Entranced (A PowerUp! Story)

by Marie Harte

  “Yeah, baby. That’s it.” He kissed his way down her neck and sucked hard.

  The small bite of pain had her crying out in pleasure. And then something thick and hot prodded between her naked thighs. She hadn’t felt him undo his own jeans, but she didn’t care. Not when he entered her and kept pushing. God, he was huge.

  “So fucking tight. Let me in. Oh Christ.”

  Jack continued to thrust, and she stared into his light-colored eyes, taken with the need there. The hunger for her. She dragged his mouth to hers and sighed into him. He felt so big, stretching her until he finally stopped moving. “Jack,” she whispered against his lips.

  He groaned and kissed her back, then started moving again. In and out, at first gentle, then ramming harder and faster. She wanted more, and she arched off the wall to grind against him, loving the feel of his thick intrusion.

  Nothing but having Jack come inside her, filling her up, made any sense. And then he tilted his hips and shifted, and she was coming, gripping him inside her while he stole her breath.

  He pulled away from her mouth and buried his face in her shoulder. “Oh fuck. I’m coming. So hard. Yes.” He shoved deep one last time and stilled.

  She swore she could feel him emptying, and she welcomed his bliss, letting it caress her own as she held him tight.

  A few moments passed before he started to move again, slow thrusts while her legs remained wrapped around him as he took her there, against the wall.

  Against Ida’s wall, in Ida’s house, where she might return at any moment.

  Heather wanted to feel more embarrassed about her lack of restraint, but she was still coming down off her high. Jesus. Jack had given her an orgasm to end all orgasms. She’d come so hard around him. In fact, she felt something wet trickle down her inner thigh.

  He came inside me.

  They both froze and stared at each other.

  Jack rasped, “Oh shit. I didn’t mean… I didn’t use anything.”

  No protection.

  “I, ah, I’m on birth control. And you don’t have to worry about disease with me. I can heal, remember? I’m never sick.” One thing Heather could definitely ensure—her ability to cure disease, wounds, anything physical short of death.

  “Me too. About being clean. I always use protection.”

  Jack sounded baffled, and she had a feeling he’d been taken as much by surprise as her.

  “Before now.” He started to withdraw from her but didn’t move more than an inch before he surged back inside. “Fuck. I need to pull out, I know. But…”

  To Heather’s shock, he was still hard.

  “I can’t explain it. It’s you,” Jack protested, and he didn’t sound happy about it.

  Before Heather could think to complain, he shoved even deeper inside her, and she gasped. Such pleasure, such intensity in their joining. She watched him watching her as he fucked her, each jolt sending a spear of pleasure through her tired body.

  “God, you’re hot.” Jack groaned as he looked down at her chest. “I want to suck them. Pull up your sweater.”

  She wanted him to, so she pulled up her sweater and tugged down one cup of her bra. He latched on to her nipple and sucked, and a burst of heat surged between her legs. He held her with little effort, taking her like he had every right.

  Heather wanted to be upset over the situation, but she felt too weak to protest. Instead she pulled down the other side of her bra and demanded, “Suck this too.”

  Was that her? That needy, hoarse woman crying out when he nipped her breasts and tightened his teeth around her nipples?

  Jack pulled away from her breasts and kissed her, sucking her willpower while fucking her into submission once more. He mashed his pelvis against her and surged deeper into her womb, and she moaned into his mouth, awash in the sensation of being possessed by a force greater than her own.

  By Jack.

  She didn’t realize she’d started to mentally reach into the dark areas of his essence before she layered his energy with her own. Jack thrust harder, faster, and she met him push for push, needing the darkness, needing the power latent in an equal, worthy lover.

  He moaned and shuddered, and his second orgasm set off her own, the release of his energy addicting, such a rush. She held him to her and took everything.

  And in that moment, she knew this journey would become much, much more complicated than she ever might have imagined.

  JACK COULDN’T DO more than float in pleasure as he finished coming inside Heather. For the second time without protection. It made sense not to worry about disease if she could heal, and she’d said she was on birth control, but fuck it all, he hadn’t known that the first time he’d had unprotected sex with her. Where the hell was his common sense? Leeched out of him by the hottest pussy and tightest ass he’d ever felt, apparently.

  He groaned and withdrew, aware of the mess he’d made. He’d come hard, and to his shock, a big part of him liked that he’d come inside her.

  “I have to clean up,” she said with a calm she couldn’t possibly be feeling. She stared down at his cock, now finally flagging.

  Did she like what she saw? He was still covered in cum and her cream and that heady scent of sex between them.

  “Yeah.” He didn’t know what to say or do. He’d never been so out of his mind in lust. Not ever. And he’d felt nothing but joy while taking her. No recriminations or upset about being led by his dick.

  Just like he’d been with Melissa.

  Stunned he’d been so stupid, he could only watch as she reached for her clothes on the floor, then turn and walk quickly and steadily down the hall, presumably toward the bathroom.

  Jack shook his head and quickly cleaned himself up in the kitchen using some paper towels and lemon hand soap. Christ, now he’d smell lemons and think of Heather and sex.

  He waited for her in the living room, wondering how to handle this. Pretend it hadn’t happened? Apologize? He couldn’t exactly accuse her of leading him on, not when he’d kissed her first. But then, Melissa had once used a psychic to manipulate him into doing all sorts of distasteful things. Maybe Ida had worked some mind magic on him before leaving him alone with Heather. Getting him all primed and pumped on that addictive Source as well as Heather’s fine body.

  Heather returned to the living room with her hair in a braid, which emphasized the delicate features of her face. She was fully dressed and calm. But when she met his gaze, she blushed a bright red. She looked so damn sweet, embarrassed yet meeting him eye to eye. He didn’t know what to think about her. He trusted Owen, when he trusted few people, and this was Owen’s little sister.

  Oh shit. Yet another complication to add to this mess.

  “I, ah…” Heather paused. “I don’t know what to say. I want to blame the energy around us, but we kind of suit. I think. I mean, I could be wrong. But I don’t normally have sex with strangers.” She glared at him, her cheeks a bright pink, as if waiting for him to blame her for something.

  “Okay.”

  She looked taken aback. “Okay?”

  “I believe you.” And son of a bitch, he did. He couldn’t have said why. He didn’t trust people he didn’t know. Melissa had screwed him over royally, and he thought he’d more than learned his lesson then. But this entire day had been one of the strangest in his life, and against all reason, instinct told him to trust her. Heather had made him feel so good. Twice. “I can’t tell you why that happened.” He sighed. “I mean, yeah, you’re sexy as hell. I’m attracted to you.” Any man would be. He didn’t see a weakness in telling that truth. “But I don’t fuck around on the job.” Not anymore.

  She seemed relieved, and he felt better for having eased her worry.

  Again, he hated that he felt manipulated somehow. Yet he couldn’t get a handle on his feelings. Even before he’d come to Drei-Gewalten, he’d felt something for Heather because of her stupid picture, the one no longer burning a hole in his front pocket. Not since he had the real thing right in fr
ont of him.

  “Let’s just blame it on the Source. Makes more sense than anything I can come up with,” she murmured.

  He nodded and forced himself to take a mental step back. He couldn’t have feelings for her. Nothing more than a bad case of lust. She was a job, period. End of story.

  “Good.” She let out a breath. “My pack is ready to go. I have everything I need to get to the Source and back. When it gets darker, we’ll head to Jan’s to get your pack. Then hopefully we’ll finish this and get the hell out of this weird town. I love Germany, but Drei-Gewalten is more than I’d planned on dealing with.”

  “Yeah.” Another thing that had been bothering him. “Heather, you said you tried leaving but couldn’t.”

  “About the fourth day here, I wanted to go, Chronicles or no Chronicles. Ida had me convinced it wasn’t safe to stay here. These people can really hold a grudge. And they hate the name Stallbridge with a passion. It’s weird, but the animosity is still very much alive more than a century after some old feud.”

  “So Ida said.”

  “Their laws are archaic. A Stallbridge can be put to death on sight. The Baers don’t like you? They can throw you in jail. No due process, no right to counsel. Just locked up.” She looked at him with clear green eyes. “I don’t like any of the Baers, but Ernst is the worst. He’s grabby and doesn’t like to be told no.”

  Jack wanted to haul her into his arms and promise to protect her from all harm. Then he wanted to find Ernst Baer and beat the shit out of him. So he did neither and waited for her to continue.

  “But I was nice about rejecting him, and he’s giving me time.” She snorted. “As if a few days will make me drop my pants.” She met Jack’s gaze and turned bright red. “I mean, with you it was… It’s just… I didn’t mean…”

  “Trust me. I get it.” It helped to see her so flummoxed, experiencing the same confusion he felt.

  “Right.” She blew out a breath. “Well, so I tried to leave. I’d get close to the yellow gate, and one of the townspeople would find me. Then I’d be drinking cocoa or dancing at a festival. They have parties around here just about every day. It was like I was under a spell, because I’d get near that gate, and then someone would just appear right next to me.”

  “What about the road? That’s how I got here.”

  “I saw you on the road. I tried to go that way, but believe it or not, if you walk a few feet past the bend, where you came from, it dead ends in forest.”

  “Not possible.” He’d driven for miles on that road. He sure the hell hadn’t been four-wheeling through the forest in his rental car.

  “It shouldn’t be, but it is. All the other paths in town lead back to the main street. Trust me; I’ve tried to get away. This place is so off from anything I’ve been around, and I’ve been around some really weird stuff.”

  Heather shook her head, the end of her braid just brushing the tips of her breasts. Breasts Jack had recently sucked but hadn’t seen, not really. He’d have to remedy that next time.

  Next time? Internally shaking free of lustful thoughts that had no place in a mission, he focused on her words.

  “I’ve talked about me. What about you?” she asked.

  “Me?”

  She nodded. “Owen said you’re special, that you and the people who work with you are psychic. Is that right?”

  What the hell. Owen knew, and both he and Heather were psychic themselves. It couldn’t hurt to tell her. “I was part of the government’s Psychic Warfare Program, one of the original members of the PWP, in fact. We lasted a few years before some idiot bigwig took control of the program from the admiral running it and ruined everything. Psychic power for personal gain is a big no-no. It made the powers that be nervous about how strong we’d gotten.”

  “So you just quit?” She sounded skeptical.

  “We had a choice to be reassigned or start over. That admiral I mentioned? He’s a good guy and has friends in high places that took care of us. Not that he didn’t owe us a few favors for service above and beyond.” He missed Admiral London, though he didn’t miss the admiral’s wife. Not quite human, powerful beyond belief, and the woman had a habit of interfering in his life too many times to call it coincidence.

  He wondered about this weird fascination with Heather. He understood her physical appeal. Hell, he had a pulse. But he wanted to know more about the whole package, and it had nothing to do with the mission and everything to do with getting closer to the woman on a personal level. “So what do you do when you’re not playing with cursed pornography?”

  She sighed. “Chronicles isn’t porn, and it’s not cursed. Like I told you before, I can heal what’s broken. That applies to more than broken bones but to broken organizations as well. I tweak psychic energy to make it more in tune. Like with the Stallbridge charity organizations. I usually audit them twice a year to make sure everything is on the up-and-up. I can tell when the energy is fractured.”

  “Yeah?” He wondered if she sensed anything about him. He disliked the notion of being easy to read.

  She nodded. “This town is so full of energy that it’s hard to read anyone unless I’m actually touching or standing near them.” Her deep green gaze fastened on his. “You’re very strong, but you have deep wells of pain. I didn’t mean to but touched them earlier.”

  “I felt it.” He’d sensed her trespass, but the gentle touch, the lightening of his pain merged with pleasure, had distracted him from her encroachment. “Don’t do it again,” he growled.

  She didn’t respond, just stared at him with those big beautiful eyes. Her gaze traced his face, and he had a hard time not taking her against the wall again. The woman had a strong effect on his libido that didn’t make sense. Unless she was fucking with him, and he couldn’t see it.

  “Are you trying to mess with my head?”

  Her eyes widened. “No. Why?” She sounded nervous and lowered her voice. “Is something attacking you? I don’t sense anything, but I could be wrong. Are you hurting anywhere?” She stepped forward and grabbed on to his arm, then closed her eyes. She opened them seconds later. “I don’t sense any pain, well, other than what was there before.”

  “Damn it. I said cut it out.” His growl sounded more like an embarrassing purr when she stroked his forearm.

  She seemed lost in thought. “You’re huge. I mean, you must work out all the time.”

  He had to clear his throat to respond. Damn, but around this woman, his cock was on fire and ready to slide inside her again. “I have to work out. It helps me stay in control.” Actually, the genetic manipulation that had enhanced his natural psychic ability years ago, courtesy of the US government, had also increased his sensitivity to stimulation. Jack had to physically work out to control his psychic and emotional stability.

  That need for continual physical activity had made a gym the ideal place to start a new life. The workouts kept him and the team sane, provided income, and served as the perfect cover to blend into normalcy.

  “I like to work out too,” Heather said.

  “There are better ways to burn off stress than lifting weights.” Jack stared at her fingers stroking his arm. She looked small next to him, yet Heather was no petite female.

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah.” He took her hand and guided it to his cock pressed hard against his jeans. When she gripped him tight, he swore. “Fuck, yeah.”

  The sound of Ida’s voice and the jiggling of the front doorknob jerked them apart, and Jack turned to head into the kitchen. He doused his overeager libido by downing a huge glass of water. Then he took another and clutched the kitchen sink for support. He controlled his emotions. He wasn’t controlled by them. What the fuck was Heather doing to him?

  Ida entered the kitchen. “Ah, good. Heather tells me you two have come to an understanding. The sun has set, so it is time to go, yes?”

  Jack nodded. “Yes.” Sooner I get Heather back, the sooner I can get her the hell out of my head.

  “Yo
u mean heart,” Ida corrected with a wink.

  Had she just read his mind? Before Jack could ask what the hell she’d meant, Ida hobbled to the door.

  “Heather, grab your pack. Jack, time to meet Jan. And remember, it will take both of you to get off the mountain alive.”

  It took him a minute to realize she spoke about him and Heather, not him and Jan. “Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “Let’s just meet this Jan guy and get the hell gone.”

  “Amen,” Heather said with feeling.

  Chapter Four

  Heather waited with Jack in Jan’s overlarge living room. Ida’s cottage fit the older woman—small, comfortable, and cozy. Jan’s had the exact opposite feel, much like the man himself. The space was dark, overpowering, and made her claustrophobic. He’d decorated his walls with stuffed animal heads, and the eyes following her as she moved gave her the creeps.

  Jack adjusted the straps of his backpack. “I’m still not happy you broke into my car.”

  Jan smiled. Though silver-haired, he had a large, rangy build and a spry step. His dark eyes saw much, but he spoke only when he had something important to say. The entire town steered clear of him in a bad mood, and on nights like these, when the clouds cast an eerie shadow over the town and, in particular, over Jan’s house, Heather could well believe the man as possessed as the children claimed him to be.

  Jack sighed when Jan remained silent. “We’re going to do this the hard way, then?”

  They stared at each other, and Heather could feel the psychic tension building. She glanced at Ida, who shrugged.

  “Jack, we should—” Heather started to say, when Jan laughed.

  “Full of power, this one.” He clapped Jack on the back, but Jack didn’t flinch. “Strong too. You’ll need that. The mountains are cold.” Jan had given them both sleeping bags they’d strapped to their packs. “The way to the Source is dangerous but necessary.”

  “Whatever. How about you tell me how you know who I am?”

  “I see what’s important.” Jan tapped his forehead. “Jack Keiser, you’d best be touching me and taking me with you.”