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“But I knew this was going to be a mistake,” he muttered under his breath, shoving his hands back through his hair so hard that his scalp stung. He rested his head back on his shoulders, staring at the motel’s water-stained ceiling, and told himself that he needed to start focusing on the mission.
He also needed to check in with the others back in England.
Taking a seat in the cheap wooden chair that matched the room’s even cheaper desk, Noah booted up his laptop and then clicked on the icon that would initiate a secure video connection via satellite. He knew exactly why Kellan had uploaded the software onto his system, insisting that he use it while he was in the States. His friends back in England wanted to be able to see him—to check his expression and read the look in his eyes—so that they could be sure he was still Noah … and not some meat-puppet being controlled by Calder. Not that he blamed them. If he was in their shoes, he’d have done the same thing.
As he waited for someone to connect on the other end, Noah admitted to himself that while he missed his friends, he was glad for the time away from them. As happy as he was for the guys, their luck in the love department had started wearing him thin. All the laughter and smiles and satisfied looks of pleasure. They weren’t naive. They knew there was still work to be done. Knew the fate of the world was resting in the balance. And they were prepared to deal with it. But it didn’t stop them all from wallowing in romantic bliss. It was enough to make a single guy sick to his stomach.
“It’s about damn time you checked in.” Kierland Scott’s deep voice suddenly cut into his thoughts, and Noah jerked his gaze back to the laptop. The werewolf was buttoning up a white shirt, his green eyes sharp with concern. He sat behind one of the desks they’d set up in the new high-tech room they all referred to as command central and stared up at the video monitor mounted on the wall. “We’ve been worried.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” he rumbled. “It’s, uh, been an eventful day.”
“I’ll just bet it has,” Kellan groused, coming into the room and pulling up a chair beside his brother. He was shirtless, his auburn hair mussed from sleep, and Noah realized he’d probably pulled them both from their beds. He hadn’t thought about how early it was there. “And?” Kellan demanded, while he scratched the auburn stubble darkening his jaw. “Did you find what you were looking for? Is the mystery over? Can you finally tell us what all the fucking secrecy was about?”
Kellan really hadn’t taken well to Noah’s insistence that he make the trip to Louisiana alone, but then neither had any of the others.
“I’ve gotten a good start,” he said, keeping an ear out for the sound of the shower turning off, “but before we get into it, I need to quickly explain a few things. First of all, I know the witch. The one who was working with Gregory, who took Calder out of Meridian.”
Kellan rolled his eyes. “We figured as much, considering you called her Sienna,” he offered dryly, scratching his chest.
“Yeah, well, what you didn’t know is that I grew up with her.” While his friends listened, Noah quickly explained his connection to the Broussard family, telling them about the feud and his friendship with Harris. He left out the part where everything had gone to shit between him and Willow, simply explaining that tensions between the two families had prompted the Winstons to relocate.
He also admitted why he hadn’t filled them in on any of this before, and then he told them what had happened when he’d shown the spell to Jessie. When he was done, he sprawled back in the uncomfortable chair and waited for them to rip into him.
It didn’t take long. He didn’t need to hear the guttural curses to know how pissed they were with him. Their expressions said it all. What he hadn’t expected was the hurt he could see in their eyes.
“We protect our own, Noah.” Though Kierland kept his voice soft, it resonated with anger. “You should have known that.”
“Yeah, I know,” he muttered, scrubbing his hand down his face. “And I’m sorry. I was a dick not to trust you. I just haven’t been thinking straight lately.”
“You’re also a dumbass,” Kellan added, and Noah barked out a gruff laugh.
“Yeah, that, too.”
Getting back to the issue of the journal, Kierland said, “You told us the aunt was able to decipher the catalyst for the spell, but you didn’t tell us what it is.”
Leaning forward in the chair, Noah braced his elbows on his knees. “I know this is gonna sound crazy, so I’m just gonna say it. We need an adult virgin. One with a warrior’s blood. And she can’t be human.”
Kellan gave a low whistle and shook his head. “Well, hell, that leaves me out.”
“Now there’s something we didn’t know,” drawled a deep voice with a slight Scandinavian accent, and Gideon Granger walked into view, the vampire’s arms crossed over his chest as he lounged against the wall behind the desk. The Deschanel vampire and his brother, Ashe, had been working with the Watchmen for months now, and Gideon was staying at the house in England more often than not these days.
“I don’t like this,” Kierland rasped. “It doesn’t feel right.”
Gideon gave a low laugh. “I tried to warn you, Kier, that you might not like what has to be done in order for you and your friends to survive.”
“This isn’t about our own asses,” Kellan growled.
Kierland shifted in his chair, cutting a dark, suspicious glare at Gideon. “Did you know it was going to be a virgin’s blood that was needed?”
The vampire shook his head. “Not specifically. But I was afraid there might be something like that involved. Considering we’re dealing with dark magic, it seemed … fitting.”
“Well, I’ve got a lead on a demon who should
be able to help us decipher the rest of the spell,” Noah said. “I’m hoping to track him down in the next day or two.”
“In the meantime,” Kierland told him, “we’ll research virgin rituals. See what we can dig up.”
“Ask Saige,” Noah suggested. “She knows all about this kind of crap.” Saige Buchanan was an anthropologist who was engaged to one of the Watchmen in their unit, and her knowledge about clan history was extensive.
“Will do,” Kellan assured him. And then, quick as a snake, he said, “You planning on telling us who’s in the shower before you head off?”
Noah made his expression blank. He’d deliberately left out the fact he was traveling with Will, wanting to avoid the inevitable questions. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied, refusing to give in gracefully.
Gideon snorted as he glanced from one Scott brother to the other. “Does he think we’re deaf?”
Kellan looked into the camera and smiled like an idiot. “I can hear it all, big boy. Even the race of your pulse. You got a new lady friend with you?”
“I doubt he’d call me a friend,” Willow murmured, her voice coming from just behind Noah’s left shoulder, and he damn near jumped out of his skin. He’d been so focused on the conversation with his friends, he hadn’t heard her slip out of the bathroom. “I’m sure Noah would just tell you I’m a pain in the ass.”
Gideon gave her a slow, appreciative smile. “If they all look like you, sweetheart, I think I’ll have to get one for myself.”
Noah scowled. “Keep a leash on the vamp, Kier. Or better yet, a muzzle.”
Gideon’s brows arched with amusement. “You’re awfully touchy, Winston.”
“Oh, you guys have no idea,” Willow said with a laugh, the fresh, mouthwatering scent of her skin damn near making him drool. A wave of possessiveness swelled up inside him, strange and unsettling, and he had to choke back a snarl as he turned to look at her.
And that was his second mistake.
He’d seen a lot of beautiful women in his time, their naked bodies displayed in erotic poses that would have tempted a saint—but none of them had ever made him feel the way he did when he saw Willow standing there in nothing but a tattered white towel, her hair falling in a tumble of curls over the right side of her face, her red mouth curved in a wicked smile. Christ, she was gorgeous. Droplets of water still clung to the feminine slopes of her shoulders, her skin dewy and soft from the heat. He wanted to put his tongue to her and lick those drops right off her skin. Wanted to slide his tongue into places that were even wetter … and pinker.
Knowing damn well that he was about two seconds away from completely losing it, he growled, “For God’s sake, Will. Put on some clothes.”
“If you insist.” She started to drop the towel, but his hand shot out and snagged her wrist.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Turning back to the computer, he glared at every one of the grinning jackasses staring back at him and then disconnected the connection. The instant the screen went blank, he moved to his feet, towering over Will as he tightened his hold on her wrist, but she didn’t back down. Instead, she stared up at him as she licked her bottom lip with a provocative sweep of her tongue … taunting him. Screwing with his mind.
Was this some kind of game to her? Did she just enjoy flirting … or was she trying to push him? And if so, where the hell did she want him to go?
Needing to find the answer, Noah released his hold on her wrist and stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the desk. “If you’re so eager to get naked in front me,” he rasped, running his heavy-lidded gaze down the front of her body, before looking her right in the eye, “then do it.”
CHAPTER FIVE
NOAH’S HEART POUNDED, his pulse a thrashing, violent roaring in his ears, while he waited to see what Willow would do. The seconds ticked by like a countdown inside his head, jarring and loud.
And then it ended.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, a surprising flush of color creeping up her throat, her lashes lowering to shield whatever he might have seen in her eyes. She pressed both hands to the knot at the top of the towel, squeezing so tightly her knuckles turned white. “I don’t know why I did that. It was a … mistake.”
“That’s what I thought you’d say.” Using a harsh laugh to cover the sharp blast of disappointment that swept through him, Noah turned and sat back down at the desk. He kept his back to her while she went about getting ready for bed, and tried his damnedest not to think about sex. Or that lush body that she’d almost bared for him. Or how right it felt to have her with him. How much he liked her smiles and her laughter, even when they were edged with sarcasm.
And since when did he obsess over a woman’s smiles? That sure as hell wasn’t normal.
Damn it, why hadn’t he gotten laid when he’d had the chance?
Meaningless, harmless, easy sex wouldn’t have solved all his problems, but it would have taken the edge off this gnawing, frustrating need. Or at least he liked to think it would have. But Noah was beginning to have his doubts. This hunger tearing through his system was so raw, he probably could have screwed his way through twenty casual encounters, and still been in the same world of hurt. Because sex with Will would be … well, anything but casual.
And if he had to bet on it, he’d wager it would be unlike anything he’d ever had before. He didn’t doubt that for a second.
That was the problem right there. Nothing about burying himself inside Willow Broussard would be meaningless. Or harmless. Or easy. It would likely blow his mind, and he was already on shaky enough ground as it was. Did she have any idea how dangerous it was to play games with him, tempting him to lose control?
Trying hard to get his mind on something else, Noah took off his boots and socks while he waited for her to slip into bed. As he removed the knife and sheath he kept on his calf, he heard the rustle of covers as she slid between the sheets and turned off the lamp on her bedside table. There was still a faint glow of light spilling around the cracked bathroom door, and a frown pulled at the corners of his mouth. Had she left the light on so he wouldn’t be stumbling around in the dark? If she’d asked, he could have told her he didn’t need it. Thanks to the bite on his arm, his night vision was improving rapidly. He could damn near see as good in the dark now as he could in the light.
At any other time in his life, Noah would have probably been excited by the change in his sight, knowing it would make him better in a fight. But he couldn’t ignore the wary voice in his head that kept reminding him the changes in his body were only linking him closer to the monsters.
Choking back a bitter curse, he grabbed the gun tucked into the back of his jeans and set it on his bedside table. Then he pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it on the back of the chair, and shucked off his jeans. He’d just grabbed the top of the covers, getting ready to pull them down so that he could slip beneath, when Willow lifted her head, shooting him a surprised look over her shoulder, the smooth skin bare but for the slim strap of a tank top.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she gasped.
Stretching out in the bed, Noah put his hands behind his head. As he stared up at the ceiling, he tried not to think about how insubstantial that tank top was and answered what he considered a fairly ridiculous question. “What do you think I’m doing, Will? I’m going to bed.”
He wasn’t crazy about sleeping in the same bed with her, since it was going to be damn hard to relax with her body so close to his—but it’s not like there were a lot of alternatives and he was dead on his feet.
He jumped when she twisted around and poked him in the arm with her finger. “Damn it!” he yelped, rubbing his arm as he shot her a scowl. “What was that for?”
“You are not sleeping in this bed,” she informed him, the haughty tone of her voice setting his teeth on edge. “You can sleep on the sofa.”
“Like hell,” he grumbled, wondering what her problem was. It’s not like he was going to attack her, no matter how badly he might like to. And there were acres of empty space between them. “That sofa’s three feet too short for me. And I bet it feels like plywood.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Tough.”
“What is it with you? You were ready to bare your ass to my friends a little while ago, but now you’re too shy to sleep in the same bed with me?”
“Not too shy,” she shot back with a grim smile. “Just unwilling.”
His temper started to slip away from him, and he forced his response through gritted teeth. “I’m not going to touch you, so just chill.”
She studied his face in the soft darkness, no doubt noticing how worn out he looked, and finally relented. “Fine. Whatever. Just stay on your side of the mattress.”
He grunted, wondering if he should be insulted that she’d apparently just decided he was too tired to be a threat. “The same goes for you,” he ground out with a disgruntled thread of amusement, certain it was the first time he’d ever warned a woman to stay away from him in bed.
She muttered something colorful in response as she gave him her back, and despite his shitty mood, Noah found himself grinning. He lay there for a long time in the quiet darkness, listening as her breathing eventually evened out with the calmness of sleep. He must have eventually dozed off, because sometime in the night he drifted slowly back to awareness. He knew, in an instant, that he was dreaming. And he didn’t want to wake up. Not yet. Unlike the gruesome nightmares that had plagued him for months, this one was too damn good to miss.
He was standing in the middle of a forest … and he was with Will. A bloodred moon hung low over the trees, scarred by the jagged edges of dark cloud that stretched across the sky. The air was warm, sweet with the scent of Willow’s skin, the night silent but for the whispering of the wind and their sawing breaths.
They were both dressed in jeans and T-shirts, but her nipples were pressed tight against the thin cotton, and Noah felt himself reaching out for her, covering the soft weight of her breast with his hand. She gasped, her head falling back, and with a low growl on his lips, he took her mouth in a desperate, searching kiss, as if he was trying to find the answer to something important. Something … vital.
Noah didn’t know how long they stayed in that tight, clutching embrace, arms wrapped around each other, the tenor of the kiss bordering on violence. He thrust his tongue against hers with a greed that left him shaken, then nipped at her bottom lip, unable to get enough of the sleek, petal-soft textures … the warm, honeylike taste. It was a rich, drugging sweetness that made his blood go thick, his cock pulsing with a raw, insistent ache. He ran his hands down her back until he gripped her ass, then yanked her close, her body soft and pliant against his hardness, melting into him.
God, he needed this. Even if it was only a dream. He needed all of her. Needed her on his tongue, on his skin. Needed to spread her open and drive his body inside hers until she’d taken every demanding inch of him. Until he could feel the hammering of her heartbeat thrumming around the heavy length of his cock as he stretched her open, her arms and legs locked tight around his body, holding him close. Binding him to her.
His hands gripped tighter as he lifted her up, grinding her against his erection with an animal-like sound of pleasure. He moved forward a few steps, trapping her against the gnarled trunk of a towering oak tree. Curving one hand around the back of her neck, tangling his fingers in her soft curls, he slid the other down the back of her thigh. As he lifted her leg higher on his hip, the position allowed him to rub more fully against the warm cushion of her sex. She moaned in response, whispering his name, and the soft sound of longing pierced right through him, like a bullet. It struck with a violent force that ripped him from the lush, delicious depths of the dream, jerking him back to a shocking awareness.
With his chest heaving, Noah opened his eyes and took in the startling reality of his surroundings. The cheap motel room, instead of the forest. A scarred headboard instead of the gnarled, towering tree. But Willow was still in his arms. Still moaning and writhing against him, her legs hugging his hips, his knees braced in the bedding. She moved like she wanted to crawl under his skin, driving him out of his mind.
Driven by blinding urgency, his hand shook as he grasped the hem of her tank top and shoved it up, his mouth closing hotly over a sweet, pink nipple. She cried out at the intimate contact, the throaty sound making him wild. He used his tongue to stroke and lick, nipping with his teeth, before sucking on her with a hunger that just kept rising. He could not get enough. Not of her taste or her skin or those provocative little sounds she kept making. The way she arched against his mouth, seeking more … or the breathtaking quiver of desire shivering through her limbs. The way she wound her fingers in his hair, tugging him closer.
God … I need her. Want her.
Just her. Her. Her …
In that moment, all of Noah’s concerns were forgotten. He was an animal, primal and male, at the mercy of his baser hungers. He grunted with feral satisfaction as he lifted her body higher, trapping her against the headboard with the burning heat of his body, his muscles coiled hard and tight. Her dazed eyes went wide as he gave a raw, guttural growl, just before he covered her mouth with his, his blood roaring in his ears as visceral craving bore down on him, obliterating reason and logic. Smashing it with a violence that should have shaken him … but he was too far out there, existing in pure sensation.
She didn’t fight him, but her mouth had been shocked into stillness beneath his—passive, simply taking, accepting—and he wanted her hunger. Wanted the bite of her nails and her mind-blowing passion.
He wanted her wild for him.
“Goddamn it, kiss me back,” he snarled, holding the side of her face in his hand. She moaned, tilting her head, fitting her mouth more closely to his. “Please,” he gasped against her silky lips, his voice cracking as he begged her … pleading. “Kiss me back, Will.” And then he felt the soft, sweet stroke of her tongue, and his body shuddered violently in response to that delicate, seeking touch. Within seconds, the kiss became something explicitly carnal, devastating in its power. Noah kissed her like he wanted to consume her. Like he never wanted to stop. And he didn’t. He wanted it to last forever. Wanted to keep drinking in that warm, heady flavor, loving the way she tasted on his tongue. Loving that for once in his godforsaken life, reality was so much better than the dream.
With another feral, rumbling growl, he broke the kiss, pressing his mouth to the sharp point of her jaw as he sucked in lungfuls of her mouthwatering scent, his chest heaving. Heat shot up his spine, roaring through him as he reached for the waistband of her pajama bottoms, wrenching them down as far as he could get them with her legs wrapped around his waist. His body shuddered as he pressed his hand between her thighs, stroked through the plump, slippery folds that were drenched with heat, then thrust a long finger inside her. She cried out again, panting against the side of his face, her nails biting into his shoulders, while her inner muscles spasmed, clasping him tighter, fighting to hold him inside her. He made a thick sound as he pressed deeper, loving the way she clung to him, so tender and hot, and he pulled his head back so that he could watch her eyes. Watch the pleasure climb, shocking her, the moment so intimate it made his chest hurt. He’d done this with too many women to count, and yet, in that moment, he couldn’t remember a goddamn one of them.
Not. A. Single. One.
All he could see was Will.
It was mesmerizing, watching the emotion flash through her dark eyes as he stroked inside her, penetrating the plush sheath, pushing deep, then slipping his finger back out and swirling the callused tip wetly over her clit. She trembled, her mouth open for a soundless word that looked like More, and he locked his jaw as he pushed back in, giving her two fingers this time. Her sex was tight and wet and scalding around his fingers, burning him alive, and he braced her with the press of his body so that he could free his other hand to shove down his boxers.
She cried out again, his name spilled huskily from her kiss-swollen lips, and the next thing Noah knew, long, lethal fangs were bursting into his mouth, heavy and throbbing and hot—just like the ones he had in his nightmares. But he was too far gone to care. He pressed himself against her, stroking the heavy head of his cock through her slick, swollen folds, his breath leaving his chest in ragged bursts as he buried his face in the crook of her shoulder. Her skin was deliciously smooth against his scratchy cheek, her scent an intoxicating lure. Unable to resist, he put his mouth against the tender column of her throat, the hunger demanding that he possess and mark her in the most primal, savage way that a male could mark his mate.
Just as the blunt tip of him nudged her entrance, he scraped his fangs across her sumptuous flesh, on the verge of taking his first bite, when she gripped two handfuls of his hair and wrenched his head back.
“Whoa,” she said breathlessly. “Noah, wait!”
“I won’t hurt you,” he groaned, lowering his head and flicking his tongue against her throat, loving the way her wet sex felt against the bulging head of his shaft. “I—”
“Noah! Listen to me. I said no!”
He pulled back a little, confused. He could sense her withdrawal, but couldn’t understand exactly what she wanted. Her words were fuzzy in his ears, their meaning not getting through to his brain, like she was shouting at him through soundproof glass while he struggled to read her lips. He shook his head, trying to concentrate, while the import of those words fought to break their way through the deafening fog of hunger and lust.
“Goddamn it, Noah!” She shoved hard against his shoulders, then slapped him with so much force that his head whipped to the side. “Move back!”
The words busted through that time, like a douse of cold water in his face. He brought his face back around and looked into her eyes … and reality came back in a slow, sickening slide.
Shit, he thought dully, shaking his head again, while the details of the situation came into sharper focus. Her warm body crushed against his chest. The thick, granite-hard length of his cock pressing against her inner thigh. The kiss-swollen shape of her mouth beneath eyes that were burning with hot, vibrant emotion. Christ, he could not be doing this. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Damn it!” He curved his hands into shaking fists, lifted his arms and slammed his fists against the wall, making her jump. A muscle in his jaw pulsed with fury as he narrowed his eyes at her. “This isn’t going to happen,” he snarled. “I am not going to bang you against the wall in some cheap motel room. Not for our first time!”
