The hand at her thigh moved steadily closer to its ultimate goal as she felt the heated moisture moving lower.
“Navarro, it feels too good,” she gasped as her own body betrayed her further.
Her hips jerked forward, the hollow ache clenching the muscles of her sex as her clit throbbed in eager anticipation of his touch.
The ache centered between her thighs was becoming tortured. Her clit was so swollen the ache was painful, the need for touch dragging muted, needy whimpers from her lips that she knew would have her flushing in shame once morning came.
“Can it feel too good, babe?” His tongue licked over her nipple again before he sucked it quickly into his mouth, the immediate, hard suction and firm rasp of his tongue across the nerve-laden bundle causing her nails to bite into his shoulders as she jerked against him.
Oh no, it couldn’t feel too good. The pleasure was destroying her though.
Where his touch had been slow and gentle before, the leashed quality of each caress apparent in the tension tightening his body, it was now as though a measure of that restraint had escaped.
Closely clipped, blunt nails scoured a sensually heated trail along her thighs before moving back. Hesitancy was replaced by male hunger, and when his fingers met the thick, slick essence of the juices spreading along the folds of her pussy, Mica lost what little restraint had been holding her back as well.
His thumb raked around the swollen bud of her clit as his head lifted. Black eyes narrowed, his lips appearing swollen, he stared down at her, his expression tight with hunger.
“Say no,” he growled. “When you want it to stop, Mica. If you become afraid. If you change your mind at any point, you’ve only to tell me.”
Her lips trembled. She couldn’t change her mind. She didn’t have the strength.
“I can’t. Help me, Navarro.” Because she knew this was a mistake, she could feel it, that edge of warning burning in the back of her senses.
His lips tightened as a growl suddenly rumbled hard and deep in his chest.
“Your choice. Not mine.”
His fingers slid through the saturated slit of her pussy, the roughened caress further exciting the sensitive nerve endings that lay beneath the swollen folds as he went to his knees in front of her.
She couldn’t stand.
As though his kneeling before her, hard hands gripping her hips, his lips brushing against her lower belly, were too much, Mica felt the strength leave her legs.
She eased back, at first only sitting on the bed, her fingers moving to his head, playing with the long, dark strands of his hair as his tongue ran over the swollen mounds of her breasts once again.
“Lie back for me, Mica.” His head lifting, his hands gripping her hips to pull her to the edge of the bed, Navarro eased back slowly. “I just want to taste you, sweetheart.”
A punch of sensation, hard and vibrant hot, slammed into her womb at the huskily spoken words.
Just taste her?
She eased back, feeling his lips stroke across her abdomen as his hands pressed against her inner thighs in a silent prompt to part them.
Staring down her body, Mica watched. The way his long hair framed his face, his black eyes, onyx bright as he parted the curl-soaked folds with his hands before his head lowered. Then, with a low, desperate moan, she watched as his head lowered and he delivered a firm, suckling kiss to the tortured, silky wet bud of her clitoris.
A sizzling, erotic firestorm seemed to whip through her, jerking her hips upward, her knees lifting to grip his hips as she arched, desperate to drive her pussy closer to the suckling heat of his mouth.
Burying her hands in his hair as though she could hold him to her, force him to end the torturous pleasure raging through her.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this without mating heat, was it?
“Like melted sugar,” he spoke against the ultrasensitive, throbbing bundle of nerves he’d held captive. “I knew your pussy would taste this sweet, Mica.”
She tasted sweet? Was that a good thing? Did she really care? Did anything matter but easing the burning need raging through her?
His gaze lifted, the jewel-bright black glittering in his bronze face.
As she watched, her eyes locked with his, his head lowered once again, and then Navarro got serious about the pleasure. Wicked, confident and experienced, his tongue raked in an erotic circular motion around her clit as one hand lifted, the thumb tucking between the soaked folds of flesh to find the entrance to her clenched vagina.
He pressed against the fragile opening, rotated his thumb and his lips covered her clit.
Mica jerked, completely unbalanced by the sensation whipping through her and the tension building inside her. There was no way to stop it, no way to catch her breath or her control.
Her hips arched; the need to get closer, for more, to find the end to the delicious pressure building behind her clit drove her.
Hunger was like a fever raging inside her. She couldn’t get enough of him. Enough of his touch, enough of the pressure barely pressing into her pussy, enough of his tongue flickering in ever tightening circles against her clit.
The building, pulsating waves began to burn, to flame, her stomach tightening, her womb clenching as her breath caught.
She could feel the edge, so close, pulling her over, looming like a specter of ecstasy, when suddenly, it was gone.
In a single breath Navarro was off her, the comforter flipping over her even as he jerked her from the bed to the floor.
She wasn’t stupid. She’d learned, trained with the Breeds in how to protect herself and how to help any Breed bodyguard in her protection.
Without being ordered to do so, Mica rolled to the side of the wall, flipped the comforter back from her face, and stared at the scene before her in shock.
Mica crouched, the large, laser-powered handgun clenched in his hand as the bedroom door flew open.
Cougar stood in the doorway, his gaze narrowed on the room, obviously taking in the fact that she and Navarro had been doing a hell of a lot more than discussing the weather.
“We have company,” he growled. “We have a vehicle waiting for us outside the fire entrance, but we have only seconds to get there before our friends show up. Let’s roll.”
Before she could move to extricate herself from the comforter, Navarro was jerking it from around her, even as he shoved the thick robe into her hands and grabbed the packs of weapons and supplies he’d thrown to the floor earlier.
Having jerked the robe on, Mica was tying it quickly as Navarro grabbed her hand and began pulling her through the door that opened from the bedroom portion of the suite into the empty hallway.
“Jonas has feelers out in the city,” Cougar stated, voice hard as they pushed through the stairwell. “Word came through minutes ago that they’d located us, the name of the hotel and the suite you were in.”
“And how the fuck did they find us?” Danger thickened Navarro’s voice.
“He hasn’t learned anything further.” Cougar pushed communications headsets into both their hands as they moved quickly down the stairs.
Mica had trained with them, but she wasn’t as good as even the lowest, youngest Breed. She couldn’t put that damned headset on and activate it as they rushed down the stairs.
She was aware of Navarro doing it, his hard voice rumbling as he requested Jonas.
The night wasn’t over, she thought. It was going to be wet out. Wet and cold, and she didn’t have shoes or clothes. She had no defenses, nothing but Navarro to protect her.
And it looked as though whoever was after her was damned serious. They were going against Breeds to take her.
“Get her out of town. We’ll cover the hotel once you leave and attempt to neutralize them, but we’re working blind. We have no idea where they are, what they know, or who they are,” Jonas stated as Navarro pulled Mica behind him down the stairwell to the vehicle waiting outside the doors.
“Stygian will follow you
until you pass the tunnel, after that you’ll be on your own. Get to base two, that’s the closest point of safety for her. As soon as we can, we’ll have a heli-jet out to you.”
Base two being Sanctuary. As Jonas stated, it was the closest, safest point.
“Navarro out.” He cut the transmission as they hit the final floor and Cougar moved carefully to the exit door.
Pulling Mica against the wall, Navarro waited, his weapon ready as the door was eased open.
“Clear.” A dark, low snarl in the dark.
A Breed’s anger was typified by a snarl, a growl, or a rumble of danger. For a Cougar Breed, though, to show any of the three meant the situation had already passed the point of pissing him off.
The door was open just enough to allow them to pass through, and a second later Mica was pushed into the back of the dark SUV, lying full length along the back while Navarro sat imperiously in the upright seat beside her.
“This is ridiculous,” she stated as the vehicle pulled away from the hotel in a sedate, unhurried manner. “It would look much better if a couple were sitting up front.”
How the hell she had become stuck lying down while he sat like the reigning Breed prince, she hadn’t quite figured out.
Navarro snorted at the statement. “The impression is one of wealth,” he informed her. “A driver and his employer in the back. The impression is less suspicious than a couple, especially when they’re looking for a woman.”
Her lips thinned. “Is Jonas still on link?” She hadn’t bothered to pull the communications set on or activate it.
Navarro gave a quick shake of his head. “We’re on communication blackout until we reach Sanctuary, except for emergency. Bitching about the riding conditions doesn’t constitute an emergency.”
She rolled to her side and stared back at him. For all appearances, he wasn’t the same Breed that had been between her thighs driving her crazy with pleasure minutes before. And she was obviously not the same woman, because she hadn’t so much as ached as she strained toward him. Now her ribs were simply giving her hell. As were the questions that had raged through her mind earlier.
“Why?” she suddenly asked. “Why would they want me so bad they’d risk going against Breeds to capture me?”
CHAPTER 4
It wasn’t her they wanted.
Navarro glanced down at her. Her pale face, the soft green of her eyes, the dark blond hair splayed around her, disheveled and falling around her like thousands of tiny ribbons, straight and tempting with their silken sheen.
As beautiful as she was, as intelligent, it wasn’t necessarily Mica they wanted. It was Phillip Brandenmore. Somehow, the bastard had managed to escape Sanctuary’s secured cells, and for over twelve hours he had been free. Long enough to contact the men he had been working with, long enough to tell them he wasn’t dead and where he had been. Long enough that before he was recaptured, he’d managed to create a mess Jonas still hadn’t been able to clean up.
That was why they wanted Mica. She was the only weak link within the main hierarchy of the Breed societies. She wasn’t a Breed, but she was Cassie Sinclair’s best friend and Dash Sinclair’s goddaughter.
If they had Mica, then they would try to use her to secure Brandenmore’s release, as well as the research he was demanding from the Breeds. Research they didn’t have.
In Brandenmore’s crazed state, he refused to believe that research didn’t exist.
“No answer?” The edge of fear in her voice, the scent of her still-simmering arousal mixed with that fear, had his fingers clenching on the hilt of the weapon he held at the side of his leg.
“It’s not a question I can answer,” he corrected her. “Jonas doesn’t share the details with his enforcers, Mica. Sometimes, he just gives the orders.”
That wasn’t necessarily the truth. Jonas hadn’t told him why, but he hadn’t needed to. Navarro had known Mica would be at risk. That was the reason he’d made certain his comm link was tuned to Wyatt’s. If it happened, he wanted to know.
“Sometimes he just fucks lives up too,” she retorted, anger flashing across her expression now and filling her scent.
God knew he preferred her anger over her fear. For some reason the scent of her fear seemed an affront that threatened to send him into a rage.
He, who had been created and trained to have no emotions period. And for the better part of his life, he’d assumed his creation and his training had been successful.
Until he had laid eyes on her, ten years before, no more than a child herself, facing off against irate young Breed males with nothing more than bravado and fury.
He heard the heavy sigh she tried to hide, and fought to keep from comforting her. Hell, he wanted to pull her into his arms, warm her, ease her, and it simply wasn’t possible.
He couldn’t risk her being seen. He could risk no suspicion whatsoever that she was in the vehicle, heading for Sanctuary.
“I should have stayed at Haven,” she finally said softly.
“Why didn’t you?” She would have been safe there. There would have been no way in hell the group searching for her could have reached her inside the main compound protected by the majority of the Wolf Breeds in existence.
Looking down at her, he saw the flash of vulnerability in her gaze, the aching need, the feminine awareness of an attraction she couldn’t fight.
“You were there,” she said softly.
Navarro turned his head forward, his jaw clenching. He understood what she wasn’t saying. It was the same reason he rarely stayed long in Haven when he knew she was there. Because the temptation was simply too great.
The communication link at his ear beeped, signaling an incoming communiqué from Jonas. Lifting his hand, he pretended to adjust the earpiece as he pressed twice, indicating he was listening but would only answer if necessary. Mica hadn’t donned the link, and if he could keep her from being more frightened, then he would do just that.
“I take it Mica’s in the dark?” Jonas drawled, waited and then continued. “Stygian and Rule are in the vehicle ahead of you, Lawe, myself, Mordecai and Cavalier are coming in behind you. There are reports all roads to Sanctuary are being watched. Enforcers are mobilizing along the way and will be pulling in with us. This is a well-organized, determined group and they’re pulling out the stops.”
Navarro clenched his teeth and fought back a curse.
“Do we know how many?” he asked. There was no hiding this from her.
Beside him, she was pulling on the earpiece, and the sound of activation clicked across the line.
“Ms. Toler,” Jonas said, greeting her presence. “How are you?”
“Cold, hungry and pissed off,” she retorted sweetly.
Jonas chuckled. “And none of us can blame you for that. I’ll see what I can do to fix the first two; the last, I’m sorry to say, I can do nothing to fix at the moment.”
“Unless you’re at fault, then it’s not your place to fix it,” she responded. “It’s not your fault, is it, Mr. Wyatt?”
There was more than one sound of amusement across the shared, secured line.
“Not this time,” he assured her. “Though I’ll see what I can do about the next adventure you’re forced to make.”
“What’s our status?” Navarro cut into the byplay as he reached behind the seat and pulled free the pack he had thrown there earlier.
“Up shit creek,” Jonas grunted. “Thankfully, we do have a few paddles. We have teams mobilizing and due to begin meeting us on the other side of the tunnel. By the time we reach the state line, we’ll have a fucking convoy moving to Sanctuary, with more waiting ahead of us. We should have over three hundred enforcers, Feline, Wolf and Coyote, on the drive to Buffalo Gap. I rather doubt our friends will attack that.”
“Or they could use the opportunity to strike and take out the majority of your first responding enforcers,” Mica stated.
“A situation we’ve considered,” Jonas agreed. “Thankfully, we also have t
wo planes in the air, satellite backup, and several other contingency plans at our disposal. Until we have one of the heli-jets available, safe transport is something we can’t depend upon. We have you covered though. You’ll be safe and sound within hours.”
“Who’s behind it?” she bit out, the anger, the fear in her voice raw now.
“A subject we’ll need to discuss at a later date,” Jonas informed her. “Until then, stay low and out of sight. I’ll update you if other reports come through.”
“With all the security, what’s the point in staying low?” she asked, her voice tight.
“That way they’re not certain which vehicle to target on the off chance they’ll decide to attempt to kill you rather than kidnap you.” That was Jonas. Mating sure as hell hadn’t taught him to soften the blow, it seemed.
Navarro watched from the corner of his eye as she jerked the link from her head and tossed it across the back of the SUV. For a second, tears glittered in her eyes, before they were quickly covered.
“We’ll discuss that later, Jonas,” Navarro promised him softly.
“No doubt we will,” Jonas sighed. “Look, Wolf, I don’t have time for tender feelings here. We’re both well aware of the stakes. If we lose her, then we chance losing Cassie for the simple fact the guilt will destroy her. Our enemies know that as well as we do. If they take the girl, then they’re effectively kidnapping both women. I think we agree that’s not the best scenario for the Breeds at the moment.”
Because Jonas would be forced to give up the prize he had stolen months before when he’d captured Phillip Brandenmore and had him secured in Sanctuary’s underground cells.
If he had to make a choice between Brandenmore and the pair of Mica and Cassie, then Cassie would win hands down. Her importance ensured Mica’s for the simple fact that the two young women were so close.
“We’ll have a few things slipped into the vehicle at first opportunity to make her more comfortable,” Jonas promised when Navarro refused to comment further. “We’ll discuss this more at Sanctuary.”
“Bet on it,” Navarro stated coolly before disconnecting the link and turning back to Mica.
She was staring at the ceiling of the SUV blankly, obviously distancing herself as much as possible from the entire situation.
She had that habit. He’d watched her do it plenty of times when she’d been forced to Sanctuary or Haven for the sake of Cassie’s safety over the years.
“I have to say, he’s still an asshole,” she sighed, continuing to stare at the ceiling. “I’d rather go to Haven as soon as possible.”
“As soon as possible,” he agreed. “I’ll make the arrangements as soon as one of the heli-jets is back from mission status.”
“They need more heli-jets.”
And wasn’t that the truth.
The fact was, at the moment, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it though. There were no more heli-jets, and they were stuck on land, driving through the night in an attempt to get her to safety.
As they passed beneath the Hudson River, through the Lincoln Tunnel and into New Jersey, the heavens opened up again with their liquid fury pounding down in driving sheets around the SUV.
Cougar, thankfully, was in his element. The SUV never lost speed, but continued on at a smooth, hard pace as the other Breed sped them toward Sanctuary.
It was the Feline Breed home base, but it was shared with Wolves and Coyotes who were in need. All Breeds inhabited both bases, though they had originally been designated one Feline, the other Wolf.
Mica was as at home in Sanctuary as she was in Haven, though it was Haven she spent the most time in, due to its proximity to her father’s home in Colorado.
She wasn’t at home in the middle of a rainstorm, racing across an interstate at eighty miles per hour while lying in the back of an SUV, at the mercy of a Wolf Breed and a stubborn Feline with an attitude problem.
And she was staring up at the Wolf as though she had all the trust in the world in him.
That look in her eyes made him want to crawl in the back with her and show her exactly why she shouldn’t trust him. There was nothing in the world he wanted more right now than to sink his cock as deep inside her as possible.
Fucking her had become an obsession. It wasn’t a heat, thank God, but it was a hell of a lot more than a want. It was a driving need that made his dick so fucking hard it was ready to burst straight from his jeans.
“Cassie warned me not to come home,” she sighed into the uneasy silence that had descended in the vehicle. “She said I was going to end up running through the rain.” A soft laugh feathered around his senses as he glanced down at her, watching as she stared up at the ceiling of the SUV. “I told her I didn’t melt.”
He could just imagine that conversation. Cassie rarely understood the many visions she had now that she was maturing. As though her mind no longer wanted to accept the paranormal world that existed around her and often dragged her into its sphere.
“She’s not going to be happy with me,” she sighed again when he remained quiet.
“She rarely is when you leave.” Most Breeds who knew Cassie well knew she was rarely pleased whenever Mica returned to live the life she was trying to build for herself.
It was a life Breeds were often messing with just enough to keep it from growing, or to keep her from drawing away from them.
Navarro wondered if even Mica understood her friend, or whatever needs drove her. Sometimes, Navarro was certain no one had a chance at fully understanding the Wolf/ Coyote hybrid Breed or the friend she was so close to. Definitely, there was no Breed capable of it.
But Navarro had found himself considering the second job. There was something about Mica, a mystery he needed to figure out, and it pulled at his training, at the genetics that had gone into his creation.
He was created as a man of many faces. A Breed made to fit any situation, any personality or temperament needed for any mission.
He was a liar. A traitor. A Bree