Vengeance (The Captive #6)(46)

He may be stronger than her, as well as many of the other vampires who resided in her town, but he wasn’t stronger than Kane. She’d met them both; she knew the power and ability each of the men possessed. Her hands tensed on his shirt. She couldn’t lose him. They hadn’t known each other for long, but she’d spent more time with him in the past few days than she had with most everyone else over the past three years.

She liked him. He was severe and unrelenting sometimes, but also kind and caring. He made her laugh; she enjoyed his easygoing smile and the sound of his deep, resonating laugh. She’d only heard him laugh a couple of times, but when he did, she couldn’t help but smile in response.

She didn’t have to lift her eyes to know he was awake, she’d somehow become attuned to reading the subtle differences in his body and movements. There had been a faint flex of his muscles when his eyes had fluttered open. She could feel his eyes on her; she half expected him to release her, but he didn’t move away.

“Do you really have to go after him?” Her voice sounded choked as she tried to get the words out around the lump in her throat.

He didn’t bother to ask who. “Yes.”

She closed her eyes, but they flew open again when his fingers brushed over her cheek. He pushed aside the strands of hair that had fallen over her face during the night. She lifted her eyes to his. In the dim light of the cave, the startling sapphire of his eyes was vibrant. They robbed her of any ability to reason as she stared into their swirling blue depths.

Pinned by his stare, she found she couldn’t move away from the heat enveloping her. He would protect her from anything, except from himself, she realized. He was on a one-way mission, and if she kept allowing herself to get closer to him, she would end up being the one hurt in the end.

Even knowing that, she found herself unable to move away from him. Unable to resist his tender fingers on her cheek. His eyes searched her face; his lips hovered inches away from hers as if he were waiting for her to protest. She simply couldn’t tell him no, not when her body craved the taste of him more than she craved blood.

Ever so slowly, he bent his head closer. A jolt went through her, her whole body jerked toward him when his lips descended upon hers in a tender graze that left her shaken and begging for more. She thought he would pull away, but the fingers resting against her cheek slid into her hair and clasped the back of her head.

Pulling her head back, his mouth slanted firmly over hers, taking possession of her. His thick beard rubbed her skin, it was an unfamiliar, bristly sensation, but she found she enjoyed the feel of it. Tempest’s fingers dug more firmly into his shirt as he pulled her head back and moved so he leaned over top of her.

She gasped at the tender probing of his tongue against her lips. Unable to resist, she opened her mouth to him. His tongue swept in to taste her in deep penetrating thrusts that turned her legs to mush and caused her entire body to quake. She clutched at his shirt as she hesitatingly met the demanding thrusts penetrating deep into her soul.

He growled low in his throat, a sound of possession and need that only escalated her yearning for him. His hands tightened in her hair as he pushed her further back onto the thick cloak lining the floor. Her arms wrapped around his back. She clung to him as she lost herself to his touch. She’d never known anything could feel so astonishing; never known she could be so heated in the middle of a blizzard. She half-feared they’d melt the snow wall they’d created, but she didn’t care if they did. All she wanted was more.

His other hand slid down to rest against her stomach. Pushing aside her cloak, he slipped free a few of the buttons on her shirt. The friction of his calloused palm against her skin when he slid it upward caused goose bumps to erupt over her skin. It was the most delicious sensation as he continued to stroke over her and his tongue brushed sensuously over hers.

She moved her hands up his back and entangled them in his thick auburn hair, drawing him closer as he settled his heavy weight over top of hers. His thigh slid between her legs; his mouth slipped away from hers to brush over her throat. Her body arched into him when he moved further up to run his tongue over her ear before pressing a tender kiss against her cheek.

She didn’t realize it at first, but small, excited cries escaped her. The feelings he aroused in her were almost more than she could stand; her body clamored for more and more of him. “Tempest,” he groaned against her ear.

She turned her head into his powerful shoulder as his heated mouth left a trail of kisses against her flesh. She didn’t think she could ever let go of him; she might fall apart if she did. She was afraid once he left this cave, he would go after Kane. The realization she couldn’t lose him, hit her so hard it knocked away all the passion he’d stoked so undeniably within her. If this went any further, she’d be left broken-hearted and shattered, if he didn’t survive his battle with Kane.

And they would battle each other. She knew that as surely as she knew the storm outside would eventually end, and they would return to Badwin. In here, they were safe and secure, she could pretend the real world didn’t exist, but it did, and she couldn’t be so childish as to deny that. The heat of his mouth pressed against her cheek; it would be so easy to turn her mouth to his, to give herself over to him and forget it all. It would be the most challenging thing she’d ever do to let him go and watch him walk away to meet what may end up being his death.

“I can’t,” she whispered. “William, stop.”