Liam reached out and cuffed his brother for the smirk on his lips. Colin let him make contact. He’d do whatever it took to rearrange things to a safer, better detail. Including let his big brother get a hit in.
The thing was, Liam knew his baby brother was right. He’d known it from the moment he’d first pulled Devon into his arms. And he’d felt it most keenly when he’d walked in on Devon fighting for her life. He’d been armed with the best in anti-Morphate weaponry and what good had it done her? She’d been forced to fight barehanded. Alone. Wounded.
Liam exhaled long and slow.
“I’ll put a call into Jackson later tonight. But don’t think you won any points over me,” he said sternly to his brother, lest the kid get a swelled sense of importance. “I was planning to call him in in a few days anyway. Him and his whole team, now that they’re free. I have a feeling we’re going to need them.”
The information made Colin frown. Liam was definitely girding up for a war. Colin was okay with going to war for his brother. He’d follow him into any fight. Hell, that was his job. But he was worried that Liam hadn’t thought through the ramifications of this particular war. Colin and the rest of the team had their suspicions on where this was going. They weren’t stupid. Nor were they afraid to follow Liam into whatever hell he chose for them. He just hoped his brother was thinking with his head and not his dick. He gave his head a mental shake. He’d never thought he’d have to question Liam on a matter like this. But everything about this job had been sideways from the start. Not the least of which being the way their commander had fallen flat for their principal.
Colin wanted to confront her. He’d do whatever it took to get her to back off so his brother would go back to being the sharp, flawless soldier they were all used to. But while he was willing to press his brother, he knew it would be incredibly out of line to interfere with her. Liam would instantly shut down and block him out. He’d probably punch him in the head while he was at it. It was hard to say for sure because he’d never seen Liam act like this, never seen him break all of his own rules before. Honestly, it was like dealing with a stranger. A stranger ten times more human and flawed than the unshakable, untouchable Liam.
“Hey, Liam,” Colin said absently as these thoughts rolled through his head.
“Mmm?”
“I’m glad to see you happy.”
And in the end, that’s what it came down to. Liam was happy. Happy in a way they’d never seen before. In a way that was delightful to witness.
Colin wasn’t going to be the one to fuck that up. Happiness was so fragile in this environment that it was very likely to fall apart all on its own.
And that was going to be a damn shame, he thought, as he turned away before Liam could respond to his remark.
Devon had given Liam all the outward appearance of things going back to normal these past few days. No mean trick, that. Liam was a very shrewd man. But things were far from being normal. If Ambrose thought she was simply going to sit here while he took pot shots at her, he was sorely delusional. She was the female Beta of Dark Manhattan. As Liam had pointed out, she was the second most powerful female Morphate on the planet. She had bided her time long enough, played victim long enough.
Now the time had come.
And was the L. A. Alpha involved as well? Were the two in collusion as was suspected? It was one thing for her to entertain taking on one Alpha. But what if there were two? To fight with only humans and mercury at her back might be the hugest act of stupidity. Then again, all it took was dead aim and steady shots. They could potentially wipe out an entire Morphate force from a distance. They certainly couldn’t expect to do well if they were drawn in to hand-to-hand fighting. But when she faced Ambrose … she could not kill him. He had to be taken captive. He had to be made an example of. The human populace had to believe that the Alpha Council served its purpose. That it could police its own. If humans began to doubt that, the moment they had this weaponry she had created, it could very well become open season on all Morphates.
The future of the Morphates was in her hands, and her heart was heavy with the responsibility of it all. And all the while she had to continually check her morals. She had to make certain she was doing things for the greater good and with respect for the lives teetering on the line … both Morphate and human. She’d had to weigh that knowledge every moment her hands and mind spent crafting weapons meant to kill the unkillable.
Liam sat across the table from her watching her as she went through the motions of eating in total silence, her mind completely and obviously preoccupied. She had been drifting into these obsessive states frequently ever since the attempt on her life. It was actually quite fascinating to watch her mind working, watch the expressions that creased her beautiful features. But he had to stop being fascinated and think more practically.
“What didn’t you tell me?”
“Hmm?”
She looked up at him as if he had suddenly appeared, rather than having been sitting across from her for the past half hour.
“What didn’t you tell me?” he asked again, this time softly, his voice like a stranger’s as it fell to a coaxing timbre. It amazed him, the depths of tenderness he had suddenly found within himself. He’d been so hard for so long, he had no idea where it was coming from or why it was coming at all. But it came just when it needed to, it seemed. The deflation of her shoulders as she exhaled told him so, even if she opened her mouth and flat out lied to him with her next breath.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said, her gaze shifting to her food rather than meeting his.
“Liar,” he said baldly, making her start. He could see her scrounging up a bristling response, but it was all an act. She was going through the motions.
“I am not a liar! What a horrible thing to say to me!”
“From the day I walked in your front door I have been nothing but brutally honest with you. And you have done nothing but lie to me,” he said quietly. There was no accusation in his voice and there was a reason for that. “I understand why. You were protecting yourself and you are protecting others. I was a stranger not yet worthy of your trust, and considering all you have on the line here, I don’t blame you for it at all. But we are no longer strangers, Devon. And I would like to think I have proven myself trustworthy. Or at least worthy of your confidence.”
She deflated again, her eyes turning up to him and a sweet little crinkle of distress appearing between her brows.
“Liam, I’m sorry. Of course you have earned my confidence. And my trust,” she added, almost as if she were reminding herself of the fact. He waited as she paused a few beats, settling her own mind. “That girl … I know who sent her,” she told him softly. “She said Ambrose of Dark Phoenix had sent her. I have Carter out looking for his whereabouts now because it is quite clear to me that he is not in Phoenix. I doubt he would kidnap me, throw me on a plane, and try and control me for a cross continent flight.”
“She was going to kidnap you?” he said, his disbelief obvious. “To what end?”
“A question I will ask Ambrose when I see him. She blathered on about my being a traitor to my species, but I know Ambrose. He is not emotionally driven. He never has been. In fact, I suspect him to be a psychopath.”
“Psychopaths can imagine a cause for themselves,” he said. “Even if for no other reason than the fascination of carrying it out, and watching others act and respond to it.” Liam frowned. “I don’t like this. And what were you going to do? Rush after him without telling me?”
“I wasn’t trying to eliminate you from my plans, only trying to figure out how best to approach the situation in my own head before involving anyone else.”
“And what conclusions have you come to?” he asked, trying not to let his temper boil up. She was used to being on her own. Used to being in total control of everything with no one but Carter to bounce an idea off of. There was no reason he should feel slighted by her actions.
So why did he? Why
was he so angry?
Devon was too sharp not to notice the change in his tone and the tension in his body language, however much he tried to conceal them. She didn’t understand his temper, but she did know she didn’t want to alienate him. She didn’t want Ambrose to come between them.
“I haven’t come to any conclusions as yet.” She reached out for his hand where it lay fisted on the table. “I was wondering what you thought of all of this. You once told me you were willing to take an assertive approach, to take the fight to Ambrose’s door. Do you still feel that way? Knowing you and your people would be facing powerful and unpredictable Morphates from several generations, will you still offer your help?”
As she spoke, her fingers had begun to stroke the fine hairs and skin on the back of his hand. Unbelievably, the simple contact began to unravel his anger, soothing him with remarkable speed.
“I have complete faith in my people and their capabilities, but I admit, when we first came here I would never have offered them up in a war with one of the most powerful Morphates in the Federated States. However, armed as we now are with a series of game balancers and knowing how true your weapons’ aim can be, I’d say we’re very much even at this point. I especially like the compressor gun. A large baby like that will certainly level the playing field. And your rapid-fire handguns put ours to shame with those glass bullets.”
“They aren’t glass,” she argued instantly, making him smile because he’d learned any inaccuracy regarding her weaponry was always met with correction. “They’re a special—”
“—hematite and glass polymer that holds the mercury safely inside of it long enough to make it through the force of a pin, the ride down the barrel, and the hit into a target. The composite cracks and breaks up on impact, parts of it melting away and allowing the mercury inside to poison the target quickly. A single expert shot can put a Morphate down like a dog. All the while the bullets are perfectly safe for handling and for carting around as ammunition. You did your job very well there,” he assured her. “And I think it might not be a bad idea to give these surprises of yours a thorough field test.”
“So your thoughts remain unchanged then,” she realized out loud as she stood up and came around to his side of the table, all the while holding his hand. “You’d take this right to Ambrose’s doorstep. You’d use these weapons to make your way past his people.”
“Only those who threatened me or didn’t have the good sense to stand down and let me reach said goal. What is that gorgeous smell?” he asked distractedly as she leaned her body against his shoulder. And just like that, the focus of their dinner together shifted once again.
“It’s a perfume I created. A little hobby,” she said with a shrug that relegated it to a place of unimportance.
Liam turned toward her, his face at breast level as she stood beside him. The aroma seemed to eddy over him on the waves of warmth she was exuding with increasing heat.
“Hobby or not, I find it very appealing.” He took in a deeper breath and was surprised and delighted by the instant warmth he felt rushing through and around his chest. The fact that it then shot directly down into his sexual organs was not a factor to be missed. It was rather like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer without even feeling the pain of it. And just like that he found himself hard for her. From the promise of her perfume and the memories of the ways he had discovered the aromas of her body in the past.
“It has a pheremonal axis. It toys with your inner beast, rousing it to attention by titillating those parts that lie dormant, slumbering in wait for a mate to stir them.” She smiled. “Well, anyway, that’s what the advertising would say.”
“It wouldn’t need any advertising,” he said, his voice low and intent. “It does its job at the first whiff.” He leaned forward and placed a kiss at the very top of her cleavage, a slow tasting touch of his lips. Then his tongue made contact. Just enough of a touch to make her catch her breath. Her hands came up and threaded through his hair, nails dragging over his skull and lighting his nerve endings on fire. He reached to touch her legs at the backs of her knees, turning in his chair to face her and draw her in close between his thighs. His hands found the hem of her dress and slid beneath it.
His hands dove under the unusually austere fabric, coasting straight up the backs of her legs until he was cupping the shapely cheeks of her backside in each of them. Her knees went immediately weak, her weight falling into his hands. He let it happen, let her drag them both down to the floor. A cursory glance up at the door of the dining room was the only hesitation on his part. But she was suddenly holding him tight, arms and legs both pulling him against her soft, sexy body, her mouth zeroing in on his for a soul-wrenching kiss. The idea that any of her household staff or any of his team might wander past the open door drifted out of his sense of importance.
She was important. The heat of her. The smell of her. The way he knew she would taste if only he could get his mouth on her. However, she was way too thoroughly clothed for that.
Her hands were on his gun belt, deftly whipping it off his hips and letting it fall by the wayside, the weight off his weapon working in her favor as she fumbled for the bottom holster strap around his thigh. Her fingers and palms were riding down the length of his zipper the very next instant, parting ways so one was cupping his balls through the denim of his jeans and the other was making out the rigid line of his cock in slow detailed strokes. Liam groaned into her mouth, pressing his hips forward into her hold, his hands braced on the floor so he could give her all the access she needed. Her tongue worked with sinuous beauty against his, their kiss trading homes between their mouths, often hovering on the cusp between the two. Every savoring taste of her buried him in a hot haze of the most intense need and outright lust he’d ever experienced.
Wasn’t it supposed to ease? Wasn’t it supposed to get routine by now? Or was that just what it had been like with everyone before her? What was it about Devon that made each time with her wilder, more intense than the last? The way his heart was pounding in his chest and ears, he thought that if things got any more intense he was going to blow his heart out.
“Leader! Alpha Two, we got something funny going on out here, sir!”
The squawk of the radio froze them both in place, their lips clinging as their eyes met for a long, throbbing heartbeat. Then Liam shifted awkwardly away from her with a violent curse of regret and annoyance, and not a little bit of self-recrimination. He wiped a hand of frustration over his mouth and ran fingers over his throat to key on the radio he had made sure to lock for outgoing contact so nothing they said over dinner was accidentally transmitted to all and sundry. He keyed it while watching her sit up and draw her legs close, tucking them under her round bottom.
“Leader here, what’s up Alpha Two?” he said, hoping his voice didn’t actually sound as rough and breathless to them as it did to him.
“Dunno sir, the dogs are going crazy!”
And they were. He’d been too absorbed to hear it earlier but it sounded as though every beast on the property was going wild outside the balcony doors. Liam launched himself off the floor, grabbing his gun and mini binoculars from his heavy belt. He kicked open the glass doors facing Alpha Two’s circuit. From there he had a far better vantage point than the units on the ground.
“Okay. I see him. Alpha Two, you have an intruder, west wall, three meters from the pillar with the cherub on it. Loose the pups if he runs.”
“Copy that, sir.”
“Get dressed and let’s haul ass to a room that doesn’t have a thousand windows in it,” Liam commanded Devon harshly as he reached a hand down to her and pulled her to her feet. “That guy has a rifle and it looked like serious business.”
Liam kept his body between her and the windows, wrapping her up in a brief hug of reassurance before he hustled her into the hallway between the dining room and first parlor. He ordered the lighting down to dark. “Okay, this is good for the moment.” He braced his arms against the wal
l, covering her with his body. He was breathing so hard her hair blew all around her face. Devon was so dizzy from the changing rush of emotions and feelings that she reached out and clutched his shirt to ground herself. Liam wasn’t doing much better. He slid a hand behind her back and drew her close to his body, letting her feel his comfortable warmth and residual heat.
“You and I are having a discussion after this is over about how you need to keep your frigging sexy ass at a proper distance until it’s time to retire at night,” he murmured in a deep, rough voice in her ear. It gave her a wild case of excited chills. Her body was still humming with outrageous need. Even now, even with the danger that was stalking her, all she could think about was rubbing herself all over that massively virile body again and again, licking him, taking him in her mouth until he gripped at her with wildly out of control need. All she could think about, all she could care about, was her need to have him wild in her arms. Ambrose and weapons and assassins fell completely by the wayside when he made her think and feel these things.
Liam was listening for a transmission on the radio giving the all clear, knowing that even after his team apprehended the intruder they would search for others. He looked down at Devon, seeking the flash of those pale jade eyes he could see even in the dark. The overwhelming voraciousness in her eyes stole his breath away. For a single moment he knew her every thought. It all began and ended with the phrase ‘I want you.’ She would draw him into a sensual world where he would be blinded to everything but the pleasure she gave him by hand, mouth, and body.
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