I pushed against his chest, and he moved back instantly.
"Hunter, please," I said looking into his eyes, the intensity of the blue matching the intensity of the heat between us. "We need to talk. I have so many questions, so many—"
His fingers came gently over my lips, "Shhh, I know. And I plan to answer all of them. I just... had to feel you. I hated being away from you, knowing that Caleb came after you. I almost went crazy knowing his hands were on you."
"How did you know?" I asked, surprised.
"Anael told me."
"You saw her? Is that how you got out?"
"Yes, somehow she found a way to get me out of there without getting caught. At least she hadn't when I left."
"So, there's still a chance that she'll be caught? Why didn't you bring her with you? Why'd you leave her there? Caleb knows she came to me. He could expose her at any time."
"She wouldn't come with me, as much as I urged her to. Believe it or not, you two are very much alike. Being stubborn must run in the family genes." I hadn't realized that his fingers were mindlessly playing with my hair as he talked, until they sensually slid down my neck. I moved out of reach of his touch and sat on the edge of the desk. I needed to breathe, and standing so close to him seemed to only take that away from me.
He conceded to the distance I needed and continued, "Anael told me that Caleb knows nothing more than that she stopped you from doing some serious damage to him and that she wanted to deal with you directly. She feels confident that he will obey his orders from her."
"Are you confident?" I asked.
"Caleb is a loose cannon right now, so I'm not sure. Either way, there is no forcing the Queen of Sheol to do anything against her will."
"I hope she'll be okay," I said quietly, almost to myself. Talking about Anael reminded me of what she revealed to me about Hunter, who he was. Now was the time to hear it from him.
"Why didn't you tell me what you were, Hunter?" My voice was even, but I couldn't look up at him. "I trusted you. I made love..." I couldn't finish, unsure if I wanted to bare my heart to him after how much he'd hurt me. I continued to stare at my shoes while I heard him come closer.
He moved my legs a little further apart and stood in between them. When I still wouldn't look up at him, he placed his palms on the sides of my cheeks and gently pulled my face up.
"You made love to me because you felt what was right, just like I did. I made love to you because I knew we were meant to be together."
"But it can't be right. We're on opposite sides of this war. You're a Seeker, and I'm a Guardian. Good versus evil, right? How could what we did be right? I mean, you were sent to kill me!"
"Not kill you, turn you. But once I saw you, I knew that I could never do it. And once I tasted you, I knew I could never be without you again. And I won't. I don't care what side of this war we are on. I would go against Hell, or even Heaven, to be with you. I told you, you're mine now, and I won't lose you to anyone or anything else."
His words cut straight to my heart. It swelled with feelings I'd never experienced in my life. I wanted to hear them. I wanted him to say them over and over and over again. And I wanted to say them back. But I knew it couldn't work. It didn't matter what we felt for each other. Life and death didn't stop around us because of how we felt for one another. It was a classic Romeo and Juliet story, which I knew couldn't have a happy ending.
"I have to go to the Elders," I said, defeated. "I don't know much about them, but I'm pretty sure they won't want you around."
"Stay with me."
"What? You mean in Hell?" I pulled away from him, fear taking over with what I thought he meant.
He stood straight and crossed his arms. The black material of his T-shirt stretched over the defined muscles of his chest and biceps, making him look overbearing. He squinted at me, flames of anger shooting from his eyes.
His lips curled back, "You really can't get past what I am, can you? I didn't ask to be who I am, Cassandra. You of all people should understand what that's like." The disgusted look on his face before he turned away from me hurt more than I expected. I felt like I would lose a piece of my heart if I let him take one more step away, so I grabbed his arm and pulled him back to me. There was a look in his eyes, and I knew that they were challenging me to prove myself. I reached up and pulled his head down to mine.
"I know who you are," I whispered, "and I want all of you."
He let me kiss him tenderly, my mouth silently claiming its devotion of love to him, while holding back an explosion of longing to have more at the same time. My hands went to his face as our kiss became more urgent, his mouth creating as much fire as mine between us.
His hand went to the back of my head and he eased me back on the table, as his tongue led a trail down my neck. He leaned over me and I could feel his hard arousal rub against my aching core. As waves of pleasure matched the friction of our bodies, I moaned in ecstasy. I ran my hands through his hair, grabbing at the short strands when the powerful sensations overwhelmed me. His hands moved slowly over my chest, down my stomach, and back up again. As his palms cupped my breasts, his head lowered to them. Through the thin material of my T-shirt and bra, he softly kissed my heightened nipple, before gently tugging at it with his teeth, creating a blissful agony within me as a strained tension mounted. He continued sucking, licking, and nipping at the tiny buds as my back arched, reaching towards the source of my ecstasy.
My body screamed to feel his skin against mine. I reached down and ran my hands over his bunched biceps, feeling the muscles change as his hands continuously sculpted my breasts. But the contact only seemed to tease my senses. I needed to feel more of him. Reaching to his lower back, I clutched the material of his shirt in my fists and attempted to pull it off him, but it was trapped between our bodies. I heard him groan as he pulled up from me so I could peel away the obstruction.
Like magnets on iron, my hands instantly went to his beautifully chiseled chest, but before I was allowed to really appreciate his exquisite form, he pulled my arms up to rid me of my own shirt. I closed my eyes, caught up in the feel of his touch as he freed me of my shirt and bra.
With nothing between us, I pulled him to me and we both sighed from the contact of our bodies pressed together, my breasts crushed against his chest. We kissed frantically, neither one of us able to get enough of the other. His hands slid down my back and sides, leaving a trail of goose bumps in their wake from the whisper of his touch.
He pulled away and looked me in the eyes. His were glowing with a liquid blue fire that seemed to lure me further into the trance he had cast upon me. His fingers stilled on the button of my jeans as he lowered his eyes, taking all of me in. When they came back up to meet mine, time seemed to stand still as he slowly unclasped the button and lowered the zipper.
A strong exhale escaped my lips that I hadn't even realized I was holding in. My heart beat rapidly in anticipation of what I knew was coming. As I raised my hips from the table, Hunter quickly pulled off my shoes, followed by my jeans. He kneeled in between my thighs, running his hands slowly up them. My hips squirmed, my body tortured with his closeness. He moved my panties to the side and I felt his breath on the sensitive skin.
"You're so beautiful," he breathed out before I felt his thumb softly massage the center of my essence. With my head back, I let out a small scream of pleasure as my hips lifted from the table, heaving with a will of their own, begging him for more. He gave into them as his lips replaced his thumb and a surge of sweet energy shot through my body. His tongue swirled and suckled at the tender flesh as I writhed in complete rapture against his mouth, every muscle in my body tensed to a level I knew I could not withstand much longer.
I looked down my body when I felt a splash of air hit my skin where his mouth had so expertly played. He looked at me, his face flushed with passion.
"I want to be inside you, Cassandra,"
His magnificent body hypnotized me as his jeans hit the floor. His stomac
h was lean and tight with muscle that teased my eyes to continue lower. My fingers were drawn to the hard lines of his nakedness, itching to follow the path my eyes had already created. I sat up and reached out to him, wrapping my hand around his large shaft. Hearing him growl, I looked up at his face as I stroked him, my other hand lightly feeling the ripples of his stomach beneath my fingers.
His arousal grew and hardened in my hand, and somehow I knew he was just as close as I was to reaching that peak of release. He reached down and cupped his hand at the back of my neck, bringing my head up slightly as his lips came down on my mouth. We tasted each other with a renewed passion until he pulled away and said into my mouth, "Do you want me inside of you?"
I answered him, not only with my words, but also with my body. "Yes! Oh God, yes!"
As soon as the words left my mouth he was inside of me, filling me up completely, the slick walls inside pulsing from the throb of his large shaft. He stayed pressed into me as he leaned back over, his face inches away. His eyes gleamed into mine with the softest expression I'd ever seen from him.
"You were made for me," he breathed.
I lifted my hand to his face and brushed my thumb over his sensual lips. He kissed it sweetly and my heart burst with a love for him I didn't quite understand yet. I knew there was no way we could live the happily ever after fairy tale, but that couldn't stop what we were right then. And if all I had with him was that piece of time, then I was going to savor it, every last second of it. At that moment, I was made for him, as he was made for me.
I pulled his head down to mine and whispered, "Only for you, Hunter. Make love to me." I kissed him, with everything that I wished we could be after our "piece of time" was over. He kissed me back with the same fervor of emotion, our mouths bonding together as if they were one entity connecting our entire souls.
He moved within me as we kissed, picking up a rhythm filled with desire and sending wave after wave of burning pleasure with every thrust. My body matched his perfect tempo, somehow knowing exactly how to heighten the euphoria. I felt him so deep inside of me, deeper than I thought was physically possible and it was sheer heaven. I had to pull from his lips, as my cries of pleasure grew too frequent. He drew back from me, slowly pulled one of my legs up, and rested it on his shoulder. Hugging the ankle to him, I watched as he passionately kissed the sensitive skin, his groans of pleasure vibrating against it. A tremor swept down my leg, met with the heat emanating from my core, and exploded into millions of electrical sparks that traveled to every part of me. He must have sensed my sexual tension at its peak because he thrust into me with a force. I cried out his name, while my climax erupted, his erection remaining inside of me. I lay on the table, in a state of bliss while the explosion settled into waves of throbbing pleasure.
He released my leg and leaned over me with a sexy smile. God, he was beautiful. I put my hands to the side of his face and just looked at him, my eyes telling him everything that I felt in that moment. As he kissed me I reached around and ran my hands down his muscled back, enjoying the feel of his soft, firm skin. I continued lower and felt the tightness of his backside and squeezed gently. He groaned in my mouth and began to move again inside of me. The pace of his thrusts picked up and he put his head in the crook of my neck, his lips pressed against it. I felt his rapid breathing mixed with his moans as he continued to drive into me, his shaft feeling as if it were becoming harder with every push. With one final thrust, he let out a long growl as I felt him pulsing powerfully inside of me.
We stayed that way until our breathing came back to normal, and I felt small kisses against my neck. Lightly, I trailed my fingers up his back and down his arms. He grabbed my hand when it had reached his own and brought it up to his lips, kissing the inside of my wrist and sending sensual shivers up my arm. His head came back over mine and he gazed into my eyes.
Brushing the backs of his fingers against my lips, he whispered, "I love you, Cassandra."
My heart swelled in my chest, as I smiled at him. "I—"
A loud banging on the door of the motel room cut me off. "Hunter!" Eric screamed through the door.
"I'm busy!" Hunter yelled back, not taking his eyes off me.
"Uh, look man, we got a problem out here that can't wait for you to... uh... You just gotta get out here!"
My eyes widened with dread at Eric's words, as I looked at Hunter. I pushed him off me and was about to run to the door when Hunter grabbed my wrist, sending me spinning back. "You stay here. I'm not letting you go out there looking like that." I looked down and realized I was still naked. I nodded and frantically started gathering up my clothes to get dressed.
Hunter went to the door.
"This had better be important, Eric, or I swear I will steal the Sword of Final Death and kill you myself," he said as he opened it just enough for him to look out, while blocking Eric's view of anything in the room.
My head snapped up from putting my shoes on as I heard a scream coming from my mom on the other side of the door. I was terrified from it at first, until I realized that Hunter was still naked while standing out in the open doorway. I was quite certain her fear came more from her seeing him in all his glory than anything else. I came up to the door and shoved his jeans at him while I looked expectantly at Eric and my mom standing outside.
"What is it? What's happened?" I asked.
Eric avoided my eyes and looked only at Hunter. "It's Nora. She's gone."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
"What?" I screamed. "What do you mean, she's gone? Where is she?" Panic surged through my veins as I looked from Eric to my mom, standing at his side, fear evident on her face.
"She said she needed to get something to drink," Eric explained. "I told her that I should go with her, but she didn't want me to leave your mom. She said she was just going to the vending machine by the office, and would be right back. I didn't like it, but she insisted." He looked back at Hunter. "When she didn't come back, I woke Sara and we went looking for her. We checked the vending machine and nothing. When I asked the office manager if he'd seen her, he told me that the vending machine was out of service, so he directed her to that twenty-four hour diner across the street." He turned around and pointed at a small building with neon lights shining through its windows, promising the best home-cooked meals served twenty-four hours a day.
A knowing look passed between Eric and Hunter that made my blood turn to ice. I had a feeling sweet apple pie wasn't being served over there.
"It's Caleb, isn't it?" I asked them both.
"Yes," Hunter said.
I didn't hesitate; I started walking straight over to the diner. Hunter didn't let me get far, blocking me after I'd only gotten a few feet.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked.
"I'm going to get my best friend out of there. God knows what he might have already done!" I yelled.
"No, you're not. Think about it, Cassandra. He wants you. This is what he's waiting for. We need to come up with a plan."
"There's no time for that, and he's too unpredictable to even plan for. Don't you think I know it's me he wants? That's why I have to go. There's no other way around this, and you know it. Please, let me go." There was a determination in me now that I think he sensed. I was asking for his approval, but he knew I'd go without it.
Hunter quickly directed Eric to take my mom into the room and protect her with his life. My mom protested, of course, so I went over to her and grabbed her hands in mine. "Mom, Nora needs me," I said, looking into her frightened eyes. "I'm the only one who can save her. I'll be okay, I promise. Hunter will be with me. He won't let anything happen to me."
She looked over at him, and I saw a wall disintegrate from her demeanor. "You take care of her," she told him. "I'm trusting you to take care of my baby. Please."
"I'll guard her with my life, Sara."
My mom gave me a strong bear hug, before walking back to the room with Eric.
Once the door to the motel room closed, I too
k a deep breath and looked at Hunter, rubbing the shivers of fear out of my arms. "Before we go over there, I need to know something - how do I kill the asshole?"
"You can't," he said turning away, unable to keep eye contact. "Only the Sword of Final Death can do that to a demon. And that sword belongs to the King of Sheol."
"Of course," I said sarcastically. "Well, I guess we just have to beat the hell out of him and send him back home then."
I sidestepped him and started towards the restaurant again.
"Cassandra," he called after me, stopping me once more. I turned back to him, waiting. He walked up to me, cupped his hand to my face and asked, "Before we go, you were about to tell me something in the motel room before we were interrupted. Please tell me now."
I was no longer in the throes of passion with him, so a confession of my love seemed so much harder. I wanted him to focus on saving Nora in that restaurant. I was afraid if I told him what my heart felt, he'd be more focused on me. That's just the kind of soul he was. He protected what he felt was his. That wouldn't work with the plan I had come up with while standing out there in the parking lot.
"I'll tell you what, you help me get Nora out of that restaurant and away from Caleb, and we can pick up where we left off. Deal?" I stuck my hand out to shake on it, which was really lame after what we just shared.
Hunter smiled at me and even let a small chuckle escape his lips. He put his hand in mine, pulled me against him, and kissed me hard. When he pulled away, he still had the smile on his face. "Deal," he answered back. His expression turned serious. "All right, let's do this. But I want you to follow my lead, you hear me? Let me take care of him."
Guardian Of Fate (Fate Series) Page 18
