Elite Metal-ARE-epub (92 page)

Chapter Nine

It took him weeks to get back to himself, and Hazel knew she was on borrowed time.

The day she found him doing cross-fit, it was both a thing of beauty and sadness. Beautiful because watching his body move as it had been meant to, his sculpted body rippling as he exerted himself was sheer grace. Sadness because she knew it meant her time with him was almost over.

Chrome had asked her to stay and she hadn’t yet given him an answer. She didn’t want to be here if John didn’t want her.

He’d made no confessions, no grand statements. He hadn’t so much as hugged her since she’d slept next to him that night.

The guys kept giving her looks of…she didn’t know if it was pity or hope. Probably pity. Like they were just waiting for her to realize that he didn’t want her and then she’d move on with her life.

The glances from Copper were the worst because they were so knowing and sad.

She pulled her weight though. She kept working with the Serum alongside John, kept working on her own ideas too.

And she hadn’t given up hope about Mellie either.

Her body hadn’t been found and when the sweeper team had cleaned up the condo, there was no evidence of foul play. But there’d been no evidence anyone had ever inhabited the place.

But Hazel refused to think the worst.

“You keep looking at me like that—” he said, sweat dripping down his hard chest “—you’re going to be part of the workout.”

“Promises, promises.” She taunted.

He paused and fixed a hard stare on her. She suddenly felt like a small mammal caught in a predator’s gaze. She loved it.

“I think you’re still playing injured. Maybe you’re not… up for it.”

He crossed the room and jerked her against him and a sharp thrill shot through her, making her breathless.

“I think I’m plenty up.”

His cock was hard and thick against her belly.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged coyly. “Maybe I better check for myself?”

“If you just want to get fucked, I’m sure someone would be willing to help you out.” He released her.

“I want to get fucked, John. By you.” She knew he was just trying to put distance between them because he was trying to say goodbye.

When he fixed his gaze on her again, she wondered if she’d been wrong. If maybe he didn’t really want her at all. Oh, he wanted her body. He’d fuck her. But wanting
her
. And all this ‘saving you from yourself’ was really just the easy let down.

At that moment, she didn’t care. She wanted to touch him again, to be touched by him. She wanted this last chance to see if maybe they could build something together.

And if they couldn’t, it would break her heart. But she wouldn’t die of it. She’d have this beautiful memory to keep her warm until she managed to piece her heart back together again.

“Why?”

She studied him for a long moment and decided this was it. So she wasn’t going to leave anything undone, or unspoken. “Because I love you.”

The look of horror on his face didn’t surprise her, and she forged ahead fearlessly. “I love lots of things.” Her hands went to the waist of his fatigues. “I love the weight of your cock in my hand.” She cupped him. “I love the way you say my name when you’re about to come. I love the way you lick my pussy.”

“Oh Christ,” he moaned.

“I love it when you make that sound.” She moved her hand back and forth oh so slowly. “I love it when your cock jerks in my hand.”

“Such a dirty mouth.”

She sank down to her knees. “Maybe you should put something in it.” Hazel didn’t give him a chance to think about it. Instead, she just took him into her mouth. She loved the taste of him, the feel of him.

Digging her fingers into his thighs, she bobbed her head down the hard length of his shaft, paying special attention to the crown as she swirled and flicked her tongue over the smooth head.

He didn’t try to demure this time, telling her she didn’t have to.

He wanted it as much as she did, or at least his flesh did. John thrust his hips forward meeting her caress with one hand tangled in her hair. His touch was gentle, though his thrust was urgent. He let her set the pace, decide how deep she’d take him.

Hazel didn’t think he understood how absolutely beautiful he was to her. She loved looking at him, loved being at eye level with his obliques. They were like a runway guiding her to his cock, to this action, to bringing him pleasure.

“I’ve thought about this,” he said, his voice like gravel.

The burns in his throat had scarred his vocal cords and she found that the harsh sound turned her on even more.

She used her hand now so she could speak. Hazel looked up at him, eyes guileless. “Tell me.”

“Whenever I come, I think about you. Your face, your hands, your breasts, the taste of your pussy on my tongue.”

She clenched and squeezed her thighs tight. “I love doing this to you.” Hazel descended again, taking him deep. She loved having control over his big, powerful body. He was hers to command when he was like this.

“You’ll think that when I come.” His eyes fluttered closed for a moment and when he opened them, she met his gaze.

“Yes, I will.” She didn’t look away from him then, only continued to meet his eyes while she worked his cock toward culmination. Pre-cum beaded on the tip of his cock and when his body went taut, she knew he was on the edge.

Hazel swallowed and held his stare until sensation forced him to close his eyes and lean back against the wall for support.

She wasn’t letting him off the hook though. This wasn’t over by a long shot. She was still hot, wet and ready for him. Hazel was determined that this would be a night to remember for both of them.

Standing, she leaned against him and kissed his mouth. He didn’t turn away, but responded by wrapping his arms around her and what he did next couldn’t be called a kiss. A brand, a claiming, maybe. But nothing so plain and ordinary as a kiss. His lips seared into hers and just like that, she was completely and utterly under his control. She’d do anything to keep feeling that. Anything at all. The thought was terrifying and thrilling all at once.

Just like the man himself.

His big hands made easy work of her borrowed fatigues and t-shirt. The shirt she’d never wear again, but the fatigues were made of sterner stuff. He filled his hands with her breasts, kneading and rolling the nipples so they were stiff, aching peaks.

“You feel like heaven, but taste like sin,” he growled.

She didn’t know if it was compliment or not, but she liked it. Hazel loved how he spoke to her. The things he said were like dark poetry.

Hazel supposed she should’ve asked him about a condom, but they’d already fucked before. And she wanted to feel him inside of her, wanted the entirety of that connection.

He picked her up and positioned her on the counter—this time, he was the one on his knees. It felt so decadent and incredibly naughty to be naked on the lab counter, but it was his lab and he wanted to lick her to screaming orgasm on the worktable, who was she to argue?

His tongue was wicked in so many ways.

Hazel leaned back and spread herself wide for him.

He tasted her as he’d promised, delving deep and then he did something that surprised her. He lifted her from the counter, knees hooked on his shoulders, face still buried in her cleft and still flicking his tongue against her clit, carried her into the bedroom where he leaned back on the bed so that she could ride his face.

She’d always thought this to be an awkward position, but with his tongue working at her as it was, she couldn’t think about much of anything else but grinding down to get more of that bliss. All too soon she was shuddering as the waves of ecstasy rolled over her. 

But he wasn’t done.

He moved her as it pleased him, positioning her so that she was on all fours and then he entered her from behind, driving into her hard and fast—fucking her, just like she’d demanded of him.

He was so deep that every thrust was agony and bliss together, much like all of their interactions had been. His finger dug into her hips and she arched back against him as he slammed into her.

His fist was tangled in her hair, angling her head back and he leaned over her, covering her body with his own. He nipped at the tender skin of her neck and her shoulder, grinding hard, seeking to get ever deeper—ever closer.

She eased down on the bed, unable to hold herself up any longer and his arm snaked around under her waist and did it for her, lifting her and dragging her back to meet him.

Hazel cried out as he moved within her in the aftermath of her earlier orgasm, their coupling heated with an intense ferocity. As if he were trying to brand her, mark her, tattoo each moment into her memory.

She wanted that, too.

Especially since she realized he wasn’t going to ask her to stay.

Suddenly, he turned her and eased back onto the bed so that she straddled his lap. He held her close, and she braced her palms on his shoulders and began to move.

John cupped her cheek and held it, looking into her eyes while he drove up into her. She clenched around him, pulling him deeper, holding him inside of her. As if she could keep him there forever.

Hazel returned the caress, knowing it was the last time.

Her fingers on his face seemed to push him over the edge, and again, they were lost in each other’s eyes when they found their pinnacle.

It was utterly beautiful, perfect, and just too goddamn tragic.

They lay together in the shallow remains of the afternoon in silence, Hazel curled into him waiting for the end. She wanted to tell him that she wouldn’t stand for it. That this just wasn’t how things were supposed to happen. But she didn’t.

What she dreaded came all too soon.

“Did Chrome ask you to stay?” he finally said.

“Yes.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I didn’t.”

“What will you tell him?”

“What do you want me to tell him?” She closed her eyes, as if that could block out what he would say. As if that would change it. But she knew better.

“You know how I feel about it.” He sat up and strode naked into the lab, pulling up his fatigues.

The bed was suddenly cold and it had nothing to do with the temperature.

“I do.” She gathered up her own clothes quickly, having to settle for grabbing one of his shirts since he’d destroyed the one she’d been wearing. “I promised you that when you were well, I wouldn’t stay where I wasn’t wanted. I keep my promises.”

“Hazel…”

“No. You don’t need to sugar coat it. I understand very well what you’ve said.”

“It’s for your own—”

She interrupted him. “I didn’t want to leave things ugly, but you can fuck right off with that. Unless you’re going to tell me that you want me to be here, then I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say.”

She stared at him for a long moment and when he didn’t speak, she said, “Goodbye, Merc.”

Hazel stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. She managed not to cry until she checked into a hotel in downtown Dallas.

But as soon as the lock clicked into place behind her, she surrendered to the storm of sorrow that had been brewing since she first kissed John Thrace.

Chapter Ten

In the coming weeks that passed, Mercury threw himself into his work with renewed fervor.

He turned Marcus Lakos with a rather disgusting ease. The boy had been terrified of him, of his scars, of absolute lack of fucks to give. John confessed to him that he’d killed his stepfather, had been responsible for the explosion at the house and had promised to be the reckoning in the black of some terrible night if he ever so much as breathed in Hazel’s direction.

The little bitch sang like a canary.

Which made things easier for him. Everything in his life was back to normal. It was all pre-Hazel status.

Part of him liked to pretend she’d never happened.

That she’d never said those damned words to him.

I love you.

Damn her.

It was like an anchor around his neck, weighing him down in an ocean of things he didn’t want to feel. Things that were useless to feel because they only caused him pain.

He thought about her all the time. Wondered where she was, what she was doing, and if she was happy. John wanted those things for her more than anything. But even with all the technology at his disposal, he didn’t dare check on her because he knew he was weak.

He wouldn’t be able to resist her and that’s what would get her killed.

Or worse.

Sometimes, he imagined he could smell the sweet scent of her on the sheets he’d washed a dozen times to wipe away her presence.

The worst part was working on the vaccine for Serum 17. He hadn’t abandoned that, if anything, he worked harder than ever. Seeing her little sticky notes with her handwriting as she’d tried to help him and understand the data… It gave him visions of what a future together could’ve been like.

Both the fantasy and the reality.

In the fantasy, he met her in med school. He’d never gone to work for the DoD and Shadowfain. They had a house, and yard, and a dog… he’d never let himself want that. And maybe part of him didn’t.

Because the reality, even though it was dangerous for them both, was so much more appealing.

He imagined them working together here in the lab, making love to her on that bed, spending their days and nights together. Maybe even taking up residence in the house on the compound with her—making a home. When they were apart and he was on a mission, he’d revel in the mission but love coming home too. Coming back to her softness, her sweetness, and her voodoo pussy.

He remembered telling her that he always thought about her when he got off, and that hadn’t changed. Even though he’d tried his damnedest. John had even denied himself for days on end, but with no luck. When he fucked his fist, it was always her face he saw.

He couldn’t even take a whore. He’d tried. He’d paid her, but he couldn’t even bring himself to touch her.