"Not much," she admitted with a shrug as she squirted some body wash into her hand and tossed the bottle to the side. "What happened?" And why were you touching another woman, she wanted to scream, but she kept her cool as she lathered her hands with the body wash.
"Baby, you died."
Chapter 42
"What the hell are you talking about?" Danni asked, trying to sound like she didn't care, but he didn't miss the way her hands trembled as they slid over his shoulders, leaving a trail of suds in their wake.
After his little announcement she decided to keep herself busy by taking over washing him, which he appreciated since it would wipe the female shifter's aroused scent off him. He was actually surprised that having the woman's scent on him both annoyed and sickened him. She was a sneaky little shifter trying to entice him to fuck her and when that didn't work she thought she'd put a temporary claim on him to warn off the other females.
He would have preferred to feed off a male this morning, but none of them wanted to help him out. They were more interested in fucking than giving up a few pints to him so that he could help his mate. Not that he could blame them, but that left him to settle for the females fresh from a shift and more than ready to be bent over and fucked within an inch of their lives. A funny thing occurred to him as he pulled the first of many into his arms this morning, he didn't want them.
As he sank his teeth into a hot little blonde and drank her intoxicating blood he realized that he truly didn't want any other woman. The thought of taking another woman actually bored him. There was only one woman that he wanted and at the moment she was still giving off the scent of anger.
It was actually nice to know that she was jealous. That meant that she wanted him and maybe cared about him. Of course, there was no denying that she didn't care as much for him as he did for her, because if he had seen a naked man in her arms he would have torn the bastard apart. The fact that Danni managed to walk away, and probably would have kept on walking, told him that they had a lot to work on.
First, he had to feed her while his blood was still potent and test her blood, again. The last time he tested her blood was twelve hours ago and her blood still had a sour taste to it. It was a huge improvement, but it meant that the cancer was still hanging around. He needed to kill it and keep it out of her system because he'd be damned if he was going to be denied another minute with her.
She was his and there was nothing and no one on this earth that was going to deny him.
"The cancer never fully went away," he explained as he reached for the bottle, careful not to pull too far back since he liked having her hands on him.
"But you changed me," she pointed out quietly as she stole the bottle from him and squirted more bodywash into her palm before she returned to washing his chest. "Your blood should have killed the cancer."
How to tell her this next part without her freaking out? he wondered as he lathered his hands and reached for her shoulders. The truth, he decided a moment later while he gently massaged her shoulders and ran his hands down her arms and back up again.
"We think that-"
"We?" she asked, interrupting him.
"Jax, myself and Ethan," he explained as he moved closer to her so that he could move her long hair over her should so that he could wash her back.
"I thought I was dreaming, but I guess I wasn't," she murmured absently as she moved her hands around him so that could wash his back.
"Dreaming about what, baby?" he asked, leaning in and pressing a kiss against her damp forehead. He pulled back and continued to take care of his woman, a chore that he never thought would please him.
She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts as she ran her hands up his back, sending little shivers down his spine. "I thought I dreamed a human's voice. It was so.......," she pursed her lips up adorably in thought, "sexy," she finished, sealing the human's fate.
He was going to fucking kill him.
Danni noticeably started as she caught the scent of his aggression. "What's wrong?
"You thought his voice was sexy?" he practically spat out as he moved to go hunt the bastard and kill him.
"Well, it was," she said with a shrug as if what she said was no big deal. It was a huge fucking deal! She shouldn't be noticing anything about any male! She shouldn't even realize that they exist any longer. "Oh my god, relax. His voice was sexy, but yours is sexier," she said, somewhat appeasing him.
"Now can you please tell me what happened?" she asked, moving closer and brushing her soft breasts against his stomach as she ran her hands up to his shoulders before she ran them back down and over his ass, making his cock take notice, but he chose to ignore it and focus on explaining the situation to his mate since some things had changed in the last twenty-four hours.
He took a steadying breath as he focused all of his attention on running his hands over her back and shoulders. He didn't want to upset her, but she had a right to know, especially since she was going to have to go on a special diet, maybe for a little while, maybe for life, he wasn't sure yet, but the only thing on her menu for a while would have to be immortal blood.
Human blood would help, but not enough. The blood they'd pumped down her stomach acted like a filler, stretching out the immortal blood and helping bring it where it needed to go. It would never be enough to keep the cancer at bay or kill it off, which might not even be possible. The cancerous tissue could have very well been altered by his blood, making it impossible to kill completely. Thanks to immortal blood they could damage it and shrink it, but that might be all they could do. Whatever it was she had a right to know.
"We think that when I changed you that the cancer was more advanced than we originally thought. You....you," he couldn't get the words out. Just thinking about how close he came to losing her left him on the verge of losing it. Eternity without Danni? He'd never survive. Without her he'd wither away and wouldn't care about anything or anyone. She was his heart, his soul and his reason for breathing.
"Shhh, it's okay, Caine," she whispered soothingly as she brushed her lips against his, offering him comfort and he greedily took it. He brushed his lips against hers, but had to force himself to pull back before he lost himself in her. They needed to talk and he really had no idea where to start.
"Just say the words, Caine. It's okay," she promised as she reached up and cupped his face in delicate hands.
He looked down into her beautiful violet eyes, the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen and felt himself relax. "You were closer to dying than we thought, Danni. The cancer was probably already spread throughout your body and it was probably only a matter of days, weeks at the most," he said, this time forcing his mind away from the accompanying pain that knowledge brought and continued. "I should have given you more blood during your change, but I didn't have enough, baby. It's my fault."
"No, it's not," she said, offering him comfort when he should be the one comforting her.
"Yes, it is, Danni. I should have taken better care of you. I should have known something was wrong. If I hadn't pushed you out of my life you would have come to me and we could have tried to find a cure. We could have cured this damn thing before I changed you so that-"
"You would have changed me anyway?" she asked in a watery voice.
"Yes," he said, leaning down and brushing his lips against hers before adding, "because I would have fallen in love with you that much sooner, Danni, and I wouldn't have been able to part from you."
She let a little sexy gasp against his lips that had him grinning. "You love me?"
"Mmmhmm," he said against her lips, moving to continue the kiss when of course Danni decided to pull back and punch him in his shoulder. It stung like a bitch, but of course he didn't let her know that as glared down at her.
"What the hell was that for?" he snapped. "I tell you that I'm in love with you and you punch me?"
"No, you asshole!" she snapped right back, getting into his face. "That's for telling me that you love me after you h
ad another woman in your arms!"
He couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. Like he'd want another woman when he had her. That was fucking ridiculous, he thought as Danni muttered something about his balls, but thankfully didn't go for them, and turned to leave, but enough was enough. She wasn't leaving him, not now, not ever.
She let out another one of those adorable little squeals as he grabbed her by the hips and dunked her beneath the water so that he could rinse her hair out and rinse himself off. Once that was done he ignored her rather violent sputtering as he sat down on the flat rock and pulled her on his lap until she was straddling him.
"Let me go, you jerk!" she snapped, moving to push away from him, but he wasn't having that.
"She was only a meal, baby. I had to feed off of them throughout the night so that I could feed you," he explained, not mentioning that he'd busted his ass all day and night protecting her and the pack while Jax got his energy back. When the moon was high enough in the sky and the pack had shifted, he'd spent several hours hunting down deers, coyotes, and anything else he could catch. He drained them until one of the fucking werewolves took a hissy and tried to steal his kill. They learned quickly to wait until he was done draining the animal before they tried taking it away from him.
Lazy bastards.
Danni narrowed her eyes on him even as she settled onto his lap, slapping her hands onto his shoulders to help keep her balance. "Did you sleep with any of them?"
"No, and I wasn't even tempted, baby," he said, pressing a quick kiss against her forehead. "Now, if you're done interrogating me, it's time for you to eat, baby," he said, gripping her hips and pulling her closer as he tilted his head to the side.
She nibbled her bottom lip for a moment before asking, "Will this kill the cancer?"
"I don't know, baby," he said softly. He prayed like hell that it did, but if it was changed along with the rest of her body then he really didn't know what the cancer would do.
"So, I could spend eternity dying of cancer?" she asked, her voice cracking at the end and making him wish like hell that she hadn't suffered, knowing that she was dying of cancer all alone. He should have been there for her.
"I don't know, baby, but we're pretty sure that you'll be fine as long as you keep to a strict immortal diet for a while. You can drink human blood, too, but it really doesn't do that much," he explained, leaning forward to press a kiss against the tip of her nose. "Now, quit stalling and drink. I went through a lot of trouble to make this meal for you," he said teasingly, hoping it was enough to get a smile, even a small one, from her.
She rolled her eyes even as she blessed him with a sweet smile. "Yeah, fighting off a horny shifter is really a lot of work," she said, laughing as she leaned in and pressed a kiss against his neck.
"It was dangerous work, Danni," he said solemnly, earning another soft laugh from Danni.
"Do you need help getting your fangs down?" he asked as she continued to press little sexy kisses against his skin.
"I think I can manage," she murmured against his skin before she ran her tongue over his pulse and just like that he was hard.
She chuckled against his neck as she moved her leg and repositioned herself until she was only straddling his right leg and when she sat down he couldn't help but groan in appreciation.
"Do you really love me, Caine?" she asked between kisses. Her hand slid down his chest, teasingly caressing each muscle as she started to drive him out of his fucking mind.
"Yes," he hissed out when her hand bypassed his straining erection and softly skimmed over his balls, causing them to pull up tight.
"So, you'd miss me if I was gone?" she asked in a casual tone as she skimmed his balls again, but there was no mistaking the uncertainty in her voice.
"I'd die without you, Danni," he admitted to her seconds before she released an erotic little moan and sank her teeth into him.
He had to grit his teeth and squeeze his eyes shut as he fought against coming then and there as she reached between his legs and cupped his balls. Her touch felt so damn good, he thought as he dropped his head back, careful not to interrupt Danni while she fed.
"Take as much as you want, baby," he said, sliding one of his hands from her hip to her ass as the other made a little trip of its own to cup one of her large breasts. He'd made damn sure to overfeed and was still uncomfortably full from the last shifter so he knew that she could take as much as she wanted and he wouldn't have to worry about weakening or being sent into bloodlust.
She moaned against his neck as she fed and he wasn't sure if it was his blood or his touch that was giving her so much pleasure. He decided that as long as she was enjoying herself that it didn't matter. He pinched her pebbled nipple between his fingers and gently tugged on it. When she let out a hot little moan against his neck he did it again as the fingers from his other hand gently skimmed between her cheeks, wishing like hell that she'd sit up a little so that he could play with her slit.
Danni didn't sit up, but she did move. Her hand slid up to his cock as she slowly rotated her hips, grinding herself on his leg. She pulled a loud growl from his lips as his fangs slid down and his vision burned. Even through the water he could smell how wet she was, could feel it. That knowledge had his cock swelling in her hand as she slowly stroked him, matching the erotic movements of her hips. As good as it felt on his leg, and goddamn did that feel good, he wanted her riding his cock just like that.
He licked his lips as he released her breast and grabbed her leg, carefully pulling it over his leg so that she was once again straddling his lap, her knees on the rock on either side of his legs.
Danni slid her fangs from his neck, lapping up the blood before she pulled back, but he didn't let her go far before his mouth was on hers. His tongue found hers and tangled as she continued to stroke him.
When she gave his piercing a little tug that had his cock jumping in approval he decided that two could play this game. She had him close to begging, but in a minute he'd have her screaming for him to fuck her.
Chapter 43
She nearly swallowed his tongue when she felt his hands slide over her thighs. Who would have thought that such a harmless little touch would cause her heart to speed up and her breath to quicken?
When his hands closed in on the place that ached for him she thought she'd die from pleasure. She whimpered into his mouth and her hand stilled on his erection he glided his thumbs over her slit and when he parted her folds she may have cried out into his mouth.
He rewarded her by deepening the kiss as the pad of one thumb found her entrance and the other found her clit. His movements were slow and steady as she struggled against the urge to shift her hips and take his thumb inside her. He felt so good, she thought as she ran her tongue over his before she wrapped her lips around it and gently suckled, earning a sexy growl from him.
"Mmmm, I think it's time for you to sit up, Danni," Caine said in an erotic whisper against her lips that had her throbbing for him and more than ready to end this torture. She couldn't wait to feel him slide between her legs and could almost feel his piercing sliding inside her as she rode him.
So when he pulled his hands away from her completely she was left a little confused. Seconds later his mouth followed, leaving her panting, confused and shaking with need.
"What's wrong?" she asked, proud that her voice worked when all she wanted to do was scream at him to get back to business.
"Nothing's wrong, baby," he said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer so that he could take one of her nipples into his mouth. The move forced her to relinquish her hold on his erection. That was fine because she really should be holding onto his shoulders so that she didn't fall back.
"W-what are you doing?" she asked, licking her lips as his hold on her tightened and she discovered that she couldn't move, which of course meant that she couldn't lower herself onto that erection that was teasing her. It was so close, but not close enough.
"Worshipping my mate," h
e said around her nipple as one of his hands flattened against her back and slid down and over her bottom. When he managed to slide one long thick finger inside of her from behind she couldn't help but sigh and sag against him as she wrapped her arms around his head and hugged him to her breast.
As she tilted her hips back to take more of him she couldn't help but wonder if this was real. It was too good to be true, too perfect. She was in love with Caine and by some miracle he loved her as well. She didn't know what the future held or how this cancer that didn't seem to want to go away would affect her, but for right now everything in her world was absolutely perfect.
It got even better a moment later when Caine removed his finger and pulled her down onto something much larger. When she felt his piercing slide against her walls she hissed in a breath and tilted her hips to take more of him. Caine was forced to release her breast so that she could move lower, but he seemed pleased once she was comfortably seated on his lap with his erection snuggly held inside her.
Tall, Dark & Heartless: A Pyte/Sentinel Series Novel Page 38
