Megan's Mark (10 page)

For food, she chastised her aching clit. Just food. No sex. Sex with a Breed was not a good idea. It involved all sorts of complications. Possessiveness, arrogance, and other adjectives she really couldn’t seem to pull out of her head right now. She was certain they weren’t good ones though.

“Hmmm,” he murmured. The rumbling sound wasn’t comforting. “We’ll check the other cave just to be certain before heading out. If they left the schedule here, they could have left something else across the gully.”

“Fine.” Another climb. Just what she needed. This time he was going first. She was
not
getting downwind of him with that sensitive nose he had. She was so wet she was certain she smelled of nothing but lust. Wild, hot lust.

She was so fucked. And if she wasn’t careful, it was going to be in a too-good way.

She fascinated him.

Braden admitted he could be in some very deep trouble where Megan Fields and her various mysteries were concerned. It wasn’t just the arousal that concerned him. He had been aroused before, but never had he been this hungry, this intent on one woman outside the drug induced “tests” the scientists had conducted in the labs.

Megan did more than just make him hungry. She made him yearn, and that could be a very dangerous thing. But she also made him curious. Curiosity killed the cat, he thought mockingly as he searched the next cave, attempting to ignore the sweet heat that flowed from her.

He ached so desperately to taste her that the small, almost unnoticed glands beneath his tongue felt swollen. The scientists had labeled them as advanced taste buds, another of the anomalies of their human/animal genetics. There were quite a few of those.

But the glands had never become inflamed, swollen. And they sure as hell had never spilled the subtle taste of spice into his mouth. And now they were. The very thought of tasting Megan, of pushing his tongue into her mouth and feeling her soft lips surround it, made them throb harder.

Not to mention what the thought did to his cock. The head was pounding like a toothache that refused to ease. He could jack off, but he had learned last night that it brought even less satisfaction than it ever had. He just wasn’t the “jack off “ type, he guessed. He liked sex. He loved women. The taste, the sound, the softness, all the unique qualities that made women what they were. The feel of their nails piercing his shoulders in climax, or the sweet explosion of earthy lust on his tongue as he licked their cream from between their thighs. Women were softness in a world gone mad. But Megan was making him mad, insane, so desperate for the taste of her that he was on the verge of taking her to the cave floor and covering her like the animal he was.

“There’s nothing here, Braden.” It wasn’t the first time she had made the comment. “No fissures, no tunnels, no hidden little ledges.”

Yeah, he had figured that one out five minutes ago. But
she
was here, the smell of her trapped between the stone walls, stroking his senses and filling him with a peculiar lust that he needed time to understand. To figure out how to control.

If they left the cave, the winds would dissipate much of the scent, and the surrounding land would diffuse it. He would have no time to revel in it. In his memory, no woman had ever been so naturally hot for his touch. It was almost humbling. Fuck that, it was arousing as hell. He couldn’t get enough of it, and if she wasn’t careful, he would soon be tasting it.

“Keep looking.” He bent along the wall he was searching, exploring a fissure that ran diagonally across the stone.

It was thin, barely wide enough for the tips of his fingers, but enough to pretend interest in.

“Keep looking!” she exclaimed before breathing out in exaggerated patience. “You’re too bossy.”

“And you’re too argumentative, but you don’t see me pointing that out.” She made him smile. It had been a long damned time since anyone had genuinely made him smile.

He loved sparring with her, loved to listen to her snap at him and defy him. She was a challenge, both physically and mentally, and she kept him on his toes. And if he hadn’t been mistaken, a definite smile had been edging her lips earlier and echoing in her voice.

“Don’t I?” She was smiling for sure now. She might have her back to him, but he could hear the smile in her voice.

Unobtrusively he shifted the hard length of his cock beneath his jeans, hoping for some relief. The damned thing only seemed to swell further as he closed his eyes and drew the scent of her deeper into his head.

“Whichever one waited in this cavern couldn’t have been here long,” she finally said. “It doesn’t stink like the other one did.”

He had noticed that himself.

“I suspect they both spent some time in the other one.” He shrugged. “Coyotes work better in teams. They challenge each other in their viciousness. It makes them more merciless.”

He watched as she finished checking a shadowed corner and turned back to face him. Her face was flushed, her nipples pressing against her T-shirt as she snapped the flashlight off and clipped it to her belt. “I assume we’re done here?”

“For now.” He glanced around one last time. “Hopefully by this evening Jonas will have some information for us as well as the pictures of the Breeds who were murdered. I want you to look at them closely, see if you recognize them.”

Even their trainers wouldn’t have recognized them the day before.

“That sounds fine.” She nodded. “Since I’m stuck with you at the house, I have to do some grocery shopping though. I bet you eat a lot, don’t you?”

Her gaze roved over him. He knew the minute she spotted his erection and almost laughed out loud as her eyes widened in surprise.

“I have very strong appetites.” He was almost choking on his laughter as heat enveloped her face.

She cleared her throat, a nervous little sound-part arousal. part amusement. “I just bet you do,” she muttered heading for the entrance of the cave. “Wouldn’t surprise me a bit.”

Damn, she was cute. Tough as hell, with a mouth as mockingly sarcastic as anyone he had ever met, and with more secrets than any woman should have. But she made him laugh and kept him on his toes. A major accomplishment.

“You might want to look into stocking up on plenty of proteins for yourself too.” He kept his voice controlled, no sign of amusement or hidden meanings. “You’ll need your strength.”

She turned back to him, a retort on her lips until she met the deliberately innocent expression he kept on his face.

She narrowed her eyes as she propped her hands on her hips, drawing attention to the ripe curves that had the blood pounding furiously between his thighs.

“You’re not fooling me, Arness.” She arched that perfect little brow as she pursed her lips thoughtfully. “You think you are. You want to.” Then she did smile. A sexy slow curve of her lips that had him gritting his teeth to hold back his groan. “Maybe you’re the one who’s going to need all that energy. I could be too much for you to handle, you know.”

She turned then, and with a twitch of her pretty ass she stepped over the ledge to the first foothold that would lead her back to the floor of the gully.

Too much for him to handle? Doubtful. Not impossible.

But very, very doubtful.

Chapter Six

Megan doubted it as well. As they searched through the remaining caverns, she fought to keep her senses alert, using her ability to draw from Braden’s shield to hold back the less desired effects of the Empathy and to use her talents to search for answers instead.

She wasn’t adept at it. She had never had the opportunity to work in such a way, but she found herself intrigued by the opportunity now. And by the warmth and the subtle information she drew on the man as well. There were dark places inside him, but he kept them hidden; he didn’t let them affect him. There was violence, yes. But it was tempered, softened with compassion.

There was also dominance, a dominance that edged at the shields she was borrowing-shields he was controlling.

She probed at it, feeling the amusement, the lust, a hunger that was only growing.

She tried to ignore that, focusing instead on the remnants of emotions and actions that still lingered within the caverns. Not that there was much to latch on to. The Coyotes had come here to kill. They had followed the Breed couple from Broken Butte, but how had they known to start there?

They were there to kill the couple, then to wait on Megan. She sensed that; it had been uppermost in their minds. A clean sweep, but of what? What were they attempting to hide?

“There’s nothing here.” Braden finally sighed as they went through the last cavern, standing at the ledge and staring below with narrowed eyes. He gave his head a brief, firm shake. “Let’s get back to the Raider and head out. I’ll see if Jonas has come up with anything further in his interrogation of the Coyote he took back with him.”

He swung from the ledge to the narrow path that led back into the gully as Megan followed.

Megan pushed back the stray strands of hair that had escaped from her braid as she began trudging toward the Raider. She was ready to get the hell out of the desert, to head into town for dinner then home to her soft, comfortable bed.

Bruises from the past week throbbed painfully, as did some new ones collected climbing the cliff faces. Her ear burned and her pussy had developed an erotic, sensual ache that tormented her with the knowledge that she was fighting something she knew Braden wanted just as much as she did. Well, she wanted it pretty damned bad; she could be in worse shape than he was.

“What did you really expect to find here, Braden?” She watched him curiously, still not certain what he was after.

“Anything. Everything. Nothing.” She could hear the shrug in his lazy tone and gritted her teeth in irritation.

“Two out of three ain’t bad.” She mocked their dubious success with a roll of her eyes. “We found everything this gorge could have contained and nothing we needed to answer our question. You’re on a roll, Braden.” She jerked the driver’s-side door open, sliding into the cool comfort of the vehicle with a sigh of relief.

“You do sarcasm very well, Megan.” He turned to her as he slid into the passenger seat, leaning back comfortably as he smiled with a slow, too-sexy curve of his lips. That fuller lower curve made her nipples ache. It was bad when something as simple as a man’s smile made your nipples ache, made them long for the feel of those sensual curves surrounding them.

“I try.” She cleared her throat nervously, quickly turning away from the temptation of him as he emitted a completely male grunt of exasperation.

That shouldn’t have turned her on. It was insulting, not in any way erotic. But the sound had her thighs tightening and her core aching. Dammit.

Maybe it was time for the Pocket Rocket, the little clitoral stimulator that came in so handy. Pocket Rockets were nice. Or her vibrator. It had been a while since the need for sexual release had been so imperative. Maybe it had never been this imperative, she thought. Nor had it ever had this ability to make her want to be closer to a man; to make her need to be.

And he knew what he was doing to her. She could see it in his eyes, in the way he lifted his head, his nostrils flaring.

He could smell her, smell her heat and her arousal. And there was no way to hide it.

On the heels of that thought came another. She knew the Breeds’ senses were more advanced than those without the altered DNA. But she wondered, how much more advanced were they?

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye and cleared her throat before asking, “How’s your hearing?”

“My hearing?” he asked, his voice filled with lazy amusement and just a hint of curiosity.

She glanced over at him fully, widening her eyes innocently. “Your hearing. You know, your ears? Can you hear things better than other people?”

She fought the flush that threatened to build beneath the skin of her cheeks as she turned her eyes back to the track ahead.

“Better than non-Breeds, you mean?” he asked with interest.

She didn’t trust that look of male innocence for a minute, but the pretense had her fighting to hide her smile.

“Yeah.” She nodded shortly. “That’s what I mean.”

“I don’t know.” Cool amusement filled his voice. “How good is your hearing?”

Well, she wouldn’t be able to hear him jacking off, but it wasn’t like his hand buzzed either…

“Normal.” She shrugged.

“What would you classify as normal? What can you not hear that you think I could?” Was he teasing her?

She spared him a quick look, frowning at the curious expression. Was that laughter lurking in his eyes? Surely he couldn’t guess why she wanted to know?

She probed at the shields he used, but could detect nothing but the amusement.

“I don’t know.” She gripped the steering wheel harder as she tried to appear casual and merely interested in his unique Breed abilities. “If I were in the kitchen and you were in the living room of my house, I wouldn’t know it if you were to use… oh, say… a pair of hair clippers.” That seemed like a good contrast. A small, even vibration of sound, not too harsh, not too easy to hear.

“Hair clippers?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yeah.” She nodded in all seriousness. “Hair clippers.”

He tensed, clearing his throat as he shifted in his seat. “Are you trying to find out if I’ll hear you using a vibrator, Megan?”

She lost her breath, her face flaming with mortification as her head swung around, catching the narrow-eyed suspicion on his face before she jerked back to stare at the track.

“No,” she exclaimed, shocked. How had he known?

“Because if you are, I will tell you now: I would know. I would smell the sweet scent of your pussy as you found your release, and I would hear even the quietest vibrator. And I would be very, very displeased. I might even have to spank you.”

She swallowed tightly, certain her ass wasn’t tingling in anticipation, but rather in trepidation. She glanced at his hand as it lay casually on his knee. It was broad, strong…

She shifted in her seat.

“That wasn’t what I meant,” she muttered. “And what business would it be of yours?”