Free West (A Roam Series Novella) by Kimberly Stedronsky

shoulder until I was lying on my back. Amused, I tucked my hands under her bottom as she straddled my waist. “And what are you planning to do, Miss Camden?”
    She bit her lip, just slightly, shrugging with a shy smile. “I want to do that… to you. But I don’t know how to make you… like it.”
    I pulled her closer, so my words were hot on her lips. “ No?” I prodded, encouraged, sliding my fingers beneath her. She was so wet, waiting for me, and I employed all of my strength to refrain from pushing back inside of her.
    “I want you to feel what I’m feeling.”
    Primal lust surged through me. Her sincerity drove me beyond any territory I’d ever known. She was so innocent. We were both completely naked in the humid cottage, damp with sweat and water and soap and sand, and I could have died happily right there, in her arms.
    I gathered handfuls of her luscious hair, kissing her deeply. “ I’m yours, Roam. I’ve always been yours. I find you, I protect you. I serve you. ”
    The words came from somewhere deep in my subconscious. She readily accepted the power I gave her, lowering her face and dropping shy kisses over my abs. As she moved downward, I was stiffened as her sweet, tentative mouth took me in.
    She made me feel so whole, so alive…
    So mortal.
    I managed to turn her over to lie on her back just in time, joining with her again before coming apart. I’d forgotten to make sure she was ready, but groaned when I found her hot and waiting for me.
    My life had changed for the first time in six hundred years.
    We were a tangled mess of limbs, of contact, and of whispered words. I stared out the window, my heart racing with anxiety as our situation slowly invaded my consciousness.
    Troy was hunting her.
    Logan was going to Russia.
    The fountains.
    “I can’t get lost in you again. It happens every time, and I forget that we are in a war,” I murmured.
    “You’re right,” she breathed, her head fitting perfectly into the crook of my arm. “We need to eat, and I need to learn to fight.”
    “You fought pretty well last night,” I teased, and her brows furrowed as she reached for my back. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
    “I probably could have fought Troy more if I hadn’t been in the water.”
    Oh, god, I could feel her fear, and it cracked my heart in two. I held her tighter, moving comforting kisses over her face.
    “You’re right. But the first thing we’re going to do is go swimming.”
    Panic consumed her, tightening her grip on my arms. “No way. I’m not going in the ocean…,”
    “You’ve got to get back in the water, Roam. I know you’re afraid, but you are a talented swimmer and you can’t carry fear like that around with you for the rest of your life.”
    “I’m not ready.” Her long legs tightened over mine, and I nudged her thighs apart, rolling her to her back.
    She lightened me by centuries. I felt like laughing, even amidst our serious words, just so happy to have her in my arms again. I dove, planting silly, wet kisses over her neck and chest, and she broke into tortured laughter.
    “Stop! West stop!”
    “Stop what?”
    “I- Ohmygod,” she sat up, too quickly, and her forehead cracked against mine.
    “What?” Something was wrong- her entire body tensed beneath me.
    “My numbers!” She turned ashen, staring at her arm. “Where are they? What…,”
    I wrenched her arm to me, turning it over. Slowly, logic pieced what was happening together. Logan. Fucking Logan. I told him to wait.
    Either he’s dead… or he went through the fountain.
    “ We have to go.”
    “What does this mean? Is Logan… is he…,” she was struggling to breath, and her face paled. “Is he still here?”
    “No,” I snapped, shoving my feet into jeans. When I turned to her, she was twisting the bedspread beneath her fingers, holding her breath, ready to pass out. “Roam,” I barked, trying to get her attention. “I don’t think he’s dead , I think he traveled