Night's Awakening (8 page)

When he rose up on his hands, she lifted her head and kissed down his chest and abdomen, which rippled with tight, honed muscle.

There wasn’t an ounce of fat anywhere. He exuded authority and vigor with just a stance. But his hands demanded surrender while his mouth exacted pleasure.

Elena knew she was getting in way over her head, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. She went rushing headlong into the pleasure Guy offered without a backward glance.

She gasped when he cupped her breasts and rolled a nipple between his fingers. Her back arched, her hands running along his trim hips to his butt.

Her fingernails dug into his skin when his hips rocked forward, his thick arousal rubbing against her sensitive flesh. Need flared as she was caught in the pleasure of his mouth on her breast and his rod teasing her sex.

Suddenly his fingers were there, soft and insistent as they parted her curls and delved inside her. Her hips rocked against his hand helplessly.

In and out his finger moved in a steady rhythm. A second finger joined the first. He was absolute in giving her pleasure, and he wanted nothing held back.

As if she could. With one look, she surrendered to him. It was as if her body, her soul knew what her mind couldn’t comprehend.

What she wasn’t yet ready to understand.

His hot mouth left a trail of kisses down her neck. His tongue flicked over her skin every time his fingers plunged within her.

It was driving her mad. Every nerve ending tingled, stretched taut by the need building. She was so close to peaking, but he wouldn’t let her.

He pulled back just before she’d go over the edge, and each time it took her higher and higher until she was delirious with need.

Guy stared down at her flushed skin. She was beautiful to behold, stunning to watch as her body came alive beneath his touch.

Her head moved from side to side as she whimpered when he wouldn’t allow her climax to take her. He wondered how much more she could take. Already he was ready to spill, and he hadn’t even been inside her.

He spread the moisture of her sex over her and felt her legs tremble when he touched her clitoris. Twice more, he teased her with barely a touch, and each time she cried out, her back bowing off the bed.

With her beautiful rose-tipped breasts tempting him, Guy could no longer hold back. He lifted her leg beneath her knee and bent to flick his tongue over a nipple. And then he slid into her tight, wet body.

He groaned, reveling in the exquisite feel of her. When he opened his eyes, it was to find her watching him. He rotated his hips, wringing a moan from deep in her throat.

Once inside her, he couldn’t hold back the tide of his own desire. He began to thrust hard and fast. When her legs wrapped around his waist, he sank deeper inside her.

Elena couldn’t look away from his pale brown gaze. He leaned above her with his hands on either side of her head. His honey brown locks fell against his cheek as he rocked against her again and again.

Each thrust wound her need tighter. Her body burned with flames of desire that consumed her, devoured her. Just when she didn’t think she could take it anymore, the release took her.

Incandescent light surrounded her, blinded her as she was swept on a tide of rapture. Her only anchor to the world was Guy, and she desperately clung to him.

She held him as he gave a final plunge and buried his head in her neck as the climax swept him as well. They rode the pleasure together, locked in each other’s arms.

Gradually the glow faded and their breathing evened out. Elena found herself cradled against Guy’s chest as he rolled onto his back, his arm holding her tightly.

She felt wanted and beautiful and desired. A smile pulled at her lips as she realized no one had ever made her feel such things before, and probably never would again.

“Would you believe me if I told you I was immortal?”

Guy’s words, spoken softly, quietly pulled her from her near state of sleep. She didn’t move, because she felt he didn’t want her to look at him.

She didn’t respond right away, but there had been something in his voice. Hope? Fear?

Once more, the imagine of his wounded hands flashed in her mind. “Are you?” she asked just as softly.

For long minutes, silence followed.

And then, “If I was?”

Everything hinged on how she answered. Elena didn’t know how she knew; she just knew. “I’d ask how.”

“Would you fear me?”

“Never.”

His hand flattened against her back. “Doona ever say never, Elena. It is a verra long time. Trust me.”

“There are many things I feel with you, Guy. Lust. Desire. Need. Fear isn’t one of them.”

“Do you believe me?”

Immortal. It should seem bizarre, but Elena wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe there weren’t things in the world that were unexplainable. But immortal?

She lifted her head to look at him then. It was as if his amazing pale brown eyes were trying to tell her something, as if they were silently begging her to trust him.

Her hands cradled one of his. She turned it one way then the other, looking for a scar or even a wound from his injury in the cave. There was nothing, and his other hand didn’t show anything either.

Could she believe he had healed himself? She’d dismissed what she saw because she had been exhausted and weary, but maybe she had seen something extraordinary.

It would explain what it was about Guy that was so different. But immortal? If he could heal himself, it wasn’t so far-fetched.

“Do you believe I’m immortal?” he asked again.

Elena nodded her head carefully. “Are you?”

“Aye.”

Chapter Nine

Elena woke on her side with one of Guy’s arms draped over her. She caressed his long fingers hanging near her hand.

She couldn’t believe he had stayed the night with her. Any minute now, someone was going to come through her door and find them. Not that she cared, but Guy might.

A glance at the clock near the bed proved it was only four. Elena sighed. She was having a difficult time adjusting to the lighting during the summer. It didn’t stay dark for long.

Now that she was awake, she couldn’t go back to sleep. Especially when she thought of Guy being immortal. She managed to rise from the bed without waking him and wrapped an extra blanket around her. It might be summer to the Scots, but to a Southern girl, it was chilly out.

She turned to find him on his stomach, his face directed away from her. It was then she saw the rest of his tattoo, which covered his entire back. She’d desperately wanted to see the tat earlier, but something had stopped her from asking about it.

Elena wasn’t sure what it had been, but she wished she’d had the nerve to ask anyway.

She’d seen the dragon’s large head and the flames he breathed, but now she traced the rest of it with her finger. The dragon was vertical with its wings spread out across Guy’s shoulders, tip to tip. Elena followed the dragon to where its tail wrapped around Guy’s waist.

The ink looked like a peculiar mix of red and black. Many of her friends in Atlanta had gotten inked, but she’d never seen anything like this before. Not just the ink, but the artwork as well. It was beautiful and impressive.

After they’d made love the first time in the shower, she’d sworn the tat looked at her. Elena smiled and started to draw her hand away when she gasped.

The tattoo had moved. She’d stake her life on it.

It was just another thing that made Guy so different from the others. Like his immortality.

Immortal. She thought over that word long and hard as she stared out the window, watching the sky continue to lighten. What did it mean, exactly?

There were hundreds of questions rushing around in her head. She’d wanted to ask them before, but she had a feeling Guy wouldn’t have told her the answers. Not yet, at least.

As she looked at the vivid green grass and the sheep dotting the rolling landscape, immortality didn’t seem so unbelievable.

Maybe it was Dreagan itself, but the land felt old…ancient. Older than anyone knew. Was it the stories she’d heard of the magic of Scotland? Or was it something else?

Strong arms locked around her from behind as Guy kissed her neck. “Couldna sleep?” he asked.

She leaned back against him with a smile. “I was asleep. I can’t get used to the sky lightening up so early. For me, when I see light, it’s time to get up.”

He chuckled and turned her to face him. “There’s a switch next to the bed that will lower the blinds to block out the light. Now, is that all?”

“It was. Until I started thinking about what you asked me last night.”

His smile slipped. “Elena—”

“Wait,” she interrupted him, and put her hand on the flames across his chest. “Let me talk, please. I’m not saying I’ve changed my mind. I believe you.” She shook her head with a laugh. “As impossible as that is for me to imagine, I believe you. Why did you tell me?”

“Most people would think I’ve gone mad. Instead, you accept what I say. No questions or anything.”

“Oh, I’ve questions. Plenty of them, but I was still wrapping my head around the immortality bit. Plus, I saw your hand heal in the cave.”

He ran a thumb down her cheek. “You were no’ supposed to see that. And I shouldna have told you about my immortality. If the others learn that I’ve—”

“I won’t tell them,” she assured him. “But you still haven’t answered me. Why tell me?”

“I doona know. I wanted to.” He sighed and looked over her head out the window.

“For so long we’ve kept what we are secret. We knew it wouldna last, but we were hoping to keep it going a little longer.”

“Which is why everyone freaked the hell out when Sloan and I were in the mountain?”

He nodded and looked at her. “There is only one other human who knows we’re immortal.”

Elena blinked and leaned back a ways. “Human? What do you mean
human
? You aren’t human?”

Guy was opening his mouth to talk, when there was a single knock on the door and Guy’s name was called.

“Bugger,” he muttered, and began to gather his clothes.

Elena followed him. “What is it?”

“Con’s on his way. Get dressed and hurry.”

Elena let the blanket drop and gathered her clothes before kicking her pants ahead of her in the bathroom. She caught Guy’s gaze before she closed the door.

There was something about the way he said
human
that she had a feeling had nothing to do with immortality. Would he have told her had they not been interrupted?

“Guess I’ll never know,” she said.

Elena dressed, brushed her teeth, and combed her hair. When she walked out of the bathroom, Con was standing next to Guy at the fireplace.

Con smiled at her, though much like last time, it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Good morn, Elena. How is your ankle?”

“It’s improving. Rather rapidly, actually. I can put a little weight on it now.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Sometimes just resting will heal an injury.”

She didn’t believe him. There was something in his tone, a look in his eyes. She knew in her gut they had done something to help speed the healing of her ankle.

Con chuckled while Guy looked at the rug with no emotion showing. Elena put her hands in her khaki pockets and waited. She assumed the interrogation would begin again, though she wondered where Rhys and Banan were.

“Would you like for me to answer the same questions as before?” Elena asked. She figured she’d be better getting right to the point than beating around the bush.

Con shrugged with a grin. “We could. Or you could actually tell me the truth.”

“I’d be happy to take a lie detector test if that’d help. I’m not lying. And regardless of whether you press charges for trespassing or not, you can’t keep me here forever.”

Her gaze moved to Guy as she finished, and she could have sworn she saw a flash of hurt.

“I want to believe you,” Con said as he slowly walked toward her. “Too much is at stake for me to accept what you’re saying so easily.”

“I don’t know what’s at stake, but I can see it’s important. Is there some way I can help to prove my innocence?”

He studied her for a moment before glancing at Guy. “You said you’re a gemologist.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think there are valuable stones in our mountain?”

She was nodding her head before he finished. “Of course. There are stones everywhere in the world. Below the water, below dirt, beneath rock. You name it, the stones are there. I imagine there are stones that have yet to be discovered.”

“Do you want to be the one to discover one?”

Elena thought of the cold, damp cave and shuddered. “No,” she said, and took a step back. “No. That’s not something I ever wanted to do. I’m not daring enough. At
all
. My idea of running is on a treadmill at the gym, not at a park where some madman might rape or kill me.”

“Hmm,” Con said, and rocked back on his heels. “You think Sloan might have found something in the cave?”

“As I told Guy, it’s a possibility. She was in a hurry, that much was obvious. Once we reached that spot, she was fine for me to sit and rest as long as I needed.”

“Did she have a map?” Guy asked.

Elena thought back over the ride to the mountains and while in the cave. “No. She seemed to know where she was going. There were a few times she hesitated when the cave branched off, but I just assumed she was trying to determine the best course to take.”

Con and Guy turned to each other.

“She could’ve been there before,” Guy said.

Elena hurried to say, “No. She was adamant about finally getting to cave in such a private place.”

Con’s face grew grim. “Which means someone else was.”

“Ulrik?” Guy offered.

“We’d know.”

“Then who, dammit?”

“Let’s hope Banan finds out.”

Elena looked from one to the other as they spoke rapidly. “Where does that leave me?”

Guy looked up from his musing, his amazing light brown eyes softening as they met hers.

“It means,” Con said, breaking into their stare, “that we need your help.”