Chapter 41
Lucas orders me in the truck, then climbs in the driver’s seat. He guns the engine excessively when it starts. He turns around in the middle of the narrow road, spitting dirt and gravel in his wake.
I’m not often at a loss for words, but I am right now.
The time is ticking down on my job with PCI. I’ll need to catch a plane. The airport is in Carollia.
That’s not the direction we’re heading. But now does not seem like the time to point that out.
I steal a glance at Lucas’s profile. I’ve never seen his jaw so clenched or his eyes so focused. Not even in the middle of rescuing me.
He’s boiling inside.
When we pass a road sign that reads Playa Grande, he turns, taking us away from Santa Rosa.
I wait for him to explain. But when he doesn’t, my frustration grows. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere we can talk.”
Cringe.
I knew this was coming. Worrying didn’t make me feel any better.
He drives in silence for another ten minutes.
The scent of saltwater comes through the vents on the truck. I love the beaches of Vandemora.
Not that these are the circumstances I’d like to visit under.
A tiny town waits at the end of the road. Two restaurants. A string of about ten small houses stretches from side to side along the wide sandy beach. There’s a small hotel and a surf shop with a sign declaring the cheap board rentals.
Lucas parks in front of the hotel.
I should probably protest. But Lucas is right. We need privacy for the conversation we’re going to have. It’s not going to be pretty.
He walks around to my side, opens the door, and pulls me out. Lucas is not gentle, but he’s not rough either. His touch is… firm. Yeah, that’s it, firm.
The man works fast. Less than a minute later, he’s rented a room and we’re walking under a greenery-covered veranda toward a pale blue door with a number 3 painted on it.
My breath is stilted as he opens the door and steps inside. He glances around, checks the bathroom, and turns to look at me.
“All clear.”
Oh no, things are not clear. They’re turbulent and murky as a raging river.
The door clicks closed. The sound echoes in the tidy room, sending a crackle of electricity through my nervous system.
I can’t move. My feet have grown roots. But I don’t need to, because Lucas stalks toward me. Slowly. Deliberately. Vibrating with his anger, still.
He latches one hand around my upper arm and the other around the back of my neck.
Then he brings us nose to nose.
His chest is pumping like a piston. Like he’s been running… or he’s EXTREMELY mad.
“Do you have any idea how goddamned worried I’ve been about you?”
I absolutely cannot think with him so close. Anything I say would come out as incoherent grunts and moans. When I don’t speak, he leans closer.
He smells so good. Right down to the tease of peppermint on his breath.
His tone drops to a rough growl. “I’ve been tearing this country apart looking for you. My team is searching too. So, you know what that means? We’re not doing our job.”
His tone is deceptively calm, but his body language is screaming—ticking bomb. There’s a battering ram of energy coming off him.
He tilts his head and studies me with a gleam in his eyes. “You picked the wrong person to hide from. I spent the last fifteen years hunting people.”
Perturbed, mostly at myself, I snap at him. “And?”
“Not only did I find you, I recognize what you are.”
“Maybe I wasn’t hiding. I have some things I need to deal with.”
His cocoa-brown eyes are electric with his frustration.
Dammit, why didn’t I think about his ability to track people? Of course, he’d figure out where I went, not that it was some sophisticated escape. I went to the next city and was going to rent a hotel room.
That was the plan… before I got myself into trouble…
I continue to prove my stupidity.
“What am I, Lucas? An idiot? Because that sure is what I feel like. I got fired from FamFind because I couldn’t control myself around you.”
He moves, lightning fast, and I find myself pressed against the wall with a hot, sculpted body molded against me from my knees to breasts.
I’m wearing a scowl, but my ovaries are doing a fan-girl dance.
Even though I know it’s useless, I push against his chest with my palms. “Back off, Lucas. You’re crowding me.”
“Yep.”
I growl at him.
His right hand loosens from around my bicep and slips down my arm until he’s got my wrist in his warm, strong grip.
He levers my arm above my head. Then he quickly does the same with my other hand. In an instant, he’s shifted his hold so both my wrists are pinned above my head against the wall in one of his hands.
I’m breathing fast now, my heart is zooming around. I’m dizzy from his overwhelming size. Something unwanted and unfamiliar is happening inside my core.
That can’t be hunger.
I sound raspy and mad. “What are you doing?”
“Getting answers.”
When I bare my teeth, he makes a rumbly male sound. Then he grips my chin.
“What’s your real name?”
I lick my lips as my nerves jangle like wind chimes in a hurricane.
I’ve had days to think about this conversation, and I still don’t know how and what to tell Lucas.
Giving him my real name won’t exactly hurt… but it leads to a whole line of other questions that could backfire on me. I am still employed by PCI, for another few minutes that is…
It has to be approaching an hour now since I talked to Nighthawk.
Crap.
Lucas’s expression darkens, eyelids lowering until those dark eyes are frustrated slits. “I can see other tactics are required.”
The pads of his fingers tighten on my face, and his mouth crashes into mine.
He forces his way in, commanding my attention with a hot, greedy thrust of his tongue.
I might be moaning… But I’m out of my mind so fast I’m not sure.
He angles my face, and thrusts in again, deeper, dancing his tongue along my mine, promising things I refuse to admit I want.
Did I just whimper?
Oh my god. What kind of voodoo is this man?
Lucas is my personal recipe for disaster.
While I have a mental meltdown, he claims every single recess of my mouth with exacting purpose. I love it.
Damn him, he knows what he’s doing.
My foolish legs widen when he presses his knee between my thighs.
I inhale swiftly against his mouth when his quadriceps brush against my clitoris.
For a long, hot minute we’re a pretzel of limbs, gasping breaths, and growly pleasure.
When he tears away, breathing raggedly, his eyes are wild. His hand moves from my jaw to fist my hair. “Name.”
I’m panting. There might be a hint of madness in my voice when I sputter at him “What?”
“What’s your real name? Give it to me.”
It takes a minute before I can even see straight. Apparently, I take too long because his rough grip tightens in my hair and he comes at me again.
Unrelenting, he commands my mouth open with his.
Whoa, Nelly.
He really is going for answers. This is a full-body kiss. Not a single cell that I own is exempt from what he’s doing to me.
This time, the way he takes my mouth is wilder. Wetter. Deeper. Over the top. Filled with a kind of desperation that matches the clawing need inside of me.
When he pulls back minutes later, he’s growling. His lips are wet and dark red from the assault on mine.
My knees are useless. I’m on fire in places that have never thought about sex before.
I want, want, want Lucas.
That makes me furious. Because I’m not just going to throw myself on my back. I freaking just ruined my career thanks to his super-human pheromones.
I give him my best death glare. “Back off, Lucas.”
This does not have the effect I want.
He chuckles darkly. Then his hand falls away from my hair and goes to my ass. He hoists me up off the floor and whirls toward the bed.
Oh no.
No.
Not the bed.
As long as I am upright, I have a fighting chance, but if he gets on top of me on the bed, I won’t be able to resist his delicious weight.
“Put. Me. Down.” I wiggle in his arms.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m about to.”
His rough tone sends a wave of shivers through me.
“What are you doing, Lucas? Are you going to fuck the answers you want out of me?”
“Pretty much.”
I laugh crazily, sounding a whole lot like I’m coming unhinged. “You can’t do that.”
He jerks my shirt off over my head in one vicious swipe. “I can, and I know you want me to.”
For a beat, my body lights up. The wave of desire that crashes over me is so overwhelming that I can’t inhale. I’ve never been so turned on in my life.
But I’m not doing this. It’s ridiculous. Why would I make the same mistake again? He’s just going to waltz away, and I’ll go back to Virginia and see if I can…
God. I don’t know what I’m going to do.
When I go rigid, he freezes. He stares at me intensely and mutters, “Say it.”
For a flash, I’m not sure if he wants me to say, Lucas, or something else.
But then I remember he said he’s going to fuck the answers he wants out of me. Seemingly, I’m going along with the plan and he hasn’t even gotten inside of me, because I inhale a stabbing breath and tell him my name. “Cameron.”
He stares down at me. Intensely focused. He’s still breathing hard. His body is rigid from his clenched jaw to his thighs where they’re pressing down on me.
My voice shakes when I say my full name. “Cameron Lauren White.”
His eyes drift closed as his chest rumbles with a pleased sound.
I stare at the sharp contours of his beautiful face. His beard has grown in some. The dark color slashes against his skin. He looks so rugged and capable. My palms tingle with the desire to stroke the bristles.
As I fantasize about him scrapping my nipples with his scruff, he inhales massively. Breathes out slowly, his whole body relaxing against me.
“Thank you.”
“How did you find me?”
With his eyes still closed, he breathes, sending washes of warm breath over my aching skin. I can feel his heart pounding, matching the rhythm of my own.
“It wasn’t hard. We just looked for the truck that Evan had seen from the air. I’m just so fucking glad you’re safe.”
He flinches when I slide my hand along the strong cord of his neck.
“I’m fine. My life is a mess, but I’m fine… especially now. Thanks to you rescuing me.”
How is it possible I missed him so much?
Deep end, here I come.
Lucas covers my hand with his, pressing it tighter against his skin. His eyes open and his gaze changes. It’s blazing with need.
My tummy flutters and my lungs hitch. But it’s what happens between my stomach and my throat that feels most alarming.
Can your heart glow?
I expect him to say something, maybe a smart-ass reply, but he just leans down and devours me with throbbing intensity. It’s a possessive kiss and verges on being dark.
There’s so much unsaid between us, like a dangerous crevasse, waiting for one wrong step.
But I can’t think about any of the risks right now. Not with his powerful body rocking against mine as he kisses me, rubbing his cock over my needy clit through his pants.
Fan-girling has gone to a new level inside me.
This riot of sensation goes on until he leaves me gasping for air. Then he trails his scruff along my cheek, and over to my ear, where he whispers to me in the roughest, rawest voice, “Cameron, I’m going to fuck you now, and it won’t be gentle.”
One of his oversized hands fastens around my hip bone, and he squeezes hard enough to make my core ignite with pleasure. “I’ve got to get this dangerous energy out of me. But most of all, I need to feel you are here. With me. Safe.”
This must be very okay with my body because I grind against him. The lusty roll of my hips feels downright slutty, but I have no control over what’s happening below my neck.
He’s hijacked my hormones.
He flips me over on my stomach so fast, I squeak, and my pussy floods with my excitement.
Guess I’m not just jumping into the deep end. I’m going off the high dive.