His nostrils flared and the last of his restraint collapsed. He gripped her hips and hammered into her.
She was warm and tight around him, the little noises she made in her throat said she was enjoying herself. But it didn’t feel right. He couldn’t see the emotions flitting across her face. Missed the connection he’d felt before.
He pulled out of her, and stopped, his breath heaving in and out.
She swiveled, her gaze tracing his face. Whatever she saw there made her features soften.
“Layne—”
“Shh.” She pressed her palms to his chest and pushed him backward. He went, lying back in their little makeshift bed.
When she climbed on top and straddled him, he gripped her thighs.
“Stop thinking,” she murmured as she lifted her hips.
When she sank down, his cock slid snugly into her slick warmth.
“Hell.” He felt every muscle in his body strain.
She rose up, finding a lazy pace. “You deserve pleasure, Declan. Everybody does. Whatever we’ve done, whatever we’ve been forced to do, it doesn’t define us. It doesn’t mean we can’t change. Now, just feel.”
She pressed her hands to his shoulders and started riding him in earnest. Now he could see the pleasure on her face, the flush in her cheeks. The starlight turned her skin a pearlescent white.
He’d never seen anything more beautiful. He had fanciful thoughts of priestesses saving the souls of lost warriors. It sure as hell felt like Layne was saving him. Here with her, there was no darkness, no pain.
Just pleasure, heat, and warmth.
She slowed her movements, riding him slowly now. Her green-gold gaze collided with his, held.
When she came, he followed a second later, never looking away from her eyes.
Layne woke up with a start, a hand pressed over her mouth. It was very early morning, the light murky. She jerked upright, but immediately knew it was Declan’s hard body wrapped around her.
Serious gray eyes met hers and he held up his fingers to his mouth.
When she nodded, he moved his hand. “We have company.” His voice was a whisper.
She heard it now. Voices in the distance, the hum of an engine.
“Get dressed.”
As she pulled on her clothes, Declan shoved things into their packs with methodical movements. As their little bed was destroyed, her heart gave a tiny pang.
Declan shoved her backpack at her and she swung it onto her shoulders. “Come on. We need to move. If they spot the fire, they’ll know it was fresh.”
“Maybe it’s strangers. They could help us—”
He just shook his head. She nodded again, and followed him as he crept through the temple. They reached the back entrance and paused. Down at the other end of the oasis, she saw a battered, dusty jeep with its lights on. It illuminated four men standing in front of it. She saw the single tall form, and instantly knew it was Anders.
Then she saw Aaron Stiller beside him. The poor archeologist was hunched over, radiating fear, pain, and exhaustion.
“Come on.” Declan urged her in the opposite direction. “Move quickly and quietly.”
Layne focused on following Declan, putting her boots right in the same place he did. When the ground got sandy, he urged her on and then took up the rear. As he stooped down, she realized he was covering their tracks.
She rounded the crumbling ruins of what must have once been a dwelling of some sort, and slammed into someone. She gasped.
The man’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to yell.
Layne kicked him. Her boot landed between his legs and he grunted. Declan pushed past her.
He grabbed the man and swung him around. The guy tried to swing a punch, but a second later, Declan slammed the man’s head against the stone ruins, and the guy fell into a heap on the ground, out cold.
“Move it,” Declan said.
She ran now. God, if Anders caught them, they’d be dead.
Soon, they were out of the oasis and back in the desert.
Layne’s chest tightened. Okay, she could admit to the flash of fear. The desert had almost killed them yesterday. The oasis had been their little sanctuary.
Now, they were back at the mercy of the sands.
No. She straightened. Anders was behind them and they were armed with fresh water. And most of all, knowledge.
They had the directions to Zerzura.
“I don’t know how it happened, but we aren’t near Dakhla, right?” she asked.
Declan scowled. “No.”
“I forgot to tell you earlier… In the temple, I found the next clue to Zerzura. West. We need to head directly west and look for special markers.”
He stared at her for a second. “You think we should head to Zerzura?”
She tightened the straps on her backpack. “Do you have a better plan? Maybe we should wander aimlessly in the desert, instead?”