his arms around her, offer her the first bit of warmth in that cold hell. Released her from her ties. Carried her to safety. When she thought of him, though, those weren’t the things that she thought of.
Instead, she thought of a joke he told her when they first met, before the kidnapping, when Cristov brought her back to the trailer he shared with his brothers. It had been a rough night for her, though nowhere as rough as the nights to come. Damon offered her the first thing that made her feel better. As it happened, it was also the last thing that made her feel better.
“Why was the nihilist dating service such a success?”
That’s what she remembered. That, and the way just being around him had seemed to make things calmer. The way his eyes held hers like a steel trap, and told her that it was going to be okay. The things he said without saying them. And the way she felt sure that she would meet him again. That something was going to happen between them. That something was meant to happen.
Of course, she could never have predicted the circumstances that led to their meeting again, when he saved her with a bullet on a cold November dusk. And, compared to the kidnapping, her abusive boyfriend seemed like a walk in the park, making Damon’s ability to comfort her afterwards far less significant. But still…when she thought of home, now, she thought of him.
It had been just over six months, and outside of some trips to Delaware to testify against the men who’d hurt her, Tricia had been living in Massachusetts, where there was an outpatient clinic for crime victims and the safety of distance between her and the remaining members of the Steel Dragons who might want to silence her before she could bear witness. Living in a strange town, with a temporary name, a temporary address, a temporary job, a temporary everything had taken almost as much a toll on her as the actions that had made such precautions necessary. She missed her friends and her family. She wanted to come home.
But as she watched the landscape slip backwards on the interstate, her knuckles tight on the steering wheel and her jaw aching from tightness, she wondered if she shouldn’t take some wise words to heart.
You can never go home again , she thought.
4
S he was naked on his bed, honey-colored hair draped across the pillow, eyes like melted gold looking up at him. Her lips, full and pink, pouted slightly. Moving down her body, her breasts generous, round as peaches and just as soft; her sides tapering down and then out again over the curve of her stomach; her hips wide and luxurious; thighs strong; calves quivering.
His hands at her neck were all fingers tracing her collarbone, the place where her ribs met. His mouth on her breast, then on her lips again, then playful, dipping into her bellybutton. Her thighs parted to meet him, and when he entered her it was with the sort of wild satisfaction that drew all existence to a single point. She was endless, and he had everything to give.
It seemed he would never stop finding places to bury himself inside her, that this first thrust would last forever. He bit down on the flesh of her shoulder, wincing as the smooth and warm walls of her accepted every inch of him and begged for more…
Damon woke up with his mouth dry, his heart pounding, and his cock hard as stone. He groaned, closed his eyes, wanting to keep dreaming that dream. But daylight was pouring over him, across his eyes, filtering in between his eyelids. And the dream was gone; all that remained of it was the throbbing between his legs, the insistent and annoying need.
Damon hadn’t masturbated since he was a teenager. It was a matter of principle, willpower. He felt that it would cheapen the real thing. Just because he could come whenever he wanted to didn’t mean he should. But mornings like this made that self-deprivation especially hard to keep up.
There was nothing for it but to wait for it to go down on its own. Luckily, he