by Katie Allen
The thick mass buried in her body tipped her over the edge again. Helplessly, she cried out and then sank her teeth into Ari’s meaty shoulder. He hissed through his teeth and thrust into her several times, quick and rough, before he stilled.
Wrapping his arms around her body, he rolled them both to their sides. She went with him happily, boneless and weak with just-experienced pleasure. Her arms were sore from pulling against the headboard, and she looped them lazily around Ari’s neck. He guided her top leg over his hip, opening her even more to him.
Behind her, Benjy started kissing down the length of her spine, lingering on the dimples at the top of her ass. When his teeth nipped at one of her butt cheeks, she jumped, and then jolted again when someone’s hand came down on her ass.
“Stay still,” Ari growled, so she assumed he was the spanker. She tried to follow his order, but when B held her cheeks apart and licked his way along the crevice between them, her body reacted independently. She shivered and wiggled closer until the sensation became too much, and then she flinched away from his exploring tongue.
Ari smacked her again, and the dull ache heated and morphed into pleasure, until she found herself craving more, pushing her ass toward B’s mouth and the punishing hand. The tip of Benjy’s tongue found her rear hole at the same time A’s hand connected with a smack, and she cried out as pleasure flamed from both touches, the soft and the hard, making her pussy clench around the cock buried inside her.
Digging his fingers into the flesh of her ass cheek, Ari groaned, his hips jerking involuntarily, pressing forward that final fraction of an inch deeper into her pussy. As Benjy’s tongue flicked at the opening to her ass, nerve endings she didn’t even know she had flared to life. He pulled back, abandoning her ass, and she made another sound, this one of protest.
Ari squeezed her cheek again and pulled his cock most of the way out before thrusting forward, filling her and making her gasp. She felt Benjy’s hands return, one slick fingertip circling her puckered entrance before pushing inexorably inside. It didn’t hurt, but it did feel strange, despite having experienced Ari’s fingering earlier, and she attempted to pull away from the invading pressure. Ari’s immovable form blocked her efforts to escape, however, and she had no choice but to accept the slow and steady intrusion.
Once he’d slid his finger as far as it would go, he paused, allowing her to adjust. As the odd stretching feeling eased, the same nerves his tongue had awakened returned to life and began to buzz with pleasure. Sucking in a startled breath, she moved her hips just a tiny bit, pressing toward Ari before pushing back on the penetrating finger.
As if that small movement hit an on-button for both guys, they jerked into action. Ari began to thrust in short, hard plunges, while Benjy pulled his finger free and added another, pushing the two digits deep into her body.
Gasping, she clung to Ari as she was buffeted on both sides. After a few more thrusts of his hand, Benjy withdrew completely. Daphne didn’t have time to protest before she felt a pressure against her back entrance, something wider than his fingers but just as relentless in its effort to push its way into her.
Her nails dug into Ari’s back as the blunt tip of B’s erection pressed against her hole. Stretched by his fingers and slick with lube, the opening gave way. Once the head had squeezed inside, Benjy paused, allowing her body to stretch around his girth.
He felt huge! All Daphne’s focus was on the cock jammed into her ass. The sensation was overwhelming and, without thinking, just needing to hold on to something, she bit down on the body in front of her.
Ari yelped as she closed her teeth on his pectoral muscle. His hand slapped her ass, which jolted her and made her release her grip. She’d already set him off, however, and his hold on his control snapped. Closing his fingers on the cheek he’d just smacked, he pulled his hips back and then slammed his cock into her, hard and deep.
The force of his entry shoved her hips back, impaling her farther on Benjy’s cock, taking half of his length in one swift plunge. After only two more swift thrusts of Ari’s hips, B’s erection was fully buried in her ass. The shock of it drove the air out of her lungs, and between Ari’s brutal lunges and the stinging stretch of her back entrance, she couldn’t catch her breath.
All three of them froze for a long second, panting. Then both men began moving, sliding in and out of both of her holes in an uncontrolled and increasingly frantic rhythm. Daphne felt the pressure of yet another orgasm building, but she tried to beat it back, panicked by its strength. There was no way to hold it off, though, not with the guys plunging and withdrawing, faster and faster, their cocks dragging across wild nerve endings.
She screamed as she came, her muscles clamping so tightly she vibrated with tension. The outside world went gray as she lost the ability to focus on anything but the vivid colors exploding inside her body. She was vaguely aware of Ari jerking his hips against her as he found his release, followed by Benjy biting her nape during his silent orgasm.
When she finally floated back to reality, Ari still held her close as Benjy cleaned her. Both men were watching her closely.
She smiled. “Whoa.”
They both laughed, Benjy silently and Ari sounding relieved. As B returned the washcloth to the bathroom, Ari pressed a kiss on her temple.
“Even though you bite like a rabid squirrel when you’re coming, I’m glad I kidnapped you, Grace.”
She snorted, but tucked her butt more securely into his groin, making him hiss a breath through his teeth. “Yeah, me too,” she muttered, already slipping toward sleep. “Although I don’t condone committing felonies. And don’t call me a rabid squirrel.”
He chuckled as Benjy crawled into bed and cuddled up to her front. B kissed the tip of her nose and then tangled their fingers together. Daphne let herself doze, basking in the tiny bubble of peace the three of them created, no matter how fragile and temporary that bubble might be.
Chapter Fourteen
Within five minutes, breakfast was interrupted twice.
The first time was right after everyone had settled around the table. Ed passed Claire a platter of eggs, and she set it on the table with a heavy thump.
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” she said, before clamping a hand over her mouth and rushing for the exit. Ed gave a longing look at the bacon heaped on his plate before following her. Everyone else stared after them, a little startled at sweet Claire’s sudden sailor mouth.
It wasn’t two minutes later that the alarm flashed.
“I’m going to shoot those fucking mule deer,” Cal growled as he pushed his chair away from the table and stalked toward the door. “Either that, or Daphne’s fucking ex. Doubt it’s him, though—his car was still parked at the motel by Frasier Pass when I checked earlier this morning.”
Although no one followed Cal into the workshop, the dining room grew considerably tenser. It was so quiet that even Daphne, with her average hearing, heard Cal start swearing.
Everyone shoved their chairs back and dashed for the workshop.
“What’s the problem?” Ari clipped.
Cal pointed at one of the monitors. “That’s not a fucking mule deer.”
Peeking around Tom’s shoulder to get a glimpse of the monitor, Daphne couldn’t hold back a gasp. There was someone lying on his belly in the scrub, with low-hanging branches shielding the majority of his—or her—body. Shadows from the branches hid the rest of the intruder, and a black stocking hat covered the stranger’s head. Camouflage face paint disguised that small amount of exposed skin. If Cal hadn’t zoomed in the camera so the interloper was framed in the shot, Daphne doubted that she’d have seen him.
“Think he’s from the lab?” Lauren’s voice was squeaky, and Cal turned his head. Reaching out, he caught her wrist and tugged her toward him, not stopping her forward momentum until she was perched in his lap.
“Probably.” Despite his gentle hold on his girlfriend, Cal’s tone was not comforting.
Ari made a frustrated sound and scrubbed a hand over his stubbled head. “Does every-fucking-body know about this place now?”
“Maybe Little D’s ex isn’t the one who planted the tracker,” Darwin said thoughtfully.
Daphne jerked a little at the thought that she was the reason their hiding place had been breached. “I’m so sorry,” she breathed. Benjy rubbed her back and then slid his hand up to her shoulder and squeezed.
Darwin shook his head. “I don’t think it was him. More likely, it was the lab fuckers who put the tracker on your car. The idea that your ex was some kind of mastermind was bugging me. It didn’t make sense. I mean, where’s a regular guy like him going to pick up something like that?”
“How’d Brett find us then?” Daphne asked, leaning back into Benjy’s comforting warmth.
“Maybe he followed the lab agents? Or he did plant it, and the lab agents saw and let him lead them to us.” With a shrug, Darwin raised his hands in an I-don’t-know gesture. “The agents were smart enough to keep some distance, but that genius just rolled right up the driveway to our front gate.”
“He was watching when we were in the diner,” Ari said, not taking his eyes off the person on the screen. “Maybe he saw agents plant the tracker and then tailed them here, or, like D said, it was the other way around. Either way, the agents were watching us. Fuck. I knew we were in Denver too long. Some camera must’ve caught our faces.”
“Why are they here now?” Daphne shivered, and Benjy squeezed her tighter. “Why come at us during the day?”
“Your ex might have forced their hand by showing up at the gate yesterday,” Darwin suggested. “Or they followed the tracker to the pickup and realized we’d found it. Either way, they know we’re aware our location’s compromised.”
“Also, we have the advantage at night,” Cal said absently, looking from screen to screen and checking out the views from the other cameras. “Excellent night vision.”
“Which I learned the embarrassing way.” With a weak chuckle, Lauren slapped his shoulder. “Ow. When will I learn that smacking you only hurts my hand?”
Giving the woman on his lap an absent pat, Cal focused in on another camouflaged agent. “That’s four.”
“Should someone warn Ed and Claire?” Tom suggested. Daphne sucked in a breath, imagining poor Claire heaving up her guts somewhere, unaware that there were random lab agents hiding in the bushes nearby.
Ari nodded and jerked his head toward Darwin, who slipped out of the room without a word. Tom watched him go, his teeth worrying his bottom lip.
“Do we want to activate the perimeter explosives?” Cal asked, and Daphne stiffened. He’d said it so casually, as if he were inquiring about turning on sprinklers and not blowing up things—and people.
“Not yet.” Ari paced from monitor to monitor, each one showing a different lab agent in various hiding places around the property. “Can you hack into their radio channel?”
“Yeah.” Cal, with Lauren still ensconced in his lap, rolled his chair to a different piece of equipment. “If it’s encrypted though—and I’m sure as fuck it is—it’s going to take me a few.”
“Few what?” Ari snapped. “Hours? Minutes? Days?”
Cal didn’t seem perturbed by the other man’s harsh tone. “Minutes, probably. Half-hour, tops.”
“Should we call Agent Banner?” Daphne asked tentatively. All the heads in the room swiveled to stare at her. “It might not hurt to have a few government agents on our side.”
Ari focused on her for what felt like a long time before he gave a sharp nod. “Do it.”
“Sure about that?” Cal sounded calm, but the tendons in his neck looked tight enough to snap. “We can still use the tunnel to the ATV shed. It looks like they left a hole in the southeast corner we could slip through.” He pointed at one of the screens.
“It’s too obvious,” Ari said, frowning at the spot the other man indicated. “They want us to head for that corner, to funnel us into an ambush, like cattle going down the chute straight into the slaughterhouse.”
“Nice image,” Lauren muttered.
Ignoring her comment, Ari continued, “At the very least, the FBI will be a diversion. They can fight over jurisdiction while we get away from here.”
“Should I call then?” Daphne’s finger hovered over the power button of her cell phone.
“Do it,” Ari repeated. When Cal didn’t object again, but focused on the equipment in front of him, she turned on her phone. The seconds it took before her applications appeared on the screen felt like an eternity. Once it did, her fingers felt big and clumsy, and she fumbled to tap on the phone icon and then Agent Banner’s name in her recent call log.
As it rang, she swallowed hard, grateful that Benjy was still behind her, supporting her.
“Banner.”
Her throat had tightened, so her first attempt at speech failed. She sucked in a breath and tried again. “Agent Banner! It’s Daphne. Uh, Daphne Dahl.”
“Daphne.” His voice had sharpened. “What’s wrong?”
“You remember how I asked you whether the FBI had jurisdiction on kidnapping cases?”
“Yes,” he said warily.
“There’s about to be a kidnapping right now, by a group of people pretending to be government agents.”
Silence hung on the other end of the line, and she had a frantic moment wondering whether the call had been dropped. When Banner finally spoke, she let her breath out in a relieved rush.
“Where are you?”
Realizing she didn’t know the address, she sent Ari a frantic look. He scribbled something on a sticky note and passed it to her. She stared at the numbers for a blank second before realizing they were coordinates and rattling them off to Banner.
“Now tell me exactly what’s going on.” He sounded breathless, as if he were hurrying, which reassured Daphne.
She gave him the edited version of the guys’ captivity in the lab, their escape and the agents’ subsequent pursuit, not mentioning anything about the men’s enhanced abilities or how she came to join them.
“So Brett is there?” Banner asked. There were sounds in the background—other voices and engine noise. Daphne hoped that meant there were lots of FBI agents in a vehicle driving really fast to get to the lodge.
“He was here yesterday, at the front gate. I don’t think he’s been back this morning?” Both Cal and Ari shook their heads in answer to her implied question.
“His car was forty minutes away when I last checked a half-hour ago,” Cal said without looking up from his work.
Banner was talking, and she quickly brought her attention back to him. “How many...ah, pseudo-agents are there?”
Ari obviously heard the question and said, “We have eyes on fourteen, but there are probably double that number.”
“Twenty-eight-ish,” she reported back to Banner.
“What’s the layout?” he immediately shot back at her. “Where are you in relation to the agents?”
“Uh...just a second.” Holding the phone out toward Ari, she asked, “Could you take this? I’m thinking you’ll be better at describing what’s where—and who’s where.”
He accepted the cell without hesitation, quickly barking out specifics on where the lab agents were posted, as well as a rough verbal sketch of the lodge. There was a pause, during which Daphne assumed Banner was asking something, and then Ari said, “It doesn’t matter who I am right now. We can discuss that after everyone’s safe.” He pushed the button to end the call and turned off her phone.
She stared at the dormant cell. “Um, was he done talking?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Ari made an adjustment to one of the camera angles. “I was
done.”
There really wasn’t anything to say to that, so Daphne just leaned back against Benjy and worried.
“I’m opening the front gate,” Ari stated, his eyes fixed on one of the monitors. “All the bad guys are already inside. Might as well give the FBI open access.”
Daphne cringed at the hollowness in his tone. The lodge, with all its alarms and bunkers, would never be a safe hiding place again. Guilt curdled in her belly as she wished she’d never returned to Denver and brought everyone under fire.
“Quit blaming yourself, Grace.” When Ari spoke, Daphne was startled. He wasn’t even looking at her, yet it was as if he was reading her mind. “I started this by grabbing you and bringing you here. This is on me, not you.”
Benjy squeezed her in a gesture she took as agreement. Only slightly soothed, she watched the monitors as the minutes ticked by with agonizing slowness. It was closer to forty minutes when Cal finally sat back.
“Got it,” he said with grim satisfaction, as a hushed male voice saying something about holding position in the west quadrant broke the silence filling the workshop.
“Good.” Ari gave a tight nod, his eyes still focused on the monitors. “We’ll hear when they start moving in.”
After another interminable period of waiting for the agents’ infrequent radio transmissions, Lauren stood.
“I’ve had enough of being the useless damsel in distress,” she announced, turning to Daphne. “How about you?”
“Definitely,” Daphne agreed, nodding. “What can we do?”
“Stay here and out of fucking danger,” Cal growled, and Ari grunted his agreement.
“We won’t leave the lodge.” Lauren didn’t seem at all intimidated by the guys. “We could bar the doors or collect weapons or peek out the windows to see if we can get a visual... There’s got to be something useful we can do without putting ourselves in danger.”
