Seduced by the Storm (35 page)

"Are
you sore, baby?" he asked before he entered her. "We had a pretty
busy night. I don’t want to hurt you."

"Hurt
me, Wyatt—it feels too good for you not to. I can handle sore."

"I
promise I’ll spend time kissing it and making it better," he murmured as
he slid inside her, his cock pulsing in pleasure as she contracted hard around
him. Her thighs tightened around his waist, forcing him to buck into her more
deeply, and he didn’t bother holding back his groan as they began to rock
together to the turbulent rhythm of the jet.

THE
HOTEL had been closed for hurricane evacuations, but apparently someone at ACRO
had pulled some strings, blackmailed someone or, heck, blown someone. Haley
didn’t give a shit. She and Remy had taken a room on the top floor, east side,
where somehow they had to stop a hurricane.

The
weather had fluctuated wildly as the outer bands of the massive hurricane spun
up storm cells all along the East Coast, which naturally wreaked havoc with
Remy’s libido. Twice on the drive to Fire Island they’d had to pull over to the
side of the road. And they’d only just unpacked her weather equipment in the
suite when he’d thrown her down on the bed to take her with a ferocity she
hadn’t seen since that first night in the bayou a year ago.

Now
they stood outside on the balcony, where at two in the afternoon it was nearly
dark as night, Remy gripping the iron rail so hard his knuckles had gone white,
both wearing hotel robes because it was pointless to get dressed.

"You
can do this," she said, her voice barely audible over the howling wind
gusts.

Remy’s
throat worked on a hard swallow as he looked out over the churning ocean.
"I don’t know,
bebe.
This is…Fuck, I don’t know."

"You’ve
come so far, Remy."

He
turned to her, his dark eyes flashing. "She’s already fucking with me, and
she’s over two hundred miles out." Distant thunder rolled, and his entire
body convulsed.

Haley
pulled him into her arms, her heart aching. Storms tore him apart, made his
body react so violently that he could barely control his lust, and though he
knew she could handle whatever he threw at her, he’d never fully gotten over
his fear that he might hurt her at the height of his storm-lust.

"This
could be bad." He petted her hair gently. "Like nothing we’ve dealt
with before."

They’d
dealt with a lot in the year since they’d met, but no matter what Hurricane
Lily did, she couldn’t cut the sting from the fact that for the last seven
months Haley and Remy had been trying to conceive but had failed. Haley was a
day late as of today, but that wasn’t unusual; her periods had been screwy
since she stopped taking birth control nine months ago. Still, she’d brought a
pregnancy test with her…just in case.

"We’ll
handle it," she said. "Together."

A
rumble started deep in his chest, joining the thunder rolling in from over the
ocean. "Go set up your equipment. I’ll start working." His arms
tightened around her, pulling her firmly against his erection. "But don’t
be long. I’m going to need you. Soon."

She
hurried, the tattoo that connected them tingling like a bee sting. Her
equipment consisted mainly of computers, portable radars and weather recorders,
all with massive battery backup. Her cell phone rang just as she was turning on
her laptop.

It
was Dev, wanting a status report. He sounded like hell, but she didn’t think
he’d appreciate her asking about it.

"Do
not
put yourselves in danger, Haley. I mean it. If things even hint that
they might go south, get out of there."

"Yes,
sir."

Dev
cursed like he didn’t believe her. Which he shouldn’t. She and Remy couldn’t
leave now. They were here for the duration, and everyone knew it.

"I
should have sent you on the Hurricane Hunter plane."

"Dev,
we discussed that." Hitching a ride with the Air Force’s 53rd Weather
Reconnaissance Squadron would have gotten them up close and personal with the
storm’s eye, but there would have been some serious privacy and safety issues.
She glanced at Remy, who stood on the balcony, head back, fists clenched, his
chest heaving. "I have to go. I’ll update you hourly."

She
hung up and checked the latest satellite and radar images. Lily was
strengthening, had been since Haley had left her lab back at ACRO. It would be
a miracle if Remy could push the storm away from the coast, let alone weaken
her. This girl was a monster, a tragedy in the making.

Itor
bastards. Wyatt had prevented them from making the storm worse, but as a
category five hurricane, she was going to cause mass destruction even without
Itor’s interference.

A
noise startled her, the sound of something hitting the glass patio door. Remy’s
fist. Her heart leaped to her throat at the sight of him staring at her,
lightning flashing in his eyes. He’d lost the robe. Rain sluiced down his hard,
powerful body, the rivulets taking the paths of least resistance, the deeply
scored valleys between slabs of muscle. His erection jutted upward, engorged to
what she knew was the point of agony for him.

One
hand, balled into a fist, braced him against the glass. The other slid down his
abs, slowly, purposefully, until he was fisting his cock.

Her
womb clenched and her blood rushed hotly through her veins. God, she loved it
when he did that. When he stroked himself as he focused on her with such
white-hot intensity that she couldn’t look away.

His
hand pumped, each upward stroke hitting the flared ridge she knew exactly how
to lick to make him moan. Each downward stroke making his sac darken and plump
with a tidal surge of blood. Her mouth watered and her sex went just as wet,
until her cream slicked her inner thighs.

Unbidden,
her fingers found her tight, hardened nipples through the fabric of her robe.
As Remy thrust into his palm, she untied her sash, allowing the robe to fall
open and expose her body to his hungry gaze. Her tattoo, a fist clutching a
lightning bolt on her hip, throbbed as always when Remy’s arousal rose above
normal levels.

Still
watching him, she slid her hand down between her legs. Pleasure sizzled through
her at the first brush of her fingers over her clit. She made one slow circle
around the swollen bud, and Remy jerked as though he’d been burned, his upper
lip curling in a carnal snarl.

Come
here,
he mouthed.
Now.

Haley
had never been one to follow orders, but she couldn’t resist her husband’s
erotic commands. Ever.

She darted
to the door, had barely opened it when he yanked her outside and pushed her
against the rain-soaked building. In an instant he was inside her and his teeth
were latched on to her shoulder and she was coming the way she always did
during storm sex.

Immediately.
Loudly. Intensely.

He
pounded into her, his body thrashing, slamming her spine against the wall. She
must have cried out, because although he didn’t slow down or let up, he lifted
his head to look at her, and what she saw in his eyes broke her heart. Tears.

"I’m
sorry, Haley. I’m so sorry…"

Around
them, the wind howled and the rain slashed at them. She took his face in her
palms and locked her gaze on his. "Don’t worry about me, dammit. Stop the
storm."

"I’m
not going to win this one,
bebe,
" he whispered, and then he peaked,
roaring into the turmoil around them.

As he
bucked against her, she wrapped herself tight around him. They would win this
one. They had to. This was what ACRO did. They saved the world.

"We
can’t be rerouted—we need to get to Ireland ASAP."

Annika’s
firm tone tore through Creed’s skull like a knife. He was vaguely aware that
the room seemed to be…bumpy. And when he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he
realized he wasn’t in a room, or his house, but rather on an ACRO jet that
seemed to be caught in the middle of the hurricane.

He
was also damned tired of waking up hung-over; he muttered as he yanked himself
to his feet and into the small bathroom at the back of the jet before Annika
could get to him. He splashed water on his face and gargled and tried to keep a
rein on his temper as he remembered Kat and Annika double-teaming him earlier.

Kat
touched his arm, as if to soothe his nerves.

"Yeah,
don’t even bother with that shit," he said fiercely. "Since when did
you and Ani become friends?"

Kat
didn’t answer, merely huffed.

"Creed,
are you all right?" Annika called out, and he sighed and opened the door
with a heaviness in his heart he hadn’t thought he’d ever have again after
being with Annika.

She
waited for him at the far end of the plane, and he didn’t say anything at
first, just sat down on one of the long seats and stretched out his legs and
tried to feel human.

She
sat across from him, attempting to look contrite, which never, ever worked. And
he was angry at himself that he thought about how cute she looked when she
tried to do so. "Are you going to tell me why you kidnapped me?"

"Wyatt’s
alive," she blurted out, and that shut him up. He sat there, mouth hanging
open for a second, until he smiled—his first real smile in days.

"You’re
sure?"

"Apparently
he was on a blacked-out mission the entire time—dealing with the machine that
started the stupid hurricane that’s rerouting us from our mission." Her
voice raised as she turned her head to the closed door of the cockpit.
"We’re going to help him out."

He
watched her carefully for a second. "And Dev thought I was the best one to
help out rather than, say, Ender?"

"Dev
didn’t exactly want you on this mission. He wanted you home…to give you time to
grieve. But I didn’t want to leave you behind—not the way we left things."
She tossed him a bottle of water and then stared out the window as the jet got
tossed by turbulence.

"It’s
all so fucked up, Ani." He downed half of the water.

"I
fucked up, didn’t I? I waited too long to make my decision about us being
together. If I’d said something sooner, told you how much I cared about you,
then Oz would’ve helped you release Kat."

"I
don’t know," he said honestly. His head was pounding—the change in
pressure wasn’t helping and he rubbed his temples in an attempt at clear
thought. "Oz didn’t tell me much about the process, what releasing Kat
would involve. Oz didn’t tell me much of anything."

Oz
loved you,
Kat told him, but Creed
shoved that thought off. "Kat won’t leave us alone now."

"She’s
been manageable, Creed. She hasn’t stopped us from being together."

"She
can, though, and she will." In reality, Kat had been amazingly lax in her
treatment of Annika—partially out of respect for Creed’s love and partially
because she knew that Ani’s electric shocks could keep her at bay. "She’ll
never let me live in peace, Annika."

"But
she loves you. How could she do that to someone she loves?"

"It’s
all she knows. Don’t you understand, she’ll do anything to protect me. If you
do anything she perceives as hurting me—"

"I
hurt you to get you on the plane, and she helped me. You helped me, Kat—can you
please talk to him?"

He
felt Kat’s stony silence like a blast of freezing air. He rubbed his arms and
wished he could close his eyes and sleep all of this off.

But
he knew that when he woke up, the problems would all still be there. "Kat
helped you because she was worried about me—she didn’t want me drinking
anymore. But that doesn’t mean she’s happy with you…with us. It’s just not the
way it was meant to be."

"What
are you saying?"

"It’s
over. We need to break it off now."

"Suppose
Oz had never come back to give you this option—what would’ve happened then?
Would we be in the same place?"

"Maybe.
Probably. Fuck, I don’t want to do this. It’s too much—I don’t want to deal
with this." He stared at the minifridge tucked into the side of the cabin
and wondered if it was stocked with anything he could use to numb himself
again.

Before
he could check, Annika was at his side.

"Creed,
before you, I didn’t have any hope of getting close to anyone. I don’t want to
lose you. I can’t lose you now."

"Look,
I get it, all right—the sex thing. And I’ll be there for you when you need sex,
until you find another guy you can’t shock to death."

"Fuck
you, Creed. Fuck you if you really think that’s why I’m with you." She
took a ragged breath, and when she spoke again, her voice had softened.
"You’re much more to me than an orgasm."

Creed
didn’t say anything, felt like maybe, between the stress and the turbulence, he
could throw up any second.

"So
that’s it—the end? I don’t get a say?" she demanded.

"You’ve
already had your say. That’s the reason I’m ending things. It’s for the best, for
both of us."