Broken Moon (8 page)

            “No,”
Jocelyne said softly, shaking her head. “I would never call you a coward.
You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.”

            Shock
shimmered in the blue depths of his eyes. “You’re just saying that to make me
feel better.”

            Jocelyne
lifted her chin. “I am not,” she said firmly, “and you know it. The coward’s
way out would have been to stay there and die, to give up on your life. Instead
you went out into the unknown, with no help or friends or family to rely on,
and you found yourself a new life. A new community in which you learned to
thrive. You made your own way.”

            Harley’s
eyes seemed to swirl with a whirlwind of emotions. “I abandoned my pack. I
should have stayed to protect them. They probably all think that I’m worthless
for leaving them.”

“Some of them
might say that,” Jocelyne argued, “but I’ll bet that if you could get inside
their heads, most of them would admire you for what you’ve done.” She leaned
forward to squeeze one of his hands. “I’ve met pack shifters before, and I know
from experience that many of them would sooner die than be turned out of their
communities. So you’re not a coward just because you decided to choose the
possibility of life over the certainty of death. You’re the bravest person I
know, and you’ve saved countless lives with everything you’ve done.”          

Harley stared
at her for a long moment, then dipped his head down to brush a soft kiss
against her knuckles. “Your words… they make me feel so good,” he whispered
against her skin. “Better than I have a right to feel.”

“Everybody
has the right to feel good,” Jocelyne murmured as she crawled into his lap. She
straddled Harley’s hips, then wrapped her arms around him and rested her head
against his shoulders, embracing him with all the warmth and affection she had
to offer. “Especially the soldiers who serve our country. I’m honored to know
you.”

Harley pulled
back a little so he could look at her face. His eyes gleamed with such
intensity that they stole her breath and made her heart beat faster all at the
same time. “No, I’m the one who’s truly honored,” he said.

He kissed her
then, a soft, sweet, slow expression of love… or so Jocelyne liked to believe.
She didn’t know if Harley loved her, but the emotion that was swelling in her
chest as she kissed him back certainly seemed scarily close to the emotion. But
rather than reject it, she embraced it, allowing herself to be engulfed by the
rising passion between them. She could feel his erection pressing against her
inner thigh, and her blood heated at the knowledge that this big, strong,
handsome soldier actually wanted her.

“Do we have
to worry about cameras?” she breathed as he laid her back on the bed.

“No,” he chuckled.
“We’re safely in the blind spot. And I don’t think they have any sound.” He bit
down on Jocelyne’s earlobe then, and she gasped as he suckled on the soft
cartilage, sensitizing the sweet spot. His hands slid up her shirt to undo her
bra, and then he was cupping her breasts, teasing her nipples with soft tweaks
and rolls of his thumbs as his mouth moved down the side of her neck and to her
collarbone.

“Harley,” she
moaned as desire tightened in her belly. “I want you.”

“And you’ll
have me.” He slid off her jeans in one smooth motion, then divested her of her
top as well. “Your wound’s healed up pretty nicely,” he murmured, tracing the
outline of the pinkish scar that was all that was left behind. That, too, would
be gone in a few days, and she’d be left with nothing but a memory of the
injury.

He leaned
down to trace the outline of the bullet wound with his tongue, and Jocelyne
shivered with pleasure as his hot, wet tongue slid across her flesh. She moaned
softly when he bit down gently on the area, and then continued south to the
juncture of her thighs.

“This is so
much better now that I can see you,” he told her, spreading her legs and
running a finger along her folds. “God you’re beautiful.” He lifted the finger
to his lips and sucked her juices off the digit, the look in his eyes so hot he
scorched her entire body with just that single glance.

“Please,” she
begged, lifting her hips toward him. Her pussy was throbbing with the need for
release. “I need you.”

Harley slid
his legs under her knees, lifting her hips a little higher as he ducked down
between her legs. Jocelyne cried out as his hot tongue swept against her folds,
once, twice, three times, and then she groaned when he found her clit.

“Yeah baby,”
he growled, and Jocelyne went wild as he began to lick and suck at the
sensitive little nub. She fisted her hands in the sheets and ground her hips
against his face as he pleasured her with his tongue and teeth, and when the
first orgasm hit, she had to clap her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming
his name.

“Get on your
knees,” he commanded roughly after he’d made her come three times. “I want to
take you from behind this time.”

She did as he
asked, bracing her hands against the headboard and spreading her legs a little
for him. She heard the clink of metal as he removed the belt around his jeans,
and she moaned when his hot, hard length slid erotically along the curve of her
ass, brushing between her cheeks.

“You look so
hot like this,” he whispered against her ear, reaching around to squeeze her
breasts. His bare chest brushed against her back, the coarse hairs on his pecs
teasing her skin, and she gasped when he slid inside her without warning,
filling her to the brim. He rocked against her slowly at first, establishing a
steady rhythm, and the ball of heat in Jocelyne’s lower belly gradually began
to tighten even more, pushing her closer towards climax.

She moaned
when Harley bit down on her shoulder and closed her eyes, focusing on the
exquisite feel of his thick, hard cock gliding in and out, in and out of her
throbbing pussy. “You feel so good,” she moaned as she rocked back against him.

“Yeah?” he
breathed in her ear. “You like this?” He squeezed her nipples as he rocked his
hips into her ass, driving himself deeper inside her.

“Yes,” she moaned,
arching her back. “Please, I want to come.” She tried to urge him faster, but Harley
held tight to the pace, slowly pushing in and out of her with smooth, sure
strokes.

“I want this
to last,” he whispered, reaching around to stroke her clit with the lightest of
touches. She trembled in his arms, and even through the fog of lust her mind
registered that he wasn’t just talking about the sex. “For as long as I can
possibly have you, I want this to last.”

She didn’t
know how long he tormented her for, how long he kept her hovering at the edge
of bliss with the feather-light touch of his fingers and his slow, deep strokes
that didn’t quite push her to where they needed to be. Finally, when she’d been
reduced to nothing but a quivering puddle of need, begging incoherently, making
all kinds of promises she couldn’t even hear herself saying, he gave her what
she wanted, fucking her hard and fast and massaging her at just the right
angle. She exploded around him, his hand clapping over her mouth to catch her screams,
and waves of pleasure cascaded around them both as he came inside her as well.

“Jesus,” she
gasped afterward, falling forward on the bed limply. “That was fucking
amazing.”

“It sure
was,” Harley agreed, his voice a satisfied rumble in her ear as he pulled her
back against his chest, lying on his side. His big, warm hand stroked up and
down the side of her naked body, soothing her body, which was still humming
from her explosive orgasm.

“What did you
mean, before, when you said that you wanted this to last?”

Harley
stiffened a little against her back. “What do you mean?”

“Earlier, in
the heat of the moment… you said ‘For as long as I can possibly have you, I
want this to last.’” Jocelyne bit her lip, struggling not to give into the hope
that wanted to bloom in her chest. “What exactly did you mean by that?”

Harley let
out a long sigh. “Your father is sending men to come pick you up,” he told her.
“They’ll probably be here by tomorrow at the very latest. I just meant that I
wanted to enjoy what time with you that I could before you have to go.”

“Before I
have to go?” she echoed, and then frowned. “Hang on a second,” she said,
turning in his arms so she could see his face. “Are you trying to say you’re
not coming back with me?”

The hard
gleam in Harley’s eyes was answer enough. “I have a job here to finish. Your
father is sending a team out to assist me, and then we’re going back to blow
that ice bitch to hell.”

“Ice bitch?”

He laughed a
little, though the sound had no warmth in it. “That’s my name for her. She goes
by Amelia though, apparently. She’s the woman who was running those experiments
on me, and I think she was in charge of the facility we were in.”

“Oh.” Jocelyne
bit her lip, unable to stop the hurt that was aching in her heart. She couldn’t
exactly protest that he was going back in there… that was his job, after all.
And yet… “I don’t see why this means that you and I can’t see each other again
once you’ve finished the mission.”

Harley shook
his head, and he pulled away a little. “Don’t you?” he asked, exasperation
tightening his handsome features. “So long as Justice continues to operate and
exist, it’s not safe for us to be together. I’ll always be a target because I’m
a shifter, and you’ll always be one because you’re the Commander’s daughter.”

“Then we’ll
just have to eliminate Justice, won’t we?” Jocelyne said simply. “If we get rid
of them, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Harley
sighed. “It’s not necessarily that simple,” he said. “Even if our mission to
destroy their base is successful, we don’t know enough information to be sure
we’ve taken them out. That could be one of many facilities they have around the
country… or even around the world,” he added darkly.

Jocelyne
scowled. “So what, just because some evil quasi-terrorist group is out there,
that means we have to hunker down in fear of them, and not live our lives the
way we want?”

“Jocelyne
– ”

“No.” Jocelyne
wasn’t just hurt now; she was angry. “I’ve been pushing back against my father
my entire life for the right to live the way I want to instead of being locked
away in some tall, ivory tower where no one can get me. Somehow I managed to
survive until now, and I’m going to continue to survive no matter what anyone
tries to throw my way.” She propped her hands on her hips and glared at Harley,
who was looking at her with a befuddled expression on his face. “I have a
college degree to finish, and a promising career at a law firm waiting for me
back home. And I think there might just be room for you in my life too, if only
you’d stop being too pigheaded to see it.”

Harley just
shook his head. “Me? You’re pretty pigheaded too, you know that?”

Jocelyne
growled at him. “I’ll show you pig – ”

Harley swept
her up into his arms, cutting her off as he buried his nose in her hair and
inhaled deeply. “I agree with everything you said,” he murmured into her neck.
“And I want to believe in this amazing vision of the future that you have. But
I’m a soldier, and at the end of the day I have to follow orders. Don’t you
understand?”

Tears pricked
at the corners of Jocelyne’s eyes at the pain in Harley’s voice. “Yes, I do,”
she whispered. She understood that Harley was trying to tell her that if her
father ordered him to keep his distance from Jocelyne, that he would have to do
it, because he served her father first and foremost, above anyone. And she also
understood that meant if she and Harley were going to stay together, she was
just going to have to convince her father that keeping Harley in her life was
in her best interests. “But like you said, I’m pig-headed.”

Harley
chuckled a little, stroking her back with his hand. “Let’s just enjoy the time
we have together, alright?” He framed her face in his hands and brushed a thumb
over her lower lip. “Can you do that for me?” he asked tenderly, his blue eyes
shimmering with such need that it stole her breath.

“Yes,” she
murmured, and her eyes slid closed as he kissed her again, blocking out all
their worries and fears and hopes and leaving just the two of them.

Harley bolted straight up out of bed at the
sound of rapid gunfire peppering the walls downstairs. Heart racing, he pulled
away from Jocelyne, who he’d been snuggled up with naked beneath the bed
covers, and dove for his pants and the stolen gun he still carried.

            “Harley?”
Jocelyne’s eyes were wide as she, too, scrambled for her clothes, throwing on a
shirt and pulling on a pair of pants. “What are we going to do?”

            Harley
cursed as he heard footsteps racing up the stairs, and abandoned his initial
plan. Instead, he grabbed Jocelyne, who was now fully dressed, and tossed her
over his shoulder, and pushed open the window as wide as he could manage. The
door banged open behind him just as he jumped, a spray of gunfire following
close behind, and he winced as a bullet lodged into his backside.

            “Knock
that shit off!” someone barked. “We need the girl alive!”

           
The
girl?
Harley thought as he landed in a crouch with Jocelyne still slung
over his shoulder. He immediately set her on his feet, ignoring the pain in his
ass as he scanned the area. A man was rushing toward them from the side of the
house, and he shot the bastard square between his eyes.

            “Are
you okay?” Jocelyne gasped, seeing the bleeding wound from his backside.

            “Fine.”
He grabbed her by the arm and tugged her forward. “We have to get you out of
here – ”

            A
hissing sound in the air alerted him to trouble, but he didn’t have time to
jump away before the dart struck him in the side of the neck. “Dammit!” he
growled as the familiar combination of barbiturates and silver struck his system.
His vision immediately started to blur, but his hearing picked up the sound of
more footfalls coming his way, and he turned and launched himself at the first
figure, his fangs extending as he fought to protect Jocelyne as best as he
could.

            There
was a scream, then the taste of human blood gushing into his mouth. Gunfire,
and another bullet grazed his arm, but it was like pouring a glass of water
into a rushing river compared to the agony he was in already. Somehow he
managed to avoid getting hit again, and he grabbed for another one of the men,
but he knew he was losing, could tell from Jocelyne’s screams and the scent of
her fear that they already had her…

            “Leave
him!” someone shouted! “No use in losing more of our men over him! We’ve got
the girl, so let’s go!”

            “No!”
Harley tried to shout, but his throat wasn’t working properly anymore. His
vision darkened as he collapsed onto the grassy lawn, his ears dimly picking up
the sound of squealing tires burning up the pavement, and the crushing weight
of failure along with the silver drugs pushed him headlong into darkness.

* * *

            Harley’s
return to consciousness was accompanied by the familiar pounding headache and
burning sensation in his veins that he’d come to associate with the Ice Bitch’s
silver concoction. But the pain wasn’t what woke him – no, it was the
thick scent of barely leashed rage that brought him back to consciousness, a
rage that wasn’t his own, though he felt just as angry over what had happened
as anyone else – no, more so, since he was responsible for her loss.

            Cracking
his eyes open, he found himself lying in the bed of what was left of the
upstairs guest room, with Lee Fitzsimmons, Commander of the Shifter Squad,
sitting in a wooden chair and giving him the mother of all death glares.

            “Hello
sir,” he croaked. There were two other soldiers in the room, but Harley forced
himself to hold eye contact with the Commander even though a childish part of
him wanted to pull the covers up over him and hide his shame. Commander Fitzsimmons
was an incredibly imposing man, clocking in at somewhere around six foot six
and two-fifty, with a buzzed head of blonde hair and laser-blue eyes that could
sear a few layers off your skin if you so much as looked at him the wrong way.
His features were a more masculine version of Jocelyne’s, and were currently
mottled red with pent-up rage.

            “Why,”
the Commander finally hissed between clenched teeth. “Were you in here fucking
my daughter when you should have been out there helping to secure the perimeter
and protect her?”

            Harley
winced. “Sir, I – ”

            “Do
not speak to me!”
the Commander roared, his eyes flashing a brilliant,
fiery gold. His fangs lengthened, then retracted, then lengthened, then
retracted, as if Commander Fitzsimmons was having trouble holding onto his
beast. His nostrils flared wide, and Harley knew the Commander was scenting the
evidence of Harley and Jocelyne’s lovemaking all over again.

           
Holy
Christ. Could this day possibly get any worse?

           
“I trusted
you to protect my daughter,” the Commander said eventually, once he seemed to
have gotten a bit more control over himself. “Instead, you not only let her get
captured, but you rutted with her like some kind of common animal.” His eyes
flared gold again, and Harley dropped his eyes submissively.

            “My
sincerest apologies, Commander,” he said quietly. “But that’s not -.”

            “It
won’t happen again,” the Commander growled. “As of today, I’m stripping you of
your rank of Lieutenant and demoting you to Sergeant. You also won’t be allowed
to go anywhere near a mission for the next six months.”

            Harley
clenched his teeth before he spewed out a retort he was likely to regret. “Yes
sir,” he bit out, fisting his hands beneath the sheets. In all fairness, the
punishment was better than he deserved – the Commander could have busted
him down to Private, and had him scrubbing toilets. As a sergeant he’d probably
be assigned to training new recruits and handling paperwork – not the
greatest job, but still better than being on janitor duty.

            “Good.”
Some of the rage left the Commander’s face, and worry for his daughter
shimmered in his eyes. Harley could smell the sharp stench of fear in the
Commander’s scent now – something that threw him off balance a little,
because Commander Fitzsimmons never showed fear to anyone. “Now tell me what
the hell happened.”

            Harley
recounted the attack as best as he could, which was difficult since the silver
hadn’t completely left his system yet and the details were fuzzy. “They drove
off in some kind of SUV, I think,” he finished lamely, feeling like the biggest
failure in the world. “At least that’s what it sounded like to me. I didn’t
really get a look at the car after I was shot.”

            The
Commander sighed. “They shot out all the security cams when they stormed the
safe house, so we weren’t able to get the plate, but yes, you’re right, it was
an SUV.” He scowled. “Not that that information was of much help since we can’t
have the Spokane Police Department stopping every single black Escalade on the
streets,” he added darkly.

            “So
what’s our next move?” Harley struggled to push himself up into a sitting
position, and through a herculean effort managed to move himself only a few
inches up across the headboard.
Fuck.
“We’re not just going to sit here,
are we?”

            “Well,
if I could I would leave your sorry ass here to rest up, or have you taken
somewhere for treatment at the very least,” Fitzsimmons said, eyeing him
dubiously. “Whatever they shot you up with has done a serious number on you.
But unfortunately I need you to lead us to the enemy base and help us locate Jocelyne.”
He clenched his jaw, as if the mere thought of having Harley anywhere near his
daughter was distasteful. Not that Harley could blame him, but the thought
still hurt.

            Guess
he and the Commander were never going to be chummy in-laws.

           
Oh
please,
an inner voice scoffed.
Don’t act as if that bothers you or
something. You knew from the beginning that things were going to turn out this
way if you involved yourself with the Commander’s daughter. You just allowed
yourself to get sucked into Jocelyne’s naivety… and look where that’s got you.

            “Yes,
sir,” he said, making another attempt to sit up again. The two soldiers who’d
been standing by the window and door moved to help him, and he paled a little
when he looked down at his naked body and saw the blood-soaked bandages.

            The
Commander frowned when he noticed as well. “Jesus, those darts really do fuck
with our systems, don’t they?” he muttered. “Get his wounds redressed and tell
all the soldiers they are to suit up in full body armor.”

            One
of the soldiers paused. “Full armor?”

            The
Commander nodded grimly. “Damn straight. I can’t have any of my men being
capacitated by these fucking nightmares. Anyone caught on the field without
armor will be punished and demoted, so make sure they all know. Now move out!”