Texas Lightning

by A Caprice

  ***

  Andie’s tongue wrapped around his and for a moment his mind blanked. Fuck, she tasted sweet and felt like heaven in his arms. Then what she’d said came back to him and his jaw tensed.

  She didn’t seem to notice his mood change, dragging her tongue to his ear and continuing her assault.

  She wanted to practice for her future spouse. Didn’t he just walk right into that one with all of his talk of PDAs? The thought of another man dropping a kiss, casual or otherwise, on Andie’s luscious lips put a knot in his stomach.

  And that was stupid. He had no future with her, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t deserve to be well loved and have a husband and a family of her own. But…

  Could he be that man for her? Four years ago it had seemed impossible. But working for ARC had shown him a lot. He’d met several normal humans who knew about the supernatural and dealt with it just fine. Andie was an amazing woman. Was he not giving her enough credit by assuming she wouldn’t accept him?

  Probably. But what if he took the risk and she looked at him the way his parents had? That would fucking kill him, and Chase didn’t know if he had the strength to take that chance.

  Fuck it. He had a beautiful woman nibbling down his neck and he was going to enjoy the moment. He was going to enjoy every moment he was lucky enough to have with Andie.

  He threaded his hand into her hair and tugged the elastic from her ponytail so the golden mass swept over his arm. Finding her mouth with his, he put everything he had into his kiss, trying to show her what she meant to him without words. With one arm beneath her knees, he rose from the chair and took the two steps to the bed.

  He wanted to throw her down on it, rip off her clothes and fuck her like an animal. Mark her as his. But she deserved more than that, so he gently laid her down and settled himself by her side, never breaking their kiss. He filled his hand with one of her perky breasts, rubbing his thumb over her nipple and feeling it harden through the cotton of her shirt and bra. It wasn’t enough.

  Lifting his head, he looked down her body, pleased to see her chest rising and falling as rapidly as his. He sat back on his knees and grabbed her blouse with both hands. Not bothering with the buttons, he pulled the two sides apart, baring her beautiful, bronze flesh and sending buttons pinging across the room.

  So much for being the gentle lover.

  Fuck that too.

  Her jeans caught on her boots when he dragged them down and Chase had to get off the bed to remove the lot. He’d have to talk to her about wearing shoes that were easier to remove. The ten seconds away from her body were ten seconds too many, but he used the opportunity to quickly shed his own clothes, removing the condom from his wallet and tossing it on the bedside table.

  In moments, he stood naked at the foot of the bed, staring down at his woman clad only in a white cotton bra and bikini briefs. The simple underwear suited his no-nonsense ranger and contrasted beautifully with the miles of golden skin exposed to his view.

  At least, he thought the underwear was simple until she rolled to her side and revealed that the demure white cotton panties were, in fact, a thong. A groan emerged deep from his gut. He ran a thick finger over the soft skin of her ass, loving the red trail mark it left behind before slowly fading away.

  That mix of sexy and sweet, practical and flirty, drove him crazy. He had planned on tearing her panties off of her too, but now he wanted that deceptive wisp of cotton enshrined for all time.

  He crawled over her, trapping her legs between his. Her thighs were smooth as satin, and his cock became rock hard as he gazed down at the woman laid out beneath him. Taking himself in hand, he drew his weeping head from her hip to her flat stomach then down over the front of those teasing panties.

  She shuddered at the contact.

  A gleam of blue peeked from between her lowered lids. He trapped her gaze with his as he lowered his head and placed a soft kiss on her belly. He traced his tongue to her navel and licked around the edges before pressing it into the hollow.

  A soft gasp sounded above him and she rocked her hips.

  He couldn’t help but smile. He loved the way Andie responded to him. From the moment he first touched her four years ago, they had always been amazing together. Four years ago he hadn’t dared to touch her in the way only he could, however. His powers had still felt so forbidden. But he’d had some practice over the years and was eager to share it with the only woman who had ever mattered to him.

  “Close your eyes,” he murmured against her skin. “I want you to just concentrate on feeling me, feeling my touch, nothing else.”

  She trembled beneath him, whether from the slow stroke of his fingers on the inside of her thigh or from his words, he didn’t know. “But I want to see everything you do to me,” she said. “I want to experience this using all my senses.”

  He inched up and nipped the underside of her breast. “I want to use all my senses too.” A dark humor filled him at the irony. Only by taking away one of her senses could he safely use his sixth one. “I don’t want to leave this bed to find a blindfold, but trust me. It will be worth it. In fact…” He put his thumbs under the cups of her bra and pulled it up. “Raise your arms, baby.”

  She did as he said, a flicker of excitement lighting her face. Once he had the cotton off her body, he arranged the fabric across her eyes and wound the band around her head, tightening it where he could.

  He looked down on his MacGyvered blindfold and bit back a chuckle. It wouldn’t win any style awards, but tying Andie up in her own underwear was definitely sexy as hell.

  “I must look like an idiot,” she protested.

  His eyes dropped to the soft mounds that were now exposed. The dusky rose nipples were hardened points begging for his touch. He traced a light circle around the areola. “That’s the whole point of this.”

  “Me looking stupid?” She raised a hand to her face but he quickly caught her fingers in his. “I don’t like feeling stupid during sex.”

  “Nothing about you is stupid. You know that. But with one of your senses taken away, every other one becomes enhanced. You shouldn’t be worrying about what you look like right now. By taking away your sight, you can just enjoy what you feel.”

  He nibbled at her jaw while snaking a hand down to slide under the cotton of her panties. He found her wet seam. Wet for him. He stroked through her lips a couple of times before finding her entrance and easing his finger inside.

  Her muscles tightened around him and he could barely restrain himself from spreading her legs, shoving her panties aside and plunging inside her heat.

  But this was about Andie.

  He brought his wet finger to her mouth and traced her lips. “You smell so good, don’t you, baby? Like musk and woman.” Pressing his finger between her lips, he just about came all over her stomach when she sucked the tip. “And you taste fucking fantastic, don’t you?” She hummed around his finger. “Spicy and sweet. I could eat you all day long and never get enough.”

  He tongued the hollow of her throat and her pulse fluttered. He cupped a breast and kneaded its nipple between his fingers. Her breasts weren’t big enough to quite fill his palm, but the delicate peaks suited her lean frame perfectly. There was nothing about her that he would change.

  Rolling one nipple between his fingers, he turned his attention to her other breast, using his mouth. He nipped at the soft skin then laved away the sting. He spiraled inward and when he reached the dusky nub, he suckled deeply.

  Andie mewled, arching into his touch.

  The sound shot straight to his dick. Chase’s head emptied. The only thing his brain processed was the feel of her nipple against his lips and tongue. He inhaled deeply and the faint fruit scent of her skin penetrated the fog. She was amazing and he couldn’t get enough.

  He lifted his head and circled the reddened flesh with his finger. His palm began to tingle and he concentrated on bringing a low level of energy to flow to the ti
ps of his fingers. He brushed one against her nipple, and a small charge flowed into her skin, the area around the contact point glowing a faint blue.

  She gasped and arched again. “Holy fuck!”

  He lowered his mouth to her other breast. “I love the taste of every inch of you.” He sucked and bit that breast all the while pinching and rolling her other nipple while the energy continued to connect them.

  She clasped the back of his head and pulled him closer. “Christ, what are you doing to me? It feels…”

  “How does it feel?”

  “Like I want to crawl out of my skin. But in a good way.” She released a shaky breath. “You feel so damn good, Chase.”

  He moved down her torso and she let out a cry of protest. “Don’t stop!”

  He reached her panties and dragged the cotton down and off her legs. “I’m not stopping. Just changing location.”

  “Oh. Oh!” she wailed at the first lick of his tongue against her slick folds. He inserted one finger, then another as he lapped and nibbled her outer lips. Concentrating on the energy level, he sent minute sparks of electricity out of his fingers while massaging her core’s walls.

  “Fuck me! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” She grabbed his hair and alternately tried pushing him away and dragging him deeper into her body. “Chase, what…I can’t…”

  He licked around her clitoris. Her core clamped down on his fingers and he knew she was about to explode. He pulled away and chuckled at her furious wail. He couldn’t wait to hear her beg for her orgasm.

  She raised her bra-wrapped head from the pillow. “If you even think about leaving me hanging, I will rip off your testicles with my bare hands.”

  Well, maybe not so much begging, but a demand nonetheless. A wide grin stretched across his face. “The longer you wait for it, the better it will be.”

  A string of filthy expletives left her sweet mouth. And more threats to his anatomy. He arched an eyebrow. Andie had an impressively vicious and creative mind. It shouldn’t have turned him on even more. But it did.

  He cut her off with a long, slow lick up her slit.

  She relaxed back into the mattress and sighed in victory.

  Chase curled his tongue and probed at her entrance, weaving leisurely nibbles at her lips with a fast fucking from his mouth. He brought her to the edge again and her thighs tightened around his head, demanding her completion.

  He rubbed his finger against her clit, the slightest hint of electricity jolting into her swollen nub, and she exploded with a scream.

  His cock was so hard it hurt. Chase wasted no time flipping his lover over and settling her on her elbows and knees. He sheathed himself in record time then guided his broad crown to her weeping core, thrusting home.

  He groaned. Her soft warmth pulsed around him, and his head fell back on his shoulders in bliss. If ever there was a perfect moment in life, this was it.

  He eased himself half way out before his body demanded he plunge deep again.

  Andie moaned softly before dropping her head onto the mattress, her entire body limp and pliable.

  Any thought of a slow, thorough fuck was erased from his mind. His body took over, hammering into her sweet pussy over and over. The headboard smacked against the wall. His balls slapped against her ass. Each stroke drove a sexy squeak from her lips. The harder he pounded into her, the louder she got.

  He clenched her hips, digging his fingers into her skin. This beautiful, strong woman was giving herself entirely to him. She let him blindfold her, put her in this vulnerable position, and he wanted to roar in triumph. Christ, he turned into a caveman around her, but he didn’t give a fuck. He couldn’t get enough. He wouldn’t give her up.

  His balls tightened, drawing up against his body. His cock thickened. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head up, arching her back, giving him room to thrust even deeper. He slid his hand around her waist and found her clit.

  He tapped. One, two, three pulses of energy and she was gone. Any sound she might have made drowned out by his deep groan as he exploded deep inside her. Their bodies pulsed together and Chase wrapped an arm around her waist before collapsing to his side, pulling her with him.

  It was minutes before his pulse slowed and he could grab a deep breath. “Wow.” That inanity was all his muddled brain could form.

  “You got that right.” She rested her hand over his, and that one sweet touch was almost as good as the sex they’d just had.

  Almost.

  “Are you okay? I wasn’t too…rough?”

  She snuggled more deeply into his embrace. “Not at all. I might not be able to move, but that was just perfect.”

  Relief swamped him. They lay together, unspeaking, Chase idly stroking her hair.

  There had to be a way to tell her about his power, one where she wouldn’t freak out and try to commit him to an asylum. If he wanted any sort of relationship with her, which he did, he had to tell her.

  He opened his mouth, shut it. He just had to fucking tell her. Man up and spit it out. He sucked in a deep breath. “Andie—”

  The ringing of a phone cut him off, delaying the conversation, and he sighed in relief.

  Andie groaned and shoved the bra off her head. “That’s mine. I don’t want to get up.”

  “Don’t move.” He kissed the back of her neck then rolled off the bed and disposed of the condom. Her phone was next to her laptop and when he brought it back to the bed, he noticed the incoming call was from a blocked number. Not all that unusual, but his stomach tightened and he made sure to move close to her so he could hear the conversation.

  “Ranger Sellers,” she said into the phone.

  “Good evening, Andrea. So nice to finally talk to you.” The voice was as smooth and dark as oil.

  She sat up, her breasts bouncing lightly with the motion. “Who am I speaking to?”

  A low chuckle reached his ear. “Saint Peter, of course. The gatekeeper to heaven.”

  Chase jumped off the bed as she put her phone on speaker. He picked up his own and texted his people to put a trace on her cell. He didn’t think the call would get trapped in time, but they had to try.

  “Is that how you see yourself, Vega?” She put her phone on speaker. “A powerful being who controls people’s futures?”

  “Well I am, aren’t I? That’s why you’ve spent all this time trying to catch me, because I’m affecting lives. Controlling people’s destinies.”

  She climbed off the bed and started pacing. “Destroying lives is more accurate. Your drug is killing people. Killing children.”

  “A few broken eggs,” he said. “But you’re ignoring the real power of Saint Peter, Andrea. The power to decide who is worthy of entering the pearly gates and who should be sent straight to hell.”

  Every time the bastard said her name, Chase clenched his fist. He wanted to snatch the phone from her hand, reach through it and grab Vega by the throat. But he hadn’t received a text yet that the call had been traced so all he could do was watch and listen.

  “How do you decide that?” Her forehead furrowed. “Those that die aren’t worthy?”

  The jerk tsked at her through the phone. “How unimaginative you are, Andrea. Perhaps Agent McGovern can help you uncover my meaning.”

  Her head popped up, and she looked at Chase with surprise.

  He shrugged, as baffled as she.

  “You seem to know an awful lot about my investigation,” Andie said. “Have some cops on your payroll, do you?”

  He laughed, deep and low. “I have people on my payroll everywhere, my dear. That’s why you’ll never win. But maybe you can learn the truth before you die. Enlightenment is the goal we should all strive for.”

  Chase lurched forward. Fuck. He knew. The man knew about Heaven’s side-effect. Hell, maybe it wasn’t a side-effect. Maybe it was the drug’s primary purpose.

  He reached for her phone. Of all the ways to tell Andie about his powers, having this
bastard spill the beans wasn’t in the top one hundred.

  She waved him away and kept the phone out of his reach. “What truth is that?”

  “That my creation, Heaven, brings the ultimate high, the ultimate joy to those who are deserving.”

  “How is a person deserving?” Frustration and anger were finally seeping into Andie’s voice.

  “Simply by not being an abomination.”

  “What do you mean ‘an abom—’”

  “Your questions grow tiresome, Andrea. Ask McGovern what I mean. All I will tell you is that my drug is hell on those abominations. It strips them of what they love the most, reduces them to being common.” His voice grew bitter. “I am doing the world a service. When people find out what’s living among us, they will praise my name for creating an antidote.”

  Chase couldn’t look her in the face, didn’t want to see her questions. Would the world agree with Vega, that he was destroying abominations?

  Would she?

  He stared at his phone and prayed that a text would appear saying the number was traced. But he couldn’t avoid hearing Vega’s next words, nor the rage that swallowed him whole.

  “It’s only too bad that you won’t live long enough to see that for yourself.”

  Chapter Seven

  “We didn’t get it. He had too many blocks, too many servers he was routing the call through to trace it.” Frustration poured off Chase, and Andie didn’t blame him.

  Vega had been too confident. Calling a law enforcement officer and threatening her just wasn’t smart, unless he felt that he was untouchable. “He didn’t deny it when I called him Vega.”

  Chase shook his head as he stalked past her on the route he had made for himself around the room. The area wasn’t big enough to accommodate a pissed off giant of a man acting like a bull in a rodeo, pawing the ground and snorting.

  “He also didn’t admit it. That’s not enough to get a warrant.” He pivoted at the mini-fridge and marched back toward her. “He also made it a point to call you out by name several times. Just to twist the knife that he knows who you are, that he can find you.” He stopped inches from her and put his hands on her shoulders. “You’re going into protective custody tonight.”