“This is so much better now that I can see you,” he told her, spreading her legs and running a finger along her folds. “God you’re beautiful.” He lifted the finger to his lips and sucked her juices off the digit, the look in his eyes so hot he scorched her entire body with just that single glance.
“Please,” she begged, lifting her hips toward him. Her pussy was throbbing with the need for release. “I need you.”
Harley slid his legs under her knees, lifting her hips a little higher as he ducked down between her legs. Jocelyne cried out as his hot tongue swept against her folds, once, twice, three times, and then she groaned when he found her clit.
“Yeah baby,” he growled, and Jocelyne went wild as he began to lick and suck at the sensitive little nub. She fisted her hands in the sheets and ground her hips against his face as he pleasured her with his tongue and teeth, and when the first orgasm hit, she had to clap her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming his name.
“Get on your knees,” he commanded roughly after he’d made her come three times. “I want to take you from behind this time.”
She did as he asked, bracing her hands against the headboard and spreading her legs a little for him. She heard the clink of metal as he removed the belt around his jeans, and she moaned when his hot, hard length slid erotically along the curve of her ass, brushing between her cheeks.
“You look so hot like this,” he whispered against her ear, reaching around to squeeze her breasts. His bare chest brushed against her back, the coarse hairs on his pecs teasing her skin, and she gasped when he slid inside her without warning, filling her to the brim. He rocked against her slowly at first, establishing a steady rhythm, and the ball of heat in Jocelyne’s lower belly gradually began to tighten even more, pushing her closer towards climax.
She moaned when Harley bit down on her shoulder and closed her eyes, focusing on the exquisite feel of his thick, hard cock gliding in and out, in and out of her throbbing pussy. “You feel so good,” she moaned as she rocked back against him.
“Yeah?” he breathed in her ear. “You like this?” He squeezed her nipples as he rocked his hips into her ass, driving himself deeper inside her.
“Yes,” she moaned, arching her back. “Please, I want to come.” She tried to urge him faster, but Harley held tight to the pace, slowly pushing in and out of her with smooth, sure strokes.
“I want this to last,” he whispered, reaching around to stroke her clit with the lightest of touches. She trembled in his arms, and even through the fog of lust her mind registered that he wasn’t just talking about the sex. “For as long as I can possibly have you, I want this to last.”
She didn’t know how long he tormented her for, how long he kept her hovering at the edge of bliss with the feather-light touch of his fingers and his slow, deep strokes that didn’t quite push her to where they needed to be. Finally, when she’d been reduced to nothing but a quivering puddle of need, begging incoherently, making all kinds of promises she couldn’t even hear herself saying, he gave her what she wanted, fucking her hard and fast and massaging her at just the right angle. She exploded around him, his hand clapping over her mouth to catch her screams, and waves of pleasure cascaded around them both as he came inside her as well.
“Jesus,” she gasped afterward, falling forward on the bed limply. “That was fucking amazing.”
“It sure was,” Harley agreed, his voice a satisfied rumble in her ear as he pulled her back against his chest, lying on his side. His big, warm hand stroked up and down the side of her naked body, soothing her body, which was still humming from her explosive orgasm.
“What did you mean, before, when you said that you wanted this to last?”
Harley stiffened a little against her back. “What do you mean?”
“Earlier, in the heat of the moment… you said ‘For as long as I can possibly have you, I want this to last.’” Jocelyne bit her lip, struggling not to give into the hope that wanted to bloom in her chest. “What exactly did you mean by that?”
Harley let out a long sigh. “Your father is sending men to come pick you up,” he told her. “They’ll probably be here by tomorrow at the very latest. I just meant that I wanted to enjoy what time with you that I could before you have to go.”
“Before I have to go?” she echoed, and then frowned. “Hang on a second,” she said, turning in his arms so she could see his face. “Are you trying to say you’re not coming back with me?”
The hard gleam in Harley’s eyes was answer enough. “I have a job here to finish. Your father is sending a team out to assist me, and then we’re going back to blow that ice bitch to hell.”
“Ice bitch?”
He laughed a little, though the sound had no warmth in it. “That’s my name for her. She goes by Amelia though, apparently. She’s the woman who was running those experiments on me, and I think she was in charge of the facility we were in.”
“Oh.” Jocelyne bit her lip, unable to stop the hurt that was aching in her heart. She couldn’t exactly protest that he was going back in there… that was his job, after all. And yet… “I don’t see why this means that you and I can’t see each other again once you’ve finished the mission.”
Harley shook his head, and he pulled away a little. “Don’t you?” he asked, exasperation tightening his handsome features. “So long as Justice continues to operate and exist, it’s not safe for us to be together. I’ll always be a target because I’m a shifter, and you’ll always be one because you’re the Commander’s daughter.”
“Then we’ll just have to eliminate Justice, won’t we?” Jocelyne said simply. “If we get rid of them, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Harley sighed. “It’s not necessarily that simple,” he said. “Even if our mission to destroy their base is successful, we don’t know enough information to be sure we’ve taken them out. That could be one of many facilities they have around the country… or even around the world,” he added darkly.
Jocelyne scowled. “So what, just because some evil quasi-terrorist group is out there, that means we have to hunker down in fear of them, and not live our lives the way we want?”
“Jocelyne – ”
“No.” Jocelyne wasn’t just hurt now; she was angry. “I’ve been pushing back against my father my entire life for the right to live the way I want to instead of being locked away in some tall, ivory tower where no one can get me. Somehow I managed to survive until now, and I’m going to continue to survive no matter what anyone tries to throw my way.” She propped her hands on her hips and glared at Harley, who was looking at her with a befuddled expression on his face. “I have a college degree to finish, and a promising career at a law firm waiting for me back home. And I think there might just be room for you in my life too, if only you’d stop being too pigheaded to see it.”
Harley just shook his head. “Me? You’re pretty pigheaded too, you know that?”
Jocelyne growled at him. “I’ll show you pig – ”
Harley swept her up into his arms, cutting her off as he buried his nose in her hair and inhaled deeply. “I agree with everything you said,” he murmured into her neck. “And I want to believe in this amazing vision of the future that you have. But I’m a soldier, and at the end of the day I have to follow orders. Don’t you understand?”
Tears pricked at the corners of Jocelyne’s eyes at the pain in Harley’s voice. “Yes, I do,” she whispered. She understood that Harley was trying to tell her that if her father ordered him to keep his distance from Jocelyne, that he would have to do it, because he served her father first and foremost, above anyone. And she also understood that meant if she and Harley were going to stay together, she was just going to have to convince her father that keeping Harley in her life was in her best interests. “But like you said, I’m pig-headed.”
Harley chuckled a little, stroking her back with his hand. “Let’s just enjoy the time we have together, alright?” He framed her face in his hands and brushed a t
humb over her lower lip. “Can you do that for me?” he asked tenderly, his blue eyes shimmering with such need that it stole her breath.
“Yes,” she murmured, and her eyes slid closed as he kissed her again, blocking out all their worries and fears and hopes and leaving just the two of them.
Chapter Eleven
Harley bolted straight up out of bed at the sound of rapid gunfire peppering the walls downstairs. Heart racing, he pulled away from Jocelyne, who he’d been snuggled up with naked beneath the bed covers, and dove for his pants and the stolen gun he still carried.
“Harley?” Jocelyne’s eyes were wide as she, too, scrambled for her clothes, throwing on a shirt and pulling on a pair of pants. “What are we going to do?”
Harley cursed as he heard footsteps racing up the stairs, and abandoned his initial plan. Instead, he grabbed Jocelyne, who was now fully dressed, and tossed her over his shoulder, and pushed open the window as wide as he could manage. The door banged open behind him just as he jumped, a spray of gunfire following close behind, and he winced as a bullet lodged into his backside.
“Knock that shit off!” someone barked. “We need the girl alive!”
The girl? Harley thought as he landed in a crouch with Jocelyne still slung over his shoulder. He immediately set her on his feet, ignoring the pain in his ass as he scanned the area. A man was rushing toward them from the side of the house, and he shot the bastard square between his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Jocelyne gasped, seeing the bleeding wound from his backside.
“Fine.” He grabbed her by the arm and tugged her forward. “We have to get you out of here – ”
A hissing sound in the air alerted him to trouble, but he didn’t have time to jump away before the dart struck him in the side of the neck. “Dammit!” he growled as the familiar combination of barbiturates and silver struck his system. His vision immediately started to blur, but his hearing picked up the sound of more footfalls coming his way, and he turned and launched himself at the first figure, his fangs extending as he fought to protect Jocelyne as best as he could.
There was a scream, then the taste of human blood gushing into his mouth. Gunfire, and another bullet grazed his arm, but it was like pouring a glass of water into a rushing river compared to the agony he was in already. Somehow he managed to avoid getting hit again, and he grabbed for another one of the men, but he knew he was losing, could tell from Jocelyne’s screams and the scent of her fear that they already had her…
“Leave him!” someone shouted! “No use in losing more of our men over him! We’ve got the girl, so let’s go!”
“No!” Harley tried to shout, but his throat wasn’t working properly anymore. His vision darkened as he collapsed onto the grassy lawn, his ears dimly picking up the sound of squealing tires burning up the pavement, and the crushing weight of failure along with the silver drugs pushed him headlong into darkness.
* * *
Harley’s return to consciousness was accompanied by the familiar pounding headache and burning sensation in his veins that he’d come to associate with the Ice Bitch’s silver concoction. But the pain wasn’t what woke him – no, it was the thick scent of barely leashed rage that brought him back to consciousness, a rage that wasn’t his own, though he felt just as angry over what had happened as anyone else – no, more so, since he was responsible for her loss.
Cracking his eyes open, he found himself lying in the bed of what was left of the upstairs guest room, with Lee Fitzsimmons, Commander of the Shifter Squad, sitting in a wooden chair and giving him the mother of all death glares.
“Hello sir,” he croaked. There were two other soldiers in the room, but Harley forced himself to hold eye contact with the Commander even though a childish part of him wanted to pull the covers up over him and hide his shame. Commander Fitzsimmons was an incredibly imposing man, clocking in at somewhere around six foot six and two-fifty, with a buzzed head of blonde hair and laser-blue eyes that could sear a few layers off your skin if you so much as looked at him the wrong way. His features were a more masculine version of Jocelyne’s, and were currently mottled red with pent-up rage.
“Why,” the Commander finally hissed between clenched teeth. “Were you in here fucking my daughter when you should have been out there helping to secure the perimeter and protect her?”
Harley winced. “Sir, I – ”
“Do not speak to me!” the Commander roared, his eyes flashing a brilliant, fiery gold. His fangs lengthened, then retracted, then lengthened, then retracted, as if Commander Fitzsimmons was having trouble holding onto his beast. His nostrils flared wide, and Harley knew the Commander was scenting the evidence of Harley and Jocelyne’s lovemaking all over again.
Holy Christ. Could this day possibly get any worse?
“I trusted you to protect my daughter,” the Commander said eventually, once he seemed to have gotten a bit more control over himself. “Instead, you not only let her get captured, but you rutted with her like some kind of common animal.” His eyes flared gold again, and Harley dropped his eyes submissively.
“My sincerest apologies, Commander,” he said quietly. “But that’s not -.”
“It won’t happen again,” the Commander growled. “As of today, I’m stripping you of your rank of Lieutenant and demoting you to Sergeant. You also won’t be allowed to go anywhere near a mission for the next six months.”
Harley clenched his teeth before he spewed out a retort he was likely to regret. “Yes sir,” he bit out, fisting his hands beneath the sheets. In all fairness, the punishment was better than he deserved – the Commander could have busted him down to Private, and had him scrubbing toilets. As a sergeant he’d probably be assigned to training new recruits and handling paperwork – not the greatest job, but still better than being on janitor duty.
“Good.” Some of the rage left the Commander’s face, and worry for his daughter shimmered in his eyes. Harley could smell the sharp stench of fear in the Commander’s scent now – something that threw him off balance a little, because Commander Fitzsimmons never showed fear to anyone. “Now tell me what the hell happened.”
Harley recounted the attack as best as he could, which was difficult since the silver hadn’t completely left his system yet and the details were fuzzy. “They drove off in some kind of SUV, I think,” he finished lamely, feeling like the biggest failure in the world. “At least that’s what it sounded like to me. I didn’t really get a look at the car after I was shot.”
The Commander sighed. “They shot out all the security cams when they stormed the safe house, so we weren’t able to get the plate, but yes, you’re right, it was an SUV.” He scowled. “Not that that information was of much help since we can’t have the Spokane Police Department stopping every single black Escalade on the streets,” he added darkly.
“So what’s our next move?” Harley struggled to push himself up into a sitting position, and through a herculean effort managed to move himself only a few inches up across the headboard. Fuck. “We’re not just going to sit here, are we?”
“Well, if I could I would leave your sorry ass here to rest up, or have you taken somewhere for treatment at the very least,” Fitzsimmons said, eyeing him dubiously. “Whatever they shot you up with has done a serious number on you. But unfortunately I need you to lead us to the enemy base and help us locate Jocelyne.” He clenched his jaw, as if the mere thought of having Harley anywhere near his daughter was distasteful. Not that Harley could blame him, but the thought still hurt.
Guess he and the Commander were never going to be chummy in-laws.
Oh please, an inner voice scoffed. Don’t act as if that bothers you or something. You knew from the beginning that things were going to turn out this way if you involved yourself with the Commander’s daughter. You just allowed yourself to get sucked into Jocelyne’s naivety… and look where that’s got you.
“Yes, sir,” he said, making another attempt to sit up again. The two soldiers who’d been standing
by the window and door moved to help him, and he paled a little when he looked down at his naked body and saw the blood-soaked bandages.
The Commander frowned when he noticed as well. “Jesus, those darts really do fuck with our systems, don’t they?” he muttered. “Get his wounds redressed and tell all the soldiers they are to suit up in full body armor.”
One of the soldiers paused. “Full armor?”
The Commander nodded grimly. “Damn straight. I can’t have any of my men being capacitated by these fucking nightmares. Anyone caught on the field without armor will be punished and demoted, so make sure they all know. Now move out!”
Chapter Twelve
Jocelyne struggled against the grip of the two soldiers as they dragged her back to the same cursed cell they’d put her in less than forty-eight hours ago, determined to fight them with everything she had before they put her back in that cold, hard, forsaken place. But the guards only laughed as they dragged her down the hall, past rows and rows of empty cells, their burly arms too strong for her to break through, and before she knew it, they were tossing her back into the cell Harley had fought so hard to break her free from, and the door was sliding shut in front of her wide, fiery eyes.
“I’d watch yourself if I were you, little missy,” one of the guards sneered down at her as she scrambled to her feet. “We saw what you and your boyfriend did to our friend the last time you were here, and we’re just itching for the first chance to give you a little payback.” His lip curled into a cruel smirk. “The boss lady only said you had to be alive and in working order – she never said anything about not banging you up a little.” His emphasis on the word ‘banging’ left no doubt in Jocelyne’s mind as to what they had in mind, and fear choked her windpipe, preventing her from speaking. The guard and his cronies disappeared down the hall, and all she could do was stand there and shiver with rage as their laughter echoed against the walls.
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