Dual Release (11 page)

She handed him the binoculars. “You can get a better look if you use these.”

After a few moments of helping him adjust them to his eyes, she leaned back in the seat. Her eyes hurt from what she saw. What was she going to do and how was she going to get Cait out of there alive? They didn’t have any training for something like this. Hell, they were paranormal journalists, not gangland survivalists. Those guys had guns. She and Cait didn’t. Her heart pounded and her stomach churned. This wasn’t good.

Should she try to pull the car out of their hiding spot and drive back to the nearest town for help? What if they saw her? Would they chase after them and catch them before they reached help? Her head ached from the bevy of questions torturing her thoughts.

It’d been a while since she’d checked the cell phone for service. Maybe she’d get lucky and could call for help, otherwise she had no idea what they were going to do. Jenny flipped onto her knees and leaned between the seats, trying to find the device she’d tossed in the backseat in a moment of frustration. She found it, shot upright and hit her head.

“Damn,” she grumbled in pain.

Dour caught her as she clumsily attempted to return to her seat. His warm hands circled her slender waist and steadied her. Holding the phone where she could see it, she saw there was still no signal. It was the last straw. She flopped into his lap, landed hard on the binoculars and started to cry. The events of the night overwhelmed her. She and Cait had done a lot of crazy things but nothing as dangerous as this, nothing that meant the difference between life and death.

“Your brother and my best friend are hostages,” she gasped between sobs. “I have no clue how to save them and no way to call for help.” She leaned into him, letting the tears fall as she curled into a ball in his lap.

He wiggled the binoculars out from under her and placed them on what Jenny had explained to him earlier was the dash. The lass had a right to cry.
Och.
If he weren’t a man, he’d be crying as well. Life had taken a truly odd turn. One minute he’d been sleeping off a drunken night. The next he was brushing stone and dirt from his face, being told he’d been cursed, getting into a brawl and losing his
brathair
to a creature called a van. And now he was holding a crying woman.

If he weren’t so damn confused, having a beautiful woman in his arms would be a fine turn of events. Had he really been cursed? Considering where he was at the moment, trapped in a thing called a car that ran without horses, being cursed was the only answer.

He doubted their older
brathairs
had gone to such elaborate lengths to pull a prank on them as they had so many times before on their elders, especially on Ian. Swapping out Ian’s favorite handmade quivers for some he and Donnell made cost Ian a prize buck and almost earned them a firm hand from Gavin. Instead, they’d mucked stables for a week, even though Gavin thought it a fine lesson for Ian. He should’ve checked his weapons before the hunt. The memory brought Dour a moment of joy.

The lass shifted in his lap, bringing him back to reality. He couldn’t help but inhale her scent. Her hair smelled of strawberries. He liked strawberries. Dour breathed deeply. The odor was the most pleasant thing he’d smelled in a while. He frowned. If what he’d been told was right, that
while
equaled over two hundred years.

He cradled Jenny closer, trying to soothe her angst and his own in the process. His chest tightened and he knew his world was no longer as he remembered. Looking at the item she clutched, it was cell phones and cars and god knew what else he’d have to learn in order to acclimate with his surroundings. Maybe this was all just a strange dream spurned on by a bad batch of ale.

Dour closed his eyes tight, praying things would be normal. Strawberry essence filled his nose and he knew exactly what he’d see. A beautiful woman stuck in a strange situation with him. How bad could it be? He and his
brathair
had been in tight spots before and they’d always managed to muddle their way through the mire.

This was just another one of those times. At least that’s what he tried to convince himself. He leaned his head against the window and stared at the stars.
Ye fates have given me and mi brathair an odd path to follow.
He sighed heavily, closed his eyes and prayed for his family. Were any of them alive? Had they all been cursed? Not knowing the answers tightened the constriction in his chest. The one person who might help them was the older redhead who told them they’d been cursed in the first place.

His eyes widened as he stroked Jenny’s hair while she cried. The older woman knew their names. How? She had to know about their family, their clan.

A slow smile upturned his lips as a plan formulated. First, break Donnell out of that compound, as Jenny had called it. Second, find the redhead. He looked at the sky, judging the time ’til daylight. Maybe an hour at best. At first light, he planned to sneak as close as possible to the area and determine the easiest way in. Then wait until dusk, slip inside, find Donnell and escape. In his head it sounded simple. But in reality, he doubted it’d be as straightforward. Even the best-laid plans faltered from time to time and he didn’t expect anything less.

When a firm bottom wiggled in his lap, his thoughts instantly shifted to Jenny. His chest was damp from her tears. His cock was hardening with every subtle movement of her luscious arse. She’d given him a perfect view of it when she’d leaned into the back to retrieve the phone. It’d only taken her a couple of seconds to find it but the eyeful she’d given him had been a delightful treat. In a different scenario, he might have acted upon such an open invitation with a playful swat upon it to fire her desire. But he’d refrained. It was the gentlemanly thing to do, given the situation they were in.

Gently he stroked the back of her head and wished she didn’t feel so phenomenal in his arms. His eyes widened when she placed tender kisses to his neck, then his chin and lastly connected with his mouth. Somewhere in the back of his mind a little voice was screaming,
The lass be in distress
.
This no be the time for sex. Comfort her.
But his body wasn’t listening.

Dour increased the firmness of his lips to hers, sucking her tongue and enjoying her flavor. He knew he should stop but couldn’t. Part of him wanted to know if his shaft still functioned. After all, it’d been quite a long time, if his having been cursed was to be believed.

Jenny broke from the kiss and frantically pulled off her shirt. When she reached behind her and unhooked the silky piece of clothing binding her breasts, they sprang free for his enjoyment. He couldn’t help but smile at the precious sight. Two perfect globes sat waiting for him to sample. And taste he did. Dour fondled the handfuls, flicking the nipples with his tongue until she moaned.

“I need you,” she gasped as she fumbled with her pants.

Why a woman wore a man’s
trews
, he did not understand, but she looked strikingly attractive in them. He helped her as best he could in the confines of the small car. After a few head bumps, an elbow hard to the window and a gearshift in her hip, their struggle ended and she was naked. Long lean legs straddled his lap and he ran his hands along her thighs.

“Ye are beautiful, lass.”

“Thank you,” Jenny gasped, attempting to tug the front of his kilt up around his waist. He lifted, allowing more movement in the fabric, and she bumped her head on the roof again since she sat on his lap. She commanded, “Dour, press your feet into the floor.”

He did as instructed just as she leaned for something between the lower edge of the seat and the door. The seat slid back with a thud, then lay almost flat, giving him more legroom to maneuver. It wasn’t much, but the slender woman on his lap utilized it perfectly. She repositioned until her knees were beside his hips and his kilt was rolled into a bunch at his waist. She froze and he followed her stare.

His cock stood hard, straight and ready. In slow motion, she caressed him from base to tip. He liked the feel of her hands and the way they gracefully danced along his skin. He couldn’t take his eyes off her long, thin fingers as they cared for his shaft. If she kept this up, he’d reach his pleasure within a matter of minutes. Dour wanted to be inside her.

“Jenny.” He spoke her name on a haggard breath. Her eyes met his and he didn’t have to say another word. It was as if she knew his very thoughts.

He steadied her by holding on to her narrow waist as she guided his cock home. Never had a woman’s sheath felt as magnificent as Jenny’s did the moment his head breached her opening and she slowly sank onto him, taking him in all the way to the hilt. She arched and he grasped her hips, giving her the support she needed to fuck him. He liked this position of a woman in command of her pleasure. But given their location, he doubted they could fuck any other way. With the limited room, Dour’s muscles contracted.

Och.
Now wasn’t the time for his legs to cramp.

She couldn’t believe her body’s reaction to Dour at a time like this. It had to be the intense stress of the situation driving her to fuck a complete stranger. But she couldn’t stop. She wanted him. No. She needed him to comfort her. She tried desperately to justify her actions. The feel of him against her as she’d cried ignited her senses, making her even more aware of his sexuality. His build wasn’t that of one of those weightlifters or physique builders. It appeared earned through everyday life, chopping wood and hunting, surviving in elements through the sheer will to live.

Ugh. Jenny chided herself. She couldn’t stop her eyes from soaking in every glorious inch of him. Wild red hair hung scattered about his shoulders, taunting her fingertips with its silkiness. Penetrating green eyes stared directly at her. His chest was broad, as were his biceps. He looked incredibly large crammed into the front seat of this small car. But still he held her, easing her distress at the expense of his own comfort.

Stress-induced lust, that’s why this was happening. She tried to put an acceptable spin on it as she rode Dour. Her breathing increased and the sexual tension swirled into a tightly wound spring ready to explode at any moment with every delicious stroke of him in and out of her. Pounding down on him almost pushed her over the edge but instead she dangled, hanging on by a thin thread of ecstasy.

“
Och
,” Dour groaned and twisted, bucking her wildly, causing her to lose her balance. His fingers dug into her hips. She grabbed his shoulders for support but still banged her temple on the glass. Damn. Stars shot behind her eyes as his cock speared into her at an odd angle. Pain mixed with pleasure and that was all she needed. Invisible scissors cut the thin string and she spiraled into the abyss. A slight throb in her head was nothing compared to the orgasm racing through her at the moment.

Jenny shivered from the intensity of the sensations flooding her body. She leaned against him, gasping for a deep breath. But she didn’t get more than a moment to loll in the afterglow.

“Lass,” he panted. The grimace on his face couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than pain. “I need to be standing.
Mi
legs are tightening.”

“Oh,” she said as she awkwardly slid off him and sideways into the driver’s seat. “You’ve got a cramp.” She reached across him and opened the car door while she shielded the overhead light with a blanket.

He practically rolled out of the car as if he were a pistachio nut being pried from a shell. Somehow he managed to land on his feet in a crouched position. She kept the blanket over the light until he eased around the door and closed it, extinguishing the lamp. Even though it was becoming lighter as sunrise approached, Jenny didn’t want to take any chances of being caught by the brighter light somehow being seen. She turned off the lantern since it was no longer needed to see.

Dour slowly stood and she sensed from his cautious movements he scoured the area for signs of intruders. His muscles bunched and flexed as he stretched. He moved in a circular pattern around the car, keeping his back to her, reinforcing her thought that he was on the lookout. Carefully, she got out of the car, carrying her clothes. She stretched then dressed as he stood watch.

Jenny stepped into her panties and her jeans, then in a practiced move had her bra on in a second. She lifted her shirt to put it on over her head as she asked, “How are your legs feeling?”

As she tugged the shirt onto her head, an electrified tingle filled the air, coated her bared flesh and slithered down her spine. “Jenny.” Her name whispered in agony had her quickly popping her head through the shirt’s opening only to stop dead still and stare. Her jaw hung open and her eyes widened.

Dour stood at the front of the car, frozen in stone. The sun’s rays filtered through the trees and haloed him in a beam of light. Out of habit, she finished putting on her shirt. Her feet moved of their own accord in his direction. She rubbed her eyes, hoping it was some sort of trick and blinked, but it didn’t change. Dour was a statue once again. Her fingers trembled and she wasn’t sure if she should touch him, but had to know if this was real.

He was on his feet, back straight with a slight twist at the waist where he had turned to look in her direction when he spoke her name. One arm was outstretched as if he’d reached for her before this wicked curse claimed him again. Jenny paused. Her fingers hovered within mere inches of touching his cheek.

Was this the curse? If so, how did it happen, hadn’t the old woman in the warehouse freed them? Question after question tumbled through her head. Now what the hell was she going to do? She paced around him, letting her fingers touch him ever so lightly, hoping without hope this was a weird dream and she’d wake soon to find herself in her bedroom in the flat she shared with Cait.

Something caught her eye and she switched to panic mode. Her brain whirled and she sprang into action. For a split second, the silver window shield reflected the sun when a breeze whispered through the trees, moving the limbs that hung low over the car. She couldn’t have that happen again. Jenny reached in through the window and jerked the shield from its place. Quickly she folded it and tucked it into the backseat. Not sure how much was visible from this grove of trees and underbrush to the compound, she decided not to take any risk.