Heroines and Hellions: a Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection

by Margo Bond Collins

  She twisted her face to the side. “We don’t have time!”

  “We’ve got all the time in the world.” His hand skittered down over her breast, cupping it lightly before moving on. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  His lips possessed hers, his hips riding over the seam of her jeans. It rubbed against her wetness, bringing a groan to her lips. Heat welled behind her eyes. Wade had no intentions of going. He never had. Yet she found she couldn’t argue. She didn’t have the words. All they truly had was this, a passion that burned out of control, like someone had poured oil on the flames.

  Or perhaps that was the hurt, deep inside. Demanding that she kiss him hard, rock her hips against him. Hungry to hold him, knowing this could be the last time. A tear slid down her cheek as he ate at her mouth. There was no gentleness now, no finesse. Just the hard steel of his body, and a desire that inflamed them both.

  Tugging at her shirt, he slid his mouth down her throat. Riley threw her head back, her fingers lacing tight around the bars to hold herself up. His lips rode over the thin cotton of her bra, nuzzling at her nipple through the fabric. She gasped as he bit at her, tugging the hardened peak between his teeth until it almost hurt. She wanted that. She needed to feel the pain on her skin, and not just within.

  Moaning, gasping, she urged him on. Wade’s hands moved with exquisite skill, cupping, kneading. Bringing her almost to the edge before easing off. Riley heard herself begging, but it was like someone else had taken over her body.

  “Take me,” she whispered, curling her arms around his neck and nipping at his lip frantically. “Do it. Now.”

  Those blue eyes were hazy with pleasure. His lip curled in a snarl, and he turned and pressed her down over the examination table face-first. Tugging the buttons on her jeans open, he wrenched the tight fabric past her hips, and her panties too. Cool air met her wet, desperate flesh. Then he nudged a hard thigh between her legs, rubbing it against her skin as he slowly worked at his own buttons.

  Riley clenched her fingers in the sheet. Sweet Lord, she was so close. Tension throbbed between her legs, and she cried out as his thigh withdrew, her hips lifting to beg for more.

  Wade’s fingers dipped between her legs, gliding through her slickness. “Darlin’, I can’t go easy.” His other hand clenched in the flesh of her ass. “I need you.”

  She understood. The blunt head of his cock brushed against her, and Riley arched back, feeling it part her lush flesh. Wade gasped, entering her in one hard thrust. Everything within her tightened as he rode over something sensitive, and she couldn’t stop herself from falling, her hips bucking hard and a tortured scream tearing from her lips.

  Each thrust wrung her dry, left her certain she could take no more. Wade was ruthless. He owned her, possessed her with each plunge, hands digging into her hips. Pushing deep, he continuously rubbed over that sensitive spot, and Riley’s eyes went wide as sensation shattered through her. She didn’t think she had anything left to give, but each thrust of his hips shoved her higher and higher, orgasm wringing her to pieces.

  Reaching back, she cupped a hand over his, their fingers interlocking. This time, it was she who begged for the connection, she who was desperate to find something else within this.

  A harsh groan broke over his lips, and his hips shuddered. Riley wrapped her other hand in the sheet, her greedy body clutching his hard as he came. They both cried out, the sound mingling in the air. Then he was collapsing over her, breathing hard, sweat slicking both of them.

  Wade withdrew, and she felt it keenly. Every muscle within her was bruised and pulsing. Riley took a shaky breath and loosened her hand from the sheet.

  “I don’t think I can move,” she whispered. “So much for my getaway.”

  Hands helped her stand, then Wade picked her up and rested her bottom on the bed.

  “I won’t,” he gasped, his forehead pressed to hers. Sweat dripped down his face, the sinews in his arms standing out as he held her tightly. “I won’t do this, not even for you. This is all I have to live for.”

  Riley shook her head. “That’s not true. It’s all you’ve lived for. There’s a world of difference.”

  He shuddered, eyes clenched hard as if to fight the words. “Kidnapping you was the worst decision I've ever made.”

  “Liar.” She kissed his lips gently, nuzzled at his mouth. Her fingertips rasped over the stubble on his jaw as she stroked it.

  A breathless laugh as he kissed her back. “Yes, it was.” He drew back, eyes clouded with indecision. “Yes,” he repeated firmly. “It was.”

  Yanking his jeans back over his hips, he did each button up with exquisite slowness. Riley hopped down off the examination table, feeling suddenly vulnerable. His expression hardened with each button, as though she’d stripped him bare, and he was slowly putting his armor back into place. Searching for her panties, she found them and stepped into them. The jeans were another matter. They were tight, and her thighs were bruised with their lovemaking.

  The rustle of fabric was the only sound. Her anger built slowly. He’d made it clear she wasn’t enough, that his quest for vengeance was more important than she was.

  Gathering her hair, she knotted it back at the base of her scalp with harsh movements. “So it was only one last fuck you wanted?” She’d tried for blasé, but there was an edge to her words that she couldn’t quite help.

  Wade looked at her, his eyes hooded and flat. No emotion. Completely unreadable. “Doesn’t a condemned man get one last meal?”

  “Damn it!” Riley couldn’t hold it in any longer. Punching her fists down against her body, she glared at him. “It doesn’t have to be like that. You could come with me. Run away. Just the two of us.”

  Wade’s shoulders stiffened. “You’re going to stay with me?” Incredulous words. “Out there in the desert?”

  Riley raked a hand back through her hair. “I don’t know. I just know I don’t have a place here.”

  “Yes, you do.” The words were blunt.

  Riley sucked in an angry breath. “Fuck you. You and McClain!” She jerked her shirt down and straightened it. “I don’t know why I bother.” She yanked the backpack up over her shoulder. “Do what you want. Goodbye.”

  Turning on her heel, she started for the door. She got two steps before he grabbed her around the wrist. She was spun around, Wade stepping close, his body hot, hard and stiff with tension.

  “Do you think this is easy?” he snarled. “I’ve spent eight fucking years hunting McClain down. I’ve finally got him in my sights. I finally get a chance at him. And you want me to give it up?”

  Riley looked down at his hand. At the tenuous link between them. “What then? Once he’s dead?”

  “I go after Colton. And Cane.”

  “And then?”

  Silence. Wade vibrated with fury, the silver ring around his pupils expanding. “There is no ‘then,’” he choked out.

  Riley met his gaze. “You didn’t come here to kill them, did you? You came here to die.”

  His mouth twisted. “Them first.”

  She shook her head wordlessly. “That’s a shit dream to live for.”

  “I don’t exactly get a chance at the family and wife bullshit anymore,” he snapped.

  “You could.”

  Wade stared her down. “No,” he said succinctly. “I can’t. I won’t. I’d spare any woman that burden, and as for children….” His eyes hardened. “No.” The last whisper tore her to pieces.

  Riley’s heart hammered in her ears. He wouldn’t come. Not for her. But there was still a chance at this. Her last gambit. One he’d never see coming.

  “Is that what your wife thought?” she asked. “Or your daughter? That they were better off without you?”

  “I didn’t take the time to ask.” Cold eyes, cold voice. He retreated into himself at her words, as if she’d stabbed him with them.

  “So how do you know they’re all right?” she pressed. “How do you know they were better off without you?
”

  Turning around, he yanked his shirt back over his head, dragging it down over that honeyed skin. “I walked away, Riley, but I didn’t abandon them. I sent money back, regular-like, through a man I knew. He let me know if they wanted for something.”

  “And do you still send money back?” Riley took a step toward him, shaking her head. He didn’t know. Her heart clenched, like someone had closed a fist around it.

  “Yes.”

  “Recently?”

  Wade stilled, his head turning so he could look at her. “Why?”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “Yes,” he bit out. “I still send money back. She was my wife, I owed her that. And my daughter….” He frowned, a harsh glint of silver light spreading through his gaze. “How’d you know I had a daughter? I never mentioned her to you. I never mentioned any children.”

  A bitter hand to play, but she played it. Anything to save his life. Reaching down, she dragged the little doll he’d carved out of her bag and solemnly handed it to him.

  Wade looked down, his thumb smoothing over the rough-hewn carving. A desperate longing flickered across his face, then he banished it. “So?” he asked. “I get bored out there on the trail. Ain’t much company, darlin’. I taught myself to carve. Doesn’t mean shit.”

  “I wasn’t finished,” she replied. Gently, she lifted Greta from the bag.

  Wade’s eyes locked on the doll. The color drained out of his face, and he snatched at it. “Where’d you get this?” Looking up, he stepped forward, into her space, fury blazing in those silvery-blue eyes. “Where the fuck did you find this?”

  Riley steeled herself, adrenalin pumping through her veins. His rage beat at her skin, tempting her to step back, to cower, but she’d dealt this hand. Time to deal with the consequences.

  “I met a little girl,” she told him. “In the gardens. Her name is Lily—”

  At the name, he flinched. “Lily,” he repeated hoarsely. Disbelief scoured the rage from his face. “No,” he whispered. “No, you’re lying.”

  “She’s McClain’s ward,” Riley said. “Told me her daddy died when she was two. He got taken by the wargs, out by the Rim.” Taking his hand, she peered earnestly up into his face. “Why would I lie? How would I even know such things?”

  He searched for a plausible answer… and found nothing. She watched each thought chase itself across his face, desperate for this to be some lie, some game of hers.

  “Abbie?” The broken word was a plea.

  Riley slowly shook her head. “Reivers,” she said, as gently as she could. “McClain heard about it when it was too late – seems he kept an eye on your family too. He got there just in time to save Lily. He’s been looking after her ever since.”

  “No. No,” he whispered, the whites of his eyes showing. “That bastard.” A flush of silver-grey in his irises. “He did this,” he said hoarsely, looking past her – through her – as if she no longer existed. “If it weren’t for him I would have been there. I would have—”

  Riley caught his arm, swallowing hard. This wasn’t going precisely the way she’d planned. “I’m sorry, Wade. I shouldn’t have—”

  His head shot up, gaze turning with unerring focus toward the door. Something murderous crossed his face, an expression she’d never want to see turned on her.

  “McClain!” he bellowed, revealing slightly elongated teeth. His eyes were no longer human.

  “Wade,” she warned, taking hold of his wrist. “Don’t do this—”

  The door slammed open, McClain staggering inside. Wade bared his teeth in a hiss and shoved her behind him. “You son of a bitch.” He stepped forward, fingernails lengthening into claws. “My wife died because of you.”

  McClain’s gaze locked on her. Narrowed. “Riley, get out.”

  “He won’t hurt me.”

  “Do as you’re damned well told!” McClain snapped, stepping forward.

  His men fanned out behind him, reaching for the pistols holstered at their waists. New soldiers, she realized grimly. Not the ones she’d rendered unconscious earlier.

  “Couldn’t wait until morning?” McClain taunted him.

  And that was enough. Whatever had held Wade back no longer restrained him.

  “You fucking bastard!” Wade launched at McClain, plowing a fist into his gut. His other hand went for McClain’s throat, shoving him against the wall, his claws out and digging into the strained tendons. “You selfish fucking prick, you killed her! If I’d been there, if none of this had happened, I could have saved her. My daughter wouldn’t have had to watch her mother die!”

  Rage burned in his eyes. Riley yanked at his arm, trying to find some trace of humanity in him. And failing.

  “Wade!” she yelled. “Let him go!”

  Someone grabbed her from behind and dragged her away. Riley kicked and swore, her gaze locked on the two men. Wade yanked his fist back and bellowed. Rivulets of blood traced down McClain’s throat as his claws dug deeper.

  “Stand… back!” McClain snapped hoarsely to his men. He grabbed Wade by the wrist and forced Wade’s grip to slacken. Their eyes met, McClain’s grim, and… full of guilt?

  Wade screamed and smashed him across the face with his fist. McClain went down, and the two guards grabbed for Wade. He spun and hurled one into the wall with a sickening crack. The other wrapped his arms around Wade’s chest from behind, locking his arms to his side, yet he jerked back with an elbow to the guard’s face, then yanked him over his shoulder in a body slam. The guard hit the floor hard, the breath whooshing out of him. Wade met McClain’s eyes, then slashed the guard’s bare skin with his claws.

  “No!” Riley screamed, slumping against the man holding her. She stared in horror at Wade, then slowly down at the man on the floor. The man slapped a hand to his bleeding throat. Shallow wounds. Barely deep enough to cut.

  But deep enough to condemn the guard to his own fate.

  McClain looked up, his face tightening with fury. He launched himself off the floor, hitting Wade at waist height. The pair of them staggered back into the wall – and through it.

  Riley yanked at the restraining grip. “Let me go, let me go!” She dug her fingers into the nerve below the soldier’s thumb and he yelped, letting her go.

  There was nothing she could do for the injured man. The wounds wouldn’t harm him, and no medicine on this ravaged earth could stop the curse from taking hold. Even now, the veins around the slash marks were darkening, each tracery like a fine road map in his skin.

  Riley staggered to the wall and peered through the hole. The two men wrestled on the ground, Wade gaining the upper hand. His arm drew back, fist poised to deliver a massive blow.

  Suddenly, she was shoved out of the way. Falling to her knees, she saw the soldier who’d held her leap through, shotgun lifted high. A sharp crack, and then a grunt. She scrambled back to the hole, watching in horror as Wade fell to the ground like a sack of wheat. The soldier turned his shotgun around and pumped it, aiming directly at the back of his head.

  “Don’t,” McClain rasped, sitting up with a hand held out in restraint. “Stand down.”

  His eyes locked on Riley’s, bleak and dull with grief. “Tell me there’s anything human left,” he demanded.

  She thought of the pain in Wade’s eyes as she’d told him of his wife and daughter, the way he touched her so gently when he kissed her, the hunger in him to be touched. “Maybe I see something you don’t.”

  McClain shoved himself to his feet. Glanced down at the fallen form beside him.

  “I’ll give him his chance. Tomorrow. At dawn,” he said bleakly. “Even though the bastard doesn’t deserve it.”

  He jerked his head toward her as if she no longer existed in his eyes. “Dennis, make sure Riley goes to her room, and see that she stays there this time.” He glared at her. “Even if you have to use a dart gun on her.”

  12

  Riley pressed her knees tightly together, her hands clenched between them. The mo
od of the crowd was electric, pressing in on her from all sides. People laughed, smiled, made jokes. Children scampered across the stands, like this was a holiday.

  Only she felt like someone had wrapped a hand around her intestines. The urge to throw up was strong. This is my fault. All my fault.

  If I hadn’t told Wade about Lily, he would have been calm. He wouldn’t have tried to kill McClain then. Or the guard.

  She stared miserably into the square. One of McClain’s guards leaned against the rail next to her, his presence clear. He was there to stop her from doing anything more.

  The Square was just that, a whole heap of wooden bleachers that surrounded a smooth gravel core. Someone had set up wire caging to protect the crowd for the day’s purpose, but the arena could be used for anything – speeches, meetings, even celebrations.

  And today, blood would stain the red sands.

  Someone slid into the seat beside her and Riley flinched, her nerves rubbed raw. Eden’s tense expression swam into view.

  “What are you doing?” Riley murmured. “Where’s Lily?”

  Eden had promised the little girl wouldn’t have to see this.

  “She’s being watched,” Eden replied, shooting her a tense look. Her shoulders were stiff. “I had to be here. I have to… I have to make sure he’s okay.”

  McClain.

  Riley nodded, turning her eyes back to the arena. “There’s no way…?”

  “I tried to talk to him last night,” Eden replied quietly, knowing what she was asking. “Adam can forgive a lot of things, but Wade deliberately clawed up Cole.” She shook her head. “He won’t back down. Not this time.”

  And neither would Wade.

  The crowd suddenly roared as McClain appeared, flanked by a trio of guards. Clad in his typical black denim jeans and a black shirt rolled up the elbows, he strode with purpose through the gap in the crowd. Someone hauled the chain-link fence open and he strode through, leaving the guards behind.