14. Everything

Sarah couldn't move, could barely breathe, was a worn-out dishrag of herself.

Blaze wrapped his arms around her, one of his heavy legs making a tent of the sheet over hers, and her arm dangled like yarn off the side of the bed.

Turning over to lie on her side and wiggling her backside against him barely helped. The side of the bed was a cliff before her, and only Blaze's thick arm around her waist saved her from face-planting on the wooden floor.

Behind her, Blaze rolled over and nudged her slightly with his hip. She almost flopped out of the bed, but he caught her.

"This is ridiculous," Blaze muttered, struggling to sit and flipping over her to stand beside the bed. "We have to move to the guest bedroom. There's no way we can both sleep in a single bed."

Sarah summoned every shred of strength she had left and braced herself on her elbow, readying herself to stand, but she flopped back down with her face on the pillow. "You go ahead."

Blaze frowned, but his expression softened when he raised one eyebrow. "I'm not letting you sleep here alone."

Sarah had already closed her eyes, drifting off, but steel arms like a forklift inserted under her knees and shoulders and hoisted her off the bed.

Protesting seemed like too much energy.

Instead, she snuggled closer to Blaze's warm chest as he carried her first to the bathroom, where he washed their stickiness off her body with warm water, dried her, and then settled her in the lavender-scented sheets of the guest room and climbed in, too.

"Better," he muttered and turned off the light.

Sarah fit herself closer to his body, seeking the comfort of his warmth and strength.

His limbs folded around her, encasing her in security.

His whisper fluttered around her, "Little kitten, you are everything to me."

She wanted to move, to open her eyes and see what was in his, but she drifted in half-sleep.

"It may have only been a week for you, but I watched you care for every beast on this farm from the cornfield for longer. I didn't know it then, but I wanted you to care for me like you do for them, and I wanted to worship you for it. I wanted to take care of you with the same care that you do everything. I want to swim in your love and kindness that is the air of this farm. I am drunk on your lips. I am drowning without you."

He kissed her then, a quick brush over her lips, and the instinct to touch him was stronger than even her exhaustion. She parted her lips, kissing him back, and smoothed one hand from his shoulder up his neck and threaded her fingers into his hair.

His quick breath intake was surprised, but his limbs coiled around her. His mouth opened, deepening the kiss, but his lips caressed hers with tenderness, not domination.

A quiet hunger seeped energy into her flesh, her bare stomach curving toward his naked body and her leg entwining with his.

The mint of his breath quickened, and he whispered, "Are you sure?"

She nodded, barely opening her eyes, her body answering when her brain was fogged with sleep.

Blaze reached to the nightstand on the side of the bed, wood sliding on wood, and the crinkle of cellophane. In another moment, he'd rolled her onto her back, his knees opening her thighs and holding himself there. "You seem asleep. Are you awake?"

I am,ran through Sarah's mind, but her throat hadn't made the sounds. She tried again, and her voice croaked, "I'm awake. Yes."

His voice was husky as he asked, "Do you want me?"

Just enough energy flitted in Sarah's arms to lift them off the bed and wrap them around his neck. "Always."

He sank into her, his slow movements first too much on her sore body, but his whispers in her ear—that she was his everything, that the thought of leaving her emptied him—soothed the sting and then she was moving with him, his slow gentleness lifting her with him, pleasure flooding over her until it became waves that took her beyond thought.

As the tides subsided and she drifted and found the mattress under her back and Blaze's body pressing her into the bed, his breath in her ear wasn't the harsh rasp of spent passion but a catch in his throat as he whispered, "I'll keep you safe. I'll make sure the White Russians can't get to you. I will give everything I have to keep you safe."