“Not just yet,” she panted, as she pushed hard on his chest.
Knowing that Marisa would never have the strength to budge him, he played along with her and moved onto his back. She moved over him, sending a veil of long chestnut-colored hair around them. Bending down to kiss him, she straddled his body and Bradi fought hard to keep from coming too soon.
She rocked against his cock, and he could feel the moisture from her pussy soaking through their clothes. “Doc,” he pleaded.
Marisa laughed softy and moved slowly down his body. Tugging his shirt up and over his head, she looked at him like he’d always dreamed she would--with lust, passion, and he hoped, love.
She spread kisses on his chest, as she ran her hands over his body. “You’re so big.”
Braid chuckled. “Thanks ... I think.”
“Mmm,” she murmured as she ran her tongue out and over his nipple. “That’s a good thing, but it’s a bit distracting all day.”
Sliding his hand into her hair, he tipped her head back. “Why is my being big distracting? I would have thought you would like that.”
“Because, when I’m not thinking about you wrapping your large arms around me, I’m thinking about the way they’ll look when you’re pumping yourself in and out of me.”
The boldness of her words shocked him. Marisa had always seemed so timid when sex was brought up, but now his woman was blossoming before his eyes.
My woman, he repeated in his head.
“Bradi?”
He realized that he hadn’t responded to her and he ran his fingers over her cheek. “I like to picture you under me, your hair spread out, and your eyes locked with mine as I fill you with my seed.” Bradi waited for her to pull away in disgust or throw Pete in his face. She liked to do that after he made confessions like that to her. She didn’t.
Instead, Marisa inched her way down his body, leaving a trail of hot kisses in her wake. He was afraid to move when she undid his pants. It wasn’t until she’d not only freed his throbbing cock, but had laced her fingers around it that he finally exhaled.
Running her fingers over the head of his cock, her eyes met his. Her tongue slid out and over the tip of his cock and he thought for a moment that he’d lose control and come. Thankfully, he managed to hang on. Marisa brought her hands up and cupped his sac gently as she planted kisses down the length of his shaft. On the way back up, she began to suck gently on the sides of his penis. Pleasure burned throughout his body and his right hand shifted quickly to panther form.
Carefully, he pulled his hands away from Marisa’s head and was relieved to see that she hadn’t noticed the change. Her full lips hovered over the head of his cock and he watched as she took him into her hot mouth. Never before had oral sex felt so good. There was something about having Marisa sucking gently on him as she stroked him that made all others seem pointless. Like a waste of time and energy.
Her sweet mouth slid up and down on his rigid shaft and the second he felt her scraping her teeth up him lightly, he moved to get her off him. “Doc, I’m going to come. Off....”
Marisa moaned and drove her mouth down on him hard and fast, sucking with all her might. Bradi’s sac drew up and his body went stiff as he deposited his seed into her throat. She sucked harder, her eyes rolling back in her head, as she squeezed his dick tight.
“I love you, Doc,” he said, no longer caring about his pride.
She pulled off him slowly, kissing the tip of his sated cock before looking up at him through hooded lashes. Her cheeks were stained red and she looked as drunk as he felt from their passion. “Hmm?”
“I said that I love you.”
Marisa’s eyes grew to the size of half dollars and she shook her head slightly. “You mean you love getting your dick sucked, right?”
Hurt by the way she’d managed to take a beautiful moment and twist it around worse than a man, he glared at her. “Doc, no. I said what I....” The sound of a twig snapping caught his attention. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Quickly, he grabbed Marisa and tossed her on the ground behind him. He fumbled with his pants and managed to get them closed, before looking off into the forest. He moved quickly to his feet, but stayed crouched low to the ground.
“Bradi?”
“Shhh,” he hissed, cocking his head to the side, listening for any more indicators as to where the enemy was. “Come out. I know you’re there.”
* * * *
What?
Marisa sat up behind him and looked off in the direction Bradi spoke. Her eyes widened as she saw a woman so beautiful that she felt as if she should look away. Waves of dark black hair spilled around her and she wore the barest of coverings. A leather-clad Amazon woman was all that Marisa could think that came close to describing her.
The woman clutched a weapon on her side and narrowed her eyes first on her then on Bradi. “Bradiainn, I had to come and see if the rumors were true.”
Bradiainn?
Marisa looked to Bradi for guidance, but he remained as still as a statue. “Hello, Nina. I would say that it is good to see you again, but that would be a lie,” he said, a clear British inflection evident in his voice now. It was as she’d expected. He’d been hiding it.
The vixen laughed and Marisa shivered. Nina looked at her and ran her tongue over her white teeth. “And you are?”
Bradi put his arm out and pulled her behind him. “She is not important.”
Not important?
His words stabbed her in the gut. A minute ago she could have sworn that he’d confessed to loving her, but the coldness in his voice said otherwise. Hurt that she could mean so little to him, Marisa blinked back tears. She’d thought that they’d shared something special, but now she knew that she’d just been a vessel for his release and nothing more. Another one of his endless stream of women. A Bradi groupie.
“I did not ask you, Bradiainn. She has a mouth, let her use it,” Nina said, glaring at Bradi, her accent matching his. “Who are you ,woman?”
Marisa shrugged her shoulders. “I’m Dr. Marisa Langston, or you can just call me unimportant, all depends on who you ask. But, hey, he got what he wanted so what should titles really matter now?” She couldn’t have sounded colder or more removed from the situation if she tried.
“A doctor?” Nina asked, looking her over from head to toe.
“Yes.”
“It is a truth, yet not a whole truth.” Nina took a step toward her and Bradi growled. “There is more to you, Dr. Marisa Langston, so much more. What are you not telling me?”
“Leave her be, Nina. I’m warning you.”
Nina let out a rich laugh and motioned for Marisa to come to her. “I would like to take a closer look at you.”
Marisa made a move to go to Nina. Bradi turned quickly and seized hold of her. “No!”
Suddenly, men surrounded them. Some held swords, others guns, but all were aimed directly at Bradi. He pushed her back and began to pace back and forth before her. He took on the eerie feel of a predator and Marisa found herself backing away from him.
“Oh, Bradiainn, do you really think you can take us all on?” Nina asked, a slight smile on her flawless face.
“I won’t let you take her. He’ll not get his hands on her!”
Marisa wanted to ask who Bradi was talking about, but knew better. Nina looked at her and for a moment, their eyes met. The knowledge that if push came to shove, Nina would indeed kill Bradi hit Marisa hard. She gasped. “Don’t hurt him. I’ll come to you.”
Bradi rounded on her. “Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what they do to women around here?”
“She’s a woman.” Marisa pointed to Nina.
“She is certifiable and does not count. Her judgment is nonexistent and her ability to see truths is dismal at best.” Bradi snorted and shook his head. “Doc, tell me you’re smarter than this.”
Nina clapped her hands together and looked around at her men. “Enough, take them!”
“Excuse me,” Maris
a bit out.
Bradi knocked her back with his arm as two men lunged at him. He made quick work of them, sending them hurtling in the other direction. Two more charged him and one ran at her.
Marisa stared at the large man heading straight for her and let her instincts take over. She dropped down low and he just missed grabbing her. Swinging around, she knocked him hard in the back. For a minute, she thought that her eyes were playing tricks on her as she watched the man’s skin ripple beneath the two leather straps that covered his otherwise bare chest. When fur sprouted all over his body, Marisa screamed out.
“Doc?”
She turned to see Bradi’s attentions on her and not on the men attacking him. His blue eyes widened and his jaw went slack. Clutching his stomach, Bradi fell to his knees.
At first, Marisa didn’t understand what had happened. She hadn’t heard any weapons discharge, but when she saw the end of a silver blade sticking out from Bradi’s stomach, she knew.
“Bradi!” she screamed, running for him.
A furred arm grabbed her around her waist and lifted her off the ground. She didn’t need to look behind her to know that a monster held her. Her concerns were no longer for herself. All that mattered was that Bradi was dying.
Bradi reached for her and she felt her heart shatter into a million pieces. “Doc, I’m sorry....”
“Put me down!”
Nina ran to Bradi’s side and looked up at her. “Can you help him?”
Marisa ceased to struggle. “What do you care?”
Nina touched Bradi’s cheek lightly and looked back at Marisa. “He is my brother.”
The thing holding Marisa let her go and she ran to Bradi. Dropping to her knees, she assessed the situation quickly. He’d been run through by the sword and she could only guess how many internal organs were damaged. Bradi fell onto his side and reached out for her. A man moved up behind him and grabbed hold of the sword.
“No!” Marisa shouted. Everyone looked at her. “If you yank that out before we get him somewhere that I can look at him, he’ll bleed to death.”
“Pheebes, back away,” Nina said, her order stern.
“Yes, my lady.”
“We need to get him to a medical unit, fast. With the proper equipment I might be able to repair the internal damage and stop the bleeding, but we haven’t got much time.”
“It will take us at least three hours to make it back to the compound, unless he is able to....”
Bradi reached out and touched Nina’s leg, cutting her words off in mid-sentence. “No.”
Nina stared at him for several moments before glancing back at Marisa. “You don’t know, do you?”
“No, she doesn’t know,” Bradi said, as he coughed. “Please, Nina ... no.”
“She has a right to know, Bradiainn. If she truly loves you it won’t matter to her.”
Blood trickled out of the corner of Bradi’s mouth and his eyes locked on Marisa. “She does not love me.” His head hit the ground hard and his body went limp.
Nina turned to Marisa, her eyes wide with fear. “Help him!”
Marisa fought hard to stay calm. The urge to scream out in agony at the thought of losing Brady was hard to overcome but somehow, she managed. “Do I need to know anything about him, before I start?”
“Do you love him?” Nina asked.
Marisa opened her mouth to say no, but stopped. “Yes. I do love him.”
“He is a shapeshifter. A panther to be exact. If you can heal him to the point that he can shift, he will live.”
Bradi, a shapeshifter?
“Hurry!” Nina yelled.
“Leave us alone.” There was no way she was going to have an audience for what she was about to try. They stood quickly and she put her hand up to stop the one called Pheebes. “Remove the sword from him.”
Nina grabbed her arm and for a second she thought that she might snap it off. “You said he’d bleed to death.”
Marisa closed her eyes and let her powers build. They flooded her arms quickly and she knew before she opened her eyes that her hands were glowing. It always happened that way. The white light followed close behind the feeling of weightlessness.
Nina looked at her and nodded her head. She hurried the others away from them and Marisa put her hands on Bradi’s wound. Leaning down, she placed a kiss on his lips as hot tears fell down her cheeks. The gashes on her legs, that had been scabbed over but sore, pulled together. She knew it was working, but was unsure if she possessed enough power to save Bradi. She’d never tried to heal someone who was mortally wounded before, and didn’t want to think about what would happen if she failed.
“I can’t lose you, too,” she whispered as she pushed more of her power into his body. “I don’t care if you don’t feel the same way about me. I love you, Bradi Janelle.”
As the last of the light within her seeped into Bradi’s body, Marisa felt her own waver. She’d used too much energy, too much power attempting to heal him. “I will follow you, Janelle. If you die, I’ll follow to the afterlife. You stubborn bastard. I won’t let you go without me. I won’t. I love you and I won’t let you go!” Laying her head on his chest, she wrapped her arms around him. Suddenly, she felt fur under her fingertips. Knowing that he would live, she let the darkness come for her.
Chapter Eight
Bradi dabbed the wet cloth into the pan of cool water and wrung it out. It had been a weeks worth of revelations and worrying. It felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders when he and Nina had cleared up their differences. All he could think about when he’d been run through with the sword was that his father would somehow get his clutches into Marisa and hand her over to Stegian.
The very mention of the vampire made him shudder. The thought of his wife being subjected to Stegian terrified him. Once he realized that his father was no longer a threat and Nina was not in league with Stegian, he concentrated on Marisa. She’d been unconscious since she’d saved his life.
Wiping Marisa’s forehead gently, he felt someone touch his shoulder. He knew without looking who it was. “Lorelei.”
“Bradiainn ... Bradi. I’m sorry. I’m not used to calling you by your newfound nickname.”
It felt good to hear his twin’s voice. It had been so long since he’d seen her that he was almost afraid to look upon her. She’d been away when he’d awoken to find Nina at his bedside with news of Marisa’s condition, negotiating with the Neatalie village and had been summoned to return. “Nina tells me that you’re mated now, Lorelei.”
“I am. His name is Sevan and our child grows within me as we speak.”
He knew that as well. What caught his attention was the name of her mate. “Sevan Vasil?”
“Yes. Why, do you know him?” Lorelei asked.
Bradi kept his eyes trained on Marisa as he continued to try to bring her fever down. “I know of him. The Commission thinks he and his men are dead.”
Lorelei was silent for a moment. “We guessed as much. No, they are all, or, almost all, alive and well. We offered them the opportunity to leave, but all wished to stay. They think of this as home now, and we’re glad to have them.”
Bradi nodded as he continued to wipe Marisa down. “Is Christian back yet?” He hadn’t seen his childhood friend since his return and he hated to admit that he missed him. Losing Pete made him realize how precious and short his time with everyone could be.
“Not yet. He should be here by suns set. He’ll be happy to see you, Bradiainn. You two aren’t planning on blowing anything up again, are you?”
He laughed as he thought about the time that they’d accidentally set the kitchen on fire when they’d been ordered to help the kitchen staff as a punishment for wandering off into the forest alone. The Chieftain at the time, Christian’s father, had seemed so angry with them, but when they’d rounded the corner after he yelled, they’d heard him laughing.
Lorelei squeezed his shoulder gently. “Did Nina tell you of father and Jacquelyn?”
&n
bsp; Bradi’s stomach twisted in a knot as he thought about his baby sister. Stegian had managed to completely control his father’s mind and he in turn attacked his own children. Nina had assured him that Jacquelyn’s spirit still lived on around them, that Christian had somehow engineered a way for her to appear in the form of a hologram, but his grief wasn’t lessened. She’d been but an infant when he’d left. Their mother had passed while giving birth to her and he’d sunk into a depression. It didn’t help that his brothers had been forced to leave the planet by then.
Guilt for having left his sisters assailed Bradi and he hung his head in shame. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t here to stop Father.”
She let out a small laugh. “You weren’t here to stop him because we believed him over you. We believed that you, our brothers, were the ones making deals with Stegian, not Father. He had us all fooled. Had I believed you, my own twin, then none of this would have happened. I am sorry that he sent you all away. I didn’t know until it was too late.”
“I know.” And he did know. Lorelei and he had shared an odd connection since birth. Born of the same womb but not the same egg, they had shared the powers of their parents. Lorelei had taken after their mother who had been a high priestess, where he took after their father who had been mostly werepanther. His body lacked the colorful, tribal-like tattoo markings of the Shamenians, but he could not only shift into a werepanther where Lorelei could not, he was one of the most powerful around.
He turned and looked into his sister’s face and knew that she was reading him--scanning his mind. He didn’t care. He had nothing to hide from her.
“You love this woman, don’t you?”
Bradi nodded his head as he touched Marisa’s hand. “I do.”
“And she carries your child?”
“Yes.”
“Then why do you look so troubled?”
“She’ll never accept what I am, and even if she does, she’ll never forgive me for how she came to be pregnant.”
Lorelei moved next to him and put her hand on Marisa’s head. “You seem so sure that she’ll disappoint you. Why is that?”
Force of Attraction Page 7
