Protector: The Elect, Book 1 (6 page)

He leaned down to nibble her bottom lip. Her protest and questions melted away. She’d ask later. Right now she just wanted to experience the pleasure of his kiss again. When his tongue entered her mouth she met him with eagerness, hunger.
 

“Easy, Esme,” he muttered. “We aren’t rushing this.”
 

Before she could protest he sat up, lifted her, and pulled the T-shirt over her head. The urge to cover herself with her arms vanished as quickly as it came. She could see the appreciation on his face, feel it from his mind. She gasped.
 

“You’re sharing intentionally.”
 

“Yes. I want you to feel how much you please me,” he whispered.

He nudged her shoulder until she lay back against the pillows. His thumbs brushed over the hard tips of her nipples before he lay down beside her, leaning over her.
 

“So pretty.”
 

His head bent, and he licked. First one nipple, then the other, while he held them to his hungry mouth between his thumb and finger. She’d thought she’d go mad if he didn’t stop teasing her with those soft, undemanding strokes.
 

“Brax, I need more,” she complained.
 

When she masturbated, she used firm, hard touches. She had to know what that felt like with a man. If it was as good or better.
Please, be better.
Later she’d be amused at her unexpected streak of wantonness, but now she wanted to drown in sensation.
 

His teeth grazed the inside swell of her breast before he looked up to meet her gaze. “More? Or harder, baby?” He gave her a wicked grin and reached for her hands, guiding them to her breasts. “Show me.”
 

She gasped at the feel of her nipples against her palms. The embarrassment flushed her skin hot, but lust followed too close on its heels to care. Her fingers gripped her nipples. Squeezed. He groaned and flicked a tongue over one swollen tip.
 

“You are a wicked girl, aren’t you, angel?” He licked the other nipple. “How bad do you get, I wonder? Should I spank you for it?”
 

She pinched her nipples hard and ground her hips against his. A whimper escaped her lips. She wanted to be spanked, fantasized about it. He lifted his head to watch her as the hand on her belly slid lower, parted the folds hiding her sex. One finger circled her opening then thrust in with aching slowness. It was so different from when she got herself off. His finger was longer, thicker, with light calluses that scraped and teased her sensitive inner tissue.

“You like that idea, hmm? You’re so wet and hot.” He worked another finger in with the first and growled. “And tight. So damned tight, baby. Do you have any idea how good that is going to feel around my cock?”
 

His fingers fucked her slow and steady, a gradually increasing rhythm as his thumb grazed her clit. She grabbed his arms and arched against him, staring into eyes that seemed to rage with lust. And her desire was rising to meet it, to match it. Her body was tight, burning with the need to come. She rolled her hips against his, desperate to feel him thrusting inside her. Desperate for the explosion she felt building between them.
 

He pulled his hand away. “Brax,” she complained.
 

He lifted his fingers to his lips and took one into his mouth, sucking her juices from it. “I knew you would be sweet. Have you ever tasted yourself?”
 

She shook her head. Hell, who knew that would be sexy? He lifted his finger to her parted lips and rubbed it over them, before dipping it inside. She rolled her tongue over it, watching his pleasure as she cleaned it. She bit the pad of his finger when he withdrew, and his eyes flashed.
 

“Like teeth do you?”
 

“I don’t know what I like. I’m new at this, remember?”
 

But she wanted to bite him. Wanted to mark him. His smile was smug and knowing, and she wondered if he’d read her mind or just guessed.
 

“You really can’t read my thoughts?”
 

He shook his head. “No. I can project thoughts to you, the same as you can with to me….”
 

“
It’s very intimate, don’t you think?”
 

“…and I feel your emotions the way you feel mine. I feel your desires.” He leaned to scrape his teeth over the skin on her neck. “That urge to mark your lover.”
 

She shivered and tilted her head to give him a better angle, but he didn’t bite.
 

“Not yet,” he whispered.
 

He kissed and nibbled his way down her body until his shoulders spread her thighs wide. He used one had to spread her open and blow a warm breath over her pussy. His tongue licked over her, from her opening to her clit. He focused teasing licks and bites on the hard nub, while his fingers moved to her pussy and thrust in and out in a slow, maddening rhythm. Once, twice, again and again. He drove her until the pleasure rode an edge of pain, until she swore she’d die if he didn’t let her come. Until she begged for it.
 

“Brax! Please, please. I have to come. I can’t stand it anymore.”
 

His fingers twisted to rub against the sensitive spot on her vaginal wall she’d only read about. One hard stroke was all it took to send her reeling, crying out in ecstasy as the best orgasm she’d ever experienced consumed her. Sharp, sweet pleasure spread from her belly to her extremities leaving her shaking and panting for air.

She was aware of him crawling up her body as her shudders began to subside. His kisses were harder, the little bites harder. When they were shoulder to shoulder he claimed her lips, drinking in her final cries.
 

She felt the head of his cock nudging her entrance, but she was too sated to worry, too tense about the coming invasion. He gripped her hip with one hand, easing the head of his cock in, then out, stretching her. Tantalizing, teasing, when she wanted all of him hard and fast. He held her still when she tried to urge him on.
 

“Easy, baby. I don’t want to hurt you.”
 

“Waiting hurts.”
 

The first orgasm hadn’t come close to appeasing the desire crawling through her body. It had only heightened it. She needed more, needed to be taken. Devoured. She knew he was aware how bad it was. She felt the same thing from him.
 

He withdrew, but the next time he stroked forward he didn’t stop. She expected some discomfort despite being stretched by his finger, but it was nothing compared to the exquisite feeling of being filled.
 

Then he moved and she was sure she’d never survive it. She wrapped her legs around his hips, terrified he’d stop, that the rapture would end. He abandoned the slow and easy torture and thrust in and out. Hard, driving strokes that made her cry out in approval.
 

Brax was burning alive. Tasting her orgasm, then taking her tight, little pussy had stolen whatever control, whatever sanity he might have had left. It was then he truly understood and accepted what his interest in her was. He should have realized when he couldn’t access her thoughts, when forcing his way into her mind hadn’t even occurred to him. He’d seen it happen enough.

She was his mate. And she didn’t have a fucking clue what she’d fallen into. Elect males didn’t mate easy. Well, their women didn’t. The males were possessive, primal, demanding. Modern women, even Elect females, seemed to take issue with that. He couldn’t take her hard enough, fast enough, to tame the demon riding him now. He wanted it to last forever. Her soft, mewling cries for more, her cunt convulsing around him as she came again, were too much to resist, though. His balls tightened and his spine tingled minutes before it exploded through him.
 

He muffled his roar against her neck and couldn’t resist the allure of that soft, smooth skin. Her body trembled when he bit her, but she didn’t complain. She arched into him, holding his head to her as he sucked hard enough to mark. To claim. It was a long time before he felt capable of moving. He rolled onto his back, and she curled into his side already asleep while he, wide awake, stared at the ceiling.
 

He’d stay with her long enough to ensure she slept soundly, but then he had work to do. He hadn’t finished the background check, and though he admitted it might be kind of sleazy to investigate his mate, it had to be done. There had to be some clue in her past that would lead to her hunters. Or her brother’s. He felt no compunction about investigating Carter.
 

She gave a sleepy moan of protest when he eased away from her, but she didn’t wake, just rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in his pillow. He resisted the urge to tap her pert butt when he rose, but the image wouldn’t leave him as he pulled his jeans on and left the room. Damn. He’d get to that soon enough. She hadn’t been able to hide how much the idea of being spanked turned her on. He was more than willing to accommodate her fantasies. Hell, he was eager. He was her mate, after all. Grinning, he hurried down the stairs and wasn’t at all surprised to find Mason waiting in his office.
 

“About time,” his security chief grumbled.
 

“I was busy.”
 

Mason snorted. “Don’t have to be so smug about it.”
 

He chuckled at the good-natured objection. “Lodge a complaint with your boss.”
 

“I’ll get right on that, boss. Triplicate work for you?”
 

“Sure. Put it in the circular file while you’re at it.”
 

“You take all the fun out of life.”
 

“That’s me. Mr. Killjoy.” He took a seat behind his desk and turned serious, living up to that reputation. “What do you have?”

“I emailed the full background on Dr. Durand. Gabe’s on the lab computers. He said someone is monitoring her email. He disabled the program, but he hasn’t figured out who it’s forwarding her mail to.
 

“I’m still working on the brother, mother, and the boy’s mother.” Mason scratched his chin. “There’s something weird there. Jamie Wade went into the hospital for an endometrial ablation and died during the procedure. It’s supposed to be routine and low risk. The report is pretty slim on details.”
 

“What’s bothering you about it?” Brax asked.

Mason shook his head. “I don’t know. Call it hunch. If Jamie Wade hadn’t died, we wouldn’t know anything about Esme or her brother and nephew.”

“What about her brother?”
 

“Recruit him.”
 

The response was so quick and unexpected Brax stared at his old friend and wondered if he’d finally cracked under the pressure. “Come again?”
 

“Carter Owens. Thirty-two years old. One year younger than Esme. Fast tracked his way through college—she did too, by the way—graduated at twenty, joined the Army. Got his commission a couple years later, then went Special Forces. Gabe’s trying to get the complete file, but I saw enough. The guy has every medal they hand out and has been deployed to more hot spots than you guessed existed. He’s damned good at what he does.”
 

“Yes, he is,” the soldier in question drawled from the doorway. “Do I get to join the party?”
 

“Could we stop you?” Mason asked.
 

“You could try. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
 

The smile he directed at them was fierce and cold. Brax leaned back in his chair and considered his choices. He could cause problems with his mate by refusing to deal with her brother or he could use Carter to his advantage. If that was ruthless, who the fuck cared? He had more to concern himself with than anyone’s tender sensibilities. Well, except maybe Esme’s.
 

“Have a seat,” Brax invited.
 

“Who did you tell about the testing?”
 

“No one.” He held up a hand before Brax or Mason could try to reword that question. “I didn’t tell anyone and Esme came to my apartment to draw the blood.”
 

Brax scowled. “She’s a researcher.”
 

“With a medical degree.” Carter smirked. “Not very thorough are you, Lee? Missed me. Missed some of her education.”
 

Mason cleared his throat. “I was getting to that, Brax.”
 

Too damned late, and her background could wait a minute. “Someone let information about that DNA test slip.”
 

Carter shook his head. “Not us. We would never betray each other. And neither one of us would tolerate betrayal from a friend. Things would get bloody. She may look small and helpless, but she isn’t.”

“Shit,” Brax muttered. He could see the man’s conviction and it made him curious as hell about Esme’s childhood. That kind of sibling devotion came from somewhere. He had a bad feeling when he did discover their history it would be ugly enough to put him in a killing frame of mind. “We have a totally unknown element at play, then.”