Chapter 11
Adam pivoted to keep the man from Victoria, swinging out and nailing the younger loudmouth right in the nose. Blood spurted, and the guy fell to the side. His buddy instantly leaped into action.
Thank God. Fury rang through Adam’s veins on the heels of a desire so intense he couldn’t believe he hadn’t formed fire when he’d had his mouth on Victoria’s. He morphed the lust into anger, kicked the second guy in the gut, neck, and finally jaw. A combination three-two-five punch, and the kid staggered back. Finally, Adam kicked him directly beneath the chin, snapping his head, and throwing him back into the classic Chevy convertible. He hit with a crunch, denting the pristine metal. Unconscious but still breathing.
Adam winced. He should’ve protected the car, damn it.
The third guy finished lounging and moved forward, making fists. At the same time, the first guy managed to get to his feet. At least number two was out cold for the duration.
“What are you doing in our territory, anyway?” The first one, a guy with long dark hair, circled him, no doubt looking for an opening.
“We both know this isn’t your territory,” Adam said easily, keeping both men in his sights. They were in their early twenties and were human, so he’d need to continue pulling his punches. Didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt them a little, however. “You’re not Grizzly members.”
“We will be,” said the other guy, a blond with amazingly frizzy hair. “Beating the shit out of you will definitely help.”
Adam grinned. These guys would never be full Grizzly members, but he couldn’t very well explain that to them. He could, however, teach them a lesson. “Grizzly members don’t just attack guests in their parking lot.”
“You’re not a guest,” Blondie spat. “You’re a Fire member. Are you trying to infiltrate our club?”
What a moron. “No. How do you know I’m part of Fire?” It was a question that required answering.
“We just do,” the dark-haired guy answered.
Interesting. Adam feinted back, turned, and grabbed Blondie in a headlock. His buddy tried to help him, but Adam kicked him square in the jaw, and he fell to land hard on his shoulders. Then Adam held tight, despite the blond kid’s furious struggles, until they stopped. He dropped the unconscious body to the cement. “He’ll be okay,” he reassured the guy with black hair, who was rubbing his jaw as he stood, his eyes a furious hazel. “Although he’ll have a migraine, I suspect.” A quick glance at Victoria confirmed she’d pressed herself against a Ford truck and was watching the altercation with wide eyes. He should probably get her to safety. “Now you talk.”
The guy shook out his arms. “Why are you here, damn it?”
Adam sighed. “I came to get my woman.” He ignored the not-pleased gasp from Victoria at that.
“Your woman?” The kid glanced at her and then back. “She’s with Lucas Bryant-Clarke.”
“Just Clarke,” Victoria piped up. “He’s decided finally to just go with the Clarke part of his name. Too confusing.” Her voice stuttered, and her eyes appeared a bit dazed.
The guy gaped at her like she’d lost her mind.
“Now I have to get her out of the rain,” Adam said. “She’s mine, and Lucas agrees, as does Bear. If you have a problem, ask them.”
The guy looked at his two fallen friends. “Um, okay.”
Adam’s brow furrowed. “I’m afraid we can’t leave it at that.” He advanced on the guy, noting the widening of the kid’s eyes. “I need to hear what you know about me and about Titans of Fire. Why are you guys following us?” Something was seriously off if a couple of hopefuls were watching him, studying him. “I’m having a rough night, and breaking a couple of bones will calm me.”
The guy backed up until his ass hit the Chevy. “I don’t want any trouble.” He held up both hands, and one was bleeding freely.
“Then you shouldn’t have attacked me,” Adam said reasonably. “The only reason you’re still breathing is because you came after me and seemed to take pains to keep my woman out of harm’s way.” Of course, the guy had thought Victoria belonged to Lucas.
The guy gulped. “I wouldn’t harm a woman.”
Yet another reason to let him live. “Good,” Adam said, standing only a foot away. “Have you been following me?” He would’ve caught a tail.
“Um, no.” The guy wiped blood off his lip. “I’ve studied files on you and a bunch of the Fire members, and we’ve conducted, uh, surveillance on their headquarters. I’ve seen you there.”
“Based on whose orders?” Adam asked, the need to punch somebody rushing through him again.
The guy shuffled his feet and looked down at the rain-splattered ground. “I’m not going to say.”
“Then I’m going to hurt you.”
The kid looked up, his bruised jaw firming. “Yeah. You probably will.” He shook out his arms, his hands, and settled his feet.
Damn, but Adam was starting to like this kid. “Just tell me who ordered you to watch us. Watch Titans of Fire.” It made sense that Bear was keeping an eye on a rival gang, but he would’ve left the Enforcers from Ireland out of any surveillance plan. They were old friends, and Bear knew all he wanted to about them. About witches in general, actually.
Voices lifted through the rain, and three Grizzly members came into view, one of them Lucas.
The kid in front of Adam shuddered in what smelled like pure relief.
Lucas looked at the two unconscious men on the ground. “What the hell happened here?”
Fuck. Adam stuck his hands in his pockets, trying to look harmless. Lucas was Bear’s second, and he knew Adam was Bear’s friend, but he might have to save face here. “There was a bit of a scuffle.”
The member behind Lucas growled. “What the fuck is Fire doing here?”
Lucas studied Adam, his gaze intelligent if not fully in the know. “That’s a damn good question.” Several more Grizzly members came into view around cars and bikes.
Victoria moved forward, tension streaming from her. “It’s, ah, my fault.” She batted her eyelashes. “When Lucas, ah, dumped me, I called my friend Adam.” She sidled closer to Adam as if to protect him from the Grizzlies. “Adam’s brother is dating my sister, and well, I just didn’t know who else to call.”
Smart. Adam slid an arm around her waist. He’d claim a friendship to Bear if he had to, but that would put Bear in a difficult position. It’d also cause hell if the Fire members found out. So the woman had figured out a way to avoid more bloodshed and still give Lucas his pride. “I just want to get her out of the rain.”
Lucas slowly nodded. “Don’t come back. Next time any member of Fire sets foot in our territory, he eats it.”
Adam fought a grin at the descriptive language. “Understood.” He moved to his bike and deposited Tori on it. Leaning in, he couldn’t help but press a kiss to her upturned nose. “That was brilliant. Thanks for keeping us safe.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Us? I was keeping them safe. You’ve hurt enough of them tonight.”
He breathed in. The woman was deadly serious. She thought he was that big of a threat. He grinned. He couldn’t help it.
* * *
Tori wrapped her arms around Adam as the bike flew through the rain. Her body still hummed, and her head still buzzed. Maybe that was why the bike was working and not petering out on the side of the road. She forced thoughts of the bike and her oddity out of her mind. If she didn’t think about it, perhaps it wouldn’t become a problem.
Her hands spread across his ripped abdomen. Even with the wind and increasing rain, he warmed her. The guy was a heater. Was it something to do with him being a witch and being able to make fire? Or was he just that masculine?
Her mouth still tingled from his kiss. As if what he’d done had been a mere kiss. The bike purred between her legs, sending vibrations up and through her. Not once in her life had she been so close to orgasm after just one kiss. If she moved the right way, she could probably get there from the bike itself. How had he done that to her? The kiss hadn’t even been sweet. No. He’d all but eaten her whole.
She turned her face and rested her cheek between his shoulder blades. Muscle shifted along her jaw.
Watching him fight . . . that should’ve turned her off, right? Yet the brutality, the single-minded sharpness of his blows, excited her. He was deadly and dangerous and breathtaking. There was no doubt he’d fight to the death if he decided to protect her . . . and he’d fucking win. That sped up her breath as much as the kiss that was so much more than a kiss.
The heat beneath her skin pricked, wanting relief. Her entire body needed relief. The rain and wind weren’t even coming close to cooling her libido. She breathed in, allowing the pine scent of the trees surrounding them to fill her. Wasn’t pine supposed to be soothing? If anything, the wildness of the land on each side of them spurred her own.
Adam turned off the main road onto a barely there trail.
Soon a river rushed alongside them.
God, she hurt. Her breasts rubbed against his back, and she stifled a moan.
He stiffened.
Oh, man. It was too late. Way too late to turn back. She’d learned young, very young, to take the pleasure life offered before it went away. Well, he’d created this problem, and he’d damn well solve it.
Gathering courage she’d never doubted, she clasped his rib cage with her left hand. Her right flattened over his abs, slowly sliding down.
He stiffened against her.
She reached the hard—very hard—ridge beneath his jeans.
He jerked the bike to the side and toward the river. She yelled and tightened her hold on his dick.
He frantically pulled the handlebars, getting them back on the trail. His cock pounded against her hand, even through the jeans, a fierce cadence of rapid pulse. His head lifted, and his entire body seemed to swell somehow. Reaching a small clearing, he swung the bike in an arc, stopping at the steps to a quaint little cabin. A second later and he was off the bike. “What in holy hell are you fucking doing?” he bellowed.
Finally. She’d finally made badass Adam Dunne lose his control.
She swung her leg and dismounted from the bike. “You started it,” she yelled back, pushing rain-soaked hair away from her eyes.
“Two seconds more and I woulda finished it,” he rumbled.
She swallowed. Shit. They were back at the cabin. The one where her friend had died after taking Apollo weeks ago. She’d rushed him there, thinking the Dunnes could help him. He’d burned in front of her eyes, and she’d been helpless to stop it. Even Adam and his brothers couldn’t stop it.
“Victoria?” Adam asked.
She shook herself away from bad memories, determined to make good ones. Excellent hot and sweaty ones, with the bad boy facing her. He was the epitome of male, standing in the rain and wind, a romantic cabin behind him. His eyes had turned to dark emerald, his lips to a fine line, his body to one long tense masterpiece. All sculpted and hot and waiting for her. She took a step forward.
He stepped back.
Power flushed through her, heated and sharp. Feminine and dangerous, it went to her head and narrowed her focus. She stepped again, avoiding rocks and downed pine needles, her gaze on the man. On the male. Yeah. Witches weren’t men, but he was all male. “Adam,” she said, her voice lowering to a siren’s purr.
His head tilted just a bit, his nostrils flaring. “Watch yourself, Victoria.”
Ah, that voice. Dark and low . . . gravelly and so harsh. It kissed across her, licking and biting, and she wasn’t even touching him. If she was bewitched, she didn’t care. Not now. Probably not ever. So she reached him, sliding her hands beneath his wet shirt. Her eyelashes swept down as the heat from his skin, the hard muscles beneath her hand, forced even more lust through her body. It was too much to keep her eyes open, but she forced them open anyway. “You can’t break a promise.”
His gaze dropped to her lips. “A promise?” he asked, his arms visibly vibrating with the effort of keeping his hands to himself.
“Yes.” She rose up on her tiptoes and licked beneath his jaw. Whiskers tickled her tongue, and she kissed down the hard cords in his neck. “Back at the Grizzlies. The kiss you gave me, that was a promise.”
“Victoria,” he whispered, his voice now tortured.
She had him. She could feel it. So she stepped fully into him, body to body, her breasts hard against his even harder chest.
Fire, blue and fierce, flashed down his arms as his control snapped.
He growled and lifted her up, his mouth on hers before she could draw a surprised breath. His hands clutched her butt, and he turned, gracefully carrying her up the steps and kissing her until his mouth, his brutal body, were all that existed.
A door closed.
Warmer air brushed her.
His kiss deepened, the heat from his mouth nearly scalding her. He released her, twisting his head.
No. She reached for him, her nails digging into his wet shirt.
His gaze met hers, and he gave her a small shake. “Say you’re sure.”
Oh God. “I’m sure,” she whispered. So, so, so sure.
He ripped her shirt down the front. She gasped, her hands growing still. The look in his eyes. She’d seen it in wild animals on television. Hot and feral . . . absolute. Planting a hand on her chest, he flicked her bra open.
She jerked and looked around, seeing a small living area next to a kitchen. “Ah, bedroom?”
His smile transformed his handsome face into stark beauty. Wild and primal. “We’re not garna make it to the bedroom.”