Page 15 of Damned
With a growl, Kruze pushed her off-balance and slammed her against the cave wall. His hot mouth swallowed her next words and her breath. His hands cupped her head, and his strong fingers held her in place, as he ravaged her mouth. A wild yearning poured out of him, a hunger, as if he hadn’t eaten in days, maybe years.
And just like their time together in Paris, her frustration vanished, and her resolve melted into a gooey puddle at his feet. But she was no gullible woman this time around. Giving as good as she got, Bree took hold of his jaw and matched Kruze kiss for kiss, lick for lick, and bite for bite. Loving the lush feel of his beard between her fingers, she stroked him, wishing she knew how to tame this fierce beast enough to make him want to stay.
It was easy to get lost in the manly scent of his skin and the taste of his mouth, to forget the lesson she should’ve learned last time. When Bree nipped his upper lip, anguish growled out of him, and Kruze forced his tongue deeper into her mouth. Rocking his hips into hers, he mimicked with his tongue what she wished he were doing to her body.
Bree was in as much torment as he was. Why was she repeating the same mistake she’d made years ago? Why had he jumped her so eagerly, and why on earth had she submitted to him so quickly? Did Kruze know who she was? Had he remembered? Was this how he played his love-’em-and-leave-’em game?
His big hands settled possessively at her waist. My Lord, this man was trembling as if he needed to sit down. Or lay down. As if he were the weaker one.
“You remembered,” she breathed into his hungry, open mouth. Testing him for the truth fueling this intimate conflagration.
“Yes, yes, I remembered,” he replied hotly, his hands slipping under his jacket and up her sides. His fingers came to rest at the sides of both breasts. When his thumbs strummed her nipples, hope eternal sprang to life at what this meant. He remembered! Now she could tell him he was a—
“Of course I remembered not to touch your backside, sugar. I’m the one who pulled those nasty shards of glass out of your ass. How could I forget?”
Ooooh.Kruze rememberedthat. Not…that.
Bree stopped the fervent kiss she’d planned to cover his face with. Needing more space, she let him go and stepped completely out of his warm embrace. She wrapped her arms around herself to keep from shaking, and faced the truth. She—what had he said before? Regrouped? Yes. That was the word. She regrouped. She corralled her wild, foolish dreams and killed the damned things before they betrayed the most important person in her life, who most certainly was not Kruze Sinclair.
Lord, what was it about this man that slipped through her defenses so easily? Not wanting to look at him, Bree dropped her gaze to the ground and wiped his kiss off her lips. She swallowed hard at how foolish she’d been—again.
“Let’s just go,” she told the dirt floor. “The sooner we get out of here, the faster you’ll get back to your life.”But not into mine. You don’t deserve a second of my life. Not anymore.
He stood there, the dolt, confusion flooding his handsome features, as perplexed as she was for the way the heated kiss ended. For a heart-stealing moment, Bree wanted to comfort Kruze. After the heat between them, he had to be shocked at her swift rejection. She surely was.
But wasn’t that what stupid women the world over did? Let the men who’d hurt them before, even though they might not know it, hurt them again? Well, no damned more. Bree had a real life to get back to, and she wanted to be home now more than ever. Not stuck on some mountainside with a careless man who hadn’t the sense to hold onto the one good thing in his life. And she was good, darn him. He just wasn’t smart enough to see it.
“Well, err…” How could such a handsome man sound so pathetic?
Lifting her head, Bree gave it to Kruze straight. “Are we leaving or not?”
The bleak shadow covering his face wasn’t what she expected. But the “Yes, ma’am” that snapped out of his mouth was.
Bree knew she was breaking his heart this time around, but she needed to end this foolishness once and for all. Kruze didn’t deserve her, and he sure as hell didn’t deserve to know her secret. Let him go, set him free, never see him again--that was the only way this foolish dream of hers wouldn’t turn into a nightmare.
Wrapping herself up tight in his oversized jacket, she told him, “Let’s get the heck out of here.”
