“So, what’s up?” I asked as I turned and faced everyone with what I assumed was a passable smile.
Jade stood motionless with her mouth gaping open, her eyes wide, fixated on Jackson.
Perfect. That’s all I need.
I cleared my throat. Jade snapped out of her attractive-man-in-the-room daze, looking almost sheepish. I had no idea she could even be embarrassed.
“I have some computer equipment that needs to come in,” she said as she turned a bashful, uncharacteristic look toward Jackson. “Do you think you could help the driver carry it in?” she asked him. Her tone was too damsel-in-distress for my tastes. I, however, hadn’t seen Jackson or Kurt move that fast in two days. She wasn’t even directing her magical female Jedi Knight Powers at Kurt.
Maybe this is a skill I need to develop. I shook my head. Nope, I couldn’t live with myself.
Before I knew it, my living room was filled with boxes marked with companies I’d never heard of before. Once everything was in the house, Jade turned to me. “We need to set this up—”
I cut her off with a purse of my lips and a subtle shake of my head. Something in my gut tightened at the thought of Jackson knowing about my training room in the basement. Frankly, I didn’t want him to know any of my secrets.
When I’d purchased the house, I’d hired a contractor to separate the open basement and put in a room with a false door. I knew Amblan would be in and out of my house regularly and I didn’t want her to stumble on any of my weapons. I didn’t want to have to explain them.
The door at the end of the wall was disguised by the paneling that popped in and out like an office cabinet, then up into a roller along the ceiling. Behind the false door was a second door with a security keypad entry.
I hid targets, cloth mannequins, my supply of stakes, and a bow in that room. I was pretty good with the bow but it’s only appropriate to carry around a bow and quiver at the Renaissance Fair and . . . never. I had an oscillating spindle sander to grind oak planks into stakes and the arrows into sharp points. I never thought I’d be the girl with power tools.
Call it a hunch but I didn’t want Jackson knowing too much about me. Nova could do the heavy lifting down the stairs when he got here. Nova I trusted.
“We can set it up later, right?” I asked, leading her in the direction I wanted the conversation to go.
“Sure,” she said with a furrowed brow, narrowing her green eyes on me in a silent question. “Why don’t I come back when Danny gets here in a few hours?”
I nodded.
“I guess I’ll grab some dinner,” she said, uncertain.
“Would you like some company, Suga’?” Jackson asked with a cocky smile on his face and a swagger in his step that was predatory and very, very male. Kurt moved toward them. He was quick as he gripped Jackson’s shoulder to stop him.
“Jackson,” he warned. “We’re not off duty yet.”
Jackson glared over his shoulder at the smaller man with disdain in his expression and a sneer on his lips. Kurt dropped his hand and his eyes.
“You’re fine,” he spat out and took Jade’s arm.
I nodded for them to go. I wanted Jackson out of my house and I didn’t care if that endangered me or not.
“It’s all right, Kurt,” I said with the façade of a smile that I knew didn’t reach my eyes. “It’s only an hour or so until dark and everyone gets a little stir crazy. Right?”
He peeked over at me like he didn’t want any part of the decision. He gave me that I-guess glance and stood stone still while Jackson and Jade left. Kurt’s eyes never quite left Jade’s retreating form.
The door shut behind them and for the first time in two days, I breathed a small sigh of relief. “I really don’t like him,” I said under my breath.
“You’re not alone,” Kurt agreed.
I forgot that Kurt could hear anything I said anywhere in the house. “You want a beer?” I asked. A beer sounded really good to me. He shook his head but followed me into the kitchen anyway. I loaded the dishwasher and turned it on. I pulled out a beer and poured as he sat at the kitchen table and waited for me to join him. “So, Kurt, what do you do?” I didn’t know any of the werewolves that were supposed to be protecting me and I didn’t trust them. That was a problem.
“I’m a computer programmer,” he said, casually leaning back in the kitchen chair. The chair legs looked as if they might snap under his solid weight and I cringed as he rested his ankle on his other knee.
“That would explain the flexibility of schedule then, wouldn’t it?” I grinned as I sat down across from him. “You wouldn’t happen to know what all that equipment was for, would you? Jade said she was bringing some computer stuff over but I never imagined that she’d bring the whole store with her.”
He laughed and so did I.
With Jackson gone, Kurt seemed like a different person. He was comfortable, easygoing, and I was more comfortable around him than I’d been around any of my guards for days.
“It looked like a security system, some monitors and a lot of hardware, but I’d have to pull out the entire thing to get a good idea.”
“Would you mind helping her when she gets back?” I asked with a half apologetic smile. “She’ll need the help and she just ends up yelling at me. I’ve no idea what she’s talking about. I can use a computer but Jade’s on a whole other level.” I tried to sound as pathetic as possible, anything to keep from digging through wires, servers, and monitors.
He smiled at me with a delighted twinkle lighting his eyes and nodded. Things were definitely looking up.
I still had to clean up the General Tso’s though. I liked Kurt but I wanted my house back.
Chapter 6
I sat in the kitchen, silent as Danny paced back and forth, pounding his leg with his fist.
Kurt stood at attention with his back straight as a board, his shoulders back and his square chin high. He waited for Danny to say something other than a growl. Jade would be back any moment and that probably meant Jackson would too.
The chair screeched across the floor as I stood and both men tensed at my sudden movement. “Kurt, I think I heard something outside. Why don’t you go take a look?”
Gratitude crossed Kurt’s face and his shoulders fell with relief as he took a few steps backward toward the door. He moved as if waiting for Danny to call him back. If it had been me, I would’ve been out that door like a shot.
“He disobeyed a direct order,” Danny growled as the door closed softly behind Kurt, leaving us alone. The growl gave Danny’s words a rumbling guttural vibration that was incredibly sexy and resonated deep in my belly. The warmth of arousal crept over me and tightened low in my body as his ferocity crackled across my skin.
He’s ours, that voice whispered in my mind. He needs us.
I found myself shifting in my seat hoping that he was too consumed with anger to notice the increase of heat in the room or the smell of my arousal.
“Danny.” No response. “Danny!” I ground out in a dominant tone that seemed to ring through the kitchen like an explosion of force.
His head snapped up and his body froze at my words or my tone, I couldn’t tell which.
Then his gaze raked over me, wide in surprise. He panted. His chest heaved up and down with each intake of air. His eyes flashed amber, sparkling in the fluorescent light in the kitchen. Primal, angry, and cautious, he teetered on the edge of losing control of his wolf.
He wouldn’t hurt me. I knew that much in my bones like I knew that the sky was blue and the sun was hot. I took a deep breath and refocused myself, trying to ignore how his gaze affected me, how those amber eyes raked over my body with heat and hunger. My nipples hardened at the thought of the possession in his eyes. I trembled just knowing that he could rip the clothes from my body if he wanted bu
t didn’t. Heat seared through me as he clenched his fists at his sides. He kept his anger, his volatility, and his passion under tight control, so much so that I almost ached for him to let go.
“Danny, if you’re going to blame someone, blame me.” My words hitched in my throat, sounding rough and unsure under his delicious heated gaze.
His eyes burned with a pure amber fire. Ferocity rippled off of him in warm waves that made me weak in the knees. His power caressed me like he’d grazed his hand over every inch of my body.
“I saw an opportunity to get rid of Jackson and I took it,” I said, I sat back down in my chair with quaking, weak knees as I tried to ignore the burning in my womanhood.
“Dahl,” he said through clenched teeth. “It doesn’t matter if you put up a fight or not. He disobeyed me, his Beta. He has to be punished for his disobedience,” Danny growled.
Truth be told, I liked that, too.
GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF!
Ours, she purred again in my head.
“I understand that, but he’ll probably be back here in a while and I don’t want you two tearing my house up in some territorial, hierarchical bullshit,” I snapped as anger finally surfaced, percolating and mixing with the arousal, creating a heady mix of heat. I focused on the anger. I let the rage build in me until I couldn’t remember the need in his amber eyes or the thought of his hands on my body.
How’s that for control? Push the sex away with anger. That works for me.
Danny’s nostrils flared and the angry glare in his eyes disappeared, shifting to something hungry and desperate. Shit!
Danny stalked toward me, quick, soundless. Before I knew it, he held me under my arms, suspended a few inches above him. My feet dangled just above the floor as his fingers dug into the flesh along my ribs. His hungry amber eyes bore into me, burning a hole through my being. He lowered me, sliding my body down the front of him. Every inch of me pressed against firm muscle, warm flesh and a hard erection, dragging along his body until I felt his hunger pressed up against my thigh, my pelvis, and my stomach until my feet touched the floor again.
“I’m tired of playing games,” he growled in a course, strangled voice. His breath burned hot against my skin as he spoke, sending shivers up my spine.
I sucked my lower lip between my teeth and bit down. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted him to touch me. The heat pouring from his body called to me in a way that Patrick didn’t.
Patrick . . .
I’d promised him. I didn’t want to hurt him and I knew this, once it was done, would crush him.
I bit down hard on my lip, relishing the pain to keep the rest of my body still, to keep myself from reaching out to Danny and feeling his warmth beneath my fingertips. I craved him like I craved dark chocolate but somewhere down deep I knew I shouldn’t. I would hurt people I loved if I gave in to this need burning deep in my being.
Danny tilted his head down and crushed his lips hungrily against mine, prying my mouth open as he plunged his tongue deep in my mouth. He licked the inside of my mouth as if tasting me for the first time. His hands traveled, rough and hungry, over my body in frantic need as he clamped down on my ass, tugging my pelvis to him.
His kiss was filed with desperation. I could taste the ultimatum in the salt of his kiss. If I turned him away today, I wouldn’t have to turn him down again. He wouldn’t be there. I didn’t want that.
I relaxed into his kiss, his body, and his warmth, forgetting about everything else. I opened for him like a flower blooming in the sun. His muscles relaxed and his body melted into mine. His hands were so large against my rear end that they almost covered both cheeks, grinding me against him. I didn’t fight him to get free. I was tired of fighting. His fingertips dug and kneaded into the fleshy softness of my ass through my jeans and lifted me from the floor.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, clamping him between my thighs. I threw my arms around his neck in wild abandon as I pressed my heavy breasts against his chest. He tore his mouth away from mine with a frantic breath, finding my neck with his swollen, heated lips. He grazed my skin with his tongue and teeth, caressing me with his warm breath. Danny nipped that same tiny piece of flesh that was Patrick’s at the base of my neck, nipping, tugging it in between his teeth. I yelped at the sensation of pain and pleasure that shot through me, throbbing, burning, wanting. God, he felt good.
Danny carried me into the dining room with me latched on to him like a parasite. His mouth found my clavicle, and his tongue licked its way down my chest to the soft mounds of cleavage from under my fitted white V-neck T-shirt.
Danny braced me up against the dining room doorjamb and ripped my shirt over my head, exposing the white lace demi-bra and my half-covered breasts. He cupped his hand under my breast, forcing the soft mounds of flesh up and out of the delicate fabric and releasing my hard nipple from the confines of the lace bra. He licked the hard pink mound before sucking my nipple into his mouth.
“Damn,” I breathed as his tongue flicked again and again across my skin, sending fire straight to my sex.
He suckled me, rolling the puckered flesh between his teeth. My eyes rolled back in my head as the sensation of his mouth, his hands and his body consuming me. A guttural moan escaped my throat that surprised even me.
He whirled me in a quick, disorienting circle around the jamb, through the door and up the first few stairs.
“Bedroom,” he growled around my breast.
I writhed against him as wet heat flowed from me. His voice vibrated around my sensitive nipple with his growl. Danny tripped up the third step and used one hand to catch us as his tongue flicked over my nipple like a lollipop, in long, delicious strokes. He set my ass down on the stairs, gentle and with care that the passion pulsing through me didn’t dictate. I set my feet down on the bottom step as his hands stroked down every curve of my body.
He knelt between my thighs, gazing up at me with wonder. I didn’t want to see wonder. I wanted to see white-hot desire staring back at me. I reached for the buttons of his dress shirt like he was on fire. The buttons slipped through my grasp as my fingers fumbled and tripped over each other clumsily when I tried to hurry through the motions. I wanted to touch his skin and feel the hot fire of him beneath my fingertips. I yearned for it.
He laughed a sweet, contented chuckle and pulled the shirt apart, scattering buttons across the hardwood floor. The smile turning up the corners of his lips became intense and voracious as he gazed down at me. I ran my hands down his smooth, chiseled chest. His skin was tanned a wonderful golden brown, like he’d been kissed by the sun. His body tingled with heat as my fingers traced his contours.
He crushed me in a kiss that took my breath away. His tongue danced with mine, entangling and caressing as he tasted me. He fumbled with the button and zipper of my jeans with thick eager fingers. I grasped the banister and wrought iron spindles for support to keep from sliding down the stairs as he tore off my jeans. I reached between us and unfastened his jeans in half the time.
He slid out of his jeans and shamrock-covered boxers in one slick movement. Yep, he was getting lucky all right.
Danny knelt before me nude and not at all self-conscious. He trailed his strong fingers across my calf and up my thigh, grazing hot lines of need across my skin. His touch was soft but teasing, sliding his index fingers in-between me and my panties. He caressed the hot warmth nestled between my thighs as I shimmied out of the white cotton panties, tossing them ceremoniously over the banister with a quick flick of my wrist. He lifted my left leg and pressed his chest against the back of my thigh, burning my skin with the contact of his body. The pressure was strong and just this side of painful as he leaned his heavy body against me. My legs quivered at the thought of all that power hovering above me. He held himself under tight control, tension rippling through his shoulders as he held himself there.
I sucked air through my teeth and fluttered my eyes in anticipatory ecstasy at the feel of him just out of reach, warm and probing. I ached for him to breech that last wall and thrust, sinking his shaft deep into my warmth.
“I love you,” he huffed, emotion making his voice gruff.
I grabbed a chunk of his hair and pulled his luscious mouth down to meet mine. I didn’t want to think too hard about love or commitment, about anything. I just wanted him, his warmth, and his life inside me.
Danny plunged his tongue inside my mouth as he broke that barrier at our groins. The thunderous force of his first thrust rocked through me.
Danny fought for every inch until he was as far as he could go, moving at a slow, determined, and agonizing pace. The tip of him tickled deep in me, making me cry out in both pain and pleasure.
“You’re so tight,” he growled in my ear, his hot breath gliding down my neck and tingling my skin with his energy. Each forceful stroke brought his testicles thumping against me, patting my ass in a constant slap of flesh on flesh. It felt good. He felt good. A flash of Patrick struck like lightning through my mind but I locked him away in the little black box deep in my mind with the rest of the guilt I didn’t want to deal with. Patrick was safe there from me.
Mine, she growled through my mind, clearing everything else away. All that I understood in that moment was the touch of Danny’s skin and the smell of the forest as it encircled me.
I slid my hands down over his smooth, tanned chest, scraping my nails over his perfect skin and relishing the look of contentment that lingered in his eyes as he watched. I inched my hands around his slender hips and over his rounded, firm ass, pulling him to me. I wanted all of him inside me. I wanted to be the one who could take it and for him to remember that it was me. I tilted my hips up to take him in fully, deeper than was comfortable to accommodate his size.
Midnight Ash (A Blushing Death Novel) Page 7
