by Lora Leigh
ons and fears.
“No fear, baby,” he whispered again, his arms wrapping around her, his head lowering until his lips were against her ear, his strength holding her on her feet. “No matter what comes, no matter what happens, no matter who you are, I’ll be here, and I’ll hold you.”
Curling her fingers into the material of his shirt, she closed her eyes tight.
“Hold me now,” she cried out, the pain burrowing so deep inside her that she felt the raking talons of it digging into her heart.
A surprised gasp left her lips as he curved his arm beneath her knees and lifted her until he was cradling her in his arms.
A feeling of intense feminine weakness swept over her as she looped her arms around his neck and let her head fall to his shoulder.
“I’ll hold you, baby,” he promised as he moved into the bedroom, but rather than laying her on the bed, he sat in the heavy, wide chair that sat in the corner of the room. “I’ll always hold you.”
Cupping the back of her head as she gazed up at him, he held her in place, his head lowering, his lips settling against hers.
In less time than it took for her heart to beat, Liza was ready for him.
CHAPTER 21
Her breasts were swollen and sensitive, her clit throbbing, her pussy becoming moist and aching. Her skin was sensitive, the mating mark at the bend of her shoulder and neck tingled, became heated. She wanted him to touch the mark, wanted his lips on it, wanted to feel his tongue licking over it.
Her lips ached for his kiss, her body burned for his touch. Her fingers tingled with the need to feel his body beneath them. To stroke his powerful body, feel his muscles flexing beneath the dark bronze flesh.
Staring up at him, drowsy sensuality thundering through her body, a small, uncontrolled whimper left her lips as his tongue pressed against the seam of her lips. The spice and cinnamon taste of his kiss infused her senses, heated her blood, and had her arching closer, desperate for more of him—for that deeper, harder kiss. For all his hunger, driving and uncontrolled as they both lost their senses in the pleasure.
Closing her lips on his tongue, Liza drew more of the sensual taste to her sense, reveling in the exquisite sensations beginning to spin through her senses.
Only here could she find peace. Only in Stygian’s arms, in his kiss—his touch.
Turning, shifting in his arms until she could straddle his powerful thighs, Liza gave in completely to the pleasure rising inside her. Dragging her skirt up to allow her thighs to spread further over his, Liza ground her aching pussy against the hard ridge of his cock as it rose beneath his jeans.
Quickly undoing the three small buttons below her neck, Stygian then gripped the hem, pulled his lips from hers and as Liza slowly raised her arms, he stripped the top from her.
The shell was tossed aside carelessly, forgotten as he found the front clasp of her bra and flicked it open.
“Stygian.” Arching in pleasure as his hands cupped her breasts, Liza felt the pinpoints of heated pleasure beginning to flare through her.
The rasp of his sensually rough palms cupping and stroking the under curve of her sensitive flesh sent a surge of heat flaring in her nipples. The tender peaks tightened further, becoming so engorged and sensitive that the need for touch was nearly painful.
Already tight, the hardened tips throbbed, pulsing in need as his fingers avoided the nerve-ridden buds to stroke and caress the flesh around it. And he was killing her. She needed his touch there—no, not just his touch—
“Please.” She couldn’t fight the need or hold back the demand.
Her fingers burrowed into his hair, clenching in the long, cool strands to direct his lips to the tight, aching buds of her nipples.
The wet heat of his mouth surrounded one tender tip. Wet heat closed over it and began drawing on the sensitive flesh with hungry pulls of his mouth. His tongue joined in the play. The building heat that surrounded her nipple rose with each lash of his tongue. Each time he licked over it, around it, rubbed his tongue against it, Liza whimpered with the rising sensations.
Her fingers tightened in his hair, holding him closer, demanding more.
“It’s so good,” she whispered hoarsely, the sound of her own voice shocking her, but not enough to pull her back from the spiraling chaos of pleasure beginning to overtake her.
And it did feel good. It was so much better than good.
Fighting to breathe, Liza arched in his arms as he kissed a slow, fiery path to her other breast and the tender peak begging for attention as well. His lips surrounded it, his mouth suckling at the pebble-hard bud as Liza’s thighs tensed. Her hips moved against him, rubbing her pussy against the denim-covered cock beneath it.
Sensation shot from her nipple to her clit as his teeth raked against the tight tip. Gripping it between his teeth and bearing down on it, Stygian used his tongue to torment it with fiery pleasure.
Licking, stroking, rubbing against the tight peak, Stygian pushed her closer to an abyss of pleasure that she had no idea how to ease back from.
“Oh God, yes.” The liquid heat of his mouth working the tight bud of her nipple was destroying her self-control.
Each draw of his mouth, each lash of his tongue against the throbbing peak sent flares of incredible heat lashing at it before jagged bolts of sensation shot from her nipple to her clit.
Fiery pleasure wrapped around her, blazing across the rest of her body as she felt his hands tugging her skirt the remaining distance from the top of her thighs to her hips.
His fingers smoothed down the elastic straps of her garter belt then back to the loose material of the tap pants she wore. Slipping his hand beneath the leg opening of the material, it took only seconds for his fingers to find the swollen, throbbing bud of her clitoris.
“Stygian. Oh please, please, yes.” Lifting to him, her lips parting as his came down on hers once again, Liza couldn’t hold in her mewls of pleasure.
The sensations were so good.
The pleasure was lashing at her.
It was striking at her nipples where the fingers of one hand plucked at the sensitive peaks.
It tightened around her clit as he rasped at it with the fingers of his other hand, rubbing against it, exciting it as she moaned at his touch.
From her clit, his stroking touch slid through her heavy juices to the clenched entrance of her aching cunt. Rimming the slick, heated flesh, his fingers stroked, caressing, pushing her to the verge of begging him for more.
She needed his touch there. She wanted him filling her, thrusting inside her, fucking her.
His lips lifted from hers, moved along the line of her jaw before finding the outline of her ear. His fingers rubbed against the entrance of her vagina before he eased the tip of one broad finger inside.
Desperate pleasure flooded her. Lush, slick, her juices spilled to his fingers, easing his way as he penetrated her further.
“So sweet and hot,” he growled at her ear as she bore down on the impalement, desperate to feel his touch deeper, harder.
“Do you know I love fucking you, Liza? Pushing my cock inside you and feeling how hot and slick your pussy gets for me?”
This fingertip retreated only to return, the impalement burning through her senses with the addition of a second.
Calloused, firm, he worked them deeper inside her, rubbing against the sensitive tissue with wicked expertise.
Easing inside her, Stygian parted his fingers, sending electric pulses of pure sensation racing through the intimate flesh. Fiery arcs of pleasure raced through the delicate muscles he was impaling, drawing a ragged moan from her as her vagina clenched desperately around his fingers.
“Feel how tight you are around my fingers? So sweet and tight. When you clench around my dick like that, it’s all I can do to keep from coming the second I get inside you.”
A moan of rising pleasure broke free of her lips as his fingers retreated only to return with a deeper, harder impalement.
Sen
sation burned through her. Fingers of erotic, blinding pleasure tore across every nerve ending in her body. Each stroke of his fingers through the clenching, snug tissue sent waves of pleasure rushing to her clit and clenching her womb.
“So pretty.” His voice was a ragged, primal growl at her ear. “I love seeing your face as you take me, Liza.” His fingers worked harder inside her, fucking her with just enough force to build the rising hunger sharper inside her.
His lips stroked down her neck, his tongue licking over the sensitive mating mark before blazing a trail of pleasure to her pebble-hard nipples awaiting the touch of his lips once again.
When it came, the moist heat surrounded the tight peak, sucking it with firm deep draws of his mouth as his tongue licked and tasted the tormented bud.
His fingers pushed inside her, sliding free of the clenched grip of her pussy, returning to stroke her ever closer to the edge of release.
Hips writhing against the penetration of his fingers, her lips parted, panting for air, Liza forced her eyes open to stare into Stygian’s.
“Not yet,” she whispered desperately as the pleasure began to reach a critical peak. “Please, Stygian. Not yet.”
The strokes eased, stilled, until he was filling her, keeping her poised on the edge of release.
“Ah baby, you’re so close,” he murmured. “I could throw you right over the edge. Feel you as you come around my fingers.”
“I want to feel you.” Sliding her hands to his chest, she pulled at the first button of his shirt, then the second.
Her vagina involuntarily clenched around his fingers, the spill of moisture slickening her further as she fought to find more than solitary pleasure.
“God, Liza.” His free hand slid to her hip, gripping it firmly as she slid her hand to the bare warmth of his chest.
“I want to feel all of you.” She moved to the next button, fighting to breathe, fighting not to come as he stroked ultrasensitive tissue with just the tips of two fingers. “Please, Stygian.”
Slowly, so very slowly his fingers slid free of the clenched depths of her sex. With both hands, he gripped the edges of his shirt and jerked.
Buttons popped from the fabric and flew in all directions. The rending of the material before he tossed it carelessly to the floor had a thoroughly feminine smile of sensual smugness curling her lips.
Hers.
He was just hers.
Lifting her body from his, her fingers went to his belt and quickly loosened it. Pulling at the metal tabs that secured the denim, she had his jeans open as his hands joined the battle to push them below his hips.
The heavy length of his cock rose between them, the broad head flushed dark, the heavily veined stalk throbbing imperatively as Liza stroked her hand from tip to base and back again.
Lips parted, her gaze still locked with his, Liza lifted against him. With one hand steadying the broad length of his cock, she rested her head against the side of his, her lips at his ear as she lowered herself against him.
The head of his erection pressed against the snug entrance. Within seconds, the pulse of pre-cum ejaculated from the tip and sent a rush of sensual warmth to heat her pussy.
His arms wrapped around her, holding closer as her hands slid to his shoulders, her fingers curling against his powerful shoulders as his hips began to move, to lift to her. Hard hands held her hips steady, moving her, helping her to take him in small, stretching increments as mewls of pleasure rasped in her throat.
“Yes,” the low, desperate cry slipped from her lips. “Hold me, Stygian. Oh God, don’t let me go.”
“Never,” he growled as his hips jerked in a hard, shallow thrust, forcing his cock deeper.
Slick, wet, her pussy clasped the iron-hard intruder as Liza began to move with him, riding him slow, easy, taking him inch by inch until the thick shaft was lodged fully inside her, stretching her with erotic strength.
Striking impulses of ecstatic pleasure raced through her.
Moving above him, rising and falling as sensation after sensation began to suffuse her senses, Liza gave herself to the spiraling flight to ecstasy and the mate moving beneath her with fierce upward strokes of his hips.
Primal and intense. Erotic and raging with a sensuality impossible to overcome, each upward thrust of his cock stroked, caressed, rasped against tender flesh and sent sparks of pleasure so heated, so filled with sharp, burning bursts of rapture that there was no resisting it.
No resisting the rapid, spiraling flight to the center of raging, exquisite bliss.
Exploding around her, inside her, the pleasure detonated with a force that stole her breath.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as Liza lowered her head, her lips parting, teeth locking in the hard muscle at the bend of his neck as his incisors bit into the mating mark left on hers.
A growl sounded at her ear, fierce and filled with primal dominance, as Liza felt herself sinking into the waves of sensation that electrified, exploded over and over, and sent a rush of fiery ecstasy tearing through her again and again, until she was left shuddering in his arms. The feel of the additional swelling in his cock locking him inside her as he spilled his release was another sensual rush of violent sensation that sent another, lesser explosion tearing through her.
It was like being surrounded by pleasure—plugged into pure sensation and feeling it racing beneath her flesh, through her veins, sizzling around her clit and streaking through her pussy.
Locked in his arms, she whispered his name, so intent on the sensations that she forgot to hold back the emotion.
“I love you.” She sighed breathlessly as the final pulse of pleasure shuddered through her. “Oh God, Stygian, I love you.”
And she did.
She loved him breathlessly, completely.
While she hadn’t been looking, he had stolen her heart, and she knew there was no chance of ever getting it back and being the same again.
Now, she only hoped she could survive it.
“I love you.” He kissed her temple gently before moving.
A sharp breath of reaction parted her lips at the rush of pleasure when he pulled from her. Still partially erect, his cock caressed across violently sensitive nerve endings, sending a rush of pleasure sizzling through her before it abated once again, sated for the moment.
“Lie here a second, babe.” He laid her on the bed before shedding his jeans completely and moving to the bathroom.
Returning moments later, he cleaned the slick, wet proof of their arousal from her thighs and the folds of her pussy with a damp cloth. Then drying her gently, he pulled the blankets over her before moving back to the bathroom.
The sound of water running brought a smile to her face.
When he returned to the bed and slid beneath the blankets with her, Liza curled against his chest, needing his warmth, needing him holding her. Feeling his hand sift through her hair, his fingertips rubbing against her scalp, Liza let herself sink into the comfort he was offering.
“Don’t let me get lost, Stygian,” she whispered as the exhaustion of the past days began to catch up with her.
Emotions, nightmares, fear and anger had plagued her, making her sleep restless, her dreams dark and impossible to remember when she awakened.
“I won’t let you get lost, baby,” he promised as he soothed her.
For once, there was no distance, no emotional storm, no desperation to hold herself aloof, and no arousal. There was just the comfort he was offering her and an overwhelming sense of safety.
“Sleep, Liza,” he crooned, his voice gentle, his hands incredibly tender as he soothed her. “Right here, rest against me, we’ll figure out our next move later. I promise.”
And he always kept his word.
Her eyes drifted closed, her breathing evened out and she allowed sleep to settle over her.
Maybe, was her last thought, maybe, in Stygian’s arms the nightmares would stay away. Maybe she could sleep, just for a little while. Just long enough to f
ind the strength to face what she feared was coming—
The destruction of everything she had believed she was—of everything her life had been.
Because life as she knew it was over.
CHAPTER 22
Stygian stared out over the desert landscape from the top of the spherical column of stone that rose above the valley floor, just behind the hotel, his gaze narrowed, his animal instincts humming in danger.
Something was out there—
“What are you hearing from your contacts?” he asked Dog quietly.
“I know they’re here, I just haven’t been able to find them. Since word went out that Cassie Sinclair was arriving in the area, more teams have been sent out, but like the others, they haven’t been glimpsed.”
The Genetics Council was sending out their best teams now, evidently. With the creation of the scent reduction drug, it was becoming harder and harder to track the bastards down too.
“They have to buy supplies at some point,” he stated. “Are there men in town watching for that?”
“We have several teams watching.” An edge of irritation colored Dog’s tone. “But what the fuck are we watching for and how do we cover every damned business that could possibly provide their supplies? And if they follow directive command and work with humans to supply their needs, then we’re fucked there.”
Wasn’t that the truth. Window Rock had dozens of businesses supplying outdoorsmen, hunters, weekend vacationers and the list went on.
“Why this area?” Stygian asked as he surveyed the land again, paying particular attention to the small canyon that ran alongside the road. “What are they looking for? There has to be more than just Honor, Fawn, Judd and Gideon. They have to be after something more.”
“Not sure, but there were signs of movement in the canyon night before last and several times last week. Loki has been flying over the desert, twenty miles in each direction, to track them. He’s been able to track and explain all movements but this one and another about four miles to the east of the hotel.”
Stygian rubbed at his jaw thoughtfully. “Any chatter?”
“Strangely, nada.” Dog shook his head. “If it hadn’t been for Loki, we wouldn’t know about this.” He nodded toward the canyon.
“This the same canyon Liza and Claire crashed into when they were fifteen. The one we took her to?”
“The same canyon we also found evidence of a sweat lodge in,” Dog told him. “You know, Navajo medicine is shrouded in history. There are a lot of things they’re rumored to be able to do though.”
“Such as?” Stygian asked absently as he stared through the binoculars into the canyon.
“I’ve had Chimera working with Joseph Redwolf for a while now, Megan Arness’s grandfather. From what she’s uncovered, there’s a legend that the memories of a dying warrior can be passed to a warrior who needs the skill or the information that could be gone forever. There’s no information whether it’s ever been done before, but the legend is there. She’s also learned that they’ve been shredding and burning records from more than a decade back, which were contained in a secured, secret location where the tribal chiefs are said to store the written history of their secrets and the recipes used for certain rituals, handed down since long before their lands were ever invaded by the white man.”
Stygian lowered the binoculars, his arms propped on the edge of the boulder he’d been resting against.
“The Navajo medicine men are rumored to still know many of the ancient rituals,” he said thoughtfully. “How close is that supposed secured, secret location to the canyon where the girls wrecked?”
“We don’t have a clue. Even Chimera doesn’t know where it’s at. But she’s smelled the ash on Joseph’s clothes when he returned from the desert. And he didn’t lie when she asked what he had been burning. He told her he was burning another’s past.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
He could feel it.
In his gut, Stygian could feel the vibrations of an interference that had likely saved Liza’s life as child, but could cost her that life now.
Liza?
To her friends, to her family, she was Liza Johnson. It was Liza Johnson’s memories she carried, but it wasn’t Liza Johnson’s personality. Just as it hadn’t been Liza Johnson’s destiny to be in this place, at this time. It was Honor Roberts’s. And now, Honor no longer had the very information that could save her life.
“At the same time the wreck occurred, two men supposedly from a unit Audi Johnson had trained while in the military showed up as well. Cullen Maverick and Klah Hunter. We suspect Klah is Judd.” Dog leaned against the boulder they were using as shelter, his gaze narrowing, the lines fanning out from his eyes, the marks of squinting into the sun, or his gaze narrowing on distant targets, stood out in stark relief as they narrowed once again.
Between his teeth he clenched a cold, thin cigar that he had yet to light. Crossing his arms over the desert-tan shirt that covered his chest, the Coyote watched Stygian assessingly.
“Stranger things have happened,” Stygian murmured.
Hell, he knew better than that.
Judd wouldn’t have left the girls without his protection. Even in the labs, both Judd and Gideon had risked their lives more than once to protect both girls. “There was a reported attack on two teenagers and a young man, matching Honor’s, Fawn’s, and Judd’s description, as well as two Native Americans accompanying them, six hours from Window Rock, less than twenty-four hours before the wreck,” Dog continued. “Several soldiers identified as working for Brandenmore Research were found dead as well, their bodies obviously having been dumped there rather than left where they were killed.”
“The underground network that has always helped the Breeds in escaping and relocation are rumored to be on Claire and Liza’s asses every time they leave the hotel. The Breeds that were here, before Liza and Claire came on our radar, say the members of that network are rumored to never leave a kill where it was made, if killing is necessary,” Stygian murmured.
“True,” Dog agreed. “We also have the fact that there’s a team shadowing Liza and Claire, a report that the two girls hav