Warren leaned over the desk, gripping the edge until it cut into his palms, and tried to drag calming breaths into his lungs. Damn it. He focused on his breathing, trying to forget the sight of her, the scent of her. How she made him feel.
One of her kind had stolen his soul and made him a monster, had made him kill those he loved. He shouldn’t want her. He shouldn’t like her. He shouldn’t feel this way about her. He shouldn’t feel at all, not if he wanted to keep the demons of his past from howling until his mind cracked.
He leaned back on his heels and slowly counted backward from one hundred. One by one, he carefully packed the demons back into their coffins and locked the lids. They’d break free eventually, but for now he had a measure of rigidly self-enforced control that in its own way led to peace. As long as he wasn’t around Esha, he could maintain this.
When his breathing had steadied and his mind had calmed, he picked up the phone. “Lea, it’s Warren. I need a favor, if you could.”
He explained what Esha had seen and asked if Lea could check the records for anything similar occurring in the past.
When they hung up, he called four guardians and assigned them to guard duty on the chamber Esha had mentioned. They likely wouldn’t be able to see what she had seen since they lacked her power, but they could at least be there to protect her if she went back.
Because if she got hurt, there’d be hell to pay.
Chapter 7
The warrior beneath him arched her back, highlighting the curves and hollows that he was so desperate to touch, to taste. Firelight glinted off her pale skin.
He groaned as he pressed the head of his cock to her sex. She was soft. Hot.
“Now, Cadan.” Her voice hitched on his name, her eyes vacant with pleasure.
“A moment, Boudica.” Though he ached to thrust into her trembling body, he wanted to savor this moment, to make it important. Tomorrow’s battle would seal their fates. This was the last time he’d make love to her.
He bit off a groan as he felt her nails sink into his ass. Yes. He loved her aggression, but not now. Now was a time to be savored. A time for tenderness.
She thrust her hips, desperately trying to take him inside her. As the heat of her entrance closed around the head of his cock, a groan was torn from his throat.
His fingers dug into her supple hips as he attempted to hold her still, but her panting cries tore at his control. He swooped down and plunged his tongue between her lips, savoring the sweetness that was Boudica. She returned his kiss in a frenzy, writhing against him in a desperate attempt to coax him inside her.
He leaned up and looked into her eyes. “Savor this, Boudica, for tomorrow we ride at dawn.”
“Just fuck me, warrior.” Her voice was hard, the lust in her eyes replaced with determination. She jerked his head down to hers, delivering a punishing kiss meant to show him his place. He was used to such kisses, but he wouldn’t tolerate them tonight.
He tore his head away and looked down at her. “Slow down.”
She might be his commander in war, but not here. This wouldn’t be a race to the finish. He dragged his mouth down her neck, kissing her as she rolled her body beneath his.
He met her eyes again. “I love you.”
He’d never told her. In the year they’d trekked across Britain, engaging the Roman army at every opportunity, they’d grown closer with every battle won. His family was gone, as was hers. They’d make a new family.
“Just fuck me.”
Had she even heard him? He gazed down at the strongest, bravest woman he’d ever known. He’d followed her across the country, fighting for their homeland. She loved him back. She had to. After all they’d been through, she had to love him.
“I love you.” He repeated it again.
She stared up at him unblinkingly, undulating against him. “No, you don’t. It’s the horror of war that makes you think that. Put it from your mind and fuck me. I have no love to give. This—” She pulled him hard against her. “—is all that I have for you.”
This is all? “Fine.”
His lust was now fueled by rage and despair. He pulled back from her and flipped her over onto her hands and knees. She cried out as he drove into her, his cock plunging deep into her *.
“Take me,” he rasped, knowing that he was almost too big for her, but that she liked it. She had never minded pain, on the battlefield or in bed. He wondered if she used it to drown out everything else.
She moaned, arching her back to take him deeper. “Harder.”
He obeyed, pounding into her as the sound of their flesh slapping together drove him to boiling. She always wanted it harder, faster. Always avoided the intimacy that he sought. He’d give her harder. He turned her over onto her back, pinning her hands above her head. She cried out as he thrust into her, her eyes rolling back at the force of his thrust.
“You’re mine,” he growled. “Say it.”
She shook her head.
“Mine.”
“I am no one’s. I am my own.” She cried out as her orgasm took her, causing her sheath to clench around him in spasms that rocked him to his core.
He bellowed his despair as his orgasm shook him, spilling all his pleasure and pain into her.