emma_hillman_hired (9 page)

A growl escaped from his throat when John
stood up to block their way. “Move.”

“Ah but Guardian, you haven’t even introduced
us yet.”

“Don’t make me hurt you.” His voice was no
more than a hiss, his right hand curling into a fist at his side.

“Drake!” Jessica turned, obviously shocked to
hear him sounding so mean.

“Don’t,” he said, moving to stand in front of
her. “John, move before I start getting angry. You know you won’t like the
consequences.” The words were barely out of his mouth when he felt a sharp
pressure in his brain. His head rose, anger sharpening inside him. The damn man
was trying to break through his mental defenses! “You wouldn’t dare.”

“But, I did.” John smiled, as if it was the
funniest thing he’d seen all day.

Unable to stop himself, Drake’s hands shot
out and wrapped around the man’s throat. “When is your plane due to leave?”
They’d been in discussions with the European compound for weeks now. They
wanted John to wait for his judgment there, rather than roam free in their
streets, creating mess after mess in a vain attempt to dislodge their First Man
from his position of power. Ever since the older man had attacked his Mate,
Jake had upped the surveillance on John, going as far as having him locked in
the basement cells for days on end. But the damn man had made connections in
his months spent with them, and they’d been forced to let him go. And now, here
he was again. But not for long, Drake thought. Not for long...

He watched John’s face redden under the
pressure of his fingers, his eyes bugging out of his face. “I asked you a
question,” Drake reminded him.

“A...a week.”

“Good.” He let him go. “Go home. Now.”

“You’re not my boss!” John snapped back, his
eyes shooting daggers.

“Of course, I am. I’m the Guardian. I can do
anything I want.” The threat was there. Anyone with a hint of a brain would
have understood.
Don’t tempt me
, his voice said.

“This is not over!” The older man shouted
over his shoulder as he strode through the coffee shop, his boots clacking on
the tiled floor. The door slammed shut behind him, and silence reigned once
more.

Until a little voice spoke up, “Can I get an
explanation now?”

* * * *

She watched him turn around and took a step
back when she spotted the look in his eyes. “Drake?”

He visibly got himself under control, taking
a deep breath and letting it out slowly before he grabbed her hand and led her
to their usual table. “I’ll explain later. Now, let’s get something to eat.”

If he thought she’d let it go that easily, he
obviously didn’t know her well! “Come on. You just threatened that guy!”

“That guy was John. Do you remember our First
Man talking about him at all?”

She searched her hazy memories of her first
days in the compound and remembered Faye talking about such a man, something
about him being a menace. What had he done again? When she finally recalled
that particular conversation, she felt her face redden. “Oh.”

“Get it now?”

She nodded, and unable to look him in the
eye, grabbed the menu instead. It wasn’t as if she needed to look at it. They
ate here every day and she knew all the options on offer already, but at least
it gave her something to hold on. To focus on too.

Until he drew a finger down her knuckles
clenched tight around the thick plastic and said, “I’m the Guardian, Jessica.
You need to remember that and understand what it means. I’m the man who deals
with guys such as him.”

She looked up and caught his gaze.
“You’re...their henchman?”

He tilted his head. “I guess you could say
that.”

“Have you... Have you ever killed someone?”

His face hardened. “Are you sure you want me
to answer this?”

That was answer enough, she thought. Who was
she kidding? She’d known from the start who he was. As an Immortal, he’d
probably had to deal with things far out of her sphere of understanding, for
far longer than she’d even been alive. The thought was maddening, saddening
too. She really was nothing in comparison. He mattered, he was the Guardian. And,
so what if he was a weapon of mass destruction?

She winced, remembering how he’d been with
her at first. Hardened, rough, exactly like she’d imagined someone of his
position would be. It was only during the last few days that he’d changed and
become almost tender on occasion. She’d loved the transformation, of course.
She realized now she shouldn’t get too used to it. She didn’t want him to
change for her. He had a job to do after all, while she was just a translator.

He’d always be the Guardian. The thought
burst through her mind, and she nearly groaned out loud. How stupid had she
been! Of course. She was just a temporary lull in his otherwise busy life. She
amused him, she was fun in bed maybe, but that was all. Their worlds would
never fit together.

Yes, she told herself, unaware he was looking
at her in a strange way. She would just have to remember that it wouldn’t last.
As soon as her translation was complete, she would leave the compound and get
back to her normal, quiet life. No more Immortals, no more Drake.

No more Drake...

Chapter Fourteen

“We stand here together as one…”

Ambrotos (Translation by Jessica James)

“You’re mine,” he growled against the skin of
her lower back, his teeth pinching the curve of her right cheek seconds later.

She hissed, her hips jerking at the sharp
pain his caress brought. “Drake!”

“Say it,” he ordered, his voice tense.

Jessica shook her head. She was lying on her
stomach on the mattress in the library, her rose stretched around the biggest
plug he’d had in his stack. They’d been playing on and off for hours, Drake
having fallen on her as soon as they’d returned from the café. She wasn’t sure
if it was because of his altercation with John or because he was just that
horny, but he’d pushed and prodded, and now here she was.

She felt his hair brush against her inner
thighs before his tongue found her clit. She squealed, the sound muffled in the
cushion she was holding on to. He didn’t stop however. He kept on eating her
pussy, his hand grabbing the plug in her butt and twisting it this way or that
every few seconds. She was on sensory overload, her lower half so tense she
wondered if she wouldn’t snap in two when she finally came. “Drake!” she called
out once more.

“What is it, baby?”

She stilled.
“Drake?”
She could have
sworn she’d heard him inside her mind. Oh hell, she was going crazy now too?

“What do you want? Tell me.”

She jerked in shock but he only chuckled, the
sound echoing in every part of her brain. He was talking to her mind-to-mind!
Like he did with his First Man! What the hell was going on?
“I can hear you
in my mind!”

* * * *

“Can you?”
Drake drew back and watched as she turned her head,
her gaze finding his.

“Can you hear me?”
she said, her lips never moving.

Shit!

“I heard that!”

He took a deep breath.
“Can you hear all
my thoughts?”

She frowned, obviously trying to read his
mind. She shook her head.
“No, not everything.”

Thank God for that. He looked inward and
began strengthening his mental shields.
“What about now?”

“I can hear you talking to me.”

“Okay.”
He could deal with that. He’d been expecting it after
all.

“Is that normal? Am I going crazy?”

He smiled.
“No, baby. It’s nothing to
worry about. Now, just lie back and enjoy. I’m not finished with you yet.”

“But, Drake...”

He ignored her questioning voice in his mind
and leaned back down. Opening her inner lips with his thumbs, he closed his
teeth around her reddened clit and applied pressure. She bucked, but he didn’t
stop. His right hand slid up her ass and pulled on the plug, sliding it out of
her until it hovered just inside her, then pushed it back in in one long
thrust.

She keened, her sound of pleasure shattering
through his defenses. She was still coming when he drew the toy out and threw
it behind him. It took him a few seconds to spurt some lube on his cock, a few
seconds more to align himself with her widened rose. He only slowed down when
the head of his erection passed her rim of muscles, her shocked gasp the only
proof that she was back with him.

“Oh God,” he then heard her groan.

Her anal muscles were so tight around his
cock he wondered how long he would last. “Relax, baby,” he finally remembered
to say.

* * * *

Relax? Was he kidding?

“Drake!” she tried to call out to him but he
was obviously in his own little world.

God but he felt huge like this. He was so
thick, so damn hard, all she could feel was him and that odd pressure in her
butt. It was like the plug but not really. He was alive in her, not like the
smooth plastic had been. Sure, it helped that he’d just given her an intense
orgasm, one of many that past afternoon. She wasn’t sure she was going to come
again today though.

“Just feel, sweetheart. Feel me inside you.”

“What?”

“Haven’t you fantasized about this before?
Here you are, darling. I’m taking your ass, Jessica, and I’m loving it. You’re
so fucking hot I don’t think I’ll be able to let you go. You’re so perfect.
So...”

“Oh, Drake.”
She closed her eyes and repeated his words to
herself. She was so perilously close to falling in love with him, and the more
he behaved in such a way, the more she was losing grip.

“You’re mine, Jessica.”

His tone was unequivocal. When his right hand
slipped underneath her and found her clit, the one he’d teased so well earlier,
she squealed once more but didn’t move. Two fingers enclosed the sensitive nub,
pressing and touching and caressing until all she could do was think about the
mounting pleasure inside her.

She even acclimated to that sweet pressure in
her ass, his slow thrusts building speed even as they began making sense. The
push and pull, the feel of his heavy body on hers, the way her nipples brushed
against the sheet bunched underneath her... All that and his fingers slipping
around her clit rendered her body so sensitized it only took one more slide of
his cock so deep inside her to push her beyond her limits.

She reached for the stars and drew them to
her, to them. She exploded in a million little pieces and felt her mind break
wide open.

His thoughts rushed through her, heightening
her climax so much she felt her world dip then blur and then...everything
turned black.

* * * *

She woke up to find a very distressed Drake
hovering above her. “Hey.” She smiled up at him, reaching for him with both
arms.

“Baby, stop!” He pulled back. “How are you
feeling? Are you in pain?”

“No,” she answered on a sigh. “I feel very
good.”

“Jessica?” He eyed her as if she’d grown a
second head. “What’s going on?”

She couldn’t tell him, of course. He’d hate
that he’d lost control when he’d climaxed and his mental walls had shattered
long enough for her to read his mind. Oh, she hadn’t listened to his every
thought but only to those that mattered. And now she was so damn happy all she
wanted to do was to hug her to him forever. “I love you.”

He froze.

Chapter Fifteen

“Pleading to You, Gods and Goddesses and
Spirits,

that You unleash Your Power…”

Ambrotos (Translation by Jessica James)

She’d acted as if it hadn’t mattered. After
her unexpected declaration, he’d withdrawn but only after making sure her
earlier fainting spell hadn’t had lasting consequences. It was all right
though, she told herself now, bent over the parchment and its last scribbled
lines. Yes, she nodded, it was all right because she knew what he thought about
her. There might not have been love clearly spelt in his mind, but she knew
better. She’d seen how he really saw her, how he felt about her. It was love.
It had to be. After all, he’d been quite clear he didn’t want to let her go,
right?

She chewed on the end of her pencil for a few
seconds before shaking her head. “Nevermind that.” She had work to do!