Escape (Project Vetus Book 1)

by Emmy Chandler

  “I told you not to touch her,” Carson growls.

  “And I didn’t,” Vaughn keeps his voice soft and even, despite the fact that his frame is visibly tense. That his eyes are glowing a bright gold. “In fact, we just spent hours talking about you.”

  “Seriously, there was no touching.” I try to move around Carson, but he pushes me out of the way. “Carson, there was no touching! We just fell asleep!” Part of me is pissed off that this is even a thing we’re discussing. He doesn’t own me. But the pain wafting off of him makes it hard for me to be mad.

  It hurts him to smell someone else on me. Deep down, he believes I’ve chosen someone else, because he wasn’t good enough.

  The irony is that if that were true—if our connection had been splintered that badly—I doubt I’d be able to feel what he’s feeling.

  He sniffs the air in Vaughn’s direction, and his pain morphs into fury, like a traffic light blinking from yellow to red. “You smell like her.”

  Fuck.

  “Lilli, talk some sense into him,” Vaughn says, but his voice isn’t as soft as before. It’s a warning now, almost as deep in tone as Carson’s. And with a sudden jolt of understanding, I realize that he’s reacting to whatever aggressive pheromones Carson is putting out. That this is the beginning of a violent cycle that will only feed itself—another self-devouring snake—if I can’t break it right now.

  “What’s going on?” Tirzah emerges from one of the cells behind me, and I turn to see her watching us warily.

  I shrug. “Just some research for my upcoming holo-vid on how to really piss off your alien super-soldier boyfriend. Does anyone have a pacifier and a sleep mat? Because this giant baby is overdue for his nap.”

  Carson whirls on me, snarling, and I swallow a bolt of fear. He won’t hurt me. And as long as he’s focused on me, he can’t attack Vaughn.

  “That’s it. Come here, you big bully. No one meant to insult you. So put the beast on a leash and listen to me.”

  “You shouldn’t smell like another man,” he growls.

  “Okay.” I nod furiously as I back up, drawing him down the hall with me. “Constructive criticism. I can take it. But just so that I understand the rules, would you have a similar reaction to…say…vanilla scented body lotion? Would I be okay sticking to a floral bouquet?”

  “You should smell like me.” His irises are nearly gone, his nostrils flared. And suddenly Carson pounces, driving me into the wall next to the breeding room door. He rubs the side of his face against mine, then begins to lick his way down my neck, growling aggressively as he goes. Until he gets to my shirt.

  He snarls again as he sniffs at the material.

  “Captain?” Tirzah aims a startled glance at me over his shoulder, and on her left, Vaughn is watching us in almost captive fascination. It’s okay, I mouth at her.

  Her jaw clenches, but she maintains her distance.

  “Carson, that scent isn’t coming from me,” I whisper. “It’s coming from my clothes, because we fell asleep—” Nope. “You know what? Never mind. It doesn’t matter why. My point is that it’s just the clothes, and if you let me change I won’t smell like him anymore, okay?” I push him back gently and try to edge past him, headed for the lounge, where clean clothes routinely appear in a box in the wall.

  But his arm slams into the wall next to me, blocking my path with solid fucking muscle. “Stay,” he growls. Then he grabs the front of my shirt and tears it open, from collar to hem.

  I gasp as he rips the torn material from my shoulders and drops it on the floor. “Okay, so this is what we’re doing now.” I cross my arms over my bra.

  “Captain!” Tirzah shouts as he runs his hands down my neck and over my arms, spreading his scent all over my skin. “You can’t—”

  “It’s okay,” I tell her, then I aim a firm look at Vaughn over Carson’s shoulder, where he looks like he’s about to make a heroic—and profoundly stupid—attempt to rescue me. Because Carson’s biological weapons are still deployed. Which means he still feels threatened. And this hallway isn’t very wide. If he overreacts, he might hurt more people than he intends to.

  Not that hurting anyone is acceptable.

  Carson drops onto his knees and begins to lick my stomach, and to my humiliation, heat begins to pool low in my stomach. Spreading downward. “Pants.”

  “Um…”

  “Pants,” he demands. “I need to taste you.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Tirzah throws her hands in the air, and he twists around to snarl at her. Then turns back to me and dips his tongue into my navel while he seizes my waistband. His grip tightens, and the material cuts into my lower back as he pulls.

  “No!” I grab his chin and tilt his face up to look at me. “Do not rip my pants. I’ll do it myself. I mean, what woman doesn’t want to serve as a naked pacifier, so her boyfriend doesn’t throw a very bloody version of a two-year-old’s tantrum? Here we go.” I shove my pants down and step out of the puddle of material, then I kick it down the hall, trying to get Vaughn’s scent as far away from Carson’s nose as possible.

  Thank goodness I’m still wearing underwear.

  “Better?” I demand softly, trying to pretend he’s the only one who can see my pasty inner thighs. That thrumming echoes from his throat, and I groan as my lady parts clench. Then begin to drip… “Whoa, we don’t need to go that far. With an audience.” Behind Dreyer, I can see that Burke, Everett, and Thiago have come out of the break room and are watching us nervously.

  “Coleman.” Dreyer waves to Vaughn, signaling for him edge his way past us and out of the line of fire. But as he passes us, Carson’s purring becomes a vicious snarl.

  I grab his chin and turn him back to me, desperate to avoid bloodshed. “Carson! Hey! Focus. Why don’t you come make me smell like you? That’ll fix this, right?”

  His gaze snaps back to mine, and the snarl changes in pitch. A huge lump grows in his pants, and I grit my teeth, wishing this private moment—whatever the hell this moment is—weren’t playing out in front of the entire population of zone X.

  I back through the open doorway into the breeding room, and Dreyer waves Vaughn aside again. Out of the way. Carson follows me, gaze glued to me, and I lure him toward the bed while Dreyer and Vaughn disappear down the hall.

  But Carson takes one whiff of the bed and starts snarling again. “Shower,” he demands. “Now.” Then he rips the sheets from the bed and begins shredding them. I watch, stunned, as the pile of scraps grows. Until he turns his attention—and his biological weaponry—toward the mattress itself.

  “It’s ruined,” he snarls, and I throw myself in front of him again, because what I’ve learned is that even when the beast is pissed off, he won’t hurt me.

  “Okay, well, you can take that up with Brennan. For now, come with me. Let’s shower. Together.”

  Carson’s gaze snaps to mine, and his lust blazes through me, echoing my own and…feeding it. “You want me?” he growls.

  “Sooo badly.” I’m not sure whether he can feel me, like I can feel him, but that’s the truth. “But on two conditions.”

  “No conditions,” the beast growls as Carson grabs me.

  “Yes, conditions.” I shove him off, and that thrumming begins again. Oh, that’s right. He likes my “spark.” “You have to get rid of the weapons, so you don’t hurt me. I think that’s a perfectly reasonable request.”

  He blinks. Then he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Slowly, all of his weapons recede into his skin, and when he meets my gaze again, he looks as proud of his self-control as a toddler might be of his toilet training.

  But I try not to let him see that mental comparison on my face.

  “Thanks. The other condition—you have to pull out.”

  Carson frowns. “Pull out of—?” Then understanding washes over his features. “No. The only thing I want in the world is to be buried inside you, Lilli,” he growls, and I decide to feel optimistic about how many words were in that se
ntence. Surely that’s a sign that he’s wrestling control from the beast, right?

  “Well, those are my conditions.” I shrug. “You agree, or I’m showering alone.”

  “No.” He lifts me by the waist, and my legs wrap around him on their own. I tell myself that’s because there’s no other way to maintain my balance, but even I don’t believe that. “You want this as badly as I do.”

  “Never said I didn’t.” I wrap my arms around him as he carries me through the bathroom door.

  “Then consider this a compromise. You win one, and I win one.”

  “Asking you to disarm yourself so you don’t hurt me can hardly be considered a victory.”

  “Yet you named it as one of your terms. My terms are this: I will make you scream with pleasure, then I will release deep inside you.”

  Fuck me, why does that sound so hot? “Counter offer—you can come in my mouth. I know damn well guys like that.”

  “No.” He sets me down and turns on the shower. “Later, you may pleasure me with your mouth if you want, but that is not how a woman takes her mate’s seed.”

  “Maybe later I could see the alien dating handbook? Because I kind of feel like you’re making this up as we go.”

  A smile cracks through his facade. “I would love to feel your mouth around my cock, petal.” He reaches behind me and rips the clasp of my bra open, destroying yet another article of clothing. “But right now, it would not fit past your lips.” He leans forward and kisses me, purring, and I groan as my body clenches around nothing. “These lips, anyway,” he says, running his thumb over my mouth, still damp and swollen from his rough kiss.

  “So, we’re dealing with super-cock again? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “You say that as if you don’t love every inch.”

  “I do. You know I do. I’m just not sure we actually need all those inches.”

  “Length and girth are a gift from a man to his mate.”

  “So I heard.”

  “You will enjoy it,” he declares as he shoves my underwear down.

  “I’m sure that’s true. But afterward, I’ll be sore. Again.”

  “Good. Then you will think of me with every throb.”

  I frown and push him back again. “You want me to be in pain?”

  “If there were not mild soreness, my cock would not have done enough to please you.”

  “I don’t think that logic holds. I wouldn’t be sore from your tongue at all, yet it pleases me pretty damn well.”

  “That is acceptable,” he growls as he shoves his pants down, with his underwear still inside. And yes, his cock is fucking huge. Again. “After you take my seed, I will ease your soreness with my tongue.”

  “You know, you say weird things when the beast is at the helm.”

  He sniffs in my direction. “Yet you grow wet at the thought.”

  “Yup. So, we’re agreed?” I ask as he stalks across the bathroom toward me. “You’ll pull out, then you’ll tongue fuck me until I come again? Because I think that would make the beast all kinds of happy.”

  “We agreed on no such thing.” He bends to take my nipple into his mouth, and I groan as it hardens from the warm, wet pressure of his tongue. My hand clenches around his arm. I need more.

  He lifts me and steps into the shower, and I kiss him as water runs over us, tracing warm lines down my back and over our faces. Carson’s cock throbs against my lower parts and he takes hold of my hips so he can rock himself back and forth, sliding against a wet heat that has nothing to do with the shower.

  “Tell me you want me,” he growls into my ear.

  “I want you.” The truth of that statement echoes between us, deepening my ache for him.

  He presses me against the shower wall, and I feel him prod at my entrance. For a second, fear shoots up my spine at the size of him. It doesn’t feel possible. “Wait—”

  He swallows my protest with another kiss, stroking into my mouth with his tongue. But he holds himself back. “It will fit,” he whispers above the patter of falling water. “You took it before, screaming in pleasure.”

  “I remember.” I suck in a deep breath, trying to slow my pulse. “But Carson you have to pull out.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.” I plant my palm on his chest and grab his chin until he looks at me. “Promise me.”

  He growls. Then his gaze drops to my stomach, where my stretch marks make my case for me. He exhales slowly. “You have my word. The beast agrees that releasing inside you this time would bring you more trauma than pleasure.”

  “You’re saying the beast just talked sense into you?”

  “He and I are the same. And we want the same thing—your pleasure and happiness.” With that, he takes my hips to steady me and slowly slides into me, gaze locked to mine in the most searingly intimate moment of my life.

  “Oh my god.” He’s only halfway in, and already I feel so full. “I can’t…” I moan, even as my body clenches around him.

  “You can.” And he’s right. Despite the intensity of the stretch, I’m wet enough that every inch feels amazing. If intimidating. “You’re so goddamn tight,” Carson groans.

  “Or, perhaps you’re hung like a fucking battering ram.”

  “Only for you, petal,” he grinds out as his hips finally meet mine. I’m impaled on him, stuffed so full my organs are vying for space, and again, the simplistic quality of the pride in his voice makes me smile.

  “Pretty proud of your equipment, are you?”

  “Of course.” He holds me to the wall as he begins to pull out, only to work his way back in with a gentle speed that makes me groan. “The size of my cock is a testament to the strength of our connection. To its mutual nature.”

  “You’re saying this super-cock development is because we’re meant to be?”

  “Of course.”

  “How do you know that?”

  He grunts as pushes back into me, and I wrap my arms around him, holding on for the ride. Giving in to the rhythm. “It feels true.”

  He moves in and out of me, pinning me to the wall with each epic thrust, while hot water pours over us. Every motion rubs that sensitive spot inside me. Each thrust grinds against my clit, sending escalating waves of pleasure over me.

  My body tightens around him as that intimate pressure builds. As our rhythm gains speed and intensity. “Oh, god,” I murmur, closing my eyes as I cling to him. “Faster. Please.”

  Carson slams into me over and over, and I feel tension building in his shoulders. In his back. “Lilli. Come for me. Please, petal. I need to feel you come around me.”

  “More…” I dig into his shoulders and he hisses when my fingernails break through. His hands tighten around my hips, and he grinds me down onto him as he thrusts up into me. “Yes. Like that…”

  “Come on, petal. Come for me so I can taste you like I promised.”

  The thought of his tongue pushes me over the edge, and I scream as I clench around him.

  “Oh, fuck,” he groans. Then, suddenly he’s gone, and I’m grasping at smooth, slick walls to balance myself while Carson strokes a massive, engorged cock.

  He’s right. That would never have fit in my mouth.

  “Lilli,” he cries, and I can only stare while his fist works his own length. Then I realize what he wants. I press myself against his right side, sliding my wet breasts against his chest, then I capture his mouth in a deep kiss.

  He groans into my mouth and tenses as he releases over and over onto my hip. And into the tub. And onto the wall.

  “Oh my god.” He wraps his right arm around me and thrusts his still-stiff cock against my hip, making a mess that the shower washes away almost immediately. “That was almost as good as it would have been inside you.”

  “Speak for yourself.” I pout over my arrested orgasm. “I wasn’t done.”

  “Well, you’re the one who made me pull out,” he teases. And part of me regrets that already. “But I believe I did make another promise.
” Carson dispenses soap from the unit on the wall and quickly lathers me up from the neck down. Then he turns off the shower and swipes at me briskly with a towel. “The bed’s ruined. Where should we…?”

  “Here. On the floor.” I grab the towel and spread it out beside the tub, then I hold his hand for balance as I step out. Carson lays me down, then kisses his way down my body, stopping to nibble on each my nipples. At the first touch of his tongue, my hips come off the towel.

  Minutes later, I come screaming his name.

  “I don’t really understand this wall…chute…system.” I pull open the panel and remove the clean sheets that are waiting for us, like magic. “I get that they’re watching us, which is how they know you fucking shredded the last set.” I take the linens from the box set into the wall and hand them to Carson. “But what I don’t understand is how they got here. Mechanically speaking.”

  I peer into the box, wishing I had a flashlight, but I can’t see any seams or hinges. “I mean, the back of this thing must open, right? So someone can stick fresh bedding in here?”

  “Lilly, the only thing behind that wall is Coleman’s cell.”

  “Oh yeah.” Though the depth of the box suggests that there’s at least a foot of space between his cell and the breeding room. “So then, either the top or the bottom of this box opens. Or maybe it works like one of those old dumbwaiters? Like an elevator designed to carry stuff, instead of people?”

  “I have no idea. Come help me with this.”

  Together, we remake the bed, then we curl up on it, sharing the only remaining pillow, since Tirzah took the other one. “So, you guys have been here for two years?” I ask as I tuck my head into the hollow of his shoulder. “With no sunlight or fresh air?”

  “Sometimes they let us out onto the playground—which is really a hunting ground—when they want to test our abilities in the field. But other than that, yeah. Well, no, wait.” Carson frowns. “We spent the first few months in another facility. One great big lab, where we were literally strapped to tables all day, every day. That was during the early phases, when they weren’t sure we were going to live. Or that they’d gotten what they wanted out of the design process. Those months felt interminable, and compared to that place, this lab is a luxury hotel.”