Eternal Craving

by Nina Bangs

  Deep emotional commitment? She hadn’t thought that one out, but she couldn’t imagine a world without him, a world where she didn’t want to be with him. And God knew, if she wasn’t running for her life after the last few days, then the whole commitment thing must be serious.

  Sexual compatibility? Even in the midst of the present danger, the question almost made her smile. That was a big fat yes.

  Willing to die for him? Until now, that question would never have popped onto her radar. In her pre-Eleven world, she’d never have imagined being asked to die for someone. But now, listening to the battle rage below, it seemed perfectly reasonable.

  And she realized she’d already answered it. When she’d used Kione’s sword on the werewolf attacking Al, she’d known her chances of being ripped to pieces were pretty good. It hadn’t stopped her.

  Suddenly, she froze. She didn’t even breathe as she listened. While she’d been exploring the love question, everything had grown quiet. No sounds of battle, no light and sound show from outside the museum.

  Who had won? Was Al okay? She wanted to race through the museum’s exhibits screaming his name. She didn’t. That could get her killed, and she wouldn’t be any help to anyone if she was dead.

  Seir had said he’d send Al to her. She didn’t have a clue where Seir’s real loyalties lay, or even if he had any, but she’d give him a reasonable amount of time to come through on his promise before she ventured from her hiding place.

  It seemed like hours as the silence dragged on and on and on. A quick glance at her watch showed that ten minutes had passed. The watch lied.

  Just when she’d decided that even the threat of death was better than this feeling of her nerves stretching until they were ready to snap like a rubber band, she heard something. A quiet footfall.

  She stilled, not even breathing as she tried to reach beyond the teahouse with her senses. Al, Seir, or someone else?

  “Jenna.”

  Her name was only a soft ripple of sound, but she knew the voice. She exhaled in relief so powerful she shook with it. “Here. I’m in here.” She managed to make it to the teahouse’s entrance, but her hand trembled as she gripped the doorframe.

  Al stood in the shadows amidst the incongruous garden that made up this small piece of Japan. He wore his black duster. His hair was a wild tumble over his shoulders and around his face. He was danger, darkness, and all things delicious.

  It was too dark to see if he had any injuries, but he was alive. Alive. The miracle of that made her want to cry. She didn’t. There were other things, better things she could do with her time than crying.

  “Wait for me inside.” The shadows hid his expression.

  At another time she would’ve gotten in his face about giving her orders, but she was still floating in a state of euphoria, so she let it pass. She retreated into the unlit room.

  Unexpectedly, lights came on outside the tea house. Then Jenna saw Al’s silhouette step in front of the shoji screen that made up half of the front wall. With mouth suddenly dry, she watched him yank off his duster and drop it onto the ground. She could guess where this was going.

  He ripped off his T-shirt with controlled violence before reaching for his pants. There was something darkly voyeuristic in watching an anonymous shadow getting naked. But that didn’t keep her gaze from staying glued to the screen.

  He rid himself of his jeans in one fluid motion. No underwear followed. She slid the tip of her tongue across her lower lip. Then he simply stood facing the screen. His form was all flowing lines delineating a strong muscular body. The translucent screen erased all the hard edges.

  When he finally stepped from behind the screen and into clear view, it was like a pure adrenaline shot to every sexual cell in her body. And right now it felt like those were the only kinds of cells she had.

  His skin gleamed golden in the soft light. When he shifted his weight, hard muscle moved beneath all that smooth skin. Jenna swallowed hard as she glided her gaze over the length of him, from powerful pecs, to ridged stomach, to muscled thighs and strong legs. That was the appetizer.

  She moved on to the main course. His sacs hung heavy between his thighs. His cock was long, thick, and showing signs of intense interest.

  Jenna watched him approach, a slow deliberate stalking. Raising her eyes to his, she gasped. His soul looked out of those eyes. The Allosaurus wasn’t back in its cave. It might have allowed him to regain human form, but it was still in the driver’s seat.

  Something moved in her—hot, primitive, and oh, so savage. The terrible fear for his life she’d known a few moments ago rolled over to expose a surprising underbelly.

  Jenna wanted what his soul was promising. His beast didn’t have anything remotely civilized in mind. Well, good. Because she needed to unsheathe her claws and unleash all the violent emotion stored up inside.

  He stepped into the tea house, so close she could feel his excitement, the emotional high still thrumming through him. His scent was heat, hunger, and a primal craving.

  Jenna got it. She might not have an ancient predator’s soul, but she’d bet the hot need driving her was just as powerful as his. They’d faced death. Now they’d celebrate life.

  And even though she realized she’d eventually have to ask for details about what had happened in the Great Stair Hall, she’d live in the moment for however long they had together.

  He took the time to inspect the dim interior of the teahouse, a predator’s instinct when confronted with the unknown. His sheer size made the room seem tiny. He was a barbarian invading a place meant for serenity. She smiled. Serenity wasn’t at the top of her wish list right now. What she needed only this sexy predator could give her.

  And would you look at that gorgeous ass—compact, muscular, but nicely rounded. Supremely touchable.

  “I like this. Everything here is of the earth. It’s right.”

  She frowned. “I guess so.” What did that have to do with anything? Yes, she knew the tea house was made of natural materials. So? A green environment was not a top priority when it came to sensual settings. She’d make love with him in a plastic cube, and recycling be damned.

  Suddenly he was in front of her, invading her space, backing her against the wall.

  “My beast tasted blood to night and liked it. I’ve experienced a lot of new emotions since I rose in this time, but my basic urges are still those of my soul—to kill and to mate.”

  His heavy-lidded gaze touched her with erotic intent. And if there were tendrils of dark challenge interwoven with that intent, all the better.

  Al reached out and wrapped his fingers in her hair. He tugged, pulling her closer. “My soul doesn’t want to go back into its cave. It wants to mate with you deep within the shadows cast by trees from my time, on the hard ground from my time, with the storm winds of my time cooling the fever after the coupling.”

  She ran her fingers over the side of his face, feeling beard stubble along with the clenching of his jaw. This small sign of tension upped her anticipation. This wouldn’t be like the last time. She sensed it. “And what does the human part of you want?”

  His smile was a flash of white in the darkness. “I want to make love with you in this room surrounded by the reminders of living things. The scent of cedar, pine, and bamboo connect me to my other life. It’s enough.” This time his smile was all hungry male. “You’re more than enough.”

  Tightening his grip on her hair, he tipped her face up to meet his gaze. “Touch me.” Then he covered her mouth with his.

  She opened to him, and the heat of his lips, his tongue, ignited a fire that blazed across the millions of years separating her from his soul. His beast lived in his eyes, and she almost imagined it turning its massive head to stare at her. Recognition flared in its alien gaze. Mate.

  Jenna would meet his soul on its own ground. She tangled her tongue with his, explored the heated wonder of his mouth, and knew she’d remember that taste of dominant male until she died, and beyond. />
  As he deepened the kiss, she pressed her body against his. She’d taken off her coat a while ago, but there were still too many layers of cloth between them. She wanted bare flesh against bare flesh.

  Great minds thought alike, because when he finally broke the kiss he immediately slipped her sweater over her head. Her bra followed quickly. She helped him strip away her jeans and pan ties. This wouldn’t be a slow, sensual mating. Their need was too great.

  “Touch me.” There was an urgency to his repeated words.

  While he nibbled a path along her jaw, down her neck, and across the swell of her breast, she reached between them and clasped his cock.

  His low guttural moan sounded appreciative.

  Jenna clenched her thighs around the image of him driving deep into her body, filling her, completing her. These thoughts from someone who’d always claimed she didn’t need any man to complete her. She’d been wrong.

  “Touch me.” He didn’t sound too coherent.

  What did he mean? She was touching him. But then she lost her train of thought as he touched her, and released something that had slumbered for a very long time. It uncurled and indulged in a long sensual stretch, and then it turned its gleaming gaze on all that hard, sexy, male flesh. It unsheathed long, sharp claws and opened jaws filled with pointy white teeth.

  It approved. And in Al’s soul it found a kindred spirit.

  She flung back her head as he traced the curve of her breast with the tip of his tongue. Around and around, closer and closer to her nipple.

  Jenna couldn’t wait. With a sound that came scarily close to a growl, she grabbed his hair and yanked him closer. “You’ve been circling to land for too long. Put us down.”

  He did. Closing his lips over her nipple, he flicked it with his tongue and then nipped.

  “Yes.” She demonstrated her satisfaction by reaching behind him to rake her nails down his back and across his ass.

  He grunted his surprise before laughing softly. “You challenge my beast.”

  “You betcha.”

  Something in the air changed, grew thicker, hotter, and she was almost panting to suck in enough air.

  He clasped her butt cheeks in his big hands, digging his fingers into her flesh, kneading, massaging, as he scraped his teeth across her stomach. Only his tight grip kept her upright as he pressed her back against the wall.

  “Spread your legs.”

  His hoarse command didn’t meet with any resistance on her part. He kissed his way up to her other breast, closing his lips firmly around the nipple and sucking so hard that every nerve ending in her body screamed with the pleasure-pain of it.

  Then he slipped his knee between her spread legs and pressed it tightly there. She widened her stance so his knee could press harder and harder and harder. And when he began to slide his knee back and forth over her flesh, she cried out with the intense sensation.

  Closing her legs around his thigh, she rode him. He moved harder and faster, lifting her off her feet with the fury of his need. Her back bounced off the tea house wall, and the wall shook.

  “This. Building. Is. Too. Delicate.” He forced out each word in time to the hard thrusts of his knee.

  “But I’m not.” She couldn’t take any more. She was so wet, and the heaviness low in her belly shrieked for the only thing that could bring relief. Jenna climbed him, clawing at his shoulders as she wrapped her legs around his hips.

  He wasn’t a slow learner. Once again clasping her behind in his hands, he lifted her above his shaft and then paused.

  Glancing between her legs, she could see his cock, so hard and ready that a bead of moisture glistened on its head. Still he didn’t lower her onto him.

  Okay, if he wanted to play hardball—she paused to admire her own phrasing—two could play that game. Taking one hand from his shoulder, she reached between them and scooped his balls into her palm. She rubbed the pad of her thumb over them—so hard, so tight—before dragging the tips of her nails across them again and again until they tightened even more, if that was possible. He gave up with a groan.

  He lowered her until she could feel the tip of his head nudging her open. Nudging wasn’t needed, because the door was wide open and the welcome mat already spread out.

  Jenna slipped lower and lower, feeling that incredible stretching sensation as he filled more and more of her. She clenched around every inch, focused only on the friction of flesh against flesh, and knew neither of their patience could last much longer.

  “My beast thinks this is crap.” He tugged at her earlobe with his teeth.

  “I agree.” Her personal beast thought it was double crap.

  Without warning, he forced her down on him at the same time he drove into her. The meeting was cataclysmic.

  She was thrust back against the wall and the wall shuddered.

  With a “dumbass flimsy wall,” Al brought her to the floor in one smooth motion.

  His long long hair swept over her as he thrust and withdrew over and over in a sexual dance that knew no past, present, or future. It just was. “Touch me, touch me, touch me.” His harsh demand was a murmured mantra blending with the rhythm of sex.

  Jenna cried out as the pressure, that almost-there feeling grew and grew. But it wasn’t just a craving for her orgasm. She was reaching for something else, something she’d almost had last time.

  She was beyond reason, beyond everything except sensation and an awareness of the shadowed face of her lover above her. Only the explosion of physical pleasure, the ultimate release mattered. And that other thing, whatever it was.

  Faster and faster, she met his thrusts with her own, seeking something, something, something…

  She found it in that ultimate moment of stillness as her body clenched tightly one final time and then exploded with pleasure. Her orgasm dragged a scream from her as she arched her back. Clasping his broad, sweat-sheened shoulder, she dug her nails into his flesh.

  He followed her into his own climax, silently, with the same intensity he must have had when he mated those millions of years before. But his big body shook with the force of his release.

  As pleasure ripped through her, Jenna couldn’t control herself. She bucked and rolled and thrashed. He met her with grim ferocity.

  Something. There was something else, something too important to miss. She was dimly aware of them crashing into the shoji screen. But she didn’t care.

  Almost there. She reached into the center of her being and found the thing that craved him with more than a physical need. She stoked its flame, felt it join with her orgasm, and then reach out as far as it could stretch.

  It touched him. Not his body, but the essence of who and what he was. For one shining moment, Jenna knew her soul had touched his soul. And nothing would ever be the same again.

  The incredible spasms slowly faded, rippling away and disappearing into the larger pool of her heart. But the memory of that mind-blowing touch still thrummed through her.

  He lay beside her, his breathing slowing, his silence filling up the dark room.

  “What just happened?” Why was she whispering? Nothing warranting a reverential whisper had happened. Once she had her head back on straight, she’d think of a logical explanation for all of it.

  “We ripped a hole in the damn screen.” He sounded disgusted. “Who’d make a wall out of paper?”

  She smiled. “It wasn’t made with us in mind. It was made to contain serene thoughts.”

  He snorted his opinion of that. She noticed he’d neatly avoided her question. She’d let him get away with it for the moment, because she needed time to sort through her emotions.

  Al stared at the damaged screen, refusing to meet her gaze. If she looked into his eyes, she’d see the turmoil there, the confusion and yes, fear.

  What had happened between them was a lot scarier than the battle with Eight’s recruits. Their souls had touched. And even though Jenna didn’t know it, he’d taken a tiny part of her soul for his own. He knew it
was wrong, a promise of something he couldn’t deliver. Love had no place in his world of rage and hate.

  To make things worse, he’d begged her to touch him. And he hadn’t been talking about his body. Pure stupidity. When had things gotten so out of control? Al rolled away from her and climbed to his feet. He reached down to help her up.

  She watched him, her expression shuttered, not asking her question again. But he knew damn well she was thinking about it, wondering why he’d avoided answering her, and deciding on the best way to drag an explanation from him.

  He tried on a smile. It didn’t work. Al couldn’t make light of what had happened. “I’ve never made love before.” Sex, yes. Lots of it. His Allosaurus had done its part to add to the dinosaur gene pool. But that didn’t count, would never count after what Jenna and he had shared. “It was…great.” Unbelievable, incredible, awesome. But superlatives made him uneasy, embarrassed him. He chose not to address the soul-touching.

  Her smile said she saw right through his male discomfort with expressing emotion. “You’d make a lousy tabloid reporter. We wallow in overwrought feelings like pigs in a mud hole.”

  Al felt his tension ease a little. She wasn’t pressing the issue. Time to change the topic completely. “No matter where the Eleven go, we destroy stuff.” He shook his head ruefully. “Houston lost the Astrodome, and Philly will have to do some major repairs on the museum.” He glanced at the screen. “I’ll make sure I pay for that.”

  “What happened downstairs after I left?”

  He watched worry darken her eyes. She looked like she was ready to take a blow.

  “We won.” He exhaled deeply. “Sort of. We killed the ones that could be killed. The ones who couldn’t got away. Sara lost a few of her wolves. The vampires were too mean to die.”

  “Fin?”

  He met her gaze. “I don’t know. As soon as the job was done downstairs, I came looking for you. We’d better go now.” He pulled on his clothes.