Omega Force 01- Storm Force (25 page)

Slaid Cleaves’s voice erased the
sound of the wind, but Kell froze as the lyrics to
“Borderline” sank in with a different meaning than they’d had the last time he
heard the song. The message of its chorus rang true: “When love is stronger
than fear, no line is uncrossable. No sin is too
great.”

A
chill stole across Kell’s shoulders, and he turned off
the music.

He’d
told himself in Galveston that murder was a line he couldn’t cross. He’d even
taken comfort in it, congratulating himself for his moral uprightness. But he’d
been wrong. Those surprising moments of joy tonight — when it had come down to
just him and Mori and the storm raging around them — had drilled themselves deep
into his heart.

And
he knew now that if pushed hard enough, there was no line he wouldn’t cross to
protect that feeling. Not one.

Mori folded the towel she’d used to dry off, and
hung it over the rack. She turned around, studying the tiny bathroom. A square shower stall not much bigger than a phone booth. A low toilet. An undersized pedestal sink
with a mirror above it and a wire rack beside it holding guy stuff.

She smiled as she fingered the
shaving cream and razor. She wasn’t surprised that he used an old-fashioned
stainless steel razor instead of one that ran on batteries. Kell
had a simplicity about him that Mori loved. Not simple
as in stupid or resistant to change — well, maybe a little resistant to change — but
simple as in real. He was what he was, and you could take it or not.

He’d shown her what a good man
looked like and, by comparison to Michael, what a bad man looked like. They had
to make plans to deal with Michael once and for all. It probably meant killing
him, and maybe Kell was right that it wasn’t her
nature to commit murder. Maybe he was right that she’d find it hard to live
with herself if she killed her alpha. But she was the
only one strong enough to do it. She’d fought against him now, wolf to wolf,
and knew she could stand up to him.

Maybe he was stronger physically,
but he wasn’t as motivated. Greed and plain old crazy didn’t propel a person to
act the way love did — love for her people, who deserved better than Michael to
lead them, and love for Jack Kellison.

She
stared at her reflection in the mirror, half expecting to see a different Mori
looking back at her after that self-revelation. But she still had the same
hair. Same eyes. Same annoying freckles scattered
across her nose.

Kell’s voice had begun a steady drone in the main room of
the cabin, so she smoothed down the T-shirt she’d pulled on with the khaki
shorts and went to join him.

He
sat at his desk with his cell phone stuck to his ear, the computer open to a
satellite image of Hurricane Geneva. Mori looked over his shoulder at the
projected landfall track and groaned when she saw it was supposed to hit just
east of Galveston, on the western end of the Bolivar Peninsula. Galveston might
be spared the worst of it if it kept to that path, but if it moved into
Galveston Bay, Houston would be hit hard. And God help everything between
Houston and Baton Rouge, including Cote Blanche.

Kell ended his call and plugged the charger into his
laptop. “Don’t know how long we’ll have cell service and Internet. The storm’s
sped up and is going to make landfall early tomorrow morning. See where it’s
going?”

“Yeah,
it’ll be bad for Houston if it goes in the bay.”

“Storms
always take a last-second curve to the north right before landfall, plus maybe
it’ll lose some strength before it goes ashore. They seem to do that a lot.”

She
sat on the edge of the bed, a double with an old patchwork quilt and a rough
oak headboard. “Were you talking to Robin?”

Kell rolled his head from side to side, and Mori could hear
the tendons pop. “Yeah. She followed Benedict back to River
Oaks and hung around for a while, but he seems to be staying put. She had to leave
so the doctor could set her broken arm — wing.”

Mori
laughed. Poor guy was trying. “Who told you about us — about shifters and other
things that are supposed to be fairy-tale monsters?”

“The colonel. He’d started a mixed-species Omega Force team
in Alabama, and it seemed to be working, so he pulled in some people he thought
could deal with it to form new teams. Nik and I both
served a couple of tours under him, and we brought in Gadget.”

“How’d
he find Robin and the big cats?” She liked the kind of work they did and the
way they’d all blended their skills to get her out of Michael’s house. It was
impressive.

Kell stood up and flexed his back, not able to keep the
wince of pain from showing in his eyes. “I think they were recommended by their
respective alphas, or whatever it’s called in their worlds. But I have to be
honest. I’ve spent a lot of my time with them feeling threatened, which I now
realize was stupid. They’re good people…birds…cats…whatever.”

Mori
watched him move around the desk, walking to keep his back from getting stiff
and freezing up. She’d seen him do the same thing back at the Co-Op. “What can
I do to help your back? Massage?”

He
stopped and grinned. “I don’t think it would help my back, but it would do
wonders for my spirit. No, what I wish I could have is a hot shower, but we
need to conserve the clean water supply in case we run out of drinking water.”

A
strong gust of wind hit the side of the cabin, rattling the windows and giving
Mori an idea.

“Why
do we need to use the water supply?”

Kell frowned at her. “What?”

She
walked to the cabin door and pulled it open. The warm rain was falling at a
slant from the south, and with the door open, the lanterns
sent out a shaft of light that illuminated the dock perfectly. She pulled her
T-shirt off and turned to look at Kell.

His
gaze dropped to her breasts for a few seconds, his smile growing wider, then he looked back up. “Are you thinking what I think
you’re thinking?”

She
couldn’t believe she was being this brazen, but it felt right. She unbuttoned
her shorts and shimmied out of them, as well as her panties, with deliberate
slowness.

“Uh…”
Kell’s lips parted slightly, and she recognized the
“guy glaze” in his eyes, that moment when all the blood rushed south and the
brain ceased proper functioning.

“See
you in the shower.” She laughed and ran out the door, relishing the feel of the
rain as it pounded into her skin. Better than a shower massager. She turned
back and saw that Kell had ditched his shirt and was
fumbling with his belt, not an easy task with that mangled left hand.

Brilliant, Mori.
They deserved some time to enjoy each
other. Reality would come crashing back soon enough. She’d tend to his wounds,
the wind would force them inside, and they’d have to talk about the nightmare
named Michael. But they had right now. She turned her back to the cabin and
waited for his touch, knowing he’d be moving up behind her at any moment. Imagining
the water running over his long muscles and taut skin, her growing anticipation
revved up her heart rate and sent her own blood supply south.

When
his hands slipped around her from behind and cupped her breasts, she shivered.
He slid his right hand down and pressed between her thighs with…

She looked down and laughed. “You
brought soap?”

She
tried to turn and face him, but he held her in place with his left arm while
his right hand used a bar of Ivory — probably the one she’d seen next to the
bathroom sink — in a way that wasn’t the least bit pure.

He
said something, but between the wind and the rain and the fingers he slid
inside her, she couldn’t understand the words. He reached around with his left
hand and took the soap while his right hand continued to stroke her inside and
his thumb kept a steady motion on her clit.

Again,
she tried to turn, but he held her in place. His mouth worried at her neck,
sucking hard on the sensitive skin beneath her ear and nipping it with his
teeth, all while his left hand circled her nipples with the bar of soap.

Finally, she couldn’t help but
give herself over to it. She threw her head back and let the rain pound her
face while the pressure inside her built, Kell’s
hands working her until the heat between her thighs exploded and she felt her
knees sag. Her cries were absorbed into the storm, drowned out by the wind.

Finally,
he let her turn and tugged her against him, letting her feel the hard heat of
him as he pressed against her belly. She wanted to pull him down to the dock,
to feel him inside her as it rained bullets on their skin, and she knew he’d do
it without a second thought.

But she wasn’t going to risk making
his back worse. And he might have temporarily forgotten his broken fingers, but
they’d remind him soon enough. She’d had her hurricane orgasm. Now it was time
to play Nurse Mori.

Edging around Kell,
she grabbed his right wrist and pulled him along the dock toward the cabin, the
soap falling to the wood and falling between the planks. He protested, shouting
what might have been “Wait,” until she let go of his arm and made a dash for
the cabin door.

He hobbled up a few seconds
behind her and followed her inside. “Hey, what’s the big idea? I thought — oh
shit.”

His breath hitched as she
squeezed his cock, just enough to get his attention.

“You don’t need to think. Just
stand there.” She waggled a finger at him in one of Robin’s favorite moves. “Perfectly still.”

She went into the bathroom and
dried herself off quickly, then pulled another towel from the shelf and
returned to the main room. He hadn’t moved. Except, maybe his breathing had
grown a little unsteady.
That
she
planned to make worse.

She unfolded the towel and walked
behind him, loving the way the skin under his shoulder blades rippled as she rubbed
the terry cloth across his back. She gave proper attention to that fine ass and
grinned at his hissed breath when she reached between his legs from behind and
stroked.

“Just had to make sure nothing
else needed drying down there.” She ran the towel down one muscular thigh and
calf, then the other.

“You might need to check again.” Kell’s voice sounded strained.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be very
thorough. I think you need to lie down for the rest, though.” Mori walked to
the bed and pulled the pillows from beneath the quilt. She’d leave the quilt in
place since, despite her best efforts, they were both still half-soaked.

He followed her, his mouth
finding hers as soon as she turned around. His lips were insistent and possessive, his tongue mimicking what she wished he could do
with his body. But not tonight.

She pulled away, trying to catch
her breath.

“I think I still need a little
drying off.” His lips traced her jawline, leaving
only when she pressed on his chest and pushed him toward the bed.

“Then assume the position,
Marine.”

He smiled and settled back on the
bed, not quite able to hide the relief on his face as his back muscles finally
caught a break. She started by using the towel to massage his feet, only
learning he was ticklish when he almost kicked her in the head.

He was still chuckling as she
smoothed the towel up one calf, then the other, but the laugh turned to a
satisfied groan when she reached his thighs. She finally tossed the towel aside
and wriggled her shoulders between his legs, forcing his thighs apart.

And then she feasted, each lick,
each stroke of her tongue trying to convey how much she wanted him and how much
pleasure she wanted to give him. It could never be enough to make the pain he’d
already suffered worthwhile, but it was all she had to give him now.

As she took him into her mouth — or
at least as far as she could — he began a gentle thrusting movement. She lifted
her head and used her sternest tone. “That isn’t a prescribed activity for the
privates, Private. Keep the hips on the bed.”

“You’re a sadist.” Kell mumbled, then gasped as she
began to do the work for him. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, but didn’t
force her to take him deeper than she could.

He pulsed against her lips and
shuddered as he came. She gave him one final lick in exchange for one final
groan, then took the towel and cleaned them both up.

“C’mere.”
Kell’s words slurred a little, and the smile he gave
her when she climbed up beside him and nestled in the crook of his arm was lazy
and satisfied. Their one time together, he’d been called away before they had
time to just lie in each other’s arms, holding and being held.

She leaned over and kissed him.
“Nurse Mori has a few things left to minister to.”

“Oh no.” He laughed and tried to grab her
as she slipped away from him. “I’m not sure I could live through more, although
I’m game to try.”

She slipped back into her T-shirt
and panties and brought him a pair of loose jogging pants from his duffel,
easing them over his feet and up his legs. It was warm in the cabin now, but it
would cool down soon enough. “Hips up.” When he raised his hips, she tugged the
pants up and patted his belly. “You follow orders pretty well.”

“Don’t get used to it.” She
glanced up to see if she’d pushed him too far with the order bit, but those
clear blue-green eyes were far from serious.

She lifted his left hand and
studied the swollen fingers. She wasn’t sure if it would be worse to wrap them
or leave them. Finally, she decided to leave them. “Think there’s any cold
packs in Trey’s ice chests? You need something for this swelling.”

“Not yet. Come here and settle
down. Let’s just stay like this for a while.” She wedged herself back into the
cradle of his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. His heart kept up a
steady, gentle rhythm beneath her hand, gradually slowing as his breath grew
deeper. Finally, for the first time in at least a rough couple of days, he
slept.

Mori thought about getting one of
the sheets she’d seen folded on a corner shelf to cover them up, but her own
muscles had grown lax and comfortable, plus the cabin was still a bit toasty.

She closed her eyes, lulled by
the rain and the rhythm of Kell’s breathing,
occasionally jolted from a half doze by an eerie
shriek of wind. Funny how that wind could sound like a human cry, or the yowl
of a wildcat, or a moan worthy of a ghost in a bad B-movie.

Once, just before she drifted
off, Mori even thought it sounded like the howl of a wolf.