his breath hitch in the pit of her stomach.
"Don't start," she whispered and began to draw her legs up toward her. He reached back and caught her by the ankle, and then slowly rolled over as he pulled her down the rug, staring at her. "Just one more time, then on my word, we'll go check in."
* * *
the mess was so intense and ridiculous that she literally had friction burns from the rug on her butt and her knees. He was so spent that he couldn't pull them into a fold to get them back to the team.
Sure, they'd had plenty of great sex together, dead or alive, but it still puzzled her that it had been so intense that Carlos's fantastic silver didn't blaze once in his irises. The more she thought about it, he also hadn't even presented mating-length fangs. Not that she was complaining in the
least.
As they slipped out of the vacant room at Hotel La Jolla and hurried to find a cab, she said a quick, silent barrier prayer so nothing could trail them back to the team. Safely tucked inside a taxi, her fevered mind finally had a chance to slowly come back to its own. Then it dawned on her, she and Carlos had been knocking boots until almost midnight with out a barrier around them... and the first seal of the Armageddon was broken - were they nuts?
Carlos turned and looked at her at the same time she qui etly freaked out. He grabbed her by her upper arms. "Don't worry, it's gonna be all right." Where did that come from? Did it matter at all? His hands were on her arms sending a desire ache into her nip ples. She kissed him so hard that she flattened him against the backseat of the cab. The driver looked in the rearview mirror and cleared his throat. Carlos broke the kiss, trying to be cool, then gave up the battle and pulled her to him hard again to put his tongue halfway down her throat.
"Listen," she said, flat-palming his chest as she whispered in a rush. She had to hold her hands in front of her in order to keep Carlos from flipping her beneath him and embar
rassing her out of her mind. Unsure whether he might attempt it, she glimpsed the waytoo-interested cabbie and tried to reason with the man next to her, who was breathing hard. "You're so exhausted, you can't even fly. We have to stop until we at least get to the suite. Okay?"
Carlos nodded and closed his eyes as her palms rested against his chest. She could feel his heart slamming against the heels of her hands as though trying to get out of his body. His breaths were so shallow as he tried to summon cool that she had to fight with her fingers
and will each digit not to touch his pebble-hard nipples.
"Marines?" the cabbie asked brightly, seeming thoroughly amused. "Camp Pendleton?
Get a lot of military types around here, newlyweds - can always tell. The guys drag their asses back to base too tired to fly, drive a Jeep, or a tank - whatever they do. But I think it's pretty cool, ya know. Congrats, kids. I hope you don't have to go back over seas for a long time."
* * *
the inability to summon cool probably messed with him more than being temporarily too exhausted to fold Damali out of the hotel room and back into the suite. It was more than outrageous, beyond ridiculous, that he could barely get his hand down into his jeans to pull out cash to pay the cabdriver.
He had to chill, one breath at a tune. He was not walking back into that suite sweating and carrying on. Oh, hell no. D just had to keep her hands to herself, just for a minute so he could get his head right... fine as she was ... with that satin-smooth, caramel skin of hers, trailing shea butter and hot sex, velvet locks, mouth... Jesus ... gorgeous eyes that could burn right through his to the soul... curves for days ... He studied her behind with a tilt of his head as she began to open the suite door. And her ass, the way it fit right in his hands
... he hadn't felt a jones like this since he'd been apexing - and even then ...
"Hey, C - for the second time," Shabazz said with a smirk.
"Huh, oh, yeah, hey, man," Carlos