Body Thief (30 page)
Authors: C.J. Barry
For a long time, he took her in, his breathing deepening, his eyes dark. Then he dipped down and flicked one nipple with his tongue. It sent a jolt of electricity down her spine. He sucked and squeezed as he drew it into his mouth over and over again. Then he moved to the other nipple and did the same. His face brushed her sensitive skin with every movement.
She found herself moaning at each little torment. Then he moved down her stomach, kissing, caressing, and stroking with his mouth and hands. Cam closed her eyes tightly and let the sensations sing. Her hands gripped the bedsheets at her sides, clutching them hard with every wave. When he reached her jeans, he paused.
His gaze met hers. He unsnapped the fastener and pulled the zipper down one tooth at a time.
“Faster,” she said, wriggling beneath him in need.
He grinned and shook his head. “Not this time.
You’re
stressed.”
You’re
stressed.”
Crap, he
had
been listening. His grin grew as he reached the bottom of the zipper, and Cam held his gaze and lifted her hips so he could remove her jeans. He pulled them off and threw them somewhere on the floor. With her legs free, Cam slid the inside of her thigh along outside of his, opening herself up for him.
had
been listening. His grin grew as he reached the bottom of the zipper, and Cam held his gaze and lifted her hips so he could remove her jeans. He pulled them off and threw them somewhere on the floor. With her legs free, Cam slid the inside of her thigh along outside of his, opening herself up for him.
He captured her thigh with one hand and leaned down to kiss the soft inner side. Then he closed in on her center and spread her legs. He nipped her gently through the thin fabric of her panties, and she reached for his hands. He pushed her away and sucked her through the fabric.
Cam arched off the bed with a growl that didn’t sound quite human. He chuckled. If she wasn’t about to have the orgasm of her life, she might hurt him. She felt his thumb slip under the panties and find her.
Fire burned in her belly, setting every nerve ending in flames. The heat was unbearable, setting her on the edge. One more second . . .
Then his fingers left her, and he climbed over her to kiss her face softly. She gripped him with her hips, holding him in place just in case he decided to change positions. Her entire body was in limbo, somewhere between pain and pleasure, and he wasn’t going anywhere until she got one or the other.
Her fingernails dug into his back, and she nipped his lips harder than she should.
“Easy,” he whispered, and reached down to pull her panties to one side.
“Griffin,” she ground out between her teeth. She was out of her mind with anticipation and need. If he ever got done playing around, she was going to make sure he suffered as much as she did.
He braced himself on one elbow while lifting her leg over his shoulder. His fingers slid her panties over, making room for him. She sucked air, fueling the fire that threatened to rip her apart as she felt his swollen head push into her a few inches.
Oh God
. Frustration and need ached through every part of her body.
. Frustration and need ached through every part of her body.
Then he pulled out and pushed her panties farther to the side, holding them there while he entered her again—just a bit deeper. He pulled out and did it again, each time filling her more until he was deep inside.
Cam tried to force him to move, but he would have none of it. She opened her eyes to find him looking at her, his face etched in pain and struggle. He wanted her as much as she wanted him; she could see the desire in his eyes, feel the way his body struggled. But he was a patient man. She was so screwed.
He withdrew completely, and then he filled her slowly, inch by inch, driving her to the brink of insanity. She couldn’t feel anything else but him. After an eternity, he pushed into her core and ground against her. Then as slowly as he’d entered, he slid out, leaving her empty bit by bit.
She groaned and nearly used her Shifter strength to draw him in again. He moved back into her, faster this time and again. His eyes closed as the rhythm consumed him. Cam followed him, stroke for stroke, as his pace picked up.
They rocked together as if they’d done this a thousand times. Cam gripped his arms as the orgasm drew closer with every drive. It hovered in time, building strength, before crashing over her with merciless power.
Griffin growled deep in this throat as she tightened around him. His rhythm broke to a feverish velocity, shaking the bed and sending her back into orgasm. With a great push, he plunged into her and let out a long groan.
Cam held him as he collapsed on her. For a long time, neither of them had the strength to move. When her orgasm silenced, she was left once again with the fear of what she’d done to him. If she hadn’t been so selfish about uncovering the truth, he’d have his life back. If she hadn’t pushed him to this place, he’d be happy. And where this was going to end, she had no idea. They could find all the answers they wanted, and then still end up being on the run. The tension in her body betrayed her.
“Don’t think about it too much,” Griffin murmured. “It’ll make you crazy.”
She closed her eyes. She was already crazy. But this was what she wanted, what she fought him for. To find out what was really going on. Too late to change her mind. “I know.”
Griffin raised himself to his elbows and gazed down at her. His eyes were heavy and relaxed. “I can’t give you any answers.”
“I know that too,” she said. It could all break tomorrow, the whole damn thing could spill out into the open. Or it could take weeks. But one thing was clear: Shifters would always be hunted, and he was now one of the hunted.
He leaned down and kissed her again, and she felt him getting harder by the second. She pushed him over onto his back and climbed on top of him. Her breasts brushed his chest as she kissed his face and started to work her way down his body. She reached down and slipped her hand around him. He hissed through his teeth.
She peered up at him and smiled wickedly. “Payback.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“S
o I hacked into the XCEL central data warehouse and put a crawler on every index node,” Ernest said, hunched over one of three laptops in the hotel room. “Most of them simply coughed up the routine chatter.”
o I hacked into the XCEL central data warehouse and put a crawler on every index node,” Ernest said, hunched over one of three laptops in the hotel room. “Most of them simply coughed up the routine chatter.”
Griffin and Cam exchanged an amused look over the coils of cables, servers, and monitors. A geek in his natural habitat.
Ernest raised his finger. “However, I did get a hit when I searched for the location of the last deadly strike. So I followed that, cracked an amateur attempt at a secure algorithm, and located an isolated table that captured the communications stream.”
Griffin crossed his arms. “Is there a moral to this story?”
Ernest glanced up at him. “Hey, four hours I worked on this.”
“And it’s very much appreciated,” Cam said, placing her hand on Ernest’s shoulder as she narrowed her eyes at Griffin. “Do you know who they are going to hit next?”
Ernest nodded. “Sure do.” He brought up a map of Harlem and zoomed in to a building on the corner of a block. “A free health clinic called Thorp Medical Center. Today at fifteen hundred hours.”
“Oh God,” Cam said with a gasp. “That’s the middle of the afternoon. The place will be packed with patients.”
Griffin checked his watch. It was one P.M. now. “That gives us two hours to clear out that building without spooking our bombers. And then stop them.”
“And then what?” Ernest asked. “They’ll just move onto the next place, and the next. This won’t end until they’ve made their point.”
Griffin knew he was right. They’d need to take out the person or people responsible for sending the orders. “Can you tell where the communications are coming from? If they have a headquarters?”
Ernest shook his head. “Not yet, but I’ll keep digging.”
“Dig in Harding’s direction,” Cam said.
“Oh, trust me, I have,” Ernest said, looking disgusted. “Can’t connect him to any of this.”
“Then someone else is giving those orders,” Griffin noted. He slapped Ernest on the back. “Keep your head down.”
Ernest grinned at him. “I’m not the one who’s going to get shot at.”
Griffin watched Cam go over to her father, who was napping in one of the hotel beds. She sat on the bed next to him and covered him up with the blanket. Concern was etched across her face, and Griffin felt another pang of guilt for not doing more to find her brother. But she’d made up her own mind. Hell, she’d pretty much dragged him into this. Still, he didn’t want her to lose her father, and time was not their friend.
He leaned closer to Ernest. “Do you have any micro GPS chips?”
Ernest looked at him like he was nuts. “I have a case of them. How many do you need?”
“I’ll take a couple. The range is good?”
“As good as you need,” Ernest said. “What are you planning to do with them?”
Griffin glanced at Cam. “Let’s just say I’m going to try to speed up our progress a bit.”
“That might be a little more difficult than we thought,” Ernest said in a tone that Griffin didn’t like at all. “Harding has put a contract out on all of us. We’re traitors, wanted dead or alive. Personally, I like alive.”
It didn’t surprise Griffin that Harding would take the first opportunity to get rid of them. “How long are we safe here?”
Ernest shrugged. “Maybe another night or two, but we’ll need to move.” He leaned into Griffin and added in a whisper, “Dewey needs medical attention.”
“I know,” Griffin said. Not only that, moving Dewey in his current condition wasn’t good for any of them. “No matter what, you stay with him.”
Ernest nodded. “Sure. Do I get a gun now?”
“You sure do,” he replied.
Cam and Griffin stood across the street from the clinic and watched patients come and go in the middle of the afternoon. Old folks, children, mothers, babies. Her anger grew with every passing minute. XCEL would let these people die to prove a point. To damn Shifters everywhere.
Over her fucking dead body.
“What happens if they use a Salt Round on you?” Griffin asked.
She scanned the two-story building. “I’ve adapted a strategy to eject it. It won’t work next time.”
“Good.”
She turned to look at him, and her body temperature jumped a few degrees. He looked especially sexy today. He’d be better naked though. She had to corral her thoughts after a brief detour. “Is the three P.M. time for the explosion or for the mission to begin?”
“Ernest couldn’t tell.” He led her across the street. “But he said there are apartments upstairs. That has to be their target. Otherwise, someone would notice.”
“The second-floor windows are covered with blinds. I can’t see inside,” she told him.
“Then we’ll have to check it out the old-fashioned way.”
They walked through the front doors of the clinic. As she feared, the place was wall-to-wall patients. They occupied the chairs that lined the walls and stood where there was no seating available. One beleaguered receptionist sat behind a glass partition.
Griffin walked up to her and discreetly showed his badge. The woman’s eyes widened as they talked, their words lost in the noise of the clinic. Then she glanced at Cam and nodded. She pulled a set of keys from her drawer and handed them over. He thanked her, and they headed to the back of the building, past a long row of doorways and busy nurses.
Griffin unlocked a door that opened to a flight of stairs. After Cam closed the door behind her, she said, “What did you tell her?”
“First, I asked her about the apartments. Two are occupied, the one in front is vacant. Then, I asked if anyone unusual had been up here lately.”
He pulled out his Glock as they hit the second-floor landing.
“And?”
“Three men with the gas company showed up ten minutes ago to work on the vacant apartment, and they’re still here.”
Three men who knew exactly what they were doing and willing to kill innocent people. Cam was mad enough to handle them all herself. “Did you warn her?”
He nodded. “Told her they were criminals, armed and dangerous, and to clear the clinic as quickly and quietly as possible.”
“Good,” Cam said. “What about tenants?”
“She didn’t know if they were here or not. Not her job.”
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