chapter SEVENTEEN
They pulled the car to a stop a block away from Schemellie’s home. It had been easy, almost too easy. They didn’t seem the wiser; the two men never reentered the warehouse. Maybe they thought they’d given up and ran for the hills. Reed pushed out of the car, stared at the small-framed ranch. What a simple house, he thought as they moved toward the trunk of the car. He would have thought someone with such pull over other people’s lives would have had a more elaborate home. He’d envisioned wealth, power and greed.
He cut his gaze at Denver. She hadn’t said much the last few minutes. Uncertainty etched between her brows. Had she changed her mind? What thoughts clogged her brain at that moment?
“Are you okay?”
“Super.” Her voice cut through him like a knife.
He paused, stared at her. “We—you don’t have to do this.”
“Oh, yes I do.” She curved the corner of her mouth, easing some of the frustration.
Reed glanced up and down the deserted block. No wonder the man got away with so much. The houses on the street were sparse and the ones present were dark, the curtains drawn and the porch lamps out, some deserted. For sale signs peppered the lawns of several homes. He opened the trunk, grabbed both men by the arm and lifted them from the trunk. He dragged their bodies across the lawn and stopped a few feet from Schemellie’s front porch. It surprised him they hadn’t awakened yet.
“Damn, Denver. You sure you didn’t kill um.” He touched his fingers to the first man’s neck and nodded when the heartbeat pulsed under his fingertips.
As if she read his mind, Denver sat the men up, tied their hands behind their backs and turned them to face each other. She then drew roping around their bodies and loosely secured them together, their faces inches apart. Reed pulled a small pinecone shaped object from his pocket. He taped it to one man’s mouth, and after knotting the detonating pin to a string, wrapped it around the second man’s neck.
“Shouldn’t we wake them?” she whispered.
“Naw. Let them figure it out by themselves.”
He found a permanent marker in the glove compartment of the car and wrote on each man’s forehead boom, you’re dead.
“You’re an evil man, Reed.” She laughed as they started back to the car.
“Oh wait.” He turned, strolled back to the men, pulled Laura’s personal articles from his pockets and tucked them deep into the men’s.
Once in the car, Reed shifted into drive and pulled away from the curb. He honked the horn until porch lights came on.
“I’m tired, Denver.”
“I know.” She reached over and rubbed his arm, her hand warm against his skin.
He shook his head, glanced at her and then back to the road. “No, Denver, not that kind of tired,” he said, thinking she thought fatigue from lack of sleep.
“I know what you mean and so am I. You’ve been fighting this war for a long time, Reed. You can’t be anything but.” She squeezed his arm and then closed her eyes. “Will it ever be over?”
He couldn’t answer, didn’t know how. There would always be someone, something out there hating them for what they were. Maybe, just maybe when it was over he could find a little piece of earth where it didn’t matter. He could only hope.
An hour later they dragged their tired bodies into the hotel and Denver crawled onto the bed. Denver fell into sleep like a pebble in a pond. Reed quickly showered and then lay down on the bed beside her. He pulled Denver close to his body, wrapped his arms around her and savored the feel of her against him. Their bond grew closer each day they were together. Tonight, they worked as if they were in each other’s mind. God, he was going to miss her but he knew he’d have to let her go.
He’d not force her to stay with him. No, that wouldn’t be right. His heart sank as he contemplated the nights ahead when he’d be alone. He’d gone down that road before and didn’t like it. Leaning in, he placed a chaste kiss on her forehead, just wanting to feel her skin, her warmth against his lips. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared up at him.
“Reed.” Her voice cracked. She licked her lips and tried to speak again.
“Shh.” He silenced her with the touch of his finger to her mouth. “Go back to sleep.”
“Don’t want to.” She rose up on her elbow. “Too wired.”
“If I hadn’t touched you, you would be in REM sleep by now.” He stroked a hand down her arm.
“We work well together,” her voice slurred.
“That we do.”
She stifled a yawn.
“See. Go to sleep. We’ll regroup in the morning.”
She closed her eyes, cuddled closer to him and allowed him to pull her into his embrace. He knew she needed it as much as he did. She nodded against his chest, sighed and fell back to sleep. The clock on the table illuminated four am before he closed his eyes.
* * *
Denver slid her body from under Reed’s grasp. He hadn’t let her go the entire time she’d been asleep. Even in her dream state she knew it was him who held her. Her heart beat, her breathing in sync with his. She moved toward the bathroom, paused and stared at his sleeping form, a lump of emotion clogged her throat. Somewhere along the line he’d found a special place in her heart. She’d threatened to leave him when it was over, but wondered if she could.
She closed the door and turned on the water to the shower. She hadn’t fed and her stomach growled against the hunger. Her body whimpered. It was relentless. Reed was right. She was going to have to feed, one way or the other and it was probably going to be from him. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Somewhere along the ride she’d gotten attached to him. Shaking her head, she slid the shower door back. She adjusted the water to full force and stepped directly under the stream and allowed the heated blast to cascade across her skin. It stung like a million tiny bees, awakening her nerve endings.
She’d been so engrossed in the water saturating her body she didn’t hear the door open. She didn’t hear Reed when he entered and leaned against the vanity.
“Did you get any sleep?” His voice startled her. She grabbed the wall to steady herself.
“Damn it, Reed.” She stared at him through the fogged glass. “You scared me.”
“Sorry,” his voice was raspy.
She slid the door open, settled her gaze on his face. Fatigue clouded his eyes. “You should be sleeping.”
He hunched a shoulder but didn’t speak, blew out a breath. “Probably, but I can say the same about you.” He turned to leave the bathroom.
“Reed.”
He paused but didn’t turn around. “There’s something else I’d like instead.” She slid the door open wider.
He turned, stared at her for the briefest of seconds, and when she smiled, he tugged his shirt from his pants and over his head. He paused again before pushing his pants below his hips and stepping out of them.
His hand gripped the edge of the door, right where her hand had been. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, a slow movement of her head as she stepped to the side to make room for him to enter the shower. “I was thinking a bit ago. I might have been dreaming, I’m not sure, but we’ve…” her voice trailed off. She diverted her gaze to the floor of the tub. Reed tapped her chin with the finger of one hand and drew her gaze back to his face.
“We’ve never really made love, have we?” He completed her sentence, her thoughts. “Not without the blood lust.”
“Not ever.”
With those words he leaned forward, crushed his mouth to hers and stole her breath, her essence, her everything. The water slid down his body, and pooled at his feet. Her hands foamy from the soap glided across his chest, down his arms. His muscles bunched and relaxed to her touch, soft moans escaped his throat, sending wave after wave of heat to her core. Her hands grasped the nape of his neck, pulled his head toward her as she rolled up onto her toes and captured his mouth with hers. His hands grabbed her hips, lifted her.
“Wrap your legs around me,” he growled, as he lifted her higher, his steeled shaft impaling her instantly.
She heard herself cry out when he filled her to the core. Glorious, absolutely glorious sensations flooded her body, her mind. Reed pressed her back against the tiled shower wall. The coolness of the tiles, the heat of his body along with the slickness of the water plummeted her body into orgasm with the first pump of his hips. Reed’s mouth captured her scream, swallowed it. Flinging her head back, she grabbed his shoulders, her nails digging, kneading, gouging.
“More.” He was still hard inside her body. His hips pumped his cock wildly in and out of her sheath, awakening nerve endings with each thrust.
“Oh, God. Reed!” She clenched her muscles, tightened her legs around his body and met him stroke for magnificent stroke. She knew the instant their worlds collided.
Reed stopped his assault, gulped in mouthfuls of air in an attempt to slow the inevitable. It didn’t help. She wrapped her arms around his body, her legs tighter around his hips and surged on.
“Take me to the bed! To the bed!” She screamed the words.
Reed slung the shower door open, stepped over the rim and out the bathroom. Her body still connected to his. His legs shook with each step. Her body ground around his cock with each pulse of his muscles. Reed crawled up on the bed, laid her on her back and again began a slow glide of his body against hers.
“You’re killing me, Denver.” His voice was ragged, heat filled.
The world was collapsing around her. Light fractured. The air evaporated. Sensations she’d never felt before overtook her body. Just when she thought her orgasm would overtake all rational thought he stopped. She gasped for air, arched her hips up to him, her body begging for release. Reed pulled back, stopped just short of disconnecting and gazed down into her face.
“Could you really give up what we have?” He pulled out, flipped her to her stomach and after grabbing her hips pulled her to her knees.
His shaft, hard as a steel rod and just as wide, slid between her engorged folds, once again wrapping her heated sex around his shaft. In and out, he pumped into her, scraping against already sensitive nerve endings. He’d pull almost out of her, the head of his rod at the tip of her opening and then he’d surge back in, each pass shoving her closer to rapture. Each pass stole her breath, escalated her heartbeat.
Light spiraled around her, shooting prisms of multicolored starburst through her brain. She rapidly shook her head in an attempt to regain control. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Wonderful. Deep down she thought it would be mediocre at best, not erotic and heat filled. All this time she thought the heat, the passion was from the blood lust. Never in her mind’s eye did she think it was anything real, something she could grab hold of and keep close to her heart. She was wrong, dead wrong. She thought that’s what she needed to fill the belief that she needed to leave. But how could she leave him if it really was love? Did she love him? That was an emotion that evaded her for decades. She’d never been in love before. Until--
She gasped for much needed air. She needed some semblance of control. But he wouldn’t give it to her. Not this time.
Reed’s hand slid around her body. One stroke across her throbbing * and she exploded. All thought vanished. She vaguely remembered hearing him growl, moan, scream as she fractured around him. His voice paramount to hers and she loved every second of it. Reed shattered with her, his seed filling her, slicking thrust as he continued to pump into her body.
What seemed like hours passed before he laid her down, his body covering her like a blanket, his shaft still pulsing within her throbbing heat. There was no talking to be done. They couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. He rolled her to her side and wrapped his arms around her. Each movement rasping awakened nerve endings against his cock.
She could feel him tighten, swell. Slowly, Reed pumped his hips as one hand toyed with her peaked nipples while the other toyed with her sensitive nub. She couldn’t get enough air. He was killing her.
“Give me--” his voice purred against her ear. “One… more.”
With those simple words her world exploded. Shockwave after shockwave racked her body. Sweat glistened her skin. Spent and sated, she was paralyzed. Every muscle in her body had turned to mush. He slid from her and she missed the connection immediately. Reed grabbed the sheet and tugged it up to cover their sweat drenched bodies.
He kissed the nape of her neck, along her shoulder. One arm wrapped around her body, his hand cupped her breast, the other cupped her mound. “Now, get some sleep.”
She closed her eyes, sighed and dropped into sleep, her body and mind too exhausted to object.
***
Reed laid there with his eyes closed listening to the soft purrs of Denver’s breathing. Tectonic bursts of sensation continued to rack his body. What was she doing to him? She’d made him feel things he never thought possible. But what now? He’d been dead without her. Even as breath entered and escaped his lungs, life would cease to exist if he couldn’t hold her in his arms, make love to her, feel her heart beat against his chest. So he’d finally admitted it to himself. He could no more let her leave than he could walk away.
It was as if a band had been released from his chest. He inhaled a cleansing breath, let it out and sucked in another. The soft smile that tugged the corners of his mouth soothed him almost as much as her silken skin against his body. He planted another kiss against the back of her neck and closed his eyes.