“Thanks.” He walked her to the bedroom door and then waved her to the top of the stairs where she paused.
“Take care of her.”
“I intend to.” Hunter watched her descend the steps and then closed and locked the bedroom door.
Kat sat staring into nothingness as though she were the only person on the face of the Earth. She looked so alone. Before the military had molded him, Hunter had known that feeling. Hell, he might know it again after they kicked him out. Whether that happened or not, he never wanted her to experience that hollowness.
“Kat, what’s wrong?”
Hot tears slipped down her cheeks. Her arms wrapped farther around herself and held tight. Silent emotion shook her chest.
His insides twisted. He longed to cup her face, thumb away her tears, and kiss her nose, and then her eyes, and then her forehead, and then—
“I’m jealous.” Kat hiccupped. “I’m mad,” she growled. “I’m… As much as I thought I was a successful, together person, I’m just fucked up.” Fresh tears accompanied her admission.
“Why are you jealous and mad and fucked up?”
“I envy Magdalena and her father. I’m pissed mine is a psychopath. For so long, I’ve just pushed on and made do, and I’m tired of it. I want something normal. I want someone to care about me the way people are supposed to care about each other.” Her hand shot out in the direction of the main house. “Look at them. They care about each other. It’s not some surface level bullshit. It’s real. It’s the ‘I’ll give my life for yours’ kind of love I never thought I needed.”
Hunter held himself back, unsure about what would fly out of his mouth if he opened it right now.
“Growing up, I had nannies and tutors. If given the chance, they’d have sold me for a vacation to the French Riviera and found another job when they got back.” She sniffled. “My eyes have been opened, and I hate what I see. I’m tired of being complacent and ignorant of the void in my life. I have a career but no life.”
Kat’s words were a well-hidden sniper. They took him out at the knee cap. The good one. “It’s amazing, really.”
“What?”
“How similar we are. We’re both fucked up by a lack of people who gave a shit in our early years. We overcompensated with careers. We’re presently unable to duck and cover from the bullshit flying around. Your dad. My lack of a leg.”
Kat looked him square in the eyes. “I was meant to save your life.”
“Even after the information overload that came with it?”
“Yes.” She wiped the tip of her nose with the back of her hand. “You showed me there are things worth living for.”
“Damn straight, there are.”
Hunter walked to her. The need to comfort her, to hold her close, and to make love to her drove him to his knee in front of her. He grabbed her hands. He cupped them in his and raised them to his mouth. Each knuckle and every space between received a tender kiss until he’d covered the back of her hand. When he finished, he turned them over and started at her fingertips.
“What are you doing?” she breathed.
Indeed, what the fuck was he doing? In all the times he’d ever had sex, Hunter had experienced many urges. Spanking. Anal play. Ménage. You name it; he’d tried it at least once. Never had one of the urges been to make love. Yet here he was at Kat’s feet.
“I’m making love to you.”
Kat’s tears dropped onto his forearm and rolled down his dark skin. Something about it baptized him into a whole new world. A world where he could belong to Kat and Kat could belong to him. That teardrop marked him.
He kissed up her wrist and to the fold of her elbow. His hand crumpled the front of her shirt and pulled her forward. Their foreheads met. Every shard of her Baltic blue eyes pierced his heart. He pulled her closer still and dragged their cheeks together. His nose buried in her hair and the crook of her neck. Her scent filled his nostrils. It warmed his chest and spiked his desire. He brushed the shell of her ear with his lower lip.
There were so many things he wanted to say and even more he shouldn’t. Instead of words, he dragged her lobe into his mouth and sucked. His hand found her cheek and smeared her tears down her neck. Her head fell back in surrender. He loved his way down to the little dips in her collarbone.
Hunter stood and peeled the shirt over her head. Soft blonde curls fell from the cotton, cascading over her shoulders. Kat sat there staring at him in awe as if he was something special. He’d been a hero in battles, but he’d never wanted to be a woman’s hero until that moment. His fingers brushed over her lips to her chin and skipped to the skin covering her heart. It beat under his touch. It echoed in his fucking soul, driving him to the brink of the unknown.
His fingertips indulged in the silk of her skin as they slid across her chest. He hooked the straps of her bra and dragged them over her shoulders. They fell at the sides of her arms.
Kat leaned forward and loosened the hold of his prosthetic leg.
His breath hitched. “You give the care you seek, Kat. You give it to me.”
She pressed her face into the hand he offered. Her eyes closed. There were so many things she wasn’t saying, too, and it shot a thrill through him.
Hunter lifted her by the waist and eased her back on the bed. He dragged his hands down her belly to her pants, unfastened them, and dragged them down her legs. He undressed completely, his leg being an accessory he didn’t need to love Kat. He crawled up her body. His mouth praised every inch of her calves, thighs, belly, breasts. The parts they neglected, his hands roved. They teased and tormented.
Kat’s tears dried. Her lips parted. From left to right, her head lolled. Her blonde strands heaped around her head, morphing into knotted mountains on either side. The swish of her restless legs attracted him like a mating call.
“Hunter?”
“I’m here.” He left her breasts and crushed his mouth to hers. He dragged kisses all over her face, making her his as much as he could.
“This is…” Her eyes closed.
He drew back enough to study her expression. Tears threatened to breach her lashes. Hunter braced himself over her and waited.
They opened. Her lower lip curled into her mouth. Still, he waited.
“It’s different than it has been,” she admitted.
“Damn right, Kat.” He stroked her cheek. “I’m a fumbling first-timer. I’ve never made love before. I never wanted to until you.”
Her smile gave him all the encouragement he needed. His knee shoved her left leg high. Her right leg stayed straight, in the way of his hip sinking into the V of hers. Every other time, she’d accommodated him. A challenge lit her eyes. He hated to touch her with his nub. What the hell was sexy about a missing limb and shriveled skin?
“I want you to make love to me with every part of you.”
Well, fuck.
He shoved her right leg high with the part of his thigh that remained. The fever of her skin warmed the sensitive skin that had only ever felt silicone, plastic and cold, besides his own mandatory touch. Her leg moved, allowing his hips to sink. His fully erect shaft pressed between her swollen lips. With her body calling to his, he forgot about his insecurities.
Kat wrapped her arms around him, lifted her hips, and pulled him close. The invitation was clear. He’d never been inside a woman without protection. Temptation had never outweighed the risks. Somehow, Kat transformed the risks into psychotic rewards and a deep-seated desire to give part of himself to her. She nodded without him asking the question, but he needed to hear her answer.
“That won’t work, Doc. I need to know you’re asking me to come inside you without protection.”
“I do.” She gasped. “I am asking you to.”
“Knowing the possible consequences?”
“Yes.” She writhed against his cock, nearly shifting his focus.
He gritted his teeth and fought the urge to pierce her womb with a deep breath. “Knowing that if you end up pregnan
t, you’re never getting rid of me.”
“I’m not ovulating.” She sounded so sure of something women got wrong on a daily basis. He held perfectly still and waited for the answer to his question. “Yes, Hunter.”
“Knowing we shouldn’t do this because who knows what tomorrow’s going to bring.”
“Do you want to make love to me?” she panted.
“More than almost anything.”
“What’s the thing you want more?” Her body undulated under him.
Hunter leaned forward and melded their lips together. “I want to care for you more than I want to feel your sweet pussy wrapped around my cock.”
Kat’s throat worked, and moisture filled her eyes. She nodded and hugged him. Hunter positioned himself at her entrance. He pushed slowly and steadily into her body and straight into heaven. Holy shit, his entire frame shook with pleasure. Kat hiked her knees high, grabbed his back with her heels, and breathed through the invasion. He might as well have been a virgin. The threat of pre-fire stalked him like this was his first time. His face burrowed into Kat’s neck, and he breathed. It didn’t help. Her smell drove him mad. Every movement sent waves of ecstasy through him. He felt everything. Physical. Emotional.
“I’ve never been so close to anyone,” he wheezed.
“Me either.”
Hunter dragged his face up to hers. He pulled out to the tip and planted himself deep. Kat’s lips parted. If he were a wise man, he’d focus on the risk of this entanglement, but the slick, tightness of her body and the intent of her gaze refused to allow any deviation. She filled his mind. He filled her body and withdrew almost immediately. His hips thrust deep. Her murmurs filtered into his ears, seducing him and reducing him to a fireball of desperation. He bottomed out flush with her pulsing lips, dying for release.
“I feel everything,” she gasped.
Too much.
He’d stuffed many tips and tricks into his bag of how not to come before a woman over the years. Hell, in the past month, he’d used nearly every one of them with Kat to masterful perfection. This time, for once in his life, there would be no showmanship in the bedroom.
“Tonight, there’s just you and me.” Hunter grunted, pulled out, and drove home. “Forget the world and let yourself be mine.”
Her hands grazed his face while her hips arched into his thrusts. “Only if, tonight, you’re mine.”
He rested his forehead on hers. “Completely.” The force of his jacking hips pounded them deep into the mattress. Waves of emotion and unfed hunger collided inside him like massive thunderheads.
His shaft slicked with Kat’s unabashed invitation. His balls grew heavy. Beneath him, Kat rolled her hips, matching his every thrust. He gripped the sheets as though they were a lifeline while he pierced her womb again and again. His forearms threatened to burst from the tension building inside him.
Lightning flashed behind his eyes. Pressure raced up his shaft.
“Kat.” Her name left his lips like a curse and a plea.
She answered with wild breaths. Her heels dug into his ass.
Hunter spilled himself inside her.
Kat moaned. Her hips worked him for every drop. She keened. Her head tilted toward the sky, and her mouth found his in a tangle of sweet surrender. He caught her cries between his lips and swallowed them down. They’d feed him forever.
24
The day after they arrived in London, Kat had requested an appointment at a women’s clinic to get on birth control. As much as she liked the idea of creating an actual human life with Hunter that’d grow with the perfect mixture of each of them, she knew they needed to commit to a life together before a pregnancy ever happened. Through the years, she’d seen too many children brought into the world in volatile situations. She and Hunter weren’t volatile, yet they weren’t stable either.
Because they’d been in hiding, the Base Branch doctor came to the house bright and early the second day. When he’d left, Kat not only had the tools she needed to stave off pregnancy, but she also had a job at Dr. Dylan Cole’s clinic run by his wife, Willow.
Concerned her father’s men would find her, Baine nixed the idea. Hunter came to her defense, offering himself as her personal security detail.
Butterflies.
Daily tasks anchored them for the wild abandon in the bedroom. They lived each day as their last, never knowing when they’d be given the green light to return to their respective lives.
Kat cuddled Hunter’s sleeping back. They didn’t discuss the future. Even thinking about it was off-limits. More than she liked to admit, this holding pattern worked for her. Hunter had been the one hell-bent on facing the world. Here, with people who respected him and also guarding her, Hunter seemed almost at peace. He slept more soundly than he had since being in a coma. She hugged him close.
Working and loving Hunter fulfilled her more than anything ever had. The thought of losing the man she loved… Kat’s mouth fell open with a gasp. What delineated the line between like and love? Her mind fumbled through uncharted territory while her arms clung to Hunter. Not wanting to live a day without him likely leaned hard toward the love column. She’d liked her colleagues at Johns Hopkins, but they hadn’t stopped her from taking a sabbatical. To be with Hunter, Kat would—
The pounding of footsteps rushing up the stairs filled the small house.
Kat’s stomach lodged itself in her esophagus. Every other time Magdalena, Law, Baine, Sloan, or even the girls came to visit, they’d knocked on the door and waited for a response. Whoever rushed toward them wasn’t waiting for anything. Neither would Kat. She lunged for her pistol, snatched it off the bedside table, and aimed for the door. The barrel swaggered from one side of the frame to the other.
At that moment, Kat knew she loved Hunter because she was willing to give her life to save his. If she could only steady for the shot.
Hunter jerked from the covers. His eyes swelled on her gun for a split second before he dove for the side arm on his nightstand.
“Remember what I taught you.”
She inhaled deeply and released the breath in a long steady exhale.
“You don’t have to shoot. I’ve got it.” He sat with his pistol raised.
Despite everything, a hint of a smile curved her lips. She’d come a long way from a helpless surgeon. He knew she didn’t want to take a life even if she could and would for him.
The bedroom door swung wide.
A man with closely cropped blond hair, thick arms, and a honed gaze burst into the bedroom.
Kat’s finger caressed the trigger with deadly intent.
The man wielded no weapons. Fresh scars accentuated his strong jaw. In a fraction of a second the intense blue gaze he hosted shattered. His stout shoulders hunched with a depleting exhale.
“It’s okay,” Hunter commanded as though he were willing the words to be truth. His hand rested gently atop her gun and lowered the barrel.
“Hunter?” The stranger’s strong voice shook.
“Oliver?” Just like that, all the puzzle pieces fit into place. The scars. The build. The sorrow. The determination. This was the man Hunter had asked for and spoken of since first waking. This was the life Hunter had before her, coming to claim him. This was the end of their holding pattern.
Giving her life for his would have been easy. Giving Hunter back the life he wanted...now, that would prove her love and leave her with a broken heart.
Hunter dropped his weapon onto the table.
“Brother.” Oliver rushed forward with his arms wide. Behind him, a thin, young woman stood just inside the doorway. Tears filled her eyes, and a smile stretched her lips.
Hunter threw his arms open, not caring at all about his bare chest. Nothing new there.
Emotions played bumper cars with Kat’s ribs. Surprise. Joy. Sorrow. Anticipation. Fear. They crashed into one another, ricocheted off and struck her thrumming heart two and three at a time.
The men barreled into one another like rugby locks. St
rong arms quivered. Their chests heaved. Curses flew in growled sobs. They embraced like long-lost…family. Kat clutched the sheet to her nightie-covered chest and pressed her knuckles against her aching heart.
Her movement drew the woman’s gaze from the men. She wore black leather pants, a breezy pink top, and pumps to match. The sweet smile she wore outshined the outfit and her beautiful pixie face.
“Sorry to barge in.” Her whispers held more than a hint of Swedish-accented English. “I’m Marina.” She pointed at the man in bed with her and Hunter. “That’s Oliver. He’s been looking for Hunter for quite a while.” Her narrow shoulders bobbed. “Once Tucker told him where you were, there was no slowing him down.”
Oliver levered back, grabbed Hunter’s shoulders, and shook him. “Fuck.” He stood with a groan. His feet shuffled back several feet, and his hands flew to his chest.
“Hands where we can see them, or we’ll shoot them off.” Sloan’s cool voice filtered into the room and dropped the temperature by thirty degrees. Kat, Marina, and Oliver froze.
Sloan stood in the doorway, her body shielded by Marina. Kat clearly saw the gun as sleek as the woman who aimed it at Oliver’s back. Baine stood in the doorway to the bathroom with a dark expression painted on his face, and his pistol pointed at Marina’s chest.
“No!” Hunter leaped from the bed, placing himself between Sloan and Oliver. His arms shot high with both palms out. “Friendlies. Don’t shoot.” The covers slipped from his naked body.
Before the words were out of his mouth, their weapons lowered.
Hunter stood at the center of the room with his stunning body on display. Oliver’s gaze locked on Hunter’s amputated leg hanging free. Silence and a tension wrenched higher than that of a battlefield sucked the oxygen from the room. Hunter cupped his manhood in two hands and twisted to hide his nub from Oliver.
Kat’s lungs flamed. Her cheeks burned. If he said anything to hurt Hunter, he wouldn’t have to worry about Sloan, the deadly operative. She’d annihilate the man and anyone else who hurt the man she loved.
Captor Mine (Base Branch Series Book 13) Page 17
