Right Through Me (The Obsidian Files #1)(102)

The blonde babbled on, speaking over a shifting display of photos. Brenner, muscle-bound and proud of it. Callie, a laughing toddler with dark hair. Callie’s mother, a pretty, slender woman who, the reporter said, had died of leukemia only a few months earlier.

Caro stared into the big, liquid eyes of the motherless toddler gazing back at her from the screen. Big, brown, owl-like eyes. So innocent. They hurt her heart.

It was a pain in the ass to have all these inconvenient goddamn feelings waking up again. Blindsiding her.

She’d bet good money that Callie’s dad Brenner was one of the unlucky ones.

She’d be so f*cking happy to lose that bet.





Chapter 29


Caro started up out of an ugly dream. It took a moment to orient herself.

Oh. Yeah. She was in Mansion Two. She’d dozed off on the couch, laptop still on her lap. But where was Noah? There wasn’t a sound from any direction.

Looked like she’d be sleeping alone. She closed down the laptop, gathered the files together and set them in a neat pile on the coffee table. She went upstairs and stripped off her clothes, sliding naked between the cool sheets.

A half hour of ceiling-staring later, she felt the air currents shift as the bedroom door opened. And there he was. She wasn’t surprised. She was so acutely aware of him now. She wondered if hanging out with enhanced people sharpened her own senses somehow.

She reached for the bedside lamp. Stopped herself just in time. He’d had enough drama today. Getting jabbed with light would not help his mood. Or her own agenda.

She gazed at his tall, broad form, a deeper darkness silhouetted against the dark framed by the bedroom door. A breath of the outdoors came in with him, a whiff of the forest: dampness and leaves, needles and resin. Sweet wild earthy smells.

He’d taken off his lenses, and his eyes had that uncanny reflective gleam even in the dark, catching all the available light and flashing it back at her. It was a glimpse straight into the heart of the unfathomable energy of nature. The flash in a wolf’s eyes, the deadly grace in a mountain lion’s spring, the infinity of the night sky. Pure, distilled masculine power, armoring the secret tenderness inside him.

He was so beautiful, he stopped her breath. She held the sheet to her chest, warmed by delicious, toe-curling, very female desire as he tossed his jacket on the chair and stripped off his sweatshirt. What light there was gleamed on the wide, powerful contours of his shoulders as he bent to kick off his shoes.

She felt intimidated, shy, exultant. She needed so badly to be close to him, and sex was the most direct way. Besides, just looking at him made her ache to wrap herself around his big, hard, sinewy body.

Her lower body clenched in anticipation as he padded barefoot to the bed. He jerked the coverlet down, baring her.

“Didn’t Hannah bring you something to sleep in?” he asked.

Her hair shifted silkily against her bare shoulders. “Of course. Cami jammies, she called them. Very nice top and bottom. But I was hoping to get lucky. And here you are. Feeling better?”

He shook his head. “I tried to analog dive. Got slammed by another imbed.”

“What’s that?”

He waved the question away. “Never mind. Didn’t mean to talk shop. Sometimes I forget you’re not up on all our mutant mods terminology.”

“I’d love to learn,” she offered.

“No. Not right now.”

She noted his sharp tone and waited for a moment. “Then just tell me what an imbed is. That’s not too much to ask, is it?”

Noah blew out a breath, staring out the window into what looked like impenetrable darkness to her but wasn’t to him. “OK, if you really want to know,” he said. “An imbed is a hidden trigger for a stress flashback. This one was bad. I burned another analog. I can’t dive again tonight. I can’t use any of my usual tricks to chill myself out. And they’re all I’ve got. Except for you.”

“Hmm.”

Talking about all his enhanced whatevers wasn’t getting them anywhere. It sure as hell wasn’t enough for her right now. By no means.

She rose up on her knees, and grabbed his belt buckle. “Come here, Noah.”

He covered her hands with his own big, warm hands. “I’m wound too tight,” he warned her. “I don’t know if I can be gentle once we really start. You know how it gets with us.”

“I don’t care. Go wild.” She jerked his belt open and undid the steel buttons on his jeans. “I need you. Right now.”

“You talked me into it.” He pulled his jeans down, and his big, heavy penis sprang free.

He stopped talking as she seized his thick shaft, her hands squeezing and swirling around his velvety skin. She bent to lick up precome from the swollen tip, pleased to feel him jerk and shudder. She took him into her mouth, cupping his balls, swirling her tongue. Pulling him deeper. Inviting him with every touch of her tongue to take his own pleasure.

He did, thrusting slowly. She responded with sensual, rhythmic pulls.

Each stroke deepened her excitement. A hot glow of light raced through every nerve ending, centering within seconds in her lower body, her swift arousal matching his. Her nails dug into his steely muscled ass. Her excitement ratcheted higher, fueled by his ragged gasps of pleasure. She was exultantly sure she had him already thundering full speed ahead when he groaned suddenly and dragged himself out of her mouth.