Now the towels served as a cushion for Ethan where he leaned on them for support. His face looked like it gained a little color back which made her feel a lot better. He tucked an arm close and moved to pull his shirt off, but she reached out and stopped him with a light touch.
“Let me.”
With evening in full swing, the Alaska midnight sun barely kissed the horizon where it would stay until sunup. The window above the shower allowed a small amount of sunlight in, enough to hit the dangling crystals of the light fixtures that said a woman, at some point, called this place home. A fraction of her heart ached at the thought.
The rainbow effect played over his chest and across his face. He dropped his arms and leaned in closer, causing the colorful lights to bounce off his irises. He pulled her in close and brushed her lips with his. “Better than any medicine.”
A groan tickled the back of her throat. He totally destroyed her with that single word. She looked between the shower and his gaze. On one shoulder, the good doctor angel whispered for her to take care of him and put him to bed. The devilish angel on her left shoulder shucked her scrubs and commanded she heed the plea in his eyes for her to do her naughtiest to him.
Her heart filled and swelled with so much love, so much need for this one man, that it pained her not to shout it out for everyone to hear. Every second that ticked by, the bad angel gained ground.
His eyes slid closed as she ran her fingers beneath his shirt and lifted the material over his head to reveal solid muscle and abs that went on way past the button of his jeans. After tossing the shirt aside, she set to work on the offending jeans—slung low from the lack of a belt.
Her mouth went dry. Every touch, every caress of a finger over his skin made hard muscle tremble. Drowning in the need to care for him, she leaned in. Softly, she pressed her lips to each inch she exposed and reveled in how his body relaxed under her attention.
She started with the bruises and worked her way to each scrape until she heard him growling.
“Remy.” His head fell back against the wall as he chucked her name out.
Ten seconds. She would stay here for ten seconds and if he called her again like that, she wouldn’t—couldn’t— resist what he pulled to the surface. And it would be all his fault.
“Baby, look at me.” His hand slid up the back of her head and dug deep into the locks of her hair that had fallen free from her ponytail to hang loosely down her back.
She complied.
“You’re killing me, baby. Every second you touch me, you bring something to life inside me. Something I’m not sure I wanted before you. I can’t even feel the pain anymore. What the hell have you done to me?” The tangled mesh of tension that served as the underbelly to their relationship slipped away to leave a newly found peace. Would it last? Could she trust it? Trust that it wasn’t the emotions of the moment speaking? She was so damned confused. One second he pushed her away and the next he pulled her in with words she didn’t quite know how to interpret.
Kneeling by his feet, the crest of his cock teasing her closer, she shoved everything else to the back of her mind. For now, she would care for him in whatever manner he wanted and all the matters of the heart could be examined later.
With his pants opened at the waist, she slipped her thumbs inside the zipper and slowly pulled the sides open.
Metal rasped against metal and in less than five seconds she had him stripped of jeans, boots and every stitch of clothing he wore. Bared to her, she could care for him in all ways.
Angling away from him, she rose, scraping her nails lightly over the hardened flesh of his cock then higher to his chiseled abs. He gasped and caught her hand, bringing it to his chest.
“I could say the same thing to you, you know. You do things to me that have me wondering what living with a gruff, frustratingly possessive mountain man would be like.” Every word he’d spoken, she’d felt deep in her heart. Damn it. Her voice shook, and he picked up on it with how his heartbeat quickened beneath her palm.
Faster than she thought he could move, he had her pinned against him and the ends of her shirt fisted in his fingers.
“No.” She put a hand on his. “Right now, right here, this is for you. I get to do to you what I want.” She pulled back, but it did nothing to kill the sweet heat radiating between them. “I’m not sure either one of us would survive the shower if I let you undress me.”
“I’m willing to try if you are.”
Yes! With his head angled back and his lids lowered, she had to be crazy or insane to deny the man what he wanted. He’d taken a bullet all because he wanted to protect her. She owed him and never let it be said she didn’t pay her debts.
He didn’t help her resolve in refusing his wishes either when he made sexy into something she could reach out and touch, lick and eat, and she was hungry.
Chapter Five
Water fell in ribbons over them as Remy eased them beneath the sluicing hot water. He weighed more than she did by a lot, but to his amazement, she didn’t buckle when his legs threatened to give. “Steady. Lean on me more.”
God, did she know how perfect she was? He worked a smile if only for her benefit. Truth be told, the pain ebbed and flowed with his heartbeat. The more she touched him the more he hurt because of what she did to him. Not pain in the sense of the word, but fear, if he were honest. He could have lost her today. That fear made his heart hurt and that is all he could focus on right now. Not the leg or myriad of scrapes and bruises.
She maneuvered him to where the water cascaded over his back and shoulders. Relief worked through him and every tiny droplet felt like a thousand hands massaging him from head to foot all at once.
Dirt and blood ran down the drain until nothing was left. She briefly hesitated as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled until they both fit beneath the water. And he could kiss her. He didn’t give her time to fight him on what he wanted. He rather took. Nothing would heal him better than her lips on his. She slowly kneeled, breaking their kiss, and untied the makeshift bandage, tossing it on the sink countertop.
Soap in hand, she worked a foamy lather around the area, which earned her a few growls and several cuss words.
It didn’t seem to faze her. She wrapped her delicate hand around his ankle and soothed him with a soft hum he could hear over the pitter-patter of the water against the shower tiles. She spared him a smile and damn if his cock didn’t twitch. Which earned him a bigger smile. “At least we know you’ll be fine.”
When had she pulled her hair to the side? The braided weave of raven silk hung off her right shoulder in a single lock and tied off with a black ribbon he recognized from her multitude of lotion bottles and trinkets. The delicate ends caught his attention. Every move she made they brushed her breast as though the tips of her hair painted the dusty rose of her nipple.
He wanted to touch the soft strands, wrap them around his fingers as he drew her nipples into his mouth and devoured her taste. But he couldn’t reach her.
He grinned.
In time with her soft hum, he wrapped his hand around his hard cock and stroked the full length from base to tip until he had pre-cum dripping from the head.
His eye lowered and before long her gaze raked up his body to find his. She drifted to her knees, her hands a slow glide up his firm thighs. And her lips. God, save him, they were perfectly pouty as she spread them into a beautiful grin.
With her gaze locked on his and without saying a word, Remy accepted him into the confines of her luscious, warm mouth. If not for the wall at his back, he’d be on the floor the second the warm pad of her tongue caressed the underside of his cock.
She made every inkling of pain fade into distant background noise.
Her eyes slipped shut as she took all of him. Once again, she turned red blood to lava in his veins.
Every cell in his body held the heat of a thousand suns. Chills scaled down his spine, and his heart clenched.
He fisted his hands in her soaked hair an
d worked the long locks loose from their confinement. She hollowed her cheeks and gently worked himself deeper into her mouth.
“Remy. You’re going to steal everything I have.” He rocked forward and slowly withdrew, his muscles tense, shaking. She looked so fucking beautiful.
His words brought her gaze back to his. Her only answer was to widen for him and accepted him deeper.
She loved so openly, yet he couldn’t give her what she wanted. Not truly and fully.
She anchored herself with her hands on his thighs, but it wasn’t good enough. Driven by a force of love, greed, possessiveness—whatever the hell had him wanting to murder anyone that dared harm her—he scooped her up and gathered the hem of her shirt in his hands. His injury and the pain that coupled with it nearly forgotten.
In one pull he had her bare, bra and all. “Ethan, we can’t. You’re hurt and what kind of doctor would I be if I push further than you can take?” She took a step from him and he followed, pressing her into the back wall of the shower. From the amount of steam filling the small room, the tiles were already warm to the touch.
“The kind I need, that’s what. Isn’t there some kind of understood law or rule that says sex heals?”
His insides were already torn up and who cared about his leg. That would heal. His heart, not so much. “If not, I say we need to test the theory and then report on the outcome, baby.” A somber look darkened her eyes. The rosy color of her cheek had turned a nasty purple and he could tell the bruise went deeper than just the skin. He leaned forward and gently ran his lips across the tender area until he kissed every last spot.
“Say you don’t want me and I’ll be a good boy. Scout’s honor.” He pressed his forehead to hers. Resisting what he felt for her was quickly becoming not an option. Not any longer, if he wanted to be honest with himself. When she asked about Brax earlier in the woods he choked up, unable to talk about the death of his brother and the resulting war between families it almost led to. When he lost his twin, a part of him died too and he swore to never let another that close to him.
Until now. She brought hope with her sunshine-filled laughter and bubbly outlook.
“I don’t believe you know what being a Scout means,” she teased.
She wiggled in his arms and it only made his cock throb against her soft stomach where he pressed against her.
“What? Being a boy scout or being good?”
“Both, Ethan Savage. Both.”
She had him there.
Another bout of heat worked up the lower part of his back until it seeped into his blood with a fierceness he couldn’t rein in. Didn’t want to control. His heart pounded and every one of his senses locked in on her.
Her lips parted but the only sound she made was moans of pleasure as he slipped his lips over hers. When she gasped, he moved the kiss deeper.
Blood pounded in his ears.
Fear. Doubt. It all swirled in his gut like a hot ball of uncertainty, but every time he touched her, hell, looked at her, his world righted itself somehow.
Since losing his twin to a brutal death, he feared sharing that special bond again. Feared the ruthless, bloodthirsty human he knew he would turn into if anything ever happened to her. History always repeated itself, but if he lost her, blood would spill.
A growl unfurled deep within and ripped from his throat.
He broke their kiss to work his way down her neck, devouring the taste of her essence one lick and nibble at a time until all he wanted for the rest of his life was the taste of peaches and sunlight on his tongue. She’d discovered his favorite fruit and deliberately teased him with lotions and soaps that had him fucking turning in circles.
With her hair wrapped around his fist, he angled her head to the side for better access.
He wanted to believe he could have her.
Had too. Because neither of them would leave the Savage lands unmarked.
Desperation wound tightened in his chest. Heat consumed him, fire hotter than anything hell could cook up tore through him to leave nothing but ashes in its wake, and it was all he could do to pull away from her and the pain of the past. He rubbed a hand over his chest.
Slowly he regained his jumbled thoughts and eased her away from him. When his twin brother had been killed it took weeks for him to form sentences and months to regain enough passion for life to continue on. Now not even his brothers could see the pain hidden behind the mask. He couldn’t imagine a world where he could survive that kind of soul-deep bond again.
“Let’s finish up,” he husked.
A soft hand on his shoulder stopped him. Her gaze begged him for an explanation, but he didn’t trust himself to answer. She saw deeper into him than anyone ever had. Then again, he never let a woman get closer than a one-night stand allowed.
At some point, the hot water had gone and the steam faded to leave the room cold. Cringing at her frustrated sighs, with his cock still hard as iron, he stepped back and let her push past him. She reached to the left, fetched a towel and passed him another.
Remy made quick work of drying off, leaving him to his own devices and suddenly he felt like the biggest ass in the world. He could have that warm mouth on him sucking him into oblivion, instead he let fear cripple his chance at happiness. He was the biggest fool.
Chapter Six
Go on a wild Alaskan adventure, they said. It will be fun and give you a new perspective as a wildlife vet, they said. They, being her brothers. Her father and mother not so much.
Remy outright snorted. She sure put the wild in wildlife veterinarian. So far her Alaskan adventure had landed her smack in the middle of a one-sided shootout. Well, not technically. But close enough her father may not ever let her leave home again. Then there were the constantly chapped lips, a nasty bruise that took up half her face, and her first fight. Then there was the sex with her temporary Alaskan hottie. That almost made up for the scariest afternoon of her life.
She angled her head to the side, keeping the rest of her body still. Dark lashes kissed slightly flushed cheeks. Another couple of hours and if his fever didn’t drop along with his ragged breathing, then she’d worry. That shower nearly killed him whether he wanted to admit it or not. And it almost did her in too.
Sometimes men really could be single-minded.
Just looking at his gorgeous face made her breathe hitch. He hid something from her and he wore it like a shield. Every time they became close it triggered something in him that shut down even the slightest of emotion. Fighting him on it proved to be a losing battle. The way he held her, touched her, proved there were layers to him she didn’t know anything about. But why wouldn’t he open up and share?
She watched him now. His body looked relaxed, but the normally soft set of his eyes crinkled up with pain.
Remy cupped Ethan’s cheek and leaned in to press her hand to his forehead. He’d fallen asleep the second his head hit the pillow almost two hours earlier.
“Woman, if you don’t get some sleep, I’ll find a way to use that pent-up energy and make good on what we didn’t finish in the shower.” He touched a hand to hers. “Sleep, Remy. I’m fine.”
Fine my ass. “Liar,” she tossed back remembering just how good he felt pressed up against her, all dripping wet and hard.
“Don’t make me haul you beside me and make sure you get some sleep. Stop fussing over me and rest. Or, you can curl up here by me.” Ethan shifted to make room for her on the couch beside him.
Tempting.
“Ethan Savage, you move another inch and I’ll show you a new use for my scarves.” She fingered the new one, purple this time, which hung low around her neck to mingle with the pink of her tank top. It matched the sky beyond the living room window as the sun started its early ascent.
“Can hardly wait.”
He sounded in pain.
As if sensing her gaze, he pressed up on his elbows. “Stop worrying so much. I’ll be fine by morning.” He moved his leg a little to prove his point. “It’s not hurt
ing as much as before.”
She blinked. “You keep saying that like you’re trying to convince me.” She harrumphed. “And if you haven’t noticed, morning is only a few hours away.” She pointed out the window. “And we still don’t have a plan to get outta here.”
“A little more rest and we can walk to my brother’s cabin. There’s a radio there that we can use. I can already feel my strength coming back.”
The fever might not be overly dangerous, but walking wasn’t an option right now in her opinion. But he was a stubborn man and if he said he was going to do something then that is what he did. He did have a healthy coloring in his cheeks. That gave her hope.
“Who is Connor?”
Surprise flitted across his expression and tightened the muscles of his neck with how the vein in his neck bulged the second she asked her question.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“From you. You said it in your sleep.”
She straightened her shoulders when she saw the way his eyes glazed over and he grew pensive.
“Never mind. Forget I asked.” If he wanted to be a clam, so could she.
“It’s not—” He let out a gruff growl of frustration and scrubbed his hands down his face. “He was my brother.”
“Your twin,” she offered.
He nodded.
Remy shifted in her seat so that she could look him dead in the eyes. “Is he the reason you pull away from me every time you seem to want to get close?” She didn’t know the whole story but knew it was a tragic death that took his twin from him. From some of the stories she’d heard, they were inseparable from birth. Losing someone that close would leave anyone wounded.
“Drop it, Remy.” His tone was flat. Hurt.
“No. You’re not getting away this time.” She paused and leaned forward, winding her fingers through his. He squeezed back. “Talk to me, Ethan. I won’t know unless you tell me. Maybe I can help.”
Ethan didn’t bother answering. His closed expression said a lot, though. Evidently, she’d read him wrong earlier. He didn’t want anything past a fun fling after all.
Claimed by Her Mountain Man: A Steamy Mountain Man Friends to Lovers Romance (Her Savage Mountain Men Book 2) Page 5
