Beyond the Gates of Evermoore

4

DAMIEN

She talked in her sleep. Nothing loud really, just a few murmurs and whispers. But it was damned cute. Almost as cute as she was.

And the girl spooning naked beside me was beyond cute.

Serena… I even liked the name. Serena from New York. She hadn’t said that part yet, but it was more than a little obvious. Even clear across the world, a New Yorker’s accent was as obvious as a frying pan to the face. Especially for a SoCal guy like me.

I was propped up on one elbow now, lightly tracing my way across her skin. Letting my fingertips ski down from her arm, past her ribcage and along the curve of her beautiful hips.

She’d been so hot crushed up against me. Insatiable, even. And no matter what I did to her, she gave it back just as good as she got it.

I liked that in a woman.

I saw her shiver, so I pulled the blanket up over her shoulder. It probably wasn’t the best idea, taking her home tonight. Even bringing her here at all. I couldn’t let her go back to her hotel, though. Not after they’d found her. Not after they’d sniffed her out.

I closed my eyes, slowly replaying the fight in the alley. I’d been lucky things had gone my way. Somehow she’d taken out Boone, just as I’d arrived, and Boone was tough. I only caught the tail end of what happened between them, but what I saw was… well, pretty sobering.

Christophe was still as strong as I remembered him, but three times as much of an asshole. It actually felt good getting my hands on him again. If the police hadn’t shown up I’d have dragged him deeper into the alley and found out everything he knew, even if I had to beat the teeth out of his mouth. There just wasn’t enough time.

Serena shifted, and I spooned closer against her. I’d forgotten how good it felt to sleep skin on skin. Nakedness against nakedness, the soft curve of a woman’s ass pressing up against my thighs. Pressing hotly against other parts of me too. Parts that, like me, weren’t exactly ready for sleep just yet.

For a moment I considered waking her up for round two. She seemed like a round two type of girl. Yet she was sleeping so peacefully, and whimpering adorably to boot. I stared at her for several minutes, just watching her chest rise and fall. Her face was unbelievably beautiful. All relaxed now and smooth with slumber, there wasn’t a single line crossing it.

She’d handled herself well in the alley, and also in the bar. She wasn’t uncomfortable, or reserved, or shy about what she wanted. Not in the least.

I liked that in a woman, too.

I yawned, my mind wandering back to Boone again. I still wasn’t sure what happened there, or how she’d done it. On the way out of the alley I’d slapped across the face him a few times, watching as he struggled to finally come around. He managed to limp off just barely before the police showed up, so he couldn’t have been that hurt. I was relieved for that at least. Differences aside, he was once my brethren. My brother. My blood.

My pack.

I told myself I’d go straight home. Instead, I’d done the more reckless thin

g — I’d doubled back and tried to find her. Her scent was easy to follow, all sweat and musk and some kind of jasmine-scented perfume that seemed different from most. Things might’ve ended there. They probably should’ve ended there…

I looked down and there she was, still in my bed. She wriggled into me. Sighed softly in her sleep. I wondered if she were dreaming, and if so, what her dream was about. I wanted it to be about me, of course. Smiling like the smug asshole I am, I let my ego convince me it probably was.

I closed my eyes for a moment. Was my body already starting to tingle? It didn’t seem right that it could happen so fast. Deep down though, I knew that it had. Already I could feel the connection.

This was stupid, Damien…

A good chunk of me didn’t care. It had been way too damned long — a whole year since Karessa. My jaw went tight, imagining where she was right now, what she was doing. Probably curled up with Boone. Licking his wounds.

I blinked the image away. What, was I supposed to wait forever? Fuck that. Reaching down, I pulled Serena just a little bit closer against me. I’d needed this as much as she did, and she’d needed it badly. That much I knew.

Yeah right. You don’t know anything, kid.

Broderick’s voice, ringing in my skull. The voice of reason. The last voice I really wanted to hear right now, because what I’d just done would never be viewed, at least by him, as ‘reasonable.’

It was easy to distract myself by lifting the covers and peeking at Serena’s ass again. She had a great ass. And she had those two little dimples I loved at the small of her back, too. The ones that showed up when she arched to grab the headboard. The ones I focused on to keep from coming while I drilled into her… yet which had only made me hornier.

I took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. I really wanted a second round. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe if she were still here, and Broderick hadn’t kicked my ass by then.

If I was going to sleep at all, it had to be now. Wrapping my arms around my new lover I snuggled in, trying not to notice my body going flush with a rising, prickly heat. It was a heat, I knew, that came with the tingle.

Shit.