The Lost (Sin Hunters)

by Piñeiro, Caridad

  She needed to touch him as he was touching her. Impatiently, she grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked upward. He interrupted his caresses only long enough to rip the shirt off his body and toss it aside. Then he reclined his long, lean body beside hers, slipped closer to bring his lips to her breasts.

  Tunneling her hands into the short strands of his hair, she held him to her as he tasted her, licking and sucking the sensitive tips, drawing the moisture of his mouth around the peaks with his fingers.

  Pleasure slammed into her and she closed her eyes and arched her back, focusing on the sensations he was creating and the feel of his body against hers. So much skin to skin free of any emotional or physical barriers. So much vitality beneath her hands as she ran them along the taut muscles of his shoulders and experienced the pulse of power shifting back and forth between them, growing ever stronger as emotion and need rose to ever greater heights.

  With a gentle bite he dragged a moan from her and a breathy, “That feels so good.”

  A very masculine chuckle escaped him and he said, “It’s only the start.”

  He moved downward and she protested with a little moan, digging her fingers against his shoulders and resisting his movement. But then he brought his mouth to the first hint of scar and placed his lips there.

  She jumped as if electrified, shocked by the feel of the tiny kisses he dropped down the length of her. The warmth and tingling intensified and she almost didn’t dare to look, but then she glanced down. Watched as he shifted ever lower, until he was at the worst of her injuries. His kisses left behind bright bits of silver blue, twinkling like a trail of tiny lights.

  Tenderly he kissed the skin along her scars and brushed his hands across her midsection. The shimmer of energy came again as he whispered, “I wish I could take away all the pain.”

  The realization slammed into her. “You have, Adam. With you I’m whole again.”

  With her admission came a sense of completeness in him as well, Adam thought. She was the piece that had been missing for so long, maybe even since before Salvatore had taken him. As if on some other plane their energies had been divided until the time when it was right for them to come together once more.

  Her words came back to him, powerfully alive.

  “To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose. Until now I was lost, Bobbie, but now it’s time I come home to you.”

  He surged upward and they kissed once again, sharing each breath and heartbeat as one until they needed to take the final step to complete that union and satisfy the power building in them, which wanted to be shared.

  Adam reached down and Bobbie followed the path of his hands, helping him get rid of his khakis and boxers, trailing her hand up along his thigh to encircle him.

  He sucked in a breath at her caress, nearly undone. Gently he eased himself between her legs, bracing his hands on either side of her, gazing down at her and seeing the love and acceptance in her eyes. He allowed her to lead him to her center, paused with the tip of him at her entry, the heat and wet of her summoning him.

  She dragged her hands away from him to grasp the sides of his hips and tightened her fingers there to urge him forward.

  Slowly he joined with her, savoring every nuance of his body sliding into her center. The moist heat surrounding him. The brush of her crisp, curly hairs against his flesh. The intense slide of skin against skin and the friction of their energies, seeking a similar joining.

  As she raised her knees, deepening his penetration and cradling his hips, she shifted her hands upward to his shoulders. Wherever she touched, a bright silver gleam lit the way. She smiled at the wonder in the display and urged him down to meet her lips again.

  He rested within her as they kissed. Content. Complete. Their merged auras cradled them with their joined life forces, feeding their souls and passion with the power of their union.

  Every meeting of their lips was filled with life and love and laughter as they rejoiced, as passion grew ever stronger and he finally began to move within her, pulling her along with him toward ever greater pleasure, the pain of their past, of all wounds both physical and emotional, healed by the strength of their love.

  He came first, unable to contain what he felt for her. How she moved him.

  He had barely drawn a breath after that explosive release when she was joining him, her body arching upward to his as her desire erupted. She screamed his name and gripped his shoulders, rising upward, her body milking his, drawing him ever deeper.

  He imagined what might have been then if things had been different. Laying his hand over her flat midsection, he pictured it rounded with his child, and as her hand slipped over his and he met her gaze, he realized she was imagining it as well.

  “I love you,” he said, wanting her to understand that nothing could change that.

  With a sad smile and tears shimmering in her eyes, she said, “I know and I love you even more for that.”

  He leaned down and kissed her, the caress one of tenderness and understanding, soothing away the hurt that had intruded on their miracle.

  Bobbie held him to her, and as he eased to his side, she snuggled up against him and laid a hand over his heart. The beat beneath her palm still raced from their lovemaking, but slowly eased back to normal as they rested together, as the bright display of their combined life forces retreated.

  Idly she ran her thumb along the crisp hair on his chest, knowing there was one thing that still lingered over them, needing to be discussed.

  Tentatively, she broached the subject. “Your parents came here to find you.”

  “I know,” he said, running his hand up and down her back as he kept her tucked close to him.

  “Do you want to be found?”

  He stopped the motion of his hand, obviously uncertain. “I do, only I’m not their Kikin anymore. I’m Adam now,” he said with obvious reluctance before continuing. “I have a life here. A life I want to share with you.”

  “And they have other plans for you.” She understood the all too common theme. So many parents had hopes for their offspring that didn’t necessarily match their children’s wishes. In Adam’s case, it was complicated by the dynamics of his people and their apparent needs.

  “I’m not sure what they expect now, but I want to meet them,” he said.

  She rubbed her hand back and forth along his chest, looked up and met his gaze. “My family is my bedrock. I couldn’t have survived without them. But Salvatore has been your family. What will you do about him?”

  Storm clouds gathered in his eyes, shadowing them, and his lips thinned into a tight line. “I need to deal with him, but not now.”

  Wanting to dispel the hurt, she cradled his cheek and urged his face down the inch or so to hers. With a gentle pass of her lips along his, she said, “Right now you’ve got other things to do.”

  And just in case there was any doubt about what, she brought her body against his.

  “Did I ever tell you how much I like that you’re an empowered woman?” he teased as he kissed her.

  She chuckled and said, “Why don’t you show me instead?”

  CHAPTER

  31

  Christopher drummed his fingers along the desktop in frustration and eyeballed his captain.

  “Tell me again how it is that your men somehow lost William and his underling.”

  Ryan lowered his gaze, obviously ashamed of the actions of his cadre members. “They said they got distracted by the pull of incredibly strong Hunter power.”

  Christopher arched a brow. “Other Shadows?”

  Wagging his head, Ryan replied, “No. Light Hunters. And from what they said, it’s possible it was the source for which we’ve been searching.”

  An amazing font of power, Christopher thought, willing to contain his anger if in fact they had located the Quinchu with such incredible strength.

  He heaved away from his desk and over to the map pinned to the wall. As in any military campaign, the possible t
argets had been indicated on the chart. Blue pins for each possible Light Hunter location, not that he intended to track down those smaller vessels of power. He had a bigger plan in mind, one that would wrest control from his father and lead his people on another path. Motioning to the wall and the red pins denoting where they had sensed that greater Quinchu power, he said, “Where was it this time?”

  Hesitantly, Ryan picked up a red pin from the ledge along the bottom of the map board and pressed it deeply into the area denoting the Auditorium grounds in Ocean Grove. The pin stuck out like a sore thumb, nowhere near any of the other red pins, including those encircling the large area that Christopher believed to be the origin of the tsunami of energy from a few nights ago.

  As he considered the location of the pins, Christopher muttered in frustration, “Fools. It was the power of the humans gathering together. They may not have a great deal of strength individually, but when they unite it’s palpable.”

  Stalking back to his desk, he plopped down into his leather chair and leaned an elbow on its arm. Scrubbing his jaw with one hand, he considered Ryan as he came to stand before him once again.

  He wondered where his father’s cadre captain and assistant had run off to, and if Maya had any idea about what his father had planned. Had she revealed anything about the source of the power to his father?

  Christopher didn’t want to consider what his father could do with such might.

  “There’s a storm brewing tonight. Whoever the Quinchu is, he could be preparing to gather that strength,” Christopher mused out loud. After all, it was what he would be trying to do to boost his Añaru powers.

  Ryan nodded, clearly understanding what he wanted. “I’ll send the cadre to patrol.”

  “See to it, Ryan. I also want you to set a guard on Maya as long as she is here,” he said, the unspoken message clear.

  Failure was not an option. In his father’s cadre, everyone understood the price for such a fiasco. For a moment Christopher considered that maybe that was a good thing. But only for a moment, since he was not his father’s son.

  As Ryan jerked his arm to his chest and saluted him, his features tight with worry, Christopher repeated in a friendlier tone, “I trust you, my friend. I know you will not disappoint if at all possible.”

  The tension immediately fled from Ryan’s body and an easier smile came to his face. “We will find the source and keep an eye on Maya.”

  Christopher nodded and likewise grinned to further alleviate his captain’s concerns. “I have no doubt about the first. As for the latter, am I to assume you will attend to that personally?”

  A bright flush erupted on Ryan’s face as he stammered, “Doesn’t it bother you that she shares her bed with so many?”

  Christopher shrugged. “She draws her power from such trysts and I need a powerful mate. It would bother me more if she shared her heart with others, but that’s not possible.”

  Ryan narrowed his gaze to consider him. “And why is that?”

  Laughing harshly, Christopher said, “Because Maya has no heart. Now go. There is work to be done.”

  With another, less rigid salute, Ryan walked away, and as Christopher looked at his friend’s retreating back, he had only one hope: that his men would find the Quinchu before his father’s minions did. He could not let his father control such power.

  Their bodies were a tangle of limbs. Legs interlaced. Heads pillowed on each other’s arms. Fingers twined together and trapped between them, close to their hearts.

  “I don’t want to move,” Bobbie said, contentment deep in her bones.

  “Then don’t,” Adam said, and grazed her forehead with a kiss.

  “I’d love to, only nature calls,” she teased, and with a quick surge upward to drop a kiss on his lips, she slipped from the bed.

  Adam appreciated the fine form of her naked backside as she went out the door. Sitting up in bed, he rearranged the pillows behind him, laced his fingers together, and rested his head against them. His gaze was trained on the door as he anxiously awaited her return.

  The sounds of her activity drifted to him. Running water. Bare feet padding along the hardwood floor, but moving away from the bedroom.

  The clink and clatter of plates and glasses alerted him that she was in the kitchen, which was probably a good idea, considering they had been in bed for hours, alternately dozing and making love, and lunch was way overdue.

  When she returned she was carrying a small tray, tucking it tight to her midsection, hiding what she could from his view, although the rest of her was gloriously naked.

  He couldn’t resist gazing at the beauty of her breasts with their deep coral nipples before dragging his gaze upward to her even more arresting face. Would he ever get tired of seeing it? he wondered for only a second before the answer came swiftly and unequivocally.

  No. He would never tire of her.

  A flush erupted across her face and breasts at his perusal, dragging a smile to his lips. He patted the bed beside him. “Come here. I’ve missed you.”

  With a wry smirk, she said, “I’ve only been gone five minutes.”

  He patted the bed again. “Five minutes too long.”

  She came over and was about to place the tray on his lap, but that wasn’t possible. The sight of her had aroused him, providing a less-than-flat area for the tray.

  So instead she leaned over and placed it to one side, then climbed back into bed and straddled his legs, facing him, his erection tucked beneath her center making food the last thing on his mind.

  Bobbie clearly had a different idea.

  She reached over and grabbed a grape from a bunch sitting on a plate beside some cheese, a dried sausage of some kind, and slices of a crusty Italian bread.

  She brought it to his lips and he opened his mouth. After popping it in, she took one for herself and ate it. “Sweet.”

  Adam gazed at her breasts. “I can think of something far sweeter.”

  The flush deepened and her hands fluttered over the food for a moment, but then she recovered and prepped him a slice of bread with some of the cheese and sausage. She brought it to his lips and he eyeballed the morsel for only a second before taking a bite, leaving her with a half that she popped into her own mouth.

  “Tasty,” he said.

  With a wicked grin, she shot a glance downward and rubbed her hips along his. “I can think of something tastier.”

  Heat erupted across his face and his aura flared brightly. His gut tightened and he almost choked on the bit of food she had fed him before swallowing it hastily.

  “Need a drink?” She leaned over, grasped one of the short glasses on the tray, and handed it to him.

  “Wine?” he wondered aloud before taking a sip of the merlot-colored liquid, only to discover it was red grape juice.

  “Don’t drink all that much. Just in case I need the pain meds, although I don’t take them often,” she explained, growing uneasy and crossing her arms along her midsection.

  He placed the glass back down on the tray, laid his hand at the crook of her neck, and leaned forward. Nuzzling his nose along hers, he whispered, “I can make it better.”

  Bobbie brought her hands up between them, clasped his face in her hands. She gazed into his emerald eyes, darkening with emotion and devoid of the shadows that had haunted him earlier. “Just having you here makes it better, Adam.”

  She kissed him then, leaving no doubt about what he meant to her.

  He groaned and wrapped his arms around her waist, hauled her close to him, crushing her breasts to his chest with the tightness of his embrace. But as they held each other, emotions stronger than desire rose up.

  Peace. Unity.

  Adam whispered against the shell of her ear, “I wish we never had to move from here.”

  She murmured her agreement, but they both recognized this special time together was fleeting. One call would change it all. One call to his parents.

  His parents, he thought, unable to believe that after
so much time all the wondering and hoping was over.

  They had found him. He would no longer be alone, but with that immediately came another thought. From the moment he had met Bobbie he hadn’t been alone. Tightening his hold on her, he closed his eyes and let himself sink bonelessly into her embrace. He wanted to savor these moments before the world he knew nothing about intruded.

  CHAPTER

  32

  Salvatore Bruno sat steaming in his car as he waited outside Bobbie’s condo. It wasn’t just the land breeze, hot and humid like a sirocco, making him warm. It was the fact that Adam was here with her. Had been here with her for most of the day. After everything they had shared, his son had chosen to trust a virtual stranger over him.

  It shouldn’t hurt so much. Wouldn’t, if he had remembered his goal and not gone soft for so many years. Adam was just another assignment, he told himself. But the little voice inside his head screamed “Liar.”

  He wondered what they had been doing up in her condo for so many hours, not that it took much wondering. Even with her injuries the Carrera woman turned heads.

  He was thankful that the sun was beginning to set and a shift in the wind was creating a drop in heat and humidity. The sea breeze helped, but there was that smell in the air that said a storm approached.

  Inside Bobbie’s condo a light snapped on, and Salvatore fixed his gaze on it, impatiently waiting for his son to emerge. He hoped that if he had just a little more time to chat with him, he could convince Adam that he was mistaken about all that had happened.

  So Salvatore sat and waited, and then waited some more.

  The storm that had been threatening came and went, refreshing the air and causing another drop in temperature. But it left behind scattered pockets of rain and lightning.

  It was nearly midnight when Adam finally emerged from the building, but he wasn’t alone. Bobbie Carrera stood beside him, her fingers laced with Adam’s. The way she leaned toward him and then skimmed back a lock of his hair spoke volumes about their level of intimacy. The hungry kiss by Adam’s car confirmed it, as did the blue glow that surrounded them both, surprising Salvatore.