Pursued (7 page)

I do,
Merrick thought grimly. Sylvan’s words came back to him—
If she’s gone past the stages of physical hunger and erratic emotions…she may be too far gone for you to save.

Merrick refused to accept that. He didn’t know what the hell was going on but he wasn’t going to let her go without a fight.
Touch her,
Sylvan had said.
Give her skin-to-skin contact.
And that was what Merrick intended to do.

The minute they got into the ship, he settled on the couch in the small living area with Elise still in his lap. Working with one hand at a time, as he tried to keep her close to him, he stripped off his shirt, ripping it to shreds impatiently when it wouldn’t come off fast enough. Finally, his chest and entire upper body was bare. Then he started on the top of Elise’s dress.

“H-hey!” she protested weakly. “Stop it. Wh-what are you d-doing?”

“Trust me.” Merrick tried to maneuver one of the sleeves of the red dress off her shoulder but Elise fought him.

“No! No, you c-can’t! I won’t l-let you!” There was real fear in her big brown eyes, a nameless horror she seemed helpless to express.

“Elise…” he began but she was nearly hysterical now.

“No!
No!”
She batted at his hands, twisting in his grip to try and get away. The stark terror on her face brought a sudden lump to Merrick’s throat

What happened to her? Who was the fucking bastard who put that fear in her eyes?

He stopped what he was doing and turned her to face him. Holding her gently but firmly, he made her meet his eyes. “Look at me. Elise—
look at me,”
he demanded.

The minute he stopped trying to undress her, she stopped fighting. But still she clutched the front of her dress, both hands fisted tight in the silky red material. Her chest heaved with her ragged breathing, the breath tearing in her lungs. “What?” she whispered, still shaking. “W-what?”

“I would never hurt you.” Merrick held her eyes with his.
“Never.
But I need to hold you, need to give you skin-to-skin contact to help you get better.”

“H-how will that help me?” she protested. “I d-don’t understand.”

“I don’t either,” he admitted. “But this may be a matter of life or death. Will you let me help you?”

“Are…are you going to…to t-touch me?” she whispered, her eyes wide.

Merrick knew at once what she meant and his heart fisted in his chest again. “Not that way,” he assured her, his voice rough. “I just need to press our chests together. To get as much contact as possible.”

“I don’t…d-don’t have a bra on,” she whispered. Then, obviously seeing his look of incomprehension, she explained. “I mean, I’m b-bare under the dress.” She looked down as she said it, biting her lip in shame that made him ache.

“That’s okay, baby,” he assured her softly. “I’ve seen you naked before. You were naked when I found you floating in the stasis tube and I didn’t hurt you then. Do you remember?”

Slowly, she nodded. “Barely,” she admitted. “It’s l-like a dream. B-but yes. I remember.”

“And I won’t hurt you now.” Merrick tried to keep the urgency out of his voice but he was afraid they were running out of time. Elise’s face was white as a sheet and she didn’t look well at all. If he had to, he would forcibly remove the top of her dress—he would do whatever it took to save her life. But he didn’t want to do things that way. Though he told himself he shouldn’t care what she thought, he wanted her to trust him. Wanted it with his whole heart. “Please,” he murmured, stroking a lock of silky black hair out of her eyes. “Elise,
please
trust me.”

At last, she nodded. “A-all right,” she whispered. “If you think it w-will help.”

“I do,” Merrick said gravely. “Do you want to do it or should I?”

“I w-will.” She tried, plucking at the front of the dress where there was a row of tiny buttons, but her fingers were trembling too much to make any headway.

“Here.” Gently, Merrick brushed her shaking hands aside and unbuttoned the front of the silky red dress. He pulled it off her shoulders, baring her small, perfectly rounded breasts. He tried not to look but he couldn’t help noticing her nipples, tight and pink as little buds. His shaft reacted immediately, his mating fist throbbing with desire but Merrick ignored it. This wasn’t about sex—it was about healing.

“Oh…” Elise saw him looking and tried to cover herself with her arms but Merrick shook his head.

“No. Come here. Right up against me.”

Pulling her close, he pressed their naked upper bodies together, feeling the hard points of her nipples and the soft crush of her breasts against his chest. Elise seemed reluctant at first but then she pressed against him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in the side of his throat.

They stayed that way for a long time, locked in a silent embrace until her shivering stopped. Merrick buried his face in her hair and breathed her in, inhaling her delicate feminine scent and something else as well. He frowned. What was that scent? Was it heat…desire? But she’d been almost dead—why would she be aroused? His nose never lied though—he could smell her heat. Her body was in need, even if she didn’t know it and Merrick didn’t think she did. Despite the fact that both of them were half naked, there was nothing sexual about their contact. She needed to be healed and she trusted him to do the healing—it was as simple as that. So her scent was a mystery—one he couldn’t help wanting to solve.

“Merrick,” she whispered, breaking into his thoughts. Her voice was a soft sob in his ear. “Oh, Merrick. You came for me. You really came.”

“Couldn’t stay away,” he admitted, rubbing her bare back in long, soothing strokes. “I wanted to but…I just couldn’t. Sylvan told me you were still sick and begged me to bring you back.”

“Oh.” She pulled back from him, covering her breasts with one arm. “So you didn’t really
want
to come—Dr. Sylvan made you.”

Inwardly, Merrick swore. Why had he made things awkward between them again? But there was no point in being anything but truthful—he’d never been the type of male to mince words. “I came because I had to,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “Because I couldn’t let you die, no matter how angry I still am about that stunt you pulled with your fucking fiancé.”

Elise frowned and lifted her chin. “Once and for all will you please believe me when I tell you that I honestly
forgot
about him?”

“That’s kind of hard to believe,” Merrick growled. “I mean, he’s a fucking billionaire, isn’t he?”

“You think money matters to me?” Her brown eyes flashed. “If that was all I cared about I could have stayed home with my mother and stepfather. I don’t give a
damn
about money!”

“Looks then,” Merrick challenged her. “You have to admit he’s a handsome sonofabitch and I’m one ugly bastard.”

“You’re not!” Elise’s voice throbbed with passion. She cupped his scarred cheek and looked into his eyes. “That’s not how I see you, Merrick. And I don’t believe that’s how you see yourself.”

“You don’t know me—not really,” he said flatly. “So how do you know what I think?” He sighed. “You’re right though—looks aren’t that important. Even if I
do
remind you of your pet dog—what was his name?”

“Buck,” she whispered. “If you only knew…” She broke off, shaking her head. “Look, Merrick, I don’t know
why
I forgot about James. I think maybe I was trying so hard to push away the memories of what…what happened when I was abducted that he somehow got pushed away too.” She looked down. “I…I’m good at forgetting things. Maybe
too
good.”

Merrick remembered the fear in her eyes when he’d tried to undress her and suddenly understood. “All right,” he said at last, blowing out a breath. “Okay. I believe you.”

“Thank you.” When she looked up, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. “That means a lot to me. And thank you for coming to save me, even if you were mad.”

“I was more than mad—I was fucking enraged,” Merrick admitted in a low voice. “I didn’t like the idea of you with another man. The idea of him touching you…taking you…”

“He doesn’t,” she said quickly. “I mean we don’t…we’ve never…” She trailed off, blushing but Merrick understood what she was saying.

“What,
never?”
he demanded. “In the whole time you’ve been together?”

“No.” Elise shook her head firmly. “I know it sounds old-fashioned but, well, we’re waiting. Waiting until we’re married to…to consummate our relationship.”

She didn’t sound very excited about the idea—more like it was a distasteful duty she was going to have to perform sometime in the future. Merrick frowned. Now everything made sense—the reason he hadn’t smelled another male on her was because she hadn’t
been
with another male. At least, not in the past year. Even his sensitive nose couldn’t pick up anything earlier than that.

Then the implications really began to sink in and his heart leapt in his chest.
Unclaimed! She’s unclaimed—not bonded to him at all.
Without some kind of physical contact, her engagement was an empty promise, at least in Merrick’s mind. Suddenly he understood her fiancé’s possessive posturing. He didn’t have a hold on Elise—not really. His claim to her was unfounded, ungrounded and most importantly
unconsummated.

“So you’re not really his at all,” he said, putting his thoughts into words. “You don’t really belong to him.”

Elise bristled. “I don’t belong to
any
man. I’m my own person, thank you very much.”

“Sorry,” Merrick growled. “It’s just in the Kindred world, we’re very possessive of our mates. When you find the female you want to spend the rest of your life with, you do everything you can to bind her to you.”

She frowned. “What do you mean
everything?”

“Touching, tasting, scent marking…we’re pretty fucking tactile,” he said candidly. “I don’t understand how that idiot fiancé of yours could have such a beautiful woman and not mark you in some way.”

“Mark me? How?” Her cheeks were getting pink and her breathing had speeded up some, Merrick noted.

“Kindred males have scent glands we use to mark our females,” he explained. “Around our mouths and groins. When we find the right female, we want to rub against her, to touch her everywhere and mark her with our scent. That warns off other males—lets them know the female is spoken for.” He shook his head. “That was why I was so surprised when that little bastard popped up claiming to be your fiancé—I didn’t smell another male on you, even a human male—so I didn’t see how it was possible. Now I understand, if he’s never taken you…”

“Never,” she said at once, shaking her head.

“Then he’s never marked you.” Merrick let his voice drop to a low, possessive growl. “And if he’s never marked you, then you’re fair game, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Merrick!” She bit her lip. “Don’t talk that way.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “What way? You know how I feel about you, Elise—why else would I come back for you? It’s fucking natural for me to want to mark you, to touch you, to taste you…”

“T-taste me?” Her eyes were wide and her breathing was erratic. “You mean kiss me?”

“Sure.” Merrick nodded. “But not on your mouth.”

“Where, then?” she whispered.

“You know where, baby.” Merrick stroked one of her thighs gently, loving the feel of her bare skin beneath the silky red dress. “Here,” he murmured. “Wanna taste you between your legs—taste your sweet little pussy.” The scent of her desire intensified and he knew she was probably wet as hell there right now. The idea of spreading her thighs and tasting her sweet, feminine core, of tonguing open her slippery petals and lapping her wet folds until she moaned his name and came all over his face had him throbbing in his pants.

But Elise obviously had other ideas.

“Merrick!” She pushed off his lap suddenly and jumped away, her arms held protectively over her bare breasts. “I…I think we should stop talking about this now.”

“Sorry.” He regarded her lazily through half-lidded eyes. “Am I making you nervous?”

“Of course it makes me nervous! I’m not used to having someone who wants…wants to do
that
to me.”

“So your fiancé doesn’t even talk dirty to you?” Merrick shook his head. “He’s an even bigger idiot than I thought.”

“James and I don’t discuss things like that because…well, we just don’t talk that way.” Her cheeks were flaming red now, he noted. Clearly what he’d said was affecting her, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Turning her back, she shrugged back into the dress. She buttoned it up rapidly before turning to face him again. Smoothing her hair back with both hands, she took a deep breath. “Let’s talk about something else. Am I cured now? I feel a lot better.”

Merrick frowned. “I doubt it. Why—you that eager to go back to your fiancé?”

“No.” She smoothed her hair again—a nervous gesture on her part, Merrick thought—and sighed. “I just…I don’t know. Maybe we should go back to the Kindred ship and find out what’s going on.”

“Maybe so.” Rising, Merrick went to the control panel at the front of the ship and settled himself into the captain’s chair. “Take a seat and buckle up,” he instructed her. “My ship runs as smooth as silk normally but I never finished the long-range diagnostic. Getting out of the atmosphere is going to be a little bumpy.”

She did as he instructed, silently, taking the chair beside his and buckling the too-large safety harness around her small frame. Merrick watched her from the corner of his eye as he prepped the star-duster for take-off. What in the seven hells was going on with her? She was willing to let him touch her and press her naked chest against his, but the moment the conversation turned sexual, she was a bundle of nerves.

Something happened,
he thought, remembering again the fear in her eyes when he’d tried to take off her dress.
Someone did something to her. And now she’s got her idiot fiancé to believe she wants to wait to consummate until they’re joined. But there has to be more to it than just old-fashioned values. There’s a reason she doesn’t want to be touched that way. A reason she doesn’t want to think about anything to do with sex.