He pulled her up, tucking her against his body, and kissed her temple. "You're not used to having friends or allies, Claire. I understand that. You're not used to having people want good things for you, to protect you. Just relax now, okay? We need their magick to help guard you from the demons. Leaving here takes that away and endangers you. We'll teach the remaining Coven witches how to use their power against the Atrika. Protecting you means we protect ourselves. So, please, just try to sleep a little now."

Claire's body lost its tension. She sighed and he felt the echo of her weariness and stress through his own body. "I don't like this."

He laughed a little—a soft, low, raw sound. "What's to like?"

Around them the sound of the sleeping witches' breathing filled their ears and the shadows cast by the firelight danced on the walls. There were only two bedrooms, so Adam and Claire had given up their bed to the other witches in favor of bunking down on the cushions from the couch and some folded up blankets. They were both so weary they hardly noticed the lumps at all.

Claire moved against his body and he gritted his teeth, his cock hardening. She slipped her long leg between his thighs and her hands under his shirt to smooth over his chest. The blanket covering them rustled with her movement.

He rolled her over and beneath him, then parted her thighs with his knee and settled himself between them. As he slanted his mouth across hers and slid his tongue between her lips, he ground his hard cock against her sex to show her what she was doing to him.

Claire sighed into his mouth and rubbed her sex up against him aggressively, causing delicious friction along his shaft beneath their clothes. It broke the last thin thread he had on his control. Fire jumped in the center of him in response to his arousal. "Are you trying to push me, woman?" he growled against her lips.

"I need you right now, Adam," she whispered back.

She didn't have to ask twice. He reached down and yanked her pants down to her ankles and savagely pushed her panties down and off under the cover of the blankets. All the other witches were sleeping, but even if they hadn't been sleeping, Adam wasn't sure he could've stopped. The scent of her, the movement of her silken skin against his, it all made him crazy.

Claire fumbled for the snap and zipper on his jeans, apparently desperate to feel him inside her. It seemed that foreplay wasn't what she had in mind. When he touched her sex, he found her ready, silky and slick, her clit blooming against his palm. His hands shook he wanted her so badly.