Page 20 of Wild Fire

Hearing her wrestle with trying to get the cot open was even more amusing. He supposed he should have told her that Sobek had broken the damn thing and it wouldn’t even open anymore, but where would be the fun in that?

Then came the kitchen chairs. They weren’t too bad to sit in for the length of the time it took to eat a meal, but they were hardwood with straight backs that only came up to one’s shoulder blades. Not exactly conducive to sleeping in. When the chairs proved to be unworkable—although he gave her credit for trying to get them to work—she tried the floor. It was cold, hard, and warped.

Finally, cursing under her breath, she crawled into the bed with him—on top of the covers and clinging to the very edge. It was hard not to laugh, but he knew from the tales of others that laughing at one’s eternal flame when she was being stoic and fighting her fate tended to produce violent results. Granted, Dani wasn’t a dragon, which meant she couldn’t blow fire at him, but still.

Warrick was fairly sure that laughing at her might just send her over the edge in terms of temper or worse yet, make her cry, and that he wanted to avoid at all cost. What he wanted was to take her in his arms and soothe her distress before seducing her and spending the night making love to her. God knew he was already hard as a rock, but that wasn’t likely to help her either—at least not at first. Although there was something to be said for giving her so much pleasure all she could do was scream his name and go limp in his arms from exhaustion.

He continued to listen with every fiber of his being. Eventually, her breathing deepened and she rolled away from the edge of the bed. Waiting until he was sure she was asleep, he slipped out of bed, pulling the covers on his side back to make moving her under them easily. He crept around the end of the bed and began to quietly undress her, whispering kisses across her skin when her breathing was disturbed, soothing her back to sleep before continuing to undress her. Finally, she was naked, and he eased his arms under her, lifting her out of the bed and carrying her back to the side he’d been on where he could settle her down and draw the covers up and over her.

Gazing down at her, he smiled as she slept. Just seeing her peaceful filled him with a kind of quiet joy, and the knowledge that it did would have given his brethren cause for riotous laughter. Warrick had long ago given up on the idea that he would find an eternal flame, and so he had told any who would listen that he believed it was a myth. Some of his brothers had pointed out that many believed the Phantom Fire was a myth, and yet they weren’t.

Easing off the mattress, he moved back to the other side of the bed, pulling the bedclothes back so he could slide into bed beside her. He gathered her close and spooned himself against her back, fitting her to his body. Had any woman felt as perfect against her man as Dani felt against him? He had no rational explanation for it. All he knew was that nothing felt as right as holding her close and allowing the rhythm of her breathing to fill him with peace, which was absurd because they were on the run, and if he was right the cultists had some serious firepower behind them.

Dani settled back, burrowing closer with a little sigh and making his cock that much harder. His cock wanted relief and it wanted it with the woman he held within the circle of his embrace. But his cock would have to wait—at least for a while. Closing his eyes, Warrick tried to let her warmth lull him to sleep.

It must have worked because when she thrashed in his arms, calling out and fighting to be free, he came instantly awake. Dani was still on her side, still had her back against his front, only she was punching and kicking in the throes of some nightmare.

“No. Stop,” she cried out, low and desperate.

He recognized the fear in her voice and in her actions. Something had happened to her. Something bad, and she was reliving it.

“Stay away! Stay away!” she groaned, fighting with some unknown attacker.

Warrick was caught somewhere between anger and sympathy—anger at whoever had done this to her and sympathy for whatever it was she’d had to endure.

“Dani,” he said soothingly, but in a deep, firm voice. “Dani; it’s okay.”

“No. Fuck you. No.”

He wrapped his arms around her, trapping her in his embrace and provoking a more violent response from her, but he was much bigger and much stronger. “Dani, wake up.”

“No. I’ll fucking kill you.”

“No, sweetheart, you won’t.”

She wriggled and squirmed, trying desperately to get away from him. Perhaps holding her wasn’t the best idea, but he couldn’t think of a better one that didn’t result at best in the nightmare continuing. Dani clawed at his hands and arms as her legs kicked, but he held firm. He nuzzled her neck, which seemed at first to work and then sent her into a frenzy.

Sinking his teeth into the juncture of the base of her neck and the top of her shoulder he bit down slowly and firmly, waiting for the discomfort to increase to enough pain that it would break through whatever hell she was caught in. As he increased the pressure, she ceased to struggle and then went rigid before he sensed she was returning to consciousness.

“Shit, that hurts. What do you think you’re doing?” she snarled.

He kissed the wound.

“How did I get over on this side of the bed? Wait, how did I get naked?”

“You joined me in bed and then turned towards me. I simply relieved you of your clothes and eased you under the covers. Then you had some kind of nightmare. Want to tell me about it?”

“No. Who said it was all right if you took my clothes off?”

“I suppose I could tell you I thought you would be more comfortable, but the fact is, I like having you naked in my arms.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t hurt you,” she said, trying to pull away.

Warrick held fast. “There was never any chance of that.”

“Think not?” she said warningly.

“Me dragon; you human female. Dragon wins every time—read the fairytales.”

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