Fear burst over Tansy in waves. He taped her mouth and hands and proceeded to stab the dead male repeatedly while she watched, sobbing and pleading, terrified of him. He didn't speak, but grabbed her and dragged her back upstairs, first throwing her on the bed with the little girls, allowing their blood to coat her gown. Tansy could feel his distaste for the task, but he dragged her to the little boy's room and shoved her onto that bed. She was moaning now, in shock, trying to reach her child.
Hawk hesitated, caught the woman by the hair, his distaste for his task growing, but determination won out. He'd gone this far, done everything he was supposed to do for his team. Your fault, lying, cheating whore. Look what you've done. He waited until the horror of the repercussions of her infidelity registered, and he took a snapshot of her face, then he shot her between her legs, in both breasts, and finally in her wide-open mouth. You shouldn't cheat on your husband, bitch, not when he's serving his country.
Bile rose, but Tansy fought it down. She was too close to lose now. This had been a hit, pure and simple. She was certain of it. She'd seen hits before, knew what they felt like. Hawk maybe wanted to win a game, but somewhere, someone had wanted this victim, this woman, to suffer for her infidelity. This killing wasn't random. Someone had chosen her. "The dead man is not her husband," she murmured aloud, just in case Kadan wasn't following the information she was trying to share with him. "Check, but I know he wasn't her husband. She was having an affair and the husband wanted her punished."
She was looking beyond the murder, focusing on that thread that gleamed like silver, fat and shiny and much thicker than normal. The puppet master had to be in contact with his killers whether he wanted to be or not. He was the "ref." The man running the game. And he was running it for profit. Contract killings. He had his own team of hit men, and he played them all like fools. He was military, had been in some way part of the testing. Neat freak. Worked for Whitney. She was close to him now.
Clever, clever girl. I don't usually indulge whims, but you have to learn that bad girls get punished. Mommy and Daddy are going to get a little visit from my friends. The voice was chilling.
Kadan reacted instantly, her safety net, her guardian, standing between her and the man in the shadows. He caught both wrists and yanked her hands outward and away from the hawk, leaving it sitting on the table, a terrible reminder of the killing of an entire family.
"For revenge," she whispered and buried her face in his shoulder.
She was too weak to stand, and as she collapsed he caught her behind her knees, lifting her against his chest. She leaned over and was sick, staining the floor red. Kadan took her through to the bedroom almost at a run. Her skin was clammy, her face nearly gray.
"Tell me what she needs," Nico said, coming up behind him.
"I'm afraid to let her sleep. I think the puppet master is a dreamwalker."
"I have some powder," Nico said. "An old Lakota remedy. It will keep her in a deep sleep and stop any dreams, good or bad. It's been in my family for hundreds of years."
Kadan placed Tansy on the bed and fished quickly for the pills that would help to ease the pain already beating at her skull. She turned away from him, coughing, and there was blood on the pillow.
Nico pushed past him and laid his hands on Tansy's body. "Pull out my crystals; they're in my jacket in the hall closet. Let's make her more comfortable and put her to sleep. No wonder you don't want her doing this. This is tearing her up."
"She got important information," Kadan said, coming back into the room with the crystals, "but the puppet master is definitely tracking her. I have to find a way to guard her dreams."
"Give me some time to heal her with the crystals, and I've got enough powder for a few days. That should give Flame and Lily time to give a direction and we'll eliminate the threat."
Kadan sank down onto the bed beside Tansy, where he could watch over her and help Nico at the same time.
CHAPTER 18
Tansy woke in Kadan's arms. He was wrapped around her so tight she wasn't certain where she left off and he started. He was literally sprawled over her. One thigh lay wedged between her two bent legs, and his arm was around her waist, his hand over her breast. She noticed that even in his sleep he seemed to protect the injured side of her, careful nothing brushed against the laceration. Even the sheet was tented with pillows. He'd thought of everything to make her comfortable.
She didn't remember falling asleep. There had been so much pressure in her head, pain stabbing at her. She couldn't stand the light or any noises. Somehow she'd gone to sleep, and there'd been no dreams, almost a first for her. She rarely slept at night, and now she was afraid the puppet master might find her in her dreams. She'd been afraid to close her eyes, yet dawn was creeping through the window, she felt fine, and she'd obviously slept with Kadan wrapped protectively around her.
She shifted her body experimentally. Instantly his hand tightened on her breast, his thumb stroking over her nipple.
"Don't move."
His voice was a blend of smoky sex and black velvet. His breath was warm on her shoulder and she felt his mouth skim over her back.
Truthfully, she didn't really want to move. She loved lying in his arms, feeling decadent and lazy, loving her naked body cuddled so tight against his. Every stroke of his thumb sent ripples of arousal from breast to thighs. It was a wonderful way to wake up.
"Where are the others?"
He licked her warm skin, grazed his teeth over her neck, taking his time just nibbling, his eyes half closed while he just absorbed the feel of her. "Does it matter?"
"No." Her answer came out a little breathless. His hips rocked against her, rubbing the hard length of his shaft along the curve of her bottom. The sensation was delicious.
"They went home to their women. Gator's wife is researching, and he wants to see what she found for us. They'll be back soon. I thought it would be better for us to be alone when you handle the other game pieces. I noticed it makes you uncomfortable when they see you afterward, although Nico was a huge help and I've asked him to be certain to be back by this evening."
His hands moved, cupping and kneading her breasts a little more aggressively, tugging at her nipples, rolling them between his thumb and forefinger until she was stiff and aching for him.
She closed her eyes, arching into him. "Thank you for being so thoughtful. I can't help but feel vulnerable afterward, and it is hard to have anyone see me like that. Half the time I don't know what's going on around me. And I'm always afraid I might end up fragmented and institutionalized again."
"You won't. I'll always take care of you."
She smiled at him, aching inside, wanting to believe he would always be with her.
"Stay still, baby." He levered himself over her so he faced her on his side, keeping her injured hip safe from jarring.
She loved his face, the hard angles and planes, his strong jaw with the dark shadow, his sensual mouth and straight nose. Most of all, his dark blue, almost black eyes. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, positioning himself so he had easy access to her breasts. "I love how warm and soft you are," he murmured, tracing a finger along the shape of her lips, down her chin to the valley between her breasts. "I love the thought of eating you for breakfast."
Her womb clenched. Liquid heat pooled. She loved the way he wanted her. His focus was always intense and complete. Wholly on her. He could make her wet just by looking at her.
His tongue teased her nipple, first licking, as if she were an ice cream cone, then harder flicks, before his mouth settled, hot and greedy, sucking strongly. She couldn't stop the ragged cry that escaped, or the way her body involuntarily pushed deeper into the heat of his mouth. He alternated between hot licks, small stinging bites, and sucking, so that her body just kept coiling tighter and tighter and she was left gasping for breath.
She held him to her, cradling his head, stroking his hair, sometimes yanking when another bite sent fire sizzling through her
bloodstream. She watched his face, those incredible lashes, the concentration, the lust rising dark, almost frightening in its intensity. She loved that in him--the way he craved her, the way he needed her to give herself wholly to him. He made her feel beautiful and sexy and so wanted. At the same time she was so desperate for his mouth and hands and his body. The mix of emotions was incredibly sensual.
Kadan lavished attention on her breasts, teasing and stroking, his tongue a sensual weapon, his teeth erotic, his hands magic. He kissed his way down the curve of her breast, licking at the underside and trailing more kisses along her rib cage.
"You're so soft and warm, Tansy. I love the way your body responds to me." His hand was well ahead of his mouth, moving down her soft body to the junction at her legs, testing her wetness, her desire for him.
Kadan wanted to take his time and feast, a leisurely exploration of shadows and hollows, finding every hidden sweet spot, every trigger. He wanted an intimate map he could use to pleasure her. And he wanted this for himself. This absolute giving to him, her body open to every sensual thing he wished to do, her giving herself to him without reservation. She trusted him; whether it was instinct or not, or the connection of their minds, he didn't know, he didn't care--he knew only that she put herself entirely into his hands and gave him her body.
He moved over her, taking in every inch of her with his hands and tongue, tasting and teasing, dancing his fingers across her body until she was rewarding him with shivers of pleasure and soft moans she couldn't repress. He didn't want her to be silent. He needed to hear every sound, see and feel every response. His teeth raked again at her nipple and she choked out a strangled cry. His tongue flicked and curled around the peak and then drew it into the hot depths of his mouth. Each hard flick of his tongue sent sensations crashing through her, rushing to her womb, where his hand lay over her lower stomach and he could feel heat and the bunching of her muscles, while his mind shared every pleasure.
He licked his way over the slope of her breast again, down through the valley, and tasted cinnamon. Sheer pleasure rocketed through him. There had to be some kind of aphrodisiac in the lotion she used on her satin-soft skin. His, all his. Every last inch of her. She arched into his mouth, pressing herself deeper. He slid his hand down lower, over her damp mound, his thumb sliding into slick heat, finding her hard bud and rasping over it with the bristles embedded in the pads of his fingers. Her breath came in ragged, breathy little moans, and her hips writhed and bucked in need.
He didn't let the flames licking over his skin or the wild-fire burning along his shaft hurry him. He wanted to drive her into a frenzy. He wanted cinnamon candy for breakfast. Her scent called to him, and every nerve, every cell responded. He spread her thighs apart, and looked up at her. She looked sultry, face flushed, eyes glazed with a hot, desperate hunger. He lowered his head.
His tongue lashed at her, sending lightning whipping through her body, white-hot, threatening to consume her. Tansy nearly bucked from the bed, but his arms pinned her down and he continued his greedy feast. His teeth scraped and tugged, his tongue teased and probed, and then his fingers joined in.
She cried out, unable to stop the pulsing pleasure pounding through her. Lightning zinged from breasts to womb, spilling more cinnamon candy into his marauding mouth. He took her up, winding her into a tight coil of desperate need, until there was only heat and fire and the sinful ecstasy of his tongue and teeth.
He pressed tight against her hard, aching bud, and the sensations heightened; flames flashed like a firestorm, and she lost her breath and most of her mind.
"I love the way you taste," he murmured, licking at her hungrily.
His fingers plunged and curled, pressed deep and stroked, driving her wilder, pushing her to the very edge of the precipice, but never quite allowing her over it. She teetered there, reaching for the orgasm, but he refused to give it to her, drawing the pleasure out on a torturous rack until she shuddered and moaned and heard herself begging for release.
"What is it you want from me?" He breathed fire into her spasming womb.
"Please, Kadan . . . please." All she could do was writhe under his wicked mouth.
"Is this what you want, baby?" He rewarded that breathy plea. His fingers pushed deep, right through the tight folds. She could feel her muscles grip desperately. And then his mouth was on her tight, hard bud, already inflamed with need, and he suckled while his fingers thrust deep. He used the velvet bristles on the pads of his fingers ruthlessly, twisting against her swollen, sensitive nerve endings, and she screamed, her body clamping down in a vicious spasm, again spilling cinnamon candy into his waiting mouth.
He kissed the insides of her thighs and her stomach, then leaned down to lick at the offering still spilling around her rippling sheath, before he came up onto his knees and pressed the broad, flared head of his shaft into her hot, slick entrance.
"Easy, baby," he whispered when she arched into him, trying to impale herself on the thickness. "You're so fucking tight. Let your body accept mine." He worked his way through her soft folds while her muscles gripped and strangled, nearly milking him right then.
"I need . . ." She couldn't get anything out. She just desperately needed to be filled.
"I know what you need."
He sank deeper and deeper into her folds, until he was buried completely and his tight balls rocked against her buttocks. The sensation only added more flames, burning hotter, scorching them both. He blanketed her body, stretching out, wanting every inch of her skin against his. His lips found her throat, his hands her breasts, fingers sliding possessively as he licked at her pulse and nibbled his way to her mouth.
He rocked his hips gently, pressing down, the thick length of him rubbing along her swollen, stretched muscles, sending more lightning shooting down her thighs and up her belly to her breasts. His fingers pinched and tugged at her nipples, so that the lightning forked out and shot back to her clenching, slick sheath. She shuddered beneath him. And then he filled her mind, flooding her with everything him.
She pulsed around him, her body relaxing a little as her muscles became used to the stretched, burning feeling of his penetration. He took a long, slow stroke, pulling back and driving through the tight folds. Instantly electricity sizzled and arced through her as his shaft rubbed against engorged flesh. She gripped his upper arms as he levered himself over her, keeping that slow, steady, torturous rhythm that brought her right to the edge again, but kept her from falling.
Kadan looked down into her face, into her eyes. She was his. It was there in the depths of her gaze. That unconditional giving of her body to him. More than her body. Each slow stroke of his shaft, driving through the stranglehold her muscles had on him, sent waves of pleasure rocking through him, but this was so much more. When she touched him, when she was with him like this, the cold of his soul was gone completely. She brought heat and fire and melted the ice, or at least pushed the monster in him so far down he couldn't find it. She gave him her warmth, her heat, so that they burned together. So that he was alive.
Tell me you love me. Say it out loud. He kept the same torturous rhythm, while her body writhed under his and her hips bucked upward, desperate for relief. Say it, Tansy.
Her hands caught his face. Her gaze stayed locked on his. "I do love you. Every part of you. Can't you feel it when I give myself to you? Feel me, the way I need you."
She moved her body in little circles, squeezing her muscles, so that it felt like velvet fists massaging and kneading his sensitive shaft, suckling at him like a tight mouth, hotter than hell and just as sinful. He heard his own hoarse cry mingling with her ragged moan, and he gave up all pretense of control. He thrust hard and deep, over and over, his hips in a frenzy, reaching for the ecstasy, racing toward it. His head felt like it might explode, his blood boiled, his balls drew tight and hard, and still he pounded into her.
He drove deeper and harder, over and over, because she loved him and, God help him, he needed that love--was desp
erate for it, desperate to show her how he felt in return. He felt her tighten around him, and he gripped her harder, holding her helpless, pinned beneath him while he drove into her again and again. Her mouth opened wide and her eyes went opaque. She screamed and her body pulsed and clamped down, ripping his seed from him, suckling so strongly the sensation washed up his spine and nearly exploded out his skull. She drained him, taking every hot pulse of his body and milking him for more. Her body shuddered again and again in rhythm with the powerful jerking of his. Her womb rippled and convulsed around him, gradually lessening in strength and then fading as they lay together, gasping.
Kadan collapsed over her soft body, fighting for air. He nuzzled her throat as he rolled to the side, one arm still tight around her. He'd never come like that before in his life. He'd never felt that surge of love and emotion tied so tight with lust and desperate need. He'd never even imagined he could feel like that, and a part of him didn't trust such good fortune. She'd said she loved him, but he was in her mind, and there was something he couldn't quite put his finger on that shook him.
He kissed her again, wanting to be whole, wanting all doubts gone, and not certain how to achieve that when he couldn't find the way through sex.
"When I can walk, I'm going to take a long, hot shower," she announced.
He bent his head to her breast, pulling the soft mound into his mouth. He suckled for a moment and then bit down, needing to leave his mark. She gasped, a soft little cry of protest, her body arching closer to him, but she didn't stop him, rather her hands caressed his hair while she held him to her as if she knew what he was doing.
Kadan, standing in the doorway of the living room, watched Tansy through half-closed eyes. She sat curled up on the couch, legs drawn under her, long hair sliding around her body like so much silk. As usual, she hadn't bothered with makeup and she was barefoot. She wore his button-down-the-front shirt and he could just see the outline of her breasts and the darker nipples through the thin material. There was something very satisfying seeing her in his shirt and knowing she wore little beneath it but his mark.