Dark & Dangerous: A Collection of Paranormal Treats

by Julie Kenner

  “What do you want from me?”

  “You have to let me take the lead.”

  “Okay,” he agreed.

  “It’s not that simple. You agree now, but once we start touching, you take over.”

  He acknowledged the truth of her statement. “But you want my hands on you to keep the connection, right?”

  “Your passion is feeding off my excitement. It’s not enough. We need to go deeper.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You need to let me touch you where and how and when I want.”

  He sighed. He might start out agreeing to her demands, but when the pleasure accelerated, he was a man accustomed to taking what he wanted. “What do you suggest?”

  “You need to trust me.”

  “I do.”

  “Prove it and let me tie you up.”

  He swallowed hard, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. “Tie me?”

  “In the hammock. Hands over your head. Feet spread wide.”

  The idea of making himself that vulnerable clawed at him. Every cell in him rebelled. It was too much like returning to captivity. Yet, she wouldn’t torture him—except with pleasure.

  She wanted to tie him up.

  When he remained silent, his mouth dry, his heart hammering, his chest and head pounding with pressure, she tugged him from the soothing warm water into the cool night air. Goose bumps rose on his flesh. His mind might rebel at her suggestion, his heart might have even skipped a few beats, but his erection remained.

  He trusted her.

  It was himself he didn’t trust.

  Didn’t trust that he would relax enough to let her work her “magic” on him.

  He wouldn’t be able to pull away from her touch to escape his memories. But he wanted to recall them, didn’t he?

  Despite the cool night air, sweat beaded on his scalp.

  She wanted to tie him up.

  And he wouldn’t be a mass of raw energy if he wasn’t seriously considering her proposition. Realistically, even if the Shey Group recovered the information, disseminating the intel to the FBI, the military and local law enforcement would take time. If she could entice the data out of him tonight, it would be safer for all involved.

  Since there was only one decision he could live with, he didn’t really have a choice. “Okay.”

  She didn’t break contact with him. Instead she accompanied him to a comfy-looking double hammock with a four-point tie that allowed it to rock, but not flip. From her tote bag, she withdrew restraints made of sturdy strapping. She fastened them around his wrists and ankles, then gestured for him to lie in the hammock.

  Blood roaring in his ears, he did as she requested. First she positioned the bottle close by. And when she fastened the straps to the hammock, her breasts swaying close to his face, his mouth watered and he fought against lifting his head in an attempt to take one nipple into his mouth. Still, he kept his hands overhead so she could restrain him. She moved away, the soft underside of her breasts grazing his cheeks.

  After she manacled his hands with the soft straps, she delicately licked the center of his palms, and the erotically sensual move had him questioning his sanity in allowing her to tie him down. When she sucked on each finger individually, he kept dreaming where else her inquisitive mouth might go.

  She kissed his eyebrows, and her moist lips and tongue traced his eyelashes, forcing his eyes shut. His heart raced in anticipation. Already he ached to gather her into his arms and pull her closer. Instead, he had to wonder what she would do next.

  He didn’t have to wonder for long. She ran her fingertips along his neck up onto his scalp, massaging his temples and the sensitive skin around his ears. Meanwhile she licked, nibbled and nipped the side of his neck with her teeth.

  Right about now he would have welcomed the distraction of answering her questions about the mission. But she seemed intent on arousing him. Slowly. With wet strands of her hair trailing along his shoulder, her clever hands in his hair and those wickedly nipping teeth, he found himself tensed, holding his breath.

  She withdrew her touch and he opened his eyes to see her backlit by the stars and highlighted by the underwater illumination from the whirlpool. With her damp skin so close, her scent wafted to him on the night breeze. “Enjoying yourself?”

  “Oh, yeah.” She strode to the far end of the hammock and he got an eyeful of her round buttocks as she leaned over to strap his ankles.

  “You’re deliberately teasing me with that pose,” he accused her, his voice hoarse.

  “Maybe I am,” she admitted without any apology in her tone.

  She bent further and waggled her butt, and he picked up his head to catch the enticing sight of pink lips between two sleek half globes. Automatically, he tried to sit up, but the restraints kept him a voyeur. He dropped his head back in frustration while she tightened the second ankle strap, pulling his thighs open as wide as possible.

  She returned and carefully climbed into the hammock next to him, setting them swaying. She snuggled against his side, turned his head with her hand for a kiss. With tiny nips and licks around the corners of his mouth, she kissed him, teasing just above the Cupid’s bow and at the slope of the lower lip and chin. When he opened his mouth, she sucked just the tip of his tongue between her lips and flicked it with her own. At the same time she twisted his nipples between her fingers until he found himself testing the strength of his straps. They didn’t budge. Engorged, stretched to the point where he was harder than he’d ever been, he let out a groan of frustration, a moan of pure pleasure.

  He strained against the restraints, aching for more of her. “Do you have any idea how much I want to be inside you right now?”

  “Probably almost as much as I want you there.” She let out a breathy sigh. “However, our satisfaction must be delayed….”

  “So you keep telling me.”

  She tapped her finger to the tip of his nose. “You are in no position to argue. But I did notice that the more of my flesh that touches yours, the more you remember.”

  She sat up and at the same time lifted her leg over him. The hammock swung and for a moment he hoped that she would take him inside her. But she’d positioned her open legs over his stomach, leaving his sex to dance against her warm bottom.

  When she leaned down and nestled her head under his chin, pressing her breasts against his chest, he felt her heart beating against him. She kept most of her weight on her knees, yet they touched chest to chest, belly to belly. “Comfy?”

  “I’d be much more comfy if you’d move down my body another four inches.”

  She reached up and threaded her fingers through his hair. “When you decided to speed up your mission and go into Mustaffa’s office, what did you hope to obtain?”

  He sounded resigned, hopeful that they would get the information out of his head. “Names, addresses, places of targets. Suppliers of weapons. Bank accounts. A money trail. Anything that could give us intel on the cell. We especially wanted to know how they communicated with one another, how they funded operations and who was in charge.”

  Taking his earlobes between her thumb and index fingers, she rubbed him there and he found the motion both erotic and calming at the same time. When they’d spoken in the whirlpool about the mission, he had drawn a blank about whether he’d entered Mustaffa’s office, but now he saw the room clearly. He didn’t understand exactly how she’d just freed his memories, but clearly she was very good at her specialty.

  “I waited for Mustaffa to depart. The man never kept a schedule, waking and sleeping at all hours of the day and night. I had no idea how long he would be gone, since I didn’t know where he was going.”

  “Sounds nerve-wracking.”

  She changed her position, lying by his side. This time she let her palm wander over the inside of his thigh.

  Her teasing hand helped him relax about the mission, but it built excitement within him about where she’d touch next. “No one ever questioned Mu
staffa’s movements. Kincaid requested satellite surveillance, but Mustaffa lost himself in a crowd and disappeared.”

  She tugged on his pubic hair and he tried to arch into her hand. “You went in anyway?”

  “Yeah.” Those long slow tugs of hers made his stomach knot. “It was risky because Mustaffa could return at any time, but we thought it would be worth it. His office was a bedroom in the back of his house and his subcommanders had left for the mosque.”

  “And Ali?” Her hand closed around the base of his shaft and began to move up and down.

  “He was with me.”

  He couldn’t remember more, until she increased her tempo and tightened her grip, creating a marvelous friction. She asked, “But you didn’t trust him?”

  “I figured the best way to keep an eye on him was to keep him by my side.” She maintained her hold on him and talking became more difficult, but the memories were right there within reach. “Ali couldn’t warn anyone while he was with me, and I didn’t give him advance notice that we were going in.”

  “Makes sense. So you entered Mustaffa’s office,” she prodded, slowing her hand but maintaining her grip.

  He used the opportunity to catch his breath, but he felt as if he were about to burst. Sweat trickled down his neck, and he was sure he’d never been so aroused in his life. Yet all he could do was lie there while she teased him.

  “It was dark.” He could see it all so clearly now. “We used tiny penlights. Ali guarded the door. I headed for the computer and hacked my way in.”

  She sped up her hand. “And?”

  “I hit the jackpot. Ah…” His back arched, his hips thrust upward, but she kept to her new slower pace, driving him wild. “There were names, dates, places, money transactions. I didn’t read it, just downloaded it to a disk. I would have preferred to send it out over the Internet, but there was no connection.”

  She stopped her hand to flick his sensitive ridge, her finger tapping the tender groove on the underside. He bit back a growl, unwilling to admit that he could barely concentrate on her questions. He wanted her so badly he trembled with the need for her, the need for release.

  But she didn’t stop her caressing, not for a second. Nor did she stop asking her questions. “What was Ali doing while you copied the disk?”

  “He opened a window…in case we needed to retreat out the back of the building.”

  “Go on.” She increased the tempo of her hand, then slid down to cup his sac. She palmed his fullness, her fingers seeking the flesh behind his balls, stroking him to distraction. He gasped and she had to repeat her last request before he could answer.

  “It took forever for the files to download. Maybe sixty seconds. I’d just popped the disk into my pocket when Mustaffa returned. I dived out the window, hoping Ali would follow. He didn’t.”

  Her hand stopped all movement. “He stayed behind to betray you?”

  “No. He died covering my retreat.”

  “I’m sorry. I thought you said he had fake ID, money in a Swiss bank account.” She ran her palm up his hip, over his chest, playing lightly with his chest hair. Then she leaned over him to take a nipple into her mouth. As she swirled her tongue around it, her hand dived back down to pump him.

  Talk about distractions. He could barely think with the sensations pouring through him. He felt so tight, so hard, so full. He ached to thrust into her heat, but she denied him. And again he forced out an answer. “Kincaid traced the money. Ali’s family had been wealthy when they left Egypt. That money was his.”

  Straightening, she asked, “And the fake passport?” She played with the very tip until he went light-headed.

  “Ali had always feared that America would kick him out, or worse, suspect him of being a terrorist due to his background. The fake passport was simply extra security.” He breathed in long, steady breaths, but her hand on him was relentless. “I’d suspected the man of being a traitor and he died saving my ass.”

  She scooted down his side, her breath fanning his flesh, her moist lips just an inch from where he needed her. “Ali died so you could recover the information and protect innocent people.”

  “Yeah.”

  When she took him deep into her mouth, the warmth was almost his undoing. But she pressed firmly at the base, preventing him from going over the edge. However, he was yanking on the restraints now, his muscles so tense that he had to come soon.

  And she stopped.

  He groaned.

  “So what happened to the disk?”

  Despite every distraction, he couldn’t remember. Disappointment almost drowned him. “I wish I knew.”

  “Relax. I can’t let you come yet.”

  “Why not? Maybe if I climax, you can get through.”

  “Remember what happened last time? Your orgasms are too powerful for me to keep control,” she explained.

  Then her mouth went back to licking him and nipping him, and if he’d been free he would have had her on her back, or against a wall, or on the deck. He would have plunged into her and…ah…She sucked on him and his fingers clenched so hard his knuckles cracked.

  “Dammit, Bonnie. Untie me, right now.”

  “What happened to the disk?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She straddled him again, her head facing his feet, her mouth busily creating more havoc. With her bottom in the air, just inches from his face, the scent of her made him frantic. He lifted his head, trying to reach her with his tongue, but she remained just out of reach.

  “Did you drop the disk?”

  “No.”

  “Did you bury it?”

  “No.” He shook his head back and forth. She held him on the edge of pleasure and release, the torment drowning him in sensations. She would surely kill him.

  “Did you give the disk up to the terrorists?”

  “No. I was running through the woods. I couldn’t let them catch me with the information.”

  She arched her back and tipped up her bottom, her pink lips tempting him, teasing him, taunting him. “So where did you hide the disk?”

  “In the hollow of a tree.” The triumph that filled him burst into pure joy. She’d done it! He’d remembered where he’d placed the disk.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. You did it!”

  “We did it together,” she corrected him, turning and planting a blissful kiss on his lips.

  “Untie me so I can call Kincaid.” His head was swimming with joy and the desire to have her, but she’d stopped and climbed down from the hammock. “What are you doing?”

  “Calling Kincaid just as you wanted.”

  She took a cell phone from her tote bag, dialed and held it to his ear and mouth. When Kincaid answered, John gave him the exact location of the tree, centered between a telephone pole, a fence post and a rocky crag. The Shey Group would retrieve the data and disseminate intel to the proper authorities within the hour.

  Bonnie snapped the phone shut with a pleased grin on her face. “My work is done.”

  He didn’t like the sound of that. As if she would leave him hanging out to dry, with unfinished business between them. However, if she didn’t want to make love to him now that she considered her job done, he might have to accept that. “So untie me.”

  “Uh-uh. Now it’s time to play.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “I AM NOT A BOY TOY,” John growled, but he couldn’t keep her from hearing the pleasure in his tone.

  Bonnie had told him the truth. She wanted him. And now they were free to enjoy one another.

  She sauntered over to him and tweaked both his nipples. “Actually, I think that if I were in your position, I would be more accommodating.”

  He groaned. “You like having me at your mercy.”

  “What’s not to like?” she teased. “I have this hard-bodied guy ready to please me—”

  “I’d please you a lot more if you’d untie me.”

  “—and all the time in the world to enjoy him.” She
made a ring with her thumb and forefinger and rubbed it over his sex. She loved the feel of his silky-smooth hardness, but most of all she loved the throaty desire in his tone, the passion on his face and the challenging glint in his eyes that told her to push him to his limits.

  She held up a condom from her tote. “What do you think it would feel like to have me take you inside me and then rock the hammock from side to side?”

  “There’s one way to find out.”

  She tore open the packet, then rolled the condom over him. “Perhaps I’ll untie your hands, but only if you promise to let me be on top.”

  “Darling, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

  She leaned over him, rubbing her breasts along his cheeks as she slowly untied his hands. This time she allowed him to capture a nipple with his mouth and the delicious sensation made her hands fumble with his restraints. There was no hurry, except he’d ignited a fire in her that would soon be raging wildly. And only he could put it out.

  She wished she could have seen his face when she climbed back into the hammock, facing his feet. She had to be satisfied with his gasp of surprise. But then she straddled him, took him inside her and grabbed his calves.

  He sat up, his hands immediately roving over her bottom and between her legs. And when she raised her hips, he slid his fingers into her moist heat, seeking her clit, urging her to ride him hard, to stoke the fires inside him that earlier she’d so carefully prevented from flaring out of control. This time there was no need to hold back, no need to temper the heat.

  No need to pretend this was business, because he was so much more. John pleased her on levels she’d never known existed. He pleased her sensually, emotionally, physically. She couldn’t seem to stop herself from touching him. The connection between them made the sex more intense, the emotions more powerful. The heat inside her was building when he grabbed her hips and held her still.