Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel #3)(123)

"Ow!" Her eyes snapped open to glare at the jerk as he leaned forward and lightly licked the drop of blood forming on the tip of her finger off. She opened her mouth to ask him what his damn problem was when he cringed, turned his head and spat out her blood.

Well, that was kind of insulting.

"Stronger?" Jax asked, pausing in mid-throw of a wrapped up tent. When Caine nodded grimly, Jax sighed heavily, dropped the tent to the ground and walked over to her and plopped down on the ground next to her.

"Here," he said, holding out his wrist to her. "Just be gentle, I'm fragile."

Still panting, Danni turned her head towards Caine and cocked an eyebrow in question.

He sighed as he grabbed Jax's wrist. "We wanted to see if the cancer became stronger when you pushed yourself too far or if using your abilities would help your body fight back against it," he explained as his fangs slid down.

"Ow! I said gentle, you ass**le!" Jax snapped as he pulled his wrist away. When Caine growled the man rolled his eyes and offered his bleeding wrist to her.

She slapped it away. "You decided to test this theory behind my back? Why the hell didn't you tell me all this before you let this jerk shift and chase me all over the damn forest!" she snapped, feeling weaker by the minute.

"It wouldn't have made a difference," Caine said as he grabbed Jax's wrist and placed it right back in front of her.

"Well, she might not have thrown those rocks at me," Jax mused as he gave his wrist a little wiggle, trying to entice a reaction out of her.

She shot the man a glare. "Maybe if you hadn't been trying to bite my ass every other minute I wouldn't have had to throw those rocks at you!" she snapped, thankful that the damn shifter only caught up to her twice and the small nips he left on her bottom had healed already. That didn't mean that she wanted to do that again. She really didn't. In fact, being chased by a werewolf hell bent on nibbling on her ass ranked somewhere along the lines of being placed in a tree and left to fall by an insane Pyte.

Jax sighed heavily as he shook his wrist yet again. "It was the only way that you'd learn, Danni, now drink up it's getting cold."

"The only thing that I learned is that you're a fu-" her words were smothered by Jax's wrist suddenly being shoved into her mouth, another thing she really didn't appreciate. When she went to back away he simply followed the movement. The glare Caine sent her let her know that if she didn't drink that he'd probably let the shifter chase her ass down again, or put her back in that tree.

Jerks.

As she drank the admittedly delicious blood she glared at Caine, who simply ignored her as he kept a watchful eye on Jax, who appeared to be staring in the vicinity of her br**sts. "Watch it," Caine bit out evenly.

"Just keeping an eye on her breathing," Jax mumbled, keeping his eyes right where they were.

If his blood didn't taste so damn good she'd probably shove him away and go find somewhere to curl up and sleep for a few hours, but his blood tasted good, really good. A minute later it tasted a lot better for some reason. It was richer, fuller and had a slightly different flavor, one she vaguely recalled, but couldn't quite remember as she sucked on his wrist more greedily. She was barely aware of his answering groan or Caine's vivid curse as the scent of the shifter's arousal reached her nose and she realized what changed the flavor of his blood. He was aroused.

When this happened with Caine back in their cell it had made her wet and needy, but with the shifter it just made the meal more delicious and she was actually considering flashing the man to see if it would get any better when the delicious blood and the wrist if flowed from was suddenly taken away.

"But, I wasn't finished yet!" she said, knowing that she was whining as she reached out to make a grab for the flushed shifter as Caine scooped her up in his arms and headed for the black truck Jax said they could have.

"Too bad," Caine snapped, quickening his pace. "We have to go."

She gave up her attempts to climb over Caine to get more of that yummy blood and sighed. "Can I at least say goodbye?" she asked, feeling kind of funny leaving like this after all the shifter had done for them.

"She has a point, Caine. I think a goodbye kiss is order," Jax said from somewhere behind them.

Caine grumbled something as he managed to open the truck door and place her inside. He shut the door and stormed around the front of the truck, all while glaring daggers at the shifter. When he practically tore his door off, she rolled her eyes and buckled up. There was just no talking to the man when he got like this.

"See you in a couple of decades, ass**le," Jax said brightly as he walked past the truck.

Caine actually chuckled as he started the truck up, surprising her. It was really nice to see this side of him, the calmer, carefree side. As he navigated the dirt road she couldn't help but wonder how long this would last.

********

"I'm bored," Danni announced, making him laugh as she undid her seatbelt and snuggled up against him, resting her head against his outstretched arm in the process as he held onto the steering wheel.

"We've only been driving for two hours," he pointed out.

"Two hours with nothing to do. You know how much I hate downtime," she grumbled as she let out a heartfelt sigh.

"If you're bored then look around," he said, taking a hand off the wheel to gesture to the trees that surrounded them on either side. "You might even luck out and see a squirrel," he said in a mocking tone that had her poking him in the side.