Shadows and Silk (18 page)

“Missed what?” Brant asked, following her back inside.

“Glyphs. There have to be more
Donovan
Jax
didn’t know about before his death. How long since he was killed?”

“About six months,” Brant said, watching as she pulled her map out of her backpack
and
went back inside the temple. She s
pread it
the map
across the altar he’d threatened to take her on.

“Look,” she said, grabbing a pen. “We’re here
,
and the clue leads to
Chiapa
de
Corzo
, more than a six hour drive away. But that’s where our victim was found early this
morning. A couple of hours later, five girls were kidnapped from their resort near
the ruins at
Lagatero
.” She placed big X’s over the two areas. “Now let’s go back over the past few months.”

She mumbled under her breath while she checked her notes and kept making marks on
the map.
They were there long enough for the sun to change positions, and he ignored the heat
as he kept watch while she worked out the puzzle.
And then he finally saw the pattern.

“Son of a bit
ch. We missed some of the clues,” he said, shaking his head.
“
But only after Donovan died.
No wonder Ramos paid so much to have the mole in organization brought forward. When
Donovan was feeding us
intel
, Ramos wasn’t able to test the drugs like he needed to.
”

It seemed obvious now that he was looking at it. It was like a scavenger hunt. The
clues were drawn, sending the dealers to the new locations where the buyers would
be met and a victim taken, and then the dealers would leave a new set of clues in
or near the location where they left the body
, probably at Ramos
’s
instruction, leading the next group of dealers to the next drop spot. He never used
the same group of men in a row, and if you didn’t find the glyphs marking the spot,
then the killings couldn’t be anticipated.

Excitement poured off Darcy in waves, and he realized he had a great deal of pride
in her for what she’d discovered. Declan had been right after all. They’d needed her
on this mission.

“Don’t you understand?” she asked, her eyes shining with hope and everything that
was good and honest. “We need to search the area where the girls were taken. They’ll
have left instructions for where they’re taking them
for the next set of dealers
.”

She had him under a spell. That was the only explanation he could think of as he felt
his chest bursting with some foreign
emotion
.
Darcy belonged to him. And he belonged to her. If she didn’t want to get married then
that was fine, but she’d be the one to explain to their children why she wouldn’t
marry him.
H
e wasn’t going anywhere at the end of six months. He could trust her. And that was
as good as love in his book
.

“Brant, are you listening to me?” she asked, a look of concern crossing her face.
“Are you okay?”

The sun
casting shadows now
, and the orange glow shot shafts of brilliant l
ight into the small cutout door
of the temple, distorting the colors of the faded frescoes on the wall and spotlighting
the altar in the center of the room, just as it was meant to. Sunset was a sacred
time of the day.
A time for worship and reflection
.
And he wanted nothing more than to see Darcy bathed in the light from the setting
sun.

His hand touched just above
her
w
rist, and
he
circled his fingers over the pulse there, making gentle strokes until he felt
it racing
beneath her skin. Her eyes
opened wide
and her lips parted on a soft gasp
as
a realiz
ation of what he wanted heated
her cheeks. Her nipples were erect beneath the thin shirt she wore, and perspiration
glistened across her skin from the heat inside the temple.

“Brant.” She breathed out his name like a sigh. “We can’t. The others—”

“I need to taste you.” He pulled
her
into his embrace so their bodies touched, and he knew one taste would never be enough.
“Just for a little while. We’re safe for now. It’s just you and me on top of the world.
There’s no one else.”

They were words meant to convince—to seduce—but he was the one falling under
her spell. She had that power over
him.
He wanted to remember this moment—the way the sun kissed her skin and the way her
breath hitched when his hand touched the sensitive skin at the crook of her elbow.
The way she melted against him when he bent his head and touched his lips to hers
, as if it were the first time
.

The taste of her went to his head. She was ambrosia and heat
and sex
, and he couldn’t
help the way his body responded—the way he deepened the kiss and insisted on her surrender.
But Darcy wasn’t one to
give in
without a fight. Her tongue stroked his, sucking him into her mouth, and he groaned
as he felt her hands slip under his shirt. She traced the scar on his back and he
froze, feeling the control slip from his grasp.
He shook his head, fighting against the need to hold her arms down, and then her
fingers moved on as she began placing light, teasing kisses across his jaw and down
his neck.

“God, Darcy,” he groaned. “Touch me.” He craved the heat of her hands against his
skin, the way she could soothe or incite with a
glance of fingers
.

His mouth fused to hers and h
e lifted
her, setting
her
down on the stone altar. His fingers threaded through her hair, pressing her closer,
closer, and he knew whatever feelings were rioting inside of him were something he’d
never experienced before. This was making love at its most basic—the joining of two
bodies and two souls to become one.

“You make me dizzy,” she said, her words slurred as if she’d had too much champagne.
“What are you doing to me?”

“What I should have done the first time we were together,” he rasped out, his heart
pounding in his chest. He unbuttoned his shorts to give himself room, but this wasn’t
about his pleasure or how fast he could find it. It was about hers.

He flicked
open the
button of her shorts and slid
them down her legs and over her boots.
The white lace panties she wore were damp, and he could smell the musky scent of her
desire.
His fingers trailed up her legs and she shivered beneath his touch. Her flesh pebbled
and she gasped
as
he stopped just short of touching the
lace covered
mound between her thighs.

“Please,” she begged.

“Patience, love,” he whispered. “I want to see all of you.” He grasped the bottom
of her shirt and pulled it over her head, baring her breasts. Her nipples were dusky
pink
and tightened into small buds, and her chest heaved as her anticipation grew.

“Lay back,” he commanded, and watched
her
while his cock grew painfully hard at the sight of her stretched out on the stone
slab. “You’re so beautiful. You take my breath away.” Her skin glowed in the fading
sunlight, and s
he looked like a Pagan goddess
stretched out before him.

He wanted to wait—to savor—but he knew t
heir time was short. He knelt between her thighs, breathing her in before placing
a soft kiss on the damp lace.

“
Mmm
,” she moaned, her hands clenched around each side of the stone slab.

His fingers found the elastic band of her panties and he pulled them off quickly,
letting them drop to the ground. The soft
curls covering her mound were dewy
and he could see the cream of her desire coating her pussy lips. Just a little taste,
he thought. It would have to be enough.

His tongue swiped through the folds once—twice—and he spread her legs wider as her
hips began to push against his face.

“So sweet, baby,” he rasped. “I’ve never tasted anything sweeter.” His tongue circled
her clit and then dipped down into the dripping slit of her pussy, spreading her juices
all around.
And then his mouth clamped over the taut, swollen bud
and he began to suckle, flicking his tongue as fast as he could and bringing her
to a screaming climax.

“Shh,” he crooned.
“You don’t want me to stop, do you?” He slowed his licks, building the tension inside
her once more.

“Don’t stop.”

His finger joined his tongue, and he slid it inside of her to th
e first knuckle, loving the way she clamped around him.
She was so tight, and she was swollen from her first orgasm, and even the thought
of working his cock into that vise-like heat had him breaking out in a sweat.
He joined a second finger to the first and
scissored
them, stretching her for his invasion.

Her body began to tremble, and he knew she was just on the edge again. He gave her
clit one last kiss and then removed his fingers.

“
Nooo
,” she moaned, sounding close to tears
as he left her.

“Just for a second, baby.” He stood between her splayed thighs and pushed his shorts
down around his hips, his cock springing free from the confinement. He didn’t think
he’d ever been this hard in his life, and his balls were drawn up so tight to his
body he didn’t know if he’d be able to last past the initial thrust.

He gripped his cock at the base and squeezed tight, and then he began kissing his
way up her belly and over the swollen mounds of her breasts. His teeth grazed each
nipple, and her hips began to buck wildly beneath him.

“Now,” she begged. “Please—”

Brant pulled her to the edge of the stone slab and pushed her knees back so they rested
on either side of her breasts. She was wide open to him, and when he stood straight
his cock was at the perfect position. He placed her hands on her knees so she was
the one holding them in place, and then he took his cock in his hand and rubbed the
head through the glistening juices of her vagina.

And when he speared through the waiting lips and began to push inside, he wondered
how anything could ever feel more perfect than this woman wrapped around him—how he’d
ever though
t
anyone else could be more than a paltry substitute.

“You’re so tight,” he said through gritted teeth, his hips flexing with each push
into her body. She was slick with desire, more than ready for him, and impatience
finally got the better of his control. He slid to the hilt with one strong push, and
she gasped and cried out as he filled her.

“Put your legs around me,” he said.

Sweat ran down his temple as he leaned over her, kissing and suckling at her breasts
as her ankles crossed behind his back.
He kissed his way up her neck, and each time he kissed a new place on her body it
somehow pushed him deeper inside of her. Her vaginal walls fluttered around his cock,
and he knew she could come without him thrusting at all. Just by being full and heavy
inside of her.

“Open those eyes, baby. I want to watch you climb.” Their bodies were bathed in the
orange glow of the fading sun, and
he
held her face between his hands and kissed her lips gently as her eyelids fluttered
open. Brilliant blue stared back at him, and then he began to move, thrusting in long,
measured strokes that were more of a caress than a coupling.

The flutters in her womb turned to ripples, and their breaths became more labored
as he pushed them both closer to the precipice. But he kept his hands on her face,
and his eyes steady on hers. He didn’t know what she saw in his eyes, but she began
to shake her head, to t
ry to break hold of his grasp. B
ut he didn’t budge.

“Darcy,” he whispered as his hips began to pump faster and her legs tightened around
his waist.

And then her mouth open
ed
on a silent scream and she threw her head back as the ripples turned into waves of
undulating ecstasy around his cock.
Her pussy tighten
ed
around him to an almost painful degree, but he still kept his strokes steady, wanting
to give her every last drop of pleasure before he took his own.

“I love you,” she cried out, lost to her own desire. She repeate
d the words over and over again,
and that was all it took to send him over the edge.