by Zoey Marcel
Brutus ran his hand up her bare leg under her dress. “Neither do I.”
“Brutus, don’t,” Ivy breathed, feeling a wild spasm in her womb when his fingers moved her satin panties aside. She tried to keep from gasping when he tested her creamy folds with a broad, callused finger.
“You are wet, Ivy,” he murmured in accusation.
She met his hungry eyes, concerned that he only used her first name…like a human being would. He wasn’t human. He was a glorified robot with human tissues. She must never forget that.
His face drew near and his head bent to reach her mouth. His firm lips slanted over hers and molded in a devastating union of warmth and moisture. His powerful tongue pushed into her mouth, staking his claim on her. His taste was hot, primal, and completely male.
A cry rushed from her when his thick finger speared into her slick pussy and rested there. Her vagina lightly hugged him in acceptance, and her body wouldn’t stop shaking.
“Do not fight me, Ivy,” Brutus whispered against her face as he brushed her curls back with his large hand. “I can give you what you need.”
“Oh God!” she whimpered and flinched when his thumb casually brushed her pulsing clitoris.
“I can be your everything, my love, and I will be.” His hushed tone thickened with lust and came out husky and even more virile. “Just let me in, little one. That’s it.”
Ivy’s mouth fell open and her eyes hooded when his finger pushed deeper inside her and he slowly fucked her with it. His thumb made slow, lazy circles around her needy clit. The roughness of the pad served as a harsh edge that only added to his gentle ministrations, enhancing her pleasure.
A deep, savage grunt rumbled in his godlike chest as he pulled her hair, forcing her head back so he could kiss her like he meant it. The first kiss had been slow and deep. This was deeper still and more feral. His tongue rolled with hers in a wet, fleshy union. He fucked her mouth with his strong, determined tongue, thrusting toward her throat and stimulating the flow of her saliva.
The aggressive kiss mirrored the finger fucking her cunt and seducing the dampness from her body. Her clit swelled and pulsed with arousal. Blood filled the sensitive button, obeying the command of his finger to engorge her sex with heat and lust.
Her hands clung to his trunk-like arms and broad shoulders, holding on for dear life as the euphoric energy built inside her virgin body. She fondled his chest, thrilling at the hard play of muscle beneath her curious hands.
His free hand moved between them and worked his pants open. The quiet sound of material dividing to unleash the raging hard-on it caged scared and excited her. Her body was enveloped in a series of shakes and trembles.
He toyed with her clit but seemed to be bringing her just to the brink of orgasm before moving his finger and changing his rhythm. He kept her on edge with his skill but then denied her until she ached and throbbed painfully for release.
His cock escaped his jeans, and she broke the kiss with a startled gasp when he guided her hand to his engorged dick.
“What are we doing?”
“Touch my penis, my sweet,” he murmured to her softly.
She looked down at it, growing damper at the mammoth size of it and the sheer beauty of the appendage. He seemed to want her to stroke him. Maybe if she jacked him off he wouldn’t penetrate her, though her pussy practically pleaded for consummation.
“I’ve never done this before,” she confessed in a shaky tone. “I’m scared. I don’t know how.”
She was seeking consolation in the arms of a cyborg and reveled in the pleasure being given to her by a man who embodied the appearance of her deceased love and a coldblooded killer she’d gunned down years ago. The epiphany broke her brain and freaked her out.
“This is crazy. You’re not even real.” Her eyes misted. “God, I’m so stupid.”
Brutus gripped her chin tightly, making her lips pucker. “I am more real than anyone you’ve ever loved or taken to bed with you. Someday you will come to realize this, and only then will you find the happiness you seek. When you willingly become my slave forever, then you will know true peace.”
His warped, beautiful words stole the breath from her, as did the ravaging kiss of his hard, angry mouth. He guided her hand in the first several strokes of his cock to show her what he liked. His manly grunts and long, deep moans heated her core and gave her confidence in the way she touched him.
Her cunt leaked its decadent longing all over the finger that fucked her. Her body burned and ached to a degree that was startling. Never had such an inferno blazed through her blood and set fire to her skin. Nor had she ached to the point of suffering and pleading for orgasm. No man had ever done this to her. No woman either.
Brutus pried himself away from her lips as he panted and thrust himself into her hand. The hot, possessive look in his eyes as he stared down at her made her cells vibrate with life.
“Come for me, Ivy,” he whispered. “Come for your lover.”
Like clockwork her body responded to his command, and thunder rolled through her as white fire burned up her insides in a hot rush of energy. Her clit exploded with sensations that spread through every part of her, tearing pleading cries from her throat.
The way he watched her as she came was beyond sexy. She convulsed in his strong arms, trying to concentrate on pumping his cock through all the madness. He thrust into her firm grip and roared his release, squirting cum all over her hand. She watched the liquid cream spurt from his slit and land in hot puddles on her skin. His dick throbbed violently in her hand and his semen oozed along her flesh, thickening when the cool night air touched it.
Her pussy fluttered in the aftermath of her climax, quivering around his hard, invasive finger. Her clit pulsated hard and electric with the devastating memory of her lover’s prowess. The feel of his finger slipping out from her sex had her vagina clutching the air in a desperate attempt to get him back.
Brutus sucked her cream off his finger and groaned. He cupped her cheeks and listened to her as she sought her breath. She took the tissue he gave her and wiped off her hand. He didn’t say a word as he kissed her forehead and sent his hand back up her dress to lower her panties.
Cold reality seemed to slap her upside the head, and she realized that he still intended to sink his cock up inside her and take her virginity. Ivy panicked and grabbed her panties to keep them on. “Stop. Just stop.”
He let go of her, and she felt his determined eyes on her as she stepped backward and covered her face with her hands for a second. She shook her head in disbelief. How the hell had they gotten this far?
“We can’t do this.”
“Because I am only half-human?” he asked bitterly.
“Well, yeah, that and I get attached to people way too easily.” She wept, trying not to notice the parallel between the warm tears rolling down her cheeks and the hot droplets trickling down the insides of her thighs. “I fall too hard, and then everything falls apart.”
“It won’t with me.” He stepped forward, sounding far more tender and human in that moment than he ought to.
She shook her head frantically, refusing to see him the way he wanted her to. He was a machine, a killer, going off the instincts of the two men she’d cloned him from. That’s all this was, and she felt like a stupid girl to have given in to him, even for a moment.
“We can’t,” she protested. “I feel things too deeply, and if you take my virginity…Sex is personal to me. There’s no way I can give such a big part of myself to someone like that and not feel something.”
This seemed to spur him on. “I accept your gift, my sweet intoxication.”
“Brutus, stop.” The tears came faster. “If you really care about me like you claim to, whether for real or simply by inherited means, then you’ll give me what I need instead of taking what you want.”
Brutus didn’t ask what she needed like she figured he would. Instead he took her by the wrist and grabbed a blanket from the back of his Hummer.
He led her a little ways into the desert and spread out the blanket.
She swallowed nervously, half expecting him to jump her bones. He sat down on the blanket and guided her down with him. He lay back and pulled her into him so her head rested against his chest.
“There are stars,” he informed her as he held her in his massive arms. “We will observe them.”
Ivy exhaled in relief and smiled at his strange way of talking. She’d never really broken him of that, but his speech mannerisms never failed to make her laugh.
The billions of stars dotted the onyx sky with the brilliance of sparkling diamonds in a mine.
She snuggled closer to him when a chilly breeze swept through the barren wasteland, making her shiver. His thick arms secured her and made her feel safe as the heat of his body warmed her. She felt content and had peace, but her heart ached because she knew it was all a lie. It wouldn’t last. He wasn’t real. She’d be a fool to stay with him and pretend he was. He was psychotic and dangerous, yet he was the truest friend she’d ever had and certainly her strongest attraction.
He played with her hair occasionally and kissed the top of her head. Her eyes closed at the endearing affection, but she refused to shed a tear. She needed to stop him before he hurt anyone else or broke her heart like Wesley and Jade had.
Ivy enjoyed the coarse feel of denim against her bare leg, but even while lying in the sweetest embrace she’d ever known, she knew that Brutus couldn’t be allowed to go on. She would miss him terribly despite the way he sometimes frightened her, but it didn’t matter. He was a threat to society and to her.
She’d get him to fall asleep in her arms, and then she’d shut him off for good. She’d wanted to deactivate him sooner, but if he was awake and alert he’d never give her the chance.
* * * *
Ivy felt a depressing wave of loneliness when she saw Brutus lying there still and deactivated. He could always be turned back on, but she couldn’t let that happen. She’d put him somewhere no one would ever find him.
The lonely cry of a wolf startled her. It sounded way too close. She turned and froze when she saw the large gray wolf standing at a distance, watching her.
Holy cow, do they really come that big?
He trotted toward her, and she stood paralyzed with panic. Why couldn’t the wolf have shown up before she turned Brutus off? The animal stopped when she tried to shoo him away. Her eyes bugged out of her head when the wolf started to change shape. She couldn’t believe her heart didn’t stop given the way it beat like hell in her chest as the oversized beast took on the form of a man.
She blinked and squinted, feeling certain that she’d seen a ghost.
“Ivy, is that you?” The voice matched the body.
Her mouth fell open as she gaped at him in disbelief. “Bane?”
Chapter Seventeen
Sawyer came traipsing up to the house. He stood on the porch and rang the doorbell. What the hell had he just seen? A ghost? A demon? A fucking mirage? He was sober, so drunken hallucinations had to be ruled out.
The door opened and Jade threw her arms around him with an excited squeal. “Sawyer! Oh my God, you’re back!”
“Good to see you, hot stuff.”
He held her in a lung-crushing embrace, never wanting to let her go again. God, he missed her. He couldn’t live without her, so Stetson was just going to have to learn to put up with him again.
“I missed you so freakin’ bad.”
“I missed you, too, angel. Where is everybody?”
“Inside. Come on in.” She closed and locked the door behind them.
Kellan looked up from the board game he and Doc were playing. Both grinned and got up when they saw him.
“It’s good to see you, buddy.” Kellan gave Sawyer a big hug and slapped him on the back. “How come your clothes are all torn?”
“Well, that’s an interesting story.”
Doc extended his hand with a friendly smile. “Sawyer.”
“Ah, just fucking hug me.” Sawyer yanked him into a bro hug and they slapped each other on the back before stepping back. “You look good, Doc. You taking some kind of medication or something?”
Doc smiled. “Nope, even better.”
Jade was practically bouncing for joy, and the cute, bubbly little thing made Sawyer grin. “He got healed! He doesn’t have cancer anymore.”
Sawyer’s head jerked up in surprise and he shook Doc’s hand. “Well, that’s great news, Doc. What was it? Chemo or—”
“More like a miracle.” Doc glanced over his shoulder toward the kitchen.
Sawyer looked over and tried to stay cheerful when he saw Stetson standing there all brooding and quiet. “Cat got your tongue, huh?”
Stetson scowled. “You’re like a fucking tick that won’t let go.”
Sawyer chuckled. “Well, I was going to say bad penny, but whatever works for you, crab cakes.”
“Dinner is in an hour,” Stetson informed him with a slight twitch of his lips and a sudden softening of his features. “Be at the table on time or—”
“Go fuck myself,” Sawyer finished with a grin. “I know the drill.”
Stetson nodded, and his lips moved slightly like they thought about smiling, but he held back and returned to the kitchen. “Jade, put some fucking clothes on.”
Jade rolled her eyes, but her annoyed little smile said she was getting used to it. “I’m wearing clothes.”
“Those hardly qualify as clothes,” he called out from the kitchen. “You look like a whore.”
“Well, maybe I want to look like a whore,” she shot back. “Do any of you boys have a problem with my outfit?”
“Hell no!” Kellan said with a naughty grin. “You should dress like that all the time.”
“You look ravishing,” Doc told her with heat in his eyes.
Sawyer swept her body and felt his loins tingle with awareness. Her black tube top hugged every curve God endowed her with and her midriff flirted with their hungry eyes. Her white shorts were obscenely short, exposing a good deal of her legs, and they hugged the full badonkadonk that Sawyer decided he needed to have a look at.
“The eunuch’s crazy, kitten,” he told her. “Don’t pay any attention to him.”
“Maybe we should examine her before dinner,” Kellan suggested as he threw a wink at Jade.
Doc grinned and Sawyer wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Sounds good, but I got to talk to the angry chef first. You guys get ready, but don’t start without me.”
“Well, you have five minutes, and after that there are no guarantees,” Doc joked.
Sawyer smiled back at him. “Just watch yourself, Doc. Now that you’re healthy I can kick your ass.”
“You can try,” Doc threw back at him.
Sawyer entered the kitchen and saw Stetson throwing bowls around and making loud clattering sounds as he opened cupboards and added ingredients to a pot on the stove. “Cooking?”
Stetson gave him a “you’re an idiot” glance and went about his business. “You’re still a rocket scientist, I see.”
“I thought Jade was the cook now.”
“I gave her the night off…to bone a bunch of fucktards apparently.”
Sawyer laughed. “You could join us, you know.”
Stetson’s shields went up and he turned hostile. “Shut up. Where’s the motherfucking oregano? She’s always moving shit around and making everything all chaotic and—”
Sawyer opened the cupboard and handed it to him.
Stetson snatched it from him, made a caveman grunt at him, and then seasoned the sauce. “Thanks. What do you want?”
“I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“You can stay. Just keep your whoring with Jade out of my sight.”
Sawyer smiled. That was the closest thing to a welcome into the family as he would ever get from Stetson, but it made him feel good. “I appreciate it.”
“Why are your clothes torn? Did you fuck an aggressive whore?”
Sawyer smirked and then became serious. “No. My truck exploded.”
Stetson looked up from his pot with an arched eyebrow. “What?”
“I was driving on my way back here, and about an hour or so away this man appears from out of nowhere and takes a shot at me with a grenade launcher. My truck exploded, and the next thing I knew I was waking up next to fiery wreckage and the fucker was gone.” Sawyer still couldn’t get over the startling image he’d seen. He knew that face all too well, and there was no reason in the world why that person should try to kill him. It didn’t make any sense. “Not sure if I got lucky and survived or if them wolf genes kept me alive.”
Stetson looked surprised. “Jade claimed you?”
Sawyer winked at him. “You jealous?”
Stetson scowled. “No. Finish your story.”
“I recognized the face of the man who shot at me. I swear it had to be a ghost.”
Stetson added another seasoning to his sauce. “Who was it?”
“It was Vinny.”
The spice jar clattered to the floor and Stetson caught the counter suddenly like he might fall over. His head jerked toward Sawyer. “That’s not possible. He’s dead.”
“I know. He died in that fire the night Swifty’s burned down.” Sawyer scrutinized his older brother’s face for clues. He’d always wondered about that night and how the fire really started.
“Then you obviously imagined it.” Stetson picked the jar up and put it back into the cupboard. His hand shook like his blood sugar had dropped suddenly.
Sawyer was still new to the whole lycan business, but his heightened sense of smell detected perspiration dripping down Stetson. But it wasn’t from heat. It was the cold trickle of fear-induced sweat. Sawyer figured he could be wrong. Why on earth would Stetson be afraid of that man?
“I know what I saw,” Sawyer countered. “It couldn’t have been him, though, right? I mean, why would he want to kill me? He loved us.”
“He didn’t love us!” Stetson bellowed, slamming his fist down onto the counter. His eyes were filled with hatred, rage, and about a hundred other emotions.
