Her heart warmed. While Zane might think he wasn’t the sweet kid she’d known in dream worlds, he had a kindness to him nonetheless. “If we’re about to fight, and you know we are, I’m needed in the infirmary. I have to help, too.”
“I can’t concentrate on the job if you’re in danger.” He released one of her legs to run a rough hand through his hair, leaving it tousled. “So you’ll go underground. The second promise I need from you is that you’ll move on if I don’t make it back.”
Her head jerked up, and she ignored the fact that she hadn’t made the first promise. “You’re making it back here.”
“Chances aren’t good. Your scientists are getting closer to finding a cure for Virus-27, and when they do, they’ll be able to manipulate the virus to end other mating aspects if needed.”
Janie swallowed, and hurt bloomed in her chest. A vampire or demon mating was absolute, and any other being that tried to become intimate with somebody else’s mate would become horribly ill. Until the virus was created that negated the mating bond. One day, when it was managed, mates could separate. “You want me with somebody else?” It was stunning how badly that hurt.
“Hell, no.” His nostrils flared. “Not in a million years. Just the thought makes me want to wage war.”
Oh. Well, all right then. Her heart warmed, filled with him. “How about you survive and we figure the future out together?” she asked.
“I’ll do my best.”
She removed her hand to place it on the pillow. “What if you do survive?” He had to survive.
He exhaled slowly. “We’ll have to jump off that bridge if it happens.”
God, she hoped they had a chance together. Her blood began to burn even hotter. For the briefest moment in time, after so darn long, this amazing warrior washers.“So, then. I guess that leaves us with this one night.”
Chapter 17
Everything in Zane stilled. Maybe even his blood. “This one night?”
“Yes.” A very pretty pink flushed up and over Janie’s high cheekbones.
The primal being at Zane’s core stretched awake, and his blood started to hum. “There’s nothing in the world I want more than to spend one more night with you.” She’d been his only friend during his childhood, and when she’d grown, she’d been the woman who tortured his nights and gave him a far-fetched, desperate hope for an impossible future. “Although I’m not looking forward to your family beating down the door.” But for one more time with his Belle, he’d fight them all.
Sweetness lifted her lips. “Nobody will bother us tonight. My mother and aunts have promised me.”
His head lifted. The slow burn inside him burst into a full-blown inferno. “The women do seem to run things around here.”
“Shhh. Don’t tell the vampires.” Janie grinned.
He reached for her and stood, turning to drop into her seat with her straddling him. “You know that’s not how I operate, right?” It seemed only fair to be honest with her.
She reached for the bottom of his T-shirt and tugged the material over his head, humming while tossing it across the room. “Like to be in charge, do you?” she murmured, her gaze on his bare chest, her hands flattening on his pecs.
“I am in charge.” He’d led soldiers for too many years to know any other way. With a quick move, he captured her hands. Her thighs heated his legs, and he spread them, widening her.
She tried to move back, her body tensing as he kept her in place. Open and vulnerable. Intrigue and arousal narrowed her focus, while defiance lifted her delicate chin.
Truth be told, he liked every damn expression filtering across her face. The intrigue and arousal he’d heighten; the defiance he’d tame. The woman took too many chances and failed to understand her limitations as a human—especially since her chromosomal pairs wouldn’t increase overnight. So easy to harm and too easy to end. Just using her hands, he pulled her closer. “Who’s in charge, Belle?” he asked softly.
She frowned and started to spout a denial, so he captured her lips and fused their mouths together. When she didn’t open soon enough for him, he nipped her bottom lip. She gasped, and he dove in. He loved that he could take her, could penetrate her, could really make her his after so much time. For eons, she’d owned his soul.
Janie was good and kind . . . and reckless. Smart as hell and ready to give the world the finger while also sacrificing her life for the greater good.
That he couldn’t allow.
So he took over, showing her strength, providing her a safe place for now. He tasted red wine and woman as he inhaled her, intent on devouring her very essence. Her scent of peaches went right to his head, while her gyrating body shot straight to his cock. Hard and needy, he wanted in her. Now. Yet he kissed her, enjoying her response as she somehow maneuvered closer to him, her core against his groin, her chest plastered against his.
He released her hands and growled low as her nails bit into his bare chest. His mission tomorrow would most likely finish him off, and the ticking clock over his head pushed him to take. But this was Janie, and he needed to go slow. To make sure she remembered him, and more important, that she remembered to be cautious. The woman deserved a long life.
If he could leave her with nothing else, he’d leave her safe.
Finally, when she sagged against him, he allowed her to breathe. “Who’s in charge?” he asked.
