“Until we’re both safe,” she corrected me.
Sure, if that made her feel better. “You won’t have to go back,” I told her. Not while I’m alive, at least. “I promise you that much.”
It seemed to be the right thing to say. Dani blinked, her gaze going a little unfocused on my face. “I never said thank you,” she said.
Fucking hell. Her voice had gone soft and throaty, and that look—no woman had ever looked at me like that. Softness and hero worship and a wild case of pure, roaring lust. She wasn’t trying to hide it, didn’t care if I saw. If I wanted her to, this woman would practically eat me alive. I wondered how many times I could hold out against her, how many times I could turn her down.
I shouldn’t do it. Dani had been through some serious shit. She was still going through it, and would be for a while. Yet my blood roared to life again and my cock was very fucking hard.
Still, I’m not a complete fucking asshole, so I only said, “You’re welcome.”
She smiled. It was perfectly feminine, that smile, open and unfathomable at the same time. Maybe she was some kind of victim, Dani was, but in that moment she didn’t look it. “Cavan,” she said.
“Baby,” I told her, “I want to. Believe me. But you’ll hate me if we do what you’re thinking about, and that isn’t going to work for either of us.”
In response she leaned forward, lifted herself on an elbow, and put her lips to my neck. Just that touch, her mouth on my skin, soft and perfect, moving up the side of my neck toward my ear. “Thank you,” she whispered.
I did it gently, but I did it. I rolled over, pressing her onto her back on the bed, pinning myself over her. She gave in so easily. I notched my hips between hers and she opened her thighs, pressing against me. We fit together like two puzzle pieces, even though I wore jeans and she wore a towel. I moved my hips and rubbed against her slowly, watching her eyes go hazy.
“This?” I asked, my voice hoarse. “Is this how you want to thank me?”
Her reply had no hesitation. “I want to do anything you want.”
Those words hit my bloodstream and went straight to my cock. I pushed into her again, feeling her push back, feeling the way it squeezed me tight in my jeans. I dropped my head to the crook of her neck, smelling the clean smell of her silky hair. “I don’t want gratitude,” I said.
She was riding me now, her hips pressing up into mine, her legs open as she made a slow rocking motion. She reached up and ran her hands up the back of my neck, into my hair. “Good,” she said in that sex-drenched voice of hers. “Because I already thanked you.”
We were locked like that, twisted together, half fucking and half struggling, when her cell phone rang.
We both went still. Her body tensed beneath me and her hips stopped moving. I could hear her breathing. The phone shrilled on the night table, buzzing against the wood and beeping.
We both knew who that was. And suddenly, I was angry. Fucking furious. That McMurphy had had this woman and treated her like dirt. That she still had something good and whole inside her—I was seeing it right now—that he was trying to kill. That he wanted nothing more than to take what was still there and ruin it.
Without moving off Dani, I reached for the nightstand and grabbed the phone, sharp as a cobra strike. The caller ID said MCMURPHY. I thumbed the answer icon and said, “What the fuck do you want?”
“Wilder.” McMurphy’s voice was blazing. “So it is you who took off with her. I thought so when we couldn’t find you this morning. You’re a fucking dead man.”
“Yeah, it’s me,” I told him. “She left with me, McMurphy. She’s gone. Get the fuck over it.”
“You’re both dead,” he shouted. A string of invective followed, including the words that cunt and kill that bitch and cheap slut in a cheap hotel room and rip your guts out, you cheating fuck. I watched Dani’s face go pale beneath me. We were so close she could hear every word.
“McMurphy,” I said. “Shut up. Just shut up. She left you. Get it? It’s done. Go fuck yourself.” My eyes still on Dani, I hung up and threw the phone across the room, listening to it hit the wall. Then I did what we both wanted. I leaned down and kissed her.
It was an urgent kiss, harsh. She moaned in the back of her throat and bit my lip as I opened her mouth and tasted her, our tongues tangling. I kissed her so fucking hard I could have drawn blood, and she liked it so much she bucked beneath me, grinding against me, looking for release. I pushed her back down into the mattress and dragged my hand up her thigh and beneath the towel, paying close attention to her reaction. She moaned again and opened her legs wider, inviting me, so I touched her.
She was wet. So fucking wet. I slid my fingers over her, tracing, rubbing, exploring her sensitive spots. She broke the kiss and breathed hard, her hands gripping the back of my neck.
“Cavan,” she begged after a minute.
“Ssh,” I told her, rubbing gently. “Relax, baby. Let me help you out.”
She arched back into the pillows as I swirled circles over her clit with the tips of my fingers. “Like that,” she said in a strangled voice. “Oh—fuck. Like that.”
It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen, her telling me what to do. “Impatient,” I said, my fingers leaving her clit—she groaned in frustration—and moving down, pressing into her. I could smell clean sweat and woman and sex. I wanted to fuck her, and yet at the moment that wasn’t right. At the moment I wanted to touch her, to learn her. My life had been a long, lonely, meaningless stretch, and never once had I touched a woman like it was the most important thing in the world, like our lives would end if I didn’t get this right, make her come. So I took my time to make it right.
I slid two fingers into her, rubbing until I could tell she was getting there, and then my thumb found her clit again, the pad touching it lightly, moving in that circle she liked so much. Dani reacted by crying out as I said soothing things in her ear. She was completely uninhibited, giving me everything, and in those moments I took it. I took it because it was the most important thing I’d ever been given.
“Perfect,” I told her softly as she climbed higher and higher. “You’re fucking perfect right now, Dani. Just let go and let it come. You feel it? You feel good? I can make it so good for you, baby. Just this, right here, my fingers in your pussy. It’s perfect. Let it come.”