Pathfinder's Way(74)

She'd never been accused of taking the easy way.

After a moment of silence between them, he said, "Come. Rest by the fire. Tomorrow is early enough to start fighting."

She smiled softly and let him pull her up. In this, he was right. The battle could begin again tomorrow.

Fallon placed her close to the fire and then sat behind her, pulling her  back into his arms. They were alone. Sometime in their conversation  Caden and Meynard had drifted out of sight.

Fallon stroked the skin of her arms gently and pressed a soft kiss  against her neck, nearly searing a brand into her flesh for all the heat  the soft touch generated. The feel of his lips lingered long after they  left her neck. He rested his chin on top of her head. His arms  tightened around her slightly, tucking her more firmly against him. The  evidence of his arousal was firm against her hip.

Shea's breath shuttered in her lungs as her eyes drifted shut. She  wanted this man. Even given the very real possibility that he'd kill her  when he realized she wouldn't give him what he wanted, she craved him.  The wilder root had helped clear the veil from her eyes on this subject  too. She'd wanted him for a long time. Before the glimpse of his naked  body at the pool by the water fall. Perhaps since the first moment she'd  caught his eyes in Edgecomb.

What she did with that knowledge was entirely up to her.

He was still behind her as he waited for her choice. She smiled  slightly. Who would have thought the conqueror would be so considerate.  Or patient.

She was tired of denying herself what she wanted.

She turned in his arms and pressed her lips against his. Like that,  whatever had been holding the warlord in check went up in flames. With a  growl, he attacked, conquering her lips with his in a feverish rush as  his tongue sought entrance. She quickly opened her mouth under his, and  he surged inside.

His hands roamed over her body, sending flames racing down her nerve  endings. He maneuvered her to her back as one hand slid over her breast  band, caressing her through the cloth. It wasn't enough. Not near  enough.

It had been so long since she'd been with a man. Years. Her one glimpse  of him months ago had inspired several vivid, sweaty dreams. Now, it was  all she could do to keep from tearing his clothes off.

He agreed and ripped the constricting fabric of her breast band away,  revealing what lay underneath. She groaned as warm lips closed over one  nipple. She keened and arched her back as he rolled it against the roof  of his mouth. A sharp nip brought a cry to her throat and sent a rush of  sensation down to her core before he soothed the injured area with  gentle kisses.

Her nails dug into his back as he palmed her through the loin cloth. She  tilted her hips to give him better access and felt her sex pulse as he  cupped her firmly while his other hand rose to tweak the other nipple.

"I have wanted to do this since I spotted you in Edgecomb," he rasped against her skin.

His hands moved between them as he dragged the scrap cloth down her  legs. Her hands busied themselves undoing the laces of his pants.

In very little time, they were both naked.

The fire was just enough to see shapes. Shea panted as she stared up at  him, his cock jutting proudly as he knelt over her. He leaned down and  claimed her lips, his passion consuming her. She whimpered as his hands  skated down her body.

His fingers parted the lips of her sex and rubbed firmly against the  sensitive bundle of nerves there. As if it had a mind of their own, her  pelvis rolled against his fingers. A long, thick digit penetrated,  before moving in and out. The pace quickened as her breath became  heavier.

Her breasts swelled, her skin heated from the inside out. If the night was chilly, she couldn't feel it.         

     



 

"Please. Hurry." Her hands wandered over his skin caressing and clutching as her need built.

She tried to pull him down on top of her. He resisted with a chuckle.

"So pretty. Come for me, pretty girl."

With a loud keen, she did exactly as he asked. He kept working her as  she came down from her orgasm, wringing every drop of pleasure from her.

Finally her breath evened out. She blinked up at him as he moved between her legs, feeling her heart start to race again.

"My turn."

He began to push inside. She couldn't help wriggling a little at the  discomfort. It had been a long time since she'd last shared her bed. But  finally, he was fully inside her. He reached and drew her legs up to  either side of him and slowly, oh so slowly, began to withdraw until  just the tip of him rested in her. With a powerful thrust, he sank his  shaft deep, only to withdraw slowly.

She moaned as he set the pace, alternating slow strokes with fast ones,  and driving her mad with desire. Unbelievably her pleasure began to  climb again, until she was meeting his thrusts with ones of her own.

"Faster." She clutched at his back to her urge him on and tilted her hips towards him.

"I set the pace, little one."

"You're killing me."

A rough chuckle was her only response.

How did he have so much stamina?

Planting one foot, she pushed up with her hips and then heaved, rolling  him onto his back. She ended up on top with him fully inside her. She  closed her eyes at the delicious feeling.

With a wicked smile she lifted herself before grinding down. That felt good.

She did it again and again, adding a slight twist to her hips. That felt really good.

He let her set the pace for a moment before rolling her onto her back and pinning her hands beside her head.

"I decide when to finish this," he growled.

She didn't think she could take much more and whimpered.

His hips thrust came faster and faster. She was almost there. Almost.

"Look at me," he ordered.

Her eyes opened to stare into his fierce ones. The moment became all the  more intimate. She felt as if he could see into her soul. She wanted to  hide but couldn't. His gaze held her spell bound.

He reached between them and rubbed her clitoris. Every nerve in her body  drew tight and then exploded as her vagina gripped his cock with  rhythmic pulses. He thrust harder and faster as she reached her finish,  his own building.

She wrapped her arms around his back and held on as he found his own  release. His eyes drilled into hers as he thrust once and then twice  more, spending himself.

"You are mine."

Shea started to turn, breaking the gaze. He caught her chin forcing her  eyes back to his. Whatever he saw there must have pleased him. He  dropped a kiss on her mouth and pulled out, then rolled over. She could  hear him rummaging through bags.

He lay back down and settled her head on his chest before spreading a  blanket over the both of them. His arms were warm around him and, as she  drifted off to sleep, his words kept repeating in her head. ‘You are  mine'.

She very much feared he was right.





Chapter Twenty One





The pillow under her cheek was firm and lumpy. Shea rubbed her cheek  against it and opened her eyes to see a smooth chest. Shea went very  still for a long moment. When Fallon's arms did nothing but tighten  slightly before relaxing again, she lifted her head to look at his  sleeping face.

It was relaxed with a softness she'd never seen on him before. When he  was awake, the force of his personality animated every feature. This  wasn't the warlord but simply a man.

When he woke, he'd go back to being a leader, and Shea's enemy.

She dropped a light kiss on his chest before gently extricating herself  from his arms, making sure to cover him again with the blanket.

She shivered in the predawn air as she quietly pulled her clothes on.  The moon had set but the sun hadn't quite risen high enough to relieve  the black.

Finished tying her shoes, she stood and, for a long moment, looked down  at Fallon. A big part of her wanted to crawl back into his arms and wait  for him to wake her once the sun had risen.

But that wasn't who she was. It was best to hurry back to camp and  pretend this never happened. It'd be difficult. Fallon didn't seem like  the kind of man who took rejection well.

She pondered that thought as she headed back to the camp. Managing others wasn't exactly her strong suit.





Caden watched the woman disappear into the darkness from his seat next to the cold campfire.

"She's more stubborn than I thought," he told the still figure on the  ground. "Not too bright, if she thinks this will be the end of it  though."         

     



 

Fallon sat up, the blanket sliding to his lap, and stared in the direction Shea had disappeared.

He'd woken as soon as she started moving but feigned sleep to see what she would do. As usual, she had surprised him.

He'd won the battle, not the war. A slight smile stole across his lips. He so enjoyed a challenge.

"Continue with the previous plan," Fallon ordered. "If she wants to be a guard, treat her like a guard."





"Your duties from now on are to attend to the warlord's needs. You're to  be by his side whenever he needs you. You'll sleep in his tent on a  pallet in case he has a task for you in the middle of the night. The  only times you're to be away from him is for an hour in the morning and  an hour in the evening when you'll attend a special course of training  or if he sends you on an errand." Trenton shoved a pile of clothes into  Shea's arms. "These are your uniforms. It is your responsibility to keep  them clean and orderly. Ask one of the guards if you have any  questions."