by Maya Banks
She moaned in response and spread her legs wider for him. Unable to resist the invitation, he let go of her nipple, licking it one last time before he moved his big body further down the bed.
His mouth hovered over the juncture of her thighs. He looked up to see her green eyes through the narrow slits of her eyelids. They glittered with need. Gone was the wall, the very visible barrier she’d worn the entire evening. In its place was a tangible yearning.
Gently, he parted the tender folds of her pussy. The pink skin glistened with the evidence of her need. He trailed a finger over the slick flesh, circling the soft bud of her clit.
Then he lowered his head and lapped his tongue over the quivering button. She jerked beneath him, arching her back in a spasmodic motion. He smiled but didn’t move his head.
He loved her taste, sweet and silky in his mouth. With his fingers, he spread her wider, allowing his mouth easier access. He circled her tight entrance with his tongue, enjoying each and every time he made her twitch.
It’d been a while since he enjoyed going down on a woman this much. He could definitely stay between her legs for the better part of the night.
As he dipped his tongue inside her pussy, her thighs clamped around his head, and she trembled violently against him.
“You have to stop,” she gasped.
Oh, hell no, he wasn’t stopping. He wanted to make her come in his mouth. He couldn’t wait.
He began to lick and suck in earnest. As his mouth moved back up to her clit, he slid two fingers into her pussy, stroking and gliding against the slick walls.
She let out an anguished wail, one that told him how hard she fought against the pleasure he was giving her. Her body convulsed and tightened around him. He pulled his fingers from her pussy and moved his mouth down, thrusting his tongue into the small opening.
She exploded into his mouth in a hot rush. He closed his eyes as she spasmed against his tongue. He licked and nuzzled until he felt her start to come down and relax. She finally went limp against the mattress, and only then did he raise his head to look at her.
She lay against the pillow, her long hair fanned out. Her eyes glittered, and her bottom lip was puffy, no doubt from being pinned between her teeth.
He ached to be back inside her, that velvet sheath of hers encasing his dick. Impatiently, he spread her thighs and moved up, shoving inside her with one hard lunge.
Her harsh exhalation shattered the quiet.
Unable to resist her swollen mouth, he swooped down, capturing her lips hotly. He forced his tongue deep, wanting her to taste herself, to know just how hard she’d come.
Her hands dove into his hair, wrapping tightly around the long strands as she held him against her. A sound of pure male satisfaction rumbled from his chest. She wasn’t tender, and he loved that. She was about to pull him bald, but he didn’t give a fuck.
He reached down, hooking his hands underneath her legs. Using his arms, he hoisted her legs higher, pushing her knees toward her chest.
The position sent him deeper into her, and he closed his eyes as he surged forward over and over. Her pussy still rippled with the aftershocks of her orgasm, clutching his cock in a staccato motion.
He moved his lips down to her neck again, sinking his teeth into the curve of her shoulder. He sucked in time with his thrusts, wanting to mark her.
She quivered underneath him, her body tightening with the promise of another orgasm. He smiled and kissed the spot he’d been sucking, feathering his lips over the area to soothe it.
Her nails raked his shoulders then dug into his back. He strained against her, trying to hold out, wanting her to come again before he gave in to the cascading force of pleasure rushing over him.
His eyes locked with hers. Then he bent to kiss her. Hot, open-mouthed, raging kiss. Their bodies arched and strained, and he captured her cry of release in his mouth.
He withdrew the tiniest bit then surrendered to the urge to bury himself in her again. He jerked his hips forward in a series of desperate plunges before exploding. He rocked against her over and over until finally he felt the firestorm begin to recede.
He carefully lowered himself until he was pressed close to her body. His chest heaved with exertion, and he gathered her tight in his arms. His lungs felt near to bursting as he dragged painful breaths into them.
After several long seconds, he reluctantly eased himself away from her and reached down for the condom. He tossed it into the garbage can by the bed then carefully pulled her back into his arms. He shifted so they lay side by side.
She breathed hard against him. Then she quieted. He could feel her heart beating wildly against his chest, but she didn’t make any motion to remove herself from his embrace.
He reached up toward the headboard and slid his hand along the wall until he felt the light switch. He flipped it, bathing the room in darkness. Then he settled down to wait.
She was patient. Eli would grant her that. He’d lain next to her for three hours feigning sleep, just as she was. She’d even perfected all the sleepy snuggle moves, occasionally stirring and nuzzling closer to him.
But he wasn’t fooled.
Obviously her back-up plan was to blind him with mind-numbing sex, although he could swear she never planned to take things as far as she did. It was too bad, really. It figured that the best sex he’d had in at least five years had to come with a woman who may well be trying to kill him.
Thirty minutes later, he fought the urge to succumb to a restful sleep. Then he felt her tense against him. Just the slightest bit, but he knew she was awake.
He willed himself to stay relaxed. He even managed a soft snore as she began to ease away from him. She took her time, moving in incremental spaces, pausing after each movement to evaluate his level of consciousness.
Finally, after an interminable period of time, he felt the bed dip as she got off. He listened as she gathered her clothes, and he assumed she got dressed. Then he heard her soft steps as she left the room.
He cracked one eye open to survey the room, but she wasn’t there. He stared up at the ceiling then closed his eyes, summoning the mental energy to shift to mist.
His body floated free from the boundaries and parameters set by his mind. A brief shock rolled over his system before he came apart, quickly reassembling into tiny molecules of water.
It was an addictive surge, one he never tired of. Shedding the constraints of his human body and embracing the freedom of the elements. It was powerful. It was a rush only rivaled by sex.
He hovered over the bed for a split second before shimmering from the room in his search for his mystery woman. He found her in his office rummaging through his desk drawers.
He settled in a small cloud just over her shoulder, intent on seeing just what it was she thought she’d find. He wasn’t stupid enough to keep important information just lying around, but she didn’t know that, obviously.
She cracked open his laptop, and after a few minutes of trying to access his files without success, she closed it. She pocketed the CD from the drive and moved on to the assorted papers littering the desk.
Suddenly she froze. She whirled around as if expecting to see someone behind her. Her eyes darted warily around the room, and oddly, she focused right where he hovered.
Her instincts were obviously good.
She turned back around, but her demeanor was cautious. She cupped something in her hand then suddenly rocketed from the chair and sprayed a tiny aerosol container directly at him.
“Shift your sorry ass so I can see you.”
The spray managed to blow him a couple of feet from where he’d hovered. How the fuck did she know he was there, and how did she know he was a shifter?
And what the hell did she hope to accomplish with her aerosol assault?
She eased sideways, her feet moving her closer to the door.
He streaked to the space between her and the door then materialized right in front of her, granting her wish. If she wanted hi
m, then baby, she’d get him. She just might not like the results.
He reached for her arm, and to his surprise, she allowed him to take it. Then she exploded in a flurry of movement.
She rotated into his body. His head snapped back as she connected with her free hand. She went completely kung fu on his ass, and in the next second he landed on the floor with a thud, staring up at the ceiling in shock.
She gave him no time to shift back. She was out the door in a split second. Crazy bitch had given him the fuck of his life, then laid his ass out on the floor.
He gingerly picked himself up, irritated and impressed all at the same time that she’d been able to get the drop on him. Okay, yeah, he’d been fooled by the package. Even as toned and fit as she looked and felt, he didn’t expect her to take him down with such speed and skill.
The question was, who was she and what had she been looking for? And the million dollar question was how the fuck had she known he was a shifter? That wasn’t exactly something he went around broadcasting. For that matter, how had she known where to find him?
He moved around a lot. Never stayed in the same place for longer than a couple of days, and yet she managed to show up in Singapore within a day of his arrival?
This didn’t bode well at all.
If she knew about him, did she also know about Braden, Ian and Gabe?
He walked back into the bedroom, rubbing his aching jaw. He delved into his jeans pocket to retrieve his phone and punched in Gabe’s number.
It was time to get the team together and figure out just what threat Psycho Woman posed. He wasn’t chasing her ass around Singapore, that was for sure. He’d wait until she quit running like a scalded cat and then he’d lock on to her position using the tracking device he’d planted when he was planting other parts of his body in hers.
Chapter Two
Tyana Berezovsky cupped one hand over the end of her pool stick as she watched Damiano Ruiz lean over the table to take his shot. The members of Falcon Mercenary Group were gathered in the game room of their island estate, a common enough practice between missions, but tonight things were strangely silent and strained.
Tyana had arrived back on the island a few hours earlier, and Jonah was itching with impatience to get a report on her mission. And what could she tell him? How could she tell him what had transpired?
She grasped a small glass in her other hand, raising it to her lips to drain the expensive whiskey.
She should be toasted by now. She’d never had a huge tolerance for liquor, well, not when compared to her brothers, anyway. But adrenaline still hummed along her veins, even a full day after fleeing Singapore. No matter what she did, how she tried to drown her rioting emotions, she couldn’t douse the wildfire.
Off to the side, Jonah Pearson and Maddox St. Pierre watched in silence as D lined up his shot. Jonah took a swig of his beer while Mad Dog carelessly rolled a joint before lighting it up.
They were all indulging more than usual. For D, it was an attempt to leash the beast within him that struggled for control. The injections Tyana gave him were helping less and less, a source of panic and frustration for her. There simply had to be a way to help him. Her encounter with Eli had proved that.
The crack of the balls connecting broke the silence, and D stood up, motioning to Jonah to take his turn.
It wasn’t usually so quiet, but an uneasy silence had fallen between the members of Falcon, and no one seemed willing to go out of their way to correct the problem. Jonah and Mad Dog were watching her closely, but neither would bring up her trip to Singapore in front of D. It was a secret they’d all decided was best kept from him, and instead they’d simply told him she was on a mission for Falcon. Which was the truth.
Mad Dog handed D another drink, and Tyana’s chest ached as she watched him swallow it down, his eyes flashing in pain. The muscles in D’s lithe body strained and spasmed. How much more could he take before he lost all control?
Tyana’s eyes stung with unshed tears, and she turned her attention to Jonah as he bent over, his dark eyes narrowing in concentration. He ran one hand through spiked black hair before returning it to the pool stick. With careful precision, he lined up his angle then banked his shot. He grimaced and turned to Mad Dog.
Mad Dog shrugged and ambled over. He started to set his joint down in a nearby ashtray, but Tyana held her fingers out for it.
He blinked in surprise, his blue eyes crinkling in confusion. But he relinquished it to her before turning away to the pool table.
Tyana refused to look at the others who’d stopped to stare. She raised the joint to her lips and inhaled deeply. She kept the smoke in her lungs for a long moment before exhaling. Then she took another long drag, willing the drug to numb her shattered senses.
Her hand shook as she pulled the joint away from her lips. What had happened to her in Singapore? Forty-eight hours after seeking Eli Chance out and seducing him, she still carried with her the burning images of their bodies writhing and undulating.
He was a job, nothing more. It was just sex. Nothing to lose control over. But she had. And how.
He scared the living hell out of her, and there weren’t too many things she could say the same about. She’d long ago learned to deal with her monsters. They couldn’t hurt her anymore. But this man…
And she had to confront him again.
“What the fuck are you doing?” D asked as he jerked the joint from her hand.
Her head came up, and she stared into D’s angry brown eyes. She could see the strain etched into his face. His battle was strong tonight, and she felt guilty for adding to his struggle.
“You don’t do this shit,” he continued. “What’s got into you?”
He turned around and stalked over to Mad Dog, shoving the joint toward him. “I’ve never had jack to say to you about the shit you do, but keep it away from Ty.”
Mad Dog held his hands up in surrender, his beefy arms bulging with a multitude of muscles. “She’s never wanted it before, man.”
Only Jonah studied her in silence, as if he could see the inner war she waged. She stood there, afraid to meet his stare, afraid of what he’d see if she did.
But now all three turned their attention to her.
She fidgeted slightly and moved toward the table, ready to take her shot. She bit her lip and eyed her target. When she struck the cue ball, it went sailing. Right off the table and through the window on the other side.
The sound of breaking glass made her wince. Shit.
“Everyone out,” Jonah barked.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Mad Dog hustle D from the room. A move D wasn’t happy about. But he’d had too much to drink to put up much of a fight.
Tyana laid her pool stick down and eased toward the door.
“Not you,” Jonah said. “You, I want to talk to.”
She closed her eyes and slowly turned around to face her older “brother”. No, he wasn’t her blood, but he might as well be. He certainly cared more about her than any blood relation she’d ever had.
She chanced a look up at him and found him boring holes through her with his stare. He crossed his arms over his chest. They stood, facing each other for several long minutes. She hated when he got all silent. He was a brooding bastard on his best day, but get him riled and he could be positively menacing.
Finally Jonah spoke. Just about the time Tyana was about to tuck tail and run for the hills.
“What the fuck happened, Ty?”
“Nothing,” she mumbled. “I’m fine.” They didn’t normally indulge in too much personal shit, and this was fast encroaching on her comfort zone.
“Bullshit.”
They both turned when they heard the door to the game room click open. Mad Dog ambled back in, his gaze assessing the tension between Jonah and Tyana.
“Where’s D?” Jonah demanded.
“I put him to bed. He’s had enough to drink that he ought to sleep well,” Mad Dog rumbled.
Tyana�
��s chest squeezed uncomfortably. “Is he having problems again?”
Mad Dog shrugged, his long hair rippling with the movement. In some ways, he reminded her of Eli. They both had a wild, untamed look about them. But where Mad Dog sported a row of earrings, Eli only had one. A single diamond stud in his left ear. Eli also didn’t have any tattoos, and she’d certainly seen enough of his body to know.
An uncomfortable heat centered in her abdomen.
The similarities ended there. Beneath Mad Dog’s tough-as-nails exterior lay a big ole teddy bear. He’d never hurt her. Eli…well, he was dangerous.
“No more than usual,” Mad Dog said. “I got him drunk enough that he wasn’t doing any weird shifting. He didn’t try to turn into a bird or anything.”
His attempt at a joke fell flat.
“What are you doing back here?” Jonah asked, his question pointed.
Jonah was used to giving the orders, and most of the time the rest of them obeyed.
“I wanted to know what the hell was going on with Ty,” Mad Dog said evenly.
“And I’m waiting for her to tell me,” Jonah said, turning his attention once more to Tyana.
“You guys worry too much,” she said crossly. If she injected the right amount of sour indignation they just might buy that nothing was wrong.
Or not.
“What’s going on with you, baby?” Mad Dog asked softly. “You’re not yourself.”
“Don’t call me baby.”
He crossed the distance between them and cupped her cheek in his hand. “It’s kind of hard not to call you baby when I remember the first time I ever saw you. All of twelve years old, all big eyes and more fear than I’ve seen since. Until now. Now suppose you tell me what the fuck has you so afraid again?”
“Mad Dog. Back off,” Jonah said.
Mad Dog slowly dropped his hand and moved back. Jonah walked forward until he and Mad Dog stood shoulder to shoulder in front of her.
“What happened in Singapore, Ty?” Jonah asked.
She looked down and then away. She squeezed her eyes shut, but all she saw was the way Eli looked at her, the way he commanded her body, the way he made her feel. Something she hadn’t done in more years than she could count.
“You’ve never come back from a mission like this,” Mad Dog growled. “You’ve been jumpy as hell and distant. What the fuck happened?”
“Spill it, Ty. Every damn word,” Jonah said through gritted teeth.
She turned her back, walking to the window that overlooked the ocean, the one she’d just shattered with the damn ball. She curled her arms protectively around herself in a mad effort to draw comfort. It was little wonder the guys were so freaked out by her. This cracked-shell person wasn’t her.
A warm, salty breeze blew in from the broken window. In the distance, she could hear the crash of the ocean swells. Moonlight shone and bounced off the dark sheet of water, casting an iridescent glow over the beach.
“I had sex with him,” she said in a low voice.
“You did what?”
She didn’t even know who said it. Both? She could hear two angry men heaving behind her.
Firm hands gripped her shoulders as Jonah turned her around to face him. “Why? Sex was not the plan, Ty. You were supposed to drug him. You were never supposed to take things that far.”
She looked away. “I slipped the drug into his drink, but he didn’t take it. I didn’t see another way, and I made provisions for that possibility.”
Mad Dog swore behind Jonah, his blue eyes flashing. “Did he force you, Ty? Did he hurt you?”
“N-no,” she stammered. “It wasn’t like that.”
Jonah directed her gaze back to him. “So what if he didn’t take the drug. Damn it, you’re a highly trained operative. Taking this guy out should have been a piece of cake. You should have never crawled into bed with him. Do you honestly think D would want you to prostitute yourself for him?”
She yanked away, tears gathering in her eyes. “It doesn’t matter what D wants. He’s done far worse for me. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for him, to help him. Nothing.”
