He found her mouth, continuing to rub at her slowly, no matter how much she demanded he go faster. He watched her face, watched the way her eyes flashed and changed as he stroked her closer and closer to release.
Sweet rapture claimed her face as she came, trembling hard in his arms. He didn’t kiss her then. Didn’t trust himself too. He needed to get her in the house. Needed inside her so fucking bad it was killing him.
He got the door open to maneuver her out first. She scooted back, her elbow driving into the horn. Extracting themselves would have been far less awkward if he’d been willing to let go of her. He couldn’t, needing to keep a grip on her even when he could have tripped them both.
He was vaguely aware of giving the Jeep one last shove to shut the door, and then hustling her into the house. Or maybe she was hustling him. He didn’t care. He was two minutes from burying himself inside her, the how of it didn’t bear much consideration.
The second they got inside, he had her against the door, ripping her shirt off. He didn’t wait to work her bra off before cupping her breasts and rubbing at the hard tips right through the lacy fabric.
And she was having none of that, brushing his hands aside and pulling it off herself. It hit the floor somewhere between the foyer and the stairs. Her pants came off next. Followed by his shirt.
“Upstairs,” he growled, dragging his tongue between her breasts and drawing one plump tip into his mouth.
They only made it as far as the first landing before her foot caught on a step. His reflexes should have caught them—maybe he hadn’t wanted them to. He kissed away her wince of pain on impact, barely slowing the thorough exploration of her mouth to groan, let alone apologize.
Her thigh rested at his hip, her legs parted enough he could rub against her. Her panties were growing wetter, her whimpers of pleasure a little louder.
Arcs of lightning seemed to snap across her eyes, entrancing him. He couldn’t have imagined wanting or needing her more. Not until now. Their warm breaths rushed between their parted mouths, but he didn’t move.
“Tell me to make love to you right here.”
She locked her arms around him, holding him tighter. “Drew…”
He rubbed harder against her, fighting a battle he wasn’t going to win. “I need inside you right now. Just…just for a second.”
She had her panties down by the time he freed himself from his pants, and pushed inside her.
Hot. Wet. Silk.
He groaned, keeping one arm beneath her to stop from driving her too hard into the stairs.
He thrust slowly.
She moaned. “Faster.”
“Can’t.” He pumped his hips a little deeper, buried his face against the curve of her neck. He kept the rhythm slow, steady. Driving them both wild.
He dropped his head against her shoulder. He’d been so scared that she wouldn’t come back to him. And now she was here. In his arms. Where she belonged.
“What’s wrong?”
“I love you,” he whispered against her lips. “Don’t leave me like that again. Ever.” The last word came out more harshly than he expected, scraped from his throat at the thought of losing her.
Her lips parted, but he didn’t give her a chance to say anything, plundering her mouth, taking what she offered and then demanding more. He didn’t want her to talk. Didn’t want to see any doubt in her eyes. It didn’t matter that things had felt rushed from day one and that he’d been sprinting to keep up ever since. He knew what he felt, knew that she’d snared him from that first night. In one look she’d ruined him for anyone else.
The swell of emotion seeping under her skin made her want to close her eyes and cry from the intensity of it. All hot, deep—uninhibited.
He loved her.
She caged his face in her palms and kissed him, pouring every inch of her heart right into his hands.
And then he scooped her into his arms, managing not to lose his grip as he got them both upstairs and down the hall to his bedroom.
He’d pushed her body into a slow burn in the Jeep that ended in complete meltdown. Whatever she was headed for now scared her senseless.
Drew lowered her to the bed, crushing her into the mattress. Being pinned by the warm length of him did crazy things to her belly, and she ran her hands down his shoulder blades and back, marveling at the way his muscles became taut under her touch.
He lifted up on his elbows, kissing her long and deep, rocking them both, the friction making her nipples ache until he moved down and let his mouth take over the torture. Wet, hot drags of his lips pulled her right to the edge, where love and lust seemed to collide, and without a doubt one of them was going to suck her under. Hard.
She arched her back, crying out when he palmed her sex, her pleasure ratcheting to the next level. She waited for him to fill her, to slide the hard length of cock between her legs. Instead he inched down her body, circled his tongue around her navel. The heat of his palm seared the inside of her thigh and she nudged him when his fingers didn’t move any higher.
He grinned at her, a wild sexy smile that undid one more layer she’d built to keep everything from boiling over. As she felt it let go inside her, she gave up fighting, embracing every part of his impatience and desperation, his passion—his love.
She’d thought she wanted to go back to the beginning, before everything changed, but she didn’t. She wanted here—now. She didn’t want the past, she wanted the future.
One with him.
Drew teased his mouth up the inside of her thigh, and when he skimmed his lips along her cleft, his tongue stroked and tasted. She bowed up, hearing his soft words of how much he loved doing that to her, seeing how far he could drive her, how hot he could make her. He hovered over her, kissing her mindlessly, slowing down, and then doing it all over again. He made love to her mouth, dipping and tasting, claiming and conquering.
“I love you.” She lifted her hips, groaned when his cock pressed against her sex.
Holding her gaze, not even flinching from the wildness that she knew flickered there, he gripped her hips and thrust into her.
They both cried out, and she clenched her slick walls around him, holding him inside her. He didn’t move, his face pressed against hers, his breathing so quiet she could barely hear it.
Then, slowly, he pumped his hips, sinking harder and deeper inside her.
Harder and deeper until she raked her nails down his back.
Harder and deeper until she arched and shattered inside.
Harder and deeper and faster until he caught her mouth in a drugging kiss that didn’t come close to muffling the sound of his release.
Blair came awake slowly, turning away from the bright morning light pouring in through the window.
Drew caught her around the waist and pulled her close.
“You didn’t close the blinds,” she mumbled, sinking deeper under the covers to go back to sleep.
At least that had been her plan. Drew seemed to be operating on a different wavelength, and rolled on top of her.
“That’s because I wanted to be able to see the look on your face every time you came.”
“You can see in the dark,” she reminded him.
His lethal smile was far too appealing so early. “Hungry?”
She thought of the untouched take-out they’d had delivered but never got around to eating last night, and nodded.
“Good.” He pulled the sheet up and tucked his face against her throat, his mouth like a drug her body couldn’t absorb fast enough.
“I thought you meant for food.”
His devilish laugh was cut off by the sound of the front door slamming.
“Shit.” Drew flew out of bed, grabbing up a pair of pants.
She grinned and admired his backside. He scowled at her, and she grinned right back.
“Daddy?”
The sound of racing footsteps finally processed and she jumped out of bed, giving Drew’s speed a run for its money. “Where are my cl
othes?” she hissed.
Drew winced. “Downstairs?”
“Oh God.”
“Drew?”
Blair froze. “Tell me that’s not your mother.”
“Okay, it’s not my mother.” He tossed her a T-shirt and she dragged it over her head.
“How come you didn’t hear them before they reached the front door?” Talking made it easier not to think about how they’d left their clothes last night.
Sweatpants came next and she’d just yanked them up as an adorable girl who looked more like Drew than she’d expected bounded into the room.
“You’re awake.” Her smile lit up the room. Her expression didn’t dim even a little bit when she noticed Blair. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Blair answered lamely, heading further and further into unfamiliar territory every day. After coming face-to-face with a Shadow Demon—and more than once—you’d think small talk with a little girl wouldn’t be panic inducing.
Why then was her heart thumping just a little bit faster?
“What’s your name? I’m Molly,” she rattled on, “or you can call me Princess like my Uncle Brax.”
Blair smiled. “Uncle, huh?”
Drew shrugged. “They had time to kill.”
Molly looked at her, waiting.
Remembering the question, she added, “I’m Blair. It’s nice to meet you, Molly.”
“Are you my daddy’s girlfriend?”
Blair stared down at the little girl watching her almost hopefully.
“Yeah, sweetie, she is,” Drew answered softly, meeting Blair’s gaze and knocking her heart into a faster rhythm for a whole new reason.
Molly beamed and then backed out of the room. “Can we have pancakes?”
“Sure.”
Blair looked at the clock and winced, thinking about breakfast plans with her brother that she’d have to reschedule.
“I’ll grab your bag from the Jeep.”
She flashed him a grateful smile, glad to have an excuse to stay upstairs. There was no way she could meet his mother’s eye when there was a very good chance her bra was draped across the railing downstairs.
Blair found her bag waiting on the bed by the time she finished showering and quickly changed into her own clothes. Only Drew and Molly were in the kitchen when she made it downstairs a few minutes later.
“My parents had an appointment,” he said when he noticed her glance around nervously. “They’ll meet up with us later.”
Molly was working her way through a short stack with the enthusiasm of an NFL linebacker.
“Want some?” She offered Blair a forkful of pancakes dripping with syrup.
She smiled. “I think I’ll start with coffee.”
“Oh, I thought you were hungry,” Drew teased.
She stuck her tongue out at him, scrambling back when he took a step in her direction.
Recognizing the beeping sound that came from upstairs, she met Drew’s grim expression.
She glanced at Molly who shoved another forkful of pancakes into her mouth.
“Will Blair play with me while you’re gone, Daddy?”
Blair nodded hesitantly.
Drew caught her hand as though he could see the doubt that flickered inside her. “You’ll be fine. It’s local. I won’t be gone long.”
“We’ll be fine.” She said it to make herself believe it as much as he did, and because a month ago she wouldn’t have flinched at the responsibility.
“Be careful, Daddy. Duck hunts are wild.” Molly grinned and took another bite.
Drew frowned, then dropped a quick kiss on the top of her head.
“If anything comes up, just call into the field office, okay?”
When Blair nodded, he headed down the hall. A few moments later he was gone.
“He’ll be okay.” Molly stood and wrapped her arms around Blair, the burst of love emanating from Drew’s daughter enough to make her throat tight.
She pressed her cheek against Blair’s stomach and giggled. “They’re going to be a handful.”
Before Blair could ask what she meant, her cell phone rang. She left Molly stuffing more pancakes in her mouth like a chipmunk loading up on nuts for winter and ran upstairs for her phone.
“Hey, stranger,” she said into the phone.
Whitney gave a soft cry of relief. “You’re okay. Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for days.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Someone broke into my place last night. I saw the guy who did it, but he took off. A junkie I think. He had fucking weird eyes, Blair. Really weird. I’ve been up all night. I tried to check into a hotel, but every sound made me jump so I’ve just been driving around for hours freaking out.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know. I’m almost out of gas and these damn suburbs look the same once you cruise around enough of them all night.”
“What street are you on?”
Whitney paused. “Why are there no damn street signs when you need one? I’m on…Fairmont. There was a mall not too far from here.”
“You’re less than ten minutes from me.”
“Really?”
Blair gave her directions and hung up. If Holson had been looking for Blair, he might have tried to find her through Whitney. Would her family be next on Holson’s list? She needed to talk to Brax, see what else could be done to make sure their mother and sisters did not become a target.
Downstairs, she found Molly staring out into the backyard.
“Did you want to go outside to play?”
Molly frowned up at the clear blue sky, puzzled. “Nope. It’s going to rain.”
Blair followed Molly’s gaze, apprehension snaking down her backbone. “Do you want to play a game?”
Molly smiled, but shook her head and dragged a chair closer to the sliding glass door, as though to watch the sky for as long as it took to rain. She still hadn’t moved from her perch by the window when Whitney arrived.
Her friend came inside, her face pale, her smile a little too forced. “It’s a wonder I didn’t get pulled over by a cop driving over here with the pedal to the floor the whole way.”
“You okay?”
“He was in my place, Blair. Touching my stuff.” Whitney shuddered, her breath coming a little too fast.
Blair frowned. “Where’s your inhaler?”
Whitney checked her purse, looking a little panicked. “I don’t know.”
“Could you have left it in the car?”
“Maybe.” She weaved in place a little, visibly shaken.
Blair guided her to the couch. “Sit here a minute and I’ll go check.”
She gave Molly a quick glance and ran to check Whitney’s car. She let out a breath when she found the inhaler stuck in the console between the seats.
Backing out of the car, her gaze fell to the fuel indicator. Three quarters of a tank?
Hadn’t Whitney said she’d been almost out of gas? Pedal to the floor the whole way here?
Blair frowned at the house, jogging up the path and at a full run by the time she hit the porch.
“Whitney?” she said carefully coming through the door. Something wasn’t right.
A whisper of air moved across the back of her neck, and she spun around.
But not fast enough.
Pain exploded across the back of her head and everything went dark.
Chapter Fifteen
Where the hell was it?Drew circled the block for a third time. He’d left his Jeep, moving on foot now and no closer to cornering the hostile that had managed to stay one step ahead of him for the better part of twenty minutes. And for some reason the demon was moving in circles, navigating the alleys, hallways, and rooftops of the apartment complexes that filled a five-block radius.
Shielding his eyes from the sun, Drew scanned the rooftop of the closest building, looking for movement and finding nothing.
He pressed the device in his ear, opening the line between him and th
e field office. “Are you sure there haven’t been any temporal distortions in the area?” He couldn’t imagine any hostile but one fresh from the mother realm would move around so…aimlessly.
“Nope,” Quinn answered. “Want some help?”
If it would get her to stop snapping her gum in his ear he might consider it. “I’m good.” Just confused. He frowned up at the building in front of him.
“Maybe it’s drunk,” Quinn offered, oh-so-helpfully.
“I’ll keep you posted.” He closed the connection, moving around the southeast corner and heading for the closest building’s main entrance. Sooner or later his or the hostile’s continued presence was going to start making some people curious.
Then nervous.
Then he’d really have a problem.
And he didn’t want any problems. He wanted to be home spending time with both Blair and Molly. Maybe he could talk them into playing a game of Twenty-One in the driveway later. He already knew Molly loved basketball so convincing her to play wouldn’t be a problem. Blair might need some encouragement. Just so happened he was intimately familiar with what buttons he’d need to push to make it all happen.
He could have grinned as his plans for the day unfolded in his mind. Instead, he frowned down at the tracker. He knew it wasn’t malfunctioning. If he was closer to the hostile than the tracker showed, he would have picked up on the creature’s presence one way or another. But none of that explained…
A blur of white snagged his attention and he looked up. Three stories up a woman shook out a large sheet then draped it over the rail, presumably to dry. He frowned at the design, recognizing Daffy Duck instantly.
Duck. Hadn’t Molly said something about a duck this morning, right after his tracker went off? Something about duck hunts, she’d said.
Duck hunts are wild? He took two steps, stopped. Something about it niggling at the back of his mind. Wild duck hunts?
His heart started to pound. Wild…goose chase?
He dug out his cell phone, telling himself he was overthinking it.
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