Page 59 of Venomous Heart
“Now eat.” Arlen pulled the roasted meat off the fire. “You need to replenish the energy you lost.”
Ava took what he offered her, nearly burning her fingers on the crackling skin, then bit into it. The meat was every bit as delicious as it smelled, and she was more grateful for it than she had ever been. She ate and ate, not looking up, until she sighed with contentment.
Then she saw Arlen, still holding the second bird.
“What are you waiting for? You should eat. Unless this whole thing was a complicated plan to poison me, of course. In that case, you got me good!”
Arlen laughed, and his face transformed. She had been wrong before. His face wasn’t all harsh angles and hardness. There was something more. A softness around the mouth, a smile at the corners of the eyes. Arlen might be humorless and cold now, but he hadn’t always been. There were still traces of another time in him, in the way his face moved when he laughed.
“You really are a little warrior,” he said after his laughter died down. “Now sleep. You can eat the other one in the morning. You need it more than I do.”
“But aren’t you hungry?” She stared, incredulous, as Arlen carefully placed the bird—still on the spit it had been cooked on—high up on the wall in a crevice between the rocks, away from any animal who might wander in, lured by the promise of an easy meal. “You carried me halfway to the top of a mountain.”
“It’s not a case of how hungry I am, but of who needs nourishment the most.” Arlen smiled at her. It was the first time he’d looked at her like that: not wanting anything from her, not demanding submission or obedience. “You need it more. I can go about two weeks without feeling the effects of lack of nourishment. You, my Little Warrior, cannot.”
As her stomach was filled with food, Ava’s mind went back to their current problem. Her gaze wandered to the opening of the cave, from which a frigid wind blew in. The sky was like black velvet, covering the land in darkness.
“What’s the plan to get into the Vault?” She brought her hands over her arms, rubbing the bare skin. Despite the fire, she was still cold.
“While you slept, I went for a recon as well as my hunt.” Arlen’s eyes went to her arms and the goosebumps that covered her skin. He swallowed, and a cloud wiped the humor from his face. “There is nothing for miles around. This part of Aveyn is completely empty.”
“But I saw a transport vehicle before losing control of mine,” Ava said, remembering the moments before she lost control. “I’m sure of it.”
A quick burst of wind blew inside the cave, frigid and powerful. Ava’s entire body was enclosed in it and she shivered violently.
Arlen’s quick eyes missed nothing. “You are as intelligent as you are infuriating.” His tone was slightly reproachful. “You can’t follow directions, and you can’t admit to any weakness, can you?”
Her heart squeezed almost painfully and her stomach made a somersault as he walked toward her. Her mouth was like sandpaper as Arlen came to sit behind her, then grabbed her shoulders. His hands were big enough that his fingers wrapped around them completely and reached to the front of her chest, just above her breasts.
“What are you doing?” There was a tremor in her voice that she couldn’t control. Suddenly, she was completely aware of his tall, powerful male body pressed at her back. A female need simmered below the surface and Ava squeezed her legs together as a warmth that had nothing to do with the fire spread between her thighs.
“You need to keep warm,” he answered, his breath fanning the side of her face. “You won’t last the night otherwise, and making the fire any bigger risks exposing our presence.”
Ava stared at the fire, its heat radiating on her face, and Arlen’s spreading at her back. Her body filled with delicious sensations as she smiled, anticipation of what was coming already leaving her tingling in all the right places. She turned her head to meet his gaze and was lost in two pools of a blue so pale it was almost lost in the white.
“Lie down, Ava.”
Arlen’s voice was stern and there was something heavy and dangerous in his eyes. She obeyed, her body answering the domination in his call, arousal spreading under her skin as she settled down on the mattress of leaves. Arlen’s leather vest was under her head, his scent mixing with the earthy smell, making her ache to touch him. Behind her, he settled down, his large body covering hers, his arm coming around her waist.
Adrenaline coursed through her veins at the physical contact and Ava started to pant. Her breaths came short and shallow as a familiar wetness spread between her legs. Arlen’s arm moved and his hand came to rest on her stomach, his long, strong fingers digging into her flesh. As soon as he touched her a flood of sensations ran inside through her and a small, tortured sound left her lips.
That sound seemed to rock through Arlen as well. A low, deep growl reverberated at the base of her neck. His hot breath fanned her skin, and she molded her body against his. A hot, impossibly hard bulge pressed against her ass as she wriggled her hips into it.
Arlen’s hand moved lower until he cupped that place between her legs that ached and begged for more. Sensations filled her as he tested her arousal, his fingers digging inside, finding only wetness and need there.
She moved, reaching behind herself and closing her hand over the width of a muscular thigh. She wanted—no, she needed—to touch him.
“After all that disobedience, you’re playing a dangerous game.” Arlen’s voice was hoarse, his lips just grazing her skin as she moaned involuntarily. “You have to be sure you want to play.”
Ava twisted, turning around in his tight embrace.
She locked gazes with him, and it nearly made her falter. His face wasn’t cold and controlled anymore. It was full of an all too male hunger, unbridled and bold. His eyes glowed with a light from within, pale like a full moon.
“Oh,” she said, “but I do want to play.”
* * *
Arlen
