The statement, so direct and honest, flared her nerves alive. Intrigue and want tempted her with a heated hunger, and she fought to keep control. To remain sane and unharmed. She pushed away from the table and grabbed her wineglass to head into the living room. “Thanks for dinner.”
He reached her with a wisp of sound, tugging her down to the sofa. “Stay the night.”
“Probably not a good idea.” She gingerly placed her glass on the coffee table before she doused them both with Cabernet. The man radiated heat in the air-conditioned room, and she had to fight the urge to nuzzle into his side like she would’ve years ago. To feel that sense of belonging and home. “We tried, we failed, it’s over.”
He remained silent and placed his glass next to hers. “Are you sure?”
No. Hell to the nth of no. She’d been apart from him for eight years, and she’d dated several men, even going so far as to move in with one. Yet not once had her heart been broken when the relationship had ended. Was it possible that there was only one match for each person? She was a scientist and believed in soul mates as much as faeries or mermaids. But she couldn’t help but wonder. Were they meant to be? “What are you asking me, Deacan?”
“Just for one night.” He reached for her, so casually, so easily, and settled her on his lap, facing him, her thighs straddling his. “To find out if it was real. Any of it.”
She could’ve fought him and kept her seat. He wouldn’t have forced her onto his lap. Yet she allowed him to move her, to reposition her, to put her where she’d once belonged. Out of curiosity to find out if she’d still fit easily, and out of a bodily craving she couldn’t deny. Yet she kept her voice level. “Are you joking?” The man wanted to get her into bed? She perched very still, trying not to appreciate the rigid muscles of his thighs between hers. In their years apart, he’d filled out, becoming even harder. “That’s the worse come-on I’ve ever heard.”
His upper lip curved. “Baby, if I just wanted ta get laid, I have plenty of options. I want more. A chance to see if what we had was real, or if I’m making up memories.” He brushed her hair back from her shoulder. “Are you seeing anybody?”
“No,” she breathed.
“When was the last time you had sex?”
Her shoulders went back. “None of your business.”
“Oh?” He ran his hands over her arms and around her waist, pulling her along his legs until his erection nearly burned through her jeans. She almost managed to swallow her gasp. His eyes darkened to a color beyond green. “When was the last time you made that sound?”
Eight years ago. “Deacan—”
At his name, something in him snapped. His arm banded tighter around her waist, and his other hand tangled in her hair, gripping her with the promise of power leashed with determination.
The combination rippled through her, and she shuddered.
“Yeah.” He held her in place. “That.”
She tried to breathe, but the desire clawing through her gave no quarter. “You planned this.”
“No. I wished for this.” He met her mouth, enveloping her in desperate heat. No calculation, no seduction—just all male taking her under.
Her eyes closed, and her hands clamped onto his shoulders. For years, she’d felt so cold. Now, finally, here was warmth. She kissed him back, lost in the feeling, drugged by the familiarity.
He stood easily, holding her, continuing to demolish her mouth. The moment stilled, and she didn’t care. When she dug her hands into his hair, he began to move.
She just didn’t want the ecstasy to end.
Somehow he managed to maneuver through the condo, kissing her the entire time. They reached a bed, and he laid her down. He drew off his shirt, revealing rugged muscles adorned with battle scars. “I’ve waited a long time for this. Are you sure?”
She’d known he’d ask. Somehow, deep down, she’d known. Now they both needed to know if their memories were even close to true. “I’m sure,” she whispered. One night wouldn’t hurt her—she’d make sure of it. But she had to know.
His eyes glittered a startling green through the semidarkness. “I’ve missed you, Nora.” Quick movements had his belt wisping through loops.
She shivered at the sound and partially sat up.
“Let me,” he rumbled, reaching for her shirt. “I remember what you like.”
Did he? She held up her arms so he could remove her shirt. “Prove it.”
Chapter Five
The second she acquiesced, something in Deke’s chest unfolded. Something hard and foreign . . . and now gone. He’d missed her. If she’d decided to show up for dinner, he’d known she’d want to explore their past—to see if what they’d had was real. Hell, he’d been counting on it.
Now, with her daring him from his bed, he finally allowed himself to relax. When he reached down to remove her jeans and panties, his hands trembled enough to make him grin. “Did you know?” he asked softly, wondering if she’d be honest.
She unhooked her bra and tossed the lacy material across the room. Her breasts had filled out, but the hard pink nipples were familiar and so damn sexy. “Know what?”
He breathed out, the air burning his throat. “That we’d end up here tonight.” Lying on his bed, naked, skin glowing in the muted light, the woman was a goddess. The years had been kind to her, sculpting her curves into delicate femininity. Red highlights in the hair spread out against his pillow caught and glimmered, and his cock hardened even more.
She smiled, the sight both enticing and a little sad. “I knew.”
He crawled up her, careful to brush his skin against hers, enjoying the hitch in her chest. Her nipples scraped his pecs, and he groaned. Reaching her face, he kissed her, trying to be gentle. Finally, he had a chance to show her who he’d become. He’d worked so hard to get rid of the anger, to find some sense of peace after so much blood and death. He’d never be that guy again.
She gripped his head, kissing him back, little moans trembling through her chest.
The man inside him, the primitive male, revolted against control. So he rolled them over. “God, Nora. I’d forgotten.”
Her knees dropped to his sides, and her hot sex rubbed against his dick, coating him with wetness. “Forgotten what?” she murmured, her lips pressing hot, openmouthed kisses against his jaw.
“How damn small you are.” He caressed down her flanks to her tight ass, and his cock jumped against her. The woman had taken such a prominent place in his heart, in his mind, in his dreams . . . she seemed so much larger in the abstract. Here, with her writhing on top of him, he remembered her fragility. He probably outweighed her by a hundred plus pounds. Nearly overcome, he gripped her head to hold her still, his fingers tangling in her curls.
She gasped, and more wetness coated his balls at the dominance.
Fire rushed through him, and he grinned. Some things didn’t change. Thank the gods. “I’ll keep you safe this time,” he murmured, claiming eye contact, needing her to understand. To believe him.
She blinked and slid her hand down to grasp him with an incredibly soft hand.
Electricity sparked through his balls, and he shoved against her palm. “Nora—”
She levered herself up, all grace and strength, and positioned him at her entrance. Slowly, almost as if she enjoyed torturing him, she lowered herself, pausing several times and taking deep breaths.
Jesus. How long had it been for her?
Her butt hit his groin, and impossible heat captured his shaft. His eyes rolled back, and thunder rippled down his abdomen. “You’re so damn tight,” he gritted out, his muscles undulating with the need to move.
She chuckled, the sound throaty and breathless. “Now we talk.” Her fingernails scraped across his chest.
His eyes opened. “What?”
“Your statement that you’d keep me safe this time. I’m assuming you’re not talking about birth control, and lucky for you, I’m on the pill. Deke, I was safe last time.” She lifted up and slid bac
k down along his length.
Hunger roared through him, neck to dick. His hand tightened in her hair, and he clutched the bedspread to keep from grabbing her with the other hand. “I meant from me.”
“So did I.” Her eyes darkened to nearly black, and using his abs for balance, she lifted her butt again and then slammed home.
Agonizing need clawed his balls, and he had to bite his lip to keep from moaning. “I was angry. During and after tours.”
Her internal muscles gripped around him, and he arched up into her. She smiled. “You were a scared, angry kid who’d seen hell, and I was a scared, lonely kid who didn’t know how to help you. We’re not those people now. You’re not a soldier.”
He paused. Something wasn’t quite right in the statement, but at the moment, his body was sweating as he held himself back. “I’m not in the service.” But he still wore a gun and dealt with violence. He was just better at it now. Did she understand that?
“Exactly.” She wiggled her butt across his groin, igniting every nerve he had.
He snapped.
Both hands seized her arms, and he rolled them, already pounding into her. She gasped and dug her hands into his flanks, clasping her ankles at the back of his waist. “Nora,” he groaned, burying his face in her neck.
She met him with each thrust, her nails scoring him, her wet heat destroying him. “Harder,” she breathed.
That quickly, with her plea, he forgot any concern. Securing her hip, he lifted her to meet him, fucking her hard. He hit a spot inside her that made her cry out, the sound echoing through his body. He drove harder, holding her in place, fighting to reach bliss.
Her body went taut, and her head pushed back against his hold, her neck elongating. Spasms rippled around him, gripping with a fierce hold. He changed his angle, brushing her clit, and she went off again, crying his name.
Lava poured down his back to collect in his balls. He stopped moving, held her tighter, and ground against her. Sparks of white flashed behind his eyes, and his own release nearly shattered him. Gasping, his lungs heaving, he slowly came down. Sex with Nora had always been all encompassing and wild. But this? After eight years, after knowing what he’d lost, this was more. Everything and absolute.
Finally. He’d returned home.
A quick swipe of his tongue against the pulsing vein in her neck made her sigh. He rose up on his elbows and released his hold. “Are you all right?”
She blinked and then slowly smiled, her eyes remaining at half-mast. “I’m perfect.”
Yes. She damn well was. He rolled to the side, taking her with him to hold, wrapping the bedspread over them. “It’s as good as I remember.”
“Better.” Her voice thickened and sounded drowsy. Mere minutes later, she slipped into sleep, her body relaxing against him.
The feel of her, so soft and trusting, awoke emotions he’d thought he’d buried. A primal need to protect gripped him, surprising in its rawness. He’d been an orphan, a kid who survived losing crappy parents and relocating across the ocean, and then he’d moved on to the service. In the marines, he’d found a purpose. In the vulnerable woman sleeping with abandon in his arms, he’d found a home.
One he’d lost.
Now he’d found her again, and maybe it was possible to show her peace. The instinctive animal deep inside that had made him such a good soldier, a good survivor, could be quelled.
No matter how he tried to convince himself, his instincts hummed. Even if he could find peace, Scorpius wouldn’t let him.
For years, as a soldier, his instincts had told him when danger stalked near. Now more than ever, he was sure.
The war had just begun, and the peaceful guy inside him, the one Nora would love, had to disappear. Only the soldier could remain. He pressed a kiss to Nora’s head, wanting to hold tight for the night.
Then he’d let her go.
Chapter Six
Nora studied Deke over a mound of piled scrambled eggs and tried to sit comfortably in the diner booth. The previous night had been explosive, and she’d used some very out-of-practice muscles. “I appreciate you absolutely insisting on taking me to an early breakfast before we get back to work, but I need to return to the lab for results expected in about an hour.”
He finished chewing and swallowed. “We burned a lot of calories last night, and you need protein. If I’d allowed you to go right to the lab, you would’ve stressed out all day. Here we can analyze the situation together, calmly, and then reach a mutual decision so you don’t have to fret.”
Fret. Had he just said fret? She set down her fork. “I’m not some frail girl from last century, Deke.” For some reason, with his only slightly mellowed accent, he came across as more arrogant and self-assured than he would’ve with a modern drawl. “I can handle my own thoughts.”
He smiled, transforming his face into a powerful masculine beauty no man should be able to wield. “You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met.”
She sat back, slightly appeased, desire warming at just being near him.
“But you’re one to fret, sweetheart.” He dug back into his ridiculous stack of pancakes. “I thought to cut that off at the pass.”
She blinked. “Excuse me?”
Male suffering filled his sigh as he set down his utensils. Green eyes, Scottish and true, lasered right into her. “Ar-right. Let’s do this now so we can eat. Have you wondered about us through the years?”
She crossed her arms. “I don’t think—”
“Nora.” He didn’t snap, he didn’t raise his voice, but a new tone, a bite of command, filled it. “Just answer the question. Have you wondered?”
“Yes,” she huffed.
“I donna want to know about other men, but has it been like that with anybody else?”
Heat climbed into her face. “Deke—”
“Nora.” Another command.
Fine, and that voice should not be wetting her panties. “No. But sex is just sex.” Even as the words tumbled out of her, she didn’t believe them.
“Uh-huh.” His gaze dropped with longing to his pancakes before returning to pin hers. “So we have two choices. I spent a lot of time thinking last night—”
“Thinking?” She squinted and narrowed her focus. “There was no time for thinking. Hell, we barely had time for sleep.” They’d had sex four times during the night. Four times.
He grinned. “Between rounds one and two, you slept a little. I thought.”
She pressed her fingers to her closed eyelids as a headache roared in. “We don’t have time for this right now. Too much is going on.”
He reached over and gently pried her fingers away. She opened her eyes. He released her. “There’s always too much going on, and for right now, we’re working together. Last night, after round one, I figured this was a one-night deal, and that we would just get some closure,” he rumbled.
Hurt, surprising in its sharpness, sliced into her chest. “Okay.”
“But then, between rounds three and four, I decided fuck that.” He took a bite of pancake.
“Uh.” She couldn’t find words. What words were there?
He grinned. “I figure it’ll take more than one night to get closure.”
She couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “Your plan, the one you came up with while I slept, was to keep having sex with me while I’m in town.”
He nodded, amusement lightening his too-knowing eyes. “Exactly.”
“You’re terrible.” She took a bite of eggs.
“That’s not what you said last night.”
She shook her head. There was no way she could continue sleeping with Deacan McDougall and not lose her heart again. They’d nearly destroyed each other once. “Not a good idea.”
A corner of his mouth twitched. “Ah, to have lived centuries ago.”
She couldn’t help but return the smile. “When you could’ve just kidnapped me instead of cajoled?”
He grinned. “Aye. We’d still be married, and you’d be thoroug
hly tamed by now.”
She rolled her eyes at the teasing, but even so, studying him, she could see his proud heritage. Rugged features and battle-hardened green eyes. He would’ve made a hell of a Highlander, an incredible warrior. She had no doubt he would’ve tamed her way back when. But now she had rights, and a brain—and the desire spiraling through her abdomen could just stop it. “Pity for you to be born in this time.”
“Aye,” he breathed. “However, I am now as modern as a man can be. I’ve mellowed and learned to control not only my temper but the actual anger.”
She tilted her head to the side. “You make it sound as if the anger was already in you before you went to war.”
“’Twas.” He shook his head. “The anger has been with me since I was a kid. My da was a prick, my ma not much better. When they died and I moved to the States, I was already screwed up.” His long fingers played idly with his unused knife.
“I know,” she said softly. She knew well his childhood hadn’t been safe, with a father who hit and a mother who drank. “You moved past the pain.” At least, she had thought he’d found peace with his childhood. Of course, then he’d entered the military and had seen things that had only brought back the anger. “Right?”
“Mayhaps. Hell, Nora. Maybe the anger lives in my blood anyway.” He rubbed the whiskers on his hard jawline. “Maybe my people all have it.”
The descendants of the Highlanders seemed to hear a distant call nobody else did. She wasn’t prone to fancy, but every once in a while, she’d seen a faraway look in his eyes, as if he sensed something. As if a whisper, across the times, demanded his attention. She shivered. “I appreciate the offer but think I’ll opt for self-preservation. Any truce between us is temporary.”
“What about my new mellow life and attitude?” he asked evenly.
She bit back a smile. “It’s temporary. I know you, Deacan. There’s an edge to you, always will be, and you need the action. The fight.”
His eyebrows lifted. “I don’t agree, but even if I did, so what? Right now, we’re fighting together. Common goal and common enemy.”
Right now. She sighed. “The second we cure the Scorpius infection, our goals diverge. Science is about saving lives, and we both know the military will want to weaponize and further mutate the bacteria.”
On the Hunt Page 14