“No messages. We’ll need to talk to Major Connell tomorrow so he knows what’s going on here. I’ll send him a text now to let him know there are developments, and that he should speak with us before discussing anything with the general or anyone else.”
“You’re pretty smart, aren’t you?” He grinned at her, then returned his concentration to the twisting mountain road.
“Could be. And...well, I’m obsessing a little, too. I do that sometimes. What I’m wondering is...do I taste okay to a guy with a wolf’s senses?”
He blinked, feeling his already stiff body parts grow even harder. Was she really asking that?
And did it mean what he hoped it did?
Once more he glanced her way. She was staring at him with a gaze as heated as if she’d set the car interior on fire.
He had an urge to pull the car over immediately and prove to her how good she tasted to him. Instead, he kept driving, ramping up the speed as much as he could and still stay safe.
“I’ll demonstrate later just how good you taste,” he finally answered with a growl.
* * *
Oh, lord. Had she really asked that? It must be that her adrenaline rush from earlier, as she’d fought so hard to take control of a potentially catastrophic situation, hadn’t left her body, even after she’d spewed a fairy tale to the cops.
Not when she had previously seen, or imagined she’d seen, the tantalizing highlights of Quinn’s naked and sexy form in the distance.
And not when her own body’s stimulation had been so enhanced by his kiss.
She admitted to herself now that she had wanted him every night since they’d gotten here.
No, she had wanted him from the moment she had first begun acting as his Alpha Force aide—and seen his hard, perfect body nude.
And now...now, she would have to wait until they reached their room, despite every bit of heat from her insides flowing downward, taunting her, making her ache with need for the man beside her.
Man? Oh, yes, he was that...and more.
They reached one of the main park roads, then finally drove away from Acadia and into the outskirts of Bar Harbor. How much longer until they got to their hotel?
They spoke now and then, cracking jokes about the DSPA investigators and how easy they’d been to knock the crap out of. Good thing to think about now. It kept her mind centered just a little.
Then there it was—the charming Victorian hotel where they were staying. Quinn parked. Kristine grabbed her backpack.
Soon they were inside, after swiping their card key to get in the front door at this hour. They used it in the elevator, too, to get to their floor.
At last, they were in their room. This time, when Kristine looked at that solo queen-size bed in its center, it didn’t make her feel uneasy or defensive.
Instead, it called to her.
She didn’t remember setting her backpack down, but suddenly she was in Quinn’s arms again. His embrace now felt familiar, but what awaited her was brand-new.
“Kristine,” Quinn whispered into her ear, as his hands lifted the back of her shirt, caressed her skin, caused her to push against him even more from the front.
But she was still dressed. So was he. She stepped back, using one fluid motion to pull her shirt over her head. She looked at him, daring him to do the same. She still wore her bra, but even so she almost melted as he directed his heated gaze toward her bust.
“Your turn,” she said huskily.
“I get a lot of practice doing this around here.” His joke made her smile, but she bit her lip as she watched him remove first his own shirt, then his boots and jeans.
He didn’t discard his underwear but it did little to hide his straining maleness. She wanted to touch him but knew what he would want first. She took off all her remaining clothes, then shot a challenging look in his direction.
They were both naked when, in seconds, Quinn took her arm and pulled her against him. His skin was as hot, his body as hard as she had anticipated. As they kissed again, she grabbed his buttocks to pull him closer, reveling in the feel of his maleness against her belly, wanting to touch it, too.
One of his hands moved between them to caress her breasts, cupping them, teasing at her nipples until they hardened.
They were on the bed suddenly. His hands moved lower, lower, caressing her female center. She writhed, pushing herself against those fingers until they thrust gently inside her, making her gasp with pleasure and need.
At the same time, she touched his cock, absorbing its tantalizing hardness. She grasped it as she had longed to do before. As she had wanted to do from the very first time she had seen him naked, before he shifted.
Slowly, she stroked it, reveling in the way it seemed to harden even more within her grip. She almost grinned as she heard Quinn’s intake of breath, followed by even deeper breathing. A growl, not feral—or at least not wolflike this time. No, this time it came from deep in his throat, sounding all turned-on human male.
“Please, Quinn,” she whispered. But he didn’t enter her. Instead, he began kissing her, breasts first, even as his caress didn’t stray from her heat. Then his mouth moved lower to follow those hands....
His tongue stroked her erotically. Her writhing before had only been preliminary to this, as she bucked gently, encouraging his every touch and taunt with that talented tongue.
He moved away suddenly, making her moan with frustration. That’s when she heard the sound of plastic. He pulled out a condom. Her breathing raspy and uneven, she smiled, then held out her hand. “Let me,” she managed to say.
He did.
And then, at last, he plunged inside her. Her eyes were open, her gaze captured by his heavy-lidded look so sensual that it helped to multiply her inevitable pleasure below.
Her need rose to a crescendo beyond anything she had ever felt before. His steady rocking motion stimulated her to rise with each thrust until she catapulted over the edge into completion, even as she heard him moan and felt him arch and grow still.
* * *
“You okay?” It took Quinn a while before he could talk, but he managed those words as he collapsed onto the bed beside Kristine.
He kept one hand on her, though, moving to her luscious, full breasts, not wanting to lose contact. Wanting to remember every inch of her skin, every moment of their incredible sexual encounter.
Wanting to experience it again—soon. Sometime after his energy was restored.
“I’m good. Real good. You?” He was gratified to hear that she was as out of breath as he.
“Yeah. We fit well together, Mrs. Scott.”
She laughed breathlessly. “You said it, Mr. Scott.” She snuggled closer without moving his hand from her chest, then rested her head against his shoulder. “I think I’ll sleep well tonight. Better than I have since we got here.”
“Don’t count on it,” he said.
He only woke her twice more that night.
* * *
Barely awake the next morning, Quinn felt Kristine stir. He reached for her, but she moved out of his range. In a moment, he heard her talking on the phone, and he opened his eyes.
Good thing she was on the military-issue satellite phone and not on Skype or some other way of allowing people on both ends of a remote conversation to see one another. Even though her back was to him as she sat on the edge of the bed, Quinn absorbed one heck of a sexy view of Kristine, naked.
His body immediately woke up. But he realized at once who she was talking to and kept still.
“Yes, sir. Those guys attacked me—apparently wanted to take me off somewhere else for interrogation...or something. Quinn was shifted at the time, in the forest, so they must have thought I was alone—or at least alone enough for them to take control of me.”
“She did a hell of a job of showing them otherwise,” Quinn called into the phone from over her shoulder.
She turned, and the movement put her lips within inches of his. But he restrained himself. Even if
the major couldn’t see them, he might, with his own enhanced senses, be able to make out the sounds of a kiss.
“Quinn did great, too, sir,” Kristine put in. “Even though he was shifted, he made sure the one named Holt couldn’t taze me, then he knocked the guy unconscious. Didn’t leave any bite marks. I’m not sure what those guys’ll say about the possible attack by a wolf, but with luck and the way we handled them, I suspect they’ll doubt their own recollections.”
She spoke for a couple minutes longer, then handed her phone to Quinn.
“I don’t like what happened,” Drew Connell told him, “though it sounds like you both dealt with it as well as possible under the circumstances. But go see those guys today, like Kristine said. Then report again to me. Something’s off—way off. I’ll inform General Yarrow and see what we can learn from here, but if there’s any way of extracting information from those DSPA guys—without beating them up any more, especially now that the cops’ll keep an even closer eye on this—I want you to do it. You and Kristine.”
“Yes, sir.” Quinn flipped the phone closed and handed it to Kristine. “He wants—”
“I know what the major wants.” She smiled grimly as she shook her head. “He wants Simon and Grace found and this unofficial assignment over with. You know what?”
“He’s not alone,” Quinn responded. And as soon as Kristine had put the phone back on the bedside table, he reached for her.
It was time to move their minds—and bodies—in a much different direction. After all, it was still too early to accomplish anything else that day.
As Quinn lowered his body over Kristine’s warm, willing and inviting one and kissed her full, smiling lips as his hands started a new encounter with the taut, sexy body he wanted to memorize, he figured this was a heck of a way to start what promised to be an eventful day.
Chapter 13
The men were both in the same room at Mount Desert Island Hospital. That was one good thing, Kristine thought, as Quinn and she walked down the sterile-looking hallway past other rooms filled with patients and their visiting friends and family members.
Another good thing was that the police hadn’t restricted them from having visitors. That didn’t mean they weren’t under surveillance, so Quinn and she would have to be careful.
No one was obviously watching, nor standing guard outside their door, so Quinn and she entered.
Both men were lying in their beds tucked under sheets, with only the tops of their ugly, shapeless hospital gowns showing.
“Wondered if you were coming today to try to fix things with us,” Kelly growled, twisting slightly to face the door. “Don’t bother. We’ve already called in a preliminary report. In case it makes you happy, though, the doctors here want to keep us both here at least another day for observation. Guess they like to do that for concussions. So, thanks for that.” His tone was clearly sarcastic.
“To the contrary, you owe me an apology.” Kristine kept her voice cool. “And you need to report what really happened.”
Quinn and she had already talked over how to handle this, and they would use an Alpha Force version of “good cop/bad cop.” She had wanted to play the role of the baddy, but Quinn had convinced her otherwise. He couldn’t flirt with them to get them to roll over and tell the truth—or at least some version of it—if threats didn’t work.
“I’d really like to understand why you attacked me,” she continued, trying to sound as if their actions hurt her to the core.
“So would I,” Quinn growled. “Do you two thugs always attack ladies who happen to be alone in remote areas at night? Bet your superiors at your Department of Defense agency would love to hear all about that. Did you include that in your preliminary report?”
“Let me handle this,” Kristine said sweetly to Quinn. Then, to Kelly, she said, “I hate when Quinn gets all pissy and threatening. But he’s not always easy for me to control.”
“Why? Because he’s not a P.I. but a member of Alpha Force?” Kelly’s smile would have been snide, except that it apparently hurt him and he winced. “We’ve substantiated that.”
“What do you know about Alpha Force?” Quinn demanded without either confirming or denying his involvement. “Or, what’s more to the point, what do you think you know?”
Kristine sidled over to Holt’s bed. He hadn’t said anything, and he appeared zoned out as he lay there, as if he were under a lot heavier medication than Kelly.
Which could be a good thing. If he were less aware of what he was saying, maybe they could learn more from him.
“Holt, I really am sorry that you got hurt. But it’s important that we understand why you attacked me. If you explain and it makes sense, I won’t press charges.”
“Can’t tell you,” he muttered.
Which made it all the more imperative that they get the truth from these guys, Kristine thought.
“And we’re the ones who’ll decide whether to press charges.” Kelly sounded happy about the idea. “We’re the ones who got our heads bashed in.”
“Self-defense,” countered Quinn. “You attacked Kristine first, and she fought back.”
“But that wolf—” Holt said.
“What wolf?” Quinn demanded.
“The one that attacked me,” Holt said. “Grabbed my wrist.”
“You’re kidding,” Kristine said, planting an incredulous smile on her face.
“You know I’m not.” Holt’s shout made him wince and touch his head. He held out his arm. “It bit me here.”
Kristine took his hand and looked at it, turned it over. “You’re right,” she said sarcastically. “Just look at all the bite marks.”
Holt glanced down and grimaced. “Just because it didn’t break my skin—”
“It would be more believable if either of us had seen it,” Quinn countered. “But we didn’t. Are you trying to capitalize on the fact that those tourists were attacked by something?”
“No, but—” Holt sounded confused now.
“What about the local cops?” Quinn continued pressing. “I’ve heard that some of them were keeping watch in the area of the attack on those tourists for a few nights. Did they see anything? In fact, maybe they were the ones who were around last night and set a dog on you that looked like a wolf, just for fun. Not while we were around, though, since we didn’t see it.”
Which didn’t exactly make sense, Kristine knew, but she wasn’t about to contradict Quinn.
“We knew they were sending observers to the park and told them to stop, that they didn’t have jurisdiction. We didn’t think they were listening to us, but we didn’t see them last night. Just you.”
“You sure?” Quinn demanded. “Maybe you ran them off first, before you decided to attack Kristine. I think we may ask them about that.”
“No,” Kelly repeated. “It was only you.”
“You mean I’m the only one you attacked?” Kristine asked.
Even Kelly now looked as if his head was pounding in agony. “That’s not what we were doing. But the fact that you were around the crime scene—we needed answers. About you and Alpha Force.”
Kristine shared a glance with Quinn, willing him to let her continue this conversation. Fortunately, he did.
“You mentioned Alpha Force when we talked to you before,” she told Kelly, “and now you’ve mentioned it again. Please tell us what it is. Are you members—is that it?” She faced Holt. “If so, what’s its purpose? Is it why you came after me in the park?”
Holt looked even confused. “No, we’re not the ones who’re Alpha Force. You are—aren’t you?”
“Enough of this,” Kelly rasped from behind them.
Quinn took a step closer, as if he was about to give the guy a new concussion. Kristine slipped in front of him, nearer to the bed. She looked straight down into Kelly’s obviously angry eyes.
“Look, Kelly,” she said. “Tell us what you know about this supposed Alpha Force. If it was your excuse to attack me, I’d like to know. And—
”
“And if you don’t level with us, I’ll make damned sure that whoever you work for at the Department of Defense knows how badly you screwed things up around here,” Quinn interjected.
“You’re the screw-up,” Kelly said triumphantly despite the way his eyes shriveled with apparent pain. “No matter what, I’m gonna confirm in my report that you are Alpha Force. Don’t try to deny it. You are—like those two folks who disappeared, right? The killers?”
“That’s what you think?” Kristine wasn’t really shocked, although she tried to make it sound that way. “And you believe we’re somehow affiliated with them? Do you think we were involved with those killings?”
“Not you directly,” Kelly said. “But your outfit—that damned Alpha Force, whatever it is. I’ve heard rumors...”
“Werewolves,” piped up Holt in his low, confused voice.
Quinn laughed. “Really? That’s what you think?”
“It would explain how those tourists were mauled to death. They were killed on the night of a full moon, for one thing.” Kelly had fumbled with the switch on his bed and was now drawing up to a better sitting position. Apparently he wasn’t drugged as much as his cohort. Which might be good for getting answers.
Or not, Kristine thought.
But whatever they thought they knew about Alpha Force, and shapeshifters—it couldn’t be complete.
“Interesting theory,” she said, letting scorn drift into her tone. “So you really think I’m affiliated with this Alpha Force, that I’m a werewolf or something, and you attacked me in the middle of the night? Why? Because you thought I’d turn into a wolf, even though it wasn’t even a full moon? That’s the supposed trigger, isn’t it?” She hoped that whatever they believed, they hadn’t heard of the shifting elixir.
Quinn was leaning against the wall near the door now, his arms folded and his expression snide. “These guys must have been on something even before they started getting good drugs in their IVs here.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Holt complained. “That’s what I’ve said. It’s just a cover story so they can act like terrorists, and—”
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