Behind her, she heard movement as the men shifted in their seats. To watch her, she wondered? Someone cleared their throat. “I’ll take two.”
She heard the slap of cards on the table and a miniscule amount of relief went through her.
“I think we’re going to have to risk following the coast line of the mainland if we want to make time,” Jesse said slowly. “They know we got Dr. Wagner. They’ll also know we had the chance to question him. They’re bound to be expecting us. I can’t see any benefit to us in giving them more time to prepare.”
Mainland? What mainland? Erin wondered as she knelt in front of the cabinet and began to shuffle the books and magazines absently. She hadn’t seen a sign of land in days. She was fairly certain they’d been heading south, south east, though. Cuba?
There wasn’t a great selection of books and magazines. Even if she’d been really interested in finding reading material she would’ve been hard pressed to find anything to her taste. Did the woman never read anything but medical journals and animal magazines? Cripes! Talk about obsessive! The selection of books wasn’t any better. Those were about animals too.
Finally, more for something to do with her hands than anything else, she picked out a couple of nature magazines and took a copy of The Call of the Wild, closed the cabinet, and stood once more. After studying the couch speculatively for several moments, she decided she’d had enough excitement for one night. Her heart simply couldn’t take planting her ass on the couch and pretending to ignore the room full of Lycans while they pretended to ignore her and stared holes through her when they thought she wouldn’t notice.
Without glancing toward any of them, she tucked the book and magazines beneath her arm and headed out again. She was shaking so badly with reaction by the time she’d gotten to the end of the corridor she was grateful to reach her own cabin again.
Dropping the reading materials on the floor by the bed, she stripped down to her panties and t-shirt, crawled into the bunk, and pulled the covers over herself. She was running out of time and she was completely out of ideas.
Chapter Ten
Ain’t never seen two people mope so much in all my days. Dere ain’t nobody here gonna bother you, chère. Why you always hidin’?”
Erin had been so deeply in thought she hadn’t noticed the man who’d stopped beside her even when his shadow blocked the uncomfortable glare of the sun. His voice penetrated her abstraction, though, and her head jerked upwards. “Excuse me?”
Tavain shook his head and moved to settle one hip on the railing. “He tole you you were his woman, right, chère?”
Erin blushed to the roots of her hair. She didn’t have to say anything. Her reaction was enough.
Tavian chuckled. “No need to be so shy about it, chère. It’s a natural ting. An’ we’re not like the humans. We know when a female’s been marked by one of our own. She’s off limits.”
Erin blinked. “Marked?” she echoed.
Tavian chuckled again. “Did you think doze were just love bites, little girl? Naw. For sure he marked you. Else how else he fine you, huh? Once done, cain’t be undone neider. So why you mopin’ here when your man waitin’ below, huh? An’ why he always looking like somebody been torturin’ him every time he look at you?”
As embarrassing as it was to be caught up in such a conversation with a man--Lycan--she barely knew, Erin was too intrigued by what he’d said, and too desperate for someone to talk to to send him on his way. “I guess that’s because he hates me,” she muttered.
Tavian grunted. “You think dat, chère? He hate you? Shore did go ta lots of trouble for a female he hate, doan you think?”
Erin shrugged. “He didn’t come after me. He came to destroy the research facility, and to get the baby.”
“So--not finding baby boy, he sling you over his shoulder and take four or five bullet holes to get you out of dere cause he hate you? Baby girl, dat doan even make sense to me, especially since I know different. I been tryin’ ta keep my nose outta his business, but seems to me the two of you ain’t got enough sense between you to work dis ting out widout a little push in de right direction.”
Erin couldn’t help but smile. “I suppose he confided in you that he was madly in love with me?” she asked doubtfully.
He shrugged. “Sort of did. It was me and Billy Ray find him after doze government boys fill him full of holes. Never seen anybody so shot up. Lycan or not, I was wonderin’ if he was gonna make it. He was outta his head for a while there, babblin’ ‘bout that place--an’ you. Mostly you. Finally figured out he was hurt more inside than those bullets did damage. He loved you so much de thought that you betrayed him was what was killin’ him. Had to start to hate to git through it.”
Erin felt a lump form in her throat. She grimaced. “I doubt it’s a love/hate thing, whatever you’re thinking. He hates all of us, equally, or maybe me a little more than the others, but I didn’t betray him, whatever any of you think. They used me, too. I’m not trying to claim that I’m completely without guilt, but it wasn’t me that did those things to him. It wasn’t my idea and there was nothing I could do to stop them.”
Tavian gave her a hard, penetrating look. “You set him free.”
Erin looked away guiltily, staring at the swells along the side of the ship. She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “That was as much for my sake as his. I couldn’t escape and I knew they wouldn’t stop until they were completely satisfied. And when they were done with us they would’ve either buried us in some government prison somewhere forever or killed us, probably the latter.”
“You love him?”
Erin felt her face redden again. “I don’t really know how I feel about him, to be honest. I just don’t want him to hate me.”
He studied her thoughtfully for several moments. “Some men, dare a man’s man. All de men look up to dem, wanna be like them, follow dem through hell if dey ask it, dare just natural born leaders. Some men, dare a woman’s man and all the women’s just migrate in dare direction when they come around. Jesse, he’s both. Everybody love Jesse. I doan think you’re an exception.”
She didn’t think she was either. “I haven’t had much chance to see the lovable side of him--except from a distance,” she said wryly.
“So try a little bit harder,” he said testily.
“How?” Erin demanded hopelessly.
He shook his head. “Women are supposed to know these things.”
Erin gave him a resentful glance and looked away again. “Well, obviously I don’t.”
“You got ta see somethin’ to want it. Quit hidin’.”
“I haven’t been hiding,” Erin retorted irritably. “I just don’t feel comfortable walking up to people I don’t know and trying to carry on a conversation with them.”
He grasped her arm and hauled her to her feet. “You know me. If you let him ignore you, he will. You have to make it so’s he cain’t ignore you.”
She wasn’t entirely comfortable, at first, even around Tavian, but after a few days she became more so. With no other plan to follow, she decided to take him up on his suggestion, though, and made it a point to move about the ship more openly, stopping whenever she saw Tavian to talk, whether he was with a group of the others or not. She found it was easier each time and began to feel less uncomfortable and able to actually join the conversation in progress. Inevitably, whenever she joined any group, Jesse left, but although she was disappointed at first, she realized fairly quickly that Tavian had been right.
He did notice. Any time she nerved herself to look around for Jesse, she discovered that he was watching--and he didn’t look at all pleased about it, but at least he wasn’t unaware of her.
She’d just begun to think Tavian’s tactic might actually work when they arrived at last at their destination.
Her first clue that they’d arrived was when the ship stopped and set anchor. Merely curious at first, Erin moved to the porthole of the main cabin and glanced around to see if she could see
any reason for the fact that they’d stopped. There wasn’t a sign of land, unless one counted the hazy line on the horizon which might be land and might be nothing more than a low lying cloud. She hadn’t heard anything to indicate the ship’s engines had broken down. She couldn’t hear a lot of activity topside either.
Her interest thoroughly aroused and excitement beginning to hum just beneath the surface, Erin left the main cabin and went topside. Tavian and Jesse were standing at the bow of the boat with binoculars.
“What is it? Are we there?”
Jesse and Tavian both lowered their glasses and turned to look at her. After a moment, Tavian nodded and departed as if he and Jesse had exchanged some sort of telepathic communication.
“We’re close enough,” Jesse said finally. “We’ll wait for dark before we go in.”
“I’m going with you,” Erin said, a little breathless from the adrenaline pumping through her big time now.
“You’ll wait here.”
Erin gaped at him. “You aren’t serious! I need to go with you to take care of the baby.”
Jesse frowned. “You’re a human, not Lycan. You’ll only slow us down.” Turning away from her, he lifted the glasses again.
Erin glared at his back.
She’d promised herself she wouldn’t pick another fight with him--or allow him to provoke her into a fight. She couldn’t hope to make any sort of truce unless she could manage to speak more than a dozen words with him without it turning into a battle of wills, or a shouting match.
She knew he was right. Jesse and the others were capable of shifting, and as beasts they could move through the woods at least twice as fast as a human could, maybe more, besides having far better night vision.
She was already turning away when he caught her arm. Surprised, she looked up at him questioningly.
“You’ll be safer here. My son needs his mother. I don’t want anything to happen to you and I can’t be sure I can protect you if there’s any shooting.”
Warmth flooded Erin, washing away the hurt and anger almost instantly. Fear reared its ugly head, though, fear for Joshua if he should be caught up in a gun battle, and for Jesse. “Do you think I’ll be safer alone?”
Something flickered in his eyes. “You won’t be alone. Billy Ray will stay to guard you and the boat, and also Kenneth and Zack. They can take the yacht into deeper waters if necessary, but I don’t think it will be. We won’t go in until its dark. Even if they pick up the boat on their radar, they’ll probably just dismiss it as local fishermen.”
“What if you don’t come back?” Erin asked shakily, swallowing against the hard knot threatening to form in her throat from the moment she’d spoken the thought hovering in the back of her mind aloud. A terrible sense of loss descended upon her. She could no more imagine the many years lying before her with no hope of seeing Jesse and Joshua than she could cease to breathe.
She knew then, without room for doubts, that Tavian had been right. If she could not imagine life without Jesse she also couldn’t deny to herself that she loved him.
“I will,” Jesse said implacably.
“You don’t that,” Erin whispered. “You can’t promise me something that might be beyond your power.”
The grip on her arm loosened. Time seemed to still. For many moments Erin was certain that Jesse would slip his hand up her arm to cup her cheek. He seemed to sway infinitesimally closer, as if to gather her to him and kiss her.
Near the stern of the boat, something fell, jarring them both back into reality, spoiling the moment, though it might only have been wishful thinking on her part. She would never know now for Jesse merely dropped his hand and stepped back. “Billy Ray will know what to do,” he said gruffly as he turned away and resumed his study of the distant horizon.
She stared at his broad back, fighting the urge to move closer, to make the first move if he wouldn’t. The need to feel herself cocooned in the warmth of his body, to have his arms wrapped tightly around her and soak up the reassurance of his strength and life was nearly overwhelming. Doubts of her welcome held her to the spot and finally she merely turned away and fled below.
She found she couldn’t bear the confines of the cabin, though. After pacing restlessly about the room like a caged animal for perhaps an hour, watching the agonizingly slow progression of the sun toward the horizon, she couldn’t stand it anymore and left the cabin, heading for the galley.
It wasn’t her night to cook. Billy Ray didn’t object to her abrupt appearance or her determination to help, however. After pointing her toward a pile of vegetables waiting to be peeled, he returned his attention to the meat he was preparing.
She had no idea what he planned to cook--some Cajun dish, no doubt, that would scorch the tender skin of her mouth and set her on fire--but she didn’t care so long as she had something to do. When she’d peeled the potatoes and diced them, she scooped them into a colander and rinsed them and then set them aside and started on the onions and peppers.
When her hands, arms, and shoulders began to cramp, she shoved a stray lock of hair from her face, stretched to relieve the ache and glanced out of the tiny porthole set in the galley bulkhead. They sun was sinking into the sea, turning the water and sky into a fiery red-orange glow.
Her stomach knotted.
They would probably wait until they’d eaten to pull anchor.
Weary now, Erin finished the last of the cutting and preparation and rinsed the vegetables, leaving them to drain in the sink. Removing the apron she’d donned when she’d settled to work, she headed back to the cabin. A hot shower relieved the cramping muscles and drained the last of her tension. When she’d dried off, she merely wrapped a towel around her and trudged back into the cabin, collapsing face first on the bunk.
The mattress dipped, rousing Erin sometime later. Still groggy, she lay still, listening for the sounds of a storm that might account for the rocking of the bunk. Instead, she heard the rustle of fabric. The towel she’d wrapped around herself was flipped away. A hand, large, warm, rough with calluses, skated up one thigh and then over her buttocks.
Her heart seemed to stand still in her chest. She tensed, waiting to see what he would do next.
She felt the heat of his breath along the cleft of her ass moments before she felt the nip of his teeth along one cheek. Goose bumps erupted, racing up her body and along her arms and legs.
She rolled onto her side, stared at Jesse, crouched at the foot of the bunk, for several moments and lifted a hand to him in invitation. Releasing a gusty sigh, he surged toward her, settling the weight of his body along hers, twining one long leg around her and dragging her lower body tightly against his.
His cock, hard and erect already, dug into her belly. She arched against it, slipping an arm around his waist and cupping and massaging his buttocks.
He was deliciously bare. A faint smile curled her lips as she familiarized herself with his upper chest and neck, tracing a path along his hard male breasts and upward to his throat with her mouth, tongue, and the edge of her teeth while she explored his back with one hand, feeling the rounded, puckered scars that dotted his flesh. She tried not to think about that.
He’d expected a welcome.
She was ok with that, better than ok. If she’d known all she had to do was sleep naked….
His lips beckoned. She teased the corners with light kisses then nipped her way across his full lower lip. He sank his fingers into her hair, cupping the back of her skull as he opened his mouth over hers in a deep, scorching kiss. Pleasure erupted in her veins like wildfire. His taste and scent invaded her senses like a heady drug as he thrust his tongue into her mouth and raked it along hers. Heat washed over her, made her skin tingle with acute sensation, keen awareness of the touch of his flesh against hers.
She wrapped an arm around his neck, pressing her breasts tightly against his chest. They swelled, growing heavy as her need increased. Her nipples puckered into hard nubs.
Groaning, he broke the kiss
, releasing the fistful of hair he’d captured and stroked his hand down her back, catching one of her thighs and dragging it across his hips. The head of his cock nudged against her clit, evoking a riot of sensations. She undulated against it, increasing the pressure, feeling her belly clench as a warm wetness bathed her sex in anticipation of his possession. When he shifted and his cock slipped along her cleft, however, she pulled slightly away.
She was determined this would be a night he wouldn’t forget.
Pushing against his shoulders until he rolled onto his back, she shifted over him.
He was staring at her quizzically when she lifted her head to look at him. A smile curled her lips. “I read a hooker’s guide to giving head once,” she murmured. “Want to see if I mastered it?”
His lips twitched. Without a word, he folded his hands beneath his head.
Taking that as consent, Erin began to work her way down his body with a slow thoroughness that left no part of him unexplored. By the time she’d reached his cock, beads of sweat had broken from his pores and his body twitched with feverish heat. Coming up on her knees, she bent over his hips, wrapping one hand tightly around his shaft, stroking him from the root to the tip over and over, first the underside and then the top, taking care that she massaged every inch of his exquisitely sensitive shaft thoroughly.
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