Riding the Storm

by Candace Blevins

  Kendra was standing by a deep, mahogany bar wearing only a robe, tantalizingly open in the front. He could see bare skin from her head to her toes, but the shadows played just right so he couldn’t see details.

  “Step forward and let it drop to the floor.”

  She held his gaze as she followed orders, and as the silky fabric landed in a puddle behind her, she said, “I’m hungry, Eric.”

  He pulled his shirt off as he walked to her, his cock granite-hard by the time he traversed the dozen steps.

  Her cheek was so soft, so supple, and he ran his hand to the back of her head as he brought his lips to hers, and her groan sent heat to his cock as she spread for him, let him possess her.

  He nibbled her bottom lip, pulled it between his lips, and then let it go as he bent and picked her up. She didn’t protest as he carried her to the windowless bedroom, settled her on the bed, and then stepped back to remove his jeans and underwear.

  “Want to be inside you when you bite me today. Sometime this week I want you to drink from my groin, but today, I want the intimacy of making love.”

  Whatever you want, Eric. God, you’re so beautiful.

  Men aren’t supposed to be beautiful. He could hear his laughter in his own mental voice as he climbed on top of her, kissed her neck, her cheek, and then once again possessed her mouth. Kendra’s legs wrapped around his waist and she positioned her moist heat so it cradled his cock, and he pulled back, pushed forward carefully, and felt it almost go in without his having to use his hands.

  They both groaned, and Kendra reached down to guide him into her.

  He closed his hand over the curvy mound of her breast, tugged and squeezed her nipple, and growled deep in his throat as her pussy flexed and jerked around his cock.

  He pulled out, pressed in, watched her eyes flutter back in her head, and found his rhythm, enough to drive them both crazy, not enough to get either of them off just yet. He wanted to take his time and enjoy her, tonight.

  He alternated kissing her mouth, her neck, her breasts, and lifting up to watch her face as his hips moved faster, then slower. While he was over her, his arms straight, she traced the lines of muscles in his stomach, and he felt it flex under her light touch. He lowered himself again, letting her take more of his weight as he kissed her senseless and picked up speed. He wasn’t going to last forever the first time, but that was okay. They had all night.

  He expected her to flip him over, bite him as they came together, but she stayed beneath him, let him pound her until he was out of control, and came with him, writhing under him in her own ecstasy when he finally growled through his release.

  Now, she flipped him over, kissed his jawline, his ear, and made her way down his neck. She pulled his head to the side and he only momentarily remembered he didn’t have hair on his head, and why, before her teeth were sinking into him, bliss flooded his veins, and all rational thoughts fled.

  She didn’t drink from him long, but he couldn’t form words to accuse her of not taking enough, because he had another hard on and she was riding him now, her torso rippling and undulating as she worked her hips and rode his cock for all she was worth.

  Kendra came three times as she rode his iron hard cock, and then Eric pulled her to his chest and rolled them over. His cheek still touching hers, he pounded her through another three or four orgasms before finally emptying into her, bellowing an almost roar as his body succumbed to the pleasure.

  The two lay together, not wanting to separate long enough to go clean up. Eric rolled to his back and brought Kendra with him, so she was mostly on top of him, and he ran his hands over her back and arms, stroked her cheek, and was surprised at the strength of the possessiveness he felt towards her. He would have to find a way to accept all of her — the soft, loving, partner of tonight, the bloodsucking vampire, and the monster who could tear people apart and dole out tortures he hadn’t imagined. If he was going to love her, he’d have to love all of her. He couldn’t pick and choose.

  He finally went to the bathroom, cleaned himself a little, and brought a towel back to clean her. “Sorry I flaked out on you last night.”

  “Don’t apologize. You were tired and you needed your rest. Besides, I enjoyed our evening, reconnecting without it getting sexual.” She grinned, sat up, and kissed his chest, ran her tongue around his nipple, and he jerked back before his cock decided to awaken again.

  “Of course,” she added, “I enjoyed this evening a whole helluva lot, too.”

  Eric looked at her, tried to gauge her hunger, and realized he’d been right about how much she’d drank. “You didn’t take enough from me.”

  “You aren’t back to one hundred percent yet, Eric, and you need to build your strength back. The five ounces I took won’t affect you, but ten or twelve ounces would’ve been too much. I’ll supplement with the bags if I need, but if we’re just going to sit around the house, I probably won’t need to.”

  Eric traced her lips with his fingers. “I want to feed you, I want to be your sustenance. It’s true I probably lost weight on the trail while covering more than ten miles most days, trekking up and down mountains, but it doesn’t mean I’m not capable of giving you what you need.”

  She opened her mouth, let one of his fingers slide into her mouth, sucked it while holding his gaze, and pulled it out with a small pop. “Trust me to not take enough to make you feel the loss, okay? I don’t want you lightheaded or unstable from blood loss.” She kissed his cheek and changed the conversation by asking, “How much work did you get accomplished today?”

  He started to go back to the discussion about wanting to be her source of nourishment, but decided he’d bring it up again later, so he answered her question.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Over the next four days, the two made love, fucked, cuddled, kissed, and just plain enjoyed each other. They also rode the bikes, went on some night walks, and sat on the roof to stargaze. Eric showed her pictures of some of his adventures — climbing Everest, hang gliding over Rio de Janeiro, snowboarding from the summit of Mount Rainier. In the midst of some of his deep-sea pictures, he’d taken an ocean sunrise picture, and Kendra had looked it for a good five minutes, the longing in her eyes almost painful to watch.

  “You miss the sun?”

  “I wouldn’t see it if I were dead, so I’m grateful I have my nights, but looking through your pictures, seeing the joy on your face as you do these daytime activities, I miss it more now than I have in a couple of centuries.” She sat up, seemed to shake it off. “You taste of sunshine, fresh air, and pure unadulterated joy. I may not be able to watch you do this stuff live, but I’ll be able to see video of it later. I’ll still be able to be part of your life, just not as much as either of us would like.”

  Kendra checked in with Abbott twice a night, and Eric checked in with Aaron once during the day. If either missed a check in, people would show up ready for battle, so they were both careful to remember. The phones didn’t ring, though, no one called or telepathed them until late on the fourth night as Eric was considering turning in.

  Eric knew something was up when Kendra said, “I need to step outside a minute. I’ll be right back.”

  A few minutes later he looked out, saw her sitting on the front porch steps, her head in her hands. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he was certain she was telepathing a group of people. She was outside fifteen minutes before she came in and set up her laptop.

  “Abbott plans to negotiate with Mitroff tomorrow night. I’m going to go with him, and he has a few places you can go — your choice of which.”

  Eric nodded, and stayed on the sofa, sketchpad and charcoal pencil still in hand.

  “The Billiard Club will be open for business, so the underground bunker is about as safe as it gets. Aaron and Sophia will both be attending the negotiations, but they’ll have guards on their home, and Sophia said she’d love you to stay with them again. I’m welcome to join you there, when we return. Aaron has some people at Drak
e Security, and he’s also sending some people to stay with a local motorcycle club. There are other options, but I’d prefer one of those four.”

  “I met a few of the motorcycle club members when I stayed at TBC last time. They invited me to ride with them, but I already had plans with Ranger. I think I’d like to stay with them, if it’s okay?”

  Kendra smiled. “They’ll keep you safe, just remember we’re exclusive now, so you’re limited on how much you can party with them. You’ll be there as Aaron’s guest, not Abbott’s, so if someone asks, don’t tell them the wrong name.”

  “Do they not like Abbott?”

  “They don’t dislike him, but they have a special relationship with Aaron, and have offered to keep some people safe for him. If Abbott had asked, they probably would, but it would require negotiations and favors.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Kendra pulled just inside the gate of the motorcycle club’s compound at three in the morning, parked, and got out of her car but didn’t walk farther inside. She let the guard know she’d come for Eric, and he radioed inside. The wolves weren’t happy about having a vampire on their compound, but were polite and civil, and welcomed her with words, if not body language, while she waited for them to bring Eric to her.

  Eric?

  You okay? How’d it go?

  Don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing they’ll turn our offer down. How are you?

  Kind of busy. Looks like we’re both going to have to explain later. I need to concentrate.

  She was contemplating whether to leave him alone or ask another question when a big, barrel chested biker stepped to her and said, “Eric’s with Brain,” as he motioned her to follow him through the parking lot. Kendra had looked through Abbott’s file on the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, and recognized him to be the president.

  “I’m hoping the two of them aren’t hacking the Pentagon or anything,” he told her. “No one can understand them, but they’re side by side on laptops going at something. Our original deal with Aaron was you could come to the compound and pick him up, but we intended to bring him out to you. After spending time with him? I’d kind of like to get to know you, see the two of you together.” He shook his head. “Assuming you can decipher whatever he and Brain are up to, and get them off the computer.”

  He stopped twenty feet from the door. “I’m taking you in as my guest. I know you’re Abbott’s third, so you aren’t likely to cause problems.”

  “Why are you really inviting me in?”

  “Eric calls you his girlfriend. This usually isn’t the case between human and vampire.”

  “And if you determine it to not be the case with Eric and me, Duke?”

  He hadn’t introduced himself to her, and he tilted his head in acknowledgment as he answered. “Wolves can’t get involved, officially, but he’s under Aaron’s protection, so at the very least I’d have a conversation with him.”

  Kendra smiled, offered her hand. Duke looked at it, didn’t accept it, and Kendra told him, “Thanks for having Eric’s back.”

  Duke shook her hand with a smile, and led her inside.

  The room was full of people, and she immediately found Eric with another guy, in two recliners side by side, both with their legs up and fingers flying on their laptops.

  Eric stopped long enough to kiss her when she leaned down, and he said, “Five minutes? We should be able to wrap it up by then.”

  “Wrap what up?”

  But he was back into whatever he’d been doing, and Duke laughed. “You got a few seconds of his attention, at least. Can I get you something to drink while you wait? Scotch on the rocks, maybe?”

  Duke sat at the bar with her and drank a beer as she sipped her drink. “So, can you tell us how the talks went? Have we avoided war?”

  She looked around, and he said, “Everyone here’s RTMC or a wife. Not even girlfriends tonight, while we’re protecting people for Aaron.”

  “No,” she shook her head, answering his war question. “We gave him an ultimatum, and he said he’d let us know in forty-eight hours. He isn’t going to agree to it, and will probably attack tomorrow night, thinking we won’t be prepared.”

  “We invited Eric along on a ride to Helen, Georgia next weekend, even though he rides a crotch rocket. He ever needs a safe place to stay, have him call and let us know. I’d rather hear it from him than you.”

  Duke was letting her know they’d watch over Eric without demanding return favors, and she wasn’t sure what to think of this rough-and-tumble, werewolf biker.

  “I can’t offer official help from the vampires,” she told him, “but if you ever need anything from me, personally, I’ll do what I can to help.”

  He nodded. “Appreciate it, but that isn’t why we’ll protect him.”

  Eric and Brain both whooped and then gave a deep, “Yeahhhhhh!”

  “Can you two wise-asses let the rest of us in on what you’ve been up to?” Duke asked them with a smile.

  Brain looked around the room, glanced at Eric, then Kendra, and finally to Duke. “In your office? You probably don’t want guests in mine.”

  Duke stood and motioned Kendra to follow as he said, “Damned straight.”

  Eric opened his laptop and set it on the desk so everyone could see. “I’ve been trying to hack Mitroff’s organization for a few days. I’ve had more than twenty computers working to break his encryption, but he switches things up every eighteen hours, and I was just gonna have to luck up and hit the right combination in those eighteen hours, when I needed more than fourteen hundred hours, which with only twenty computers, wasn’t anywhere near enough time.”

  “So he explained the setup to me,” Brain continued, “and I got the idea if we used his twenty and my… well, all the ones I can control, to set up a DOS attack, and then we both tried to squeeze in the cracks—”

  “English, Brain!” Duke interrupted, and Kendra could tell it wasn’t the first time he’d said it. These two were long-time, trusted friends. She’d read it in Abbott’s intel sheets, but she could see it in their interactions.

  “We don’t care or understand how,” Duke continued. “We just need to know the results.”

  Brain looked at Eric, who said, “We have all of their correspondence, their strategy, their orders to people in the field, schematics… everything.”

  “Will they know we have them?” Kendra asked, her stomach fluttering with the possibilities.

  The two looked at each other, and Brain answered, “They won’t know we have them, but as to whether they’ll know someone has them? Doubtful, but possible. When Eric told me how the walls were built, I recognized the hacker who did it. They contracted it out, which means they likely don’t have someone in-house good enough to recognize a break-in. If they do? They’ll change passwords and think it makes them safe, but Eric wrote a back door in, so we can get in no matter what, now.”

  “All of their past correspondence is currently writing to a server I own in Russia,” Eric told them, “and will mirror to a server in the Caribbean. I’ll copy it off the second server and put it on thumb drives — one for every person with access. I’m assuming Abbott, you, Gavin, and Josef?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, and one to Aaron. He’ll make copies and get them to the people he feels needs them.” She looked to Brain, “I know you can get it whether we get it to you or not, but I’d like to go through channels to give it to the RTMC officially, if you want in.”

  Brain’s gaze shifted to Duke, who said, “We’re officially staying out of it. I don’t mind protecting a few trusted people, but no one finds out Brain had a hand in hacking them, okay? We aren’t Switzerland, we’re on Abbott and Aaron’s side, but we don’t intend to actively engage any more than we already have — and we went in with Drake Security clothes on before, we didn’t go in as RTMC.” He paused and added, “I’d still like a copy of the files, though.”

  “Then I’ll work to get them to you, so you don’t have to pretend you don’t hav
e them.”

  Duke chuckled and Brain said, “Thanks. I’ve enjoyed having Eric around, and we’ve invited him to go on a ride with us next weekend. We’ll guarantee his safety — well, unless he crashes his bike, but I’m betting he knows how to handle it.”

  “The point is,” Duke continued, “it’s an overnighter. We’ve stayed at this hotel before. They give us a wing to ourselves, and a big room for us to party in. It might be better to let him come on this one alone, and then we can make arrangements for you to join our evening revelries another time.”

  “No,” Eric said, stepping forward and putting his arm around her. “If Kendra isn’t welcome, it might be better for me to hold off and do one of your day-rides later, when I’ll be home to see her that evening.”

  Kendra kissed his cheek, touched at his loyalty to her. “They didn’t say I wasn’t welcome, they’re just suggesting you give it some more time for the rest of the club to spend time around you without your vampire girlfriend.”

  I know I’m not supposed to ask, but what are they?

  I can’t tell you. They’ll have to.

  Aloud, he told Brain, “If you know she’s a vampire, then you have to be supernatural, too. If it’s something that doesn’t get along with Kendra because of what she is… I’m not sure I should expose her to you. I’m kind of flying blind here.”

  “Traditionally,” said Duke, “vampires and werewolves haven’t always gotten along. Some vampires can and do enslave shapeshifters, and in some locations the wolves are more numerous than the vampires, with a stronger Alpha Wolf than Master Vampire, and the area’s vampire population is decimated. Abbott has worked to unite the various supernatural groups in his territory, and I trust and respect him, but a lot of my men will be uncomfortable having Kendra around until they get to know her, and they won’t see a need to get to know her unless they want you to be around in the first place.”