Justus (10 page)

She could feel her wet folds
and knew she was ready. Her fingers made their way down her stomach
until she reached her slick center. She stroked herself as her hand
moved over him.

Wrapped in her own desire,
she leaned forward and drew him deeply into her mouth and dipped
her fingers inside of her.

Her hand shifted now. She
could feel him trying to pull away.

“Paige,” he groaned. “I need
to taste you.”

She ignored him and sucked
him into the back of her throat. He growled, and she felt the
rumble through their connection. When she pulled back and looked up
at him, his eyes blazed a deep amber. The sight made her
shiver.

He lifted her as if she were
nothing and placed her hands on the couch. Paige turned to ask what
he was doing when she felt his tongue snake deep inside her. She
moaned and spread her legs wider to allow him deeper access.

He darted in and out, his
steady thumb rubbing gentle circles as he moved inside her.

She grunted in frustration
when his tongue pulled back. Her climax was so near she could taste
it.

He returned though. His hard
cock pressed against her center.

In one swift push, he slipped
inside her aching pussy.

“Yes,” she called out.

His thrusts, unlike earlier,
were short and hard, pushing as deep inside as he could manage. She
gripped the couch with the force of the movement and hoped he sped
up.

Her release approached. As if
sensing it, Justus sped up, his hands on her hips, pulling her back
with each push forward. Paige bucked against him, needing to feel
his release as well as her own.

“More,” she groaned.

His hips slapped hard against
her as he leaned forward to wrap his hands around her tits,
pinching the nipples as he did so.

“Fuck,” he whispered in her
ear. She could feel her insides tighten.

“Don’t stop,” she
groaned.

His hands slipped to her
shoulders, bowing her back slightly as he continued to thrust
deeply inside her.

She gasped when his arm
wrapped around her waist, and he brought her back flush with his
front, his cock still slamming into her.

The angle was different.
Deeper somehow. More intimate.

Her insides fluttered.

“Justus,” she hissed. “I
need…”

Her words broke off as his
pace changed. Harder and faster. His hand slipped between their
legs.

“I know what you need,” he
said in her ear. “Come, Paige. I want to feel you squeeze me as I
empty myself deep inside.”

She shuddered hard, his words
just enough to push her over the edge.

Paige cried out. Her hands
gripped his arms as the ripples of her orgasm passed over her.
Justus slammed hard into her and growled loudly as he pumped his
release deep inside.

She leaned forward and rested
her head on the couch. Her breath came out in small pants.

Justus slipped out of her,
and she sighed when his arms wrapped around her, lifting her into
the air.

Paige wrapped an arm around
his neck and smiled.

She could feel his chuckle
and opened one eye as he climbed the stairs.

“What?” she asked.

“Seems like if you’ve got
enough energy to be grinning, we still have business to attend
to.”

Paige grinned coyly. “But I
was going to cook you dinner.”

Justus looked down at her.
She could feel his hard cock growing against her and gasped. When
she looked up, his eyes were glowing as he spoke.

“Fuck dinner.”

Chapter
Thirteen

The next several days
were nothing but quiet and bliss. They were almost too quiet as
Justus was concerned. He doubted the fanatics would give up so
easily. Even if they were convinced he wasn’t in Paige’s house,
they still probably thought he was lurking around the area.

He checked the perimeter he’d
set up. It wasn’t much with its improvised mix of cords, wind
chimes, cans, and metal, but they needed more warning if those
bastards came down that drive again. With his hybrid hearing, he
didn’t need anything fancy. He just needed noise.

The most satisfying part of
this was how he’d set this up all underneath the noses of the two
fools John had watching them down the drive in their truck. He’d
crept along, using all his stealth training, to move what he needed
into place and set it up. They were arrogant and cocky, mistaking
getting a lucky shot in on a confused and starving hybrid with
dealing with one at top form.

He knew how to take someone
out before they ever even saw it coming. However, he was never
taught how to protect someone while doing that. Protection wasn’t
really something the Horatius Group focused on in their training.
It was eat or be eaten.

He shook his head as he
remembered the endless training sessions, and the many Glycons
they’d tossed his way. The poor souls were more crazed animals than
men. That was the Horatius Group’s grand future: bestial men all
but stripped of their souls, and their masters, men with
intelligence but no conscience.

Paige popped into the kitchen
window and gave a little wave. He smiled warmly at her as she
continued her preparation for dinner. He liked that she enjoyed
cooking, even more so that he was the special person that got to
see this side of her. It meant so much, signaled so much.

Justus frowned at the memory
of the men searching the house and their comments about Reverend
John and training her. He’d be damned if that psychotic bastard got
ahold of her. He was dangerous in a way maybe even the Horatius
Group wasn’t.

Justus saw now John didn’t
just hate the hybrids. There was something more to it. Something
had twisted in his brain, or maybe he was always twisted. But it
was obvious that the man would do all sorts of evil to both humans
and hybrids. He claimed he was doing it for his religion, but
Justus suspected the man would have found whatever convenient
excuse he needed. Maybe he didn’t even believe in what he spouted
and said it only to convince his followers.

Justus pulled out a card from
the back pocket of a pair of jeans Paige had been able to find in
her sister’s closet. They smelled like cheap cologne and
cigarettes, but it was better than wearing sweats all the time.

The bold letters in Luna
Lodge stood out.

He had been thinking more and
more about calling. Though he was still furious with Titus, the
situation was getting strange and dangerous. It wouldn’t be long
before he and Paige were in over his head, and that was assuming
the Group didn’t get wind of a hybrid outside the protection of the
lodge. What would he do if a half-dozen Glycons showed up in the
middle of the night? Would he be able to protect Paige?

Justus shook his head. He
would wait until he knew more. No sense in calling until he could
at least level the playing field. Even if Titus didn’t try and
throw him back in a cell, he didn’t like the idea of being under
the man’s thumb.

Now that he wasn’t starving
in the woods, he was finding freedom rather addictive. Maybe if he
could deal with John, he and Paige would be able to stay under the
Group’s radar.

“Dinner’s almost ready,”
Paige called out the window.

He quickly slipped the card
back into his pocket and nodded.

Justus looked around. An
alert would give them time. That was enough for now. They had an
immediate threat, and they’d deal with that.

When he stepped inside, his
stomach growled at the rich, meaty smell of roasted beef and
vegetables.

He sat down at the table and
watched as Paige moved quickly around the kitchen. She dished some
of the roast and sides and placed them in front of him. He almost
wanted to laugh, remembering when he was still surviving off of bad
rabbit and a handful of forest plants.

Justus breathed in deeply and
smiled. When he opened his eyes, he found Paige sitting across from
him, watching with great interest.

Paige waited with
anticipation. Though he’d never had anything but good things to say
about her food, seeing him enjoying it filled her with warmth.

He cut off a little meat and
forked it into his mouth. His eyes rolled back, and he sighed.

“I’ve never tasted anything
so good,” he groaned and shoveled in more.

Paige smiled at him. His
comments made her happy, but she realized after a second, he might
not just be exaggerating. His life had been tough in a way she
couldn’t begin to imagine. Having dead-beat parents was still
better than being a lab rat for the depraved Horatius Group.

“Was it hard?” she asked
casually. “Your life before?” Mostly they had avoided talking about
the past. When they were happy, what was the point of bringing up
something sad?

Justus paused mid-bite. He
looked at her, his amber eyes searching for something, before he
nodded and placed his fork down.

“I was trained as an
assassin,” he said finally.

Paige raised a brow in
surprise.

“The training was strict and
that included my eating,” he said and took another bite. “Food was
to sustain us, nothing more, nothing less. They didn’t care about
us enjoying anything. We did what they told us to because the only
other choice was torture or death.”

A shudder ran through her.
People called the hybrids abominations, but the men and women who
ran the Horatius Group were the true monsters.

“When I wouldn’t execute a
Vestal they had failed to bond, they sent me to Vanessa,” he
said.

“Vanessa?” Paige blinked.
She’d not heard the name before. Despite the seriousness of the
conversation, jealousy pricked her heart. She did her best to
ignore it as any woman who was with the Group was someone who’d
abused him, not someone he loved.

“The Group is obsessed with
second-generation hybrids. Vestals are important to that. She was
experimenting.”

His face took on a far-off
look as he continued his story. “She tried to force a bond with all
the hybrids they had given her. But it was Felix who paid the
price.”

“Who’s Felix?”

He narrowed his eyes. “He was
with me and some others. She tried to force the bond with him,
thought she even had succeeded. But it doesn’t work that way. We’re
not meant for just anyone. It was slowly killing him.” He balled
his hands into fists. “He only didn’t die from it because he
sacrificed himself to help the rest of us escape.”

Paige was silent for a
moment, sad for the life he’d been forced to live. When she looked
up, he was staring at her.

“What does it mean to be
bonded?” she asked quietly, though already sure that she knew it
deep inside. “I thought you said it just meant like being a
couple.”

He stared hard at her, then
shook his head.

“No, it’s so much more than
that. Not like being a couple or even being married. A Vestal and
hybrid are made for one another,” he said. “When they are together,
they are bonded, body, mind and spirit. They become two halves of
the whole.”

The room was quiet for a
moment, and she shivered under his stare.

Bonded. The word rang true to
her. Justus was it. It was crazy to think about. Logic told her
that wasn’t the case, but her heart was a different matter. She’d
never been so consumed with the thoughts of a man like she was with
Justus, never felt so comfortable.

The chime of her phone cut
into her thoughts, and Paige jumped up to answer it.

She frowned at the number. It
was the hospital. Maybe it was the committee. Though she didn’t
even know if she cared anymore about her job there.

“Hello?”

“Paige,” Lena whispered over
the line. “Oh thank God. Something is going on.”

Her heart thumped wildly in
her chest. They had found out, and now her friend was being tossed
out.

“What is—” Paige began.

“I have to be quick,” Lena
said, cutting her off. She said something else, but a crackling
static blocked it.

“What was that? I couldn’t
hear you.”

“I think they know. They
mentioned your name. There are all sorts of men here and some guy
everyone keeps calling the Reverend. He’s a burn victim, I think,
and I kind of recognize him from somewhere, but I can’t quite place
him.”

“Hide,” Paige said into the
phone.

More static disrupted the
line. What a time for her stupid cell phone company to be lame.

“What?” Lena said.

“Hide,” Paige repeated
urgently.

Justus stood beside her,
listening and nodding at her words. She always forgot just how good
hybrid hearing was.

“Hide? Who are these…” More
static crackled.

“Listen, Lena,” Paige began,
“you need to—”

The line went dead. She
looked up at Titus. She tried calling back, but no one
answered.

She bit her lip and shook her
head. “Do you think she’s okay?”

“Maybe. If she’s smart,
she’ll play along with them. But if they aren’t bothering to hide,
that means there are ready to make a move. And we both know where
they’re going next.” Justus held out his hand. “Give me the
phone.”

She watched as he pulled out
a card from his pocket and dialed the number written on it.

“Get Titus,” he said sharply
into the phone. “Tell him it’s Justus and shit is about to hit the
fan.”

Paige watched, swallowing as
Justus waited on the phone. After a good thirty seconds of waiting,
she heard someone over the phone and a frown appeared on Justus’s
face.

“I don’t have time for
bullshit, Titus. Something’s about to go down with Reverend John.”
He snorted at something said over the line. “Well, you should have
checked to make sure his ass was dead then.” He paused, listening.
“I can’t call the sheriff. He’s one of them.” Another pause
followed. “You know where I am. I don’t like you, but if you want
to prove you’re better than the Group, this is your chance.” After
another long wait, the phone call ended, and he nodded to
Paige.