by Amelia Jade
As if reading her mind Stoen upped the tempo with his right hand, moving a little faster. Reaching over her hip, she found his cock and gripped it, gently moving her fingers up and down so that her index finger was constantly rubbing over the edge of his head, right where she knew it was sensitive. Stoen groaned and pulsed in her hand, but he didn’t make her stop.
Hearing him and the noises he was making for her was too much stimulation. She couldn’t take it. Her legs tightened, muscles that hadn’t seen much use lately trying to clamp around his hand, while the pressure doubled and then doubled again until she was shaking, unable to contain it.
“Stoen,” she cried out, biting down on the back of one hand momentarily. “I’m coming, Stoen. For you!”
She wasn’t sure what possessed her to say that, but he growled loudly in her ear in answer. Rose lost control, every fiber of her body screaming at once as she came hard. Eyes rolled back into their sockets, lungs stopped working for a long moment, and every muscle in her body did its own thing as she rocked wildly in Stoen’s grip, her cries bouncing from the wall.
Fireworks exploded behind her eyelids, and a second later lung control returned as she sucked in huge amounts of oxygen, trying to get her body under control from the ecstatic assault it had just endured.
“Fuck me,” were the first two words she could get out. Rose wanted him, and she wanted him now. There was a gaping need that she wanted filled, and only having him deep inside her would fill it. Her hips thrust back against him eagerly, backing up her words with action.
Stoen removed his hand and suddenly something much larger than his finger was pushing its way inside her. Rose gasped at the thickness of it as he slipped the head inside. Her left hand was half-pinned under her, holding the comforter in a death grip, while the right reached back to press against his stomach, feeling the tightness of his abs.
“Yessss,” she moaned as he inched his way deeper. The presence of his cock had her both feeling satisfied but craving more of it. With every inch more she took, Rose thought she couldn’t take the rest, and yet found herself unsatisfied with what she had. She was a dripping, slobbering mess that was focused on nothing but taking as much of his hardness as possible.
It was until she felt the warmth of his skin against her ass that she stopped to realize she’d taken all of him. All…eight or nine inches, she had no idea, it didn’t matter, it was big. That was all she knew, and it was the most wonderful thing she’d ever experienced.
Biting her lip, she pulled her hips forward, and then pushed them back against him. Yes. That was it. The feeling of him sliding in and out, stretching her walls to the breaking point, but not past. That was exactly what she wanted. But faster.
One giant hand gripped her waist. The other slipped under her neck and angled down, latching on to her breasts. Then it was Stoen’s turn to thrust against her. It was so much better when he did it.
“Oh, Stoen.” She cried out his name over and over again as he took control of her body.
They moved without words. Stoen just moved her body as he pleased. From her side he pushed her onto her stomach, coming at her from behind and on top, while she rubbed herself between her legs until she came again.
From there he pulled her back onto her knees, her face still flat against the bed. He never went too hard, or too fast, but kept up the rhythm that had her ready and willing to come for him over and over. And she did. Rose lost count, giving herself completely over to Stoen as he took control and didn’t let up.
At some point they’d ended up with him on top of her, his arms pushing down into the bed on either side of her face, giving her a wonderful front-row seat to the show of his taut muscles as they flexed and moved.
“Rose,” he groaned, his eyes going wide.
She realized what was happening, watching his face intently, eager to see. “Please,” she whispered. “I want it. All over my stomach.”
Stoen nodded, a jerky, uncontrollable motion. The veins in his neck began to stand out. He was close now.
Suddenly he was gone from within her. Without thinking she reached between their legs before he could and grabbed on, jerking his cock.
Her man cried out, shouting her name as he throbbed in her grip, and an instant later he spilled himself all across her stomach, some of it even reaching up to cover her breasts. She didn’t stop, moving her hand continuously as he finished, alternating between watching his face and watching the tip of his cock.
The burning-hot liquid made her feel so sexy, and she just lay there, looking up at him, seeing the ruddy glow of his cheeks as he moved from the intensity of his orgasm to the wondrous afterglow that was also infusing her own body.
“Let me get a towel,” he whispered.
“Get over here,” she ordered, pulling him down to lie next to her. “That can wait. I just want to feel you next to me.”
Stoen didn’t argue; he lay on his side pressed up against her, his still-hard cock lying on her upper thigh while he lightly kissed her cheek and nose and forehead.
“That was fun,” she said at last, looking up at the ceiling, half-watching him out of the corner of her eye. “We should do that again sometime.”
“How about after I get you cleaned up?” he growled into her ear, thrusting against her playfully.
“How about after that, some water and a bathroom break?” she countered. “I need a bit longer to catch my breath.
“You know what? Not a terrible idea,” he laughed, wiping some of the sweat from his forehead. “Why don’t we have a shower together?”
Rose brightened. “That, Stoen, is the second best idea you’ve had all day.”
He chuckled. “I aim to please.”
“And you do a really good job of it.”
“Come with me,” he said, extending a hand to her as he got up. “So I can finish the job.”
Rose took it.
Chapter Thirteen
Stoen
Rose’s alarm went off before his.
He rolled over, ready to cuddle her for a few minutes, but to his surprise she was already out of bed and dressing herself methodically while sitting on the bed facing away from him.
Stoen ran his eyes up and down her, wondering why she seemed to be almost hiding from him. Did she now regret what they’d done? Cursing himself, he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he should have slept on the couch after all. He’d definitely rushed things, and now she was pulling back.
“Let’s go.”
He blinked. “Pardon?”
“The bank opens in forty-five minutes. It’s at least a forty-minute drive to get there.”
Stoen sat up, but he still didn’t thoroughly understand, battling to come to wakefulness. The frequent transatlantic flights were starting to play hell with his internal clock. With the Outsider threat neutralized for the moment, he hoped that maybe they could stay for a bit before heading back after rescuing her brother.
“Run this by me one more time?” He got out of bed, uncaring of his own nudity.
Rose’s eyes ran over his body once, pausing between his legs for just a second, but then she resumed her own preparations. Very businesslike.
“Time is ticking. We need to get moving to go rescue my brother, remember?”
“I haven’t forgotten,” he said with a bit of a bite to his words, not appreciating the insinuation.
Rose stopped, sighing. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong. I’m really nervous and worried for Teddy’s safety, Stoen. He’s my little brother. What if they do something to him? Because of what I did?”
Pulling on his jeans, he shook his head. “They won’t. They’ll get to him over my cold, dead body, I promise you that. I will protect you and your brother with every breath in me.”
She smiled sadly. “Please don’t feel the need to let it get to the point you have to demonstrate that though, okay?” Crossing the room, she got up on her tiptoes and kissed him. It wasn’t a lingering
thing, but it got the point across.
Rose still cared; she was just wrapped up in the situation at hand now and back to being focused on the mission. There was no way Stoen could blame her for that, even if it made her less than cuddly with him. That was perfectly natural, and he needed to do the same.
“I don’t intend to,” he assured her, pulling her in tight to a hook, thinking she could use one.
Flinging her arms around him, Rose squeezed tightly. Stoen gripped her back, not letting go until she pulled away, giving her as much support as she needed.
“All right, so I guess the first thing we should do is let me have a look at the pictures,” he suggested. “Do you have them on your laptop?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m not the most tech-savvy person, though I learned a bit while working as a PI. After I fled the police station I put them online as anonymously as I could, and then I had a company wipe my laptop. I didn’t want anything that could be traced back to me.
“Okay, well, I kind of need to see them. What’s the website you posted them to?”
Stoen needed to get his eyes on the pictures. Thinking it over, he should have done it well before this, but at the time getting her to safety had been his priority. Then there was the fight with the Outsider, and he’d just sort of forgotten to get to it.
“A few local pages where you could sign up anonymously with just an email. Here.” She pulled out her phone and typed away at it. A few seconds later she frowned, then typed something else in. This was repeated yet again before she looked up, worried. “They’re gone.”
“Our friends must have had them taken down.”
“So why are they so worried then?”
Stoen thought it over. “Someone else must have them. Someone they want us to get off their trail. Maybe if we can find them…No. No, we need to get your brother. That’s priority number one.”
He really wished he could take a look at the pictures to see if he recognized any of the people they were up against. The shifter world was fairly small, and if any of the local shifters were involved, he was likely to recognize them. It was frustrating to be going in blind like this.
“I still have the originals though, on my camera. I could show you those?” Rose offered.
“What? You do?”
She nodded. “I’m pretty sure I told you that. That’s why we need to get to the bank.”
“That’s great. That way we can get them to some trusted experts who will be able to verify that we haven’t tampered with them. Good job!” he said, proud of her forethought.
Rose smiled weakly. “There’s a problem though.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, after printing some off I went to the bank and put it in a security deposit box there. I figured it would be safe, right?”
“Right. If they tampered with it we can take the bank down. I know the people for that.”
Stoen knew everyone there. The banking system of their home country was renowned around the world, considered to be one of the safest and most secure places in the world to store money. It was also a construct devised entirely by dragons, and to this day, still run by them. They’d built a country around the desire to create more treasure, and then added a bank onto that—though it was all done in secret of course—with a minimum amount of human beings in the know.
All of that meant if the local branch was compromised on some level, Stoen could ensure that anyone and everyone involved was brought to swift and punitive justice. Heads would roll.
“No, that’s not really what I think will be the problem.”
“What, then?” He was confused.
“Well once I was done, I went next door.”
“Uh-huh. And?”
“To the police station.”
“Oh.” Nodding slowly, he let all the implications of that sink in. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
That wasn’t good. That wasn’t good at all. He could just imagine the corrupt officer, after realizing that someone was onto him and his cronies, tracing her steps back. There would easily be cameras that would track her back outside, and likely into the bank as well. Once he saw that, it would be easy for the officer to go in and have the bank security review their records.
They would know exactly why she’d come to the bank, and while he doubted they would get the bank to open the deposit box itself—that would require a lot more leverage than just an officer investigating a person of interest—they absolutely would have put a flag on her name in the system. Which meant that when she went back, the bank would notify the police.
“I don’t think we have an option,” he said at last.
“Neither do I.” She went back to her side of the bed and finished pulling on her clothes. “We have to go and get the originals, and it has to be me who does it.”
“Let me call the Magistrates,” he urged. “We can get some help on this. Enough muscle to discourage them from trying anything. Hell, I can probably have all these assholes rounded up. Without a fight.”
“No police. Of any type. What if they have an inside man there as well? There are shifters working this. It’s not that crazy.”
Stoen scoffed. “There are bad shifters out there, I won’t deny that. But they don’t work for the Magistrates’ office. Those are the good guys. We’re going to need them, Rose.”
“No. I won’t risk my brother’s life over it.”
“No, just our own.”
“Stoen…”
“If you think for one second I’m letting you walk into that bank on your own, you’re not the woman I think you are.”
Flattening her mouth into a line, Rose glared at him unhappily. “You don’t have to.”
He shook his head. “We’re not having this conversation. Let’s go. We’ll have Correll drop us off nearby.”
Rose loudly expelled air through her nose. “This is going to be a disaster.”
Stoen didn’t have the heart to disagree. They were walking into what could only be a trap, with no escape plan in place, and exactly no choice in the matter. Their opponents knew it too, and were counting on it. They would be waiting.
He just hoped he could keep his promise and ensure Rose got out of the bank safely.
Chapter Fourteen
Rose
“So that’s it.”
She nodded. “Yup. That’s it.”
They stood in line at a coffee shop diagonally across the intersection from their destination. The bank was on the corner, with the police station occupying the next half-block on the major thoroughfare. Pressed right up against one another.
“This should be fun.” Stoen laughed, turning to place his order as the server came over to them.
Rose went next before returning her attention to the pair of buildings. “Do you think they know we’re here already?”
“Probably not, unless they somehow have been following us since we landed, which I deem unlikely. No, they won’t know until you access the deposit box. That’s when things will start to hit the fan. Maybe if we get in and get out fast enough we can escape before they get organized.”
“Why did I have to choose this location?” she complained, pulling the baseball cap lower on her forehead. It was a dark gray, and a size too big. They’d bought it that way in the hopes that it would cover some of her hair, the bright blonde tresses a dead giveaway to anyone looking for her. It hadn’t been successful, as she’d warned him it wouldn’t. Her hair had a mind of its own.
“You had no idea when you went in,” Stoen said, lowering his voice. “It should have gone exactly the way you wanted. But it’ll be okay. I’m here. Besides, the whole station can’t be corrupt. Odds are they’ll tell somebody else, and we’ll be able to deal with them and get this entire situation under control.”
She snorted. “Do you really believe that?”
“To a degree. The odds of that happening are actually rather good.”
“Y
eah, but our luck isn’t.”
Stoen took her cup from the barista, holding onto his as well while they walked to a table and sat, both of them fidgeting.
“I say we just go over there,” she said, blowing through the lid of her drink. “Let’s get it over and done with.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely not. But what choice do I have? If we’re going to get anyone to believe us, we need the originals.” She tried to sound braver than she felt.
“Let’s go then.” Stoen adjusted his own hat, pulling the black cap lower to help hide his features.
It did nothing to conceal the fact he was a walking giant, however, and if anyone had been warned to expect a possible shifter, they would know what to look for and would recognize him immediately. There weren’t many men over six and a half feet tall with shoulders the width of a freight train just waltzing around. Especially in the company of a tiny blonde.
Pulling the door open, Stoen held it for her as she and another woman in business attire walked inside.
“Thank you,” the two of them said at once.
Stoen smiled at both. “You’re welcome.”
No alarms were ringing yet. Not audible ones at least. Stoen was looking around, and he seemed at ease, which meant he wasn’t aware of any danger. That didn’t mean they weren’t still in peril, but nothing imminent could be detected.
She walked up to the general-reception clerk and asked to access her deposit box.
“Certainly, ma’am. I’ll just need your ID and box number. Then you’ll have to wait over there for a manager to escort you in.”
Rose gave over her ID. “It’s box 1835.”
The clerk compared things on her screen. Rose watched her face as she did. Was that a tightening of her cheek muscles? Were her pupils dilating just now as she read the profile?
“That all matches, thank you. If you’ll just have a seat.” She gestured to some rigid plastic chairs to the side.”
Rose nodded, still looking for any telltale signs of alarm, but not picking up on anything visible.