CHAPTER 20
ZEPHYR
Three weeks ago
I CLENCHED MY TEETH, AIR WHOOSHING FROM THEM AS DAVINA’S FIST SLAMMED INTO THE THREE LOWER RIBS OF MY LEFT SIDE IN THE OPENING I’D CREATED FOR IT. Pain flared acutely, nearly tipping me off balance, and it took everything in me to keep my feet rooted to the dirt-packed floor.
Focus.
I bulldozed through the dizziness, snaking my arm around her waist. Too close. My senses got overrun. Between the echoing pain and the surprisingly perfect fit of her smaller frame against mine, my soul threatened to leave my body for a heartbeat.
But I wasn’t about to lose the upper hand.
She was off-balance, just how I’d planned, so I swept my leg behind hers, and with a powerful twist of my hip, yanked her feet from the ground.
The next few seconds would be ingrained on my memory forever, living rent-free no matter how this cursed mission ended.
Her head tilted as she fell. Air rushed from my lungs.
We were so close, our noses almost brushing as I leaned in to make her fall, blue eyes wide in shock as she understood how I’d played her.
I grinned.
But she wasn’t done.
It should not have been possible to have such reflexes, such strength in muscles that were much smaller than mine. It took me a second too long to understand what was going on when, with a mighty pull, Davina stole my balance right along with hers.
One second, I had her. The next, my back was meeting the hard ground, air rushing from my lungs in a grunt from the impact. Before I could recover, a warm, tight body landed atop me, stealing what little breath I had left.
Shock rippled through me. I’d been so sure I had her, yet she proved to be the embodiment of the unexpected. For a heartbeat, all I could feel was her. And then her legs locked around my waist and her arm came down, aiming to pin me.
Not a chance.
Before her skin found my collarbones, I caught her wrist on my hand, pulling it to the side as far as my arm could go.
Davina gasped as her weight was moved to the side, losing the leverage she needed to pin me down.
I surged, spinning and twisting her until it was her body that was pinned against the ground under mine.
As it was meant to be.
With my thighs bracketing hers, hips aligned and pushing her into the dirt, and her wrists firmly secured in my grip, there was nothing Davina Lachlan could do to escape my hold. Not that it stopped her from trying, muscles straining as she pushed against me with everything she had.
I had to lean in, closer, heavier, just to keep her still. “Easy, menace.”
She bared her teeth at me, all fire and fury, and it damn near undid me.
Never had I seen anything like her. Far from the uptight, arrogant falcon I’d expected.
She’d been nothing but a pain in my ass since the moment she stepped foot in Kobra, true, but right then, even knowing how foolish it was, I couldn’t help but wish we’d been born allies instead of enemies.
“Yield, Lachlan.”
Her eyes burned fiercely for one more heartbeat, travelling between mine with the speed of a shooting star. The look of a weapon with the face of a woman. Her skin was hot against my palms and we both trembled with effort. Then she deflated, and I knew I finally had her.
“That’s it,” I said, exhaling. And then, thinking of how she always called me her babysitter, I grinned and added, “Like a good girl.”
The words were barely out of my lips when I realized my mistake.
Davina froze, lips parting as a flush rose to her cheeks.
The response from my body was instant, the combination of our proximity and her reaction to the out-of-context words too much for me to subdue.
Heat rushed to my groin and I felt myself grow hard against her.
My widened eyes met hers, and the spark in them snuffed any hopes I might have had of her not realizing what was happening.
Shit.
It was nothing more than a natural reaction, but with our eyes locked, I saw the exact moment she registered it.
Double shit.
There was a shift in her, a tide turning as she let out a rough exhale. I watched as her eyes fell to my mouth, and then her tongue flicked over her lower lip.
I damn near lost it.
Some sort of trance took hold of me, and suddenly all I could do was imagine us in a very different setting.
In a blink, she was bare before me, not a stitch of clothing covering her creamy skin, flushed for an entirely different reason.
I clenched my jaw, cursing under my breath as the pressure in my groin became unbearable.
My gaze betrayed me, dipping despite my resolve falling to her nose, those rosy lips, the swells—
No. I couldn’t afford distractions. Especially not one like her.
Too damn much was at stake.
I blinked furiously, snapping out of the delusion that my devious mind had conjured, but it was too late.
I was off-guard when her hips buckled upwards. Blinded by the increased pressure between my legs, I gave a fully dressed Davina the second of distraction she needed to shake me off. With a brutal twist of her lithe body, she sent me flying.
I grunted as she landed atop me once again.
It seemed Centurion Lachlan was not one to commit the same mistake twice, as was proved by my arms trapped against my sides by her strong thighs.
I moved, trying to shake her off again, but she held her ground.
Her wild mane fell around her shoulder with the struggle, brushing against the side of my face, tickling the sensitive skin where my beard did not shield me.
I took a sharp breath, ready to try again when her forearm fell on my throat, not hard enough to hurt, but to let me know she could choke me before I got the chance to shake her.
Her breath caressed my cheek when she demanded, “Yield.”
And I did.