Pursued Read online

  He wanted to kiss her again, wanted to taste those sweet, pink lips once more, to crush her to him just as he had at the start of their trip. Even more than that, he could feel Elise wanting to be kissed. She craved this—ached for his touch the same way he ached for hers. Merrick leaned toward her…

  And she turned suddenly away, a look of misery on her face. “Um, so the bath?” she said, not meeting his eyes. “Okay or not? I mean, are there any poisonous fish or reptiles I should watch out for?”

  Merrick let out a sigh and tried to curb his lust. Inside his tight black pants his shaft ached, the mating fist throbbing with need. Even his fangs had joined the chorus, begging to pierce the soft flesh of her neck as he pierced her pussy down below.

  “Not in a stream this size, no,” he said at last, forcing himself to regain control. “You go ahead and wash—we can reapply the camouflage later. Just don’t get too close to the Deep Blue. Once you cross over, things get a hell of a lot more dangerous.”

  “Will we be all right in there?” she asked, wide eyed. “I mean, how hard do you think this skrillix plant is going to be to find? And what does it look like anyway?”

  Merrick frowned. “It’s a vine—a creeper about as thick as your wrist. It winds itself around tree trunks and it has other, smaller branches sticking off of the main one.”

  Elise looked with dismay at the Deep Blue. “But…there are hundreds of vines and they all look the same. They’re all that deep indigo blue.”

  “The skrillix has two distinguishing characteristics,” he said, feeling a little like he was giving a lecture. “First: long, curving thorns about as long as your finger.” He held up one of his own fingers to illustrate. “Whatever you do, don’t get scratched. They secrete a hallucinogenic compound that’ll make you wish you’d never been born—it’s why the skrillix is called the ‘pain vine.’ The Ancient Ones use it as a kind of truth serum sometimes.”

  “Wow. Okay, got you.” Elise nodded. “What else?”

  “Bright red berries as big as the end of your thumb,” Merrick said. “Those are the key—we need to bring some back with us, still attached to the branch.”

  “Why still attached?” she asked. “It seems like it would be much easier to bring back a pocket full of berries than a whole entire branch.”

  “It would,” Merrick admitted. “But it’s not possible—they begin to rot the minute they’re picked. The only way to keep them fresh enough to be useful is to keep them on the branch.”

  “And do you think the skrillix will be hard to find?” she asked, repeating her earlier question.

  Merrick frowned. “It's sacred to the Ancient Ones, so they keep a pretty close eye on all of the skrillix in their territory. But they keep mostly to the center of the Deep Blue. If we’re very lucky, we might just find a stray skrillix growing around the perimeter and get back to town without meeting them at all. That would be our best case scenario.”

  Elise bit her lip. “What would the worst case be?”

  “You don’t wanna know,” Merrick said darkly. “But if we do run into the Ancient Ones, you stick close to me. I’ll protect you.”

  “I know you will.” To his surprise, Elise laid one of her hands on his—the first time she’d voluntarily touched him in what seemed like forever. “Thank you, Merrick,” she said softly. “I’m sorry things are…difficult between us. But thank you for keeping me safe.”

  He looked at her, searching her deep brown eyes for a long moment. Gods, she was beautiful. Why did she have to be forever out of his reach? “That’s all right, baby,” he growled softly. “I’ll keep you safe for as long as you let me. Wish I could keep you safe forever.”

  Elise’s eyes were suspiciously bright. “That’s very sweet of you but…” She broke off, shaking her head.

  “But what?” Merrick urged her, wanting to know. Hoping she would talk to him at last.

  She blinked rapidly and a single silver tear made its way down her cheek. “If you knew me…really knew me, maybe you wouldn’t feel that way,” she said in a low voice.

  “That’s not true,” he said roughly. “I don’t care about your past—I don’t give a fuck what happened then as long as you’re here with me now.”

  She shook her head and at first he was afraid he had pushed too hard, afraid she would start denying anything had happened again. But she didn’t. She simply wiped away the tear and looked at him again.

  “I care about the past,” she said at last in a soft, broken voice. “And you should too.”

  Merrick sighed tiredly, feeling a thousand years old. So close and yet she was still pulling away. “All right,” he said. “We’re not going to get anywhere talking about it now—not when we’re both so damn tired. But will you come to me tonight? At least let me hold you and feed the hunger?”

  Elise looked down at her hands. “I think that would be all right,” she said in a low voice. “As long as we don’t do anything, you know, sexual.”

  “I understand.” Merrick said gently. “Nothing you don’t want, baby. I just want to take care of you.”

  She looked up again, her eyes so filled with sorrow his heart ached for her. Gods, if only she would open up to him, if only she would tell him. He opened his mouth to ask, and then closed it. He didn’t want to push her away again. She’d practically promised to come to him and let him hold her that night. Merrick didn’t want to ruin that so he kept silent.

  “Thank you,” she said at last, swiping at her eyes. “Uh, I think I’ll go ahead and wash up now.”

  “And I’m going to go scout around for some yanyan leaves for us to sleep on.” He pointed a finger at her. “I won’t be gone long and xenoxes don’t like water so you should be fine as long as you stick to the stream and stay away from billibs. And whatever you do, don’t go into the Deep Blue alone.” He thought it was important to emphasize that, considering that the Ancient Ones were so active at this time.

  “Don’t worry,” Elise said with a shiver. “I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll stay right here—I promise.”

  “Good.” He nodded and rose, dusting his hands on his pants. “I’m going to stay in this immediate vicinity. If you get into trouble, just yell for me.”

  Elise nodded. “Of course.”

  Giving her one last look, Merrick stepped into the foliage and went looking for the leaves to make their bed for the night—a bed he hoped like hell they would share.

  * * * * *

  Elise sighed after he left. God, it was exhausting how emotionally charged every encounter between them was! She wished she could have expressed how she felt about him—told him about the revelation she’d had after they had killed the xenox. But the words had stuck in her throat—it wasn’t fair to do that to him. Wasn’t fair to tell him she loved him in one breath and explain that they could never be together in the next. Because they couldn’t—no matter how she wished they could. It just wasn’t possible.

  She thought about the vault, filled with dirty secrets and memories so horrible she couldn’t even bear to remember. Whatever was in there was bad—so bad that if she let it come out into the main part of her brain, she might never be the same again. The AllFather had done that to her—had forced her to relive those ugly times—and it had nearly driven her insane. Only the time she’d spent in the stasis chamber had allowed her to push everything back where it belonged—behind the vault door. I can’t go through that again, she told herself. I can’t. And it isn’t fair to Merrick to tell him how I feel when there’s no hope of us ever being together. I’d be better off just going through with our original plan of dissolving the bond and going back to James.

  She knew from experience that her fiancé wouldn’t push her to remember her past. Why would he, when he barely listened when she talked about her day? With sudden clarity, Elise realized that was one reason she’d agreed to marry him. James was safe. He didn’t pry, didn’t demand that she tell him about her past and trust him to still love her. He had never asked for the key to