Releasing the Hunter (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Anna, Vivi

  Quinn lifted his drink toward Ronan. “Thanks to you, that is. You saved the day, my friend.”

  Ronan filled his glass again and downed the whole thing. He set the empty glass on the table, his hand slightly trembling. Ivy reached across the table and covered it with hers. She looked at Ronan with that way of hers. There was a twinkle in her eye that made his gut clench.

  “Now that that’s been taken care of—” She stood and grabbed his hand. “Ronan and I need to have a little chat.”

  Quinn shook his head with a half smile. He nodded toward the back hallway. “There’re clean sheets in the room down the hall.”

  Laughing, Ivy pulled Ronan down the hallway to the room. She kicked open the door and pulled him through. Before he was even fully in the room, she pounced on him, pushing him up against the back of the door. She kissed him hard, her hands everywhere at once.

  Then she dropped to her knees, her fingers on the zipper of his pants. Slowly, she drew the zipper down, then tugged his pants down his legs. His erection strained against the cotton of his shorts. She rubbed him through the fabric, driving him mad with each stroke.

  He banged his head back on the wall as she slowly, agonizingly drew him out. Her hand wrapped around him, she tickled the tip with her tongue.

  “Damn, woman, are you trying to kill me?” he cursed under his breath as she licked him over and over, teasing him until he was as hard as steel.

  “I see I’ve found your weakness,” she said between licks.

  He dug his fingers into the wall behind him. “Yeah, you.”

  She looked up at him beneath the hood of her lashes. It was a surprised look, a solemn one. He hadn’t meant to say it out loud but she’d driven him to it. Everything about her drove him insane with desire. Lost to more emotions than he wanted to feel. But there it was and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Gripping him tight, she slid him into her mouth. He watched as she stroked him, soft then hard alternately. He could feel the light scrape of her teeth on his sensitive flesh and the gentle teasing of her tongue. It was enough to drive him over the edge.

  “Ivy,” he panted.

  “Don’t talk,” she said around him. “Just feel.”

  Ronan reached down, grabbed her under the arms and hefted her to her feet. Wrapping a hand in her tumble of hair, he spun her around and slammed her up against the wall. He kicked out of his pants and shorts and nudging her legs apart, settled in between them.

  He put his other hand down between them and undid her pants. He tugged at them until, finally, she helped him out and shimmied out of them, kicking them across the room. He slid his fingers under the waistband of her pretty panties and yanked, rending them in half. He jerked a little harder and was able to get them all the way off. He tossed the torn lace over his shoulder.

  Growling low in his throat, he moved in and crushed his mouth to hers. The kiss left him light-headed, unstable. Ronan trailed his hands down her back and molded the firm cheeks of her ass, and then he picked her up. Ivy spread her legs and wrapped them around him. Gripping her tightly, he nibbled on her bottom lip, nipping and teasing, and made his way over her chin to her neck. The taste of her skin tingled in his mouth.

  He nuzzled in between her legs, pinning her against the wall with his body. With the warm, wet heat of her center pressed against his erection, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven. Finally, he’d made it.

  His muscles, from feet to head, trembled with desire, a ferocious, insatiable hunger. He needed to be inside Ivy now. The waiting was ripping him to pieces from the inside out.

  He licked the side of her neck and nibbled on her ear. “I can’t hold back for much longer.”

  “Then don’t,” she panted.

  Her body quivered under his touch. He could feel the beating of her heart next to his, hard, fierce and frantic. All the things he felt for her and more.

  One hand balanced her against the wall. The other he moved down between them and gripped his shaft tight, to guide him to her. Moving his hand up, he sought her. She was deliciously hot and wet and ready. Control fraying at the edges, he buried his entire length inside her with one swift thrust.

  * * *

  Gripping his shoulders hard, Ivy held on as he drove her up, reveling in how strong he was. Every nerve ending in her body sparked to life as he moved, slowly at first, then picked up his pace before finding a fiery tempo that sent shivers from her toes to her scalp.

  She moved her head and found his mouth, diving her tongue between his lips. She kissed him with the fervor and passion that bubbled up inside her. She was ravenous for him.

  He pounded between her legs as they kissed. With each thrust, Ivy thought she’d go insane with pleasure. It didn’t just ripple over her skin but surged through every inch of her body like a rush of electricity or a mind-numbing drug.

  Streaking her hands down his back, she held him tight as he pushed her close to the edge of orgasm. Shifting his stance, he gripped her butt cheek tighter, pressed her hard against the wall and buried himself so deep she swore she could feel him in her chest.

  Gasping from the fierce assault on her flesh, she dug her nails in and raked them across his skin, happy when he cried out in pain and pleasure. Moaning loudly, she urged him on as she bucked and writhed against his body. He didn’t disappoint but rammed into her harder and faster until she couldn’t breathe and sweat dripped off them both.

  She was so close to climaxing that every nerve and muscle in her body clenched. She felt faint and her eyes rolled back. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and bit her lip. She was there, so there. And it was going to be explosive.

  Ronan nuzzled his face in her neck, and hefting her up, he drove hard between her legs. He shouted out her name, again and again, until she could feel him empty himself into her. Clamping her eyes shut, she cried out at her own orgasm.

  They stayed like that, linked together, up against the wall, both breathing hard. Ivy could barely think past the heat of her body and the insistent throb between her legs. All her muscles felt like they’d melted into goo. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stand if Ronan set her back on her feet.

  Thankfully she didn’t have to worry about that because he lifted her up, and turning, walked across the room with her straddling his waist, drew out of her and dumped her on the bed. He stepped back and looked at her with those penetrating eyes of his.

  “Just give me a minute and we can try that again.”

  Laughing, she sat up, pulled her T-shirt off and tossed it onto the floor. “I’m ready when you are.”

  With a smile on his beautiful mouth, he tore at his own shirt, tossed it to the side and jumped onto the bed, wrapping his arms around her and rolling her onto the mattress. “Okay, I’m ready.”

  Chapter 27

  For the next two glorious hours, they made love. Ronan didn’t know he had that much stamina, but he figured it was because of Ivy. She pushed him to his limits in so many ways.

  As the sun set, they lay on their sides in the bed under the covers, and he snuggled up against her back, spooning. He’d never been a fan of the spoon until now. He liked that he cradled her into his body, one hand pressed to her belly holding her tight, and could look down at her face while he played with her hair. He liked that he could see the twitch of her lips every so often when she thought of something amusing.

  She was doing that now.

  He ran a finger down her cheek. “What’s funny?”

  “How ironic life is.”

  “Yeah, who would’ve thought we would’ve ended up here together?” He tucked a stray hair behind her ear, and then pressed a light kiss to her head. “I thought for sure you would’ve tried to kill me more times than you already did.”

  She chuckled. “I only tried once.”

  “True.”r />
  “I may have thought about it a few times, though.”

  He laughed, and then tugged on the strand of hair he’d been wrapping around his finger over and over.

  Sighing, she wriggled closer to him, her rear end brushing up against his groin. It didn’t take long for Ronan to become aroused. She was like that to him. A drug. Just the softest touch of her could pump him full of adrenaline.

  He nibbled on her ear. “You better stop that, or we’ll be going for round three. Or is it four?”

  “Four,” she murmured, then yawned. “Save it for later. I’m too tired.”

  He chuckled. “I never thought I’d see the day when Ivy Strom was too tired for anything.”

  “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. It’s been a long week.” She closed her eyes, then grabbing his hand from her belly, she brought it up to her chin, tucking it there. “Give me about ten hours of sleep and I’ll be good to go. Wherever you want to go. We should go on a holiday. We’ve both earned it.”

  “Sounds good,” he whispered against her ear.

  “I hear the Caribbean is cool.”

  “I like that.”

  “You’ll be here when I wake up, right? We’re going back home, together.” She yawned again. “Besides, I need a place to stay. My safe house was destroyed. Your apartment is pretty big.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty big.”

  “Good, then that solves that problem.”

  Ronan had so many things to say, but he couldn’t find the words to say them. He was a coward, plain and simple. For all his bravado, Ivy scared him in so many ways. She was stronger than him, inside. She had the fortitude of a steel giant. And the loyalty of a platoon of soldiers. He lacked all of that. His shame made his gut roil.

  She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him, a soft, sleepy smile on her beautiful face. “You’re my hero, Ronan. You keep saving me.”

  His throat constricted but he managed to say, “It’s because I like you so much.”

  Her eyes fluttered closed, then she mumbled sleepily, “Yeah, well, I think I may love...” Her words trailed off as she fell asleep.

  “I’m in love with you, too, Ivy Strom.” He pressed his lips to her temple, drinking her in, savoring each second he had with her. He knew too well how everything could change in a blink of an eye. How it was going to change.

  He watched her sleep for an hour, smelling her, touching her skin, her hair, anything he could without waking her. Then, as carefully as he could, pulling his arm out from under her head, he rolled over onto his back and started planning.

  * * *

  The bright light streaming in through the dingy window stabbed Ivy in the eyes as she blinked them open. She closed them again. Shutting the light out and yawning, she rolled onto her back. She opened her eyes again and stretched, trying to work out all the kinks that had settled into her muscles. And there were a lot. From the past few days of fighting, and, well, from a hot session of awesome sex.

  Thinking of sex, she turned her head to the side looking for Ronan. But he wasn’t there beside her. He must’ve gotten up to eat, most likely. The man did have a healthy appetite. Except when she put her hand against the mattress, the spot was cool, as were the sheets, as if he hadn’t been there for hours.

  She sat up, swung her legs off the bed and stood. She searched the floor for her clothes. She found her pants and T-shirt and her ruined panties. Once she was dressed, she shoved the panties into her pocket to toss in the trash later. Opening the door, she padded out into the corridor toward the kitchen. She heard male voices.

  But neither voice belonged to Ronan. Just Quinn and another guy, Pete, she thought, sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee, by the delectable smell.

  Quinn smiled when he saw her. “Good morning. Well, afternoon.” He got up and went to the stove. “Need some coffee?” He poured it into a cup and handed it to her.

  She took it absentmindedly. “Where’s Ronan?”

  Quinn shrugged. “Thought he was still sleeping with you.”

  “No, he must’ve gotten up early.”

  Pete looked at her over the rim of his coffee. “I’ve been up for hours and I haven’t seen him.”

  “Okay, thanks.” She took her coffee with her as she went back to the little room where they had stowed their stuff. With one hand trembling, she opened the door. Her stomach was churning and she licked her lips to keep from getting sick.

  Her duffel bag was on the floor just where she’d put it, closed and looking untouched. But Ronan’s gear was gone. Instead, on the floor was a white envelope with her name scrawled across it.

  She bent over and picked it up. She turned it over in her fingers, afraid to open it. Afraid of what was inside. No matter what words he put there, it wouldn’t fix the withering agony inside her. It was quickly filling her to the brim.

  With the envelope pinched between her trembling fingers, she shuffled back into the kitchen.

  Quinn frowned at her. “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s gone.”

  Her brother didn’t say anything for a minute, just looked at her. “Maybe he had something to take care of. Did you read the letter?”

  She shook her head, then put a hand up to her chest where her heart pounded so hard it felt like it was going to burst out from between her ribs and fall to the floor, ripped up and torn into shreds.

  Then Quinn’s frown deepened and he pushed to his feet. “Ivy? Where’s your necklace?”

  She looked down and ran a hand over her shirt, the pain in both her gut and her heart doubling. The necklace she never took off. The one she’d been wearing to bed. It was gone. Ronan had taken the key.

  Chapter 28

  Ronan paced the shoreline of the bay, waiting for Reginald and his cabal goons to show. The fog swirled around his boots like gray smoke. He’d told the sorcerer to come alone, but he knew that would never happen. Reginald was too much of a coward to come by himself. A coward. Ha, he should talk.

  He’d snuck out of the farmhouse in Sumner like a thief in the night. Which was exactly what he was. He’d stolen the key, Ivy’s precious necklace, from around her neck while she’d been sleeping. He’d quietly slipped from the bed, dressed, grabbed his gear, with the cross in it, and snuck out of the house. He’d hoofed it down to Main Street and hot-wired a car, speeding down the highway back to San Francisco.

  Now he held the key in his hand, fisted tight, while he waited for the man who’d paid him to acquire it.

  Not for the first time, he had to swallow down the lump of guilt that kept coming up. His gut was constantly churning. He’d never felt this kind of remorse before. It was damn near killing him.

  He’d almost not done it. He’d been lying there beside her, listening to her breathe, taking in her smell and the heat of her body next to him and he nearly just rolled over and forgot about the key and what it meant to him. He’d almost forgotten how many years he’d been searching for a cure. Almost.

  Ivy meant a lot to him. He loved her. But the demon blood that ran through his veins would always come between them. It would be a constant bone of contention for them.

  The irony of the fact that he had to steal the key from her, thereby ruining any chance of them being together anyway, wasn’t lost on him. He understood the risks when he’d slipped the chain off her and slid it into his jacket pocket.

  He just didn’t realize it would hurt him so much to betray her.

  Ronan stopped pacing and listened to the sounds around him. The lapping of the water against the shore calmed his nerves a little. He’d always felt safe around water. The sounds and smell centered him, gave him a sense of peace. Something he was in desperate need of. He’d chosen this spot along the bay for that reason, and also because water dampened magic. He wasn’t sure why; something about the living ions in
water molecules. All he knew was it would prove to be difficult for old Reggie to zap him with some sinister spell so close to the water. That was a good enough explanation for him.

  He pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and checked his messages for the tenth time since arriving back in the city. Still nothing from Ivy. This shouldn’t have surprised him. What did he expect? Her declarations of love and anger over what he’d done to her? He should’ve expected silence from her. He’d just betrayed her in the worst way.

  But he was hoping for a message, one that said she was coming to find him and kill him. He could handle that, maybe even would have pleasure in the fact that she cared enough to look for him. The silence ate at him. The silence was telling.

  He shoved the phone back into his pocket just as he felt something stirring in the air. It wasn’t the same sense he got when a demon was near, but it was close. Reginald Watson had arrived.

  The sorcerer stepped out of the darkness and into a pool of moonlight. He gestured to the surroundings. “Interesting choice for a meeting.”

  “I like the water.”

  Reggie just smiled, but it wasn’t one of friendliness; it held traces of arrogance and malevolence. The sorcerer knew exactly why he’d chosen this spot. The grin gave Ronan the creeps. He should’ve never gotten involved with the cabal. They were bad news.

  Out of the corner of Ronan’s eye, he spied two other sorcerers hiding in the shadows, one on either side. It was obvious Reggie didn’t trust him, or in fact might just try and kill him when the transaction was done instead of giving him the cure.

  “Do you have the key?”

  Ronan nodded.

  “Let me see it.”

  “I will, but first I want to know what you plan on doing with it.”

  Reggie frowned. “Why does that matter? You didn’t care when you took the job.”

  “It matters now.”

  He stepped toward Ronan, his hands folded in front. “What do you think we’re going to do with it, Ronan?”

  “Open the Chest of Sorrows and take Solomon’s grimoire to release the demons.”