by Lara Adrian
kiss and his tongue breached her
parted lips, all she knew was need.
She speared her fingers into
his thick, soft waves and clung to
him, lost in desire and oblivious of
their surroundings. Willing to
ignore everything so long as Jehan
was holding her like this, kissing
her as if he’d been longing for it as
much as she had.
He drew back on a snarled
curse and looked at her. His eyes
snapped with embers, his pupils
nothing but vertical slits in the
middle of all that fire. His wet lips
peeled back off his teeth and fangs
as he drew in a deep breath,
scenting her like the predatory
being he truly was.
For a moment, she thought he
was about to pick her up and carry
her off to some secluded corner of
the camp as if he owned her. She
wouldn’t have fought him. God, not
even close.
But as they stood there, Sera
felt a subtle sting start to needle her
cheeks and forehead. Her eyes
started to burn, then the next breath
she took carried the grit of fine sand
to the back of her throat.
The storm.
It was arriving even sooner
than Karsten had warned.
She didn’t have to tell Jehan.
Pulling her close, he tucked her
head against his chest and rushed
with her toward the nearest
outbuilding as the night began to fill
with a roiling swell of yellow dust.
CHAPTER 10
By the time they reached the
aluminum-roofed storage building
several yards ahead, the biting wind
had picked up with a howl. Sand
churned across the camp, blowing
as thick as a blizzard.
His body still charged with
arousal, Jehan held Seraphina
against him as he threw open the
rickety wooden door. “Inside,
quickly.”
She no sooner entered the
shelter
than
a
muffled
cry
somewhere amid the storm drew
both of them to full alert. The voice
was small, distant. Unmistakably
terrified.
“Yasmin.” Seraphina’s face
blanched with worry. “Oh, God.
The little girl who came to greet us
when we arrived. She and some
other children ran off to play a few
minutes ago.”
The cry came again, more
plaintive now. There was pain in
the child’s voice too.
Jehan cursed. “Stay here. I’ll
find her.”
Without waiting for her to
argue, he dashed back into the night
using the speed of his Breed
genetics. The little girl’s wails
were a beacon through the blinding
sea of flying sand. Jehan followed
her cries to a deep ditch on the far
side of the camp. At the bottom of
the rugged drop, her small body lay
curled in a tight ball.
“Yasmin?”
At the sound of her name, she
lifted her head. Agony and terror
flooded her tear-filled eyes. The
poor child was shaking and
sobbing, choking on the airborne
sand.
Jehan jumped down into the
ditch. Crouching low beside her, he
sheltered her with his body as the
sandstorm roiled all around them.
“Are you hurt?”
Her dark head wobbled in a
jerky nod. “My leg hurts. I was
trying to hide from my friends, but I
fell and they all ran away.”
Jehan gingerly examined her.
As soon as his palm skated over her
left shin and ankle, he felt the hot
pain of a compound fracture. The
break streaked through his senses
like a jagged bolt of lightning.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you
out of here.”
He collected Yasmin into his
arms and carried her up from the
ditch. At the crest of it, Seraphina was waiting. A heavy blanket
covered her from head to toe as a
makeshift shield from the storm.
She opened her arms as Jehan
strode toward her, enveloping him
and the child as the three of them
made their way across the camp.
“She needs a medic,” he
informed
Seraphina
as
she
murmured quiet reassurances to the
scared child. “I felt two fractures in
the lower part of the left fibula, and
a fairly bad sprain in the ankle.”
Seraphina’s brows knitted for
a second, then she acknowledged
with a nod. “The medical building
is in the center of camp. This way.”
She set their course for one of
the glowing yellow lights emanating
through the sand and darkness up
ahead.
Jehan didn’t miss the uncertain
glances he drew as he and
Seraphina brought the injured child
into the small field hospital. Their
wariness didn’t bother him. Being
Breed, he was accustomed to the
wide berth most humans tended to
give him. And it didn’t escape his
notice that one of the nurses
carrying a cooler with a large red
cross on it made an immediate
about-face retreat the instant her
eyes landed on him—as if her stash
of refrigerated red cells might
provoke him to attack.
The humans needn’t have
worried about that. His kind only
consumed fresh blood, taken from
an open vein.
And right now, the only veins
that interested him at all belonged
to the beautiful woman standing
next to him. Even dressed in his
worn shirt and oversized pants,
Seraphina stirred everything male
in him the same way she stirred the
vampire side of his nature.
Just because their kiss had
been interrupted by the storm and a
distressed child, that didn’t mean
he’d forgotten any of that fire
Seraphina had ignited in him. Now
that the little girl was safe and in
the care of a doctor, Jehan’s
attention—all of his focus—was
centered on how quickly he could
get back to where he and Seraphina
had left off.
But he stood by patiently as
she
made
introductions
and
explained to her fellow volunteers
that Jehan was her friend, that he
was the one who went out into the
storm to locate Yasmin. Seraphina’s
vouching for him seemed enough to
put the humans at ease, since it was
clear that everyone at the camp
trusted and adored her.
He was beginning to feel
&
nbsp; likewise.
More than beginning to feel
that way, in fact.
After the medic and nurses
went back to their work, Seraphina
turned to look up at him.
“When you brought Yasmin out
of the storm, you said her leg was
broken.” He nodded, but that didn’t
seem
to
satisfy
Seraphina’s
curiosity. “Actually, you said her
fibula had two fractures and that her
ankle was badly sprained. You
were right, Jehan. According to the
field medic just a few minutes ago,
you were one hundred percent
accurate. You told me you felt her
injuries. You can feel physical
injuries?”
He
shrugged,
barely
acknowledging the ability he so
seldom used.
“Can you heal them too?”
“No. And now you know my
curse,” he murmured wryly. “I can
inventory someone’s wounds, but I
can’t help them.”
She tilted her head at him,
warmth sparkling in her eyes. “You
helped Yasmin tonight.”
Jehan stared at her, unsure how
to respond. Seraphina couldn’t
know how his so-called gift had
hobbled him in his life. He’d grown
up feeling useless, aimless. It
wasn’t until he’d found the Order
that he realized there were other
ways to do something meaningful
with his life. That his life had
purpose.
She was still studying him,
looking gorgeous and far too
interested in him as she held his
gaze. “The storm’s really blowing
out there. Do you want to wait it out
in here or would you rather go to
my place?”
He arched a brow. “Your
place?”
“My tent.” She smiled, and the
warmth of it went straight to his
groin. “It’s where I stay when I’m
here at the camp for any length of
time. It’s not all that comfortable,
but it is private.”
Jehan’s grin broke slowly
across his face. “Miss Sanhaja, are
you trying to seduce me?”
She licked her lips, tilting her
head as she held his hungry gaze. “I
think I might be.”
Holy hell. The promise in her
voice had his blood racing so hard
and fast to his cock, he wasn’t sure
he’d make it to her tent.
“Lead the way,” he drawled
thickly, his fangs already punching
out of his gums.
He held the blanket aloft over
them as they dashed out of the
medical building and raced through
the blizzard of sand. Seraphina’s
tent stood toward the far end of the
camp. By the time they reached it
and found their way past the zipper
and ties that secured the shelter’s
entrance, they were coated in a thin
layer of grit. They stumbled inside
together hand-in-hand, Seraphina
laughing and breathless in the dark.
She left him for a moment,
bending to turn on a lantern.
The soft light put a glow on
her pinkened cheeks and on the
flush of color rising up the smooth
column of her throat, making the
fine sand that dusted her skin glitter
like
diamonds.
Under
the
windblown tangle of her long
brown curls, her sandalwood-
colored eyes were fathomless and
filled with desire. Her breath was
still racing and shallow, the outline
of her breasts teasing him from
under the crisp white linen of his
shirt.
He’d never seen anything so
lovely.
With the storm howling all
around them, sand buffeting the tent
like rain, Jehan stood speechless,
the sight of her like this branding
itself into his memory forever.
He couldn’t resist reaching out
to stroke the velvet of her cheek.
And then that wasn’t enough either,
so he cupped her face in his hands
and dragged her into a fierce kiss.
The instant their mouths met, it
was as if no time had passed
between their fevered kiss before
the sandstorm and this electric
moment now. Hell, it was as if they
were merely picking up where they
left off that first night at the villa.
All of the hunger he felt for this
female, all of the desire...it was
right there below the surface,
waiting for the chance to reignite.
And he knew that Seraphina
felt it too.
On a moan, she melted against
him, her lips parting to give his
tongue the access it demanded. Heat
licked through his veins at the taste
of her passion, scorching everything
in its path. In an instant, his fangs
punched through his gums to fill his
mouth. Need hammered in his
temples, in his chest. In the aching
length of his cock.
He groaned with the intensity
of it.
He had to pace himself.
Wanted to take this slowly with her,
despite his own impatience to have
her spread out beneath him as he
buried himself inside her.
But Seraphina was merciless.
Her wet mouth and gusting breath
tore at his resolve. Her soft curves
and strong, questing fingers on his
shoulders and chest, in his hair,
stripped
away
his
already
threadbare control.
Sliding his hands under the
loose hem of the tunic, he greedily
caressed the firm swell of her satin-
covered breasts. Seraphina gasped,
arching into him as he flicked open
the front clasp of her bra and
cupped her bare flesh in his palms.
Her nipples were tight little buds
that pebbled even harder as he
rolled and tweaked them between
his fingers, hungry to taste them.
He released her, but only so he
could take the shirt off and feast on
her with his eyes.
He drew the linen over her
head and let it fall to the floor of the
tent. The red sash holding up her
pants came off next. He untied it
and watched as the slackened
waistband of the linen trousers slid
off her hips to pool at her feet.
“So beautiful,” he murmured,
reaching out to run the backs of his
knuckles down her arm, then across
the flat plane of her belly. He
ventured further, toying with the
lacy edge of her delicate panties.
“This is what I wanted to do that
first night with you, Seraphina.
Undress y
ou inch by inch. Pretend I
had the right to look at you like this
and think I could ever be worthy of
having you.”
She slowly shook her head. “I
don’t want you to pretend, Jehan.
Tonight, I don’t want you to stop. I
didn’t want you to stop that first
night either.”
A
sound
escaped
him,
something raw and otherworldly.
He slid his fingers into the scrap of
fabric between her legs, and...holy
fuck.
She was almost bare beneath
the lace. And wet. So damn wet.
Hot, liquid silk bathed his fingertips
as he delved into her slick cleft.
She bit her lip, dropping her
head back on a sigh. Holding on to
him as he stroked her silky folds,
she squirmed and shuddered against
his touch. “Jehan, don’t make me
wait. Please, don’t make me want
like this again.”
“No chance of that,” he
uttered, his voice like gravel in his
throat, raw with desire. “Not
tonight.”
Not
ever
again,
some
possessive part of him growled in
agreement.
He didn’t know where it came
from—the bone-deep sense that he
belonged with this woman.
That she was his.
And that as ridiculous as the
ancient pact between their families
was, it had somehow delivered him
to the one woman he craved more
than any other before.
Jehan drew her mouth to his
and kissed her again, as reverent as
it was claiming. He broke contact
only so he could strip out of his
shirt and jeans, leaving both at his
feet. He wore nothing underneath,
and as soon as his cock sprang free,
Seraphina’s hands found him.
She stroked and caressed him,
her fingers so sure and fevered, he
nearly came on the spot.
Need twisted tight and hot
with every slide of her hands over
his stiff shaft, pressure coiling at the
base of his spine.
Somehow, he managed to
collect himself enough to douse the
lantern with his mind. The tent
plunged into darkness. Although the
sandstorm raged outside, driving
everyone in the camp indoors, he
wasn’t going to share Seraphina or
this moment with anyone else.
Pulling her down onto the
pallet of blankets and pillows with
him, Jehan removed her panties,
then smoothed his hand along every
beautiful swell and delicately
muscled plane on her nude body.
The temptation of her sex was too
much. The sweet scent of her
arousal drenched his senses as he
