by Tasha Black
The pleasure was exquisite. Each lash of his tongue multiplied the sensations exponentially until Cordelia forgot who she was, and lived only for the next stroke.
West’s hands tightened on her thighs, just before her hips began to jerk up involuntarily to meet his tongue.
Helplessly, Cordelia moaned, unable to angle herself to take what she needed from him.
West growled hungrily in reply and the vibrations reached nearly to the place where she needed his touch.
Cordelia could feel herself swelling, and opening to him like a flower. The sensation would have been pleasant if not for the blinding, pounding need he would not assuage.
He dragged his wicked tongue up and down, all around, ignoring the tiny, pulsing place that would bring her relief from this agony.
“Please,” she heard herself cry.
Instantly, he was lapping and suckling her throbbing clitoris.
Cordelia sobbed with relief and need.
As the sensation nearly overtook her, he slid a cool finger inside her.
The sudden intrusion surprised her, but West made a satisfied sound and hastened the movements of his tongue.
Suddenly Cordelia was soaring. For a frozen instant she floated, then waves of pleasure crashed her down, down down.
Helplessly she clamped down on West’s cold, rigid digit, spasming again and again between his warm mouth and his cool hand with every pulse of the most intense orgasm of her life.
She could feel his crooked smile against her inner thigh as he withdrew from her.
She wanted to be embarrassed but she was too sleepy and grateful.
West stood and wiped his mouth like a pirate.
Cordelia couldn’t help laughing.
Then she saw the set of his jaw and realized what it must have taken for him to hold back.
“Let me help you,” she whispered.
He shook his head, but his gaze told her it was taking all his self-control.
He wouldn’t be hard to convince.
Ding-dong.
The sound of the doorbell interrupted Cordelia’s plan.
“Who is that?” West asked, surprised.
“I have no idea,” she replied.
“Ignore it, then,” he said darkly.
Ding-dong.
Cordelia couldn’t help giving the house a worried glance. What if something was wrong?
“Let’s just go check on it really quickly,” she offered.
“I, uh, think I’d better stay here,” West said.
She glanced down and almost fainted at the size of the bulge in his pants.
“Hold that thought, okay?” she said with a smile, pulling the cups of her bra back up and buttoning her shirt. She knew he was uncomfortable for the moment. But she also knew she was going to help him. And frankly it felt good to know that she was the one who was making him feel that way.
“Don’t be too long,” he smiled and winked with his good eye.
As she entered the house, Cordelia couldn’t help but notice the sensation of walking without any panties. It was completely distracting in a good way. As long as whoever was at the door couldn’t tell.
She smiled at her own silliness as she reached the front of the center hall.
Through the peephole she could see the form of Edward Dalton.
She opened the door.
“Edward!” she cried.
She hadn’t seen Dalton since that night.
West had been in touch with him several times, but it was Cordelia who had been anxious to see her friend and know that he was okay after his unusual ordeal.
“Cordelia,” he said in surprise, “I thought you girls were out for the evening.”
“Oh no, Mom and Jess went to a movie. I stayed in.”
There was a moment of silence.
He seemed to be drinking her in, noticing her flushed cheeks. His nostrils flared slightly, and one side of his mouth curved very slightly upward in unconscious approval.
Oh god. Could he smell the sex on her?
He pulled himself together quickly. So quickly that Cordelia began to chide herself for thinking he was anything other than surprised to see her.
“It’s good to see you, Cord,” he said.
“Likewise.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“For what?” she asked.
“For keeping my secret,” he said simply.
“You’re my friend,” she told him firmly, knowing as she said it that it was true. “Plus, I’m not exactly sure what that secret is.”
She thought of the bite marks he’d left on her arm, even through the leather of her jacket. How the pattern didn’t match the teeth of the man that stood before her now. How they looked, to her trained eye, much more like the bite marks of a large canine.
He gazed at her for a moment, almost mournfully. Then he smiled gently.
“Yes, I am your friend. But I nearly killed you. You were very brave.”
He glanced at her arm, where the marks had faded from angry red to barely visible pink.
“May I?” he offered her his hand.
She placed her arm in it.
There was a tingle of electricity as they touched.
“See? No big deal,” she assured him. “Most animals would have done worse than that under the circumstances.”
She saw the twinge pass across his features.
“Not that you’re…” she fumbled. “I didn’t mean…”
“It’s okay,” he said with a reassuring smile.
He stroked the mark gently with the pad of his thumb, and it seemed to tingle lightly under his soft touch.
Then Dalton’s head snapped up.
“West!” he said a little too loudly.
Cordelia looked up and was surprised to see that West was coming in from out back.
“Hey man, what’s up?” West asked perhaps a bit too politely.
Dalton dropped Cordelia’s arm.
“I was just stopping by to let you know I’m going out of town for a while,” Dalton said.
“You are?” West asked.
“Yeah, I uh, need a little air. Is that okay?” Dalton asked.
“Whatever you need,” West said immediately. “Of course.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I have everything set up to run smoothly while I’m away. I even found a temporary replacement. But I’m pretty sure you can hold your own at this point.”
“Cordelia!” screamed a happy voice from outside.
They turned to see Jess rolling up the ramp to the front door.
“Hi, sis, what are you doing back so early?” Cordelia asked.
“The movie was sold out,” Jess yelled. “And we wanted to see your face when West gave you your surprise!”
Oh boy.
“Hi honey,” her mother said. “How did it turn out? He wouldn’t let us back there while they were working.”
“Mrs. Cross, please let me show you.” West took her arm with a smile. “I hope you’ll approve.”
“See you later, man!” Dalton said.
“Take care,” West said. Then he turned and headed for the back door, her mom at his side, Jessica rolling after them.
“Good-bye, Edward,” Cordelia said.
“Wait,” he said quietly.
Something in his voice scared her.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
He smiled sadly at her.
“I’m going away for more than a few days. I want you to be there for him when he realizes.”
Squeals of delight emanated from the backyard, belying the seriousness of the conversation that was happening in the hall.
“Why?” she asked.
“To tell you the truth,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure what my secret is either. But it’s high time I took the trouble to find out. Until then, I’m a danger to you… to everyone. I can’t stick around and wait to see what will set me off next.”
“When will you come back?” she asked, hearing the plaintive note in her own
voice.
“When I can control this,” he said firmly, “instead of the other way around.”
Cordelia put her hand on his arm, trying to think of the words that would make him feel okay.
When he raised his eyes to hers they were filled with longing.
“Good-bye, Cordelia Cross,” he said, his mouth caressing her name.
“Good-bye, Edward,” she heard herself say solemnly.
Then he was gone.
For a long moment, Cordelia stood in the front hall looking out into the gathering darkness.
Then she closed the door, and turned toward the sounds of joy.
The End of Reconstructed: Building a Hero (Book 1)
Turn the page to start Book 2 - Augmented.
Augmented (Book 2)
1
Edward Dalton walked up the two flights of stairs to his apartment.
Dalton lived just a few blocks away from the Worthington building, in a small but tasteful flat that overlooked the park. The rent wasn’t cheap, but Worthington Enterprises picked up the tab in exchange for keeping him in such close proximity.
West had tried to convince him to take one of the units in his own building, but the thought of Westley Worthington banging on his door at all hours of the night wasn’t exactly what he was looking for.
He was still ten feet from his door when he caught the scent.
Dalton was good with smells, the way some people were good with faces. And this was a smell he recognized.
He swung the door open and stepped in.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, loud enough to be sure he was heard.
A staccato thump-clack, thump-clack from the kitchen answered him. He turned to see a familiar figure step out of the doorway, the thud of his booted foot alternating with the clack of his blade-style prosthetic as he walked.
Corporal Gibson.
Dalton had met him for the first time a few months ago, when West had refused to sell Med Pros to Alpha Division. He was a lackey for Major Andrews, the man who had subjected Dalton to the worst torture of his life, then cast him off like garbage when he was done.
He hadn’t cared much for Gibson back then, and he sure as hell didn’t like the idea of the man showing up in his home unannounced.
“Sergeant Dalton,” the man said, his dark eyes unreadable.
“I told your boss,” Dalton replied. “It’s not Sergeant anymore. I’m… retired.”
“You’ve just been called back to active duty,” Gibson said with a taunting grin.
“Is that a fact?” Dalton asked, turning his back on the man to hang his jacket on the rack by the door. “In that case, I think you forgot to salute, Corporal.”
Gibson made a low sound in his throat that was almost a growl. Dalton didn’t take kindly to the challenge.
He had been coming home with the intention of packing some things and doing some digging into his particular condition. That road started with Alpha Division. He had every intention of paying them a visit - but on his own terms.
To send some lackey to intimidate him didn’t sit well with Dalton. He felt the familiar tingle in his blood as his anger began to rise to a dangerous level.
Normally, Dalton would have done everything in his power to quell that anger, to remain in control.
Not today.
He welcomed the feeling of power coursing through him. How dare this man come into his home and threaten him?
His muscles tensed and his nostrils flared. His vision tunneled to a sharp focus, tinged at the edges with icy blue. A deep growl built in his throat as Dalton turned back to expel the intruder from his home.
Gibson’s eyes flashed a deep yellow as he launched himself at Dalton.
2
The scent of the wood fire permeated the night air. Cordelia sat opposite her mother at the small glass table, each of them sipping champagne from coffee mugs.
West had been shocked to learn that the Cross family’s kitchen wasn’t stocked with champagne flutes. Jess found his surprise endlessly amusing, and her giggling proved contagious. Cordelia smiled thinking of the happy sound of West’s deep laughter. She couldn’t have pictured him laughing good-naturedly at himself even two weeks ago.
The familiar clay shape of her coffee mug felt good in her hands. She didn’t even need to drink the champagne. Cordelia already felt light as air.
On the other side of the table, her mother’s careworn features were dreamy in the candlelight. She winked at Cordelia and inclined her chin toward the fire-pit.
Across the slate patio, Westley Worthington handed a marshmallow to Jess and smiled with satisfaction as she stabbed it viciously with a long stick.
“Careful there, you’ll put your eye out,” he said, tapping his eye-patch and raising his eyebrow. “Learn from my mistakes.”
Cordelia grinned at the joke, but Jess threw her head back and practically howled with laughter.
Cordelia’s heart was fit to burst. So many things were going well, but the easy way West had with Jess was the most unexpected. He was so attuned to her. The West from before the accident would never have paid so much attention to someone from whom he needed nothing.
Peter’s words of warning echoed in her head.
West has these big, life-changing experiences and he vows to turn over a new leaf. But what about the promises he never seems to get around to? What do you think is going to happen when he gets what he needs out of you?
Cordelia shivered.
“You cold, baby?” West asked.
“I’m fine,” she smiled back.
He held her gaze a moment and she hoped she didn’t look as off balance as she felt.
Suddenly, the candles, the fairy lights, the champagne, all of which had been so special a moment before, felt empty. Because no matter how you looked at it, West had enough money to renovate a thousand girls’ backyards. But what he had promised was dinner on the town - a real date, in public. Not s’mores at home.
Cordelia immediately chided herself. West was still laying low after the accident. Surely, he would make good on his promise when he was back in the public eye.
She forced herself to participate in the moment.
“Okay, West, tell it again!” Jess was insisting.
“Tell you what?” he asked her with a teasing smile.
“You know - the part where you saved Sean Cooper from the super villain!”
“Vince Palma was no super villain,” West laughed.
“Um, he kidnapped an innocent kid and was going to cut off his arm,” Jess insisted. “He might as well have tied him to a train track and twirled his mustache.”
West laughed his deep laugh again.
“And it took a super-powered hero to stop him,” Jess finished with satisfaction.
“Technically,” West corrected her, “Cord was the one that stopped him.”
“I know. But you did okay for your first try,” Jess assured him.
“First, and last,” West chuckled.
“What are you talking about?” Jess asked. “Can you imagine what you could do for this city with your new abilities?”
“Mallory said it was dangerous to take the safeties off like that,” West said.
“You seem fine to me,” Jess shrugged.
A strange expression crossed West’s handsome features, like maybe he wasn’t as fine as he seemed.
“Jess, are you suggesting that West should become some sort of… vigilante?” Cordelia chimed in. “That sounds dangerous.”
“Yeah—” Jess replied. “—for the other guy.”
“Would I get to wear a fancy costume?” West asked, with a sexy grin that made Cordelia sorry her family had come home early.
She wasn’t nearly finished with him.
“I could totally pull off a spandex jumpsuit with a lightning bolt on the front?” He puffed out his broad chest in a typical superhero pose.
Cordelia took another drink. Her cheeks flushed, but not from the alcohol.
/> “That I’d like to see,” she muttered.
“First of all, ew, Cord,” Jess said seriously. “Second, no one wears spandex. It would be some sort of high tech body armor or something. And third, a lightning bolt? What are you, Captain Marvel?”
West gave her a confused look.
“The Flash?” she tried.
“Him I know,” he nodded.
“You’re not fast enough for that. And you don’t control lightning, like Storm or Thor,” she explained, as though it should have been obvious.
“So what superhero would I be?” he asked. To his credit, West didn’t patronize her, or dismiss her. He considered her opinion seriously. No wonder she took such a liking to him.
“Well, you’re closer to Cyborg, or Cable, minus the mutant powers. But you wouldn’t be either of them, because they’re just made up. The things you can do are real. You would be your own hero,” Jess said, her voice tinged with wonder.
“Are you applying for the position of Spunky Sidekick?” West teased.
“I don’t really do ‘sidekick’,” Jess replied tartly.
“Speaking of sidekicks, have you talked to Peter since the accident?” Cordelia asked as lightly as she could.
She knew he hadn’t. But with Dalton gone, West would need a friend. And Cordelia couldn’t help wanting Peter’s opinion of West’s transformation. If he were willing to eat his words, wouldn’t she feel better?
“I wish people would stop using that word.” Harshness crept into West’s voice. “There was nothing accidental about what happened to me. And why would I want to talk to him? I’m not the one who did the storming out.”
“I just thought, since he’s your friend—” Cordelia began.
“Was my friend,” he corrected her.
“I just don’t understand—” she tried again.
“No. You don’t. Why is it so important to you?” he demanded.
Without warning, a scorching pain flared in Cordelia’s arm.
It radiated from the bite mark, still not fully healed from the night where she had rescued Dalton from the meathook in that awful cellar. Something had happened in the dark that she couldn’t fully explain, or maybe she just wasn’t ready to face. In the heat of his anguish, he had changed somehow. And in his blind fury, he had lashed out at her, biting her arm before he ran away into the night.
