Sahira twisted her clasped hands together before turning to leave. Brokk rose and started to follow her out of the lodge. His gaze returned to where he last saw Kaylia. Despite his dislike of the woman, he couldn’t deny she also fascinated him.
He hoped Sahira was right and the stubborn witch decided to help them. She may have thrown him on his ass, but he didn’t consider her an enemy. If she refused them, he would do everything in his power to bring her down before she destroyed them.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cole spent the rest of the day and night in bed. Despite her protests, he got up once to shower before returning to bed. Once she had him settled in bed and sleeping again, she used the shower before returning to her guard post.
When he woke again, Lexi checked his wounds. The ones on his chest and back were healing well, and the one through his ribs only had a small red mark to show where the sword had gone through him.
They looked better than yesterday, but…
“I’m going to go home and see if Sahira is back,” she said. “The wounds look good, but some more healing potion will help.”
He clasped her hand and brought it to his mouth as he kissed her knuckles. Over the top of her hand, he gave her a suggestive smile. “I know something else that would help.”
“You can’t be serious,” she huffed and tried to pull free of him. “You were stabbed through the heart.”
“Very serious,” he said as he refused to release her. “I’m a dark fae; we don’t joke about sex.”
“I didn’t think the dark fae joked at all,” she retorted.
He chuckled as he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. “It’s very rare, but we can be rather amusing.”
“Well, you’re not amusing right now, and you’re injured.”
“You can strengthen me,” he murmured as he clasped the back of her head.
“And I could hurt you more.”
“Never.”
“You’re tempting me to do so right now.”
When he laughed, she rolled her eyes.
“You can only hurt me in good ways,” he told her.
Lexi glared at him, determined to ignore the sexy smile spreading across his lips. Despite the sparkling light in his eyes, she sensed his hunger as they raked over her. The lines around his mouth deepened when his lips compressed.
He’d been on death’s door two days ago, but it was obvious he needed to feed and was more than happy to risk his health to do so.
“Cole—”
“It will be okay. I will be okay,” he assured her.
She started to protest again, but he stopped it with a kiss. At first, she kept her mouth flattened into a line against the pressure of his full lips and their tantalizing taste. However, when his fingers threaded through her hair and his tongue teased her lips, her traitorous body eased into his.
She rested her hands on his shoulders, looking to push him away, but her hands remained frozen there.
He’s injured!
That spurred her on a little bit. She tried not to be too rough as she pushed against him, but despite nearly dying recently, he was like trying to move a mountain.
“Easy,” he whispered against her mouth. “You don’t want to hurt me.”
When she huffed and resisted the impulse to punch him, his laughter tickled her mouth. “You’re depraved.”
“I’m always depraved around you.”
Lexi was not at all amused by his teasing tone or words. She turned her head away from him as she labored to catch her breath, but that meant his mouth had better access to her neck. He kissed his way down the side of it as he tasted her in leisurely, enticing caresses.
She was still concerned this was too soon and would only hurt him, but his kisses left her craving more. Before she knew what happened, she was on his lap as his lips made their way down to her collarbone.
His free hand pushed the bottom of her shirt up, and he rested his palm against her belly. Yearning speared through her, but he’d nearly died!
“Cole—"
“I need you, Lexi.”
His desperate tone told her more than words how much he needed to feed and connect with her again. Feeding would help him heal, and she wanted this; they would just have to be careful.
Giving up on resisting him, she melted into his arms as he reclaimed her mouth. Suddenly, the fae clothes Amaris brought her to wear felt too abrasive against her skin. They’d been far more comfortable than Cole’s clothes, but now she wanted them off.
He tried to clutch her back against him when she pulled away, but she kept her hands against his shoulders and broke their kiss. The normally vivid blue of his eyes was duller than usual, and shadows rimmed them.
His hair tickled her palm when she cupped his cheek. His eyes brightened a little, but his love for her wasn’t enough to beat back his exhaustion.
Lowering her hand, she leaned further away from him. She grasped the bottom of her blue tunic and pulled it over her head. She’d thrown out her bra with the rest of her ruined clothes, so her breasts spilled free.
When his gaze fastened on her breasts, the blue of them faded, and silver bled through before they flickered back to blue. The fae and lycan parts of him competed for control; this time, she suspected the fae would win.
It was the hungrier of the two.
When she wiggled further back, he released her, and she swung her legs out of bed. Rising, she kept her back to him as she unbuttoned the brown pants before turning to face him. He ravenously drank in her movements as she slowly pushed them down her hips.
With tantalizing, seductive movements, she maneuvered them down her calves and kicked them off one foot. She then used the toes of her other foot to toss them aside. Standing before him, she felt sexy and alive as his gaze roamed over every inch of her.
His magnificent eyes turned silver, then blue and silver again before settling on blue. He shoved aside the blankets and looked about to rise, but when she held up her hand to stop him, he remained where he was.
“You’re going to relax as much as possible,” she told him.
“It’s impossible to relax while looking at you.”
She smiled as she shook her hair back from her shoulders. His shoulders tensed, and the muscles in his arms bulged as he gripped the edge of the mattress.
“If I can’t touch you,” he said, “then you have to do it.”
His eyes remained blue, but the guttural way he spoke told her the lycan was close to the surface.
“Would you want me to do something like this?’
She ran her fingers between her breasts and down toward her belly. Cole watched her with the same intensity a hawk did a rabbit as she caressed herself. Beneath his unrelenting gaze, her excitement grew as her skin prickled.
She slid her hand further down her belly before bringing it up again. Though she relished this moment between them, she couldn’t stop the small bit of shyness creeping in. She’d never done anything like this before.
I will not blush.
Despite her determination not to give in to the bodily function that got the best of her far too often, fire crept into her cheeks. She kept it suppressed as much as possible as she focused on him.
“Let me watch you,” he said.
“Watch me do what?”