The next hour felt five times longer because of the silence and loneliness and confusion weighing down on Caroline. Reaper had basically dumped her in the hut, grabbed his gun and a few other supplies, and ran into the jungle, leaving her alone and worried.

She usually didn’t do so well alone; she was a naturally sociable person and had preferred the company of others most of her life. And it felt like Reaper had severed the deep emotional connection they’d made with a rusty blade. Why was it so imperative that they get back so quickly? She was safe; he was safe—wasn’t that the whole point? Unless there was something else he was hiding from her . . . Try as she might, she couldn’t figure out what that would be. Sure, her father had to be worried, not knowing whether or not the mission had been a success, but she’d already been missing for months. What was a few more days?

Reaper had healed and so had she—the terrible migraines and rush of sensory overload after that shot of adrenaline had long since faded. Honestly, the worst thing she could come up with was someone from the lab tracking them, but they’d been in this hut for over two days already. If someone from the lab was tracking them, they wouldn’t have waited so long to make a move.

So, what then? What else could there possibly be?

It was dark by the time Reaper returned to the hut. Pacing the small confines in darkness, she’d managed to tie her robe together over her stomach, leaving the deep V of her chest between her breasts completely exposed but covering the necessities.

Reaper, on the other hand, had remained shirtless. He basically prowled back into the hut half naked, just as mouthwateringly sexy as before.

No, Caroline, you can’t think about his impossibly chiseled chest, or how good he felt inside you.

She had to find out exactly what was going on.

Reaper set his pack against the wall and completely ignored her.

Twenty minutes passed and she couldn’t take his silence any longer. “Tell me what’s going on.”

He didn’t bother to look over her shoulder when he answered, “Exactly what I told you. I had to secure the perimeter so we don’t get taken by surprise tonight. I also mapped out the easiest path to our extraction point.”

Caroline bit back the urge to stomp her foot in frustration and forced her voice to remain calm. “Duh, you already told me that. What I need to know is why you were so frantic when I told you how much time had passed.”

If she hadn’t been studying him so intently, she would’ve missed the almost imperceptible stiffening of his shoulders. “Nothing I ever do is frantic. I was simply shocked that I’d been unconscious for so long.”

“Most men would have been unconscious for much longer after that kind of injury.”

He straightened up and spun around so swiftly she stumbled backward a step.

“I am not most men, Princess, in case you haven’t noticed. And I had a timeline set. We missed our extraction.”

Not true. But all she needed to know.

“Is that why you’re so pissy? Because all your careful planning got messed up?” Relief made her shoulders sag. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she’d been concerned he was upset over something she had done. Now she realized it was simply because he was a hard-headed, stubborn man incapable and unwilling of bending. 

“Did you really just call me pissy?” he asked incredulously.

She planted her hands on her hips and stared him down. “Yes, that’s exactly what I said.” She’d gotten so use to his cold, calm, reassuring behavior that seeing this level of emotion from him had frayed her own nerves. And while she should’ve cherished that peek into his chink of armor, she had to admit it had thrown her for a loop. It was a little daunting. Maybe an emotional Reaper wasn’t what she really needed. Maybe she needed to stop trying to delve deeper and accept him for the man that God had created him to be. Her warrior.

Reaper took a step forward, and then another and another, forcing her to back into the wall or be steamrolled. “No man alive has ever dared to call me that.”

If she were smart, she probably would’ve kept her mouth shut, but she just couldn’t resist poking the bear. “I’m not a man, and I’m not scared of you.”

“You should be.” He lowered his head to meet her eyes, his entire demeanor intimidating, almost threatening. His shoulders caged her in; his hardness pressed into her belly.

All thoughts of teasing banished and her thighs quivered in response. Her sex immediately went slick. “Reaper,” she whispered out his name.

Before she could say another word, his mouth slammed over hers and her entire being focused on the feel of his tongue rubbing aggressively over hers. Dear God, he tasted sweet. Everything about him was raw and wild, like the jungle surrounding them.

He was rough and unpolished, but that was part of what made him special. She’d been around too many polished, fake gentlemen in her lifetime. Everything about Reaper was real. And he called out to her soul on a level she hadn’t even realized existed before now.

* * *

He couldn’t stop himself. He needed her more than he needed food, more than he needed the serum to survive. She drove him crazy and yet tormented him with her soft, yielding responses. If she’d resisted at all, he would’ve stopped that very instant and walked away, instead, just like before, she urged him on, pulling him closer, meeting every thrust of his tongue with one of her own.

Dear Lord, help him, but he had to have her again. He yanked the knot free on her robe, easily parted it down the middle, and shoved it from her body, then lifted her, pinning her to the wall. When his fingers found her moist and ready, he nearly came right on the spot. Barely able to function, Reaper aligned himself at her entrance and thrust inside, burying himself to the hilt. She arched and cried out, clawing his back in a way that he was beginning to love. She was so unbidden in her responses, so open and honest in her need. He no longer worried that she wanted him just out of gratitude. Her response to him was exactly as intense as his was to hers, and he could come to only one conclusion. She truly needed him; they needed each other.

More roughly than he wanted, Reaper pulled out and then slammed home, tapping her cervix and stretching her until she clenched around his cock in a near stranglehold. He couldn’t tame his response to her. He couldn’t control anything when it came to her. “Fuck, I can’t get enough of you.”

“I don’t want you to,” Caroline threw her head back against the wall and closed her eyes as he continued to pound into her, over and over, slamming her against the wall, helpless to slow his pace.

He felt that familiar tingle at the base of his spine and his balls tightened up, but he wouldn’t come without her. Reaper was able to pull on his resolve enough to reach between their bodies and thumb her clit. It took him three strokes before she orgasmed, her already impossibly tight sheath spasming. He released with a roar, unable to hold back any more than he could stop himself from breathing.

Exhausted, he let his weight rest against her, his forehead pressed to the wall as he fought to regain enough energy to get them both onto the cot in the corner.

A couple of minutes later, he pulled on his reserves enough to carry her to the cot. He collapsed on top of it and fell asleep with Caroline splayed over his chest.