He made short work of their clothes, knowing that they had only a few minutes before they risked discovery or had to act on their plan to take Darren down. This wasn’t the time or the place to be making love to her, but he couldn’t stop himself. He had to touch her, taste her, and tease her until they were both sated, and he had to do it now.
Moira seemed to agree, because she lifted her hips, helping him slide her jeans from her legs. Without waiting, he placed his fingers at her wet center, beginning to drive her wild as he kissed her lips, her neck, her shoulders, and then she pulled her shirt open and unfastened her front-clasp bra, her full breasts.
His fingers slipped inside of her as she yanked down his pants and wrapped her hand around his hard, pulsing cock. For an exquisite moment, they pleasured each other, kissing everywhere as they used their hands to drive the other wild. But it wasn’t long before he couldn’t wait anymore, and he withdrew his fingers from her tight center and grabbed her hips, looking into her eyes as he yanked her toward him.
She moaned, her head falling back, and he kissed her throat as he slid himself deep inside her body with one powerful thrust. They moved together with perfect rhythm, as though they had been doing this for years and knew each other’s bodies better than their own. As he thrust, he continued to tease her clit and stare into her eyes, and it was mere minutes before he saw her cheeks flush and heard her moans become more erratic. Her body bucked against his, and then she tightened, reaching her peak as he pinched her clit to intensify her pleasure.
The cry she let out was surely loud enough to be heard around the building, but neither was in a position to care. He let her ride out her pleasure, and then he began to thrust into her again and again, letting his own head fall back as he took as much from her body as he’d just given. It was impossible to hold back, and he bucked as he spilled into her, filling her with their lovemaking as his body sagged against hers.
As soon as they caught their breath, both laughed softly, mutually amazed at their moment of frenzied passion. Grady had never felt so much for a woman before, and he knew that it wasn’t just because she was beautiful, sexy, and intriguing. She was all of those things, and that was what he had initially been drawn to. But over the past weeks, he had come to love her for her courage, her honesty, her wit, her ability to call him out when necessary, and her vulnerability. Moira Brennan was, in all ways, his person.
“I do love you,” he told her again, looking down into her eyes. “I didn’t know it before, but it’s true. And it doesn’t scare me.”
“I’m not scared either,” she said, smiling up at him with the look of a woman just thoroughly pleasured. “I’m starting to think that people like you and Dhara are being sent to us because you’re our future. It feels right. I feel hopeful. As long as I have you.”
“As long as I have you,” he whispered back, kissing her tenderly.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Moira
She really needed to shower.
The shower in the dingy motel room had worked well enough that morning, but she hadn’t had fresh clothes to change into, and she’d had sex several times in the last twenty-four hours. It was more than time for a scalding hot shower, a change of clothes, and a little bit of time to center herself for the big event tonight.
And, even though she and Grady were basking in the glow of their newly acknowledged love, she also wanted a little bit of time alone. She was happier than she had ever been, but she needed to spend some time thinking about how this was going to affect her family and what she was going to do about that.
So Moira had gone home, and Grady had gone back to his office to continue dealing with the fallout from yesterday’s car explosion. She’d spent the afternoon at her house, and it had been good to clean up, take care of herself, and keep up with the developments of the case through text updates from Kean, who was hanging back and keeping an eye on Felicia from afar, just as an extra layer of protection for the girl risking everything to help them with their case.
It was almost six o’clock before the prewritten text from Felicia dinged on her phone, and Moira read it several times, as though trying to read between the words that she had written earlier.
Returned safely. Message delivered.
It was a simple message, but Moira knew that it meant that Felicia was back with Darren and that she had planted the seeds that she could have been followed home. That meant that she needed to mobilize everyone quickly. The Dragon Clan members were standing by, ready to go at a moment’s notice, and Grady knew to be on call as well. All she had to do was give the word.
She texted Kean to tell him to send out the message to the others, and then started to call Grady.
But before she could dial his number, there was a knock at her door, and when she looked out the window, she saw Grady standing there, smiling at her. Immediately, she smiled back, hurrying over to open the door and let him in.
As soon as he stepped inside, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him hard. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I missed you. Over the past five hours, I actually missed you.”
He chuckled, kissing her back. “I missed you too. That’s why I’m here, unannounced.”
“Well, it’s perfect timing,” she told him, holding up her phone. “I was just about to call you.”
“You were?” He glanced at her phone.
“Yeah, because the text from Felicia came in. She’s back with Darren, and she’s given her spiel about needing to look out for someone who may have followed her. We’re ready to get out there into the trees. It’s going to be about a thirty-minute drive, but that’s good—we don’t want them to spot you as soon as Felicia says something.”
Grady nodded slowly. “Right. Sure. Okay.”
“How did everything go at the office today?” she asked, reaching back for her purse and keys and then heading for the door. “How’s Barat?”
“Oh, good. He’s good,” Grady said, opening the front door for her. “I’ll drive.”
“Sure,” Moira agreed, trying to remember if she had everything she needed in her bag as she stepped out onto the front porch.
“Hey, didn’t you forget something?” Grady’s voice was teasing, and she turned around, tilting her head.
“What did I forget?”
“Our code. So you know it’s me.”
Moira laughed. “I can’t believe I forgot. We’re supposed to do that every time. Okay …what tattoo would you get?”
Smiling at her, Grady slipped his arm around her waist and led her toward his car. “A dragon, of course.”
“Of course,” she agreed, getting into the passenger seat and buckling up as he rounded to the other side of the car. As much as she wanted to just keep things light with him, she knew that they needed to prepare for what was coming up, so as he joined her in the car and started up the engine, she began to run through the plan again with him. “Okay, so when we get there, we’ll park a good distance away, obviously.”
Realizing something, she glanced at the car they were in, that was now pulling onto the main road. “Wait, where’s the Lexus?”
“This is one of my other cars. Less conspicuous.”
Moira nodded. “Right. Makes sense. Okay, so, anyway. We’ll park, and I’ll run you into the forest. Here’s the part you might not like. I’m going to need you to ride on my back so that I can zip us in there as fast as possible.” She looked over at him cautiously. “What are the chances you’re still feeling very long-term pragmatic about that?”
“That’s fine,” he said, shrugging. “Where though?”
“Into the tree line that’s on Darren’s property,” she said, frowning at him. “Where did I lose you?”
“Nowhere. Keep going.”
Moira shrugged it off and continued, “So I’ll run you in there, you’ll loiter about at the front of the tree line, looking like you’re spying, of course. And we’ll be up in the trees, waiting for someone to come after you. This is importa
nt. As soon as you see anyone coming toward you, you have to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. Eamon will swoop down and pick you up, which may, honestly, make your stomach feel kind of weird, but that’s temporary. Then we’ll take it from there.”
“That’s quite the plan.”
She looked over at him, confused by his reactions to her review. “Well, yeah,” she said, laughing slightly. “We came up with it together. Of course it’s great.”
“That’s too bad,” Grady said, looking over at her as he used one hand to lock the doors on the car and the other to whip the steering wheel around into a U-turn. “Would have been great if you’d gotten to try out that plan.”
Moira’s blood ran cold, and all of the small red flags she’d been ignoring since Grady had showed up suddenly connected in her head, morphing into one giant red flag. “Oh God,” she said, instinctively reaching for the phone on her lap.
Whoever it was in Grady’s form was faster than her though. He snatched the phone from her and threw it out the window of the car, sending it bouncing off the pavement, the shattered pieces landing in the grass by the side of the road. “Don’t even think about it,” the Grady imposter growled. “You’re in deep shit, Moira. You should know that. But I do appreciate you telling me all about your little plan before I knock you out. I’ll be sure to send someone after Grady immediately. And as for your friends…well, I hope they’re not stupid enough to actually show up on Darren’s property. He doesn’t like intruders.”
“You’re not going to get away with this,” Moira said, her hand sliding toward the lock on the door. She could undo it manually and jump from the car. She was confident in her body’s ability to withstand the fall, even as the car sped up. She was stronger and faster than he might think, and she would use that to her advantage.
But as she spoke, Grady’s face faded away, replaced by a dark, scruffy, angry face that glared at her with dark intent. “You might think you can get away from me, and maybe you can—at first. But I’ll track you down, and for every bit of trouble you give me, I’m going to make sure that Grady’s death is that much more painful. If you’re a very, very good girl, maybe I can convince Darren to spare Grady.”
She didn’t believe that for a moment, but the threat that Grady’s death would be more painful did still her fingers. “You’re Vaughn, aren’t you?”
“The one and only,” he said, grinning a yellowed-tooth grin at her. “Now, shut up, princess.”
His hand moved fast, and there was suddenly a cloth covering her mouth and nose, a chemical smell permeating her senses. She fought back against him instinctively, but she wasn’t the only one with supernatural strength, and the chemicals made her thoughts fuzzy almost instantly.
Moira could feel her body beginning to go limp and her head beginning to loll, and as she sank into unconsciousness, her last thought was that she should have known it wasn’t Grady when he kissed her. There had been no love in that kiss. She had never known the difference before Grady.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Grady
He kept checking his watch. It was past six-thirty, and Felicia should have arrived back with Darren sometime ago, sent the text, and then Moira should have gotten in touch with him to say she was on her way to pick him up. They had all of this arranged, and it made him antsy that it was so late and he hadn’t heard a thing.
Grady knew that he could call Moira, but he didn’t want to seem needy or reactionary when he knew that she had a lot on her mind as it was. It worried him a little bit that she would spend the afternoon away from him and made him second-guess how good things were between them. It only worried him, he knew, because it was one of the worst things he could imagine happening, so he was determined not to react to it and just wait for her call.
She would call as soon as she knew something. Him calling her to check in wouldn’t make her have the information any faster.
He returned to his computer, working for a few more minutes before his hands came to a stop on the keyboard again, his mind too distracted to focus on work. Grady supposed that it wouldn’t be so bad if he called Kean, who was becoming a friend throughout all of this craziness. That wouldn’t make him seem needy or desperate. It would just be one friend calling to check in with another friend.
Nothing weird about that.
Before he could second-guess himself any further, he reached for his phone and dialed Kean’s number. As he listened, the phone rang and rang, but nobody picked up, and Grady lowered the phone, frowning as he stared at the screen.
Had he missed something? Had they gone without him? Was there something wrong and nobody had told them? He didn’t think Moira would do that, but as the clock clicked closer to seven and he still had no word, he began to worry.
Then his phone rang and Grady grabbed it eagerly, only partially disappointed to see Kean’s name there on the screen instead of Moira’s.
“Hey!”
“Where are you guys?”
“I’m still at the office. I haven’t gotten word from Moira yet. What’s going on? Where are you?”
Kean was silent for a moment. “You haven’t heard from Moira?”
“No …should I have?”
“She texted almost an hour ago, saying she was going to call you and get on the road. Felicia is back with Darren. We’re all sitting here in the trees …but you’re not anywhere and we don’t see any movement around.”
“Hold on.” Grady pulled his phone away from his ear and frantically swiped through his recent calls and texts, even though he knew he had been checking constantly and hadn’t missed anything. “No. I never heard from her,” he told Kean. “Something’s wrong. She’s in danger.”
“Fuck,” Kean whispered under his breath. “Okay, don’t move. Just stay where you are.”
“No!” Grady stood up at his desk, his fingers closed so tightly around the phone that his knuckles were white. “I can’t just sit here while we don’t know where she is. Tell me something I can do—anything.”
There was loud rustling on the other end, like Kean was lowering himself out of the tree. “Okay, then go to her house and see if there are any clues. See if she’s there. But if you see anyone other than her—don’t go near. If it’s a shifter, you can’t hold your own against them.”
For the first time, that knowledge really got under Grady’s skin. Now, of all times, he desperately wanted to be able to go toe-to-toe with a shifter, if it meant helping to save Moira’s life. But there was nothing he could do to change that, and he had to think of her first—not his own regrets. “I’m on my way right now.”
“Be careful! When we get her back, she’s going to want you alive. Let me know what you find ASAP.”
The phone went dead and Grady lowered it, grabbing his keys and running out of his office door with no explanation to faithful Jason, who was still working at his desk. He couldn’t bear the thought of waiting for the elevator, then standing still as it dropped from floor to floor, so he took the stairs, running so fast that he almost tripped over his own feet.
All the while, Kean’s words echoed over and over again in his head.
When we get her back. When we get her back. When we get her back.
They were hopeful words, but fear darkened Grady’s thoughts, and he couldn’t help what the chant became.
If we get her back. If we get her back. If we get her back.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Moira
Waking slowly, Moira felt her heavy eyelids struggling to separate her lashes so that she could open her eyes and stare above her. She could tell that she was bound, and quite intricately, feeling the chains on her feet, around her waist, and at her hands even while she remained temporarily blind. They felt like ordinary bindings, but she knew better to assume that, considering that Darren would have to know that she was far stronger than any handcuffs he could find. There was no doubt that the chains were laced with something that was going to weaken her.
These initial conscious thoughts were muddled with thoughts of Grady—wondering if he had been taken too, if he was worried about her, what he knew, where he was, and what terrible risks he might take to try to save her if he was still free. The rest of her clan would come for her. She knew that, and she trusted that they would be safe in doing so because in her heart, she believed them to be far more powerful—and more determined—than any of these shifters could hope to be. But Grady was vulnerable, and it made her sick inside to think of him risking his life.
Or perhaps that was the effects of the chemicals she’d inhaled. Her stomach rolled, and as her eyes finally pried open, her vision blurred and her head swam. She was going to be sick.
“Don’t move.”
The voice was frightened, gentle, and high-pitched. Without turning her head, Moira knew that it was Felicia speaking to her, and her heart sank further. Either the girl had been found out and captured as well, or she had betrayed them and was responsible for Moira’s imprisonment.
“You’ve been here about half an hour,” Felicia continued. “They brought me in soon after you. I guess …you thought that Vaughn was Grady and you told him everything.”
Moira closed her eyes again, more because she couldn’t bear being responsible for Felicia’s impending fate than because she didn’t like the look of the gray, bare ceiling above her. “I’m sorry, Felicia. I was a fool. A total fool. I would never have put you in danger, and I hope you know that.”
“I do,” Felicia murmured, sounding far away and small. “I knew the risk I was taking, and I almost pulled it off. It was a good bit of acting there at the beginning, but then Vaughn brought you in and told Darren everything.” She sighed. “It was horrible. He rounded us all up, me in chains and the others just bullied into it. We left the house altogether and I don’t know where we are right now, but it’s nowhere good. If you look around the room, you’ll know what I mean.”
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