by Lora Leigh
red I could count myself lucky.”
Elizabeth pushed the blankets back from his body, revealing the erect flesh straining between his thighs. She was wet and eager for him. She was always eager for him. Her pussy stayed slick and ready, her body always humming for his touch.
“Are you sure?” He groaned as she began to straddle his body, her head lowering to his lips once again.
“Hmm. Sure about what?” She eased against the bursting head, feeling it nudge into the folds of flesh and tuck against the opening of her vagina.
“Damn. Nothing,” he panted. “God, you’re so hot and ready for me. No one has ever wanted me like you do, Elizabeth. Always so sweet and hot and slick.”
He spurted inside her. She loved it when he did that.
“Your fault.” She could barely talk now.
Elizabeth began easing down on the hard shaft, working it into the snug depths of her swollen pussy, relishing the painful pleasure that streaked into her womb. A part of her realized there might be something just slightly depraved about her. She loved that flare of pain as he entered her, or when he locked inside her. The burning blend of agonizing pleasure that sent her rocketing to orgasm.
“Easy, baby.” His hands gripped her hips as she lowered her head to his shoulder. “I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”
“So hurt me,” she groaned roughly as she raked her fingers over his shoulder, remembering how good it felt when he did that to her. “Take me, Dash, like you need to. Now. Don’t hold back for me.”
His muttered oath was thick with need. “I’ll hurt you, baby.”
“I’ll love it.” She was breathing roughly.
But still he hesitated. He worked inside her slow and easy instead, his body tight and corded with the need to hold back. She didn’t need him to hold back. She let her teeth grip the flesh of his shoulder lightly, then gathered herself, forcing the muscles of her pussy to relax a second before she impaled herself hard and fast on his shaft.
She bit him. God, she knew why he did that now. It was agonizing. Savage. He howled beneath her, a primal sound of such pleasure that her body shuddered with it as her pussy convulsed in spasmodic ripples of sensation. Her orgasm was instantaneous. Too much sensation. Too much fiery pleasure inside the swollen depths of her already sensitized pussy.
His cock was spurting hard inside her now, as though the ultra-tight grip had signaled something inside that hard muscle that regulated the flow of the pre-come. He was moaning hard beneath her, his hands gripping her thighs, his hips bucking against her, stroking through the violence of her orgasm and building another as they cried out at the intensity of feeling.
She was biting him hard. She knew she was and couldn’t help it. Her hips writhed, twisting against the hard throb of his cock lodged inside her as his thighs bunched and he began to thrust in and out in powerful lunges as he lubricated her further, intensified sensation and threw her headlong into her next release.
Dash was only seconds behind her. She felt him swell, lock inside her, then spill his semen deep inside her body.
“Lizbeth.” Minutes, hours later he shifted beneath her as his cock began to slowly lose its desperate swelling inside her. “Honey, let go of my shoulder.”
His voice was thick, replete, but edged with amusement.
Elizabeth tasted blood. Gasping, she drew back, her gaze flying to his in horror.
“Shh.” He laid his fingers against her lips as regret began to spill from her. “I loved it, baby. Bloodthirsty little thing.” He lifted her from him then, groaning as his cock slid free of her, her pussy kissing it loudly as it exited. “Sleep, woman. You’re killing me.”
“I love you, Dash.” She snuggled against his chest as he turned to her, his body sheltering her.
“I love you, Elizabeth.” He sighed roughly. “More than I’ve loved anything in my life.”
But the fear was back. She could hear it in his voice, feel it in the tenseness of his body. They would go after Grange soon, and she knew that it would be not only her greatest test, but Dash’s as well.
Chapter Thirty
There was indeed a small army. The next morning, before the sun had risen over the cabin, Simon was back with his Ladies. Before breakfast was ready, several Feline Breeds arrived, three men claiming to be Callan Lyons’ brothers-in-law, four of Mike Toler’s men and a handful of soldiers packing their duffle bags fresh off a plane from the Middle East. There were over two-dozen men in all and Simon’s six lusty Ladies. Dash was furious.
“Get your asses right back on that plane,” he was yelling at the dozen soldiers watching him dispassionately. “I didn’t ask you to come out here and I’ll be damned if you’ll risk your asses like this.”
“Sorry, Major. It’s not happening.” The unofficial leader of the unit shook his head. “Took us weeks to arrange leave without giving a proper reason. We’re not going back.”
Dash was cursing. Elizabeth watched from the doorway of the cabin as he raged. She hadn’t seen Dash so worked up over anything. He was usually calm, holding his control tightly in check. It was more than obvious he was ready to lose it, if he hadn’t already. Some of the words spilling from his lips she hadn’t even imagined existed.
“Jonsey, are you that eager to make that new wife of yours a widow?” he yelled heatedly at one of the younger men. “Son of a bitch, I thought you loved that girl.”
Jonsey was a tall, lanky young man. Maybe twenty-five, with wide hazel eyes and thick red hair.
“I do love her, Dash.” Jonsey nodded solemnly. “I’ve had a year with her. A year I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t pulled her out of that hospital they bombed. Cindy agrees with me being here. I’m not going back.”
Elizabeth could hear Dash growling in irritation.
He turned to the man beside Jonsey. He was nearly as tall as Dash, with short, spiked brown hair and deep brown eyes. His face was lined with exhaustion and he had obviously had enough of Dash’s temper.
“Don’t you even start on me, Major,” the soldier snapped back. “I’ve not slept in a week to bring my ass out here and I’m not in the mood for your god complex, either. So just tell me where I can sack out for a while and then we’ll discuss your plan of action when I wake up.”
He was snarly. Elizabeth perked up, as did several of Simon’s Ladies. They sauntered from the house, immediately drawing attention. Eyes were bugging out of sockets as the men caught sight of them.
“Hell, Simon’s here,” one of them seemed to sigh in reverence. “Oh man. This is gonna be a good fight.”
“Excuse me, Major. I might have found someone to keep me warm.” The soldier looked damned near ecstatic as one of the Ladies sidled up to him, cooing gently about his weariness.
“Damn you, Chase.” Dash was growling now.
“Give it up, Dash.” Merc, the tall Feline Breed, growled back from the sidelines. “This isn’t just about you anymore, or about your woman. Chill out and accept the help or ease back and we’ll do it ourselves. You’re mated now. Mated to a woman proven to be able to conceive easily with Breed young. We can’t afford to lose you or her.”
Fury ignited in Dash. Elizabeth watched as his head lowered, turning as he stared at the Feline in building fury.
“My woman is not a breeder for the fucking Breeds,” he snarled, his voice low, dangerous.
“She will be if you get your ass killed. Whatever Breed the Council managed to make mount her. Her and that kid. You want to risk it?” Merc was only a bit larger than Dash. If it came to a fight, either man could have come out the winner. “Get a handle on yourself, boy. You never were alone in this world.” He nodded to the soldiers. “And you sure as hell aren’t now. Let’s all get some rest and we’ll see what kind of plan you have in place. And stop growling at me. It’s pissing me off.”
As she watched, Elizabeth was aware of Simon moving up behind her, watching curiously.
“Could get interesting now,” he said softly. “Dash thinks he has to do
everything on his own. Thinks he has to save everyone he takes under his wing. Usually manages to, too. But he doesn’t accept help so well. It will be interesting to see how gracefully he accepts us poking our noses in his business.” Simon sounded like he was looking forward to any fight that arose.
“Fuck,” Dash finally snarled so violently, so furiously, Elizabeth flinched.
He turned away from them and stalked away from the cabin, moving purposely into the woods surrounding it as she moved to follow him.
“Wait.” Simon caught her arm. “Give him a few minutes to work through it first. Let’s get these boys fed and bedded down for a while. They’re a tired bunch. Then you can go after him.”
* * * * *
What the hell had happened? Dash couldn’t understand it for the life of him. He had fought to stay distant from the men he fought with, to do his job, keep their asses alive and go his merry way. If knowledge of what he was had leaked out while he was fighting with them he would have put every man in whatever unit he was in, in danger. The Council didn’t care who they killed. But evidently he hadn’t stayed distant enough. He had over two-dozen fighters standing in the clearing of the cabin awaiting orders. Orders he didn’t want to give. He didn’t want to lead them into his personal battle and have one of them die because of it.
Damn. He sighed wearily. He was pissed as hell, but he knew those men wouldn’t leave. Not unless he did. And they would follow. They were damned good men, too. The best. As good or better than the unit he had lost in Afghanistan.
He stopped his furious trek up the mountain, pausing at a sheltered bench of land that looked down on the cabin. Tents were being pitched and voices were raised as coordination among the men began to establish itself. He knew the minute he saw the first arrivals that this mission had turned into something more than just the fight to save Elizabeth and her child. It was now a fight to establish dominance, to show the Council and those who would strike out against the Breeds in general that there was a bigger battle than they wanted to face.
There was no way Grange could anticipate over two-dozen men moving in on him. Men so adept, so well trained in every area of battle, that he didn’t have a chance of fighting against them.
Finally his lips quirked in amusement. Grange would fight and there was always the chance of losing one or more men in the group. Dash could do nothing but make certain they planned for everything and pray they all got through it alive. It was all he could do.
As he sat there, watching with narrowed eyes as the clearing turned into an armed camp, he watched Elizabeth leave the cabin slowly. Damn. She was like a ray of sunshine. Moving past the soldiers working around her, she headed up the mountain. She was graceful, a creature of such fluid movement and erotic design that it made his loins clench in sudden hunger. How had he ever deserved anything so beautiful to call his own? He couldn’t make sense of it, but he had never wanted to fight it, either. As though he had waited all his life for that moment in the diner, his body had instantly recognized her scent, her dark eyes, her quiet strength.
She was a mate that would fight beside him and would protect her young and him, if needed, against all odds. She had proven that in her determination and quick thinking in saving Cassie. She wouldn’t balk, no matter what was needed.
“Done pouting yet?” She moved to him, watching him in concern as he gripped her wrist and pulled her down between his thighs.
He nestled her back against his chest, wrapping his arms around her, and propped his head on her shoulder as he watched the action below them.
“They’re damned good men,” he said softly. “Good fighters, too.”
“Yeah,” she agreed softly. “They seem to be.”
“Jonsey, he has this pretty little nurse for a wife. She was hurt badly in that bombing. Lots of bleeding, in shock. I didn’t think she would make it.” He sighed. “I kept telling her how Jonsey was on his way. She loves that boy, Elizabeth. I guilted the hell out of her. She lived because she knew she had to. Knew if Jonsey saw her like that, all bloody and broken and dead too, that he wouldn’t survive it. They were married a year later. Took her that long to recover.”
“She sounds very strong.”
Dash nodded.
“Simon and those women.” He shook his head. “They’re like trouble waiting to happen. But they’re damned good at cleaning it out and celebrating later. The man has his own personal harem devoted to his pleasure and his happiness above all things. They’re dangerous as hell, and at any given time are ready to reward any man lucky enough to become deserving of their attention. But all Simon has to do is lift his finger and they’re back in his arms. They love that crazy cowboy more than he deserves sometimes.”
And on it went. Each man. Another adventure, another tale. He knew every facet of their personalities, what made them strong, what made them weak. What made them love or hate.
Elizabeth sat against him and not for the first time, marveled at the man who had walked so calmly into her life and took it over. The man who had given her his love before he ever met her. Who had dreamed about her as he lay in a medicated stupor and woke up because he saw her crying.
For the first time in her life, Elizabeth knew what love was. Not just his love for her, but his love for those men working to set up a usable camp and determined to fight by his side again. His friends.
Finally, he was quiet, watching as she was, holding her close as he grunted or chuckled at some action below them. Simon’s Ladies were, of course, helping. In ways that made Elizabeth blush a bright crimson. They were earthy, strong women. And Simon looked on like a proud parent as they tempted and teased the appetites of many of the men below. They steered well clear of Jonsey, though, and he made certain he steered clear of them.
“Time to get ready,” he finally sighed quietly. “We leave here tomorrow night, Elizabeth. Grange returns in a week. You sure you want to do this?”
Oh, she was damned sure.
“I’m sure, Dash,” she promised him quietly. “I miss Cassie. I want it done and my daughter safe. I want it over.”
“Come on then.” He moved to his feet and pulled her up beside him. “Let’s go whip these boys into shape. We’ll let Simon’s Ladies take care of their lusts and then we’ll start planning. We’ll get him, baby, and then we’ll go home.”
Chapter Thirty-One
A week later Elizabeth was being dragged roughly into the house that had been rented in the small town she had run from two years before. Dash had a manacled grip on her wrist, his body was vibrating with fury and she wasn’t any less pissed.
Behind them, Simon and his Ladies trailed more slowly, as did several others of the group that amassed together. The rest were at logistical points around the Grange estate or working with the two guards that had been bribed from Grange’s service. She and Dash had been slipping through town, testing the determination of the men Grange had in place to catch her.
His orders to her had been precise. She knew when she slipped from the shadowed alley to be certain Grange wasn’t in the car they had been watching that he would be pissed. That he would, in no uncertain terms, let her know how displeased he was. But she hadn’t expected this.
She had been so close. She had nearly been in the right position to check the identity of the two men when Dash had grabbed her, dragging her back into the alley and then to the car awaiting them on the other end. He had been chillingly silent, angrier than she had ever seen him.
“Dammit, Dash, stop dragging me around.” She tugged on his hold as he pulled her up the staircase.
She was fighting tooth and nail, but it was follow him or be dragged. She wasn’t in the mood to incur any more bruises along the way.
Dash was madder than she had ever seen him. Stone-cold enraged rather than growling mad. His expression was savage, his lips pulled back in a silent snarl as he glanced back at her, his golden eyes glowing with liquid fire. She was almost trembling in fear.
When he reached their b
edroom door, he opened it, jerked her inside and turned to close it with deadly silence. The snick of the lock turning caused her to flinch.
“I won’t be manhandled this way by you,” she charged him fiercely, trying to ignore the weakness in her knees as he faced her.
“Take your clothes off.”
“Why?” she snapped. “So you can show me my place? Under your body? I was safe, Dash.”
“You broke formation. You disobeyed orders. Do you know what I would have done to Jonsey, or Chase, or any of the others who so blatantly threatened not just the mission but also their own lives?”
His voice was deadly.
Elizabeth shook her head. “I was safe.”
“You were a fool. You were being tricked, Elizabeth. There was another vehicle pulling in no more than ten feet from you. You were nearly seen,” he told her quietly, the dark, harsh timber of his voice making her tremble.
“They wouldn’t have seen me,” she argued furiously. “I was being careful.”
“And if they had?” he asked her with deadly calm. “If they had managed to take you or, God forbid, just kill you and have it done with. What then?”
She blinked up at him, horror filling her. “They couldn’t,” she whispered. “I was hidden.”
“If you had moved forward so much as another inch, you would have been seen,” he said, his voice still throbbing with fury as he jerked his shirt over his head. “You risked my men, but even more, you risked my mate. Possibly my child, and everything we’ve planned for, Elizabeth. Now take off your clothes.”
“Why?” She backed away from him, the horror of what she had nearly done still vibrating through her. “I’m sorry, Dash. I was being careful. I just thought…”
“I didn’t tell you to think on this mission unless it went to shit real fast,” he informed her coldly, his hand going to his pants. “Now take your fucking clothes off before I rip them off.”
“Not like this.” She shook her head desperately. “Not while you’re so mad at me, Dash.”
He stilled. “Mad at you?” Agony resonated in his voice now. “You think this is mad, Elizabeth? This isn’t mad, baby. If I were mad I’d be stripping the hide off your bones with every insult I could come up with. I’m not mad. You scared me out of ten years of my life. Now take those fucking clothes off.”
He didn’t stop undressing after casting her that first, incredulous look. Before her eyes, he dropped his weapons, his boots, his clothes, standing before her gloriously naked and aroused. Adrenaline was still pumping through her body, fear and remnants of anger and a sudden excitement that shocked her. He was going to take her whether she wanted him to or not. Like a traitor her body heated, her pussy clenching in hunger. She backed away from him.
“I don’t think so,” she snapped, her gaze flickering to the straining length of his cock before going back to his face.
He smirked as he inhaled deeply. “I’m going to mount you and I’m going to show you who’s boss in this little endeavor, baby. A lesson you won’t soon forget. Now take your clothes off.”
“Boss?” She lifted her brow with what she knew was haughty disdain as she watched him carefully. “I don’t think so, Dash.”
His hand had fallen to his cock, his fingers gripping the abundant flesh and stroking it lazily. The engorged head was glistening with moisture and throbbing wildly with arousal.
“You know, it was driven home relatively hard tonight that you think you can get away with anything in this relationship,” he growled. “You continually tempt my possessiveness by hugging around on my soldiers and generally babying them. Simpering and so damned sweet it’s enough to give me a toothache. But I handle it,” he stated with a vast amount of male pride. “I handle it well, I think. But I’ll be damned if you’ll be allowed to disregard my orders on a mission. Not now, not ever.”
“It won’t happen again.” But she knew it likely would. She wasn’t stupid. She was used to being in control, not following someone else. “You can fuck me after you’ve calmed down.”
He smiled slowly, rather coldly. “No.”
He began to stalk her then. The bedroom was large, but it wasn’t that damned large. She didn’t have a hope of escaping him. The thought of that sent her pussy convulsing, spilling the thick cream along the plump curves and preparing her for his penetration.
She moved to the edge of the room, her eyes darting anxiously from side to side as she tried to find an escape route. There weren’t any, and Dash was getting closer by the second.
As he neared her, she jumped to move. His hands hooked in her shirt, ripping it from her body. She turned on him furiously.
“I’m tired of you tearing my clothes off me.”
“Then undress.” He was calm, determined. “Do it now. Take your punishment like a good girl, baby.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “I don’t think so.”
He shrugged easily. “Then I’ll tear every shred of cloth off your body and buy you more when you need them.”
Elizabeth gritted her teeth in fury. She was closer to the door now, her only chance. She turned and ran for it. Unfortunately, Dash was faster. Before she could escape he was on her. Hooking his arm around her waist, he dragged her to the bed, threw her on it then followed her.
Rolling to her stomach, she had every intention of escaping. Before she could do more than come to her knees, he had her again. Fighting, twisting, she fought him with every breath as he curled his fingers in the waistband of her leggings and tugged them over her hips.
Screaming out in frustration she kicked back at him. He rewarded her with a chuckle as he pushed the material to her knees and left them there. She was twisting against him when his hand suddenly landed on the rounded curve of her bottom. Shocked, she stilled for a second. In the next she was reaching back, clawing at him, cursing him until he caught her hands in one of his and held them to the middle of her back.
Struggling was getting her nowhere. But worse, it was making her hotter, making her pussy cream furiously as his hand landed on her rump again. She jerked in amazement.
“Are you spanking me?” she screamed out furiously. “Son of a bitch, I’ll kill you when I get up.”
“Then maybe I won’t let you up.” His hand landed again.
It wasn’t a hard smack, but enough to warm her ass, to make her wiggle in protest. It was making her pussy blaze. Her breasts were swollen with arousal now, her nipples hard little points that brushed against the sheet, sensitizing further with each move against the material.
“Dash, I swear, you’ll pay for this.” She meant to sound tough, threatening; instead it came out more like a moan, a sound of hunger.
The small, hot smacks to her ass were making her crazy. Being pinned beneath him, helpless, on fire, was destroying her. Both half moon curves were attended to, his hand striking her, burning her until she was writhing beneath him, but whether in pain or pleasure even she couldn’t say for certain.
She gasped as his hand pushed between her thighs, his fingers smoothing over the syrupy slickness of her bald cunt. Every nerve in the swollen flesh pulsed to life. Her clit throbbed in impatient demand as she whimpered against the small caresses he stroked around it. Pulling his hand back, he gathered the slick essence, smoothing it back along her pussy to the cleft of her buttocks.