Huntress (4 page)

They finished their lemonade, he at a loss on what to say.
Draining his glass, he stood to leave, his mind a jumble of questions. He
needed time to think and to decide what to do.

Granny made it sound as if, if he kept seeing Fiona he would
die. He didn’t believe it.

He was better trained than most and it hurt his ego to think
he couldn’t protect a woman. He had been the commander of an elite task force for
the Marines. He could protect one woman. But he didn’t voice the opinion. Not
knowing what else to do, he kissed his granny’s cheek as he always had and
climbed on his bike, heading for the sanctuary of his lonely apartment.

Fiona spent the week absorbed in her writing, drowning out
her thoughts of a tall, dark-haired man who had suddenly become more than just
a fling. She wasn’t sure how it had happened but she missed him, she dreamed
about him and she swore she could sometimes still smell him on her skin.

She had spent time with other men but she had always been
able to keep them at a safe distance. Granted she had also used her spells to
make them stay that way. She still didn’t understand why the spell hadn’t
worked on him. It had never happened to her before and she began to doubt her
powers.

While she admitted it had been wonderful to wake in his
strong arms, after the initial shock of his presence had worn off she couldn’t
make a habit of it. He had already caught her once with her little “kitchen
trick”, as he called it, and she couldn’t let it happen again. Trent made it
hard for her to concentrate when he was near.

The pull she felt toward him was amazing. It was made of the
stuff she had only read or written about. She had always wondered what it would
feel like to have someone she could open up to. She hardly had time to get to
know the men in her past, not that there had been many, before they were gone.

Trent had made her want him and not just in her bed. She
wanted him here with her. She was used to the calm life. Happiness came only
from her writing. But the house seemed too quiet, too empty and she suddenly
felt too alone.

It was Friday night and she was home as she always was,
hunched over her laptop with a glass of red wine close by and classical music
playing in the background. When the words blurred on the screen she stood and
moved to the couch.

She needed to align herself again. It felt as if it had been
years instead of weeks since she had taken a moment for balance. Everything was
out of whack and she needed to get back on an even keel, mentally and
physically. Her body was betraying her as it never had before. It was willing
to give other parts of herself she had never considered giving away for the
sake of having sex, even if it was mind-blowing, spine-tingling sex.

Taking several deep breaths, she imagined herself standing
in the middle of a huge garden. Her breathing slowed and the vision became
clearer until she could see it all in her mind’s eye as if she were really
there. The sweet scent of flowers surrounded her and the colors mimicked the
most beautiful rainbow.

She raised her arms to the sky, seeking the balance and a
peace of mind that was eluding her. This special place was what she always
imagined. It never failed to ease her mind. Everything else faded away as she
walked the cobbled paths through the tall, vividly colored blooms. The long,
transparent cloak that covered her from head to toe allowed the breeze and the
sun to kiss her skin and she stood for a moment, drinking it in and calming her
mind and body.

Letting out a deep breath, she heard the bird singing
overhead. She held a hand out palm up and a butterfly with iridescent wings
landed there. Fiona smiled and watched it until it flitted off.

Suddenly it all changed within a span of a second. The
breeze turned cold and icy, slamming against her skin and causing her to
shiver. Dark-black clouds blocked the sun and her sweet garden dripped away.
The color from the flowers landed in puddles on the cobblestone and everything
turned gray. The flowers withered and died as her garden disappeared right
before her eyes.

In its place she was standing at a sharp precipice of rock
with nothing but air in front of her and raging water and jagged rocks below.

The wind picked up, blowing her cape up her legs and subtly
pushing her toward the edge. What was going on? This wasn’t what she had
intended, this was supposed to be her place. But she knew she was no longer
alone and that someone or something had invaded her garden. She was no longer
in control.

Then she heard footsteps behind her. She could feel the
presence and turned quickly. Trent stood there and her name floated to her on
the wind. He reached for her and she took an involuntary step back. She had
nowhere to go and she refused to give in to the unspoken demand and go to him.

As the internal war raged she watched in horror as Trent’s
face faded away and a monster took his place. Not a monster, she thought. The
glazed, red eyes and sharp teeth came into focus. It was a vampire.

Abruptly she understood. Immediately she fought against the
darkness and even though she knew there was no use she gave it everything she
had. She pushed back with all her internal power, with all the light she held
inside her. Suddenly she found herself back in her living room, the wineglass
lying spilled on the floor. The dark red was seeping into the carpet and a
cruel laugh still echoed in her mind.

She stared at the spilled wine, dazed, her body cold and
still shivering. She was no fool and she had heard enough of these types of
stories as a child to realize what was happening. Fate was stepping in.

She had always listened to her dreams, knowing they were
more than what they seemed. But this had been no dream, more of a feeling as to
what was to come. She had always wondered how her grandmother had chosen to be
a hunter and now she understood—she hadn’t chosen it, it had chosen her.

Anger burned brightly within her. This wasn’t what she
wanted. Wordlessly she picked up the glass and sent it sailing across the room
to smash against the wall. Glass shards went everywhere but it didn’t make her
feel any better.

She made her own choices and she refused to believe fate was
going to take them all away from her.

Pushing the whole mess aside, her mind immediately turned to
the one man she knew could block it all out for her.

Within minutes her body was screaming for Trent and the
release she knew only he could give her. She would be taking a huge risk but she
could no longer deny the connection that was pulling her to him. Her body
craved him as it craved to be fed and she was powerless to stop it.

Without giving herself too much time to think about it she
grabbed whatever jacket came to her hand as she walked out the door of her
too-quiet house. She set off for the same bar she had met Trent at last week.

Something was telling her he would be there, waiting for
her.

Trent nursed his beer, sitting on the same stool he had last
weekend. But Fiona wasn’t next to him this time and he felt the loss like a
physical dismemberment. He hadn’t been able to think about much else but her
and what his granny had so nicely dumped in his lap. But he couldn’t blame
Granny. She had only answered what he had asked.

He had hung around his apartment and finally started
rereading Fiona’s books. It made him wonder how much of them were true. If most
of them were, and he suspected so, then her grandfather had been drained by a
vampire as he had been coming home from work late one night.

Apparently it was quite a prize in the vamp world to kill a
hunter or her mate.

He still didn’t believe he was destined to be with anyone
and that fate would waste time on him. But he did believe there were witches.

Maybe she had put a spell on him that made him think of
nothing but her.

If that was the case he would just have to make her remove
it. Or maybe he just needed to have her again and get her out of his system. He
was sure the lust would fade. It always did. It might take longer in her case
but if that was what it took to be able to think clearly again without her
invading his every thought then so be it.

Trent finished his beer and headed for the exit, intending
to pound on the front door of the little green house where Fiona lived for as
long as it took. Déjà vu hit him full force when a woman wearing a long, dark
cape slammed into him at the doorway.

Reaching out to steady her, he caught her and pulled her
against him, trusting his instincts that it was Fiona he was holding. He could
smell her scent. It reminded him of his grandmother’s garden, sweet and
intoxicating. He took a moment to just hold her, feeling her curves pressed up
against him.

Realizing what he was doing, he released her abruptly and
stepped back. He had never felt the compulsion to just hold someone and it
scared the hell out of him. All this talk with his granny about fate was
leaking into his life and he was having none of it. But that wasn’t going to
keep him from her bed.

She lifted her gaze to his and it hit him like a sucker
punch to the stomach. His breath left his lungs in a big whoosh. Without taking
her eyes from his she flipped her hood off her head and her hair spilled free.

He stood there tongue-tied, much as she had been that first
night. Finally she took pity on him, with a small smile took his hand and led
him from the bar.

They walked silently through the dark streets, holding
hands. But she didn’t want to bring up the sticky subject of their parting the
previous week. Fiona chanced a quick glance at him from beneath her lashes and
found his brow furrowed and a distant look in his eyes.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked quietly. He didn’t
say anything for a moment and she thought he wouldn’t answer her at all.

But then he stopped walking and tugged her close with their
joined hands. “I was thinking about us.” The words washed over her and her
heart picked up the pace before she tamped it down.

“There is no ‘us’, Trent. Just because we had sex doesn’t
mean you have any obligation to me any more than I have to you.”

His green gaze turned hard and she waited for him to object to
her statement but he surprised her. “You’re right, but that doesn’t change the
fact that I want to get you to the nearest bed.”

“So what are you suggesting?” she asked him as she trailed
her fingers down his chest, leaving no doubt what she wanted from him.

He smiled slightly and brushed a lock of hair behind her
ear. “Let’s have an affair,” he said in low tones.

“An affair? What do you mean?”

He glanced around him on the sidewalk and pulled her along
again. “Let’s get to your place and talk about it.”

She nodded her agreement and he released her hand when they
got to her door. Fiona hung her cloak and kicked her shoes and socks off. They
moved to the kitchen in unison and Fiona pulled a couple of beers from the
fridge before she sat across from him at her breakfast nook.

Nerves put a small tremor in her hands and she took a couple
calming breaths to still them. She wanted him more than she wanted her next
breath but she refused to share that weakness with him and beg. It would give
him control over her and once a man had that control he would use it to get
what he wanted.

So if he wanted to use her telekinesis as his own personal
freak show to brag about to his friends, he had another thing coming. She had
played that game before and was never going to do it again. Because she still
wasn’t sure if he knew or not. Some people had strange reactions to gifts like
hers. Most would pretend it never happened.

It had backfired on her last boyfriend and when his buddies
began to fear her and what she could do they avoided them both. When he had
seen his perfect, popular world going down the drain he had dropped her faster
than she could keep up.

She had trust issues, she knew that, but it was more than
that. Her greatest fear was being used as someone’s lab rat. She had kept the
walls around herself strong and impenetrable, until now.

She drank her fill of his face, staring at his deep eyes
that gazed at her relentlessly while she desperately tried to hold it together.
He was reclined back against the bench, his elbows hooked over the solid back.
Her eyes traveled over the ripples in his chest and down over the length of his
tight stomach, displayed by his close-fitting black shirt.

Her eyes widened when his muscles clenched under her gaze.
He was tense and coiled and she suddenly wondered if he was going to pounce on
her. Her belly gave a slow roll and she wished he would do it, that she could
let him do it.

He leaned forward and rested his arms along the tabletop. It
made him look even bigger in her small kitchen.

She reached for her beer, taking a big gulp, hating the
tension that was thickening the air around them.

He gazed at her intently and she stared back, waiting for
him to say something. After all, he was the one who wanted to talk.

“I want you to agree to an affair, Fiona,” he finally said.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Trent.”

“Why not?” he demanded.

She was at a loss on what to say to him because she
certainly couldn’t tell him the truth.

“Give me one good reason why we can’t and don’t tell me that
you don’t want to,” he told her, softening his voice.

He leaned closer, crossing his arms over his wide chest and
waiting for an answer. She didn’t know what to say. She did want to and her
reasons for not were fading fast. She wished she could just trust him.

“I don’t know,” she told him hesitantly.

“Look, I’m not going to search out all your secrets and
expect love and commitment. I just want to be with you until this attraction
between us fades. So I can think straight again.”

“Why me? You can’t tell me that you have a hard time getting
a date. Why are you pushing me on this?”

He hesitated and then reached for her hand. “I’m not the
same man I was before this,” he said, gesturing to his scars. “Plus, I have
things I want to do to that sexy body of yours that aren’t acceptable on a
first or second date.”

Fiona’s body betrayed her and immediately she felt the heat
of desire coursing through her veins at his words. Being strong and keeping
Trent at arm’s length was feeling overrated. “What kind of things?”

A shameless smile cut across his mouth. His appeal was
beyond her realm of experience.

“We can discuss that after I talk you into seeing me again,”
he said as he raised her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm. “And again and
maybe again after that,” he whispered.

She could see he wasn’t going to give up easily. He would
use every trick he had up his sleeve to get her to agree and she knew that some
of his tricks were going to be hard to resist. Practically impossible to
resist.

Maybe she could do this if she talked him into some rules to
protect herself. He was only asking for a short tryst. If he agreed then she
could give in and oh how she wanted to give in.

“How do you feel about laying down some rules?” she asked
quietly. He was obviously okay with casual sex, so he wouldn’t want more than
she could give.

“What did you have in mind?” He was now toying with her
fingers, making her heart speed up.

“No personal questions, no sharing meals, things like that.”
Pretty much anything that would make her feel as though this was a real
relationship.

She waited for him to agree. His eyes narrowed but he didn’t
drop her hand.

“So let me get this straight,” his voice was gruff and she
couldn’t tell if it was anger or not, “you want me to fuck you and leave?”

It sounded crude when he put it like that but it was exactly
what she wanted. “Yes, that’s what I want.”

“Okay, I can agree to that,” he finally said but she got the
feeling he wasn’t happy about it.

“What kind of things were you talking about, Trent?” she
asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

His lips turned up at the corners before he answered her.

“Things like spanking your pretty ass until it’s all warm
and pink. Or tying you to a bed and making you come over and over until you
scream my name and beg for mercy. Do you have any toys, Fiona?” His voice had
gotten lower as he spoke and she felt a shiver run down her back.

She was momentarily shocked he would talk so freely about such
things. She had never been spanked or tied up and she was surprised at how much
the idea of it turned her on.

“I have a vibrator,” she told him, feeling her cheeks go
pink.

His eyes narrowed at her before he asked, “Have you ever
done any of those things?”

She shook her head and watched as his face lit up as if she
had given him gold.

“Would you be willing to try sometime?” he asked.

“Maybe,” she answered, not sure if she was willing to give
up that much control.

She watched transfixed as he stood, moved away from the
bench, jerked her to her feet and then against him. She had time for a quick
moan before he covered her mouth with his. Her mind went blank as he took,
plundered and consumed her. She was helpless to stop him and at that moment she
would have given him almost anything.

It was terrifying but unstoppable.

His tongue swirled in to wrap around hers and her knees went
weak with desire. She felt his arm clamp around her back and she released her
weight to his strength. Slowly he lowered her to the table of her nook. The
hard surface under her back lifted her breasts up to crush against his hard
chest.

He rose above her as she lay helplessly below him,
mesmerized as he removed his shirt, tossing it aside and then going for her
jeans. Making short work of the button and zipper, he whisked them and her
panties both off at once.

Panting, she reached for the end of the table above her,
clamping her fingers around the edge. One of his hands roughly shoved her shirt
up and over her breasts.

“You don’t need me to be gentle do you, baby?” he asked as
he suddenly sucked a puckered nipple into his mouth.

She shook her head, her thought process detached from her
voice. She wanted him any way he was willing to give himself at the moment.

He smirked down at her but it was a side of him she was just
now becoming accustomed to. It was an open smile but there was something
devilish hidden in the depths of his look. Something that called to her on a
level she had buried for far too long.

It scared the shit out of her.

But it only added to the intensity of the moment.

He lowered his head and kissed his way down her neck,
nipping gently when he got to her collarbone.

“Mmmmm,” she moaned when he bit a little harder on her
shoulder.

“Like that?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she groaned.

“I can do something else that you will like even more, I
think.” He didn’t give her a chance to consider his words before he flipped her
over on the table. He guided her gently and then helped her out of her shirt.

Fiona felt his gaze travel down her back then down over her
naked ass. His hands came to her hips, gripping them tightly.

“You look amazing like this,” he whispered roughly. “Spread
your legs wider.”

There was a commanding tone in his voice and she obeyed
without thinking about it.

“Put your hands above your head, Fiona.”

When she had done what he demanded she felt her breasts
pressing into the hard wood of the table. It was erotic to be posed in a way
she knew he really liked. She could hear his breathing getting heavier above
her.

Trent’s warm hands slid from her hips up her sides and then
her ribs. He stopped when he got to the sensitive undersides of her arms. His
fingers went to her hair and she felt him separate it into pieces and loosely
braid it to hang in the center of her back.

The feel of his hands manipulating her hair was wonderful
and she relaxed against the table.

He moved away and then his hand came down swiftly on her
left ass cheek. It cracked when it hit and she felt the sting of it settle in
and get momentarily worse in the few seconds afterward.

But then there was a warm heat spreading across her ass, and
her pussy quivered in response.

The first slap had caught her by surprise but she was ready
for the second one. His hand came down on the other side and she couldn’t stop
the short shout that escaped her lips.

“Do you like that, baby?” he asked her, his voice low and
rough. “It looks so good from where I’m standing.”

Fiona nodded.

“Tell me if you like it,” he demanded.

“Yes, I like it!” she finally got out.

He rained a few more quick slaps down on her and then
flipped her back over on the table.

The cool wood felt amazing on her overheated rear and she
gripped the table above her head harder.

She heard the grate of his zipper as he released his cock
from his pants.

Frantic now, with her body throbbing, she let go of the
table to sit up and shove his jeans down when he took a second too long. She
struggled, he let her, a smile on his face and his arms braced on either side
of her, trapping her between his hard body and the table.

She managed to get his jeans down to mid-thigh before she
gave up. Taking her hands, he placed them to grasp the edge of the table again,
growling out, “You’re going to need to hold on to that.”

She could do no more than nod. Taking a foil packet from his
pocket, he rolled the condom on quickly. Grabbing her hips, he held her still
as he shoved into her. A loud scream of pleasure was ripped from her throat.

He stayed that way, holding his body tense as she convulsed
around his rock-hard cock. Her hips tried to buck and grind against him but he
held her in a steely-tight grip.

When her explosions subsided to tremors he moved his hands
up to pop her breasts up out of her bra. Tweaking and rolling her pink nipples,
he pulled all the way out and paused, driving her insane. When it became too
much and the tension was tight within her bowed body he plunged back in, over
and over, harder and deeper until she didn’t know where he stopped and she
began.

His groans got louder, the table shook beneath the force of
his thrusts and she only begged for more. Even when she was sure the whole
house must be moving with them she pleaded until her body crested and she hung
suspended then crashed in huge waves as Trent groaned his release through
gritted teeth.

He stood over her for several minutes until she felt her
nerves coming back and she suddenly understood she was quickly becoming
addicted to him. Sitting up, he fell out and moved to the kitchen garbage to
dispose of the condom before zipping himself back up. She stood and grabbed her
jeans, sliding into them quickly.

Trent yawned suddenly and she looked at the clock. It was
after one in the morning. She needed some space to kick herself for agreeing to
this crazy plan. It was bound to end badly for her.

“You are welcome to the couch for the rest of the night. I’m
going up to bed,” she told him firmly.

His eyebrows went up but he said, “Thanks, I’ll take you up
on that. I’m too tired to drive back home tonight.”