Chapter Nine

N ow what in hell possessed Derek to tell Gina that story? He’d never told anyone about Dominic’s kidnapping. The only one who knew was Lou. Maybe it was the lost, lonely-little-girl expression on her face that just tore his guts out.

He felt something for her, something way more than he felt for the others, and he damn well knew it.

“Demons kidnapped your brother?”

“Yeah.” He opened the antibiotic ointment and spread some on the scratches on Gina’s neck.

“Why?”

“Hell if I know.” Circling around to her left, he adjusted the light to the back of her shoulder and opened a cleansing wipe.

Gina craned her neck to look at him. “Derek, what happened to your brother?”

“Don’t know. Never saw him again.” He swiped away the blood and grit from her wound. It was fairly deep and would need further cleansing.

“Your mom and dad?”

“Dad wasn’t around by then. He’d…taken off. Don’t know what really happened to him. My mom said my brother died suddenly. She kept telling me I had a bad dream.”

Gina pulled away from him. “She lied to you?”

“Gina, I can’t work on you if you keep moving.”

“Dammit, Derek, talk to me. What happened?”

He sighed, knowing he should never have brought this up. Instead, he reached for the hydrogen peroxide and another cleansing wipe. “I still don’t know why she lied. I know what I saw, though. And my mother was never the same after. We moved right away. She said Nic was dead, but it was obvious she was scared shitless about something. Changed our names and we left town in a hurry. She said it was to keep my dad from finding us, that he was a bad person who would hurt us if he found us. I figured he was on the run from the law or something. She was pretty much mentally unstable from that time onward, could barely hold a job. By the time I was sixteen I was working to support us while trying to finish up school.”

Gina sucked in her lower lip and shook her head. “Oh, Derek, I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged. “Don’t be. I survived. It made me tough. She was sick, mentally and physically; died when I was eighteen. I joined the Navy and straightened myself out.”

“My God, what you went through, though. What you saw as a child.”

She reached for his face, cupping his cheek and rubbing the palm of her hand across the rough beard stubble.

The last goddamn thing he needed right now was her pity. And her touch made him hard, dammit. He took her wrist and pulled her hand away. “Don’t do that.”

“Why not?”

Because you look gorgeous and vulnerable right now. And because fucking you in the first-aid tent when we’re in the midst of demon hell isn’t a really smart idea. “Because I need to fix up this wound on your shoulder. Turn around.”

“Oh.”

She pivoted and he finished cleaning the wound. Okay, maybe she was a tough girl. She didn’t even flinch when he poured hydrogen peroxide into the deep cut, though she did wince.

“This could probably stand a stitch or two.”

“I’ll live. Maybe I’ll get a tattoo to cover the scar. Make me look like a warrior.”

He smiled at that. “You are a warrior. You’ve already survived your first battle with a demon.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You lived through it. That’s a lot. Your instincts were right on and you pulled away from it.”

“His hand was ice cold.”

“Good instinct. See?”

“Thanks.”

“Though you would look sexy with a tattoo right here,” he said, circling the area around the cut with his finger.

She shivered and shot him a look over her shoulder that made his cock take notice. Damn, even in the midst of chaos and demons, she made him hot.

Their gazes locked and before he knew what was happening, he was bending down to press his lips to hers. Maybe it was just a need to offer comfort, maybe it was just the pain shadowing her eyes that got to him. And maybe he just wanted her and there wasn’t any other reason.

She came off the table and damn near threw herself in his arms. He tightened his hold around her, drawing her close as if he needed to shelter her, protect her from the demons around them.

Because the demons were still around. On the island, within the island, somewhere close. Instinctively, Gina had to know that. Maybe she was kissing him with such wild abandon because of fear, because of stress, because she wanted to shut out what she’d seen and heard tonight. Maybe she was molding her body against his and digging her nails into his back because she was trying to crawl inside him for comfort and safety.

Honestly, he didn’t really care, he was just damn grateful that she was. He slanted his mouth across hers and deepened the kiss, gladly taking whatever she was willing to give. And when he came down over her she didn’t protest, just wrapped her legs around him and lifted her hips, whimpering into his mouth.

He realized then what she needed, and why, and how important it was that this be for Gina right now. What he needed could wait.

Only three words rolled through Gina’s mind as Derek’s firm cock pressed insistently against her soft, aching center.

Please. Don’t. Stop. Not this time. She wanted no talk, no interruption, nothing to keep them apart.

God, she needed this between them, this joining.

Maybe it was just to forget they were in the middle of some kind of unbelievable madness. She needed human contact, an act of complete normalcy between a man and a woman. When he reached up and cupped her cheeks, sliding his tongue so tenderly against hers, she ached so badly she wanted to cry.

She never let anyone get close. The emotional scars left from her mother’s departure had left holes deep inside that she’d long ago sealed up. And those were places she never let anyone touch. No, what she craved right now was the sensation of a man’s hands on her body. Like the way Derek caressed her now, dragging the straps of her tank top down her arms. Pure, normal, and wholly with out any history between them. No past hurts or remembrances. For a while, she could block out everything else tonight had dredged up.

She shuddered as his lips moved from her mouth to her neck, licking with insistent strokes that made her crave those same sensations much, much lower. Dear God, he could make her come in an instant.

The air inside the small shack was thick with heat. So hot she could barely breathe. Moisture beaded between her breasts, and when Derek pulled down her bra and a shot of air wafted over them, she almost sighed in relief. But that relief soon turned to steamy torment as he covered the tip of one nipple with his mouth.

She whimpered and arched, filling his mouth with the aching crest, burying her fingers in his thick, dark hair. The harsh light above the table glared at her. She wished for moonlight and cooling ocean breezes, but no way in hell was she moving. Emotions and physical sensation at fevered pitch, she wanted this right here, right now.

She’d take the tiny, heat-filled shack, the cruel overhead light. She’d take any inconvenience as long as he didn’t stop sucking at her nipple. Pleasure shot between her legs. Instinct drove her own hand there to massage the ache, but he grabbed her wrist, intercepting her. She looked up to find him staring at her, his eyes gleaming dark gray.

“Uh-uh,” he whispered, his voice tight. “That’s mine.”

He skimmed her belly, lifting her shirt out of the way so he could get to her shorts. With deft fingers and in only seconds he had unbuttoned and unzipped her shorts, sliding one hand under her butt to lift her up while jerking the material over her hips with the other.

Her shirt and sports bra were gathered around her ribs and her shorts and panties pooled on the floor. And he still had his damn clothes on.

“Derek,” she whispered, reaching for the hard bulge straining the zipper of his dark pants.

“Later,” he said, pushing her back down and leaning over to capture her mouth again. With relentless strokes he coaxed a moan from her with his teasing lips. His mouth was soft, his lips full, his tongue like wicked velvet as he licked against hers. Hot moisture trickled between her legs as desire coiled tight and hot within her.

Then Derek was palming her, his hand cool against her flaming heat.

The sensation was so unexpected, so erotic, she lifted her hips off the table and met his hand as he stroked her, whimpering into his mouth as he rubbed the swollen nub against the heel of his hand.

She was panting. Panting! When his fingers slipped inside her, his hand still making contact with the tight bud of nerve endings, she tore her mouth from his and cried out, knowing she shouldn’t, realizing someone could be walking by the shack and hear them. But God, it was so good, and she couldn’t help herself.

“Do you scream when you fuck, Gina?”

Her eyes shot open. He was leaning over her, watching her as his fingers moved rhythmically inside her. It was too intimate like this. She looked away.

“Look at me.”

His voice was soft, yet insistent, his fingers coaxing, gentle, his palm rubbing her back and forth and making her insane. How could she not respond? She turned her head and looked at him.

His face was harsh, the lines on the outside of his eyes more pronounced as he watched her with an expression akin to pain. She glanced down his rock-hard body, wondering why he wasn’t inside her yet.

“I want you to come for me, Gina. I want to feel you squeeze my fingers, want to watch your face when you let go.”

And still, he moved his fingers inside her, making her wetter, making her lift to meet his hand as he drove more insistently against her.

“That’s it, baby. Show me how much you want it.”

She bit down on her bottom lip, feeling the tension coiled tight within her. She’d never done this before, given this much of herself to a man. Yet Derek inspired this level of trust, this intimacy she craved to share. And goddamn, she needed this.

“Let go, Gina.”

She did, reaching down with both hands to grasp his wrist as she tightened, then flew. And she never once took her eyes off him as she came. He bent down and took her scream into his mouth, allowing her to let loose and cry out as her climax poured over her and she shuddered on the table. He held her close, sheltering her with his body while she trembled through an almost unbearable orgasm.

And even after, when the quakes subsided, when she felt raw and naked, he still stroked her, held her, lifted her and helped her right herself and find her clothes.

“Wait,” she whispered. “What about you?” She looked down at him. So hard, a rigid outline against the zipper of his pants.

“No time.” He smiled, but there was no regret, no irritation in his smile.

She’d never expected anything like this from a man like Derek. But somehow he’d known exactly what she needed.

She wasn’t about to question how or why he knew.

“The attack went well,” the Master said to them, walking along the dark cavern. “They were unprepared for us.”

It couldn’t have gone better, actually. If he’d wanted to, he could have wiped them all out tonight. Oh, it would have been too, too easy. They had been unarmed, running through the jungle playing with weapons that had no power to harm. If Louis had not sent his hunters out in such a hurry, they could have at least taken the women. Sadly, they had lost one of their own. A small price to pay.

But it was his desire to toy with them a bit, play the game. That was why they were all on this island, wasn’t it? To play a game?

He had taken a couple of their hunters, and that satisfied him.

“Master, why did you pull us back?”

Whipping around, he growled at the demon. “Do not ever question me!” In an instant a human hand turned to a claw and a face became a bloody pulp of shredded skin. The demon crawled over to the corner, whimpering. The others backed away, cowering in fear.

Just as they should.

Addressing the others, he said, “None of you may question me. There is a plan, and it is my plan. And it will be executed on my orders in the time frame I desire. Does anyone else wish to second-guess me?”

Of course, there was silence. He nodded and walked away, breathing in the fear and dismay from above.

Turmoil, terror, shock. Ah, yes, being soaked in those emotions strengthened him.

He knew exactly what he was doing. Tonight was merely giving notice to Louis and the others that they had arrived.

It was a declaration of war.

A war he intended to win.