One Down: Bayou Heat (Pantera Security League Book 1) (8 page)

Or suckling her sweet nipples while he made her cry out again. Just the thought had his dick pulsing.

Down, you rabid motherfucker.

A soft buzzing sound at his side stole his attention. He’d removed his cell from his back pocket the night before and placed it right next to his side, along with his gun. Without waking Hallie, he grabbed it.
Shit. A text from Zagan.
What was he doing?

Where the fuck are you, C?

Delayed.

Delayed or getting laid?

What’s the problem, Z?

The big boss is sending me to L.A.

Shit. Sry.

You know I can’t go back there.

No choice.

We always have a choice.

Not if you want to stay a ghost.

Looks like I’m going to be resur-fucking-rected in L.A.

Steer clear of her.

Impossible. I’ll be able to smell her the second I cross the border into Cali.

Beside him, Hallie stirred. He glanced at her and his chest tightened.
Gotta go, Z. Stay safe.

Yeah. U too.

Slipping the phone back onto the rocks, Cerviel turned to the beautiful female who was making him consider the oath he’d taken, the rules he’d broken last night—remaining a ghost. How was he going to manage it? Having her and having the PSL? Because sure as shit he wasn’t giving up either.

Resisting the urge to climb on top of her and lick his way down her body until he reached the cream his cat wanted so badly to taste, he gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. But instead of waking, stretching, she sighed and clung to him even tighter.

He ground his teeth. If his dick got any harder the thing was going to fall off.

“Kitten,” he whispered in a measured yet gravelly tone.

She snuggled into his neck.

“We should go.” His voice was anything but calm, cool. Every inch of him was sending out shock waves. The vibration had to be felt miles away, it was so intense. This female was going to be his addiction. One he couldn’t and wouldn’t shake. He could feel it. And if she woke up, she was going to feel it too. Pressing insistently against her thigh.

“Hallie…” he warned.

“No,” she said on a very feminine groan, grinding her sex against the outside of his hipbone. “Not yet.”

His eyes were going to roll into the back of his motherfucking head any second. “We don’t have much time.”

“How long?” she asked, lapping at his neck with her hot tongue.

He sucked air between his teeth and clenched his hands into fists. “Half hour max.”

“Perfect,” she whispered, kissing his neck, biting as she slid her hand down his chest and into the waistband of his jeans. “I can make that work.” He could feel her smile against his skin as she took his cock in her hand and squeezed. “I can definitely make that work.”

* * *

After the most perfect night of sleep, warm from this male’s body, safe because of this male’s promise, all Hallie wanted was to feel him on top of her, beneath her, against her…

Inside her.

So deep there would be no question to whom she belonged.

Maybe she was crazy to feel the way she did. Aching. Desperate to be completely taken and consumed by this male after five years of imprisonment and being forced…

No
. Why did she even have to question herself? Her motives? For taking what she wanted? Asking for what she wanted? She deserved everything good and real. That heinous part of her life was over. She was the boss now. She took and gave because
she
wanted to. Because the brokenness inside her was slowly starting to repair with every kiss she gave and every smile he offered.

As she had the thought, her lips curved into a smile of her own.
Mine. You’re mine, male
, she mused as she squeezed Cerviel’s shaft. He felt like hot, smooth steel in her hand, and her insides hummed with a want she was just barely starting to understanding.

“You’re unleashing a beast with that,” Cerviel uttered on a growl.

Her smile widened. “Oh, I hope so.” She couldn’t even fully grip him, he was so thick. But she could stroke him. Up and down, squeezing him tight, brushing her thumb over the tip, following and reveling in his groans of pleasure.

The cave was still bathed in darkness, though a strange, steely light was starting to creep inside, comingling with the fading light of the lantern. But it was enough to see him, watch the bands of muscle in his neck tighten and pulse with strain, watch his finely chiseled stomach tense with every ragged breath.

But it wasn’t enough to see…everything.

Releasing him momentarily, she grabbed the waist of his jeans and pulled them down to his ankles, then stripped them off completely. He wasn’t wearing underwear, and for a just a moment she gazed at him. Beautiful, majestic, predatory.

Mine
, she thought again as she crawled on top of him and straddled his hips.

Cerviel’s eyes widened and turned black with lust. And directly before her parted sex, his cock stood stiff and proud.

“Hallie,” he said, his voice threaded with barely contained desire. “If I lift you up and place you down on my shaft… If I’m inside you, so deep you can’t breathe, so deep I can’t think…you will belong to me.”

Her nipples tightened to buds, aching, desperate to be touched, and her pussy creamed against the shaft of his cock.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” he urged, his face a mask of unbridled tension. “I’m Pantera, a puma. I can’t possibly walk away from you after I’ve had you. I know that as I know my own name.”

The thing…inside her was growling, clawing at the edges of her skin. It wanted to get to him. It wasn’t to bite him.

“Please,” he begged. “I’ll let you go if I must. But push off me now…get dressed and wait outside—”

She didn’t let him finish. She was up, on her knees and with her eyes pinned to his, she sat down forcefully on his cock.

A gasp ripped from her throat at the deep invasion, and for a moment—a delicious moment—she couldn’t find air.

Cerviel let out a sound she’d never heard before in her life. Animal and male fused. And it did something to her. Caused a chemical reaction inside her. Her skin flushed, her breasts ached and inside her pussy, she felt anxious and wet. Very, very wet. And she had to move.

His hands closed around her hips and he started to rock her back and forward, every few seconds jacking up his hips to get himself deeper.

This was it, Hallie thought, her entire being humming with the music of this male’s body and soul and heart and promise. This was how sex, making love, even fucking should feel. Utterly free, completely safe, and wonderfully connected.

“You’re so tight, Hallie,” he said through gritted teeth. “So warm. Your sweet pussy is sucking me deep.”

Every word he uttered was like hot lightning exploding inside her body. Every thrust took her closer and closer to that amazing shatter of climax she’d experienced last night. But this time when she came her eyes would be on his—and they’d do it together.

“Cerviel,” she cried as she circled her hips, grinding herself against him, her wet heat against his soft hair.

“Yes,
ma chère
. Tell me.”

She shook her head and placed her hands on his chest, squeezing his pectoral muscles. “I just wanted to say it. Your name. On my tongue.”

He growled at her and thrust into her over and over until she whimpered. Then he dragged his hands from her hips to her ass. “Come here. Let me have that tongue.”

She was close, so close and if he kissed her, deep and hungry, she would fall over the edge and crash. But she followed his order—after all, he was her male—and leaned in, her hands bracketing his face.

“My kitten,” he said near her lips. And with a light swat her to left ass cheek, he took her mouth in a deep, everlasting kiss.

Hallie smiled with sexual heat. “Tell me again, Cerviel. Tell me what happens after this.”

He nipped at her lower lip, then swept her up in another hot kiss. “I can never let you go.”

It was there, on the cliff. She just had to take it. She started to move, her hips lifting and lowering, rotating and grinding at a mad and fevered pace. Not only was she going to take what was hers, but she was going to send him there too.

“Never,” he growled. “You’re mine. Oh, fuck, kitten!”

Hallie’s mind flashed red, then pink as she exploded. Her hands threaded in his hair and gripped his scalp. And as wave after wave crashed inside her, she held still, frozen, letting him take over, letting him pound into her as he too grabbed hold of the perfect bliss.

“Hallie,” he snarled and growled as his body went mad and his fingers dug into her ass. “So hot! So fucking hot and soft…”

The cave echoed with the slap of their bodies and the cries of their release.

Cerviel didn’t slow, not even as hot seed poured into her.

He was doing what a Pantera male did, she was certain of it. Something inside her understood and welcomed it.

He was marking her.

Good and deep and eternal.

Dawn had broken, along with his vows as a member of the PSL.

But did he have one shred of a regret?

Fuck. No.

He’d deal with that when they returned.

Cerviel glanced over at the female he and his cat now called
MINE
. She was dressed, like him, but her hair was gloriously wild and free and her eyes still held the glow of her climax. They’d both dressed quickly, knowing the trek was long, and that the chopper would soon be arriving. But even so, Cerviel couldn’t help himself. He went to her, took her hand and pulled her into his arms. The addiction. Wanting to feel her soft weight against him for as long as possible.

She released a sigh and let her head fall against his chest. They snuggled in silence for several minutes, then she tilted back her head to study him with a blatant curiosity.

“Why you?”

He gazed down at her beautiful face, trying to concentrate on her words when the only thing he wanted to do was kiss her, then remove her clothes again and lick her from head to toe.

“What?” he asked in absent tones.

“Why were you the one who came for me?”

He leaned in and kissed her nose. “You’re not complaining, are you? It might break my heart, female.”

A blush touched her cheeks. “I don’t think you’d believe me if I did complain. Not after you made me melt into a puddle of goo last night and this morning.”

He chuckled. He’d done his own share of melting. “Goo?” he teased.

She gave a firm nod. “Oh yeah.”

Cerviel allowed the tips of his fingers to trail up and down the curve of her back. He smiled when a small shiver raced through her body. “Is goo good?”

She rolled her eyes. “So good. But stop fishing for compliments and answer my question,” she commanded.

He paused. Usually he would have responded with a light quip that would have seemingly offered an explanation without telling her anything. He was a master at deflection and he could manipulate any conversation with an ease most politicians would envy.

But Hallie wasn’t like everyone else.

She held a special place that was changing all the rules in his life.

Every second he was with her.

“I’m not really supposed to discuss the mission,” he murmured, his loyalty to the league in conflict with his burgeoning loyalty to this female. He had to speak to Raphael. Once Hallie was recognized as his mate, things would be different. He would see to it.

She arched a brow. “Why not?”

“It’s a secret,” he told her.

Her lips twitched. “You have a secret identity?”

He gave a lift of one shoulder. “Actually, I do.” He could practically feel the leader of the Pantera behind him, holding a noose—handing him his walking papers.

“Hmm.” She laughed, clearly assuming that he was teasing her. “So what is it? CIA? Black ops?”

He exhaled. He’d never told anyone what he was about to reveal to her. “It’s the PSL,” he said. “The Pantera Security League.”

She laughed again, enjoying what she assumed was a game. “So you’re a puma Jason Bourne?”

That quip he couldn’t ignore. “With a better taste in clothes, I believe,” he said.

Something in his expression made her still, the smile fading from her lips.

“This isn’t a joke?”

“No,” he assured her, wondering what she would think of his work. Granted, he would never be able to tell her everything, but he fully intended to give her what he could. “It’s the truth, Hallie. Cerviel isn’t even my real name, my birth name.”

She eased away from him, studying him with a searching gaze. “What is it, then?”

He shook his head. “I can’t even recall it. It’s dead and buried. Each of us in the league took a new name. The name of an angel. Both light and dark.” His brow lifted. “We thought it fitting.”

Her eyes were wide and stunned as she took in what he was telling her. “Who was Cerviel?”

“He was a Principality angel.” He felt his chin lifting as he explained, pride in the work he’d done over the many years. “He brought wisdom and encouragement to those facing challenges.”

Her expression changed from shock to a soft understanding. “That does sound like you,” she said with a gentle smile. “What does the league do?”

“Our leaders occasionally face decisions that aren’t entirely black and white,” he said, giving her a brief glimpse into his complicated life. “I work inside those gray areas.”

Her lips parted, as if to demand a far more detailed explanation. But instead she lifted her hand to lightly touch his cheek. “Is it dangerous?”

Cerviel’s heart missed a startled beat. He’d expected her to be curious, maybe even disturbed by the thought that he accepted duties that would make most people cringe. But at that moment, there was nothing but pure concern darkening her eyes.