Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(86)

His fingers jerked, squeezing my shoulders even harder, causing me to wince. “That ain’t an option, Wildcat.”

? ? ?

Leisel

“I thought we were waiting?” I mumbled against Alex’s persistent mouth. “’Til after your fight…”

I was pressed up against the door, Alex’s big, broad body entirely covering mine. His hands were in my hair and my hands were up the back of his shirt, my fingertips digging gently into the smooth skin on his back.

Our one small kiss had escalated rather quickly. Although I was still crying, and Alex was obviously a bit overcome with emotion himself, none of that seemed to matter any longer.

He paused, releasing my mouth, and took a step backward. I slumped against the door, my body overheated and vibrating with excitement.

“There isn’t going to be a fight tonight,” he said, dropping his gaze down the length of me. “Not with a horde so close by. They won’t risk the noise.” His eyes looked me over. “And…Lei?”

“Yeah?”

“You look amazing.”

I wanted to laugh at that, because I looked far from amazing in my dirty dress and my face all red and puffy from crying. But, oh God, the way he was looking at me. It reminded me of the previous night, after I’d been freed from the cage. That hunger, that wanting, it was all back. Watching him watching me, my breaths shortened as my heart began to pound even faster.

In one fluid movement, he’d pulled his shirt up over his head and tossed it aside. Then he was back, pressing his body against mine as he slid my dress straps off my shoulders, then pressed hungry kisses to the skin he’d just bared.

My head lolled off to the right, allowing him better access as his mouth explored my neck. I reveled in the feel of him touching me, kissing me, wanting me in this inexplicably crazy way that he did.

“Lei,” he said, my name a mere growl from deep within his throat. His hands fumbled with the hem of my dress and pulled it up, bunching it at my waist, and I helped him along, trying to move the material out of his way while still kissing him.

His kisses—my God, his kisses. I felt so alive beneath his mouth and his hands, so wired, so unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.

Alex’s hand slipped into my underwear and then lower, his fingers finding me. In mid-kiss, my body went still, my mouth falling open, my breath freezing in place. I dropped my head back, dropping it lightly against the door, and then he was moving inside me, and all at once my breath released in a whoosh of air that ended in a gasp of pleasure.

As I breathed in, breathed out, my chest heaving, my body trembling, the pressure from Alex’s body was the only thing that kept me standing upright. And although I was still standing, I wasn’t, not really, not deep inside me. I was falling and then soaring, then falling again.

Through fluttering eyelids I could see him watching me, his eyelids hooded, his lips pressed together in a determined line, and it only heightened my pleasure, knowing that he was watching me, knowing that he was enjoying watching me.

“I dreamed about this,” he suddenly said, his voice husky and deep.

I tried to focus on him but his hand was relentless, pulling me out of my weightlessness and back into this moment. To him.

“Hmm?” I mumbled.

“You. This look on your face, because of me. I dreamed about it a hundred times.”

A tear slipped free from the corner of my eye, not from sadness, but from being so overcome, so completely mesmerized by him, by us, and by this moment we were locked inside together.

“I wanted you bad, Leisel. From that first day when I arrived in Fredericksville. You dropped off clean clothing and food for all us guys. Ever since then…” His fingers began to move more insistently, as if the memory of that moment spurred him on.

“I was the first woman you’d seen in months,” I mumbled breathlessly.

“You were more than that,” he said. “You were something beautiful and good in the middle of a goddamn war zone.”

This time I only managed a squeaky sort of moan in response, which seemed to be perfectly fine with Alex, considering he was now grinning.

? ? ?

Evelyn

Pulling out from E’s grasp, I quickly backed away from him.

“I told you, I’m not trading now.” I jutted my chin out, my fists curling into tight balls of defiance. But my knees were shaking, sending trembles rippling up and down my legs.

Taking a step toward me, a grin snaking across his rugged face, E shook his head. “And I told you that ain’t an option.”

“I don’t want your f*cking vermin!” I snapped angrily. “I’m worth more than a dead rat!” I took another step backward, my back bumping against the door behind me.

Still watching me, he raised his eyebrows in question. “Where you going, Wildcat? I’m not going to rape you. I ain’t never had to rape a woman, and I’m not gonna start now.” He laughed loudly, as if the thought of him having to rape a woman was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard in his life.

“Well, you’re not getting anything from me,” I said, and swallowed back the lump in my throat.

“What happened, Wildcat? I thought you were game?” He looked genuinely confused, and perhaps even a little amused by my sudden mood change, as if this was all a game to him. Trading women, sex…it meant nothing.