Chapter 11 #2
She saw him splash knee-deep into the water, reaching for her.
She tried to swim, but she could feel the intense cold already affecting her.
Her movements were sluggish and clumsy. Her breaths had turned into sharp pants.
God, she was so cold, and it hurt. Awkwardly, she shrugged off the weight of her backpack.
She heard a noise. Behind Colm, she saw the creatures appear.
She tried to warn him, but her voice came out as a hoarse rasp.
It didn’t matter—he’d already heard them.
He turned, drawing his sword. In a blinding rush of speed, he launched at their pursuers.
Honor fought to stay afloat and reach the edge, but the current was just too strong. She bumped into something and realized it was a large formation of ice spearing up from the floor. She grabbed it, her hands sliding over the slick surface.
But then she wrapped her arms around it, and stopped herself from being dragged farther away in the flow of the icy river.
She heard the grunts and growls of the animals, and saw Colm fighting with frightening, lethal skill.
He cut down two beasts, blood spraying across the ice and the white fur.
Another roared at him and Colm roared back.
Her teeth chattering, she stared worriedly at his face.
Again, his control seemed gone, and there was a wild warrior left in his place.
He impaled another creature on his sword. Another beast rushed forward and Colm gave it a vicious kick. It stumbled backward, and it was enough time for him to swing his sword around and kill it.
All the beasts were dead.
Honor blinked. She was drowsy with fatigue, her body was numb, and she could barely move her arms and legs anymore.
Colm reached the edge of the water. He was covered in streaks of blood and his face was a lethal, primitive mask. He looked frightening.
She knew she couldn’t stay in the water much longer and survive. And this was Colm. Whatever was wrong with him, she knew he had a core of warrior honor at his heart.
He’d never hurt her.
The water dragged at her and she realized she couldn’t hold on much longer. Any second now, she was going to lose her grip and go under. She looked over at the warrior who’d burrowed under her skin, who made her feel.
She hoped he survived. She hoped he stayed safe.
The next thing she knew, Colm leaped forward. He splashed into the water just a meter from her.
“N-no…” She tried to protest, but her frozen lips wouldn’t move. She saw the blood wash off him, staining the water.
He grabbed her, hauling her to his chest, and then with strong kicks he pushed them to the other side of the tunnel. She looked up into his face. It was a wild mask, with a primitive edge.
He pulled her close, but she was so cold she couldn’t even feel the heat of him.
Colm started to run through the tunnels. She knew he had to be cold, but if it affected him, he didn’t show it.
She wasn’t sure how far they went, but suddenly he stopped. She couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. He set her down, but her legs went out from under her. He growled and caught her, keeping one arm wrapped around her.
There was movement and she heard fabric rustling, but she wasn’t sure what he was doing. She tried hard to open her eyes, but she just couldn’t do it.
He moved her, laying her down and she felt fur against her back. Hands tugged at her clothes.
“No,” she muttered fretfully. “So cold.”
He ignored her, stripping her wet clothes away and leaving her naked. She heard more noises, the clink of Colm’s sword. Then his big, naked body wrapped around her and pulled her close into his arms. He yanked the fur around them.
This time she felt the faint brush of heat. She tried to burrow closer to him. She felt his hands rubbing all over her body, chafing against her freezing skin.
He kept rubbing her with short strokes—up her back, down her sides, along her legs, up her arms. Slowly, so slowly, the heat of him seeped into her, and she started shivering—huge, bone-rattling tremors. She was shivering so hard she worried her teeth would shatter.
Colm held her tighter. Then he started to kiss her. Small kisses along the edge of her hairline, then down her cheek, along her jaw, down her neck.
He kept up those tiny kisses and the long, warm strokes of his hands. Soon the shivering stopped, and the icy pain disappeared. “Tired.”
“Sleep.” His voice still sounded strained. “I’ve got you.”
Colm held a sleeping Honor tightly in his arms.
He’d almost lost her.
Even now, his nanami were still buzzing through his body with rage. Seeing her trapped in the icy water, and unable to get to her while the beasts had attacked him, had almost driven him out of his mind. He barely remembered fighting the creatures. It was just a blur of sound, color, and rage.
When he’d reached Honor, she’d been freezing to death.
She was warm now. He pulled her closer and listened to the steady beat of her heart. He watched her face as she slept and slowly felt the terrible rage in him calm.
He dragged in a deep breath. He had to admit that he was no longer fully in control of his nanami. His arms tightened on her. He’d hoped he’d have many more years before he reached this stage, but it was time to accept that soon, he’d no longer be able to function normally.
He’d become like his father.
His jaw locked. But he would never let himself risk hurting someone weaker.
And definitely not Honor.
She stirred, her hair tickling his nose. This was his last chance to hold her. He would get her back to her people, and then he knew his time was over.
When he returned to Markaria, he’d head to the Northern Wastelands. It was time. Kavon was mated and settled. His friend had turned his estate into one of the most powerful on Markaria.
Colm wasn’t needed anymore.
Honor stirred again. Her cheeks were pink with warmth, and the pinched look was gone from her face. She pressed into him and made a small noise that made his desire rise. She was out of danger now.
And he had to have her.
He rolled her beneath him, settling into the cradle of her thighs. As her eyelids fluttered open, her eyes meeting his, he thrust inside her.
Her mouth opened in a silent cry, more heat filling her cheeks.
Colm moved slowly this time, his nanami strangely calm.
He kept his eyes locked with her green ones.
By the warrior, it felt like she was made for him.
She was tight and slick around him, and he kept plunging his cock into her over and over.
Reaching down, he slid his hand between their thrusting bodies. He touched her, felt where she was stretched around him, and then slid his thumb up to find the tiny nub above. He rubbed it and felt her jerk against him with a husky cry.
He worked her hard and didn’t slow his firm thrusts. A second later, her release hit her, and he watched the emotions skitter across her face.
As her body contracted on his, he couldn’t hold off his own release any longer. Pleasure slammed into him, he thrust himself deep to the root and held himself there as he poured himself inside her.
Colm dropped onto the fur and pulled her close, her legs tangled with his. Then, exhausted, he fell into a light sleep.
When he stirred, he thought he was dreaming. But as he stared at the ice roof above him and felt the warm lips traveling down his body, he realized that this wasn’t a dream.
It was so much better.
Honor was on top of him, her lips tracing a trail down his chest. She stopped every now and then to lick and suck and tease. She nipped at the ridges of his stomach, and he drew in a sharp breath. She scooted farther down and her mouth pressed to his hipbone.
“Time for me to drive you a little crazy, warrior.”
As her hand circled his cock, he wondered if he’d survive this.
When she sucked the head of his cock into her mouth, a strangled growl broke free from his throat.
She licked and sucked, working her mouth down, taking more of his large cock into her mouth. He had to watch. He lifted his head and wasn’t sure he had ever seen anything so arousing as watching Honor pleasure him.
Involuntarily, his hand slid into her hair and he directed her. He urged her to take him a little deeper. Unable to stop himself he bumped his hips up, forcing more of his cock into her mouth.
She didn’t protest. Instead, she made a humming sound that vibrated through him and made him groan.
She pulled back with a pop. “Just let go, warrior, this time I’ve got you.”
Colm had never given up his control to anybody. He’d spent his life honing his control, knowing he’d need it to constrain the wrongness inside him.
But in this moment, this intimate moment with this woman—his woman—he let her take the lead.
As his orgasm hit him, he spilled inside her mouth, his back arching with the most intense sensations he’d ever felt.
For the first time in his life, he worried about nothing but pleasure.