by Rowe, Julie
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Why?” Kini couldn’t have stopped the question coming out of her mouth if she tried. Smoke knelt in front of her, only inches away, a dark brooding form she wanted to stroke and kiss. But he didn’t want her, not really. Not for keeps.
He cupped her face again with his big, sexy hands and leaned down until his mouth was only an inch from hers. “He hurt you.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. Her whole body ached from the struggle with Freddy and his friend and the rough handling Bruce had given her, no sleep, and their dash to escape. If they hadn’t found this hideaway, they’d probably be captured by whoever was looking for them or dead. She wanted to feel alive, to taste him again, to have him on her lips, to feel him stroking her inside and out. Just touching him was a pleasure, but she wanted it all.
She couldn’t have him. Not for long. Every single relationship she’d ever had died an inescapable death thanks to the disaster that was her childhood.
Trust. Her father had destroyed her ability to trust a man, any man, with her whole self. And yet, this man had saved her life more than once.
Her heart wanted her to stay with him, care for him, while her soul feared what might happen if she did. If she gave herself to him, trusted him, and he later threw her away or broke that trust, something inside her would break, too. Into so many pieces no one would be able to put her back together again. He had so much pain inside him, so much anger. Violence hovered like a vulture over his every move. Could she live with the threat of that vicious carrion bird watching her through his eyes?
But walking away, now, when he needed her and she needed him, seemed cowardly and wrong.
“I hurt,” she admitted. “And I probably look like I just walked out of that zombie apocalypse you want to start.”
When all he did was frown at her, she carried on. “It’s no wonder you don’t want…” Her face was so hot he could probably feel how embarrassed she was, throwing herself at a man who was too good to take advantage. The strain of meeting his pitiless gaze finally became too much and she looked away.
“Don’t want?” The words were spoken in a dangerous purr. “You think I don’t want you?”
She glanced at him and flashed a smile, though all she felt was disappointed. “Who would?” she extended her arms and examined them. With so many bandages, she looked like a casting call reject for the latest Mummy movie reboot.
“Stupid woman.”
The words, growled in a tone that sounded like he had a mouthful of crushed glass, had her gaze snapping back to him.
“What?”
He leaned over her. “You think I’m losing my mind, fighting my need to fuck you, because I’m some kind of polite, whitewashed hero?”
“Obviously not polite,” she shot back. “But, yeah. Guys like you—”
“What the fuck do you know about guys like me?”
“Good guys,” she snapped, sticking a finger under his nose. “Honorable guys. Guys who, when meeting a woman for the first time, offer to hunt down graffiti and car-crashing assholes.” She poked his chest with her finger. “You.”
He grabbed that finger and tugged her forward in a quick motion that unbalanced her. She sagged against him, and he crashed his mouth down onto hers.
Oh no, not this.
She’d made him angry, given him something to prove.
She wiggled and pushed and ignored his mouth’s demand she let him in, but it wasn’t until she let out an aggrieved squeak that he lifted his head.
“I don’t want a pity fuck,” she snarled at him.
“I do,” he snarled back, shocking her. “You have me tied up in so many knots, so desperate to be inside you, I’m losing my fucking mind.”
She studied his face, his body, and hands. He shook all over, and the erection tenting the front of his jeans looked like a steel bar.
“Have pity, sweetheart,” he whispered, his voice raw. “Don’t push me.” He swallowed hard. “I’m scared I’m going to hurt you, and that would fucking gut me.”
He meant it. She could see it on his face and body, feel it in the firm, but gentle hold he had on her arms.
“I need you so bad, it hurts more than all the rest put together,” she confessed. “Please, Smoke. I want to feel alive.”
He blew out a breath, shaking even harder than before. “You’ll stop me if I—”
This time she interrupted by kissing him with an open mouth, sucking his bottom lip, then nipping it before soothing the small pain with lavish licks.
With a groan, he took over the kiss, making love to her mouth the way she prayed he’d do to her body.
His hands were so gentle she didn’t realize he was pulling her torn and battered shirt up over her head. She was all for that. When he pulled back to get the fabric out of his way, she helped by lifting her arms and wiggling.
“I’m dying,” he muttered as he tossed her shirt aside and stared at her bra and the breasts they hid. “Fucking dying.”
“Then you’d better hurry up and fuck me,” she ordered as she all but tore off her bra.
The second it was out of the way he had his hands around her rib cage, lifting her chest up so he could suck a nipple into his mouth.
He sucked hard and she gasped as the pleasure came out of nowhere to fry every brain cell she had left. “Oh God,” she groaned, holding his head to her.
He released her nipple so he could attack the other one, and she had to lock her vocal chords to prevent crying out. The man’s tongue was lethal. His mouth gradually licked, sucked, and kissed its way up her torso and neck until he reached her mouth.
After God only knew how long, he lifted his head. “Naked,” he growled. “I want you naked.”
“Sure,” she said, her gaze taking in his broad shoulders and muscled arms. “You, too.”
He stood and began taking his clothes off. She managed to get her pants and panties down her legs then went to lie down, but he shook his head hard and took her hands.
Frowning, she waited while he lay on the floor and pulled her to straddle him.
“I want you in control this time,” he told her, his gaze taking in all of her.
She froze, surprised. Smoke was a man who liked being in control. A man with a protective streak so wide she couldn’t see the edges of it. For him to cede that control to someone else, anyone else, was a demonstration of trust she’d never expected.
How long would it last?
Unwilling to miss a second of this gift he’d given her, she eased down until she sat on his lower belly. With her hands planted on the dirt on either side of his head, she leaned down until her breasts hovered over his mouth. “What will I do with you?” she asked.
“Anything you want.” His voice was low and rough, and as soon as he finished talking he lifted his head and put his mouth on her, sucking hard.
The pleasure was so intense she had to lock her jaw closed, hissing out instead of screaming.
One of his large hands slid around her waist, holding her to him with the other brushing over her clit as it tested her readiness.
“Wet.” The word was a rumble against her skin.
“I need you,” she whispered, unable to hide her desperation any longer. If he didn’t fuck her soon she was going to cry.
He switched breasts to torment the other while his fingers circled her clit. Around and around, but never quite touching.
“Smoke, please.” She’d beg if she had to.
“Shift back,” he ordered.
Allowing her to slide backward, he held his cock in place while she wiggled and rotated her hips against the head of his penis.
Her breathing deepened and increased in speed until she felt dizzy, but teasing herself and him felt so good.
“Are you trying to drive me insane?” he asked through clenched teeth, as she kept up the tantalizing torment of her hips and his cock.
“Both of us.” A breath shuddered out of her. “Almost…there.”
> “Watching your face as you drive us both crazy is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” he told her. “I’m hanging on to my restraint by a thread, sweetheart.”
She went nose to nose with him. “Fuck restraint.”
His body jerked under hers, his eyes wide, his teeth bared. Just one more little push and he’d lose it.
She stared at him and saw his face twist with pleasure. “Do it,” she ordered. “Do it.”
He set his jaw and slammed up into her.
She threw her head back, stifling the scream.
Smoke growled as he held her hips and fucked her hard and fast. One hand released her hip so he could press his thumb against her clit and the orgasm rolled over her with the strength of a tsunami, holding her rigid before releasing her to collapse on his chest.
He took her mouth in a carnal kiss as he sped up his thrusts, then groaned as his hips jerked against hers, his own orgasm seeming to last a long time.
His heart beat so fast she couldn’t keep up with it, so she didn’t, closing her eyes and allowing herself to truly relax and rest for the first time since she’d gotten up this morning.
…
The floor moved and she jerked awake.
“Shh,” Smoke said, cradling her as he sat up. “You can sleep, but we should get dressed first.”
She nodded and yawned and tried to get up, but her legs didn’t want to work.
He watched her struggle for a second then gave her a crooked smile and lifted her off of him.
They hadn’t used a condom.
She stared at his softened cock, covered in her wetness. “Oh.”
“Are you on the pill?” he asked.
“Yes, and I’m clean. Until you, I hadn’t been with anyone in a couple of years.”
Giving her a smugly satisfied look he said, “Same here.”
That surprised her. “You haven’t? Wow, you must have women hanging off you.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I mean, you’re incredibly good looking and…”—she stroked one hand across his shoulder and down his arm—“muscles,” she said with a sigh.
He flashed her the biggest grin she’d ever seen on his face. “Muscles, huh?”
“Yeah.”
He reached out and cupped one of her breasts. “You’d better put clothes on before I fuck you again.”
Her breath caught as he played with her nipple, and she leaned toward him.
He growled at her. “Clothes, Kini.”
She sighed again but got dressed. That took all the energy she had left. “Do you have more food and water?”
He nodded and, after pulling up his jeans, he opened his backpack and pulled out two bottles of water and protein bars.
She helped herself to her share of the food and water then sat back to watch him finish dressing. The man was fine with a capital F.
“Do we have a plan?” she asked once he’d started eating.
“We wait until the people searching for us settle down, then make a run for town.”
“Won’t they expect that?”
“They expect we’ll probably head for the highway, but we’re not going that way. We’ll go across country.”
“They have a helicopter.”
He shrugged. “So we’ll hear them coming.”
“Who are they?” she asked. “I figured out that Bruce and his crew work for them, but who are they? Where do they come from? What are they doing out here?”
“When you were in the Rogerson house, what did you see?”
“They had a drug lab, probably meth, but they could have been making other stuff besides that. There was a map on one wall. It had tacks in it, marking towns and cities throughout the state. Infection targets. This outbreak wasn’t an accident, but I didn’t see anything about why.” She rubbed her face with one hand. “Bruce seemed to be the leader, and he had three men working there, but they were all sick. There was another man, Gary, who struck me as psychotic in a serial killer sort of way, but he took a man who was really sick into town to the hospital.” She paused to take another couple of swallows of water.
“At first, all Bruce wanted was for me to take care of his people. They all showed signs of lung damage. Not pneumonia, more like emphysema. I think the chemicals they used to make the drugs destroyed their lungs. Bruce wanted me to do the same work.”
“That much I heard,” Smoke said, his face settling into angry lines.
So that’s what had made him attack with such ferocity.
“Anything about Free America From Oppression?” he asked.
“No, but I only got a quick look.”
“Doesn’t matter. If they think you saw anything…” His voice trailed off.
Bruce and whoever else was involved wouldn’t want her to report what she’d seen and heard—it would bring not only the local police, but state and federal law enforcement as well. “They’re not going to stop looking for me. For us.”
“They have limited time.” He smiled grimly. “Homeland Security and the FBI will be here in force, in about ten hours. Any stunts with a helicopter are going to be noticed and investigated.”
“Will River come looking for us?”
He nodded. “He knows no news is bad news.”
“So, how long are we staying in here?”
“Maybe a couple of hours. I’ll do an advance recon to make sure it’s safe.”
“Okay.” Still time to rest, to recover from the worst day ever. The beat of the helicopter’s rotors seemed to be gone, even after she listened hard. “What is this place? Did people actually live in here?”
Smoke shook his head. “No. I built it when I was just a kid. I based it off a kiva, the ancient Native American version of a church and man cave all rolled into one.”
“So, this is your idea of a tree fort?”
“Yeah.” Smoke lay back on the dirt with his hands behind his head. “My grandfather thought I was a bit crazy for building it.”
“Why here?”
“There weren’t any ancient kivas in this part of the canyon. There are a couple remains of pit houses farther down, but they were destroyed when the first white men came to this part of Utah. It was a popular Sunday afternoon activity to go for a picnic and blow up a pit house or cliff dwelling with dynamite.”
“Seriously?”
Smoke smiled. “Yep.”
“People can be so stupid.”
“Truth.” Smoke grunted.
“Speaking of stupid people, who are these guys? The ones with the helicopter and guns? Some kind of domestic terrorist group? Other than that one mention of FAFO on the news, I’ve never heard of them.”
“I don’t know, but you can be damned sure I’m going to find out.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Despite the feeble light from the glow sticks, Smoke could see quite clearly what Kini thought of his intent to bring the assholes down. Concern was written across her face in the sea of wrinkles on her forehead. Concern and more than a little fear.
“After we reach help,” she said, the words an order. “And, with the assistance of River, Homeland Security, and the FBI.”
He didn’t answer, didn’t want to confess that waiting for River, Homeland Security, and the FBI might give the assholes time to escape. He wasn’t going to let that happen. They were going to pay for whatever bullshit they were involved in that made them think murder was just part of business.
“Right?” she asked, expecting an answer.
“If Homeland and the alphabet soup are fast enough to keep up with me,” he finally said.
She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “No. You’re going to wait for them. They’re law enforcement.”
He sat up, put one hand on the dirt, and thrust himself into her personal space bubble. “If I have to wait for two or three different federal agencies to decide who has jurisdiction, those fuckers are guaranteed to get away.”
“One man isn’t capable of taking on a group with eno
ugh people to launch a foot and aerial search.” She leaned toward him until she was all but kissing him and poked his chest with an index finger. “It’s suicide.”
Probably, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
She grabbed his shirt with both hands. “Stop being an ass.”
He could argue or he could do what his hands wanted to do—touch her. As if that was a difficult decision.
He kissed her, taking her mouth hard while he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
Smoke pulled back to be sure she was with him all the way—he wasn’t taking more than she wanted to give him—only to be hauled back into another battle of a kiss.
She nipped his bottom lip hard enough for a bite of pain to jolt him.
He grinned at her. “I like it when you’re mean.”
“You’re lucky I don’t kick your ass,” she muttered, going for an earlobe, which she proceeded to suck and nibble on.
Fuck. They’d just had sex, and he was ready to go again. He eased her away from him. “Slow down. We have to escape and make it back to town without getting caught or killed first.”
“Does River know where you went?”
“I told him, but I don’t know if he’s aware the Rogerson place burned down.”
“Wouldn’t the fire be reported?”
“Depends. The bad guys aren’t going to report it.” He sighed. “Rest.”
He lay down and opened his arms.
She scowled at him then inched over and lay down so he could spoon her from behind.
She was asleep in a couple of minutes, her breathing deep and even.
He wasn’t going to let whoever was hunting them, hurt her.
Who were they? Only a sophisticated and organized group could have a helicopter at their disposal. Were they involved with the drug lab? It didn’t make sense.
Was the drug lab connected to the hantavirus outbreak? What were the odds of all this happening at the same time in the same area without any connections to each other? His gut was telling him everything was interconnected, but he couldn’t see what linked them, the common denominator.
He could see Blackwater getting involved, however—the man enjoyed what power he had a little too much. But, until Homeland and the FBI showed up sometime tomorrow, Smoke was pretty much on his own. He needed more intelligence and information, and there was only one way to get it.