Dreams of a Dark Warrior
Page 24

Then she heard him tearing off his gloves, his excitement palpable.
Earlier he'd told her, "Eyes forward," as he'd removed her cuffs. And now this. So why didn't he want her to see his hands?
For long moments, she waited for him to make a move, her anticipation building. She could feel his gaze on her na**d body and suspected he was deciding where to touch her first.
Final y he grazed the pads of his fingers over her cheekbone. She shivered as he rasped, "Soft as silk."
Gods, it'd been so long since a man had caressed her.
Another long hesitation. Then he ran a finger over the pointed tip of her ear.
She began to squirm.
"You like that?"
"Uh-huh." Wondering where he'd touch her next grew maddening.
When he traced the tip of her other ear and her ni**les tightened into aching points, he hissed in a breath.
Touch them, she inwardly begged.
Instead, he brushed his big knuckles along her jawline. "You look so delicate, Regin. Deceptively so."
Though she couldn't see, the scene was vivid enough to her. With each hesitation, she knew he was deliberating over which part he wanted to feel next. As if he was sampling her.
And she wanted to sample back. When she raised her hands, he said, "Ah-ah, Valkyrie. Just me touchin' you." He drew a finger from her inner ankle up to her knee.
She bit back a cry, dropping her hands. Wicked, complicated man-
He swept his thumb over her bottom lip, and she softly moaned, just stopping herself from darting her tongue to his finger.
She'd begun swaying from the sensual onslaught. "Chase, do you... do you like the way I feel?"
Moments passed in silence. Then his finger circled her nipple.
When she cried out, arching her back for more, he groaned, "I like it."
Chapter TWENTY-SIX
Declan had never seen anything like the sight before him. The Valkyrie was trembling, panting, her ni**les rock-hard. Her responses had him in a lather to come-the little sounds she made, her expressive mouth, her soft, sensitive skin.
He could stroke himself off right here, but this teasing her excited him like nothing ever had. In this, his will was her will . If he decided he'd keep her on the edge, then that was where she'd stay. The idea was erotic as hell.
How had he missed out on this for so long? To go without stroking a woman's giving flesh?
But even as the thought arose, he knew his reaction was due to her. The Valkyrie was special to him in some way, her pleasure important.
For twenty bleak years, he'd convinced himself that he was cold and unfeeling, that he wasn't burdened by a man's needs.
No longer. I need her. "Where do you want me to touch you, Regin?"
She jutted those breathtaking br**sts.
"There?" Just to keep her guessing, he would not be touching her there. Not yet.
"Uh-huh."
Instead, he leaned in, grazing his lips over the tip of her ear. Sexy little ears.
She shivered wildly. "Chase!"
Thrilling. After a pause, he reached around her and dragged his nails across her arse.
Her plaintive moans came quicker and quicker.
I could make her orgasm. Just from this game. He'd never felt a rush like this, as if a mystery he'd long pondered was being revealed-She pressed her hand against her flat bel y and began sliding it down.
She would touch herself? In front of him? He groaned, wanting to see her rubbing her sex, but that was for another night. "No, Regin."
"Then let me touch you." She reached for his chest.
"Put your damned hands down," he snapped, knowing she'd be horrified by the feel of his skin. "Sit on them."
"Chase-"
"Do it."
After a hesitation, she did. He rewarded her by tracing her ear with his lips again. Directly beside it, he murmured, "Are you wet?"
She could only moan in answer.
"Show me, then." He skimmed his finger along one taut inner thigh, and she dutiful y spread her legs, revealing her glistening sex. At the sight, his c**k pulsed so hard, he thought he might spil at once.
His control was in shreds. Have to feel her there, explore her flesh. He skimmed the backs of his fingers down her bel y to her navel, just as she'd detailed earlier. When he circled it, her lips parted around a whispered, "Oh!"
"You know what comes next. You described it to me." His fingers trailed from her navel down, lower... lower ...
"Chase!" Her skin glowed even brighter. "What are you doing to me? I-I'm close."
He'd bring her over the edge. With his other hand, he finally rubbed his thumb back and forth over one nipple.
"Oh, my gods," she breathed, licking her lips. His gaze was rapt on her darting tongue.
Declan had imagined her kiss, had dreamed of it. No longer could he deny himself the taste of her sweet lips. To catch her cries as she goes over the edge? With his fingers still teasing, he leaned in, dipping his head, his lips hovering just above hers.
"Chase?" It was as if a spellhad been broken. Before she'd been arching to his touch, her body begging for more. Now she drew back from him. "Wait, I... just hold on a minute, just let me think."
"Woman, you've been pushin' me for just this."
She lowered her head, whispering, "I can't do it."
"You can." He pinched her chin, holding her face up. "You will."
"Shh." Her ears twitched. "Someone's here."
"You're just saying that-" Then he heard it too. Footsteps within his chambers, heading for the bathroom. He was about to kil whoever was stupid enough to interrupt this.
After I've waited so goddamn long?
She reached for the tie, and he yanked on his gloves-
"Son, get away from her."
"Webb." Here. Three days early.
When Declan threw a towel over her, he saw her silvery eyes were wide. He moved in front of her, hissing under his breath, "I will protect you." Then he turned to his commander, battling the urge to bare his f**king teeth that the man had seen her unclothed.
"Declan, what the hel are you doing with this prisoner?"
Risking everything ...
Regin couldn't decide whether she was irate or grateful about this Webb's interruption.
How had things with Chase burned so total y out of control? She was supposed to put him under her spel . Instead, just the opposite had happened. ...
Webb swept his gaze over her with a look of revulsion. Her eyes slitted. Right back at you.
He was big, not tal like Chase, but burlier. He wore a military uniform and sported a salt-and-pepper buzz cut.
By Chase's reaction, Webb was a superior officer. Yet Chase faced him with his shoulders back and said, "I want her."
"You what?" Webb's gray brows shot up, his forehead creasing.
Dude's about as shocked as I am. She knotted the towel around her chest, then hopped down to watch the exchange.
Chase stretched his arm in front of her protectively. "I'll continue to do whatever you ask, but she belongs to me."
"Listen to what you're saying!"
"You're going to let me take her from here, to an older facility. Someplace where I alone will see her."
Chase was telling a superior what's what? Gods, his arrogance was magnificent-and so familiar.
Aidan had expected Woden to bestow ohal a on him; now Chase was demanding Regin as his due.
"No, you don't want her, son. She's just made you think that you do. Ask the Valkyrie why she's tried so hard to get you to remember this Aidan."
"What are you talking about?"
"Tel , him, female," Webb said. "Tel him how you've been trying to kil him."
Oh, shit.
Chase turned to her. "What is this?"
From behind him, Webb said, "She believes you're her lover reincarnated."
"Aye. She's told me as much."
"Has she told you that every man she's slept with has died within hours of it? She believes you're cursed to perish in each lifetime as soon as you claim her."
Shit, shit!
"Deny it," Chase commanded her.
She gazed up at him, knowing she should lie... "I can't deny it."
"And her lips have a drugging effect-like a narcotic," Webb continued. "That's why she was coaxing you to kiss her. She planned to seduce you, and then you'd perish like the others, all owing her to escape."
Between gritted teeth, Chase said, "How do you know this?"
"The transcripts from her cel . We had her conversations translated by a new source. She told her cell mate that this was her plan for escape-your death."
What new source? When I find out-
Chase launched a fist into the wal beside her head. "You f**kin' bitch, deny this!"
She sucked in a breath at the lost look in his eyes, the palpable pain. "What did you expect me to do, Chase? Calmly await my torture?"
His fists tightened even more, his muscles growing as rage well ed inside him.
She stared up at him. "Hit me, Magister. Make this easy for me."
Again Declan couldn't. Damn her! He roared, "Get her away from me!"
Webb grabbed her arm, shoving her out of the room. "Declan, come to my office in an hour. We'l talk once you've had some time to process all this."
And then they were gone. Leaving him alone in his chambers, where he'd likely go mad.
So it's over. The excitement he'd felt. The pleasure. The highest high to the lowest low.
Feeling dead inside, he sat at his console, watching the feed of her cel for the last time.
Such a f**kin' fool, Dekko. You knew they weren't to be trusted.
He saw Webb shove her into the cel . She was still in that towel, her clothes bundled in her arms. She swung her head up to face the camera, eyes silvery.
Declan ran his gloved fingers down the monitor over her image. Then he punched the screen.
Chapter TWENTY-SEVEN
I never expected this from you," Webb told him. His military bearing was even more pronounced tonight, though he used to relax around Declan. "Never from you, son."
Webb's censure was kil ing him. Declan respected him more than any other man. It was bad enough that Declan had f**ked up so completely, but for Webb to know about his transgression was too much.
"Your clearance will be downgraded. Your print won't work on prisoners' bindings."
Not mind-wiped? Not cast out?
"And Fegley will take over your captures."
"You're putting him in charge of Malkom Slaine?"
"Fegley's loyal to this cause. Loyal to the bone."
"He gets off on the power here."
"As opposed to getting off on the inmates here?" Webb rubbed his hand over his face. "You know I look upon you as a son. And your work here isn't finished. I will try to smooth this over as best as I can."
Fixing things for me yet again.
"But, Declan, I have to know you can beat this obsession with the Valkyrie."
"Consider it beaten." There was no gut-wrenching pain in his body, no urgency or crippling tension.
Inside he felt cold as ash.
It didn't matter whether Declan believed she had the power to destroy him. She had, which meant she'd been actively endeavoring to murder him. all the seduction, all the charm to win him over ... all bul shite.
He'd been an easy mark, yearning for what she'd seemed to offer.
And until he'd discovered the truth, he'd at last had the briefest taste of ... peace.
Now he knew exactly what he was missing. Fuckin' hate her!
"How can I trust that?" Webb demanded. "When you broke every regulation to see her repeatedly in your quarters? You of all people should know what they're capable of. Have you forgotten about your parents? How do you think they'd feel about your involvement with a female who's not human?"
Declan stared straight ahead, berating himself for this fal far worse than Webb ever could.
"It's us against them. There's no middle ground. You're either on our side or you align with the detrus that fed on your family. Fed on you. What's it to be, Declan?"
"I'm loyal to the Order."
"Good. Then You'll accompany Fegley in Slaine's capture, shadow the warden for once. Just as a pre-caution."
The idea grated. "Why?"
"Because you're the only one who could stop that demon if he got loose on our plane. After that, you'll take some time off base."
"Now, sir?" Who would interrogate Slaine? Who would make sure his blood got destroyed so no one was ever tempted to miscreate another like him?
Webb steepled his fingers, a gesture Declan now realized he'd emulated. He'd emulated much about the man. "I'd been coming to see you tonight to tell you some exciting news, the kind you crave most. But now I don't know if you deserve the mission. ..."
Declan's body shot through with tension. "You found Neoptera." Their nests were rare; it'd been years since Declan had encountered any of their kind.
"Yes. In southern Australia."
Only a few hours away by chopper. This could be an opportunity to prove himself-and the chance to do what he loved above all things.
Slaughtering Neoptera. Hatred so vicious it burns cold.
"I need this, sir."
"Yes." The man gazed at him shrewdly. "I think it's exactly what you need."
The stench of rotting flesh engulfed Declan and his men as they closed in on an abandoned warehouse. The smel of old victims.
Which meant that they'd found the Neo nest. At last.
He and his team had dusted off directly after Slaine's successful capture, and for the better part of a week they'd hunted along the murky quays of southern Australia.
He waved half his men toward the back of the building to block off the only other exit. They wore night- vision goggles and had their sidearms drawn. No TEP-Cs tonight-this was going to be a close-quarter bug hunt.
Declan had unsheathed his sword and was ready to get his hands dirty. Ready to prove himself.
He'd gotten through Slaine's capture without throttling Fegley-a feat in itself. Acting as a mere fail-safe in the background, Declan had done nothing, just watched another heading his mission.
He'd even held his tongue as Fegley had taunted him. Apparently the warden had put two and two together: Declan's interest in the Valkyrie, fol owed by his downgraded clearance.
"Golden boy Chase," he'd said. "Not so perfect after all . Got caught with his hand in the cookie jar."