CHAPTER 14
Asher hadn’t spent so much time in bed in all of the fifteen years he’d lived at the ranch combined. Although, to be accurate, he and Naomi hadn’t contained themselves strictly to the bed. They’d made use of the bedroom rug, the chair, even the dresser.
And they’d found a lot of creative ways to enjoy other areas of the house as well.
He should have been satisfied, but all he could think about after they returned from their evening shopping trip at the state line was how quickly he might be able to get her naked and underneath him again.
It didn’t help his nearly permanent erection that when he stepped into the house after taking care of the horses and chickens, Naomi was bent over in the kitchen, her pert little ass looking ripe for the taking in her curve-hugging jeans as she rummaged through the cabinets and pulled out a frying pan.
Soft music drifted in from the living room sound system. Not one of Ned’s favorite country albums, but a soulful jazz number the old man used to listen to on the days when Ruth seemed to be on his mind more than usual. As Asher watched Naomi sway and hum to the sensual song, he didn’t imagine he’d be able to hear it again without thinking of her.
She glanced over at him as he let the screen door quietly close. Her slow smile as their eyes connected made his cock twitch behind his zipper.
“I’m making a chicken breast to put on some salad,” she said, placing the pan on the stovetop. “Does that sound all right to you?”
“Make whatever you like. The kitchen is yours.”
“Okay.” She walked to the refrigerator and pulled out some of the fresh produce they bought, setting it on the counter next to the sink where he was now washing and drying his hands. “What’s it like not being able to eat actual food?”
He shrugged, leaning against the counter as she rinsed the lettuce and shook off the water. “Your definition of food and mine are different, that’s all.”
“So, you’ve never even tasted fresh fruit or a perfectly seared steak? Or really good chocolate?”
“No. I could taste human food if I wanted, but only a bite or two. Breed digestive systems aren’t equipped for crude nourishment like that.”
Her gaze drifted to his mouth. “Only blood?”
“Yes. And only fresh blood, taken from a living vein.”
She swallowed, and as her delicate throat worked he was suddenly very aware of the fact that it had been a few days since he last fed—too many, especially for a Gen One like him. Later generations could push their bodies upward of a week, but not the purest of the Breed.
Yet as thirsty as he was, the idea of taking a basic Homo sapiens carotid held even less appeal than usual. Not when Naomi was standing in front of him.
“Why haven’t you tried to take my vein, Asher?”
He ground his teeth together at her innocent question. She was off-limits for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being the fact that she was a Breedmate. He reached out and touched the small birthmark below her chin. “Because of this.”
One sip of her blood would nourish him the way human blood never could, but it would also bind him to her like an unbreakable chain. For as long as either of them lived, he would feel her in his own veins, in his senses. And if she drank from him, there would be no other male for her, either. The blood bond was not only sacred between a Breed male and his woman, but eternal.
She deserved someone better. Someone worthy of her.
So, why did he feel such a profound yearning to pierce her tender skin regardless of all that?
He cleared his throat, his mouth suddenly as parched as the Mojave outside.
“Better get cooking,” he muttered. “If Sam wakes up in the other room and smells chicken on the stove, you may have to fight him for your dinner.”
She laughed softly. “Okay. No dinner for you, but you’re sure you don’t want anything?”
“I didn’t say that.” He prowled toward her, unable to resist the need to be close to her. “I definitely see something I want.”
His arms circled her from behind and he stepped in close, groaning at the feel of her pressed against the front of his body. As small as she was compared to his immense size, he’d never felt anything more perfect than the soft warmth of her body leaning into his hardness. He moved his hips against her backside, his arousal on the verge of agony just to be near her.
She tipped her head back and sighed, slowly rocking to the music within the cage of his arms. “I’ve always loved this old song.”
He grunted. “I’ve never appreciated it more than right now.”
Her mouth curved as she gazed up at him from under the thick fringes of her lashes. “Dance with me.” She turned inside the circle of his loose embrace, until they were facing each other with no space between them. She moved fluidly, rotating her hips as she looped her arms around his neck and held his heated gaze. “You’re so stiff, Asher.”
“I’m not much of a dancer.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Rising up on her toes, she pulled his head down to her and slanted her mouth over his.
Her kiss exploded through his senses like gasoline thrown on a raging fire. He smoothed his hands down onto her rounded behind, squeezing her and drawing her up tight against his arousal. He wanted to be inside her, fused together with her. He would be, if not for the damnable barriers of their clothing.
“Whose brilliant idea was it to let you get dressed?” he snarled through fevered kisses. “Starting now, I only want to see you in my T-shirt or nothing at all.”
She smiled up at him. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
He kissed her again. “If you like that, just wait until you hear my other plans.”
“Maybe I should’ve picked up some energy drinks,” she said, sighing when he slipped his hands under her shirt and snapped the hooks on her bra. “Your Breed stamina’s going to kill me.”
“Are you complaining?”
“Not even close.” She yelped in surprise as he lifted her off the floor and set her atop the counter. Her hands caressed his back, then tangled in his hair as he palmed her knees and spread her legs wide. He moved into the V of her thighs and caught her possessively around the back of her neck, crushing her mouth in a bruising, heated joining of their lips and tongues.
He didn’t know how long they’d been kissing before his senses prickled with a niggling unease. He heard a sound outside—so faint he might have imagined it.
But he hadn’t; it was real. His Breed hearing was too acute to be mistaken.
Someone was outside the house, somewhere in the dark.
“What is it?” Naomi asked when he paused to listen closer, his hand still curved around her nape. “Asher?”
He put his index finger against her wet, parted lips. Her almond eyes went wide and anxious. Pulling her down off the counter, he set her on her feet and whispered into her ear. “Go to the bedroom and lock the door. Take Sam in with you.”
“Asher, what’s—”
“Do it, Naomi.” One of the horses whinnied in the paddock, a nervous sound that drew her attention toward the blackness on the other side of the back door. Asher gently caught her chin and brought her gaze back to him. “It’s probably nothing. The animals get spooked all the time. But I need to make sure, so do what I ask. Please.”
She gave him a faint nod, then left the kitchen.
Only after he heard the bedroom door close did Asher move. He stalked out of the house bare-handed, knowing if they had an intruder—especially the one he suspected—his best weapon was himself.
As he neared the horses’ paddock, a dark shape peeled away from the shadows.
“This certainly is a homey little spread you’ve got here, Asher.” Cain’s voice was devoid of emotion, impossible to read. “Never thought I’d find you playing house out here in buttfuck nowhere. Especially not with that thieving little female in there.” He chuckled low under his breath. “Apparently, you’re full of surprises lately.”
“If you’ve got any desire to keep breathing, Cain, you should get off my land.”
The former Hunter strode forward, his steps unrushed. “I didn’t come here to do battle with you, Asher. Not this time, anyway. After all, we both know each other well enough to realize that if it comes to that, neither one of us would give—or receive—an ounce of mercy from the other.”
Asher wasn’t about to deny it. “Then why are you here?”
“Curiosity,” he replied. “Not so much about you, but about her.”
“She’s none of your concern.” A growl worked its way up Asher’s throat before he could tamp it down. “If you touch her, make no mistake, Cain. I will kill you.”
The dark-haired assassin smirked and shook his head, silver eyes glinting. “I don’t have to touch her. She’s a dead woman already, considering she’s so hell-bent on screwing with Leo Slater.”
Asher leapt at him, his fangs punching out of his gums as he grabbed Cain by the throat. “Did he send you? That murdering motherfucker already sent three of his goons after her and I dealt with them. Tell me what you know, or you’re next.”
Cain grinned, but there was a note of uncertainty in his shrewd eyes. And dawning realization. “You care for her.” He chortled then. “Don’t tell me you’re attached to the little thief. I could understand why you had your hands all over her just now, but this is something more.”
Asher squeezed harder, then released his former comrade on a sharp curse.
Cain rubbed his throat absently. “What kind of game are you two playing here? What does a son of a bitch like you need with the kind of money she’s been stealing from Slater’s coffers for more than a year? Two-hundred grand doesn’t just get swept under the rug and forgiven. Particularly with a man like Slater.”
Holy hell. The steep figure shocked him, but he kept his expression schooled. And he hadn’t missed the fact that Cain was saying nothing about Michael’s win the other night.
“Slater’s got no room for holding grudges,” he replied. “If he takes a few hits on his coffers, he’s more than earned them.”
Cain shook his head. “What’s the matter, you weren’t lowlife enough before we escaped the program, now you’re a common thief too?”
He didn’t deny it. As long as Naomi was in Cain’s crosshairs, Asher wasn’t about to take the target off himself. Not even to give the other male the truth. “You’re one to judge, considering who you work for. You’re taking Slater’s money. The only difference is you’re doing it with blood on your hands.”
Now, Cain’s face hardened. “We’ve both got blood on our hands, Asher, and it’s never going to wash off. But at least I never killed my own brethren.”
“We killed whoever Dragos ordered us to kill.”
Cain shook his head. “You know damned well there’s a difference between you and me.”
“Then prove it. Walk away, and don’t come back.”
“I can’t do that. Slater pays me to take care of his interests. And nothing interests him more than his money. He’s going to want it back,” Cain added. “If he finds out it’s been her repeatedly hitting him, there won’t be any stopping him. And he won’t send a bunch of clowns after her the way he did the other night.”
The newsflash that Cain just let slip took Asher aback. Slater didn’t know it was Naomi gunning for him? All of her disguises, her patient strikes spread out over time as she methodically separated Slater from a couple hundred-thousand dollars.
To say nothing of the million-and-change that Michael walked away with last night with her help.
And Slater didn’t know.
But Cain did, and that was equally dangerous—if not more so.
“Why did she do it?” the Hunter asked. “I’ve reviewed hours of surveillance footage. I’ve seen her operate. I know she’s clever and ballsy as hell. So, why keep provoking Slater? Tell me that much.”
As much as Asher needed an ally, he wasn’t going to kid himself that he’d find one in Cain. Nor in any of his other Hunter comrades. They had all been sired off the same Ancient bloodline in Dragos’s lab, but few of the former Hunters emerged from their enslavement with any bond of loyalty from their half-blooded brothers.
Least of all Asher.
He couldn’t stake Naomi’s life on the hope that Cain would give him that much consideration. But what other choice did he have?
“Slater killed her mother.”
Cain hardly blinked. “He’s killed a lot of people.”
“Well, this time someone’s come to collect on the debt.”
“She’s taken this shit too far. All she’s doing is digging her own grave. At some point Slater’s going to find out, and he’s going to tell me to put her in it.” At Asher’s low growl, the other Hunter stared at him for a long moment, considering him in silence. “Slater’s going to tell me to end her, and I’m going to do it because that’s my job. I’m sure you can relate to that, right?”
The jab shouldn’t have stung, but Asher had spent the better part of his life regretting everything he’d done at Dragos’s command. He’d relived the depth and breadth of his sins time and again, thanks to the curse of his unique gift.
Cain’s silver eyes narrowed. “The win last night at Moda—the big one on the slots. You were there with the woman. She didn’t have anything to do with that take, did she?”
Asher feigned confusion and shook his head. “From what I recall, the winner was some guy in a wheelchair. So, unless she’s one hell of a magician, I don’t know how you came up with that idea.”
Cain stared at him, menace in the sharp bones of his face. “If it turns out either of you are working with this guy—Michael Carson—it’s not going to end well for any of you.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No,” he scoffed. “Consider it a warning, although I don’t know why you deserve one.”
“I don’t,” Asher admitted. “But she does. She’s a Breedmate, Cain.”
A look of pure shock swept over the immense male. That revelation was the one thing powerful enough to stop even an ice-cold killer like him. Every Breed male, even the Hunters, knew their entire race owed their existence—and their future—to women bearing the teardrop-and-crescent-moon mark. Without Breedmates, there would be no more Breed. That alone made Naomi and the others like her more precious than any man’s riches.
Still, Cain barked out a curse, looking more suspicious than ever. “This Breedmate. Is she yours, then?”
Asher wasn’t sure how to answer that, so he settled on the truth. “Not in blood,” he said. “But make no mistake, she is mine. And as long as I breathe, she is under my protection.”
“Under your protection? A soulless bastard like you?” Cain raised his dark brows on a deep chuckle. “Then God help her if you’re all she’s got to count on.”
Cain left him standing there in the dark, the stealth assassin fading into the night in much the same way he’d appeared.
It took Asher several minutes before he headed back into the house. Naomi met him with a relieved gasp when he opened the bedroom door and told her everything was okay.
“What happened?” she asked, seeking the shelter of his arms. “Was it . . . was someone outside?”
“It was nothing.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her sleek black hair, hating himself for how easily the lie slipped off his tongue. “Probably just a coyote nosing around where it doesn’t belong. Don’t worry. If it comes back, I’ll deal with it.”