Wicked Waves: Solsti Prophecy #2 (21 page)

She turned to see Kai filling up the opening. He made it through surprisingly well, as if he had done this before.
Duh. He grew up here, remember?

He scooted over to her. “Home sweet home.”

“Anything is better than that dungeon,” she said. “But I can’t see a thing. How big is this place?”

“About fifteen feet square. Barely clears my head. But it’s dry, and it will be easy to hide our tracks.”

It was weird to hear his deep voice rumbling near her ear and not be able to see him at all. She felt the heat rolling off his body, though.
Nothing weird about that—more like intoxicating.
 
It curled in the air, warming her and heightening her awareness. “So now what?
 
We just hang out here until morning?”

“You are. I’m going to look for something to eat.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. I’ll move that rock back over the entrance, and I’ll cover my tracks. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Brooke didn’t like it, but she knew she would only slow him down. On cue, her stomach rumbled.

“Okay,” she said. “Hurry back.”

His eyes glowed softly as he gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “I will.”
 
Then he made his way out of the cave. The darkness deepened when he pushed the rock back in place.

Left alone in the dark, she felt no fear, but instead a bone-numbing exhaustion. Her muscles ached from sleeping on stone for the last few days. Dirt wasn’t much better, but she lay down and closed her eyes. She’d just rest for a few minutes while he was gone.

Cale stalked through his camp with purposeful strides. Every few nights, he liked to make a surprise check on his Serus demons, as well as any prisoners they harbored. His random inspections kept people on their toes. Nervous, too. Hell, they should be pissing on their shoes, if their feeble minds held any inkling of Elegia’s plans.

Despite having a successful few days, he knew better than to relax. After delivering Kai to Draven and collecting the enormous reward, he and his group had captured four elves scrounging for food in the gray hills. His employer couldn’t seem to get enough creatures for her experiments, and she paid him for every wretch he brought her.

Payment for the captives, payment for Kai…he couldn’t suppress a grin as he concluded his walk-through and entered his tent. And then there was the power she had promised him. An army of his own.
 
That was one thing he didn’t have.

His gem phone buzzed. Pulling it from his pants pocket, he was surprised to see not Elegia’s number on the screen, but Draven’s.

“My lord?” he answered with feigned respect. Draven was little more than a bully.

The other demon wasted no time. “The Lash escaped,” he hissed.

Cale stilled. How the hell had Kai managed to escape the compound again?
 
He could only imagine Draven’s rage and humiliation. A very public, very gruesome execution was planned for the arena. Draven’s men were selling tickets at double the cost of the regular fights.

Cale had no idea what Draven wanted from him. He had delivered Kai. It wasn’t his problem if the Lash outsmarted Draven. However, Draven was feared by many and could be a useful ally.

“That’s an unexpected development. Do you require anything from me, my lord?” Cale asked.

“You found him once. Find him again,” Draven snarled.

Cale wasn’t going to divulge the fact that finding Kai had been pure luck. Instead, he informed Draven of his hefty fee.

“Done. Just find him. Bring him back dead or alive, I don’t care.”

“Consider it accomplished,” Cale assured him. He knew the perfect man for the job. He would assign this task to his personal mercenary. In one hundred years, the lethal demon had never failed to hit a mark.

C
HAPTER
15

B
ROOKE
AWOKE
WITH
A
START
, gasping at the pitch darkness.
Where am I?
 
She tried to sit up, forgetting that her hands were still shackled. She didn’t get far. Kai’s big hands caught her shoulders and helped her lean against the wall.

“Hey, it’s okay. Shh.”
 
His thumbs traced circles on her upper arms.

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” she said. “How long was I out?”

“A couple hours. Feel better now?”

“Yeah.” She rubbed her eyes and bumped the edge of the manacle into the bridge of her nose. “Considering I still have these on. And I’m hungry.”

“Both of those problems will be solved tomorrow. Well, I can help with one right now. Here.”

She felt him press something smooth and firm against her fingertips. “What is it?”

“Berries. We lucked out—they’re in season. Not only are there a million out there, but they’re good.”
 
He dragged out the last word, making her even more hungry just listening to him.

She brought her bound hands toward her face and attempted to grasp the berry between two fingers. It wasn’t easy to get it into her mouth, and she ended up shoving it in with her palm, but she was too hungry to care.

She bit down, releasing succulent, tangy juice onto her tongue. “Mmm, delicious.”
 
She savored it for a second before his words sank in. “What did you mean, our problems will be solved tomorrow?”

“We’re going to see Rosa.”

Brooke coughed as she inhaled a bit of berry. “Rosa?
 
But isn’t she…”

“A witch?
 
Yes, and a powerful one. She’ll be able to get those off your hands.”

“She wants to see me anyway, according to Nicole.”
 
Her sister had relayed the message after her visit to Torth, to which Brooke had rolled her eyes.
Yeah, I’ll just put that on my calendar: visit a really old witch. In the demon realm. I’ll pencil her in for Tuesday night.

“That’s good. Rosa likes to get what she wants.”

Maybe she’d feed them. One berry didn’t do much to fill Brooke’s empty stomach. “Can I have another berry?”

“Sure.”
 
He placed one in her palm.

She lifted her hands, but before she could eat it, the tiny fruit rolled away and disappeared into the darkness. “Dammit!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Dropped it. It’s not easy to eat with these things on.”

“Ah, shit. Sorry, Sprite, I should have realized that. Here, open up.”

She opened her mouth, and he gently placed a berry on her tongue. As she bit into the ripe fruit, its mouthwatering sweetness mixed with the earthy taste of Kai’s skin. A curious warmth spread through her veins. Her heart thudded against her ribs. She licked her lips. “More.”

He fed her another, then another. She accepted each delectable morsel, relishing the exotic flavor as much as the way his fingers lingered at her lips a second longer than necessary. Waves of heat rolled off his powerful body as he sat next to her, nourishing her.
Kai’s feeding me berries in a cave.
She never would have imagined it possible. But with startling clarity, she realized she didn’t want to be anywhere else.

When he fed her the next berry, she leaned forward. Before he could pull his hand away, she gripped his fingers between her teeth. Not enough to break the skin, or even hurt a demon like him. But enough to make him suck in a breath.

She raised her hands to his wrist and held it in place. Quickly swallowing the berry, she placed a row of tiny kisses along one of his long fingers. Turning his hand over, she pressed her mouth to his palm and kissed the center. She lingered, inhaling his masculine, leathery smell.

Moving her lips across his palm, she licked and nibbled gently. With her tongue, she drew a lazy circle on the inside of his wrist, then stroked slowly up and down the vein that pulsed just below his skin. She glanced up to see him staring at her, his eyes shining with a sultry whiskey hue. Their glow was so intense it lit up their little cave, and she could see his wide shoulders outlined against the dark.

She held his gaze and bit her lower lip. Her body flushed as he leaned forward. In a gravelly voice, he uttered one word.

“More.”

One powerful arm wrapped around her waist as he hauled her up to his hungry mouth. She gasped at the sweet, soft pressure of his lips. Tiny sparks shot straight to her core, triggering a pulse of heat. Rational thought bolted from her mind, replaced with his warmth, his scent, his hard muscles pressing her close. His kiss consumed her like flames on dry tinder. She burned for him, and this time it didn’t frighten her.

A tiny moan escaped her mouth as he nipped her lower lip, then licked it. She loved the lingering sting, needed his teeth and tongue on her. He cupped her nape, sliding his fingers into her hair. She ached to caress him, but her hands were trapped between their bodies.

His mouth was hot and demanding, his tongue turning her insides liquid with deep, velvet thrusts. She trailed her fingertips along the cut, rock-hard muscles of his abs, learning every ridge and dip. Her fingers twirled into a dusting of soft hair and she changed the position of her hands, caressing him with her knuckles. She moved lower and found the edge of his waistband. Teasingly, she slid her hand back and forth, then she slipped two fingers inside.

His body tensed and he groaned into her mouth. She took advantage of his pause and, capturing his tongue between her lips, sucked hard. A growl vibrated up from his chest, as his hand left her hair and settled at her waist.

Oh God, those hands
. Heat radiated from his palm, ratcheting her body temperature higher. Memories of their other kiss flooded her mind, sending her pulse sky-rocketing. He’d coaxed her to an unexpected and wild level of need. That fever built within her again, her lower belly aching. She pressed closer to him.
More
.

She released his tongue, only to have him pull back and angle his head, his forehead resting against hers. Ragged breaths escaped his mouth. His hand snaked between them to find her wandering fingers and pull them out of his pants.

“Need to get these off you first,” he said in a raspy voice, tapping the cool metal of her manacles.

She blinked and drew a shaky breath. She’d almost forgotten them.

He brought his arms up to circle her shoulders and tugged her against him, kissing the top of her head. “Tomorrow,” he murmured.

“I can’t wait.”
 
Desire pounded through her body. Her head tingled where he’d kissed it.

He chuckled. “That makes two of us.”

She pulled away so that she could look up into his eyes. “No, Kai. I mean…I. Can’t. Wait.”

He stared at her, uncomprehending. “Shit, Brooke, if there was a way to take them off now, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

She got up on her knees so she could loop her arms around his neck and leaned closer, soaking up the amber luster of his eyes. “I don’t care that my hands are bound. I can’t wait until tomorrow. I want you. Now.”

His jaw dropped. “You’re
shackled
. We can’t—”

“I think we can,” she whispered, leaning forward to nuzzle his ear.

Fantasy and reality collided in Kai’s mind, a thousand tiny lights that stunned him into stillness. He didn’t lift a hand as Brooke’s little teeth scraped the shell of his ear, sending shivers all the way to his toes. The soft waves of her hair cascaded in his face like a sensual curtain. Their earlier plunge into the river lent a fresh-water layer to her own scent, only adding to the sensory overload that stripped away his resistance.

Gods, how he wanted this woman. Had wanted her from the second he saw her. But taking her while she wore Draven’s shackles seemed wrong. He wanted her free and wild and feisty. He wanted her unrestrained abandon.

She shifted, moving to his other ear and lavishing attention on it, making him hiss in pleasure. Dropping to his neck, she licked a fiery path to the spot where his shoulder began. She stopped and sucked with languid lips, searing him with her intent.
 
With her hips pushed back as she crouched, he caught the spicy-sweet fragrance of her arousal.

She may as well have shot him with a cannonball. He inhaled, drawing her intoxicating scent deep into his lungs. It filled his mind, assaulting him with her need, breaking down his defenses, erasing all the reasons why they shouldn’t do this. The primal demon within him roared in triumph, refusing to be denied.

With a growl, he pulled her onto his lap, spreading her knees so she straddled him.
 
Her sweet body settled on his cock and he grunted at the delicious pressure.
Holy hell
. They were fully clothed and he still rocketed from zero to steel in two seconds flat.

Capturing her face between his palms, he stroked his thumb along one downy cheek. Her gray eyes radiated undisguised heat, her lips slightly parted as she released a jagged breath. She looked like a sensual concoction made especially for him. He needed to taste her. Everywhere.

Closing the small space between them, he covered her mouth with his. His tongue swept inside, tasting succulent berries mixed with her own honey taste. He explored the deep recesses, caressing her teeth and flicking the roof of her mouth. She moaned and angled her head, allowing him farther in.

With one hand on the center of her back, he slid the other one into her hair, gliding through the silky strands. He twirled a section around his hand, gripping it tightly. Since the first day he saw her, he’d thought about running his fingers through it. He’d imagined the chestnut waves spread out on his pillow, her face flushed with pleasure.

He broke away from her delectable mouth, eliciting a tiny sound of protest from her. Using his grip on her hair, he pulled her head to the side, exposing the long column of her neck. He licked a trail down it, as she had done to him, and when he reached the sensitive spot where her neck flowed into her shoulder, he scraped his teeth along her skin.

She gasped and shivered. He turned his head to look at her arm, which had broken out in goose bumps. He grinned at her as she gazed at him through half-closed lids.