The rock began to crumble beneath her fingertips and she scrambled for a new handhold.
“Careful.” Christian’s hands closed around her waist and she nearly let go at the jolt of energy his touch brought forth. He must have dragged a crate over.
Goosebumps tingled up her back and she scowled. Damn her body for reacting. She shook her braid over her shoulder and reached up for the torch once more. Her fingers brushed something soft. Something alive.
A long, thin, form materialized out of the shadows with a hiss, cool scales pressing against her skin. With a yelp, she yanked her hand back and lost her footing. Her arms flailed and one hand smacked Christian directly in the face.
“Oof!”
His grip tightened as she tumbled onto him. The momentum threw them backward and a loud crunch filled the air moments before they crashed to the ground.
She lay still, sprawled across his body. “Christian?”
Twisting, she tried to find his face, but her leg tangled with his. He closed his arms tighter around her waist. “Don’t move.”
His voice came out strangled and she froze, imagining the snake coiled on her belly. After a few tense seconds, she relaxed. No snake.
The rise and fall of his chest beneath her brought her senses into full force. Hot breath puffed against her neck and the beat of his heart thumped into her back.Don’t think about it. Don’t...
His bare skin fairly singed a hole through the damp fabric of her blouse. And then she felt it. She was not the only one affected by their close proximity.
Heat flooded through her body. Up to her cheeks. Right back down to coil at her core.
Two choices. Roll off him as gracefully as possible and pretend she hadn’t noticed. Or...
She pressed her eyes closed and remembered how her movements had driven him wild in the sea. Unbidden, her hips clenched, brushing her bottom against his hard length.
“Red.” His voice rumbled in her ear.
Again. A little more deliberate.
This time, he sucked in a sharp breath. “You’ll drive me mad.”
Madness certainly explained her actions. She shouldn’t want this—want him. But she did. If only they could mend the rift between them, they... she bit her lip. No sense hoping for the future, not right now.
But the present? Her lips curved and she dropped her hand to his bare side, trailing her fingers across blazing skin.
He let loose a growl and rocked his hips against her. Before she could blink, his thumbs hooked into her blouse and peeled it up, baring her belly. Her rib cage. Until it bunched over her breasts, trembling in his hands, and the warmth at her core grew into a pressure between her legs.
When he gave one final jerk of fabric, a gasp caught in her throat. She arched her back, trying to press into his touch. Still, his hands hovered over her, just beyond reach. If he didn’t touch her, she would die.
She pressed her bottom against him once more.
And blessedly, the touch she craved came. First, a feather-soft graze of his palms over her nipples. She whimpered, her breaths already ragged.
“Please.”
His fingers closed over her and her head fell back against his shoulder. Every ache, every pain, dulled as her pulse thrummed. And when his teeth closed on the tender skin behind her ear, a happy sigh escaped her.
He moved beneath her, dragging his hands down her sides to rest at her hips. She writhed atop him, twisting her foot beneath a solid calf, and one of his palms crept over her breeches. He splayed it directly over her sex, pressed into her heat.
When she let out a soft moan, he rolled them over. Gold coins tinkled around them as he lowered his face. Full lips brushed hers, and she opened to him, their tongues colliding in a desperate dance.
“Lieutenant?”
The voice echoed around them and Christian froze.
“Are you down there?”
