Bring It On (13 page)

“I don’t think that’s a good sign,” Colt rumbled.

Lena felt the tight coil of Colt’s muscles as he braced for fight or flight. A bolt of awareness—ill-timed and seriously unhelpful—blasted through her body. She jerked against him, unable to stop herself from the bone-deep reaction. Colt felt it, his body stirring against hers.

As if sensing their distraction, the cat took that moment to disappear. They caught the flash of tail as it slipped into the jungle. If they hadn’t known it was there, the twitch could have been just a shadow.

Galvanized into motion, Colt set her away, pulling her out of the water behind him. Her body protested the loss of his heat, but she understood. He was in a flurry, gathering sticks, leaves and moss. Pushing the mess into her arms, he went back for more, this time searching for larger chunks of wood.

She assumed the paraphernalia was for a fire. He proved her right when he directed her across the pool toward the waterfall and said, “We’ll build a fire at the entrance. It’ll keep us warm and keep that guy away.”

A shiver of a different sort raced up her spine.

Her waterlogged shoes sunk into the sand at the bottom of the pool. The closer they got to the falls the harder it became to lift each foot.

Colt stopped in front of her. With a curt “Wait here,” he disappeared through the wall of water protecting the entrance to the cave.

A protest sputtered on Lena’s lips even as she realized it was pointless. Stupid man. If he encountered something dangerous in there he’d be fighting alone.

Wrapping her body around the fire-starting materials to keep them as dry as possible, she followed behind him.

She let out a gasp as the water washed down over her back. She might already be wet, but the water cascading down was much cooler than that of the collecting pool.

The place was dark. Lena looked around, frantically searching for the telltale shine of Colt’s flashlight.

“Colt,” she yelled.

There was no answer.

She tried again, lifting her voice and spinning around in the dark cavern. “Colt!” The only thing that came back was an empty echo.

“DAMMIT, I TOLD YOU to stay put.”

Colt tried to ignore Lena’s jump of surprise as he walked up behind her. After sweeping the cave to make sure it wasn’t already occupied, he’d switched off the flashlight and let his eyes become adjusted.

His heart had pounded every second they’d been separated, but leaving her alone outside had been the lesser of two evils. Without knowing what was inside the cave, bringing her with him had been too much of a risk. The confined space wouldn’t have provided many options for escape or fight.

As it turned out, the cave was empty. The ceiling at the front opened high above their heads, but it sloped downward to connect with the floor about twenty yards back.

For the first time since he’d awoken to find the jungle darkening around them, Colt let out a sigh of relief. At least here they’d be safe until morning.

Lena’s eyes shimmered through darkness, twin beacons of light that pulled him closer. The smell of her, wild and wet, slammed through him. The primitive urge to have her, to prove to himself that she was unharmed and safe, overwhelmed him. He jerked her forward, crushing her against his body. The heat of her singed his skin. He swore he could hear the sizzle as the water on his skin turned to steam.

Her breath whooshed out to tickle across the damp cotton of his shirt. His arms wrapped around her, plastering her to him as tightly as their wet clothes clung to them.

His heart pounded against his rib cage like an angry bird fighting to get out. He was certain she must be able to feel it, too. His teeth ground together in the back of his mouth, a last-ditch attempt to find some shred of control.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Colt realized he was heading for disaster. Out here, something dark inside him had been released—the urge to protect and dominate, to claim what was his and to never let it go.

It was a side of himself he wasn’t completely enamored with but couldn’t seem to fight. Not with Lena standing in front of him, the dark centers of her eyes watching, waiting, the low guttural words of her taunt egging him on. “Take me.”

With a growl of surrender—to her, to himself, to whatever this was—Colt erupted around her. He claimed her lips in a frenzy of passion. His tongue plundered her mouth, but she met him thrust for thrust, scraping and jabbing and asking for more.

She sucked him deeper inside, so far that he could feel the vibration of her mewl of approval.

His hands scraped against her scalp, burrowing in her hair and angling her mouth so he could get more of her. His arm wrapped around her back, lifting her up off the floor so she had nowhere else to go but to him.

She didn’t fight against the tempest blowing between them. Instead, she opened to him, giving everything and taking even more in return. What they’d shared before had been slow and tender, the final capitulation of two people who’d cared about each other for a long time. This was a scrabbling fight for the ecstasy only they could give each other.

Her legs, left with nothing else to do but dangle, found purchase around his waist. She arched into his hold, rubbing the heat of her sex against his throbbing erection.

Colt fought the sensation that he was drowning, swamped not only by his emotions for Lena, but by her unquestioning surrender and trust in him. Trust that he would keep her safe.

A cloud of passion wrapped them together, blocking out everything else. All he wanted to do was feel her, taste her, absorb her into his body so he’d never forget this moment of possessing her. In the days and weeks to come, when the inevitable happened and they returned to their real lives, he’d still have this memory to take with him into dark, lonely nights.

And he was bound and determined to make the most of it.

Oblivious to everything except his need for her, Colt stumbled backwards until Lena’s back connected with the rough stone wall. She arched against him, letting out a tiny sound. He tried to pull away, but her fingers scrabbled against his shoulders and a low growl of protest vibrated between their lips.

Her legs gripped him tighter, her ankles digging mercilessly into his back to bring him closer.

He pulled back long enough to look into her eyes, deep, dark and smoldering. Her thigh muscles squeezed around him, raising and lowering her body in a caress that nearly drove him to his knees.

The feel of her, wild and restless in his arms, was something he’d never allowed himself to want. And now, he was sorely afraid he’d never get enough.

Ripping at the hem of her shirt, Colt tore it up over her head and threw it into the yawning mouth of the cave behind them. She took the opportunity to do the same with his. The wet plop of his shirt against stone was somehow satisfying.

Her soft lips settled against his skin. He felt as if he were on fire, but the heat of her tongue as it licked across his throat was still hard to miss. She pulled at him, sucking him inside and sending sheets of lightning dancing across his skin.

His own mouth clamped hard and fast around the begging center of her breast. She tasted sweet—like tropical fruit after a cool rain—as he rolled the tight nipple beneath the swell of his tongue. Intoxicating, that’s what she was.

Colt ran his hands up the length of her thighs, trying to find a way in beneath the taut cloth of her shorts. He could feel her damp center pressed against him, taunting him with the promise of wet heat. He wanted it, but he didn’t want to let her go.

Finally, with a growl of frustration answered by a peal of feminine laughter, Colt tumbled them both to the hard stone floor.

She arched into his waiting body, and he relished the heat as they collided. Skin on skin, their damp bodies clung. She reached between them, opening the catch on her shorts. He hissed as the back of her hand caressed the bulge of his erection, a torturous caress that was hardly enough.

Her lips curved into a smile she failed to suppress. “Witch,” he breathed against those lips before he nipped gently at the corners, punishing them for their taunt.

Together, they rolled across the floor, an undulating mass of legs, arms and heated bodies. Somewhere in the middle of the melee they managed to push their remaining clothes out of the way. Colt’s legs were hobbled, tied together by the material neither of them could be bothered to deal with. Lena’s shorts dangled from one ankle, the one she managed to wedge high up his hip.

They came to rest, Colt’s back propped against the wall, Lena straddling his lap. Her thighs were spread wide, feet propped behind him, the swollen flesh of her sex open and waiting. He wanted to taste and touch, to explore every inch.

Colt reached between them, slipping his fingers deep into the heat of Lena’s body. She gasped, contracting around the invasion. Her hips surged forward, pulling him deeper.

Her head fell back in abandon. His fingers flexed, widening her channel and pushing against the force of the tension building inside her. Slowly, he dragged them back out again to the very edge. Her whimper of protest quickly morphed into a moan of pleasure when he slammed in again.

He tortured them both, watching as her body took him over and over again. The slippery evidence of her desire coated his hand. She quivered around him. He could practically feel the crank of tension as it twisted inside her. She was so close.

His cock throbbed with an insistent demand that he was powerless to ignore. Pulling his hand from her body, he swallowed her protest with his mouth. Grasping her hips, he pulled her up and brought her down onto his hard length.

She screamed with pleasure, the echo reverberating around them tenfold. He surged beneath her, driving every last inch into her welcoming depths. The feel of her muscles contracting, trying to hold him in place even as he pulled out for another thrust was exquisite.

Skin on skin, they crashed together over and over again. Rough rock bit into Colt’s back. Lena’s fingers bored into his shoulders, trying to find a purchase. Her face pressed into the crook of his neck, each panting wail of her pleasure bursting deep inside his chest.

He felt her fall, knew the moment her body let go. The rolling waves of her release started deep inside, ripping up his shaft and quaking through her entire body. Colt felt the answering surge start at the base of his spine, an explosion of ectasy that had the world around them going even blacker.

The increasingly powerful swells of bliss left him breathless, floundering, as they washed repeatedly across him. His arms tightened around Lena, holding her to him. She was the only solid thing in the universe.

She collapsed onto his chest, her body limp and spent. Part of him relished knowing he’d done that to her, brought her that kind of devastating pleasure.

Above him, her chest continued to heave, fighting to catch her breath. Aftershocks burst through her body, making her quiver and contracting her walls around his spent sex. It felt right, this connection they’d found deep in the heart of the jungle.

And then he realized what they’d done.

“We didn’t use anything,” he said through a dry throat.

“What?” she mumbled sleepily against his chest.

Panic shot through him. “We didn’t use a condom.”

9

LENA TRIED TO SIT UP, to move away from Colt and what they’d just done, but the steel bands of his arms kept her tight against him. She could still feel the pulse of him buried deep inside her. She wanted to be upset—with herself and with him—but she couldn’t be.

They’d both gotten carried away, neither of them taking time to think rationally.

Panic rushed through her blistering and hard.
She
hadn’t thought rationally. She knew better than to let hormones and emotions overwhelm her that way.

But, apparently, that was difficult for her to do with Colt around. He broke through all of her barriers, pulling at pieces of her she’d never wanted to admit existed. No one, no man, had ever made her feel so deliriously out of control.

And the fact that she’d liked it just made it that much worse.

Colt stirred beneath her, picking her up and gently placing her onto the cool floor. He towered above her, staring down with shuttered eyes. She really wished she knew what he was thinking, but she couldn’t read him. Not now.

Pushing up to her own feet, Lena crossed her arms over her breasts. She realized it was a pointless gesture, but she did it anyway.