Untamed Hawaiian Heat (Rift Hunters) (26 page)

His magic flowed hot in his veins and reached out to the energy patterns of Kiana and Tiaki, adding fuel to the desire to go down to the lagoon and join them. He shook his head and breathed deeply to calm the storm raging inside.

Every stroke, every caress, every kiss, every lick Kiana lavished upon Tiaki’s taut body crashed through the link with the force of a tidal wave. Through the connection of their magic, he could feel Tiaki thrusting his hips against her mouth, encouraging her to suck harder.

Grasping the beam in the center of the room, Mateo squeezed until his knuckles turned white. His whole body trembled with the need to go to them, to strip the clothes from his body, to lay down with them on the sand and feel his skin rub against theirs, to caress them, to kiss and lick them, tasting the salt of their skin on his tongue.

He closed his eyes and groaned.

“What are you waiting for, mi amigo?”

His opened his eyes in surprise. He glanced around the room, expecting to see a ghost. He swiped at the sweat trickling down his neck. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his link with Kiana, trying desperately to close it so he wouldn’t have to feel them. The insatiable longing to join them was almost more than he could bear. He cried out in frustration when he failed to find the barrier keeping him from closing it.

“Why are you fighting this so hard, Mateo?”

Mateo shook his head again and glanced around the room at the sound of Remi’s voice. What the hell was going on? Raking his hands through his hair, he walked over to the desk and grabbed his canteen. Maybe if he cooled his skin, he’d be able to handle whatever the hell Kiana was trying to accomplish. He unscrewed the cap, tilted his head back, and dumped most of the contents on his head.

A rich laugh rang out throughout the room.
“You always did think that would help clear everything up.”

“Remi…” The name escaped before he could stop it. He opened his eyes and looked around, wondering if he was going crazy.

He gritted his teeth when he felt Tiaki’s cock touching the back of Kiana’s throat as she sucked it blazed through their link. Gripping the back of the desk chair, he inhaled sharply.
What the hell is going on?

“It’s quite simple, mi amigo. You’re trying to keep my memory sacred by denying what you feel for Tiaki. I tried to tell you, but apparently you weren’t listening,”
Remi said.

Mateo frowned.
“Tried to tell me? What the hell are you talking about?”

“You never did listen when I tried to talk to you about where I was from.”

“Where you were from?”
Mateo couldn’t help repeating the words. The ghost Remi melted away in his mind as a memory surfaced in his consciousness.

“I’m not the one you know.”

Mateo turned away from the window to see Remi reclining on their bed, watching him. His dirty blond hair had fallen across his left eye like it always did. He’d folded one arm behind his head, completely comfortable with his nude state.

“Not the one what?” Mateo asked.

“Your soul mate,” Remi replied so quietly he might not have spoken at all.

Mateo approached the bed and sat down beside his lover. “I told you I don’t believe in soul mates.”

Remi sat up and traced his finger along Mateo’s jaw. “Promise me something?”

Mateo leaned into the caress, silently wondering why he’d never acknowledged how attracted he was to men before. The emotions he felt with Remi were unlike anything he’d ever experienced with a woman. He met Remi’s gaze, not liking the tone in his voice. “What?”

“Promise me when the time comes, you’ll not fight it.”

Mateo searched Remi’s eyes, astonished to see a flash of glittering red flecks swirl in their depths. He blinked and looked again but only found the normal brown eyes he’d come to love. “Fight what?”

“The bonding, Mateo. Don’t fight it. It’s worth more than you can imagine.”

“You’re talking nonsense, Remi.” When Remi started to speak again, Mateo silenced him with a hard kiss.

Mateo shook his head in disbelief. Had Remi been a Rift Hunter?

The thought fled his mind when he felt Tiaki buck against Kiana’s mouth. Her teeth scraped lightly over Tiaki’s cock and burned like wildfire through their link. Mirroring ones raced along his own shaft.

Cursing under his breath, Mateo headed for the door, unable to fight the desire to watch them. Even though he knew doing so would only increase the craving he had to join them.

Mateo stalked the short distance to the lagoon. The fact he hadn’t needed to scan for Kiana to find them should have set off warning bells. All he could focus on was the dark hunger to spy on Kiana as she sucked Tiaki’s cock.

He hoped the desire he was feeling was coming from Kiana and not himself.

He refused to believe he felt more for the Hunter than he ever had for Remi. The thought of betraying his former lover’s memory made his heart ache.

Mateo stopped abruptly at the tree line that partially concealed the lagoon. He had to remind himself to breathe when he caught sight of Tiaki and Kiana on the beach. A golden orb floated near them, lending enough light for him to see them clearly.

Tiaki lay back on the sand, his arms pinned to the ground. The memory of how he’d held Tiaki down without actually touching his hands flashed through his mind. Kiana must have figured out how to do it as well.

Kiana knelt between Tiaki’s thighs, sucking his cock into her mouth to the base. Mateo could feel the length of Tiaki’s shaft in his mouth as though he were the one giving him head instead of Kiana.

Unconsciously Mateo reached down and shifted his painfully hard erection. The sight of Kiana licking and sucking Tiaki had him aching to really feel her hot mouth…or Tiaki’s engulfing his cock.

Mateo let his eyes flutter shut. His magic became a tempest in his veins as his emotion link processed the sensations as Kiana sucked Tiaki harder, her hands stroking faster. He could almost feel Tiaki’s dick as he thrust harder into her mouth, the energy swirling violently inside him amplified the longing to join them. Tiaki cried out, his moans of pleasure echoing off the cliffs surrounding the lagoon.

The instant Tiaki reached his climax, Mateo doubled over, feeling like he’d been punched in the gut. He sucked in a sharp breath, trying to regain his equilibrium. When he could finally breathe again, he stood up and opened his eyes.

His gaze collided with Kiana’s. Her eyes were burnished silver, and a sensual erotic heat burned in their depths. He didn’t have to see Tiaki’s eyes to know his would look the same, only gold.

Kiana held his gaze as she released her suction on Tiaki’s sated body, her lips curving into a satisfied smile as her tongue darted out and licked a drop of Tiaki’s essence off them. She sat up and moved to straddle Tiaki.

Tiaki sat up beneath her and started to push her off his lap, only he wasn’t quick enough. Kiana grasped his face in both hands and kissed him, never breaking eye contact with Mateo.

Mateo reached for their shared link and tried to close it again. When the switch to turn it off slid easily closed, he knew she’d been the one jamming it.

Damn her!

He watched a moment longer. Tiaki grasped Kiana’s waist and moved her off him, his movements restrained.

Tiaki gathered his discarded pareo and looked up. Their eyes met and held for a long moment before Tiaki began yanking the fabric around his waist, his movements jerky with anger. Tiaki was saying something to Kiana, but they were too far away for Mateo to hear.

Mateo didn’t wait to see what happened next. He’d seen and felt enough. He turned sharply on his heel and walked away. Not to his and Kiana’s hale. He needed to think about what he’d just experienced and what he remembered Remi saying.

* * * *

When the attack alarm sounded, Mateo jumped out of bed fully awake and started jerking on clothes and grabbing weapons. He didn’t really need them now, since he could wield the magic in Earth’s core. But old habits died hard. He raced out to find chaos reigning.

People ran in all directions, dodging fire from weapons he’d never seen before that were being used by cyborgs similar to the ones they’d fought during the last battle. Some of the weapons were new.

Kiana.

Her name sprang unbidden to the front of his mind. He had to find her. Make sure she was safe. Running toward where he’d last seen her, he flicked his com link and their emotion link on and started scanning for her, dodging enemy fire as he went. Normally he would be firing back, but something inside told him Kiana was in danger.

There was no sign of her. What the hell? He should have been able to locate her with at least their emotion link.

He scanned the lagoon and surrounding area for any sign of Kiana but found nothing. Cursing under his breath, he headed back toward the armory, hoping she would be falling into her old habit from her days in the military. She would have headed straight there to arm herself as soon as she heard the alarm.

Still he sensed nothing. He forced away the panic rising in his chest. He didn’t have time to panic. As he approached the armory, he saw Niki rush around the corner of the building. His sensors picked up movement in the trees along the opposite side of the path. Mateo charged in the direction of the movement when several cyborgs attacked from where Niki had been moments before. One of the cyborgs aimed a gun at Niki’s head. He opened his mouth to shout a warning, but it died on his tongue when a ball of orange flames hurtled past him. He stared in disbelief at the space where the man’s gun had been seconds before. Now there was only the stub of an arm dripping blood and the scent of seared flesh hanging in the air.

Mateo barely registered the sight of Monte with his fist engulfed in orange flames before another cyborg plowed him to the ground. Where the hell had they all come from? And more importantly, where was Kiana?

The cyborg raised his fist to punch him.

Mateo shifted to the side just in time to miss the metal fist that struck the spot where his head had been. Struggling with the man, whose body was encased in armor more advanced than he’d seen in the OS ranks before, Mateo grappled for a way to throw the man off so he could catch his breath.

“Mateo!”
Tiaki’s voice shouted in his mind.

Mateo grunted as pain flashed across every nerve ending when the man head butted him.
“A little busy here, Hunter!”
he gritted through the connection of their magic.

“Use your fucking magic. Brute force won’t work on them. They’re tapping into Earth’s core magic somehow.”

As much as he hated to admit the Hunter was right, Mateo knew deep down he spoke the truth. Concentrating on the core where his magic resided, Mateo called it forth, commanding it into an energy bolt. Screaming out the battle cry he’d heard Remi use countless times, he prayed it wouldn’t catch him with a backlash of some sort.

Mateo focused his magic into a ball of fire and imagined it flowing down the stream of energy running in his veins until it exploded out of his hand, blasting the cyborg off him. Unfortunately he wasn’t thrown far enough. Before he could get up and attempt a better attack, the cyborg grabbed him around the ribs and lifted him into the air.

He caught sight of Monte and Niki engaged in combat with several cyborgs as the one holding him threw him to the ground. He tried to brace himself but still hit with a sickening
thud
. He lay stunned for several long moments, attempting to catch his breath.

“Call your magic. It will speed your recovery.”

Unable to form a coherent thought to send back at Tiaki for invading his mind, Mateo subconsciously felt his magic respond to the Hunter’s presence. The energy intercepted all the pain his nerves told him he was experiencing until there was nothing but adrenaline and his magic reinforcing his natural strength and cybernetics.

Rolling to a crouching position, Mateo shook his head to rid his vision of the last spots obscuring it. The cyborg turned and advanced toward the other group. Monte didn’t see him coming.

Rising to his feet, Mateo sprinted the short distance and jumped onto the cyborg’s back. He started grabbing at the hardware implanted on its body, pulling cables and pushing buttons.

The cyborg reached over his shoulder, trying to grab Mateo.

Mateo ducked to avoid its grasping hands.
Fuck. How the hell do I get past this damn armor without my blaster?
Holding tight with his thighs, he scanned the man’s armor, looking for a chink in it while trying not to get thrown off.

“Damn it, Mateo! You’re a Rift Hunter. Use your magic!”
Tiaki’s voice rang through his mind, hot and angry.

Mateo started to respond to the command when he spotted some damage the guy must have taken in another fight. He gathered his magic and commanded it to form an arrow in his hand. He reared back, clutching a blazing blue arrow just as the cyborg closed its fingers around his neck.

He thrust the magic arrow through the weakened metal, focusing the magic pulsing furiously in his veins. The bolt slid through the armor as if it were made of butter.

The hand on his neck went slack. The cyborg crashed to the ground, making the earth tremble with the force of the impact. Mateo lost his grip on the cyborg and skidded across the ground separating him from the battle his friends were engaged in. He rolled to his side, calling his magic like Tiaki had told him to, and sent it toward the worst damage he’d suffered in the fall.

The sound of gears penetrated his pain-fogged mind seconds later.

He opened his eyes just in time to see the mammoth armored foot of another cyborg bearing down on him. Before he had a chance to react, the cyborg was blasted into the trees five feet behind him, taking two of his buddies with him. Mateo started at the carnage, trying to comprehend what the hell had happened.

When his magic tingled with a familiar heat he’d begun to associate with Tiaki, he turned his head and glanced behind him. Lust flared inside him at the sight he encountered.