Authors: Lora Leigh
“The arousal.” He walked to her slowly, stopping at the edge of the couch, his eyes darkening. “We’d both sleep better if you stopped fighting it.”
The amusement and knowledge in his voice and expression had her eyes narrowing in anger.
“Ah. I see.” She folded her arms across her breasts. “So, everything would work out if I would just go ahead and let you fuck me. Right?”
He stilled then. Finally, after a long moment, he just shook his head as his expression flashed with regret.
He sighed wearily. “Forget it. I don’t want to fight with you, Charity. This situation isn’t sitting any easier with me. But facts are facts. You’re in pain and I’m your best bet, baby, to escape it.”
She’d rather die horny. The self-satisfied, egotistical bastard. What made it worse, was the knowledge that he was right.
“It gets easier.” She shrugged. At least, it always had before. “How long was I unconscious anyway?” She frowned, wondering how much longer she had to wait.
She didn’t like the grin that tilted his lips.
“Two days.”
She thought quickly. “It should be over in a few more. I’ll be fine.”
He nodded. “Possibly. But what you’re unaware of, sweet thing, was that I had to supply the blood transfusion you needed. That little anomaly in your blood system jumped by more than a hundred percent, according to the doctor. You’re screwed, honey.” Triumph glittered in his eyes, echoed in his voice.
Charity felt her heart jump in her breast. Her eyes widened in shock and fear. “No,” she whispered, the implications of the information slapping her in the face. “No. You’re lying.”
“About what?” He frowned down at her. “I haven’t lied to you about any part of it, Charity.”
“The blood.” She swallowed tightly. “Tell me, Aiden, you didn’t give me blood.”
His white teeth flashed as he smiled slowly. “Yeah, I did. Doc said it was the most amazing thing she ever saw. Your blood cells and those little Breed things I have in my blood were friggin’ like crazy under that microscope. I think mine topped yours, honey. Doc is getting all kinds of ideas on how to help Faith and Hope now.”
Weakness flooded her system. She pressed one hand to her abdomen, above the wound the scientists had made into her womb. She had no doubt in her mind the added component in his blood had dominated her blood cells. It made sense. The small amount contained in his semen had started the process; the addition of his unique blood was more than likely her downfall now.
She shook her head, fighting the tears threatening to flood her eyes.
“I need to talk to the doctor.”
Aiden snorted. “You need to be fucked, sleep, then more sleep and food first. No way I’m letting you around that damned quack until you’re stronger. The two of you are too damned much alike. You’ll be strapped in an exam table first thing and the rest will be history. No.”
“I have to see what you’ve done,” she bit out, moving carefully to her feet, facing him, furious at him and the unknown doctor who had dared to transfuse her without tests first. “And why the hell did they give me your blood? Surely you had a supply of regular blood.”
“We did.” He nodded, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Plenty of it. But none of it compatible to yours. We even had the right type, but tests showed a rejection of it from the anomaly in your blood. Only I matched, baby. Lucky you, huh?”
Sarcasm was thick, heavy in his voice.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” She shook her head, almost dazed by the knowledge. “My body would have accepted my blood type. It may have protested mildly, but it would have accepted. You don’t know what you’ve done.”
“Oh, but I do,” he informed her softly. “The transfusion merely cemented what we both know is true…”
She shook her head violently, limping away from him as her fingers clenched, fury washing over her.
“The drugs started this…”
“Nope.” His voice was mild, if you discounted the dark savage throb beneath it. “When you went to your knees and swallowed my seed is what started it, Charity. You know it, and I know it. You were my weakness because nature decided that was the way it was. Not the drugs, not the blood.”
She was trembling. Almost absently Charity was amazed at the tremors washing over her body. She stumbled against the fireplace, her breath hitching when he caught her, jerking her against his harder, hotter body.
“Feel it, Charity,” he whispered in her ear. “It was there when I felt your mouth on my cock. It was there when I shot my come down your throat. It was there when you needed blood and I provided. You refused to let me escape, baby, now you can share the life I’ve built instead. Now doesn’t that sound like fun?”
He was furious. Charity heard his anger, dark, deep, pulsing in his voice. He swung her up in his arms, ignoring her protesting cry as he stalked to the bedroom. His muscles were tight, tense and she could feel the need for violence that wrapped around him like an invisible flame.
But he was gentle as he laid her on the bed then sat beside her, staring down at her.
“I needed to save you,” she whispered bleakly. “I had to.”
“Because nature commanded,” he bit out. “Whether you like it or not, Charity. Whether I wanted to accept it or not, you are my mate. Your blood proves it, but even more, this does…”
Before she could stop him his hand pushed beneath the loose pants and curved around her sensitive pussy, then his two long fingers plunged inside her soaked cunt as his palm pressed against the swollen clit.
“Aiden,” she screamed out his name as her vagina convulsed, spilling more of her silky juices around his hard fingers.
“God, you’re hot,” he growled, his expression instantly filling with a hard, savage lust.
Her thighs clamped on his hand, her hands wrapping around his broad forearm, though she had little strength, little desire to pull him free. In fact, her body was so helpless, so desperately aroused she could do nothing but arch into the hand, silently begging for a deeper penetration.
He gave it to her. Slowly, his fingers stretched her, his gaze locking with hers as the rest of her vision seemed to darken.
“Aiden,” she panted, terrified of her response to him, fighting herself and the needs washing over her.
“I bet you taste as good as you feel,” he whispered. “And you feel damned good, baby. Too damned good. And you’re too fucking weak for what I need right now.”
He slid back slowly, ignoring her whimper, the arch of her hips.
“Aiden.” She licked her lips, fighting the plea her body was screaming out to her.
He was breathing hard. Almost as hard as she was as he watched her closely, his eyes darkening with whatever thoughts were running through his mind.
“Rest,” he growled. “Fucking rest, Charity, before I take you and hurt you worse than you already are.”
Chapter Nine
Aiden slammed out of the cabin, the need for sleep so overwhelmed by the need to fuck that he had to get away from her. He snorted, if only the need to fuck was what drove him, he thought as he plopped down on the steps and laced his boots on his feet.
He pushed his fingers restlessly through his hair as he tried to make sense of the impulses flowing through his brain. Damn, she was going to make him crazy. Just as crazy as he had been in the Labs after her arrival. Her scent had nearly taken him to his knees the first time she had walked into the room. The subtle, irresistible draw of her body had been almost more than he could bear.
He stared at the ground, sighing roughly. After the night spent roaming the mountains around the compound trying to track whoever or whatever had been outside the wall, he was exhausted. And it wasn’t helping that his temper seemed so blasted iffy either. He was completely unsettled and he didn’t care much for the feeling.
The woman was bewitching him. What the hell was wrong with him? She looked at him with those big hurt eyes, so filled with arousal and a deceptive warmth, and something inside him wanted to melt. It was inconvenient was what it was.
He lifted his head and stared off into the distance, wondering at the changes that were occurring too quickly around him. The changes within himself. He couldn’t seem to make sense of it, and he’d be damned if he would go to Jacob and ask him anything about it. The other man watched him with such amusement now that it made his hackles rise instantly. But overriding it all was his need for Charity. The complete, compelling, unquenched need to fuck her as hard and as fast as he could drive his cock into her.
He gritted his teeth, standing almost painfully to his feet. That fickle flesh throbbed beneath the fly of his jeans with a demand that was damned near impossible to deny. As he started to stalk from the porch steps, the door to the cabin was flung open.
He turned, facing Charity warily as she stood there dressed in nothing but one of his T-shirts. And her nipples were hard. And he could smell her heat. And by God, she was his mate. He had waited six fucking years to touch her, to slake the need that never seemed to leave his body, and he was tired of waiting.
She opened her mouth to speak, then her eyes widened slowly as his narrowed. He stepped back to the rough plank porch, advancing on her as she watched him carefully. Her lips opened as she drew in a rough breath. Her breasts rose and fell quickly against the material of her borrowed shirt and the smell of her heat wrapped around him, tightening his cock, tensing his body with the unadulterated need to fuck.
“Go inside,” he growled. “Leave the door closed. Don’t step outside. Don’t push me, don’t berate me, Charity. I am one inch from pushing you against the damned wall and fucking you until we both collapse in exhaustion. I don’t think you want that right now.”
Her face flushed, her eyes darkening with arousal and fear. More arousal, though, than fear. Damn, she was killing him. A second ticked by, then another as her eyes slowly narrowed on him and anger replaced the fear.
“Aiden,” she drawled mockingly as she leaned against the doorframe. “Is it a burden being such a prick or does it just come easy for you?”
He breathed in carefully, forcibly restraining himself to keep from touching her. From jerking her into his arms and pushing himself inside her tight, hot pussy he knew was waiting for him.
“Actually,” he snarled. “It comes real fucking easy.”
She sighed regretfully as she shook her head slowly. “I was afraid of that. Oh well…”
He moved in on her before she could finish, backing her into the house, then against the wall of the foyer. She stared up at him in surprise, fighting the arousal that sang through her blood as his dominance reflected in the savage features of his face. The Native American cast to his features had always enthralled her, now more so than ever.
“Charity,” his voice was a hard, rumbling growl. “You can only push me so far. You can only deny me so long. Combine the two, and your time will shorten immeasurably. Do you understand me?”
She looked up at him through her lashes, her lips quirking teasingly, mockingly. “Beg me, baby, and we’ll see.” She threw his words back at him.
His fists clenched. If he touched her, he knew he would never release her. It wouldn’t matter if she cried. It wouldn’t matter if he hurt her. Some instinctive, primal need howled out its demand, making his body tremble as he fought to deny it. Just a while longer. Just until she was healed. Just until he knew he wouldn’t physically hurt her.
“You are playing a very dangerous game,” he breathed in roughly as he jerked back from her. “Be careful, Charity, that it doesn’t backfire on you.”
He stomped to the door once again.
“Will you be back for dinner, darlin’?” she asked him mockingly, stopping him in his tracks. His chest seemed clenched, something inside him screaming out for a tender voice, gentle words. He was a fool and he knew it.
He looked back at her, smiling slowly, confidently, his eyes going first to her hard-tipped breasts then to her seductive gaze. He watched her smile dim as her gaze dropped to the near lethal canines.
“I guess, mate,” he growled. “It’s all according to what you can come up with for dessert.”
He gave her no time to respond but stalked as far and as fast from her as he could. He could feel the perspiration breaking out on his body as he fought for control. Fought the wild need to fuck, to mate, to have her beneath him screaming in climax as he thrust repeatedly inside her. It was a fight he was rapidly losing.
Chapter Ten
The next afternoon, Charity hobbled through the connecting living room to the kitchen in search of food. She had slept away most of the day before, and long into the night, only awakening as Aiden checked on her after he returned. The arousal pulsing through her body was ever present, tormenting her dreams as deeply as it did her waking hours.
She was his mate. She knew that herself from the tests she had taken months after the episode in the Labs. Her body had begun changing then. The uncomfortable, ever present arousal. The surges of heat and irritation that seemed to linger just under her skin. Later, blood and saliva tests showed the presence of an unknown hormone that varied in strength according to the state of arousal she was in. She had hoped it would go away. Had hoped it would slowly diminish.
She hadn’t counted on the scientists learning her secret, or finding a way to advance the changes her body was trying to make. She hadn’t anticipated a damned blood transfusion, something even the scientists hadn’t been able to use. The hormonal virus running through his blood was too potent for her body to fight.
But her heart and her mind disagreed. Nature was precise; it didn’t make mistakes, not with something so basic as a mating instinct. Nature didn’t deal with the heart, or anything as fickle as emotions. It dealt with biology, chemical reactions. A chemical reaction wasn’t enough for her. Her heart, her soul, demanded more.
Charity eased her way to the stove and the pot sitting on the back burner as she made her way to the kitchen. Lifting the lid, she inhaled the scent of vegetables and beef, and a rich broth that made her mouth water.