Dream Huntress

by Michelle Sharp

  Only one button dangled from his shirt. Fastening it, he grabbed his jacket and turned to leave. “When you decide what you want, get hold of me. Having sex and getting kicked out five minutes later isn’t cutting it for me.”

  Stopping with his hand on the door, he turned to her. “I’m not sure what this is, ’cause I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way before. But I don’t think I can keep it light and meaningless with you. I want more.”

  ***

  Everything inside Jordan crumbled. Normally she craved being alone, but already she knew that tonight would be too dark and too lonely.

  “I don’t know how to do more, Ty.” The weakness in her voice was frightening. “I’ve never had more with anyone.”

  His hand fell away from the door.

  She had no idea if it was relief or panic that caused all the air to whoosh from her lungs. If he stayed, things would never be the same. She’d never be the same.

  He walked toward her, stroked a knuckle down her cheek. “Maybe we should try to figure out more together.”

  She knew what he was asking, knew she couldn’t deliver it, not long term anyway. Forever would never be an option, but maybe one night was.

  Face it, Jordan, you’re a freak. Cut him loose before he shreds what’s left of your heart.

  Ty wasn’t the kind of man to settle for anything less than complete honesty, and that was the one thing she could never give anyone.

  “Do you want this? Do you want more with me?” he whispered against her cheek. “It’ll be good. Let me show you.”

  Okay. For one night.

  Speaking suddenly became too big a task. She merely nodded. Then the reality of what she’d just agreed to clamped around her heart. Would she really be able to have this man and then let him go, unscathed?

  He cupped her face and softly kissed her, stirring to life emotions that she’d left for dead almost twenty years ago. But she couldn’t help herself, couldn’t keep her head from falling back as his lips grazed her neck. In all fairness, when he nuzzled her like that, she didn’t stand a chance at rational thought.

  He skimmed his tongue against her ear. Goosebumps flared across her skin, and she went boneless.

  “See how good more can be.” The amusement in his voice was loud and clear as his lips continued to torture her already sensitive lobe. “Now I know my tongue in your ear makes your knees collapse. Good to know in case we’re making out on the edge of a cliff.”

  Smiling, she wrapped her arms around his neck. His lips returned to her mouth and desire, pure and brilliant, flashed through her system. She pushed his jacket to the floor, popped open the one dangling button on his shirt, and peeled it off him.

  “Damn woman, you’re hell on shirts.”

  She laughed, but continued her assault. If she was going down, she was going down happy. Sliding her hands under his T-shirt, she ran her nails up his torso, stripping him in the process. The spectacular vision of Ty shirtless made her breath catch. His thick, wide chest and taut muscles never failed to take her breath away. God, she wanted his touch. No ulterior motives this time. Just need. Just make-love-to-me-until-I-scream-your-name need.

  He popped open the button on her shorts and let them fall to the floor, leaving her in pink satin panties and her bikini top.

  Stepping back, he scanned her nearly naked body from head to toe. He swallowed hard, and his nostrils flared. The look in his eyes reminded her of a wild animal someone had attempted to tame.

  A punch of female power hit her full force. He was trying so very hard to slow things down, to make this special. But she could tell by the way he closed his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath that he was fighting against raw need. They both were. But for some reason she didn’t fully understand, he was determined to batter her senses slowly.

  He stepped close. His hands and lips continued their leisurely exploration of her body. Every tender, erogenous zone she possessed—her wrist, between her breasts, the sensitive skin under her navel—trembled with the need to feel more of him. He spun her, then caressed her breasts as his tongue danced a slow tantalizing line down her spine. He missed nothing, teased every possible nerve ending to aching.

  Breathless and impatient, she twisted in his arms, grabbed the waistband of his jeans, and ripped them open. “I appreciate the slow seduction, but—”

  “Tonight’s not going to be like last night, sweetheart.” When she tugged on his zipper, he caught her hands and trapped them.

  Through the almost blinding haze of lust, she began to understand. He was determined to take back the control that had so crudely been stripped from him last night. Their previous encounter had left them both reeling. Tonight he was making up for his loss of control with deliberate, glorious torture.

  Panting and on fire from his sultry burn, she discovered pride was no longer a factor. “I want you. No games this time, I promise. I just want you.” She’d never begged for anything in her life, but she’d never had a half-naked Tyler McGee touching her before either.

  “Soon.” He turned her again, pulled her backside tight against his chest. He cupped her breasts, and his coarse, masculine hair rubbed her back like an erotic lick against her skin. A large, hard erection pressed rigidly against her bottom. One hand circled her throat with quiet dominance and urged her head back against his shoulder.

  “Now that we’re on the same page, I intend to enjoy you,” he murmured roughly against her ear, “And you damn well are going to enjoy me.”

  “Oh, God, I already am. It doesn’t have to be like last night, but I can’t take this. I need you inside me, Ty.”

  He laughed a low, throaty chuckle. “You are an impatient little thing, aren’t you?”

  Breathless, she murmured, “Patience has never been my strong point.”

  “I’d have never guessed.”

  In a move so smooth she never felt it happen, he opened the clasp on her bikini top. Moving a hand to her breast, he rolled the aching tip between his thumb and finger. Her back arched into the pressure, inviting a stronger, rougher touch.

  “Better?” He spun her, ducked his head and sucked her nipple deep into the heat of his mouth.

  Yes, God. Finally.

  The pleasure pierced her right down to her core. Surrendering to the sensations, she let go. Let go of the case, the dreams, the awareness that she shouldn’t be doing this. He possessed her so completely that it was disturbingly easy to let the rest of the world simply fade away. Maybe tomorrow she’d regret her actions, but tonight there was only him. His hands. His body. His lips.

  He picked her up. Her mind vaguely registered that they were both naked and she was now under him on the sofa.

  Guiding her arms, he pushed them above her head and hooked them over the arm of the couch. “Don’t move them,” he ordered.

  Her eyes blinked open. “What?” Desire muddled her brain. Comprehension was taking a minute.

  “Be a good girl. No more hands tonight.”

  Raising her head off the couch, she arched an eyebrow. “Someone really does like to be in control.”

  That sexy, half-assed tilt of his lips made her feel as if her heart would beat right out of her chest.

  “Someone would like to make a better impression than in our previous encounter. If your greedy little hands enter the mix, I don’t stand a prayer of a chance, baby.”

  Smiling, she let her head drop back to the couch, decided not to analyze why taking orders from him in this particular situation didn’t bother her a bit.

  “Oh, God.” She groaned when he moved down her body and lightly nipped her breast.

  “You are so damn beautiful, it messes with my mind. Sometimes when I look at you, I can barely breathe.”

  Her eyes began to sting, and her throat felt thick. It wasn’t the words—very likely there were more poetic phrases turned in the heat of the moment. But the tone in which the words were murmured, the raw way they tore from his heart, broke hers.

  “Now, Ty. N
ow.” She tugged on a handful of his thick hair, urged his lips closer to hers.

  He fumbled for something on the floor next to them, pulled up the handcuffs he’d tossed at her earlier. “Don’t make me use these.”

  She grabbed them and threw them to the other side of the room, afraid he just might. God only knew she was well past the ability to deny him anything, but she needed to be able to touch him.

  Instead of being inspired to return to her lips, he headed farther down her body, anchored himself between her legs, and ran his tongue lightly across the inside of both thighs. Her muscles tightened. He’d yet to touch her, but she felt the moisture pouring from her body.

  He opened her, eased a finger inside of her as he buried his tongue against her sensitive bud, and licked.

  She jerked but didn’t dare touch him, afraid he’d pause to scold her again. Anything that slowed the torturous pace wasn’t an option. He continued to nuzzle and torture her, continued to stroke a spot deep inside that pushed her to the edge of delirious.

  “Ty, I’m going to come if you keep it up.”

  Apparently that was the intention. He groaned and moved faster, continued lashing his tongue against her aching flesh and then slipped a second finger inside her. “Oh, God,” she cried, and still, he didn’t ease the pace. Her arms stayed locked against the sofa, but her lower half bucked wildly against him.

  Sensations began to surge and splinter. She had no idea what kind of sound she made. A groan? A growl? Well beyond any kind of control, she gave him what he wanted—everything. Heart. Mind. Body. As long as he never stopped, he could have it all.

  Her trembling moans vibrated louder as the force of her orgasm crashed around her. Her breath panted in and out.

  Ty kissed his way up to her neck and then found her lips again. He was hard and ready, centered above her. The tip of his thick erection slid heavily against her slick folds heating her again. Her hips arched to meet him.

  His breath hissed between clenched teeth, and his body quaked.

  “Protection?” he ground out.

  “What?”

  “Do you have protection, Jordan?”

  She shook her head. Something told her it was going to take a lot more than a condom to protect herself from this man.

  He got up, walked to his discarded jeans, and came back sheathed. In one hard, staggering burst of sensation, he buried himself deep inside her.

  She gasped. Her body trembled. Every part of her shook, arms and legs vibrating against the deep blissful pressure of his body inside hers. She hadn’t expected this, hadn’t known anything like it existed. She’d been touched before, in the most basic of ways, but not controlled like this, never destroyed like this.

  He pulled back and then thrust again with a fierce groan. “Jordan,” he growled, “open your eyes, baby. Look at me.”

  As she stared into his eyes, she felt him in the deepest marrow of her bones, felt the connection on a level so profoundly vulnerable it was terrifying. Tears streaked back into her hair. Her heart raced and thundered, trying to keep pace with her spiraling emotions. A blissful perfection and stunning fear warred inside her. She was coming undone in his arms and didn’t have a clue how to stop it.

  He kissed her and thrust again, soothing tears and stirring demons at the same time. Lacing his fingers with hers, he whispered her name. Her hands and body locked to his, and her heart tumbled in a free fall. She concentrated on his beautiful, beautiful eyes.

  “I’m scared, Ty.” The words slipped out even as she wrapped her legs tighter around him, urging his body deeper inside of hers.

  Did he understand what he was doing to her? Did he realize he was destroying the protective armor she needed to live, that once it was gone, there was nothing but fear underneath?

  “I know, baby, but I won’t hurt you. I swear it,” he whispered.

  For the first time ever she felt...stripped in every sense of the word. Crying out his name, surrendering to the moment, her body quivered and trembled as the orgasm clawed its way from the inside out.

  Curling his fingers in her hair, burying his lips in the curve of her neck, he moaned her name, shuttered, and came inside her.

  Deep breaths and lingering tremors gave way to soft kisses and the peaceful quiet of the early hours of the morning. Shifting to her side but still tangled with him, Jordan stroked fingernails through the sheen of moisture on Ty’s back. He dozed, but her mind was too overwhelmed for sleep.

  She tried to feel good about what just happened but couldn’t quiet the little voice of reason.

  Be afraid, the voice said, because he’ll hurt you.

  She could feel it as sharply as the dreams that haunted her nights. If he found out about the visions, there would be hurt.

  What they shared was more than sex. He was more than a casual fling, and she was more than the shell she claimed to be. She understood that now. Her heart ached with the understanding that one night with him would never be enough.

  That knowledge also clawed at her from the inside out.

  Chapter 10

  Ty opened his eyes. Something had woken him.

  A moan? A scream? Had it been Jordan?

  A jab powered into his ribs. Grunting, he rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up. Damn, her elbow worked better than an alarm clock. Amused, he watched her toss around.

  The woman slept like a cyclone, twisting and turning all over the bed. He considered waking her, but when he held down her flailing arm and kissed her shoulder, she rolled over and became quiet.

  He chuckled.

  A light from the parking lot glowed through the mini blinds, illuminating the bedroom. Jordan’s bare, sleek back rose and fell as she took long, deep breaths. She was seductive even in sleep. His gaze traveled over her from the top of her blond hair down to the perfectly rounded bottom only half covered with the sheet.

  A foreign pulse of emotion sizzled like a power surge. Possession, need and, if he was being honest, a good healthy dose of guilt, rose up out of nowhere.

  She’d given herself to him when they’d made love, in ways he didn’t expect. He knew she’d done it, seen the passion on her face, felt the surrender in the tears that almost choked her. He’d wanted more than sex, demanded it.

  He closed his eyes, remembering how they’d reached for one another a second time in the darkness. The memory of her rising above him, taking him in, moving in a seductive rhythm while white slashes of light from the blinds fell across her naked body was a vision seared into his brain.

  She’d given him what he’d asked for, a real piece of herself.

  His eyes opened. And how had he repaid her? By hiding the truth. By hiding the real reason he wanted Buck behind bars.

  He would tell her all of it, but not yet. Already she’d accused him of being too personally involved, and she didn’t know the half of it. If he confessed, she’d never agree to work with him, and she was damn well going to work with him. He’d sooner open fire on the whole strip club than allow her to set foot in that dive without him. But that probably wasn’t a smart thing to admit.

  The clock read 6:17 a.m. A trip to the bathroom was in order, just in case her next jab was lower and more on point toward his bladder.

  When he turned the water on to wash his hands, he heard the scream. Sprinting back to the bed, he found Jordan apparently in the grip of a nightmare.

  She sobbed and cried out. Most of the sounds were unintelligible half words and sickly terrified moans, but he thought he caught the name “Katy.”

  “Jordan? Jordan, wake up.” His instinct was to grab her and hold her, but the last time he restrained her hadn’t gone well. He picked up just one hand and squeezed. “Jordan?”

  In one quick, sweeping motion she woke, sat up, and scurried off the bed. Backing into a corner, she slumped to the floor like a cornered animal.

  ***

  Jordan felt a dizzying flood of air fill her lungs. Folded in the floor with her head in her hands, she began to battle
back the visions. Knees tucked under her, she rocked, desperate to break free of the faces.

  Her mom’s. Her sister’s. And worst of all, the one face she’d fought against seeing for years...her father’s.

  Why did every dream have to end with his disappointed eyes staring her down? She sucked in more air to clear the burn in her lungs and erase the faces. A sob welled in her throat.

  Maybe her dad was right. Even though his pathetic lifestyle had led a murderer to their home, she was the only one who’d really had the tools to stop what happened, yet she hadn’t.

  You could have saved them. You should have tried harder.

  The vision she’d had the night before her family was killed had shown the gunman coming with absolute clarity. Still, she’d let everyone she loved die, let them silence her, treat her like a foolish ten-year-old. And it had cost her everything.

  Her sister’s death was the worst. She could still hear Katy crying out.

  Then the mystery girl with the long, dark hair cried out, too. The dreams had blended and twisted until she couldn’t tell where one ended and another began. Both violent. Both deadly. Who was this girl? And why the hell did the vision of her death hurt as badly as Katy’s?

  Jordan kept her eyes closed tight as she continued to gulp in long, shuddering lungfuls of air. She couldn’t shake the images this time. The terror. The pain. Katy’s cold, empty stare after the sound of gunfire. Then the vacant gaze of the mystery girl as she slipped away, too. The boy put his hands around her neck and squeezed until her big, beautiful eyes, fierce and alive, drained to cold, hollow stones.

  The boy hadn’t planned a murder. He’d planned sex. Sex could be explained. Sex could be rationalized as mutual. Murder hadn’t been on the agenda. He’d squeezed her neck, then let go. Squeezed and let go, unsure of what to do, where to turn. Finally, there were no more chances. The girl was gone.

  Rein it in, Jordan. Take a deep breath.

  Nausea, greasy and slick, roiled inside her.

  She needed to get to the bathroom. She needed the shock of cold water on her skin.

  Slow, deliberate steps came toward her. Oh, God. She wasn’t alone. Ty.