Act of Surveillance: Paranormal Security and Intelligence® an Immortal Ops® World Novel (PSI-Ops/Immortal Ops Book 7)

by Mandy M. Roth

  All she could do was stare wide-eyed in horror at the scene she was causing.

  There was no way flying baked goods could be explained away. No way to sugarcoat it or minimize what was happening. The unnatural side of her was there, laid out for all to see—all to judge—all to fear.

  Bill darted forward with his hands out and caught one of the cookies before bringing it to his mouth and shoving it in. He mumbled something that sounded a lot like, “Don’t go wasting good cookies, Liberty Bell.”

  Did nothing rattle the strange older man?

  Was he really that out of touch with reality that having things flying around, defying logic and gravity, seemed run-of-the-mill? He did think his son was some sort of spy.

  Rurik wiped his brow clean of crumbs and then took hold of his T-shirt and lifted it up and over his head, revealing a perfectly chiseled torso and upper body.

  He tossed the shirt aside and focused on her, lifting his hands in the process. “Liberty, settle down. It’s all right.”

  “Settle down!?” she shouted, making it clear relaxing was not about to happen. There was a high chance she’d never calm down again.

  Bill shook his head and went toward the basket full of goodies, which had somehow ended up near the entrance to the hall. “I’m gonna go ahead and get this stuff over to Gus so he can taste it. He’s gonna love it, Liberty Bell. You two kids have fun.”

  She stood there in disbelief.

  Why weren’t they freaking out?

  She was freaking out.

  Seemed only rational they should be too. In fact, if they didn’t start freaking out soon, she was going to up her panic game to compensate.

  Rurik remained in the kitchen as Bill left, whistling a merry tune.

  Liberty glanced around at the scene in the kitchen once again, appalled at her lack of control and the fact there were witnesses to it all. It was one thing for Isobel and Daisy to know what she was capable of. They were like her—they were special too. It was an entirely different matter having outsiders aware of what she could do.

  If her nightmares were to be believed, she’d already been a guinea pig for demented scientists once in her life. She didn’t want to go for round two.

  Didn’t governments slice and dice what they didn’t understand?

  Would she be cut up in little pieces if they found out?

  Liberty tried to will the items down, but nothing worked. With wide, scared eyes, she glanced at Rurik.

  He was standing there, shirtless, looking good enough to lick and like he saw this sort of thing all the time.

  “Ohmygod, will you please fucking panic!” she shouted, realizing as the words left her mouth how ridiculous they sounded. Not to mention she’d dropped an F-bomb, something she wasn’t exactly known for.

  Lifting his hands more, Rurik eased closer to her, stepping over splattered apple pie on the floor. When he was close enough to touch her, he reached out slowly and stunned her by cupping her face. The next thing Liberty knew, his lips were pressed to hers, making everything else around her fade away, but not before she heard the telltale sounds of items falling to the floor.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Rurik’s tongue darted into Liberty’s mouth, acting as if time was of the essence. As if she’d be taken from him at any second. Pavel had been close to her earlier. Close enough that his scent had lingered on her near the university.

  The knowledge that Pavel could have harmed her or even killed her caused Rurik to increase the kiss as fear and desperation consumed him. Deep down, he knew taking her and running far and fast was the smartest thing to do.

  Damn if stupid didn’t win out.

  He kept going with the kiss, his tongue doing what his cock wanted to, diving in and out of her. “Fuck,” he whispered, breaking the kiss for a fraction of a second.

  She bit at his lower lip.

  He went right back to kissing her.

  The animal in Rurik roared, pushing for him to seize control of the moment, to make sure she was forever his and that no one—especially Pavel—could harm her.

  His hand moved to her cheek, seemingly drawn to one spot in particular. He traced his fingers over the area, feeling the smallest of differences under his fingertips. The skin was smoother there, depressed somewhat, almost like scar tissue.

  Liberty touched his torso and the second her palms connected with his bare skin, his cock jerked. He was left with an aching bulge between his legs. One that would only find relief in her.

  Growling into her mouth, he slid his hand into her hair. The next he knew, he was lifting her and carrying her to the nearest countertop. He swept an arm out, knocking away anything and everything that was hindering him from gaining access to the paradise between her legs.

  Something crashed to the floor, the sound echoing throughout the kitchen, but he paid it no mind as he set her on the counter and deepened the kiss.

  Good God. He wanted her like he’d never wanted anything before.

  She tipped her head, granting him better access to her mouth as her hands roamed downward, and he held his breath, desperate for her to give him a sign she wanted this to happen, that she wanted him carnally, like he wanted her.

  As her fingers eased over the button of his jeans, the urge to smile was great. He resisted mainly because he didn’t want to break the kiss. He could only hope Bill was well and truly gone and wouldn’t interrupt the magik of the moment.

  Liberty undid his jeans and then froze, her teeth tugging on his lower lip in the process.

  Try as he might, he couldn’t stop another growl from breaking free from him. He tugged on her hair, forcing her head back more.

  The brazen vixen picked then to shove one of her hands into the front of his jeans and free his erection. A jolt of desire raced through him, leaving him trying to get under her shirt. His efforts were hampered by the apron she was wearing.

  The irony that it was of the American flag wasn’t lost on him. He nearly extended a claw and tore it free from her, wanting to get to the good stuff sooner rather than later.

  As his bear pushed up at him from within, he realized just how close he was to losing control of his shifter side. “If you don’t want this, you need to tell me.”

  “Want this?” she questioned, her gaze on his lips, her hand wrapped around his shaft as best it could be.

  He couldn’t help but grin at the sight of her being swept up in the moment. “I want to fuck you. Is that what you want too?”

  He held his breath, worried she’d say no.

  Her chocolate-brown gaze searched his face. “Aren’t you scared of me?”

  He shook his head.

  “Why?” she asked as vulnerability filled her voice and her eyes.

  He didn’t want the passion-filled moment to end, but it was clear she needed reassurances that he didn’t fear her. He couldn’t think of a great way to drive the point home beyond the fact he’d not cut and run at the first sign of her being more than human.

  Her bottom lip began to tremble. “You can’t tell anyone what I did, Rurik. You can’t tell them I made things float. If they find out, they’ll hurt me.”

  His bear side kicked up, forcing a snarl free from him. He tugged harder than he meant on her hair. “If anyone tries to harm you, I will rip their throats out and bathe in their blood. I’ll cut them into so many pieces no one will ever be able to identify their remains.”

  She blinked and then smiled softly. “That’s probably more than is needed but thank you. And I can totally see why you’d win a blender for comments like that. Maybe your friends should have gotten you a woodchipper instead.”

  Something thumped from the upper level, and Rurik released his hold on Liberty’s hair. He tucked himself into his jeans once more but didn’t button them again. Instead, he went on high alert, remembering why he’d first rushed over to her home to start with. Was someone else really in the house?

  Liberty touched his upper chest. “Rurik, ignore it. Sometimes, wh
en I lose control and make a lot of things float around, they land in different spots. And sometimes those spots are edges of tables. And that often means there is a delay before things hit the floor. If that makes sense.”

  It did.

  He watched her carefully, thinking about the flickers of movement he’d seen in the front-facing windows. “Before I came over, were you making things move around throughout the house? Making them float? Like what happened with the pie?”

  She blushed and nodded. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you, and thank you for coming to check on me.”

  He exhaled gradually, letting go of the notion that they weren’t alone. “Is this something you’ve always been able to do?”

  “I think so,” she whispered. “I can only remember back so far. Beyond that, I sort of dream about earlier years. What happens in the dreams could be real or it could just be my imagination. Though today, at the university, I think I had another memory from back then. It wasn’t a good one.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “Why aren’t you flipping out?” she asked.

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “Liberty, do you want to talk about what happened to you at the university?”

  She shook her head and tears welled.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered. “You don’t have to talk about it. You don’t have to talk about any of it if you don’t want to.”

  “You lied before. This freaked you out, didn’t it?”

  “In truth, I’m more freaked out by how much I want to fuck you and by something a friend said to me earlier than by knowing you possess telekinesis,” he stated evenly. “In case I was not clear, I want you…badly.”

  She began to laugh and then cupped his face and leaned closer, kissing his lips in a loving manner. One that had his chest tightening with feel-good tingles and his arms wrapping around her.

  When she broke the kiss, she wiped his lip. “Thank you for making me laugh. I was so scared that I freaked you out and that you’d call the police or something on me.” She then stiffened. “Your father said you are the police and you told me you work for a secret something or other.”

  He tilted her chin up. “Liberty, what I do for a living isn’t something that’s talked about openly. I can tell you that nothing you did today alarmed me. This is not my first brush with someone who possesses this gift. I’ve run into more than I can recall, and those do not even take into consideration people with magik—people my kind term Fae.”

  “Your kind?” she questioned.

  It was his turn to tense. If he confessed what he was to her, would the tables turn, and would she be scared of him? Making things float was one thing. Seeing a man turn into a giant bear was something altogether different.

  If the information Auberi had recovered from the mole’s notes was to be believed, and Liberty was his mate, she’d figure out pretty damn fast that he wasn’t human. There was no time like the present to tackle the matter. “Liberty, I need to tell you something.”

  She leaned in more and then licked his collarbone. What was left of his sanity abandoned him.

  He locked gazes with her. “I’m going to fuck you now.”

  She nodded, a glint of anticipation showing on her face.

  The smell of her cream flooded his senses. He growled again.

  She drew her fingers down his torso slowly, making his cock react once more. The top portion of his shaft popped free of his already open jeans. “I want you to do that—what you just said—but I’ll admit, the counter isn’t doing my butt any favors. Can we move this to a bed?”

  “We can,” he said, lifting her once more.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he walked through the kitchen, mindful to avoid stepping in any of the smashed pie on the way. He carried her through the hall and the living room, right to the stairs, and paused.

  She kissed him tenderly, still clinging to him. “My room is the first one on the right up there.”

  “Then upstairs and to the right is where we’re headed,” he said, making her laugh softly. The mere sound of it caused his cock to flex.

  She wiggled against him as he walked her up the stairs, still holding her. “You should put me down. That way, we can run to my room and get to the naughty parts faster.”

  He grinned and increased his pace, getting her to the room in seconds.

  Her breath caught. “You’re like crazy strong.”

  He entered the room with her and the moment he crossed the threshold, he went for her mouth.

  She, in turn, worked herself free from the apron enough to pull it off and toss it aside, along with her top. He wasted no time getting her to the bed, where he laid her out gently. He temporarily tucked himself into his jeans once more so he could focus on her and then went to work easing her out of her pants. She was left lying there, looking up at him with a pair of red panties and a matching bra. He couldn’t help but notice the red was the same red that was in America’s flag.

  He laughed inwardly, realizing Fate had a sense of humor, giving him a woman named Liberty and repeated signs about America. Every harsh thought he’d had about the country faded from existence as he soaked in the sight of his woman.

  Mine.

  The thought of an immortally long commitment didn’t send him running with his tail between his legs. It turned him on more.

  She bit her lower lip as she raked her gaze over him. “I cannot believe I’m about to do this with you.”

  “Me either,” he said, leaning over her, his fingers going for the clasp in the front of her bra. He stared into her brown eyes, looking for any sign that she’d changed her mind. He found none. He unhooked her bra and her breasts spilled out.

  His bear side stopped pushing for freedom and froze within him, as if it was as swept up with the sight of her gorgeous tits as he was.

  Not a shock.

  It had a thing for berries, and her deep pink nipples were very berry-like.

  Rurik was tempted to sample them, but he wanted to finish unwrapping his prize first. He touched her panties and lifted his gaze slowly, meeting hers.

  She nodded, and he eased them down her with deliberate slowness, wanting to keep his shifter side in check. He stopped mid-thigh.

  He grabbed his cock, which was still partially out of his open jeans, and swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry at the sight of her sex. She kept a small strip of deep brown, neatly trimmed hair there.

  His bear side felt as if it was close to breaking free from him in a way that would leave the human side of him nothing more than a husk of torn flesh on the floor when it was done, never to be seen or heard from again.

  Rurik glanced at the ceiling and began thinking of something—anything that would keep him from shoving his face in her pussy and feasting upon her. If he didn’t get a handle on himself, the entire event would be over before it started. That, or he’d end up standing in her bedroom as a fully shifted bear.

  That would go over great.

  If you want this to happen, knock it the fuck off, he scolded, directing it at his bear side.

  Instantly, it stopped, choosing instead to hover just below the surface, enjoying the show nearly as much as the man.

  Liberty spread her legs more, and his hard-fought control shattered. Rurik gave up trying to stay in control and gave in to his baser needs. He moved onto the bed partially, bending and putting his face to her sex. He inhaled, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as her scent washed over him once more.

  He tugged her panties down her body with slow deliberation when all he really wanted to do was shred them and get to the good stuff. Tossing the panties aside, he focused on her center, already slick with wetness.

  A smile tugged at the edges of his lips a second before he lowered his face and licked her slit. She jerked on the bed, nearly coming up and off it. Rurik slid his arms around her thighs, effectively locking her hips in place as he continued. With his tongue, he traced small circles over her clit, eliciting moans
from her. He released her thighs and then speared her with a finger, quickly marveling at her tightness.

  Feeling how tight, hot, and wet she was confirmed what he already knew. He wouldn’t last long once he was in her.

  Hell, he was barely hanging on as it was.

  Liberty bucked as her inner thighs began to quiver. He smiled against the pad of her pussy and then licked a line to her entrance. As the taste of her sex coated his tongue, Rurik growled, fighting the urge to not only ram himself deep in her but to shout “mine” while doing so.

  The animalistic need to mark the woman as his, to brand her for any other supernatural male to know and understand who she belonged to, was nearly overpowering.

  Not until she understands fully, he reminded himself.

  They needed to have a long talk before he went and did something irreversible like claiming her, but there was no fucking way he could stop to concentrate on the best way to reveal the total truth of it all. Not when his face was quite literally buried in his version of heaven.

  He pushed his tongue into her and used his thumb to massage her clit.

  Liberty jerked more on the bed, her dark gaze centering on him. Looking up the length of Liberty as she watched him pleasure her orally painted an erotically stimulating picture. One Rurik wanted to freeze in his mind to draw on later. There was a hell of a lot of chicken-choking milage he could get out of such a memory.

  “Rurik,” she whispered, her breaths coming in shallow pants, as her hands found the sides of his head. She ran her fingers into his hair, holding his face to her mound.

  If he had to pick a way to die, it would be just as he was—mouth to her core.

  He increased his actions, darting his tongue in and out of her as he kept rubbing her sweet spot—kept drawing moans of encouragement from her.

  She cried out, arching her back, her legs clamping onto the sides of his head as her orgasm struck. Her body shook and her core tightened around his tongue.

  He swallowed down the torrent of her cream, growling as he did. His cock sprang free fully from his jeans. Reaching down, he adjusted to keep the open fly area from scraping the underside of his shaft. With a frustrated growl, he stood, kicked off his boots and socks before shucking off his jeans. He kicked them aside and stood there, staring at his mate as she lay fully naked on the bed before him.