“Adrian?” Maria said.
“Excuse me.” Adrian left the patio and disappeared into the refuge of the approaching night.
* * *
“Read the article, Darius,” John said, breaking the silence that had fallen after Adrian’s exit. “Let’s all celebrate Ben tonight.”
“All right.” Darius murmured something to Faith, and she nodded, easing down into one of the patio chairs. Once she was settled, he opened the paper and began to read.
As Darius’s deep voice echoed through the evening, Tessa found her gaze straying more than once to the path where Adrian had disappeared. She’d walked it a thousand times. It wound down the hill and eventually ended at a small creek that was dry half the time. She’d spent many an hour there away from her busybody family, beneath the shade of a juniper tree, just thinking.
He was in agony. Tessa could feel it, as surely as she did her own sadness. She hadn’t had the chance to meet Ben, but he and Adrian had been friends. The fact that Ben had died while under Adrian’s protection … Well, she could only imagine how a man as dedicated and responsible as Adrian would feel, especially a guy who acted like he was invincible. Against her better judgment, she searched for the mating bond. It looked less like a ribbon now and more like a creek, and the water was choppy. The light that was Adrian glowed in the distance, not gold now but red and getting redder. The angry hue triggered an alarm through her that had her quietly getting to her feet and slipping away down the path.
Her instincts jangled, urging her to quicken her pace. She knew the path well, so the approaching dusk didn’t hinder her. She used the bond to guide her to Adrian’s location. He needed her. She didn’t know exactly how she knew, but she did. He needed her, and as insane as that seemed, she couldn’t deny him.
She found him beneath her favorite juniper tree. The sun had sunk farther, casting a rosy glow over the landscape and scattering pockets of shade from trees and bushes and rock. He leaned back against her tree, a dark specter in his black pants and T-shirt, barely visible in the lengthening shadows, his head back as he stared up into the tree’s branches. His normally impassive features appeared carved from the mesas around them, all ridges and sharp edges and grooved with grief.
He looked up as she approached, but said nothing. Her heart clenched at the desolation in his deep brown eyes, at the uncharacteristic slump in his soldier’s posture. She kept walking toward him, slowly, as she would a wounded wolf. Part of her demanded she flee, but something stronger than survival urged her closer.
Finally she reached him. His eyes were red-rimmed, his jaw tight. She laid her hand over his heart. “Adrian.”
Lightning fast, he grabbed her and reversed their positions, mashing her against the trunk of the tree, his head bowed, his body trembling. They stayed there for long moments, hearts thumping in sync, his breath hissing in and out of his parted lips. She should have been afraid of these small losses of control from a man who was eminently controlled, but she couldn’t be. She knew him on an instinctual level so minute, so complex, that fear had no place between them.
He raised his head, his gaze tormented. Her defenses disintegrated. She traced her fingers down his cheek and whispered his name.
He crushed his mouth to hers. She softened under him, opening to him, accepting his tongue in her mouth, his hands beneath her clothes. Her body sparked to life, juices running hot, pulse racing. She knew, without words, what he needed. Wanted to give it to him more than she wanted her next breath.
She jerked his T-shirt out of his pants and swept her palms up under the cotton to find unyielding muscle and incredibly silky skin. The heat of him practically singed her hands. She craved more. Beneath layers of clothes, he found her breast, pinched the nipple. She gasped into his mouth, whimpered as he worked the cup of her bra away from sensitive flesh and squeezed.
She melted, arched her breast into his hand. I’m yours.
He growled in his throat, nipped her lower lip. Claiming her. His touch grew more insistent, slightly rough, as he tugged at her clothes. He worked his hand into her panties and slid a finger inside her.
She nearly came apart right then. But not yet, no, not yet. Everything in her strained to be closer to him, to bask in his strength. He slipped a second finger into her damp, welcoming heat, nipped and licked at her neck. She could only cling to him, her breath echoing harsh and desperate through the quiet clearing. Anything he wanted. Anything. Anywhere.
When he took his fingers away, she wanted to cry. She pressed herself hard against the tree as if it could ease the throbbing ache between her thighs. He pulled at her jeans and panties and managed to free one leg completely from her clothing. Pulling her naked leg around his waist, he fumbled at his own zipper. She reached down to help, but he snatched her hand and pinned it against the tree next to her head.
She stared up at him in the deepening twilight, so on edge she wanted to sink her teeth into him. He held her gaze, his own stark and sexual. She shivered. She wanted him inside her. Now.
He leaned in, never breaking eye contact. “Are you mine?”
Yes, she answered into his mind.
He brought his lips to within a hair of hers. “Say it out loud. Are you mine?”
“Yes.” The whisper drifted into the night, the soft word binding her to him beyond redemption.
He touched his tongue to her lips. She opened her mouth, and he took it in a deep kiss that vibrated straight to her core. He kept feeding on her mouth as he released her wrist and reached down. This time she waited, her every nerve ending quivering, as he freed himself. He braced them both and thrust into her with one long, smooth stroke.
Something connected, like a key in a lock. Her brain exploded. This was home.
He began to move, his thrusts measured and sure as she slowly stretched to accommodate his length. As her body adjusted, she clung to him, lost in his carnal kiss, tightening her leg around his waist as if she could pull him deeper. He grunted and hooked a hand under her knee, holding her still as he drove into her over and again in a steady rhythm. She murmured against his lips, into his mind, lost in a sea of sensation where she begged for more, harder, faster.
He tore himself from the kiss. “You’re going to come for me,” he rasped. He grabbed her other leg and hooked it around his waist with the first, keeping her pinned against the tree with his body so they remained upright, his cock snug inside her. He stilled. Waited.
“What are you doing?” She squeezed her inner muscles around him. “Please don’t leave me like this. Please…”
He kissed her softly and reached down to where their bodies joined. “I’ll take care of you, princess, don’t you worry. Now come for me.”
He knew just where to touch her, when to be gentle and when not to be. With a few skillful strokes of his fingers, he had her panting and squeezing around him, begging him to never stop as the pressure built. When he pressed here and rubbed there, he shoved her over the edge. She shattered, her scream of release muted by his hand over her mouth as the world spun away.
She came back to herself gradually. It felt like hours but must have only been a minute or two because he was still inside her, moving with small, gentle strokes, and he was brushing her neck with butterfly-light kisses. Her body had already started to warm again, little sparks zinging through her system from the friction of him inside her. She let out a sigh and locked her fingers around his neck.
“Welcome back,” he said. “Now hold on.” Cupping his hands around her butt, he held her still and picked up a new rhythm, working himself inside her this way and that, slowing down and speeding up with exquisite muscular control. She kissed his neck, his mouth, anywhere she could reach, her body singing. She could feel his intense concentration, and being the center of that focus made her head spin to the very depths of her feminine core. Then his fingers tightened around her flesh, and he thrust hard, deep, deliberately, over and again, sending her soaring to a place where she’d never been. His muscles
tensed beneath her hands. He stiffened, and she jerked his head down to bury his guttural cry of release into the flesh of her neck.
They stayed there for long moments, the only sounds the chirp of insects and their own labored breathing.
He was the only thing keeping her upright. She stroked a hand over his hair, marveling at its unexpected softness for such a tough guy. He lifted his head and frowned, touching her neck where his face had been. “I marked you. I didn’t mean to.”
“That’s okay.” She didn’t want to think about the implications right now. Or anything else except the very female contentment humming throughout her body. “How can you even see anything? It got dark while we weren’t looking.”
“Good night vision.”
“Of course. I forgot who I was talking to.” She couldn’t help trailing her fingers along those broad, muscular shoulders, thought of his still-healing wound. “Are you okay?”
“Are you?” He shifted, pulling out of her and letting her legs slide down until her feet touched the ground. “This tree is rough. It can’t have been comfortable.”
“My sweatshirt took most of it.” She took advantage of both the tree and him to stay upright because, truth to tell, she didn’t trust her legs to support her. Her entire body felt like it was made of pudding.
“Did I hurt you?”
The polite, concerned words seemed innocuous enough, but she sensed something beneath them, like a wild animal caged or chained. If he had hurt her, he’d never forgive himself, she realized. “I’m not hurt.” She chuckled. “Tomorrow I may be feeling a bit sore, though. And suddenly it’s chilly out here.”
“Let’s get you dressed.” He zipped himself up and bent down to snag her jeans where they pooled around one leg.
“Efficient of you,” she commented. “Pull only one leg free and leave the other still in the pant leg. Clearly you’ve done this before.”
He sorted panties from jeans. “Here, put your leg in.”
She balanced herself with a hand on his shoulder and slid her leg into the garments he held open for her. He helped slide the panties and jeans back up her leg. Their fingers touched when they both reached for the snap.
“I’ve got it,” she said. He dropped his hand, and she looked down to snap and zip.
“Stay with me tonight.”
She jerked her head up and tried to make out his expression in the darkness. Not that it mattered. She already knew her answer. “All right.”
“We have to get back to the house. You ready?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go.” He took her hand and led her out from under the tree.
She stopped after a few steps. “I just remembered. The cameras. Security. Do you think anyone—”
“This is a blind spot,” Adrian said. “It’s why I came here. No one saw us.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. Do you suppose we can get back to the house without anyone seeing us? Not that I’m embarrassed or anything,” she rushed to add. “We’re adults, and it’s not that I don’t want to be seen with you. But my brothers—”
He laid a finger over her lips, silencing her. “I understand.”
She brushed his hand away from her mouth. “I just don’t feel like answering questions. Does that make sense?”
“Perfectly.”
“So you can get us back to the house without anyone seeing us?”
He grinned, wicked white teeth flashing through the darkness. “It’s my specialty.” Taking her hand again, he led her into the night.
* * *
They got back to his room without incident, but only when he closed the door behind them did he relax his guard. He clicked on the bedside lamp and turned to look at Tessa. Her hair was mussed, her skin glowed, but there was a hesitation in her eyes that made him want to curse.
“Maybe I should go.” Her quiet words shook him. Great. This night was getting better and better. First he’d screwed her up against a tree like some Neanderthal, and now he was staring at her like some teenager with his first woman. No wonder she was having second thoughts.
Get it together, Gray, he thought.
“I’d like you to stay.” He came to her and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Please.”
He watched the indecision chase across her features. “I’d like to take a shower first.”
“Why don’t we shower together?” He offered his hand.
She looked down at his hand and slowly shook her head. “My room is right next door. I shouldn’t be long.” She turned and reached for the doorknob.
“Wait.” He closed his fingers around hers before she could turn the knob. “Let me.”
He opened the door and glanced into the hall, then listened. “You’re clear.” He stepped aside, resisting the instinct to drag her to the bed just behind them.
“Thanks.” She slipped past him and darted into the hallway.
He heard the sound of the door to the next room opening and quietly clicking shut. He closed his own door and just stood there for a moment before heading for the shower. He flicked on the spray, stripped off his clothes, and stepped beneath the water.
He’d messed up. Worse, he’d lost control.
He squirted shampoo into his hand and lathered his hair. If he was honest with himself, his discipline had been frayed even before Tessa had ever come after him. The article about Ben, the reminder of what a good man he’d been, had brought the guilt slamming down on him. He still didn’t forgive himself for Ben’s death. If he’d been a little quicker, a little smarter, and, maybe, a little less cocky, perhaps Ben would still be alive.
When Tessa had found him under that tree, he’d been a powder keg about to blow, and her innocent touch had lit the fuse.
He didn’t regret the sex. Hell, he’d wanted her from the moment he saw her, spitting and hissing like a cat, the very first time he’d come to this house. But if he’d had more control, he would have done it right. A woman like Tessa didn’t deserve a quick fuck out in the woods. She deserved clean sheets and sensual foreplay and slow, mind-melting orgasms that lasted all night. That’s what he’d wanted to give her. What he’d fantasized about.
He shoved his head beneath the spray and rinsed out the shampoo, then reached for the body wash. He’d wanted women before and been able to resist. He’d applied the same discipline to Tessa. Then Maria Montana had indicated that he and Tessa were destined mates. That changed everything. Knowing he could have her, that she was meant for him, made it even harder to focus on the mission. But if the mission failed, Tessa could die just by virtue of being a Seer, and that was all that had kept him on the hands-off path ever since.
Then Belize had happened.
He scrubbed his face and body and rinsed off. He should have stopped Azotay in his tracks that day on the beach, when Azotay had challenged him. He could have obliterated him, had intended to. Then Azotay had revealed that he was Adrian’s brother.
He turned off the shower and reached for a towel. Azotay had used that knowledge to throw Adrian off his game just enough that he’d won the battle. Leaving Adrian unconscious on that beach, Azotay had doubled back and stolen the stone the Montanas had just liberated from an underwater tomb.
If Adrian had maintained his control and not let emotion trip him up, he could have stopped Azotay the first time. Instead, Azotay’s victory left the score Mendukati 2, Seers 1. And they’d be coming, soon, to get the last stone and change the Seer score to zero. And to murder the Seers. He needed to do anything he could to make sure that didn’t happen.
Adrian dried himself off and then used the towel to wipe away some of the fog on the mirror. He ran his hand over his jaw. He should shave. Just in case.
He reached for his razor, then paused, meeting his own gaze in the mirror. Who was he kidding? She wasn’t coming back tonight. Not after the clumsy way he’d managed things. Why would a classy woman like her come back for more manhandling? Still, he wouldn’t win her back looking like a vagr
ant.
He picked up the razor.
* * *
That had been the most intense, mind-blowing sex of her life.
Tessa stood in the shower and let the spray pound her sore back muscles. Why was she even surprised? Adrian was a walking ad for incredible sex: handsome, strong, and in control. He gave the impression he could handle any problem you had, and what woman didn’t love that in a man?
He hadn’t been her first. She’d had the occasional brief relationship throughout college and then the disastrous relationship with that traitor, Luke. But nothing—no one—could compare with Adrian Gray.
When they’d gotten back to his room, she’d looked inward at the mating bond. The trickling creek had turned into a raging river, and Adrian’s energy had stabilized, leaning more gold than red. She’d hoped, because they were mated, the link would give her some insight into his thoughts. Faith and Cara always seemed to have a handle on her brothers, and heck, Cara wasn’t even Atlantean. Tessa had expected that, as a True Seer, she’d be given insight into her mate’s thoughts through their bond, much as she was privy to the thoughts of humans. But no. While she did have an idea about his emotional state, she didn’t get any of his thoughts. So that was still a problem.
She’d needed time to think, so she’d made the excuse about taking a shower. But here she was, nearly clean, and nothing seemed any clearer than it had before.
He’d asked her to stay. She’d said she would, but now she was having second thoughts. Was she being a coward, simply because things hadn’t gone the way she’d expected? But how could she open herself up to a man emotionally if she couldn’t trust him not to betray her? Thus far, Adrian had seemed a stand-up guy, but just today he’d revealed a prior allegiance, this Warrior temple. And he’d been wounded in Belize and not told anyone. Then he’d brought Larina with him, a woman who clearly knew him very well (and she chose not to dwell on exactly how well). What else might he be hiding? Did he have an ulterior motive for siding with her family in this war?
The whole thing made her head hurt.
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