“Damn it,” she hissed.
Faced with a wild beast she didn’t have the heart to injure, she sprang and flipped over him. But the leaf-littered forest floor gave her no traction. Her feet slipped out from under her. She hit the ground on her belly and skidded forward, her fingers and toes scrambling for purchase.
He was on her in a heartbeat, straddling her and catching her by the shoulder with his teeth. His breath
was hot and fast, a growl rumbling in his chest. When she tried to move, he shook her gently, his teeth dug in but not breaking the skin. He snarled a warning.
Vash melted into the ground, completely pliant. Her stomach quivered with something she began to suspect was delight. Perhaps triumph. Certainly relief.
He’d chased her. Captured her.
Her heart rate kicked up, as did her breathing, reactions her exertions hadn’t been capable of eliciting. She lay prone beneath him, absorbing his warmth into her back, her fingers digging restlessly into the dirt.
It took several moments before Elijah released her. When he did, it was with another growled admonition to remain unmoving. He gave her a few moments to prove that she would do so without his interference; then he nuzzled her cheek with his wet nose.
The surprisingly tender gesture had her lifting her head to meet his gaze. “Elijah…”
His lip curled in a snarl. His eyes still had that primal light burning inside them.
“Okay. All right.” She exhaled and relaxed again, her mind trying to work out why she was submitting so meekly. She submitted to no one but Syre and only in certain respects. In many others, she was the dominant. Yes, because he allowed her to be, but still…even Char had known to give her the lead.
She jolted a little when Elijah settled his weight carefully on her, his belly curving into her spine. He didn’t give her the whole of it, which would have crushed her, but he gave her enough to pin her and make sure she didn’t forget he was there. As if that were possible.
Vash couldn’t say how long they lay like that—he atop her and quietly panting, gently sniffing her and nudging with his snout. She couldn’t say why it soothed the jagged edges of her mood, edges that had been ripping at her from the inside since he’d shown her the door the day before. She couldn’t say when she realized those edges had been tearing her up for years. She knew only that the equanimity she found in the forest with Elijah exposed an inner torment she hadn’t been aware she was carrying. Anger and hunger for revenge were her constant companions, but the pain had been buried beyond her awareness of it, an ache not noted until it was gone.
When he shifted forms, she felt the power of it, the ripple that displaced the very space around her. The softness and warmth of rough satin fur morphed into rock-hard muscle and scorching skin. He continued to rub his cheek against her. He continued to pant as if he were exerting himself to his limits.
Her palms grew damp when she felt the unmistakable length of his erection resting in the seam of her thighs. “Elijah…?”
“Vashti.” His voice was still guttural. Rough. Sexy as hell. “Isn’t enough…Sorry.”
She stiffened, disappointment piercing her like a blade. She wasn’t enough? What they had—whatever it was—wasn’t enough?
“D
on’t tense,” Elijah gasped, grinding his hips into the plush swell of her buttocks. “Don’t fight. Let me…have you. Make it good…”
Vash had no defense against the shiver of arousal that rippled through her. “You want sex?
Here?
”
Just the thought made her slick and hungry, the idea that he was so hot for her he couldn’t wait, that he would take her on the ground in a forest like an animal in rut…
He adjusted his position, his thighs bracketing hers. Then he straightened, pulling her up with him. One hand slid between her breasts, a strong hand gripping her throat and pulling her tight against him. The other reached for the waistband of her stretchy black pants, shoving them down to her knees.
“Sorry.” His words were a tormented moan in her ear. “Can’t stop. Don’t run…”
Her head fell back into his shoulder when he cupped
her between the legs with a shaky hand. She couldn’t stop the circling of her hips into his touch.
His forehead pressed into her temple. “Wet. Thank god…” Bending forward, he urged her back down.
Her arms stretched out, her palms breaking their fall. With her on her hands and knees, he reached between them and fisted himself, sliding the thick crest of his cock through the moisture coating her cleft…up and down…nudging her clitoris…his body trembling behind her.
Every muscle in her body was strung tight as a bow, the expectation so thick Vash thought she might snap. She’d wanted this, her hunger for him as elemental a force as her thirst for blood.
“Need you.
Now
,” he growled, rocking her backward to meet the thrust of his entry.
She screamed at the stretching depth of his possession, the pleasure so fierce her vision blurred. He gave her no time to adjust or steel herself, launching into a primal pounding fuck that used her as a vessel for his lust. A dozen wild thrusts were all it took. His roar reverberated through the forest, sending birds screeching in panicked flight from the trees. He came so hard, she felt it inside her, pulsing hot and thick as he emptied himself in fiery pulses. Her thighs were wet with him when he straightened to his knees, bringing her up to sit in the cradle of his spread thighs.
He was parting the lips of her sex and rubbing her aching flesh before she could catch her bearings or her breath. Vibrating with the ferocity of her arousal, she shattered into climax with a drawn-out moan of relief,
her body clenching and rippling around his spurting erection.
Then his wrist was at her mouth, offering his franticly throbbing vein. Still shuddering in orgasm, Vash turned her head away. “No…”
Elijah buried his face in her hair. “I’m sorry.”
She sincerely wanted to reply, but her synapses were fried. And he was still massaging her clitoris, keeping her hot and needy and so damn ready to come all over again, if she’d ever stopped coming.
“Couldn’t get a grip.” His teeth ground audibly together. “You ran. I couldn’t think…You have to know, I’d cut off my arm before I hurt you.”
Something vital welled up inside her, twining with the understanding of what he was apologizing for—he’d lost control. She shouldn’t have been pleased that his beast responded by marking her in the basest, most animalistic way possible, but apparently she was perverse in that way. Oh well. If their fights always ended with him coming inside her, she could live with it.
But his guilt had to go.
When he pushed his wrist at her again, she shoved his arm out of her face, insulted. “Stop that.”
Elijah lifted her carefully off of him, no easy task when he was still hard and thick. She let him. Let him throw himself backward into the leaf litter with a forearm tossed across his eyes. Let him ramble hoarsely about her needing to eat and him finding some way to let her do that, since she wouldn’t drink from him…not that he blamed her…he was out of control, losing his mind—
As he muttered to himself, Vash swiftly and silently pulled off her boots and her clothes. Until she was naked. In the woods. With a lycan. What the hell was the world coming to?
“Elijah,” she purred, crawling over him. “Shut the fuck up.”
She watched his breath catch, then heard it leave him in a rush as she sank back onto him, seizing the intimate connection she craved. His cock was slick with semen cooled by the air, making him cold and hard as marble inside her. He jackknifed upward with a growl, and she caught him with her arms around his neck, meeting him eye to eye.
“I see shrinkage isn’t a problem for you,” she said drily, noting how his eyes were still feverishly bright. He was savagely gorgeous. Flushed and disheveled and glistening with sweat. She could still smell the animal on him and her sex tightened in primitive appreciation. It was so similar to the scent she’d loathed viciously for so long, yet none of her painful past touched him. She stopped debating why and just…accepted it.
“Vashti, I—”
“—offended me. Oh, not with the wild animal sex,” she assured him, seeing the torment that crossed his features. “For offering me your wrist, which—if you didn’t know—is the most impersonal way to give blood to a vampire. I’d like to think we’re beyond that. And if we’re not, we need to work on getting beyond it.”
His arms tightened around her like steel bands.
“Beyond ditching me when you’re scared? Beyond apologizing for some stupid shit instead of the real issue?”
“Wow.” She pushed her fingers into his hair because she knew how much he enjoyed it. Also because she needed to soothe the beast so she could work things out with the man. “You bounce back quick. I think I liked you better contrite.”
“All or nothing.”
“Do I have a choice? I’m thinking you’ll just chase me if I run.”
His gaze narrowed, studying her. After a moment, his nostrils flared and he accused, “You
liked
it.”
“I never said I didn’t. You’re the one who kicked me to the curb.”
“Who started it?” Elijah’s voice was ominously neutral.
She swallowed, her eyes sliding away to find the powerfully steady pulse in his corded neck.
“Vashti.” He shook her a little. “Talk to me. What are we doing here?”
Her gaze shot back to his and she scowled. “Are you kidding?”
“If sex is all you want, I’ll point out that there are other options that aren’t such a pain in the ass.”
“Like Himeko?”
His grin was slow and purely male. “Feeling territorial?”
“How fabulous that you’re enjoying my confusion and misery,” she groused. “Listen, I’ve already screwed this to hell and back trying to pick my way through on
my own. You need to tell me what you want from me. Then I can tell you if I can give it to you.”
“A commitment.”
There was a fluttering panic in her stomach. “What kind of commitment?”
“Something beyond being a joystick you like to ride when the mood strikes you.”
“Whatever.” Vash tried to refocus after feeling Elijah’s “joystick” flex inside her when referenced to. “You’re one to talk. I know you’re just into me for my tits.”
“So we’ll deal. I’ll grant you exclusive and convenient access to what I’ve got in return for the same from you.”
“That’s it?” she asked suspiciously. Exclusivity and convenience tied in a lot of different things, she knew, but she still had to ask.
His gaze was steady, all human, and infinitely patient. “What more can you live with?”
“Well…” She ran a hand through her hair. “I
can’t
live with the cold shoulder. Made me crazy. You were such an ass yesterday.”
“
I
was the ass?”
She sighed and knew she had to lay it all out there or risk losing him. The beast might be infatuated, but the man wasn’t the type to be strung along. “I want you. Not just for the sex, but for you. I respect you. I respect how you are with your people. But that’s exactly why I can’t keep you. And I’m afraid to want you more. I’m afraid to get hurt again.”
He reached up with both hands and brushed her hair back from her face. “You’re thinking about my responsibilities as an Alpha.”
“Tell me you’re not,” she shot back. “And if you aren’t, you should be.”
“At this point, I’m wondering if there hasn’t been a big fucking mistake. This makes twice now I’ve lost it over you.”
Vash frowned. “When was the other time?”
“Doesn’t matter when. It happened.” His firm, beautifully shaped mouth brushed across hers. “The hunt began the moment I first saw you. It won’t end until you admit you’re mine or I stop breathing. That’s what the beast wants and what I want it to have. As for the man, I admire your strength and your courage. I’m grateful for your advice and that you’ve always been willing to share it with me. I’m addicted to your body, but I also enjoy just being with you. You’re the perfect amount of crazy for me. There’s never a dull moment with you, sweetheart.”
She leaned into him, something inside her cracking open at what he was saying. Her body tightened around him, hugging him from the inside.
He growled softly. “I could come again just like this. Just holding you and being held by you. Even if I go on as the Alpha, I couldn’t pretend to take on a mate now. The thought of being intimate with another woman repulses me.”
Her eyes closed as relief and tenderness flooded her. “There was only Char. Then you. I want this to work. I want to
make
it work.”
“So commit to this, Vashti—sleeping together, working together, staying together. None of which is anyone else’s business. We just have to talk to each other and make each other a priority.”
“There isn’t a lycan alive who doesn’t want to kill me, including you sometimes.”
“And there are very few vamps who wouldn’t put me down if they thought they could get away with it. Every relationship has its problems and hostile in-laws.”
“Ha! You’re a riot.”
“And I’m stubborn and arrogant.” He nipped her lower lip between even, white teeth. “You’re mine, Vash. I dare anyone to challenge me otherwise. Even you.”
“You suck.” Her mouth tingled deliciously; the flavor of him spread richly across her tongue. “You knew what you were doing to me yesterday and last night. You knew it would break me down to lose you, that I wouldn’t be able to take it.”
“I hoped,” he corrected. “And kicked myself with doubts about drawing a line I wasn’t sure you’d cross. When I offered my room last night and you didn’t take it, I could’ve strangled you. You tore into a hotel room in a territorial rage, but you wouldn’t take that one step I needed you to take. I started to think there was no way to have you the way I need you. Then you came to me at breakfast and I was too damn close to telling you I’d take whatever I could get.”
“I was too damn close to begging you to stop punishing me.” Her vision blurred and she turned her
head. “You shut me out. It…hurt. I hate hurting. It makes me crazy. Crazier.”