Branded by Lust: 4 (Night Seekers)

by Holt, Desiree

  Beneath her touch he shifted, enough to reach her head and thread his fingers through her hair.

  “Come up here.” His voice was rough and raspy.

  Obediently she crawled up over him, straddling his chest. On impulse she bent and licked his nipples, scraping them gently with her teeth.

  He gave a hoarse laugh. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “No.” She licked the hollow of his throat. Pressed her tongue against the pulse beating furiously beneath the skin. “I just can’t seem to get enough of you.”

  “That’s what I like to hear.” With his hands on her hips he urged her forward until her pussy was practically touching his mouth.

  “One good turn deserves another,” he said in that raspy tone, as if the words came from deep inside him. “I want my taste of heaven too. Put your hands behind your back and grip me with your thighs.”

  She maneuvered herself until she was balanced solidly on his chest, sucking in her breath when Logan spread the lips of her cunt and teased her clit with his tongue. Now she was the one riding the high edge of lust, the liquid from her cunt painting Logan’s chest, her inner muscles clenching with need.

  Mate!

  The word, at the same time both strange and familiar, kept reverberating in her head. She had swallowed his essence into her body. Now she wanted him to do the same with her.

  His tongue was a finely tuned instrument as it licked and lapped and prodded. He swirled it around her clit, teasing the throbbing knot of furled flesh before capturing its very tip in his teeth and tugging.

  Each gentle pull on it sent electricity sizzling through her, firing all her nerve endings. Her inner muscles were gripped by tremors, one after the other as her body responded to the intense intimacy. She braced herself for balance and rocked into his every thrust.

  Inside me, she wanted to shout. Let me feel you inside me. And she rocked toward him, silently urging him.

  Rebecca might have spoken the words aloud, so quick was his response. Thumbs holding her open as his fingers splayed on her thighs, he thrust his tongue inside, scraping the tip against her inner walls. She closed her eyes, letting sensation sweep over her, feeling the curl of his tongue as he scooped her liquid into his mouth.

  Shifting his hands, he pulled her closer yet and drifted his fingers toward the hot cleft of her ass. Probing with an easy touch as he continued to lick and suck, he found the tight ring of her anus and pressed the tip of one finger against it, just breaching the opening.

  That was all it took. She exploded, her entire body shaking with the force of the climax. Logan continued to work his tongue inside her with furious strokes while his finger teased and tormented her rear opening. A cry of raw passion ripped from her throat. Nothing existed except this untamed feeling racing through her as she poured into Logan’s mouth.

  And then the tidal wave of sensation subsided, leaving her trembling and weak. She collapsed forward, Logan catching her against his chest. He took her mouth, sliding his tongue inside, her taste still on its surface, mingling with the traces of his own liquid that still remained.

  Mate!

  She wanted to shout the word but she was too exhausted. Her muscles were limp and unresponsive as she lay in Logan’s arms. She could stay here forever, she thought. And she knew with certainty it was the place she was meant to be.

  As the heat from her orgasm ebbed shivers raced over her skin, Logan yanked the covers up to cover them. He rolled to the side, moving her so she ended up spooned against his body, his muscular arms wrapped around her.

  “Sleep,” he said, his voice soft against her ear, his breath like a warm breeze.

  “I can now.” A tiny smile curved her lips. “That was good.”

  His laugh was low and deep. “Good is too weak a word for it. We drank from each other, Rebecca. You’re in my body now just as I’m in yours. We belong together. Forever. Does that work for you?”

  “Forever,” she agreed sleepily, astonished that they had gotten to this point so quickly.

  “Mine,” he murmured, licking the nape of her neck. “Mate.”

  As she drifted off into dreams the word echoed in her brain.

  Mate!

  * * * * *

  Jade turned off the television and headed for her bedroom. When the doorbell rang and she opened it to see Logan standing there all her hormones stood up and cheered. But Logan refused her invitation, standing firmly outside the storm door while he said what he’d come to say. Then he was gone to that bitch waiting in the truck.

  Well, fuck him. She didn’t need him.

  She headed for her bedroom, stripping off her clothes along the way and tossing them onto a chair. Pulling one of her satin sleep shirts from a drawer, she carried it with her to the bathroom. Following her regular routine, she cleaned the makeup from her face and creamed her skin thoroughly. No matter how tired she was she never sloughed this off. She was well aware that with each passing year it became more and more important to take meticulous care of herself. You couldn’t market the goods if the packaging was flawed.

  Not that she was having a lot of success marketing it at all. When she hadn’t succeeded in getting Logan Tanner to the altar there hadn’t really been much left for her in Overlook. But the cities had gobbled her up. She was only one of hundreds with top graphic skills in Houston and Dallas and San Antonio. And she hadn’t been able to catch one of those rich Texas ranchers who figured out early on she didn’t love cattle or the hard work that went into raising them.

  The rodeo circuit hadn’t been any kinder. She’d gotten a good job with a firm that did promotions for rodeos but again she discovered that horseflesh and sweat didn’t turn her on. She’d come back here to regroup and figure out her game plan. What was it about men that they didn’t want a strong woman in their lives?

  A piece of conversation flashed in her brain.

  “You’re not strong, Jade. You’re a maneater. It’s not becoming. No one wants to keep a crocodile in his bed.”

  Well, fuck them all. She’d re-create herself and find the right man. She just hadn’t looked in the appropriate places.

  She slipped into her sleep shirt, brushed out her hair and headed downstairs to pour a glass of wine. Something to soothe her jumpy nerves. She hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything before but maybe she could find one of the old movies she liked to lull her to sleep. A client was coming by in the morning to discuss a new project with her. Usually all her work was done over the internet but this happened to be a local woman who had been a friend of her mother’s so she invited her for coffee and a meeting.

  In the kitchen she pulled the half-empty bottle of white wine from the fridge and took a glass from the cupboard. She was pouring the amber liquid when she heard a sound on the back porch. Setting the bottle down on the counter, she walked to the window in the breakfast area, pulled back the curtain and peered out into the darkness.

  Nothing.

  Why did she worry, anyway? She’d had a great security system installed so no one could get through without tripping an alarm. Oh sometimes an animal stepped on a sensor but they usually didn’t hang around.

  Picking up her glass, she took a slow, savoring sip and licked her lips. Delicious. She topped off the drink and headed toward the stairs when she heard the sound again. Not quite an animal yet not—something else.

  Of course it’s an animal, you idiot. Probably a raccoon foraging. I’ll make short work of him.

  She fetched her shotgun from the front hall where she’d taken to keeping it, unlocked the back door and peered out into the night. She barely had time to turn her heard when an inhuman sound ripped through the air and an apparition that defied even the worst nightmares appeared on the back porch.

  Jade was sure her heart stopped beating. Her throat froze so she couldn’t even scream. Before her brain could react and tell her to lift the shotgun a roar unlike anything she’d ever heard split the air, the creature was on her and a pain worse than she’d ev
er felt in her life ripped through her.

  Chapter Ten

  A warm hand stroking the curve of her ass wakened Rebecca. She hummed to herself as the hand followed the lines of her body, down to her knee and back up over her abdomen to cup her breasts.

  She wriggled back against the hard male body spooning her and smiled at the even harder cock pressing against the cleft of her buttocks. She felt pleasantly sluggish, as if warm molasses flowed through her veins rather than her equally heated blood. A general feeling of lassitude claimed her and she wondered if they could just stay in bed forever.

  “Too bad we have to get up.” Logan’s low voice rumbled in her ear.

  “I was just thinking the same thing. Are you sure we can’t just stay here like this?” She pushed back against him, doing her best to entice him to change his mind.

  “I wish.” His hand moved back to grab his cock and rub the head up and down the length of that hot crevice. “My mind is definitely on things other than trekking around in the snow and hunting weird creatures.”

  Rebecca tried to reach behind her to wrap her fingers over his but he nudged her hand away.

  “Hold that thought.” His chuckle was edged with hunger. “Later I’ll let you do that, and happily.” He kissed her shoulder then nipped lightly at the flesh. “We need to get moving. But I promise to make it up to you later.”

  Rebecca moved her body around to face him. “Did you mean what you said last night?”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “About?”

  She lowered her gaze. “About…mated. And my being yours.”

  He touched her chin with two fingers and tilted her face up so she had to look at him.

  “Don’t ever doubt those words, Rebecca. Just because you’re not a shifter doesn’t mean we aren’t meant to be together. Look at the mixed couples already living at Desolation Ranch. They’re totally committed to each other.” His lips curved in a very sexy smile. “Look at your own sister. At Clint and Sophia.”

  She nodded, agreeing with him, but she had to be absolutely sure he meant what he said.

  “Is it possible for a non-shifter to feel that same internal tug? That same blending of souls?”

  “Of course it is.” He brushed her mouth with his. “Don’t you feel it?”

  “I do. I just wanted…” Her voice trailed off.

  “To know I really meant it when I said we were mated? Oh you damn well know it. You’re mine. Forever. When a shifter mates, whether with its kind or a human, it’s just like when the full-out wolves mate. For eternity.” He slid one hand between them to touch her pussy, smiling when he found it already wet. “I took your essence into my body last night, just as you did mine. That was more than just an act of sex. That was a binding. It made us one.”

  He gave her ass a light smack.

  “Ouch! What was that for?”

  “To remind you we have business to take care of and that we’ll get to this later.” He pinched her clit lightly between thumb and forefinger. “But we will get to it. That’s a promise.”

  “Hey!” Rebecca yanked at the covers as Logan tossed them back. “It’s cold in here.”

  “The better to wake you up.” He rolled out of bed and tugged her along with him. “Come on. I want to call Ben and see if we can stop by before we all head to the sheriff’s office.”

  “You want to see if he’ll be honest with you about being a shifter,” she guessed.

  “I think he is but I need to confirm it. And let him know I am also.”

  Rebecca swallowed a giggle. “I’ll bet that’s an interesting conversation. What do you say? ‘Just wanted to know if you change into a wolf frequently’?”

  “Not exactly,” he tossed over his shoulder as he headed for the bathroom. “We’ll know the right words. Believe me.”

  “What about me?” she asked, following him. “Should I make myself scarce?”

  He stopped and turned around so suddenly she ran into him. He rested his big hands on her shoulders. “We won’t have any more secrets between us, Bek. And I want to make it plain to Ben that you’re mine. My mate.” He grinned. “Just in case he gets any ideas.”

  “You don’t think he got the idea we’re together since I’m staying with you?”

  Logan shook his head. “You could just be a guest, a member of my team working with me. I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding about this.” He took a moment to give her a hard kiss before turning away again. “I’ll call him as soon as I get some clothes on.”

  Eve had breakfast sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil and go-cups filled with coffee ready and waiting for them.

  “I didn’t figure you’d take time to sit down and eat this morning,” she told them. “And you sure can’t drink the coffee Sheriff Danvers has in his office. It’s not even good enough for battery acid.”

  “Thank you,” Rebecca told her. “We really appreciate this.”

  “Just find out what killed that nice ranger,” she called after them as they headed out the back door.

  They had barely pulled up in front of Ben’s house and climbed out of the truck before the man pulled his front door open. “Have you had coffee?” he asked. “I brewed a fresh pot.”

  They kicked the snow off their boots before walking into the house, then stepped out of the boots in the hallway.

  “We have,” Logan said, “but I never turn down a cup of fresh coffee.”

  When they had steaming mugs filled with fresh hot liquid in hand they arranged themselves around the kitchen table. No one said anything for a moment. Rebecca would have laughed if she hadn’t known how rude it would be. They were like two animals sizing each other up.

  And really, isn’t that what this is?

  “Your nickel,” Ben said. “You called and said we needed to talk.”

  “Okay.” Logan leaned forward, hands cradling his mug. “I need to ask you something and I’m trying to figure out the best way to do this.”

  “Funny. I have a question too. You go first.”

  Rebecca watched Logan choosing his words carefully.

  “One of the many things I learned early on as a rancher was that animals could easily be identified by their scent. Horses smell different than cattle, cats aren’t like dogs, well, you get the idea.”

  Ben watched him, his face never changing expression.

  Logan took a long swallow of his coffee. “Animals often are drawn to each other by scent. The appearance might be different but if the scent is the same then they identify with each other.”

  “Is this leading somewhere?” Ben asked, then forced a grin. “Or are you just trying to tell me I need a shower? You didn’t have to make a special trip for that.”

  Rebecca chuffed out a sigh. “Oh for god’s sake, Logan. We haven’t got all day here. Just ask him. Or I will.” She looked at Ben. “When you and Logan shook hands did you get any special vibes from him? And I’m not talking about gaydar here.”

  Both men stared at her then at each other, gaze intent as if trying to read answers in the other person’s eyes.

  Logan’s hands tightened around his mug. “Wolf,” he said at last.

  Ben hesitated for a long moment before he nodded. “Wolf.”

  The tension eased out of the room like the air from a deflating balloon.

  “Well, thank god we got that over with,” Rebecca told them. “Now we can talk without that hanging over our heads.”

  Ben looked at her then back at Logan. “She knows.”

  Logan nodded. “Yes. And she’s seen me shift.”

  Ben’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding me.”

  “No, he’s not,” she broke in. “Lord, you men would waste a day dancing around an issue. Ben, my sister is married to a shifter. And the group Logan and I are part of, Night Seekers? Several of the members are also shifters. Two of the others are married, one to a human, one of them to another shifter. So now can we just please get all this crap out of the way and concentrate on finding the devil beast before it
kills someone else?”

  Logan burst out laughing. “And to think I once thought you were reserved.” He turned back to Ben. “When did you find out and how did you handle it in the Marines?”

  “With a lot of planning,” the other man answered. “I found out about it when I was ten years old. My mother was a shifter from a long line of them in the Canadian Northwest. I don’t even remember now all the history she told me. But she made me proud of it, as did my father who was one hundred percent human. She also taught me about the herbs that could control it. When I was deployed to Afghanistan she researched what I should look for over there to help me.” His laugh was rueful. “And I volunteered for a lot of night duty that no one wanted. What about you?”

  “Both of my parents were shifters. I discovered my father and the pack alpha had been locked in a battle and my folks broke away for their own safety. We lived a pretty guarded life. We also kept a stash of herbs on hand. My mother grew them until the internet took over and we could order them online.”

  “We have a good supply now,” Rebecca pointed out. “Dakota Grey, Jonah’s wife, is an herbalist and grows them behind the ranch that’s the team base. She also sells them online if you want her information.”

  “I’ll take it from you,” Ben said. “I have a source right now but I’d rather switch to one I have a connection with.”

  “So here’s the thing,” Logan said, bringing them back to business. “We can scout the area during the day but I often think the snowmobiles and off-road vehicles scare the beast away. The last three times we’ve got one of them—and I‘ll get back to that in a moment—we’ve tracked it at night. Our team members have shifted and tracked it in their wolf form.”

  “And you think we’d find traces of it if we do that here?”

  “I think we’d have a good shot at it.” He finished his coffee and pushed the mug away. “We’ve learned two important things since the team was formed. One, the beast kills in threes before it leaves the area. Two, we thought twice we’ve killed it only to have it pop up someplace else a good distance away.”