by J. D. Light
He's an FBI agent. Not on the menu!
"Why?"
When he frowned and looked over at me…and then looked at me again, he took my face in quickly before turning his attention back to the road.
"Fuck." He cleared his throat. Stealing another glance at me, he asked, "Why what?"
Was he distracted?
"Why shouldn't you have said that?"
Sighing, he shrugged. "I shouldn't have asked about that. That's not something someone should say to a victim. That's why I'm usually not allowed to talk to them."
"So you said earlier. What's the big deal? What you said is true. That asshole literally sold me. I watched money change hands and everything." I shrugged.
He wasn't the only person in the world who'd betrayed my trust. Just like being sold to men for what I could only assume was probably some kind of slavery wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to me.
"Yeah, but I'm supposed to put it nicer. I'm supposed to say—" Running a hand through his hair, he sighed again, almost making me smile. "I don't actually know what the fuck I'm supposed to say. That's the problem."
Shrugging, I looked back out the window. "Trust me, Claus, this is far from the worst thing I've had to endure. Feel free to speak your mind, okay? I promise I won't start getting all wilty little flower on you."
"You've been through worse things than being sold by your roommate to people who were going to use you for the babies you can make?" Something about the way his voice seemed to be getting deeper and more growly with every word that he spoke sent a shot of lust straight through my body.
Damn! I really need to get a grip.
"So, what they said about me is true." I raised the sleeve on my shirt, exposing the mark on the inside of my left bicep.
The car came to a stop, and when I looked up, it was to see a big lodge-type cabin, and the other SUV Big Guy's friend had used to drive the other three people I'd been stuck in that room with.
I felt a soft brush of warm, callused fingers against my inner arm. Normally, I would have jerked away quickly, not really able to stand being touched, but for some reason, I welcomed his skin on mine.
It made me shiver with need.
"Yes," he whispered, drawing my attention away from where his nice, strong hand was gently, seductively running over the slightly raised skin of my birthmark. "If you mean that you can have babies, then yes."
"Are you one of them?" I asked, trying to picture him as an animal. What would he be?
"Yeah, I'm a shifter, but I'm nothing like them. Or your worthless fucking roommate," he growled, making me shiver.
"Lonnie is a shifter?!" That actually surprised me. "Is he a snake?"
The gorgeous man smiled while still touching my skin in what felt a whole lot like a sexy caress.
"Hyena."
"That's why he laughed like a fucking lunatic." Why wasn't I pulling away? I was just sitting there, letting the man continue to touch me.
Was it because I actually felt safe for the first time since my mom died when I was fifteen? Was it because the more he did it, the warmer my body got, and the harder my dick became?
"Yeah. Probably. What was the worst thing that ever happened to you, Little Shit?"
Unable to stop it, I chuckled for the first time in longer than I ever wanted to admit. "Little Shit? I thought you were supposed to be nice to the traumatized victim!"
"You said you weren't a wilty little flower. After you cracked my skull with a plate, nearly stabbed me in the eye, and almost dislocated my knee, I'm inclined to agree with that. I've never met a person more deserving of the nickname Little Shit than you." He was smiling too, and I had to shake my head to rid myself of the stupid daze that tried to creep in.
"How about this, Claus? For the time being, I've decided to trust you with my life. When and if I decide to trust you with my secrets, I'll let you know."
I was pretty sure it would never come to that. Especially since my biggest secrets revolved around one I could never tell an FBI agent.
"Fine. For now." Shutting off the car, he opened the door. "But I might have to find other ways to draw information out of you."
Was it me, or had that sounded fucking suggestive? Opening the door on my side, I glanced down ant my lap, hoping my erection wasn't super obvious, but of course, since the car had no interior light, I could only see shadows on what was probably a spectacularly dirty pair of pants.
"Fuck, I can't wait for a shower and some clean clothes."
I wonder if Claus the giant would let me borrow some of his.
"Hey!" I said, running to catch up with him. "You never told me your name. And you never answered me about what kind of animal you are.
The porch light was on, so I could see the silhouette of his giant body shrug. "My name's Harley Daniels." When he made it to the door, I'd finally caught up to him, so I could see clearly his beautiful violet eyes when they settled on my face, and I think my heart stuttered.
He froze, his body locking up and words dying on his lips.
I didn't know how long I stood there, taking in his handsome face, but I knew it was long enough for a moth to fly directly into my mouth.
As I choked and gagged, spitting moth parts and a great deal of saliva, Harley laughed so hard he actually fell against the door just as a concerned-looking brunette opened the thing, raising an eyebrow when Harley fell through onto the floor at his feet.
"What the hell are you doing? You're scaring the chosen."
Lifting my t-shirt, intent on using it to scrape my tongue, I changed my mind when I realized how dirty the damn thing was.
We may have gotten to bathe once or twice a week, and we were able to brush our teeth every day, but those bastards had us wearing the same fucking clothes we were wearing when they got us.
When Harley stood again, I grabbed the hem of his shirt and wiped it against my tongue, trying desperately to ignore his delicious scent as it surrounded me.
"Eww! Don't wipe your moth-mouth on me, Little Shit."
He tried to tug his shirt out of my hands, but it was too late, dead bug yuck was sticking to the wet spot at the bottom, making me laugh.
Harley jerked the material up and over his head, and any hope I'd ever had of not getting aroused to the point of awkwardly trying to hide an erection was dashed when I saw his naked torso. Motherfucker was gorgeous.
My eyes widened, and my mouth tingled for a taste when I spotted the little barbell in his left nipple. I licked my lips, unable to stop the way my mind had spun out a fantasy about straddling his lap as he lay back in his bed, tonguing the metal and the brown nub until he was writhing and panting, his dick about to explode.
"Fuck," Harley whispered, making my gaze snap up to his pretty purple eyes. "Okay," he said, shaking his head. "Shower and bed. Shower and bed."
"Holy crap," the brunette I was pretty sure was Harley's friend from earlier said, laughing. "This is actually going to be the best thing ever, I think."
***
The shower felt amazing, and I'd rather dwell on what exactly I did while thinking about that fucking nipple piercing on the delicious man who had rescued me.
And yes. I was willing to admit that he did rescue me.
I was pleasantly surprised to see my laptop bag sitting on the bed that had been designated as mine when I walked out of one of the three bathrooms in the giant cabin and into my room.
"I thought it might be something you cared about. It was the thing that smelled like you the most." I turned to find a still-shirtless Harley standing in the doorway to my room, leaning his gorgeous body against the frame like he was in the middle of some photo shoot. "I grabbed some clothes out of one of the boxes and threw them in there. I also arranged for some movers to move what's left to a storage facility near my house in Kansas. I didn't think you'd want to go back to living with the hyena."
Trying desperately not to let my eyes follow the lines of his body or find the adorned nub that was silently beckon
ing my eyes and then my mouth, I admitted, "You know, I haven't even thought about where I'll live now. I'm sure I don't have a job at the coffee shop anymore, considering I've been missing for about a month. Doesn't really scream reliable employee."
"You can come live with me." It seemed to fall out of Harley's mouth with little to no control over the actual syllables. Like he was trying to spit it out before anyone else did. Even though there was nobody else in the room.
The offer was so sudden, and totally not what I was expecting, that I stood there stunned for a moment, just blinking.
"Or not," he said after a moment, cringing slightly. "That's probably a weird thing to offer a complete stranger, isn't it?"
Shrugging, I answered, "I'm probably the wrong person to ask about what's normal."
I fished a pair of underwear out of the bag and slipped them on under the robe I'd found in the bathroom.
It was either the fluffy pink catastrophe currently wrapped around my body, or go naked. There was no way in hell I was putting those same fucking clothes back on. In fact, I was thinking about burning them.
Taking out a tank top and setting it on the bed, I let the robe fall from my shoulders, dropping it onto the bed.
The growl coming from the doorway confused me until I looked in that direction, finding Harley standing there watching me with intense purple eyes. Good. At least it wasn't a bear or something. Could never be too careful in the woods.
"Are you going to come in, or just stand there in the doorway?"
"I came to give you your bag and see if you needed anything else. Did you get the toothbrush and razor?" It was funny how the man could go from big and intimidating to seconds away from bashfully rubbing a toe in the dirt while stuttering out a sentence.
"Are you trying to say I need to brush my teeth?" I almost laughed when his head jerked up, already shaking a negative. "And I know it's been a month since I shaved, but as you saw, my facial hair seems to think I'm still twelve."
"No, no, no." Harley threw his hands in the air, stepping into the room. "I just wanted to make sure you’re comfortable. See! This is what I was afraid of."
Moving forward quickly, I stopped less than a foot in front of him, laughing up into his pretty violet eyes. "I'm kidding, Claus. Calm your shit. I don't get offended easily, so stop worrying so damn much. You can seriously say just about anything to me, and it's not even going to register as an insult."
And normally, that was all true. Because I seriously didn't care about anyone or anything enough to let their words hurt me. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, I might just care a little about what this man thought of me.
Groaning, Harley ran a hand through his hair, glancing up at the ceiling before looking at me again. "What am I ever going to do with you, Little Shit?"
I had some ideas, but they all involved him getting fully naked so I could see if anything else of interest was pierced and spending what was left of the night sweaty.
And that was enough for my cock to perk up. I sure hoped the guy didn't look down, because my underwear wasn’t hiding anything.
I didn't even know if he was gay.
And there was that whole thing of possibly getting pregnant.
Speaking of. "Hey, do we have birth control?"
At his raised eyebrow, I smirked, realizing he hadn't been a party to my train of thought, and to him that probably seemed out of the blue.
If only he knew all the things I was thinking about doing to him, he'd probably understand my concern.
"Yeah, actually. I think Foster left some in the kitchen. I'll go grab some."
He turned to leave, letting me see his beautifully muscled back and gorgeous ass again, and I sighed, readjusting my dick. It was time to get dressed. Contain myself a little.
When he came back in, I was in sleep pants I was grateful he'd shoved in my bag. "Thanks again for bringing some of my stuff. I would be naked if you hadn't."
Groaning, Harley handed me a baggie of something that looked like vitamin-type, tan pills. "You can take it a few different ways. It's derived from a flower, but you can take the pills, the shot, drink it in tea, and even mix it in your food. It's basically the oil from the flower that does it. Foster will know a lot more than me if you decide you're curious about all that."
"Thanks." I was reluctant to move away from him, but I was worried I'd forget to take one if I didn't do it while I was thinking about it.
I grabbed the water bottle off of the nightstand by my bed and popped a pill.
"Bear," Harley said out of nowhere, drawing my attention.
"Hmm?"
"I'm a bear. A grizzly." He was back to being bashful, and I kinda wanted to hug him for it.
Raising my eyebrows, I raked his big gorgeous body with my gaze, stopping first at his nipples and then again at the bulge in his jeans.
I swallowed hard, nearly hurting myself. "I could see that," I said, clearing my throat. "You're definitely a big boy."
"Yeah." He shrugged. "Okay, Little Shit. I'm going to let you get to bed. My room is the one right next to yours." He pointed the wall to my right and I nodded. "Come get me if you need anything, okay. Anything."
That's not what he means, Carter. Get it together, man.
"Thanks," I whispered, giving him a small smile before he turned and left the room.
Sighing, I shook my head. There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to get any sleep in a strange house with strange people. Not even if I locked the door. Nighttime was when things would happen that I didn't want to think about. Both because of the nature itself, and because of the consequences those things had later on.
***
Biting my lip, I made another aborted reach for the doorknob. I should just knock. Except, I wasn't brave enough to knock. Again, I reached for the handle, and pulled back, whining quietly as I let my head drop forward.
What the fuck was wrong with me? I hadn't been this unsure about my actions or the force driving them since I'd been in my teens.
What was causing me to want to be in Harley Daniels presence so much that it was actually a clawing, aching presence in my stomach, driving me from my room to stand directly in front of the door to his, reaching my hand out fifty thousand times and drawing it back like I was touching something hot?
He'd said he'd be there if I needed him. And for some unknown reason, I did.
Drawing my shoulders back, I took a deep breath and turned the knob, pushing the door open before walking in and shutting it quietly behind me.
I leaned against the wood, waiting for my eyes to adjust, and trying to decide if I wanted to go any further, or if this was going to be enough for now.
The moonlight coming in from the window made quick work of adjusting my eyes, but I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do now that I could make out his sleeping form, back completely bare as he lay on his stomach, blanket covering him from the waist down.
Had he put on sleep pants, or was he sleeping in his underwear like I was?
Creeping forward, trying not to wake him, I made it to the edge of the bed and looked down at his sleeping face illuminated by the moon.
Damn, he was gorgeous. High cheekbones, thin lips that looked on the verge of smiling, and a delicious, dark-scruff-covered jaw. I was quickly becoming obsessed with his wide, defined back, having a hard time not reaching out and running a finger along the deep divot that the muscles made as they rose above his spine on both sides.
Grabbing the edge of the blanket, I folded it back far enough to climb into the bed, sliding in until I was stiffly perched on the edge, still not sure what the hell I was thinking but unwilling to go back to my empty room.
What was it about this man that had drawn me here? Him being gorgeous couldn't be the only thing because I'd felt the connection to him before I'd even seen him in the light.
There was just something gentle about the man. Sure, his profession was probably dangerous, and I had no doubt he could take down a ba
d guy with that amazing body of his, but he'd just seemed…vulnerable. Even as he was rescuing me from a life I really didn't want to think about.
Without warning, a manacle of a hand clamped around my wrist, dragging me toward the middle of the bed. "What's wrong, Little Shit?"
A very warm, very naked body slid up against mine, pressing into my side, and my dick actually filled up like one of those fucking tube men you see flapping around at car lots. Just floomp, fully erect.
I would have panicked, because I hadn't stopped to put on clothes, and I had no idea if this guy would be comfortable with a mostly naked dude sliding into his bed in the middle of the night like some kind of weirdo, but as I lay there on my back, not breathing, a callused hand settled on my chest, rubbing small, soothing circles. Soft breathing caressed the skin of my ear, making me shiver.
"You need to sleep," he groaned, pressing his own erection into my hip. "But, fuck! You smell good."
Breath picking up, I felt the air leave my throat on a whine when his teeth grazed the skin of my neck just below my ear. I gasped as his thumb brushed over one of my sensitive nipples, and my hand spasmed against the sheets.
"I shouldn't be doing this. You should be recovering from your monthlong kidnapping." But his hips rocked forward, his cock grinding against me as his hand traveled lower, skimming the skin of my stomach.
I'd never been so turned on in my life. I could feel the wetness against the tip of my dick where pre-cum was oozing out.
I still didn't speak, biting my lip to keep from begging him to continue. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the whimpering.
Growling, Harley leaned over me, turning on the lamp beside the bed, making me blink with its sudden brightness.
"Damn, Little Shit," he whispered, looking down into my face.
I ignored his words for a moment, unable to stop from running my eyes all over his shoulders, arms, and chest, now exposed to me where he was still leaning over me, his hand braced against the mattress between my arm and ribs, the skin of his inner forearm brushing against my sensitive side.