Lust Unleashed (Night Seekers, Book One) Page 19

  “Ric said Stafford would have had Dante pick the beast up,” Mark told him, “but he didn’t want Denby to know there was a helicopter in this area and wonder if it was the one that carried the shooter. No sense giving him numbers to add up he doesn’t need.”

  “You know.” Jonah scratched his head. “The one thing I didn’t notice was the odor of turpentine and gasoline. It bothers me that there wasn’t a trace of it.”

  “Probably because it was already dead,” Logan pointed out. “I’m guessing it can only give off that scent when it’s alive. Dead, the glands that secrete whatever substance it is you detected aren’t working.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I should have thought of that.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Maybe during the autopsy we can get some answers.”

  “Where’s he taking it?” Dakota had moved up to stand beside him so quietly he hadn’t been aware of her until she spoke.

  “He has a lab set up,” Mark answered. “Once the beast is delivered there he’ll call us to meet him while the autopsy’s conducted.”

  “It’s the strangest thing,” Chelsea said in a low voice. “I have this incredible need to see it in the flesh, but at the same time I’m so revolted by it I don’t know if I can bear it.”

  “I think we all feel that way,” Logan told her. “But we need to do this.”

  She nodded her head. “I know. I really do. It will help all of us to move on.” She smiled. “Hopefully, the way Jonah has.”

  * * * * *

  It was just before dawn by the time they were finished talking and everyone climbed into the helicopter to leave. Jonah and Dakota were barely back in the cabin before he slammed the door and pulled her tight against him.

  “I need you, darlin’. I need you right now.”

  “You’ve got me,” she said in a soft voice. “You know that.”

  He was like a man possessed, yanking off their clothes and carrying her to the bed.

  “Wait, wait,” she said. “We can take it slow—”

  “No.” His voice was strained. “Not slow. Fast. Hard”

  He ripped back the bed covers and rolled them both onto the mattress. With desperate moves he pushed her thighs apart, knelt between them and placed his open mouth directly over her cunt. Dakota felt the surge of voluptuous pleasure race through her that his mouth always incited. The walls of her pussy vibrated with instant need.

  Thumbs plucked at her folds, already slick with her cream, and the rough surface of his tongue scraped her sensitive walls. She tried to close her legs around his head but he forced them wide with his shoulders. He ate at her with a kind of quiet desperation, a need so primal she wondered if it would ever be satisfied. She had the sense that all the emotion he’d put on hold since finding Jenna’s body was erupting like a volcano and driving him with inescapable force.

  The climax hit without warning, her inner walls grabbing at his tongue as she spasmed and rocked and rode out wave after wave of pleasure. Jonah never stopped the thrust of his tongue, instead slicking her cream over her clit and massing it with his fingers as he drove her up again. Without even realizing she was doing it Dakota cupped her breasts and pinched her nipples, hard, the streaks of pain mingling with the jolts of pleasure to push her over the crest again.

  Her breath rasped from her throat as the spasms shook her again and a fine sheen of perspiration dotted her skin. He pulled his tongue from her clutching channel and flicked it across her clit, over and over again, until she was so hot she was sure she would erupt into an explosion of flames.

  She tried to push herself up, to reach for him, but he was relentless in his movement, nipping the insides of her thighs, the very tip of her clit, the soft folds of her labia. Two lean fingers scooped her liquid from her cunt and dragged it down between the cheeks of her ass to paint the tight ring of her anus. The tip of one finger probed gently, pushing against the resistance until it breached the entrance.

  Waves of icy heat rocketed through her, pumping her blood through her veins in heated waves. She heard cries of erotic pleasure bursting in the air and realized they were coming from her.

  She badly wanted to touch Jonah, to wrap her slim fingers around the blazing thickness of his cock and taste his musk, but he seemed determined that only by driving her past the normal boundaries of pleasure could he achieve his own.

  His strong hands grabbed her hips and flipped her over, pulling her to her knees. His back pressed against her as he reached for one of the condoms in the nightstand. His body trembled as he ripped the foil and struggled to sheath himself. They were still shaking when he rested them on her hips again and bent to press hot kisses on the rounded globes of her buttocks.

  “Hurry,” she begged, teetering now on the brink of desperation, the need for him to fill her.

  Thumbs spread the lips of her cunt and the broad head of his shaft pressed against her opening. He rocked back once and slammed into her, again and again, frantic need in every movement. Groaning with the pleasure of it, he braced one hand on the small of her back and pushed a finger into the tight warmth of her dark rear channel.

  She screamed as another orgasm convulsed her, racking her with spasms. She moved with him as he pounded into her, apparently determined to take her over the edge yet another time. She couldn’t do it. She was exhausted, wringing wet, gasping for breath, yet still she rocked with him, with the power of his thrusts.

  He came with a force like a hurricane, hot semen bursting from him in thick, pulsing jets to fill the thin latex reservoir. She was filled with him, surrounded by him.

  Mated with him.

  She couldn’t determine where she left off and he began.

  They fell forward together, collapsing on the pillows, his arms banded around her, his softening cock still wedged inside her. She had no idea how long they lay like that, skin to skin, bodies blended, wrapped in a warm erotic haze. She might even have dozed, she didn’t know, until she felt his mouth against her cheek pressing soft kisses into her skin. Murmuring soft, indistinguishable words to her.

  After what seemed like a long time he pushed himself up and backward and slid from her body. She heard him padding to the bathroom, running the water then walking back to the bed. Sliding in next to her, he pulled her body against his and tugged the cover over them.

  “I’m not leaving here without you,” he murmured, his warm breath tickling her ear.

  “But the cabin,” she reminded him. “My things here. My…life.”

  One lean hand cupped a breast, his fingers stroking it. “You told me your life here leaves a lot to be desired, remember? We can keep the cabin and use it to get away from people. The rest is just details. Nothing but details.”

  “But now that the devil beast is dead, what will you do? Will Mr. Stafford disband the team?”

  “I don’t know.” He nuzzled the soft spot behind her ear. “But I’m sure he had something in mind for whenever this came to an end. He wouldn’t have invested all the money he did into the setup at Desolation Ranch unless he had plans for the future. Maybe there are other killing beasts to track down. We’ll find out. But whatever happens, darlin’, I want us to be together. We are mated. You’ve made me a whole man again. Marry me, Dakota. Live with me forever.”

  Marry him? Her heart caught, stopped beating, then began again. All her fears and questions disappeared in the safety of Jonah’s arms.

  “Yes,” she sighed. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  “Good.” He nipped her ear. “I love you, Dakota. With everything I am.”

  “I love you, too, Jonah. With all my heart.”

  Epilogue

  Morning sunlight flowed in through the wide windows warming the huge kitchen. Six Night Seekers plus Dakota sat around the table enjoying a relaxing breakfast. It was the first really easy meal they’d enjoyed in days. Even the wedding dinner Craig Stafford had hosted for Jonah and Dakota had been tinged with anxiety as they waited for the final results of the autopsy. They’d al
l been flown to the remote lab where the beast had been taken, all had the chance to see it in the flesh, all turned away, revolted by the sight. But at least they could now move on.

  Dakota had thought they should wait to marry until everything was wrapped up, but Jonah was like a maniac, as if waiting one minute longer would cause her to change her mind.

  “Fat chance,” she’d told him, but he was insistent.

  And so everything had been taken care of—the judge to marry them, flowers, dinner in a private dining room at a five star restaurant in San Antonio. Just the other Night Seekers and Neil. Family, so to speak. No honeymoon, though. That would come after a meeting with Craig Stafford to learn the autopsy results and find out if there was still a mission of any kind for Night Seekers.

  Meanwhile they were enjoying the first moment of peace that they had experienced in a long time. Their quiet conversation was disrupted by the sound of helicopter rotors splitting the air outside. They looked out the window and saw the Stafford helicopter descending to the pad near the house.

  Mark looked at Ric. “Were we expecting Stafford today?”

  “He didn’t tell me he was coming,” Garza said. “Maybe he’s got the autopsy results and is ready to discuss what’s next for us.”

  The back door opened and Craig walked into the kitchen, carrying a briefcase. He was dressed casually in slacks and polo shirt, although everyone at the table knew the outfit cost more than their combined wardrobes.

  “Morning. Any coffee left here?”

  “Yes, sir.” Ric jumped up and pushed his chair out for Stafford, then went to fill a mug for him.

  The man lowered himself heavily into the chair, accepted the coffee with thanks and sipped at the hot liquid.

  “Thanks.” He set the mug down. “If it weren’t so early in the day I’d have asked for something a little stronger.”

  “There’s something wrong.” Chelsea made it a statement, not a question. “You look very upset.”

  “Is it the autopsy?” Mark wanted to know. “Was there something disturbing about it?”

  “Yes, but that’s only a part of it.” He ran his fingers through his hair and then lifted his briefcase to the table, opening it. “My biologists are still trying to separate the different strands of DNA from the creature’s remains. It’s a hybrid animal of some kind, a mutant, but it wasn’t the result of any strange mating. It was created in someone’s lab. Somewhere.”

  “Oh, my god.” Sophia clapped her hand over her mouth. “You mean someone’s actually breeding these creatures deliberately?”

  “So it appears. We’re still not positive. There’s an outside chance it could be some freak of nature. I’ve got the lab working on it 24/7. But that’s not the problem.”

  “Then what is?” Ric had pulled another chair up to the table.

  “This is.” Stafford pulled paper-clipped packets of paper from his briefcase and passed them around the table. They were copies of newspaper articles and the dates were within the past week. “Read them carefully.”

  The room was completely silent as each person read through the articles, one by one.

  “Holy shit.” Logan Tanner stared at one of the sheets in front of him. “Is this what I think it is?”

  “Yes.” Stafford’s answer was clipped. “And I had the same reaction.”

  “I feel sick.” Sophia dropped the paper in her hand, pushed away from the table and ran for the bathroom.

  Jonah stared hard at what he was reading. “These articles say three bodies were found in Florida just last week. All mangled and with the blood emptied from their veins.”

  “We got the wrong one.” Sam Brody’s voice was flat and dead-sounding. “Son of a bitch.”

  Stafford nodded. “So it seems.”

  “Either that,” Sam went on, “or there’s more than one out there.”

  “Which would explain why it appears in so many far-flung places,” Chelsea added.

  “Yeah, it would. Holy fucking shit.”

  “So.” Craig Stafford closed his briefcase. “Jonah, Dakota, I think you’ll have to postpone that honeymoon for a while yet, if you don’t mind.”

  Dakota cleared her throat and reached for Jonah’s hand. “Mr. Stafford? I’d like to help with this as much as I can. If someone can till the soil and help me get it ready, I can plant the herbs most of the team needs to…control their shifting. And I’m good with a lot of things. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  He gave her a tired smile. “I appreciate that. And I’ll take your offer. Especially about the garden. We’ll need to get started on that right away.” He looked at the others. “We’re in a pickle here, almost starting from square one. We need to find a way to track this beast. And, to see if we can find out how many more there are out there.”

  “And where they came from,” Mark added.

  Stafford nodded. “Yes. Most importantly, where they came from. So.” He drained the last of his coffee and set the mug down carefully. “Let’s see what we can brainstorm here and find a starting place. The mission is still the same. Find and kill El Chupacabra. However many there are.”

  About the Author

  I always wonder what readers really want to know when I write one of these things. Getting to this point in my career has been an interesting journey. I’ve managed rock and roll bands and organized concerts. Been the only female on the sports staff of a university newspaper. Immersed myself in Nashville peddling a country singer. Lived in five different states. Married two very interesting but totally different men.

  I think I must have lived in Texas in another life, because the minute I set foot on Texas soil I knew I was home. Living in Texas Hill Country gives me inspiration for more stories than I’ll probably ever be able to tell, what with all the sexy cowboys who surround me and the gorgeous scenery that provides a great setting.

  Each day is a new adventure for me, as my characters come to life on the pages of my current work in progress. I’m absolutely compulsive about it when I’m writing and thank all the gods and goddesses that I have such a terrific husband who encourages my writing and puts up with my obsession. As a multi-published author, I love to hear from my readers. Their input keeps my mind fresh and always hunting for new ideas.

  Desiree welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

  Tell Us What You Think

  We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email us at Comments@EllorasCave.com.

  Also by Desiree Holt

  Cougar Challenge: Hot to Trot

  Cupid’s Shaft

  Dancing With Danger

  Diamond Lady

  Double Entry

  Driven by Hunger

  Eagle’s Run

  Ellora’s Cavemen: Flavors of Ecstasy I anthology

  Elven Magic anthology

  Emerald Green

  Escape the Night

  Hot Moon Rising

  Hot, Wicked and Wild

  I Dare You

  Journey to the Pearl

  Just Say Yes

  Kidnapping the Groom with Allie Standifer

  Letting Go

  Line of Sight

  Night Heat

  Once Burned

  Once Upon a Wedding

  Riding Out the Storm

  Rodeo Heat

  Scorched with Allie Standifer

  Seductive Illusion with Allie Standifer

  Switched

  Teaching Molly

  Touch of Magic

  Trouble in Cowboy Boots

  Where Danger Hides

  Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer ebooks or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.

  www.ellorascave.com

  hed (Night Seekers, Book One)