Winter Warriors

by Denise A. Agnew

  She led him down the corridor. Her room was at the far end, and the corridor seemed to stretch for a mile and take forever to traverse, and when she finally faced the door, she couldn’t get the card into the slot…she shook too much. “Goddamn it…”

  Rhys’ hand came over hers, halting her frantic stabs. He guided her fingers, his own hot and hard against them. The heavy bolts thudded aside, and she pushed the door open and flicked on the lights, threw her coat and shopping bag aside, and turned back to face Rhys, pushing him back against the door, throwing herself at him.

  His arms came around her, and held her in a tight grip. One strong hand buried itself in her hair, pulling her head gently backwards, lifting her face, her lips, up to him. He claimed her mouth with a searing kiss. Against him like that, she felt his trembling.

  His hand tugged at her sweater.

  “Wait.” She pulled up the right sleeve of her sweater to get at the spring-loaded forearm sheath that held her knife, and disengaged the spring. Then she slipped the sheath off and tossed it on the floor behind her. “If you had tugged at the sleeve, it might have unloaded by itself. It’s a hair-trigger spring.”

  He grabbed her waist, pulled her back to him. “And you want to be taken…”

  You’re the only man in this world that can, she told him.

  He groaned, even as his lips claimed hers again. Her sweater was pulled over her head and discarded. She felt the tug on her jeans, and the denim drifted down around her hips. He loosened her bra as the jeans slid lower, and she kicked off her boots and socks before the denim puddled around her ankles.

  But he lowered her to the carpet, right there next to the door, and understanding flared in her. He was out of time, out of patience. It would be now. Here.

  His haste sent a thrill through her nerve endings, making them tingle almost painfully. All her senses were hyper-alert, absorbing every sensual stimulus. The carpet against her ass and back, Rhys’ harsh breath, the heat of his hands against her flesh.

  He pulled both her jeans and her panties away together, stripping her from the waist down with one impatient tug. Jenna shrugged out of the bra, the last item she wore, as Rhys settled on his knees between her thighs. She reached for his jeans and undid them quickly, as he slid out of the shirt, the need to hurry goading them both. Despite her haste, her crumbling composure, Jenna found herself growing still for one quiet heartbeat, as she gazed upon his naked chest and shoulders, the ripple of muscles under lightly tanned skin, the fine line of hair that feathered down into the open fly of his jeans, a subtle arrow… and the scars.

  She had seen scars like that before. They were a crazy quilt of slices, scrapes, grazes, knife wounds, and lines of thick scar tissue tracing old stitched wounds. That is what a soldier would look like after years of hard action. She carefully shielded the thought from Rhys.

  He slid out of his jeans, and she caught her breath as she saw his cock for the first time. The thick member throbbed visibly, and her heart gave a small, electrified jump as she anticipated what it would feel like sliding into her. Her vagina and clit throbbed in reaction. Deliberately, she pushed the thought to him.

  “Hurry,” she added.

  He leaned over her, and she welcomed his weight, gripping his back and winding her leg over his hip. The blunt tip of his cock pushed gently against her slick cleft, and she gave a little moan, trying to ease his access and draw him into her.

  “Jenna.” He was watching her face.

  “Ah, you’re teasing.”

  “I’m…savoring.” His voice still sounded thick, furry. “I have waited a long time for this moment.”

  “This moment?” she asked. “This right now, this moment?”

  “Oh, yes. This very moment…here.” And his cock pushed inside her, a very slow, continuous motion that brushed every nerve ending…her vagina opened up to accept him, sheathing him, the penetrating width of him, until finally he rested completely inside her, and his pelvis pressed against her clit. She groaned, her eyes closing, as she, too savored it.

  Rhys picked up her hand, his fingers curling through and over hers, and brought it to his mouth. He kissed the back of her hand, his lips hot.

  The magical moment passed, and her body rallied…grew taut, cried out for more. The sheath of muscle around his cock spasmed, and he gave a low laugh. “More?”

  “Yes.” Her voice was hoarse.

  He thrust slowly, and she caught her breath at the deep pleasure each motion pushed through her. Her body tensed and her breath became ragged. Every corpuscle contracted with delicious tension. She was going to climax within seconds, and she looked up at Rhys, her eyes widening. Quickly, she thrust the sensations at him.

  He kissed her. “Yes. Come for me,” he whispered. “Show me.”

  She closed her eyes, and opened her mind in the new way, sinking herself into the swiftly building climax.

  Her feelings were being enhanced…she shared Rhys’ sensations, too.

  It was a strange sense of doubling. She saw/felt both of their feelings: the familiar, satisfying sensation of having a man’s cock buried deep inside her, hot and warm, but over the top of it the experience of being inside her. It was a little odd, but the associated feelings were intensely pleasurable…the soft pressure of her muscled sheath around him, the silvery delicate stroke at the sensitive head of his cock as he withdrew and pushed back in, her overwhelming heat and softness…all of it rising to a hard, swooshing climax that was building, it seemed, from his toes.

  It overwhelmed her. With a cry that tore at her throat, Jenna climaxed. The shock wave of sensations rolled through her body and mind, blurred and doubled by Rhys’ orgasm, as he locked into a tight bow against her with a guttural groan. For a moment the world grayed around her as the climax throbbed and pulsed in her, wave after wave.

  Rhys was stroking her cheek with his thumb, watching her again, when she finally took note of her surroundings once more. He looked sleepy, with his half-closed eyes, but the eyes themselves glittered with the same intensity she had first noticed.

  “Oh my…” she murmured. “Do you always…share like that? How do you stop the top of your head from exploding?”

  “I’ve never shared like that.” He leaned down and kissed her mouth while she assimilated his answer. The kiss was sweet, slow and deep, then his lips moved down to her throat, while his hand came alive and swooped up to capture her breast. She recalled the sense/thought he had given her, his hand feeling the weight of her breast, stroking the nipple, and gave a small sigh as his fingertips slid over her responsive flesh, sending a ripple of delight through her.

  Her body stirred again, responding. His cock, buried in her, was still hard, and she contracted around him.

  “Mmmm…” His lips moved against her collarbone.

  She cupped his ass cheeks, and slid her hands up the length of his back to his shoulders, feeling more scars beneath her fingertips, and the play of muscles and tendons beneath his flesh.

  When his mouth took in her nipple and his tongue stroked the tip, the sparks of excitement that flitted through her made her hands drop to the floor, and try to dig into the carpet. She groaned. He knew exactly what to do. The most sensuous stroking, the perfect caress.

  Her whole body began to quiver with renewed excitement. The breath-robbing, surging waves swept through her, sensitizing nerves again.

  “Yes.” His tone sounded almost triumphant, as he transferred his attention to her other breast, his weight shifting over her.

  “What are you doing to me?” She gasped as his teeth closed around her nipple and tugged.

  “Changing you. Making sure you are never the same again.”

  Jenna shivered beneath the tremors he sent through her. She knew he would get his way, that the process had already begun.

  He lifted himself up carefully, picked up her hips, and with an athletic movement she’d never seen before, lifted her up so she straddled his thighs. His cock had remained deep inside her throug
hout, and now she felt him push even deeper as she settled over him.

  Then he got to his feet, sliding her legs around his waist, and moved into the room proper, and sat on the bed. He grinned impishly, and suddenly seemed young and carefree. “That’s better.”

  Jenna unwrapped her legs, and pushed at his shoulder. “Lie down,” she commanded, and his cock moved within her as he obeyed, the head rubbing against the slippery muscles there, stroking in a deeply intimate way.

  She leaned over him, and was strangely pleased to realize that she had to spread her arms wide to do so. With a wicked grin of her own, she lifted herself up, so his cock slipped almost all the way out of her, then slowly lowered herself back down.

  Rhys’ hands on her thighs tightened their grip. “Lord…” The proximity of his hands to her pussy made her clit throb with a tingling anticipation. She was spread open and vulnerable, this way. She sent that thought.

  And his hand slipped along the delicate skin of her inner thigh, to slide between her fleshy lips and stroke the aching, swollen nub. For each thrust she took, his fingers stroked and teased her clit, sometimes sliding down to where his cock pierced her flesh, and caressing the folds there.

  When he lifted his head and began to lick and suckle her breasts, the first early waves of another climax gripped her. Her rhythm faltered, her concentration scattered. Rhys grabbed her hips and tipped her onto her side, bringing her leg up over his hip, taking control of the rhythm, as her senses drowned in the deep pool of pleasure. She reached out blindly for him, and his hand took hers and placed it against his heart. She felt the frenetic beating there, and opened her eyes a fraction to look at him. “Show me.”

  And she was immersed immediately in his sense/feelings—the climax that began to shudder through him, the delight of being surrounded by her soft, malleable flesh, the delicateness of her, her responsiveness to him, her joy in her own pleasure, to be rewarded thus—

  Every tendon in her body flexed as her orgasm gripped her, and the moment drew out, and out and yet further out…

  * * * * *

  They lay in a tangle of limbs for long minutes after, neither saying a word. Jenna listened to his breathing ease, her eyes half-closed, her hand still resting against his chest.

  “Jenna.” It was a soft command.

  She opened her eyes.

  He touched her nose. “You’ve become pale again.”

  She caught his quick image—her white face, a handful of endearing freckles standing out in stark relief. The flesh looked almost translucent.

  “Time to eat.”

  “Again? But…”

  “You’re using up energy with every surge.” His thumb brushed across her cheekbone with a featherweight touch. “It has its bonuses, you know. You can indulge in dark chocolate to your heart’s content.”

  “I’ve never been a chocolate lover.” She yawned suddenly, hugely.

  Rhys slid her thigh from his. “Food. Let’s go.”

  His command was backed up with a mental push. A nudge to prod her into action. Behind it, she sensed his concern for her health.

  Reluctantly, Jenna dragged herself to the bathroom to clean up and dress.

  Within ten minutes they were both ready to face the public once more, but Rhys studied her, frowning. “Are you wearing your knife?” he asked.

  Jenna felt a genuine shock. “No. And it’s normally so automatic to put it on…”

  “Put it on. I can offer you all sorts of protection, but only if I’m near you. And even I can’t stop an avalanche, or a physical attack if I’m not right there.”

  She saw again all the pale scars on his body and shivered. “Even inside the Banff Springs Hotel?”

  “Here, their only recourse is physical violence. Even they are bound by the Coda.”

  “Should we even go downstairs again, then? Surely we should order food in?”

  “The restaurant will be quicker. And I want to test the waters. You’re a professional, Jenna—you know it’s critical to keep tabs on movements of the enemy.”

  True. She couldn’t deny it was an essential component of her work, gathering information. “I suppose…it will be safe enough. Will Clement Hine have realized where we are? Would we have…drawn him?”

  “Not that precisely. And Banff is made of hotels. He could spend a long time searching the town looking for us. He’s probably checked out the hotel a number of times, but the security here is very tight so he would never be able to wander the upper corridors freely, and they certainly won’t tell him I’m here. We’re relatively safe in the hotel.”

  “From what you’ve said of him, he sounds more resourceful than that.”

  “He is.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “Don’t let my complacency fool you, Jenna. There’s only you and me against Hine’s dogs. And…I don’t know if we will be strong enough. I know my own abilities, but yours are completely untested, and they haven’t been bound yet.”

  “And you’re complacent because…?”

  “Because even if Hine found us here, he wouldn’t make a move until the solstice. He’ll just watch us.”

  “Why? That’s crazy! Why would anyone just wait? I could think of a dozen ways to breach security even here.”

  “By now he knows we have started the bonding process. He’s too late to stop it. So he will be concentrating all his efforts on preventing the final binding. The solstice is the critical moment.”

  “If it’s so critical, then he’d know we’d be ready for him then. I would attack earlier.” She shrugged. This sort of strategizing was second nature to her.

  “But it’s not you, Jenna. And Hine has me to confront. He knows I’m more powerful. He knows he’ll only get one chance at this, for that is all his strength will allow him. If he attacked now and failed, and even if he partially succeeded, I’d still be able to recover and reach the solstice, and I’d bring you along with me. He needs to stay his hand until the right moment. For him, that’s just before the solstice, because then he only has to delay us for just long enough for the solstice to pass, and that is how he will defeat us.” He took a deep breath, let it out. “For that, his powers are strong enough. But until then, we have a small pocket of time. In that time I must prepare you.” His dark eyes studied her.

  She picked up the sheath and armed it, and pulled up her sleeve to strap it on. “Why me? Why do they want me all of a sudden?”

  “Because until the solstice, these powers of yours that you are just coming into—they might be converted and used for the most obscene purposes.” And she saw his thoughts turn inwards, and his face became bleak, and sad. Then he suddenly remembered where he was and stirred. “Let’s eat. I’m starving.”

  * * * * *

  When they reached the cavernous marbled foyer Rhys paused at the foot of the stairs that led to the restaurant, gazing over his shoulder towards the big picture windows that looked out onto the street. Without a word he changed directions, heading directly for the windows.

  Jenna caught up with him. “What is it?”

  He stood before one of the windows, staring out at the thick snow falling in front of the window, concentrating on it.

  Before he could answer, one of the massive wooden doors opened and a couple stepped inside, stamping their feet to dump the thick encrustations of snow from their feet.

  “Man, that snow!” the male said. “Can you believe it?”

  “Came out of nowhere.” The woman brushed the snow from her hair.

  The doorman grabbed the handle of the door behind them, but before he could pull it shut, Rhys caught his attention. “Thick out there?”

  “Oh, not to worry, sir. We’re keeping on top of it.”

  Jenna glanced at the small dollops of melting snow sitting on the floor where the couple had stamped them off. If they had been keeping up with it, the snow would not have been thick enough to cover toes.

  “You’re doing a tough job there.” Rhys sounded a little awed. “Do they say how long this
is going to last?”

  The doorman pursed his lips. “Shouldn’t last too much longer, I’d say.” He nodded and shut the door on them, cutting off the chill that had been seeping past him and curling around their ankles.

  Rhys turned back to the window.

  Jenna took up the spot next to him. What is it?

  He shook his head a little. An uneasy feeling.

  Jenna sensed the concern, the amorphous feeling of growing dread in him. And she realized with a shiver that she shared that feeling. It was akin to her suspicious instincts kicking into gear when she was on a SIA assignment, but this time the weight of it seemed to be hovering in the very air she breathed, like the tension before a massive storm.

  It’s them, isn’t it?

  His confirmation came as a sense of utter certainty. He didn’t articulate his response.

  Who are they? And how is it they can command the weather? She caught her breath as dark spots danced before her eyes. Sudden weakness threatened to buckle her knees. The sensation of being an empty husk returned.

  Rhys turned away from the window and caught her elbow. “Enough. You must eat.” He drew her back across the floor towards the stairs that led to the upstairs restaurant.

  “But how are they doing this?”

  “The one they follow…he could employ the weather, and would if it meant delaying us, or preventing us from achieving our purpose.”

  “What is that purpose? You keep promising me an explanation.”

  “I know.” He looked down at her and smiled a little. “Are you ready for that explanation? You’ve had a hard enough time swallowing what I’ve told you so far.”

  “In for a penny…” She shrugged. “Besides, there appears to be some interesting…compensations…for this strange stuff.”