by Marie Harte
“Watch me,” he ordered huskily and entered her slowly, stretching and filling her with his vitality. The pained hunger on his face shook her, and as they slowly became one, she knew she would never be the same again.
His breathing grew labored and Alex urged him for more. “Please,” she said and gasped as he thrust his entire length deep. Stuffed full, she could only clench him tight, not wanting their coupling to end.
He groaned her name, his muscles straining as he held himself inside her.
“Oh, yes,” she moaned and could only feel as he pulled out, then thrust himself deeper. Over and over, he moved within her until she couldn’t take any more. Her desire and his mingled in her mind, the feel of him and the feel of her surrounding him entangled into one entity, straining for perfection.
He rocked again and the pressure on her sensitive flesh pushed her over the edge. “Hunter,” she cried as her body exploded into shards of orgasmic bliss. He plunged into her, yelled her name, and shuddered.
The ecstasy pulsed, a roar of pleasure that muted everything but Hunter in her mind.
After a few moments, Hunter leaned up on his elbows and stared down at her. Alex saw a look she’d never before seen on his face. He looked relaxed and, dare she say it, happy.
“That was incredible.” He lowered his forehead to hers and groaned. “I think you may have killed me.”
Alex laughed, sheer joy coursing through her. She felt no remorse or embarrassment for what she’d done. She’d been fighting her feelings for this man for some time now. And she was finally tired of denying herself. Now she only had to figure out what all this meant.
She pulled Hunter’s mouth back to hers and kissed him deeply. When he didn’t pull away and thickened inside her once more, she jolted. She didn’t know how, but her body began tingling all over again.
“Angel, I’ve been waiting for this forever,” he growled, his gaze burning with need. “It’s going to take more than just once to relieve all this tension.” He began the familiar rhythm, his thrusts overtaking her senses yet again.
“Well then.” Alex sighed into his mouth. “Let’s relax each other.”
WHEN ALEX NEXT AWOKE, she found herself alone in Hunter’s bed, a shower running and smooth jazz floating through the room the only sounds in the house.
She stretched and felt a small twinge between her thighs. It had been a very long time since she’d been intimate with a man, and it had never in her life felt as earth-shattering as it had with Hunter.
They had spent all morning learning one another’s bodies. And what a thrill that had been. The man touched her in ways she’d never dreamed. With a subtle kiss or caress, he had her body humming like a well-tuned instrument.
She moved and grimaced at the wetness between her legs. She and Hunter hadn’t used protection. The first time, so wrapped up in the overwhelming feelings he’d invoked, she’d been completely oblivious to the thought of birth control. But, after that first time, they’d agreed it wouldn’t feel right with anything between them save skin.
Alex was on the Pill and maintained a clean bill of health. Hunter admitted it had been some time for him as well, and she couldn’t see him lying about it. The man could be stubborn, autocratic, and at times, bullying. But he’d never put her at risk, especially when he’d done his best not to have sex with her from the moment they’d met.
“Alex,” he shouted from the bathroom. She walked into the bathroom and stared at his powerful body through the bubbled glass of the shower doors. So strong, yet he’d been so tender with her. She’d never before been with a man who could satisfy her every time. He was becoming addicting.
He opened the door and yanked her in with him.
“Hey!”
“Hey yourself,” he grumbled. She gasped under the warm water streaming over her. “I thought you were coming in here with me.”
“I don’t want to be too clingy,” she teased and saw his answering smile.
“No, no, angel. Be as clingy as you want.” He grabbed the soap, lathered his hands, and ran them over her body. He didn’t so much clean her as stoke her into a new frenzy of desire.
Alex could only stare at the primal male before her, entranced by the muscles gleaming under the water, and by the intensity in his eyes as he watched her. Since their first time, he seemed perpetually hard around her.
“Doesn’t that ever go down?” She reached out and took him in her hands, stroking with a firmness he liked.
“Damn,” he said on a breath and leaned back against the shower wall. “It’s you, Alex. Around you, I can’t help myself. What are you doing to me?”
“I wonder if you taste half as good as you look,” she asked him thoughtfully.
“Dear God, you do read minds.”
She laughed but noted the intense study he gave her mouth.
With a sly smile, she slowly lowered to her knees.
He blocked the raining water with his broad back and widened his stance. The gasp he gave when she took his long, thick cock in her hands satisfied the hungry woman inside her.
“Baby, yeah, do it. Suck me, Alex. Shit.” He closed his eyes when she pumped him with her hands.
“Watch.”
“Fuck.”
She watched his eyelids shutter his expression as she wrapped her lips around the head of his shaft. He palmed the back of her head but didn’t pull her closer. He tasted clean, a mixture of raw male, water and a hint of soap. She loved the power in him, but more, she loved how much power she wielded over him like this.
“God, you’re so good,” he moaned when she cupped his balls in her hand. She stroked his sac and inner thighs while she licked his shaft from base to tip, alternating suction with her strong tongue.
His balls grew tight, and the salty taste of his precome and the trembling of his thighs caused her to grin around him.
“You little witch.” He moaned. “Dammit, Alex. I’m trying to hold on, but you’re killing me. I’m going to come, baby. So hard. Swallow me.”
She sucked harder, taking as much of his length in her mouth as she could manage. She didn’t think she’d taken much, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Yes, yes, baby. Now.” He cried out and she sucked him harder, swallowing the jets of seed that filled her mouth.
She’d brought him such pleasure, and the giving made all the difference. He was sighing her name, caressing her head with loving hands.
When she finally finished, she kissed his cock one last time and rose on shaky feet. Tasting him turned her on like nothing else.
“How was that—?”
Before she could finish, he kissed her breathless. And then he went down on his knees.
“Just returning the favor, angel.” His smile was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
They didn’t leave the shower for a good long time, lost in the magic of each other.
ONCE CLEAN, DRY, AND dressed again, Alex left Hunter’s bedroom and dropped onto his couch, feeling boneless. She needed a moment to gather her thoughts.
Hunter had a playful side to him that surprised her. In turns, he’d been gentle and giving, rough and demanding. But he’d touched her with something more than carnal devotion. The look in his eyes as he took her spoke more than words could say. The man cared for her. She didn’t know how much, but that he did changed everything between them.
Alex had no intention of asking about his feelings or their future together. She wasn’t naïve, and she didn’t want to ruin things between them when they’d only just started. But she knew this operation was only the beginning. She could only hope the stubborn man wouldn’t balk at a future relationship. With Hunter, who knew?
“So, what do you think we should do for an encore?” he asked in a deep voice as he joined her. He bent down for a kiss, and Alex returned it with affection.
“I need a break,” she admitted.
He laughed, pleasing Alex at the ease with which his lips now formed a smile. “Me too. Contrary to
popular belief, I’m not Superman.”
“You could have fooled me.”
“You should talk. Around you I’m a walking hard-on.”
She blushed. “Hunter.”
“Sorry, angel, but that’s the truth. Mind you, I’m not complaining.” His stomach rumbled. “But you know, I think my stomach is. We need food.”
“Good idea.”
As they worked together to make sandwiches, Alex took the opportunity to learn more about her lover. Hunter Greye is my lover. Holy crap.
They sat down to eat, but Hunter didn’t touch his food. “What?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“Why are you looking at me like that?” His eyes narrowed.
“Like what? How am I looking at you?”
“Like you’re not sure how to talk to me. I thought we’d communicated pretty well today. So, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I want to know more about you, but I didn’t know how to ask,” she said bluntly. Hunter, she was coming to learn, was not a man to finesse.
He relaxed. “Hell, Alex. I’m an open book.”
She snorted.
“What do you want to know?” He took a huge bite of his sandwich.
“Where do I start? How about telling me how you joined Westlake? J.D. mentioned you’d been in the military.”
“J.D. talks a lot,” he grumbled. “It’s not a secret. My father was a career Marine, and I guess that dedication bled through to my brother and me. I joined the Corps right after college. My, ah, abilities made me a prime candidate for the work I did.”
Alex wondered at his hesitation. “Did anyone in the Marine Corps know about your gift?”
“It’s not a gift. It just is. And no, because I didn’t want them to know. Growing up, we—I—was taught to keep what I could do under wraps. At the time, ugly rumors kept surfacing about a government organization that was investigating psychic phenomena. The people they took for study were never seen again.”
Alex nodded. Her uncle had heard the same, rumors about an institute dedicated to exploiting psychic abilities at the expense of their test subjects. Just another reason Uncle Max loathed the government.
“I kept quiet and did my job, but my successes brought me attention anyway. The CIA recruited me, and I spent a lot of time in South America.” He frowned.
“What happened?” she asked softly.
“I got engaged. Talk about a mistake. My work took me away from home more and more. Things with Anna didn’t work out.” He cleared his throat. “Then, one day Jurek showed up at a debriefing. And three months later I was working for Westlake Enterprises.”
Alex’s mind raced. A fiancée? Dangerous, top-secret missions? A fiancée? She had to ask. “Did Anna know about you?”
He grimaced and set down his food. “You mean about my freaky abilities? I told her.” He shrugged, as if it were no big deal, but Alex sensed anger, frustration, and pain beneath the casual gesture. “It didn’t work out between us, and she left.”
“Her loss.”
Hunter blinked at her. His lips slowly quirked. “Yeah, her loss.” He picked up his sandwich again. “So, what about you?”
“Me? Well, my parents died when I was eleven. Uncle Max, my mother’s brother, took us in. He raised us, and we work for him. Not nearly as exciting as your story.”
“Oh? I can’t move things with my mind.”
She flushed. “My entire family is different. My mother and father were both psychic. My uncles are as well.”
“Uncles?”
“Max and Uncle Tommy, Thorne and Luc’s dad. All of us find our unique talents when puberty hits. It’s not pretty.” She grimaced. “It takes a while before you can control it. I can’t tell you how many boyfriends I lost because I was known as the school freak.”
He gave her a commiserating nod. “Which is why I never told anyone what I could do.”
“I learned that the hard way. I pretty much keep to myself and do my job. I’m happy.”
“Are you?” Hunter asked, his gaze intense.
“I guess. I love my family. It’s hard sometimes,” she said quietly. “I don’t date a lot. I’m a stickler for honesty, and I always feel like I’m being less than honest because I can’t share that part of myself.”
“Yeah.” He took a long swallow of his drink. “I know the feeling.”
They sat in silence, staring at one another.
Hunter cleared his throat and stood, breaking eye contact. “So how do you like being a private investigator?”
Alex felt a moment’s discomfort. How the hell had the topic veered into her personal problems? “I like it, now that I’m finally allowed to do some field work.”
“About that... I don’t like you so close to Omaney. I was this close to ripping his guts out when he mauled you in the hotel room the other night.”
“I had it under control.”
“Did you? Alex, Omaney’s not right. He fucking drugged you. And he’s way too into you for my peace of mind.”
“Mine too,” she admitted. “I’m not ignorant of the danger, Hunter. I can handle this.” And if he thought about taking her away from it, he could think again.
“You’re going to have to. I can’t keep an eye on you and do my job at the same time.” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “Dammit, Alex, this is a stupid plan. Taking you to Wraith could be your death sentence. We don’t know what we’ll find there. What if, by some chance, we find Rebecca, but we lose you?”
“And what if we lose you?” she retorted. “Just because you’re a man doesn’t make you any less vulnerable to a bullet. Wraith and Omaney are slime. They’re dangerous. But so are we.”
“We? I know what I’m capable of. So far, the only thing you’ve done is make me lose my damned mind.”
Incensed that he thought so little of her, and worse, that he had cause, she drew on her telekinetic ability. Alex rose to her feet and advanced on Hunter in the kitchen. She slammed him up against the cabinets, holding him there by the sheer force of her mind.
“Shit. Not bad.” He tried to push past her restraint, and she increased her focus. “Alex, this side of you is really turning me on.”
Gratified by his approval, as well as the humor in his tone, she let him go. “You’re really strong. It usually doesn’t take so much to hold a person back.”
“Good to know.” He took her in his arms. “Look, I know how much being in on this op means to you. I just, I worry, okay?” He hugged her. “I thought that sex with you would work you out of my system, but it’s only getting worse,” he muttered.
“Great, I sound like a disease.”
He snorted. “I never know what to make of you. Keeps me off balance.” He pulled her with him out the door.
“Where are we going?”
“Back to work. We never did get around to seeing just what you’re capable of on the mats. And I need to see it. I need to know you can hold your own, so that I can do what I need to when we meet Wraith.”
When we meet Wraith. The acceptance she’d been craving for so long felt within reach, and she’d be damned if she’d let it go. Taking the lead, Alex tugged Hunter with her.
“Okay, big guy, but don’t complain when I show you how a real woman deals with a problem.”
TWO HOURS LATER, HUNTER stared at the ceiling in his makeshift gym, winded and glad of it. Alex could more than hold her own. Between the martial arts training her uncle had insisted she have and her mental mumbo jumbo, the woman had put him on his ass several times. He turned his head and stared at her, more enamored now than he’d been before.
Contrary to what she might think, Hunter prized strength in all forms. Anna had been weak-willed. Alex was anything but. Her telekinesis aside, she had the fortitude to stand up to him. Not many did, man or woman.
“So whose idea was it to break into Omaney’s warehouse?” he asked on a breath.
Alex turned on her side and ran a hand over his chest. “Mine. I’m the troubl
emaker in the family. Just ask my uncle.”
He chuckled. “I’m not surprised. So what’s the deal with your brother, anyway? The other day, he and I had a discussion, and he nearly had a panic attack.”
She froze. “He did?”
“Yeah, he did.” All his senses told him there was more to Cole’s reaction. But to his disappointment, Alex shrugged him off.
“Who knows? My brother has his quirks. Like we all do.”
“Yeah, I guess.” It was too soon for blatant honesty, apparently. Then again, Hunter had no intention of telling her everything either, like what had really happened with Anna.
“So, what about your brother?” she asked. “Earlier, you said you were taught to keep your abilities a secret. But you said ‘we’, then corrected yourself. Is your brother like you?”
Shit. Just more evidence that this woman had burrowed her way under his skin. He didn’t talk about Adrian to outsiders. Maybe she’s not an outsider, not anymore.
“Hunter? If you don’t want to talk about him, that’s okay.”
Why? Because that makes it okay for you to hide details about your family? Irrationally angered she might want to keep parts of herself hidden from him, Hunter growled, “My brother is exactly like me. Adrian is still in the Marine Corps, though. He likes what he can do. The little jerk gets off on it.”
“And you don’t?” She curled her hand around his biceps. Her touch soothed his tension, like beauty comforting the beast, he thought with amusement. “You seem pretty at ease in your own skin.”
“I’ve worked at it. When I told you I know what I’m capable of, I wasn’t bragging. The things I’ve done... I had good reason, but my abilities, if you can call them that, are pretty primitive. I really am a hunter.” Totally bizarre his father would insist on naming him that. “The thrill of the chase heats my blood. I can get too focused, until everything fades but capturing my prey.” The hunts, that seething, perpetuating need to conquer, to draw first blood...
“Ah, okay. So was I your prey? You seemed pretty intent on capturing me,” she teased and, that easily, she pulled him out of an encroaching darkness.