Dawn's First Light

Carefully, not to wake Lori, Keene riffled through the bathroom cabinets until he found what he was looking for. He wasn't sure who stocked things, but they were thorough. He tore the clippers from the packaging and plugged them in. He'd gone soft. Grown a full mane of hair. Forgotten too many things about him self and about the reality of the world that existed beyond the brotherhood.

Lori awoke the minute Keene closed the bathroom door. She'd never been a sound sleeper and the tiny slivers of light seeping through the crack at the bottom of the door woke her instantly. She heard him drop his clothing and gear to the floor and the soft whisper of fabric as he kicked them to the side. He shuffled through the bathroom cabinets and tore through plastic packaging. She could only guess at what he was doing, until she heard the unmistakable buzz of the clippers.

Keene was going to cut his hair off! She bounded from the bed and threw open the bathroom door. He stood in front of the vanity wearing nothing but a towel around his lean hips, with the clippers poised to make the first swipe. His hair was just now growing out, curling around his face and jaw line in reddish-orange waves. His expression was a mask of hard determination. And she was suddenly frightened by the remote coldness in his gray eyes. He looked almost feral. Undaunted, Lori reached out and snatched the plug from the wall. "Don't."

She eased the clippers from his hand and dropped them on the countertop. Totally unprepared for the man she saw in front of her, she wiggled into the narrow space between the vanity and his hips, wrapping her arms around him. Gently, she brushed the hair out of his eyes and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. "I like you just the way you are," she whispered.

Warmed by the press of her lips and the soft, butterfly brushes of her fingertips in his hair, Keene nuzzled Lori's cheek with the tip of his nose. Slowly, the tension began to melt out of his body. He stood there, pinning her between the vanity and the hardness of his arousal, rubbing his hips against her softness. Her sweet scent eased the beast inside of him. Soothed him in a way nothing else in this world could. Gently, he lifted her, perching her body on the edge of the countertop. She cradled him between her thighs, locking her ankles around his hips as he ground against her.

Taken by surprise by Keene's sudden onslaught, Lori shuddered with desire as he stroked a path with his fingers under her t-shirt and along her ribcage to cup her breast in his palm. "I worried about you all night," she said running a line of soft, playful, gentle pecks across his forehead. "Was it bad out there? Did I have a reason to worry?"

His fingers stilled and his body tensed in her arms. Instinctively, she arched her back to create a bit of friction at that tender point where his thumb rested on her aching nipple. Beneath the towel he was still hard as ever. Erect and probing at her core through her kaki shorts. "Keene? You promised me no secrets," she gently reminded.

"You didn't need to worry about me. I can take care of myself," Keene answered tersely. "It is I who need to worry about you." Yes, he promised her no secrets would come between them. But, he could not bear to share his shame with her. He didn't want to talk. He wanted to forget if only for a few precious minutes and lose himself in her arms, her kiss, her sweet scent, and the soft warmth of her body.

He cupped her bottom in his palm and worked the worn hem of her faded green t-shirt over her head. Bending to tease the hard nub of her breast trapped beneath a sheer layer of delicate lace and satin with his teeth. He wanted to shelter her from the harshness and pain of his world. Instead, he kept dragging her further and further into it. "I won't risk you."

"Keene," Lori breathed at the magic of his touch on her skin and the heated intensity of his words. She ran her hand along the contour of his cheek amazed at the silky, cool feel of his skin against her palm. His eyes were no longer cold and distant. They were heated pools of liquid sliver. She smiled softy watching his ginger colored lashes flutter as he closed his eyes and exhaled a heavy sigh. He tipped his chin, nuzzling her palm with his lips. "I don't understand what you're talking about."

"I've placed you in great danger." He closed his eyes and ran his nose along the tender skin of her inner wrist, inhaling the warm, soft, scent of her blood flowing through the shallow vessels close to the surface. "I'll keep you safe, I promise." Keene fisted the belt loops of Lori's shorts and drew her in line with his body. "I promise."

"Safe from what?" Lori asked in a whispering voice. Now it made sense. Why Robbie was trying so hard to keep her at the compound this morning. She knew it. Something was up. Keene held her close, pinned against his massive bulk. Twined through her belt loops, his fingers gripped into fists and released. He lifted his head and buried his face in the curve of her neck. Inhaling and exhaling, his breaths were hot on her skin. Searing her. She rested her forehead on his shoulder and traced the patches of orange-brown freckles on his skin. "Keene, you promised me no secrets. What happened out there last night?"

He wanted to lie. Shield Lori from the truth. He should not have given his word so freely. And he hated himself for what he was about to confess. Her danger was his fault. "I was a fool, Lori. I forgot the most basic rule of battle." Keene lifted his head from the curve of her neck and ran his hands up her spine to her golden hair. Pushing the strands out of her eyes with tender strokes of his fingers, he locked her gaze with his.

"What's that?" Lori stared into Keene's gray eyes, not understanding the urgency tinting their depths. He cupped her chin, gently stroking the pads of his thumbs over her cheeks. He was desperately trying to tell her something. She sensed the words hovering on the tip of his tongue. He was so protective of the people he cared about. And while the thought that she was on that list warmed her heart, it also terrified her. He was trying to protect her now. Something had him spooked and haunted. "Please, Keene, talk to me."

"You are my greatest weakness, Lori. You. Roark has your scent. He knows you're someone of importance to me. I fear that he'll use you to get to me." He cradled her head against his chest, running his hands through the soft silk of her hair. He hadn't cried in over a century and a half. But, tears stung the corners of his eyes at the thought of Roark getting his hands on her, because of his stupidity. "I won't let that happen. I will die to keep you safe. I promise."

Lori inhaled the clean scent of the soap Keene had used in the shower and the essence of the fierce man beneath. She wanted to reassure him that he had nothing to worry about. But, her short time in this world had already taught her one thing. There were no reassurances when it came to the future. He hadn't lied to her and she would not lie to him in turn. "Keene, nobody is dying today. And I don't regret a thing. Keene..., I..."

She stopped herself before she told him she loved him. All the arguments against it buzzed in her head like angry bees. She was too young. There was no way she could love him. She had her whole life ahead of her and tying her self down at the age of twenty was naïve and just stupid. She needed to experience life first. Graduate from college, get married, and give her mom all those grandbabies she was always going on about. He could never truly love her. He wasn't even human. Ahhhhh! The whole thing was so frustrating. She did love him. And her heart told her nothing beyond that simple fact truly mattered.

Here he was holding her, telling her that her life was in danger. She had no sense of self-preservation what so ever. For a person with a perfect 4.0 GPA, she had to be the stupidest person on the planet. A smarter person...a wiser person...a person with common sense would be running for the hills. But, all she could think about was him. Holding him. Loving him. Giving him, everything she was. Lori wrapped her thighs around Keene's lean hips and dragged her fingers through his damp hair, pulling his mouth to hers for a kiss.

Keene greedily took her offering, devouring her lips with his mouth. Her fingers were bliss, winding through his hair, tugging on the strands to deepen the kiss with fevered urgency. He needed this woman. Desperately. On her lips poised the words she was about to say before she searched out his mouth to show him instead. Her love for him terrified Keene on a number of levels. Filled with promise for strawberry scented sweet days and musky, midnight blue erotic nights, her tongue dipped in and out of his mouth, seeking him out with fervent, hurried strokes. His wished his world was different, safe for her. That the two of them weren't so different and the only thing they had to worry about was monogrammed towels and picking out a china pattern. Her falling in love with him was the singular most dangerous thing she could do. And his love for her condemned them both.

Keene inhaled the breath Lori exhaled against his lips and held it deep in his lungs. Like a drug, her kiss calmed him to the deepest portion of his soul. She was so warm...so soft...and so alive. He growled at the sharp tingle of her nails scraping his scalp and moved his hands to cup her breasts. So beautiful and fragile, this woman...his woman...she was everything he'd ever dreamed of.

Her nipples hardened beneath the pads of his fingertips. She arched her back to meet the stroke of his caresses pressing the ripe fullness of her breasts into his hands. Lori responded so honestly and openly, welcoming each and every touch. Her dainty fingers worked free the knot in the towel around his hips, discarding the material to fall in a heap at his feet. Her gentle, curious exploration was maddening, as her palm teased in a slow path up and down his shaft. Each pass grew braver, the pressure of her warm hand and the speed in which she moved increasing in time with his kiss, his strokes, and his labored breathing.

Keene's kisses left Lori dizzy, drunk with emotions and the wild insanity of sensations she could never put into words. Each pass of his fingertips over her sensitive peaks of her breasts drover pushed her deeper into a world of dark desire. She arched her back to rub her body against his like a cat in heat, but she didn't care. She should be shying away from his exploration of her breasts. Each attentive caress made her crazier than the one before it and left her a panting heap, overflowing with the innate need for more.

She squirmed on the countertop as a pool of moist desire slicked between her thighs. All she knew was the aching want that spread out from her core and curled her toes. It drove her to be brave. To untie the knot holding the towel in place and let the fabric fall to the floor at his feet in a forgotten heap. His erection was like silk over granite, so thick and full in her palm. Her fingertips stroked up and down his length and explored the heavy sac and soft down beneath. There were a thousand things they should be doing. Hashing out strategies. Making plans to thwart Roark. This wasn't the way people acted when their lives were in danger. But, she'd never felt so alive or safer than she did in his arms.

Keene was not a traditional guy who needed empty lies of reassurance. She sought comfort and comforted him in the only way she knew how, with her body and with pleasure both given and received in equal measure.

Keene trailed a path of kisses down the curve of Lori's neck to her collarbone and dipped his tongue beneath the lacey edge of her bra. He inched the straps off her narrow shoulders and over her arms, freeing one ripe tip from the cup to suckle it hungrily with his mouth. The bathroom air was lush with the scent of her blooming arousal. Sweet and musky it called to the primitive male in him so urgent to claim her. He growled as he fumbled with the clasp of her bra to explore the other breast. Her delicate palm, stroked him in a slow enticing rhythm, causing the ache in his groin to build to the point of pain. He had to have this woman. Had to be buried inside of her now.

His hips bucked thrusting more of his length into her hand. Keene could not think for the sensations rocketing through his body. His fingers awkwardly fumbled with the clasp. Panting like a madman he finally managed to unhook her bra. The lace fell to the floor to join his abandoned towel. He drank her in, alternating one pert tip and then the other as he laved them with his tongue. Her skin was sweet as the ripe summer berries that grew wild on the hills of his childhood home. Keene stole a glance up at her beautiful face. Her head was tipped back. Her eyes closed. Her lips were swollen and full from his kisses, pursed in a delicate 'O' of desire as a moan escaped her throat.

Lori stroked Keene faster and harder. His erection jerked and bucked in her palm. His hipbones drove into her inner thighs as he thrust in time with her movements. She had one arm wrapped around his powerful shoulders to keep her balance on the countertop. He kissed first one breast and then the other, licking and suckling the points till they throbbed and ached. His hands slid between their bodies, gently pushing her legs wider apart. If it weren't for her shorts, she would have been spread open before him. He walked a path up her inner thighs, tickling the sensitive skin, higher, underneath the hem of her shorts to the satiny border of her panties.

Lori's warmth was heaven. Keene could feel how much she wanted him through the sleek material of her panties. Hot and wet beneath his fingertips, he worked his way to the soft down of darker blonde curls covering her sex. She quivered against him as he stroked his finger along her slick slit to the tiny nub at the apex. Lori bucked her hips and gasped at his gentle invasion.

Keene liked to say he was not an egotistical man. But, male pride at the evidence of her arousal surged through him. He put her in this state. It was his touch that had her arching her back and spreading her thighs for him. It was his kiss and his tongue that teased and tempted the woman inside of her out of hiding. It was his body that she craved. And it was him that she loved with her heart and soul.

Lori had no defense against Keene. Lost in pleasure, she rested her head on his shoulder and quivered against his every stroke against her swollen nub. Her mom's pamphlets, all those technical terms, and the science behind what was happening in her body did not do the magic of his intimate strokes justice.

She was drenched with desire. His fingers slippery with her arousal as they explored her folds and slipped deep inside of her. Getting her ready, stretching her with one finger then two, dipping in and out of her in rhythm with her urgent strokes up and down his erection. Gasping, she cried out with impatience. There was only so much pleasure she could take before the raw sensation of it became unbearable.

Keene grunted and withdrew his hand from the wet slickness of Lori's core. He was going to finish before they ever got started. He was so close. The warmth of her palm felt so good on his fevered arousal. Moisture beaded at the plump head of his cock and he growled as she stroked the tip of her thumb, slicking him with his desire. Her clothes were in the way. The shorts and panties an obstacle that prevented him from getting exactly where he wanted to be. Gently, cupping his fingers around her wrist, he stilled her hand and grunted in frustration. Every part of him wanted her to keep going, to stroke him to the release building within him. But, he needed to be inside of her when he came, pumping into her sleek core. Filling her with every inch of him and his seed. Marking her as his and only his.

The feel of her, her scent, and the soft cries he extracted from her parted lips were life affirming. He'd been so cold, a walking corpse without hope of redemption, for so long. And she, in her softness and warmth, with her kiss and the magic of her touch, had brought him to life once again. Keene had to resist the urge to rip the clothing from her body. Grinding his fangs in frustration, he tugged on the button of her shorts, scrabbling for the goodness that waited for him beneath.

Lori chuckled against Keene's lips as he swooped down for a kiss to cover his clumsiness with her zipper. She was there with him, wanting to shed her clothing so that he could bury himself inside of her and ease the damnable ache that burned every inch of her skin. She gently pushed his fingers out of her way and worked the button and zipper free. With her thighs wrapped around Keene's waist, exactly how she was going to get out of her shorts and underwear was a complete mystery. He had her perched on the countertop, relying on his bulk for support.

Impatiently, Keene lifted Lori from the countertop and tugged her shorts and underwear down her hips with one swoop of his fingers. She kicked her legs free and wrapped them around his waist. The soft wetness of her core rubbed against his straining cock and was nearly his undoing. A gentleman would be all about romancing her with flowers, candlelight, and well-practiced words. He should lower her down onto the bed and worship her with his mouth and caresses from his hands. Kiss her everywhere. Touch her in ways she'd never been touched before. The moment though was too urgent and he was too crazed with the need to fill her to wait. Clutching her thighs, he positioned her sleek core over his throbbing erection and dove inside of her.

Lori sucked in a breath at his sudden invasion. At first, it hurt for a few seconds as she adjusted to accommodate his size. Keene was gifted, large and powerful everywhere. And the sheer bulk of him filling every inch of available space overwhelmed her senses. He shifted his body to balance her weight with one arm while he worked the fingers of his free hand between their joined bodies to tease her past the pain and into a wild frenzy of pleasure.

Keene wanted to thrust inside of Lori like a wild animal in the rut. Her sharp gasp of pain drew him back into his head. And for a moment, he was able to hold back his instincts. Her sheath was so tight, hot, and wet, gripping snugly in a heavenly embrace. She dug at his shoulders with her nails to slow him. He wanted her to feel good. And he regretted that he'd caused her one-second's worth of pain. Uncertain of how to get her back to that happy place of ultimate pleasure, he dipped his fingers into the gap between their bodies and teased her to full arousal.

Slowly, she relaxed her grip and the tension began to melt away from her body. He let her decide where they were going and how they were going to get there. Rocking her hips against his strokes and slicking her core along his shaft, he supported her weight and let her dictate the pace.

Feeling much better now, Lori gyrated her hips, grinding against Keene's length. He stole kisses, sometimes, deep and probing ones, sometimes, quick stolen pecks from her lips. He held her tightly, clutching their bodies together as one. He panted and groaned, his breaths a rapid inhale and exhale of air tickling over her skin. Her body was a mass of tingling nerve endings burning from the subtlest of touches. She hovered so close, each thrust of his hips driving her closer and closer to the edge. She wanted him there with her. Out of control. Crazy with the combined heat and pleasure of flesh pressed against flesh.

Keene cried out as Lori's tight core gripped and spasmed in orgasm around his cock. The raw sensation of her body writhing in the pleasure that he brought her was enough to send him shooting his release deep inside of her. Her name was an oath from his lips. His purpose and higher cause uttered in a sharp exhale of pleasure. He held her crushed to his chest. Smoothing Lori's sweat-dampened hair away from her face, he smiled down at her and traced the outline of her passion-swollen lips with his fingertips.