Atonement: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book One)

by Morgan Kelley

  Oh, she was enjoying it too.

  In fact, there was something completely different about married sex. Yes, it was the same person, but every time she saw that ring on his finger, her heartbeat quickened.

  She hoped his did too.

  “Please,” she begged.

  He loved her breathy little gasps. They called to him. Normally, he wanted to be so very gentle with her, but deep down, he could feel the sleeping beast waking.

  He hoped she meant wild because he was going to take them both there. In his mind, he pictured what he wanted from his sexy wife. It turned him on, making him want to take more and more from her.

  He wanted her to cum.

  With those big, rough fingers, he rubbed and rubbed until she was shaking. When she was on the cusp of cumming for him, he roughly flicked his finger and she tumbled.

  Stella felt the world explode around her, and he held her up when her legs threatened to give way.

  That gasp of pleasure made him wild.

  Zayn had never let this part of him free. He’d caged that need for the longest time until he found the one woman he longed to share it with.

  She set the beast in him free.

  Stella leaned into him, her arms going up and around his neck.

  He had the perfect view down the line of her body.

  He wanted a different view. Zayn forcefully held Stella against him, so her back was pressed tightly to his torso. He wanted his wife to feel what she continually did to him.

  He was hard.

  Desperate.

  Crazed.

  His Stella had the power to destroy his control. For years he abstained, and now…he couldn’t.

  He was dying to sink his body into hers.

  Stella was his drug, and he couldn’t wait to have that first long, tight stroke into her body.

  “Oh, my sweetness, you make me crazy,” he whispered as his mouth left bites across her shoulders.

  She whimpered. “More,” she begged.

  It made his dick throb.

  As his lips traced the long line of her shoulders, like hers had done, his hands found her breasts.

  They were amazing.

  He cupped them, enjoying the way they felt in his hands as he rubbed her nipples between his thumb and forefinger.

  She moaned as he tugged, played, and teased.

  The slide of silky flesh against his rough skin was erotic and so delicious, that he knew he wouldn’t last long.

  “Tell me what you want,” he hissed in her ear.

  “You. I want you!”

  Zayn loved the power he had in that moment.

  His woman.

  His wife.

  Only his.

  When her breathy gasps filled the air, as she begged for him to take her, he wanted something more.

  Turning her, he stared into her eyes. “I need your mouth on my dick.”

  He shoved her down, burying his hand in her hair. When she blew across his erection, he moaned. “Stella! God! Please!”

  The power switched.

  She now had control.

  Using her hand and mouth, she worked him into a fevered pitch. His legs were shaking in response to her mouth.

  All he could see was his dick and then her lips. It was enough to make him explode.

  “I want to feel you,” he whispered.

  Oh, she was going to give him that and so much more. She wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.

  Standing, she led him to the big bed in the corner of the room. Grabbing some roses, she ripped them from the stem and tossed them onto the bed.

  “It is our wedding night. Let’s make it good.”

  He laughed—until she shoved him onto the bed and joined him.

  “You said you needed practice. Let’s see how long you can resist,” she said, licking him like a lollipop.

  “Jesus!”

  When her mouth found him again, he had to look away and stare up at the ceiling. As Stella’s lips and tongue moved across his dick, he swore there was no better feeling in the world.

  Then she started stroking him with her hand too.

  Christ!

  This was hard.

  No, he was hard.

  Resisting was impossible.

  With each glide of her mouth, Zayn was one step closer to losing it.

  Literally.

  The pleasure wrapped around him like a velvet vice, and it refused to let him go.

  His wife knew his body well.

  In the short time they’d been together, she’d learned how to destroy his control.

  “Stella,” he whispered. If he looked down at her, he was pretty sure he’d lose it. He could hear the wet sound of her mouth swallowing and releasing his erection, and the visual just might kill him.

  “You win!” he shouted, reaching down to pull her from his dick.

  She was surprised at first, and then so damn happy that she could push him past his control. That was one of her favorite things about her husband.

  The big, strong protector made her just as wild.

  She wanted to test her boundaries.

  “Got any zip ties?”

  He stared at her. “Uh, why?”

  “Why do you think?” she teased. Stella loved his face.

  “The fact that you threw that out there, on our wedding night, proves you are the girl I was supposed to marry. You’re a dirty pervert. I think I’m in love.”

  “Well do you?”

  “Unfortunately, no.”

  “Next time then.”

  His heart pounded.

  “Don’t tease, Stella,” he warned, slapping her on the ass. “You know that’s going to be on my list of things I want to try out,” he admitted as she perched herself in his lap.

  She laughed. “Me too.”

  Zayn was picturing it his head, and he didn’t realize she was positioning herself to ride his dick. When she sank down his erection, burying him in the heat, he nearly came.

  “Jesus!”

  She giggled.

  “We need to have a lot of sex so you build up your control. We wouldn’t want you to cum because then I have to get you hard all over again.”

  He stared at her.

  “We don’t?”

  She laughed, and he did too.

  Then she began moving.

  Zayn lost the ability to think.

  Speak.

  Move.

  Swallow.

  In fact, he couldn’t do anything that didn't involve his lower body. He was trapped in the moment.

  “I love you,” she whispered, beginning to move. “Happy wedding night.”

  He stared down, and it stole his breath.

  “I love you,” he muttered, watching his erection disappear into her.

  She rode him hard. The only sounds in the room were of their breathing and the beads rustling against her flesh.

  Miraculously, he held on. Somehow, he managed to keep his dick in check.

  Zayn was holding his own.

  In fact, Stella was pretty sure that she was going to come first.

  “Zayn,” she moaned, as she began shaking around him.

  He knew it was coming, and he couldn’t wait. While he wanted to prove he could last, he wanted to erupt so damn bad that his body ached.

  “Cum with me!”

  He hung on, battling the need.

  When she came, her body tightening down on his, Zayn fought with all he had.

  As soon as the waves of pleasure had abated, he pushed her off his lap and stood.

  Stella stretched and smiled up at him. He had red rose petals stuck to him, and she couldn’t keep from giggling.

  He looked wild.

  Virile.

  Crazed.

  “Mmmmm, you’re really sexy,” she stated. “I’m a very lucky girl.”

  “Do I still get to run with what’s in my mind?” Zayn asked, picturing something so hot that he was going to melt in the New Orleans heat.

  “Uh huh. What do you w
ant?”

  “God! I want you so bad,” he said, his dick throbbing.

  “Then why don’t you take me?” she teased, begging for it.

  The lust he was feeling ran headlong into the sexy visual his mind had created, and he went with it.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Take me, husband!”

  Well, then, why the hell not?

  Zayn crawled onto the bed beside her, but he stayed on his hands and knees. She glanced over, and that’s when he struck. Stella was flipped over, and trapped on the mattress beneath him. She wiggled, but couldn’t get free.

  He licked her earlobe. “If you keep rubbing against me, bad things will happen.”

  She wiggled again.

  “Stella,” he warned.

  She didn’t stop.

  Grabbing her arms, he lifted himself off her and then drove himself into the warm wet heat of her body.

  She gasped at the invasion and then was pulled to her knees.

  “Now we’ll see who’s teasing who,” he said, watching himself enter her from behind.

  It was primitive.

  It was hot.

  It was hard to stay in control.

  “Harder!” she begged as she pushed herself back into his body to feel all of him.

  He held onto her hips, as he watched himself taking her.

  “More,” she whispered, as his breathing became labored. This was so incredibly difficult.

  “This is so hot.”

  She wouldn’t complain. “Take me, Zayn,” she urged, knowing what would set him off, and it did.

  He began pounding himself into her body—one hand in her hair—the other on her ass. With his sheer power, he was driving into her so damn hard he hoped he didn’t break her.

  Her moans said it all.

  She loved it.

  She craved it.

  Zayn wanted to lose it, but he needed to fall with his wife on their wedding night. So, he reached around to slide his fingers through the wetness.

  With his mouth so very close to her ear, he began teasing her with reference to the zip ties.

  She moaned.

  He moaned.

  Then, they began breaking a part.

  It happened.

  Zayn exploded, pouring hotly into her body. Stella took all he had to offer, wanting more and more.

  “Oh God!” she whispered, as her body shattered apart.

  Together they tumbled, the colors and pleasure swirling wildly around them.

  Neither spoke.

  Finally, their breathing settled, and Zayn went up on one arm. “Happy Wedding Day?” he asked, hoping he didn’t cross some husband line.

  How would he know?

  He was new at sex and this.

  She rolled over and wrapped her arms around his neck. “That was pretty amazing husband. Know what I need now?” she asked.

  “What? A nap?”

  She giggled. “More of you being wild in bed. I think I need another round for the wedding night.”

  He stared at her. “Seriously?”

  “Up for it?”

  They both stared down, and sure enough, he was.

  “I love being married,” he said. “I don’t think I can say that enough.”

  Stella straddled his hips, and when he moaned, she laughed.

  She did too.

  Chapter Twenty

  Chartres Street

  Monday Late

  H e was struggling with what he’d done. When he’d set that man free, dropping him into the gator’s feeding frenzy, it was the heat of the moment. He was angry that Sebastian had tried to put his hands on Sarah, and that he’d taken part in killing Zayn’s sister.

  All of that, along with the heat of the moment had pushed him past his comfort zone. What he said was true.

  He couldn’t go back to the law.

  From that moment on, it was over for him. You couldn’t carry a badge and consider yourself above it, or that was exactly what would happen.

  Now it was about letting it go.

  And he was suffering.

  When he headed into the kitchen, he found Odin hanging out there. The big gray wolf-dog lifted his head when he came in to see who was there.

  Apparently, he was on duty guarding the back door.

  “Hey, doggo.”

  Odin got up and headed his way.

  When Dakota grabbed some lunch meat from the refrigerator, it wasn’t for him.

  It was for the dog.

  “Sit.”

  Odin did, and he was rewarded.

  “I did something tonight,” he said, holding up some turkey. “I willingly took a life out of vengeance.”

  Odin offered the man his paw and was rewarded.

  “The worst part is, I don’t regret it. I would do it all over again,” he said. “That’s the issue. I was once the law. Now…I don’t know what I am.”

  Odin rolled over and was given some more turkey.

  Dakota scratched his belly.

  “Why did you do it?” Rogue said from the doorway. He had been watching the man handle his dog. You could tell a lot about people with how animals related to them.

  Odin clearly liked the man.

  “For justice.”

  Rogue came in and pulled out his chair. “Justice isn’t black and white, Dakota. You come from the side that viewed it as that, and that alone. There are rules, regulations, and that’s it. If you cross that line, there are repercussions.”

  He listened.

  “We were never the law. We’ve seen it from the other side. There are shades of gray, and you have the power to decide how you want to choose those jobs.”

  “You kill.”

  He scratched Odin behind the ears. “Yes, I do. Want to know what my last job was?”

  “Okay.”

  “I was hired to take out a preacher.”

  “This isn’t helping me.”

  “He molested a bunch of kids.”

  “Oh.”

  “So, I found him, I waited until he was leaving the church, and I took him.”

  “And?”

  He smiled. “And I gave those four little girls he hurt justice. The courts wouldn’t do it. There wasn’t enough evidence. The father of one of them wanted justice.”

  “And you gave it out.”

  “Sometimes, there is gray. Did I kill a man? Yes, I killed a scumbag who raped four little girls while they were at camp.”

  He thought about it.

  “You won’t go back,” Rogue said. “You’ll do what’s right.”

  He picked up the man’s badge he’d been staring at on the table.

  “If you didn’t lose sleep, you’d be a soulless killer. Why do you think I wander the night? Why do you think Zayn wanted to love a woman who was sweet and gentle? Our actions have consequences. That’s our atonement.”

  He whistled and Odin followed.

  “Don’t be hard on yourself. Do the right thing, and you’ll find peace in it. The law can’t stop them all, but you…you working outside the law can help level the playing field.”

  With that, Rogue was gone.

  Dakota picked up his badge and headed into the living room. At the tree Sarah had bought, which was scarcely decorated with beads and a few trinkets, he placed his badge at the top, where the star would be.

  He would be fine.

  Dakota was resilient.

  So were the criminals.

  Until they met their match.

  Apparently, that was going to be him.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  Tuesday Morning

  When he woke, it was his first full day as a married man, and he couldn’t be happier. While he knew it wasn’t a huge change, Zayn actually felt different.

  He felt…alive.

  As he lay there, Bourbon Street was coming alive below them. The tourists were starting to move about, and the day would be back to the normal chaos.

  Beside him, his naked wife slept, and he couldn’t help
but smile. She was curled into a fetal position, and he wanted to cuddle. Only, he knew he needed to check his phone. His watch had been alerting him all night that he had messages.

  How did he know?

  Because he was up having sex with his wife.

  Yeah, that’s right, he was boning the missus, taking one for the marital team, and hitting his personal hottie all night long. Yeah, he was a BIG fan of being a husband. If this was what it was like, sign him up for the rest of this life and the afterlife in the Happy Hunting Grounds.

  As he reached for his phone, he felt her stir beside him.

  “Please tell me you’re not in the mood for more sex,” she said, mumbling into the comforter.

  He laughed. “As a matter of fact…”

  She hit him with a pillow.

  When he turned to face her, Stella ambushed him, wrapping her legs around his hips so she could face her husband.

  HIM.

  The sexy Native in that bed was all hers.

  “Hey, handsome.”

  “Hello, sweetness. Good morning. I’d ask how you sleep, but it was a hard night.”

  He snickered.

  Stella rested her head on his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her.

  “It was the best night of my life.”

  “Do you regret your choice?” he asked, rubbing his chin on the top of her head.

  “Yes.”

  He stopped moving.

  Stella laughed. “I would have slipped some Nyquil into your food so I could sleep more than three hours.”

  He relaxed.

  “I know what you’re thinking, and I’m never going to say I regret marrying you, Zayn. Never. I’m so happy.”

  Yeah, he was too.

  But there was one thing they were forgetting.

  “Why do I feel your muscles rippling, babe?” she asked, looking up. “And why do you have not an ounce of facial scruff after a whole day?”

  He grinned. “Well, Natives aren’t hairy.”

  She stared at his chest, and he wasn’t lying. “That’s not shaved?” she asked, running her hands across his torso.

  “Nope.”

  “I’ve been a very good girl for years. I deserve this,” Stella said.

  He didn’t laugh.

  “Okay, what’s up? Other than you.”

  “I’m stressed and feeling a little tense,” he admitted, not wanting to lie to his wife.