Page 61 of Great Falls Rogue
A weak, ineffectual elbow came his way, as if she were afraid of retaliation. Of course she was.
Coal poked Lera’s ribs. “I have a broken arm.” He growled into her ear. “Use it to your advantage. Use everything.” He poked her again and again until the girl finally, finally was fed up with him enough to twist and take a swing at his jaw.
Coal let it land for both their sakes, the impact echoing through him with welcome relief. She was fighting again. Badly, but making an effort. He could work with that. He could work with anything but surrender.
Reaching for Lera’s shoulder to put her in another bind, Coal paused when the girl grabbed his wrist instead. The feel of her small strong hand on his bare skin sent a rush of energy through him, the jolts echoing through his chest and thighs and cock. Lera’s large brown eyes, no longer glassy, flashed, her skin blanched with fear and anger.
“Are you back with me?” Coal asked.
“No. I’m back without you,” Lera answered. “Play your games with someone else, Coal. I’m done.” Throwing down the wrist she’d captured as if it were a diseased rodent, Lera held Coal’s gaze long enough to ensure he knew the message was genuine. Her words hung in the air with a finality that silenced the world. Then, shoving past him, she finally did what Coal had been after all along—she stalked for the door.
Except things had changed since he’d told her to go. Everything had changed. Coal had thought he needed to stay away to keep Lera safe, but it seemed he needed to get into her soul instead. Get in and stay in, until he pried open the jaws of the paralyzing terror that could hold her life hostage. If an enemy triggered Lera to freeze as she had with him, it would cost her her life. Coal couldn’t let that happen, no matter what it cost either of them.
Snatching Lera’s waist, Coal swung her right back to the wall. “No, you’re not done,” he told her, inhaling her scent of fury. Fury,stars be thanked,not fear. “Do it again.”
14
Lera
Ablaze of fury explodes through me, filling my muscles with uncontainable force. My vision narrows, my face so hot, I can feel the beads of steaming sweat. I’m done. Done with Coal and his games. I was insane to think I could come here and reason with him, get him to address his memories once and for all so I could get a good night’s sleep—it sounds laughable now. I’m done being in this room, with having the terror of Zake’s beating used as a plaything.
But the only way out is through him.
Bracing both my hands against the wall, I shove away from the hard surface and slam the back of my head into Coal’s chin. The impact feels as distant as the sound it makes. Twisting around, I hook Coal’s ankle with my leg and shove him backward onto the hard floor, angling the fall toward his broken arm.
Coal tucks as he takes the fall, shifting fluidly to absorb the impact on his good side and avoid the bed’s footboard. Even with that, a grunt of pain escapes as he lands. With his hair loose for once, it falls around him in a wild blond mane, his lithe muscles contracting just enough to control every fiber of his beautifully dangerous body.
The metallic scent coming off him mixes with an intoxicating tang of violence that turns his stormy eyes into clear blazing flames. My pulse spurs into a gallop as the magic inside me wakens, strikes the mortal shackles and finds them wanting.
Heart pounding, I follow Coal down to the floor and straddle his bare chest. His heat rises through my pants, up my thighs, and straight into my sex. I feel the rise and fall of his powerful body trapped between my muscled thighs, the hot velvet of his skin under my hands. Magic flares inside me, rousing more desperately to the call of battle—just as the primal predator in me does. Thoughts narrow. Simplify. The drive to hunt, to fight, to mate filling my world.
My breaths come quick and hard, Coal’s solid muscle beneath me focusing all my sensation on the here and now, our two bodies connected. Cocking my fist as far as it will go, I slam it down toward the bastard’s perfectly chiseled face.
Coal takes the blow, a small trickle of blood beading where his lip catches on his teeth. His chin rises defiantly, his heart hammering so hard that I can feel it between my thighs, just as I feel his hardness pressing against my backside.
His lips pull back in a snarl, and for a second, I’m certain I see his glistening canines despite the heating amulet. I know his arm is hurting him, and I know he doesn’t care. Our gazes meet, our chests heaving with mirrored breaths.
Yes,the magic inside me breathes, recognizing its mate.Yes. Play.
He grabs my wrist, then traps the same-side ankle and bucks his hips, rolling us over. One heartbeat, I’m straddling him, and the next, it’s me on the bottom, the uneven stone pressing into my shoulder blades.
His eyes are blue flames above me, his damp chest heaving.
I arch my hips to buck Coal off, the power inside my core too great to be mine alone. As his balance wavers, he grabs the front of my tunic and yanks me up to my feet along with him, spinning the pair of us in a circle that ends abruptly when my back slams into one of the four posts of his bed.
The scent of wood polish mixes with Coal’s metallic musk, which taunts me with every heave of his hard chest.
His hand still tangled in my tunic, Coal’s nostrils flare as he leans down, his face close enough to share breath. And then closer still until my whole body shakes with the need for him, my sex clenching around unbearable emptiness. A small moan escapes my throat.
Coal’s pupils dilate. “Lera—”
I capture his open mouth with my own, our tongues tangling viciously. Coal lets out a low rumbling growl, and I capture the sound greedily just as he plunges his tongue deep into my mouth.
The magic inside me flares, twining with the power pulsating from Coal. As I reach for the bulge inside his pants, Coal rips my tunic right down the middle. I gasp against his mouth. Continuing down, Coal yanks the waistline of my pants until they pool at my feet. The bottom of my silk nightshirt spills between us, red and damp with my arousal.
With a feral snarl, I rake my fingernails along Coal’s hot, naked shoulders.
The male kicks my legs apart in answer. Sealing his mouth over mine again, he plunges his hand ruthlessly between my slick folds. Heat races through me at once, my legs and back and soul vibrating with energy as pressure builds between my thighs. My sex throbs. I grind against his hand hungrily. Blindly. The void inside aches, howling for Coal’s cock, for the last link in the chain of power connecting us. Each heartbeat when my channel tightens around nothing drives me closer to madness until I care about nothing but my need.
