“I like it when you babble,” he said. “It’s cute.”

“Cute?”

Yep, as expected, a mortal offense. He loved it when she had that spitting-mad cat thing going on. He didn’t bother with banter, because frankly, his blood had already started to heat from just thinking about the boulder scenario. How would she react if he grabbed her right now and… f**k it. He’d find out for himself.

Stepping into her, he caught her around the waist and pushed her up against the smooth rock surface and parked himself between her legs.

“Arik,” she gasped, and he went impossibly hard at the sexed-up sound of his name coming from her perfect mouth.

“Shh…” He pressed a series of kisses to her neck, tasting the fresh water and the sun on her skin.

“But I need to—”

He closed his hand over her breast, and she sucked air. “I know what you need,” he said against her throat, and when she opened her mouth to talk again, he bit down, some weird, driving need to possess and d po“ominate taking over his entire body.

She melted against him, and with her capitulation, his inner animal howled in victory. Her hands gripped his ass and dug in as she arched, allowing him unlimited access to her br**sts and putting her sex against the ridge of his c*ck through the fabric of their clothes. They’d been in this position before, on her bed… but he’d been out of it. This was much better. Much more real.

“Do you like this?” He rocked his erection into her, groaning at the hot friction tempered by the cool breeze around them.

“N-no,” she breathed, rolling her h*ps to increase the sensation.

He licked her neck. “Liar. Remember what I said about that?”

His fingers found the bikini ties around her neck, and in a few nimble twists of his fingers, he had the knot untied, and the top fell off, landing on the ground beside them. He bent to taste her rosy ni**les as Limos’s hands slipped under the waistband of his pants to grip his ass. Her nails scored his skin, and he wished she’d do it harder. Or slide those soft palms around front.

As if she could read his thoughts, she sank her nails deep, and then dragged them around to his hips. A low sound erupted from his throat when her thumbs smoothed the sensitive skin of his pelvis on either side of his shaft, and he held his breath, waiting for her to touch him where he needed it so badly.

When her hands stopped moving, he thought he might die of anticipation. For a long, agonizing moment, she didn’t move. Okay, she was afraid. Maybe he was moving too fast. He could do slow, no matter what his body was telling him.

“I’m scaring you,” he whispered.

“I’m… a Horseman,” she whispered back.

He pressed a lingering kiss into the coconut-scented skin between her br**sts. “You’re a woman. A gorgeous woman who has experienced everything except this, and you aren’t sure what to do. You’re not used to that feeling.”

“I hate that.” Her voice was a low, pleasured moan. “I hate how you call me out on things, like you know me better than you do.”

He smiled. “You love it, and you know it. Keeps you on your toes.” He dragged his tongue leisurely under the swell of one breast, and then gave the same treatment to the other. Limos practically purred, but her hand remained tamely frozen. He repeated the action, this time pausing to suck first one nipple deep into his mouth, and then the other. Another moan, but no movement.

He wasn’t experienced with virgins, but he knew how to loosen up a woman, and he kept up the tongue action, licking and suckling her sensitive skin, her sweet gasps mingling with the calls of the jungle birds and the soothing splash of the water around them. She didn’t seem to notice when he unbuttoned her skirt and unwrapped it, leaving her in a yellow bikini bottom.

Jesus, she was exquisite. A one-two punch of deadly and sexy that made his instincts whack out with the need to rip the bottoms off and take her. But he had too much respecoo quit for women and too much military training to let his base desires rule, and he tugged her against him and bent to put his mouth to her ear.

“I’ve dreamed about this,” he growled. “I dreamed of all the things I’d do to you. But in none of my fantasies were you a virgin.” He nipped her earlobe, and she gasped sweetly. “I would have killed anyone who made my sister regret her first time, so yeah… you call the shots here.”

All of a sudden, she tore out of his arms and scrambled away from him, backing up on a grassy bank, panting and eyeing him as if he’d sprouted horns. “I can’t.”

Confused as hell, he eased up to her, slowly, because with every step he took, she breathed harder and looked like she was going to bolt. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

She wrapped her arms around herself, covering her br**sts. “It’s not that. I want to. You don’t know how badly I want to.”

“Then what?” He cursed as the answer popped into his head. “Your fiancé.”

He’d never been one to poach, but this was different. It wasn’t poaching when the male in question was the evilest scumbag to ever exist. Then again, that was about the best reason not to poach there ever was.

“Sort of.” She swallowed audibly, her throat muscles working hard as her hands went to her bikini. Almost mechanically, she shoved the bottoms down and stepped out of them.

Holy shit. The sight took his breath. Her tan skin was perfect, unmarked. Her h*ps were slim, slightly flared, and the place between her muscular thighs was bare.

And around her h*ps was the most amazing piece of jewelry, a delicate gold and pearl chain that fit like string thong underwear. How he’d love to run his tongue over every pearl, following the chain to the one pearl that mattered. After he made her come with his mouth, he’d move the chain aside and enter her… God, he could practically feel those smooth little jewels caressing his shaft as he pumped into her.

“You’re gorgeous,” he managed, noticed he’d moved closer.

“Don’t touch,” she said, stepped back and bumped into a tree. “This—” she hooked her thumbs under the chain at each hip—“is a chastity belt. Only my husband can remove it.”

He frowned. “How is it a chastity belt?”

“If any male touches it with bare skin, it turns into something like razor wire. It severs toes, fingers… cocks.”

Well, if that didn’t just shrivel him up and make his balls crawl up inside his body. “What about you?”

“It hurts.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, but given how the thing was placed… yeah, no wonder she didn’t want males to get close.

He reached for her, careful to keep his lower body away from that beautifully deceptive bit of jewelry, but she lashed out, shoving him away.

“Don’t! Don’t you get it? You can’t touch me.”

“Dammit, Horseman, I didn’t get tossed into Sheoul for nothing. We’ll find a way to work around this.”

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Are you saying I owe you? You want me to work off all your torture?”

“What? No. Jesus, you’re cynical. I’m saying that I’m a stubborn son of a bitch, and I’m not going to let those skin-peeling, razor-slicing, ass-raping bastards win. I wanted you then, and I want you now. You saved my life and you nursed me back to health. I can’t be angry anymore.”

Don’t,” she rasped. “Don’t make me better than I am.”

What the hell did that mean? He was about to ask, when twin flashes lit up the area. Instinctively, he wheeled in front of Limos as two huge, armored males popped out of summoned Harrowgates. Ares and Thanatos looked at him, looked at Limos, and sized up the situation in less time than it took an M-16 bullet to strike a target at thirty yards.

In all the time Arik was in the torture chamber, he suspected he’d die.

This time, he knew he was dead.

Fifteen

Ares and Thanatos moved before Limos could blink. In a coordinated swoop, Thanatos grabbed Arik while Ares blocked her. She couldn’t see beyond Ares’s broad shoulders, but she heard growls, grunts, and then a splash.

“Dammit!” Swiping her fingers over her throat, she armored up, covering her na**dness, and slammed Ares out of the way. He grabbed her, but she kneed him hard enough in the groin for him to loosen his grip. She used the split second advantage to lunge for Thanatos, who held a struggling, splashing Arik under water.

“Stop it!” she screamed. “You’re killing him.”

Than’s eyes glowed with golden death. “Yes.”

Shit. Once Than went into killing mode, he was nearly unstoppable. There was no time to reason with him, so she tackled him, grabbing him around the waist and knocking him off balance. It was enough for Arik to get his head above water for a deep, choked breath, but then Thanatos was back at his task, brushing off Limos as if she were no more than a pesky fly.

Ares came at her, and she was done being nice. In an instant, she drew her sword and swung it in a broad arc. Her aim was perfect, and the reverberation from the impact of metal meeting the flesh and bone in Than’s neck jolted her arms. Blood sprayed, coating the sword, turning the water around them red. Thanatos yelped, releasing Arik to slap his hands over the gushing wound.

She ignored his curses and Ares’s shouts of “What the hell, Limos?” and hauled Arik up from the water. He surfaced, gasping for air, relief and furyhe alternating in his expression.

“You jackasses!” she snapped, and then found herself holding Arik back from trying to take a piece out of Than as her brother fought to keep from bleeding out. Oh, her strike wouldn’t kill Than even if he did bleed out, but it would take a good day for him to regenerate. “Arik can’t be allowed to die. You know that!”

Ares snarled, his hand poised over his sword, his furious gaze fixed on Arik. “What was he doing to you?”

“Nothing I didn’t want.” Ares’s hand dropped to the hilt, and Limos, who never panicked… panicked.