And that scared her. Hunger equaled need and needing meant giving away your power. Rain would never give up her power. Not even to the man she’d dreamed about for years. She started to back away, make an excuse, but his arms tightened around her.
“No you don’t.” His voice was a rough whisper in her ear. “You don’t get to run away just because you’re scared. If you’re scared, imagine how I feel.”
That stopped her like nothing else could have. She’d never thought that Lieutenant Micah Caine could feel fear. He was a hero. Heroes weren’t supposed to be afraid. Were they?
“What are you afraid of, Micah Caine?”
He leaned back a little so he could see her face. “That you won’t see me, Rain Mauri.”
She frowned. “See you? Of course I see you.”
He shook his head. “No, not as Lieutenant Micah Caine, the so-called hero of Caine’s Last Stand. Not as the freaking zombie Dragon Warrior created by the Marines. But as a man. I want you to see me as a man. A man who wants you. A man who’s falling in love with you.”
And sitting there, looking into his eyes, for the first time she did. What she saw broke her heart and put it back together all at the same time. So she did the only thing she could think to do.
She leaned in and kissed Micah with everything she had. No holding back.
He made a sound deep in his throat, half growl, half groan. His arms tightened around her even more, plastering her against his body until she didn’t know where she ended, and he began. And she didn’t care.
She smoothed her hands over his back, loving the feel of his velvety skin, the muscles bunching underneath. His mouth crashed down on hers, lips and tongues and breaths tangling together.
Micah hauled her onto his lap, and she could feel the hard length of him pressed up against her most intimate flesh. She couldn’t help it, she rubbed herself against him, heat pooling low in her belly. This time the sound he made was definitely a growl.
He sprawled them both across the bedding, so she was flat on her back with him nestled between her thighs. It felt incredibly good, but it wasn’t enough. Her fingers worked at the zipper of his jeans, but she couldn’t get it down over the thick bulge of him.
“Here, let me.” He leaned away just enough so he could get his own zipper down. Then she helped him shove the jeans off his legs.
Sweet lord, he’d gone commando.
She didn’t have time to savor the moment as Micah was busy getting rid of her clothes. They were both finally naked.
Micah reached for her, pulled her against him. She sighed as their bodies tangled together.
She loved the feel of his bare skin against hers. The heat of his mouth. He savored her body. Every inch of it like she was a goddess from the old myths. She urged him to hurry up, but he refused, instead drawing out every bit of pleasure until she thought she’d go mad from it.
His lips skimmed her breast before latching onto her nipple and drawing it into his mouth. The flick of his tongue over the tight bud sent her writhing against him.
“Micah, please.”
“Micah please what?” he murmured as he turned his attention to her other breast. His fingers slipped down over her belly, toying lightly with the curls between her legs.
“Micah!”
A smile curved his lips. A smile which fled the minute his fingers slipped through her folds. “Oh, my God,” his voice was low, raw. “You’re so wet.”
“Uh huh.” She reached her own hand down and wrapped it around the thick, velvety length of him. “I want you inside me. Now.”
The laugh he gave sounded strangled, but he didn’t need any more urging. He lifted her hips slightly and slid in nice and slow.
He was so thick, it was almost painful. She dug her fingers into his tight ass to hold him still. “Give me a minute,” she whispered, her body needing to adjust to accommodate him.
He nodded, but his forehead was beaded in sweat. She could tell it was taking everything he had not to move.
“Okay, now.”
It was all the urging he needed. The thick thrust of him inside her sent Rain arching off the floor, clawing at his back and moaning like a wild woman. She couldn’t help it and she didn’t care. She’d never felt anything like what she felt with Micah. Ever.
His mouth, his hands, were all over her body; touching, caressing, driving her mad, but all she could focus on was the pressure building low in her belly. She urged him faster.
Rain’s entire world receded to the single pinpoint that was her and Micah and the intense pleasure of the thrust and slide of their bodies. And then ...
“Micah ...” Her head snapped back as she rode the orgasm right over the edge. For a moment she forgot how to breathe.
Then she felt him tense. A final thrust, and he joined her.
She had no idea how long they lay there, the sweat cooling on their bodies. All she knew was that at some point he tucked them both inside the sleeping bags and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Micah?” she mumbled, half asleep.
“Yeah?”
“I’m falling in love with you, too.”
He said nothing, just pulled her even tighter into his arms as he kissed the top of her head. She wasn’t sure, but as she drifted off to sleep, she though she felt him smile.
FOSSIL LOOKED EXACTLY the same as she’d left it. As if no one had lived there in decades. This time, though, she knew exactly where to go.
She glanced at Micah. The smile he gave her reminded her of everything he’d done to her the night before. Everything she’d done to him. It was enough to send her heart pounding
