I was greedy with my hands. There wasn’t a part of her I didn’t want to touch, to explore, and she was the same. Her hands smoothed over my chest and my stomach, slipping under the loose band of the pants, and then they, too, were shed, and there was nothing at all between us.
In the back of my head, I wanted our first time to be perfect. Corny. Hell, I knew it was corny. Kat was worth perfection, but there was nothing but sensations and wants and needs. Energy coursed over us, and I was ready. She was ready.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered.
My heart freaking stopped at the sound of her plea. I kissed her deeply, and when I lifted up, electricity crackled over our skin. This was going to happen. Our breaths came in rough pants. Our hearts pounded in rhythm. We both were ready. Sitting up, I reached for the bedside table.
Kat’s gaze met mine. She bit down on her lower lip, and then a giggle broke free. I smiled at the happy sound, and I spoke in the language rarely ever heard or spoken.
“What did you say?” she asked.
I grabbed a foil package from the nightstand. “There’s really no translation for it, but the closest human words would be ‘you are beautiful to me.’”
Kat sucked in a sharp breath, and our gazes locked. She reached up, sinking her fingers into my hair. I started to open the packet.
A fist pounded on the door, and Andrew’s voice intruded. “Daemon, are you awake?”
Disbelief thundered through me. “If I ignore him, do you think he’ll go away?”
Her hands fell to the bed. “Maybe.”
The pounding came again, so nope. “Daemon, I really need you downstairs. Dawson is ready to go back to Mount Weather. Nothing Dee and I are saying to him is making a bit of difference. He’s like a suicidal Energizer bunny.”
Stomach sinking, I squeezed my eyes shut. “Son of a bitch…”
“It’s okay.” Kat started to sit up. “He needs you.”
Yeah, but I needed Kat, like real bad.
I glared at the door. Cursing under my breath, I tossed the foil packet back into the nightstand. “Stay here and get some rest. I’ll talk—or beat some sense into him.” I kissed her briefly, and then gently pushed her back down. “I’ll be back.”
She snuggled in, smiling. “Try not to kill him.”
“No promises.” Grabbing the pajama bottoms, I pulled them on and made my way to the door. Stopping, I looked back at her. Seconds. I’d been seconds away from pure heaven. Seconds. I sighed. “Dammit.”
Andrew was leaning against the wall across from my bedroom when I opened the door. The look on his face was knowing, sly. I smacked him upside the head as I walked past him.
“Ouch,” he yelled. “What in the hell was that for?”
“Your timing sucks on an epic level,” I shot back.
“Hey, not my fault, man.” He fell into step beside me. “More like your brother has bad timing.”
The moment I walked into the living room and saw Dawson’s determined expression and Dee’s concerned grimace, my libido was officially cooled. “What are you doing, Dawson?” I demanded. “It’s now past one in the morning and—”
“I don’t care what time it is.” Dawson’s eyes flashed an intense white. “Beth is still at Mount Weather, and we’re here, doing nothing.”
Dee shook her head. “You and Kat were injured. You—”
“We are fine,” he shot back, stepping to the side, but I blocked him in. “There’s no reason for us not to go back.”
I stared at him. “Are you insane?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?” muttered Andrew.
Struggling not to shake sense into Dawson, I forced my voice even. “Think about this, Dawson. You can’t just waltz into Mount Weather now. Besides the fact that the onyx will take you out again, Luc only took down the cameras and security functions for fifteen minutes. They are back up again. You will get busted the moment you near the gate.”
“I don’t—”
“Don’t say you don’t care,” Dee argued, her eyes filling with tears. “You do care! You have to care about what happens to you. You have to care about us.”
Before he could say something that would traumatize my sister, I jumped in. “You have to care about Beth. If you go back now, if you go back without us being more prepared, you’re not going to help Beth escape. You will be captured, and she’ll still be in danger.”
“You don’t get it,” he seethed. “You can’t understand. You have Katy. She’s safe, upstairs right now, in your bed. You have her. You’ll be able to go right back to her, but me? I don’t even know”—his voice cracked—“if I’ll ever see Beth again.”
I drew back, stiffening. “I know I can’t possibly fully understand all that you’re feeling, but give me some damn credit here. You will see Beth again.”
Dawson opened his mouth, but then snapped his jaw shut. He turned sideways, thrusting his hands through his hair. Desperation crept into the lines of his face.
“We’re not giving up. I told you that. I promised that.” I placed my hand on his shoulder and sidestepped him so I could meet his gaze. “We will find a way to get her out.”