Hunter

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “And we will, after you tell me. I don’t want to walk around with my imagination to depend on. I have a very evil imagination. It’s one of my wicked womanly powers. Much worse than magic.”

  “Is that right?” he asked with a laugh as he turned and crossed over to her.

  “Oh yes. Lots of exercise involved. I can jump to conclusions in a single bound. I’m more powerful than a murder motive. I’m faster than the town gossip. I am deadly and I must be stopped.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” he chuckled as he leaned over her and reached for her mouth. She pulled back, a hand holding him at bay.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded. “You are not going to change this subject”

  “I haven’t kissed you properly since yesterday,” he argued.

  “Then you better talk fast,” she said a bit breathlessly as his eyes burned down at her with that butane intensity that made her heart race.

  “Let’s work out a barter system,” he counter-offered. “I tell you something, you give me my kiss. We can work exponentially from there.”

  “But I thought we were supposed to be doing magic,” Tatyana said lamely as the warmth of his breath skimmed silkily over her cheek. She suppressed a shiver.

  “If you can cheat, so can I,” he said, a very wicked gleam in his hot eyes. He reached up and touched a foundation-covered cheek, frowning instantly. “Unless I’m asking too much. Damn, it’s like ... you make me forget in an instant everything you’ve been through, just with that saucy little attitude of yours and all that pluck you toss out so easily.”

  “That’s okay,” she assured softly. “I want you to forget. I don’t do victim very well. It’s like with that bully Tanya ... I wear my bruises proudly because ... well, I won. Doesn’t matter how I won, just that I did. It’s over now. He failed and you made that happen for me.” She reached up with graceful fingers and plowed them through his hair, making him turn toward the caress with a pleasurable sigh. “I only need one thing from you to feel truly better about all of this.”

  “What? Anything you need, angel, just tell me.”

  “What happened ten years ago?”

  Hunter sighed and resisted the urge he had to turn the minx over his knee. Some other day, he thought, allowing the wicked desire to enter his eyes and expression, leaving her guessing as to its origin.

  “About a year after Ryce and I rescued Annali, I got involved with one of the other witches in the coven. Amber. She was Asher’s twin sister. I was twenty-four and she was eighteen. She and Asher had lived here since they were sixteen. She’d had a crush on me since day one, and I was too young and too egotistical to see beyond being flattered.”

  Hunter turned and sat down on the couch beside her with a deep sigh, rubbing at his eyes. “She turned eighteen and it was like a gun going off at a starting gate to her. She thought that was what I’d been waiting for those two years. For her to be a grown-up.” He laughed dryly at the idea of anyone being a grown-up at eighteen. “She sure came on like a grown-up,” he recalled without accusation. “I barely knew what hit me. At twenty-four I was still thinking more with my hormones than anything. I was too dense to realize that she was in love with me, and I was in love with the sex.” Hunter looked at her. “I hate telling you this. I’m not proud of it. It nearly destroyed this house.”

  Tatyana got up from her seat and, facing Hunter, she threw a leg over his thighs. She settled her bottom on his lap and leaned forward to give him a slow, deep kiss. It was amazing, really, the instant sensation she had that she was truly starved for him and his affection. All of her focus zeroed in on the feel of his lips; her palms cupped his face, which was dark and roughly unshaven still. She ignored the potential for whisker burn and slid deep inside of him in search of his tongue.

  Hunter groaned under her slowly seductive reward. He reached for her head and enveloped it in his big hands as she made slow, sensuous work of his mouth. When she pulled back for a breath, he could hardly hear over the rushing sound of his blood.

  “How?” she asked as though there had been no break in the conversation. “How did you almost destroy this house?”

  “Asher found out about me and Amber and went napalm. His sister swore that I loved her and ... that’s when I realized she was on this whole fairy-tale trip and I’d really screwed up. I tried to break it off gently, but there’s no such thing as a gently broken heart. Especially not when you live in the same house with the one who hurt you, and you have to see him constantly all day long. I tried to make it easier on her by leaving for long stretches of time. One day, while I was away, she and Asher and Annali were out to a movie and they got ambushed by a trio of warlocks. Annie was still doing only rudimentary potions then, and Asher’s magic doesn’t lend itself to offensive attack. Amber was the only one who could really fight the enemy. She was a Conjurer witch. Basically, she could create something out of nothing with the power of her mind. But it’s a highly focused power. You need a great deal of concentration and experience to be any good in a firefight.”

  The telling was becoming more difficult for him, and he couldn’t seem to stay connected to her eyes. Tatyana knew that was because he was afraid of what she would think of him afterward. She reminded him she was very much still with him by kissing him again, stroking her thumbs soothingly over his cheeks.

  “She tried her best to fend the warlocks off while the entire coven was racing to help them,” he continued after a moment, this time seizing on her jade gaze as though it were a life raft. “Turned out I was closest because I was already out of the house. They’d taken the fight off into this glade right outside of town. Annie was cut down, nearly losing an arm in the process. Asher was always good with weapons, but he could only do so much against magic. He fell. Amber was facing three-to-one odds, and the thought that her brother had been killed. I was just running up to where Annali was when Amber conjured the only thing she could think of that would take out the trio closing in on her.

  “She made a bomb. I never even saw it, never had a chance to cast a single spell. I was too far away, maybe too inexperienced. I never expected her to self-sacrifice like that. When the explosion hit I was ...” Hunter shook his head. “I was too far away to do anything, not that there was much I could have done. And ... you never expect someone to survive something like that blast. Not when it takes out trees and ... everything. Asher found her maybe seconds before she actually died. I wasn’t there but apparently my name was the last thing she said to him. I don’t need to guess how much that hurt him. He let me know every minute of every day afterward. I put up with it for a month after Amber’s funeral, and then he delivered an ultimatum to Ryce. Him or me. Willow Coven couldn’t have us both. And I knew ...”

  “You knew Ryce was going to pick you,” she filled in for him.

  “If he did that, we’d lose Asher to going rogue or dark witchery. I had no doubt in my mind about that. The betrayal would have been the final straw for him. So, since I was already hating myself for all the stupid mistakes I had made, including getting there too late to do anything to help her like a Sentinel was supposed to do, I left. I didn’t let anyone argue, and Asher never knew it was my choice and not Ryce’s.” Hunter laid his head back and stared up at the ceiling a long moment. “It took a decade, but I realized what was and was not my fault about that day. I accepted my mistakes, and stopped taking on extra ones that were only in my mind. I’m hoping the same is true for Asher.”

  “Was it hard to come back here as Sentinel? To re-accept that level of responsibility?” she asked.

  “Actually, it was easier than I had expected. I was born to be Ryce’s Sentinel. He and I ... we met when we were just boys, fully empowered, the both of us. I was from a witching family, he was not. Except, my family ... my family produces witches like Braen. He’s one of three of my warlock brothers, you know.”

  She gasped. “I had no idea!”

  “Not something I like to publicize,” he said grimly. “Only one th
ing kept me from that path, I believe, and that was Ryce’s influence. He was a natural-born leader. Me, with my roots in dark magic, I had just enough power in me to be a killer and just enough conscience to be doing it for good reasons. At first Ryce had his work cut out for him teaching me white ways. After a while, it came naturally to me. Soon I was the family disgrace. I was also twice as powerful as any of my brothers.

  “Ryce’s wealth allowed him independence at an early age. We built this house and started our coven. First Kaia. Then Lennox. The twins and then Gracie. You know about Annali. Ryce has done well here. This coven has a reputation even in Europe. I got to hear bits and pieces of stories over the years. It was like writing home.”

  “But now you are home. And I see why everyone feels as though you never left. Ryce may lead and finance, but you are as much a part of this coven’s foundations as he is. You’re part of the reason it’s even here. Technically, you and Ryce were Willow Coven long before this house was built. How old were you when you met Ryce?”

  “Ten. He was thirteen. I was a spoiled little shit,” he chuckled. “I had used magic to get everything I wanted from the day I first cast a spell. He was from a family of privilege and never saw his parents, so he was autonomous by then, but not spoiled. He was devoted to white craft, following in the footsteps of his mentor who had died a year before I met him. Can you imagine him taking on a ten-year-old snot with dark magic in his blood at the mere age of thirteen and actually mentoring him?”

  “Ryce? Yes.” She laughed and cuddled up to Hunter. “I can only imagine him being born a powerful adult. Ryce and potty training just don’t compute.”

  “Oh, man,” Hunter chuckled. “But can I tell you a secret? I think it would compute ... if he was a father. He’s a natural. And if you listen to him long enough, you will hear him talk about families and love and witchcraft like it’s a triad of power like the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The three aspects of our goddess,” he clarified. “I think he craves a family of his own blood in this house, as well as wanting us to have ours.”

  “It shows,” she said. “I saw the nursery. It’s just ... waiting.”

  “Yeah, he likes to go through it and update everything whenever something is really bothering him. Or at least he used to.”

  “It looked pretty up to date,” she assured him. It made him grin like a fool.

  “The more things change ...”

  “... the more they stay the same. I just hope Asher survives. And I am glad that, in my mind, I can only see Braen with me in that hallway and in the room. Asher doesn’t deserve to be part of that memory. But it’s so strange because I know that at the time, I couldn’t see through the spell, however, right afterward I think I could. Now I see nothing of Asher. I don’t even know what he looks like.”

  “Good. No matter what troubles he and I have had in the past, Asher is a good man who has suffered a lot for his craft. Including the pain he is in now. It would be unfair if his image was blackened in your memories before he even has a chance to know you and you to know him.”

  “I agree.” She exhaled slowly. “There now, see? That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  “No,” he agreed with a grin. “But I think we’re going to have to go well beyond a couple of kisses to make this barter fair.” Hunter’s hands slid down over her back and Tatyana smiled slyly at him.

  “I gather you have something specific in mind?” She snuggled forward, her full breasts settled up against his chest. “Or can I choose?”

  Just the question sent a spool of heat tumbling and unraveling down the length of his entire body. Hunter tried to catch a breath as her smile turned cunning and knowing. She knew she had excited him, just as she knew it would never take much effort on her part to do so. Something about her just tripped every single wire he had.

  “I can go either way,” he joked hoarsely, harkening back to the night they had met and making her explode in a grin.

  “Mmm, that sounds like fun,” she practically purred against the corner of his mouth. Her spine made that slinky movement that always captivated him and Hunter was suddenly very aware of the heat of her body penetrating through his clothes.

  “It’s ... I’m ...” he stammered, trying to draw coherent thoughts together as her tongue began to dart out in little licks against his lips. “By the Lady, you are so damn beautiful,” he declared hotly as his hands ran down her body.

  She laughed at that, pulling back to give him a look. “You can’t possibly mean that in the aesthetic sense,” she challenged him.

  “Oh, but I do. I mean it in every sense. And you’d know if I was lying. A few bruises and some mushy makeup doesn’t keep me from seeing what I want to see. It certainly doesn’t make you any less sexy or make you burn any less hot,” he whispered as he caught her bottom in his hands and used the cupping hold to tilt her into his waiting mouth.

  Tatyana felt his hands squeezing her gently, but there was a vibration inside of him that told her how much he was holding back. As usual, she mused. Still, she knew she wasn’ t likely to unleash so much as a mouse from inside of this man while looking like she’d just done ten rounds in a boxing ring. That big beast inside of him just scratching and growling beneath the surface and waiting for her to release him, it would have to wait.

  But for now ... for now she was burning. Hunter shifted restlessly beneath her and she felt that impatience radiating through her body. She was wearing some kind of buttoned-down dress of Annali’s, something handy as she’d gotten dressed quickly that morning at Hunter’s impatient request that they go see Ryce. Now the convenience of it made her grin with lascivious intent. She slid forward and snuggled deep into his lap, her bare sex pressed to his fly where he’d be better able to get drenched in her heat. In reaction to the contact, Hunter sucked in a breath and his hands shot up along her bare thighs under her skirt. He grabbed hold of her by her hips and pressed her down against himself as she rocked against him.

  All the while, she began to unbutton her dress from the top button on down. When she had gone far enough to put her cleavage on display but still shy of her navel by a couple of buttons, she lightly danced her fingertips down her breastbone and over the inside swells of her breasts.

  “I think I would choose to have you put your tongue on me, right here,” she remarked invitingly as she slowly drew apart the two sides of the dress. “All the other parts of your mouth would also be welcome.” She drew aside fabric to expose a pretty pink nipple, the fair color still outstanding against her even fairer skin. She scraped a fingernail across herself as she pulled her dress aside, causing her nipple to tighten up into a tempting point.

  Tatyana saw his attention was completely riveted to her exposed breast, his chest rising and falling hard with his aroused state. She thrilled in the power she had to affect him, the knowledge of it sliding in wet, heated ribbons down her body. She used a pair of fingers under his chin to tilt his attention up to her eyes.

  “What would you have chosen?” she asked, a soft smile on her lips as they brushed in gentle kisses over his brows.

  “Probably something like this,” he rumbled roughly against her cheek just before he slid a hand from her hip and sought between her spread-out thighs. It meant feeling the back of his own hand pressing against his fly, but just then he really needed a little counter-pressure. He felt her tense up in preparation long before he made it past her labia and into the drenched valley they protected. He found her clit almost immediately, causing her to gasp and jolt forward against him. The movement brought that delightfully bare breast against his mouth and he took advantage instantly, catching her rigid nipple between his teeth briefly before flicking his tongue in play against her.

  Her hands split directions, one diving into his hair at the back of his head, the other hurrying to finish her task of unbuttoning her dress. She moved in counter-motion to the stroke of his fingertips, her hips undulating in soft, subtle circles that radiated up her entire spine. It was so incredibly sexy, s
uch an amazing turn-on. She was so naturally full of sexual appetite and so able to express it, she made Hunter lose his mind to her desires.

  Tatyana shucked her dress back off her body, making herself a naked, open treat for her as-yet fully clothed lover. Hunter could barely decide how best to use his body to please her. He loved what her pleasure did to her. The little ways she moved, the unchecked sounds she made. She was panting hotly already, her eyes closed as her lithe body rode the stroke of his hand with growing ecstasy. He ached with hardness just watching her, the pulse hammering through his cock an unreal force. It begged him to be inside of her, and then the begging quickly turned into demands.

  Hunter barely felt her hands pulling his shirt apart, never even realizing she’d unbuttoned it as well. He lurched forward off the couch, spilling them both onto the floor in front of the radiant heat of the fire. She was beneath him now, and she complained in a sultry mewl when he removed his hand from her to strip his shirt off. He reared up onto his knees as he did so, looking down at her gorgeous body lying before him, her knees parted around the intrusion of his hips.

  Bruises colored her all down one side.

  The shot of rage came out of nowhere, even as he struggled to fight it back. This, he realized, would allow Braen victory over them both. If he let his anger control him and ruin their intimacies, his brother would have driven a wedge between them just as definitive as if he’d succeeded in his intended acts.

  Tatyana wasn’t fooled for an instant. She saw and felt every emotion that rocketed through his warrior’s soul, including the fight to keep it all at bay for her benefit. She reached up for him, catching him by the face and drawing him down to her kiss.

  “It’s okay,” she hushed and soothed him, ignoring the answering anger she felt toward the man who had done this to them. She refused to allow him the opportunity to defeat them. What they had, she knew, was so much stronger. “Look at me and see only who you need,” she coaxed him softly. “See only what you want, honey,” she whispered against his ear. “See the woman who wants you to make love to her.”