Why shouldn't she go hide out on a tropical island, lounging on the beach while hot cabana boys served her fruity drinks with umbrellas all day? She'd more than earned it. With every step she took towards G.o.d only knew where, the idea of running off to hide on a tropical island and getting over the jerk behind her sounded better and better.

Granted, she didn't have her ID, credit cards, bankcard, cash or clothes for that matter, but those were all minor problems that could easily be taken care of with a quick call to the agency. They wouldn't be happy that she was taking a vacation, but she really didn't care since her career as a home care nurse was probably over now. Since she doubted that there was a high demand for home care nurses that lived off blood and had an army of monsters after her, she was probably going to have to quit.

She hated quitting, but she really didn't have much of a choice in the matter. She wouldn't put anyone else at risk, not even the jacka.s.s walking next to her, who wasn't even trying to hide that c.o.c.ky grin of his.

"So, you're in love with me, huh?" he suddenly announced, taking her off guard so that she didn't see the branch lying across her path until it was too late.

Without missing a step, Christofer reached out, caught her elbow and steadied her while she tried to figure out an appropriate response that wouldn't include the words, "f.u.c.k" and "off." Since she couldn't seem to make her frustrated brain work, she settled for just pretending that he hadn't called her out on the stupidest thing that she'd ever done.

"Nope," she said, lying her frustrated a.s.s off.

"Really?" he asked, still sounding smug.

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"Really."

"I see," he murmured, sounding thoughtful as she distracted herself with everything that she was going to have to do in order to get some semblance of a life back.

She was going to have to find some clothes, get her hands on a computer and have some money wired to her. Then she was going to have to hole up in a hotel for a few days while she waited for the agency to ship her emergency pack to her. It was something that the agency required of every employee that lived out of a suitcase. The pack held duplicates of her ID, bankcards, credit cards, pa.s.sport and birth certificate. It was a safeguard just in case things got lost or stolen, or you were a.s.signed to a patient with dementia who liked to set things on fire, which happened to her, twice.

"Where are you headed off to?" Christofer asked conversationally as he reached out and pushed a branch out of her way.

"To find a good travel agent," she said, storming off.

"Running away from our love?" he asked, making her lips twitch despite the fact that she wanted to kick him in the b.a.l.l.s.

"Something like that," she said, trying to keep a straight face, but that d.a.m.n boyish grin of his had her heart skipping a beat.

"So, isn't this the part of the story where you start sobbing hysterically as you profess your undying love for me and start worshipping my body with your mouth?" he asked, sounding so d.a.m.n hopeful that she couldn't help but laugh.

d.a.m.n him!

She was supposed to be pushing him away for his own good, not finding him irresistibly charming and sweet. Normally she didn't have a problem getting a guy to split, but with Christofer she couldn't seem to make the stubborn b.a.s.t.a.r.d let her go. Granted, she hadn't tried the direct route, something that she normally saved as a last resort when a guy just didn't seem to comprehend that she'd grown bored and moved on.

It wasn't something that she wanted to do, not with Christofer, but if it meant keeping him safe then- "Or, maybe this is the part of the story where I confess that I am head over heels in love with you and can't imagine living a single day of the rest of my life without you," he confessed, all signs of humor gone from his tone as he took her by surprise, sent her heart skipping and her brain turned to mush, which was probably how she missed the fact that the trail that she was following veered off to the right of a steep incline.

Chapter 45.

"You're an a.s.shole," Cloe declared as she shoved away from him and awkwardly climbed to her feet so that she could continue to storm away from him as though they hadn't just fallen fifty feet down the hill that he hadn't seen coming until the last second.

"You're welcome," he said dryly as he pushed off the ground and sat up.

"I'm welcome?" she repeated in disgust as she whirled around and stormed back over to him so that she could glare down at him through beautiful red eyes. "I wouldn't have fallen down that hill if it wasn't for you!"

"How is it my fault that you tripped over your own two feet?" he asked innocently, loving the scent of anger rolling off her. Not because he was a sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but because beneath the scent of anger was arousal.

G.o.d, she smelled f.u.c.king fantastic.

Okay, maybe he was a sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d, because he couldn't help but smile as the scent of her anger intensified right along with the scent of her arousal. He shifted back a bit until he felt his back come in contact with the large boulder behind him. He sighed with satisfaction as she glared down at him. He could smell the blood rushing to swell her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and harden her nipples and wondered if she'd consider letting him feed from her there one day. Probably not, but just the thought of feeding from her as he suckled her nipple had his c.o.c.k hardening painfully.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" she hissed, as he relaxed back against the boulder, licking his lips as he smelled her s.e.x swell.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but abruptly shut it, narrowed her eyes on him and then with a snort of disgust, demanded, "Are you f.u.c.king kidding me?"

"Hmmm?" he murmured, barely registering her reaction or the fact that she'd moved closer to him so that she could glare down at him.

"You're getting turned on? Now?" she demanded, the sound of disgust in her voice should have been enough to knock some sense into him, but sadly, it wasn't.

"Yes," he answered with absolutely no shame as he ran his eyes over her, devouring every last detail from her hair tangled with tiny sticks and leaves down to her dirt smudged face, the torn blanket covered in dirt and gra.s.s stains that she had wrapped around her body all the way down to her beautiful dirt smudged feet.

"Seriously?" she snapped, looking down at herself in disgust. "I look like I was dragged through a tornado and this is turning you on?"

He reached up and grabbed her hand, giving it a gentle pull before she could react. He yanked her down on top of him, giving her the choice to straddle him or fall over. "You always turn me on," he admitted, reaching up and cupping the back of her neck. He pulled her down for a kiss as she settled on his lap, the blanket bunching up around her hips to accommodate the move.

"You are a deeply disturbed individual," she whispered against his lips as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and threaded her fingers through his hair as she returned his kiss.

"Yes, I am," he said, dropping his hands to her bare legs where the blanket bunched and running his hands up her smooth legs, forcing the blanket up even higher until he came in contact with her cotton panties.

She ended the kiss with a sigh as she sat back on his thighs, putting some s.p.a.ce between them, which was probably for the best given the situation. "We should get going."

"Yes, we should," he said, sighing heavily because he knew that she was right.

They should be moving their a.s.ses, finding a car and getting as far away from here as possible, but the problem was, he had no idea where they should go. For the first time in his life he had the freedom to go and do whatever he wanted, but all he wanted to do was to find someplace to keep Cloe safe and he had no clue where that was.

"Do you think they've gotten loose yet?" she asked quietly, dropping her arms from his shoulders so that she could toy with his shirt.

He focused on the forest around them, listening for any signs that they were being hunted, but after a minute he shook his head and murmured, "No."

"They're probably going to be p.i.s.sed when they get free," she said, all of her attention zeroed in on her fingers as they toyed with the hem of the tee shirt that someone had dressed him in when he'd been knocked out.

"Probably," he agreed, thinking about everything that they'd told him and now that they'd escaped, a sense of unease settled over him, making him wonder if he'd f.u.c.ked up by taking Cloe away.

"Do you think it's true?"

"What's true?" he asked, reaching up and pushing a strand of her tangled hair behind her ear.

"About what they said about a shifter marking me," she said, swallowing nervously as she shifted her gaze up to meet his.

He bit back a sigh as he reluctantly nodded and moved his hands to her shoulders, moving them down her back as far as the blanket would allow, needing to offer her some comfort for the pain she'd gone through. He didn't think they were lying. He wasn't foolish enough to think that their group was above bulls.h.i.tting them to get what they wanted, but because of what Seth had explained to him. Seth, s.h.i.t! He hadn't thought of the vampire since this whole thing started. He owed it to the vampire after all these years of helping him keep his sanity to make sure that he was okay.

Just as soon as they were settled, he would........

"What the h.e.l.l?" he muttered as his hands moved over smooth skin. Heart pounding in his chest, he leaned forward, jerked the blanket away from her and turned her just enough so that he could get a good look at her back. What he saw there had him swallowing back a curse as he traced her back with trembling fingers.

"What?" Cloe asked, shifting anxiously on his lap. "What the h.e.l.l is going on?"

"Your back," he choked out.

"What about it?"

"The scars.....," he said, shaking his head in an attempt to make sense of what he was seeing. "They're gone."

"Gone?" she asked, her tone disbelieving as she reached back and ran her fingers over her back, looking for scars that were no longer there.

"Oh, my G.o.d," she said, her voice breaking with emotion. "How did they do that?" she asked, wrapping her arms around her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s as she sat back down on his thighs, but she wouldn't look at him, probably afraid that he'd see her eyes tearing up.

When he hesitated, she looked up at him through watery eyes. "How?" she demanded through clenched teeth.

"They had to burn them off," he said, forcing himself to look at her when all he wanted to do was to drive his fist through something at the idea of someone hurting her, no matter the reason.

She stilled even as her beautiful grey eyes shifted to a glimmering red, her fangs dropped and her eyes narrowed on him. "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d set me on fire?"

s.h.i.t, he thought, trying not to wince when he realized that she'd still been pa.s.sed out when Kale made that revelation. "It was the only way to remove the mark," he said, praying like h.e.l.l that was true otherwise the woman leaning forward as she released one of the s.e.xiest growls that he'd ever heard was going to rip his b.a.l.l.s off.

"Then why are we running?" she demanded, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Because," he said, sighing as he leaned forward so that he could brush his lips quickly over hers in a way of apology for not taking better care of her, before he sat back, "there are other ways of finding you."

She scrunched up her face adorably in thought as she thought it over before she slumped in defeat with a pout. "My identification and bank cards," she said with a slight whine that he would find annoying in any other woman, but when she did it he couldn't help but smile.

"Yes," he said, nodding in agreement as he reached over and entwined their hands together. "If they're looking for you now, there's a good chance that they're watching your bank activities," he explained, wondering if whoever was looking for her had tracked her to his house.

"Do you think they know that we're together?" she asked quietly, sounding worried.

He shook his head as he leaned in for another kiss. "It doesn't matter."

"And why doesn't it matter?" she asked, sounding a little distracted as she wrapped her arms around him and followed him as he leaned back, nibbling on his bottom lip as though she couldn't quite help herself.

"Because," he said, releasing her hands so that he could wrap his arms around her, "I'm not going anywhere."

He moved to deepen the kiss only to find Cloe pushing away from him and once again sitting back on his thighs, averting her gaze. "Don't make promises that you can't keep."

"I'm not going anywhere, Cloe," he said firmly, in no mood to argue with this woman over something that should be painfully obvious by now.

"You don't know that, Christofer," she said, looking up to meet his gaze. "Things happen, people change."

"That's true, Cloe," he agreed as he looked into her beautiful grey eyes that were so full of pain that his heart actually ached for her. "But, nothing's going to change the way that I feel about you."

She shook her head. "You don't know that, Christofer. It might not happen in a day or even a week, but at some point you're going to get bored, or get sick of me and you're going to move on," she explained before adding with a shrug, "It happens."

He wasn't going anywhere, ever, but in that moment he realized something very important. Words didn't mean s.h.i.t to Cloe. A lot of people probably made her promises, promises that they'd probably had every intention of keeping, but hadn't. Cloe obviously learned that a person's actions meant more than their words, so instead of arguing with her or making her promises that would only push her away, he was going to show her. He would show her how much he loved her, how much he cared about her and wanted her so that she would never have reason to doubt him again.

He would show her just how much he loved her.

"Then let's just focus on today," he said as he cupped her beautiful dirt smudged face in one hand, his thumb gently caressing her cheek.

"Just today," she said, sounding relieved as she allowed herself to lean into his touch. "And what exactly is the plan?"

"That's a d.a.m.n good question," he said, leaning in so that he could brush his lips against hers, paying special attention to the plump bottom lip that drove him crazy.

"As much fun as it is to run around the woods wrapped in a dirty blanket, I think that we need to find some new clothes and a safe place to figure out a few things," she suggested.

"Well," he said, pulling back so that he could gaze down at her pretty b.r.e.a.s.t.s that were just begging for his attention, "since I always manage to think better when I'm inside you......" He grinned, letting his words trail off as he pushed the blanket away from her.

"How exactly do you always think better inside me when you've only been inside me once?" she asked, her eyes flashing red as her nipples hardened with renewed interest.

"It's hard to explain, but," he said with a drawn out sigh as though what he was about to suggest pained him, "I'd be willing to show you."

"That's very generous of you," Cloe murmured as she reached for the hem of his shirt and yanked it up and over his head until it was flying in the air and landing somewhere behind her.

"I do what I can," he said, hooking his thumbs in the waist of her panties and with a flick of his wrists, tore them clean from her body to join his shirt.

"And being inside me....?" she prompted, letting her words trail off as she reached down and flicked his pants b.u.t.ton open.

"Is important to the planning process," he explained, cupping her bare hips as he leaned back against the rock and watched as the little tease took her time pulling his zipper down.

She sighed heavily as she exposed the large bulge hidden behind his boxers. "Then I guess we should do a thorough job."

Chapter 46.

Now this, she thought as she pulled down his pants as he arched up to make it easier for her, was more like it. This was a temporary distraction and exactly what she needed right now.

Well, that wasn't entirely true since what she really needed was to find a way out of the woods and out of this horrible situation. For right now though, she'd settle for slowly pulling his pants down to expose the large erection that was going to give her a momentary reprieve from this nightmare. She'd deal with trying to get her life back later. Right now, she just wanted this, wanted to be with Christofer, lose herself in his touch and the pleasure that he gave her.

Right now nothing else mattered but the two of them.

"Are you planning on teasing me the entire time?" he asked, but he didn't sound mad. He sounded intrigued and that turned her on a h.e.l.l of a lot more than she thought it would.

She'd never been one to play around in bed or to draw out pleasure since she usually used s.e.x to forget the past, her life and pretend that her future didn't matter. s.e.x had always been a fun way to work off some excess energy and get off. She'd never taken her time to be playful, not even with Aidan.

He'd been great in bed, but he'd been focused on getting inside her and getting her off. Aidan had taken s.e.x seriously and until last night, so had she. But now, she wanted to be playful, to take her time and to enjoy every second that led up to what she hoped would be another earth shattering o.r.g.a.s.m and it was because of the man watching her every move through shimmering red eyes.

"Yes," she said, loving the power she had over him and she knew without question that she had him wrapped around her little finger.

She couldn't exactly call him whipped, and didn't want to because that term didn't fit Christofer. She hated guys that were whipped, because it was a huge turnoff to be with a guy missing his spine, but with Christofer......