Burning Dawn

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ELIN WAS LOST in the most amazingly erotic dream one moment, Thane slowly stripping her and kissing every inch of skin as he exposed it, and a nightmare the next, where Thane was actually looming over her¸ fury shining in his eyes.

“Get up,” he snapped. Then more gently added, “Please.”

She jolted upright, discombobulated for several seconds. Little details began to crystalize. Nightmare Thane was real. Sunlight slanted through the window to illuminate him like a rock star onstage at a sold-out concert. The girls were wide-awake and watching him unabashedly from their bunks.

“Is something wrong?” Elin asked, smoothing the hair from her face.

“You aren’t where you belong,” he said, and leaned down to scoop her up fireman-style, draping her over his strong shoulder. “I know I handled things poorly after...just after, and I’m sorry. But you have to admit I wasn’t in my right mind. You had just ridden the intelligence right out of me.”

No way. No way he’d just said that.

“I do not regret what happened,” he said.

“He-man in the house!” Savy called. “Whooo, whooo.”

“What, what,” Octavia sang. “Bonka’s about to get her a little some-some, ya’ll.”

Can’t laugh. As her man straightened, she beat at his back. “Thane No Middle Name Downfall. Put me down this instant!”

He strode out of the room. The last thing she saw was Bellorie giggling as if she’d just downed an entire keg of beer.

“You wanted to be lovers. We are lovers. You wanted all of me, I gave you all of me. Good and bad. You wanted space, I gave you space. Now, we do what I want.”

Caveman Thane was a major turn-on. Maybe it was the heat in his voice. Or the tight coil of muscle pressed against her, but Elin practically burst into flames. Just. Like. That.

“I see you like this idea,” he said, and, oh, the cocky bugger sounded smug. “Your temperature rose ten degrees in less than a second.”

Stupid Phoenix trait. “So what? What are you going to do about it?”

He stepped into the waiting elevator. When the doors closed, he smoothed her down the hard length of his body. A full-frontal assault ensued, his erection catching between her legs for several sublime moments.

With his arms banded around her waist, he said, “We will discuss my plans after you tell me why you aren’t in your new room.”

“Well,” she hedged, toying with the collar of his robe. “For starters, I’m mad at you.”

“This, I know,” he said. “But I apologized, and you accepted.”

“I did not accept,” she protested.

He kissed her, soft and sweet. “Then I beg you, accept. I won’t survive otherwise.”

Her lips tingled from the contact, and her insides tingled from the words. “Fine,” she said on a sigh. “I accept. I forgive you for how you acted after I rode you all the way to Stupid Town. But you’ve got another crime to answer for.”

“Tell me, and I’ll fix it.”

“Okay. You essentiaed all over me without a word of warning.”

“Not by choice,” he said.

Wait. Hold everything. He hadn’t wanted to brand her? Well, well. What do you know. There was a new sheriff in town, and his name was Disappointment.

She’d never really been upset about the essentia, she realized. She’d been hurt by Thane’s possible regret and looking for an outlet.

Trying not to sound whiny, she said, “So you didn’t want everyone to know I’m currently your favorite flavor of girl-cream?”

He cupped her cheeks and dusted his thumbs over her lips. “Kulta, I want to shout it to the world.”

The doors opened before she could stutter out a response—Mr. Romantic strikes again! Thane guided her out, the guards nodding at him as he passed. The guards also avoided glancing in her direction. Was that a big no-no now? Inside the suite, she expected to find Xerxes and Bjorn, but the males were absent.

“This is why I will never succumb to a female’s wiles for more than a single night,” Bjorn had said after she’d explained she wouldn’t be switching rooms.

“She’s part Phoenix,” Xerxes had replied. “She obviously likes to play with fire.”

Har-har.

“Sit,” Thane said now. “And we will discuss the room situation.”

Ugh. She didn’t want to discuss the room situation. Because, even though she’d forgiven him, no good could come from semi–moving in with him. The more she allowed him into her life, the harder it would be to leave him. “I’m only going to be here for a few weeks, right?”

His eyes narrowed.

“Right,” she continued. She eased onto the couch. “There’s no reason to go to so much trouble for me.”

He sat beside her, lifted her, and placed her on his lap, forcing her to straddle him. “I’ll decide the amount of trouble you’re worth.”

Okay, that was kind of (seriously) sweet. And her new position was kind of (out of this world) hot. “Yes, well, we’re supposed to be booty-calling each other,” she said, lazily grinding on him, making him gasp, “and, yes, I turned a noun into a verb. We aren’t supposed to be living with each other.”

He sifted his fingers through her hair, stopped at her nape and fisted. “Living together makes it easier to booty-call.”

A laugh bubbled up, but it emerged as a moan of pleasure. “You lived with Kendra, and look what happened to her.”

“You aren’t trying to enslave me.”

“That wasn’t what you said last week.”

He stiffened. “I knew I wasn’t forgiven for that, either.”

She nipped his bottom lip between her teeth. “You, the king of grudges, are one to talk. But, yes, you are forgiven. I mean that with every fiber of my being.” Lowering her voice to a seductive whisper, she added, “I already had my revenge, remember?”

The pulse in his neck thumped harder, faster.

“But, Thane...I still think it’ll be better if, from now on, we are friends rather than lovers.” Better, but probably impossible.

His eyes narrowed. “Better for whom?”

“Me. You. I’ll be leaving soon, and—”

He cut her off, saying, “We will be friends and lovers, and that’s final.”

“Deal.”

His eyes narrowed. “You just talked me around to exactly what you wanted all along, didn’t you?” Before she could reply, he added, “So you will let me inside your body, but you will not live with me?”

“That about sums it up, yes.”

He stood, and her legs glided to the floor. The look he gave her...lightning unleashed, fully charged, making her tingle and ache and heat another ten degrees.

“You want sex, nothing more?”

No. “Yes.” Oh, she didn’t know.

“Very well,” he said tightly. “Ask, and you shall receive.” He picked her up and carried her to his room—where he promptly dumped her on the bed. She would have bounced upon impact, but he was on her before she could, his lips claiming hers in a savage kiss. Tongue thrusting. Mouth demanding. Stealing her breath and filling her lungs with his own. Sweeping her up into a haze of need, hunger...obsession.

Giving her a taste of what she could have—and then taking it away.

She moaned in disappointment as he tempered the kiss, exchanging raw passion for cold calculation. His tongue began to move with slow deliberation, as if he was no longer fueled by emotion. As if he cared nothing for her response, only for his own satisfaction.

“Do you like this?” He reached between their bodies and gave her breasts a perfunctory squeeze, then slid his hand lower and cupped her between her legs—without stroking the center of her need. Just held her, as if she were property. “Is it everything you hoped?”

The actions left her strangely hollow.

“Th-Thane?” she asked, unsure.

He lifted his head and stared down at her. His eyes were emptied of emotion, as well. “Quiet. My women aren’t allowed to speak.”

Hurt pierced her. “Then why did you ask me those questions?”

“Does it matter? And why are you complaining, anyway? This is what you wanted.”

She knew he was manipulating her, and wanted to be angry. But anger proved impossible. She’d clearly hurt him with her insistence, treated him as little more than a few-weeks-stand. “Yes, but I just thought—”

“I know what you thought.” He shut her up with another kiss. A slow, cold kiss.

She beat at his shoulders...his gorgeous shoulders, hard and strong and hot...then thought screw it, and yanked his robe—no, his shirt—over his head. Bare skin. Yes. Her nails scraped over his pecs, his nipples, and he hissed his approval.

“Give me what you gave me before,” she demanded.

“All?” he snarled. “Everything?”

“Yes. Okay. Yes.” She yanked him down for another kiss, and this time, she took control. She thrust her tongue deep and hard, and it wasn’t long before he responded, taking over. Giving her deeper. Harder. Her shirt received the same treatment as his, leaving her in her bra, but he made quick work of that, too, freeing her breasts from confinement.

As he kissed and licked his way to her ear, his big hands kneaded her and his thumbs brushed over her nipples. There was nothing perfunctory about it.

“Like this,” she said, and cried his name when he moved to the hammering pulse in her neck and sucked.

He wrenched from her and sat up, panting as he stared down at her. At her eyes, heavy and hooded. At her lips, parted and moist. Wanting. Maybe swollen. At her chest, heaving with the force of her breathing. At her belly, quivering.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” he demanded.

“Yes!” She scraped her nails over the glorious cords of strength lining his stomach—and the goody trail of golden hair that led to the glistening tip of his shaft now peeking so proudly from the waist of his pants.

He pried her legs apart, creating the perfect cradle.

He eased on top of her, rubbing against her, sparking a dizzying kind of friction. Fire streamed through her, scorching everything in its path.

“It’s good,” she moaned.

“It can be better.” As he divided his attention between her nipples, kissing, flicking his tongue back and forth, she thrashed her head, getting lost in the rapturous sensations.

She was pulled as tight as a bow, her back arching involuntarily. She slid her hands under his wings. The muscles in his back were flexed, hard. Hers for the taking.

He glided his knuckles down her stomach, under her shorts. His hand was so big the tie at the waist ripped. Just before his fingers slid underneath her panties, he stopped.

“Hands burning,” he rasped.

Oh, yes. They were. The heat absorbed into her skin, infused her cells, and lit her up. “I know.”

“It’s the essentia.”

His strained tone... What was he trying to tell her? She couldn’t—

Duh. Lightbulb. Essentia. The way he marked her.

She had complained about it. Now he didn’t think he should touch her and definitely wouldn’t mark her without permission.

Foolish girl! “I was wrong. I want it. I need it. Please, Thane.” She moaned in desperation. “Put it on every inch of me.”

He shook his head. “I don’t claim casual conquests, Elin.”

She froze, her chest rising and falling in quick succession. Dang it. He had a point. She could have hot, with emotional ties, or she could have cold, with emotional safety. “I...I don’t want to be casual.”

“You’ll move into the suite?”

“Yes.”

Just like that, his control snapped. He was on her a second later, marking her face, her neck, her breasts and stomach. When he reached the open waist of her shorts, he tunneled his fingers beneath her panties. She tensed, waiting for the blissful moment when— Ah! That! He massaged the center of her need. The heat of him, the knowledge that she now had his essentia there... I might finally go up in flames. Her hips writhed, following his motions to prolong the contact.

He wedged a finger in deep, and she cried out, bucking into the slide, sending him even deeper.

“You were made just for me, kulta.”

Like you were made just for me.

A thought to be dissected later.

So close to climax. “Please,” she said, still chasing the sensation with her hips.

Another finger joined the play as the heel of his hand pressed where she needed him most. He stretched her, delighted her. And yet, she still didn’t fall over the edge.

“Not enough, is it, kulta?”

Can’t quite catch my breath. Little noises were breaking from her throat. Whimpers, maybe. The pleasure was so strong it bordered on pain. She clutched at his shoulders, trying to force him to put more of his weight on her.

“So hot. So tight and wet,” he said. His eyes were utterly ravaged with a desperation she’d only ever seen on wounded animals. It was empowering to know his feelings matched hers. “Can’t wait. Have to have all of you.”

“Yes.”

He jolted upright, tore at the fly of his pants. He didn’t bother pulling them down. With one hand, he gripped his shaft at the base. With the other he tugged off her shorts. Her panties were still in place. He shoved them out of the way, then positioned himself and slammed home.

There was no inching his way in this time. He took. He took everything. She climaxed with his third mighty thrust, shouting his name, her inner walls locking down on his length. Guttural sounds left him as he pulled back...back...then slammed back in. After that, there was no such thing as control, even shredded control. He thrust fast and hard, again and again, creating a punishing rhythm that swept her up in another sea of pleasure, nearly drowning her.

“Again, kulta,” he commanded.

Yes. Yes. Already another orgasm was building, her blood heating. She scraped her nails through his hair and tugged his head down for another scorching kiss, devouring him, feeding him every bit of her passion.

There was an unquenchable need inside her. A need to consume, as well as provide.

“Getting close,” he rasped. “Take more?”

“Give it to me.”

He stretched his arms over her, grabbing the headboard. Holding on to it, he was able to pull himself deeper into her, with more force. She wound her legs around him, lifting her waist to take the brunt of his hammering aggression. The bed moved with his next thrust...and his next, until it was hitting the wall with a bang. Bang. Bang.

With his next inward glide, her body surrendered to the pleasure. She shot into another climax, clenching tighter on him, shouting his name. And just when she thought she was about to come down from the high, he lowered his head and bit into the cord between neck and shoulder, just the way she liked, and she soared all over again.

This time, he followed her. Roaring, he plunged with all of his might, and buried deep, shuddered against her, over and over, until he collapsed on top of her.

His weight held her in place, but she didn’t mind.

“Not getting away this time,” he rasped.

Trembling, she wrapped her arms around him. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” And it scared her, how true that was.