“No.” His mouth flattened into a grim line. “I mean, for saving myself. For giving him the chance to get a hold of you in the first place.”
Oh, God. Is that what he thought? Is that what weighed on his conscience now?
Sera leaned forward to take his tormented, handsome face in her palms. His anguish was palpable. She could feel the dull pain of it through her empathic gift. “Jehan, when I saw that flash of light as Karsten let the grenade go, I knew it would be lethal to you. I thought I was about to watch you die. If you hadn’t protected yourself, we both would’ve been dead today. You saved me.”
He studied her for a long moment, as if he wanted to say something more. Then he turned his face into her hand and placed a kiss in its center before drawing out of her loose grasp. “Let’s get these clothes off and get you warm.”
He stood up, taking her with him. With careful hands, he undressed her, peeling off the rumpled linen tunic and her bra. Then he drew down the loose-fitting pants and her lacy panties beneath. His gaze drank her in slowly, his eyes crackling with amber sparks.
When he finally spoke, his voice was dark and gravelly, rough with desire. “Earlier tonight, when I saw you naked like this for the first time, I said you were beautiful.”
She licked her lips. “I remember.”
She would never forget anything he said in her tent a few hours ago, nor anything he’d done. Arousal spiraled through her, as much at the reminder as under the intensity of his gaze now.
“I said you were beautiful, Seraphina...but I was wrong.” He cupped her cheek in his palm, then slowly let his fingers drift down her shoulder, his thumb pausing to caress the Breedmate mark on her upper arm. “You are exquisite. The loveliest female I have ever, and will ever, lay my unworthy eyes on.”
She started to shake her head in protest of his self-deprecation, but his kiss caught her lips before she could speak.
All of her desire for him—all of her tangled emotions—rose up to engulf her. She wanted him.
Loved him so powerfully it staggered her.
Only fear held her confession back.
Fear, and need.
She pulled back, breath heaving. Wordlessly, she unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it off his strong arms. Each swirl and flourish of the dermaglyphs that tracked over his powerful chest and muscled abdomen was a temptation to her fingers and her mouth.
She touched and kissed and licked her way down his immense body, finally lowering herself to her knees before him. His lungs rasped with the ragged tempo of his breathing as she unzipped his jeans and slid them down his hard thighs.
His cock bobbed heavily in front of her, the thick shaft and blunt, glistening plum at the crown making her mouth water for a taste. He groaned as she grasped his length in her hands, his muscles tensing, breath hitching, as she stroked him from root to head and back again.
When she leaned forward and wrapped her lips around him, his spine arched and he let out a tight hiss and guttural snarl. She’d never held so much force and power in her hands before, nor in her mouth. She couldn’t get enough. And as his body’s response quickened, it only made her hungry for more. For all of him.
She glanced up as she sucked him and found his fiery eyes locked on her. His pupils were thin and wild, utterly Breed. His broad mouth was pulled into a grimace, baring his teeth and the enormous length of his fangs.
She moaned, overwhelmed by the preternatural beauty of the male staring down at her. His large palm cupped the back of her head, his long fingers speared into her hair as she took the full depth of him into her mouth at a relentless tempo.
“Seraphina,” he uttered hoarsely. “Ah, fuck...”
On a sharp groan, he withdrew from between her lips and scooped her up into his arms as if she weighed nothing at all. He carried her down into the steaming bath, fastening his mouth on hers in an urgent, fevered kiss as he sank to his shoulders in the warm water with her held aloft in his arms.
He tore his mouth away from hers, scowling fiercely. “I’m supposed to be the one taking care of you, if you recall.”
She lifted a brow in challenge. “Is that your charming side talking or your wicked one?”
Sparks flared in his hot gaze. “Which do you prefer?”
“I haven’t decided yet.” Pivoting under the surface of the water, she faced him on his lap and wrapped her legs around his waist. The thick jut of his cock rose tall between them, the crisp hair at its root tickling her sex. She looped her arms over his shoulders and drifted close for a teasing kiss. “Fortunately, we’ve got all day to figure it out.”
His hands gripped her ass and he smirked against her mouth. “All day, and another five nights after that.”
“You think it’s long enough?” she murmured, her lips still brushing his.
His answering chuckle was purely male and totally wicked. As was the meaningful shift of his hips that positioned his erection at the hot and ready entrance of her body. “Why don’t you tell me if it’s long enough?”
He lifted her onto him, and her laugh melted into a pleasured sigh as he sheathed every last inch.