by Susan Bliler
“I’ve never forced anyone,” Aaron snarled.
Harlow chuffed a laugh. “I didn’t say you did. What I’m saying is you’re merely fucking, and probably doing it wrong at that. All of you.” She smirked. “How many of you even make sure your female gets off before you, or gets off at all for that matter? Let me explain something to you, boys. If you two are together, and she doesn’t come but you do, then you didn’t fuck her, big boy, she fucked you! And that’s the problem. Fucking has nothing on the gift of a hot, wet, eager pussy.”
Harlow didn’t notice that Remy had exited the chow hall and was standing behind her. She was also unaware of how her words slammed into him, ripping the air from his lungs. To hear those graphic words spoken from such dainty lips had his balls tightening and blood flooding his cock.
“Sure, women let you fuck them now because you’re hot,” she continued. “Let you do things to them. It won’t last.” She waved her hand toward Aaron. “Because believe me, boys. You won’t be hot forever.”
Remy’s angry eyes shot to Aaron.
“But when you romance a woman, she’ll want you to enjoy the gift of her. She’ll want to reward you for your consideration. She’ll appreciate your efforts and return them in kind. She won’t just let you do things to her because she thinks you’re hot, she’ll do things with you. She’ll do things to you because she wants you, not the package you come in. You’ve had sex. You’ve fucked. But you have no more knowledge of a woman’s body than a fifteen-year-old boy.” Her lips curled mockingly. “The route to mind-blowing sex comes by way of intimacy, by way of a woman’s heart, and you’ll never be intimate with a woman until you learn to romance her. There is no alternate route. You avoid romance because you’re one of a million males just like you, who believe that romance leads to love. Like the greedy, carnal beasts you are, you don’t want to make love.” She leaned in. “Isn’t that right? No, you don’t want to make love. You want dirty, hard fucking.”
Behind her, Remy inhaled slowly, trying to still the jolt that shot through him. Blood thundered in his ears and he swore he grew dizzy on her words.
“Guess what, big boy? Women don’t want to make love to you either.” She shrugged one slim shoulder. “We don’t mind dirty, hard fucking. But what we really want is intimacy with a real man. And more than that, we want a man who knows how to get there on his own without us having to draw him a fucking map.” Leaning back, she sighed shaking her head. “You want to impress a woman, boys? You need to seduce her soul. Do that and she’s yours. All yours.
But none of you will figure it out until it’s too late. You men are such a disappointment nowadays. So narcissistic. You all think that you’re the prize in this game. You think that piddly little thing between your legs is so worth a woman’s effort. Newsflash, assholes. Women. Don’t. Need. Men!” She smiled in satisfaction at the look on their faces. “You can’t give us anything we can’t get ourselves. Homes, jobs, money, cars…orgasms. I can attain all those on my own. Hell, I can even get pregnant without the need for a man to ever touch me!
You are all becoming obsolete, yet you still have your eyes so glued to the mirror that you don’t even see it. If a woman lets you fuck her, Aaron, it’s because she wants to, not because she needs to. You’re an option, not a necessity. As easy a decision to make as sneakers or stilettos, a red shirt or a blue one. You’re a woman’s whim.” Her smile broadened at his suddenly ashen pallor. “And here you thought you were in charge.” Her lips pouted in an exaggerated moue of sadness. “Withholding romance to teach us lowly women a lesson. Trying to make us beg for something you should be chasing us down to lavish on us.” Her sarcasm vanished, replaced by her own dark scowl. “Cowards. The lot of ya, and selfish ones at that.” She crossed quickly to stand directly in front of Aaron. “You don’t believe in romance? Care to guess what we don’t believe in? Men! Real, honest-to-God men. They’re mythical. Fucking unicorns! They died out, were wiped out in the wars, or died of old age. What’s left?” Her eyes slid up and down his frame condescendingly. “Unfortunately for women, not fucking much!” She turned and slammed right into a massive chest. And of course, because wasn’t that the way, it was one she instantly recognized. Her ears burned as color suffused her body. Oh God! Had Remy heard her whole speech?
“Jeez,” Aaron wheezed, glancing at the other men standing beside him. “We were just messing, Harlow. Talking, how guys do.”
“Hit the field!” Remy barked.
Aaron, Josef, and Brian hurried to do his bidding, but when Harlow made to follow Remy caught her arm.
“What in the hell were you doing?”
She didn’t look at him. “Nothing. Talking. Arguing.” She amended.
“That was not arguing.” His hand was still clamped on her arm. “It was inciteful.”
She stammered, “Uhh, thanks?”
“Inciteful with a ‘c’, not an ‘s’,” he growled.
“Oh.” She ducked her head.
“Why are you stirring them up?”
“I wasn’t,” she defended. “I was educating them, and…”
“Talking about your hot, wet pussy isn’t education, Harlow! It’s enticing and,” he licked his lips, “distracting. It’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“What if they’d been aroused by it?”
“Aroused?” Her mouth fell open. “I was talking about…” Her cheeks flamed. Somehow it was harder to say the word in front of Remy. “Pussy,” she whispered, then more loudly, “in general. Not mine. And I sincerely doubt just the words were enough to arouse anyone. I…”
Without a word, he fisted her wrist, forcing her hand open before placing it on the hard bar of his cock. “They aroused me,” he ground out, tightening his grip on her arm when she tried to pull her hand back. “You see!” His eyes narrowed on her. “Had the other Walkers heard your little speech, they’d be fighting for the right to mate you.”
“Okay.” She actually felt contrite. Jerking her hand back, she was relieved that this time, he released her.
“Hit the field,” he ground out.
Without another word she raced to the field, well aware of the fact that Remy was just steps behind her. The second her feet hit the training area she and Remy typically used, it was as if he couldn’t wait to get his hands on her. She was spun and taken down in a heartbeat, but it wasn’t like training at all. His movements were quick, but his hands were gentle. She was lowered down more than taken down, and once Remy had her pinned beneath him, she stared up at him in shock.
The hard bar of his erection pressed into her where he rested in the cradle of her thighs and sent her pulse sky rocketing. His face was mere inches away, only a breath separating them.
***
Remy watched confusion swirl in Harlow’s haunted green eyes. He didn’t blame her, hell, he didn’t know what he was doing. He just knew that, if he didn’t get as much contact with her as possible, as soon as possible, he was going to lose his fucking mind.
Unsure what else to do he simply lay on her, holding her arms pinned over her head as she rested beneath him. By the Gods, what he wouldn’t give to have no clothes between them!
Over the past few days, training had grown damn near impossible. He couldn’t find it in himself to let the other Walkers go hands-on with her, and doing so himself only seemed to heighten the attraction smoldering between them. The sweet scent of her arousal carried to him often—just as it was now—and he knew the other Walkers scented it, which led to smirks and odd looks when he demanded that she train only with him.
As he held her pinned beneath him, he had to admit that she was getting a lot better at training. Well, her defense anyway. It was her offense that needed the most work.
She doesn’t belong here! The thought had been drumming through his head since she’d returned from her stint in the infirmary. Why in the hell Mason would risk her after his many years of searching Remy didn’t know. What he did know was that if Harlow were his, sh
e’d be tucked safely back at the Estate where she belonged!
“A-are we training, Commander?”
Fuck no, he didn’t want to train! He wanted to fuck, and it was all because of the words he’d heard tumble from her hot little mouth. When he’d listened to her description of the man she wanted, he desperately wanted to step forward and profess to be that man.
“When you’re going down,” he began, trying to force himself back on task, but his voice was too deep, animalistic. “You’re always gonna be smaller, so you need to use my weight to your advantage. Use leverage, take advantage of my weight coming to you, and then be planning your next move.” His breath fanned her cheeks as he studied her face. They were both breathing heavily, him trying desperately to ignore the way each breath she took pressed her breasts into his chest.
Harlow nodded.
“If I…” Remy suddenly quieted. His body went rigid, and his attention snapped away from her, listening carefully.
Head slowly turning to the side, he noted that the other Walkers sensed it too. In their own training circles they’d each gone still; heads lifted and nostrils flaring. Something was off.
Chapter 14
Harlow watched Remy tense over her. Following his gaze, she turned her head to find the rest of her Walker team eyeing the forest and sky around them. Alarm tore through her, and she simultaneously wanted to surge to her feet and huddle beneath Remy’s protective frame.
“Remy?”
She heard a faint whistling growing louder, but didn’t get the chance to pinpoint its origin because suddenly Remy was scrambling to his feet, pulling her up with him.
“INCOMING!” he shouted, and then all the Sentries were moving.
Remy had her hand in a death grip, pulling her with him as he ran, but she didn’t get to learn their destination. A roar shattered the sky, debris flying everywhere as the earth exploded around her. Remy slid to a halt, turning to cover her head before steering her in the opposite direction. Leaping back into motion, he drug her along with him as he continued to shout orders. Stumbling along behind him, she could barely hear his words over the chaos erupting around them.
“Weapons!” She heard him bellow, followed by what sounded like “Fire!” Then the world erupted as another explosion detonated, the ground nearest them blowing up in a violent burst of heat, force, and shrapnel. One second she was running, the next she was flying through the air as time stood still. Her hand was ripped from his, her arms and legs flailing as she sailed through the air. When she hit the ground, the violent force sent all the air from her lungs and sent her world to black.
***
“HARLOOOW!” Remy yelled. The air was still filled with dust and smoke, and he was coughing in between shouts, but he had to find her.
“SIR!” Josef and his team rushed him, sliding to a halt even as Josef forced an assault rifle into Remy’s hands. “Orders, Sir?”
He didn’t have time for this! He had to find Harlow. Snarling, he turned blood-red eyes on Josef. “Secure the perimeter. Anyone coming in is an enemy to the Estate. Fire at will.”
Josef paused a moment before nodding. As he turned to leave, Remy fisted his shirt. “Leave me a Sentry.”
Josef jerked his head to Aaron. “On the Commander.”
Remy released Josef, watching as he and his team disappeared into a thick cloud of black smoke. He turned to Aaron. “Harlow’s missing. Help me find her.”
Aaron nodded, taking off in the direction Remy pointed. It only took Remy moments to shift, then he was using the massive wingspan of his Golden Eagle form to lift himself from the disaster all around him. It was a foolish move. He couldn’t carry a weapon like this, and he knew the enemy at the gates, most likely Megalya, would be looking for any Walkers attempting to escape. And what better way for a Walker than by air? But he wasn’t leaving. Circling tightly over the field, he thrust higher, then higher still to avoid the plume of smoke rising from the carnage below. In the distance, he heard screams and his head jerked toward the main Estate house. There was fire and damage there as well, but he had to find Harlow!
Vicious growls rent the air, drawing his attention. He knew these growls, and they were not the result of Walker men. No, these were the Crows, a troop of Walker boys in training to become Sentries, who were still too young to be involved in a battle of this magnitude.
Remy’s eagle screamed in rage as it dove toward the sound. He prayed Harlow was alive and was safe, because right now he had to protect Walker children.
***
Harlow came to with a groan, a steady jostling causing blood to rush to her head. Blinking, she tried to remember where she was and what was happening. The scent of smoke filled her nose, and she tasted the coppery tang of blood on her lips. Memory flooded back, and she moaned as she tried to right herself.
Blinking bleary eyes, she realized she was slung over a shoulder. A small shoulder, too close to the ground to belong to Remy. Looking from side to side, she bit back another moan at the pain the action caused. She felt like someone had filled a pillow case with bars of soap and had a go at her. She recognized the forest around the Estate, but wasn’t sure where exactly she was at, who held her, or where they were heading.
She heard static and felt movement by one of her thighs, then the person holding her was speaking. “I’ve got one. Not a Walker, but a Walker sibling.”
David! He was speaking into a walkie-talkie and from his words, he wasn’t saving her.
There was static then a gruff voice replied, “Take her to the hut, we’ll do the exchange there. Have read-ready.”
Harlow’s adrenaline surged as her training began to kick in. For now, she’d pretend to still be out. Quickly, she did a mental inventory of her body. She didn’t feel more hurt in any one particular area than the other, so hopefully if shit came to shit, she’d be able to go hands-on with David and survive.
“I’ve got one.” She replayed his words. So, this had been a planned attack on the Estate to capture Walkers? Who in the hell would want Walkers, and for what? Science? The Government? She’d heard talk of Walker enemies called Megalya, but hadn’t gotten to them in her training yet, so if David was working with them, she had no idea what she was up against.
The sound of several small explosions could be heard in the distance, and her heart tore. Where’s Remy? They’d been holding hands, running together, and she knew that if there was any way he could have stopped it he wouldn’t have let David take her. Tears flooded her eyes with stupid thoughts of what could have happened to Remy, but she forced herself to calm. First, she had to save herself.
The smoke grew thicker and she heard screams getting closer. Was David taking her to the main Estate house?
No. Just when she thought he was, he veered left, carrying her further into the forest, skirting the Estate’s parking garage…or what was left of it. A gaping, black hole was blown through one side and fire raged within, catching some of the trees. She wondered if the whole world was on fire or if it was just hers.
Then as if all at once, vicious growls rent the air. She knew these, recognized these. Wolf’s howls bayed incessantly, calling to one another, and birds of prey screamed overhead. The Walkers were fighting back, and she knew the Keepers and their Soul Sentries were helping.
Still on the far side of the parking garage, David muttered a curse and double-timed his pace. He rolled an ankle, nearly careening down a steep embankment, and Harlow made her move. Lifting one thigh over his ducked head, she scissored his neck between her legs, wrapping her arms around his thighs. Using the element of surprise, and the fact that he was already off balance, to jerk with her lower body she sent them both tumbling to the ground.
“Fucking bitch,” David cursed, as he rolled and scrambled to his feet. Harlow followed suit, squaring up with David as they’d done a dozen times on the training field.
“Oh, you’re fucking dead, princess.” He smiled. “After they torture you first, then run their fucking tests.” They
slowly circled each other. “When you get where you’re going, you’ll wish you were still with me.”
She curled her lip. “Doubtful!”
He lunged and, just as he’d done so many times in training, he took her down. Her smoke-filled lungs burned as she grappled with him. Above them, the canopy was in flames, small flaming branches and embers raining down on them as they fought.
David got to his feet again, grabbing Harlow by her hair and the back of her uniform. Jerking hard, he pulled her back toward the parking garage.
For a second, Harlow felt relieved. She could hear Walkers battling just on the other side, but that relief was short-lived. David twisted with all he had and threw Harlow down a hole ripped in the concrete. She landed hard on what was left of the concrete floor in the lower level of the garage. Once again, her breath whooshed out, but still she staggered to her feet. Balling her fists, she spat blood as she eyed her surroundings. The garage was a disaster. The half nearest the Estate house was completely caved in, the cars there crushed beneath great slabs of concrete. Beside her, a row of vehicles were still intact, but wouldn’t be for long. Looking up, she wondered how long she had before the rest of the garage came tumbling down.
She rushed to the hole she’d been dropped through and jumped, her fingers catching the ledge as she struggled through the ache in her ribs to pull herself up. Nearly out, she hiked a knee onto the ledge but jerked her head up when she heard clucking.
David was there. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not yet, sweetheart.” He placed a booted foot on her shoulder, shoving her hard and sending her falling backward onto the floor of the garage. “You’re not out of it yet.”
When he jumped down beside her, his boots were loud, but Harlow couldn’t care. She was writhing in pain on the concrete floor, holding her elbow and struggling to draw in a breath.