Chapter Twenty-Three
Well, that had been anti-climactic.
What had she expected? Something a little more dramatic, perhaps. Flashing lights. At the very least, a door opening so she could get a peep inside.
But Kane had said that was enough for now. They should leave it, decide whether Christa was right and it was a countdown, and then they’d decide on a next move. She’d thought they might have to drag Kaitlin away—she seemed fascinated by the machine.
Sadie had left them all staring at it and come back down to the house. She needed to check on Josie, who’d collapsed when they got here the previous evening and been sleeping since. And was still sleeping, Sadie saw as she peered around the door.
Closing it softly, she reached out with her mind and found Ethan.
She heard the murmur of voices from the back veranda as she made her way through the house and found Ethan along with Dave, swinging in hammock chairs, drinking beer, and looking relaxed. More relaxed than she had ever seen him. She hoped he would stay that way.
She had to warn him about the coming interrogation, even though there was nothing he could do to change his thoughts and beliefs. She also had to tell him what she had learned about his mother. And she wasn’t looking forward to that. She knew what she was going to reveal would be a huge shock. She just had no clue how he would deal with that shock. How it would affect his decision-making process. How it would affect his feelings for her.
First, she wanted something from him. Something she had promised herself.
She crossed to where he sat and took his beer, swallowed the last of the contents, and then held out her hand to him.
“I’m going to borrow him for a while,” she told Dave.
He nodded and raised his bottle in their direction. “So did they decide to kill him or not to kill him? Just wondering.”
“It’s still under debate.”
He didn’t speak as she led him off the veranda, across the lawn in front of the house, through the trees to a clearing where a small hut had been built. It was round, little more than poles holding up a thatched roof. On previous visits, she’d spent a lot of time here. There was a daybed where she could lie and read or just think, and the animals of the forest would come down and visit her, entertaining her with their chatter or their purrs.
“So am I—”
She shut off his words by the simple but effective method of kissing him. Words would only complicate things right now. Sliding her hand around the back of his neck, she pushed her fingers into the silky hair at his nape and pulled him down to her, deepening the kiss.
For a second, his body went tense, every muscle locked up tight, and she forced her tongue between his lips, filling him, and finally, he relaxed against her. His hands came up to cup her face, holding her still for his kiss, and his mind cleared of everything but the feel of her and the taste of her—the sensation of her body against his, the red-hot desire burning through his blood, sinking to his groin, making him hard. She pressed her body closer, feeling the rigid length of him, hot and firm, against her belly, and she growled through the kiss. Wanting more, needing more.
She ran out of oxygen, coming up for air gasping, and her gaze met his, dark gold like melted honey, and by silent agreement, they didn’t say a word.
Words could only spoil things now. And more than anything in her whole life, she wanted this man. Just once. Before the world came down around them.
She glided her free hand down over his chest, up under the T-shirt to settle against the lean ridged muscle of his stomach. A shudder ran through him, and was echoed in her own body. His palms slid down her spine, cupped her ass, ground her against his hardness.
Her insides turned molten, as heat pooled between her thighs. She needed more, much more. Hooking her fingers in the hem of his T-shirt, she dragged it over his head and threw it to the ground. Then her hands went to the button at his fly, fumbled as she unfastened it, then slipped her hands inside and around the steely strength of him. For a second, his mind went blank. She squeezed and his head flooded with pleasure.
Not letting go, with her other hand, she pushed the shorts down over his hips, and he kicked them off.
She had to look at him, had to know if he was as beautiful as in her dreams.
Taking a step back, she allowed her gaze to wander over the long, lean length of him. Broad at the shoulder, and narrow at the hips, long muscular legs. He was more than her dreams, more than she’d ever known could exist, and something twisted inside her.
She’d had sex with countless men, but had never come close to feeling like this. And the thought brought her up short. For a moment, she hesitated. But only a moment. She wanted this too much. Afterward, she would worry about the fallout. When he was gone.
She traced a fingertip over the tattoo on his left breast, over his heart, maybe to remind herself of who and what he was. Then she pressed her hand to his chest, feeling the rapid thud beneath her palm.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” he murmured.
“I am, aren’t I?”
She stepped back, stripped off her T-shirt; her breasts were bare beneath it, her nipples already hard. She wriggled out of her shorts and panties and tossed them on the pile of clothes. He reached out and trailed a finger over her collarbone, her breast, pausing to stroke her nipple so pleasure shot through her, pooling in her belly, soaking her sex. She held her breath as he moved lower over the flat plain of her stomach, delving into her belly button, then even lower to ruffle the dark curls at the base of her belly. She released her breath, and her breathing became shallow and fast, desperately trying to get oxygen into her starving lungs.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured. His hand slid between her thighs and he palmed her sex, one finger sliding between the folds to find her. “And hot and wet. You want me, and that is such a turn-on.”
She raised her gaze to meet his, her hand reaching out to wrap around his shaft. “You want me as well.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ve wanted you since I saw you outside Forrester’s that night. And I wondered how a guy like me could get a girl like you.” He grinned. “Basically, how much you would cost.”
She grinned back. “I bet you never guessed the price would be so high.”
“Never.”
“Let’s hope it’s worth it.”
“It will be.”
He sounded so certain. His hands shifted to stroke her spine, cup her ass, and he pulled her hard against him, and then lifted her off her feet. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her backward to the narrow daybed, then lowered her to the mattress. He came down on top of her, so she felt him along the length of her body. He was all hot, satin skin and hard muscle and so big that for a second, she felt overwhelmed, almost scared. As though this might change her forever in ways she couldn’t even imagine.
Then he lifted his weight from her, and she breathed. Balancing on one elbow, he stroked her hair with his free hand and ran the pad of his thumb over her lower lip.
“No condoms,” he said. “Are you on birth control?”
The question came out of nowhere. She hadn’t given the matter a moment’s thought, and now she looked away for a second, then back at him. “No. But I don’t need anything. I’m sterile.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’ve always known it. It’s no big deal.” That’s what she’d always told herself, since she’d been informed when she was fourteen. Who wanted babies anyway—nasty, smelly, squawky things. She pushed the thought aside. “And we’re immune to the majority of diseases, so I’m clean.”
“Me, too.”
He lowered his head and kissed her, gently now. She was sorry he’d brought it up. It had somehow shifted the mood, adding a hint of melancholy, and she didn’t want that. She dipped into his mind. He was thinking that maybe she was even more screwed up by her past than him. She punched him on the shoulder.
“No, I’m not. I’m bordering on normal, compared to you.”
“I don’t think either of us comes close to normal. But right now, I really don’t give a damn. I’m going to fuck you so hard and so deep that there won’t be room in either of our minds but this.” He thrust with his hips, pressing the length of his erection against her.
Sounded like a plan. Enough talking. She looped her hands around his neck, pulling him down for her kiss. Their tongues clashed, and the taste of him sent the blood roaring in her veins. She shifted beneath him, parting her thighs, making room for him and felt the scalding heat of his cock nudging at the entrance to her body. Some of the urgency left her. This was going to happen. Nothing short of the end of the world would stop her now. An insistent pulse throbbed between her thighs and she opened them wider, wriggled until the tip of his cock pushed inside. For a second, he was still, then he raised his head and stared down into her eyes as he filled her with one fluid thrust of his hips.
Closing her eyes, she savored the feeling. Strange, new, despite the fact that she had done this so many times before. This was different. He felt so right, buried deep inside her.
She’d never been in another’s head while they made love. Before they’d broken away, it had been against protocol, drilled in so deeply, from such a young age, that she’d never thought to disobey. Later, she hadn’t wanted to know what the men she was with were thinking.
Now, she needed to know. She opened her eyes and stared up at him, allowing her mind to slip into his. He wasn’t thinking, no conscious thoughts, just feeling, need, desire.
She sensed the intention before he moved, then felt the exquisite drag of his cock as he pulled out. His pleasure echoed her own, intensifying, merging. Then he shoved back in, hard, and her body arched beneath him. Lowering his head, he kissed her breast, licked the nipple, sucked it into his mouth. As he bit down, pleasure and pain mingled, spreading through her veins, her nerves, coalescing in her belly. At the same time, he pulled out again, and slammed back into her. Then he was moving hard and fast, pumping into her, grinding his pelvic bone against her so with each stroke, the pleasure swelled, tightened. He shifted his hands beneath her ass, cupping her cheeks, pulling her tighter against him, rotating her in little circles so the pleasure spiraled out of control, building and building until she was sure she’d explode. Finally, he lowered his head and kissed her, and she came, pleasure spreading outward, burning through her body, turning her to ashes. She was vaguely aware of his coming inside her, his head back, spine arched. Her mind was still inside his, and she came again from the echo of his pleasure.
He collapsed in her arms, rolled onto his side, and pulled her with him so he remained lodged deep inside her. She wrapped her legs around him because she didn’t want to let him go.
As her heart slowed, she looked across at him out of sleepy eyes. He was watching her, but his mind was at peace. They stayed like that for long minutes, lulled by the birdsong, the buzz of the cicadas in the trees.
Finally, she cleared her throat. “That was…”
“Mind blowing. Earth shattering. Life changing.”
She pursed her lips. “Hey, it’s not fair. You can talk to me without moving your lips. I still have to do all the work.”
He shifted, dragging her with him, until he lay on his back, her straddling his hips, his hardening cock still deep inside her.
This time they made love slowly, rising and falling to the rhythm of their hearts. She closed her eyes, fused their minds, and gave herself up to the overwhelming pleasure, driving them higher than she’d ever been before.
Afterward, she sprawled over him, sweat gleaming on their bodies, and as sleep took her, she almost wished this was the end, that she’d need never wake. She’d die happy.
…
Ethan shifted himself slowly, so as not to wake her, onto his side, hooking her to him with a thigh thrown over her hips. He liked watching her sleep. Her face relaxed, the tension that was always present when she was awake smoothing out. He wished he could somehow change things, make her life such that the lines would go forever.
But the truth was, he was potentially one of the most powerful men in the world, if not the most powerful, and he still couldn’t make one woman happy. Maybe there were ways he could ease some of her pain. He’d have access to Travis’s files now. He could find out what was done to her sister. Perhaps there was something they could do to make things better. He could ensure the Conclave never came after them again. Destroy all records of the Tribe.
Or maybe destroy the Conclave itself. It was something that had been in the back of his mind for a long time. He’d come back to find out what happened to his mother. And if it hadn’t been an accident, then he’d make those responsible pay. Hell, he’d even destroy the Conclave, if they had murdered her. Now, revenge no longer seemed…necessary. Almost irrelevant. It wouldn’t change the past. If he brought down his legacy, it would be for better reasons than revenge. Maybe some of Sadie’s goodness was rubbing off on him. Though he was sure she didn’t think of herself as good.
Which didn’t mean he didn’t want to know what had happened to his mother. He knew Sadie had discovered something. Something that had shocked her. So he wasn’t expecting good news. He was about to learn the truth, and it no longer mattered. If the Conclave had ordered her death, if his father had carried out the execution…what could he do? It was past.
He recognized the moment she came awake. She pushed herself up and looked at him, scowling.
“Did you know we have company?” he said to put off whatever she planned to say. He waved a hand to the doorway of the hut, where a huge, fully grown black leopard lay stretched out on the floor, tail twitching, watching them out of half-closed golden eyes. Ethan had been a little…alarmed when the animal had first appeared. But it had shown no signs of aggression, and he’d decide his best bet was to ignore it.
She turned her head to look at the leopard. “He has your eyes.”
He wasn’t sure that was a compliment. The leopard didn’t look evil. But it did look cold, conscienceless. A predator.
As if catching her attention, the animal rose to its feet and strolled over. Ethan tensed but didn’t move as Sadie scratched the leopard’s head. It rubbed against her, a rough purr rolling from its throat. “This is Kpo,” Sadie murmured. “Kane found him as a kitten after a forest fire killed his parents. He brought him up. It gives me hope that he’s not a complete bastard.” She sighed. “I suppose we need to talk.” She waved a hand at the leopard, and he strolled away, collapsing by the door and rolling onto his back, huge paws in the air. Ethan tried not to look at the claws.
She slipped out from beneath him and padded across the floor naked. Long and slender, with small breasts and dark nipples, pale skin, she was so beautiful, he hurt. His cock twitched, and he had to stifle the urge to pull her back to him, lose himself in her body again. But she was right, they needed to talk.
She found her shorts and T-shirt, and pulled them on. Then tossed him his shorts.
He sighed and sat up, running a hand through his hair, then over the stubble on his chin. His arm ached, a sudden reminder of the bullet wound in his shoulder and everything that had happened.
He rose to his feet, pulled on his shorts, then sat again, and patted the mattress beside him. “Come and talk to me, then.”
As she sat down, his heart rate picked up. He’d searched for the answers for so long; now he was finally going to discover the truth. He was aware that she had gotten the information from his father, which meant he was implicated. He’d always suspected that. But his father was dead. There was nothing Ethan could do to him.
She twisted on the bed so she could look into his eyes.
“Tell me,” he said.
She took a deep breath. “Your mother isn’t dead.”