Charming the Beast (Purgatory 3)

She wanted to be with him a thousand more times.

“Here, now…with the stars on you. No one else can see. It’s just us. Baby, always us.”

He lifted her into his arms. Carried her back to the side of the building. They were hidden there, behind the door. He stripped her. His touch tender, his desire obvious in the fire that lit his gaze.

Her hands weren’t as tender on him. She was frantic to feel him. She shoved up his shirt. Her hands slid over his hot, muscled flesh. Then she moved down, down, and opened the button of his jeans.

He was strong. He positioned her, held her easily, and her legs curled around him. One thrust—and he sank to the hilt inside of her. She was so full that Chloe felt stretched and it was amazing. She loved the way he filled her. When he withdrew and thrust in again, her eyes nearly rolled back in her head. He was holding her, surrounding her so totally, consuming and dominating as he controlled the rhythm. The guy was driving her out of her head.

Chloe’s nails bit into his back. She offered him her neck. “Bite me.” Because she knew just how to push them both over the edge.

His breath blew over her neck. Hot. Making her tremble.

Then his fangs sank into her.

Pleasure ripped through Chloe and her body went bow-tight. Her right hand flew out. She grabbed the fence, not even thinking about the silver until it was too late—

But it didn’t burn.

He thrust deep.

Her sex clamped around him, holding so tight.

She rose up, pushed back against him, and his teeth stayed in her neck. Pleasure hit her, rolling through her again and again and Chloe cried out, unable to stop herself because it was too much.

Her sex contracted around him as the orgasm blasted through her. She couldn’t breathe, for a moment, she wasn’t even sure if she could see. The pleasure was so intense it was almost painful. Almost…

“Connor!”

He poured into her. He shuddered and held her so tight. She wanted to freeze that moment. To hold it close because as he lifted his head and looked at her, Chloe could have sworn that she saw emotion—love—flash in his eyes.

I want him to love me. I want him to feel just a little bit of the emotion that I feel for him. I want—

The pleasure crested again.

He held her close.

Her legs were trembling when the waves of release finally ended. Ever so carefully, Connor righted her clothes. He brushed back her hair. He kissed her cheek.

Then he yanked his jeans back into position.

Chloe stared at him. Her heart was still racing in a triple-time beat. “He’s…he’s going to know what we just did.” She should have thought of that before. Keegan would catch the scent, he’d know—

“Fuck what he knows. You’re mine, and the whole world needs to recognize that fact.”

She was his. And he was hers.

He stood before her. So strong and powerful. Brave.

“I’m scared, Chloe,” Connor confessed.

She shook her head, sure that she’d misheard. Not Connor. Not—

“You’re the one thing I can’t lose,” he said.

“You won’t lose me.”

He swallowed. “What I’m about to do…if there was another choice, I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t do it.”

Okay, those words were not good. Some of her bright post-sex and post-multiple orgasm glow began to fade.

“If something happens, if Keegan bites you, he will compel you.”

Her worst fear.

“Today, we learned that another compulsion can cancel out his power.”

Yes, right, but that compulsion had been given after Keegan’s.

“Eric wants me to try something with you.” His breath exhaled on a ragged sigh. “He wants me to compel you, and baby, I think I should. I just…I can’t do it without telling you first.”

He’d better not tell her to forget the mission. Or to forget him. Or to—

“I want to compel you…to ignore any suggestions or orders that Keegan gives you. Hell, this shit might not work, it’s just a shot in the dark. But Eric and I think that any additional chance we have—”

She threw her arms around him. “Do it.”

“Chloe?”

She looked up at him. “Compel me. I don’t want to be used against you or the other agents. I want to help. I want to be strong.”

“Baby, you are strong.”

She tried to smile for him.

He kissed her once more. Such a soft, gentle kiss.

Then Connor looked into her eyes. The stars behind him didn’t seem to shine as bright. They turned a little hazy, but his voice was so clear…

“Chloe, you will not let Keegan into your mind. You will not let him control you. He will not compel you to follow any orders. If he tries you will only hear my voice…”

His voice was all she could hear right then.

“You will hear my voice, Chloe, and you will resist him. You will hear my voice, and you will ignore him. You will hear my voice…”

She waited, her body locked down…

“And you will know how much I f**king love you.”

***

“Another armored van?” Keegan murmured when he was led inside—and then shackled in place. “How not surprising.”

Connor kept his gun ready and aimed at the bastard. One wrong move, and he’d pump the guy full of so many drugs that Keegan would be drooling on the floorboard.

Beside him, Duncan was armed, too. Duncan was on his left. And Chloe was on his right.

The back door swung closed and Connor heard the distinct sound of Eric locking that door as he secured them inside.

A small window was overhead. One that let the moonlight spill into the transport van.

Keegan stretched a bit, as if trying to reach for that light. Then he sighed and glanced over at Chloe. “You screwed him again. I hate it when you wear his stench.”

Connor’s finger tightened on the trigger.

Chloe patted his leg. But she told Keegan, “Start giving us directions.”

That had been the deal. Keegan was conscious because he had to give them directions to his little house of horrors. His voice wasn’t slurred because Eric had eased off on the guy’s dosage.

A bad idea.

Keegan looked up at the window. “We’d better hurry. At midnight, everything will end.”

Chloe pulled out her radio.

“We’ll drive down the main road here…for about forty-minutes. Then head west.”

Chloe relayed those instructions.

“I’ll give you more directions as we go,” Keegan said. “Wouldn’t want to give too much away, too soon.”