Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,120

have bruises. I was so close. I hovered on the edge of a roaring climax; I felt it building and building like a tsunami, the tension coiling through every inch of me until I almost cried with the need to finish.

“Come for me,” he said. He thrust deeper, faster, harder. Hard enough I moved on the mattress and braced my hands against the headboard.

Dodge groaned and hauled me back against him in hard jerks, driving me closer and closer to the edge as I held onto the bed and struggled to find my release. Exhausted, I couldn’t make it. The ecstasy hovered just out of reach. I exhaled my frustration.

“No you don’t,” he muttered, then suddenly his hand slid across my stomach as he reached under me. I sucked in a breath but then his fingers pressed against the top of my slit, seeking out the hard bud of nerves, and stars sparked in my vision until the world went white.

A moan ripped from me that sounded close to a shriek, but I didn’t care. He grunted in satisfaction, growling more instructions for me to climax all over his hand. Dodge stretched out over me and drove still harder. His devilish fingers moved faster until his hips jerked unevenly and the whole world collapsed around me. The tsunami arrived, carrying me out into nothingness, as ripples of sheer need and ecstasy rolled through me and stole what remained of my strength.

I collapsed onto the pillows as Dodge pressed deep and groaned, followed by a few quick in-and-outs that ignited more tremors until my muscles clutched at him and tried to keep him inside me. He shifted his chest to lay to the side, though his hips kept me pinned to the bed, and he kissed my shoulder with a tenderness I’d grown to love. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, my eyes still closed, as I let the delicious melting sensation work its way through my body. Every time he moved or his chest hair brushed against my back, little shivers trembled through me in an echo of the tsunami that had just thrown me into another place.

Dodge chuckled and kissed the side of my neck, letting me feel his teeth as he nipped and nuzzled. “Good.”

And then he hesitated. I could tell he wanted to say more but stopped himself. I turned my head to look at him. “What?”

Dodge rubbed my back absently, then rolled to his side. I felt his absence in a rush of cool air and the curious emptiness of where he’d just occupied. I grumbled as I turned onto my side to face him. His palm rested against my ribs, and something serious lurked in his expression. I swallowed the knot in my throat and struggled to focus on his face; every time he touched me I wanted to stretch and cling to him.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” he said slowly, and whatever remained of the peace and contentment that had cradled me dissipated.

I took a deep breath and pulled the sheets up to cover my chest, trying to protect myself. “Okay.”

My mind ran wild with all the possible, awful things he could tell me. I braced for the worst.

Chapter 55

Percy

When Dodge didn’t immediately go on, I clenched my hands in the sheet and tried to sound calm. “Whatever it is, say it. Waiting just makes it worse.”

He reached out and brushed the hair out of my face, his knuckles trailing gently against my cheek. “Hear me out, okay?”

I managed to nod but didn’t trust my voice to speak. What if he regretted agreeing to stay with me? What if he’d been hiding it and his animal side was still in control?

Dodge picked up my left hand and stroked my fingers, toying with them as if to distract us both. “In the hospital, you were dying. They couldn’t give you enough regular blood, it just... drained away. You were so pale and still, and I thought... I thought...”

His voice caught, and he cleared his throat a few times before he went on, words so soft I had to lean closer to hear. “I thought you were gone. I thought you were dying and I could do something to save you.”

My heartbeat thumped loudly in my ears. I still lived, so did that mean...? “What did you do?”

His gold eyes flashed to mine and then went back to studying how my hair curled around his fingers. “I told the doctors to give you my blood. The