PS03 - Tall, Dark & Heartless (50 page)

small opening.

What she saw had her seeing red, literally.

A naked woman writhed in Caine's arms as he held her from behind. Danni watched in disbelief as the woman licked her

lips and grinded her bottom back against Caine as she ran her hands over her breasts and between her legs. The scent of the

woman's arousal was so thick that she nearly choked on it.

That son of-

Tree, she definitely needed to find a tree and soon. Then she was so out of here.

What. An. Ass, she thought as she abruptly turned and switched directions so that she could storm off in the other

direction. She quickly found a tree to hide behind and relieved her bladder. Once that was done she continued moving her ass

as she put as much space between her and the asshole as she possibly could.

She actually thought that she meant something to him. It was a moment of stupidity on her part. If he didn't care about her

then that was fine with her, she decided as she carefully scented the air, making sure that there weren't any humans around since

she really didn't feel like having a repeat of the other day. When she didn't smell anything other than dirt, grass, trees and the

lingering scents of animals and shifters she decided to keep moving her ass.

Caine could go fuck him-

His deep chuckle of amusement as she let out another one of those embarrassing squeals simply pissed her off as he threw

her over his shoulder and kept on going.

"A bath sounds like a great idea, Danni," he said, sounding amused and happy.

She rolled her eyes as she slapped her hands on his jean encased ass and moved to get off his shoulder and get a face full

of dirt when he slapped her ass, shocking the hell out of her and making her squirm in a not so unpleasant way, which she

promptly ignored.

"Behave," he warned on a growl as he rubbed her ass.

The scent of the woman's arousal and several other's registered in her mind and if she hadn't already decided that enough

was enough that would have done it for her. She was leaving, but first she was going to finally have it out with Caine. Once that

was done she was out of here and she was never looking back. If they crossed paths somewhere down the line he'd better move

his ass out of her way or she was going to-

"I love the way you squeal," he said, chuckling as he moved her until the lower half of her body was completely

submerged in the surprisingly warm water.

"It's a hot spring," Caine explained as if she asked or cared as he settled her on a smooth flat rock in the water and stood

up.

She moved to climb out only to stop short when he sent her a glare of warning. With a glare of her own she crossed her

arms over her chest as she watched with disinterest as he pulled off his soaked blue jeans and tossed them off to the side next

to a large duffle bag that he must have been carrying and decided to toss before he scared the hell out of her.

"Take off your shirt," he said casually as he reached for the bag and pulled out a bottle of shampoo, conditioner and body

wash. He placed them on the grassy edge of the small pool as he watched her expectantly.

"The shirt, lose it," he said, picking up the bottle of shampoo and squeezing a descent amount into his palm.

"Go to hell," she snapped, having had more than enough of this nonsense and moved to climb out of the warm water that

actually felt incredible on her skin only to come to a sudden halt as Caine ripped the shirt clean from her body.

"I've already been there, thanks," he said as he gently grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. Before she could ask

what he was talking about he dunked her, he actually dunked her.

She came out of the water sputtering about a hundred things she was going to do to his balls, but he simply ignored her as

he planted her ass right back on the rock and began to massage shampoo into her hair. Neither one of them spoke for several

minutes as he continued to lather her hair. Honestly, she was afraid that if she opened her mouth that she'd say something that

she'd regret.

Not that she actually cared whether or not she hurt his feelings or said something that she couldn't take back, she didn't.

She just didn't want to let him know how much she cared about him or how much it hurt to see another woman in his arms.

Instead, she'd just settle for kicking him in the balls the first chance she had.

"Rinse," he said and she was smart enough to do it herself, since she knew damn well that he'd have no problems with

doing it for her.

When she was done, he started working the conditioner through her hair, taking his time to massage her head and if she

wasn't so pissed at him she'd probably be in heaven right now. The man had incredible hands after all and if she didn't

currently hate him she'd probably be begging for his hands to move elsewhere.

"Leave it in," he ordered as he stepped back and dunked himself. Before she could do something like hold him under he

was back up and reaching for the shampoo.

With a bored sigh she sat back and looked around the rather pretty glen that under normal circumstances she would

probably find extremely romantic. There were wild flowers surrounding them, a babbling brook somewhere close by and

beautiful oak trees enclosing the area. It was really was quite beautiful, she thought with a sigh.

"I found it yesterday while I was patrolling the area," Caine said, cutting into her thoughts and drawing her attention to the

fact that the man was practically scouring his skin off.

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded as he continued to scrub every inch of his skin raw.

"Trying to get that woman's scent off of me," he said, surprising her.

Well, at least he wasn't going to pretend that he hadn't been holding another woman in his arms not even thirty minutes

ago. It earned him a few points, but not enough for her to ever give him another chance.

"If it bothers you so much then maybe you shouldn't have touched her," she said in an offhand tone when all she really

wanted to do was scream at the jerk for breaking her heart, because that's exactly what he did she realized with a start.

She was in love with Caine.

But he didn't love her, or apparently care enough about her to wait until she was out of the picture to screw another

woman. That was just great. Thanks to him she'd be nursing a broken heart for eternity. Well, that really sucked.

"Didn't have much of a choice, baby. I had to overfeed so that my blood was strong enough to make you better," he said,

confusing her.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, reaching out and covering his hand with hers to stop him from scouring his skin

raw. With a sigh he stopped and even allowed her to push his hands away.

She grabbed the bottle of body wash to have something to do while she thought over what he said. The last day or two

was kind of fuzzy. Had she been hurt? Which of course made her wonder if Greg and his Master managed to catch up to them.

"What do you remember?" Caine asked, cupping her face in his large warm hands.

"Not much," she admitted with a shrug as she squirted some body wash into her hand and tossed the bottle to the side.

"What happened?" And why were you touching another woman, she wanted to scream, but she kept her cool as she lathered her

hands with the body wash.

"Baby, you died."

Chapter 42

"What the hell are you talking about?" Danni asked, trying to sound like she didn't care, but he didn't miss the way her

hands trembled as they slid over his shoulders, leaving a trail of suds in their wake.

After his little announcement she decided to keep herself busy by taking over washing him, which he appreciated since it

would wipe the female shifter's aroused scent off him. He was actually surprised that having the woman's scent on him both

annoyed and sickened him. She was a sneaky little shifter trying to entice him to fuck her and when that didn't work she thought

she'd put a temporary claim on him to warn off the other females.

He would have preferred to feed off a male this morning, but none of them wanted to help him out. They were more

interested in fucking than giving up a few pints to him so that he could help his mate. Not that he could blame them, but that left

him to settle for the females fresh from a shift and more than ready to be bent over and fucked within an inch of their lives. A

funny thing occurred to him as he pulled the first of many into his arms this morning, he didn't want them.

As he sank his teeth into a hot little blonde and drank her intoxicating blood he realized that he truly didn't want any other

woman. The thought of taking another woman actually bored him. There was only one woman that he wanted and at the moment

she was still giving off the scent of anger.

It was actually nice to know that she was jealous. That meant that she wanted him and maybe cared about him. Of course,

there was no denying that she didn't care as much for him as he did for her, because if he had seen a naked man in her arms he

would have torn the bastard apart. The fact that Danni managed to walk away, and probably would have kept on walking, told

him that they had a lot to work on.

First, he had to feed her while his blood was still potent and test her blood, again. The last time he tested her blood was

twelve hours ago and her blood still had a sour taste to it. It was a huge improvement, but it meant that the cancer was still

hanging around. He needed to kill it and keep it out of her system because he'd be damned if he was going to be denied another

minute with her.

She was his and there was nothing and no one on this earth that was going to deny him.

"The cancer never fully went away," he explained as he reached for the bottle, careful not to pull too far back since he

liked having her hands on him.

"But you changed me," she pointed out quietly as she stole the bottle from him and squirted more bodywash into her palm

before she returned to washing his chest. "Your blood should have killed the cancer."

How to tell her this next part without her freaking out? he wondered as he lathered his hands and reached for her

shoulders. The truth, he decided a moment later while he gently massaged her shoulders and ran his hands down her arms and

back up again.

"We think that-"

"We?" she asked, interrupting him.

"Jax, myself and Ethan," he explained as he moved closer to her so that he could move her long hair over her should so

that he could wash her back.

"I thought I was dreaming, but I guess I wasn't," she murmured absently as she moved her hands around him so that could

wash his back.

"Dreaming about what, baby?" he asked, leaning in and pressing a kiss against her damp forehead. He pulled back and

continued to take care of his woman, a chore that he never thought would please him.

She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts as she ran her hands up his back, sending little shivers down his spine. "I

thought I dreamed a human's voice. It was so.......," she pursed her lips up adorably in thought, "sexy," she finished, sealing the

human's fate.

He was going to fucking kill him.

Danni noticeably started as she caught the scent of his aggression. "What's wrong?

"You thought his voice was
sexy
?" he practically spat out as he moved to go hunt the bastard and kill him.

"Well, it was," she said with a shrug as if what she said was no big deal. It was a huge fucking deal! She shouldn't be

noticing anything about any male! She shouldn't even realize that they exist any longer. "Oh my god, relax. His voice was sexy,

but yours is sexier," she said, somewhat appeasing him.

"Now can you please tell me what happened?" she asked, moving closer and brushing her soft breasts against his stomach

as she ran her hands up to his shoulders before she ran them back down and over his ass, making his cock take notice, but he

chose to ignore it and focus on explaining the situation to his mate since some things had changed in the last twenty-four hours.

He took a steadying breath as he focused all of his attention on running his hands over her back and shoulders. He didn't

want to upset her, but she had a right to know, especially since she was going to have to go on a special diet, maybe for a little

while, maybe for life, he wasn't sure yet, but the only thing on her menu for a while would have to be immortal blood.

Human blood would help, but not enough. The blood they'd pumped down her stomach acted like a filler, stretching out

the immortal blood and helping bring it where it needed to go. It would never be enough to keep the cancer at bay or kill it off,

which might not even be possible. The cancerous tissue could have very well been altered by his blood, making it impossible

to kill completely. Thanks to immortal blood they could damage it and shrink it, but that might be all they could do. Whatever it

was she had a right to know.

"We think that when I changed you that the cancer was more advanced than we originally thought. You....you," he couldn't

get the words out. Just thinking about how close he came to losing her left him on the verge of losing it. Eternity without Danni?

He'd never survive. Without her he'd wither away and wouldn't care about anything or anyone. She was his heart, his soul and