A sense of satisfaction filled her as his fingers clenched on the sheets on either side of his hips, fisting and relaxing rhythmically. His breath caught in his chest, was expelled harshly and sucked in again. His belly quivered. The muscles all over his body tensed, trembled with his effort to remain still and passive to her ministrations.
Heat flooded Erin. Her throat closed with an unnamable thirst. She stared at the cock in her hands, resisting the urge to cover it with her mouth and suck him.
Switching hands, she continued to stroke his cock and began to gently massage his testicles. He jerked, his shoulders coming off the bed. With an obvious effort, he lay back. His hands moved over her shoulders, stroking her, and then clutched the sheets again.
Erin felt her belly clench. Her throat tightened as she felt the heat of his need washing over her.
“Chère,” he muttered on a harsh breath.
“Shhh,” Erin murmured soothingly, leaning down at last to place her mouth over his cock.
A harsh groan erupted from his throat. He went rigid, began to thrash restlessly. His cock jerked in her mouth, as if he would explode in that moment.
Erin’s belly clenched with her own ravaging need.
Abruptly, he bolted upright, grasped her shoulders and shoved her back onto the mattress. Almost before she’d caught her breath, he was driving into her. His cock head slid almost along her cleft and plowed into the mouth of her sex.
Planting the soles of her feet on the mattress, she lifted to meet him.
Mindless with his need and completely beyond control, he pumped into her again and again until she felt the root of his cock grinding against her. His frantic need surged into her, sent her own control spiraling beyond her grasp. She curled her fingers into his arms, dug her nails in, meeting each thrust with a burgeoning sense of desperation.
When he stilled abruptly, dragging in a harsh breath, Erin lost the battle to stave off her release. Groaning, she bucked against him as she felt her body begin to convulse in waves of ecstasy. Slipping an arm beneath her hips, he began to thrust hard and fast, uttering a guttural cry as his own body exploded with release.
* * * *
Erin pretended she was asleep when Jesse eased from beneath the covers and dressed. She was fairly sure she couldn’t go up on deck and watch him leave without behaving badly and making everyone, Jesse included, uncomfortable.
It was better this way. If she felt like crying, she could cry without having to consider whether it would worry anyone else.
She almost gave up the pretense when he’d finished dressing and stood beside the bed staring down at her for what seemed a very long time. Finally, he merely turned and left, closing the door quietly behind him.
She turned onto her back then and lay listening to the sounds around her. Even without the distant sound and vibration of the engine, she could tell the ship was moving. The closer it came to shore, the more violently waves battered the hull and the ship bobbed in the water. Abruptly the engine stopped. The ship didn’t. For what seemed an endless time it glided silently through the water. Finally, she heard the sound of the anchor being released. The forward glide slowed and finally ceased altogether.
Hearing the Lycans moving about on the upper deck, Erin threw the covers off at last and got up. To her disappointment, she saw nothing from the cabin’s porthole but winking stars and the ripple of their light on the water.
She wouldn’t be able to watch them leave. The ship was facing the wrong direction for that.
Feeling a sudden need to catch one last glimpse of Jesse, Erin began to scramble for clothes, dragging them on haphazardly and then dashing from the cabin and along the gangway. Silence had fallen by the time she reached the deck. She rushed to the starboard railing anyway, peering through the darkness toward the darker shape some distance away rimmed by a pale ribbon of sand. She’d almost given up the effort to find them when her gaze finally lit upon a dark shape moving through the water. She studied it hard. After a time, she thought she could make out the individual shadows crowded into the dingy.
She couldn’t tell which of them was Jesse, though.
“They will be back before dawn.”
Erin glanced at the man who’d come to stand beside her. “You think?”
He leaned down, bracing his arms on the railing. “Tonight they will only reconnoiter the place. Tomorrow, or the next day, or maybe even the day after that, they will sweep through it, destroy all the data that has been collected, and be out again before the Feds know what’s hit them.”
Erin frowned as she studied Billy Ray. “Jesse didn’t tell me that.”
“No?” Billy Ray grinned. “Maybe he get carried away by the worry in his lady’s eyes, no?”
Meaning he was too busy enjoying himself to consider her feelings? She knew, suddenly, that that was not the case. He hadn’t said anything because he fully intended to go in tonight if the opportunity arose and she was pretty sure Billy Ray knew that.
He was only trying to distract her.
She saw the dingy had reached the beach. Dark shadows poured out of it and disappeared into the thick jungle vegetation that edged the ribbon of sand.
With an effort, she forced a smile to reward Billy Ray for his efforts to reassure her. “So--even if he finds an open door, he’s just going to look around and come straight back?”
Billy Ray shrugged, but grinned. “If they welcome him, then maybe he will go in and take care of business, but Jesse is no hot head, nor one to fall into a trap. He is smart, very smart. He will study the problem and pick it apart before he strikes.”
Erin nodded, realizing she was reassured. “We’ll wait here for them?”
“Oui, for now. If they are not back before dawn, we will have to move further from shore, but I don’t expect that.”
There was nothing to do but wait.
She was going to be a raving lunatic long before dawn.
She remained by the railing for a while after Billy Ray had left. When she could no longer bear the inactivity, she wandered about the deck, her ears strained to listen for the sound of distant gunfire.
She found no peace when the sound never came. Instead, her fertile mind began to torment her with other scenarios, of the men walking into a trap, captured, taken to the laboratory to be tortured and dissected.
Time hung upon her like a pall. The moon rose, but seemed to stand still in the heavens, not moving by so much as an inch. Finally, when she realized that everyone but the night watch had gone below to try to rest, she went below decks and paced her cabin for a while. After glancing at the porthole for the dozenth time, she decided to go to the main cabin. At least there she might see something when and if there was something to see.
She was sorry she’d taken a nap earlier. At the time, she’d been so exhausted from her anxiety she’d welcomed the chance to rest. Now she couldn’t even seek that modicum of peace and staring at the clock on the wall of the main cabin wasn’t helping her nerves any more than staring at the moon had.
Mentally taking herself to task for working herself into a mass of screaming nerves, she strode purposefully to the cabinet that housed Juliette’s collection of reading materials and dragged out a stack of magazines. After a brief internal debate, she chose the couch and settled with the stack beside her, flipping the pages idly and trying to focus on the pages rather than the thoughts teasing at the edges of her mind.
It would’ve been easier, she thought wryly, to distract herself with the damned things if they’d actually held anything of concern to her, but even the ads, which naturally enough were related to the subject of the magazines, didn’t pique her interest. She persevered, struggling to focus her mind away from her worries. She’d flipped through most of the stack when a sound outside caught her attention.
She froze, listening more intently. She’d just decided it was purely imagination when she heard a very distinctive thud on the deck above her. She was on her feet before she even formed the thought. T
hey were back!
Dropping the magazine, she strode briskly from the main cabin, glancing at the clock almost absently as she moved past it. Three O’clock. Three hours. A prickle of uneasiness went through her. She didn’t realize why, or what errant thought had caused the wash of anxiety until she’d reached the stairs and started up.
They’d only been gone three hours and it had taken them a good twenty minutes even to reach the shoreline from the ship. Could they possibly have gone, stayed long enough to see what they needed to, and come back in no more time than that?
Abruptly, the door at the top of the gangway was flung open. Erin stared upward at the beast that leapt through the opening and uttered a scream of pure terror.
Chapter Eleven
Jesse’s face was grim as they emerged at last on the beach nearest the island that was their objective. It had taken nearly two hours to reach this point, far longer than he’d expected. The island itself where the facility lay was a good six miles from the mainland, no great distance if they could have crossed it openly in the dingy they’d lugged through the jungle, but to cross with stealth would take more time. The moon was high now. They would have to settle and wait until it was nearing the trees on the western horizon before they could chance a crossing.
The uneasiness that had been plaguing him since he’d left the ship deepened, making his flesh creep. He’d struggled with the undefined anxiety that something was wrong ever since. No matter how much he assured himself, he was certain that it was nothing more than reluctance to leave Erin.
The seed she’d planted in his mind had been sown in fertile soil. From the moment he’d left her he hadn’t been able to get it out of his mind that she was vulnerable. Ordinarily, he would never have doubted that the three men he’d left to guard her and the yacht were perfectly capable of handling most any situation. He was certain the only reason he doubted it now was the fear Erin had planted in his mind that someone would harm her or take her from him.
He was almost certain.
Irritated, he left the men resting near the forest edge and followed the tree line a little further down the beach, sniffing at the wind and trying to catch the scents of the jungle. It was an exercise in futility. The wind blew almost constantly off the water, carrying scents inland.
If there was anything there….
The hackles along the ridge of his spine rose abruptly as a faint scent teased at his nostrils. Whirling abruptly, he raced back toward the others, uttering a warning call. Almost before the sound had ceased to vibrate from his vocal chords, a chorus of feline snarls answered.
From every direction if seemed save the beach that trapped them at the water’s edge, dark shapes sprang forth, leaping from brush and the overhead limbs of the trees. Something heavy impacted into his back so hard the weight and momentum of it slammed him into the ground. Claws tore at his back. Snarling, he twisted beneath the beast’s weight, clubbing it on the side of its head with his fist.
Any doubt he’d nurtured that the beast that had attacked him was no more than an animal vanished in that moment. The blow would have taken the head off of a man, crushed the skull of any jungle cat.
Blood shot from the creature’s nose and mouth, spattering him, the smell driving his beast mad with bloodlust. The adrenaline that surged through him in response magnified his strength. He bucked, breaking the creature’s grip on him and launching it into the brush.
Coming up onto all fours, he bellowed a challenge. Even as he struggled to get his feet beneath him and rise, three more creatures sailed from the tree limbs above him, driving him into the dirt once more, pinning him.
“Yield,” the creature on his chest bellowed. “We have your woman!”
It took several seconds for that to penetrate Jesse’s maddened mind. When it did, he uttered a roar of pure rage and fought harder, but defeat was already seeping into his mind. His ears told him the battle was already lost for the rest of his men. They were outnumbered perhaps three to one. Strength would avail him nothing at this point.
They had Erin. He could not save her if he allowed the madness to push him to a fight to the death. Abruptly, with a tremendous effort, he began to struggle against his beast, to find control.
“Release us,” he snarled. “We have no quarrel with your clan. We are here to kill the humans on yonder island and take back my son.”
“You have encroached on the territory of the panthers without leave,” the one who had threatened Erin snarled. “We do not take trespass lightly.”
“Our quarrel is not with the clan of the panthers,” Jesse growled as they hauled him to his feet. “And neither should yours be with us. Those humans there have taken the Lycan to build their armies. No shifter is safe if we do not destroy them, not even your people.”
“We leave them alone and they do not bother us,” the panther responded, but he turned to study the distant island through narrowed eyes. “You can tell your strange tale to Carlos. But I will warn you now he is in no benign mood and unlikely to listen to anything you might think to say now. You know the protocol. You should have gone to him at once and negotiated a treaty between our peoples. Then, perhaps, he would have given you permission to bring your war to our doorstep--and maybe not. But it is less likely now.”
Jesse lurched against the two panthers that held his arms. “There is no time!” he snarled. “If you have my woman then you know she has only just given birth to our son! They hold him there to experiment on him. They are breeding more!”
The panther’s eyes narrowed. “Si! I have seen your woman. She bears your marks. If it is as you say, why would she bear your mark? You chose her as your mate! Carlos is not likely to believe your lies, señor Lycan!”
Jesse ground his teeth, but he resisted the urge to argue further. It was useless to even speak to the leader’s lieutenant. Besides, if they had Erin he would have to go with them to get her back. “Take me to Carlos, then. If he is intelligent enough to lead your clan, then he will not be so stupid as to ignore a threat to us all.”
* * * *
Erin knew she was in a state of shock. As balmy as the night was, she was shivering uncontrollably. Clamping her teeth more tightly together, she drew her knees more tightly against her chest, shifting her buttocks on the deck to ease some of her discomfort from sitting on the hard surface.
To her surprise, the Lycans on either side of her shifted closer to share the warmth of their bodies with her. She glanced up at Billy Ray in gratitude.
At least, she thought it was Billy Ray. He had shifted into beast form and she had trouble distinguishing between the Lycan when they morphed.
“What do you think they intend to do with us?” she whispered.
His yellow eyes examined her piercingly for a moment. “They would have killed us already if they had been ordered to do so.”
It was some reassurance but not quite what she’d had in mind. She peered through the gloom at the creature that was guiding the yacht through the shallow waters of what looked like a cove. She hadn’t noticed it before.
She wondered if Jesse had, if he would find them, or return to discover the ship gone and believe they had abandoned him and others.
The screaming demons that had descended upon them were not Lycan. It had been hard enough for her to come to accept that the werewolves actually existed. To discover that there were others, werecats, was a jolt and at least partly the reason for her shock.
The assault had been enough to thoroughly terrorize her, though. Her own animal instincts had taken over from the moment she had looked up to see the great, black beast crouching above her, ready to spring. Mindless with terror, she’d whirled and raced back to the main cabin--the only avenue of escape open to her at all and that would’ve proven to be no more than a trap even if she’d succeeded in barricading herself in before the thing was upon her.
She’d fought it, too mindless to realize that her efforts were useless. She was bleeding from dozens of claw marks and the thing h
adn’t even tried to savage her with them or its teeth. She wondered if she had any cracked ribs from the thing pouncing upon her and slamming her into the deck. She felt bruised. Every breath pained her and every muscle in her body protested to the slightest movement.
Maybe that was why they hadn’t bothered to bind her as they had the others? They knew that, as a human, she was so frail next to them that she was already too battered just from being captured to present any sort of flight risk.
She held on to that thought. The hope that her weakness might be turned to an advantage was all she had.
The ship lurched abruptly as its prow dug into soft sand.
They’d grounded it.
Erin shot Billy Ray a panicked glance. Unless the incoming tide released it, they were thoroughly trapped now with no way to flee but on foot.
As soon as the ship stopped moving, the panther people who’d captured them swarmed upon them, dragging them to their feet. She screamed as she was tossed over the side. The sound was cut off abruptly as the air was forced from her lungs when she landed in the waiting arms of a man-panther standing in the water below. She was still struggling to drag air into her lungs again when the creature tossed her over his shoulder and began to jog up the beach with her. The impact of her ribcage against the beast’s shoulder forced the air from her lungs again and internal darkness swarmed up to swallow her.
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