Dawn Endeavor 3: Julian's Jeopardy (25 page)

Sheridan cried out and came, and Tersch continued to lick her. He shoved a finger inside her and did something that made Sheridan moan for more.

It didn't take Tersch long to come, and soon he was pumping his seed over Jules's hand while Jules continued to ram inside the Circ.

“Come, Jules. Come for me,” Sheridan said on a purr and held her breast up to him like an offering. Her darker skin, the length and richness of her hair and scent, Tersch's sexy beast beneath him taking all he had to give—it all pushed him into a rushing climax that made him see stars.

“Fuck, oh fuck, yes,” he gritted through his teeth as he jetted into Tersch's tight ass.

When he finally came down from the sexual high, he saw Tersch kissing Sheridan's thighs and pussy, licking her with tender care. Jules pulled out and stood, not surprised to find himself hardening again.

“I'll be right back.” He disappeared into the bathroom to clean himself and returned to see Sheridan on top of Tersch on the bed. She was kissing him and rubbing herself over him like a cat.

Jules grinned. “Time to fill you up, baby. But this time, I'm going to spill inside
my
pussy.”

“My pussy,” her beast growled. Somehow, Jules couldn't see his reserved scientist this uninhibited in bed with him and another male. Not yet. But it was nice to see her beast playing.

“This is so good,” Tersch said on a breath, his hair spread over the pillow in a wreath of white gold. “You two are good together.” He sighed. “Sorry if I was all over your ass before, Jules. I just don't want anything bad to happen to you.”

“That's sweet,” Sheridan said and nipped at Tersch's abdomen. His cock jerked, and Jules fisted his own erection.

“Do it, Sheridan. Go down on Gunnar. Lick his balls. Swallow his cock. Eat him up.”

Tersch groaned as Sheridan followed Jules's instructions to the letter. But when she bent over, Jules's intentions to go slow and make it last went south. Fast.

* * *

Two hours later, the three of them lay on Jules's bed, completely human and completely wrung out. Sheridan felt as if she'd run a marathon. Her body refused to obey her need to get up and shower. She lay between her mate and Gunnar—no longer the coldhearted Tersch.

He'd been at turns gentle and rough, a sexual creature so in need of affection and belonging, she was surprised she hadn't sensed it before. But as much as she liked being with him, her fantasy man lay to her right, in the form of a domineering Circ wearing the ring that claimed him as hers. She stared at the bejeweled hand resting on her belly.

Jules stroked her abdomen with such care. Almost as if…

She tensed, and he stopped.

“Baby?”

Oh, God.
Baby
. She didn't know why she hadn't sensed it before, because even as she thought the word, she felt the tiny spark of life fluttering just under Jules's hand. She'd always imagined she'd have children one day. But like this? With a man she barely knew? She blew out a slow breath. He was the man she loved, and he loved her back, her beast reminded her.

Worry smothered her shock of pleasure. What would Jules think? Would he be happy? Would he be worried? Would he be able to think past
oh my God?

Instead of answering, Sheridan blurted out the truth about her grandfather's ring. “All the women in my family get that ring you're wearing when we turn six.

Then we hold on to it until we find a special person, the one meant to wear it. I knew it was you when I gave it to you in the jungle.” He resumed stroking her belly. Tersch snored quietly beside them.

“The ring is a family keepsake.” She started to calm under the steady motion of his hand and told another truth. “I wanted to have a reason to find you again.

And not just to get the ring.”

“I've been waiting to hear you admit that,” Jules murmured and began to purr.

The pure energy flowing between them couldn't be ignored. He'd confessed he loved her, pledged to marry her, and he'd helped make the baby growing just under his hand.

Despite the danger all around and the newness of their relationship, Sheridan didn't want to hold back anymore. Just once, she wanted to experience real happiness that she could keep close to her heart and never let go. Funny, but her interludes with Jules always ended with joy, because he showed her he cared for her in so many little ways. Even this past week while he'd been gone, he'd called her every day just to say how much he missed her.

“I love you,” she said quietly.

He stopped stroking her and shifted her to lie on top of him. “Was that so hard to say?”

“You already knew.”

“Maybe. But I need the words too, baby.” He kissed her with such tenderness, the caresses filled with love and affection. “God, I'm so lucky I found you.” She rubbed her nose against his, delight filling her from head to toe. “You mean, you're lucky
I
found
you
.”

“Yes, dear,” he said dutifully, and they both chuckled softly, trying not to disturb Gunnar. After a moment, Jules murmured, “Sheridan, what would you say if I told you I wanted to start a family? I mean, a smaller, more intimate family than the one I share with the team. One just with you, and maybe a rug rat or two.” Relief made her light-headed. “Really? Because I—” A frantic pounding on the door interrupted her. Before it stopped, Tersch leaped from the bed and crouched between the door and them. She blinked, amazed he'd moved like lightning when she'd thought him asleep. And while he'd been flying off the bed, Jules had dragged her off his chest and shielded her body with his. She peeked over his shoulder, ignoring his order to keep still.

“What?” he yelled at the door.

“It's me.” Fallon broke through the door in a panic. His dark eyes widened as he took in the sight of the three of them. “We've got major movement outside.”

“Unfriendlies?” Tersch growled.

“You could say that. Montaña's men are all over the place. He's waiting for Sheridan. And for you, Jules. He wants the two of you outside right now, and he's just behind the fucking house.”

“Sheridan's staying here.” Jules had never sounded so firm.

“Jules.” Sheridan started to convince him otherwise.

“She can't stay here.” Fallon swore. “Because if you two aren't outside in ten minutes, he's going to kill Ava.”

As he stood behind Dawn Endeavor's mansion, hidden in the thicket of trees beyond the back of the house, Colonel Ricardo Montaña grinned. For too long, things had not gone his way. But now he was back in a position of power.
As it
should be
. The bastards might have overtaken his jungle compound, but he'd been prepared for such an eventuality. Though he'd anticipated leaving the lab on his own timetable, he wouldn't bemoan his new fate. He did regret leaving Manoel behind, but anything worth having required sacrifice.

Most of the drugs they'd cultivated—which had been moved out of the compound before the raid—were even now being transported through the Amazon into prearranged shipping lanes. In another week, at most, the latest batch of Manoel's wonder drug would join the rest of their haul in the secret warehouse in Maryland.

Ricardo would have preferred a location farther west, but el jefe wanted things neat and closer to his headquarters in DC.

“He's coming.” Grayson nodded toward the direction of the mansion in which the Dawn Endeavor team lived. Though Ricardo hadn't stepped foot inside the monstrosity, he'd gleaned a description of the layout from his boss's spies. Ricardo also had his own sources, so he knew the players in their little game. Though many of the Dawn Endeavor security force waited in the woods out of sight, surrounding the mansion, the Circs remained inside, clearly visible behind the large glass windows to the left of a set of French doors. That was, until someone with a brain turned off the lights, leaving the house shrouded in darkness.

Alicia Sharpe, their ringleader, made him the most uneasy. The short, serious woman had stared at him through the glass window as if she could see him in the tree line, like he was the devil incarnate. He couldn't say why, but when he considered the whole of his adversaries, his instinct told him to focus on the petite black woman dressed to the nines.

Next to him, Grayson tightened his grip on Ava Belle's arm. Now there was a woman worth having. Such a sweet, fuckable body, one made to cradle a man's cock and answer any and all delights he could imagine. The woman had an edge Ricardo liked, a dangerous challenge in her light-colored eyes.

He couldn't wait to see what she could handle.

Which brought his thoughts once again to Sheridan. The little bitch had evaded him far longer than he'd thought she would.

“Let me go.” Ava swore when Grayson tugged her back with him into the shadows. “They can see in the dark, asshole. Doesn't matter where you go or what you do. When Gunnar sees this, he's going to kill you.” Her rage gave Ricardo a hard-on. “Gunnar? You mean Frederik Gunnar Tersch, that animal? We're ready for him. Don't you worry, Ava.” His men had specially calibrated darts to incapacitate the team before killing them, and extra-special ones for that behemoth. No sense in Ricardo losing his own Circs if he didn't have to. “Ava, you're so pretty. We're going to see what better uses I can find for that mouth than swearing. Maybe some time on your hands and knees will work that tongue till you're too tired to do anything but lick, hmm?” The rogue Circs around him laughed, their animalistic timbres so fitting for a war with creatures better off in a fucking zoo. Every damned one of his men had
changed
, awaiting a real challenge from the Circs inside the house. Five or six, counting Olivia, against twenty-four—odds Ricardo could well appreciate. He wasn't leaving anything to chance with today's mission.

Two dozen prime beasts were ready and willing to take apart anything Ricardo put in front of them, so long as he rewarded them with drugs and pussy come their victory.

Ricardo had promised them the moon, and he intended to deliver. Just as soon as he got his hands on Sheridan. He'd pretty much given up on Hawkins. After much discussion with Manoel, they'd agreed Hawkins would probably force them to kill him before being taken captive again. But Manoel's synthetic version of Hawkins's talent for invisibility held promise. It didn't completely change Ricardo's DNA, but it did work when taken every two hours. And Manoel had worked with it so that Ricardo could call on the ability to disappear and reappear at will.

Using his night-vision goggles, Ricardo watched as the Circs finally opened the door and fanned out in front of the back patio. Ricardo recognized Jesse Fallon, Kisho Hayashi, Morgan Reynolds, and Julian Hawkins. But no sign of Tersch, Sharpe, Olivia…or Sheridan.

Ricardo glared at the pricks he'd come to kill and fought to retain his calm.

“Julian, how nice to see you again. Where is Sheridan?”

“She's not coming.”

“That's a pity.” Ricardo snapped his finger, and Grayson did something that had Ava crying out. “I'll kill pretty little Ava if you refuse to hand over my fiancée.” A quick glance over his shoulder pleased him.

Grayson held a knife to Ava's throat, and a thin line of blood trickled down her neck from where he'd stuck her. Grayson maintained his human form as a backup, a lethal surprise to use just in case Hawkins and his men got the jump on Ricardo.

The Dawn Endeavor team took a few steps closer. At their current distance of a few dozen feet, Ricardo could easily shoot each man before his rogues killed them.

Too far away to help Ava and too far away to reach Ricardo and his team. He had timed this perfectly.

Ricardo stepped back into the shadows and disappeared behind a tree. He removed his night-vision goggles and tossed them to the ground before stripping out of his clothes. But he held on to his gun as he focused, the way Manoel had instructed. Ricardo literally vanished, using his new ability to shift the alignment of his cells to refract the light around him, masking not only his body, but the pistol as well. The energy it took to keep himself and the weapon invisible was draining, but if Hawkins could do it, he could damn well do it too.

“You have no one to blame but yourself, Hawkins,” Ricardo shouted. “Grayson, do it.”

Except Grayson was no longer there. There was a loud, inhuman roar, and then several of Ricardo's rogues attacked in the direction of the monstrous noise.

More rogues joined the fray. Several started slamming into trees and each other, as if something tossed them around like puppets.

Ricardo raced away from the chaos to the house, bypassing Hawkins and the others as they ran toward the noise. Inside, another crew of Ricardo's men waited.

Strategist that he was, Ricardo had left nothing to chance. Unnoticed, Ricardo slipped into the house. He saw four of his rogues surrounding the Sharpe woman.

“Kill the bitch,” he ordered, startling several Circs who obviously hadn't seen him.

The largest one grinned and latched on to her arm.

Ricardo left them to join a rogue he'd seen standing by a door, glancing around.

The creature stopped looking around, apparently catching his scent, and narrowed his slit-eyed stare in Ricardo's direction as he approached.

“Where's Sheridan?” Ricardo asked.

“Downstairs with another female. I was told to wait here.”

“Good. Do that. When I'm finished, you can have the female with her.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ricardo passed him and descended one floor into a brightly lit corridor. Trust these idiots to put a friendly face on science. In Ricardo's world, there was no place for sentimentality or niceties. A metal table, chains, and a cave had served his purposes just fine.

With the drugs from his compound, as well as the cache of Circs he now owned, Ricardo could well afford to go into hiding, not to be seen again for years. He planned to maintain his wealth from a distance, using others to mediate while he worked on his own dynasty—namely, the sons he'd fuck out of Sheridan. With his brains and her natural ability to heal, he'd sire boys who would never die. A perfect scenario.

Lost in thought, he neared a room where the sound of voices lowered in argument could be heard.