened them and scrambled out of her hole, quickly shoving things in her backpack. He bent to gather her pick, but she threw a hand out to cover his and stop him from touching it. “No, leave it.”
He raised a brow at her.
“The tools are like a lightning rod when we’re this high, this exposed. You could get struck.”
As if to back up her claim, lightning hit right behind the peak, so close there was almost no thunder, only the crack of the atmosphere rending in half.
Micah tossed the pick down the mountain, far away from Jade.
As she closed her pack, the rain started falling in earnest, stinging his skin as much as the hail had. It was cold enough to believe the rain was just barely melted ice.
He ripped the tarp covering her pit from the ropes and handed it to Jade to wrap around herself.
“Go,” he said, pointing down the trail.
“What about you?”
“I’ll be fine if you hurry.” Hell, he’d be fine either way. But if it got her to move...
It did. She turned and picked her way down the path, trying to hold the edges of tarp and keep her footing on slippery rocks at the same time. She wasn’t doing well, and the intensity of the storm was increasing.
Unless he were to throw her over his shoulder and haul ass down the mountain, they would never make it out of this storm before she froze. Or broke a leg. Or he got struck by lightning. The metal in the surrounding earth was zinging with the electricity in the air, and with no trees this high, he was the tallest object around.
Another loud, drawn out rumble of thunder gave him the perfect cover for the sound of him creating an opening in the rocks for them to take shelter in.
“Over here,” he yelled over the clamorous sound of wind, rain, and hail.
Jade turned, tightly gripping the edges of the tarp, even though the wind was threatening to rip it away from her.
He motioned to the crevasse he’d opened.
She threw him one puzzled look, but then ducked in. He took the canvas from her and weighted the corners with boulders, giving them a temporary but rain-proof roof. Not that it mattered much, because they were both already soaked. But it would be warm and out of the wind and lightning. He ducked under the tarp once it was in place, the bulk of him causing Jade to squeeze to the side.
Why hadn’t he made a bigger hole? The only way they would both be protected from the weather now is if they crammed together.
Gently, he put his hands on Jade’s upper arms and held her steady as he squeeze around her to the back. He considered it a win that she let him without complaint.
He sat down heavily and leaned against the rough rocks, pushing dripping hair out of his eyes. Jade squatted by the entrance, her movements stiff. She seemed uncomfortable. Cold.
He bent his knees as close to his chest as he could manage. “Sit.”
It was an invitation, not an order, but he wasn’t sure she’d take it until she was scooting backward into the space he’d created.
They listened to the storm around them without speaking.
“I’ve literally never noticed this little cave here before,” Jade said, breaking the silence. “It must have formed recently.”
Micah grunted a non-committal answer. Recently, yes. About seven-and-a-half minutes ago. He’d have to leave it now, or she would notice its absence. But at least she could seek shelter here again if she ever needed to. Like maybe next year, when she returned as a normal human, drained of her power and in no danger from the Chaolt. Would he still be here guarding the portal? Maybe he would see her again. Maybe she’d need security.
But maybe not.
He stared at the back of her head. What was this feeling at the thought of not seeing her again? It was was like a cavern opened up beneath him. He wanted to keep seeing her, spending time with her. Talking to her, especially now that it was easier for him to do. Returning to his world of silence didn’t feel as desirable as it once had. He didn’t want their time on the mountain to end. But now it would end sooner, because he’d helped her find her crystals.
His hand reached out to touch her hair, to smooth over the wet tendrils draping her shoulders, but he pulled back when a shudder wracked her body.
JADE SHIVERED, TEETH chattering from the icy rain that had soaked her clothes.
“You cold?”
Jade clenched her jaw and shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”
Before the lie completely left her lungs, Micah spread his legs and pulled her between them in one quick, fluid motion.
She made a token protest and tried to pull away, but he placed his arms across his knees, barring her way. Pressing his front again her back.
“Hush,” he said into her ear. “Let me warm you.”
The brush of breath across her skin and the heat soaking into her from Micah killed any further protests. But she shouldn’t let him this get close, physically or emotionall
y. She could warm herself.
The scenery around them quickly disappeared, the heavy downpour hiding everything behind an opaque wall of gray. They were the only ones on earth at that moment. She felt right at home in the circle of his arms, the rest of the world distant and trivial.
They weren’t dry, but with Micah’s mass behind her, she was at least warm. Comfortable, almost cozy. How could that be, in a crack in the earth with a storm raging over her head? She wasn’t sure.
It made her bitter that she enjoyed being here with him, in this isolation, but her head wouldn’t shut up about motives, risks. But that was the lesson her ex taught her.
There was always an angle. She wrestled with it for a minute while the rain and hail pounded overhead.
“What do you want from me, Micah?” she murmured. The driving rain and wind drowned out her words to her own ears, but somehow he heard her.
He leaned closer, his lips once again at her ear. He nuzzled her there. “To touch you.”
“That’s all?” Not her claim? Not her gems, her money?
Her heart?
Micah was quiet for a moment, shifting behind her as if he were wrestling with his answer. But she’d never known him to tell her anything but the truth, and even in their short acquaintance, and that was a rare thing for her to experience from anyone.
Finally, he answered, his voice grudging. “I want more, but I would settle for a kiss. Like before.”
More... the word sent another shiver through her, and he rubbed his big, warm hands down her arms. But it wasn’t the cold that caused her reaction, it was the heat inside her at the thought of ‘more’ and what it could mean. What it could be.
What she wanted it to be.
She smiled at the rain, the heavy sheets of it that drew a curtain around their cozy crack in the earth. And finally let passion take control.
Slowly, so he would know she wasn’t trying to escape his grip, she turned sideways in his lap and palmed his cheek.
He held her gaze, silent, letting her come to him. His eyes had that strange coloration they sometimes held, a gold metallic flash behind the warm brown.
She found it beautiful, and her first small kiss was her way of telling him that. Then she did it again, slower, grazing her lips across his.
That second one was just for her.
She drew back for a second, and his lids had dropped to give him an almost sleepy appearance. Drugged maybe, like he was high on her kisses, which was exactly how she felt.
Her head spun as she tasted him again, this time her tongue dragging across his lips, darting between. One more quick dip inside, and suddenly his powerful tongue was rubbing hers back, tasting her in return, as his arms tightened around her.
Her heartbeat sped up from the restrained power in his kiss, in his hands as they traveled up over her back, pressing her close. In every inch of him.
He had to be the strongest man she’d ever met, but he was always so sweetly, achingly gentle with her.
When his arms clenched around her a fraction more and then instantly relaxed, as if it had been involuntary, she realized that she liked to feel his strength. She wanted to feel more of it, all of it.
Jade pulled back again, all the way until she was kneeling in the dirt, the top of her head brushing the tarp. And of course he let her go, eyes dark and deep and following her every move.
She put a hand on both of his knees, spread as they had been to cage her between them, and pushed them together. She got back on his lap, straddling him, so she could let her hands roam while she kissed him some more.
“Hold me tight,” she said, palms smoothing down his tattooed biceps. She felt them bulge as his arms contracted around her.
“Yes, like that,” she murmured, “I like to feel your strength.”
And in typical male fashion, he flexed again. She smiled against his lips, and then the heat between her legs finally registered. His tight hold had drawn her closer to his body, and straddling him as she was, the evidence of his arousal was nestled at the junction of her thighs.
He was so hard.
And that made her blood turn to molten gold, the hot sweetness gliding through her veins as she kissed and nibbled his lips, converging behind the seam of her jeans.
At that moment, it didn’t matter what other agenda he might have, Micah’s body spoke for him. He wanted her. Before her big score, when she was digging empty holes, he’d wanted her. Now, covered in dirt and sweat and rain, he wanted her. He wanted her just for who and what she was, and god, what a feeling.
And she could finally admit that she desired him too, more than she wanted to keep her resolution to never again mix business and pleasure.
“Can I touch you?” he murmured, asking the same question he’d asked before. Considering how much she’d warned him away from her at first, she could understand why. She’d been telling him no all this time. He wasn’t going to make a move without an emphatic yes. God, what a man.
“You want to touch me?” Jade brought his hands up, put them on her breasts. “Then do it. Any way you want.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
JADE’S SCENT, THE FEELING of her flesh under Micah’s hands, the sweetness of her mouth, it all flowed over him like a mudslide, swamping him. Jade smelled like waterfalls and rocks and forests. She smelled like the most beautiful places he’d seen of the Earth.
For all his physical strength, he was powerless to resist her. And he didn’t want to, he wanted to drink her up, devour her.
He wanted to touch her everywhere at once and he was afraid, as big and as starved for touch as he was, that he might scare her, hurt her, if he let out the full force of his desire.
But it got harder with every second that passed, every gasp of Jade’s breath, every brush of her skin against his.
She moved in his lap, subtle movements he wasn’t sure she was aware of, rubbing herself against him until he was insane with wanting to feel the absence of clothing between them.
His cock strained toward her heat so hard, he thought he might punch a hole through his jeans.
Never in his life had his urges been so out of control. But it had always been this way with Jade, from the beginning. Only with her.
Surely, Chaos would sour this between them, too, eventually. But he could not stop himself from kissing her, touching her, taking the pleasure she was giving in this moment.
She everything he was not. Soft, sinuous, sensual; shifting and moaning in his arms. Jade was everything good about his mission, everything pleasurable and beautiful in this mortal plane. Micah leaned his head back against the rock, swallowing hard and clenching his eyes closed as her mouth traveled down the cords of his neck.
She bit him there, where his neck met his shoulder, rocking her body, and a groan tore out of him.
He grabbed her hips, attempting to hold her still. “Jade,” he groaned.
“Micah,” she whispered, her hands pushing up his t-shirt as they traveled from his abs to his chest.
It wasn’t like he could say he didn’t want her, he’d already admitted it. Maybe not the extent of it, the depths of his desire, but she had to know he wouldn’t stop her.
Couldn’t. He couldn’t stop her. He wanted this too badly.
But he should have her on a soft bed somewhere, not under a tarp, in the middle of a storm, on the side of an unstable mountain.
So he told her that.
“I think it’s perfect,” she replied, as she sat back and raised her shirt, lifting it up and over her head, exposing her flesh-colored bra to his gaze.
Before his action registered in his brain, he’d cupped her breasts. Jade arched into his touch, gripping his wrists.
He looped a finger under each bra strap and pulled them down off her shoulders, exposing her flesh to the air, his hands, his mouth.
He filled his palm with her breast as he feasted on her lips, breathing hard, trying to yank back on the desire that made his hands shaky, his grip a little too hard. But when Jad
e brought her hands up to cover his, to squeeze them and encourage him to grasp her harder, his breath stopped. Releasing it with a groan, he leaned forward and fed himself her breasts, holding them so he could take the whole tip between his lips and bite like one would a piece of juicy fruit.
Jade gasped, arching toward him more, her fingers threading into his hair to hold him there.
When she couldn’t hold herself still under his lips, when even her delicious breasts weren’t enough to sate his hunger, he let his hand roam lower, where she ground herself against him. He did it slowly, giving her every chance to pull away or stop him, but she didn’t. Instead, she gasped and moaned as his fingers rubbed over her jeans.
“Oh, god,” she whispered, her head falling forward on to his shoulder.
But he wanted more. He wanted to feel her silky flesh, feel how much she wanted him. He wanted to make her shiver with pleasure, skin against skin, instead of the thick barrier of denim.
Instead, he pulled his hand away from the temptation and reached around to grab her ass, taking her mouth as he filled both hands with firm muscle. Squeezing, he drew her closer and pressed her tight against the aching part of him, allowing himself to imagine they were both naked.
Jade leaned back from him and grabbed his forearms, pulling back as she pushed his hands away.
Disappointment reigned until she stood and undid the button on her pants, the zipper, then peeled the wet denim down her legs.
Almost naked, she knelt between his legs, hands on his fly. But with the way he was pressed against his jeans, there was no way she was getting it down without injuring him. So he grabbed her hands and sat them on top of his shoulders while he undid his pants. And then he leaned back and pushed them down to his ankles. Unsure if he should go any farther, he stopped.
Jade, golden-skinned goddess that she was, climbed back into his lap. They still weren’t flesh to flesh, but as she slid up his thighs until the hottest parts of them were touching through thin fabric, he had to close his eyes at the electric feeling.
When he felt her lips back on his, he realized he was groaning. And so was she.
Crush (Elemental Hearts, #3) Page 9