His pleasure combined with hers, whipping through her senses until she swore she could feel him moving through her soul, possessing her, owning her as nothing or no one else ever could have.
For Jordan, it was like suddenly waking. A part of him that he had never known existed flared to life. With his eyes closed, his teeth gripping her flesh, the taste of her, the scent of her overriding his senses, he knew some integral part of him had changed forever.
And it had happened the moment he saw her sitting before the window as though daring her enemies to strike.
The last ecstatic pulses of his release left him weak, pressed against her, fighting to catch his breath. It left him wondering at the sudden aura of contentment, of satisfaction that raced through his mind.
This was a part of pleasure he had never known before. It was an intimacy he couldn’t have imagined existed.
The last surge of release shuddered through him as reality began to slip past the overwhelming sensations that had surrounded him.
Tehya rested against him, her arms draped over his shoulders, her breathing just as hard, just as rough as his own. Sprawled against the back of the chair, she held him to her, bonds of silk and feminine warmth locking him in place more tightly than chains ever could.
Moving wasn’t something he wanted to do, it was something he made himself do. That inner voice of warning was screaming at him, alarms clashing inside his head at the realization that this one woman was beginning to mean more than any other in the past.
“Don’t leave me yet,” she whispered, the desperate plea in the words tearing through him.
“I’m not going anywhere without you, baby.” As his flesh pulled free of hers and he rose to his feet, it was only to bend to her and lift her in his arms.
Cradling her against his chest, Jordan moved to the carefully turned-down bed and laid her in the center of the soft mattress before removing the rest of his clothing, her gown, and climbing in beside her.
There was no hesitation as she moved into his arms, her head lying against his chest as masses of red-gold curls spilled over his arm and stomach. The warmth of it was like silken chains wrapping around him, holding him in place.
God, what would he do without her?
For the barest second, his breathing paused at the thought. There had never been anyone in his life that he didn’t think he could survive without, until now. And that was terrifying.
“Did you follow them?” Her soft voice pierced him with the underlying fear he sensed in it.
“We followed them,” he answered as he smoothed his hand down her hair, finally allowing his fingers to tangle into the curls that lay over his stomach.
He didn’t want to talk about this. He knew the past was coming back to haunt her, that Gregor Ascarti had been one of the demons who had chased her since she was a child. One that refused to die.
“What aren’t you wanting to tell me, Jordan?” The fear was gone. There was an edge of steel in her voice now, a determination he didn’t particularly want to hear.
“Just lie here with me for a while, Tey,” he sighed. “Let me just hold you for a minute.”
He didn’t want to do this to her. Telling her Ascarti was still alive would be nearly as bad as telling her Sorrel himself had risen from the grave.
“Senator Stanton has been on the phone with Elite Ops Command,” she said, her voice quiet as she spoke of the shadowed group that governed the private multinational group they had been a part of. “He’s trying to get a team out here to back you.”
Jordan shook his head. “We have the backup team, Tehya. I don’t need, nor do I want an Elite Ops team on this.”
Hell, this was just what he needed, having his plans hijacked by a team that would do nothing more than clutter up the protection he’d placed around Tehya.
“Perhaps you should talk to him then,” she suggested, the noncommittal tone of her voice causing him to wince.
That was the tone she adopted when she knew he wasn’t telling her everything. When she knew he had one of his backup plans in progress and hadn’t told her or the team.
“Perhaps,” he answered as he frowned up at the ceiling. “The thing about the senator is that if I tell him to pull back, then, like you, he’s going to know there’s more going on than he’s aware of. And the senator being the senator, he is going to apprise the committee. Then they’re going to get their heads together and attempt to lay insurance that their ass is covered, forgetting in the process that I’m rather good at covering all our asses.”
She was silent for long moments before he felt her breath whisper over his chest.
“Tell me who you saw, Jordan.”
Keeping it from her wasn’t fair. She deserved to know, but hell if he wanted to see the shadows in her eyes after he told her.
“Jordan?” Tension filled the room, as did the memory of the girl he had met eight years before.