by Maya Banks
Pleasure blossomed, growing and fanning out, building higher and higher as her body tightened around him. Tension grew, wonderful, edgy, almost painful in its intensity.
His fingers stroked as his mouth sucked at her breast. His cock worked deep, gliding through her wetness, rough and yet silken.
“Come for me, sugar. Give me your pleasure.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, yanked at the thong securing his hair. Black silk spilled over his shoulders. She threaded her fingers through the strands and pulled his head closer to her breast. As he turned his head to her other breast, his earring flashed in the light. She lowered one of her hands to finger the lobe of his ear.
He thrust again and strained against her body, burying himself to the hilt. His fingers expertly fluttered across her clit, light at first then harder.
“Come,” he said again, a whisper across her nipple.
He pushed harder, driving her up to impossible heights. She buried both hands in his hair, arched upward as she split into a million pieces, each one hot, jagged, piercing and exquisitely pleasurable.
As she pulsed around his cock, he pulled out. She could feel his arm bumping against her and a moment later, hot liquid surged onto her belly. And then he collapsed against her, gathering her close, his mouth skating up her jaw to her lips.
“That wasn’t very fair to you,” she said hazily, her vision and speech still blurred by her orgasm.
He chuckled softly. “Oh no, sugar. We both got what we wanted. You got me deep, and I got to come all over you.”
“I need another shower,” she murmured. “We both do. And then I want sleep.”
He kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair back. “I’ll give us a quick rinse, sugar, and then we’ll both get some rest.”
Chapter Seventeen
Eli watched Tyana sleep. She hadn’t stirred once when he’d slipped out of bed to dress. She was lying on her side, her knees drawn up protectively to her chest. Her bruised cheek and split lip faced outward.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and feathered one finger over the faint yellow and green discoloration on her face. She stirred and opened her eyes. For a long moment, she just stared at him, and then she reached down for the sheet, pulling it up over her chest as she sat up in bed.
“Good morning,” he said.
She closed her eyes for a moment. “I did it again.” She yanked the sheet down angrily and scooted past him to get out of bed. He put a hand on her arm.
“What did you do?”
She glanced sideways at him. “Lost perspective. Had sex with you when I should have been figuring out my next move. Damn it, Eli, I can’t be around you. I can’t keep doing this.”
She balled her fists in frustration and started to shove herself off the bed. His hand tightened on her arm, and he pulled her back down.
“Cut yourself some slack, Tyana. You needed sleep. You’re running on fumes. You aren’t any good to your brother that way. You’re rested now. We’ll eat some breakfast, and then we’ll figure out what has to be done.”
She flinched. “We,” she muttered. “There isn’t a we, Eli.”
He gripped her chin and turned it toward him, forcing her to face him. “Yes, Tyana. There is a we. You deny it all you want, but you came here for a reason, and it wasn’t to kill anyone or hand-deliver me to Esteban.”
Her eyes skittered sideways, breaking their gaze though he still held her chin in his hand. He leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth.
“You go grab a shower and wake up. I’ll fix something for breakfast. We need to talk. Come out when you’re done.”
She nodded and stood, then stalked toward the bathroom, her body back to its normal rigidity.
Eli sighed and shuffled to the kitchen. He found Ian and Braden already up, and he eyed them curiously, gauging their mood.
They looked tired and a little uneasy, but otherwise they seemed okay.
“So what happened last night?” Eli asked with no preamble.
Ian stopped what he was doing and put his hands on the countertop. Then he shoved off and turned around to stare at Eli.
“I wish to fuck I knew. I can’t remember anything except knowing the shift was coming on. Next thing I know I was staring up at you from the ground and praying to God I hadn’t just attacked my brother.”
Braden looked up, his expression brooding. “Give yourself a break, man. Nothing happened.”
“I saw you, Ian,” Eli said quietly. “You were protecting him. From me. From Tyana. We wouldn’t have been able to get close to him. Whether or not you retain any of yourself when you become the jaguar, your instincts obviously remain intact. You never made a move to hurt him.”
Hope and relief flared in Ian’s eyes and then he glanced sideways at Braden. “I’d thought I’d gotten better at controlling it and only letting go when I knew it was safe. Last night, though, it just came out of nowhere. I felt threatened. I remember feeling like Braden was threatened.”
Eli rubbed his chin then dragged a hand through his hair. “My fault, I think. This shit with Tyana, drawing her here. You were probably reacting to the potential threat. It was a mistake,” he admitted. “I didn’t stop to think about what it would do to you two.”
“So is she?” Braden broke in. “A threat?”
Eli shook his head. “We’ll hash it out over breakfast. I’m asking you to trust me in this.”
Ian nodded his acceptance as did Braden.
They were interrupted when Gabe ambled in, barefooted as usual, wearing a dingy T-shirt with a smartass saying on it and tattered jeans.
“You guys okay?” he asked. “I couldn’t help but overhear that something went down last night.”
“Yeah, we’re good,” Braden said.
Gabe looked uncomfortable and regret pooled in his eyes. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I should have been. I was pissed at Eli and took off. It won’t happen again.”
“You’re not our babysitter,” Ian said sourly. “You can’t be around us all the time. This is something we have to figure out and deal with on our own.”
Gabe shrugged. “Yeah, I know. I hear you. But if something had happened…look, we’ve been together a long time. I owe you more than you got from me yesterday.”
Eli held his hands up. “Let it go, man. We’ve got a situation to deal with here.”
They all looked up when Tyana walked hesitantly into the kitchen. While her expression clearly said don’t fuck with me, her demeanor was less certain.
Gabe folded his arms over his chest and watched her intently as she skated closer to Eli. Then her gaze went to Ian and Braden.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice tinged with concern.
They looked surprised by her question, but they both nodded.
She pulled out a small aerosol canister from her pocket, the same one she’d used on Eli in Singapore. She fiddled with it a little nervously then looked back up at the brothers.
“This might help. At first. It didn’t work on Eli, and I assumed that you guys would all be stable like him.”
Eli frowned. “What exactly is it?”
“It’s an inhibitor created by the doctor we brought in for Damiano. At first it prevented his shifts when he felt them coming on. We also inject a stronger dosage when necessary.”
“At first?” Ian asked with a frown.
Tyana gave him an unhappy look. “Over time he’s built a resistance to it, so we’re exploring other options.”
“Try it out on me,” Gabe volunteered.
Eli shot him a sharp glance.
Gabe shrugged. “I can control when I shift. It didn’t work on you, but who’s to say it won’t work on me?”
“You’re not going to be a fucking guinea pig for us,” Braden growled. “How the hell do we know what’s really in that thing?”
“You have no reason to trust me any more than I trust you,” Tyana said simply. “I offered it because I’ve seen Damiano in the same place I
saw you and Ian in last night. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
Gabe spread his hands. “Eli says you’re not a threat. So let’s have it.”
Shit. This wasn’t something he wanted to happen. But Eli couldn’t say a whole lot or he risked exposing his own secrets. He could only pray that it wouldn’t work on Gabe either.
Gabe moved to stand in front of Tyana. He took in a deep breath. “You’ll have to be quick. Once I start to shift, I’m pretty much gone. Now you see me, now you don’t.”
His body rippled once and then he started to fade from view. Tyana raised the canister and glanced at Eli, uncertainty flashing in her eyes. Then she sprayed it in Gabe’s direction.
The result was instantaneous. He jerked back to form, swayed then looked at Tyana in astonishment. He closed his eyes in heavy concentration as he obviously tried to establish his invisibility. Nothing happened.
“Holy fuck,” he whispered. “It worked. I can’t shift.”
Tyana’s brow crinkled in consternation, and she looked at Eli. Everyone was looking at Eli.
“Why didn’t it work on you, then?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know,” he lied. “Why are Gabe and I stable and not the others? This shit doesn’t seem to have a rhyme or reason.”
Tyana turned her attention back to Gabe. “You can conjure clothing like Eli and yet Ian and Braden don’t have that ability.”
Gabe shook his head. “Not exactly.”
“What do you mean not exactly?”
“The clothing stays. In fact anything touching me when I become invisible also becomes invisible. If I was naked when I shifted then I’d still be naked coming out of it.”
Tyana frowned and once more looked over at Eli. “It doesn’t make sense that the effects of the chemical are so random. You have such control, and yet even Gabe isn’t immune to the inhibitor.”
Eli shrugged and tried to act nonchalant, but his pulse was pounding through his veins. “I imagine it’s a lot like trial studies for pharmaceuticals. Everyone has different reactions to different medications.”
Ian walked over to where Tyana stood and extended his hand. “May I?”
She hesitated the briefest of seconds then placed the canister in Ian’s hand. “I don’t need it,” she said softly. “It doesn’t work on Damiano anymore. I wouldn’t expect it to work on you forever.”
“How long?” Ian demanded. “How long did it take for him to build up a resistance? How much time does this buy us?”
“Six months? We used it regularly and maybe that was part of the problem. We were so determined not to let him shift at all because he was so unpredictable. He’s not like you…the others.”
“How is he different?” Eli asked, his curiosity piqued.
She stared at him, her green eyes glittering with pain. “He can shift to anything. Well, I don’t know if it can be anything, but he isn’t limited to just one animal or one ability.”
Silence greeted her announcement. Then Braden whistled.
“Shit.”
“Yeah,” Ian said in a low voice.
“Sit down, Tyana,” Eli instructed. “You need to eat and we need to talk about a lot of things.”
Ian backed away, still holding the canister. He walked over to Braden and handed it to him to examine. Tyana walked to the table and took a seat so that she faced the rest of them.
Slowly, Gabe, Ian and Braden joined her, sitting in awkward silence while Eli prepared breakfast. When he set their plates down in front of them, no one seemed eager to start eating. Eli sat and stared them all down. “Eat. Then we’ll talk.”
They ate in silence, only the clinking sounds of forks against plates echoing across the table. Several minutes later, Ian stood and started clearing the plates, most of which were still half full. When he returned, he sank into his chair and stared expectantly at Eli.
Eli in turn looked over at Tyana. “Ball’s in your court, sugar. Talk.”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “I’ve already told you. Esteban hired me to take out your buddies and bring you in alive. No mention of Gabe. I used Esteban for information because I didn’t believe he had shit that could help Damiano. I didn’t have time to track your asses down, and Esteban provided me with your location.”
“Fuck,” Ian snarled. “Who the fuck is Esteban, and how does he know shit about where we are?”
“Back up,” Eli said in a deadly voice. “You told me that Esteban hired you, not that he provided you with our location.”
“Does the entire goddamn world know where we are?” Braden asked.
“That’s the reason I went to him,” Tyana said. “Bastard sicced two of his cronies on me in Paris as a test. I knifed one of them, and the other took off. I wouldn’t have fucked with the smarmy jerk at all if it weren’t for the fact that he saved me time I didn’t have to spare in looking for you.”
“We can’t stay here,” Eli said.
Tyana nodded. “If Esteban doesn’t present a problem, Falcon soon will.”
Again, all four men turned their stares on her, and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
“Jonah won’t be far behind. I got a good jump, but he’ll catch up.”
“I told you her ass was trouble,” Gabe grumbled.
The beginnings of a full-blown headache were starting to plague Eli. Realizing that the others hadn’t been privy to the details Tyana had provided as to whom Esteban was and what his role in this whole fiasco was, he brought them quickly up to speed.
By the time he was done, he had a table full of pissed-off men.
“I say we go take his ass out,” Braden said. “Let’s bring the fight to him.”
Ian nodded. “I’m certainly for some payback.”
Gabe grunted. “And what if he can help us?”
Heads turned in his direction.
“What are you suggesting, Gabe?” Eli asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know that I’m suggesting anything. I just wonder if killing him does more than remove a threat to us. What if he does have the means to help Ian and Braden?” He glanced over at Tyana. “And Damiano.”
“Well, our first order of business has to be getting the hell out of here,” Eli said. “We’ve got to move out and regroup then figure out what we do next.”
The others nodded. Tyana met his gaze, her eyes questioning.
“You in, sugar?” he asked softly.
She looked at the others then back at Eli. “Yeah. I’m in.”
Chapter Eighteen
They packed up, did a massive weapons check, got their technology in order and headed out, Gabe driving Ian and Braden in one four-wheel drive vehicle and Eli and Tyana in the other.
They set their rendezvous point at a hole-in-the-wall airstrip where they’d take a chopper, courtesy of Manuel Diego who ran a dubious charter service. They’d land in Puerto Santa Cruz and hop a boat to the Falkland Islands. Once there, they’d hole up in a safe house, plot their next move and wait for the jet.
Eli looked over at Tyana as they bounced and swayed along the shitty, narrow roads leading beyond the village at the base of the mountain.
“You go rogue on Falcon?”
She frowned and looked down. Her fingers curled into tight balls, and she avoided making eye contact with him.
“Jonah and I didn’t see eye to eye on what needed to be done to help Damiano.”
“So in other words, when he finds you, he’s going to be one pissed-off man. With you and with me. Only he won’t kill you. He won’t have any compunction about killing me.”
“Probably not,” she admitted.
“I love how you show me affection, sugar. Glad I don’t mind walking on the wild side, because fucking you is a serious risk to my health.”
She turned then, her eyes flashing as she glared holes through him.
He chuckled. “Now that’s what I prefer to see. All spit and vinegar. I prefer you pissed off to this meek and docile chick who’s been posing
as you for the last twenty-four hours.”
“Asshole,” she muttered.
“So what was your back-up plan?” he asked. He was genuinely curious, because she seemed too smart to put all her eggs in one basket.
“Back up to what?”
“Back up to me not providing the answers you needed for Damiano. You risk pissing off Esteban by double-crossing him. So if you get here and find I can’t help you, what then?”
“I go after him,” she said simply.
“Just like that?”
She nodded. “Just like that. He’s made threats against D. As long as he lives and has the agenda of getting rid of the shifters, he’s a danger to Damiano.”
Eli shook his head. She was dead serious. No false bravado. Just calm and matter-of-fact, like she was talking about the weather or getting her nails done. The bad thing was, he totally believed her.
It made him damn uneasy. He didn’t like the idea of her going after Esteban by herself. Hell, the thought of her going in with him and the others made him uneasy enough.
“I think I have a pretty good idea of how Jonah feels,” Eli muttered.
She cocked an eyebrow and pinned him with a probing stare. “Tell me you’re not getting soft on me, Eli. I gave you more credit than for you to get all manly-man on me and bust out with the protect the poor girly-girl mantra.”
“You’re hell on a man’s ego, girl. Don’t you understand us Neanderthal types love to swoop in and save the day? Carry the damsel in distress off and fuck her senseless while she swoons in gratitude?”
She cracked a grin. “You don’t want them swooning because of your sexual prowess?”
“Well, that too.”
“Sorry, but I’ve had to learn the hard way that the only person I can rely on is me. It saves a lot of grief.”
She meant that as well. So serious. So young. Hell, she couldn’t be much more than twenty-four? Maybe twenty-five?
“Someone sure did a number on you, sugar.”
Her face darkened, and her lips pressed tightly together. Then she thrust her chin upward and stared challengingly at him. “I don’t see you relying on other people. You’re the typical loner. You have leader written all over you. Capable. Driven. Look out for your team, but you don’t really rely on them. You expect them to rely on you. Am I right?”
Her assessment made him squirm. He glared back at her. “How about we stop with the armchair psychology.”
She grinned innocently. “I will if you will.”
“Deal.”
He reached over, an unconscious gesture that he gave no prior thought to, and took her hand in his. She seemed as surprised as he felt by the tender action. He almost drew away, but she curled her fingers around his and relaxed.
“Eli, you there?”
The radio crackled as Gabe’s voice echoed through the receiver.
Eli was forced to release her hand as he picked up the radio and held it to