Only 05 - Autumn Lover

wake up,” Hunter whispered, drawing Elyssa into his arms. “I just want to hold you while you sleep.”
    It was a lie. Hunter wanted much more. If all he could be to Elyssa was her lover, then he wanted to be that one last time; for after tonight, there would be no more time for him.
    Sighing, Elyssa burrowed into Hunter’s arms. His body leaped at the feel of the womanly warmth resting against him. Fierce arousal stretched him on a rack of need. He closed his eyes and bit back a groan, not wanting to awaken her.
    When Hunter finally could breathe around the savage ache in his groin, he opened his eyes. Elyssa was watching him. The passion and grief in her eyes matched his.
    “Don’t worry, honey,” Hunter said softly. “Ab Culpepper will be dead before the sun comes up. Tomorrow night you won’t have to fall asleep with a loaded pistol beside your bed again, wondering if you’ll have to kill…someone.”
    A shudder worked through Elyssa’s body. Saying nothing, she wrapped her arms around Hunter and held him.
    The baffling grief moved through Hunter again, both easing and increasing his hunger. He kissed her hair very gently.
    “It will be all right,” Hunter whispered. “Case and I are going out at dark.”
    “ No. ”
    The hoarse whisper was torn from Elyssa’s throat.
    Hunter didn’t try to argue with her. He knew what was necessary. When she thought about it, she would too.
    “It’s the only way,” Hunter said. “If we’re lucky, we’ll get Ab and his kin.”
    “No!”
    “Even if we can’t get to Ab, he doesn’t have any hold over his raiders but greed. If some of them start turning up with their throats slit in the morning, the rest might well bolt.”
    “You’ll be killed.”
    Again, Hunter didn’t argue.
    If he had thought sneaking past Ab’s guards would be easy, he would have taken the women and run for the safety of Camp Halleck days ago.
    But sneaking through the raiders would take every bit of skill he and Case had, and the devil’s own luck in the bargain.
    If the situation hadn’t been desperate, Hunter wouldn’t even have considered it.
    Hunter bent his head slightly to kiss Elyssa. He meantthe kiss to be gentle, to soothe her fears and his own, but the first touch of her lips went through him like torch fire through straw.
    With a hoarse sound Hunter caught Elyssa’s mouth beneath his and twisted hard, opening her for the kiss. His tongue shot into her mouth with an urgency that was little short of desperation.
    The fierce kiss arched Elyssa’s neck over Hunter’s forearm and forced her head back into the pillows. She didn’t even notice. Her fingers were clenched in his hair and she was straining to get closer to him with every bit of her strength.
    Hunter’s blood caught fire at Elyssa’s headlong answer to his need. Even as he deepened the kiss, he began undressing her with quick, impatient motions of his hands.
    She fought to help him. Together they stripped off her trousers and kicked them aside.
    “I didn’t mean to—” Hunter began.
    Elyssa took his mouth again, desperate to be close to him in the only way she could. She pulled one of his hands to the aching heat between her thighs.
    Hunter forgot what he had been trying to say. Elyssa was hot, soft, and she wept for him at his first touch. The liquid fire of her burned away every thought of control. He jerked open his pants and rolled over onto her, wild to be inside her.
    A quick thrust of his hips buried Hunter in Elyssa’s heat. She jerked and a keening cry broke from her throat. Shuddering with stark pleasure, Hunter pulled back, trying to spare her.
    Instantly Elyssa wrapped her legs around Hunter’s thighs and pushed upward with her hips, forcing him even deeper into her.
    The proof that she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her took all restraint from Hunter. He drove intoher repeatedly, powerfully, as though he must experience all of her or die in his next heartbeat.
    Elyssa arched up to Hunter, meeting his driving need with her own fierce demands. He gave her everything she asked for, and more. Without warning ecstasy poured through her in a cataract of fire, transfixing her.
    The feel of Elyssa’s shivering climax hurled Hunter over the edge. Just enough sanity remained for him to take her mouth in a deep kiss, muffling the sounds that came from both of them as he spent himself deeply within her.
    They fell asleep that way, interlocked, knowing only each other and the ecstasy that