Claws tearing into his shoulders had never felt so good before.
Dee’s body went slack in his arms, her claws sliding out of his skin. Ric lifted his head, releasing her nipple as he did, watching her eyes flutter open. She looked around the bathroom until her gaze slowly settled on his.
Ric smiled, feeling a tremendous moment of connection. A moment that Dee didn’t seem to appreciate very much as her hand wrapped around his throat and cut off his ability to breathe. She pulled him up until they were eye to eye.
“You really think you’re cute, don’t you?”
He tried to tell her that yes, he did think he was quite cute. Adorable, even! But she was gripping his throat in such a way as to ensure maximum loss of breathing, swallowing, and speaking. It was a technique taught at the Group but Dee had come in with the skill already learned.
Her muscles bunching and tensing, Dee shoved Ric into the wall. His back slammed hard, but he kept his head from hitting anything that would cause permanent damage or coma. He coughed and rubbed his throat, bending over a little at the waist.
Now that he could speak, he said, “You’re being unreason—”
She stood in front of him now completely naked, the rest of her clothes pulled off and kicked all around his bathroom.
“Do you really think you can handle me?” she demanded, grabbing a fistful of his T-shirt and twisting. “Are you so sure you wanna try?”
Did it make him weird that he was quite sure? That he had no doubts? Even with her looking like she was about to snap his neck and then dismember his body in the running shower where she wouldn’t have to worry about all the blood?
“Give me your best shot,” he heard himself say, and he briefly wondered when he’d lost his ability to reason. Especially when he was always so reasonable. Or perhaps he’d lost his will to live. Had he begun to think that living was overrated? Maybe. On a bad day.
The truth was, however, he knew he couldn’t back down now, nor did he want to. The idea was to lure Dee-Ann Smith with the chase, then go toe-to-toe with her.
“Just look at the brave little rich boy,” she murmured.
“Well, I do have excellent medical care and doctors willing to make house calls so I can afford to be brave.”
“That’s good,” she said, unleashing her claws. “ ’Cause by the time I’m done, I’m guessin’ you’ll need all that.”
Dee shredded Van Holtz’s T-shirt until she had nothing between her and all that hard, muscled flesh. He didn’t have many scars on his chest. Barely any. All his scars were on his hands from years of working in one of the many Van Holtz kitchens and training since he could breathe on how to use those fancy knives to cut up animals into pretty little pieces.
And, honestly, Dee kind of liked that lack of imperfection. She liked how smooth his hard body was. A very nice counterpoint to her own. To all the scars she’d picked up over the years from those trying to kill her—or those who’d fought back when she’d tried to kill them.
She placed her hands flat on his chest, right at the center, his heartbeat strong and healthy beneath her fingers.
Lord, she’d have to be careful with this one. Because she could get used to all this. The nice bathroom. This amazing body at her disposal. The way he smiled when he looked at her. It was such a sweet smile, like she delighted him somehow.
Dee leaned in and pressed her mouth against his throat while she lightly dragged claws across his chest. Van Holtz groaned, his hands reaching for her. She tongued her way up his throat, pressing her breasts into his chest, her hands gripping his shoulders.
“I want you,” she told him plain. “Here. Now.”
Laughing and groaning at the same time, he half-heartedly pointed at the shower. “It’s not even five feet away.”
“Later.” Because she had to have him now.
Dee pulled at his jeans, trying to get them off, about to release her claws to do to his jeans what she’d already done to his T-shirt. But Ric caught her hands with one of his own and used the other to press against her forehead.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking for the fever.” It was the way their bodies sometimes healed, but Dee knew she’d already bounced back from the cut on her arm and the loss of blood. In fact, she felt great! And horny!
“That little faith in yourself, Van Holtz?” she had to tease.
“I just wanted to be sure. I do not want any complaints in the morning.”
“Do I pass inspection?” she asked when he pulled his hand away from her forehead.
“You do. So please”—he gestured to the lower half of his body—“continue removing my jeans.”
She held her hand up, unleashed her claws.
“Okay, okay,” he said, stepping away from the wall. “I’ll remove them myself. So impatient,” he muttered.
Dee watched Ric push his jeans down before kicking them and his sneakers and socks off. When he stood tall, she was right behind him, her groin pressing into his ass. She wrapped her arm around his neck, her lips against his nape, her free hand smoothing around his hip until she could reach his cock. She grasped it in her hand, fingers tightening until he gasped, his head turning, his mouth meeting hers.
She stroked him, running her thumb over the head until he pulled away from her. “Get on the floor,” he ordered her. Then he stopped, squeezed his eyes shut, and added, “Please.”
Unable to keep from laughing, Dee stretched out on the floor, watching as Ric tore through the cabinet under his sink. “They’re in here,” he promised. “I swear. They’re in here.”
He was halfway inside the damn thing when she heard him cheer, “Yes!” That was also when he tried to stand before he was out of the cabinet, his head colliding with the sink pipe. “Ow!”
Ric muttered what may have been cuss words as he crawled back out, but he held a box of condoms.
“Give me that,” Dee said, sitting up and snatching it from his hand. “Don’t want to take the chance you’ll damage these, too.”
“I’m usually smoother than this,” he told her, his hand rubbing the back of his poor head. “Usually.”
“Yeah. And sometimes I can be downright chatty.” She opened the box of condoms and pulled one out. She ripped open the packaging and caught hold of Ric’s cock with her hand. It was already hard, so she didn’t have to worry about that. Instead she focused on getting the condom on him and his cock inside her. That’s the only thing she wanted at the moment—and she’d be damned if she didn’t get it.
Ric watched Dee-Ann roll the condom down his cock. Once she did that, she looked at him and smiled. “See?” she asked. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
And that’s when Ric basically . . . well . . . lost it.
All that culture and breeding and education meant very little when faced with the sexiest woman in the world. A woman who wanted him.
Ric caught hold of Dee’s face between his hands and kissed her while the rest of his body forced hers to the floor. She opened her thighs to him and he was between them and inside of her in seconds, the feel of her wet heat wrapping around his cock nearly killing him, it was so intense.
He froze, his body overwhelmed by the woman he was in. The woman he loved. And she had no idea. To her this was fun times with a good buddy, but to Ric this meant everything. And to find out being inside her was even better than he’d dreamed. . . .
“What’s wrong?” Dee asked. “Why’d ya stop?”
“I’m trying for some Zen-like control here, Dee-Ann. You’re not helping.”
“Fuck control, darlin’.” She brushed her forehead against his chin. “Fuck rules and supervisors and what’s right and what’s wrong. Fuck it all.” She pressed her lips against a little spot right under his ear. “But right now, with that big cock of yours takin’ up all that room inside my pussy, it’s time for you to fuck me.”