Buttons popped from the fabric and flew in all directions. The rending of the material before he tossed it carelessly to the floor had a thoroughly feminine smile of sensual smugness curling her lips.
Hers.
He was just hers.
Lifting her body from his, her fingers went to his belt and quickly loosened it. Pulling at the metal tabs that secured the denim, she had his jeans open as his hands joined the battle to push them below his hips.
The heavy length of his c**k rose between them, the broad head flushed dark, the heavily veined stalk throbbing imperatively as Liza stroked her hand from tip to base and back again.
Lips parted, her gaze still locked with his, Liza lifted against him. With one hand steadying the broad length of his cock, she rested her head against the side of his, her lips at his ear as she lowered herself against him.
The head of his erection pressed against the snug entrance. Within seconds, the pulse of pr**cum ejaculated from the tip and sent a rush of sensual warmth to heat her pu**y.
His arms wrapped around her, holding closer as her hands slid to his shoulders, her fingers curling against his powerful shoulders as his hips began to move, to lift to her. Hard hands held her hips steady, moving her, helping her to take him in small, stretching increments as mewls of pleasure rasped in her throat.
“Yes,” the low, desperate cry slipped from her lips. “Hold me, Stygian. Oh God, don’t let me go.”
“Never,” he growled as his hips jerked in a hard, shallow thrust, forcing his c**k deeper.
Slick, wet, her pu**y clasped the iron-hard intruder as Liza began to move with him, riding him slow, easy, taking him inch by inch until the thick shaft was lodged fully inside her, stretching her with erotic strength.
Striking impulses of ecstatic pleasure raced through her.
Moving above him, rising and falling as sensation after sensation began to suffuse her senses, Liza gave herself to the spiraling flight to ecstasy and the mate moving beneath her with fierce upward strokes of his hips.
Primal and intense. Erotic and raging with a sensuality impossible to overcome, each upward thrust of his c**k stroked, caressed, rasped against tender flesh and sent sparks of pleasure so heated, so filled with sharp, burning bursts of rapture that there was no resisting it.
No resisting the rapid, spiraling flight to the center of raging, exquisite bliss.
Exploding around her, inside her, the pleasure detonated with a force that stole her breath.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as Liza lowered her head, her lips parting, teeth locking in the hard muscle at the bend of his neck as his incisors bit into the mating mark left on hers.
A growl sounded at her ear, fierce and filled with primal dominance, as Liza felt herself sinking into the waves of sensation that electrified, exploded over and over, and sent a rush of fiery ecstasy tearing through her again and again, until she was left shuddering in his arms. The feel of the additional swelling in his c**k locking him inside her as he spilled his release was another sensual rush of violent sensation that sent another, lesser explosion tearing through her.
It was like being surrounded by pleasure—plugged into pure sensation and feeling it racing beneath her flesh, through her veins, sizzling around her clit and streaking through her pu**y.
Locked in his arms, she whispered his name, so intent on the sensations that she forgot to hold back the emotion.
“I love you.” She sighed breathlessly as the final pulse of pleasure shuddered through her. “Oh God, Stygian, I love you.”
And she did.
She loved him breathlessly, completely.
While she hadn’t been looking, he had stolen her heart, and she knew there was no chance of ever getting it back and being the same again.
Now, she only hoped she could survive it.
“I love you.” He kissed her temple gently before moving.
A sharp breath of reaction parted her lips at the rush of pleasure when he pulled from her. Still partially erect, his c**k caressed across violently sensitive nerve endings, sending a rush of pleasure sizzling through her before it abated once again, sated for the moment.
“Lie here a second, babe.” He laid her on the bed before shedding his jeans completely and moving to the bathroom.
Returning moments later, he cleaned the slick, wet proof of their arousal from her thighs and the folds of her pu**y with a damp cloth. Then drying her gently, he pulled the blankets over her before moving back to the bathroom.
The sound of water running brought a smile to her face.
When he returned to the bed and slid beneath the blankets with her, Liza curled against his chest, needing his warmth, needing him holding her. Feeling his hand sift through her hair, his fingertips rubbing against her scalp, Liza let herself sink into the comfort he was offering.
“Don’t let me get lost, Stygian,” she whispered as the exhaustion of the past days began to catch up with her.
Emotions, nightmares, fear and anger had plagued her, making her sleep restless, her dreams dark and impossible to remember when she awakened.
“I won’t let you get lost, baby,” he promised as he soothed her.
For once, there was no distance, no emotional storm, no desperation to hold herself aloof, and no arousal. There was just the comfort he was offering her and an overwhelming sense of safety.
“Sleep, Liza,” he crooned, his voice gentle, his hands incredibly tender as he soothed her. “Right here, rest against me, we’ll figure out our next move later. I promise.”
And he always kept his word.
Her eyes drifted closed, her breathing evened out and she allowed sleep to settle over her.
Maybe, was her last thought, maybe, in Stygian’s arms the nightmares would stay away. Maybe she could sleep, just for a little while. Just long enough to find the strength to face what she feared was coming—
The destruction of everything she had believed she was—of everything her life had been.
Because life as she knew it was over.
CHAPTER 22
Stygian stared out over the desert landscape from the top of the spherical column of stone that rose above the valley floor, just behind the hotel, his gaze narrowed, his animal instincts humming in danger.
Something was out there—
“What are you hearing from your contacts?” he asked Dog quietly.
“I know they’re here, I just haven’t been able to find them. Since word went out that Cassie Sinclair was arriving in the area, more teams have been sent out, but like the others, they haven’t been glimpsed.”