Authors: Lora Leigh
Dane smiled at that. “I’m not the first Leo, Harm. But should I ever run across him, I’ll be certain to pass the message along.”
He straightened, staring down at her, his emerald eyes brilliant even in the darkness.
“You’re a Breed,” she whispered then. “I think I’ve always…”
He laid his finger across her lips. “Go in peace, little lioness. And should you need me…” His hand slid to the small tracker hidden beneath her hair. “I’ll always be close.”
She watched as he turned then and moved toward the vehicles parked at the edge of the grass.
“Give Jonas my regards,” he called back as he disappeared into the shadows. “And tell him we will meet again.”
It sounded like a warning.
Harmony rushed back to Lance’s hospital room then, slipping past the nurse on watch and sliding into the room to hide in the shadows as she had the night before. If they caught her, they always ran her off. And she always returned.
The curtains were still partially closed across the wide windows that looked out onto the nurses’ station, allowing her to slide into the chair next to the bed.
Harmony let her fingertips touch his, aware of the tubes and wires that led from his body to the machines next to the bed. She needed that contact. Needed to feel his warmth, to share her own.
She laid her head at the end of the mattress and sighed deeply. She couldn’t believe he was alive. That he was breathing, that the surgeons were certain he would recover, with few complications. The miracle of it still managed to weaken her knees and bring tears to her eyes.
“Harmony…” The fragile thread of sound had her eyes jerking open as she lifted her head and stared up at him.
His eyes were slitted open, the dark blue color clear and lucid as he stared back at her.
“Lance. Oh God… Lance.” She lifted her hand, touched his brow, his cheek, his lips. “Are you thirsty? In pain…?”
“Shhh…” That thread of sound. A gentle croon that eased her as nothing else could have.
“You’re going to be fine… The doctors…”
“Shhh,” he whispered again.
She frowned down at him.
“I love you,” he whispered, his voice a bit slurred and weak.
His hand moved then, his fingers lifting to reach out to her, to touch her abdomen. The warmth speared into her, spread through her.
“It’s a son.”
Her breath caught at his words.
“I love you, Lance Jacobs,” she whispered then. “And the minute you’re well, I’m going to kick your ass for what you did.”
“Shhh… Kiss me, baby. Let me feel you. Let me know I lived…”
She leaned down and let her lips touch his. Brief though it was, a tentative caress, it was an affirmation of life.
“I love you…” she whispered, her lips feathering over his, her gaze locked with his. “Always.”
And he smiled. “Always.”
EPILOGUE
T
HREE
M
ONTHS
L
ATER
W
ASHINGTON
, D.C.
Jonas twisted his hips, slamming them against his partner, feeling the hot, tight clasp of her pussy around his aching erection, the slick, liquid heat that surrounded him, and calculating her rise to orgasm.
Her hands slicked over his back, sharp little nails piercing his flesh as long blond hair wrapped around them like damp strands of silk.
Bracing his knees on the bed between her spread thighs, he pumped into her, eyes narrowed as he watched her pleasure-filled face and held back his own release. Ladies first. It wasn’t so much a motto as part of his sexual training. The scientists had wondered if pleasure and sexual release would overcome the genetic encoding that prevented female Breed conception. It hadn’t, but Jonas had excelled so quickly in bringing that pleasure that he had become the lab’s resident stud.
He was used to seduce wives, daughters and buttoned-down professionals associated with the targets the Council sought. Women talked to their lovers, especially women experiencing the full flush of their first experience with a man who knew all the intricate paths to completion, such as Jonas did.
As he stroked inside the tempting little lawyer, finding all the delicate little nerve-ridden areas within her soft pussy, his hands caressed and petted. His lips stroked over sweat-dampened flesh, nipping, licking, kissing over sensitive skin.
His pleasure came from hers, as odd as that should have been. Here, the only pain was the agony of need, of hunger that began to fill the air with her rising moans. Her hands gripped his biceps now, her hips lifting against him, pushing his cock farther inside her as he felt the warning ripples of release stroke over his dick.
Her gasping cries were rising in crescendo as he felt the rippling waves of sensation begin to pulse in his balls. He could have come thirty minutes before. Instead, he had kept moving, sliding inside the rich, hot depths of her cunt as she shuddered beneath him.
She was insensate with pleasure. Her eyes were glazed with it, her body flushed with it and soaked with sweat. Her head twisted on the sheets a second before her breath caught, her body jerking helplessly beneath his as her pussy sucked at his cock before tightening further and letting go the sweet, fiery moisture of release.
Jonas gave in to his own pleasure then, one hand gripping her hip as he began to shaft her furiously, fucking into her with furious strokes until his release whipped through him.
He held inside her, his semen spurting into the tight channel as he gritted his teeth and pumped against her, determined to wring each ounce of pleasure from the experience.
It was rare for him to feel anything beyond the driving need to ensure Breed security. At least here, he could immerse himself in warmth, allow it to touch him, if only for a brief time.
As the final pulses of release rippled through his cock, he knew it wasn’t enough though. The restlessness that haunted his working hours was beginning to drift into these hours of pleasure as well. A vague dissatisfaction he had never known before while copulating. And it was starting to piss him off.
Inhaling deeply as the final shudders of release vibrated through his muscles, Jonas eased back from Jess’s hold on him, sliding from the silken depths of her pussy as he ran a hand over the spiky length of his hair. He needed a haircut.
He was aware of her eyes opening as he moved from the bed and headed for the bathroom to wash up. She would be a few more moments before she rose behind him.
“You know, one of these days, you’re going to find a woman you can’t get up and walk away from,” she murmured long minutes later, as he padded back from the bathroom, refreshed by a quick shower.
He grunted at the observation as he began to dress. He had work to do, and playing lovers’ games wasn’t on his agenda. He had a spy to find, and he was now one step closer to trapping her.
Propping the pillows behind her back, Jess stared back at him from intelligent gray eyes, an amused smile on her kiss-swollen lips.
“We need to move on the case pending against the Breed found beaten to death last week,” Jess commented as he pulled on his socks before picking up his slacks. “I want those supremacists under Breed Law rather than international law. I’m sure the Ruling Cabinet can find a way to make them regret the errors of their ways.”
“I disagree.” He speared her with a dark look. “Let the justice system have them and oversee the case against them. The press will have a field day with it. A Breed videotaped attempting
not
to hurt its captors, to merely escape, and being beaten nearly to death for his efforts. It will engender sympathy and compassion as well as outrage. Kill them, and the Breeds will be seen as no better than those striking against them.”
A frown flitted across her face. “We have a right to justice,” she said stiffly. “The same group raped and murdered that young female Breed the month before and you know it. We can’t let this continue.”
“Once they’re free, I’ll take care of them.” He pulled the silk shirt over his shoulders and buttoned it before tucking it into his pants. “Such people disappear all the time. For now, it’s better to let the humans believe they are policing themselves.”
It helped that one of Alonzo’s lieutenants had been found dead at the scene of Harmony and Lance’s attack. Pinning the blame for the sheriff’s near murder on the supremacist group had gone a long way to fracturing much of their power.
A bit of careful maneuvering and Jonas had laid in the groundwork for the demise of the assassin known as Death as well. He had laid it right at the feet of the supremacist lieutenant Harmony had killed.
To Jonas, that was justice. Harmony was now safe in Broken Butte with her mate, and those who suspected her as Death could no longer speak to betray her.
“These games of yours are going to get someone killed,” Jess finally said and sighed as he finished dressing.
His smile was tight, cold. “Most likely,” he agreed. “Blood supremacists and those damned purist groups if I have my way about it. The world would be better off without them.”
“And so they say about the Breeds.” She shook her head as she rose from her bed. “I’ll make certain the case goes to trial, but you have twelve jurors who may well let them off.” It wasn’t unknown. Convicting the supremacists was never easy.
“Making them disappear is easy enough.” The fact that they would get off didn’t bother him nearly as much as the fear that it wouldn’t go to trial.
If they succeeded in beating the charges after the clear proof that they had committed the crime, then he would know which direction he needed to go in terms of raising awareness to the prejudice that threatened the Breeds. Anything could be worked, especially emotion.
Until then, he needed to refine his plan to draw out the first Leo. If the Breeds were lucky, he could squeeze out another year before the world learned of the mating heat. Hopefully, this would give him and the scientists working on the phenomena time to learn the secrets of the delayed aging.
Callan Lyons, the Pride leader, was over forty now; according to his tests and his physical appearance, he might have aged a year since his mating, though Jonas doubted it. Kane Tyler, the human mate to Sherra, Callan’s adopted feline sister, hadn’t aged either. Nor had the women. Speculation was already growing, and keeping them out of the public eye was next to impossible. The situation was becoming explosive, especially with the spy working within Sanctuary.
But there would always be spies. Betrayal was commonplace to Jonas. That didn’t mean he had to let the spies live once he learned their identities.
“You’re zoning out again, Jonas.” Jess’s crisp voice had him gazing back at her as he pushed his feet into his soft leather wing-tip shoes and sat down to tie them.
He preferred boots, but he’d learned that in this arena of warfare, appearance meant everything.
“I have work to do, Jess.” Playtime was over. “Take care of your end and I’ll take care of mine.”
Her laughter was smooth, and surprisingly warm. It was rare that he could piss her off, though sometimes he did try.
“Watching you mate is going to be so much fun,” she drawled as his gaze jerked up to her, his eyes narrowing.
“I’m not mated,” he reminded her carefully.
“Not yet.” The open amusement on her face was damned offensive. “But when you do, it’s going to be so funny, Jonas. I hope I’m there to see it.”
Figured. And who said the females were the gentle ones? They had no idea what they were talking about.
“I have work to do.” He rose to his feet and headed to the bedroom door. “I’ll see you at the office in the morning. Remember we have to fly to Sanctuary.”
Damned Vanderale Industries was threatening to pull the plug on the deal for weapons and vehicles the Breeds needed. They were sending one of their representatives in to discuss their concerns with the Ruling Cabinet. Just what the hell he needed, another damned liability walking into Sanctuary.
The woman they were sending wasn’t even a major force within the far-flung holdings Vanderale owned. She was a damned paper pusher. A buttoned-down little prude that made him shudder at the thought of the funds that were likely to be cut off. Not that Sanctuary couldn’t survive without them, but hell, it would bite to lose their support within the international community.
He also needed to meet with Ely to see if any of the readings coming from the implant beneath Harmony’s scalp meant anything. The cryptic message they had received three months ago with the frequency for the GPS locator she possessed had saved her and Lance’s lives. Ely reported her suspicions a month later that the feedback from the implant appeared to hold more information than just her location.
As he ran through the list of tasks ahead of him in the coming week, prioritized and filed them, he moved from Jess’s home. He was aware of the team of Breed bodyguards that met him outside and the limo waiting on him. His eyes scanned the area, his senses automatically picking up the sights and smells of the night, the absence of danger.
Which was rare enough.
As he settled back into the limo, he opened the briefcase waiting on him and pulled out the first file. It was time to get back to work. He was getting closer to their spy, and soon he would be closer to the first Leo. He wasn’t giving up.
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