Fear the Darkness (Guardians of Eternity) (7 page)

Then she caught the unmistakable scent of his arousal.

Oh.

Was that why he’d taken off in such a hurry? Because he wanted to make love to her?

The thought was thrilling. Intoxicating.

She shivered as a bolt of desire sliced through her body. Along with a determination to do something about her clawing need. She might not understand why Caine was taking a shower rather than wrapping her in his arms as she longed for him to do, but she knew that she was done waiting for him to make the first move.

Before she could lose her nerve, Cassie headed across the room and into Caine’s bedroom. She didn’t have experience. But she did have primitive instincts.

What else did she need?

Pausing long enough to strip off her clothes, Cassie entered the bathroom, crossing the mosaic-tiled floor to step into the shower stall that was the size of most apartments.

The air, filled with moist steam laced with the scent of soap and warm male skin, wafted over her like a delicate caress. Cassie trembled, her nipples beading in anticipation as Caine turned to regard her with a wary gaze.

“Cassie.” He reached to shut off the water. “What the hell?”

She smiled, slowly advancing even as he backed against the wall, his golden body shimmering with water droplets and his hair slicked from his beautiful face.

“I’ve come to ease your tension.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, as if in pain. “A back rub isn’t what I need, pet. Maybe later.”

Halting directly in front of him, Cassie skimmed her hands over his broad chest, savoring the sensation of his muscles clenching beneath her soft touch. “Then tell me what you do need.”

His eyes snapped open, his hands reaching to grasp her wrists, although he made no effort to pull them away.

Thank the gods.

“I need you out of here before I do something we’re both going to regret,” he rasped.

“You would regret making love to me?”

His eyes blazed with a compulsive need, even as his face twisted with an expression of supreme torment. “Are you deliberately trying to drive me crazy?”

She leaned forward, trailing her lips over the silken smoothness of his chest. He tasted of heat and feral animal. Delicious.

“I only wanted to help.”

“Help?” he breathed, his heart thundering beneath her lingering kiss and the scent of wolf suddenly filling the air.

Cassie felt her own wolf responding. Just because she couldn’t shift she wasn’t any less of a Were. Her animal was prowling just below her skin, restlessly seeking the touch of this man. “To relieve your tension.”

Unexpectedly, Caine stiffened, his muttered curses warning he wasn’t pleased by her explanation. “So you’re willing to give away your virginity for a pity fuck?” he growled.

She pulled back, confused by his sudden anger. “I don’t know what that means.”

He grimaced, instantly regretting his harsh words. “It means that I’m not so desperate for sex that I’m willing to take your innocence.”

Ah. Relief surged through her. He was simply protecting her.

Again.

She reached up to brush her lips along the line of his stubborn jaw. “And what if I am?”

She felt him tremble, his muscles coiled so tight it was a wonder he didn’t cramp.

“What if you are what?” he managed to husk.

“Desperate,” she readily admitted, nipping the lobe of his ear. “Would you give me a pity fu—”

Caine swooped his head down to end her words with a kiss that sent a sizzling jolt of pleasure straight through her body. She gasped, clutching at his shoulders as her toes curled in the warm water pooling at their feet.

“Don’t say it,” he commanded against her lips.

She allowed her tongue to trace the chiseled lines of his mouth, pleased when he groaned in helpless need.

“You did,” she reminded him softly.

“I say a lot of stupid things when I’m—”

“Tense?” she offered when he bit off his explanation, a line of color marking his cheekbones.

“Yes.” His voice was hoarse, his eyes glowing with his wolf in the billowing steam. “Cassie, you really need to leave.”

In response, she pressed herself against his naked body, her breath catching at the feel of his hard erection pulsing against her lower stomach.

She hadn’t expected it to be so large. Not only long, but thick. And hot. It burned against her skin like a branding iron.

Or maybe that was just her fevered imagination. Not because she was nervous. Or uncertain. But because she was so damned hungry for him.

She might be a virgin, but she had zero doubt that she wanted Caine. He was, in fact, the only man she’d
ever
wanted.

All of him.

“You don’t want me?” she demanded.

His hands gripped her hips, his fingers digging into her flesh as if he were caught between the urge to yank her closer and shove her away. “So badly that I can barely think straight,” he breathed.

She allowed her fingers to skim over his shoulders and then up the curve of his throat. Her touch was tentative. A Were was extremely selective in who was allowed to touch their neck. The fact he made no effort to halt her exploration proved he already accepted her on the most intimate level.

“Then make love to me.”

He tensed, his eyes dark with pain. “No.”

Stubborn man. Thankfully, she could be just as stubborn.

She threaded her fingers through his damp hair, deliberately rubbing the tight buds of her breasts against his chest, groaning at the tiny darts of sensation that arrowed straight to the pit of her stomach.

Oh . . . my.

“Why not?”

Caine swore, his fingers biting into the flesh of her hips. “I won’t take your innocence because you’re feeling sorry for me.”

She stilled, tilting back her head to study him in confusion. “Is that what you think? That I feel sorry for you?”

“Why else would you be in my shower?”

“Because I want . . .”

He frowned as she struggled to find the words to express the need aching deep inside her. “What?”

“This.”

She might not have the words, but she knew what she wanted. Besides, talk was overrated under the best of circumstances. And in this moment, it was completely superfluous.

Cupping his face in her hands, she went up on her tiptoes, pressing her lips to his in a kiss of blatant longing.

Caine froze and Cassie felt her heart sink. So much for her awkward attempt at seduction.

Then, just as she was about to pull back, Caine’s arms lashed around her body and he hauled her off her feet so he could deepen the kiss with a satisfying urgency. Unlike her, the male possessed all the experience and skill necessary to turn the fumbling connection of their mouths into pure magic.

Sheets of heat blasted through her as his tongue expertly parted her lips and dipped inside. She trembled. Sweet heaven. It was just as wonderful as she’d dreamed it would be.

The hungry press of his lips. The enticing stroke of his warm tongue. The arms that held her so tightly she could barely breathe.

But she needed . . .

What?

Hell, she didn’t know. Only that Caine still wasn’t close enough.

Using her innate strength, Cassie wrapped her legs around his waist and they both moaned as her most sensitive part rubbed against his fully erect shaft.

Oh yes. That’s precisely what she needed.

The thought had barely drifted through her fuzzy mind when Caine lifted his head, regarding her flushed face through eyes that glowed with sapphire fire. “Cassie,” he groaned, a feverish color staining his high cheekbones. “Christ. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

She licked her tongue up the length of his neck, capturing the droplets of water clinging to his bronzed skin. “Not yet, but you’re going to teach me.”

He released a shuddering sigh. “I am?”

The heavy scent of his musk wrapped around her, his cock twitching against her.

“Hmm,” she husked.

“No.” His hand skimmed up her back to cup her nape. “Wait.”

She nuzzled at the pulse hammering at the base of his throat, wondering what she was doing wrong. It was never this hard in the romance books to get a man to make love to a woman. They were always ready to get down to business.

“Now what?” she muttered.

He moaned as her teeth lightly bit his neck. “This isn’t the time to be making life-altering decisions.”

“Life-altering?” she tilted back her head to meet his smoldering gaze. “Isn’t that a little melodramatic?”

His gaze skimmed over her flushed face to the small breasts that were begging for his attention.

“Pet, when I make you mine it’s going to rock your world,” he said, his need making his voice rough.

“I want it to be rocked now,” she murmured, not above pleading. “Please, Caine.”

His jaw tightened as his gaze skimmed downward, lingering on the small tattoo that marred the skin just beneath her belly button. “You’ve already been used enough.”

Cassie barely resisted the urge to cover the crimson hieroglyphic that flickered with an unsettling shimmer. It wasn’t as if Caine hadn’t already seen the mark of the demon lord. Or felt the chill that clung to the strange tattoo.

“This isn’t about being used,” she corrected softly. “It’s about sharing something wonderful. I need you, Caine.”

There was a charged silence as Caine’s savage need visibly battled with his conscience. Cassie held her breath, knowing that she’d already said too much.

The last thing she wanted was for him to do something he might later regret.

Then, with a low growl he moved to the back of the shower, lowering her onto the wet marble bench. Gently, he tugged her legs from around his waist, although he kept them parted so he could kneel between them, his face on level with hers.

Oddly, their new position felt even more intimate, a sensation only emphasized as his gaze ran a searing path over her breasts and down to her feminine core, already damp with her arousal.

“Caine,” she breathed, tracing the curve of his noble brow and down the narrow line of his nose.

His eyes were more wolf than human as they lifted to meet her steady gaze. “Christ, you’re so beautiful.”

She offered a dimpled smile. “No, you’re the beautiful one.”

He captured her fingers, which had been exploring his face, pressing them to his lips. “I’m an immoral bastard who has no right to paradise,” he corrected in harsh tones. “But if you want to offer me heaven, then I’m going to snatch it with both hands.”

Cassie’s lips parted, but her words went unsaid as he leaned forward to place an openmouthed kiss at the base of her neck. Oh. Her arms instinctively wrapped around his shoulders, her head falling back to offer him greater access.

Stroking his lips up the curve of her throat, he took a minute to trace the line of her jaw before at last finding her mouth to claim it in a kiss of sheer possession. Her wolf growled in satisfaction as her lips were crushed beneath his hungry onslaught, her nails scoring down the smooth skin of his back.

Still surrounded by the thinning steam and the quiet hush of the outrageously expensive suite, they might have been alone in their own world. There was nothing beyond the feel of Caine’s kiss and the light touch of his fingers as they tucked her hair behind her ears.

Cassie moaned. The water was turned off, but she felt as if she were drowning beneath the tidal wave of sensations crashing through her.

As if sensing her rising passion, Caine eased his kiss, allowing his lips to sweep over her upturned face. Tenderly, he caressed every line and curve before turning his attention to the sensitive flesh of her neck.

“Yes,” she breathed in encouragement, shivering as his hands moved slowly downward, at long last cupping the swollen fullness of her breasts.

“So perfect,” he muttered.

She barely heard his soft words as she arched in pleasure, her eyes sliding shut as his fingers lightly teased the puckered tips of her nipples. Who knew her breasts could be so sensitive? Or that his touch could offer such pleasure?

A pleasure that went from sensational to shattering as he dipped his head even lower and sucked one nipple between his lips.

A soft cry tumbled from her lips as she shoved her fingers into the thick strands of his hair, shifting restlessly on the marble bench.

So this was what all the fuss was about, she conceded, trembling as his tongue and teeth sent her up in flames. She never, ever wanted him to stop. And yet . . .

There was an empty ache between her legs that demanded attention.

“Caine,” she murmured, trusting he would know what she needed.

“Patience, pet,” he countered.

She wanted to protest, but then he turned his attention to her other breast and she decided that patience wasn’t such a bad thing. Especially when she felt his clever fingers drift along the curve of her hip and down the length of her leg.

Her head pressed back against the tiles as he suckled her with a growing insistence, his searching fingers drifting up her inner thigh. He was close. So close.

Then suddenly he was there.

“Oh.”

Her heart slammed against her chest as his finger swept through her moist heat. Had she been struck by lightning? It seemed impossible that the electric jolt could come from a mere touch.

Then Caine proved that his touch truly could create electricity as his finger returned to find a tiny pearl of pleasure.

“Do you like this, pet?” Caine rasped.

Like? She groaned. She was quite certain that she could become addicted to his skillful caresses.

But as the shimmering excitement began to clench her muscles, she grasped his face in her hands. “I want you, Caine,” she husked. “I want you inside me.”

The sapphire eyes darkened with feral hunger, but surprisingly he made no move to pull her from the bench and have his wicked way with her. Instead, he returned to brush his lips over her breasts before skimming his mouth slowly down her quivering stomach.

What the devil was he doing?

The answer came when he gently tugged her legs even farther apart and, leaning forward, replaced his seeking finger with his tongue.