“Right” Claire said and stood up. “So if I try to leave will you stop me?”
Jed stood still, his blue eyes boring into hers. He was so close to her she could feel the heat coming off him.
“You kill people for a living” Claire said feeling her heart race in her chest. Was it fear? Was it anger, adrenalin, lust? Jed was far too close to her and she was feeling strange. There was something about him, about them both that was making her say and do things she would never normally do. She felt wild and free with them, and she knew with freedom came trouble. Isn’t that what her mother had always said? “Whirlwind romances never last Claire, never. So keep your feet on the ground and you will be safe.” But she’d run off with a man named Patch, who'd been the lead clown from a traveling circus so Claire doubted she could trust anything her mother had ever said.
Jed and Lance were a whirlwind and with every moment she spent near them she was being swept up higher and higher into the air. She had to get out. She pushed Jed out of the way but he refused to budge.
“Let me go!” she yelled at him.
His hands clasped on her arms, “No,” he said and his mouth came down over hers.
At first she fought him, but he smelled of something exciting, and his body was strong and contoured against hers. His arms wrapped around her, closing her in a world of their own. She couldn’t’t fight him, she had no resistance at all. Her mouth opened to his gentle insistence and she tasted him, while fireworks went off in her head.
A sound. It was harsh and repetitive, insistent. Lance swore and she heard him get up. Had he been sitting there on the other couch the whole time? What must he think of her? She felt Jed pull away, his lips leaving hers in slow motion as though they would rather never go. He turned then, releasing her from his embrace.
Claire wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and found Lance looking at her. He had a look on his face that spoke more to hunger than the embarrassment she had expected. His eye roved over her and she looked down, feeling naked in his gaze.
Jed and Lance had both moved to the door. Jed put his eye to the spy hole and then nodded to Lance who turned the handle and opened the door.
***
A young man shorter than both the brothers stood in the doorway. Where they looked like they were built for strength this young man looked built for speed. He had long slim limbs with the muscles of a professional martial artist. He was wearing a uniform, the kind worn in the kitchens of some restaurants or hotels. His hair was blonde and his eyes a deep brown.
He peered around Jed and Lance and saw Claire. Then his eyes darted back to Jed’s.
“They’re here” he said sounding nervous. “I don’t know how but they found you.”
“Amsel is more resourceful than we gave him credit for” Jed said nodding. “We will have to leave. Can you get us out the back way?”
The young man nodded. “What about her?” he asked looking at Claire.
“She comes with us. It’s not a problem is it, little Wolf?” Lance barked at him. The young man snarled and for a moment his eyes shone golden.
“Just not sure a human can keep up is all, and the name’s Paul” said Paul.
“I’ll be just fine thank you” Claire said and then bit her tongue when all three turned to look at her.
Lance and Jed both looked proud, like they had expected her to say that. Then they moved into action. Lance strode into the bedroom while Jed took a bottle of something out of a bag that had been stationed by the door. It was a blue glass bottle with a cork stopper. He used his teeth to pull out the cork and then began to splash its contents around the room.
The air filled with a heavy scent of peppermint, lavender and something else that made Claire’s head spin a little.
“What is that?” she asked picking up her bag from the floor where she’d let it drop.
Lance, returning from the bedroom, two other bags in his hands was the one to answer, “Amsel uses magic to find us. This way, we can confuse his spells.”
“Magic? Seriously?” Claire said and then felt ridiculously stupid.
“Yes,” Lance said looking sternly at her and handing her one of the bags, “Magic. Carry this please, Jed will need to be free to fight, if they catch up.”
“What about you?” Claire asked taking the bag. It was a backpack and really heavy, but when she slung it on her back it seemed fine.
“Silver bullet to the left arm, I’m not as strong as I should be” Lance confessed sounding pained.
“Lance will protect you” Jed said coming up behind her. For a moment he was close Claire could feel his body heat against her again and she longed to be back in his arms, feel his kiss. But this really wasn’t the time for stupid emotions. She turned and following Jed and Paul, she headed for the door.
Paul led them down the hall and to a door marked with a no entry sign. He waved a keycard in front of a security panel and it clicked open. The stairwell inside was long and dimly lit with no windows. They descended the stairs, Paul in the lead.
“So when we get to the basement level, take the tunnel. It’s for maintenance, so should be empty. Go up it. It opens into an alley. Then you’re on your own, man.”
“Thank you, Paul” Jed said sincerely patting Paul on the back. “We are grateful.”
At the end of the stairwell Paul said his farewell and left them. He pressed his keycard to the panel and the door opened. Jed, Lance and Claire spilled into a brick lined basement. As Claire entered she was hit by the smell of damp and mold hanging on the musty air. Then a sound ripped into the silence. It was harsh and for a moment Claire couldn’t’t place it because a sound like that should never be heard in a place like this. It was reserved for lighter, happier occasions. It was the sound of clapping.
“Well done boys, well done!” A man stepped into the little patch of light offered by an overhead bulb.
“Dieter Amsel, and cronies” Jed said pulling up short.
“Indeed. We all know each other don’t we? You have led us on a merry chase all around Europe, England and now here.” Amsel said. He was an older man, greying at the temples, but he still looked strong. His eyes were clear blue, his hair light brown and his skin pale. A livid scar ran down his right cheek from just under the eye to his chin. He wore the trench coat Claire had seen him in the previous evening, but it was unbuttoned and Claire could see a sword in a scabbard at his waist.
Behind him stood a young man, tall and muscled in black and a young woman about Claire’s own age, her hair blonde, her eyes clear blue. She was dressed in black leather too and had a set of guns holstered at her hips.
Boy they do kick it old school, Claire marvelled.
“And who is this vision of loveliness?” Amsel said looking at her.
“My name is Claire Underwood” Claire said before anyone else could say anything.
“Well, Claire I’m pleased to meet you. This is Klaus my right hand, and Elsa my daughter. Now we are all introduced. Isn’t this lovely?” Amsel said spreading his arms wide and turning a little side to side.
“What do you want?” Lance asked in a rumble that barely hid his anger. “All this standing around is tiresome.”
“I agree. So let the girl go and we will arrest you. You have so many crimes to answer for, don’t add her death to them,” Amsel said his eyes boring into Claire.
“I don’t think so” Jed said and moved like lightning grabbing Claire around the neck, using her as a shield. He dragged her a little to the left, toward the darkness. For a moment she was shocked and scared. Is this what she meant to him? But his voice came soft in her ear as his grip lessened.
He said, “Trust me.”
“Now, now Jed, you don’t want to hurt her” Amsel said his hands up in surrender, “Do you? Just come quietly and we need not spill any blood. You know you deserve to be punished. You killed humans. The Brotherhood has very strict rules about that sort of thing.”
“The Brotherhood be damned” Lance said and fl
ung something at Amsel and his crew.
Smoke rose up around them. Claire felt Jed’s hold on her disappear as a sound like bones crunching filled the air. A big black bear ran passed her and somehow Claire knew it was Jed. She watched him go until the smoke consumed him. Then she heard terribly sounds, shouts, gunfire and the thud of a sword on brick.
A moment later a bigger black bear stepped up to her. It had blood dripping from its jaws where it held Lance’s bag. It looked at her and she saw the piercing eyes. Lance. Claire touched the thick black fur and felt its silkiness. She slung the bag in front of her and hauled herself up onto his back.
Lance ran and Claire hung on for dear life. She had ridden a pony once in her life at a petting zoo when she was about five years old and there were still things like that. This was nothing like how she remembered that experience. This was raw and primal, a beast panting and straining under her as he ran up the tunnel and out into the sunlight.
***
The alleyway was full of garbage and the smell of rot. Lance burst out of a round hole and cannoned down the alley, garbage flying in his wake. Claire, still clinging onto his fur, risked a moment to look back over her shoulder for Jed. But he wasn’t there.
“Lance!” she yelled. “Lance, he’s not out of the tunnel! We have to go back.”
Lance hearing her skidded to a halt and turned panting. He stood for a moment unsure than sniffed the air.
“So now what?” Claire asked sliding down off his back. “We can’t have you looking like that and running through the streets. You’ll cause panic.”
The bear seemed to consider this. The change back to human was also accompanied by the sounds of bones crunching and Claire looked away not able to watch that horrific transformation. Lance stood before her once again in his jeans and black t-shirt. He took his and Jed’s bags from her and then clasped her hand in his.
“We have another hideout we can go to” Lance said. “Jed will meet us there.”
Claire nodded and let Lance lead her out of the alley, across the street and into another alley so fast she barely had time to see anything around her. She still had no idea which part of the city she was in. Lance moved in fits and bursts, and she was moved along with him. They were keeping to alleyways, and the back entrances to hotels and apartment buildings. Everywhere they went people like him opened the doors for Lance. Eyes glinted golden and emerald green, there was the hint of a fang, or a slightly pointed ear. And finally Claire realized that they were at the marina, where all the rich folks tied up their yachts and pleasure boats.
Lance led her along a jetty to a particularly fine looking boat, the Margo. Claire knew nothing about boats except that this was a big one.
“We can’t go on that!” she exclaimed. “Doesn’t someone own it?”
“Yes” Lance said smiling and Claire noticed how handsome he was. How in this light, as the sun began to draw on another night, he looked boyish and charming. His big shoulders shook as he chuckled. “And you thought we were poor little thieves, huh?”
“Well you don’t look rich.”
Lance helped her up onto the boat and then down into the cabin. It was a lot bigger than she had thought it would be with sofas around the walls and a table in the middle of the floor space. There was a bar in the corner and a drinks refrigerator. Lance moved over to it and took two bottles of water out, handing her one. She took it, drinking gratefully. Then she noticed that there was blood dripping down his arm where his bandage had come loose.
“You’re bleeding” she said and moved towards him picking up his shirt sleeve. A nasty wound gaped under it, with blood seeping out in a thin red trickle.
“It’s nothing” Lance said and made to move her away but Claire moved his hand. He had just saved her life; the least she could do was re-bandage his arm.
“Do you have a first aid kit?”
A little searching revealed one, and Claire did her best to clean the wound. All the while Lance watched her as they sat on the red velvet sofa and she first cleaned and then bandaged his arm. His eyes were soft, his lips slightly parted as he gazed at her with open hunger. Claire wasn’t sure what to do. After all she had just been kissing Jed not three hours ago. What would it say about her if she kissed Lance now?
He didn’t let her think about it. In a flash Lance had pulled her towards him and closed his lips over hers. Where Jed’s kiss was gentle, exploratory and kind, Lance’s kiss was raw and animal in its urgency.
Shocks shot down Claire’s body setting her on fire from her lips to her toes. She had clawed Lance’s t-shirt off him before she knew what she was doing. His scent filled her nostrils and all thought was leaking out of her suddenly enflamed mind.
“Well aren’t you a pretty pair.”
Jed walked into the room.
Claire jumped off Lance in shock. It was then that she realized her shirt was off exposing her bra and beneath that her breasts. Her hair had come out of its ponytail and fell in tangles over her shoulders. Lance was grinning up at his brother. He shrugged.
“I…I’m so sorry” Claire stammered. “I don’t know what you two are doing to me.”
Jed was smiling. Gently he helped her to stand up off the sofa. He took her in his arms and whispered, “We share everything, my brother and I. So if you’re keen…?” he let it hang.
Claire swallowed. Two? Two, shape-shifting brothers?
She felt her heartbeat quicken as she reached behind her back and undid the clasp of her bra letting it fall to the carpeted floor. Jed stepped forward and wrapped his hands around her face drawing her up to his mouth so that she could taste the salt on his lips.
She felt a presence behind her as Lance moved and wrapping his arms around her undid the button on her jeans. Claire shuddered, her hands running up under Jed’s shirt, ripping it off him in her frenzy to reach his skin, to feel his body pressed against hers. Lance gently pulled her jeans down and as Jed lifted her off the floor, slid them off and away.
Claire was in a world of heat and passion. Jed placed her on the floor and she turned to find Lance there, his mouth urgent on hers, his hands all over her breasts gently working them. Jed meanwhile, was kissing her neck, her back, down her spine, his hands running over her smooth skin.
Somewhere in those moments, she found the presence of mind to undo Lance’s jeans and pull them off him. He groaned into her ear, his hands sliding down to her crotch where he slipped his fingers inside her.
Claire gasped and moaned, pressing herself up against him. Lance laid her gently on the carpet then and removed his hand, sliding up her body until she could take him in her mouth. Claire ran her tongue over him, feeling the smoothness of his head, her hands caressing his shaft, gently working it back and forth.
Jed gently spread her thighs and began to lick and kiss his way down her body. He slid his fingers up inside her while his tongue licked and whipped around them.
Claire had never felt anything like this before in her life. Red-hot lust filled her and she wanted more, and more. She wanted them to be inside her, to fill her up and make her fly. She wanted to ride this wave, crest it and feel the sweet bliss that would envelope her.
The brothers worked in tandem, a perfect team. Jed pulled her up and suddenly she was sandwiched between them, Jed in front kissing her, licking her nipples until they were so hard they ached. Lance was behind her kissing her neck and whispering in her ears. And as they entered her Claire felt the air driven from her lungs. She gasped, and rocked feeling their muscled bodied writhing with hers. She was part of something, riding this big red dragon of fire from the pit of her stomach, until it rose high in the heavens and exploded around her.
They lay panting, arms and legs intertwined and Claire fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
***
As the sun rose dragging the day into life, Claire stirred. She was alone in a massive king sized bed with silk sheets. She didn’t think people had those anymore, but here she was. She was naked. Memories of th
e night before came tip toeing back, and she smiled. Two for the price of one: Better than any Best Buy deal she'd ever heard of.
She stood up and went through a door to her left that led to the bathroom. There she found a robe that she wrapped around herself.
Jed and Lance, both dressed in fresh clothes were standing on the deck when Claire found them. They were holding cups of coffee in their hands.
Jed saw her first and beamed. “Good morning.”
“Hi,” Claire said. She walked over to him. “So…”
“Morning” Lance said and placed a kiss on her forehead.
Claire sighed. “So I just want to say I don’t usually behave like that.”
Jed and Lance looked at each other.
“Oh?” Jed said.
“No so, um…” Claire fell silent and looked at the floor.
Jed wrapped his arms around her.
“Hey,” he said, “If it means anything to you, I really hope you do behave like that, often.” Then seeing the look on her face he added, “Listen Claire. We both like you a lot. We like being with you, but if this brother’s thing freaks you out then you can go…but I really hope you stay. Lance?”
Lance nodded, “You are our welcome guest. But the choice is yours if you stay.”
“I can go?” Claire asked. She thought for a moment about her life. Where would she go? Back to bartending at Cool Joe’s where Charlie would yell at her for not wearing enough make up?
“Where are you going?” Claire asked, looking Jed in the eye. He winked.
“Anywhere we like. What do you say Lance, should we go sailing?”
“I’ve always wanted to go to Fiji,” Lance said and smiled. “Bet you would look sexy on those white sandy beaches.”
He ran a hand along Claire’s shoulders and she smelt him. Her knees went weak and she licked her lips, her eyes closed. What the hell would she stay here for? She hated her boring life and the dull routine that never, ever changed. Here was the possibility of excitement and danger with two great guys. Most girls struggled to find one and she had two.
Romance: Mills and Boon Romance: The Boss's Proposal (Billionaire Bad Boy BBW Romance) Page 5
