A Fae in Fort Worth

by Amy Armstrong

  “We get there, find Avery and ask him to give us the book. How’s that for a plan?”

  “What? Mitch, we can’t just ask him straight out for the book!”

  “Why not?”

  I did not know why not, but that wasn’t the point. “What about what Durin and Brokk want?”

  Mitch shrugged. “No big deal. Figured we’d just sound Avery out, see how he feels about going back to the Seelie Court and if there’s anything we can do to get him there.”

  “No big deal,” I repeated. “Huh.”

  Mitch let out an exasperated sigh then before I could do anything to prevent it, he grabbed my arms, tugged me up the bed and pulled me into his side, pressing my head against his bare chest.

  “Mitch!” I protested, rather lamely if I’m being honest. My effort to pull away from him had zero effect.

  “You need to relax, babe. You take this shit way too seriously.”

  “It is serious,” I pointed out. “I can’t believe you’re not taking it seriously.”

  “I am. I also know that there’s a lot more to life. I get that this job is important to you, but you also need to learn to kick back once in a while, live a little.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with the way I live,” I said snottily.

  Mitch’s chest started shaking and I realised that he was laughing silently. I mean, seriously, what did he find so damn amusing? So I asked him.

  “What’s so funny?”

  In response, Mitch cupped my chin, tilted my head up, leant down and kissed me—hard. He used my gasp to his advantage and slipped his tongue into my mouth. I should have pushed him away, but the kiss was far too good and my brain evidently hadn’t been firing on all cylinders. I couldn’t believe that Mitch and I were kissing and that I liked it, as in a lot. I moaned into his mouth, grabbed hold of his head and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss. Mitch groaned and the arm around me got tighter. When he pulled back, we were both breathing heavily and still clinging to one another. I looked at his eyes then down to his mouth, expecting him to kiss me again. But Mitch’s lips quirked.

  “Mmm, maybe you do know how to live.”

  My glare was interrupted by the cell phone in my pocket buzzing. I pulled it out, pressed a button and answered the call without looking at the display, relieved beyond measure that I had a few minutes’ reprieve from thinking about Mitch and that kiss. I was especially relieved that I didn’t have to think about what that kiss meant or the fact that I hadn’t wanted it to end—like at all.

  “Hello?”

  “Ashley, it’s Roland. I just got your message.”

  “Um, hi,” I replied cautiously. I tried to move away to take the call, but Mitch slid his arm around my waist and pulled me back into his side. Crap.

  “What the hell are you doing in Fort Worth with Mitch Rakowski?” Roland questioned. “Are you insane?”

  I felt Mitch’s body stiffen next to mine and tried to pull away again, but Mitch wasn’t going to let me go anytime soon. His hold on me was steadfast.

  “He’s been helping me,” I fired back. “It was Raven’s idea.”

  “Well, it was a damn stupid idea,” Roland told me. “Mitch quit three years ago and the Council is not happy to learn that he’s back in the field without their permission, leading one of their hunters astray.”

  Okay, I was seriously starting to get pissed. “He isn’t leading me astray, he’s helping me. If the Council doesn’t like it, well, that’s just tough.” My words surprised me. I’d never gone against the Council or done anything that would make them unhappy with me. The job was too important to me to risk losing it.

  “Ashley, will you stop and think about this for a minute? I know how much you love hunting. Don’t jeopardise your career over this. Do you know anything about him? Do you know why he quit his duties as a hunter? Did he tell you what happened to Jenna?”

  I hadn’t thought it would be possible, but Mitch’s body became even stiffer. I sighed. “I can’t talk about this now. I’ve got to go, Roland. I’ll call you when I have information about the book.”

  “Ash—”

  I disconnected the call.

  Mitch and I were silent for a couple of minutes and I stayed pressed up against his side, not that I could have gone anyway. His hold on me had become impossibly tight and it was like his entire body had turned to stone.

  I chewed on my bottom lip then said, “I guess you heard all that, huh?”

  “I heard,” Mitch replied curtly.

  I nodded against his chest. Then I put an elbow into the pillow next to his head and rested my chin in my hand. I looked at Mitch’s face and noticed that it was closed off again, as devoid of emotion as it had been in the meeting back at the Fae sanctuary.

  After some time, Mitch sighed and his eyes came to mine. “Aren’t you going to ask who Jenna is?”

  I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jenna was the cross Mitch bore. She was also likely the reason he’d given up hunting. I’d wanted to know all the details of his past, but now it seemed so personal that I didn’t have the heart to ask him about it.

  “I don’t think it’s any of my business,” I said quietly.

  Mitch carried on as if I hadn’t spoken. “Jenna was my partner. We’d hunted together for twelve years, since we left the training school.”

  I nodded but stayed silent. I decided it was best to let Mitch tell me what he wanted to at his own pace.

  “We knew each other inside out, always anticipated the other’s moves in a fight, had each other’s backs. We were a good match.”

  I wondered if Mitch and Jenna had been more than just hunting partners, but his next comment more or less answered my unspoken question.

  “Things changed when Jenna fell in love with Evan. He was a hunter too, a couple of years older than us. She was distracted a lot, talked about settling down in one place, maybe starting a family. They’d only been seeing each other for a few months and I thought she was being premature, but she loved him, said she knew he was the one.

  “They found a place together in Henderson, Nevada where Evan grew up. The Council had offered him a position at the training school there so he quit hunting and took the job. I went out there with them because Jenna was still undecided about whether or not to quit and I didn’t have anything else going on. It was as good a place as any to hang my hat.”

  Mitch turned to stare across the room and a frown creased his brow. I didn’t know what was coming but I sensed it was bad.

  “There wasn’t a lot of action in the city,” he said at last. “A couple of vamps passing through on their way to Vegas, but mostly it was low on supernatural activity. We’d been there about two months when Jenna and I got a tipoff about a nest of vampires that had moved in.

  “We did a lot of recon work and found out where some of them were staying. We killed a few over the course of a few nights, but we hardly made a dent in their numbers.”

  “Didn’t the Council send anyone to help?”

  Mitch shook his head. “Everyone was busy. Our handler told us to hang tight, said they’d send in reinforcements as soon as they could, but I didn’t want to wait. It had been so quiet and I’d been restless. Guess I’d been missing the action and the thrill of the hunt.”

  I reached down and took hold of Mitch’s hand, but I don’t know if I did it to offer him support or to brace myself for what was undoubtedly coming next.

  “I pushed her to patrol more, to take more risks than we normally would. One night we found a few vampires in the city, but instead of staying to fight, they ran. It didn’t even occur to me at the time how off that was.

  “We chased them out into the desert. Jenna wanted to turn back, but I convinced her we were safe. It was nearing dawn and I figured if we could draw them out into the open the sun would take care of the rest.”

  “It didn’t,” I surmised.

  Mitch swallowed a couple times before he spoke. “It was a trap. There were at least a dozen of them o
ut there. We fought off as many as we were able, but we never could have won. A few of them held me and made me watch as they passed her around, playing with her before they killed her.”

  I drew in a sharp breath and squeezed Mitch’s hand tighter.

  “They were all laughing and joking, thought what they’d done was hysterical. When they were distracted, I broke free from the ones who’d been holding me and I ran. I ran away like a damn coward.”

  “Mitch,” I whispered, but he wasn’t done.

  “I ran back to the city and went straight to Jenna’s place. I told Evan what had happened and he flew into a rage—said he hated me for leaving her out there all alone, for not bringing her body home to him. He told me that Jenna had been pregnant, but I swear to God, Ash, I hadn’t known. I never would have let her come with me. If she’d told me…

  “Evan lashed out at me and I let him. He hit me and I didn’t defend myself, I didn’t hit him back. I let him keep on hitting me until I ended up in the hospital. I deserved everything he could dish out and more. I wanted to hurt. I wanted to pay for what I’d allowed to happen.

  “Two days later, when my injuries had healed enough to allow me to fight, I checked myself out of the hospital. I was intent on killing them all or at least taking out as many as I could before they killed me, but I was too late. The Council’s team had already been in. They’d killed the entire nest. If I’d have waited one more fucking day the team would have been there—they’d have helped us. She never would have died. But I wouldn’t wait. I’d been overly confident—cocky. Jenna and that little baby growing in her belly are dead because of me. I killed them both.”

  I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to ease his pain so I began with what I thought was the most obvious. “It wasn’t your fault, Mitch. You didn’t force Jenna to go…”

  “Don’t you get it?” Mitch let go of me and sat on the edge of the bed. He ran a hand through his hair then got up and began to pace the room. “I put us at risk. I’d been too arrogant. She didn’t tell me about the baby because she knew I’d have never let her hunt with me. She was afraid I’d go out alone and she was right.”

  “She wanted to protect you,” I reasoned. “She cared about you.”

  “And it got her killed!”

  I got up from the bed and crossed the room until I was standing in front of Mitch. His face was contorted with a heartbreaking combination of anger and despair. His entire body was shaking.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” I repeated. “You can’t blame yourself. The nature of our job, it’s…”

  Mitch wasn’t listening. “Then last night when the vampires surrounded us, I was convinced the same thing was going to happen and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to prevent it. I fought, but they had me pinned, there was nothing I could do,” he said desperately, staring at me as if he was willing me to understand. My heart ached for him.

  “They made me watch while they taunted you—pushed you around. If it hadn’t been for the Fae…” Mitch took hold of my arms and shook me. “You would have died and I couldn’t have fucking stopped it.”

  “But I didn’t, Mitch, I’m fine, I…”

  “You would have died!” he repeated on a roar.

  Tears clogged the back of my throat. I didn’t think there was anything I could say that would have penetrated the fog of terror and sorrow which blanketed Mitch so I didn’t even try. Instead I leaned up, tilted my head and kissed him. A strangled sound escaped his throat right before he grabbed me tighter and pulled me into his body, kissing me back with a hungry, desperate need.

  I don’t know what I expected to achieve with the kiss. Maybe I’d meant to distract him from the terrible memories or maybe it had been to calm him. He sure was distracted, but he was far from calm. Before I could think about what was happening, Mitch had turned us, walked me backwards a few steps and slammed me against the door—all without removing his mouth from mine. Mitch answered my gasp with a low growl and as he plundered my mouth with his tongue, he grabbed at every inch of me he could reach.

  When his hands stilled on my waist, he removed his mouth from mine, but only long enough so that he could lift up my T-shirt. He did so with such speed and force that I had no choice but raise my arms for him to pull it over my head. I didn’t see where he threw it because his mouth was back on mine, distracting me with another passionate and unbelievably hot kiss.

  Without thinking, I ran my hands down his back until my thumbs hooked into the top of the towel then I ripped it from his body. Things got pretty uncontrollable after that. Mitch grabbed the back of my thighs and lifted me clean off the floor. I yelped and threw my arms around his neck to support my weight and wrapped my legs around his waist. His hard cock was pressed against me and it felt amazing. It would feel even better inside me. Before I could think more about that possibility, we were moving again. Mitch carried me to the bed then threw me down on it, coming down heavily on top of me. He skirted his hands up my thighs while kissing his way down my neck until his mouth covered my nipple and he sucked on it, right over the material of my pink lacy bra. I arched my back, unsure if I was trying to get away from the stimulating sensation or needed more of it. Mitch didn’t stop there. He slithered down my body, lifted the hem of my mini skirt and mouthed my clit, again, right over the matching material. Then he licked his way down before pushing his tongue inside me as far as my panties would allow.

  “Mitch!” I shouted, opening my legs wider to better accommodate him. “Oh, God.”

  He moaned and I swear I felt the vibrations the sound made on his lips through my entire body. He used one hand to grip my thigh and with the other, he pulled aside my underwear and then his mouth was on me with no barrier in between. It was heaven and as he licked his way back up to my clit, I knew it wouldn’t take much to make me come. I was too turned on, too tightly strung. Without preamble, Mitch sucked my clit into his mouth, his tongue expertly flicking against it while he gently held it in place with his teeth.

  I fisted my hands in the sheets of his bed as Mitch feasted on me. He knew exactly how to work me and my need spiralled. I squeezed my eyes shut and panted, feeling my orgasm begin to build.

  “Mitch, please,” I moaned desperately as my legs began to tremble. Without warning Mitch pulled away abruptly, leaving me right on the edge. “No,” I complained, reaching down to grab his head and to pull him back to me. He ignored my plea. He pulled off my cowboy boots and tossed them aside then he made his way back up my body.

  He slammed his mouth down on mine and when he forced his tongue between my lips and I tasted myself on him, I moaned again. Mitch grabbed his cock and rubbed the head of it over my panties and against my clit where seconds before his mouth had been. I tilted my hips to get more pressure, but again Mitch eased off, breaking our kiss at the same time. I opened my eyes and stared into his, entranced by the blazing fire in them. He held my gaze as he rubbed his cock against me with torturously slow movements.

  I growled in frustration. “Mitch, please,” I begged. “I need it.”

  Using the head of his cock, Mitch moved my panties aside until it nudged me, sliding between my wet folds.

  “This what you want?” he asked as the nudge became more insistent. He still didn’t breach me and I needed him inside me so badly I was losing my mind.

  “Yes,” I breathed. “God, yes. Please, Mitch. Please fuck me.” I didn’t care that I was begging, I’d have done anything to get him inside me, anything to ease the throbbing need, anything to bring me the release I needed more desperately than I could have put into words.

  He continued to stare into my eyes as entered me, pushing all of the way inside in one smooth, fluid movement. I’m not sure whose groan was the loudest. He filled me so completely and so perfectly it was like he’d been made for me. When he was fully seated, Mitch bracketed his arms on either side of my head and leant down so that his lips were touching mine, our breath mingling.

  “Fuck, you’re so beautiful,
Ash. So goddamn beautiful. You make me ache.” Then he started moving and any reply I would have made got lodged in the back of my throat. Mitch didn’t fuck me gently. I pressed my head back into the pillow and squeezed my eyes shut as he took me hard and fast and I loved every second of it. I bucked my hips wildly, meeting him thrust for thrust.

  “Look at me, Ash,” Mitch demanded. “Need to see those stunning blue eyes as I fuck you. Want you to watch me take you.”

  Mitch’s words set me alight. I opened my eyes and stared into his. The intensity in their depths astounded me. He drove into me deeply. It was fast and furious and each thrust drove me closer to climax.

  “That’s it, baby,” Mitch purred. “Come for me. Come on my cock. Need to feel it.”

  I slid my hands down his back then dug my fingers into the cheeks of his ass, gripping him tightly and pulling him harder into me. The pressure began to build again and I arched my back and gasped for air when his cock sent me crashing over the edge.

  “Mitch!” I shouted, holding him to me and riding the waves of my release.

  “Fuck,” he grunted, fucking me through the tremors. “You’re so fucking hot. Even more beautiful when you come.”

  I was coming down, still trembling when Mitch thrust one last time and buried his face in my neck. His hips froze and his cock stopped deep inside me as he grunted through his climax. Breathless and sated, I clung to him, holding him tightly as he continued to shake. Then his body collapsed onto mine, but I didn’t mind the weight of him, I welcomed it.

  When Mitch’s breathing began to even out, he slid his hands under my ass and rolled us so that we were lying side by side, our bodies still connected in the most intimate way. He leaned in and kissed me gently. As he pulled back, his soft, sated expression filled with humour.

  “Guess I was right, huh?”

  Confusion knitted my brow. “Right about what?”