“I’ll play with you if I want to, princess.” Her hair slid over one breast, and he pushed the soft strands aside. “We fit, hmm?” He pulled out, then rammed back into her heat, making her moan.
“We’d fit better if you’d stop teasing. You’re driving me crazy.” She clenched his hips with her knees.
Derrick couldn’t help grinning. “Crazy, hmm? That’s good. Real good.” He pulled out, resting at her entrance. Leaning down, he took one taut nipple in his mouth and played, sucking and nipping until she begged him to stop. Then he moved to her other breast.
He couldn’t remember ever feeling so damned pleased with a partner.
Holding her down, forcing her to surrender to his touch, the commanding position eased the knot of hunger normally holding him apart from his lovers. Taking his fellow Circs during a mating heat was instinctive and necessary. But he was never in control then, no matter who was on top. Even with the normal women he sought for sex, he could never fully satiate his desire for submission. What Derrick wanted, no normal woman could give him.
Sabrina, however, was handling all of him and giving it right back. His shoulders ached from her nails -- her claws -- as did his hips. But the throbbing only accentuated the pulsing desire in his dick.
As he laved her breast, he reached between them and fondled her taut clit. The nub was wet, saturated with her cream and his seed. Rubbing with soft motions, he felt his own need build once more. He didn’t want his hand there, he wanted his dick there. Pushing, touching, easing though her pussy into that hot heaven promising ecstasy.
Derrick removed his hand. Wanting more, he moved back and flipped her onto her hands and knees. He mounted her from behind and reached a hand around to continue teasing her clit. Without giving her a chance to protest, he thrust deep, grunting his pleasure when she screamed and came around him. Her pussy sucked him deeper, and he wasn’t surprised when he found his own release moments later.
She was still pulsing around him when he leaned down and put his mouth over the bruise he’d left on her. He couldn’t stop himself from biting, drawing the smallest amount of blood that only confirmed what he knew. She was Circ, and she was his…just for right now.
Still high on lust, it took him a moment to clear his head. When he did, he realized he had done more than mark Sabrina’s neck. Her wrists, arms, and breasts had bruises on them.
Derrick had never in his life manhandled a woman who didn’t want it, and he should have been horrified at what he’d done. Derrick the man was.
His beast purred.
“You okay?” was all he could manage.
“You’re doing that cat thing again,” Sabrina mumbled as she backed her ass tighter against him, clutching his cock inside her. “You feel so damned good. I want to rub myself all over you.” Turning to look over her shoulder, she blinked up at him with lazy satisfaction.
His worry that he’d hurt her faded. “God, what did you do to me?” She ran her tongue over her teeth. “My teeth are really sharp.”
“It’s not me, honey. It’s your beast coming out to play.” He rotated his cock inside her.
“Damn, girl. I’ve never been this horny, not in all the days I’ve been Circ. I just came twice, and I want to fuck you again. Pearl must have given you some magic juice, because you are the sexiest thing I’ve ever kissed.”
She shuddered under him, so much smaller and softer. So much paler. He sobered in the darkness, no longer so lost in his needs that he didn’t see how much more dangerous she was to him now. How damned appealing he found her, despite knowing she worked for Pearl.
Trying to shake free of his dark thoughts, he resolved to remain in control. “You’re so sleek and pretty.” He stroked her back, pleased when she arched into him. “You going to purr with me, honey?”
“I don’t know,” she said, getting her wind back. “You going to beat me if I don’t?” He flexed inside her. “Oh, baby, I’d love to beat you. To spank that ass bright red, before I fuck it.”
She stilled, and he smiled.
“What, Sabrina? Never been ass-fucked before?”
“No, and I plan to keep it that way.” She wiggled her hips, as if to dislodge him.
“Please. You’re not going anywhere unless I let you.” He loved that fact. “I’m in charge, honey. Remember that, and we’ll get along. Where do you belong, Sabrina? You said it before. Say it again. Whose are you?”
She shook her head and tried to move away, but he wouldn’t let her.
“We can stay here all night. In fact, we can wait for Hale and the others to join us. I bet they’d love a piece of this ass.” He palmed her cheeks, aware she trembled, and not from fear.
Arousal drenched the air around them, both his and hers.
She swore. “I’m yours, dammit.”
He chuckled and spanked her, because he could.
She shook and moaned, and then pissed him off when she added, “I’m yours, or now f-.”
“Uh-uh, princess. That’s no way to behave. Let’s work on that obedience, hmm? After I drain my cock and you come a few more times, then you can tell me everything I want to know. Starting with why you ran so hard from the PPA when you clearly have a death wish.
Why not stand your ground and let them finish the job?”
“No…death…wish,” she breathed when he ground against her. “You’re too big,” she complained, contradicting herself when she tried to back harder into his pelvis, pushing his cock even deeper.
He knew she had to be somewhat uncomfortable, because she was so damned tight around him. But the whole situation smacked of his possession, and he refused to give her any relief. Instead, he remained still as he thickened again, stretching her. “If you didn’t have a death wish, you wouldn’t have tried to choke Caitlyn. Not with Roane around. But don’t worry, princess. We’ll get to that soon enough. Right now, I have a need to come again.” Derrick was a smart man, one who knew how to use his time wisely. He needed to fuck Sabrina out of his system. Only then could he rebuild those walls guarding his heart and his head from this woman. Because no matter how sexy he found her, Sabrina Torrence was still the enemy. And he’d do well to remember that.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…shame on me.
Hours later, Sabrina winced when Derrick pulled her to her feet. She wouldn’t have believed it, but she’d had more orgasms in one night than she’d had in her entire life. Her body felt like one giant nerve, exposed and uncomfortable. The same way she felt around Derrick.
Hell. I can’t think of him as Packard anymore. Not after all this.
“Come on, princess. It’s a long walk back.”
She found it odd no one had come after her but Derrick, but she wouldn’t question her good fortune. “Quit calling me ‘princess.’”
He chuckled. Apparently, great sex could tame even the most dangerous of men. “But the shoe fits, baby. What do your friends call you?”
“I don’t have any friends.” As soon as she said it, she felt pathetic. Still, it was the truth.
“Working for Pearson Labs, I’m not surprised,” he murmured and fell into step beside her.
As they walked in companionable silence, Sabrina realized Derrick wore nothing but the skin God gave him. Granted, her clothes were in tatters, but they still managed to cover the important parts. But Derrick…
“You’re naked,” she blurted.
“Yeah. That happens a lot with the change. You’ll see when it happens to you.”
“What do you mean?” She tried for ignorance.
“Cut the bullshit. You and I both know you’re not human. Now that I’ve tasted you, I can sense the Circ buried deep.” He smacked his lips. “Princess, you are so damned sweet.
Best pussy I’ve ever had, I don’t mind telling you.”
“Thanks. Great to know I rank high among the competition,” she muttered, astonished to feel jealousy at his mention of others.
Derrick laughed. “You know, even though you’re PPA, I like your attitude. You don’t take much shit from anyone, do you? I still can’t believe you made a move on Roane’s mate.” He whistled, and she stopped to look at him. He stopped with her. “Takes balls, which we sure know you don’t have,” he said suggestively, eyeballing her up and down. “So it must be that suicidal tendency we were talking about.”
“That you were talking about.” She huffed but followed him when he resumed their trip back. Walking side by side clearly illustrated how much larger than her he was. She fought to ignore his muscular thighs, that firm ass she wanted so badly to bite, and the heavy shaft hanging between his legs. Even flaccid, he was huge. She flushed, recalling how right he’d fit inside of her. Amazingly, her desire spiked anew, though she hadn’t the energy to do more than fantasize about sex with him at the moment.
Think about other things, Sabrina. “When I worked for Elliot Pearl -- not the PPA -- I had to watch what he did to those people he turned into Circs. He locked them up like animals.” She swallowed hard, remembering their cries of rage and pain. “They were a danger to everyone, even themselves.”
“And you never had a hand in it? In making them into psychos?” He sounded skeptical, and she couldn’t blame him.
“No.” She sighed. “I sound like an idiot, but in my defense, I was young and stupid. I really thought what we were doing would save lives. Too many of our military die in hostile situations. Why not give our troops an edge? I know a lot about the Circs. Your skin is thicker, your senses keener. Hell, you can run for miles without getting winded, and those fangs and claws do real damage.
“I wasn’t privy to the missions you actually did when the original Project Dawn was up and running, but we heard things. You guys did a lot of good.” He looked uncomfortable. “We did our jobs.”
But at what price? “No one had any idea there would be such severe problems, especially not after almost four and a half years.”
“Pearl knew. But he was too interested in looking good to do the right thing.” Derrick gave her a funny look. “You weren’t, though, were you? According to you, I should be on my knees, praising you for taking down the project.”
“Look, I know you won’t believe me.” And I shouldn’t care. “But it took a lot for me to do what I did. If they had found out, I’d have been court-martialed and sent to the brig. I disseminated classified documents to uncleared people, to the press.”
“Really? Because I never saw anything about it in the papers.”
“You can’t really be that stupid. The government squelched any possibility of public notice in a heartbeat.” She liked the scowl he sent her. Good to know she annoyed him as much as he vexed her. “Let me ask you this, genius. How do you think Senator Kuntz and General Shields got wind of what the hell went down? It wasn’t because either man had contacts within the organization. Pearl hated both of them with a passion. The medical personnel were never to tell anyone anything about what we did or saw, and we signed paperwork to ensure our silence. One peep and we’d be declared traitors, threats to national security.
“We all knew how much Pearl hated Kuntz and Shields. That’s why I sent them files they otherwise never would have seen, files that were supposed to crush Project Dawn without question. I knew stuff even Doc didn’t know.” Derrick remained silent as they walked. He lifted her over a large log before she could think to climb over it. Other than that, he didn’t touch her. Minutes passed.
“It always bothered me that Doc’s name never came up when the project died,” he said softly. “Sure, he helped us make a new life out here, but I always wondered what part he played in the breakdown of Project Dawn. He’s never said.”
Now that he was listening, she wanted to tell him what she knew. “I was low in the chain of command. No one told me anything. I did my job, but I always kept my eyes and ears open. I saw a lot they never knew about. Doc didn’t even have access to most of Pearl’s files. They used to fight about it, and Pearl threatened to have Doc removed from the project.” A sudden realization occurred to her. “I think Doc laid low because he wanted to be there to help. He was probably afraid that if he left, you guys wouldn’t have made it, let alone had the resources you have now.”
She’d seen Doc a few times during their shared time in Project Dawn. At the time, she’d thought him another disgruntled scientist, not that she’d disagreed with his rants about Pearl. Still, he hadn’t done what needed doing. No one else had, either. And more innocents died as rogue Circs rampaged. When the few good Circs began dying, falling prey to their manic brethren, Sabrina knew she had to act.
“That’s quite a theory,” Derrick murmured. His gaze rested thoughtfully on her face before turning back to their surroundings. “So you knew Doc when the project was running.
Did we meet? Because I don’t remember. And I’d remember you.” She flushed, the heat in his words making her tingle. “I saw all of you at one time or another, but it was brief. I never worked with your squad. I saw pictures and read your files, files I wasn’t supposed to read. Elliot Pearl doesn’t like you very much.” The man had called Derrick a killing machine and feared he’d never amount to much more.
“Now you’ve hurt my feelings.” Derrick flashed sharp teeth as he grinned.
“Actually, Hale was Pearl’s favorite. He had plans to make Hale his personal security guard, his right-hand man.” She grimaced. “But McKinley took that job a few years ago.
Came out of nowhere. He’s different than any Circ I’ve ever met.”
“Rogue?”
“No. And that’s what’s odd. He’s more feral, a helluva lot more dangerous. I get the feeling that he’s working on his own agenda at the labs.” She couldn’t be sure, but she could swear he’d helped her when she’d escaped the labs with Kelly. McKinley was smart, yet he hadn’t questioned why she’d chosen to leave by way of the elevators that led, not to the laboratories, but to the outside. No matter how many times she’d reviewed her escape, his actions made no sense.
“Sabrina?”
“Huh? Sorry, just thinking about McKinley.”
Derrick stiffened. “Why?”
“He’s scary, but something about him doesn’t add up.”
“Funny. We’ve never seen him. Never even heard of him until you just brought it up.
Why’s that, I wonder?”
“Well, don’t look at me. I’m the one here under armed guard.” Aware she felt no threat from Derrick, she couldn’t help glancing at his hands. Thankfully, his claws remained sheathed.