Quinn Security

by Dee Bridgnorth

  Something sparked between them during that kiss, like a static shock that popped in her head, heart, and loins all at once. As the energy of it smoothed out, filling her and dancing across her suddenly hot skin, he deepened the kiss, helping her head to tilt as his tongue explored the soft curves of her lips and mouth.

  Her knees went slack, but he had her. Holding her up, he leaned into their deepening kiss, bending forward, and Reece wrapped her arms around his muscular shoulders, as the growing fire crackled in the fireplace.

  As he straightened back up, groaning as though he already missed those lips of hers pressing against his, he pulled back and gazed down into her green eyes. There were no red-frame glasses between them since they’d been cracked and left in that cage, no obstacle to interfere with the intensity of their eye contact, which felt more powerful than ever.

  “That’s just it, Reece.”

  “What?”

  “Secrets.”

  She didn’t know what he meant by that.

  But before she could ask, he began to provide an explanation.

  “I might have more of them than I can handle by this time tomorrow.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Bonding with you, uniting our souls for all of eternity, in near-immortality… It will enable me to see things, all kinds of things, maybe even everything.”

  She felt her brow furrow with curiosity and she searched his eyes.

  “I won’t keep anything from you, though. Anything I see will be our secret to share.”

  “I think I can live with that,” she promised, though she couldn’t say she entirely understood what he was referring to.

  It didn’t matter that she didn’t. Not right now, anyway. As soon as he leaned in for another long, sensual kiss, all concern and confusion vanished from her mind like morning fog in the rising light of the sun.

  As they kissed, he grazed the backs of his fingers up underneath her sweatshirt. The sensation caused her stomach to shudder, tickled, but she let out an aroused moan as soon as he shifted his hands over her breasts, cupping and squeezing them gently.

  He made slow work of peeling her sweatshirt up and off of her, and gazed deeply into her eyes as her brown hair fell back over her nude shoulders before he released the garment to fall to the floor.

  As he stepped in again, he hooked his fingers down the elastic band of her yoga pants and with a few calculated tugs, pulled them down her thighs and exposed her nudity there as well.

  Bringing his lips to hers to brush and caress—mouth against hungry mouth—he braced his large warm hand across her lower back and slipped his other between her legs, cupping her.

  The heat of his hand stirred up a warm, melting surge of arousal. He rubbed her first, slowly, his fingers sliding along the outer length of her sensitive core, and she moaned, eyes fluttering closed to better savor the feel of him.

  He brought his mouth to her nude breast and took as much of it as he could into his warm, wet mouth, and her arms loosened around his shoulders. She felt like she might drop, but she didn’t. Concentrating on the sensual, loving feel of his tongue flicking over her hard nipple, she held his shoulders a little tighter for balance, but when the hand between her legs spread, fingers separating so that one could explore the moist folds of her core, gently penetrating, she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold herself up for much longer.

  As he lowered down, farther and farther, delivering warm kisses down the length of her taut stomach, he peeled her yoga pants further down as well, until he was on his knees before her, helping her to step out of one stretchy leg then the other.

  When she was free of that garment as well, he brought his face in-between her legs, urging her to widen her stance, and cupped both of his strong hands around her firm ass.

  From his knees, as the fire crackled nearby, he licked the length of her core in one slow, sensual stroke, and she moaned with eyes closed as she raked her fingers through his dark hair.

  With his tongue probing and hands squeezing, a warm radiant wave of arousal blossomed from her core. He could take her now, pull her to the ground and thrust his hard shape into her, and she’d be thankful.

  But he hadn’t even stripped out of his boots, much less his jeans and tee-shirt.

  She was about to pull him up so she could help him do just that, but when his tongue began circling the sensitive mound above her flowery folds and his finger penetrated deep inside, she wanted to see where this was going. It felt way too good not to.

  Massaging her from the inside as his tongue pressed firmly against her sensitive mound, Troy began breathing heavily in rhythm with his every thrusting flick of the finger. She could feel the cool breeze of his breath against her hot, wet shape, and when he began groaning, the vibration of the sexy noises he was making sent another huge burst of arousal to flare deep within her core.

  “Oh,” she breathed, holding on to his shoulders so that she wouldn’t suddenly collapse.

  He grabbed her ass with his free hand so that she couldn’t quiver away from what his mouth was doing to her, and the strength of his grip caused her body to begin its slow, powerful build towards what would surely become an amazing climax.

  But she didn’t want to feel such a powerful thing when she was standing, when she couldn’t look into his eyes and feel his weight pressing over her.

  “Troy,” she breathed, raking her fingers through his dark hair to pull his head back and look down into his eyes. “I want you.”

  He sprang to his feet and lifted her up into his strong arms, cradling her as though she was light as a feather, her arms wrapped around his shoulders.

  He had her, secure, as he carried her to the foot of the stairs then up them, and into his bedroom where a bearskin rug spanned the wooden floor. He crossed it, bringing her to the side of the bed that was covered with a crimson throw blanket, the softest she’d ever felt, she realized when he laid her down and angled over her.

  As he tore his tee-shirt off, she hungrily unbuckled his belt, but he lifted up from her then quickly stepped off the bed to finish the job.

  She was on her knees on the bed by the time he’d kicked off his boots and stepped out of his jeans. She took hold of his hips, pulling him near, and eyed his boxer-briefs, his large hard shape underneath.

  As she tugged his underwear down, the length of his thick erection sprang free and slapped against his muscular, washboard abs, and seeing it caused another hot, swelling ache to expand deep within her core.

  She smiled up at him as she brought her lips closer and closer to his hard erection. Troy caressed her cheek sweetly with the back of his finger as she wrapped her mouth around his shape. The groan he let out, feeling the intensity of that first sucking stroke, was enough to push her over the edge of her building orgasm, and Troy must have felt the danger of his own climax as well, because the next thing she knew, he had thrust her down onto her back and was angling over her, their bodies so close that she could feel the heat of his need radiate across her poised skin.

  He helped her legs to spread wide for him, as he hooked his forearms under her shoulders and cradled her head with both of his large hands, their eyes locking.

  The bedroom was dim, but the cool, blue light of the moon was shining through the window and illuminating him from the side, his features traced. She’d never met a sexier, more attractive man in her life, and she was glad she’d saved herself, preserving her virginity, for so long. She never wanted anyone more than she wanted Troy in this moment. And he would be hers for the rest of her very long life.

  As soon as she’d wrapped her head around the magnitude of that realization, she felt the hot pressure of his erection begin to penetrate the tight sheath of her core.

  Sweet and stinging. Pleasure mixed with an edge of pain. She let out a breathy cry as he thrust hard into her body.

  “Oh God!”

  “Shhh,” he breathed as he brought his lips to hers and held himself deep inside of her so that her body could relax a
nd adjust before he began moving.

  The sting of it ebbed away and an intense pleasure unlike anything she’d ever experienced swept through, her hot, slippery core clamping and clenching around his hard member as if begging him for more.

  She moaned and laughed, and as if her hips had a mind of their own, they began slowly lifting and bucking up to feel him slide in and out of her.

  The grin that came over him was gorgeous and soon he began moving with her, delivering long, titillating thrusts that caused a hot swell of arousal to flood through her core.

  “Faster,” she begged as she pressed her lips against that grinning mouth of his, her eyes remaining open, gaze locked in connected eye contact.

  It was building. Swelling up inside of her. Troy increased his pace and power until they were bouncing together on the bed. Her body clamping and clenching around him until she felt like she would explode from the inside out.

  She cried out again with the final swell, the strength of the orgasm he was forcing through her suddenly sweeping through. It felt like her skin was glowing and tingling as the height of her climax overtook her. As soon as it did, Troy held himself very deep inside of her, grinding and stimulating her in ways she hadn’t thought possible.

  Then she felt it. His own burst. Deep within her core.

  And happiness rained down over them.

  She wrapped her long legs tightly around him as he cooled, sweaty and laughing at how great that felt.

  Reece lifted his face from where he’d buried it in her shoulder, kissed him on the mouth, and said, “I love you.”

  He smiled at her, gazing deeply into her eyes, and she could feel his reciprocation. He didn’t have to say a thing for her to know, without a doubt, that the love he felt for her had magnified and multiplied now that she’d given him her body.

  “We should do this now,” he told her, and her eyes widened as he lifted up, pulling out of her, and coming to sit on his knees.

  She rose up, too, facing him on her knees.

  He took hold of her forearm, turning her palm up to expose her inner wrist.

  Her stomach clenched with nerves as his incisors elongated into fangs.

  “This is going to hurt,” he warned her, but before she could object or even think twice—there was no backing out now—he sank his teeth into her inner wrist.

  Blood flowed down her arm.

  The stinging pain finally reached her brain and she winced, hissing air through her teeth, as Troy tore out a chunk of his own flesh from his inner wrist, causing his blood to flow as well.

  He took hold of her arm again, this time clutching his large hand around her forearm to align their bleeding wrists in almost a handshake. It was a wrist-shake position and she held him tightly as well, feeling his blood flow into her.

  “What’s happening to me?” she breathed, her voice trembling.

  It felt like her skin was on fire from heat to toe, and yet it also felt like ice. A prickling sensation danced across her skin next and though Troy had answered her, her ears were suddenly filled with all kinds of sounds—hearing tremendously heightened and picking up the smallest noises.

  Then pain. Incredible, otherworldly pain.

  It felt like every bone in her body had turned to glass and was shattering.

  She saw Troy mouth the words, I’m sorry. It’ll be over soon, but she couldn’t hear a thing except for a surge of ringing.

  She was changing. Shifting. Transforming. Panting?

  She looked up at him then down at where their arms had been aligned. He’d released her and she saw two brown paws where her hands used to be.

  She sprang from the bed, leaping to the wooden floor, and realized she was on all fours. A wolf.

  When she glanced back up to the bed, there was a raven black wolf where Troy had been.

  His voice came loud and clear as a bell as he spoke directly into her mind.

  “Now we mate as wolves, and the bonding will be complete.”

  As Troy, in his wolf form, joined her on the floor and began circling her, Reece realized she’d never felt more alive in her life. It was as though all five of her senses had been heightened to their most extreme. It was incredible.

  She was ready.

  And Troy didn’t waste a single second.

  If human sex with Troy had blown her mind, then this was on a whole different level. One she could get used to. Uniting with Troy was the defining moment of Reece’s life, and she knew she would never look back.

  ***

  Happiness filled her heart as she stood at the altar in the most beautiful wedding dress she could find in Jackson Hole. Holding hands with Troy, who was dressed sharply in a black tuxedo, she couldn’t rest her cheeks from smiling.

  “I do,” she said, bursting with tears of joy, in front of a large congregation that had gathered in the acreage near the Quinn cabins.

  The whole town was there, werewolves hiding among the residents, everyone dressed in their finest formalwear. Even Sheriff Abernathy, his deputies, and Rachel Clancy were present for the nuptials.

  “I do,” Troy repeated and the guests broke out into joyous applause as he stepped in, pulling Reece into his arms, and kissed her.

  Hand in hand, Troy and Reece walked up the aisle and soon the wedding ceremony transformed into its following reception. The chairs were cleared to make a dance floor and the band began to play.

  But as Troy led Reece out onto the dance floor for the first dance, his brothers suited up in tuxedos and raising their glasses in congratulations as other guests of the wedding snapped photos and clapped, a sinking feeling weighed in Reece’s heart.

  It had nothing to do with the wedding or having decided to bond with Troy eternally. That had all been part of the best decision she’d ever made in her life.

  Dante was somewhere out there. Roaming free. And she knew with every fiber of her being that he would one day be back.

  “Don’t worry about that now,” Troy told her, reading her mind.

  They’d gotten close like that. Merging. Minds, bodies, and souls. He could feel her emotions and she could peek into his thoughts freely, like a freshwater river flowing into the calm waters of the sea.

  “I’ll try,” she said, smiling up at him.

  “He can’t hurt you. He can’t hurt me now that we’ve bonded. We’re untouchable.”

  She stared at him for a long moment as they danced to their chosen wedding song, then she looked out at all the guests and asked, “What about all of them?”

  The look on his face told her that he was just as concerned.

  He held her a little tighter as they danced.

  And she knew that the man in her arms would stop at nothing to protect each and every one of them out there…

  …if and when the devil of Devil’s Fist returned.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  TROY

  The gift of foresight, that had finally graced Troy, felt more like a curse than a blessing.

  It overwhelmed him.

  In the days that followed the wedding, his afternoons were plagued with visions of brutality and his nights were haunted with mental images of bloodshed.

  He’d promised Reece, the love of his eternal life, that there would be no secrets between them, but how could he share with her the nightmarish omens that had been mentally assaulting him at every turn?

  He couldn’t.

  Reece had been right when she’d fretted on their wedding day, worried about their friends and community. Every resident of Devil’s Fist, mortal and werewolf alike, were in danger.

  He didn’t know when, he didn’t know how, but one day soon Dante would come back to finish what he’d started.

  And Troy didn’t have a good enough handle on the foresight visions he’d been having to be able to pluck the kinds of details out of them that he would need to stop Dante before he tore through this town, leaving a path of destruction in his wake.

  He needed answers. Guidance. And there was only one woman
who could provide it.

  Having dropped Reece off at the library, he pulled his pickup truck up to Sasha’s hovel and found his mother, Nikita, outside and watering the flowers that lined the cave-like home.

  “Troy, good morning,” said his mother as she rose to her feet from the grass, brushing dirt from her lavender dress then pulling her long, white hair into a bun, as she neared him. “How’s married life?”

  “It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he smiled as he hugged her. “But foresight is the worst.”

  “Oh no,” she said, giving him the once-over. A mother always knew when her child was struggling, no matter how much he’d grown. “Your father had a hard time of it at first, as well.”

  “He did?”

  “Of course,” she assured him. “They call it a gift, but it’s really a burden.”

  “I can’t make sense of the visions that have come over me. All I know is that we haven’t seen the last of Dante.”

  Nikita frowned and Troy knew that she understood his reason for this unannounced visit.

  “Sasha’s inside by the fire.” As he started for the door, she caught him and warned, “Troy, don’t ask questions you can’t handle the answers to.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, unsure of how to heed that kind of warning, and then entered into the foyer. When he rounded into the living room, he found Sasha in her rocking chair as always, the flickering light from the fireplace warming her.

  “Grandmother,” he said as he neared her.

  She angled her aged eyes up at him, but he lowered to one knee in front of her so she wouldn’t have to crane her neck.

  “How are you?” he asked as a formality as he took both of her knotty hands in his.

  “You’re a man now. Fully a king, now that you’ve found your queen,” she told him wisely.

  Maybe that would earn him the respect of garnering straight and unveiled answers from her, he hoped.

  Perhaps that was wishful thinking.

  “You never told anyone about your son, Dante,” he said, keeping his tone as even and respectful as possible.

  Sasha sighed as she gazed into the crackling fire and agreed, “No, my child, I did not. How could I?”