“Don’t hesitate to use this if you need to,” he instructed her in a low, cold voice, the sexy lover she’d known only seconds ago replaced by this hard, focused warrior. “It won’t kill them, but if you aim for the head, it’ll put them out of commission for a while.”

  If the wolves were to somehow breach the bunker, they both knew she wouldn’t be able to shoot them all, but neither of them said it. And at the moment, she just didn’t care. She was too freaking concerned about the safety of his neck to worry about her own.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked in a choked voice. “What’s happening?”

  “There’s a fairly large air vent that’s connected to the kitchen ceiling. I didn’t think they would find it, but it sounds like one of those bastards is trying to get it open.”

  “Oh God,” she gasped, setting the gun down so that she could wrap one of the thin blankets around her naked body as she sat on the edge of the bed.

  “If I can kill him,” Nick said, heading back over to the cabinet, “I should be able to set off a small explosion that will seal the vent.”

  “But if there’s a vent, why can’t we use it to escape?” she asked, watching him slip a different gun into the back of his jeans, then pull what looked like a heavy black toolbox out of the bottom of the cabinet.

  “We can’t escape through it,” he muttered, “because it leads right back into the tunnel they’re blocking.”

  “Oh. But if you set off an explosion to block the vent, won’t it cut off our air?”

  He cut a swift glance toward the clock on the wall. “We’ll be okay. There are other, smaller vents that will provide us with enough oxygen.”

  He didn’t say they wouldn’t be staying in the bunker much longer anyway. But she knew that’s what he was thinking. Before she could ask him to explain what he had planned for the two of them if his brothers didn’t arrive in time, he came over, leaned down to put a hard, much-too-brief kiss on her lips, then left the room in another one of those dizzying bursts of speed.

  And the door to the kitchen was slammed shut behind him.

  No! Lainey immediately ran to the door, but Nick had locked it from the other side. “You jackass!” she screamed, unable to believe he would just go like that. She’d planned on being right there with him, never letting him out of her sight. Damn it, she hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell him goodbye! What if he didn’t come back? What if he died in there with that freaking monster and she never saw him again?

  Sobs rose in her throat, wrenching and raw, as she banged her fists against the door. Then she suddenly remembered that there’d been a second entrance into the bathroom, which she could use to reach the narrow room he used for surveillance, and enter the kitchen from that direction. But when she reached the bathroom door, she screeched with fury to find that it had also been locked.

  “Damn you, Nick,” she croaked, her eyes blinded by tears as she made her way back into the main room, the blanket that was still wrapped around her body dragging on the floor behind her. Though the sounds were muted, she could tell some kind of fight was taking place up in the vent. Then she heard the loud thwump of a gun being fired, followed by a guttural, bone-chilling roar of pain.

  Oh God… Oh God. Please don’t let that be Nick. Please! Please! Please!

  If she’d had any doubt that what she felt for him was real, and not just an intense, overwhelming case of lust, the devastating depth of her fear for his safety suddenly made things perfectly clear.

  Nick Santos didn’t just mean something to her – he meant everything.

  A few seconds later, a quick explosion went off, powerful enough to make her worry for the integrity of the bunker. But the walls and ceiling held their shape, refusing to buckle. She started to pace, frantic with worry, until the door to the kitchen finally opened and Nick stepped back into the room. While remnants of smoke billowed behind him, he just stood there with his hands fisted at his sides, his massive body glistening with blood and sweat. And as his dark gaze locked on hers with a fierce, visceral look of hunger, Lainey couldn’t help but tremble in reaction.

  She swiped at the tears on her cheeks, and though her throat was shaking, melting with emotion, she somehow managed to say, “I was so freaking scared for you, Nick. Don’t ever lock me away from you again! If you’re going to be in danger, then I can damn well be in danger with you.”

  She thought he would say something sarcastic, like tell her she was crazy or delusional, but he didn’t. He didn’t say anything at all. Instead, he kept his mouth shut…and used his battle-hardened body to convey what he was feeling.

  One instant he was just standing there, staring at her with that blistering gaze from across the room, and in the next a hard, primitive growl rose up from his throat and he was on her, tearing the blanket away as he took her down to the bed. He ripped his jeans open with one hand, then wrapped a strong, powerful arm around her hips to lock her in place, and shoved his huge cock inside her, going hard and thick and impossibly deep. She screamed from the shock and a sharp burn of pain, but it was rapidly fading, any discomfort she’d felt almost immediately drowned out by the unbelievable surge of pleasure she was experiencing at having him inside her…a part of her.

  Gasping for breath, she managed to moan, “God, Nick. You’re, um…really deep.”

  It was taking every ounce of Nick’s strength to hold himself perfectly still as he braced his upper body on one bent arm, being careful not to crush her. “You want me to stop?” he scraped out, shuddering from the way her hot little cunt was rippling around him. He’d only just gotten inside her, and the mouthwatering woman was already on the cusp of orgasm.

  “No. Don’t you dare stop!” she cried, digging her nails into his rigid biceps.

  “You want all of me then?” Lowering his head, he buried his face in the tender curve between her neck and shoulder, undone by the way she felt beneath him…around him. “You want me to fuck you with every inch, Lainey? You want them all?”

  “God, yes!”

  “If I do, I won’t go easy on you,” he groaned, feeling it was only fair to warn her. She was so hot and tight and perfect, he knew he was going to have even less control than he’d shown so far once he got going.

  “Go easy on me?” With no idea of the danger she was courting, the crazy, beautiful, fascinating female nipped his earlobe with her teeth. “After all this buildup,” she teased, “I sure as hell hope that’s not your plan.”

  “Then spread your legs for me.” His voice was raw. “As wide as they’ll go, knees out at your sides.”

  As soon as she’d done it, Nick braced himself on both of his arms, grunted a sharp curse as he pulled his hips back, then shoved himself inside her with a heavy lunge, working against her tight resistance until he was nearly all the way in. Watching her flushed face, he pulled back again, loving the way all those cushiony muscles in her pussy clutched at him. Then he told her to place her hands against his chest, dug his knees into the mattress, and drove himself back in with savage force, the power of the thrust taking him all the way to the root.

  He had a bad moment when she arched beneath him with a sharp, hoarse cry on her lips, terrified that he’d hurt her. But she quickly settled back onto the bed with a provocative moan, lifted her long lashes to reveal eyes that were dark with need, and curled her lips in the most beautiful, pleasure-rich smile he’d ever seen.

  “Again,” she purred, and a low, rough laugh rumbled up from his chest, while a sense of happiness spread through him that was so potent and unfamiliar, he almost didn’t recognize what it was. It made his brain soft…and his dick somehow even harder.

  “Fucking hell, Lainey.” Sweat dripped from his face, splattering across her beautiful breasts as he ground himself against her clit, every brutal inch of his cock packed up tight inside her snug little body. “You’d better hold on now,” he growled, just as his control shattered. And, God, did it shatter. The bed bashed against the wall again and again as he rode her with powerful, hammering thrusts until she came so hard that she screamed, her slick sheath pulsing around him with such a tight, greedy clasp it damn near stopped his heart. He pressed in thick and deep, then just held there, gritting his teeth, wanting to feel every breathtaking ripple.

  “Nick,” she gasped, writhing beneath him as she gripped his waist, “drink from me. Take my vein.”

  “I…can’t,” he growled, his voice so guttural he wasn’t even sure she could understand him.

  “Please,” she whispered, turning her head to the side. “I can take it. I swear I can. I just need to feel that connection with you.”

  Christ. He needed it, too. Badly. But Nick figured it was a fucking miracle that they’d managed to get this far without him hurting her. And as desperately as he wanted her blood, he wasn’t willing to risk destroying what they had for it. Not when he might take it too far…or she might decide that having a set of fangs buried in her throat was a hell of a lot more intense than she’d bargained for. Whether his brothers showed or not, he still had this day with her, and he wasn’t willing to lose it if she freaked out and told him to get lost.

  “I might be human, but I’m not so easily broken,” she murmured, as if she knew his thoughts…and his fears. “You know that, right?”

  “I know,” he husked. But he was still unwilling to take the chance. As badly as he wanted to sink his fangs into that pale, delicate throat, he wanted to keep losing himself in her even more. And he needed to move again…starting now.

  With his pulse roaring in his ears, Nick let himself go, his hips pistoning between her soft thighs as he fisted his hands in the bedding and took her with the single-minded focus of a man making a claim on a woman’s body. It was more than sex. More than aggressive, animalistic fucking. It was a goddamn act of possession, and when he came the eruption was so intense it bowed his back, a guttural shout echoing through the room as he shoved himself inside her, nudging deeper with each jerk of his hips, until she was gripping every part of him. Body, heart, soul.

  “Did it feel good?” she whispered when he finally stilled, running her smooth palms down the slick length of his back as he came down over her, and he braced his weight on his forearms at the last moment so he didn’t crush her.

  “Felt bloody amazing,” he growled, spearing his fingers into the wild tangle of her hair, clutching handfuls of the silky locks. With his body pinning hers to the bed and his cock still buried deep inside her, Nick had her under his complete control, and he loved it. Couldn’t get enough of it. Leaning down, he claimed her lush, sweet mouth, kissing her so hungrily that neither of them could breathe. When they finally had to drag in gulping breaths of air, he buried his face against the side of her throat, licking the soft, tender flesh there. “Did I hurt you?” he asked, tasting the tears he’d seen slipping across her cheeks as he kissed his way up over her jaw.

  “No,” she moaned, hugging him to her as if she’d never want to let him go. “I loved it, Nick. Every second of it.”

  He rolled his hips, enjoying the wetness, his chest filling with primal satisfaction at the fact that she was drenched in him. And as that thought immediately led into another, he froze. “Hell. I never even thought to ask if you’re on the pill.”

  “It’s okay,” she murmured, slipping her fingers through the damp locks of his hair. “I am.”

  He nodded, knowing he should be relieved. Considering what he was going to ask of her if his brothers didn’t get there in time, he had no right putting a child inside her. But damn if he didn’t feel a fresh surge of lust at the thought of her round and heavy with his babe.

  Huh. You could apparently take the guy out of the 1700s, but could never completely take the 1700s out of the guy. He might hold his own in the modern world, but there were still some old-fashioned sentiments that he found it difficult to leave behind. Though his job made it nearly impossible, he secretly thrived on the idea of a wife and family. Of having that kind of closeness with another person. That incredible sense of belonging.

  And this is a waste of my time now that the clock’s counting down.

  Biting back a bitter curse, Nick wrapped his arms around Lainey and held her close as he rolled to his back, reversing their positions.

  As she settled against his chest, she rested her chin on her stacked hands and stared directly into his eyes. “Why didn’t you take my vein?”

  He tried to control his reaction to the provocative words, but knew from the catch in her breath that she’d felt him grow instantly harder. “Please tell me,” she murmured. “I just want to understand you.”

  “I didn’t do it because it’s too dangerous,” he told her, loving the sound of her gasp as he used his grip on her hips to hold her still and pushed in a bit deeper, already hopelessly addicted to the way she felt around him. “If I lost it,” he added, “I could drain you.”

  Exasperation quirked the soft curve of her lips. “You wouldn’t. You’d stop before you risked hurting me. And I think that however that bite ends up affecting you, you’re still stronger than it is. I don’t believe for a second that it could ever control you.”

  “I wish that were true,” he muttered, rubbing his thumb against her creamy skin as he cupped her cheek in his hand. “But I can’t stop what’s coming, Lainey.”

  “But you can be prepared for it,” she argued, bracing her hands against his chest as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, his cock giving a hard pulse as she straddled his hips. “Did you ever think that my blood might give you more control when you need it tonight? That everything that’s happening between us might be for a reason?” she asked, the quiet words filled with challenge and conviction. “That you might actually need me, Nick?”

  Need her? Of course he needed her! But just because the beautiful, beguiling, brave little human was willing to give him everything didn’t mean that it was right for him to take it. His heart and his mind knew that. But his body… The rising heat in his gums told him that his body apparently had its own thoughts on the subject.

  When Nick’s fangs shot out, longer and sharper than they’d ever been before, she pulled her hair over her shoulder and smiled down at him. “Will you drink from me now then?” she whispered, the clenching of her plush inner muscles around his thick cock telling him precisely how excited she was. But he couldn’t let her tempt him!

  “No,” he groaned, shaking his head…and wishing he could shake some kind of sense into her. “Don’t ever ask me that again. You have no idea what you’re doing, Lainey.”

  “It’ll be okay,” she said breathlessly, and holding still like he was inside her, he could feel every delicious pulse of her heartbeat around his shaft…the seductive rhythm making him want to howl. And God only knew that couldn’t be a good sign. “I trust you,” she told him. “I know you won’t hurt me. I don’t know why you even think that you could.”

  “Damn it,” he growled, his lungs heaving as he fought for control. “For once in your life just shut up!”

  But he was simply wasting his breath. He should have known she wouldn’t listen to reason – especially when her eyes got that hot, determined look in them. Before Nick even realized her intention, she’d reached down and dug the pad of her thumb into one of his fangs. He was still shuddering from the scorching drop of blood she’d left in his mouth when she lifted her thumb to her pale throat, smearing a seductive line of crimson down its side. “Do it, Nick. I dare you.”

  “You reckless little bitch,” he snarled, already surging up as he fisted his hands in her long hair and jerked her toward him. She screamed when they came together, his fangs thrusting deep into her tender flesh with a sharp, searing pop, and he growled with violent, mind-shattering pleasure as her blood pumped out over his tongue, hotter…sweeter…and more intoxicating than anything he’d ever experienced. He’d thought for sure that if they ever got to this point, she would panic and start trying to pull him off. But she didn’t.

  Instead, she curved her fingers around his head and held him to her, her husky voice thick with need as she groaned, “More, Nick. Please, baby, more.”

  And so he took more, greedy…driven…ravenous for every drop, until he knew he was nearing a point he wouldn’t be able to come back from. Somehow finding the strength to stop, he tore his mouth away, struggling for breath as he sealed the puncture wounds with a swipe of his tongue. Then he lifted his head and stared down into her flushed face, knowing damn well that he must look like a monster to her, with his glowing eyes and bloodstained mouth, his fangs dripping beneath the crimson curve of his upper lip.

  Still angry with her for pushing him, Nick gave her a dangerous look that said Scared now, little human?

  But, really, when was he going to learn?

  “No,” she drawled, smiling up at him. “I’m afraid you’ll have to keep trying.”

  With a stunned, gritty laugh rumbling deep in his chest, Nick held her bright, challenging gaze as he slowly dropped back down to the bed and spread his bent legs further apart. He rubbed his hands over her hips and squeezed, loving how lush and feminine she was, then started to move, thrusting up into all that hot, slippery wetness as she reached behind her and braced herself on his thighs.

  Fascinated by the sight of the pale curls on her mound meshing with his black ones each time he slammed up against her, Nick ran the pad of his thumb through her soft hair. “You’re so damn sexy, golden girl.”

  There was a smile in her voice as she said, “I’m glad you think so.”

  “I know so.” Tilting his head back on the pillows, Nick closed his eyes and simply savored the sensation of driving up into her lush, sumptuous heat again and again, utterly lost in her. Watching her through his lashes, he said, “I could stay inside you forever, Lainey, and still not get enough.”

  “Then do it,” she whispered, placing her hands against his chest as she leaned forward, staring down into his face. Her eyes filled with hot, vibrant desire as he continued thrusting inside her. “Stay inside me forever, Nick. I’d be more than happy to keep you there.”