Rapid Pulse: A Limited Edition Spicy Romance Collection

by Gina Kincade

  “I’m sorry, maybe later.”

  She hung up, not wanting to get into any further arguments. Star really didn’t want to see her moms acting all loved up. It made her jealous.

  My moms have loved each other for forty years and they still act like horny teens. It’s embarrassing.

  Her mind drifted back to Everett and the amazing time they’d had together. It may have been a spur of the moment thing but she didn’t think it was a one-night stand. It was something more. But what? Did she want a relationship right now? Did he? They were both broken.

  Perhaps we’re meant for each other.

  The polar bear thing still freaked her out a little bit. It was something she never thought she’d have to deal with. How had she lived for so long without knowing the supernatural existed? Or maybe it wasn’t supernatural. Maybe Everett was a new type of being previously unheard of, or a mutation of some sort.

  But when he changed back into the bear he was still wearing clothes. Where did the clothes go when he was a bear?

  “Shit,” she said. “This definitely is some supernatural shit.”

  EVERETT OPENED HIS car door, hoping he was doing the right thing. His sister seemed excited, which made him nervous. He hoped she wasn’t too freaked out about him changing into a bear that she vowed never to speak to him again.

  “You look nervous,” she said, standing by the car.

  “I am,” he admitted.

  “I’m not going to look at you any different. You’re my brother. I love you.”

  “You will see me different. I know you will.”

  She shook her head. “Stop worrying and let’s go.”

  He heard the screeching of tires. Everett looked aside just in time as a car came racing towards him. He jumped onto the hood of his own car as the vehicle screeched by, missing him by mere inches.

  “Everett!” Vetta screeched.

  He jumped off the hood, hoping to catch the reg number of the car, but it had already rounded a bend. He smashed his fist down, wanting to hit something.

  “Who the hell was that?” Vetta asked.

  “It was Gavin Flack,” he said.

  First he tried to kill Star, and then me. What the hell is going on?

  Chapter 7

  Everett handed the sheriff his statement of both attacks.

  “Are you sure about this?” Sheriff Winden asked.

  “That man needs to be found,” Everett insisted. “He’s attacked me and he’s attacked Star. What if he goes after someone else?”

  The sheriff nodded. “I’m glad you reported it. We’ll do our best to find him.”

  Vetta hadn’t needed much urging to make him go to the police. He was angry and he wanted Gavin to pay. As far as he was concerned, the man could rot in jail for all eternity for his crimes.

  Sheriff Winden was a middle-aged woman with thick black hair and a weathered face. She was tough but fair, despite the fact that she’d suffered a lot of tragedy in her life. Her husband, also a deputy, had been killed trying to rescue Everett from the car wreck that had taken his biological parents, something he hadn’t learned until years later.

  “Anything else I can do for you?” she asked.

  He sat down, explaining his desire to become a deputy. She nodded along to his request, taking it all in, smiling like she knew he’d come knocking at her door one day.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “I think we’d be lucky to have you,” said the sheriff. “But don’t think it’s going to be easy. This job isn’t all saving kittens from trees you know.”

  “I know that.”

  She smiled. “Let me get you some forms to fill out. The quicker we can get this going the better.”

  He felt the terror of almost being run over shifting. He smiled, glad his life was on track once again. He only only wished Gavin was already behind bars where he couldn’t harm anyone ever again.

  And if he goes after Star again, I’ll kill him.

  But what could the police truly do? The cops only had their word that he’d attacked them. There was no evidence. Besides, Gavin was high on drugs all the time. They’d just send him to rehab and he’d get away with it. What was to stop him from coming after them again and again?

  There has to be a way to get rid of him for good.

  Everett briefly considered killing him. He’d killed before, though they’d been mostly terrorists. Yet wasn’t Gavin a terrorist in his own way? He was inciting terror in Star. He was getting away with attempted murder. Wouldn’t the best way to get justice be to just kill the man and be done with it?

  He shook his head. He couldn’t kill Gavin. There had to be another way.

  CABLE THREW THE SACK into the garbage can angrily. He knew he was being jealous and stupid but he couldn’t help it. When he realized Star and Everett had had sex it had made him seethe. He knew he could never have him but it still hurt. It felt like he’d been betrayed in the worst possible way.

  He can’t ever love me, can he?

  He pulled a cannabis cigarette out of his pocket and lit it up with a lighter. He inhaled the smoke, feeling a little better. Unrequited love was a bitch.

  “Can you spare me some of that?”

  It was Gavin. Cable threw his cigarette on the floor, determined to fight. This man had tried to kill his sister. He wasn’t going to get away with that.

  “You piece of shit,” Cable spat. “For what you did to Star...”

  Gavin thrust his hand forward. Cable gasped as he felt the sharp slice of a knife enter his stomach. He sank to the floor, gasping, blood gushing down his legs. He looked up into Gavin’s psychotic eyes as he started to fade.

  “Now she knows the pain I feel,” said Gavin. He kneeled down in front of Cable. “You’re in pain, right?”

  “Gavin, please...”

  “I hoped you’d stay alive long enough to die in her arms. But destroying her is too much fun.”

  Gavin stabbed him again, this time in the chest. Cable died instantly.

  GAVIN THREW THE KNIFE aside before he was sick. He’d never killed anybody before. He knew deep down he’d crossed a line but he wasn’t sure he cared. Taking his revenge on Star was worth getting his hands dirty.

  He stared down at Cable’s gaping face, locked forever in pain.

  “I’m sorry, okay?” he said. His hands were jittery, desperate to get his fix. “But your bitch sister ruined my life.”

  He pulled the corpse up the dumpster across the alley and tipped it inside. He threw some garbage on top of it to hide it and mask the scent. He didn’t want the body to be found too quickly.

  STAR SAT DOWN BY A table, the mop in her hands. She’d spent the better part of an hour cleaning the floor of the pub. The place got messy pretty quick and they couldn’t afford a part time cleaner. It didn’t matter, anyway. She found mindless chores to be a godsend. They gave her time to think.

  The silent phone calls. Was Gavin behind it?

  She wished Gavin had stayed in her past. Why did he have to come back now when things were just going well? She had a job. She was sober. She had Everett. Gavin was bringing back too many painful memories of her painful past. Sure, she’d made mistakes, but did she deserve this?

  I got Gavin onto the drugs. Anything that happens is my fault.

  She was about to finish cleaning up when a disheveled looking Everett came into the pub. His jeans were scraped and his hair was a mess.

  “What the hell happened to you?” she asked, amused.

  “Gavin tried to run me over,” he explained.

  He sat down and told her all about it. When he was finished, she didn’t know what to say. It was her fault. All of it.

  “That man is targeting me and my family,” she said, feeling sick. She looked at Everett in desperation. “When he turned up at the house I shared with the other users I just saw another lost person. I practically forced the drugs on him.”

  “He could have said no,” said Everett.

  “Maybe.”


  He sat by the table and took her hand. She felt this was the right time to tell him the truth.

  She took a deep breath and said, “My first boyfriend tried to murder me.” When Everett didn’t say anything she continued. “Ron and I met at MIT, and we continued to date when we went to Silicon Valley. I thought we were happy. I thought he was the one. But there was something inside him, a vile, bubbling jealousy that I never noticed until it was too late.” She scratched at her arms, her skin itching at the memory. “My career was going well. I was destined for great things apparently. Ron’s career was the opposite. He got fired when his company went bust and he couldn’t find other work. He resented me so much and I never saw it until that night he smashed me over the head with a bottle of wine and tried to slit my throat.” Everett squeezed her hand harder. She wiped her eyes as they became moist with tears. “I fought him off with every bit of energy I had and he hit his head on the floor and died. The police called it a crime of self-defense. It didn’t even go to trial. But I was done. I packed my job in and wandered out into the streets. It didn’t matter to me that Ron had tried to kill me. I loved him and I killed him.” She shook her head. “No, that’s not true. I know that now. I did the right thing, but...but I still killed him. I killed a man, a man that until five minutes before he attacked me I loved with all my heart.” She looked up into Everett’s compassionate eyes. “Do you think I’m a monster?”

  “The man who turns into a polar bear does not think you’re a monster,” he said. “I think you’re the bravest person I know.”

  “If I was brave, I wouldn’t have had a breakdown and become a junkie.”

  “But you pushed past that. You’re clean now.”

  “And now one of my many mistakes has come back to haunt me.”

  He stopped his words short, grabbing her by the arms. The kiss he planted on her lips was so forceful she almost fell off her chair.

  “What was that for?” she asked.

  “I’m taking you upstairs,” he said. “Got a problem with that?”

  “Only if you don’t shut up talking.”

  STAR MOANED INTO THE plush bed pillow. She clenched it tight around her face, failing to stifle her passionate cries. Her body coiled and uncoiled as she braced for each mind drugging penetration. Her breath came in short spurts between each sultry outburst. She licked her lips. Her big brown eyes glazed with passion as she received Everett.

  He made her feel greedy, wanton. Each time his buff body brushed against hers, she always melted. They’d been naked almost as soon as they reached her bedroom, their clothes half ripped off each other’s bodies.

  Everett pulled her hips to meet each of his long, deep strokes. Her body bounced off of his. Everett turned doggy style into one of Star’s favorite positions. From the way he gripped her hips to the way he rubbed her throbbing clit or her puckering asshole as he power drove into her wetness, he was a force of nature, a muscular, throbbing beautiful man.

  Star screamed his name. Her breasts bounced against each other in time with each stroke, claiming Everett’s thick nine-inch cock. The honey sounds of their lovemaking ricocheted off the ceiling of her bedroom. She pitied the people who lived next door.

  Everett grabbed a handful of Star’s hair and pulled it toward himself. Star cried out in pleasure. He knew just how to take her over the edge. She throbbed and constricted around his hardness. The friction they created sent chills up and down her spine. Everett wouldn’t let up.

  His light, tanned complexion glistened with sweat as he pushed deeper inside Star’s wetness. She sucked in a breath through her open mouth, the smell of him permeating all around her. She could almost taste him. The hand and glove fit of their bodies fed his desire to make Star erupt in a fiery trail of orgasms.

  Everett flattened his palms against the small of Star’s back. Her tiny waist disappeared under the span of his large hands and long fingers. He pushed down, creating a deeper arch, one that would pull him further inside the sticky cavern of her body.

  Star bounced her round ass back against him. His heavy hands pinning her down only served as a greater turn on. She wanted him to feel it, too. Feel the way she grew wetter and wetter with each hard stroke. She murmured his name. He whispered hers back. She told him she loved this. He told her he loved it more.

  Everett crotched his body to lay flush on top of hers. She wanted the satiny feel of his hard, glistening skin against hers. Everett kissed Star’s shoulders gently. With his left hand, he held Star’s hands above her head. With the other he toyed with her throbbing clit. Star maintained her arched spine. Her head was spinning with desire. The musky scent of Everett’s muscled body made her heady.

  She began to shiver, her body struggling to control its need to release. Everett massaged her engorged clit with his right hand. She knew from the scattered breaths she was taking that she was nearly there. Harder and faster he pushed into her warm body.

  Then it happened. The first shudder ripped through her. Star buried her face in the pillow and screamed as Everett plowed away. Her satiny walls gripped him tighter, begging for each delectable thrust. Everett groaned from his belly. Star’s hot wet core sucked him harder with each intense ripple of her orgasms. She could literally feel his release building.

  Star turned her face toward Everett’s. His mouth found hers. She moaned against his lips as he kissed her lustfully. At the touch of her full lips, his body tensed. Everett squeezed Star tighter as his climax flushed his hard strong body. His blood rushed in his ears. Every inch of him drove deeper into her until he came inside her. He ground his teeth, trying to muffle his screams. There was no use. Attempting to silence himself only made his climax stronger. His body convulsed as the last of his orgasm milked from him. Spent, he collapsed beside her.

  She laughed. She couldn’t help it. It was a natural reaction to experiencing something so intense and unreal.

  “I never had sex this good when I was high,” she admitted. She stared at the track marks on her arms. “I went through a bad period. I’ve been sober for years.” She kissed him, snuggling up to his warm, wet body. “But it’s not over. Not yet.”

  They lay cuddled together, allowing their heart rates to come down. It felt good. It felt natural. It felt safe.

  Not that I can’t take care of myself, but it does help to have a polar bear shifter to protect me should I need it.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  She was confused. “What’s what?”

  “I thought what we did the other day was a one off, but it clarified a few things for me. It made me realize I was finally over Aina. It made me feel guilty because you’re Cable’s sister, but...”

  “Does it have to be anything? We’re fuck buddies.”

  He shook his head adamantly. “No. This isn’t friends with benefits. That’s what I have with Cable. This is...this is different. This is something else entirely.”

  She turned away, feeling her face flush. She knew this was something different, too. Despite vowing never to be with a man again after what happened with Ron, she’d found herself wanting Everett with such passion and need it made her giddy. What was it about him that overrode everything?

  Do I still love him?

  She didn’t love him back then, not really. It was a childhood crush that she’d used as an escape from her dull, lonely existence. She’d been a different person back then, and so had he. Sure, the fantasies and dreams had been vivid and real to her back then, but that’s all they’d been, mere fantasies.

  I first masturbated to the sight of Everett out jogging, his balls bobbing up and down in his sweat pants.

  “Do you love me?” she blurted out.

  He stared at her for a second before saying, “I’m not sure.”

  “I used to love you, or I thought I did. But you’re not that tall, gangly boy I had a crush on. You’ve changed so much – for the better, I might add.”

  “So you don’t love the new me?”

  She s
lapped him on the shoulder teasingly. “I’m not sure.”

  “That’s fine by me.”

  “Me too.”

  He sat up in bed, his nose twitching. He looked quite cute doing it.

  “What is it?” she asked, amused.

  “I can smell something that died,” he answered.

  EVERETT TURNED AWAY from the dumpster, feeling sick. The stench coming off the corpse inside was strong, though not overpowering. That meant the body was newly dead, within the last hour or so.

  “Perhaps we should call the sheriff,” Star suggested.

  “I suppose,” he conceded. “But how do I tell them I found a body when clearly the dumpster lid is closed?”

  He turned back and slowly pulled up the dumpster lid. The smell hit him like a kick to the gut.

  “Can you see anything?” Star asked.

  “No,” he said. “But I can smell it.”

  He rummaged around, pushing aside stinking bags of garbage, before he found what he was looking for. He fell back, shocked, too numb to even say a word.

  No...

  “What is it?” asked Star. “Is it someone we know?”

  The look of horror and grief in his eyes told her everything she needed to know. She screamed.

  Interlude 3

  20th August 2010

  Star placed the Snickers bar on her brother’s grave. It was his favorite candy. He would appreciate this. His pollen allergy made him hate flowers. She could just imagine him rolling in his grave if she placed a bouquet of daisies or whatever.

  “You look awful,” she told Everett as he hugged her. “Did you get to visit her dad in rehab?”

  “I did. He’s doing fine. That’s not what’s made me tired. I went further afield last night when my quarry ran,” he admitted. He yawned. “I ended up in the city. I almost got caught.” He grinned wickedly. “He won’t be running anymore, that’s for sure.”

  She pulled away. “Everett, if you ever got caught I’m not sure what I’d do. I don’t want the man I love ending up in jail.”