Tower in the Woods Read online

  Thinking back, Nel wanted to tell Michelle she didn’t need to worry about Angela. The younger cult member watched Michelle as hungrily as the soldier watched her. “It wasn’t that bad,” Nel admitted, “and now I know I’m not missing much.”

  Michelle apologetically patted Nel’s shoulder as she promised, “Look, it might take a dozen years before I can make a go at getting away, but if I do, I’m going to come back and I’ll bring help with me.”

  Not at all believing her friend’s words, Nel let her thoughts drift away. It was fortunate one of Nel’s last memories of the outside world was a crushing disappointment—one less thing to miss once she was locked in the Tower.

  Chapter 5

  There was a special subsection of hell for people like him, Dane concluded as he tilted Nel’s chin up so he could gaze into those vulnerable-looking blue eyes. To say he was taking advantage of the situation was the understatement of the century. This woman had been locked in a tower for eleven years, and Dane was the first man she had ever met. Ever. Period. At this point, it didn’t really matter if the WITCH had kidnapped those girls—the woman he pressed up against, the woman who could definitely feel his erection prodding into her body, she was not someone he should be making moves on.

  Dane should definitely not be thinking about kissing Nel. He hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about the reasons that brought him to the WITCH, never mind she had literally saved his life less than two hours ago. He owed her big-time, was probably going to owe her even more if he had his way, which meant he would be the worst kind of bastard if he took advantage of the fact she hadn’t met a man before in her life. She wasn’t even aware she responded sexually to him. Just because Dane had no doubt Nel would eagerly reciprocate his advances didn’t mean he should succumb to his baser instincts.

  But for once Dane was thinking with a body part other than his brain, and it really didn’t care about all the reasons he shouldn’t lower Nel to the floor and have his way with her. Whatever the ramifications of his actions, his penis told him he was just going to have to deal with it later. Right now, nothing save a lightning bolt crashing down from the heavens was going to stop him from sampling the full coral lips that just begged to be kissed.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Nel asked as she met his gaze, clearly not impervious to the undercurrent of sexuality between them. She straddled his lap and every inch of their torsos were plastered against each other. Her small hands were flat against his shoulders and the worn fabric of her hoodie rubbed over his bare skin.

  Dane’s fingers itched to dive under Nel’s clothing to feel what he was certain was the softest skin he was ever going to touch. He wanted to span her waist with his hands, wanted to lift her onto his erection and impale her with it until she screamed his name in pleasure. He wanted to see those blue eyes darken with desire as he drove into her again and again.

  Why was he looking at her like that? Hell, how was he supposed to look at her any other way?

  “Have you ever been kissed?” Dane asked as what was left of his conscience struggled to reassert itself.

  “Not by a man,” Nel answered, her response sending blood rushing straight to his groin. This was the least appropriate time to get turned on by visions of girl-on-girl action. “Is it very different than being kissed by a woman?”

  Fate just wasn’t giving his penis a break, Dane decided as he commanded his fingers not to clench around Nel’s rib cage. He tried counting back from one hundred, tried to imagine dead puppies, tried to imagine dead puppies being torn limb from limb by zombies, but nothing seemed to be dampening his desire for the woman who looked at him with avid curiosity in her bright blue eyes.

  “I’ve never actually kissed a man, myself. So I’m not sure how to answer that,” Dane ground out as he recited all the ways to kill a zombie in his head. He could do it. He wasn’t an immoral sex-driven machine. His conscience would somehow pull through and find the strength to deter his baser instincts from taking advantage of the most desirable female he had ever laid eyes upon.

  “Oh,” Nel remarked, moving her face an inch closer to his. “Would you like me to find out and tell you the difference?”

  In one fell swoop Dane’s brain lost its valiant gladiatorial foray against his penis. He distantly heard a growling sound that seemed to have come from his throat, and a moment later, he crushed his lips against Nel’s slightly parted mouth, his tongue delving inside her in a paroxysm of intercourse.

  Why couldn’t she have had bad breath, Dane wondered as he shoved his hand through those silky strands of hair, his fingers massaging her scalp as he practically shoved her head into a more vulnerable position. Of course she would taste like mint and honey, and of course she would smell clean and crisp. When temptation decided to stack the chips against him it wasn’t about to pull any punches. This was it, he was sunk, and there was nothing he could do but give in.

  It would have helped if Nel tried to resist him. At this point, Dane would have taken the blessing of her simply doing nothing at all. But instead she made a little purring sound in her throat as her entire body suddenly became maddeningly pliant, shifting to enable him to explore as he pleased. Dane wanted to touch every part of the sweet, supple body straddling his lap, and that included sliding his fingers under her sweatshirt and running them up against Nel’s deliciously arching back. He felt the strap of cloth that was tied tightly around her breasts and gave whatever god was protecting virgins a silent thank-you. If she had been wearing nothing beneath that hoodie Dane would have lost all hope of regaining his control.

  Then Nel’s tongue timidly brushed against his lips, and Dane let out a guttural sound of frustration as he literally caught it with his teeth and sucked. The soft, wet flesh slipped eagerly into his mouth as she returned the kiss, exploring his depths as she pressed her straining body harder against him. Dane fondled her breast over the restraining cloth, his thumb drawing circles over a puckered nipple he felt even through the barrier. His brain was engulfed in a red fiery haze, and all he could think about was the feel of her skin and her lips, the way her lean, muscular body fit perfectly against his chest, the little muffled sounds she made as he refused to relinquish her lips.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Dane’s addled brain finally regained the cognitive ability to reassert itself and he was forced to reluctantly end what was perhaps the longest and most erotic kiss of his life.

  *

  Kissing a man, at least this one, was absolutely like nothing Nel had ever experienced before. She eyes lost focus, her lips tingled, and her entire body felt as if it were about to explode. She realized as she met Dane’s heated gaze that she had never wanted anything more than to kiss him again.

  So she did. After all, Nel had not ended up at the top tier of her age group by failing to take initiative, or by not being able to recognize when she had the upper hand. And she did have the upper hand at this very moment. She could tell by the way Dane was breathing heavily, by the way his hand clenched and unclenched around her waist, by the rapidly pounding heart beneath her right palm. None of these signs indicated that he was anywhere close to being in control, and Nel rather preferred him in this state, especially after she had just recently discovered he physically overpowered her in every way. Apparently, kissing was a very good way of empowering herself.

  His lips weren’t as soft as she remembered Michelle’s to be, but they felt nice in an entirely different kind of way. She bit down lightly on Dane’s lower lip and sucked the yielding flesh into her mouth. She heard him groan as his hand grabbed her nape once more, his tongue darting out to tangle with hers, plunging into her mouth as his palm cradled her head. Nel closed her eyes against the onslaught of sensation as she allowed him to take over the kiss, knowing he had the expertise she lacked. She felt as if she were burning, as if her heart were going to beat straight out of her chest as he captured her lips again and again, relentlessly exciting her with teeth and tongue until her mouth felt tender a
nd her breath came in sharp, hungry gasps.

  “You’re driving me insane,” Dane muttered as he finally ended the kiss, resting his forehead against hers with his eyes closed and the muscles of his neck tensed with strain.

  “Please tell me there’s more,” Nel said in a whisper as she struggled to breathe, not quite able to assimilate everything that was happening to her. She finally understood what she and Michelle had been searching for on that sunny day eleven years ago. It was this rush of sensation, the inexplicable need to touch and be touched, the bewitching dichotomy of surrendering and triumphing, of driving and being driven to the point of near madness. She hadn’t experienced this with her best friend, but she was acutely aware of finding that chemistry with Dane.

  The loose, comfortable fabric of Nel’s sweatshirt suddenly felt restraining, and the baggy camouflage pants were almost abrasive against the sensitized bare skin of her legs. Dane’s large, rough hands cupped her face, and where he touched she felt as if she were on fire. This was what she wanted. This was what she had waited for her entire adult life. If she never had another new experience for as long as she lived, what was happening between her and Dane would be enough to satisfy her for a lifetime.

  Then Nel heard a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a cry escape Dane’s throat. “There’s more. Lots more. But we’re not going to do any of it,” he muttered, sounding as if he were trying to convince himself.

  “Why not?” Nel asked, genuinely curious and utterly disappointed.

  Dane’s facial expression indicated he was in pain, but his eyes were burning hungrily as his gaze bore into hers. “Damn it, sweetheart. I’m trying to do the honorable thing here, so give me a break, okay?” Dane asked as he lifted his head and stared up at the ceiling. When his head angled back down, there was a determined look on his face.

  “How is not showing me what else there is honorable?” Nel questioned him once she was certain he had no intention of continuing what they had been doing. “Especially if I want to know.” For the first time in her life her voice approximated a whine.

  Dane’s brown eyes gazed back at her blankly as if he couldn’t quite formulate how to answer her. “I don’t want to take advantage of you. You’ve never had sex before so you have no idea what you are getting yourself into. Besides, my sexual tastes aren’t exactly orthodox.”

  Nel rolled her eyes. “Of course I know what I am getting myself into. I know what sex is. As I said, I like reading medical textbooks, and the mechanics of sexual intercourse are described very clearly. Logically speaking, if I was to ever have sex, some person will have to be the first. Why can’t it be you?” Nel didn’t understand this man’s reluctance. She was very attracted to him, and he was clearly very attracted to her. “Do you have some sort of sexually transmitted disease? Your hesitation would make sense if you did.”

  Dane released her face and used his index and middle fingers to massage his temples. “No. I don’t have an STD. STDs were eliminated by the URV vaccine. This conversation has nothing to do with that.”

  Nel cocked her head to the side. “I would have to assume condoms are no longer being manufactured, and any still in existence would have expired so there is virtually no effective method of birth control at our disposal. However, statistically speaking, it is unlikely I would get pregnant from having sex with you. By my calculation, this is not the fertile period of my monthly cycle. In any event, I would very much like to take my chances and try having sex just this once.”

  Dane’s face turned an odd hue of red and he made sounds that indicated he was choking. Reacting to his distress, Nel thumped her hand on his back a couple of times, relieved when he started breathing again. “If I have sex with you, it won’t be just the once,” he said in a rather hoarse voice. “And I would demand that you do things that even women with more sexual experience than you have refused to do.”

  It was Nel’s turn to frown. “How many times would we have to agree to have sex in order for you to consider it? Besides, shouldn’t you just tell me what you want to do with me before assuming I would refuse?”

  Dane closed his eyes. “We’re not having sex. At least not tonight. You’ve had quite enough emotional turmoil for one day and I refuse to have this discussion until both our brains are functioning properly.”

  This time his words actually made sense. Dane was right. In one day she had talked and touched another person for the first time in eleven years. Before tonight, she had never met or kissed a man. Considering the likely emotional effects of all these experiences, having sex tonight as well was probably not one of her wiser decisions.

  “All right,” Nel acquiesced as she adjusted her position on Dane’s lap, “perhaps we should lie down so we can be in a more comfortable position while we sleep. I don’t know about you, but all this excitement has made me very tired.”

  * * * *

  It served him right, Dane thought as he very literally experienced hell on earth. What else was he supposed to call holding Nel in his arms as she slept, unable to act on an arousal that simply wasn’t going away, and realizing it was he who had convinced her not to have sex with him in the first place? Since when had he become so bloody noble? What idiotic part of his brain had made him refuse when the woman he wanted so desperately offered to have sex with him? Resisting the urge to groan in frustration, Dane focused on reorganizing his thoughts rather than the feel of Nel’s soft body. He wondered how she could have so trustingly curled up against his chest, completely oblivious to the affect she had on his self-control.

  The whole situation felt intensely surreal. He spooned a delectable female sniper who belonged to WITCH. Dane didn’t spoon the women he had sex with, let alone the woman he had refused to have sex with because he suddenly decided to develop a conscience. But here he was, cuddling with the woman who was giving him the most painful erection of his adult life, and having absolutely no idea what he was going to do with her once she woke up.

  “It just occurred to me that you have been experiencing sexual arousal ever since we met.” Nel’s soft voice sliced through the night, completely cutting off Dane’s ability to form words.

  “Gah…” was all Dane managed to get out of his mouth while his brain struggled to respond to her observation.

  “That is why your groin is pressing up against my bottom, isn’t it?” she asked sleepily.

  How exactly was he supposed to respond to that statement without sounding like an absolute ass?

  “Is there anything I can do to help, without having sex with you, that is?” Nel rolled over to face him, her eyelids fluttering as she tilted her face up to meet Dane’s gaze with her own. There was an earnestness to the way she said the words, and the innocent offer was turning Dane’s thoughts into a garbled mess.

  “Not really, no.” Dane managed to rasp out, deciding he very much deserved his own parking spot in heaven. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure? From what I’ve read, male ejaculation seems to be a matter of applying the appropriate amount of friction. It doesn’t necessarily have to come from sexual intercourse,” she somberly told him. In all his wildest fantasies, Dane couldn’t imagine a more erotic way to discuss a handjob. Did this woman seriously think he didn’t know how to jerk off? Perfect, this entire night was just perfect.

  “I’m all right. Seriously. You should probably try to catch some rest,” Dane managed to mutter, hoping this was the end of the most bizarre conversation of his life. He was wrong.

  Nel shook her head. “It can’t be healthy or comfortable to remain aroused for as long as you have. It’s been hours. Why don’t you let me try to help you?”

  With those words, her little hands moved down to undo the snap of his jeans. Deciding to simply surrender to the madness, Dane rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. It was evident Nel had a mind of her own, and his penis was more than happy to play along. His conscience was clearly having a hard enough time stopping him from tearing off Nel’s clothes and taking her
virginity, so it promptly decided to take a backseat.

  “Let me know if I’m hurting you,” Nel said as she pulled down his zipper and reached her slender fingers into his pants. The surge of intense pleasure as her hand cupped his bulging erection was enough to make Dane’s hips jerk off the floor. He didn’t know how many curse words escaped his lips in the following five-second period, and he couldn’t bring himself to care.

  When he opened his eyes, Nel was curiously scrutinizing his face. “Would that mean I am hurting you or not hurting you?”

  “You’re doing fine,” Dane groaned out as he closed his eyes once more. His conscience must have decided to take a vacation, for he heard his own voice say, “It would be more comfortable if you took off my pants.”

  Clearly fascinated by the male anatomy, Nel didn’t need any further urging to grab on to Dane’s waistband and pull down the heavy denim. Deciding to pick his battles, he moved to kick off the restraining cloth that had crumpled over his calves.

  “Socks on or off?” Nel asked, her now alert blue eyes fixed questioningly on his face.

  “Off,” Dane replied after a far too long pause.

  Once he was left covered only in his boxers, Nel crawled back to sit by his side, her legs folded primly underneath her. As curious as any cat, she quickly tugged the undergarment down to reveal his very engorged male appendage.

  “It’s a good thing we decided to put off having sex. I’m not quite sure your penis will fit where it needs to go,” Nel observed as she ran the tip of her index finger from the hilt of his shaft to the engorged end, causing Dane’s hips to buck up once more. If he didn’t know better he would have pegged her for a tease. At the rate she was going, he was certain he was going to be driven completely insane before the night’s end.