by Jax Garren
With her eyes shielded, each touch was heightened, each sound more intense as she stroked then kissed Hauk’s chest. Her hands slid to his back as she kissed sideways from his sternum. Her lips found his nipple and she flicked it with her tongue. He jerked, as he’d done the one time before that she’d gotten her mouth there. But this time he couldn’t get away.
And he didn’t say the word.
She bit down lightly, and he murmured praise to his gods. She sucked, and he groaned.
“Like this,” she told him, blowing cool air against his damp skin. “We deserve to be always like this.”
Slowly, firmly, she explored his skin, kissing, touching, blowing and tasting. When she started, the chains rattled with each wordless jerk against her onslaught. As she continued, invading him intimately, he relaxed until he sagged against the chains, his breath ragged.
She slipped her hands down the plane of his rippling abs to the buckle of his pants. He tensed again. She kissed down from his ribs as she undid the button. Delving her tongue into his belly button, she unzipped the fly.
“Jolie...”
The plea walked the edge between begging her to stop and to continue. Afraid of pushing too hard too fast, she walked her hands back up his chest and kissed paths she’d already trod. He moaned, and for the first time his body pressed to hers.
She whimpered eagerly, leaning into a touch that felt like a validation. “God, Hauk.” She kissed back down to the waistband of his pants. Farther, then, pushing the leather around his hips. She nuzzled against the satin-smooth skin of his erection. “You want my mouth here, baby? Is this what you’d like?”
“Yeah,” he breathed. “Please, sweetheart. Please.”
She took him in, filing her mouth with his velvet-coated hardness. The metal rattled again, this time as he struggled to get closer to her. She kneaded her hands into his ass, loving the feel of his muscles. He didn’t seem to mind this time as he gasped in pleasure at the ministrations of her tongue.
As his breathing increased to a pant, she cradled his balls, teasing him gently until he was close to the edge.
Then she pulled away.
He moaned in need. “What are you doing?”
She slid off the bed down one pant leg. “Taking your boots off.”
“What? Why?”
“Because. I want to.” She made quick work of the laces before reaching back up to stroke him idly again. “Do you mind?”
“No,” he said, voice infinitely frustrated.
“Don’t worry, baby, I’ll make it worth your while.”
He shifted his weight, lifting one foot then the other to allow her to remove the boots.
As soon as they were gone, she rewarded him by continuing her attentions on his cock. He relaxed again and shifted into her touch.
Her own breath caught at the feel of his surrender. She wanted to push further, to slide his pants down until he was naked before her. But she didn’t want to startle him into ending the gift he gave her now.
Softening her approach, she slowed the tempo, lavishing care on him with all the affection she felt.
Affection? Or love? She hadn’t brought herself to say the term, but she had started to accept it. She rolled the word through her mind as her mouth moved around his sex, letting the feeling flow through her. Hopefully a little of it came through to him.
He moaned. “Gods, I want to touch you.”
She pulled back and kissed him gently. “And I want to pull these off. May I?” She slipped her fingers into the inside of his waistband. “Please?”
He swallowed. “Yeah.”
She started to push.
“Wait.” He sounded worried.
She stopped. “If you don’t want to...” She’d be kinda crushed. She’d turned greedy when it came to Hauk and wanted all of him.
He sighed. “My left leg. The machinery is exposed. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Relieved, she smiled. It wasn’t that he didn’t want her. Or at least, he had a reason more substantial than that. “I’ll be careful. I promise not to touch the metal below the skin. I’ve been pretty good about it in workouts, haven’t I?”
He didn’t immediately say no.
She nuzzled against his hip. “Oh, please, Hauk. Let me have all of you. I want you so badly. All of you.”
His weight shifted before once again he leaned into her touch. “Okay.” It was a whisper. It was enough.
Reverently she slid the last of his clothes off. One foot lifted then came down softly, the other up and then down with a muffled clank. He shook at the sound. She pressed her face against his good thigh, comforting him. Thanking him.
She couldn’t see him, but she knew he was there, fully exposed before her. Keeping her promise, she clutched his good thigh with one hand and used the other to softly stroke his balls and the skin just behind. Her mouth returned to his cock, more forcefully this time. She would make him come, bringing his body the sort of relief he gave her heart by baring himself.
But before she could finish, he said, “Anarchy. Anarchy.”
Disappointment sank into her. Groaning a protest she pulled back. Hauk didn’t sound unhappy. What had she done wrong? She fumbled blind fingers to his right wrist. The cuffs opened without a key. Frustration hollowed her insides as she depressed the switch.
He moved swiftly, the click of the other lock sounding almost immediately. Instead of disappearing, he pounced. She toppled back onto the bed, surprised by the ferocity when she’d expected a retreat.
His mouth closed over hers, diving into her with a hunger she took and matched. He yanked her underwear off. Landed on top of her again, crushing her into the mattress. There was no space between them as his rough skin scorched her.
God, she wanted this. Him. All over her, inside her. Nothing felt as good as Hauk.
His hips shifted until he was between her thighs.
“Condom,” she gasped. “Bedside table.”
“I’m naked,” he countered.
“I’m blindfolded. Pick.”
His weight lifted as he surged to her left. A wrapper crackled, and he was back on top of her. She lifted her hips in expectation, but he didn’t take her. Instead he gathered her wrists and pinned them above her head in one powerful hand.
“Come on, Hauk. Come on. I want you. Please.”
“I love you.” His voice was raw as if the words tore from him.
She moaned, thrilled to hear them again. “I—”
His other hand landed on her mouth. “Don’t. Don’t say anything unless it’s my name or instructions. Just listen. I love you.” He kissed her throat, his mouth demanding and perfect as his hand left her lips.
Craving for him—his words, his body, everything he had—overwhelmed her. She had no choice but to do as he commanded. “Wesley, please. I need you inside me.”
With a groan he took her, his cock filling her completely and perfectly in one deep thrust. “I love you so much, Jolie. I can’t help it.” Another thrust.
Heart pounding, she cried out in joy and shifted to let him in deeper.
“I love you inside and out. I love to hear you laugh.” More strokes, more declarations, each feeding the insatiable hunger he’d created. “I love the way you fuck me. I love talking to you and fighting with you. I love the way you look and the way you feel. I love the way you think. I love you. No matter what you do or don’t feel for me, I love you.”
Each word marked her as his. She let it happen, shedding her fear to belong to him body and heart. The pressure built as he stretched her from her pinned hips to her pinned hands and again inside from each crashing thrust. “Hauk—”
“Don’t. Don’t answer me. Please don’t.”
If he wasn’t ready, her response could wait. They would make time. “More,” she demanded instead.
He thrust harder. “I love you,” he repeated.
She wrapped her legs around him as tightly as she could, urging him on. “More, Wesley, more. Never enough
of you.”
“Gods, I love you.” He released her hands to cup her jaw. His cheek pressed against hers, bracketing her face.
She reached around him, one hand pressing his shoulders, the other his hip, as close as she could be. “Wesley. My Wesley.” Another firm thrust.
She dropped into ecstasy like a free-fall. “God!” Her arms released as her body shook, waves coursing over her in pleasure.
He cried her name and convulsed. She grabbed onto him again, pulling her lover against her to ride out the last of the spasms.
His arms heaved her against him as he tumbled them sideways. “Don’t leave. Don’t leave,” he pleaded. “Stay.”
“I’m staying.” There was no question of it.
He calmed then, holding her. She wriggled close as she could, so happy to be lying side-by-side with no tension between them. She slid a leg over his hip to keep him close. It was the metal leg, but he either didn’t care or didn’t notice.
His hands stroked her back. His face nuzzled against her, closer than he should be able to because of the distortions on his face, and even that was good because it was him.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“Wesley,” she breathed.
He cut her off with a kiss.
She pulled back. “Take off the blindfold.”
His fingers caressed her temple. He was going to do it.
He shifted, and the side of her foot slipped between the bands of his leg. Something caught the side of her arch and jabbed into it.
She yelped in pain.
He froze. “Shit.”
“Blindfold, Hauk. Get it off.”
But he wasn’t paying attention. “Shit.” He carefully removed her foot. “Oh, baby, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay.” It hurt, but that was nothing compared to the fear that she’d lose him again.
“You’re bleeding.” His voiced sounded so bleak. He let her go and shifted away, as if he were leaving the bed.
She reached for the blindfold to take it off herself.
“Hold on.” His weight left the mattress. “I don’t have my clothes on.”
“Who cares?” A minute ago he didn’t care. “Hauk?”
“Where’s your first aid kit?”
She took the blindfold off. His ass disappeared into his pants as he strode into her bathroom.
Disheartened, she leaned back against her pillow. “Under the sink.” The cut was worse than a scrape, but not doctor-worthy. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”
He returned with the kit and sat on the bed, his eyes downcast.
“Hauk...”
With gentle fingers, he cleaned the cut but didn’t respond.
“Hauk.”
“How badly does it hurt?”
“Ex-dancer. That’s nothing.” She hadn’t gone pro, but she’d been close enough that working on seriously dysfunctional feet was once a norm.
He pressed at the spot, and she barely held back a pained squeak. “Damn, woman. I think the bone is bruised.” He finally looked up, self-recrimination all over his face.
“Hauk, don’t. Don’t blame yourself.”
He shook his head. “I knew better. I knew this could happen. I just want you so badly I lost my head.”
“I knew it could happen, too. But I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.” His voice was loud. “You’re injured the day before Ananke springs their plan. And why?”
“Because I need you.” She shifted her weight and gripped his shoulder. “You keep talking like you’re the only one with needs. You’re not. I needed this tonight. I needed you to make love to me. I needed your skin against mine. I still need it. I’m scared shitless about tomorrow, but I can handle it because I have you here, not just distracting me, but making me whole. Keeping me strong. That cut? That’s nothing compared to what you give me.” As his expression softened, she relaxed back onto the bed. “You want to play doctor for a couple of minutes, that’s fine. Then lie back down and let’s forget about it. I’ve danced en pointe with a whole lot worse.”
His fingers trembled as he bandaged her foot. He didn’t say anything, but she could tell by the hunch of his shoulders that he still took too much blame.
So careful. They still felt they had to be so careful around each other. She was pushing him hard, but that had always been her way, and tomorrow loomed so close. Was she too pushy for their own good?
He ran his fingers gently across her ankle, a hopeless longing on his face. She had no idea what the best way to go from here was. The side of her foot was wrapped. Reaching forward, she tugged on his shoulder. He tensed, that natural reaction against touch still his first response. But this time he let go enough for her to pull him down next to her.
They lay face to face, and he stroked her hair back over her ear. “I’m working on it,” he told her.
She placed a hand over his heart. “I know. Thank you.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Do you know any lawyers not attached to Ananke?” Travis asked impatiently over her voicemail.
Jolie sipped her morning coffee as she admired the view of Hauk sleeping peacefully in her bed. What would he think of them not just digging up his past but sending it back into court? He’d given uneasy permission for the first. But the second? He’d be pissed.
“This is big,” Travis’s voice continued. “I can’t see how his conviction will stick with all the murkiness surrounding his case and Operation Echis. At least run it by a good lawyer and see. But not one connected to Ananke. Their fingerprints are all over it. Afghanistan has billions in unexploited mineral wealth, and somebody’s using the military to get at it.”
If they could get Hauk’s conviction overturned? If he could be a legal citizen again? That would be worth pissing him off a little. Eddie, a friend of her family who was a few years older than her, had gone to Harvard Law. His parents were probably in Ananke up to their necks. But he was gay and decidedly out of the closet, despite his family’s lack of support. The Order might not have touched him because of that. She’d have to feel it out carefully, but he was a possibility.
“Check the— What the...? Gotta—” A static-y thump, like the phone was dropped, and the connection cut off.
Her nerves tingled, jolting the last of the morning tiredness from her. “Travis?” She tried calling his number.
Hauk stirred, likely awakened by her tone. “Everything okay?”
Travis’s phone went straight to voicemail. She checked her clock. It was after ten. They’d slept in longer than they’d intended. Worry made her grimace. “Travis left a message. It got cut off, and now he’s not answering.”
Hauk swung his legs out of the bed, already in go mode. “Think he got injected?”
“The voicemail was from late last night. He must’ve gone somewhere after the party. So maybe. But an injection wouldn’t stop him from answering his phone.” She shook her foot nervously. It was The Day. The rules were different. “Let me check if he came in to work.” She called downstairs to the valet station and asked to speak to him.
He’d been scheduled. He hadn’t showed. No phone call. Adrenaline kicked in, anxiety for her friend wiping the last traces of sleep from her brain.
Hauk saw her face and didn’t ask questions. “Let’s get home.”
* * *
The tension was touchably thick by the time Hauk and Jolie stepped into the Underlight’s common room. Dr. Echelson stood on a table with the rest of the Thing at his feet in solidarity. Though he’d technically stepped down until LaRoche had the potion figured out, the citizens of the Underlight, including Hauk, still looked to him as a level-headed leader.
LaRoche, even more haggard than before, sat off to one side at a table with his microscope, while Tally took blood samples from a line of volunteers.
Mercy was on her feet, arguing with the Thing. Hauk’s usual modus operandi was to go stand by his fellow soldier and ask questions later. So he headed her way.
“There will be no segregating,” one of the Thing reps said, voice insistent.
“I’m not segregating! I’m keeping us safe until LaRoche can find an antidote.”
“We’re not locking half the population...” His voice trailed off as Hauk stepped into the center of the room, Jolie right behind.
Mercy sighed. “Thank the Virgin you’re here. Maybe they’ll listen to you.”
He smirked. “Worried I wasn’t coming back?”
Jolie leaned against him, listening. Her touch felt odd at such a tense moment when he had to step into his military self. Odd, but a welcome reminder of why he did what he did—not for the sake of the fight, but for the people he needed to protect.
Not that Jolie was going to let him protect her.
Mercy hissed an exasperated breath. “Wouldn’t blame you if you did stay gone. Especially now that they’re refusing to separate out the people who’ve been potioned. Even knowing what it does.”
Hauk lifted his brow in surprise. Damned organization that let people make their own damned decisions, even when it put everybody else in danger.
He didn’t need a bench to stand above the crowd. He turned in a circle until he had everyone’s attention and said, “We all understand that Ananke’s formula puts you under their sway, right? Those who’ve been injected and don’t take necessary precautions will become a secondary attack force for Ananke to work against us from the inside. You’ve seen or at least heard how it works, how quickly the shift happens and how forcefully it’ll change you. For the safety of the whole Underlight, I request that you find a way to lock yourself up. If you don’t and you’re here, you will turn against your friends. If you’re elsewhere, you’ll go to Ananke’s temple and tell them how to find us.”
The buzz in the room became an uproar as people digested that. Several people shifted to a table on the side. Hauk sent a questioning glance to Mercy.
“People requesting the Underlight lock them up for the next twenty-four hours.” She sighed. “We’re going to have a crowded shop.”