The Devil's Due (10 page)

“No.” She shook her head. “Not a seductress.”

He had her complete attention. It was focused entirely on him and the subtle scent of feminine attraction mixed with something deeper, something stronger that he knew he should recognize but couldn’t.

“Hmm, assassin then?” He let her see a grin, a teasing curve of his lips as he shifted just enough to allow the moonlight to reveal it while keeping the rest of his face hidden. “Are you here to kill me? I’m just a helpless Breed slipping away for a few hours before I have to save the world again.”

That was what Rule Breaker had muttered that morning as he strode through the predawn light to join the team heading into the desert for patrol: Out to save the fucking world again. Give me a b
reak.

“I’m definitely no assassin,” she promised him, that shy little smile teasing him again. “I’m just a secretary that enjoys the night. A chance meeting in the dark, never to be repeated.”

“Never?” The thought of that had forced the animal to step back another pace and allow one more inch of sanity to curl about its neck in restraint. “Don’t tell me that, you may break my heart.”

“I’m no heartbreaker either,” she sighed, stepping back. “I better go.”

“Promise you’ll come back.” Go? She was leaving him alone? Again?

The animal strained against the bonds that were far too weak to hold it if it became insistent.

She paused. “I shouldn’t come back.”

But she wanted to. He could feel it. Taste it on the air around them.

“I’ll be here tomorrow,” he promised. “Just for a few minutes. I promise. Just to talk a minute. I won’t keep you long.”

He should be pouncing on her. He should be tasting her terror and her blood as she stared into his eyes and realized she was about to pay for her crimes. Pay for the hell she’d sent him to.

She looked out at the darkened landscape for long moments before giving a resigned little sigh.

“What the hell,” she finally breathed out wearily. “It beats the nightmares.”

She turned and moved away from him, a slight shadow amid the darkness, blending with it for a moment before stepping into the moonlight once again and returning to the safety of the house and the protection of the Breeds she’d slipped away from.

It beat the nightmares.

She had no idea, he realized. Just as the other hadn’t known the past that endangered her, neither did this one.

The only thing left of the person she had been was that slight scent of shy, hungry need. Not a sexual need, at least, not then, all those years ago. But a need for warmth, for caring.

Everything else had changed, and he suddenly wanted to know why.

Why was the girl she had been so overshadowed that even her scent had been altered in ways?

And what was that fucking taste—

It hit him then.

Just enough rational thought had filtered through the fury and insanity to drag the animal back long enough for him to make sense of a lifetime of hell.

Her blood had saved his life, but it had turned him into an enraged animal.

When the soldiers had caught him again, that added quality in his blood had spurred them into experiments so horrendous it had broken what little sanity he’d still possessed.

It had been the blood that had transfused him.

The scent of what the Breeds called mating heat, the taste of it in his mouth, the small glands swelling beneath his tongue each time he came near her.

This was why finding her had driven him that last short step into insanity.

She was his mate and he had finally found her.

That didn’t mean she didn’t have to pay for running from him.

It didn’t mean Judd wouldn’t pay for helping her.

It didn’t mean he was sane by any stretch of the imagination.

But with her, he might have a shot at finding his sanity.

At least enough of it to claim what was his.

* * *

H
e’s stitched up, Graeme,” the medic announced as he left the cell, the guards with him securing the locks as Graeme reached out and secured the electronic safeguards as well.

“Thanks, Doc.” Graeme cleared his throat as he pushed back the memories. “I’ll try to keep him nice and quiet while his scratches heal.”

The medic laughed as he and the guards left the cells and left Graeme to his thoughts.

His fantasies.

NINE

Two weeks later

D
evil Black, shame is thy middle name,” Kate laughed in merriment as she stalked into the bedroom, closing the door loudly behind her before locking it securely and facing the Breed that had stolen her heart with merciless intent. Mating heat may have begun it, but his heart had completed it.

“Council didn’t give us middle names, darlin’,” he reminded her as he lounged back on their bed, the hard, corded strength of his naked body displayed to her hungry gaze. “They concentrated their talents on a few more important aspects instead.”

Broad, lean, his hand lowered, long fingers circling the engorged width of his cock.

Ah yes, she had to admit, some enterprising scientist had definitely shown a bit of imagination in programming the DNA of certain aspects of the Wolf Breed’s male form.

Tall, lean and powerful, savagely hewn features emphasized by the unusual amber-striated black eyes and thick lashes.

She couldn’t look at him and not want him.

He was the embodiment of her teenage fantasy, and now he was the lover who never failed to send her flying into ecstasy.

Toeing her sandals slowly from her feet, her fingers flipped the button holding her skirt at her hips. Chiffon and silk slid down her thighs, over her legs to pool carelessly at her feet as she stepped over it.

As a growl rumbled in his chest, Kate moved slowly closer, wearing only white silk bikini panties and the snug black cami covering her breasts.

Braless, she could feel the sensitive, hard tips of her nipples rasping against the fabric, creating a heated ache impossible to ignore for long.

Between her thighs her clit swelled and pulsed in demand, the slick essence of feminine need coating the bare folds of her pussy and dampening her panties as she drew closer to him.

The amber flared in his gaze brighter, hotter as her hand lifted, fingers stroking against the flesh bared between the elastic band of her panties and the hem of the top where it ended just below her navel.

Mating heat was a flame that refused to allow them apart for long, but it was also a key to emotions that a hardened, battle-scarred Breed might never have allowed free. The key to a sensuality that a wary, uncertain Breed female may have fought, at least for a while.

Now, there was no fighting, no hiding, no denying.

Bracing her knee on the mattress, her palms flat against the blankets, Kate lifted herself to the bed, crawling slowly between those long, powerful legs to the male awaiting her.

* * *

W
atching her move to him, sensuality washing over her expression, flushing her face, tightening her breasts, her nipples, sending the sweet scent of her need to fill his senses.

Long, silken curls fell around her like twining spirals of flames as her green eyes gleamed with emerald hunger between long, sun-kissed lashes.

Damn, his balls were tight, the engorged length of his cock throbbing with steadily increasing hunger as she bypassed it only to straddle his thighs. The silk of her panties, heated and damp from the arousal building in her, pressed against the iron-hard length as her lips brushed against his.

With each passing second the heat building between them rose, overwhelming their senses as the need to touch, to taste, became imperative.

His fingers speared into the curls at the back of her head, holding her in place as his lips covered hers, his tongue licking against them, parting them until she met his kiss with a fiery heat of her own.

Spicy and sweet, the mating hormone spilling from the tiny glands beneath their tongues sent their pulses racing as the need amplified and surged through their systems.

Devil couldn’t imagine a high greater than this. The pleasure of his mate’s kiss, her touch, the hunger and need rising between them like hungry flames licking at their flesh.

Hooking his fingers into the elastic at her hips, it was incredibly easy to snap the stretchy lace from the silk and remove them entirely.

The feel of her flesh, slick and hot against the engorged length of his dick, had every muscle in his body tensing, tightening in a need so primal it was impossible to deny.

Holding her lips to his with his hand behind her head as he wrapped his free arm around her rear to lift her in place, he couldn’t hold back the desperate growl that rumbled from his throat.

He loved to have her ride him. Loved watching her, feeling her take him. But the primal instincts tearing through him now were impossible to deny.

* * *

D
ev,” Kate protested the suddenly cessation of his kiss as her eyes widened, surprise flaring through her as he suddenly lifted her from his body.

“What—?”

Before she could do more than gasp the question, he had her on her knees, one big hand pressing her shoulders down as he came behind her.

Catching herself on her elbows and swiping her hair back from her eyes, she was suddenly confronted with her own image in the full-length mirror against the wall. Bent before her mate, his hands gripping her hips, lifting her into place as he removed one hand to grip his fierce erection.

She watched him, watched as his gaze narrowed on the point where their bodies met, and felt the wide crest part the swollen lips of her pussy.

That first pulse of silky pre-seminal fluid shot inside her, the unique hormones contained within it instantly sinking, stroking against her flesh and awakening sensations she wouldn’t have known otherwise.

His head fell back as he pressed the flared head inside the clenched entrance until it was lodged fully inside the milking flesh of her vagina.

The next spurt had a moan falling from her lips as she felt his cock head flex, felt the heat of the release inside her. Because she knew within seconds what would happen.

That rush of sharp, fiery sensation as her pussy clenched tight and hard, an involuntary response to the stimulation of the hormones spilling inside her. The sweeping fire clenching her womb, spasming through it with a pleasure-pain that dragged a broken cry from her lips.

A heartbeat later, as tightly as her flesh was gripped around him, flexing and milking the heavy length deeper still, her pussy wept for more. The silky slide of her juices mixed with the next hot spurt of fluid to increase the spikes of building sensation as he pushed deeper inside her.

It was agonizing pleasure, the sweetest pain she could imagine. With each shallow thrust of his hips, each backward glide of the thick erection, the sensations only mounted. And Kate couldn’t help but watch. Just as he watched the penetration of her body.

“Fuck. So good,” he growled, his chest heaving as a trickle of perspiration eased down his temple.

Lifting his now amber gaze, the burning flames that lit the depths dragged a sharp breath of surprise from her.

“So sweet, Kate,” he growled, his gaze moving to where he was pumping in shallow thrusts, his hips moving rhythmically as he fucked deeper, deeper inside her with each movement until in one final surge, he was buried to the hilt.

A final spurt of fluid shot against her inner walls, the thick head pulsing with the release, caressing the sensitive flesh he filled so fully.

“Dev, please.” The desperate cry wailed from her lips as he held her hips in place, refusing to allow her to thrust back against him, to work him inside her until the sharp bursts of painful pleasure eased.

“Let me feel it,” he groaned. “The feel of your sweet pussy gripping me so tight and hot. Fuck, Kate, it’s like fucking electricity surrounding my cock.”

She whimpered at the pleasure that filled his voice as the little bursts of sensation continued to flare through her pussy.

Pleasure and pain.

And it didn’t end. It wouldn’t end until he began moving. Until the broad length of his cock was shafting hard and deep inside her. Until then, the fluid he’d pumped inside her would keep clenching and tightening her flesh while spikes of pleasure demanded more of her heated juices to spill inside her and ease the ecstatic torture.

“Please, Dev.” Breathless, riding a wave of sensation so powerful it was stealing her breath, Kate pleaded with him to ease the clenching demand building between her thighs.

Her clit was throbbing, pulsing in time to each rippling shudder that worked through her pussy, until in desperation she lowered her hand between her thighs, her fingers finding the nerve-rich center and rubbing it with quickening strokes of her fingers.

“Yeah, play with that pretty clit,” he crooned, coming over her, his knees bracing hers apart, his hips moving just enough to cause the head of his cock to stroke the inner muscles, just enough to send screaming shards of pleasure to race through her nerve endings.

“Let me feel you come like this,” he demanded, his gaze meeting hers in the mirror. “Let me feel that hot little pussy tighten, mate. Milk my cock, sweetheart. Suck my release straight out of my—”

A harsh groan filled her ears as his lips moved to the mating mark at her neck.

Because she was tightening around him. Impossibly tight in long, rippling contractions as the clitoral stimulation began electrifying her senses, pushing her closer, driving her harder.

Inside the heat channel, Devil worked the head of his cock, stroking hidden nerve centers as the broad shaft stretched her, seared her flesh. The pulsing throb of his erection stroked each inch of flesh it stretched, burning against the shuddering and clenching muscles wrapped around it.

Her fingers moved faster, a whimpering cry leaving her lips as he found a nipple with the fingers of one hand and gripped the tight point erotically, pulling at it, applying just enough pressure—

Oh God, she was so close.

A sizzle of brutal sensation shot from her nipple to her clit. Her pussy tightened again, clenched, as his hips moved against her rear, faster, the tiny thrusts stroking, rubbing until in one blinding second she spiraled into an ecstasy that consumed her soul.

She screamed as she felt the first spurt of his release jetting inside her. In the next heartbeat, the thickening in his cock locked him in place as his hips began to move against her, tugging at the grip her flesh had on him with each convulsive spurt of his seed inside her.

It was like flying through pure, rich sensation. All she could do was feel the sharp spikes of pleasure driving into not just her body, but also her soul. It wrung a desperate cry from her throat as his teeth pierced the mating mark once again, his tongue licking against it to ease any pain, and filling it with heat and pleasure instead.

Gasping, shuddering with each explosive starburst erupting inside her, she prayed it never ended, but she knew she wouldn’t survive if it wasn’t over soon.

“I love you, Kate,” he suddenly groaned at her ear. “God help me, mate, I’ll love you past death.”

He loved her.

In the two weeks since the flames of mating heat had wrapped them together, he hadn’t spoke the words. She’d given him her love, whispered it nightly, but never with expectation.

She had never thought he would love her. They were mated. He was a man of realism, of practicality. Love wouldn’t fit into the life he saw before him.

But he’d placed love in it.

Holding her close, his release filling her as she gave a final shudder of pleasure, he whispered the words again.

“I love you, mate.”

“I love you, mate,” she whispered in return. “Forever.”

* * *

H
olding her close, his face buried against her neck, his body shuddering in the aftermath of pure rapture, Devil felt that final barrier inside his soul give way beneath the emotions pounding against it.

He loved her.

With all his heart, with his scarred soul and the darkness that would likely too often return, he loved her.

And he deserved her.

By God, he deserved this woman, this tiny, Irish flame that had burned through his resistance and stolen his heart.

Just as it was whispered around the estate and in the outlying towns. She was the Devil’s due.

The Devil’s soul.

And every dream he’d ever known.