Feeling uncharacteristically shy, she looked away, out the windshield. Stiffened. “Jake!”
He whipped back around and hit the brakes, barely in time to avoid slamming into the rear of the minivan stopped at the red light ahead. “Fuck!”
Erica swallowed, gripping her shoulder belt in one white-knuckled hand, heart hammering. “Maybe we’d better ease off on the foreplay until we get to my place.”
Foot firmly on the brake, Jake slanted her a look. “Is this foreplay?”
Her gaze slid down to his fly. “It’d be a waste if it wasn’t.”
He grinned, displaying almost as many teeth as Dave. “Glad to hear it.”
Their eyes met in a gaze hot enough to make Erica’s nipples ache.
Behind them, a car horn blew. Jake laughed, a soft leonine chuff, and followed the minivan through the intersection. He seemed to keep his mind firmly on driving the rest of way to her apartment. Erica heroically resisted the temptation to play any more games with his aura.
Not that she needed to. Glancing down at his zipper, she saw he was still hard. Swallowing, she crossed her legs again.
“Cut it out,” Jake growled. “Every time you do that, I smell…” He broke off.
Her cheeks heated. “You’re speeding.”
He eased off the gas. She found herself bouncing one foot just to burn off some of the erotic energy. Her imagination wasn’t helping. It kept showing her images of how that thick erection might look without a layer of denim blocking the view.
By the time they pulled into the complex’s drive, they were both all but vibrating. Erica was reaching for the door handle when a big hand curled around her jaw to pull her head around.
Jake’s mouth crushed down over hers. It was a ferocious kiss, all teeth and tongue and unapologetic lust. Erica threaded her hands into short blond hair and fisted them there as she kissed him back, mouth open, tongue thrusting.
He leaned in hard, pinning her against the door. Long fingers curled around her breast, surrounding her in a rough, warm grip that was incredibly arousing.
She groaned as her lust leapt like a flame. At the needy sound, he tightened his grip, thumb and forefinger closing around one nipple through her bra, twisting, tugging just hard enough to pour gasoline on the blaze.
Shivering, she gasped, stroking one hand over the gold silk of his hair, loving the contrast with the rasp of his five o’clock shadow on her skin as he kissed her.
Sweet. Maddening. Not enough.
He reached up under her shirt, making her pant in delight at the rasp of calluses over the flesh of her ribs. Erica let her eyes drift closed to watch his aura blaze against the darkness behind her lids, shades of violet and blue and rose spinning in wild currents.
It took a surprising amount of willpower to drag her mouth from his. “We can’t make love sitting in the cab at three o’clock in the afternoon.”
Dimples flashed. “Actually, I’m pretty sure we could.”
“Not with the school bus coming by.” She grabbed the door handle and all but fell out of the truck. Hopping to the ground, she hurried up the sidewalk toward the door of her two-story brick apartment building.
Jake’s running shoes scraped on gravel as he jumped out after her. With a sound far too much like a giggle for a self-respecting cop, Erica broke into a sprint.
“Come back here!” The growl rumbled so deep and rough with desire, it sent a shiver down her spine.
“Only if you catch me!” But she had to stop to unlock the unit’s door, the keys jangling in her hand. He pounced on her, wrapping long arms around her from behind. One hand caught her jaw, as his teeth closed over the back of her neck, finding an incredibly sensitive bundle of nerves.
An image flashed through Erica’s mind, something she’d seen on a National Geographic special: a male lion holding a female’s nape in the same grip as he mounted her from behind. And why does that thought turn me on so damned much?
Jake’s teeth scored her flesh, making her hands shake until it was all she could do to manage the deadbolt. At last the lock turned, and she pushed it open. Scooping her off her feet, Jake swept her inside to the foot of the stairs, kicking the door closed behind them. “Where?” he growled.
“Third floor. Unit’s on the left,” she groaned back, not at all sure they’d make it.
He carried her as if she weighed nothing, taking the steps two at a time. When they reached the top, he put her down just long enough to let her take care of the lock while he nibbled her ear. She was quivering by the time she got the door open.
They fell through it together. Jake pushed her backward, his mouth ravenous on hers as he steered her into the living room and tumbled her down onto the sectional. Dove gray leather gave under her back as he settled atop her, a solid male weight.
One hand grabbed the hem of her shirt, pushed it to her shoulders. The other caught the cup of her bra, dragged downward to free a jutting pink nipple. His mouth covered it in wet heat as she groaned her pleasure at the ceiling.
Jake suckled in hard pulls, simultaneously raking his teeth over the little point until Erica writhed under him. Both hands fisting in the material of his shirt, she dragged it out of his waistband. “Naked,” she panted. “Want you naked.”
“Hell, yes!” He pulled away from her, started trying to unbutton his shirt, cursed as the tiny plastic discs frustrated his aroused fingers.
Jake managed to get only three of them open before she grabbed the bottom of the shirt and tugged it off over his head. Tossing it aside, she stared in unabashed lust. He was every bit as magnificent as she’d known he’d be -- his shoulders broad, muscle forming great curved plates across his chest and down the length of his belly, rippling along broad, strong arms. “Good God, Nolan, do you live in the gym?”
Jake shrugged, doing interesting things with all that brawn. “As my old DI used to say, ‘Spend time in the gym or get your ass kicked on the street.’ You have way too many clothes on.” He caught the shirt already rucked up over her breasts, pulled it off, and tossed it aside before attacking the hooks of her bra. A few maddening minutes went by as they fought to strip off all those frustrating layers of clothing, dumping them wherever they fell.
Finally, Jake rose to shed his jeans as she sprawled on the couch naked, wet, and aching. For a suspended moment he stopped and just stared down at her, his big body tense, pupils dilated in the vivid frame of his irises. There was something in his eyes that wasn’t entirely human.
Erica swallowed, watching the magic roil around him, the violet desire intensifying among the ribbons of rose, the two shades driving out the blue. She glimpsed the glowing outline of a mane. Her pussy felt hot, plump, drenched. “What we need now…” She paused to lick her lips. “… is one less pair of pants.”
Dimples flashed. “If you insist.” He unsnapped the jeans and pulled down his zipper, struggling a bit with the bulk of his cock. The metallic hiss made her catch her breath.
His cock’s flushed shaft pressed out through the open vee, a glint of moisture tipping its mushroom head. It looked so deliciously thick, she instantly imagined what it would feel like thrusting to the balls. “You go commando, Nolan? Why am I not surprised?”
One corner of his lip curled up. “Maybe because I am a commando?”
“Were a commando. Now you’re a cop. Get down here and I’ll show you what I can do with that nightstick.”
“Nightstick? Really? What, are you channeling Dave?”
“If you don’t move that tight ass, I’m going to start doing sound effects.”
“What kind of sound effects?”
“What kind of sound effects would you like to hear?” All but quivering in anticipation, Erica watched him kneel.
“You’ll find out.” Grinning, he grabbed her behind both knees, lifted them, and draped them over hard, broad shoulders. He leaned in until his face was scant inches from the soft, damp hair of her sex, and inhaled, gleaming eyes sliding shut. His mouth covered her puss
y, hot, wet, and demanding. Every muscle in her body jerked tight in anticipation.
“Oh, God!” she gasped.
“Yeah, that’s the sound effect I had in mind.” Lowering his head again, he licked. Slowly. Tracing between her lips, drawing a long, wet line past plump folds, then back up again to swirl a lazy pattern over her clit.
A shudder ran the length of her body as pleasure wound through her like a scarlet ribbon. Wrapping her legs around his broad back, Erica dug her heels into the thick muscle.
His tongue flicked back and forth, up and down, stroking the tiny shaft of her clit with every pass. As sensation made her nervous system reverberate like a bell, Jake caressed each breast in turn, teasing nipples drawn tight and aching. Every touch made her hips jerk, adding to the sweet burn.
He ate her slowly, thoroughly, suckling, lapping, as if he was in no hurry to bury that thick cock in her depths. As if she were some exquisite dessert he’d craved a very long time.
“Jake! Jake, please!” Erica hunched against his face, one hand cupping the back of his head, the other gripping the nape of his neck as her heels dug into his back. Her orgasm swelled like a storm on the horizon, tightening muscles with every flick of his tongue and skillful fingers. So close, so close. “Please!”
His free hand brushed her ass, and a finger slid into her hot depths. Stroked. In. Out. So close to the edge.
“Fuck me,” Erica panted. “For God sake, fuck me!”
Gold eyes glittered up the length of her body from between her legs, and he stopped licking just long enough to say, “No.”
Before she could protest, his tongue started swirling a complicated pattern around her clit that had her head grinding back into the couch cushion. The muscles in her belly clenched, her thighs flexing as the climax trembled just beyond her fingertips. “Jake!” The word hissed through her teeth. “Now!”
His only answer was a growl.
Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, he surged up between her legs. Bracing one fist beside her hip, he grabbed his cock to aim it between her pussy’s slick lips.
And entered her in one driving thrust.
They both groaned.
Panting, Erica bit her lip at the feel of him, shoved so deliciously deep. She could smell her own wet heat mixed with the dark aroma of aroused male -- clean sweat and musk, the ozone scent of magic overlaid with the faintest trace of fur.
Eyes all pupil surrounded by a thin sliver of glittering gold, Jake began to pump, dragging out, then forcing his way in, slow and taunting. Each satin stroke was a tease of sensation rubbing along sensitized nerves, sending sweet curls of pleasure through her body.
Erica arched her back, the movement pressing her nipples against satin hair and hard muscle -- another dollop of delight. Tightening her thighs around his lean waist, she felt the muscles in his ass ripple as he rode her, filling her with every entry, teasing her with every retreat.
His mouth found hers in a fierce, biting kiss that claimed as his cock ground in and out. Erica kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his waist, digging her fingertips into the thick working brawn. His aura surged against hers, currents rippling the length of her body, making her writhe against him.
Jake fucked harder, deeper, picking up the pace. Erica met him thrust for thrust, grinding upward, clawing for the orgasm that was so close, blazing behind her eyelids, swelling like a thundercloud. Pleasure stacked on pleasure, each layer enhancing the others, and she heard high, sharp cries she realized were her own.
A thousand shades of violet and rose detonated in front of her eyes like fireworks, and she screamed, coming.
Jake roared, the sound deeper and louder than anything human vocal cords should be able to produce. Purple light forked and snapped through their joined auras like lightning strikes.
At last he collapsed in her arms, panting, a glorious male weight. Erica clutched at him, light still popping around them, her thigh muscles jumping and quivering from the force of her orgasm.
“Fuuuuck,” he groaned, somehow managing to turn it into a three syllable word. Flopping over onto his back, he scooped an arm under her and pulled her over on top of him like a sheet. “That was…”
“It… certainly was…” Erica panted back, her heartbeat banging in her ears. She combed her fingers through the silken ruff of his chest hair, with its threads of gold that reminded her of a lion’s pelt. “I think our magic intensified the experience.” Her lips twitched. “A lot.”
Jake laughed, his broad chest vibrating against her cheek. “No kidding.” He smoothed one hand along the line of the thigh she’d hooked over his hip. His fingertips paused at something high on her leg. Frowning, he twisted his head to look.
Erica lifted her head and followed his gaze to the five short, silvery scars marking her outer thigh. They almost exactly matched the width and length of his fingers.
“Those are claw marks.” Jake sounded puzzled. Realization struck a moment later. “Bobby did that a month before…” He clenched his teeth over the rest of the sentence. “I remember when you had to go to the base hospital the next day. I didn’t realize it scarred.”
Uncomfortable, Erica managed a shrug. “It’s not that bad.”
“It’s bad enough.” He gave her a narrow stare, his jaw flexing as if his teeth were clenching. “What the hell happened anyway? And don’t try to put me off with that ‘he got carried away’ excuse. I’d have kicked his ass then if Kurt hadn’t stopped me.”
“It was the truth.”
“You were fighting. I heard you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Ferals have no sense of privacy.” When he only looked at her, his gaze cool and level, Erica sighed and surrendered. “He really didn’t intend to do it. Yeah, we were arguing…” About the way she’d been watching Jake bench press four hundred pounds, pumping out reps with sweat dewing his skin. She’d been taking a break from her own workout when her gaze had fallen on him just a little too long.
Erica focused on the curl of chest hair under her fingers. “Somehow during the fight, we ended up in bed…”
“Did he hurt you on purpose?” His tone was steely.
“Of course not. If he had, I wouldn’t have put up with it.”
“What could you have done? Even if he hadn’t been a Feral, he outweighed you by seventy pounds.”
“I’d have gone to the CO. It was an accident, Jake. Bobby would never have intentionally hurt a woman. You know that.”
“Intentionally or not, he clawed you.”
“More than two years ago. And he’s…” She broke off.
A tight silence rolled by. “Yeah.”
Jake took a deep breath, his broad chest lifting under her body. She felt him begin working to relax rigid muscles in the exercise Ferals used to control their cats -- and themselves. A man with a lion in his head couldn’t afford to lose control.
She’d been telling the truth. Bobby hadn’t intended to hurt her. The sex had just gotten a little rough because they’d both been thoroughly pissed off. Of course, their best sex had always been makeup sex. Bobby being Bobby, and Erica being Erica, they’d had makeup sex a lot.
Bobby, did you walk into that trap because you were distracted by our fight? Was that my fault too? Another uncomfortable thought lanced through her mind. And two years later, here I am with your brother.
She suspected Bobby wouldn’t have been surprised.
Am I doing the right thing? Though maybe the real question was, could she really do anything else?
Chapter Eight
Adrian watched the needle of the tattoo machine punch in and out of John Reese’s skin, driving the magical ink deep. Each tiny penetration strengthened his mystic connection to his client. By the time he finished the sigil, Reese would belong to him.
Of course, if the ex-Marine had any idea he was being put under a spell, the fucker would kill Adrian with his bare hands. Or he’d try, anyway. So would the rest of the HHers sitting around the shop, drinking b
eer and talking about Carson’s untimely heart attack. “Fuckin’ guards let him die,” Bill Garrison growled. A fleshy middle-aged man, he ran a local diner and was the group’s ringleader.
He was also Adrian’s favorite advertisement. A tattoo of a blue dragon with iridescent green scales wrapped around his bald head. Adrian’s eyes lingered on it. It really was some of his best work. The beast’s red eyes glared from the center of Garrison’s forehead, its sinuous body curving back across the top of his hairless scalp, wings spread wide to cup his face. Its tail wrapped around his throat. Not only was the line work and shading skillful, it covered the sigil on the top of his head that made him suggestible as hell.
Jimmy Pell nodded over his can of Bud. “Poor bastard may have been nuts, but he didn’t deserve to die like that. They could have gotten him some fucking help.”
The others growled in agreement. Never mind that they’d all been more than a little scared of Carson, especially after Adrian had been working on him a while. The thought of what they would have done if they’d known he was responsible for the fucker’s heart attack only added to his buzz.
Undercover work was almost as exhilarating as murder.
The group’s five ringleaders sat in folding chairs just outside the magic circle he’d painted on the vinyl floor in invisible ultraviolet paint. His tattoo table sat at the center of the pattern, where the circle focused his magic on its occupant like a beam of sunlight through a magnifying glass.
Though not a particularly big shop, the place was meticulously neat, its walls painted white to showcase the colorful framed samples of his art. Wheeled carts held bottles of tattoo ink, a wide selection of needles, several specialized tattoo machines for different design styles, and the assortment of oils and lotions he used to lubricate his clients’ skin.
The sign over the door read Killer Ink. Under normal circumstances, Adrian would have considered that name a little too on the nose. Given his clientele, however, he’d thought it apt. And he’d been right. The HHers loved it.
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