It seemed her very sanity depended on it.
Breena reached for his hand again, needing the warmth of his touch, even if it wasn’t freely given. “Please, you have to believe me. I didn’t even realize you were real until I woke up…”
“Nearly naked in my bed.” There was his growl again, but it didn’t hold the kind of anger as before, but something was definitely pent up inside him. This was more to the man she’d opened her eyes to see earlier today. Much more to this warrior of her dreams. For some reason, that was even scarier.
She took a step backward.
“Good move.”
She held her breath.
“But too late.” He jerked her closer, and their bodies rubbed together.
Osborn lowered his head. The harsh line of his lips just an inch away from her mouth. Her gaze clashed with his. Fierce anger and hot desire burned in those brown eyes. An anger and desire she suspected simmered just below the surface of him.
“Use your magic on me now, Breena. Make me stop.”
“I…I can’t.” She didn’t want him to stop.
His mouth came down hard on hers, and her lips parted. His tongue pushed past her lips and found hers. Osborne’s thick arms wrapped around her, and he drew her into the heat of his hard body. Her nipples pebbled against the hairy roughness of his muscled chest, and Breena’s heartbeat kicked up to a runner’s pace.
He smelled of chestnuts and the earthy scent of the deep woods. Her dreams never detailed how wonderfully he smelled. Or how he tasted of the sweetness of apples, and something unrecognizable to her she could only label it as man. Him.
Just when she was about to sink into heaven, Osborn took it away. His lips left, and he rested his forehead against hers. Panting. “Why can’t you make me stop?” he asked, pulling away to see her face. His fingers grazed the back of her neck, and sweet sensation tingled along her damp skin.
“My magic…it’s gone,” she told him with a shrug.
Disappointment flashed across his eyes before it quickly faded. Or he masked it. Come on, Breena, you’re supposed to be good at reading people.
He placed the barest of kisses against her mouth, and her bottom lip trembled. “Then tell me to stop, and I’ll stop.”
How could she when she ached to be in his arms? To draw his mouth down to hers? To finally live every emotion and sensation the Osborn of her dreams promised right now in real life?
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
His fingers began to caress the skin below her ears, never thinking how sensitive she was there. She watched as the muscles lining his throat worked. Something dark and slightly possessive flashed across his face, turning his features stony. But this wasn’t scary. Oh, it was dangerous, and should be a warning, but it was so, so tantalizing.
He lowered his head, and this time she met his kiss, unafraid, and as an equal as when she lay on her bed and joined him in her dreams. The fear and the hunger and the pain of the past few days faded from her mind. Osborne took over. The delicious scent of him filled her. The harsh sounds of his ragged breathing pervaded her ears. The taste of him on her lips…
Breena wanted more.
Standing on tiptoe, she twined her arms around Osborne’s neck, drawing him down as close as she could. She sunk her fingers into his long, damp strands of hair and she pressed her mouth to his with equal force.
Osborne groaned, the sound rumbling through his chest. His desire for her made Breena’s stomach feel hollow, the way it did in her dreams. His hands began running up and down her back, and when she teased his tongue with hers, his hands finally stopped their quest and grabbed her backside, lifting and fitting her against the hard swell of his arousal.
Breena shivered as a wave of powerful desire sped through her. This incredible sensation was what the chambermaids giggled about at night when they didn’t realize they could be overheard by their princess. What the young men of Elden fought battles over in the practice fields outside the castle walls. This is what drove her back to her dreams with him whenever she could. For the first time, Breena felt like she was living. Living what she wanted to live. Every sense, every pore, every part of her body, ached for more and more.
A harsh gust of wind blew through the trees, rustling the leaves and startling the birds. A shadow fell across the lake as dark clouds barred the sunlight. An eerie chill poured over her exposed skin, despite being wrapped in Osborn’s arms.
He lifted his head, and she glanced toward the sky.
Something black and snakelike streaked over the treetops. Breena had never seen its like before, but her stomach tightened and grew queasy at the sight. “What is that…?” she began, but couldn’t continue. Another formed in the sky, aiming toward them. She began to shudder, every part of her rejecting the horrifying entity charging for them. The vile thing oozed evil. It swallowed the sanctity of this soothing place, returning only fear and pain and a promise of misery.
Osborn swore, and glanced behind her back toward the pack he’d discarded on the bank. “My weapon,” he whispered. “On my count, run toward it. But stay behind me.”
They wouldn’t make it. The bleak thought appeared in her mind out of nowhere. She shook her head, rejecting the hopelessness invading her soul. She knew the grim conviction in her mind had to be planted by the monsters in the sky.
“Now,” he urged, still keeping his voice low so as not to alert the creatures coming for them. He jolted in front of her, spinning her around, and aimed for the bank. This water had once welcomed her, took away for a few moments all the pain she’d felt since she’d awoken in the strange land. Now that lake seemed to turn hostile. Heavy water swirled around her waist, tugging at her feet and dragging her down deeper into the depths.
“Resist,” Osborn ordered over the harsh crashing of rushing water. “It senses your fear, but that thing has no power over you.”
Breena propelled herself, pushing for each step she took. She had to be slowing Osborn down, preventing him from reaching his pack. “Keep going,” she told him.
He shook his head, instead gripping her arm tighter, pulling her behind him. But it was too late. The tip of the entity began to wrap and wind itself around Osborn’s free arm. His breath came out in a pained hiss, and she felt his body stiffen.
He dropped her arm and shoved her away from him. “Go, Breena. Get out of here and warn my brothers.”
He turned and faced the creature, landing a blow with the kind of force that would have felled a large man. With one last burst of energy, she managed to drag herself onto the bank. The sound of the battle behind her was horrific. The creature shrieked as Osborn rained blow after blow along its snakelike skin, but still the beast never fully released him. His face grew red as he fought with nothing but his brute strength. Vines grew from the snake creature’s sides. Osborn hacked at them with his bare hands.
With a hideous shriek, the creature struck Osborn across the side of his face. Blood seeped from a gash across his cheek, and began to bubble from the poison.
How could he fight? How could he win against something so vile? Burns marked where the creature had grazed his skin. Osborn sank to his knees. Struggled to stand.
Dark images flashed across her memory. A creature with razors for fingers. The sounds of the dying in her ears. The smell of death. Her head filled with pain. No.
All her muscles tensed and she began to shake. An angry energy began to build inside her. No. The word seemed to fill her ears, Blocking out any other noises.