He almost cursed as his attention became snagged on her foot. He'd dragged her through the woods without any shoes. He bent down and clasped her ankle in his hands.
"What are you doing?" she gasped.
"I should have carried you." Her bones were small and delicate, her skin soft and moist. He lifted her foot and inspected. No cuts, thank God. No bruises. Just specks of dirt. He didn't want to let her go, but he gently placed her foot back on the ground.
A muscle ticked in his jaw. If he didn't do something to change her future, this hide-and-seek thing was the life she'd be left with, always on the run, always hunted by one creature or another. She'd told him that. He'd known it was true, but the knowledge had never been more real than right now. But what the hell could he do?
Unbidden, his gaze moved over her again. He couldn't help it, really. She was like a magnetic force. Those delicious curves, that smooth skin. She was watching him just as intently, desire in her eyes.
He wanted to kiss her, was almost shaking with the need, but didn't. He'd known it before and he knew it now. He wouldn't be able to stop. And if he didn't stop, the urge to drink her blood would rise up inside him, gnawing at him, consuming him, making him crave the very substance that kept her alive. He'd sink his teeth into her neck, he knew he would. Look how close he'd come to doing just that inside the inn. Look how close he was now. Her pulse was hammering wildly.
While he could forgive himself for biting the Formorian, he'd never forgive himself for hurting Jewel. He was supposed to be her protector, not her tormentor.
The air was cooler than usual and soaked as she was, Jewel had to be cold. A droplet of water snaked from her forehead and onto her upper lip. She licked it away, exactly as he wanted to do. His cock had hardened the moment he'd pulled her out of the water--or maybe he'd never lost his arousal--and hadn't lessened since. At the sight of her pink tongue, he hungered for her all the more. His mind flashed a visual of all the things he'd like her to do to him with that tongue.
"You need to change into something dry," he muttered, his tone rough. He found and tossed her his shirt.
Her eyelids dipped to half-mast, the excitement of the fight becoming sexual. Breath emerged from her choppily. "Maybe we could...you know, and--"
"Change. Now."
After a heavy pause, her gaze devouring him the entire time, Jewel moved behind the trees to remove her wet clothes and don his shirt. A few moments later, she returned, and the sight of her hit him like a well-placed punch in the gut. The camo shirt hung to the middle of her thighs, but it was his shirt and she was wearing it and the sight nearly undid him.
Sweating now, he dug inside and withdrew two energy bars. His supply was running low. If he didn't get out of this underwater hellhole soon, he'd be forced to hunt and eat the creatures here--and a Formorian souffle was not his idea of a good, nutritious meal. Unfortunately they couldn't risk going back into town.
"Time for breakfast." He handed one of the bars to Jewel and plopped onto a rock.
She eased beside him, enveloping him in her sweet scent, and nibbled on the edges of the bar. He gulped his down, staying the urge to escape her appeal.
"Thank you," she said finally, though she sounded anything but thankful. "I do believe these energy bars are the most horrid things I've ever eaten."
"It'll keep you alive, so eat."
"I have berries and meats I bought in town."
"We'll save that for later."
Nose wrinkled, she finished off the bar. They took turns sipping water from his canteen. She continually cast glances in his direction. He knew because he could feel the force of it. Finally she sighed, sending a small puff of air against his shoulder, and looked away. Sighed. Looked at him again. Sighed.
What the hell was going through her mind?
He popped to his feet and paced to the far tree, unable to handle the closeness. Her calves were bare, but her ankles were crossed. She folded her hands in her lap. A very ladylike position. Her eyes told another story, however. They were filled with sadness and desire, hope and need.
"Listen, Jewel," he bit out. "I want to be--"
Without warning, dark, eerie shadows fell over the forest. The insects ceased their chatter. The air thickened with salt.
"Ah, hell." Gray groaned. "Guess we aren't having a heart to heart out here." This very thing had happened his first night here, so he knew what was coming. "I should have expected this. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Fucking great. Anyone ever tell you you're a bad-luck charm?"
"Yes."
He heard the hurt in her voice and swore under his breath. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
"Why apologize? You've known one disaster after another since meeting me."
"It hasn't all been bad." Some of it had been amazing.
With a bittersweet snort, she moved to his side. He bent down and hefted up his backpack and her wet things, then linked his fingers with hers and tugged her to the shelter he'd erected. Thank God he hadn't taken it down yet.
"You built this?" she asked, a bit awed as she studied the lean-to of twigs and sapling.
"Yeah. And before you get any ideas, it isn't the Love Shack." He pulled the robe from the backpack and rolled it into a pillow, then tucked the pack in the shack's corner. "Climb in."
They had to lie down and crawl with their elbows, but they both managed to get inside, where there was more room to move around.
The crystal dome creaked open, booming like thunder, and drenched the entire land with ocean spray. Gray knew he should keep his hands to himself, but trapped as they were in the tent, it was no use even trying. He'd give in eventually and better now than later. He couldn't not touch her when they were so close. He wrapped his arm around Jewel's waist, the sound of the rain creating a lulling rhythm.
"Why don't you get some sleep?" he said. "You've had an eventful day."
She traced her fingers over his cheek. "Thank you," she said softly.
"For what?" Everywhere she touched, his skin burned hungrily.
"For saving me from the mermen. For...everything."
The rain pitter-pattered against the leaves as he contemplated her words. He'd saved her life a few times, yes. But it was he who suddenly felt thankful.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE RAIN LASTED several hours, and Jewel somehow managed to doze off and on, despite her sizzling awareness of the man next to her. Her robe had thankfully dried and was spread over their legs. Sometime during the storm, she'd turned her back to Gray, and he'd draped his arm over the dip of her waist. Being cradled in his protective embrace proved as intoxicating as she'd always dreamed, providing the sense of contentment she'd always craved. Not to mention utter carnality.
As his warm breath caressed her neck, she studied his hand. His fingers were long and thick, the ends callused. There was a light dusting of pale hair below each knuckle.
Those hands were capable of lethal violence as well as the greatest tenderness.
Gods, she wanted that tenderness with every ounce of her being.
Why hadn't he touched her since they'd left the city? Why hadn't he attempted to make love to her? They'd come so close. So wonderfully close. As she remembered, her lips plumped, her mouth watered, and moisture pooled between her legs. He'd kissed and touched her hungrily. She'd kissed and touched him hungrily. His decadent flavor had teased her mouth, and the strength and warmth of his embrace had surrounded her in a sultry haze of pleasure.
She wanted that again.
She wanted him.
Had he lost interest in her?
"What's wrong, Prudence?" Gray asked, his voice husky and rich with sleep. "You went stiff on me."
Jewel forced her body to relax. She needed to get her mind off Gray and sex and kisses and nakedness and--She'd talk about Dunamis. That always sobered her. "What if I told you Dunamis doesn't actually exist? Not the way you think, at least."
Now he stiffened, his entire body tightening around her.
"What do you mean?" His tone wasn't angry, merely hardened with curiosity.
The darkness was so thick, she didn't try to turn and glimpse his expression. "What if it's not a gemstone?"
He remained silent for a long while, and his hand began kneading her hip, sending ripples of pleasure through her blood. "You wouldn't be asking me these questions without reason," he said. "So, let me ask you a question. If Dunamis isn't a gemstone, what is it?"
A cold sweat broke over her body. She'd just had to get her mind off Gray, hadn't she? Now look what she'd done. How could she answer him without admitting the very thing she didn't want him to know? "I wish everyone would leave it alone. Perhaps any hands, even those of your government, are the wrong hands to own it."
"That's a chance I'm willing to take."
How she'd feared, and still feared, that very answer. "You never answered me," she said softly. "Would you still destroy it?"
"I can't answer your question until you answer mine." He kissed the back of her neck, his lips lingering over the sensitized cord of her shoulder.
She almost cried out in relief and need at the first brush of his lips, everything forgotten except him. Except Gray. There was no reason to keep her mind off his loving if he planned to give it to her. "Do that again," she whispered.
"I shouldn't. I've tried not to. But I can smell you, smell your sweetness, and I'm tired of trying to keep myself in check. Tired of thinking all the reasons not to." Lightning brightened their tent for the briefest of seconds, blending light with shadows. "You lied to me earlier, you know," he said, his fingers inching up and cupping her breast.
Her nipples hardened. She arched her back, arched into him. "Mmm, I most assuredly did not."
"You most assuredly did lie to me, Prudence."
"I didn't." She groaned as he licked the edge of her ear. "I swear I didn't."
"You didn't bathe naked. Yes, you had a good reason to dress, but that doesn't change the facts. Don't worry, though," he said, his voice husky and rich. "I can help you fix that."
"Right now?" she asked breathlessly, trying not to beg. "You're going to touch me? Like before?"
"Do you want me to?"
"Yes. Please." Her tongue flicked out in an attempt to lave her parched lips with moisture.
"I've been meaning to ask." He slid his hand lower, lower still, until his fingertips played at the hem of her shirt. "Why are you still a virgin, sweetheart? What were you waiting for? Marriage?"
"You," she admitted on a moan. "I was waiting for you."
Gray's cock jerked in reaction to her words. His mind roared in possessive wonder. For hours, he'd been waging a desperate war--touch her/don't touch her.
Guess who won?
He'd been hyperaware of her every move, every sigh. Desire hammered through him. Hell, when had it ever left? He craved her like a drug, and he was helpless to resist. He was becoming addicted to her, wanting her constantly, needing to mark her as his, to watch her when she came. To hear his name on her lips.
Every male instinct he possessed wanted every man who came into contact with her to know that she belonged to him.
Being with this woman right now was a mistake. He'd told himself a thousand times. If it weren't for the storm, they'd be out in the forest right now, headed for the Temple of Cronus. But it was storming, they weren't in the forest, and at last sinking inside her would be the most pleasurable mistake of his life.
He wouldn't bite her. He wouldn't let himself. If the need came upon him, he'd control it, no matter how uncontrollable it seemed. At least, that's what he told himself to ease his conscience.
"If you don't want me to finish this, say so now." He ground himself against the cleft of her ass. "Once I start, I'm not going to stop. Not this time."
"I want you more than I've ever wanted anything else in my life. I won't let you stop."
He flipped her over, sucking in a breath of salt, foliage and aroused woman, and meshed his lips against hers. She opened her mouth and his tongue dove inside, their teeth clashing together with the force of his entry. He cupped her jawline, and told himself to be gentle though all he wanted to do was brand her. Hard. Fast. Forever.
His need for her grew with every second that passed, intensifying dangerously. Her palms caressed his naked chest, flattened against his nipples, then locked around his neck.
"I love your heat and hardness," she gasped out. "Do you think I'll ever get enough?"
"No, never. You taste so good." Sweat dripped from his brow, and his skin pulled tight, urging him to do more. Begging him to increase their pace. He traced his hands over her shoulders, her back, her breasts, pinching her nipples.
She moaned in pleasure-pain and hooked her legs around his waist, cradling his erection as intimately as possible while still dressed. Her tongue continued its battle with his. Her fingers traveled all over him.
"I want to be naked," she panted.
"I want you that way, too." He nipped at her chin, at the corner of her mouth, all the while rubbing against her. "How do you do this to me? How do you make me need you so badly?"
Sheer pleasure sizzled in her veins when he hit the exact place she needed him. "Again," she gasped. "There."
He drew back, pushed forward. This time they both gasped at the headiness.
"Sometimes...when I saw you in my visions with other women..." She lifted her head and sucked one of his nipples, reveling in the male taste of his skin. "I pretended you were--" she licked her way to the other side and sucked "--with me instead."
A raw moan tore from him. Another beam of lightning exploded in the sky, chasing away the darkness for a split second, and in that second, their eyes met. Blue ocean water against warrior steel. Fire and passion blazed from his expression.
He stared down at her, and his brow furrowed. "We've kissed like this before," he said, his voice strained. "Not in the tub, but--"
"In your mind. Yes." She reached for him, wanting to jerk his mouth back to hers, but he gripped her hands and pinned them over her head.
"I thought I'd dreamed it, but you were actually there. We fought a demon and a vampire, and then we kissed. It really happened."
"Yes," she said, never breaking their gaze. What did any of this matter now? She needed him desperately and didn't know if she could stand it if he refused her. In these last few days she'd been aroused one too many times without reaching fulfillment. "Does that upset you?"
"Hell, no. I just-- Thank you."
A shiver raced through her, vibrating into him. "You're welcome."
"You're the most beautiful thing, sweetheart." She loved him, he realized, shock still hammering through him. He'd known she desired him but had failed to realize she'd given him her heart. Until now. When she'd entered his mind that day he'd been injured, he'd read her thoughts and she'd been unable to hide her love for him.
Love... Far from making him want to leave her, Gray found himself irrevocably drawn to her, needing her so much more.
He wanted to hear her say it. He had to hear her say it.
He bent his head to kiss her neck when the scent of her sweet, sweet blood wafted to his nostrils. He gulped. The need for blood, her blood, had awoken with more fervor than ever before.
He needed to slow things down, bring it to a controllable level while he pleasured her so thoroughly that loving him was the only thing she knew. The only thing he knew.
He delved his hand along the curve of her hip, along the length of her long leg, then up her thigh until he reached the hem of her shirt. Up...up...he lifted the material. Slowly--it nearly killed him to go slow. He tantalized her nerve endings with barely-there touches, and when the material was bunched at her waist, he paused. Silence encompassed the tent. Not even the sound of their breathing could be heard. Perhaps they both waited, breath bated, for his next move.
His blood sparked with electricity as his fingers played at her waist again. Her skin was so soft. So perfect. She was silk and roses. "I don't want to scare you,"
he whispered huskily, already knowing she was far from afraid. "Tell me if I do something you don't like."
"I'm not--"
"I'll explain everything I'm doing to you," he added, neatly cutting off her protest. She might think nothing could scare her, but he didn't want to take a chance. "Right now, I'm simply going to explore you. Your legs, your stomach, your every curve and hollow, every sensitive place that makes you gasp for more."
"Yes. All right."
"We'll learn what you like together."
"Every time you touch me, I feel flames licking me, burning me. I like that."
He uttered a strained chuckle. More sweat trickled down his temples. "If you didn't feel that way, that would mean I was doing something wrong. It's my job--no, my privilege--to make the fire become an inferno." As he spoke, he traced his name on her thigh.
She was his, that's all there was to it. Only his.
"Oh, yes." Her low, needy moan blended with a sigh of pleasure. The sounds combined, emerging more like a purr.
A man true to his word, Gray introduced himself properly to her body. "I'm going to touch your breasts."
"Like before?"
"Like before." He lingered there, kneading and rolling her nipples between his finger and thumb.
Her hips arched, her body bowed. Her head fell back, her silky hair tickling his chest. Thunder boomed and the rain increased in pressure, pounding against the shelter. He'd never again see another moonlit, stormy night without thinking of Jewel.
She was passion incarnate and just as wild.
When he'd kissed her, she'd erupted. Just like that. Her hands had moved over him, her lower body had arched into him. When he touched her...
"I'm going to make a mental note that we both enjoy this area." His voice was strained, so strained he barely managed to get the words out. Had he ever been this on-edge before? He didn't think so; he couldn't remember a time when a woman had ever invaded his mind so thoroughly. Had they always been meant to be together? He'd wondered before, had denied it. But only Fate explained this...obsession.
Jewel's stomach quivered when he stopped to dabble at her belly button. So soft, so sexy. He could have spent the rest of the night there, but continued his exploration. "I'm going to touch your bottom."