The Brazen Amazon

by Sandy James

  “Good thing, ’cause the Amazon gravy train left and you’re stranded at the station.” Megan smoothed her fingers over her daughter’s red hair.

  Would he ever understand anything that was being said around him? The three women and Richard might as well have been speaking Russian.

  Richard took a few steps toward Gina.

  Zach blocked his path and clenched his hands into fists, ready to deck him if he dared touch her. “I don’t know how in the hell you shocked her or what you used to make those burns, but you’re a real idiot if you think I’m letting you anywhere near her now. Or ever.”

  Richard’s eyes revealed some vulnerability that Zach didn’t expect. The macho bullshit had vanished, leaving behind sadness. The guy really did care about Gina. Not that it mattered. “I wouldn’t have hurt her for the world.”

  “But you did,” Sarita scolded. “You hurt her bad. You oughta leave. Go on. Get out of here and let us take care of her before I punch you in your junk again.”

  “C’mon, Shortstuff—”

  “I mean it, Richard. Go away. Now. If I see your face again before I cool off, you’re going to be literally drowning in the next puddle you cross.”

  Richard glanced one by one at each of the three women staring holes through him. “Please? I need to stay. I—I need to know she’s okay. You know I love her.”

  “Sure you do,” Megan said, rolling her eyes. “That’s why you shocked her.”

  “But—but—”

  “Get. Out.” There was rage behind Sarita’s words.

  He finally nodded and limped out of the cabin.

  “You, too, Zach,” Sarita said. “She needs her rest.”

  “I’m not leaving her.” As if to prove his point, Zach dragged the desk chair over to the side of Gina’s bed and flopped down. The only way he would leave was if they dragged him out, and he wasn’t going to make it easy on them.

  Beagan and Dolan, whom he’d forgotten were in the cabin, came to his side to fuss over him. Still stunned by everything that had happened, he didn’t fight them. Besides, the adrenaline was wearing off, and his face hurt like hell.

  In short order, they had his wounds cleaned and covered. He sported a couple of butterfly bandages over his eyebrow to match those he’d had on his cheek, and he had what he feared was a tampon stuffed up his bloody nose. When Dolan brought over the smelly ointment and pointed to his swollen knuckles, Zach waved him off. Beagan offered an ice compress instead, and he took it, nodding his appreciation.

  Dolan handed him a jar of the stinky salve. “Please rub this on the mistress’s burns every few hours.” He handed Zach two tablets he’d shaken out of a small Tylenol bottle he pulled from his vest pocket. “These will ease your pain.”

  Zach took the jar and the pills, figuring he’d get some water from the sink when everyone left. “Thank you. Both of you.”

  Beagan and Dolan each gave him a quick bow and left the cabin.

  “Zach,” Rebecca said in that motherly voice that meant she was going to get bossy. “You should go get some rest. You look like shit.” She never minced words.

  “Gee, thanks. I’m not the one you should be worrying about.” He couldn’t take his eyes off Gina.

  Watching the slow and steady rise and fall of her chest gave him comfort. He wasn’t leaving until she woke and let him know she was really well.

  Sarita laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “She’s going to sleep for a good long while. You need your rest too.”

  “I’m fine. I can rest here.” He patted Sarita’s hand before she squeezed his shoulder then pulled away. “I’m not leaving.”

  “I didn’t think so.”

  The cabin grew so quiet, he wondered for a moment if the women had left. Then he heard their whispers.

  Rebecca was the one to finally speak to him again. “Fine. We’ll check on you both later. Is there anything we can get for you? A drink? Clean clothes?”

  Before the words were all of the way out of her mouth, Beagan and Dolan came hurrying back into the cabin. They placed some clean clothes on the foot of Gina’s bed. Then Beagan handed him a bottle of water and the blueberry bagel smeared with cream cheese Zach had coincidentally been craving.

  “Should you need more, just think of it,” Beagan said. “We shall provide.”

  Just think of it?

  Yeah, right.

  How had they come back so fast with his clean clothes? And how had they known he was hungry? Maybe the bagel had been a fluke.

  As if he could explain it away that easily. This camp kept getting weirder and weirder.

  “Thanks, guys,” was all he said.

  Each sister nodded to him and then left the cabin. Beagan and Dolan scurried after them, shutting the door as they left.

  For a good long while, Zach watched Gina sleep.

  Funny. She looked so much more fragile laid out on that bed. Not like the tall, cocky woman he’d grown to love.

  And he did love her.

  Gina sighed softly in her sleep as she rolled to face him. Her eyes never opened, but her lips curled into a small smile. The burned shirt gaped open.

  Zach forced himself not to look. It seemed too rude—too intrusive of her privacy. He’d grab a clean shirt and help her change when she woke up.

  He downed the pills and the entire bottle of water. He ate his bagel, although it hurt like hell to chew with a sore lip, tongue and jaw. Then he ran out of things to do.

  Fatigue weighted his eyelids, making it next to impossible to stay awake. He needed sleep. He had a lot of his own healing to do, but he’d vowed to stay at her side, knowing she might need help during the night. Opting to walk to the other side of the bed, he stretched out next to Gina.

  Spooning up against her, he slid an arm under hers. Pulling her back against his chest, he nuzzled her hair, savoring the wonderful strawberry smell that was her essence. Her hair had tinted with blue again.

  A good sign.

  He finally allowed himself to relax. She really was going to be all right.

  Just holding her close allowed him to let all his questions and concerns slip away. All he wanted to do was hold her warm, soft body against his so he’d know she was going to be fine.

  “I love you, Gina,” Zach whispered, knowing she wouldn’t hear him. But he wanted to say it to make it real. Just this once.

  He fell asleep thinking of how his future had taken yet another detour. Because no matter what happened, he was never going to let her go.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Am I in Eden?

  No. Gina wasn’t outside. But she felt warm, and that warmth wrapped around her like the hot spring’s water. Something smelled different too. No flowers and fresh grass. The pleasing smell was masculine and exciting. Gina purred and moved closer to the heat and that wonderful scent to let them envelop her.

  Soft nibbles against her sensitive neck forced her fully awake, although she wished to cling to the more-asleep-than-awake feeling. Zach was placing kisses against her skin, sending a wave of desire sweeping over her. As she raised her arms to put them around his neck, she winced at a painful twinge in her chest.

  He stopped kissing her to lift himself up on his elbows and stare down at her. “You okay?”

  Damn, but she was sore. Her chest felt tight and every muscle in her body ached, but she couldn’t remember why. Had there been a fight?

  The last time she’d felt this bad was after the Amazons had kicked the god Chernabog’s fat ass. She’d slept for almost twenty-four hours to heal her wounds and regain her strength. She’d used lightning as a weapon in that fight more than once and had been left a shade beyond exhausted. Sarita later told her she’d checked a couple of times to see if Gina was sleeping and not comatose.

  “Gina?” Zach whispered. “You okay?” He kissed her cheek.

  She nodded, even if it wasn’t entirely the truth. Her full strength would come back in time. Right now, all she cared about was him, and she had more than enough recov
ered energy for what she hoped he wanted to do.

  He sprawled over her but supported most of his weight with his arms. Normally, having someone on top of her freaked her out. It seemed smothering, putting her too much at another’s mercy. In training, if anyone covered her, she used her powerful legs to push him off. Once, she’d caught Johann in the groin, and the poor guy had passed out from the force of her kick. Megan hardly talked to her for a week after that.

  Having Zach’s muscular frame pinning her to the bed didn’t make her feel trapped. Not even a bit. No, his body pressing so intimately against hers made her hot.

  “I shouldn’t have woken you up. You need your rest.” He didn’t sound contrite at all as he started nuzzling her neck again.

  Shivers raced across her skin and heat pooled between her thighs.

  “Want me to stop?”

  Gina shook her head at that stupid question.

  Zach’s face was suddenly in her vision, his eyes searching hers. “Do you want me to stop?” His voice was husky, as though he, too, had just awakened.

  Then she saw the bruises. He looked as beaten up as she felt. “What happened to your face?”

  “A fight.”

  Vague memories swirled in her thoughts. “Richard?”

  Zach silenced her with a slow, deep kiss before staring into her eyes again. “Gina, do you want me to stop? Just say the word.”

  “God, no.”

  “What about Richard? He was kissing you.”

  “He wasn’t kissing me, Zach.”

  “But I saw—”

  She stroked his bruised cheek, her fingertips tracing the small white butterfly bandages. “You didn’t see anything. Richard wasn’t kissing me. Trust me. Please?”

  He didn’t think it over. “Fine.”

  “Fine? Then can you kiss me again?”

  A smug chuckle was the reply as he went right back to doing exactly what she wanted. Aches and pains be damned, this was what she’d been waiting for forever. After all his teasing and tempting, Gina was ready for him to follow through with the promise of passion he’d made.

  Keeping that promise sure didn’t seem to be a problem for him. He kissed his way from one ear across the bridge of her nose and her cheeks to the other ear, letting that tongue lazily circle the ridges. When he nibbled on her earlobes, her toes curled. She needed to touch him, trying to stroke him everywhere at once, running her hands over his broad shoulders, his back and his arms. That gorgeous ass felt perfect under her palms.

  “Whoa. Slow down, love. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

  Like hell. She’d waited for this for twenty-six long years. She’d waited for him for twenty-six long years. Slow wasn’t going to cut it now. She wanted to wrap herself in his heat and his passion until he gave her what she craved. Zach would be her first, the one she’d remember her whole life.

  The Amazon in her took command. Wrapping her legs around his hips, Gina had him flat on his back before he could mount a defense.

  He grinned up at her. “Okay, so we don’t have all the time in the world. Suits me just—”

  “Shut up and kiss me.”

  And he did. Wrapping his hand around the back of her head, he pulled her down to him and settled his mouth on hers. Oh, how he kissed her. Deep and long, making every cell in her body scream out for him. His tongue pushed into her mouth, and she sucked on it. The responding sound of his pleasure hit her hard. She replied with a whimper. Her whole body tightened when he coaxed her tongue into his mouth and returned the favor with gentle suction.

  * * *

  Zach had never had a woman respond to him the way Gina did. Not that he’d had a large number of lovers... He’d never really trusted women—not like he could her. Perhaps in the back of his mind, he wondered exactly what they were doing with him.

  He was a geek. No way around it. High school had been agony. He’d felt as awkward as he looked. It took him years to grow into his big feet and hands.

  Girls didn’t like guys like him. They wanted football players or class clowns. Zach had been a studious kid who cared more about the head on his shoulders than the one between his legs.

  College had changed him. He’d discovered tae kwon do. Muscles just seemed to pop out all over him with every new workout. He’d ditched the glasses with a quick laser procedure that cleared his vision. All of a sudden, women paid attention to him. He’d taken his share of sexual offers, but he’d never felt connected to any of his lovers. There had been a girlfriend or two who’d gotten too clingy, and he’d pulled himself out of those traps to focus on creating HanTel and making it a success. His driving, blinding ambition had easily trumped everything else. Never once had love complicated his life.

  Until Gina slapped those handcuffs on him.

  Now, as he kissed her, letting his tongue mate with hers, he felt a connection with a woman he had never known was possible. He wanted to brand her with his scent and his touch. He wanted to keep Richard and every other male in the whole damned world away from her. He wanted to possess her body, her mind. And her heart.

  Zach cradled her face in his palm. “I want to be inside you, Gina.”

  He tugged at her shirt, pulling it off and casting it aside. Then he marveled at her body as he covered her breasts with his palms and sighed in pleasure. She was perfect, just as he’d known she would be, exactly as he’d imagined a million times in his mind. Unable to resist tasting her for another moment, he sat up to draw one of her pink nipples between his lips. She hissed her approval. He gently kissed the almost healed burn in the valley between her breasts before moving to her other nipple.

  “Oh, God.” She arched her back as she put her hands behind his head to hold him to her.

  Zach was in no hurry. He sucked and licked and teased her breasts, wanting to bring her pleasure and marveling at how she affected him so deeply.

  Her fingers tangled in his shirt as she jerked and pulled. He helped her yank the shirt off and went right back to business. Moans fell from her lips, each one stealing away another thread of his control.

  * * *

  The intensity of Zach’s touch, the way he made Gina’s body sing, couldn’t be contained. Was it unusual to make so much noise when people made love?

  After a moment or two, she didn’t bother trying to silence herself. Every sensation he created inside her was too new, too intense to be controlled. All she wanted to do was feel.

  His fingers fumbled with the button of her jeans, and he was taking entirely too long to get the job done. Before she could do anything to help him, Zach flipped her over onto her back the same way she’d flipped him.

  “My turn,” he said in a low rumble.

  He peeled away her pants and panties, pausing to kiss her hips, her knees, her toes. Then he stood, his gaze settling on her body as he sucked in a big gulp of air. The faint, whistling sound surprised her. Was he turned on or turned off by her looks?

  It took all the will she had not to cover herself with her hands. Shit, she’d never been remotely shy about her body before. She’d walked from the showers across the Avalon compound in nothing but a towel more times than she could count. While the other Amazons wore bikinis to the Eden hot spring, if the Sentinels weren’t around, Gina preferred to just strip. Sarita always said Air was a born nudist.

  But to be so free with her body in front of Zach? To let him see every inch of her, scars and freckles and all?

  “Damn, Gina. You’re—you’re—”

  She was afraid of what he would say. As she always did when she was nervous, she pushed. “What, Zach? What exactly am I?” Her hands jerked up to cover her breasts, but she still felt too naked, too vulnerable.

  “You’re absolutely beautiful,” Zach whispered reverently. He gently lifted her hands away before he leaned down to kiss each breast.

  His pants and briefs hit the floor before he lay back down and stretched out against her side. Skin to skin was better than she’d ever imagined. She wanted to wrap herself
around him, to feel more of the heat radiating from his body.

  His fingers tickled a path down her stomach to settle between her legs. “Spread your thighs for me, love.”

  She obeyed without a moment of hesitation. He chuckled as he moved his fingers over her, spreading and teasing until he slid one finger inside her.

  There was no more laughter from either of them.

  Using slow strokes of his fingers, he found the most sensitive part of her. Gina arched her back and clutched at his shoulders, trying to drag him on top of her.

  “No, love. Not yet. Do you have any condoms?”

  “Don’t need them.”

  “Magical birth control?”

  “Something like that.” She tugged at his arm. “Zach. Please. I want you.”

  “Let me take charge. For once, Gina, give someone else control. I’ll please you. I promise, I’ll please you.” He leaned in to kiss her as he rubbed his thumb over the sensitive nub.

  Pleasure raced over her as she almost arched right off the bed. She couldn’t think, couldn’t process what he was asking.

  Give someone else control? Impossible.

  She couldn’t.

  Could she?

  The longer he worked his magic, the less she cared about who was in charge. He was already leading this dance, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Writhing, she whimpered, giving him her permission and begging him to fulfill his pledge.

  Zach pushed his knee between her thighs. “So beautiful.” He kissed each breast, trailing his tongue down her skin until he reached her navel. His hands moved to her hips as he kissed the flat of her stomach. “You’ll like this.”

  Gina bucked when he put his mouth against her core. Her eyes had been pressed tightly closed as he loved her with his fingers, but she’d been so wrapped up in trying to process all the new sensations, she hadn’t realized his ultimate goal. She watched his handsome face between her thighs with fascination, marveling at how good he could make her feel.

  Those lips, that tongue thrilled her. She dug her heels into the mattress and bent her knees. Spreading her legs wider, she wondered if someone could die from such a feeling. Surely her heart was beating so hard it would explode. Fisting her hands in his hair, she tried not to fight the building pressure and surrendered to him, mindless to anything but what he was doing to her and the tension mounting deep inside.