Dark Stranger

by Desiree Holt

  Beneath her fingers, she felt the pulsing of the thick, ropy vein twisting around his penis, feeding the hot blood to it that made it harden and swell. More liquid seeped from the slit, and she smoothed it again over the head, fingers stroking, thumb curving, trying to match the tempo of his fingers in her pussy.

  “You’re like a drug, Kelsey,” he growled. “I should chase you as far away from me as fast as you can run, but I can’t do it. I want you. I need you. I want to suck your nipples and lick your pussy and fuck you in every opening in your body. Jesus, I must be losing my mind.”

  I have my own secrets, Mack. Even now, I know if I don’t shift in the next twenty-four hours I’ll be in trouble. But I want you with the same fierceness. Oh, god, what am I doing?

  He pulled his hand from between her legs, changed position and settled himself between her thighs. His big, strong hands slid beneath her ass and lifted her, giving him access to her weeping cunt. Without preamble, he stroked her slit with his tongue, tracing a line from top to bottom and back again then taking her clit between his teeth.

  A low wail rose from her throat as he ate at her, driving her to a high sensual plane. When he draped her legs over his shoulders and began to suck her cunt in earnest, she cried out, the tension rising from her body almost unbearable. A pulse throbbed deep in her womb, the beginning of a climax building inside her.

  Clenching her hands into fists and closing her eyes, Kelsey rode the wave of pleasure, praying Mack wouldn’t stop. This time he didn’t. This time his tongue thrust inside her again and again, his thumb taking up the tormenting of her clit where his teeth had left off.

  And then it was there. Like a tidal wave, the orgasm rolled over her, grabbing her, shaking her, every muscle clenching and spasming again and again, the walls of her cunt clamping down on Mack’s tongue like a vice. She thrust her hips again and again, every nerve sparking, her pussy convulsing as she poured her liquid into his mouth.

  He held her tightly in his grip, his mouth never leaving her as the aftershocks rolled through her, lapping and nipping and driving her from one plane of pleasure to another.

  She had barely caught her breath from the intensity of the climax when he rose to his knees, grabbed a condom from the nightstand and, in seconds, was plunging inside her, the head of his huge cock pressing against the mouth of her womb. He gripped her hips, holding her in position as he rode her with driving intensity. At once, the climax built inside her again, reaching out from low in her belly, spreading throughout her body. It hit before she even realised it, but Mack didn’t stop. He kept up the hard thrusts, riding her through it and taking her up again.

  She gasped for breath, her heat beating against her ribs like a jackhammer as once more her body convulsed. This time, he was there with her, his hard shaft pulsing inside her as he spilled into the latex. A low growl rose from his throat, floating on the air to mingle with her own mewling sounds.

  Mack lowered her legs and collapsed on her, catching his weight on his forearms as both of them dragged air into their oxygen-deprived lungs. Kelsey felt as if she’d been hit by a truck, every bone and muscle in her body drained by the most powerful orgasm she’d ever experienced. She reached up and threaded her fingers through his hair, drawing his head down beside her.

  She closed her eyes, thinking, What the hell am I doing?

  Sometime in the darkness of the night she stirred, feeling Mack’s mouth on her neck then trailing kisses down her spine. One hand massaged a breast, a thumb rasping back and forth over the already distended nipple.

  She lay there halfway between wakefulness and sleep, letting the sensations of pleasure wash over her. Mack’s hard cock pressed against the cheeks of her ass, the heavy sac of his balls resting against the backs of her thighs. A pulse throbbed in her cunt, her inner thighs already wet with the juices of her arousal.

  “Awake?” Mack’s deep voice crooned in her ear.

  “Mmm,” she murmured, unwilling to disrupt lassitude gripping her.

  “Just lie there. I’ll do all the work.”

  His hand drifted downward from her breast to her cunt, stroking the soft curls before slipping a finger into the wet slit. The moment he touched the tip of her clit she jerked, heat slashing through her.

  “Easy,” he murmured. “Easy, sugar.”

  She forced herself to settle down and enjoy the feel of his fingers probing her, teasing her, arousing her. Without thinking, she began to rock her hips back and forth, her thighs squeezing his hand tightly.

  Mack’s mouth returned to her neck, nipping and kissing then licking with his tongue.

  “Don’t move,” he whispered against her skin.

  He shifted position, Kelsey heard a drawer open and close then one long finger probed the cleft of her buttocks. It was coated with something cool.

  Gel!

  She forced herself to relax as Mack probed her anus, his lean finger entering her and spreading the gel against her hot tissues. She heard the snap of latex then hands rolled her slightly and the head of his thick cock pushed against the tight ring of her sphincter muscle.

  “Breathe,” he told her. “Deep breath.”

  She drew in air then let it out slowly as his penis pushed inside her, slowly and steadily. His thickness filled every inch of her, and the lassitude was quickly swept away by a feeling of urgency. She pressed back against him, trying to take him deeper although he was as deep as he could go. His hand reached around and his fingers pinched her clit, rubbing it in cadence with the rhythm of his hips.

  Slow and steady, unhurried, he moved back and forth, as if fucking her ass was the only thing he had time for in the world. She tried with her body to urge him to move faster, but he was bigger, stronger, more determined.

  “Easy,” he whispered. “Let it build. Feel my cock inside you. Feel me fucking you. God, your ass is so tight, Kelsey. You’re burning me alive.” He pinched her swollen bud harder. “And this clit. God, sugar. It’s so wet. Your whole cunt is wet. All that delicious juice flooding just for me.”

  In and out. Back and forth. Kelsey felt the orgasm climbing, demanding to break free, and little mewling sounds rolled from her throat.

  “Please, Mack,” she begged. “Please, please, please.”

  “Ready?” He let his hand drift lower to probe the wetness of her pussy. “Oh, yeah, you’re ready. Hold on, sugar.”

  He pressed his hand against her lower abdomen, holding her tightly to him as he increased the tempo of his strokes.

  In and out. Harder, Faster.

  Now, now, now, she screamed silently in her head.

  “Now,” he growled in her ear and rolled his hips one last time, shoving hard into her rear tunnel.

  They exploded together, Mack pumping his seed into the condom in thick, heavy spurts, his fingers fucking her cunt in the same rhythm. Her pussy spasmed—her whole body spasmed—then she was launched onto some dark plane where all she could feel was Mack’s big cock and her body clenching on it. On his fingers. Nothing else existed except the erotic convulsions racing through her body.

  At last, she lay completely spent, a fine sheen of perspiration covering her body, shivering in the aftermath of such an intense explosion. She felt the heavy thudding of Mack’s heart against her back, a slow and steady beat. Gradually, her own heart resumed a normal rhythm, and she drifted off again, vaguely aware that Mack was still seated deep inside her.

  Chapter Five

  Kelsey thought she might be losing her mind. The smell of coffee drifting from the kitchen woke her, and she stumbled there, wrapped in Mack’s shirt, expecting at least a smile or a good morning hug. But once again, while Mack was still physically present, he might as well had disappeared as he’d done from the cabin.

  His curt nod had all the warmth of icicles. After handing her a mug, he pointed at the coffeepot and turned away.

  Kelsey poured the hot liquid and sipped at it, barely avoiding burning her tongue. What the hell was going on here?

  �
��Mack?” she said tentatively.

  “Last night was a mistake,” he told her without turning around. “I can’t think when I’m around you. My dick does all my thinking for me. I’m taking you to the cabin so you can ride with Luke and Sierra today. Get dressed.”

  “Get dressed? Just like that? Not even a thank you for a hot night?” She hoped he didn’t hear the pain in her voice.

  “Just like that.” Finally, he turned around. “Listen. This whole thing was a mistake. There are reasons why we can’t be together. Reasons I can’t begin to explain to you. Just leave it at that.”

  “No!” She slammed the mug down on the counter so hard the hot liquid splashed over onto her hand. “No, I will not leave it like that. I want an explanation. I deserve an explanation.”

  “Well, I can’t give you one. So just get dressed. I already called Luke and told him to wait for you.”

  Kelsey didn’t know whether to cry, scream or throw something. She settled for gathering the remnants of her dignity around herself. Pulling on her clothes, she stomped out to the truck and waited for Mack to lock up the house and climb in beside her.

  The ride to the cabin was completed in chilly silence, broken only by one brief exchange.

  “Any word on Jody?” she asked.

  “Not yet. But they’ve had every egress from the county locked up tighter than a prison camp. People are so irate about this they’ve even patrolled the little dirt roads that hardly anyone knows about.”

  “So he’s still here. Somewhere. With a scared little boy.”

  “We’re relieving the night searchers in one hour.”

  And that was it until he pulled into the cabin driveway. Kelsey opened the door and slid out. She opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it then slammed the door and stomped off.

  What an ass! He’ll never get me within a mile of a bed again.

  Sierra must have heard them pull up because she opened the door the minute Kelsey set foot on the porch.

  “Don’t say a word,” Kelsey told her. “Not one word. I need a shower and fresh clothes then I’m good to go.”

  “Kelsey—”

  “No. Not a word.” Kelsey stomped off to the bedroom, brushing past Luke who was just pulling a sweater over his head. “You, either, hot shot.”

  She stepped over Luke and Sierra’s things, found fresh jeans and a sweater for herself and slammed the door to the bathroom. In the shower, she allowed herself one minute to let the tears flow then swallowed them back. This was the last time she was wasting emotion on some damned man.

  He had secrets? He had things he couldn’t tell her? What about the secrets she had? What would he say if he knew her true nature? And if he was a shifter, why hadn’t they been able to sense it in each other.

  With a supreme effort, she pushed all thought from her mind except Jody Logan and the task ahead. She felt good about that, at least. Yesterday, she’d found herself into the search, senses alert. More like her old self. She’d make that work for her today. And if she couldn’t find Jody as a human, she’d find a place to shift and let her wolf self find him.

  She poured the rest of the coffee in the carafe into a go-cup then hurried out to meet Luke and Sierra, sitting in the SUV they kept at the cabin.

  “Let’s go,” she said, buckling herself into the backseat.

  They were a mile down the road before Sierra said, “Care to give us even the tiniest explanation of what’s going on with you and Mack Renfield?”

  “Nothing’s going on. Forget it. Case closed.”

  Another mile passed in silence, broken this time by Luke.

  “You asked me if I thought it possible that Mack was a shifter. I’ve never spent enough time with him to know, but it would seem to me one of us would sense him. Somehow, he must be masking himself, as well as his ability to sense you.”

  “So what are you saying? He is? He isn’t?”

  Luke shrugged. “You tell me. You’ve spent more time with him than either of us.”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care anymore.” She took a long swallow of her coffee. “What’s the latest on the little boy?”

  “One of the teams last night thinks they’ve found traces of where the man has taken him. Also, Sheriff Laporte called the FBI for help. They dug through their databases and discovered one of the men arrested two years ago, Nathan Haverill, had a half-brother, Clete Wilson, who apparently no one knew about. There’d never been a reason to connect them until now.”

  “Seems after things died down, Clete decided to go into business for himself,” Sierra added. “The FBI is also flying more people in this morning.”

  “So where do they think he is?” Kelsey asked.

  “There’s an old farmhouse at the far corner of the county, near where two highways intersect. I’m guessing he thought he could take one of the roads out, but the sheriff closed them down too fast.”

  Kelsey frowned. “Didn’t anyone search there yesterday?”

  Sierra nodded. “Yes, but the sheriff thinks the man’s been one step ahead of them. The problem is that area is so thick with trees it’s hard to do a good search without giving yourself away. There are also a lot of hills and hidden caves.”

  “And no one wants to do anything that will put Jody in jeopardy,” Luke added.

  “We could get in there and do it,” Kelsey pointed out.

  Luke nodded. “I’m going to ask Laporte to assign us to that area.”

  Which was exactly what happened. The teams were just being assigned when the Spencers and Kelsey arrived, and Laporte was only too glad to send them to the most difficult area to search.

  Luke drove as close to the area as he could until he found a place to conceal the SUV. The three of them had just climbed out of the vehicle when Mack’s truck pulled up behind them. The four of them simply stood and stared at each other.

  Finally, Luke said, “Maybe you want to try a different area, Mack.”

  Mack’s face was a stone mask. “Maybe you should be the ones to leave. I know this area, and I have…skills that can help.”

  “Yeah?” Kelsey cocked an eyebrow at him. “What kind of skills would that be?”

  It was obvious Mack was waging an fierce internal struggle. Kelsey expected any minute he’d climb in his truck and leave. Instead, he just shook his head.

  “Okay. But remember, you asked for it. You may not believe what you’re about to see, but at this point, I don’t much care. I just want to find the child. So whatever happens, happens.”

  Very carefully, he took off his clothes, folded them and put them on the seat of the truck. Three pairs of eyes stared at him. Then a cloud of fog swirled around him, and when it dispersed, in his place stood a huge white wolf.

  For a moment, Kelsey thought her heart would stop. So he was a shifter after all. This was the secret he was so carefully guarding?

  She burst out laughing, and the wolf growled at her.

  “Calm down,” she told him. “You’re in better company than you thought. Give us a minute, then you can lead the way, since you know this place better than any of us.

  She and Luke stripped, handing their clothes to Sierra. They nodded at each other, and exhaling long, slow breaths shifted into wolf form. When the dark red, almost auburn fur covered her body and her limbs had stretched and elongated, she padded over to Mack and pushed her muzzle against his shoulder. He turned his head to look at her, and she could have sworn he actually smiled.

  “Come on, guys,” Sierra said. “We don’t have much time. I’ll keep watch here and stay in contact with sheriff Laporte while you do your thing.”

  Mack took a moment to swipe at Kelsey’s muzzle with his long tongue. Then he trotted to the front of the group, gave a short, soft growl and started off through the woods, Kelsey and Luke following him. Overhead, helicopters still searched, swooping low and forcing the wolves to seek shelter until they pulled away.

  It took them the better part of an hour to find their prey, huddled in on
e of the caves Sierra had mentioned. He was the first to catch their scent, padding softly into the enclosure, the others following closely behind him.

  The man was seated against a far wall of the cave, a small lantern next to him. Beside him, Jody Logan sat shivering, his eyes filled with fear. When the wolves drew close, both the child and the man tried to scrabble away. Luke simply gripped Jody’s overalls in his teeth and trotted out of the cave, leaving the others to deal with Clete Wilson.

  “Get away from me,” he shouted, his eyes shifting wildly from one wolf to the other. He yanked a gun from his pocket. “Scram. Go away, or I’ll shoot you.”

  Kelsey was the first to launch herself at him, aiming unerringly for his throat. The more the man tried to struggle, the deeper her teeth sank, until he finally gave up the struggle. Mack helped her drag his body out of the cave and leave it in a bloody heap where bloodhounds could find it. They stood, then, waiting patiently for Luke to return, knowing he had taken Jody someplace where he could be seen. Then the three of them trotted back to their vehicles.

  “Well?” Sierra asked. “I’m guessing you found Jody, right?”

  They shifted back to human form and Luke nodded. “Done and done.” He gave her the details as he pulled his clothes back on. “I left Jody where he could easily be spotted. One of the helicopters was circling overhead so I had to hide in the trees. I waited until they picked him up then headed back here.”

  Mack grabbed Kelsey’s arm, as soon as she was dressed. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” she retorted. “Is this what your big secret is? Why we couldn’t be together? Is this why you’ve been treating me like shit?”

  “Damn it, you should have said something.”