by Jan Springer
Reena. Or maybe he should call her Red. That had been his nickname for her. He’d never imagined the Resistance called her Red, too.
Red, with the flaming red hair and gorgeous hazel eyes. Red, who’d proudly worn gold rings on her large pink nipples and teased him with a bellybutton ring, and made his knees melt when he’d seen her labia rings.
She hadn’t shied away from showing off those rings. Maybe she’d had them removed since their meeting? Or had she accepted them as part of her body?
The first time he’d entered the safe house where the SKULL men had taken her, his pulse had picked up speed as her moans echoed from one of the bedrooms. When he’d peeked into the open doorway and spied her lying spread-eagle on the bed, his body had tightened in awareness, his cock and balls tensing and swelling like a son of a bitch.
She’d been naked and moaning. Damned irresistible too with her tangled red hair billowing around her face while she thrashed beneath the mouths of two men—one tending her breasts and one lapping between her thighs. She’d begged them to fuck her.
Oh man, he’d wanted to undress. Wanted to take her. To claim her for his own.
But she was only pleading because of the drugs. He wanted more than just fucking a woman pumped full of sex drugs. He didn’t know how long he’d watched those SKULL men fucking her. Could have been minutes. Could have been hours. But the imprint of her naked and writhing beneath the erotic handling of the men was forever etched into his mind.
Sexy woman.
And she would have to die.
Here. Now. Right in front of Cade Outlaw.
Lifting the assault rifle, he peered through the night-vision scope and took a bead on Red. She sat on a fallen log in front of a small fire that fully illuminated her. Vulnerability flickered across her face in the waves of yellow firelight.
One shot to the brain and she wouldn’t feel a thing. His finger tightened on the trigger. He held his breath.
Hesitated.
Man. This was harder than the last time he’d tried to pull the trigger. Cold sweat popped out on his brow as he took aim. He hoped she would forgive him for this.
Many women preferred death as opposed to the virus they carried. Would she welcome death? Would she thank him for putting her out of her misery when they met in heaven or wherever people went after they died?
He continued to hesitate. Stiffened as a cold blade of death cut painfully into the skin of his neck.
“Déjà vu, dead man.” The voice exploded through the stillness of the snowflake-drenched night air, much the same way it had several months earlier when Cade Outlaw had stopped Will from killing Red. Just as he planned tonight.
“This knight-in-shining-armor fetish you’ve got regarding saving this chick’s ass is getting to be a real pain in my ass,” Blade replied. He didn’t ease up on the trigger.
If Cade followed through in killing him, Blade would make sure Red joined him in the afterlife. It almost seemed sweet and fitting. To die with the woman he’d been lusting after for months.
“I’m glad you still have your humor, Blade. I’m sure it’ll keep you warm in your grave,” Cade growled quietly.
“Just as Red will keep me warm in my grave when I pull the trigger,” Blade warned.
The harsh press of the skinning knife against his neck loosened. A warm trickle of blood dripped along the side of his neck. The cut couldn’t be deep or he’d be dead. It appeared Cade had other plans for him.
“I made myself clear what would happen if you came near Red again.”
He sounded pissed. That was a good sign. It meant Cade had feelings for Red. Will would have to play those emotions to keep himself alive.
“I guess you should have killed me. Then and now. You’re getting soft in your old age, Outlaw.”
“The ladies don’t think so,” Cade retorted coolly.
Sex. Always on the mind of a man these days—especially with so few women around.
“Drop the rifle…nice and easy…and I’ll let you live,” Cade instructed.
“You already let me live, and because of it you’re at a disadvantage.” Blade slightly jerked his assault rifle up in acknowledgement. Tension zipped through the air from Cade.
“Or maybe that’s an advantage, Outlaw. Depends on how you look at it. A group of hunters are tracking you…and the female. About four miles west. They’ve made camp for the night. You’ll need an extra hand if you don’t outrun them.”
“I know. Now drop the rifle, Blade. Then drop any other weapons you have on you and we can join Red at camp.”
It was the truth. There were several men following Cade’s trail. Will just hoped Cade believed him. “I’m serious, Cade.”
“I know, Will.”
Okay, so the guy was keeping his enemy alive in case he needed help? Will had to give it to Cade, he was either an idiot or he had the balls to trust that Will would help when the chips fell. The trust probably came because Blade was Colter Outlaw’s good friend.
Fuck. He should kill Cade and take Red for himself. He just might be sorry if he didn’t.
Blade sighed. He surrendered his rifle and allowed Cade to search him for his other weapons.
* * * * *
The handcuffs that bit into Reena’s wrists and the shackles lacing her ankles did nothing but cause sensual images of having sex with Cade to whirl around in her mind.
Men! She’d come out here alone for a reason. To de-stress. Instead she wasn’t getting anything but stress. Where the hell was Outlaw, anyway?
Desperation shifted through her as she stared into the snow-swirling darkness. Nothing moved except snowflakes. They were coming down hard, spiraling out of the night like tiny demons and covering the ground in a white fluffy blanket.
It was getting colder, too. Crisp air chilled her cheeks and every time she breathed another plume of mist shot from her mouth, blinding her. Despite that, a fevered neediness raced through her.
Her pussy throbbed. Wetness had drenched the area between her thighs and her body had tightened with sexual tension when Cade had secured a plastic sheet over the small lean-to on the other side of the fire pit.
He hadn’t spoken anything more while he’d set up the sleeping quarters, but she’d caught him casting her glances. Hungry and hot looks that made her very aware he hadn’t been with a female in awhile.
Damn him! Where was he anyway? He’d taken off to search for the plate she’d whipped into the forest and to take a leak more than ten minutes ago. More than long enough. If she’d thought he would be gone this long, she could have masturbated, had an orgasm and been good to go. It would have been tough with her hands shackled, but the rough bark of the fallen tree she sat on would cause enough friction. Maybe she could start…
Footsteps echoed in the dark perimeter outside the warm glow of the firelight and her pulse pounded with alertness. Maybe Cade had been gone so long because someone had killed him? Her people? Or someone else?
Regret slithered through her like a snake. She didn’t like the idea of Cade being dead. She liked his brother Tyler and didn’t want harm to come to Cade, even if he was a lowly bounty hunter. Besides, her attraction for him when he’d first caught her on the ice wasn’t totally the virus. It was feminine instinct. She sensed he wouldn’t hurt her. No matter how bitter the Terrorist Wars had made him.
When he first caught her, she had been pissed, but there had also been an attraction similar to what she’d experienced with only one other man. The man she knew as Will Blade. He was raw lust and powerful arousal rolled into one hot explosion.
Just as she thought of Will, his image drifted out of the darkness like a ghost. For a moment, she could do nothing but blink in shock and wonder if perhaps she was experiencing a fantasy of him. But when he threw her an amused smirk, emotions sizzled inside her. Happiness, confusion, need, want. Arousal.
What in the world was he doing here?
Behind him, Cade appeared. Concern ripped through her over how Cade held a rifle pointed at Blade
’s back.
Cade’s mouth was twisted in anger and his eyes were narrowed with suspicion. In contrast, Blade seemed calm as a cucumber. Except for the smirk on his face when he gazed at her, he appeared as cool as the night she’d approached him in his bedroom.
Immediately she knew why he was acting so composed. The attraction between them still existed. The need of wanting him hit her like a searing arrow the instant his familiar pine-and-mild-soap scent whispered against her nostrils.
A man wouldn’t look at her coolly, dispassionately, yet his eyes so full of fire unless he was trying to run from his attraction to her. Or hide from it, which—on the surface—he appeared to do quite well. Yet beneath the surface, he was doing a piss-poor job. He held himself tensely, awareness flaring in his eyes as he studied her like she was the untamed mate that had gotten away.
“Sit down on that stump. I don’t need you snapping her neck,” Cade instructed.
Snap her neck? What in the world?
She drew her attention to Cade. His fierce gaze was fixed on Will as he sat down a good six feet away from her. Cade warily eyed Will as if he were her mortal enemy. Boy was he ever wrong.
Blade’s scent increased in intensity as the wind whipped against her, making her body tighten in hyper awareness. Making her breasts ache with a need to be held in his large hands. To have both men licking her body. Touching her. Kissing her. Making love to her.
Reena tried hard not to moan at the sudden burst of submissive need welcoming her into its embrace. But she did moan. It was a sultry sexy sound that made Cade and Will Blade snap their gazes to her in full-awareness mode. Reena closed her eyes and broke the erotic-magnetic connection.
Both men remained silent, except for their breaths lashing the air.
Cade—harsh and erratic.
Blade—coolly even. Forced. Too even.
They were both fighting their reactions to her. Just as she was fighting them.
God only knew how long she could hold out.
* * * * *
Secrets. They zipped between Red and Blade like sparks of electricity. Cade saw their awareness of each other in the way their eyes sparkled with lust amidst the violent swirls of snowflakes. The storm was picking up intensity. Somewhere, far off in the distance, the wind roared. Once it hit them, it would be a damned cold night.
Unless…
He shook away the visions of naked feminine skin and concentrated on remaining professional.
“I can see SKULL wants Red dead,” Cade said. He may as well let Red in on what was happening. That Blade was an assassin. Here to kill her.
Reena’s sharp inhalation and Blade’s eyes narrowing in anger encouraged Cade to continue. If there was something between these two, an erotic connection or whatever the hell it was, he’d squash it right now. No woman would want a man who had been sent to kill her.
“It beats what you seem intent on doing to her. Taking her back to them alive. They’ll torture her until they get the information they want. And they will succeed. You should know that more than anyone, especially with your background.”
Cade grimaced at the taunt about his past. He wasn’t proud of what he’d done during the Wars, but his acts had been a necessary evil. He’d extracted plenty of good intelligence to help fight the terrorists.
“Besides,” Blade said. “My way will save her a whole lot of unnecessary pain. Unless she’s into pain,” he whispered.
“You…you’ve been sent to kill me?” she asked, but the hostility and anger Cade wanted to see didn’t accumulate in her eyes. She seemed stunned and maybe even a bit fascinated at having Blade here.
Blade nodded and she frowned in disappointment. Yes, something was going on between them. Hell, what had she expected with Blade showing up? That she would free him and then her and Blade could have a frolicking good time in the snowstorm? Streaks of jealousy and anger slammed through him like battering rams.
“Okay, so you two know each other. Maybe you should let me in on how well?” Cade snapped as he kept the rifle on Blade and tossed a piece of driftwood onto the fire. He wasn’t worried about the sparks showering into the swirl of snow. The group of hunters Blade suggested were out there wouldn’t see anything through the storm.
Neither of them answered, confirming his suspicions.
Fine, then. Whatever was going on had nothing to do with him. He was a bounty hunter not a jealous asshole. He stomped on his anger and focused his attention on what Blade had said earlier. “Those men following us. Any ideas who they are?”
“Men are following us?” Reena cried.
She sounded surprised not hopeful, though, which probably meant she really was out here all alone. How the Resistance would allow her to do something so stupid said plenty about this group she headed. They were idiotic and untrustworthy if they didn’t even have protection for their leader.
Bounty hunters he could deal with. He probably knew them. He may be able to get them to back off, too. But if they were coming after him because of Red, then they needed to get moving out of the area and pronto.
“Hunters looking for females,” Blade said coolly.
Cade stifled a curse. Men looking for a woman were desperate. They would kill both himself and Blade in order to get their hands on her. Somehow they’d discovered she was out here.
Cade turned to her and inhaled sharply. Wisps of hair caressed her red cheeks, making her look gorgeous. Her sultry lips were parted and had him thinking of oral sex. Suddenly she tugged off her hat and her fluffy hair blew wildly in the wind. He’d love to thrust his fingers into those silky strands and hold her head while he fucked her mouth.
Cade blinked in stunned amazement at the direction his thoughts were heading. He didn’t know what was going on. Usually he was professional as hell, but the smoldering whimper that escaped her mouth moments earlier when Blade had appeared, and now the heated flush in her cheeks and sparks in her eyes, screamed sex. He struggled to regain his composure.
“You probably have a leak in your organization. Too many people know your whereabouts,” Cade said, his voice way too thick with arousal for his own comfort.
She didn’t answer. Her lips parted more, as if she were about to speak, but she remained silent. He’d seen a similar look on a few other women’s faces before. During the Wars’ mandatory R & R sessions the soldiers were ordered to participate in. He’d only lain with women who were volunteers. And some of them had looked at him the same way as Reena.
Hot. Needy. Submissive.
Uneasiness zipped through him. Mentally he went over the notes the government had supplied him regarding Reena “Red” Wilde. There had been no mention of the X-virus. He’d assumed she’d been one of the lucky ones and was unaffected.
Was she infected? A stab of bitter disappointment shifted through him, but it was quickly followed by denial. No, a beautiful, sexy, vibrant woman like her couldn’t be infected.
Could she?
Chapter Four
Secret eye signals were snapping between Blade and Reena again and it was pissing Cade off. Suddenly she closed her eyes and nodded in surrender.
“So you want me to tell him?” Blade growled. He seemed totally ticked yet something else laced his voice. Excitement? Maybe. Whatever it was, Cade sensed something wild racing through his own veins. Something at the back of his brain warned him if she was infected with the X-virus, she may have one of those versions that would make her needy. Wanting sex. Wanting him. Just as Tyler’s woman wanted Tyler and Hunter pretty much every night because of those erotic fantasies she got compliments of the virus.
Man, he was fucking shallow and desperate, wasn’t he? To wish Reena would want sex with him simply because she was infected and needy…instead of out of love and caring.
No, she couldn’t be infected. There had been no information about her having the X-virus when he’d been hired to hunt her down. Unless they’d left it off or they didn’t know…or they hadn’t wanted him to know.
She shook her head as she caught his gaze. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment.
Oh hell.
“She’s infected,” came Blade’s reply.
“Which version?” Cade asked as disappointment and disbelief rocked him. His voice was thick and strangled and distant, as if someone else asked the question.
“The O version,” she whispered. Her reply punched him in the gut.
“O” meaning she would need sex. Eventually. She would need to orgasm. At the very least, she would have to masturbate.
The O version was one of the worst mutations a woman could get. With that particular version, a female’s brain and reproductive hormones were targeted by the virus, twisting them into a cycle similar to that of cats in heat. Once in the heat phase, she would exhibit a sexually receptive behavior.
Was she entering that phase now? Is that why she appeared so…bedroomy sensual?
The erotic way the pink tip of her tongue wet her full lips made his breath hitch. Her condition must have been one hell of a secret if the government didn’t know about it. But it couldn’t have been that big a secret if Blade knew.
Cade noticed both of them watching him closely. Most likely waiting for his reaction.
“How often do you need to…” He wanted to ask how often she needed to orgasm, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to say the word.
“I’m fine,” she snapped.
“Maybe for now,” Blade interjected quickly. “Answer his question.”
“I can take care of it myself when the time comes. Now back off. Both of you,” she retorted and swung her gaze to the fire.
“And here I thought we could revisit that one night together,” Blade remarked and winked at her. Rage splashed through Cade. Why the hell Blade would dangle a night together in her face, in front of him…it was just plain ungentlemanly.
Cade raised Blade’s gun and aimed it at his midsection.
“Watch your mouth,” he growled, making it quite clear he didn’t approve of the way Blade was talking to Red.
Blade glared at him and she said nothing, not that he was expecting her to. Okay, so maybe he was hoping she’d send him a look of thanks.
