Harmony's Way (15 page)

“Are you just going to stand there?” She stalked over to the nightstand, flipping on the light to at least give herself the advantage of seeing him. Unlike most Breeds, her night vision wasn’t exactly exceptional.

Maybe she should have left the lights off.

He shifted as he watched her, hard chest muscles rippling, his abs tightening as the unbuttoned band of his jeans drew her eyes.

“You’re soaking wet with sweat,” he observed. “Is lying in here working out like a demon better than being in my bed?”

“Yes!” No.

His expression turned chastising as he wagged his finger at her. “Little girls who lie get their butts spanked,” he warned her.

That did not turn her on. It didn’t.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at him.

“I wouldn’t try it if I were you,” she grated out.

“What? Spanking you?” The crooked smile that tugged at his lips was one of pure lust. “I promise, baby, you would enjoy it.”

She was two seconds from a true growl. And she so hated playing into the stereotype of the Breed.

“Exactly what did you want?” she asked between gritted teeth.

“Exactly?” He arched a brow mockingly. “Are you sure you want me to answer that?”

She glanced at the clock.

“It’s half past midnight. Don’t you have to work in the morning?”

“Don’t you?” he replied, his voice silky dark, stroking over her senses with nearly the same effect of his calloused palms on her flesh.

As he stepped into the bedroom, the air around her pulsed with hunger.

God, what was she going to do about him?

“Lance, please.” She stepped back, staring at him desperately now. “Go to bed.”

“Come with me, Harmony,” he whispered, coming nearer, the dark teak of his flesh gleaming. “Let me hold you while you sleep again. I’ll watch over you, baby.”

The temptation of it had a shiver racing over her skin. He had held her while she slept the other night. She had been unable to help it, couldn’t hold back. She had meant only to doze, but before she could stop herself she had fallen into the abyss awaiting her. And she had done so dreamlessly.

She shook her head, feeling her hair brush over her shoulders, stroking skin already sensitive, reminding her of his touch.

He came nearer with each second, until he stood only inches from her, the heat of his body surrounding her. She hadn’t even known she was chilled until his heat enfolded her.

“You’re wet, baby,” he whispered, his hand gripping her shirt and pulling it up. “Let me help you out there.”

The shirt cleared her head as Harmony blinked up at him in confusion. How did he do this to her?

“Lance.” Her hands pressed against his bare chest, then she groaned, realizing defeat was only seconds away as she felt her palms soaking up the heat from his body.

“Yeah, feel that,” he crooned. “Let me warm you, baby.”

Harmony felt her lips part helplessly, her entire body tensing, preparing for the wild heat of his kiss. Instead, he merely caressed her lips with his mouth.

His hands slid over her waist, calloused palms stroking with fiery pleasure until they cupped the heaving mounds of her breasts. His thumbs stroked her nipples and she felt herself panting.

She was panting for his touch. Her hands gripped his wrists as she felt every nerve ending in her body throbbing, waiting.

She jerked as his thumb and forefinger applied erotic pressure to the hard tip of her nipple, sending a burning surge of pleasure to race through her stomach. Her breath caught at the sensation as her nails pressed into his wrist.

“We can’t keep doing this.” Her cry was weak, pleading. “Don’t do this to me, Lance.”

“Do what? Make you admit you need?” His lips moved over her jaw, leaving fire in their wake. “Make you feel what I feel, Harmony? I burn for you baby. Burn for me.”

Didn’t he know that the flames ate her insides constantly, tearing at her will, her defenses?

“Just feel for me, Harmony,” he crooned. “Just for a little while.”

When his lips returned to hers, they melted into her, kissing her with a longing and fervor she couldn’t deny. Deep, sipping kisses that drugged her mind and sent her senses spinning.

“There, sweetheart.” He was breathing hard, rough, as he pulled back, one hand sliding down her torso, over her stomach as she struggled to open her eyes.

A second later his palm slid between her thighs, pressing over the aching center of her body as she felt a dizzying sweep of pleasure tear through her.

She couldn’t help clenching her thighs, holding his palm in place. It was cupped snugly over her pussy, the heel of his palm pressing against her clit, grinding against it with devastating results.

Beneath her hands his flesh was heated, beneath her lips the strong column of his neck beckoned. His skin tasted of male arousal and heat, clinging to her tongue and mixing with the hormone spilling from the glands beneath. The intoxicating flavor had her reaching for more, her teeth raking over his skin as her senses came alive.

Her defenses fell away, unable to bear the weight of their combined hunger. The battle to fight the hunger and need surging through her was one that couldn’t be fought in his arms.

“There, baby,” he whispered against her collarbone, his head lowering, heading unerringly to the stiff peaks of her nipples as his palm inflamed her clit, pressing the soft cotton of her boxer-style panties against it. He ground his hand against her, tearing a harsh cry from her lips as brilliant flares of pleasure tore through her.

She was lost in him. One touch and she was caving and didn’t even care. The past, the present, the danger surrounding her—it all threatened to dissolve around her, and when it did, she knew she would be dead. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t let her hunger destroy the only good thing she had ever found in her life.

Loving Lance was a weakness. A weakness that could get him killed.

“No.” She tore away from him, not certain where she found the strength to do it.

Stumbling against the bed, she reached down, jerked her shirt from the floor and held it against her breasts as she fought to get away from him.

With the length of the room between them, she turned, staring at his back as he breathed heavily, his head lowered, his hands propped on his hips. He was fighting for control; she could see it in every muscle of his body.

When he turned back to her, she flinched at the brilliance of his blue eyes, the savage cast of his expression.

“How much longer can you run, Harmony?” His voice was a rough rasp. “Can you make it six months, baby?”

“I have to,” she cried out, hating the look on his face, the hunger and need, the certainty that she would fall. “Don’t you understand, Lance? I can’t have this. It doesn’t matter what nature wants, or what I want. I can’t have this.”

She clenched her fists in the hem of her shirt, fighting to hold back the need to return to him, to touch him.

“And why can’t you have it?” he barked back. “Because you’re the tough-assed assassin? Poor little Breed who has to fight alone. That’s bullshit and you know it.”

“No, it’s not bullshit,” she retorted furiously. “It’s the truth, you’re just too damned horny to see it.”

“Oh, you have the horny right, baby. I’m so damned hard I could fuck you for a week without letting up. And I’ll be damned if I’ll walk away like this forever. You’re my fucking mate. You think you can just walk away from it? That it’s just going to go away?”

She flinched as he yelled back at her, the graveled sound of his voice testifying to his growing frustration and anger.

“It’s just lust.” She swiped her hand through the air, as desperate to believe it as she was for it to be true. “A chemical reaction. It
will
go away.”

“And you’re only kidding yourself.”

Harmony jumped to avoid him as he strode quickly to her, his hand gripping her wrist, jerking her hand to his thighs.

“Feel that, Harmony.”

She whimpered as he cupped her fingers over the hard width of his erection beneath his jeans.

“This doesn’t go away. I wake up with it and I go to sleep with it. And by God, if you try to tell me you’re not just as wet as I am hard, I’ll fuck you where you’re standing just to prove you’re wrong.”

“It will go away.”

“It’s not going to go away,” he barked as he jerked back from her just as quickly as he had grabbed her.

“Then I’ll have to,” she whispered, aching with the needs tearing her apart. “Don’t you understand, Lance? Of everyone in my life, you’re the only really good thing that has touched it. You’re asking me to take a chance on letting what I am destroy you. I can’t do that. I can’t stay here. I can never stay here. Death is hunted, Lance, by Council soldiers and law enforcement officials alike. And whether you want to admit it or not, I will be found eventually.”

He stilled.

“I thought you were a fighter,” he said quietly. “The kid who shot her way out of hell and took out the monsters intent on destroying her was a fighter. What she grew into is something else entirely. That kid knew how to live. What happened to her when she grew up, Harmony?”

“She learned that only death matters,” she told him sadly. “Because that’s where it all ends, Lance. Everything I touch ends in death.”

“How could it?” he snapped. “Because you keep running, Harmony. Maybe if you stopped running, just for a little while, you would find something worth fighting for. It takes more guts to stand and fight than it does to hide and kill. Try it out once, baby, you might find it worth your time.” His gaze raked over her again. “Or maybe that’s your problem. You don’t have to fear what you don’t have to face. Do you?”

“That’s not true.” She shook her head wildly.

He wasn’t right. He couldn’t be right. She wasn’t scared of anything, anyone. She was Death.

“It is true, Harmony. Have fun killing yourself with sit-ups while you try to deny it. Personally, I had a much more pleasurable cure in mind. But you just do it your way. For now.”

“What do you mean by that?” Her eyes narrowed on him suspiciously as she fought the feeling that Lance’s patience was quickly running out.

“Exactly what I said. Try doing push-ups. They seem to help more.” His smile was tight as he walked out of the room. The threat lingered behind him though. As did the clawing, heated need.

Dropping to the floor, she started the push-ups.

CHAPTER 12

Lance replaced the decrepit Raider with his own the next evening. Unfortunately, he came with it. To add insult to injury, he changed the schedule as well.

“If I’m going to stay up all damned night long, then I might as well be working,” he had snapped that morning when he informed her of the change.

As the call came in on a disturbance and fight at one of the more popular bars, she almost rubbed her hands in glee. She sat forward, straining against the seat belt as Lance raced toward the establishment.

She hadn’t had a good fight in months. Unfortunately, as the adrenaline began to race through her veins, the heat building in her body increased. The arousal was almost a narcotic in her blood as her skin sensitized and her nerve endings began to throb.

She was throwing off the seat belt and jerking the door open before the Raider had come to a complete stop. Ignoring Lance as he called out her name, she headed for the bar and the fight inside.

“Oh, no you don’t.” He caught her arm, pulling her to a surprised stop as she stared up at him in shock.

“What?”

“Take their statements!” He pointed imperiously toward the small crowd outside. “Now.”

“But the fight…” Oh God, she really needed to expend energy. She could feel the need cramping her stomach, building in her veins.

“Statements,” he snarled, the look in his eyes causing her to hesitate. “Now.”

She snarled furiously, flashing her canines as the sound rumbled from her throat. Gripping her hand, he slapped his notebook into it.

“Now.” That tone was primal, such a completely alpha sound that she was taken aback for a moment. “Right now.”

She took the statements, fuming at the injustice of it as he and the other deputies began clearing the bar.

“That was so not fair,” she snapped as he strode from the bar an hour later, a bruise forming at his temple as he dragged a raw-boned cowboy by his shirt collar to a waiting patrol car. “I could have helped.”

He grunted rudely.

“You wouldn’t have a black eye if you had let me help,” she retorted, her fist clenched around his mangled notebook. “I can’t believe you did this.”

She couldn’t believe she had blindly obeyed him like some submissive wimp that didn’t know how to fight back. She had never ever obeyed a man in her life. Why the hell was she starting now?

“Your attitude is starting to severely suck, Sheriff,” she informed him, trying not to look too deeply into the fact that she had figuratively tucked her tail and obeyed.

“Did you get those statements?”

“Every last one,” she responded with false sweetness, glaring back at him as he met her gaze without the first sign of apology. “You should have let me in there.”

“Why?” he barked as he turned and led the way to the Raider. “So you could expend some of that energy raging through your body? I don’t think so. Get in the Raider.”

He jerked her door open as she stalked past him.

“That is just the most idiotic thing I’ve heard come out of your mouth,” she snapped after he had slammed her door closed and was striding around to his own side. “I’m not a pet you can place in the corner and tell to sit.”

“That’s a dog.” He twisted the key in the ignition before pushing the Raider into gear. “Everyone knows cats don’t train worth shit.”

Indignation snapped inside her.

“I am not a cat,” she hissed.

Shit. She hated that sound.

She hated the smirk that crossed his lips as well.

“Do you think this is going to get me in your bed?” She turned on him mockingly, her lip lifting in a sneer. “I don’t hardly think so, lover. You’ll have to provide a little bit more excitement than taking fucking statements to get me that riled.”