Full Throttle (Black Knights Inc. #7)(37)

It was ridiculous. Ludicrous.

He couldn’t stop…

Especially when Abby reached down to grab his dick, rubbing up and down the throbbing length of him in the same rhythm she undulated her sweet hips against his thigh. Sweet Jesús Cristo, this may be the wrong time, but she was certainly the right woman and—

“Oh, God,” she rasped, her breath coming hard and fast now. “I’m going to c—”

She didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, she threw her head back against the tree, her lovely, damp throat arched delicately, her brilliant eyes squeezed shut in ecstasy. His name moaned from her open mouth, and he watched as the most beautiful woman in the world came unraveled in his arms. Watched as—

A loud crash sounded behind them and Steady spun, his weapon ripped from his holster, up and aimed in a split second. All the hot passion roaring through his veins was instantly replaced by the harsh bite of adrenaline. And when he saw what he was drawing down on, his * tightened so fast he was surprised the thing didn’t whistle. Swearing sharply when Abby’s soft-soled shoes scuffled in the dirt as she teetered against his back, he threw an arm behind him to steady her. The puffs of moist air that hit his left tricep were her ragged breaths.

“Merlin’s pants!” she cursed, and under normal circumstances he would have barked out a laugh. Abby came up with the most amazing and inventive profanities he’d ever heard. It was one of the things that had immediately endeared her to him. Well, that and her tight little tush. Come on, now. He was a red-blooded male, after all. “What the damn, Car—”

“Shhh,” he hissed. “Don’t say another word, Abby. Don’t move.”

He heard a fainting ticking sound as her throat stuck over a swallow. Then she disobeyed him, slowly peeking from behind his back. He knew she’d gotten a good long glance at their current problem when a little eep hissed from between her lips and her nails dug into his arm.

You know those wild animals he was contemplating earlier? Well he was eyeball-to-eyeball with one of them.

The biggest one of them…

“Okay, Abby,” he said softly, making no sudden moves lest he frighten or threaten the big bull elephant standing no more than ten feet away. The animal’s ears flared wildly, and its trunk swung back and forth in obvious challenge. He’d always heard the Asian elephant was smaller than the African elephant. But, Madre de Dios, this creature looked huge. And mean. Definitely mean. “We’re going to slowly make our way back toward the river bank. And then we’re going to run—”

“No,” she interrupted him. “We can’t run. We have to skirt the tree, hide behind it, and wait.”

Wait? Wait for what? “Abby, I don’t—”

“Listen to me, Carlos. I know what I’m talking about,” she growled, and the elephant’s eyes rolled until Steady could see the whites. Then it lifted its trunk to trumpet an earsplitting warning, and his heart tried to frackin’ Spider-Man its way out of his throat.

How many rounds would it take to bring the bull down?

More than you’ve got, pendejo. Much more. Mierda!

He hesitated a second longer. Every instinct told him to make a run for it. The beast was big, but it was lumbering, sí? They could surely outpace it. Then again, Abby was no fool. And if she said she knew what she was talking about, he’d be an idiot not to listen.

“Okay,” he whispered, “let’s get behind the tree.” And pray to the good Madre Maria you know what you’re doing.

Slowly, carefully, they began inching their way around the huge trunk. The bull watched them, furiously swinging its head from side to side. Its huge white tusks cut through the foliage with each move, proving how sharp the ivory really was…and how deadly…

When Steady could no longer see the animal, he glanced down at Abby and asked, “What now?”

She looked at him, her mouth squeezed into a thin line. It was hard to believe mere seconds ago she’d had it slung open while in the throes of orgasm. Dios, he would have liked to continue watching that. Watching Abby unravel oh-so-completely.

Talk about piss-poor timing. If they happened to survive this encounter with the elephant, he was going to curse the beast to an early grave.

“Like I said,” she whispered. “We wait.”

And people accused him of being reticent with details? “Wait for what?” he asked the question aloud this time. But before she could answer, the bull let loose with another eardrum-bursting baraaaaaag!

Abby jumped and clutched his biceps. Now it was the whites of her eyes he was worried about. She certainly wasn’t wearing the expression of a woman who was certain of her decision to hide behind a goddamned tree!

“Wait for what, Abby?” he insisted, taking her hands from his arms to squeeze her fingers. There still might be time to make a run for it.

“For him to stop seeing us as a threat, get bored, and wander off.” She chewed on her lower lip—that lower lip he’d been in the middle of sucking one minute ago. Damnit! He had to remind himself once again that their interrupted bout of…uh…whatever you’d call it…heavy petting?…pre-coitus, maybe?…was currently the least of his worries.

The most of his worries? Well, those began and ended with the fact that Abby’s entire plan hinged on the idea that the elephant would eventually…wait for it…get bored.