Earth Bound (34 page)

He never thought to have a woman of his own, let alone one like Lexi. She seemed delighted having control. Deliberately provocative, tormenting him on purpose with her playfulness. She was fun. She made him laugh. Loving her was the easiest thing he'd ever done in his life, and at the same time, it terrified him.

He couldn't ever lose her. Not ever. The danger was he would hold on too tightly. Lexi needed breathing room. “
Solnyshko moya
, you are going to drive me insane.”

“Isn't that the point?” She laughed softly and unexpectedly leaned forward, her hands framing his face, her mouth finding his.

Her kiss turned his heart over. Her sheath clamped down around him, scorching hot, a silken fist gripping him tightly. He lost himself there in her mouth, in her body, his hands coming up to her soft hips. He took control. Of her body. Of her mouth. Thrusting deep with his tongue, with his cock. Love spilled over, until his throat and eyes burned with it, until his body exploded into a million fragments along with hers, soaring, freefalling, coming to rest with her safe in his arms.

He held her tightly, burying his face in her hair, his body shuddering with pleasure, with need, feeling as though he might be in a dream.

“Thank you for finding me,” Lexi whispered against his shoulder, her voice muffled, but her lips brushing small kisses over his skin—his scars—as she spoke.

“Thank you for saving me,” he whispered back. He held her for a long time, his body locked inside of hers.

A small aftershock rippled around him, and he moved gently inside of her.

Lexi laughed softly. “Seriously, Gavriil. You're going to kill us both. I can't move. I don't think I'm going to be able to walk.”

Very reluctantly he pulled out of her and gently set her to one side, on her stomach beside him. “Are you certain, because I'm sure I could go again.” He said it more to hear her laughter than seriously. He was going to have to run a hot bath for her to soak away any soreness.

“It's time for me to supplement Lyutyj's feeding. If we keep his strength up, he'll be able to compete for Kiss's milk. Since you have so much energy, you're the one who is going to have to go into the kitchen and get it.”

He rolled over and pressed a kiss into the small of her back. “If I leave you and go make his bottle, are you going to be waiting for me? I don't want you disappearing on me.”

“I can't move, how can I disappear?” She gave him a half-hearted shove. “I could crawl out the window maybe, but it would be too much trouble.”

His smile faded. “Lexi.” He pushed back the wild fall of hair so he could see her face. “You aren't going to panic because we made love, are you?”

“I don't feel like panicking, Gavriil,” she replied seriously. “But that doesn't mean I won't.”

“If I reach for you in the middle of the night, will that make you panic?” He watched her closely, needing to know that she would welcome him—that she trusted him with her body and her heart.

“I can't say,” she said, as truthfully as possible. “I don't honestly know what brings on a panic attack, but right now, all I can say is that I love the way you touch me. I love the things you do to me.” She started to say something and then
stopped herself, biting her lip and turning her head away from him.

Deliberately, Gavriil leaned down and bit her shapely butt.

“Ow.” She turned back toward him, glaring. “What was that for?”

“Not talking. Not telling me something important to you. Spill it woman, even if it embarrasses you.”

She moistened her lips. “Do you have to be so good at reading me?”

“Yes, because you aren't used to sharing what you're feeling. I'm not either. We both have to work on it.” He ran his hand over her bottom, his fingers finding one of the many scars and tracing it gently. He couldn't help himself, he leaned down and pressed kisses along the shiny path.

“Don't you dare bite me again,” she cautioned, tensing. “I'll shove you right off this bed.”

He laughed. “You could try,
angel moy
, but you're very little and I'm very big, in case you haven't noticed the difference in our sizes.” His hand massaged her bottom with slow, sensuous circles. “Talk to me.”

She sighed. “I suppose I knew all along you wouldn't get sidetracked. I can only feel what I'm feeling. My body, I mean. I can't tell what you're feeling. When you . . .” She trailed off, blushing.

“What?” He raised an eyebrow. “I did a lot of things to you. Things I plan to do as often as possible. You'll have to be specific.”

“You're making this difficult deliberately,” she accused.

“I'm trying to show you there's no need to be embarrassed about anything between us. We belong to each other. What we do, what we share, is between us.”

She rolled her eyes, and he splayed his fingers over her bottom, over her deliciously beautiful firm muscles.

“I'm growing very fond of your butt.” He bent his head and licked along one of the scars. His teeth nipped, and she gave a startled yelp. “Well talk to me. Distract me, because I'm already getting as hard as a rock again.”

Her gaze strayed to the growing cock in his lap. He circled it loosely with his hand. “Looking at you does this to me. Thinking about you does this. Watching you sleep. Hearing you laugh.” He grinned at her, unrepentant. “Just about anything at all you do, let alone lying here naked with you.”

Lexi bit her lip. His slow massage on her bottom had already started a slow burn deep inside. She couldn't very well lie when he was so forthcoming.

“What were you afraid to talk to me about?” He wasn't going to drop it. “I know it was important.”

“What if I can never put my mouth on you the way you did me?” She blurted it out, one of her worst fears.

“Never is a long time, Lexi,” he said gently.

“I know. I know it is and you told me not to worry, but I know it's a big thing with men. All the women in the compound talked about it. Some of the older ones tried to help me, but it made me sick.” She had to confess, bring it out into the open. “He was furious whenever I got sick and he . . .” She stopped herself.

His heart contracted painfully for her. He didn't need to hear what the monster had done to her, he was looking at the evidence. “I told you it didn't matter to me.”

“I know what you said, Gavriil, but it matters to me. It matters that I can't give you—everything.”

He bent his head again, this time to press kisses into the small of her back and then up her spine. “You have given me everything. Don't you know that yet? What we have is too good to ever consider throwing it away for such a ridiculous reason.”

Lexi remained silent, her large green eyes moving over his face.

He sighed. “Do you remember when you asked me questions, right after we first met, and I told you not to ask me unless you wanted the truth?”

She nodded, her expression very solemn.

“I meant what I told you then. I'm not going to lie to you. Too many people have done that. I never will. Sometimes,
solnyshko moya
, you'll wish that I did. I'll tell you when something bothers me.”

Her long lashes fanned her cheeks. He went still. He knew she was going to give him something important. He could read her now, that small hesitation, the natural reluctance of sharing her past. She didn't want to open the doors on those memories, but they had shaped her life. Shaped who she was.

“Caine really was a pedophile. You can see that I'm curvy. I started getting breasts and hips around the age of thirteen. He couldn't stand looking at me. He didn't want to even use me for sex after that. Just, you know, me having to do things to him.”

She bit her lower lip as if reluctant to continue. He rubbed her bottom again, a slow massage meant to soothe her. He wanted her used to his touch. Wanted her able to lie naked with him like this after they made love. He especially wanted her to share her past with him, to trust him that much. Gavriil remained silent, knowing she struggled to continue, but it had to be her choice.

“He would have gotten rid of me—I know he thought about it a million times—but our farm was a gold mine for the Reverend's church. We practically supported every compound.”

“And of course, you were the one, even at such a young age, who made the plants grow for them.” He pressed more kisses down her spine and stroked the dark mass of auburn hair spilling down her back.

Lexi nodded. “He tried starving me, to keep me thin. He wouldn't allow me to eat more than one meal a day, but I worked with all the crops so it was easy enough to eat lettuce and tomatoes while I worked.”

“And when he found out?”

“He would beat me and then lock me in the box for days. Then he'd be afraid I'd die. It was kind of a vicious circle. That man. Benjamin Frost. The Reverend's right hand. He'd come around and tell Caine he'd take me off his hands. He said Caine wouldn't even have to pay him. I think he
suspected I had some kind of gift, but Caine knew if I left, the farm would go downhill. The farm's prosperity gave him power and a certain prestige. He didn't want to lose that.”

“And he couldn't break you,” Gavriil said, remembering the hatred on Caine's face when he stared at Lexi. He had come looking for her to turn his fortune around again, to punish her for being everything he could never be. Gavriil had seen many men like him over his years in the field.

“I feel broken,” Lexi admitted. She frowned. “At least I did. Now that you're here, I don't know what I feel.”

“Feel beautiful. Feel feminine. Feel as if you're mine, because you are. And I'm yours. That's our world, Lexi, and those people have no place in it. They don't control you and they can't get to you. I'm standing between you and them and I always will. You can count on that. And you can count on the fact that I'm very, very good at my job.”

“Are you going to let Jonas Harrington go after the men threatening me?”

“Sure. He can look for them all he wants and wait until they commit a crime he can lock them up for. Of course they'll get out again in a few years if that happens.” Gavriil knew he sounded complacent—too complacent, but prison for men like Benjamin Frost was simply a revolving door. Frost knew how to work the system and when he couldn't, he got others to take care of witnesses.

“Basically it's who finds him first, right? And I told you where to look for him.” She rubbed her chin on the sheets, her tone thoughtful.

He shrugged. “You women wanted the chance to clear out the innocents. I'm all for that, and I can wait. I've got eyes and ears on him now. He isn't going to slip through my fingers because you need to wait for a foggy day. He can't sneak up on us. You're safe here on the farm. The fog will come soon enough.”

“What if Jonas gets him first? Ilya might tell him where they are.”

“Ilya is my brother. He's loyal to Jonas and the Drakes,
there's no doubt about that, but this is a family matter. We keep family safe.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I find anyone who is a threat to our family and I eliminate them. That's what I do, Lexi. I'll make certain I get every last one of them, just to keep you and the others safe.” He leaned down again and pressed another kiss into the small of her back. “I'll be right back. I'm going to run you a hot bath. You need to soak for a few minutes or you'll be very sore. You, my little woman, are impossibly tight. And I'm rather . . .”

Her eyes widened with a hint of mischief in them. “Large?”

He laughed and made his way to the bathtub, running the hot water while he found bath salts. Dumping in a generous amount, he added cold, checking the temperature. “You're not falling asleep, are you?”

“Yes. Go away. Feed the pup. I'm exhausted.”

“You're taking a bath and then you can fall asleep.”

“You're just plain bossy. I thought I was supposed to be the boss, wasn't that the deal we had?”

The drowsy note in her voice drove him crazy. How was he ever supposed to resist her when she sounded sexy and tempting? “As I remember, that was when we were working the farm together. I'm certain I was a perfect helper. I did everything you said. This is my expertise.”

She made a disparaging sound. He was fairly certain she'd rolled her eyes. He found her lying exactly as he left her. “If you don't soak in hot water, you'll be too sore for more lovemaking and I've got ideas.”

“Go away. I'm too tired for lovemaking, or feeding pups tonight. You're on your own. I'm sleeping right here like this, so leave the fire on.”

He rolled her over and lifted her easily into his arms, cradling her against his chest. “Bath time,
solnyshko moya
.”

“You said that meant your sun. Maybe I could be your moon. As in night. Sleep.” She wrapped her arms around
his neck and laid her head against his heart, her lashes sweeping down.

He put her down into the hot, steaming water.

She gasped and then smiled up at him. “Maybe this was a good idea after all. I didn't realize I was so sore.”

He brushed a kiss on top of her head, standing over her, emotion overwhelming him. “I'm going to always take good care of you, Lexi. I haven't ever loved a woman before. It's a new, raw experience. You're my only. The one.” Because the wealth of emotion was overpowering, he turned away from her. “I'm going to get the pup his supplement, and you contemplate how much I love you for the next few minutes. Let it sink in.”

Lexi stared after him, shocked at his last comment. They danced around the word
love
. It was put out there a few times when Gavriil told her the difference between making love and having sex, but neither one of them was very good at expressing the emotion.