Chapter 5

Five

W ater fell in ribbons over them as Remy eased them beneath the sluicing hot water. He weighed more than she did by a lot, but to his amazement, she didn't buckle when his legs threatened to give. "Steady. Lean on me more."

God, did she know how perfect she was? He worked a smile if only for her benefit. Truth be told, the pain ebbed and flowed with his heartbeat. The more she touched him the more he hurt because of what she did to him. Not pain in the sense of the word, but fear, if he were honest. He could have lost her today. That fear made his heart hurt and that is all he could focus on right now. Not the leg or myriad of scrapes and bruises.

She maneuvered him to where the water cascaded over his back and shoulders. Relief worked through him and every tiny droplet felt like a thousand hands massaging him from head to foot all at once.

Dirt and blood ran down the drain until nothing was left. She briefly hesitated as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled until they both fit beneath the water. And he could kiss her. He didn't give her time to fight him on what he wanted. He rather took. Nothing would heal him better than her lips on his. She slowly kneeled, breaking their kiss, and untied the makeshift bandage, tossing it on the sink countertop.

Soap in hand, she worked a foamy lather around the area, which earned her a few growls and several cuss words.

It didn't seem to faze her. She wrapped her delicate hand around his ankle and soothed him with a soft hum he could hear over the pitter-patter of the water against the shower tiles. She spared him a smile and damn if his cock didn't twitch. Which earned him a bigger smile. "At least we know you'll be fine."

When had she pulled her hair to the side? The braided weave of raven silk hung off her right shoulder in a single lock and tied off with a black ribbon he recognized from her multitude of lotion bottles and trinkets. The delicate ends caught his attention. Every move she made they brushed her breast as though the tips of her hair painted the dusty rose of her nipple.

He wanted to touch the soft strands, wrap them around his fingers as he drew her nipples into his mouth and devoured her taste. But he couldn't reach her.

He grinned.

In time with her soft hum, he wrapped his hand around his hard cock and stroked the full length from base to tip until he had pre-cum dripping from the head.

His eye lowered and before long her gaze raked up his body to find his. She drifted to her knees, her hands a slow glide up his firm thighs. And her lips. God, save him, they were perfectly pouty as she spread them into a beautiful grin.

With her gaze locked on his and without saying a word, Remy accepted him into the confines of her luscious, warm mouth. If not for the wall at his back, he'd be on the floor the second the warm pad of her tongue caressed the underside of his cock.

She made every inkling of pain fade into distant background noise.

Her eyes slipped shut as she took all of him. Once again, she turned red blood to lava in his veins.

Every cell in his body held the heat of a thousand suns. Chills scaled down his spine, and his heart clenched.

He fisted his hands in her soaked hair and worked the long locks loose from their confinement. She hollowed her cheeks and gently worked himself deeper into her mouth.

"Remy. You're going to steal everything I have." He rocked forward and slowly withdrew, his muscles tense, shaking. She looked so fucking beautiful.

His words brought her gaze back to his. Her only answer was to widen for him and accepted him deeper.

She loved so openly, yet he couldn't give her what she wanted. Not truly and fully.

She anchored herself with her hands on his thighs, but it wasn't good enough. Driven by a force of love, greed, possessiveness—whatever the hell had him wanting to murder anyone that dared harm her—he scooped her up and gathered the hem of her shirt in his hands. His injury and the pain that coupled with it nearly forgotten.

In one pull he had her bare, bra and all. "Ethan, we can't. You're hurt and what kind of doctor would I be if I push further than you can take?" She took a step from him and he followed, pressing her into the back wall of the shower. From the amount of steam filling the small room, the tiles were already warm to the touch.

"The kind I need, that's what. Isn't there some kind of understood law or rule that says sex heals?"

His insides were already torn up and who cared about his leg. That would heal. His heart, not so much. "If not, I say we need to test the theory and then report on the outcome, baby." A somber look darkened her eyes. The rosy color of her cheek had turned a nasty purple and he could tell the bruise went deeper than just the skin. He leaned forward and gently ran his lips across the tender area until he kissed every last spot.

"Say you don't want me and I'll be a good boy. Scout's honor." He pressed his forehead to hers. Resisting what he felt for her was quickly becoming not an option. Not any longer, if he wanted to be honest with himself. When she asked about Brax earlier in the woods he choked up, unable to talk about the death of his brother and the resulting war between families it almost led to. When he lost his twin, a part of him died too and he swore to never let another that close to him.

Until now. She brought hope with her sunshine-filled laughter and bubbly outlook.

"I don't believe you know what being a Scout means," she teased.

She wiggled in his arms and it only made his cock throb against her soft stomach where he pressed against her.

"What? Being a boy scout or being good?"

"Both, Ethan Savage. Both."

She had him there.

Another bout of heat worked up the lower part of his back until it seeped into his blood with a fierceness he couldn't rein in. Didn't want to control. His heart pounded and every one of his senses locked in on her.

Her lips parted but the only sound she made was moans of pleasure as he slipped his lips over hers. When she gasped, he moved the kiss deeper.

Blood pounded in his ears.

Fear. Doubt. It all swirled in his gut like a hot ball of uncertainty, but every time he touched her, hell, looked at her, his world righted itself somehow.

Since losing his twin to a brutal death, he feared sharing that special bond again. Feared the ruthless, bloodthirsty human he knew he would turn into if anything ever happened to her. History always repeated itself, but if he lost her, blood would spill.

A growl unfurled deep within and ripped from his throat.

He broke their kiss to work his way down her neck, devouring the taste of her essence one lick and nibble at a time until all he wanted for the rest of his life was the taste of peaches and sunlight on his tongue. She'd discovered his favorite fruit and deliberately teased him with lotions and soaps that had him fucking turning in circles.

With her hair wrapped around his fist, he angled her head to the side for better access.

He wanted to believe he could have her.

Had too. Because neither of them would leave the Savage lands unmarked.

Desperation wound tightened in his chest. Heat consumed him, fire hotter than anything hell could cook up tore through him to leave nothing but ashes in its wake, and it was all he could do to pull away from her and the pain of the past. He rubbed a hand over his chest.

Slowly he regained his jumbled thoughts and eased her away from him. When his twin brother had been killed it took weeks for him to form sentences and months to regain enough passion for life to continue on. Now not even his brothers could see the pain hidden behind the mask. He couldn't imagine a world where he could survive that kind of soul-deep bond again.

"Let's finish up," he husked.

A soft hand on his shoulder stopped him. Her gaze begged him for an explanation, but he didn't trust himself to answer. She saw deeper into him than anyone ever had. Then again, he never let a woman get closer than a one-night stand allowed.

At some point, the hot water had gone and the steam faded to leave the room cold. Cringing at her frustrated sighs, with his cock still hard as iron, he stepped back and let her push past him. She reached to the left, fetched a towel and passed him another.

Remy made quick work of drying off, leaving him to his own devices and suddenly he felt like the biggest ass in the world. He could have that warm mouth on him sucking him into oblivion, instead he let fear cripple his chance at happiness. He was the biggest fool.