InsistentHunger

by Lyn Gala

  “I considered,” Paige admitted unwillingly. She’d never wanted Brady to know that, but he didn’t look particularly shocked or hurt. “But I’ve never been good at walking away from a partner,” she added.

  “Is that what I am?” Brady tilted his head and studied her as if he couldn’t quite decide if she was telling the truth. His amber eyes watched her and his body was angled oddly. His elbow was a little too far from his body and his back was unnaturally arched. This was the Brady she knew from those very strange days as they chased Monagas. This wasn’t the young recruit who had flirted with Veronica.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  He flashed her a brilliant smile, but it faded quickly. “I can’t go back.”

  A snort of laughter slipped out of Paige as she imagined people’s faces if he even tried to show up in town. “I don’t expect you to. In fact, I’d prefer if you didn’t because the town would need way more than just the two psychiatrists. Way more.” Paige shivered as she considered just how ugly things could get.

  “You know, I’ve heard of long-distance relationships, but this might be a little too much. What, are you going to visit once a month?” Brady sounded defensive, but Paige took that as one more piece of evidence that he cared. This bothered him. A lot.

  “Was actually thinking of moving here,” she commented nonchalantly.

  Brady stared at her, his mouth actually hanging open at that. “But the job,” he finally blurted.

  “The ex-job.”

  “You can’t quit.”

  “Actually, I didn’t. I retired.” Paige kept expecting some pang of regret to hit her when she said that, but it hadn’t happened yet. She’d been a damn effective officer, but the time had come.

  Brady was still staring at her with undisguised shock. “You… But… Aren’t you a little young to retire?”

  “Aren’t you a little young to be dead?”

  Brady look changed to disgust.

  “Brady.” Paige sighed. He might be some ancient blajini from another dimension, but sometimes he acted like a twenty-five-year-old rookie straight out of the academy. “Oxbow is a small enough town that they’ve had exactly two officers die while still officially on the job. The first one was my training officer. The second one—I was training him. I think they expected me to retire. Either that or they were going to have to bring in a third psychiatrist to deal with me because the other two were too booked up to squeeze my issues into their busy schedules.”

  Shock turned to confusion. “But you love that job.”

  “I did,” Paige agreed. “But there a lot of jobs that I could love. I actually have an interview in town. There’s a tech firm looking for an investigator for their personnel office. I would be doing investigations and I would have the added bonus that no one would get drunk and shoot at me,” Paige added. As bonuses went, it wasn’t half bad. “Not that anyone really honestly tried to hit me, but some of those good old boys did like taking a few shots.”

  “Investigations?” Brady sounded charmingly confused.

  “Yep. Actually the employment agency said there were a number of options. They asked about wanting to be a court bailiff, but I can’t see myself doing that. At least in Oxbow the locals knew me well enough to know that I would kick their asses if they acted up. If I were a court bailiff here, I’d constantly be trying to prove myself to some idiot defendant who thought I was small enough to knock over.” Paige didn’t have the patience for that. “Or worse, it could be boring.”

  “Boring?”

  Paige looked at Brady. The inhuman angles had fallen away, but he couldn’t seem to get more than one word at a time out now. “Okay, Brady, you are starting to freak me out a little bit. Have you suffered some brain damage I don’t know about?”

  Brady leaned back and put both feet on the ground. “Who are you and where did you put Paige Silver?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “She’s a short woman. She comes up to about here.” Brady held his hand up to the middle of his chest, and sadly that was where her head came up to when she stood too near him. “She’s obsessed with work. She’s a great officer, the training officer down in Oxbow, in fact. If you listen to the rumors, they say she’s a little obsessed with her job. Great at it,” he added, “but obsessed. Have you seen her anywhere?”

  Paige glared as Brady had his fun. “Screw you. I’m not obsessed with my job.” Paige stopped and thought about that for a moment. “I just, I just didn’t have anything other than my job,” she explained a little defensively. “Well, other than the tiling in my bathroom.”

  “I saw the tile job. Trust me, you didn’t have a tiling job. You had a mess,” Brady said. Paige might have taken offense, only he was right. “You were obsessed with that job. How can you just walk away from it?” Tiny red veins appeared in the whites of his eyes. Those were handy as a barometer of his mood.

  “Because I’m not obsessed with it anymore, Brady. I thought I had things figured out. I thought I understood the way the world worked and how I could help people,” Paige struggled to explain why she suddenly didn’t care as much as she had. “And then someone came along and ripped all my illusions away.”

  From the red in his eyes, Brady was still upset. “So you’re giving up everything?”

  “Oh hell no,” Paige hurried to correct him. “I have my retirement. I’m getting a job. I still have my old life, I’m just hoping that maybe—” She stopped. Brady had this blank expression on his face, even though earlier she would have sworn that he still felt the attraction between them. However, now that she had put out an offer to move here, his face had gone utterly blank.

  She shouldn’t have come. Back in Oxbow, Brady had clung to her because he was lost and afraid, but now he had Gavril and he had answers. “Look, I’m glad you’re doing well. I’ve got to go.” Paige stood up. “I need to go shopping because I don’t have a whole lot of clothes that scream that I’m a professional investigator. I guess I’m going to have to get used to wearing suits, huh?” Paige backed her way toward the door. Her chest was tight, but it wasn’t like this was the first ugly breakup she’d had. Hell, this wasn’t even ugly. She’d had one breakup that included three broken windows, an entire set of dishes smashed against the floor and a trip to the ER when the neighbor who had come over to investigate slipped in Jell-O and fell on the broken plates. That had been an ugly breakup. This didn’t even rise to the level of a mildly unattractive breakup. “I’ll let you know if I’m going to stay in town,” Paige offered.

  “Paige, wait.” Brady scrambled off the bed and reached for her.

  “I really do have to go.” Spinning around, she tried to reach the door, but he caught her arm and spun her around again.

  “Just wait a minute.”

  She stopped and looked at him. Later she was going to cry. A lot. But it’d been a lot of years since she’d cried in front of anyone. Her eyes prickled, but they stayed dry as she looked up into Brady’s amber gaze. He was still so handsome. With a good pair of dark brown contact lenses, she wouldn’t even tell the difference between this Brady and human Brady. Not right now anyway. His body language had the human curves that made him look so young as he studied her with open concern.

  “I’m saying this all wrong,” he finally said.

  “Brady, you don’t have to say anything at all.” Actually, it’d be better if he didn’t.

  “Yes, yes I do. God, I’ve missed you. Every single night I missed you,” he said. “Gavril understands what it is to be a blajini. But he doesn’t understand how much I’ve wanted you.” Brady’s fingers dug into her arm and now he carefully turned her loose and pulled his hand back.

  Paige reached up to rub her sore arm. “Brady?” She thought she’d figured out what they were doing, but now Brady was confusing her again.

  “I know why Dorothy turned against him, why she ran away to Oxbow,” Brady whispered, his eyes focused on the ground between them. “He was born hundreds of years ago, and frankly, he’s su
ch a chauvinist there are times I want to shove a stake in him.” His voice dropped to a mere whisper. “True, I don’t exactly appreciate her coming to town and killing me…or killing human Brady. That part still gives me a headache when I try to figure it out, but she wanted someone. She wanted someone who could be with her, and Gavril…he can’t. He doesn’t see people as equals. He doesn’t understand how much I’ve missed having you at my side.”

  Paige swallowed, she still didn’t know how to respond. Just because he missed her didn’t mean that she had a place in his life.

  “You’re freaking me out a little here, Silver,” he said with a huff of what might pass as laughter if she ignored the undercurrent of fear in it. “I was hoping you would jump in and save me from my flailing at this point.”

  “What you want me to say?” Paige asked. Brady visibly cringed and Paige reached for him without thinking about it. Resting her hand on his arm, she struggled to find the right words. “I suck at this shit. I really don’t know what I’m supposed to say here.”

  “I don’t know. Something. Something hopelessly sappy maybe?” Brady looked up at her.

  “Do I strike you as the sappy sort?”

  That made the corner of his lips twitch. “No, not really. I just don’t want you to leave.” Brady gave a shuddering sigh. “I don’t want you to leave, but I don’t want to be the person who asks you to change. I don’t want you giving up your career for me and then turning around and hating me. I would rather think of you happy in Oxbow than I would ruin your life. I don’t want to wake up next to you and know that you hated me.” He scrubbed a hand over his face.

  “I’m not going to hate you, you idiot.”

  “I ruined your life.”

  Paige rolled her eyes. “Screw that. Dorothy put a dent in my life, but she didn’t even ruin it. My drunk father didn’t ruin my life. The long string of losers that I have chosen to date did not ruin my life. Do not assume that you have the power to ruin my life, Brady.” Paige willed him to believe her. “I was a damn good cop because I believed in what I was doing. And I stopped being a cop because suddenly I didn’t believe anymore. I didn’t believe that the rules and the regulations would work. How the hell am I supposed to train people to follow rules that I don’t believe in?” Paige hadn’t ever realized why she’d suddenly felt uncomfortable in her job, but as she said the words, she realized just how true they were. She couldn’t pretend to teach people how to protect themselves and clear scenes when she knew that all the precautions were worthless against demons. But if she tried to teach recruits to protect themselves from vamps, she was going to end up in a rubber room. Maybe she was getting through to Brady, because he looked less miserable.

  “I retired because I couldn’t be a cop without teaching other cops about demons,” she explained, “and that would not go well. Now I did apply for jobs in the immediate area because of you, but that was my choice.” Paige pointed her finger at Brady. “So do not go assuming that I’m some Southern belle chasing her man.” Paige had a bit of Southern twang to her voice anyway, but she played it up for that line.

  “So you’re not chasing me?” Brady’s expression slowly rearranged itself into a slow smile. “Damn. I was kind of hoping you were chasing me. Kinda good for the ego, you know.” That boyish smile of his slipped back into its rightful place.

  Paige rolled her eyes. “You’re insane.”

  Brady nodded. “Probably. I just know that I want this to work. I want you to like me enough to chase me.”

  Words had never been Paige’s strong suit, and the way Brady verbally flailed, the same was true of him. So instead she stepped closer, raising her hand and resting it against his chest before she leaned in close. He understood a heartbeat later, and then he lowered his head and their lips brushed past each other. Paige went up on her toes and moaned a little as she deepened the kiss. When Brady sucked in a breath, she pulled away slowly and studied him.

  “This isn’t about need or being out of control or hunger,” Brady promised, his voice serious.

  “I know,” Paige said.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Paige leaned against him and she could feel her nipples pebbling under her shirt, aching for touch. Reaching up, she curled her hand around the back of his neck so she could pull him close enough for another kiss. This time, his hands found her waist before slipping around to her back. While they still kissed, Brady moved backward, slowing inching toward the bed. Paige moaned her approval while still focusing on the way his lips moved against hers, the warmth of his lips against hers.

  When she pulled back to gulp at the air with hungry gasps, he looked at her. “What do you want?” he asked, and that was possibly the sexiest thing a man had ever asked her. Paige moved closer and reached up to cup his cheek. He hadn’t shaved today and she could feel the prickles of his tiny stubble against her palm. He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her close. “Anything. Anything you want,” he promised.

  “I just want you,” Paige told him. She wanted him more than anything else in her life—more than her new job or even her old one. He was the man who had trusted her, who had come to her and put his faith her in her ability to stand at his side. When she moved closer, she ended up straddling his legs before she sat in his lap.

  His cock pressed up and Paige rocked forward against that hardness. The angle was better now, so Paige threaded her fingers through the hair on either side of his head, feeling the silky, cool hair sliding against her skin as she held his head and leaned in for another kiss. His tongue slipped into her mouth and Paige rocked forward against his body. Her pussy was getting wet already and Paige could feel the heat gather in her skin.

  His fingers played with the bottom of her shirt, hesitating as though waiting for permission. Paige leaned back. “Yes,” she said. Immediately, Brady pulled her shirt up, and Paige raised her hands so that he could take it off. Her aroused nipples were obvious through her white bra and Brady looked at them, his tongue slipping out to lick at his lower lip as he brought his hands up to cup her breasts, his thumbs rubbing Paige’s nipples until the friction made her squirm in his lap. The look of almost reverence on his face made her smile. However, he pulled at the nipple through the fabric and Paige sucked in air and her whole body sent off flares of desire. Brady repeated the motion on the other side and Paige tightened her thighs around his legs and threw her head back.

  “More…. More would be good,” Paige panted as she twisted her arms behind her back to scrabble at the bra’s catch.

  Brady looked up at her face and gave her a brilliant smile. “I can do more,” he promised.

  When he pulled her close for a hungry kiss, she could feel his strong fingers pressing into her ass as he pulled her closer. More than willing to oblige, Paige ground herself against his hard cock to encourage him to go farther. He did. He kissed her with a fierceness that bordered on aggression. While he was busy on the world’s best kiss, Paige caught the bottom of his t-shirt, yanking it up.

  Brady broke the kiss, and when he pulled back, Paige could see the whites of his eyes now red with a roadmap of veins. He watched her, his lips slightly parted, and she pulled his shirt off, tossing it to the floor. While she took a moment to admire the view of a strong, well-muscled chest and shoulders, he let his warm hands map her bare stomach. Fingertips found the scar where she’d gotten cut trying to break up a bar fight, and he followed the thin white line up to just under her ribs. The touch tickled and Paige gave an involuntary giggle before capturing his hand.

  From the devilish expression on his face, he intended to take advantage of that later, but now, Paige wanted something else. She didn’t want tickling and giggles. She was as hungry for him as he was for her and she wanted a hard, satisfying fuck that would fill the need in her. Her panties were already wet and she couldn’t wait.

  Maybe Brady could read that in her expression because he reached up and pulled at a hard nipple.

  “Fuck!” Paige arched her back and groun
d herself down onto his trapped cock.

  “Not yet, I haven’t. I’m getting there.”

  Paige gave a throaty moan at the promise. Then he reached inside her pants and she realized he’d worked the zipper and button open when she’d been distracted. He slipped his fingers down between her legs, and when he touched her clit, Paige cried out and pulled him close. Leaning down, she bit at his neck.

  “Fuck, Silver.” Now he sounded desperate. Pesante. The word slipped into Paige’s mind—an old word from long-forgotten piano lessons, but that’s what his breathing sounded like, each breath sounded with an emphasis that revealed strong emotion. His cock pressed against her thigh and she could feel it move as he worked his finger farther up her pussy. A second finger slipped into her, past the wet lips, and the fullness was good, but not enough. Paige threw her head back and rocked forward.

  “More. Shit… Please.” Her breath caught in her chest and words scampered around in her brain so that Paige couldn’t form full sentences.

  “You’re wet,” Brady said, sounding almost amazed. Paige felt her pussy almost involuntarily tighten around his fingers. She was close. So close. Her whole body ached with a need to come.

  “Fuck me. Fuck me now or I’ll fucking kill you,” Paige finally managed to gasp out, her body trembling.

  “Ma’am, yes ma’am,” Brady said with enthusiasm. His hands were on her waist and he easily lifted her, lowering her on the middle of the bed. Immediately, Paige pushed at her waistband, squirming to shed her pants. Brady helped by simply pulling them off, but then they got caught on her shoes and Paige had to laugh as she toed off her shoes.

  “God, you’re gorgeous,” Brady said in a reverent voice as he slowly unzipped his own pants. His cock pressed out, making his tighty-whitey underwear tent up. Reaching over to where he knelt beside her on the bed, Paige traced the shape of his cock under the cloth.