Primal Heat 1 (7 page)

Ezra turned in the seat, looking his twin directly in the eye as he spoke quietly this time. “You haven’t been yourself lately and you know it. Maybe she’s the one that will make this all go away for you. I don’t know, so forgive me for having to ask where your head is right now.”

Eli hadn’t replied to that. He hadn’t known what to say. Instead, he sat in the back of that truck for the next two hours, steaming over the fact that Nick actually believed there was something disingenuous about Nivea and that his brother obviously didn’t trust him.

He yanked the cloth and the sponge roughly from the rack beneath the showerhead and began to wash, all the while grumbling about the newly focused assignment he’d been given. It promised to bring him even closer to Nivea Cannon, when in all actuality he’d been trying like hell to stay away from her.

There was no other choice for him where she was concerned. If she were dangerous to anyone at Havenway, it was Eli. Ezra’s comment in the truck proved he still believed all that BS the shaman Dagar had told them after blowing that foul-assed black smoke into their lungs. Eli, on the other hand, believed none of it. He’d agreed to the shaman’s treatment to ebb their sexual desire when they were in the Sierra Leone because the addiction to Acacia had gotten out of hand. It was interfering with their goal to become guards and their family’s reputation. Not to mention, they’d learned that to Acacia it had all been just a sick joke anyway.

The damned smoke hadn’t even worked. Eli had lain in his bed that night still wanting to touch Acacia, to taste her, to fuck her one more time. And when her minions had summoned him and Ezra, Eli had gone willingly. Just as he’d killed her readily when it was clear that she planned to kill him and Ezra.

The black smoke did not possess him as Ezra believed it did him. It did not control Eli’s already acute senses—the senses that were jacked the hell up at this very moment. And the supposed remnants of that smoke in his system damn sure weren’t going to subside and do his bidding the moment he came across his so-called mate. That was all myth and fairy tales that Ezra chose to believe because it worked well for his situation. Eli, fortunately, had learned long ago that if there was going to be a change in his circumstances, he would be the one to make it. He was the one in control of his destiny, not some spirit-filled holy man or his drug-induced treatments.

Even with all that he’d learned over the past years, everything that he’d come to terms with, Eli could not deny the obvious. There was something going on with him. Just as Ezra said in the truck, he hadn’t been himself lately. He knew that and hated the fact almost as much as he hated his brother being the first to vocalize it.

Slamming his palm against the faucet, Eli turned off the water and stalked naked out of the shower and straight into his bedroom, yanking the towel off the edge of the bed. He was bent over, drying his calves when he paused, his head turning toward the door, his focus trained on who was approaching. He couldn’t scent anyone, and wasn’t expecting any company. Yet, he knew she was there.

The sound of her footsteps was muffled, but if he closed his eyes Eli knew he’d see her as clearly as if she were standing right in front of him. He knew because he’d done so before. Her boots came up to the quarter point of her leg, black leather tied precisely. The bottoms of her uniform pants would be tucked neatly inside the top half of the boots. Her pants fit her tightly, had just enough space for her to run, kick, and jump comfortably and still managed to outline her delectable little ass in the sweetest way. Her dark blue T-shirt was more form-fitting, cupping hand-sized breasts and holding them high. She wouldn’t be wearing her top shirt with the buttons and right breast pocket while inside Havenway and certainly not at this time of night. Her hair would be pulled back into that ponytail that drove him insane with the need to tear it free and watch the thick strands fall wildly around her face.

Coming to a standing position, Eli inhaled deeply, slowly, his eyes fastened on the door. On the exhale, about twenty seconds after he’d first sensed her presence, there was a sturdy knock.

He dropped the towel and walked slowly to the door, turning the knob and pulling it open just as she was about to knock again. She looked into his eyes, then down to his chest, then to his groin where his dick was growing steadily aroused in response.

“You gonna stand and stare or did you want to come in?” he asked after another few seconds of watching her appreciate him.

If he were a different type of man that appreciation would have gone a long way. It would have puffed his ego, maybe made him smile, and most certainly would have aroused him even more. As it was, Eli, the deeply scared shifter, was only wary of her look, of the desire she so quickly tossed his way. He had good reason to be cautious, to want to keep her as far away as he possibly could. But still he stepped to the side, inhaling deeply as she walked by.

Her scent was there now, when he should have picked it up before. Shifters relied 100 percent on their scenting abilities, of enemies, feelings, situations … mates, or in Eli’s case, simply females. Gritting his teeth once more at the anomaly he was presently experiencing, Eli closed the door, locked it, and turned to once again find her staring at him.

“I want to know what they said to you in the truck tonight,” she said, holding her hands down at her sides, looking into his eyes this time, as if she wasn’t as sexually aware of him as he knew she was.

Eli walked to her. It wasn’t by choice, he swore it wasn’t. The cat within was instantly drawn to her feline, reaching out for the similar being, wanting desperately to forge a connection. The man knew better, he knew what would result from this and yet, he couldn’t stay away. He’d never been able to listen to the warning and stay away.

“I don’t think that’s what you really want, Cannon,” he told her seriously, standing so close to her now the buckle of her belt brushed against his thick length. The touch was cool and sent spikes of desire flaring quickly throughout Eli’s body.

Every muscle tensed, every nerve stood on end, his breath growing more labored as he tried once again to make the effort. Pull away, back up, grab that damned towel, and get rid of her!

“I’m not here to play your games, Eli. Not tonight,” she replied, breaking his concentration with the deep husky sound of her voice.

He reached around her then, grabbing the band from her hair before she could think to stop him and yanking it free.

“This is far from a game,” he told her, watching with amazement as all that thick and wild hair fell loose, landing on her shoulders, framing her face. “Everything that happens from this point on will be serious and have consequences.”

She kept her gaze level with his. Never backing down. It just wasn’t in her nature to walk away from a fight or a challenge. How many times had he watched her in the sparring ring with shifters twice her size and weight? When she should have cowered or could have hidden beneath the “female” shield, she never did. She stood her ground and she fought, most times winning over the cocky male who thought far too little of her. Those thoughts made what Eli said next seem futile.

“If you plan to run away, now would be the time.”

She squared her shoulders. “I was never the one running, Eli. That was always you.”

Like dropping a match into a gallon of kerosene, her words sparked an inferno inside and Eli was immediately wrapping his arms around her waist, drawing her to him. “Not anymore,” he murmured before crushing his lips down over hers. “Not anymore,” he repeated as he pulled slightly away, only to plunge back inside again, his tongue taking hers in an intimate duel.

She tasted like fresh rain, like water to a parched thirst that threatened his speech. Her tongue was warm and tangled expertly with his. Her hands grasped his biceps, the palm of her right hand flat against the head of his cat tattoo. Heat pooled in his arm, grew into a ball of molten lava that seeped quickly throughout his bloodstream. The feeling was intense, immediate, and climactic. Inside Eli shook. Outside, he reacted.

He kissed down the line of her neck, loving the way she let her head fall back, giving him what he wanted without any argument. This wasn’t the usual way she reacted to him. And this wasn’t the usual way he treated her.

His hands gripped her breasts, loving the feel of the soft mounds against his palms. He squeezed and she hissed. He growled and she arched her back, giving him even more. Eli didn’t want her giving him anything. He didn’t want anybody giving him anything, not anymore. Not since Acacia had given him and Ezra all that they’d desired.

That thought spurred darkness to swirl around inside. To combat the ugly feeling Eli grabbed her by the wrist. She was standing with her legs slightly spread, her eyes half closed, mouth open as she sucked in a ragged breath each time he touched her. He glanced at her fingers—the same ones he’d watched handle a gun, dismembering it and then shooting its target precisely. When he hesitated, she continued, wrapping her hand around his thick and throbbing cock. Her fingers didn’t meet around the flesh but she didn’t seem concerned. Grabbing him at the base she jerked him once, then twice, then with a rhythm that had him pumping into her motions.

“That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?” he said through clenched teeth. “You’ve wanted this for weeks, months even. Now’s your chance to take it,” he told her.

When she only kept her gaze fixed on his, her hand still working his length until drops of essence filled his tip, Eli yelled, “Take it!”

She lowered herself to her knees, still looking up at him, daring him to be the first to look away. Her fingers worked like magic had been infused in each tip, pulling from him every reason he’d had for staying away from her. She was dangerous. Being with her was going to lead to more trouble than it was worth. Eli knew this without a doubt, and yet he could … would not look away.

“Watch me,” she told him, licking her tongue over her lips until they were shiny and damp. “Watch me, Eli.”

She didn’t have to tell him. Damn, an earthquake or a full-on attack from those hybrids couldn’t stop him from watching her pretty fucking lips opening wide enough to fit the head of his throbbing cock inside. It was hot, goddammit, so freakin’ hot inside her mouth, and tight, the pressure was enough to make his balls swell. Pleasure zipped through his bloodstream like heroin through an addict’s veins and he loved it. Everything in his past be damned, he loved it. He was heady with the sensation, his cat purring incessantly inside, that dark that dared to rear its ugly head with memories pushed far away until there was nothing but the light in her eyes. Eli couldn’t look away from her any more than he could pull his dick from her mouth. He was stuck in this place, in this moment, regardless of how wrong he knew it was.

She used both hands now, pressing against the base of his cock, while her mouth worked the tip. She licked up and down the back and topside, letting her tongue play in the slit until she was slurping the remnants of his pre-cum. Her lips were drenched now, her fingers damp, her breathing erratic as she continued to work over him. And her eyes stayed on his.

That may have been the sexiest part of this interlude. The way her almond-shaped eyes remained open and stared at him, as if he were the only person in this room, this world that she wanted to see. His hips jutted forward and she relaxed her throat muscles to take him deeper, humming over the tip of his dick, bringing forth the release he figured she’d been waiting for.

Stop!

The word echoed in his mind but he didn’t speak it or move out of her way.

“You can’t have me,” he said impulsively. He had no idea why he’d made the declaration. Why at this moment he felt he had to say those very words to her. But it didn’t matter.

Nivea took them as a dare, as another one of his rebuffs that she planned to prove wrong. She locked her fingers around him, tilted her head, and flattened her tongue against the bottom of his cock. Then she sucked and sucked some more, her eyes glazed with pleasure. Eli felt it in his spine, his body vibrating with the intensity of the release ripping free. The next time she didn’t suck, she swallowed and Eli growled.

CHAPTER 6

Nivea was sure she’d lost every last piece of her mind. From the moment she’d been struck speechless by Eli’s gorgeously naked body standing in the doorway until the second she’d gone to her knees and taken him into her mouth, she’d been operating solely on autopilot.

“You can’t have me.”

There, he’d said it once more.

She shouldn’t have had to hear it again. Except his words never seemed to match his actions. He hadn’t walked away, hadn’t thrown her out. No, he’d stood right there, giving her … him. And she’d taken.

Just as she was now as he yanked her shirt over her head and ripped her bra from her chest. His lips were fastened to her in seconds, his hands squeezing her swollen mounds, while his teeth and tongue toyed with her nipple until her thighs trembled.

Nivea reached for her belt buckle, trying like hell to help this moment along. She’d waited so long, needed so desperately. His words drowned in the buzz of pleasure, the adrenaline rush of anticipation.

Eli swiped her hand away instantly. “I got this,” he growled, his incisors longer and sharper than they had been just moments before. Shadows looked like humans, from their head to their feet when they weren’t in full shift. They walked and talked like any other man or woman on the streets, hence the reason they’d been able to live amongst the humans without detection for so long.

But there’d always been something different about Eli. From the first day Nivea had laid eyes on him she’d noticed it. His jaw was stronger, more pronounced than his twin’s, his muscles more defined right down to the strength in his hands and the corded veins that never quite went away. While Stateside Shadows trained to keep their animalistic nature safely secure, Eli was the only one who wasn’t totally able to achieve that. Hence, the sunglasses to keep anyone from seeing the bright gold of his cat’s eyes. He exuded strength and power and the keen hunter’s instincts of the jaguar that he was inside. There was no amount of training or warning that could change that.