by Bree Younger
“Exploring.” Her voice was a husky whisper in the dim room, the heavy curtains guarding them well against the light of the sun outside and creating a warm and intimate cave perfect for seduction.
He chuckled gruffly at her response. “We should be sleeping, Claire. We have a big day tomorrow.”
“Does that mean you want me to stop?” Her mouth went back to teasing over his skin as her hand slid lower, painfully close to his erection.
He arched up. “No. God, no. Don’t stop.”
“I won’t. Only this time, I’m in charge.”
He couldn’t stop the smile that tilted his lips upward. How could he say no to being explored by this gorgeous woman whose gaze burned him hotter than the morning sun? “This time.” He murmured his agreement even as his hands moved to pull her upward. Her startled eyes gazed into his. “A kiss to seal the deal.”
He brought her mouth to his, and their lips melted together, tongues tangling and teeth lightly clashing. Then she was pulling away, her mouth creating a trail of heat down his chest and across his stomach. She licked and nibbled her way over every inch of his skin, apparently determined to learn every detail of his body as he had been learning hers. Hawk couldn’t resist the urge to reach up and pet his hand across the soft skin of her shoulder, and Claire offered no objection to his caress, moving into his touch.
She moved lower, her nipples rubbing against him, branding him as hers. Her scent filled his nostrils, that unique smell that belonged only to Claire, and it teased his desire for more. At last her fingers closed around his cock, and with a gentle stroke Claire began to move her hand up and down. Hawk almost lost it, the tentative, inexperienced movements making him insane with the need for more. “Harder. Faster.” He gasped out the words as she continued to work against his fevered flesh.
She squeezed him harder, the expression on her face one of amazed delight as she brought him closer and closer to climax. Suddenly she stopped, and he couldn’t prevent his groan of denial. When she looked up at him, he had to force himself not to reach out and take matters into his own hand. He was glad he did when she whispered, “I want to taste you.”
Bending down, she lightly traced her tongue around the head of his straining cock. He bucked up, and she stopped, looking up at him in question. “That feels so good, baby. Don’t stop.”
She just nodded and returned to her exploration of his erection. With great attention to detail, Claire took him again and again to the edge only to back off at the last second. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought her experienced at the art of fellatio. Or torture. But he knew better. Knew that it was her feminine instincts and her need to learn all she could that held him on the knife edge of climax without letting him tumble over. He reached down to spear his hands through her hair, drawing her down. “Suck me.”
When she began to sweetly suck him, it was all he could do not to press himself completely into her mouth, filling her up with his hardness. Wanting to see her, he used his other hand to pull her hair to one side, holding it there as he watched her head move up and down his cock, taking him closer and closer to complete madness. Her tongue teased the underside of his cock, tracing the vein that pulsed there in a wildly uncontrolled rhythm that echoed the pounding of his heart. Her hand cupped his balls, squeezing them lightly with each pull on his cock. He heard a desperate moan, and it was a moment before he realized that it was his own.
“Fuck, Claire. I’m going out of my mind here.”
She hummed in answer, and a burst of liquid fire shot into his gut. He wasn’t going to last much longer.
“If you don’t want me to come in your mouth, Claire, you’d better back off now, because I am about two seconds away from going over.”
Claire tightened her hands on his balls and sped up her movements. Hawk took that as her answer, because he gripped her head tightly in his hands and began stroking shallowly into her mouth, reaching for the climax he knew was so close. The thought of his cum filling her mouth sent the last vestiges of his control spiraling away, and he came with a groan that echoed in the distant corners of the room.
He lay there, spent, his hand tangled in her hair, and gasped out a harsh, “Thank you, babe.” He looked down to see Claire gazing up at him, satisfaction glowing from her sapphire eyes.
His heart swelled. “Proud of yourself, aren’t you, sweetheart?”
She let out a girlish giggle, and that was when he fell totally, incontrovertibly, and completely in love with her. Just seeing her joy in expressing her sexuality in a way she never had before, her sense of wonder in his body, and the playful response did him in completely. He reached down and tugged her up so that they were face to face, heart to heart. He held her head in his two hands and gazed into her eyes, needing her to feel the same things he felt.
The gleam of humor slowly faded from her eyes to be replaced by a heated need that he ached to fulfill. “Come here.” He pulled her to him and settled her lips against his in an achingly tender kiss that spoke of the feelings that were hammering inside him. He moved his lips against hers over and over in a brushing glide. She tasted so warm and so delicious, he wanted to plunge in and take everything she had to offer. Keeping a tight rein on his own response, he kept the kiss soft, licking over her parted lips, tugging at her bottom lip, sucking her upper lip into his mouth. Her fingers curled tightly into his chest, the nails sending a bite of pain streaking through him, and she let out a sweetly female sound that issued from deep in her throat.
He needed her again. He finally sank his tongue into her welcoming mouth, meeting her demanding need with soft, tender passion. He tamed her, gentled her. With each stroke of his tongue against hers, he learned her. Her response was everything he could have hoped for, full of a powerful, womanly passion. She arched into him, pressing her breasts against his chest and molding their hips together. He moved against her, slow and languid, turning them over so that she was sheltered within his strong arms.
Releasing her mouth, he kissed his way down her neck, lingering on the pulse point that pounded beneath her skin and nibbling softly on the sensitive skin just below her ear. He felt her shiver in reaction. He cupped her breast in his hand, gently stroking a thumb across the nipple, which was already taut with arousal.
“Mine,” he whispered just before his lips closed over that hard nub, sucking sweetly and drowning in the taste of her. She let out a choked cry, pushing against him as if afraid of the pleasure he offered. He grabbed her hands, pushing them down on either side of her head. Rising, he looked at her. “Why are you stopping me?”
“It’s too much.” Her eyes held him captive with their combination of need and wariness. “I can’t take so much feeling.”
“Yes, you can. You can take anything I can give you, Claire.” He refused to allow her any quarter. She was going to be his completely. There was no stopping it now. “You don’t really want me to stop, now, do you?”
He held his breath as he awaited her response, letting it out in a short burst as she replied, “No. Not really. I was just afraid for a moment.”
“You’re okay now?” he pressed her, needing to know that she was with him all the way.
She nodded, and he bent to kiss her again. This time the kiss was one of hot demand, his tongue sliding in and out of her mouth, mimicking the way he would soon take her body with his hard cock. He wanted to fill her, own her, like she owned him.
At last, she opened to him completely. Reaching down, he found her moist pussy, and he pushed inside. She gasped and met his gaze with her own. Letting go of her wrists, he linked his fingers with hers, pushing himself up slightly so that he could see each emotion that crossed her face.
He began to stroke in and out of her body in long, gliding movements. Slowly, steadily, he built their passion, using every part of his body to imprint himself on hers. He whispered about her beauty, how much he loved her responsiveness. He told her that he’d never felt like this with any other woman. Her eyes never lef
t him as he gave her all the sweet words he’d not given to another woman in two centuries.
He felt her pussy clasp around him, its muscles clenching tightly with each motion of his hips against hers. Her legs moved to wrap around his hips, opening her wide for his penetration. Slowly, so slowly that he thought he’d die, he began to speed up. His thrusts became faster, deeper. His panting breaths matched hers, as they both began that uphill climb to ecstasy. His incisors dropped, and he saw her gaze swing to his mouth.
Then she looked back up and straight into his eyes. “Yes. Yes, Hawk. Bite me. I want you to bite me.”
Nothing could have stopped him from taking what she offered. He lowered his head and sank his fangs into the skin of her breast, sucking hard as he felt her orgasm hit her. As soon as he felt the quivers fade, he closed the wound with a swift lick and leaned his head to the side, offering his neck to her. “Now you.” His gruff order brooked no room for refusal, and she offered none. He felt her teeth pierce his skin and yelled out his own climax as she drank from him. Moments later, she sealed the holes, tears filling her eyes.
He was startled, worried that he’d done something wrong, pushed things too fast. He rolled off of her and pulled her tight. “What’s wrong, Claire?”
She shook her head. “I can’t tell you.”
“Yes, you can, babe. Did I hurt you?”
The tears in her eyes began rolling down her cheeks. She brushed at them as a child might as she shook her head again.
“I love you, Hawk.”
He closed his eyes and cradled her gently. “Thank God. Thank God. I love you, too.”
Her eyes filled with wonder as she reached up to touch his cheek. He turned to kiss her palm. “I can’t believe I found you. How did this happen so fast? I wasn’t expecting this.”
“I don’t know how and I don’t know why, sweetheart. But you belong to me. I’m never going to let you go.”
She smiled and burrowed against him, and he closed his eyes, the woman he loved safe and warm in his arms. But how long could he keep her that way?
Chapter Twelve
That night at dusk, they pulled out from the hotel in Grenada and got back on Interstate Highway 55 heading to Memphis. The miles sped past. She and Hawk hadn’t talked much, but the silence between them was comfortable. She didn’t felt that unpleasant need to fill the space with talk, as so often happened when two people were alone together in a closed vehicle. It was a measure of how relaxed she now felt around Hawk.
She was still a little stunned at the depth of emotion she felt for him, but it was a good kind of stunned. Everything between them had happened so fast, but they had been through so much together, so many emotional highs and lows, that she supposed it had sped up their courtship. When a woman was with a man twenty-four-seven, it tended to let her really get to know that man. Hawk was an amazing person, strong and gentle and sexy as hell. The fact that he loved her, too, still hadn’t completely sunk in. Why he would pick someone like her, she could not understand. He could have any woman he wanted, but he had chosen her. It gave her a feeling of warmth and belonging like she had never felt before.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Hawk reaching for his cell phone. Without taking his eyes off the road, he flipped the phone open and pressed a number.
“Brady? Hey, man. Where are you?”
Claire could hear the man on the other end of the line giving Hawk his location.
“Good, that’s not too far from me. You’re behind me about ten miles. I was hoping you’d catch up with us.” Hawk paused a moment and glanced in the rearview mirror. “It looks like we’ve picked up a tail.”
Claire sat up straighter and turned around to look over her shoulder at the traffic behind them. Though she looked carefully, she didn’t see any suspicious-looking vehicles. Turning back around, she listened as Hawk and the man he’d called Brady continued to speak.
“We need a spot to ambush them. Are you familiar with any of the towns between here and Memphis?” Brady’s voice came through the phone clearly. Claire had a moment’s guilty pause about listening in on the conversation, but she figured Hawk knew she could hear them. She was a vampire after all. If he’d wanted privacy, he would have let her know.
“I know a place up in Southaven that would make a good spot to trap them. I have some friends who used to live here, so I’m pretty familiar with the town. There’s also a place out from the city a bit that would be a perfect spot to interrogate them. I’ll slow down a little so you can catch up. I don’t want to make them too suspicious. We’ll pull over and stop to top off the tank. I’ll try to get a good look at them so we can see exactly who it is we’re dealing with. There’s an exit up ahead. I’ll call you back in a few.”
Hawk hung up, and Claire asked, “How do you know someone’s following us? I can’t see anything.”
He gave her a look. “It’s my job to know, Claire. Remember?”
She bit her lip. “Well, which car is it?”
“Four-door sedan, dark blue. About five cars back in the left lane.”
Claire looked again and finally found the vehicle. It looked like every other vehicle traveling down the highway. Facing front, she asked, “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure, but I’m about to confirm my guess.” With that, he turned on his blinker and took the next exit off. Claire looked back and, sure enough, the blue sedan also took the same exit.
“You’re right.” She should have known.
“I’m pretty good at my job, sweetheart. And truth is, they’re not very good. I spotted them right away.”
“What are we going to do?” She was frightened.
He pulled into one of the gas stations and up to one of the pumps. He turned to her. “Stay here.”
“But…” Before she could even say anything else, he was out of the vehicle and back at the pump. In moments, he was filling the tank. She was sure that he was also studying the vehicle he had pinpointed, which had pulled into the station across the road. Trying to appear casual, she also watched the car. The driver got out and began washing off his windshield, but it was obvious his attention was on them. She couldn’t quite see well enough to tell what the man looked like and wished she could get out of the SUV to get a better look. But she figured Hawk would not be happy if she did, so she stayed where she was. It looked to her like there were two more men in the vehicle.
Hawk finished and got back into the vehicle.
“Well?”
He just gave a shrug and pulled back out onto the road. As soon as they reached the highway, with their tail tagging along, Hawk got on his phone again.
“Three men. Dark-blue sedan. I couldn’t get the license plates, but they’re sticking right on my ass. I’ll get in touch as soon as we get close to Southaven.”
He closed the phone, and Claire grabbed his arm. “What are you going to do, Hawk?”
“We’re going to take care of these bozos, Claire. I’d bet money it’s the same three that were asking about you at the casino. I figured they’d show up. Better now than later, where they could do the most damage to our plan to get your sister out.”
“But it’s just you and Brady and three of them. Shouldn’t we wait for more backup?”
He just shook his head. “Don’t worry. Brady and I can handle them. Remember, Claire, it’s what we do.”
He took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, but it didn’t help. She still worried.
“Talk to me about something,” she begged him about twenty minutes later. She needed something to take her mind off of the car behind them.
“Like what?” His voice held a mix of curiosity and exasperation.
“I don’t know. Anything. Tell me how you met the Buchanans.” She threw out the first thing that came to her head.
He chuckled. “Now that is a story. All right. I’ll tell you. It was 1849 in what is now Arizona. The place was wild, lawless. It made it easy to hide. Although the sun was killer.”
She sm
iled.
“I spent most of my time alone, out in the wilderness in a cave system I’d discovered but close enough so that I could reach what they were calling civilization once a week or so. I had to feed, and occasionally I got tired of my own company. I’d hit the saloon, play cards, find a blood donor, sometimes a whore if I had enough money. I was sitting in a game, not really anything exciting, when these two guys come in. One of ’em starts bullshitting one of the working girls, talking her up. Problem was, another guy had been hitting on her and got pissed. Punches were swung. It was a helluva entertaining sight.”
“What happened next?”
“Well, the other guy, the one that wasn’t fighting, he came over and sat down next to our table, drinking his whiskey like he didn’t have a care in the world. Soon as he sat next to me, I knew what he was. Vampire, just like me. Hell, he was the first one I’d run into since the group that turned me. It was a shock. I didn’t know how to react, so I just sat there. He looked over at me and toasted me with his drink. Then he turned back to watch the fight. I realized then that the other one was probably a vamp, too. He could easily have beat the shit out of that guy he was fighting.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“He was enjoying himself. He was playing with the guy and having a good old time. That was Ty. He hasn’t changed much. Still loves a good fight.”
“Good grief!” Claire had started laughing.
“When the fight was over, we all sat down and started talking. They were just passing through on their way to California to look for gold. They invited me to go along, and I didn’t have any reason not to.”
“And did you find gold?”
Hawk grinned. “Now that’s a story for another day.”
Claire nodded in understanding. “And you’ve been friends ever since?”
“Pretty much.” He continued telling her about some of his exploits he’d had with the Buchanan brothers and kept her pretty distracted. About thirty minutes later he nodded to the sign they were approaching on the highway. “It looks like we’re almost to Southaven.”
