by I. T. Lucas
One thing Ruth was sure of, watching was definitely not the same as reading.
A book was pure fantasy, and Ruth could enjoy it even though she didn’t believe in the flowery descriptions of fabulous sex the heroines were enjoying. But there was no doubt that the woman on the screen was experiencing pleasure. She wasn’t faking the look of pure ecstasy on her face as her lover fingered her into an explosive orgasm.
Remaining unaffected was impossible. Ruth couldn’t help but respond. Her nipples hardened, and tingling started between her legs. Could she ever experience such a level of pleasure?
His hand resting just below her breast, Nick whispered in her ear, “Can I touch you?”
“Yes,” she answered breathlessly.
24
Nick
She’d said yes.
Nick swallowed hard. He was about to touch a woman’s breast for the first time.
Ruth’s breast.
If not for the two times he’d already jerked off that day, he would’ve embarrassed himself by coming in his pants.
His hand trembling, Nick cupped the soft mound as gently as he could, barely applying any pressure as he waited for Ruth to respond so he would know whether his touch pleased her or not.
If it did, would she let him put his mouth on the peak hardening under his palm? Or was it too soon for that?
Her eyes still on the screen, Ruth put her hand over his and pressed it to her chest.
Nick had no idea what to do next. “Does it feel good?” he whispered in her ear.
“Yes.” She glanced down at his other hand resting on her knee, took it in hers, and put it on her other breast. “That’s even better.”
He was a hair away from busting a load.
Not going to happen. Clenching his teeth, Nick willed his dick to behave.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the guy on the screen taking the woman’s T-shirt off, then popping the clasp of her bra. Ample breasts spilled into the actor’s large hands, and he leaned forward to suck one turgid nipple into his mouth.
As Ruth sucked in a breath, the hard peaks under Nick’s palms got even harder. Did she want him to do what the guy on the screen was doing?
Except, Nick was afraid to make a move and break the spell. She seemed so entranced. What if once the connection was severed she wouldn’t allow it again?
His dilemma was solved when she clasped one of his hands and pushed it under her shirt. Ruth had a bra on, but getting so close to touching her bare breast was hot as fuck.
“God, Ruthie, I think I’m going to blow.”
She turned her glazed-over eyes away from the screen and smiled. “I don’t mind.”
That was a relief, and a green light. Was he one lucky son of a bitch or what?
“Can I take your shirt off?” he asked with a little more confidence.
Instead of answering, she pushed his hands away, grabbed the bottom of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Sitting in her blue skirt and white bra, she turned to the movie again.
The guy was still sucking on the girl’s nipples, taking turns with each one.
As Ruth watched with her lips slightly parted and her breaths coming out fast and shallow, even a guy with zero experience could figure out that she wanted what the actress was getting.
Except, she didn’t know what was coming next. Nick did.
In a few minutes, the professor was going to push the student face down on his desk, pull his pants down, and whip out his huge dick. The guy hadn’t been a famous porn star because of his good looks.
The thing was, Nick had never expected to get so far into the movie. Who would have suspected that Ruthie would enjoy watching porn that much?
He’d thought she would get uncomfortable and tell him to pause the movie as soon as things heated up. She hadn’t been supposed to reach the big dick scene.
Given her past experience, Ruth might freak out.
Should he warn her?
First thing first, though. He needed his mouth on those perky nubs that were just begging for it.
Releasing the back clasp had seemed so easy when the actor had done it, but the thing refused to open for Nick. As he kept fumbling with it like the newbie he was, Ruth reached back and did it with a dexterous two-finger pinch.
“Thank you,” he mumbled into her ear.
One hell of a sexy lover he was. They should put him in the hall of fame with all the other all-time losers.
Ruth didn’t seem to mind, though. Smiling shyly and blushing furiously, she let the shoulder straps slide down slowly, prolonging the reveal.
When the cups fell off, and her beautiful, perky breasts were bared to him, she looked down and then turned her face to the screen, but she was still watching him from the corner of her eye.
His Ruthie was so brave. Overcoming her shyness wasn’t easy for her. He needed to step up his game and take over before her determination faltered and she closed up again.
On the screen, the actress was already down on the desk, with her bottom and everything in between on display. Any moment now, the big dick was coming out, threatening to ruin Ruth’s sexed-up mood.
It was time for a distraction.
With a light pull on her hand and push on her chest, he had her lying on her back.
Ruth tensed up. “What are you doing?”
It was better to tell her the truth than try to come up with an excuse that might scare her even more. “Distracting you. The guy on the screen is about to whip out his monster dick. I don’t want you to see it.”
“Why not?”
“Because when you finally get to see mine, you might be disappointed.” There was nothing like self-deprecating humor to defuse a tense moment. “Not that you’re going to see it today. I’m still shy.”
The tension left Ruth’s shoulders, and she giggled nervously, then cupped his cheeks and looked at him with tender eyes. “You haven’t disappointed me yet. I don’t think you ever will.”
“Oh, I will, there is no doubt about it. But I hope you love me enough to forgive my fumbling attempts at sexiness.”
“You’re doing fine. Better than fine. I’m lying here with my boobies on display, and I’m not even nervous. I feel safe with you.”
She hadn’t felt that way a moment ago when he’d pushed her down to her back. But if she was feeling safe now, he was doing something good.
By the sounds of slapping flesh and the throaty moans in the background, the couple in the movie was going at it full speed ahead.
Ruth turned to look at the screen.
“Close your eyes,” he said.
“Why?” She was still trying to watch even though he grabbed her chin and turned her face toward him.
“Still the same reason—the big schlong. Besides, I’m going to feast on those sweet nipples of yours, and I want your full attention on me.” He licked his lips.
25
Kian
“We have a situation.” Onegus walked into Kian’s office. “Magnus called. Anandur is missing.”
“What do you mean he’s missing?”
Onegus plopped onto one of the chairs facing Kian's desk. “Last evening, after he and Anandur questioned the civilian, they went to investigate the club where he’d encountered the Doomers. When they were done with questioning the owner and the employees, they separated to pursue some company for the night. Magnus took the car and brought his lady to their hotel room. Anandur stayed behind. He told Magnus that he would use a service to get back. He didn’t.”
“Maybe he spent the night at the woman’s place?”
“When Magnus woke up this morning and saw Anandur wasn’t back, he called his number, and when he didn’t answer, he called William and asked him to track Anandur’s phone signal. He found his clothes and everything else he had on him in the dumpster of a different club. Not the one they’d visited.”
That was bad news. Anandur was one of their best fighters. Whoever had captured him wasn’t some random thug out to rob a w
allet.
“That’s not all,” Onegus continued. “The clothes were cut off him. There was no blood on them, so it wasn’t done in a fight. Someone just wanted to get him naked in the fastest way possible.”
“To ensure he didn’t have any tracking devices on him.”
“Exactly.”
“Damn!” Kian pounded his fist on the desk. “We should have implanted everyone with trackers.”
“Wouldn’t have worked. Our bodies would have rejected those same as they reject tattoos.”
Yeah, that was a problem.
Their bodies’ self-repair mechanism prohibited any internal manipulations. Changing hair color and applying nail polish were okay, but that was about it. No tattoos and no piercing.
“Assemble the Guardians. You’re going to search for him. I don’t care if you have to thrall everyone in that club to tell you everything they saw last night, or if you have to comb the entire city to find him.”
Onegus lifted a brow. “All of the Guardians?”
“As many as you can spare without compromising the safety of the village. We have to assume the worst and get into a defensive mode. I’ll take care of security here, while you head the search team, unless Brundar wants to do that. Did you call him?”
“No. I came to you first.”
“I’ll talk to him. In the meantime, have all our pilots ready the aircrafts for takeoff and assemble the Guardians in the training center for a quick briefing before departure. Okidu will drive the bus to our airstrip.”
“Yes, boss.” Onegus saluted him, not even trying to hide his grimace.
Fuck. Kian was once again falling back on old habits and micromanaging everything. The chief Guardian hadn’t needed to be told what to do. For the past year, Kian had been getting better at letting others do their jobs. But in times of stress, he couldn’t overcome his tendency to take over and make all the decisions.
Even the phone call to Brundar could’ve been handled by Onegus.
Except, Anandur and Brundar were more like brothers to Kian than bodyguards or even friends.
Like it or not, it was his job to deliver the bad news, and he needed to do it in person, not over the phone.
Damn, he dreaded what it would do to Brundar. The guy had been doing so well since Callie had entered his life. Kian feared that Anandur’s disappearance would ruin all that progress. The brothers had been inseparable for centuries.
Brundar was going to lose his shit big time. But he was going to do it Brundar style, which meant getting cold and emotionless and retreating into the hard shell he called the zone—Brundar’s most deadly state.
Pulling out his phone, Kian selected the Guardian’s number. “I need to see you in my office. Stat.”
“On my way.”
26
Wonder
As Wonder stood outside the door to her improvised jail, she contemplated whether she should go in right away, or stay outside and listen to the conversation between her prisoners.
There was no rush. She had plenty of time until her shift at the club began, and her cleaning jobs could wait.
The management company that had hired her didn’t expect her to clean more than one warehouse a day. Except, she could easily manage three, which meant that her schedule was flexible. She could skip today and do a couple tomorrow.
Besides, no one had come to inspect her work yet. In case someone did, she kept the other warehouses just as spotless as this one, praying daily that no one would show up where she kept her prisoners. It would be hard to explain the four men she’d locked in cages.
So far she’d been lucky, but that didn’t mean that her luck wouldn’t run out eventually.
Not that there was anything she could do about it other than cross her fingers and hope for the best. Wonder didn’t understand what crossing her fingers had to do with luck, but according to Natasha, it was supposed to help.
Right. Whatever. Maybe there was truth to the superstition.
Wonder sighed, then cringed and slapped a hand over her mouth. She’d forgotten about keeping quiet. The men might have heard her. The door she was standing outside of was thick, strong enough to hold the primates for whom the cages inside had been built. It was another barrier in case one of the big apes got free.
Poor apes. She’d found an old brochure that explained the kind of experiments that had been conducted in the facility. The tests themselves hadn’t bothered her as much as the fact that some of those animals had spent their entire lives in that basement.
The irony wasn’t lost on her. She was doing the same to her prisoners.
Wonder allowed herself a soft sigh. The men inside were talking, the sounds of their harsh voices were sure to drown hers out.
“Dur,” Grud said. “Can’t you tell us something about that supposedly classified mission of yours? I’m dying of boredom. I could use a good story.”
So her fourth prisoner’s name was Dur. It sounded guttural, like Grud and Mordan. It seemed that he was one of them after all.
“Nope. I already told you I can’t. The Brotherhood invested a lot of resources into this mission. If I let even one word out, I can say goodbye to my head, and I’m quite fond of it. I would like to keep it attached to my neck.”
Shaveh snorted. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying.”
Her hopes of him being different were slowly evaporating. He was obviously part of the same organization as the others.
“You must’ve been doing it for years,” Grud said. “I’m two hundred and sixty-two years old, but I don’t remember ever seeing you at the new base or the old one. I doubt I would’ve missed a redhead your size.”
And the doubts were back. The others didn’t recognize him. Maybe he was just pretending to be one of them?
But why?
Most likely to gain their sympathy. In case the other three were plotting to somehow break free, which they were probably doing every waking moment, Dur wanted to be included in the escape plan.
That was what she would have done in a similar situation. But what did she know? Probably less than the average school kid. Her entire life experience was more or less nine months long.
“As I said, I do undercover work. I'm a mole. The Brotherhood planted me when I was still a teenager. I wasn’t always this big.”
For a moment, Wonder puzzled over the meaning of a mole. Wasn’t it a skin blemish? It could also be a small rat-type animal.
“Where, in the American government?” Mordan asked.
“That’s classified. If I told you, I would have to kill you.” Dur chuckled.
Oh, so that what a mole was. She’d heard that phrase in a spy movie.
Dur was a spy.
And that was why he’d seemed so different from the others. This guy grew up in the United States, absorbing the culture and the easygoing attitude. His charm was probably a well-honed tool as well. Very useful for a spy.
The one in the movie she’d seen was also handsome and charming, with a disarming smile that had all the women drooling after him.
No wonder she’d been fooled by that. He probably fooled a lot of people with that good-guy act.
Well, now that she knew who and what she was dealing with, there was no reason to remain standing on the other side of the door.
Courage. Wonder closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was going to be hard to pretend that Dur had no effect on her, but she had to be strong.
His charm was fake.
Everything about him was fake. She should remember that when he flashed her that smile of his again.
“Good morning,” Wonder said as she pushed the door open. “I hope you had a good night’s sleep.” Crap, she needed to sound tough, not polite. “Not that I care if you did or did not.”
Dur grabbed the bars of his cage. “Why am I here?”
“Why? You’re asking me why?” Wonder put her hands on her hips.
“Yes, I do. You Tasered me, hit me over the head, and locked me in a cage. So you nee
d to explain why the hell you did that?”
In the other cage, Grud shook his head. “I told you she wouldn’t listen.”
Dur waved a dismissive hand at his jail mate. “Shut up, Grud.”
With a shrug, Grud went to sit on his mattress.
“I’m not with them,” Dur said and pointed at the other three.
“Really? So last night you weren’t trying to kill that woman?”
“Of course not. Do you know anything about how immortal males have sex?”
Did he think she was dumb and was trying to sell her the same bullshit story Grud had told her?
Wonder crossed her arms over her chest. “He told me.” She pointed at Grud. “But I don’t believe him. Fangs are meant for attack and defense, not sex. I read about the mating habits of animals who have them, and none of them bite their partners.”
Dur shook his head. “You are right. But we are not animals. We are people with special abilities. An immortal male can use his fangs in combat, that’s true, but also in sex. The venom bite is most pleasurable to the female.” His lips lifted in a seductive smile. “Human or immortal, but especially to the immortal ones. You should try it sometime.”
She lifted her chin and huffed. “And you’re no doubt offering to show me.” She waved a hand at his neighbors. “Take a ticket and stand in line, but don’t expect your turn to arrive anytime soon. Or ever. The four of you are murderers. As far as I’m concerned, you can rot in these cages for eternity.”
Dur pinned her with a hard stare. “So you appointed yourself as an enforcer, a judge, and an executioner, all while having no definite proof.”
If there was even a shred of truth in what they had been telling her about their sexual practices, then he might be right about that. She had determined their intent to kill by the show of fangs and blood running freely from their victims’ necks. But if that was a regular part of sex for them, then intent was open to interpretation.