Rise of the Gryphon (41 page)

He wanted her so overwhelmed she could think only about what she needed. Only then could he take his jeans off.

Smoothing his fingers down her arms, he started kissing her at her neck, then her shoulders. He moved to her breasts, using his tongue to tease her nipple until she trembled.

While he had her focused on that, he unzipped her jeans and eased them down, kissing his way to her belly button, then sitting back on his knees and moving until he pulled her jeans off.

She wore a thin pair of black-and-red lace panties.

Sweet mother of . . .

His throat was too dry for words.

Her hips lifted and he dipped his head, tugging the panties down with his teeth, then pulling them off. What a view. She surpassed his fantasies, and his were pretty damned hot fantasies.

Running his hands along the insides of her thighs, he inched up until he touched her heat. Her legs quivered.

She arched her back, then, amazing woman that she was, Evalle shoved away from the headboard, sitting up. She grabbed him and kissed him. Attacked his mouth.

She never did anything halfway.

He’d suspected she’d be a powerhouse in bed, and she wasn’t disappointing him. He cupped her breasts and brushed his thumbs over nipples crying for attention.

Evalle broke the kiss. “You’re still dressed.”

She was wet, but was she ready for him, all of him? He stepped off the bed and unzipped his pants, shucking out of them and groaning at the feel of springing free.

He climbed back on the bed, kneeling in front of her. “Okay?”

“No.” She shook her head, but the smile on her lips gave away the tease. “I’d call that spectacular.”

“Wild woman.” He kissed her all the way back down to the bed, loving the feel of her under him.

She reached between them, curling her fingers around him.

Muscles tightened across his shoulders with the effort of fighting the urge to thrust. He didn’t have to ask if she was good with this. He’d know the minute anything changed, and right now he could feel desire wrapping both of them.

“I trust you, Storm. Don’t hold back.”

He didn’t.

Kissing her again, he unleashed the hunger he’d
fought since the first time he’d touched her. She released him and gripped his shoulders with the strength of a warrior.

But she rubbed up against him, and hot blood roared through him. He swept a hand down to slide into the slick, hot moisture between her legs. The second he pushed a finger inside her she arched up, gripping him hard.

She was ready.

He suckled her breast at the same moment his fingers stroked in and out of her. His thumb moved across the nub at the center of her heat, and he could feel her coiling toward climax.

Her nails dug into his back. “Storm . . . yes . . . I . . .”

He stroked her again and grazed his teeth over her nipple. At the moment he pushed her over the edge, he lifted up to watch her first orgasm. Green eyes glowed with passion. She arched up against his hand and shrieked, chest heaving.

“Oh, my . . .” She couldn’t speak.

When her shudders slowed, he wrapped her up and rolled over with her draped over him. He ran his hand up and down her back, calming her.

She rubbed against him, not calming him in the least.

He gritted his teeth. “Careful, sweetheart. Been a while for me.”

Pushing up on his chest, hair wild all around her face, Evalle laughed. Laughed. The hellion. “That’s not like
all
 . . . is it?”

The hellion.

She crawled up his chest and deliberately rubbed her damp opening against him.

He grabbed her hips. “Wait or I’ll forget to put on a condom.”

“Then get it.”

Damn, he did love that cocky side of her. He stretched over to his nightstand, pulled out a condom and sheathed himself. But one look at Evalle and he knew she was shaky on this part.

He brushed hair off her face. “Afraid?”

“A little, but I want this.”

“Kiss me, sweetheart.”

She smiled at the gentle order, drew a breath of confidence and proceeded to rock his world with her kiss. As she did, he reached down and used his fingers to bring her back to the place she’d been a moment ago.

So wet his fingers were drenched.

Moving her sweet lips across his cheek to his ear, she whispered, “I want you now.”

“Then take me,” he told her, turning her words back on her. “Take all of me.”

He watched her face for any fear as she lifted her hips and lowered herself down on him. No fear. Not his Evalle.

She clutched his shoulders as she pushed down onto him.

Nothing could ever feel as incredible as being inside her. When he was all the way in, he gripped her hips and started a rhythm as natural as life itself.

The look of ecstasy on her face was one he’d hold in his heart forever. She met his thrusts, every stroke urging him to explode. He drew on all the control he owned to keep from reaching his climax.

When he could feel her clenching him, he reached down and took her over the edge once again. She had her hands on his chest, arching back and calling out to him when she stepped off that cliff again. He took over, stroking harder and faster, lost in the feel of her, until he tensed and exploded, rocking into her again and again.

She was his joy.

His life.

His woman.

E
valle shook off the urge to sleep.

She couldn’t waste what time she had left with Storm. She should tell him she was leaving.

Not yet. She’d had so little in her life to celebrate that she didn’t want to give up this amazing moment with him until she had to. She’d faced her fears and walked away with more than she’d ever expected.

Her face lay against Storm’s warm chest. His muscles flexed smoothly when he moved his arm to stroke his fingers lightly across her back.

When she played with the smooth skin around his nipple, his chest muscles tightened. He touched her breast, probably expecting her to call time after what they’d done for the last three and a half hours.

She nipped his skin instead.

He groaned, a husky male sound. “You’re exhausted, sweetheart. I want to hear what happened when you left, but get some rest for now.” He kissed her hair. “We have all night.”

No, they didn’t. Might as well get this over with. “I have to leave soon.”

His fingers stilled. “Why?”

“I wouldn’t have made it back now at all if I hadn’t
negotiated a deal with Kizira. She needed me to do something and I wanted to see you. She gave me four hours.” Evalle pushed up and turned to face him.

The last time she’d seen that look on Storm, he’d destroyed two Svart trolls who’d almost killed her. He spoke with the confidence of a man who backed down from nothing. “I’m not letting you go.”

“I don’t have a choice, Storm, but I do have a plan.”

“No. You’re not going back to the Medb.”

“Kizira has the power to find me anywhere right now and to teleport me away without a word.”

The curse he let loose should have turned the air bloody. “I’ll take you to VIPER lockdown. She can’t get in there.”

Bringing VIPER into this would be a mistake. Evalle shook her head. “That wouldn’t work either.”

“She can take me with you.”

“Then I wouldn’t be able to escape when the time came because you’d end up in the Medb dungeon where I couldn’t get to you. And I wouldn’t leave you.” Evalle kissed his chest. “I trust you. Now you need to trust me that I know what I’m doing.”

He ran a hand roughly over his head. “You make me crazy.”

“You’ve told me that before.” She smiled, hoping to lighten his mood, then remembered something. “How did you get away from the beast fight on Cumberland?”

“Used my majik and a sip of your potion. Walked right past the guards and Sen. I still have it. You can use it.”

“No, I can’t and I can’t explain why, but I need you to do something for me.”

“What?”

“It’s not easy to explain, because I’ve been compelled from divulging certain things.”

“Dammit.” With the liquid movements of the jaguar inside him, he shot up and loomed over her. “What did they do to you?”

“I can’t really talk about being there, because of the spell. But I can share some things if I’m careful about the words I choose. That’s why I need your help. There are people who need this information, and I can’t talk to them at all. People who you know will help me when the time comes.”

“Tell me.”

Feeling lost and staring into his tight gaze, she started talking before her brain engaged. “I need you to tell—”

Her throat tightened. She wheezed, gasping for air.

“What’s wrong?” His every movement said he wanted to hurt something for touching her.

“It’s okay,” she croaked out, massaging her throat. She’d almost said Tzader’s name. “I didn’t realize I couldn’t say a name.”

“Would it be easier for you to write it down?”

“Yes. That might be a better idea. That way I could check for a slipup before I handed it to you. The spell doesn’t attack me until the point I actually share information I shouldn’t.” She yawned, wishing she could just lie down with him and sleep for days.

He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her
to him with possessive strength. He kissed her with more than passion. Something deeper. As if leaving a mark.

His whispered love words wrapped around her, sliding past her senses, but one word slipped inside her and grabbed her heart.
Mine
. Had she heard that . . . or felt it?

The world around her might still be spinning along on course, but hers stood still at that moment.

Had he just done something to bind her to him?

Did she care?

Yes. It made her happy.

She gripped his biceps, holding on to the one person who had been her anchor since the day she’d met him. His fingers touched her breasts, barely grazing the sensitive skin, then leaving too soon. After hours of making love, she shouldn’t be up for another bout, but when his fingers slipped between her legs she was on fire all over again.

Guess she wasn’t as tired as she’d thought. But time was disappearing for her. “Storm, I want—”

He lifted his eyes to hers, then cupped her face in his hands. “What? Say the word and it’s yours.”

You are all I want
. Instead, she said, “Time, which is something neither of us can control.”

She stretched and squinted at the glowing clock on his nightstand. With twenty minutes left, she didn’t want to have Kizira appear in the middle of them tangled up again.

And Evalle wanted a chance to say good-bye this time, to tell Storm she would do everything in her power to return.

He asked, “How long?”

Sometimes she could swear he read minds. “Twenty minutes. I want a quick shower.”

A sigh filled with regret spilled out, then he sat up, pulling her with him. As comfortable naked as he was wearing the sleek coat of a jaguar, he got out of bed and turned around, picking her up.

“I can walk,” she said with dry sarcasm.

“I know.” He deposited her in a glass shower large enough for two that had to be part of a remodeling, since this house had been built during the time of small tubs and shower curtains. “I’ll make coffee and find you something to write on.”

After thoroughly kissing her one more time, he walked out, beautifully naked. She could spend hours watching him do mundane tasks with no clothes on.

That wouldn’t happen unless she left a message that Tzader and the Beladors could figure out.

Or if she failed to survive the attack on Treoir.

When Evalle finished showering, she walked through a cloud of steam while she dried her hair. The heat had turned what was left of her muscles into noodles.

The sound of coffee brewing gurgled in the kitchen way down the hallway. Maybe Storm was making breakfast.

Warmth tingled on her chest.

The emerald was glowing. She had to ask him about that.

She tightened the towel wrapped around her breasts
and started to head to the kitchen until she saw a pen and paper on the bed.

She should write the note now.

The minute she got within two steps of Storm, she’d forget anything except touching him.

Getting a message to the Beladors was the other reason she’d traded for the four hours here. Kizira could sit on her broom and spin if she thought Evalle intended to tell Tzader and Quinn to not protect Treoir.

No way would Tzader stay away with Brina under threat, and he needed Quinn’s powerful mind, especially to stop the gryphons.

Evalle might possess Medb blood, but she had a Belador heart.

She sat down, dropping the towel on the bed, and hurried to write the note. She wrote two sentences, scratched them out and started over. When she finished, she hoped Storm could explain the rest of what she couldn’t. Otherwise, this would sound stupid.

Storm—

Give this note to the person I trust as much as I trust you, and explain that all I can do is give a hypothetical tale because I’ve been compelled.