by Lynsay Sands
Beth knew she was feeling his pleasure along with her own, and that was the cause of the overwhelming excitement and wave after wave of mounting pleasure surging through her . . . and she reveled in it. She wanted it to go on forever. She just wanted him to keep on pounding into her until the end of days. But too soon she was throwing her head back and screaming as the tension exploded between them. Those waves of pleasure immediately rolled over her head, drowning her and drawing her down into the waiting darkness.
Ten
Beth shifted sleepily and rolled onto her side, frowning when she searched for her pillow and couldn't find it. Opening her eyes, she found herself staring through a tinted window at Scotty's back.
Blinking in confusion, she glanced around. She was lying naked in the back of an SUV with Scotty's linen shirt laid over her. It was her only covering. The moment Beth saw that, her memory came rushing back.
This was not the first time she'd woken. The first time she'd been on the floor of the garage. Scotty had awoken before her and was leaning over her, suckling at her breast as his hand worked between her legs, stirring her passions again. Beth had taken him by surprise and let him know she was awake by rolling him onto his back and quickly mounting him. The concrete had been cold and hard under her knees, but he'd been hot and hard inside her, and she'd ridden him until they both shouted their pleasure.
The next time, Beth had actually woken first to find herself lying on top of Scotty with her cheek on his chest. After a hesitation, she'd carefully eased herself up. She was standing with her feet on either side of his hips, about to move one leg so that she could go find her clothes, when his eyes opened and his hands rose to grab her calves. They'd stared at each other briefly, and then he'd sat up and kissed her inner thigh, and then higher, and Beth had grabbed his head to help her stay upright as he drove them both back to the edge of madness.
The third time she'd woken up, Scotty was carrying her around to the back of the SUV.
"The floor was cold," he'd explained wryly when he saw she was awake. He'd set her down behind the vehicle then, and when he'd turned to open the hatchback, she couldn't resist running her hands over his strong back and pressing her nose to his skin to inhale his scent. Scotty had stilled with the door open and then had turned with a groan to kiss her, his hands traveling everywhere. The next thing Beth knew, she was leaning into the back of the SUV and he was thrusting into her from behind, and they were both crying out again and embracing the darkness.
This was her fourth time waking up, and they were no longer alone, Beth realized as she became aware of the muffled male voices coming from outside the SUV. Clutching Scotty's shirt to her chest, she sat up and spotted the man Scotty was talking to. It was one of the trio who had arrived that day. Magnus, the one who had apparently been spying on her for the last hundred years.
Turning away from them for now, Beth looked around for her clothes. But of course those would still be lying on the garage floor beside the SUV, she realized, and then sighed and quickly pulled Scotty's shirt on. Beth tugged it closed in the front, but that was the best she could do. She'd been so desperate to get it off him, she'd ripped the damned thing open, popping all the buttons.
Sighing, Beth glanced out the window again. Scotty and Magnus were still talking, but they were also moving away from the SUV, and she was quite relieved to see that he was wearing his jeans. Whether he'd donned them before or after Magnus had arrived, Beth didn't know, and she really supposed it didn't matter. She doubted it had taken more than a heartbeat for the man to figure out what they'd been doing out here in the garage all this time.
That thought made her wonder just how long they'd been out here. How long did those bliss faints last when life mates mated? Beth had no idea, but if she were to go by the hunger cramping her stomach, she'd guess they'd been out here for several hours at least.
That distracted her for a moment, and then Beth realized Scotty was ushering Magnus out of the garage. Relieved that she could now get out and find her pants, she shifted to crawl to the hatchback and then paused to glance toward the two men. They were at the entrance. Magnus stepped out even as she looked, and Scotty leaned against the open door and nodded at something the man was saying.
Deciding that was probably the best time for her to do it, Beth opened the SUV's hatchback and slid out, then rushed around gathering her clothes. She found her jeans first, and then searched for her underwear. They were nowhere to be found, but she did find her torn T-shirt and her bra.
Giving up on her panties for now, Beth quickly tugged her jeans on, did them up and found her underwear when they fell out of the bottom of her jeans. Grimacing, she snatched them up and shoved them in her pocket. She then turned her attention to her bra, only to grimace when she saw that it had been torn where it connected at the front between the two cups. Beth didn't recall it happening. Actually, she couldn't remember it being removed at all, but things had gotten a bit wild a time or two, so . . .
"Ye're awake."
Beth glanced around to see Scotty hurrying back toward her. Retreating from his reaching arms, Beth grimaced and said with a little embarrassment, "I need a shower. And we should probably go get those groceries. I'm rather hungry."
"Ah, no need to get the groceries," Scotty told her almost apologetically. "Odilia and Donny took care of that yesterday."
"Yesterday?" Beth echoed blankly, and then understanding struck and she asked with alarm, "It's Sunday? What time--" The question died on her lips as she glanced toward the dirty windows and noted the light managing to get inside. It wasn't the gray light of early dawn. In fact, it looked like the bright light of early afternoon.
"It's all right," he assured her. "It's only eleven o'clock. We have time to get to the airfield."
"Oh my God," Beth breathed, rushing for the door.
"Wait, Beth!" Scotty followed on her heels. "We need to talk."
"Why didn't you wake me?" she cried, pushing out into the sunshine.
"Because I wasn't awake either. Magnus woke me up just moments ago to warn me that it was growing late."
"Dear God, I need to shower, change, make sure I have everything packed and--I didn't even get a proper visit with Matias. He'll be annoyed with me. I--Dammit, I wanted to call Kira and be sure she is still returning with us. Bloody hell, I hope there's room for everyone on the plane. She's bringing her bodyguards, you know."
"Nay, I didn't know. But . . ." Scotty let his words die and slowed to a halt as Beth reached the back door and slipped inside. She was still rattling off things she had to do when the door closed behind her.
"So much for talking," he muttered to himself and then gave a start when a wet nose pressed into his palm.
"Piper likes you," Matias commented, making his presence known.
Scotty petted the Doberman and found it oddly soothing.
"I take it you sorted out everything with Beth?" Matias asked after a brief silence.
Scotty shook his head. "I meant to, but we just . . ." He waved vaguely toward the garage.
"Ah," Matias said, sounding disappointed. "So, she hasn't heard and accepted your explanation for why you had not claimed her?"
"Yet." Scotty stressed the word. "I had not claimed her yet. I was always going to claim her eventually."
Matias eyed him dubiously. "Are you sure about that?"
"Of course," he said firmly, and then added, "When we met she was traumatized by her experiences and her turn. I was just waiting for her to heal."
"Are you sure you were not waiting to see if she would finally fall completely apart and you could have the three-on-one mind wipe performed on her?" Matias asked quietly. "A clean slate. No memories of her days in the brothel, so you could forget about that yourself?"
"That wasn't--" Scotty frowned. "They are bad memories for her. I thought only to ease her suffering."
"Oh, si, of course." Matias didn't sound as if he believed him, and then he said, "When she told me about your wanting to perfor
m the mind wipe on her, I did wonder . . ."
"What?" Scotty asked warily when Matias fell silent.
"I wondered what would have happened if you had managed to convince Dree to let you perform the three-on-one," he admitted. "Would Beth have still been a possible life mate for you? Or would the removal of those memories of her past have changed her personality so that you were no longer suitable to be life mates? We are all shaped by our experiences, after all."
"So you are a Rogue Hunter in the UK? How did you become one?"
Beth smiled faintly as Kira leaned toward Odilia with obvious interest. Other than the fact that Kira was a blonde and Odilia had long dark hair that was a blend of chestnut, umber, hickory and chocolate, the women were very similar. They were both beautiful, both stood about nine inches taller than her and both outweighed her by a good twenty pounds. Beth wasn't surprised that Kira would be interested in the other woman's experiences.
A laugh from the back of the plane drew her gaze, and Beth watched Scotty interacting with the men. He, Donny, Magnus, and Rickart had taken up positions leaning against the wall by the bathrooms when they'd boarded. Kira had shown up with all four of her bodyguards, and as Beth had feared, there weren't enough seats on the plane for everyone. That being the case, the men had left the seats for the women. There would have been just enough seats if Scotty's people hadn't appeared on the scene, but now there was one seat going empty because none of the men would lay claim to it.
Rather like her, Beth thought suddenly. She was an unclaimed seat. Only there was only one man who should claim her, and he wasn't interested. At least, he hadn't said he was claiming her, or even asked if she would let him during all those hours in the garage. They'd just screwed like frantic bunnies until they ran out of time. Some women might have seen that as his staking a claim, but Beth wasn't foolish enough to do so. Thanks to her life as a mortal, she'd had a lot of men in her bed, and watched just as many leave it. Sex--even wild, passionate sex--was not a declaration of anything. It was just sex.
"Please, tell me. Da?"
Beth glanced to Kira and shook her head with a small smile. Somehow the girl managed to make her plea sound like a royal command. That was a skill, and one Odilia apparently responded to, because she complied.
"I was turned in 1852 when a rogue immortal invaded our home one night while we were sleeping. I was ten," the woman said, gaining Beth's full attention as she realized that they were contemporaries of a sort. Beth might have been turned forty years later than Odilia, but she had also been forty years older. They had been born the same year. And the year Odilia had been turned was the year Beth's father had sold her to a brothel.
"He roused the whole house," Odilia continued. "And then he killed every living soul one after another--my parents, my sisters, and every last servant. He left me for last, and attacked me just as viciously as the others so that at first I felt sure I should soon join them. However, at the last moment he forced his blood on me and then left me lying in my own blood and that of my loved ones, to turn while he just walked out the door and disappeared--poof." Odilia snapped her fingers to illustrate how quickly he'd left her life. "I woke up after several days of excruciating pain and wandered outside in search of help. Fortunately, Scotty and Magnus found me before I did anything that could make me rogue too.
"Of course, I couldn't return to my home or my old life. I needed to be taught how to feed without harming my host, and how to hide what I was. Scotty took me in and helped me through my transition. He became my guardian. And then later, when I showed interest in becoming a hunter, he trained me to be one. I have been on his team ever since," Odilia ended simply.
"This rogue was a monster," Kira said, sitting back in her seat, her eyes wide. "I thought my father the only monster, but it seems there are worse monsters out there even than him."
"Many, many monsters," Beth said solemnly. "That is why Rogue Hunters are needed."
Kira glanced to her, curiosity filling her expression. "And you, Beth? How were you turned? It was a rogue too, da?"
"Da," she murmured and then said, "Oddly enough, it is a story very similar to Odilia's." Beth smiled at the other woman as she said that and received a tight smile in return. She'd found the woman a little standoffish since coming in from the garage that morning. At the time, Beth hadn't known if it was just the hunter's personality or if she'd taken an instant dislike to her for some reason. Now Beth wondered if perhaps the woman disapproved of what she and Scotty had got up to in the garage. Or perhaps Odilia didn't think she was good enough for Scotty. He had basically adopted the other woman as a child and raised her. She supposed the woman could be protective of him and not think Beth good enough for the man who was like a father to her. But then, how else would Odilia feel? Scotty apparently didn't think her good enough either . . . well, for anything but sex.
Pushing these thoughts away as unproductive, Beth explained, "As with Odilia's family, a rogue entered our home one night and attacked each of us in turn. Only, he turned every one of us. Like her, we were left lying in our own blood to turn. But once those dark days were over, he hadn't disappeared. He was there to tell us that we were his now, and that he expected us to lure men to the house to murder and rob them."
"Did you do it?" Kira asked, wide-eyed.
Beth shook her head. "I couldn't. I fled to find a friend for help, Alexandrina Argenis. She had been in our lives for many years by then, and we all knew that she was an immortal and what that meant, so I knew she could help. Unfortunately, by the time I found her I was in a bad way. She took care of me and helped me recover. Once I was cogent enough to recall the women at the house, I told her and we returned at once, but by then two weeks had passed and it was too late. They'd gone mad under this rogue's abuses and had been attacking mortals, feeding off and killing them since my leaving. They were beyond help and immediately attacked us. As with Odilia, Scotty and his men saved us, but we did not stay with him. Drina was immortal-born. She took me to her family in Spain to help me through the transition. I was adopted into her family, and we trained together to become Rogue Hunters."
Kira sat back with a gusty sigh. "These rogues, they are bad news. I think I will enjoy helping to stop them."
Beth smiled at the words. "It can be satisfying work. Especially when you are able to save would-be victims."
"Da. No doubt." Kira nodded and then peered at her solemnly and admitted, "I suspected you were not an Argenis by birth. It is your eyes. They are green with gold rather than blue with silver. All Argeneaus, whether they go by the name Argenis, Argent, Argentum, or Argeneau, have blue and silver . . . or at least the silver."
Beth merely nodded.
"What was your last name before you became Argenis?" Kira asked with interest.
"Sheppard," Beth answered, surprised to find she had to think to recall it. The name even felt odd on her tongue. But then, she had carried the name Argenis more than twice as long as she had the name Sheppard. And Beth hadn't felt at all bad at shedding her father's name in the first place. While she had loved her mother, as far as Beth was concerned, she wanted no reminder or attachment to her father, even in name.
"Our footman's name was Sheppard," Odilia said now with surprise, and then added solemnly, "He was a good man. He tried to protect my mother from the rogue. Of course he couldn't, and died horribly for the effort," she finished, and then glanced at Beth curiously and asked, "Do you think he could have been a relation?"
"I don't know," Beth admitted. "I don't recall having any family besides my parents and sisters, but he could have been related, I suppose."
Odilia nodded and then tilted her head and commented, "You are rubbing your stomach. Do you need blood?"
"Probably," Beth admitted with a grimace. "And food wouldn't hurt either."
"Do they keep blood on the plane?" Kira asked, glancing toward the kitchenette.
"Yes, I think so," Beth said and stood to head for the galley, thinking she really should have take
n the time to grab something to eat before leaving for the airfield. She'd intended to, but by the time she'd showered, changed and gathered her things together, Matias had been insisting it was time to go.
Stepping into the kitchenette, Beth glanced around at the wood grain cupboard doors, wondering which if any was the refrigerator, and then she just started opening them one after the other in search of blood, crackers or--hell--even peanuts or pretzels. She hadn't eaten since the pizza Friday night. Well, technically, Saturday morning, she supposed. Now it was Sunday afternoon and she was famished.
The first cupboard held glasses and cups, and in the second she found plates and bowls. But the third held small bags of chips, peanuts and, yes, pretzels, but also bread sticks and crackers.
"Oh yeah," Beth murmured, but continued opening doors until she found two small bar-sized refrigerators. One held blood, and Beth took a bag before opening the cupboard next to it to find the second refrigerator, which held fresh fruit, cheese, and dips.
"Jackpot," she said happily and slapped the bag of blood to her fangs as she reached in with her free hand to grab a peach.
"Food."
Startled by that deep rumble, Beth turned sharply and saw Scotty standing behind her, staring at the contents of the refrigerator. Even as she did, his gaze shifted to her and he growled, "I'm hungry."
Judging by the way the silver in his eyes multiplied, Beth suspected he wasn't just talking about food or even blood. She wasn't surprised when he moved in close, caught her by the waist and lifted her to sit on the counter.
Beth's eyes widened above the blood bag, but she merely held on to it and the peach a little more firmly.
"So hungry," Scotty murmured, stepping between her legs. When the peach bumped against his chest, he glanced down at it with interest, and then he smiled and caught her wrist to lift it until the peach was in front of his mouth. He took a large bite, murmuring with pleasure as he chewed and then glanced to her hand and stilled. Beth followed his gaze and saw that juice had run from the open wound in the peach, making little rivulets down her hand and wrist and further to her elbow.