Her lips found his once more. She kept her hand on his cock and began stroking it with rapid motions, her lips remaining locked against his. Brad stiffened and tried to lift her, wanting to give her pleasure too. Alice pushed hard on him with her free hand, keeping him pinned in place with more than just sheer strength. He smelled something different on her. Something more.
He opened his eyes, his tongue wrapped around hers. Magik. He smelled magik and it was coming from Alice, keeping him pinned in place. His wolf, which had been so eager to get a shot at sex with Alice, didn’t take kindly to having her in charge. It was alpha, and it wasn’t about to allow him roll over and let a woman take control.
It struggled, wanting to be freed, but he knew better. It was unpredictable, and he’d never willingly allow it out around Alice. He wouldn’t risk her.
His hand found its way to her long red hair and she tore her mouth from his. Hunger reflected back at him and he knew he was nearly as out of control as she was.
“Hurts,” she whispered, flecks of blue mixing in the with the black in her eyes.
“Come back to me, baby,” said Brad, running his thumb over her cheek. “I want you, but not like this. I won’t take you when something else is controlling your actions.”
He wasn’t so sure he believed his own words. He’d managed to hold out all that time against everything the doctors did to him only to nearly lose it all in the front seat of a car with some chick he’d just met.
She’s more than just some chick, he thought, caressing her cheek more.
Moisture coated Alice’s eyes, and she trembled on his lap. “I’m here,” she whispered. “I’m in here.”
He cupped her face, wanting to kiss her but restraining. “Alice?”
She managed a slight nod. “She’s letting me up.”
“She?” he asked, not following.
“H-Harlot,” she pressed between clenched teeth.
It took Brad a bit to get her meaning, and when he did, he understood. Her succubus. Alice felt as removed from it as he did with his wolf anymore. And right now that driving force in her was permitting Alice, the woman, to have some semblance of control.
“Tell me what to do,” Brad said, continuing to hold her face gently. “I can feel your need, your hunger, and it’s beating at my willpower. I’ll take you wherever you want to go. Who can help you heal, baby? Tell me and I’ll make it happen. I’ll do anything for you.”
The words caused him to take pause.
Alice began stroking his cock once more, additional blue showing through the black in her eyes. She leaned in. “You. I pick you. No one else. She wants it to be you too. Only you.”
He had to turn his face from her, his teeth threatening to lengthen as he and the wolf had a moment of celebration at her words. She wanted him. As much as he wanted to tear the thin bits of scrubs from her, he didn’t trust his control. And he certainly didn’t trust his fucking wolf.
“I can’t,” he managed, but just barely as she increased her hand movements on his shaft.
“Please.”
A piece of him broke as he heard the small, helpless plea come from her. He nodded, unable to speak for fear he’d let the wolf free. She put her face close to his once more and it was Brad who started the kiss but Alice who then took the lead. Again his wolf wanted to protest the idea of someone else being in charge. It wanted him to put her in the backseat of the car, tear every strip of clothing from her and then ram deep inside her. It wanted to claim every inch of the pale beauty seated on his lap. But Brad wasn’t sure the wolf would stop there. Whatever had been done to him left the wolf almost feral and he didn’t want to think harder on what it might do to Alice should he let it out.
She kept jerking him off as she rubbed herself against him. Having her touching him in such a way and kissing him was all too much. Between it and his wolf wanting to show everyone who was in charge, Brad found himself doing the unthinkable—surrendering completely.
He was well and thoroughly beaten. She’d done what the guards couldn’t. She’d broken him, but the price was one he was willing to pay. She needed this. She needed to be in control and to take whatever it was she wanted from him. Brad stopped trying to lift her off him and yanked on her, allowing her to lead their kiss fully.
At the same moment, his balls tightened, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold off his orgasm any longer. More importantly, he didn’t want to. The wolf felt the pending climax as well and yanked back, stopping its attempts at freedom. He nearly laughed. Even his wolf was man enough to admit it wanted to come by the redhead’s hands.
Alice’s magik wrapped around Brad’s cock at the same time that she bit down on his tongue, drawing blood. Coppery fluid filled his mouth, and Alice shocked him by drinking it down, her hand strokes increasing. Unable to stop himself, Brad exploded all over her hand, his stomach and part of hers. His teeth began to lengthen and the strongest deep-set need to bite the woman on him, hit him hard. His brief surrender ended, and he stiffened, trying to gain control of the situation.
Alice broke their kiss, her eyes filled with only the smallest flecks of black now. A sexy, satisfied smile tugged at her lush lips as she ran her hand up and down his cock, smearing his seed all over him. She brought her hand to her lips and licked it clean, making him want to be in her.
He groaned. “Off.”
She remained in place.
“Alice, please. I can’t control the wolf anymore,” he pleaded.
She gasped and then blinked, the blue totally gone from her gaze this time. “I won’t fight the claim. It’s destined and she’ll come around to the idea.”
He closed his eyes tight. Those words should have meant everything to him. All they did was terrify him. It was then he realized why his control was so poor around her.
She can’t be my mate. The odds of that are…
She leaned against him. “I have to go back for Mae.”
With a heavy heart, Brad spoke, “Alice, baby, there is nothing left to go back to. The explosion took out the building.”
“No,” she whispered, tensing against him.
He kissed her gently, sharing in her pain at the loss of Mae. “Yes.”
Alice’s eyelids fluttered a half-second before she passed out face first against his shoulder. He caught her to him, the sticky aftermath of his pleasure all over the front of both of them. He wrapped his arms around Alice’s slight frame and gave a gentle squeeze, sensing the extreme exhaustion on her. He silently admitted he was tired as well. He didn’t want to let her go, but knew they needed to get back on the road. He’d find a spot for them to hunker down for the night and then he’d figure out what the hell it was he was going to do from there.
He returned her to her seat, buckled her in with great care and then did his best to wipe the aftermath of everything from her and himself. Cleaned as best as he could be, Brad started the car and pulled back onto the road, going in the direction his gut said to go. The heavy pull of it all began to wear on him and he drove until he could no longer keep his eyes open. A small roadside motel was just up ahead. It was a welcome sight even though it was hardly five stars. The place would be lucky if it received one star.
Beggars can't be choosers.
He was fairly sure Alice wouldn't approve of the joint. Something about her said she was used to the finer things in life, and this place was far from that.
Very far.
Most of the letters on the light-up sign were burned out, leaving the sign making little sense. A snort broke free of him. The cell he'd just come from was probably cleaner than the rooms at the motel. In the end, it didn't matter. They were free and that was the focus. Nothing more.
Brad checked on Alice once again before grabbing some cash and heading into the front office. With the time of the night and absence of any cars in the parking lot, he assumed he'd walk in and find one person behind the counter and no one else. He was wrong.
He did a double take as he found a rather ta
ll, skinny, pale man who was dressed as a pirate standing in the corner of what he supposed was a lobby of sorts. In reality it was just a decent-sized room with carpet that looked to have been installed prior to his birth and an air conditioning unit in the wall that was on the fritz. The pirate guy turned in several slow circles, never once making eye contact with anyone yet Brad got the feeling the man was seeing everything.
His time in the SEALs had left him meeting a lot of interesting and colorful people. He couldn't recall a time he'd met someone dressed as a pirate when it wasn't even close to Halloween. Maybe the guy was into role-playing fetishes. Who knew?
Whatever works for the guy, he thought as he glanced at the other man in the lobby. This one was sitting, holding a magazine that was from the mid-nineties, not to mention upside down. The man was dressed like he'd just walked out of the seventies. He had on a pair of polyester, bell-bottom pants, a shirt with an oversized collar and a brown leather jacket. The fedora on his head of wiry, graying hair really sealed the deal. The man's gut was bigger than the shirt allowed room for and Brad watched, holding in a laugh, as a button popped free.
The short, pudgy man glanced up at the taller guy dressed like a pirate. "Stop. I know you told me it didn't fit. I don't want to hear you nag me anymore, Gus."
Brad glanced at the woman behind the counter to see if she was watching the interplay between two men who were clearly not right in the head. The pirate hadn't said a word yet the little guy continued to talk to him as if they were having an argument.
The woman behind the counter was engrossed in a reality TV show playing on a small television set up in the room. She was puffing on a cigarette. Brad wasn't sure how the ashes from it remained intact, but they did. The woman cleared her throat and then glanced at him briefly. "Want a room?"
"Yes, please," he said, glancing at the men to his right once more.
The wiry-haired guy pretended to be engrossed in his upside-down magazine while the pirate kept turning in a circle.
"One night or one hour?" asked the woman, looking past him at his car parked out front.
Brad stiffened at the suggestion Alice was a prostitute and he was a client. He pulled out a wad of cash and realized that he fit the bill nicely. No wonder the woman thought that of him. He was driving an expensive sports car, had a hot girl in the passenger seat and was trying to rent a room at a hole-in-the ground motel.
"The night," he said, paying the woman and slipping her extra money. He leaned in and rattled off additional requests for a room, making sure it was one he could secure easier than others. When the woman nodded and handed him a key, he slipped her another twenty. "Can you make sure if anyone asks..."
She looked back at her TV show. "You were never here."
It was plain to see she dealt with a lot of questionable characters. That was probably why she didn't seem to pay any mind to the two crazy guys in her lobby who were still having a one-sided argument.
Brad paused before leaving the office. "You all right?"
The wiry-haired guy stood up fast and nodded. "Right as rain. Aren't we, Gus?"
The pirate didn't reply, but he did stop turning in a circle.
"Gus says hi," the wiry-haired one added.
Brad looked the pirate up and down slowly. "Uh, hi, Gus. Pleasure to meet you."
The wiry-haired one grinned and then quickly schooled his face. "Don't mind us. We're just two inconspicuous guys. That’s right. Nothing to see here. We’re not on a secret mission or anything. Just two badass dudes here enjoying an evening out."
The man was seriously insane.
"Okay then. Have a nice night," said Brad, walking out slowly, wondering if any mental wards had recent breakouts.
He made it back to the car, got in and pulled around to the side with the room he'd rented. As he prepared to get Alice, he noticed the men from the lobby standing on the corner of the hotel, the wiry-haired one looking in their direction. While Brad was sure they were nuts, they probably thought he was some kind of a serial killer with the way he was lifting an unconscious woman and carrying her into a seedy motel.
Chapter Eleven
Alice continued to stare at the bare, lush backside of the incredible male specimen in the bed next to her. The man was out cold and hadn’t moved a muscle since she’d awoken to find herself in bed with him. This was hardly her first time waking up next to a hot, naked guy, but this was the first time that she didn’t want to run away.
No, she wanted to touch this man. She wanted to know every inch of him.
She kept the sheet pulled up and against her even though she was wearing a T-shirt she didn’t remember putting on. That was no surprise. She often woke fully naked or wearing someone else’s clothing. A side effect of her inner harlot coming out to play. The fraternity party must have been really fun because she couldn’t remember much beyond heading out of her dorm to attend it.
Reaching out, she touched the man’s back lightly. His skin was feverous, and concern lanced her. Confused as to why she’d care about some random dude she picked up at a party, Alice eased even closer to him. Normally, this would have been when she snuck away, made her exit and didn’t look back. The very idea of walking away from this man sickened her.
As she touched his skin, she noticed the faintest hints of scars crisscrossing his otherwise perfect form. Upon closer inspection she realized that very little of him was without the scarring. She traced the lines of one of the shiny lines and felt her anger growing. Whoever hurt him would pay. She’d see to it. She kept coming back to the scarring around his shoulder and arm. When she’d first been taken she’d had bruises that seemed to have come out of nowhere, if you believed the eyewitness at the time, that matched where the man’s scars were.
Strange.
Very strange indeed.
Uncharacteristically, she leaned and kissed his shoulder tenderly. As her lips made contact with his hot skin, emotions welled for him, only serving to confuse her more. She didn’t form emotional attachments with men ever. What the hell had happened at that party to make her do so now?
She closed her eyes briefly, and concentrated on the night before. As she did, the events of the past two weeks became clear, coming back to her in one fast wave. The man next to her wasn’t some random guy she picked up at a frat party. It was Brad. The man who had carried her to freedom over his shoulder through fire, and who had taken bullets in an attempt to protect her.
She gasped as she thought about waking up in a car, her succubus ravenous. She’d used Brad to sate her needs more than once.
No, she thought. I tried to use him fully, but he didn’t let me. He didn’t want to take me when I wasn’t in control.
Additional emotions filled her for the man. She’d known so many in her life who would have tried to gain control of the situation, who would have simply done whatever to her and walked away. Not Brad.
As she stared harder at the back of his sleeping form, she smiled softly as she realized his hair was shorter now. Still below his shoulders, but not the length she’d first seen on him. Alice eased up and glanced over him, smiling more when she saw that he’d trimmed his beard as well. No longer did he look unkempt. Far from it. The man looked like a male model passed out next to her.
It was hard to keep her sexual need from stirring. She didn’t want it to come out and play just yet. She wanted to simply look her fill of Brad and enjoy the moment. Her damn succubus had other things in mind. While she’d used Brad to take the edge off her hunger, she’d not fully fed her inner harlot in nearly a month. The fraternity party was going to be where she fed her fill, but that hadn’t gone as planned. After being held captive for so long and then injured, she’d more than used up any sexual energy reserves she’d banked. She needed to feed that side of herself fully and soon.
Brad had already done so much for her. He’d gotten her out of the prison she’d been in, and he’d helped her heal without taking advantage of the situation. She couldn’t ask more of him,
but the idea of going elsewhere for sex or sexual energy didn’t sit well with her.
She wanted him. So did the succubus and they rarely agreed on anything.
“No,” she said softly. “He needs rest.”
Taking a deep breath, she sat up and stared around the dimly lit room, wondering what time warp she’d gotten stuck in. From the overabundance of paneling and seventies décor, she hazarded a guess they were in a roadside motel. The shag carpeting was matted in the high traffic areas and the bedspread, crumpled on the floor, was straight out of the seventies. So was the rest of the place.
Brad hadn’t budged, and she highly doubted he was the type of guy who let someone close to him while he was asleep, especially after the ordeal he’d gone through. Yet, he was letting her close, letting her touch him without incident. He was beyond exhausted. Guilt hit her hard. She’d taken from him when he’d had nothing to offer. When he’d been battered and broken too. Probably more so than her.
Alice eased out of the bed and covered him with the sheet. She’d clean up while he rested. He’d earned some sleep. As much as she wanted to phone her father for his help in the matter, her gut told her not to do anything that might draw the attention of the enemy. She didn’t fear for herself. She worried for Brad. She knew deep down the man wouldn’t survive being held again.
No.
She’d wait to contact her father until she knew for sure they were safe. For now, she’d clean up and then do her best to help take care of Brad for a bit. He’d earned it and more.
Had the bathroom facilities been slightly better she would have probably stayed in the shower forever, wanting the grime of the last week off her. She hurried to clean herself and then exited into the bathroom. There was a small bag from one of those stores that carried just about anything you could think of and stayed open all night. In the bag were clothes in her size and next to it sat a pair of red flip-flops.
Wolf's Surrender: Part of the Immortal Ops World (Shadow Agents / PSI-Ops Book 1) Page 8