“I should spank you.” He gasped for breath as he looked over at her with rueful amusement. “I could have hurt you, Elizabeth.”
She laughed weakly. “Yeah well, you didn’t. ‘Could have’ doesn’t count.”
Her eyes closed. Damn, she was tired. So tired she could fall asleep where she lay. She let herself drift, darkness closing over her, feeling Dash beside her, comforting her, protecting her. Her body was replete, her mind, for the moment, at ease. It all combined to lull her into the deep, dark comfort of rest.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dash made her wake up for a quick shower. He placed her in the bathtub, turned on the spray and washed her efficiently from head to toe as she watched him in bemusement. As though no one had ever bathed her. Her body was sweetly curved, lean and compact with firm muscle. To him, she was perfection.
Between her legs she had shaven her little pu**y free of soft hair that was beginning to re-grow. It hadn’t bothered him, but he knew the stubble must be uncomfortable for her.
“Soap or baby oil?” He knelt at her feet as he spread her legs, cleaning her with the soapy rag, careful of her tender flesh and sensitive clitoris.
“What?” She shook her head.
“Do you shave your pu**y with soap or baby oil?”
She flushed lightly as she cleared her throat. “Oil. Lots of oil. But I can do it.”
Something akin to panic flared in her eyes as he reached to the recessed shelf in the shower wall and drew down the bottle of oil he had brought for her.
“Shush,” he commanded roughly. “I do have to shave my face often, so I think I can care for one little pu**y.”
Rinsing her quickly, he flipped off the shower and dried them both before laying a thick towel over the closed toilet seat. “Sit.” He pushed her down on the seat and knelt before her once again. Dash knew he didn’t dare linger in the job. Already his c**k was engorged, ready to take her again. He spread the oil thickly over the folds of her pu**y and proceeded to shave the silken skin, marveling once again at how delicate she appeared there to him. When it was free of any stubble and as soft as anything he had ever known, he reapplied a coat of oil to soothe the freshly shaved folds. Not a word was said. As she accepted that his mind was set on the job, she merely watched him, blushing faintly, but staying in the sprawled position he needed to access her pu**y. She was going to be the death of him. Dash carried her to bed, tucking her in before moving tiredly beside her and drawing her into his arms. The woman had a power over him that shook him every time he realized how deep she was digging her way into his soul.
There was nothing like loving her, being so deep inside her he could feel himself sinking into her cells. The very mouth of her cervix had cupped his c**k as he locked in her, shooting his se**n into the dark, rich depths of her womb. He had never known anything like it. No matter how hard he tried to still the swelling, it overruled his control and left him gasping in painful pleasure as it locked him inside her. And now, it left him wondering what the hell he would do if anything ever happened to her. He was getting ready to lead her into a war zone. Into a hell that could destroy her if he couldn’t still the fury raging inside her. If he managed to keep her alive and she killed Grange in cold blood, he worried for her. Elizabeth wasn’t a killer. She could defend herself, just as he would expect her to. She could kill if she had to and survive it. But from what he knew about Grange, if she ever faced him, the other man wouldn’t push her to kill him. Grange would depend on her being weak. Honorable. If she killed him under those circumstances Dash wouldn’t think worse of her for it, but he feared what it would do to her. As he had told her, she would have to be the one to live with it. Dash sighed deeply at that thought. In another day or two, they would leave the cabin and get ready. He had a house set up not far from Grange’s estate and he would begin the nightly forays around it. Mike’s men were watching for Grange, tracking the security and getting information on the men he used as guards. Some might be vulnerable to bribes; it seemed Grange wasn’t well liked, even by his own men. Mike was working on information about Dane’s death, getting the case ready to go to a special prosecutor for Breed Affairs when they returned with the files Grange had taken from Dane. Cassie clearly remembered the thick manila envelope splattered with the dead man’s blood. Grange had been ecstatic as he read it.
My own little bitch, he had told the little girl as he looked over at her. What Elizabeth had been unaware of, another piece of information Cassie had held back from her mother, was that Grange wanted Elizabeth too. The best Dash could figure, the man had been testing her and Cassie. Pushing them to their limits to see how strong each was. He wanted more Breed children, and Elizabeth was a proven breeder.
That thought caused his chest to clench almost painfully. He turned to her, his hand moving softly to her belly, his eyes closing. Could she be carrying his child now? He knew from the information Callan had given him that no birth control had stopped his or Taber’s mates from conceiving. Did he somehow carry the hormone that would counteract those precautions as well? That thought had tormented him since the night he had first taken her. There was little chance that his se**n wasn’t reaching her womb. Each time his release swelled in his cock, it locked him tight, forcing the opening of his c**k against her flexing cervix. He could feel the little entrance there cupping over the spurting tip, soaking in his seed, greedily consuming the hard ejaculations.
Was he risking not just his mate but also his child in this mission? He was getting ready to take her from the protection of the cabin, allowing Grange’s spies to catch sight of her in town and draw him back to her. He was getting ready to place her in the worst sort of danger, all in the name of a prayer that she could survive.
He wasn’t a fool. He prided himself on facing reality at every opportunity. There was no way to keep the information of Cassie’s birth a secret, no way now for him to stay hidden from the Council’s knowledge. The public may not know the truth of him as they did the Breeds, but their enemies would. Elizabeth could be forced to fight, to defend herself and Cassie, and possibly another child if worse came to worse. He couldn’t protect her. She wouldn’t allow it if he tried, and he knew that. But realistically, no measures he took would safeguard her.
“I can hear you worrying.” She shifted against him, her hand smoothing over his abdomen, her lips whispering against his chest.