"There, baby…"

She whimpered as his thrusts began to increase, her fingers clenching in the fabric of the chair. One hand left hers to grip her hip, holding her steady as his cock tunneled inside her with hard, heated thrusts.

The tingling, tormenting sensations racing from her vagina through the rest of her body had her begging for release. It was so close. She could feel it burning in her womb, in her clit, and yet he held her back, easing his thrusts, then increasing the pace, only to ease back once again.

She was growling. Strained little sounds of animalistic pleasure were coming from her throat as her back arched and she fought to tighten around him, to hold his shuttling cock in place each time he retreated.

"Bad girl." The sharp, stinging little caress to her ass had her stilling, pausing at the additional sensation. Was it painful or pleasurable?

She pushed back against him again.

"Like that, baby?" His hand landed again, on the opposite cheek of her rear. "How pretty your little ass blushes."

The next stinging little slap was harder, the sensations flaring deeper inside her as a starburst ruptured behind her closed eyes. She tightened around him again, gasping at the extremity of the sensations racing through her.

"I told you I was going to spank you, baby."

Another slap, a hard thrust. Retreat, smack, thrust. Her senses where whipping, nerve endings screaming in need as she felt the fire building in her womb. She was close. Oh God, so close.

Then he gripped her hips with both hands and began thrusting inside her furiously. The hard length of his cock separated and pulled at her muscles, caressing, inflaming sensitive nerve endings as a long, muted wail left her throat.

Her orgasm didn't just explode through her. She felt herself imploding, every cell and muscle in her body gathering, reaching then flaming through her with shocking results. Lance's cry was a distant sound at her ear. The feel of his body, covering her, holding her, shielding her as racking shudders raced through her, added to the overwhelming pleasure.

"Sweet baby," he whispered at her ear as she fought to hold him inside her, her vagina rippling along his cock as he spurted into her a final time.

___________

Harmony was a weak-willed mess when Lance moved, sliding from her and adjusting his pants before lifting her in his arms. Her head fell to his shoulder, her eyes closing as she fought to get a handle on her emotions.

She decided she hated emotion.

He strode to the shower, quickly undressed them both and pushed her beneath the warmth of the water. She watched him as he bathed her, his hands gentle, his expression a mix of rueful lust and gentle amusement as she frowned back at him. He didn't speak, and she didn't have the energy to make enough sense of what she felt, what she could feel growing inside her soul, to discuss it. So she watched him instead, wondering at the man who knelt so easily before her to finish washing her before he turned her to the spray and began on her backside.

"There, all clean," he whispered, turning quickly to the spray and washing his hair before taking a clean washrag and cleaning himself briskly. He was much rougher on his own body.

The washrag spread a stream of bubbles over his face first, then his neck, shoulders and powerful chest. Moving lower, he quickly cleaned his still half-erect cock and the heavy sac below before washing his legs. He was quick, efficient and didn't waste time. He applied the same force toward washing his body as he did toward his life. Except for her.

Harmony watched from the opposite side of the water stream as he rinsed, realizing that with her, Lance broke his own rules in some way.

Unwritten rules. She understood that. He was a man who took life as it came and fixed what was in his power to fix. And he did so without waste. He wasn't a man to posture or to make excuses if he failed. He saw all the different shades of the world, and he did his part and more if the opportunity arose, to make the world a better place.

"You deserve better," she said sadly as he turned the shower off and grabbed two thick, fluffy towels.

"Better than what?" He began drying her. Slow, gentle movements, as though he relished touching her.

"Better than a killer with an ugly past and even uglier disposition." She stared back at him as he tossed her towel aside and began drying himself.

He didn't speak. At first she thought he intended to ignore her statement. Once he'd dried himself and tossed the towel aside, though, he leveled a long, assessing look at her.

"I would die for you, Harmony." He said the words simply, easily. "I love you. And I've never said that to another woman outside my own family, in my life. All I am belongs to you. Ugly past and all. And no man could ask for more than what you are." His hands clasped her face as she felt tears welling in your eyes. "Beautiful, strong. Capable. I have more than I ever deserved, in you. And don't forget it." His eyes sparkled wickedly.

"Or I might have to spank you again. Now, get ready. We have plans to make." He patted her rear, an affectionate reminder of the spanking she would receive. Unfortunately, she had liked that spanking way more than she should have. __________

"Where's the information hidden?" An hour later Lance cleared the dinner dishes from the table and refilled their coffee cups before returning.

Harmony leaned back in her chair and watched him. She could feel the change in him. This was what made Lance such a powerful force in the county. He solved problems, and he was ready to solve this one. Now.

She breathed out roughly, leaning forward as she gripped the coffee cup between her hands. "Boulder, Colorado," she said softly. "I have them hidden in the mountains."

"Why not a safe-deposit box or storage area?" She shook her head. "Video cameras. There's no way to hide completely from them, and some of the Trainers the Council possessed could have picked me up easily, no matter my disguises when I was younger."

He nodded at that. "Do you have a cabin… ?"

"It's not that simple, Lance." She wished it were. "The hike is a long one. It's hidden someplace where I knew it would be protected, no matter what. Getting it won't be easy."

"I'm not heading out of here blind," he snapped. "There are no bugs in the house, and no one listening from outside. We're safe here, Harmony. Now, where is it?" Her lips twitched. The hard male force that lay dormant beneath the easygoing sheriff was in full force now. She leaned back in her chair and watched him closely.

"It's in a small cave occupied year-round by one cougar lioness or another. Though for the past few years, the same one has managed to hold onto it. The satchel itself is sealed into a protective, lined box with a coded lock. Any attempts to move it or break into it without the code destroy the interior."

His brow lifted as she basked in the approval she saw in his gaze.

"Smart," he murmured.

"I thought so."

"You're going to have to give the Breed Cabinet the information…" She shook her head furiously. "There's a spy in Sanctuary. Leo would be murdered or captured before the Enforcers could ever figure out where he was hidden. That is not a workable solution."

He sat back in his chair, pushing his hands through his hair as he stared up at the ceiling for long moments.

"What about Braden? He's aware of the spy. He and Megan could work on this."

"It could endanger their work with the Breeds they've already taken under their wing." She shook her head at that one too. "I don't know, Lance."

"It's our only choice," he told her roughly. "He'll know someone to contact outside Sanctuary if nothing else. The Breeds are a cohesive unit, but like everything else, certain branches work under the radar from the others. It's our only answer, because after this, you're no longer in the game."

There was that dominant tone again. It sent shivers up her spine even as she leveled him a hard look.

"You can't take the killer out of the Breed," she told him quietly.

"No, but I can take my Breed out of the killing arena." He leaned forward, his gaze hardening as he watched her. "And never doubt, baby, that you're being taken out." And why did that send a strange little thrill racing through her body?

"We can discuss this later," she said, rather than arguing over something so pointless. Hell, she wanted out, she realized. She wanted to sleep in Lance's arms every night and feel their child grow inside her.

"We're not far from Boulder," he mused then. "But there's too many damned eyes watching us. I'll call Braden and have him put together what we need and meet us tonight on the other side of the courthouse. There's an underground tunnel that leads over there from the days that the downstairs cells were used regularly. We can sneak over to the courthouse and slip away from there."

That could work. Harmony straightened in her chair as she let the plan roll through her mind. "We could hit Boulder by daybreak." She nodded. "We'll take a room until dark. It's the only way to slip into the mountains unnoticed if we're being followed."

"We won't be followed. But we'll go in after dark anyway, just to be safe. Get me a list of what you need and I'll put Braden on it."

Her brows lifted. "You mean I get to contribute?" she asked sweetly. Lance grunted, his gaze heating up at her sarcasm.

"If I could lock you up and keep you, I would," he growled, though she had a feeling they both knew better. "You scare the hell out of me, Harmony, but this is your world. You know a damned sight more about it than I do. This time, I'll follow you." She was going to go into shock. She stared back at him in disbelief, knowing that following was not a word this man usually played with.

"I didn't say I would like it," he growled. "I said I'd do it. There's a hell of a difference. And I'll spank you for it later."

Damn, there was that purr again. She blinked at the little rumble that came from her chest.

"Minx." His eyes were like dark blue flames as he stared back at her. "Keep that up and I'll just tie you up in the bed until this is over. That sound makes me harder than hell."

"The mating heat is going away," she pointed out.

"Tell that to my dick." He rose from his chair, and sure enough, the bulge in his jeans was there. Thick. Heavy. Her mouth watered. "And stop looking at me like that. Get your list together and we'll head out."

Bossy, that's what he was. Harmony watched as he moved from the table, all business despite the hard-on straining beneath his jeans. But he was also willing to work with her. She liked that. She hadn't expected it, but she liked it. Her eyes followed him, lingering on his hard back as he turned away from her, feeling the further softening in her chest. She loved him.

That fact hit her like a two-by-four against the head. For a moment, she even swore she saw stars.

She loved him.

It was quite possibly the most weakening and yet the most strengthening emotion she had ever known in her life. This was why she hadn't been able to leave him. Even knowing the danger she represented to his life, the heartache she had feared was coming, she hadn't been able to leave because she had fallen in love with him that first night.

When he had touched her as though she were something beautiful, something fragile and to be cherished; when he had whispered his naughty demands at her ear and made her feel like the woman she had never been, she had fallen in love with him.

"Harmony, that look on your face is going to get you fucked and we're already eating daylight here. Get the list together and let's get moving. I want this taken care of."

"A quickie…"

"You've had your quickie," he growled, the dark demand in his voice making her insides melt. "I want all night. Hell. I want fucking forever. Now let's take care of it."