Craved
Chapter 20

Damon:

Damon watched as Renee gritted her chattering teeth. Her skin pebbled into goose flesh, and she stuck her hands between her legs as she huddled on the rock, despite the offer of his jacket.

The goddess must have cursed him by giving the most stubborn woman on Earth to hold one of the crystals. Still, she'd showed such patience and dedication to the boy, Josh, from her story. Pride filled her face when she spoke of him. If only she'd give Damon a measure of the caring.

"You're shivering." He rose and moved slowly toward her, his hands out even though he craved her. "I swear, I won't try anything." Not because he didn't ache to sate the hunger gnawing at him, but he wanted her permission first. She snorted. Did the woman not know how much peril she was in? Any other incubus locked in with her would have her naked and begging for more before nightfall. Energy pulsed from her, and the crystal magnified her aura because he sensed it throughout the chamber. So strong. Probably feel its radiating heat through the avalanche if he'd been on the other side of it. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and forced the hunger aside.

And she enjoyed A Midsummer Night's Dream enough to have her class perform some of the tamer aspects of the play. When Shakespeare woke from a sexual dream with Samara straddling him, he asked her what sort of witch she was. She'd replied she was the queen of fairies and dreams. Then, she laid a finger on his chest, making him orgasm until he passed out.

Shakespeare's play became a way of attempting to lure her back to his bed. Didn't work though. Samara liked hiding in the shadows and dreams of men; she would not be coerced.

Renee offered him his jacket back, but he held up a hand.

"Keep yourself warm."

"W-what about you? Won't you get cold?"

"Some men are always warmer than women. Guess that's why women hog the blankets all the time."

Her frown made him back up a step. I shouldn't have said anything.

"Have you had a lot of women in your life?" Her eyes grew wide. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that."

He chuckled. "No, a fair question after lumping all of your gender into cover stealers." Resisting the urge to touch her, he laid the jacket over her bare legs. The temperature wasn't the problem for him, but the temptation of her was. "I won't lie; I've had more women than a lot of men."

"And haven't found one to settle down with yet?" She tsked.

Catty-corner from her, he reclined. If she didn't stop shaking after a few minutes, he'd hold her in his arms until she warmed even if it were from fighting him.

When she glanced into his eyes, her cheeks reddened. "Sorry, that was uncalled for. None of my business what you do in your personal life. Why aren't you married with two point five kids already."

"I could ask the same of you."

She fidgeted with the backpack strap, and he was about to change the subject, when she said, "No one can put up with me for long. Back me in a corner or tell me I can't do something, and I'll fight with everything I have to prove you wrong." "I met someone special once." He couldn't say her name. Not yet. "She died a few years ago." He raised his hand and realized it shook slightly. "Never found anyone who even comes close to her, and I don't think I ever will." "I'm still looking for a special someone. A man who accepts all of me, even my faults." Her breath hitched.

"So, why did you start in archeology?" he asked putting his hands behind his head as he watched her.

"History fascinates me. Always has." Her face softened, and her eyes lit up. "I didn't have enough money to go without a paycheck, so teaching fills the gaps."

"But you'd be a full-time archeologist if you received funding?"

Her eyes brightened, and he hoped to see the look on her face more often.

"Oh yes. Learning and teaching about history is amazing." She slipped his jacket up higher. Did she smell his alluring incubi scent? "But to dig it out of the earth and know I'm the only one who has seen or held an object in hundreds or thousands of years? Phenomenal."

Much of history he'd seen before his eyes. He'd witnessed the pyramids being built. If he got the crystal, he would continue for thousands of years after Renee's great-grandchildren were gone.

Even though she didn't ask, he answered his own question. "For me, it was the travel to exotic locations and being my own boss."

"You could be a traveling salesman or an overseas real estate agent. So why did you choose this?" She hugged her legs under his jacket.

"I enjoy history too." His words sounded muted when he compared them to her enthusiasm on the subject. "Unraveling the mystery of objects, time, and people is what fascinates me."

She squirmed. Did his words or her position make her uncomfortable?

"Say, for instance, they found our camp abandoned a hundred years from now. We, all of our group, never escaped these caves." When she paled, he assured her, "Not gonna happen. If it did, what would the archeologist in the future say happened to us? Everything is still there, our clothes, food, tents: how would they explain what happened?"

"A bear attack?"

"Alright." He scratched his chin. "An animal attack might count for one or two of us, but everyone? An archeologist is a mystery guesser. A historical sleuth. The clues are there, but he or she must fit the clues together to make sense of it. They or we might get it wrong."

"I know what you mean. Without all the clues, mistakes might be made."

"Exactly." He nodded. "Like the Ancient Greeks and how they found the mammoth fossils and tried to figure out what they were. Because the elephant's trunk doesn't have any bones, no evidence of it remained. So, the Greeks called the nose socket an eye, put the creature on its hind legs, and thus the cyclops was born."

A human scientific theory, but he'd seen Cyclopes. His friend Julia, a cyclops and a romance novelist, used glamour to keep from looking like one to humans. In the past, her kind intermarried with humans or other creatures. Every so often, their mutated genes passed down to a human baby today in cyclopia, however it thankfully, was rare. Unfortunately, the cyclopia babies didn't survive.

"I'd heard of it." Renee didn't sound convinced.

Believing the truth was an entirely different matter. Explaining away the mysteries rather than know the truth of human inferiority against so many other species.

Her stomach growled.

"Are you hungry?"

"Just sleepy." She yawned.

He checked his watch-ten to six. Where had the time gone? She was probably hungry and cold, and refused to admit it.

"Would you like your jacket?" she murmured.

"No, I'm good."

Silence drifted between them. "May I?" He motioned to her pack, and she tossed it to him.

Rummaging through it, he hoped to replace a radio or walkie-talkie. Nothing. Her cell phone showed no signal either. With a sigh, he replaced all the items. Renee's eyes were closed. He didn't need sleep. Or at least not as much as humans. An hour or two, and he'd be fine. He paced in the cave, looking for a way out.

An hour later, and his jacket had slid off her. He eased it up higher.

"Lay with me," she said, her voice soft and inviting.

She must be dreaming. But when he stepped back, she reached out.

"Please, Damon. It's night now and getting colder." The corner of her mouth twitched. "Besides, your pacing is distracting."

"Alright." Keep your hands off her. No groping! Being this close to her, his gift purred.

She might not have any sexual motives, but her body could have other ideas. So, she wanted to be in control? He could live with that if the end result were the same thing he sought.

She shifted until her head hit the bottom of his chin. "Sorry."

When she started to pull away, he grasped her arm. "I'm fine."

As if in surrender, she wiggled closer and wrapped her arms around his waist, her breath caressing his neck. He took his hands off her and locked them by his side as promised. Lying next to her, he could not sleep. His cock stirred. Did she recognize and fight this attraction between them? Even if he could sleep, it would be hazardous to be so near her while he was starving. He might slip into her dreams too easily, and he wouldn't be able to stop. "Don't want you to freeze either." Her teeth chattered a bit. "Put your arms around me."

Without her having to ask again, he did. It would be a long night of fighting temptation. When her breathing evened, he relaxed as she slept. At least she'd be warm. If he'd been human, sharing body heat like this would help some. But with him, an incubus, she'd feel as if she hugged a furnace.

She pressed against him, and he ground his teeth. If he kissed her, he doubted he'd be able to stop. She was too lush and tempting. Even her mind and compassion for everyone but him would set him afire. One day, he would savor being intimate with her and forcing her stubbornness aside to admit he was the greatest lover she'd ever have...had. No, he couldn't become intimate with her, couldn't fall in love.

Concentrate on getting the crystal. Nothing else. He couldn't risk touching the crystal, connecting to her through it. Too risky, and he had no idea how much power it would manifest if he tried.

To get her to trust him, he must court her. Carefully. Couldn't let his emotions get in the mix as well. Because when the time came and she offered him the crystal, he would need to distance himself from her.

A chuckle broke free of his chest. He hoped it didn't take him a lifetime to convince her to give it to him.

As he gazed into her peaceful face and the perfect bow of her lips, a tugging hit his chest. At least she trusted him with this, for now, to keep her warm and not run his hands all over her. If she knew how difficult it was for him to keep his vow, she'd be hovering in the corner instead of purring in her sleep.