HeroRevealed

by Anna Alexander

  “No. You were down in the ravine, unblocking the river.”

  He frowned as well and traced his thumb over her eyebrow. “What? Why is the river blocked?”

  “There was a landslide and it’s causing the river to flood. You know that because you ran down to dig it out.” He continued to stare at her as if the near-death experience was causing her to hallucinate. “If you’re here then who is down there with a black hoodie covering their head?”

  Kristos began to shake his head then his eyes widened with recognition. “Lucian.”

  The world spun as he scooped her into his arms and raced toward the landslide. His stride was fast like a cheetah, his gait smooth and steady, yet she clung to his shoulders so tightly her fingers ached. “Kristos, what’s going on?”

  “I’ll explain later, I promise. But Lucian could be in trouble if he’s near the earth.”

  They neared the edge of the crumbling ravine with caution. Kristos set her on her feet and motioned her to step out first. Lucian had created several small furrows that allowed the river to run through like a colander. Despite his efforts, the water continued to rise, covering the bridge until only the railings stuck above the surface.

  She scanned the hillside for any spectators then turned back to wave the all clear at Kristos. “Get him out of there.”

  “Lucianllanos,” he called and began to speak that melodic language she guessed was Skandavian. He flashed signals with his hands that made Lucian shake his head with each gesture.

  A flash of yellow and a blaring horn brought her attention to the bridge up stream. A school bus sputtered mid-span, fishtailing in the deep water. The wood rail snapped like matchsticks as the bus crashed through the barrier. The rear tire snagged a piling, barely keeping the vehicle in place. The front bobbed like a fishing lure in time with the current.

  “Goddammit,” she shouted into the radio at her shoulder. “Why is that bus on the bridge?”

  “Sorry, Sheriff. It was halfway across before we got here.”

  “Not good enough. Call in the paramedics and get out there now.”

  She felt the sizzle of electricity as the brothers shared a glance. Before she could blink, Lucian was off, skimming the rim of the ravine like a marble on a roulette wheel. Water sprayed behind him as he raced across the bridge and hauled the bus off the edge. Wrapping one arm around the remnants of the guardrail to use as an anchor, he began the slow crawl back to firm ground.

  Little hands and faces stuck out from the bus’s windows as the children clamored to see the hooded man in action. Imminent peril didn’t appear to faze them as they jumped up and down and pumped their fists in cheer, while every adult in the vicinity watched with hands clenched together or covering their mouths, failing to see the thrill.

  The moment Lucian set the bus on the bank the door slid open, spilling two dozen elementary students and one trembling bus driver onto the mud.

  Kristos ran down to take Lucian’s place at the blockade, which left Brett wearing a track in the grass as she paced back and forth with an eye on both brothers. This was wrong, all wrong. She was not supposed to play night watchman as two civilians risked it all. It was a bitter pill to swallow but if the brothers had not been there, lives would have been lost.

  Brett reached for her radio. “That bridge stays closed until we get an engineer to look at it.”

  “Right, Sheriff,” Collins answered.

  “What’s the ETA on that front loader?”

  “It’s approaching now. Maybe five minutes out.”

  “10-4.” She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Kristos. The tractor is here.”

  He peered up at her through his drenched bangs and nodded, then kicked one last boulder out of the way. Water poured out like a cork popped from a keg. He traced to her side and grabbed her hand.

  “No.” She shoved him toward the trees. “I need to be here. Go, before you’re seen and someone recognizes you.”

  “I’m not leaving you behind. I’ll be close.”

  She cracked a grin. “I know. Just go.”

  Kristos might have physically left but his heat lingered like another layer of down in her coat. The weight of his gaze followed her every step as she waved at the driver of the front loader when he came into view.

  Once she was convinced he knew how to safely drain the river’s excess, she radioed dispatch. “Unit one to dispatch.”

  “Go ahead, unit one.”

  “My cruiser blew two tires and I’m in need of assistance. Please send a wrecker to the east side of Harper’s Ravine. I’m about a half mile north of the Old Saw Bridge.”

  “Do you need medical assistance?”

  “No, just the wrecker will do. And please notify the shop to have tires on standby for me.” She grimaced. “And a new door.”

  “10-oh, uh, 10-4.”

  Brett cringed and rubbed at her temples. In five seconds half the force was going to know she wrecked her cruiser, and thirty seconds after that the rest would find out as well. Thankfully no one was witness to the particulars so she could make up a whopper of a tail to explain the damage.

  Perhaps a bear that came out of nowhere, she mused, or she ran over a secret stash of meth supplies that was unfortunately lost over the cliff and into the raging river. Right, that…might work.

  “Brett.”

  She turned to see Kristos standing tall and imposing at the edge of the woods. The fierce expression that tightened his mouth and clenched his jaw made her take a step back in surprise. “Kristos. What is it?”

  “Come here.”

  The menacing rumble in the deep command straightened her spine as a dark streak of lust shot straight to her clit and made her pussy clench. Dammit, she hated how her body jumped to do his bidding.

  She ignored the pull and rested her hand on her belt. “What is it?”

  “Come here.” He held out a firm hand. “Come to me.”

  “Oh please.” She rolled her eyes. “Whatever little chauvinistic game you’re playing at, Kristos, I don’t have time. I have a job to do.”

  “Not now.”

  Before she could blink, his image blurred as he raced toward her and scooped her up his arms then headed deeper into the forest. She held back a shout and clenched fistfuls of his hair as the world streaked by in browns and greens. Where he was taking them, she hadn’t a clue, but one thing was certain, he ran with purpose. Once they reached their destination, the tempest brewing in his jade eyes was going to unleash. The only question remaining was how she was going to weather the storm.

  Chapter Nine

  Crisis had been averted, yet the adrenaline bolting through his veins would not abate. His entire focus was on the woman in his arms and the bond that had not been completed. A fact that made his cock hard and balls ache in demand to take what was his and not waste another second.

  She made not a sound as he hurtled over fallen trees and prickly shrubs. Her nails cut sharply into his neck where she held on tight but otherwise she gave no indication of her distress. Her courage and strength were tempered in the finest steel and that pissed him off to no end.

  Brett was his, dammit. His to love. His to protect. And he nearly failed her. She was supposed to turn to him, rely on him for guidance and support. If he couldn’t give her that, why would she want him?

  His powers did not lend themselves to mind reading, an ability he would give his left arm for at the moment, but his empathic abilities picked up the intricate web of Brett’s emotions. Relief at skirting death and the town being saved wove together with her worry for the safety of her men and areas of the river that had been affected. Combined with that was the subtle sweetness of her curiosity at his actions. At this moment in time he needed her to be thinking only of him and her lack of full attention was interfering with his ability to reason. Was it selfish? He didn’t give a fuck. Brett was his world and his world had been threatened.

  The fear he carried that she would be taken from him would not ease until he f
elt her life force surrounding him. He needed to feel the heat of her body, feel her heart beat strong against his hand while the rippling muscles of her cunt sucked at his cock. He needed to feel her alive in his arms and thinking of nothing but the pleasure he gave her.

  “Kristos. Put me down, please,” Brett requested in a soft voice.

  “Soon,” he promised and kept running until he reached a crowded cluster of hemlock trees.

  A millions times he had dreamed of bringing Brett to this hidden place near the falls. The view of the river and the valley below was spectacular. The branches way up high provided protection from the rain and sun while the trunks offered privacy. As if privacy was a matter of importance. Soon he’d have Brett screaming so loud her cries would carry over the rushing water and echo across the hillside.

  “Kristos, enough.” Brett smacked his chest as he slowed his pace and set her on her feet. “You have to take—”

  He cut her off with a hard kiss. He knew his little hellcat well. She couldn’t deny him if her mouth was full of his tongue. He pressed her back against a tree and leaned forward in an attempt to imprint his body along hers. His lips and teeth ate at hers, desperate to assuage the ache in his chest. Brett pushed at his shoulders as her lips opened and her tongue tangled with his, giving him leave to take his fill of her. This conflict of her desires gave him the tether he needed to pull her to his thinking.

  She wrenched her mouth away with a cry and pulled his hair when he dove in for another taste. With each deep lungful of air her breasts pressed into his chest, enticing him with the hard points of her nipples. “No. Stop. I can’t breathe.”

  “No stopping.”

  She pulled his hair again and gasped, “Stop, Kristos. This is crazy. Take me back.”

  “No way in hell.”

  “My men need me.”

  “No,” he roared. “I need you. You don’t know. You don’t know, Brett.” His hands shook as he grasped her face between his palms. “You didn’t see your car go over that cliff. You didn’t see the look, the fear on your face as you thought you were about to die. I almost lost you. I can’t lose you. Do you understand? You are my everything.”

  “Kristos,” she whispered and stroked her fingers over the backs of his hands.

  A sliver of her warmth snuck through the bars of icy fear that held him in its prison. It calmed him for all of a second until he looked down into her white eyes. Her lips were swollen and a pink flush graced her cheeks. Her eyes sparkled and were half-lidded with desire, but the iris was white. She had given a part of herself to him, but not all. Even after the events of the afternoon, she still kept her heart away from him. How could she not give in to the fire between them? How could she even think about walking away? She belonged to him.

  Anger at her denial to accept all of him curled his lip and added fuel to the desire to replace her every thought with ones of him. His next kiss stole what little breath she had regained and offered no chance for refusal. He pushed the bulky sheriff’s coat that kept him from her curves off her shoulders then reached for the belt at her waist. He needed inside her. Now.

  Their heavy breathing formed clouds around their heads as the temperature dropped. Under his palms the skin of her hips was warm to the touch. He craved more of that heat and cursed the cloth that kept him from it.

  He spun Brett around, pitching her forward. Her hands reached out for the scratchy tree trunk and kept them from tumbling over.

  “Kristos. Please.”

  “I am going to please you.” He nuzzled the tender crook of her neck and nipped sharply at her lobe. Her back arched, pressing her breast into his waiting hand. “That’s all I want to give you, alskata. Pleasure.”

  He found her nipple beneath the fabric of her shirt and twisted, reveling in the spear of lust that lanced through her. His other hand unzipped her pants and slid along her belly to delve between her thighs. His cold fingers parted her folds and were immediately engulfed in the slick heat of her desire. Not even during the harshest of Skandavian winters did he remember being so cold, but then never had he feared for anyone like he did Brett. The hot evidence of her arousal brought to his awareness just how bleak and barren life would be without her.

  “By the Gods, Brett.” He bit at her neck. “Do you have any idea how good you feel?” He pressed two fingers deep into her sheath, searching for more of that wonderful heat. She hissed and bucked at the icy invasion. Her low moan and the rush of juice that wept from her pussy soothed any apprehension he might have had about pushing her where she didn’t want to go. “You’re like molten satin in my hand. I could bathe in your cream. Immerse myself in you until I drown.”

  He continued to fuck his fingers into her, twisting his wrist and grinding his hand against her plump clit. The scrape of her nails in the rough bark of the tree sent streaks of electricity down his back. He let go of her breast just long enough to free his cock from the stranglehold of his jeans. The shiny head throbbed a deep purple and pre-cum dribbled from the slit. Never before had he been so hard, so swollen that he could come from the mere brush of the cool breeze against his heated flesh. Where his fingers had been like ice, his dick was a flaming torch that could only be doused in the wet clench of Brett’s body.

  Pulling his fingers from her cunt, he hitched a breath as his cock notched at her opening. His thighs tensed to thrust.

  “Wait,” she shouted and flinched away. “Condom.”

  “No.” The thought made his vision go red. He pressed his lips to her ear and growled. “Nothing will come between us. Nothing.”

  He drove his hips forward, withdrew and lunged again, pushing deeper and deeper until the mist-cooled curve of her ass pressed into his pelvis. With a roar he set a pace that made his teeth rattle and Brett’s knees go weak. He caught her as she collapsed, taking them to the pine needle-strewn ground.

  “So fucking good,” he groaned, ramming harder. His fingers returned to her clit while his other arm wrapped across her chest, anchoring Brett, until he surrounded her as much as her pussy did him.

  This was why he chose banishment, why he chose to live. For this moment in time when he lost himself in his lover’s body, mindless to all but the fist-tight grip around his cock and her sweet cries dancing with the wind. How dare she deny him this moment with her independence and insecurity? He curled around her, determined to imprint himself upon her soul. Before the sun set there would be no doubt where his heart lay.

  “You belong to me, alskata. In all ways. You know this.” His eyes crossed as her inner muscles clenched tighter. “I’m going to come inside you. Fill you with my cum because you’re mine. Every day, Brett. I’m going to come inside you every day so you’ll always feel me in you.”

  Brett turned her head, using his biceps to muffle the screams that tore from her throat as her body shook and turned liquid beneath him. The sharp edge of her teeth in his flesh cut the thin thread leashing his control. Lightning streaked down his spine to detonate the dam that had built in his balls. Spots sparked before his eyes and it felt as if he were entering Earth’s atmosphere again, the way he was torn asunder to be reformed into something new. He sensed the same connection and wonder in Brett as her pussy greedily soaked up the torrents of cum that spilled from his cock.

  This is what he gave her that no one else could. Passion. Lust. Intense pleasure. And if she let him, his love. He was not going to lose her. Not to death and not to her own stubbornness.

  They collapsed as one, chest’s heaving and limbs twitching with the last of their release. His fingers curled, cupping her curves to gather her closer. “Mine. Always.”

  Chapter Ten

  Well…fuck.

  How much time had passed? Minutes? Hours? Brett never believed that one could pass out from orgasm. Leave it to Kristos to prove her wrong.

  Her throat burned and her head swam as if she guzzled an entire glass of cheap whiskey. Tremors ran down her spine and along limbs still trapped in Kristos’ embrace and her pussy con
tinued to pulse in the most delicious way. Under the right circumstances, she might have enjoyed the sensations, but lying on the ground with a million pine needles sticking into her most delicate areas was not among them.

  Frustration simmered in tandem with residual arousal. After staring death in its sinister face, she craved the connection that came with a good round of life-affirming sex and had been looking forward to falling into the oblivion Kristos created with his kiss and touch. After her shift was over.

  She was sheriff. Always. Let him whip out his dick of temptation whenever he wanted, the badge came first. If he wanted a relationship with her, he had to respect the title.

  Her laugh was as shaky as her arms as she tried to crawl out from under two-hundred-thirty pounds of jackass. Even her fingers trembled with lingering orgasm. Relationship? Dictatorship was more like it. With Kristos it was his way or his way. Did he really think this caveman behavior flipped her switch? Well, on some levels it did, but disregarding her wishes was a sure-fire way to piss her off. He may be bigger and stronger, but she did have a brain and was quite adept at taking care of herself. The past two days were a complete anomaly.

  “Stay.” Kristos cupped her breast. “Let me share your warmth for a few more seconds.”

  “Don’t start, Kilsgaard.” She shoved off his touch and wobbled to a stand. A rush of liquid spilled down her thighs, reigniting her passion.

  Getting angry at Kristos for taking her without a condom would be so easy, but damn his bare cock had felt so good sliding deep. Just the memory of the way he had grown hot and hard before jerking with his release was enough to make her come again. It had been in her power to stop him had she really wanted to. He was strong but a Taser made for one hell of an argument. The elixir of body fluid was more female than male, if she were honest. But Kristos didn’t need to know that.

  She cinched her belt one notch tighter than normal and mentally gathered the fragments of her scattered conscience. First priority was to contact her men and make sure they weren’t beating the bushes looking for her.