hurting him.
“Look at me,” he said softly.
When her eyes met his, he took one of her hands and guided it to his hard shaft.
She started to look down.
“No,” he commanded. “Look at me.” She couldn’t look down without seeing his ghastly wounds.
She instantly met his gaze once more.
He softened his tone. “Keep your eyes on mine, dashura.”
Taelon hissed in a breath when she curled her fingers around his shaft, her hand too small to enclose him.
She wrapped her other hand around him too, stroking his hard length with her slick, soapy hands. But she was being too careful. Too gentle. Too afraid of hurting him.
Taelon curled his hand around hers, tightened her hold on him, and showed her how he wanted her to stroke him.
She learned fast, her pupils dilating with renewed desire as she moved her hands on him. “What does dashura mean?” Keeping her eyes on his, she moved closer and tongued one of his nipples.
Pleasure shot through him, dragging forth a moan and nearly obliterating the pain. “It’s an endearment.” Drek, she felt good. Her touch. Her tongue. She could easily bring him to his knees.
She paused. “I want to take you in my mouth.” She started to crouch down, intending to do just that, but Taelon stopped her.
As much as he wanted to feel those beautiful lips of hers close around his shaft, he’d seen how awkward kneeling and rising was for her with their baby in her belly. It would be doubly so now. She was so tired from the long drive that she had nearly collapsed after her orgasm.
“Don’t stop.” He again covered her hands with his and urged her to continue stroking him. “Please, dashura.” He dipped his head and pressed his lips to hers. “I need you.”
She nodded, her hands tightening, increasing the pleasure.
She liked the ridges on his shaft. He noted it absently as she explored him. Worked him. Learned just what he liked.
His balls tightened and his breath quickened. Taelon braced a hand on the wall behind her, dipped his head, and buried his face in her fragrant hair. So good. Closing his eyes, he imagined himself buried deep inside her, the walls of her warm sheath squeezing him tight, as wet and slick as her hands. Her lips brushed his neck as she pumped faster. Her tongue delivered a sensuous lick. Then she nipped him with her teeth as he had her.
An orgasm tore through him. Taelon moaned, spilling his seed, his hips jerking. Pleasure engulfed him, banishing the pain and leaving him light-headed.
He staggered.
“Taelon?” Lisa cried.
Drek! He shook his head and fought for balance.
“I’m okay.” He wrapped his arms around her, his heart pounding painfully, and hugged her close. Pain crept back in. Darkness threatened, but he kept it at bay. “I’m okay,” he repeated.
As long as he had Lisa, he would be okay.
Lisa fished some antibiotic ointment out of one of the cheap reusable grocery bags she’d bought to cart around their goodies. Taelon reclined on the bed, his back against the wall, supported by pillows. His long legs stretched out before him, brushing Lisa as she sat beside him. After the shower, he’d wrapped a towel around his hips, leaving his chest bare. Lisa had donned a maternity nightgown she’d purchased. It was just too hard to keep a towel wrapped around the bulk of her belly. And even after what they’d shared earlier, she wasn’t yet comfortable enough to walk around naked in front of him.
She unscrewed the top of the tube and squeezed some ointment onto her index finger. “You know, you scared the hell out of me earlier.” Biting her lip, she smoothed the ointment over the angry red incision that began at his sternum and ran all the way down his middle to his belly button.
“In the shower?”
Glancing up, she met his troubled gaze and blushed. “No. I liked the shower.”
He smiled.
“I meant when your nose bled.”
“Oh.” He grimaced. “That.”
She squeezed more ointment from the tube. “Tell me what happened… and how the hell you managed to get out of there without anyone stopping you.”
He sighed. “I followed Agent Walker down to an infirmary belowground. There was a woman sleeping there. Eliana. Walker called her an immortal.”
Lisa frowned. “She was a vampire?”
He shook his head. “They spoke as though vampires and immortals are two different species, but I couldn’t understand the difference between them. The immortal woman was sleeping, but it became clear that she was connected in some way to Roland