My eyelids fluttered down, lashes tickling my cheeks. A relief to block him out, but the pulsation of energy between us was too tantalizing. I couldn’t keep my eyes shut.

Unable to pull away, I was almost a hundred and fifty percent certain I was about to burst into flames. My skin was surely an eruption of scarlet, the hot pumping of my blood a roar in my ears. Kiss me, I silently begged.

I’d never wanted anything more in my life. More than want, needed. If he didn’t move his ass, I was going to take what was mine.

Braxton leaned into me, and just as those delicious, morsels-of-sin lips were about to close the final millimeters between us, he stopped. Mere inches from me.

“There is something moving out there,” he said, husky tones brushing over me. “It’s close enough that I don’t think we should be staying still right now.”

I could hear his resigned disappointment as he shifted into protective mode. Probably the only thing which could have stopped him.

I sucked in a few deep breaths, trying to fill my oxygen-starved lungs. He let me slowly slide down his body, his attention still firmly on me as though he was very reluctant to end this moment. As I descended, my bare feet landing on the rough ground, I could feel that Braxton was hard … everywhere. That moment had affected him as much as me. His arousal had not left his melting blue eyes, it had just been shelved while we tried to stay alive.

“Where are we?” I said softly, facing the tawny skin lining his rock hard pecs, still trapped between him and the tree.

He didn’t answer immediately, which was a worry. He was shifting his gaze around the area behind me. What the hell was he seeing?

Finally he focused on me again, still pressing against me pretty intimately. I expected him to move back, place some space between us, but he didn’t.

He dropped his chin so that our faces were closer together. “I have no idea where we are, this is not a place I’ve been, and the scents are … unusual.”

Not reassuring.

I pouted in false annoyance. “You could have just lied and said we were still in the sanctuary. You suck as a friend.”

His expression softened, a ghost of the dimple even appeared. “Sorry, Jess. While your happiness is my number one priority, I’ll never lie to you.”

I thought he was kidding around, but the serious tilt to his head indicated that wasn’t the case.