The cool air shocked me as he yanked my leggings and panties off in a single, desperate, fluid move. Over hips, thighs, feet—and gone. A big hand palmed my smooth skin, careful fingers exploring the wet folds. I quivered and moaned as he slid them into the slippery center of me.
“Strewth.” He almost panted it, his thighs like steel against me, his fingers eliciting zaps of lightning that had me gasping.
Gasping. And needing.Now.
What writhed within me drove me—I twisted, hooking a leg up and between his to throw him sideways. I spun with him, ending up with him beneath me, straddling his hips.
His entire body trembled with desire, his eyes incandescent with it. Driven by instincts I didn’t understand, I pressed my hands flat to each side of his face as I slid down onto him.
His lips peeled back from his teeth as I pushed him into my slick warmth. His hips pumped upward, his breath coming in hoarse, sharp pants. He was silk and steel within me, my body tightening around him with every thrust that drove him deeper, until at last, he was fully seated.
And then I squeezed.
He arched up beneath me with a gasp, his eyes rolling back in his head. I released, and rotated, and slid almost free, before pushing back down.
“Strewth, Angel, I can’t...” the words a hoarse whisper, his eyes glazed, the beast alive and fighting for control. But neither Matt, nor his beast, had it.
I did.
He felt so good inside me. I squeezed again, and his groan had me right at the edge in an instant.
I leaned down, captured his lips with my own, and took us both there.
He screamed against my lips, his body an upward arch of shuddering release. And in that instant, it was as though I was part of him. My awareness flooded into his, experiencing his orgasm as well as my own—the lightning that traveled through him in rhythmic, ecstatic pulses, as though bundling up all his frustrations and anger and hurling them free. The sensations energized me, carrying me higher and higher as waves of pleasure coursed through me.
And then, I trembled as images flashed through my mind.
They came at me so fast I struggled to interpret them. A man, towering over me with a belt raised. Pain and fear and anger, and then another, only a teenager but powerful already, pulling him away. A fight, vicious, with them half-beast. Blood and anguish. And then, silence.
My memories? No.Matt’s.There was more. They appeared with increasing speed. The teenager, now a grown man. Cattle. Men on quads. A cage, fighting another in human form. Driven by guilt and pain, but also a fierce joy of the fight. The impression of time passed until a clear memory of staring out across a barren landscape. The sadness, knowing he might never see it again. An airport.
And then, me.
As he’d seen me that first day, stretching my legs and letting Trix relieve herself in the ditch. Pressing up against me in the Jeep. My scent driving him wild. Running with me. His fear for me.
Hisneedof me.
I drank it all in, as though it were an elixir of purelife. It filled me with a sense of wonder, but also, it expanded within me, as though my skin could barely contain it.
I’d never felt so empowered.
And then, it all faded away.
Awareness slammed back into me. Something was very wrong. Matt had gone limp beneath me, his lips unresponsive. I pulled away. His eyes were open, but glazed over, as if he couldn’t see me.
As if he weredead.
“Matt!” I shook him, and his head rolled to the side. What was wrong with him? I spread my fingers across his chest and then felt up beneath his jaw—his heart beat, but sluggishly, as though struggling.
My own pounded with fear. But I was a healer. Whatever this was, I could fix it. I replaced my hands on each side of his face and closed my eyes.
I had no idea what I was doing. But if I went to find the Watcher, we might be too late. Even now, I sensed his heart stutter.
I ran my hands from his face to his chest. Dammit, all I’d done before was touch him, and it had worked. But now, he just seemed to grow weaker.
No.I would not let him die. I dug my fingertips into the big muscles of his chest and willed him to live. And sensed the faintest flutter from him.
Skin contact. I flattened myself over him, seized his face in my hands, and kissed him. Envisioned pushing my life energy into his.
