“Braden has sent men to recover those we left behind,” Fallon told Darius. “I want my top advisors here tomorrow morning so we can discuss this new obstacle.”
Darius caught sight of Shea slumped over the table and nodded, understanding why Fallon had called the meeting short.
“Understood.”
Braden opened his mouth to object, but at a sharp look from Darius, closed it and gave a gruff nod.
Fallon waited until the two men had departed before he made his way over to where Shea was tilting in her seat. He caught her and then picked her up and carried her to the partitioned area that hid their bed chamber.
She woke as soon as he swung her into his arms. Her eyes blinking up at his, her face sleep-softened and without the normal shields she hid behind.
“Fallon.”
“I’m here, Shea.”
“I was so scared that I wouldn’t be able to find you.”
His arms tightened around her. It was a fear he reciprocated. They’d been in there longer than Shea had even guessed. Long enough that he had nearly given up hope. It was a feeling he was not accustomed to, having spent his entire life raging against the odds and coming out victorious in the end.
“I know. Me too.”
He set her on the bed and began to disrobe, pulling his shirt off as she watched him with shadowed eyes. As he unveiled a body defined by rigorous training and a lifetime spent at war, Shea took a deep breath. The smile that curved his mouth was pure sin. He recognized that sound, it was one he never got tired of.
He pulled her hips to the edge of the bed and grasped the bottom of the shirt she wore, slowly drawing it up to reveal soft skin stretched tight over lithe muscles. When he pulled the shirt over her head, she stared up at him with a yearning that matched his own.
He’d missed her more than he ever thought possible. This last month had been hard. Every day had been a battle to accomplish what needed to be done instead of saddling his horse and taking the shortest path back to her. If his men ever guessed how difficult he found it to be parted from her, they would write stories of how the great warlord had been ensnared by a beautiful pathfinder from the Highlands.
He ran the tips of his fingers over one smooth shoulder, relishing in the shiver that shook her. She tilted her head back, her eyes steady on his, demanding a kiss. One they both knew wouldn’t end with just that. As soon as they started they would catch fire, consumed by a raging inferno of desire that would burn until two people became one, just to start all over again.
It was always like this. He kept thinking it would eventually abate. That this need inside him would fade, leaving him able to think and reason again. So far it only seemed to grow.
He leaned forward taking her lips in a hard kiss, one that was met with an equal ferocity of her own. She gave as good as she got. Always. It was one of the things he loved best about her. Even before he knew who she was. She’d never bow just because of his position.
He tumbled her into their bed, wedging one leg between hers and pressing it hard against the apex of her thighs. She broke away from the kiss, panting as her hands roamed over his back with just the hint of her nails skating against his skin.
Fallon buried his head in the crook of her neck. She writhed under him, the rough sensation of his unshaven cheek against her sensitive skin driving her crazy. His chuckle was gruff and raspy. He pressed a kiss against her shoulder, one hand going to unlace her trousers. He barely touched her as he ran his fingers delicately over the skin revealed beneath.
She panted and arched up. He parted her folds, dipping into them before withdrawing. He stood, helping her yank off her trousers before doing the same with his own. Both of them bare to each other, he paused to look down at her, burning this memory into his mind, her hair spread across his bed and desire in her eyes.
Sometimes it scared him—the depth of feeling he had for this woman. He didn’t know what he would do if he ever lost her. If the world thought him a monster now, it had better pray that she outlived him.
He crawled onto the bed taking a place between Shea’s legs as he pressed his full body against hers, claiming her lips again for a deep kiss that held a fraction of his feelings. Breaking apart, he pressed a kiss to the side of her mouth, then her chin, her nose and both eyes. The feel of her lips tilting up in a smile softened that hard feeling in his stomach, the one that burned with conquest. She was his greatest challenge, a wild and untamed wind that defied every attempt to master it. He looked forward to the attempt despite the knowledge of his likely failure.
He kissed his way down her body, stopping to pay tribute to both breasts. He pulled one nipple deep into his mouth, biting down lightly as she made a sound in the back of her throat.
Fallon’s fingers circled the folds between her legs, brushing against her clit before sinking inside her. Her stomach stiffened and then loosened. He thrust his fingers in once and then again before withdrawing them to circle that small bud of nerves.
He kissed his way further down her body, pausing when she jerked or shivered to investigate all of her sensitive spots. It was a game he enjoyed, seeing how far he could tease her before she lost patience with him. He blew against her wet curls and smiled as she twisted and turned in his hold.
A glance up her body revealed her bare breasts and a blue-eyed glare that told him she was about at that point where she would try to take matters into her own hands. His eyes were filled with a dark challenge as he pressed a kiss to either side of the spot she most wanted his mouth.
Shea panted as Fallon took his sweet time exploring her body. Need quaked through her as he pressed another kiss against a spot below her belly button before nibbling at the skin beneath. The look in his eyes was intimate, almost more than she could bear, and full of knowledge of the torture he was inflicting on her.
Shea’s eyes flared and she grabbed a handful of hair, tightening her grip until it was just this side of painful. Firm, but not so tight that it would hurt him.
His chuckle was full of naughty things. He knew exactly what he was doing to her. He enjoyed it.
She arched as he speared two fingers into her. A mewl escaped her as he pressed an open-mouthed kiss against her, his tongue stabbing at that bundle of nerves before he began to suck. She moaned, her legs tightening around his head, as desire spiraled inside her. Each wave pushing her closer and closer to the edge, drawing her nerves tighter and tighter. He flicked his fingers up, finding a spot inside that threw her over that edge.
She came with a long moan. The feeling almost too much, as she both wanted to press closer and move away, trying to escape as it threatened to burn her alive.