Love, Encoded (Selected Evolution Series Book 1)

by Sandra Harris

  “I do prefer that, yes.”

  “Good,” Adam said. “Hungry?”

  Ravenous. “I could eat.”

  Adam’s carnal smile made a hundred different parts of her flutter and clench. Nick carried her ashore and set her feet on the picnic rug. Adam’s hand ran up her spine, igniting a trail of thrumming desire. His fingers lingered at the clasp of her bikini top.

  “What are you hungry for, my sweet Sarah?”

  She turned to him, leant back into Nick’s strong frame and cocked an eyebrow at Adam. “There’s that little matter of you saying I could do with you as I wished.”

  Passion blazed in his eyes and he dropped to his knees before her. “How may I be of service to you?”

  Nick’s hands settled on her hips then feathered downwards. His thumbs slid below the elastic of her bikini briefs then halted. His fingers teased the tops of her thighs. Moist heat clenched her sex. Adam leant forward, gripped the cheeks of her butt and pressed his lips just below her belly button. His tongue left a damp, tingling trail across her skin, his kneading fingers urged on the desire burning in her core. Her knees buckled.

  Their arms tightened around her. Nick pulled her back into his muscled thighs, through his damp swimming trunks his proud erection branded the small of her back. Adam moved his hands to her thighs and lifted them, one by one, over his shoulders. He leaned close, his nose touched her swimmer covered slit and he breathed deep. A spasm of pure pleasure ricocheted through her sex and spiralled up to her breasts. She arched her hips towards him.

  “God, angel, do you taste as good as you smell?”

  She couldn’t seem to find words to reply. Adam’s hands trembled on her butt and he sat back on his heels. Her legs slipped from his shoulders. Confusion and disappointment stampeded over her arousal, then Nick lifted her in a sudden swirl of movement and she felt the picnic blanket at her back. Big, hard male pressed into her, then he rolled her to lie atop him, his hands resting on her hips. Her soft curves flowed into his solid contours, her nerves thrummed like sensual harp strings. A rush of awareness throbbed through her at all that heated, male strength beneath her, the incredible power of those male muscles quivering to her touch.

  “Touch me, baby,” Nick demanded.

  She ran a possessive gaze over the booty of masculinity before her. All mine!

  She let her legs slide to the blanket to nestle against the outside strength of his thighs, rested her weight on her hands and pushed up. Heavy need filled her breasts, the sensitized peaks brushed tantalizingly over the unyielding planes of his chest. He let out a rush of breath and clasped her bottom. Adam moved close, his fingers gently caressed the underside of one suspended breast. She arched her back and pushed her needy flesh into Adam’s hand and Nick’s body.

  “Yes, angel, take your pleasure from us.”

  Adam’s words put a torch to her hunger. She widened her pelvis and sank closer to Nick, searching for an ease to the ache in her clit. His groan delighted the siren in her. She dropped her head and lightly bit Nick’s earlobe then suckled the soft flesh. He moaned and massaged the cheeks of her butt, pushed her firmly into him then stroked up over her back to her shoulders.

  In a sudden whirl the blanket was at her back and Nick loomed large and sexy over her. She reached out a blindly seeking hand to Adam as Nick plundered her mouth. She arched into him, scored her nails down his back in encouragement. Adam slowly drew her index finger into the heated moistness of his mouth. Nick’s lips blazed a trail towards her jaw and he shifted a little off her. Cool air replaced the hot sensuality of his body and her breast reacted in abandoned pleasure. A wave of goose bumps scampered over her skin and culminated at her nipple, peaked it into a begging bud.

  Adam withdrew her finger from his mouth, bent her elbow and rubbed her finger pad teasingly over her sensitized nipple. The sensation through the wet material of her bathers provoked a groan of pure satisfaction that demanded more. Adam obliged and circled her aureole, built a clawing yearning that he would not satisfy. She wrenched her hand free, gripped his and forced his palm fully over her hungry breast.

  “What do you want, Sarah?” Adam whispered in her ear as Nick placed one large hand on her bare stomach and kissed the juncture of her neck and shoulder. His tongue sent a stampede of darting desire straight through her body down to her toes.

  “I want,” she panted, “you to touch me. Kiss me.”

  “Where?” Adam’s husky voice vibrated erotic sensation down her ear and a hail of sharp need bloomed in her lower abdomen.

  “Everywhere,” she demanded and felt his lips stretch into a smile.

  His hand began to gently knead the plush ripeness of her breast. Need sparked into raging desire as Nick’s fingers gently inserted themselves under the elastic of her bikini bottoms. She moaned at the erotic promise and then gasped as Adam slipped his fingers into her top and mounted her nipple. Their touch sent a spark to the brushwood of her senses. She thrust her chest upward and trembled, felt Nick lever himself up and opened her eyes. They both gazed down on her, eyes alight with utter admiration and flaming with desire.

  “Oh, baby,” Nick groaned as Adam slowly stretched the fabric of her top back to expose her wonton, needy flesh.

  “Kiss me,” she demanded.

  Adam lowered his head. The aroused flesh of her breast met his touch with glorious welcome. He lathed the tight bud of her nipple with long, hot strokes of his tongue. Waves of passion drove through her. Adam drew her into his mouth, suckled her in slow, insistent pulls. Her eyes closed and she groaned. Nick’s hand flexed on her lower torso then crept further down. Wondrous, erotic sensation spread before his seeking fingers. She ran a hand up to the thick, strong column of his neck and hung on, almost afraid of the fierce sensations building in her body, a body surely too frail to contain them.

  “We’re here, baby,” Nick assured.

  She couldn’t respond, yet his words kept her safe. When Adam slid a hand under her thigh and gently urged her legs apart she willingly complied.

  “Sarah,” he sighed at her mouth. “Angel, let me in.”

  His clean breath called to her need and she opened her mouth. His tongue slid into her. The press of his hot, substantial arousal through wet trunks into the side of her thigh filled her with grasping rapture.

  “Do I frighten you, angel?” he murmured.

  “God no!” she gasped, burning with wild abandon and greedily glorying in the feel of Nick, hard and thick as he thrust against her other thigh.

  “Do I?” Nick asked with blazing passion.

  She drew breath to answer when Nick rose in a sudden, forceful rush. At the same time Adam’s entire body tensed like a steel spring coiling into readiness.

  Chapter 6

  “We should get back to the house,” Nick said, all trace of desire vanished from his demeanour. He scanned the surrounding woods as though expecting an assault.

  What?

  Adam adjusted her swimmers, grabbed his discarded shirt, threaded his arms into the sleeves and rose with fluid, muscular grace to extend a hand to her.

  “Come on, angel,” he said. His smile held invitation, his eyes preoccupation.

  Surprise clashed with desire, confusion wrinkled her brow. She shot a bewildered gaze from one man to the other.

  What the heck is going on?

  Their eagerness to return to the house matched her own, but the distinct feeling that their reasons differed so vastly from hers billowed like a dampening fire blanket. Baffled, she placed her hand in Adam’s. His fingers closed quickly around hers and he hauled her to her feet with more muscle than finesse. Which would have been flattering if she’d been sure there was the least amorous intent behind it. Barely upright and not quite steady, he drew her towards the house. The strength of his grip suggested her voluntary participatio
n was not necessary.

  “What about the picnic basket?”

  “Leave it.”

  “Adam . . .”

  He tugged on her hand and increased the pace. Stones and the sharp ends of forest litter dug into her soft soles. “Ow!” Her hand clenched in his. “Adam! Ugh! Dammit, my delicate little feet aren’t up to this!”

  He swung towards her as she hobbled along. One long, swift stride brought him to her side. His grip eased from her hand and he wrapped an arm behind her shoulders. He bent and his other arm slid behind her knees. Nick slammed into them, his body wrapped around hers. A bolt of light slashed through the woodland shadow towards them. Nick’s growl of pain iced her heart as the three of them went down in a tangled heap of arms and legs.

  “Get her out of here!” Nick snarled.

  Imprisoned between the two men, fear flashed through Sarah, adrenaline screamed through her veins. Someone had shot at them with a laser! That was not public sector technology. Sprawled across Nick’s hard torso she ran frantic hands over him, searching for injury.

  “Are you hit?” she demanded.

  “I’ll live,” he grunted.

  In other words, yes.

  Her heart and stomach lurched. Adam’s strength and heat disappeared from her back with frightening abruptness. She snapped her head to one side, needing the sight of him. Nick’s hands gripped her ribcage and thrust her upward. Relief flooded through her as Adam’s arms bundled her close. She bent to the force of his superior strength and another bolt of light speared over their backs, gouging into a nearby trunk.

  “Run, Sarah!”

  She took off with Adam by her side and her delicate little feet had no objection whatsoever. Her skin crawled in anticipation of a burning strike. Her ears strove to detect the sound of Nick’s pursuit. They failed. Fear levelled a kick at her heart and cramped the flow of hectic energy to her legs.

  “Keep moving, Sarah,” Adam commanded on a growl.

  “Nick . . .”

  “Can look after himself.”

  “We can’t just leave him!”

  “We aren’t just leaving him. Come on!”

  Gone was her tender lover, and in his place an autocratic protector. Adam roped an arm across her back, dragged her close and swept her along. Stuck to his side like chewing gum to hot tarmac her feet barely hit the ground. They burst from the tree line onto green, blessedly soft, lawn. Adam’s arm pressured her back and bent her low. Her legs pumped so hard and fast they nearly grazed her chin. Bolts of light slammed into the grass around them, losing their energy with a harsh pft, pft.

  “Shit!” Adam snarled.

  “What?”

  “I can’t get a signal for the phone.” He thrust his watch into her hand and curled her fingers over it. “The proximity electronics for the car are programmed in the watch, they’ll enable it when you get close, you know the ignition sentence?”

  She nodded.

  “Good, lock yourself in and drive fast. Don’t stop for anything. Call the police when you can.”

  Fear lashed her heart. “I won’t leave you.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, angel, I’ll be right behind you, just focus on getting to the car, alright?”

  She clenched her jaw in grim determination and tried to subdue the sharp-winged butterflies slashing at her stomach. Adam pushed her in front of him and they hurtled across the lawn. That he used his body as a shield did not sit well with her. They sprinted to the vehicle, Adam’s arm reached past, flicked open the door and he shoved her in. She scrambled across the passenger seat and screamed the start command at the car.

  Above the low noise of the engine, Adam’s growls of pain punched her ears again and again. The stench of burnt flesh seared her nostrils. She turned and flung a frantic hand towards him, prepared to latch on and hold him even if it meant driving away with him half hanging out of the vehicle.

  Her anxious gaze flicked to movement behind him, praying to see Nick. The ugly sound of something solid smashing into flesh and bone sickened her. Adam slumped forward over the seat, his body limp, the back of his head oozing blood. Smoke rose in wisps from his scorched back. A large hand fisted into his clothing and dragged his body back. He slipped from sight and she lifted her horrified gaze to that of Theron Barclese. Fear for Adam sparked an all-consuming blaze of vengeful rage. It launched her from shock and straight at the man.

  His hand caught her wrist as she aimed the heel of her palm to shatter his jaw from its sockets. He moved into her, climbed into the vehicle and slammed the door. Against her struggling he forced her arms behind her. She drew her lips back, determined to bury her teeth into the unprotected flesh of his neck. He twisted her round and restrained her against his chest.

  “All that fire,” he whispered into her ear and she shuddered. “I shall enjoy tapping that passion. Now listen to me, sweetheart, you can either drive away now, your boyfriends will be safe or I’ll drug you and do it myself.”

  Her hesitation was all it took for him to drug her.

  Nick slammed a fist into a jaw and grunted as an energy bolt seared across his ribs from behind. How many of the bastards were there? The man before him staggered and folded to the ground. Nick lunged sideways and rolled in bracken. The smell of his own burnt flesh did not improve his temper. He speared a searching glance through tree trunks and caught Adam and Sarah’s retreating forms reach the car. Movement below the vehicle shot a wave of alarm through him.

  Multiple blasts of laser fire slammed into Adam’s exposed back. Nick dived for a dropped weapon, rose and fired through the trees towards the origin of the shots. An engine revved and he snapped his gaze towards the house. Adam’s body lay unmoving in the grass and their car sped off down the drive. Sarah was nowhere to be seen. Fear seized his heart and squeezed with merciless force.

  She would not leave them voluntarily.

  Every fibre of his genetically enhanced being searched the woods for their attackers. The fast receding sound of trail bikes droned through the quiet where only seconds ago there had been aggression and savage noise. He ran for Adam’s motionless body, terror for him and Sarah carving runnels through his guts.

  From the other side of the house a rapid, yet faint, phut-phut-phut-phut-phut approached. He burst from the trees onto the grass. The knowledge that he could not chase their woman on foot ripped through him with the same ferocity as his fear for Adam’s wellbeing. Something metallic creaked and groaned. He looked up. An old, pale-green Combi van with a large purple peace sign painted inexpertly on the side, barrelled around the corner of the house. Grass spat from beneath its tires as the driver struggled to steer the vehicle against its momentum.

  A woman leapt from the passenger door before it skidded to a halt, her swift movements fanning long, startlingly bright hair into an orange cloud. Relief at the sight of the medic brought him a little hope.

  “Marnia!” he shouted, “Sarah’s been taken. I need Kane’s car.”

  “We’ve got it under control, Nick,” she replied.

  Desperation raged within him, tore him between pursuing Sarah immediately and ensuring Adam’s wellbeing. Marnia knelt by Adam’s prostrate form and skimmed her mobile medical scanner over his body, concentrating on the back of his head. His friend’s motionless form worried the hell out of him. She pressed a small, metallic object to his neck then applied a slim tool that emitted a directed red beam to the bloody mess of his head.

  “Can you help him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will he recover?”

  “Fully.”

  A huge weight lifted from his chest, then the frantic need to retrieve Sarah rose and almost swallowed him whole. He marched towards the man climbing from the car.

  “How have you got it under control, Kane?”

  “The targe
t’s been painted and I have units in pursuit.”

  Hope surged through him. “Who attacked us?”

  Kane’s gaze turned flinty. “The weapon’s signature has a possible Anaconian origin.”

  “What? How could that be?”

  “I don’t know, but you may be sure I will find out.”

  “Why would someone with Anaconian technology attack Sarah? What’s their intent?”

  Kane’s features hardened. “I will discover the facts.”

  A dreadful thought struck Nick. “You don’t think it was another protector?” Fear wrapped a cold hand around his heart as he followed that thought. He fisted Kane’s shirt and hauled the other man close. “She’s a virgin! We can’t let her go through that.”

  “I have no intention of allowing her, or my race, to endure such abuse.” Kane’s gaze slid to the two on the ground. “How much longer will you be, Marnia?”

  “Just a few moments,” she replied.

  Adam groaned, rolled over and opened his eyes. “Sarah?” he whispered.

  Nick squatted beside him. “We have to go after her.”

  Adam gripped his arm in a feeble hold. “It’s Barclese.”

  “Fuck. I knew that bastard was trouble.”

  “Theron Barclese?” Kane demanded.

  Nick looked up at him. “Yes. Why? What do you know of him?”

  Kane’s eyes narrowed. “He’s the orphaned son of the first hybrid woman to die from withdrawal of her protector’s semen.”