Page 17 of A Wilderness Within

“And youliterallystabbing me in the back.” He almost chuckled, but he didn’t want her to think he thought it was funny. He did not want Caroline thinking it was okay to run around stabbing him with whatever was at hand because she thought he was tough enough to handle it.

“Please, Lincoln. Help me find my family, and I’ll…” She paused, and he hung on that word, wondering just what she would offer him. She ducked her head, face flushing red, and he couldn’t resist tilting her head up with his hand under her chin.

“I…I’ll give you what you want.”

“And what is that?” he asked, his gaze fixed on her lips. She looked so sexy and sweet, with plush, soft, pink lips, dark lashes fanning down as she tried to hide those lovely eyes from him.

“Me—you said you wanted me.” She was now staring at his mouth, and a bolt of arousal shot straight south to his groin, and he nearly moaned. She knew just how to test his control.

“You would give yourself to me?” he asked, his voice low and rough even though he knew he wouldn’t let her do it. He wasn’t a barbarian, no matter how good it would feel to strip her bare and pin her down on the bed and take her until they both were too exhausted to move. But it didn’t stop him from seeing how far she’d try to go before he stopped her from offering herself to him.

“Y-yes.”

He stroked the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. “Prove it. Kiss me like you want me,” he said in a gruff whisper. One kiss was all he would take from her. Just one, one that would likely haunt him with its fiery sweetness until he died. He wanted her more than his next breath, but he wasn’t going to take her when she wasn’t truly willing.

Caroline’s eyes flashed with a fury that made Lincoln want to laugh in delight. She was a fighter, and that was good. Only fighters would survive in this brave new world.

She reached up and gripped the collar of his sweater and jerked him down to her. Their lips met in an explosion of fire.

Fucking Christ.

6

@CDC: We urge you not to panic. Hydra-1 outbreaks have been reported only in India and China. Until we learn more about its ability to infect humans, there is no need to fear. The White House is working closely with foreign governments to install measures to control the spread of the virus. There will be checkpoints on roads and warnings issued to travelers in affected areas. Aid workers will be present to help diagnose people who believe they may be infected with Hydra-1. If you show any of the symptoms listed on our and are currently in India or China near the affected areas, please visit the camps set up by the WHO and the CDC.

—Centers for Disease Control Twitter Feed

November 26, 2019

Damn, he tastes good.

Caroline wanted to hate Lincoln, but she couldn’t. The second she grabbed him and pulled his head down to hers, she was lost. He’d been right about the chemistry—it had been there from the moment she’d gotten her first real look at him the morning after he’d taken her from the grocery store. He was the kind of guy she had fantasized about her entire life, and now it seemed the universe had dropped him right in her path to make of it what she would. She wanted to kiss him, felt insane for suggesting it, but she did truly want to taste him, to feel something, anything, after so much cold and darkness.

The haze of his kiss, the way their mouths moved together, the way his beard tickled her skin… made her feel alive in a way she’d never been, even before the world had crumbled to dust around her. His large hands gripped her by the waist, lifted her up and carried her to the wall, pressing her against it, making her feel wonderfully small trapped in his arms. These last few months she’d felt so dead inside, and now all she felt was him…and her own body coming alive beneath his kiss and his touch.

She was on fire. Her skin burned with desire, and she wrapped her legs around his narrow hips and clung to his shoulders, feeling his muscles move beneath his sweater like shifting tectonic plates. He was hard everywhere, except for his mouth. He knew how to kiss, conquering her lips in a sensual, playful way. She couldn’t catch her breath, and she didn’t want to.

The world spun wildly around her as she parted her lips to his exploring tongue. He thrust inside her, playful and dominating, showing her an all too tempting glimpse of what it would be like for him to take her. She arched her back as a lusty warmth stole through her, muddying her thoughts. But she didn’t care, not while he was kissing her like this.

How long had it been since she had been kissed? Forever, it seemed. She had broken up with Jackson, her boyfriend, a month before Hydra-1 struck. Months…months since she had felt any intimacy with another person. But Jackson had never kissed her like this. She and Lincoln were strangers, two animals desperate to survive. Now she understood what he had meant, damn him. Shedidwant him because her instincts told her she needed him, needed him to survive. She was drawn to him because he was a survivor. The thought horrified and fascinated her. What if this dark, intense man was one of the last men on earth? What did that mean?

He threaded a hand through her hair at the nape of her neck, tugging lightly so she tilted her head back. He trailed kisses on the exposed column of her throat until she whimpered beneath him. She could feel the hard press of his arousal against her, and he rocked into her, faintly, as though restraining his desire to fuck her right there against the wall. The image made her burn even hotter, but she struggled for control.

“Lincoln…” She gasped his name, and suddenly he was moving, setting her back down on shaky legs.

She touched her bruised lips and panted hard as he turned away from her, drawing in a slow breath. She couldn’t deny the warring emotions within her. Relief that he’d let her go, that she had a minute to think over what she’d just foolishly promised, and how disappointed she was that he’d stopped. Caroline couldn’t tie herself to a man. Not now, not like this. She needed to focus on her family, not her hormones.

His jaw clenched as he gazed out the tall windows, his hands on his hips in a pose of restraint and power.

“I’ll help you find your family, but you’re not a commodity to offer in trade. I told you, you’ll want me in time, of your own free will. Just basic biology. Till then…” He walked toward the door to the basement and left her alone, confused and trembling with interrupted desire.

When the afterglow of that kiss finally receded, she was able to focus on his promise to help her. They were going home.

Mom, Dad, her sister, her niece, and her sister’s husband. Joy surged through her, chasing away the lingering shadows that the previous night had left behind. They wouldn’t stay here, where men burned things just to feel better. They would move south, they would find her family, and she would feel safe again, wouldn’t she? She had to. She wasn’t going to think about anything else except the plan. Find her family, and then she’d figure out the next step from there.

The muffled flutter of wings and an excited clucking from the basement told her Lincoln was checking on the chickens. She walked over to the open basement door, peering down into the darkened stairwell and listening to him speak to the birds. He was sweet-talking them, telling them what lovely ladies they were to lay such big eggs for him. Caroline’s lips twitched in a smile. She hadn’t expected that from him. Lincoln was a fascinating blend of intensity and serenity. She had never met anyone like him before. She likely never would again, come to think of it.

She gazed out through the wide windows in the nook, studying the winding streets in the distance and the hundreds of homes. What had this place been like before the virus? Had people sat out on their decks, grilling steaks and sipping beers while they talked about the future of the University of Nebraska’s Husker football team? What would become of this neighborhood now?

---