Hunted (The Dirty Heroes Collection Book 13)

by Cassandra Faye

  “Take me then.”

  His gaze seeks mine and I’m not sure where the concern is coming from until he growls and shakes his head, one hand coming up to rip at his hair. “Don’t want to hurt you. Not you.”

  Catching his face in my hands, I rub my thumbs across his cheeks. “I’m okay.”

  “Promise.”

  “I promise.” Reaching down, I wrap my fingers around his dick and squeeze as I stroke him once from tip to base, pulling him down over me with a hand on the back of his neck. “I’m okay.”

  That’s all it takes for him to kiss me again, pressing me into the bed as his hips move between my thighs and he thrusts deep, catching my gasp with another kiss. I’m going to be sore as hell tomorrow, but it’ll all be worth it if this helps him, if it makes him normal again.

  “Fuck!” I bite down on a whine as he grabs a fistful of my hair again, craning my neck back so he can kiss and nip as he does exactly what he said — he takes me. This isn’t making love, or even some drunken fuck after a party. It feels like ownership, like he wants to claim every inch of my skin inside and out and mark me as his.

  “You have to be mine, Harper. You can’t leave. Can’t leave.” The words come out between huffs of breath, peppered with grunts and groans as he forces one of my knees up so he can drive in deeper. Even with the dull ache that spikes each time he bottoms out, the pleasure is returning fast, spiraling up my spine like strands of shimmering, electric light. I don’t know why he suddenly thinks I’d want to leave him. I don’t know why he keeps picking fights with me. All I know is that I love him.

  His teeth sink into that tender spot on my shoulder and I cry out, nails digging into his back as pain radiates out from it, mixed with a tease of ecstasy that shouldn’t be there.

  I know it shouldn’t be there, that I shouldn’t like it when he makes it hurt, but it’s not like there hasn’t always been a little pain during sex with him. Jared just never seemed to want to inflict it before today. He growls again, slamming deep, and he bites down harder.

  “Jared! That hurts!” I whimper when he lets go, his lips crushing mine as he starts to thrust again. Brutal, hard, but the friction and the feeling of being absolutely filled is undeniable and as the pain abates there’s only pleasure left behind. Overwhelming, suffocating, and all I can do is hold on as he takes me higher and higher with each powerful drive between my thighs.

  “Have to make you mine,” he growls, grabbing my hands to pin them above my head, but I’m so close to coming that I don’t even care that my wrists hurt from how hard he’s holding them down. All I can do is nod and ride the waves as they continue to build, carrying me closer to the perfect, blinding brilliance that each powerful thrust of his cock is driving me toward.

  I pull against his hold on my wrists as my back arches, every muscle in my body going tight a second before the tension snaps and glittering light explodes behind my eyes. It’s pure ecstasy, absolute bliss, and I can barely breathe as I cry out his name and something else that’s utterly unintelligible. There’s only raw pleasure pulsing through my veins, dragged out into an almost painful perfection because he’s still fucking me. Just as hard, his strength rocking me against the bed as he groans in my ear.

  When I finally start to come down from the orgasm, I realize he isn’t as close to coming as I thought he was. Jared has barely slowed down, fucking me straight through one and already building me toward a second. I can barely breathe, moans and cries escaping with every exhale, and I think I’m pleading with him to come, but I’m not completely sure the words are actually leaving my lips. Even though my muscles are still trembling from the first orgasm, I can feel another one rising. Catastrophic, overpowering, and unlike anything else I’ve ever felt. This isn’t what the multiples feel like when he licks me until I’m begging and then fucks me until I come again for him… this is more.

  Dizzying. Devastating. Dangerous.

  “Jared,” I whine, gasping when he seems to swell inside me, somehow stretching me more, and then I feel it. That terrifying edge approaching too fast to avoid.

  “You’re mine,” he growls, breathing roughly as he thrusts hard enough to bruise my hips and all the aches and torrential pleasure spiral until I cry out and the world blinks out of existence.

  For a moment there’s nothing but bliss, a blank void of raw sensation filled with shimmering silver light, and then it feels like something yanks me back into my body. All of the physical crashes in so fast that I can barely gasp before another orgasm breaks over me, drowning me in ecstasy again, and Jared finally shouts. Thrusting deep, his cock jerks inside me, and I can only focus enough to recognize the low groan of pleasure buzzing against my ear as he comes.

  Everything is still humming though, even after he stops moving. All of my nerves are buzzing and vibrating. I can almost hear the hum of them in my ears, feel the buzzy sensation in my teeth, my skin tingling like an electric current is only inches away. My muscles keep trembling, shivers rolling through me with little aftershocks, and the weight of him on me seems to be the only thing keeping me grounded. He still smells like Jared, still feels like Jared, and even if something is wrong, I know we’ll get through it together.

  We’ll figure it out.

  Pulling in a shaky breath, I say the only thing I can think of in the chaos of my mind. “I love you.”

  7

  Jared

  My heart is still racing, the mind-blowing blankness of the orgasm finally fading out along with the powerful jolt of pleasure that came with it. We’re both breathing hard, and she’s still squeezing my cock in teasing waves as she squirms under me. Those sweet little sounds escaping her lips with every shift of her body.

  But I can’t move.

  I’m not sure I actually want to.

  If I move, if I even lift my head, I’ll have to face Harper… and I don’t think I can do that right now. I hurt her. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I did. I know I did. Everything seems like such a blur, fuzzy, but I can remember the panic on her face when I came in the room — and then there was so much anger. A raw rage that filled my already muddled brain with darkness.

  I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know why it was directed at her; I just know that the moment I saw her looking through the old hunting journals something inside me just snapped. I tried to rein it in, tried to rein myself in, because there’s no one else to blame but me.

  This was all me.

  No one else touched her. No one else made her panic, pushed her onto the bed and ripped her clothes off. Hell… I fucked her practically dry. I hurt her, and I don’t understand why it seemed necessary at the time. I don’t know why I felt so completely sure she was going to leave me if I didn’t do something about it. If I didn’t make her mine somehow.

  That is the one thought that’s so clear in all the madness. The absolute need to claim her, to make her mine before it was too late. It pushed every other instinct away, every instinct to protect her, to take care of her, to keep her safe — all of those disappeared until all that was left was this insane need to fuck her until she gave in and submitted.

  Worst of all… I don’t think the feeling is gone.

  Whatever is wrong with me, it’s just temporarily sated. Post-nut clarity or whatever the fuck this fleeting grasp at sanity is, and if I really want to keep her safe, I should just leave. Walk away.

  Fuck.

  I can’t. Even thinking about it makes me sick, makes me want to grab her so she can’t leave me, and I don’t want to hurt her. I love Harper. I love her more than anything. I want to fucking marry her, but I can’t make these dark thoughts stop flickering through my brain.

  Her wrists twist under my hands and I realize I’m still pinning her to the goddamn bed like a monster. It takes real effort to make my fingers unwrap from her skin, but she doesn’t say anything about it. No, Harper uses her new freedom to run her hands down my back, her fingertips tracing little patterns on their way up and down.

 
I don’t deserve her affection.

  She needs to leave.

  But I’m afraid of what I might do if she tried to go right now, even if I was the one who told her to do it.

  My dick finally softens enough to slip out of her, and I know I need to get away from her. She probably doesn’t want me on top of her anymore anyway, and that thought makes the darkness in my head ripple… which just proves how right I am. Clenching my eyes tight, I push myself up and off of her, immediately shifting up the bed until my back hits the headboard.

  “Babe?” Her voice sounds too fucking sweet. She should be screaming at me, hitting me, something.

  Pulling my knees toward my chest, I brace my elbows on them so I can cover my face with my hands. I don’t want to look at her. I don’t want to see whatever is waiting for me.

  “Jared? Are you okay?” she asks, and I can feel the bed shifting as she moves closer to me, even though she should be doing the exact opposite. She should be running… but I can’t make myself say it. “Babe?”

  “I’m okay,” I whisper, my voice rough like I spent all night screaming at a concert, but I don’t remember screaming. I don’t remember much from last night at all. Just the cold. I couldn’t get warm, and even now I can feel how cool my fingers are against my face. My comfort doesn’t mean anything though. I just don’t know if I have the balls to ask Harper if she’s okay… I don’t know what I’ll do if she answers the wrong way.

  Hell, I don’t even know what the ‘wrong way’ would be, but I don’t trust myself at all. Not right now.

  “Jared?” she says my name again and I groan, grabbing fistfuls of my hair and pulling… just like I did to her.

  Be a fucking man.

  “Are… are you okay?” I ask, but I keep my eyes closed tight until I hear her quiet chuckle. When I peek at her between my arms, I find her smiling a little, her brown hair mussed, lips red, and a series of bite marks across her shoulders… one of which is darker than the others and it still shows my teeth. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Babe, I’m fine.” Harper reaches over and squeezes my arm. “I mean… that was seriously intense, and I’m not sure if I can handle the rough sex thing all the time, but”—she shrugs a shoulder, dropping her hands into her lap— “it was kind of fun.”

  “What?” I can’t really process what she’s saying, but I don’t know how much of my memory I can even trust. I can see the bitemarks, so I know those were real, and her wrists are still red from where I had them pinned… but maybe I didn’t hurt her? Not as bad as I think I did?

  “I know you’ve been off the last couple of days, babe, but if this is something you want to try all you have to do is talk to me about it. You know I’m open to trying stuff, and even though I didn’t like you covering my mouth, having you go all dominant alpha male every once in a while wouldn’t be a bad thing.” Harper laughs a bit, a blush staining her cheeks when she finally lifts her gaze from the bed to meet mine. “I definitely came a few times, so I’m happy to try it. As long as you wear a condom next time. From the beginning, okay?”

  “Okay.” I nod, the visual of my hand over her mouth flashing inside my head. I’d wanted to make her stop saying something. No more lying. That was it. But why did I think she was lying? What did I think she was lying about? Groaning, I rub at my forehead, trying to make my brain sort out the memories into something that makes sense. Anything that would make sense of this shit, but I have a sinking feeling there’s something much worse underneath my confusion.

  “Jared, can you talk to me? Please?” Harper moves closer, her hand brushing mine, and I immediately turn away and climb out of the bed. The hurt look on her face feels like a physical blow, but things are getting less clear by the minute.

  “I— I need to use the bathroom. And, um, take care of the condom.” I’m stumbling over my words as I back toward the doorway, and I’m not sure how to interpret the way Harper is staring at me, but I know I need to get away from her.

  Turning around, I rush into the living room, pulling off the condom to drop in the kitchen trash before I head to the bathroom and shut the door. Leaning against it, I almost feel like I can breathe right again. My heart is still pounding, but I can’t smell her or see her or grab her. Running my hands over my face, I take a deep breath and groan.

  Scratch that, I can definitely still smell her… but at least I can’t see her. Can’t touch her in here.

  Lifting the seat on the toilet, I brace one hand on the wall and try not to fuck up and piss all over as I try to come up with a solution. Everything seemed clearer right after I came, but I can tell I’m losing that. As messed up as my head is right now, it feels like it should be the middle of the night, but the sun is still streaming through the window beside me. Mocking me with how bright and clear it is outside when I feel anything but.

  I jab the handle on the toilet and turn toward the sink to wash my hands, but my reflection catches my attention and I can’t look away. My eyes are so red, completely bloodshot, and there’s bags under them like I pulled an all-nighter even though I know I slept last night.

  A headache picks up behind my left eye and I rub at it, leaning on the sink as I groan. I remember Harper telling me I kept waking her up in the night, and I’d moved to the couch just so she could sleep.

  No. That’s not how it happened.

  We argued, and she looked upset when I told her to go back to bed, but I don’t even remember if I actually went back to sleep after that. I just remember the fire and trying to get warm... and then I started chopping firewood.

  Fuck me.

  Something isn’t right, but I know one thing for sure. I can’t lose Harper. I have to make her mine or I could lose her forever.

  Wait... no. I have to keep her safe. Even if that means keeping her safe from me.

  That is the most important thing right now, no matter how much it feels like I’m going to lose her. I have to ignore that. I have to fight that feeling so I don’t do something terrible.

  Another piercing headache lances through my head, so blinding that I feel my knees give out, and when I force my eyes open again, I’m sitting on the floor, back against the door to the narrow shower stall. The pain isn’t fading though. It pulses behind my left eye like someone’s jabbed a knife into it and is wiggling it around for fun. There’s a low hum in my ears, almost like the sound of electricity, and it’s only getting louder. A wave of nausea joins in the fun and I feel a cold sweat break out across my skin as I crawl toward the toilet, slamming the seat back down so I have something to rest against as my stomach churns.

  “Jared? Are you okay?” Harper asks from the other side of the door, and I feel a wave of panic and a sudden urge to shout at her simultaneously. Clenching my teeth, I don’t say anything. I can barely see straight. The sunlight is too bright, making everything glow, and I have to close my eyes against it. “Babe, I’m going to come in.”

  The doorknob rattles and I sit up straight, trying to look at the door through the blinding glare. “No! Don’t come in.”

  “I’ve seen you throw up before, Jared. If you’re feeling sick, would you just let me help you?” The door cracks open and I lunge for it, slamming it shut again as the pain spikes. “What the fuck, Jared? Open the door!”

  “No. Harper, you need to—” run. Get away from me. Get out of here. Take the car and leave. Those are the words I want to say, but all that comes out is, “Just make us something for lunch. We both need to eat.”

  “Are you sure?” she asks, and I can hear the concern in her voice, and... fuck, I’m concerned too. Every bad thing I’ve ever read about on the internet is spinning through my head — brain tumors, aneurysms, schizophrenia. Hell, maybe that’s what this is. Or split personalities. Or something else, but something bad, something very bad.

  Please leave. “Yeah, babe. Food will help.”

  I want to scream, but I’m in too much pain for that now. It’s immobilizing. I can’t see anything, can’t hear anything except for the
weird hum of my brain slowly disintegrating inside my skull. I know I’m soaked in sweat, but I feel so fucking cold. Nothing makes sense, none of this feels real, and the last thought that feels like mine is just two words: protect Harper.

  The quiet series of knocks on the door pulls my attention away from the mirror, and I stare at the door for a moment before Harper’s voice comes through it.

  “Babe, you’ve been in there for like half an hour. I’ve got sandwiches, and I heated them up in a pan so they’re kind of like paninis. No grill marks, but I figured warm food would be better since you said you were cold.” She pauses, and I feel my lips tilt up in a smile. I can sense how nervous she is. She’s broadcasting it with every wobble of her voice, and I know if I open the door, I’ll find her chewing on her thumbnail. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m just fine,” I answer, and I can hear her relieved sigh through the door.

  “Good. That’s really good. I was worried about you.” Another pause, because Harper wants comfort. She wants confirmation that everything is going to be okay, but I don’t know if that’s been decided yet, so I stay silent. “Well... um... I guess come out whenever you’re ready.”

  “I’ll be right out, babe.” The reply seems to be enough because I hear her light steps moving toward the kitchen. I don’t immediately follow her though, instead I turn my eyes back to the mirror. The stubble on my cheeks is filling in, and I know in another day or so I’ll have a dark shadow of scruff across my face, which feels more... right. There’s an odd shadow under my eyes, and they don’t look as clear as I’d like, but I was able to hunt and that’s all that really matters.

  Well, that, and keeping Harper here.