Lockdown

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Lockdown

ISBN 9781419922114

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Lockdown Copyright © 2009 Delilah Devlin

Edited by Shannon Combs

Cover art by Syneca

Electronic book Publication June 2009

The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Lockdown

Delilah Devlin

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

eOMIS: Marquis Software Development, Inc.

Gatorade: Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. Corporation

Plexiglas: Rohm and Haas Company

Porta Potti: Thetford Corporation

Taser: Taser International, Inc.

Chapter One

Gillian Priest felt a cool shiver slide down her spine like a trickle of ice water the moment the tall chain-link gate closed behind her. But she shrugged it off. Now wasn’t the time to let herself get freaked out. Not even a little bit. They’d smell her fear.

New job. New set of prisoners to prove she was a bigger badass than any of them.

A work crew was busy laying sod in the strip of grass between the outer fence and the one surrounding the main building. Not one of the men paused to give her a direct glance.

She knew because she gave them the same sort of look as she strode by—out of the corner of her eye, sussing them out to see how well they played the game and how well the officer watching over them controlled the situation. She nodded to him, received a cool downward jerk of his chin, noted the muscled frame, the breadth of his shoulders, and the shine off his shaved head. His dark sunglasses hid his expression; his lips remained in a straight line.

She didn’t expect a welcome, not in front of his charges. Perhaps she’d never get one. Her time at the Bentonville unit had been spent playing the hard-ass with prisoners until they’d gotten the message she didn’t accept any crap, as well as dodging lewd comments from her fellow officers.

A woman who worked in a men’s prison learned to take it because no matter how hard she might try to defend it, watching men piss, shit, shower and dress left her motives for working in a hellhole like this open for interpretation. And everyone there, prisoner and staff alike, were eventually brought down to their base animalistic selves.

Gillian understood it. She’d tried to fight the perceptions and learned the hard way.

New prison. Fresh start. She’d settle for that and make damn sure she stepped out on the right foot this time.

She wouldn’t make any waves. Would keep her head down, her eyes sharpened on everyone and everything around her.

She waited patiently while the gate to the inner yard was buzzed open, and then shoved it inward. A man dressed in khaki slacks and white dress shirt opened the door into the main building and he waved her forward. “Officer Priest?” he shouted.

Like he didn’t already know? The grapevine inside had likely already passed every word written in her personnel jacket along, savoring the story, committing her official photo to memory.

She was fresh meat. Only she wore corporal’s stripes now, so they’d hold back slightly on the hazing. They’d wait to see what she was made of.

She held out her hand. “Yes, sir, and you are?”

His hand clasped hers firmly, pumped once and dropped. “Deputy Warden Kalicek.” Ice blue eyes raked her frame once, and then narrowed on her expression.

She’d kept it clear of emotion. Set in noncommittal straight lines. “I’m ready for duty. “

“You’ve already been briefed. I’m teaming you up with Officer Hedron. You passed him in the yard. As soon as his crew finishes up, he’ll meet you in the control room in Housing Three.”

She nodded. “Until then?”

“I’ll take you there. Introduce you to McPhee. He’s at the console today.” He turned and headed down the long corridor, his dress shoes tapping on the linoleum.

Gillian drew a long breath, relieved she’d be getting straight into the action again. Three months out had put a dent in her confidence. As she followed him down the corridor, empty except for the porter gliding a buffer across the pristine waxed floor, she ignored the hairs rising, prickling at the back of her neck.

A week from now, the nausea would be gone and the bile in her stomach would no longer burn the back of her throat. For now she’d settle for the fact her hands were as steady as her glare. The sight of the porter’s white jumpsuit hadn’t caused her as much as a skip of nerves.

A week from now, the Caddo River Unit would prove to be just another job.

* * * * *

McPhee craned his head to give her another sullen glare. He was closing in on retirement and the old corrections officer’s face appeared grizzled although his skin was freshly shaven. Must have been the rough texture of his cheeks and chin from too much sun. The man hadn’t stopped talking about the fishing at the nearby lake, the hunting in the woods behind his property, or his new passion—four-wheeling.

Gillian cringed, wondering what other redneck subject he’d drone on and on about. Not that she really minded or wasn’t used to it by now. Her own brother had been an avid outdoorsman. But she was restless and wanted to walk the floor, let the prisoners get a look at her while she took their measure.

Hedron had yet to show up and she was stuck watching prisoners milling in the barracks below through reinforced glass windows until he got here and walked her through the unit.

“We been short-handed for months now. Musta been why they hired you,” McPhee muttered.

She didn’t take offense. She preferred plain talk to the kind that shot arrows at her back. “I’m trained,” she said, keeping her comment short and uninflected.

McPhee’s beady brown eyes narrowed. “What’s a pretty little girl like you doin’ workin’ in a place like this anyway?”

She raised a brow and shot him a challenging glare. “What are you doing here?”

“Workin’ on a second retirement.” He leaned back in his chair, his expression turning sly. “Be careful one of these boys doesn’t try to flip you, pretty as you are.”

Gillian crossed her arms over her chest and rested her butt against the edge of the console. “If I’m so pretty, what makes you think I’d stoop to fuck one of those losers?”

His mouth opened and then sawed shut. “Just givin’ you a friendly warnin’.” His eyes narrowed farther and he tilted his head toward the floor. “There’s demons in some of those boys,” he whispered.

“Appreciate the warning,” she murmured. “But I can take care of myself.”

The last thing she wanted was for any of her fellow guards thinking they had to go out of their way to protect her. That kind of distraction led to someone getting hurt.

A light blinked on the console a second before a buzz sounded and she turned to watch as Officer Hedron strode toward them.

She straightened, noting the crisp edges of his uniform, the shine on his boots. Probably ex-Marine by the look of him. So many of them fell into the prison system, their training making them ideal for the life. Without the dark sunglasses, his blue eyes nailed her from a distance.

He didn’t look happy to see her.

Too bad. They shared the same shift. He’d have to get used to it. She’d met enough men who believed a woman shouldn’t be working anywhere but in the warden’s office pouring his coffee that she really didn’t care.

“You two already meet?” McPhee asked.

“When I arrived,” Gillian interjected before the stern-faced man in front of her could get a word in edgewise. She gave him a tight smile and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

He stared at her hand for a moment before taking it, pressing her fingers quickly and dropping it as though it burned. “Better get you out on the floor. The boys are already gettin’ restless.”

She liked the deep rumble of his voice, even liked the steely glare he gave her. She shrugged away the thought and gave him a crisp nod. “After you.”

As soon as she entered the floor, she could feel the tension escalating around her. A new male officer would warrant curiosity. A female on the floor only intensified the scrutiny. Slowly, men who’d been playing checkers and dominoes or watching TV formed little groups, their eyes never leaving her as she strolled by.

“Know the prisoners’ schedule?” Hedron asked, without looking her way.

“Yeah, nothing happening until lights out.”

Hedron’s gaze narrowed on a group of prisoners whose mouths were curving into smirks. Any second now one of them would pucker up and make a loud smacking sound. When it happened, Hedron’s head swung toward the con.

Gillian stepped past him, halting directly in front of the prisoner who’d kissed the air, her chin lifting and her gaze locking with his. “Got something to say?” she bit out.

“No, ma’am,” the prisoner said, his gaze sliding down her body in a blatant sexual insult. “Just tasted somethin’ good is all.”

She narrowed her gaze on him. “Be careful what you say,” she said softly. “You wouldn’t want to catch paper, would you?”

His dark eyes blinked, his expression hardening. But he lifted his gaze from hers, staring straight ahead. “No, ma’am. Don’t want no trouble.”

“Keep it that way.” She strolled by, nodded to his pals, and then moved on.

Hedron’s chest lifted. “Keezee’s got a couple of years to go.”

So the threat of being written up held some power. Good to know. She nodded that she understood. A prisoner could lose “good time” for insolence toward an officer. Incentivizing lifers to behave wasn’t nearly as easy.

They climbed the concrete stairs to the tiers, glancing into cells. Murmurs followed her, but no one else attempted to confront her. They’d wait until they got her on her own and see if her courage had been bolstered by the big man beside her or if she could hold her own.

“That’s all there is to see,” Hedron said as they headed back down the stairs from the last, third tier of cells. “They’ll be heading to the library in a little while. It being a weeknight, we’ll lock it down at ten thirty.”

“Thanks.

“Not carrying pepper spray on your belt?” he said under his breath.

“Why would I? Most of them would just lick it off their face. It’d hurt me more than them.”

He nodded. She hadn’t missed the fact he didn’t carry any of his own. The guards had only limited access to weapons to protect themselves—the bigger danger lying in being overpowered and having a weapon turned on them rather than running into a slamming fist.

“Don’t go looking for trouble. I know it’s your first day and you might want to show them you’re tough. But if you incite a riot in my housing unit, I’ll have your ass.”

Gillian jerked her head back. “Do I look like I’m trolling to jack some prisoner up?”

“You’ve got a chip on your shoulder. And you’re too damn good-looking. That’s invitation enough.”

Gillian released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding when he strode away. The man was tough as nails. The fact she liked it only made her madder.

* * * * *

Around nine o’clock, when prisoners were beginning to settle in front of the television or into little groups to chat quietly, her mike squawked. “Priest, got a new ten-fifteen. Needs an escort.”

She hadn’t been briefed about their procedures for bringing in new prisoners, but she had read the manual. Didn’t seem any different from Bentonville’s Standard Operating Procedure. She headed out of the housing unit to West Gate’s sally port. A white van was pulled up close to the gate. A sheriff’s deputy was outside the vehicle chatting to with the officer manning the port when she walked up to them.

“Got fresh meat,” the officer said.

Gillian wasn’t entirely sure whether he was talking about the prisoner being led up in leg irons or her. And a glance at his twisted lips told her the ambiguity had been deliberate. She lifted her chin and held out her hand for the clipboard with the papers describing their requisition of a new prisoner named Gabriel Vlahos.

Inmate number 140849 now. Chains rattled, feet shuffled as the prisoner rounded the end of the van.

Gillian’s eyes widened a fraction and she quickly looked at the clipboard again to gather her scattered wits. She’d only lost them a second.

It didn’t matter how beautiful the man was. The papers said he’d killed. But no matter the crime or the length of his sentence, the white jumpsuit rendered him forever off limits to her.

“Have a nice day,” the officer who’d accompanied the convict said, drawing her gaze. The smile seemed sincere enough. The gaze that swept her body told another story.

“Same to you,” she muttered. “Well, Vlahos, let’s get you to the holding cell.” She lifted her chin to the gate and gave the officer in the tower watching them a little wave.

The gate buzzed and she reached past Vlahos to push it open. A few shuffling steps forward and she waited again as the inner gate was deactivated. She walked the prisoner inside, waiting impatiently while he gazed back over his shoulder at freedom.

“Let’s get moving. I have better things to do.”

“Just bet you do,” he murmured.

Her gaze swung to his, ready to issue a curt set down, but his face was turned toward the building doors. His profile was as arresting as the frontal view she’d had. A square chin, full lips, eyelashes so long she felt a stab of envy until he aimed a glance her way.

His eyes were silver. Not a flat lifeless gray. Shards of shimmering silver that seemed for a moment to swirl.

Again, she tamped down the attraction and swept out the hand holding her clipboard. “After you.”

The smile that tipped the corners of his mouth upward wasn’t a smirk. Not exactly. If she’d met him in a bar and he’d delivered that same curved, feline grin, she might have slid closer in her chair it was so inviting.

The holding cell was only twenty feet inside and she opened the door, indicating he should go inside.

“See you in the housing unit later,” he said softly. “Officer Priest.”

Startled he knew her name, she blinked.

“Your name tag,” he said, the smile deepening.

Of course. The nametag she’d pinned onto her blue shirt just that morning. Angry she’d let him get under her skin, she closed the door on him with a slam.

She’d get a cup of coffee and let him stew for a while before she passed the papers along to the officer who’d process him in. What was another half an hour’s wait when he was doing twenty-five to life?

Chapter Two

Gabriel chuckled as the prickly officer closed the door with an ear-wincing slam. He’d gotten under her skin. The moment she’d spied him, a faint tinge of color filled her tanned cheeks.

She’d felt the attraction that arced in the air between them.

Interesting. And so convenient. He’d wondered how long it would take to find something…so deliciously edible…to feed his appetites.

Finding a host wasn’t usually complicated, but then he preferred feeding off the opposite sex. Living twenty-four-seven among several hundred men didn’t offer his developed tastes the sort of snack he preferred. He wondered if Petrakis had thought about that and arranged her transfer for his purposes.

They’d had only days to plan this operation, but he’d been briefed on every officer’s jacket and perused eOMIS, the prisoner database, to gather intel about the inmates he’d be housed with.

Priest’s file had been a last-minute addition to the staff’s stack and no picture had been available. He’d read the file, read the report of the incident that had left her wounded and on medical leave for three months. After seeing her in the flesh, he could well imagine what had only been hinted at in the sparse words of the report.

She’d been surrounded, trying to get to another officer who’d only served as a decoy for the true target of the attack. Her.

The other officer had quit after the incident—the injuries to the tendons in his arms too deep to ever recover full strength. Priest had fought hand-to-hand, administered pepper spray in a fruitless attempt to ward off the prisoners pressing closer.

She’d gone down and would have been raped if the Emergency Response Team hadn’t been quite so quick to respond to the report of the riot erupting in the housing unit.

Vlahos was frankly amazed by two facts. One, that she’d been willing to return to duty. And two, that the warden had put her right back on the floor with the general population. Word of the attack had to have spread throughout the prison system, guards and prisoners alike.

She was a walking target. Speculation would be rampant about what she might have done to invite the attack.

Now, he thought maybe she hadn’t done a damn thing. She’d just been too attractive to mingle among a hundred horny men and not risk being the object of their lust.

Gabriel lifted a shoulder and awkwardly wiped the sweat from his cheek with his jumpsuit. Better put those thoughts aside. During her shifts, he couldn’t show her any interest. But he’d haunt her dreams. He hoped like hell she was strong enough for what was coming. She’d need her wits and willpower to get through this.

A key turned in the lock and he straightened. As soon as the broad-shouldered figure entered, he relaxed, grinning at Billy Hedron.

Billy stood in the door for a moment, his gaze raking him.

“I know you have to be enjoying this,” Gabriel muttered.

“Buddy, you have no clue,” Billy drawled.

“Close the door, will you?”

“Still got cameras in here.”

“Which are being disabled as we speak.”

Hedron’s eyebrow lifted. “Got someone else inside?”

“Just close the goddamn door.” When it shut, he leaned back against the cinderblock wall behind him. “Priest brought me through the doors. Did you know?”

Billy grimaced. “She came in this morning. Figured Petrakis had something to do with that. Wouldn’t want you wasting away in here.”

Just as he’d thought. “So tell me about the dig.”

Billy leaned against the door and took a deep breath. “You know the grounds are bordered on the north by the river.”

Gabriel nodded.

“The land edging up to the water is pretty swampy, but there’s a rise this side of the swamp. The prison’s expanding. Surveyors mapped out a place for another tower, but as soon as the first backhoe dropped a shovel, they found a burial mound.”

“It dates back to when the other artifact was forged,” Gabriel said. “The Conquistador’s sword hilt.”

Billy frowned. “Yeah, but I don’t get why you think this is linked. That one had Aztec markings all over it. This is a Caddo Indian site.”

“It’s not the tribe that’s important—it’s when the weapons were made.”

“You’re not expecting to find forged metal in a Caddo burial mound, are you? They were hunter-gatherers.”

“We aren’t expecting anything. It’s a hunch. The carbon dating on the mound, the prison breaks where convicts are disappearing without a trace…” Gabriel lifted his gaze to Billy’s. “And there have been whispers about demons…”

Billy rubbed a hand over his shaved head. “Fuck. Kalicek contacted his brother in the San Antonio Police Department as soon as we started suspecting something might be going down here. ’Bout fell out of my chair when they said they were sending you. Small damn world.”

“I knew you’d be here to watch my back. Makes it easier since you already know what I am.”

“Semper Fi, buddy. It’s the least I owe you.”

Gabriel gave him a lopsided grin. “Semper Fi,” he said softly. They’d been battle buddies in Afghanistan. Small world indeed. “Any of the prisoners show an interest in the dig?”

Billy’s brow knitted. “Yeah…Randy Means. They call him ‘The Wizard’ because he’s educated and always has his nose in a book. He’d just earned himself a spot as a porter with free movement throughout the prison, but he asked to be transferred to construction.”

Porter was a plum job every prisoner vied for. The fact he’d asked for a transfer only meant trouble. “Well, at least I know where to start sniffing.”

* * * * *

Gillian had been making the rounds, walking past every cell of every tier even though most of the prisoners were milling in the commons below. And although she’d tried hard not to admit it to herself, she knew the moment Vlahos entered the unit.

Gazes turned to the floor below her. Backs stiffened. Inmates lined the rails and peered down to see the new inmate. See whether he was made of the right stuff or someone they’d carve up on the first day just because they could.

She couldn’t help herself. She stalled on the third tier up, found a space between the inmates and watched. Whistles followed Vlahos as he entered, carrying his bundle of freshly issued bedding and clothing.

A row of inmates ambled toward him, tall, black, fierce. Vlahos was halfway past the list when someone puckered and smacked him a kiss. Vlahos was handsome and solidly built. A dream for some of these guys who might not have swung that way when they entered the system but were willing to bend because sex was just a part of nature and the urges had to be acted on.

Vlahos halted, aimed a glare at the man nearest him and dropped his bundle at his feet. “You talkin’ to me?”

He’d spoken softly, but then again, there wasn’t a single noise to buffer the coldly issued challenge. Breaths held. Hers included. She started to make her way toward the steps, knowing this wasn’t going to end without there being trouble.

“You’re a pretty one,” another of the inmates said, closing in on Vlahos’ side.

“You’re not my type. No offense,” Vlahos replied, his hands fisting on his hips.

“Pretty boy like you doesn’t need a type.”

Vlahos’ head canted and his chin came up. His narrowed gaze sliced at the first one who’d spoken. “These your pretty boys?”

The one at his side jerked. “I’m no punk but you smell mighty pretty.”

“I like soap. You should try some sometime.”

The one who’d spoken first, stepped forward, so close his chest touched Vlahos. Although a big, brawny man, he had to lift his gaze a couple of inches to meet Vlahos’. He didn’t like the fact much—that much showed from the fury tightening his jaw.

“You’d better take a step back,” Vlahos said quietly. “I’m giving you fair warning. You don’t know who I am.”

The inmate snorted and looked down his nose at Vlahos. “You’re fresh meat. I run this unit.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Gillian sprinted down the last flight of stairs, her hand reaching for the button on her mike. She’d never get there in time to stop what was bound to go down. A quick glance at the control booth and she cursed under her breath. McPhee was grinning gleefully. The bastard was just gonna let this happen.

When her foot hit the concrete floor, the fight broke out. The tall black dude swung a closed fist upward, hitting Vlahos’ midsection.

But Vlahos didn’t bend under the force. His mouth widened in a smile. “Try that again.”

Pissed now, the black man swung again, this time at Vlahos’ face, but his fist never met flesh.

In a move so fast it was a blur, Vlahos’ hand met the fist and wrapped around it, bending back the wrist and forcing the bigger man to his knees.

Gillian sprinted up. “Break it up. Now! Everyone in their cells!”

The group around Vlahos hesitated, features tight and menacing.

She fisted her hands on her hips. “Every goddamn one of you is gonna catch paper if you don’t move now.”

The one at Vlahos’ side gave a quick glance to the leader still crouching on the floor, groaning at the strain on his wrist. He snorted and shook his head. His chin came up at Vlahos, a short respectful gesture that still managed to brim with warning.

Gillian stepped into Vlahos’ line of sight. “Not the way to start out. You’re both going on report.”

Vlahos’ expression lightened as his gaze met hers. He released the hand and stepped back. His shoulders were stiff, his chest rising and falling in short gusts. “Gonna write me up? He started it.”

They were all like little boys, fighting for turf on the playground. She snorted. “Damn straight. Get to your cell.”

He bent, gathered up his things and walked away. Gillian glanced back at the inmate still crouching on the ground, his hand cradled against his chest. “Need to see a nurse?” she ground out.

“No,” he gasped.

“Then get to your cell.” Straightening, she turned and aimed a general glare around her. “Anyone still on the floor in five minutes will be swimming in yellow. I don’t care if my hand cramps. Now, move it!”

She waited, hands on her hips, and slowly the prisoners headed back to their cells. Then she turned to the control booth. McPhee still grinned, but behind him Hedron stood with his arms crossed over his chest. His steady stare didn’t give her a hint of his thoughts.

Well, she’d gone and done it now. She hadn’t kept her head down. She’d just made herself a target for retribution, and she hadn’t even made it through the first half of her first shift.

* * * * *

In the darkness just before dawn, Gillian headed out the gates to the gravel parking lot. The rest of the night had been uneventful, but then she’d been banished to the East Tower with a rifle and a radio. She’d spent the last six hours bored out of her mind, peering into the dark field just beyond the chain-link fence, watching for escapees.

She’d had plenty of time to think about the first hours she’d spent on the floor, replaying through her mind possible consequences and scenarios. Something that would likely happen in her dreams that night. The shift leader, Lieutenant Bates, hadn’t even raised an eyebrow when she’d dropped her yellow major disciplinary forms on his desk before she left.

“See you tomorrow night,” he’d said, not looking up. “Don’t be late.”

No, “How’d your first night go?”, but also no complaints. A wash.

As she hit the automatic button on her remote key, gravel crunched behind her. Hedron halted beside her.

Her back stiffened.

“Priest,” he said, his voice just short of a raspy bark. “Wanna join us for coffee? It’s something we do after our shift.”

Had he felt compelled to ask her since she was the newbie? Or was he offering her an olive branch—a chance to fit in? “I could stand a cup of coffee that isn’t so old you can stand a spoon in it.”

“Follow me.”

He strode off and she couldn’t help watching him leave. His ass in his navy uniform pants was an attractive, rounded package. His shoulders weren’t bad either. Sturdy was the first adjective that popped into her brain when she thought about how she might describe him.

She followed him through Caddo, grateful he’d offered to show her the way because she’d never have found the tiny diner on her own.

Through the glass windows she saw several tables had already been pulled together to accommodate the officers who shared her shift.

Hedron waited at the door, and opened it for her, a gesture she felt awkward about given that she worked in a man’s world and would have snarled at him if he’d done it at the prison.

His lips were a flat line, but as she gave him a quick nod in lieu of a thank you, one corner of his mouth lifted. Not exactly mocking, but like he knew what she’d been thinking.

The others looked up at her approach. A few shot searing glares at Hedron, but they shifted their chairs to make room for her.

An awkward pause followed after she took the seat offered. Then she drew a deep breath and decided to cut through their crap. “I’m out of Bentonville,” she said, opening the discussion, giving them permission to satisfy their curiosity.

“Got a cousin who works there. James Gilroy,” one of the officers mumbled. “Know him?”

“Sure. Day shift. Passed him a couple of times at formation.”

“Got an uncle there,” another drawled. “Doin’ time for armed robbery. Dewey Craddock.”

Some of the men chuckled.

“Can’t say as I know him,” she said, giving the man a little smile, grateful for the lightening of the charged atmosphere.

“Heard you ran into some trouble there,” Hedron said softly.

She blinked and raised her glance to his. “Caught a shank,” she said, referring to the makeshift knife that had pierced her lung and spleen. She shrugged, deciding to tell the story rather than have another one of them work up the gumption to ask her more. “I was on the floor. A group of prisoners playing dominoes started slapping the tables with the tiles. Figured they were gambling and decided to break it up. I signaled to control what I was gonna to do, but the guy told another officer nearby to take it. When the inmates jumped him, I was ready. But before I knew it, I was on the floor, my face slamming concrete. Someone else jumped me from behind.”

She didn’t mention that when she looked back at control, the officer in the booth had his back to her. She didn’t need to by the looks on the faces of the officers sitting around her.

“Now, some folks would think that after something like that happened,” Hedron said slowly and deliberately, “the last thing a pretty girl like you would do is want to work another prison.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Well, they’d be wrong.”

Hedron snorted and then signaled to the waitress. “Two coffees, Marla.“

“Sure, sugar,” Marla said with a wink.

“I like mine black,” Gillian said, wishing she hadn’t reacted to the waitress’s flirting. The woman might think she was jealous.

Hedron’s lips twitched.

Tension eased gradually as conversation, most of it about hunting or mutual friends that she didn’t know, flowed around her.

Hedron leaned over the table. “We don’t operate like that here.”

She lifted her eyebrows as she took a sip of the coffee.

“Even if we have a problem with someone, we wouldn’t let them take a knife. We wouldn’t just let it happen.”

“Good to know.” She took a bigger sip and winced as the coffee burned her tongue.

“The new man you brought in today sure had a lot say about you.”

Gillian bristled at the way his gaze bored into hers. “We hardly exchanged two words.”

“You made an impression. Might want to steer clear of him.”

“I’m not a hug-a-thug. I don’t make friends with them, but I don’t run from them either.” She took another sip and began to stand. “Can I get your coffee, boys?”

There was laughter. “We don’t pay for coffee here.”

She nodded, breaking into a smile. “My kind of place.”

Hedron sat back and gave her a long measured look. “Guess I’ll see you later tonight.”

She nodded to the table and headed to her car without a backward glance.

So maybe she hadn’t won them over, but at least they knew she planned to stay and they had better get used to it.

She drove back through town, turned on the street of the house she’d rented, when a pale glimmer in the tree line caught her attention. From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a man in white coveralls, but when she jerked her head toward him, there was nothing there.

Gillian pulled into her drive, set her car into park and walked behind her house, wishing now that she hadn’t been so pleased about the deep ravine behind her yard that assured her privacy.

Although she knew she hadn’t seen a prisoner, and was likely just a little wired from a lack of sleep and her jolt of java, still she couldn’t shrug off the eerie feeling that something wasn’t right.

She returned to her car, locked it and let herself into her house. The empty walls echoed as she strode inside and laid her keys on the kitchen counter. She headed straight to the bedroom, deciding to skip a shower until after she’d slept. She stripped and fell across the mattress, asleep the second after her head hit the pillow.

* * * * *

Breakfast had come and passed in the early morning hours. The inmates had begun to mill on the floor below, groups being led to the gym or sick call with the prison nurse.

Gabriel stayed in his cell alone, stretched out in his bunk. His cellmate Brian Ames, an amiable, good ole boy from Baton Rouge, had already left to work in laundry. Tomorrow, Gabriel would join the work crew on the dig site. Nothing much ever happened in the morning. Nothing that he needed to be concerned about anyway. Later, he’d get the lay of the land, listen to the whispers to help him figure out what exactly was happening inside this cellblock.

For now, he needed to feed.

He held a picture in his mind of the attractive officer—Gillian Priest. Her face shimmered, firmed, and then he was standing beside a window, watching the way a slice of bright sunlight bisected the woman’s face as she lay naked across soft, rust-colored sheets.

At rest, her features had lost the tight edginess that made her seem a little brittle. Fragile, even. Something he knew she’d hate if a man mentioned it. Probably no one else would ever notice.

Her body was lithe, long and muscled. Her hair, free of the tight bun she’d worn at the prison, was deep, rich brown. Sunlight glinted in honey-colored streaks. The thatch of dark hair cloaking her mound was several shades darker. Her breasts were small, firm mounds, the nipples delightfully puffy and pink. His body hardened as he came around the foot of her bed and stared at her sex. Smooth, hairless lips below the thatch framed delicate pink inner labia that protruded, furling like a rose around the entrance that soon he’d penetrate.

She was perfect for his needs. Would benefit from the gift he’d bring her. When he was through with her, she’d awaken refreshed with only vague memories of what had passed between them, which might leave her a little uneasy in his presence, but she’d put it down to first-day nerves and shrug it off.

He might want to hint to Hedron that he should take an interest as well to occupy her waking thoughts. Smooth those rough edges. Make kitty purr.

In the meantime, he didn’t know how long he’d have before he was rousted from his cell so he settled on the bed beside her, eased slowly over her body, and then sank inside.

Chapter Three

Gillian blinked when he first appeared. She’d been sitting on the porch of her family’s cabin at Canyon Lake, Texas, on a hot summer’s day. Nothing to think about except how much she missed this place.

Only she’d been alone. Her sister wasn’t playing on the edge of the water. Her brother wasn’t casting a line into the water hoping to catch supper. Her mother and father weren’t in the hammocks strung beneath the live oaks, laughing softly to themselves.

And yet, she’d felt peaceful.

What the hell was Vlahos doing in her dream? He stood at the bottom of the steps. His smile was slow.

“It’s not fair you look so damn good,” she groused. God, had she just said that out loud?

“It’s a dream,” he said, climbing the porch steps. “No place for secrets here.” He turned toward the lake, his gaze scanning his surroundings. “It’s nice.”

He didn’t belong here. Not in her special place. “I don’t want you here. You’re strictly off limits.”

He unbuttoned his coverall and pushed it down his legs. The boxers beneath quickly followed.

Gillian’s chest lifted around a swift gasp. His body was perfectly formed—broad shoulders, lean abdomen, chiseled cuts bisecting the muscle layered down his belly in perfect rows. His cock was gorgeous as well. Long and straight with a pretty tapered crown. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting comfortable. Preparing to give you what we both need.”

“I don’t need to see you naked,” she said huffily.

“Then close your eyes.”

“As if. You’re a murderer.”

His lips curled in that feline smile of his. “Things aren’t always what they seem. And this is only a dream.”

“I suppose you’re innocent,” she said, her voice catching.

His head canted and he sat on the wooden step beside her. “That didn’t sound like sarcasm. That was pain.”

She shook her head. “It’s none of your goddamn business.”

“And I don’t really have the time. But hold that thought. Pain works for me, too.”

“What are you talking about?” she said, growing alarmed at his mention of pain.

He turned suddenly, his hands coming down on either side of her, his body rising over her and pressing her to the porch floor.

Her hands came up between them. “Get off me.”

“Do you really want me to? Don’t you want to see whether you can orgasm inside a dream? Have you done it before?”

“I usually wake up,” she said, then groaned at admitting something so personal.

“What if I promise it won’t happen this time.”

“You’re still a goddamn convict. I shouldn’t be with you, even if this is just a dream. I don’t want you in my head.”

“Then find someone else to fuck when you’re awake. Right now, I need you every bit as much as you need this. So just shut up.”

His lips slammed into hers, grinding the soft tissue inside against her teeth. She tasted blood. Some dream.

But that was all it was. A dream. She could do this. Follow it wherever it led and no one would ever know.

“That’s right,” he said, lifting his mouth from hers. “Just you and me.”

Gillian looked up at him, at the need stretching his skin tautly across his sharp cheekbones and lending a harsh edge to his solid jaw. At the tension in his shoulders and arms as he held himself. Waiting.

For her to accept this? For her to give him permission to proceed. “I don’t like that you can see inside my mind.”

“I won’t do anything you don’t want,” he said softly, “from here on out.”

“Why do you need this so badly?”

“I feel your hunger, your loneliness—your pain. I don’t know where it comes from, but I need it to fill me.”

“Why?”

“Because I need emotion to sustain me. Bad times are coming. I have to be strong.”

“What about me and what I need?” she whispered harshly. “This is my dream, my body you’re getting ready to take.”

“You’ve already thought ahead to what will happen?”

“I know I want to you to fuck me. See if it’s possible to do what you said.”

“Come inside your dream?”

She almost smiled as his lips curled, lending his hard features a surprisingly whimsical expression.

“Tomorrow,” he said, leaning down to press a quick kiss to her forehead, “you’ll watch me and feel a little nostalgic, a little sad that this didn’t really happen.”

“Tomorrow, when I watch you shower,” she bit out, “I’ll probably be disappointed that I didn’t get the details right.”

His eyebrows lifted. “And maybe you won’t.”

Needing to erect an emotional barrier between them, she lifted her chin. “I have my eye on another man. Someone more suitable.”

“Hedron?”

She wasn’t surprised this time that he’d guessed so accurately. He was just an extension of her subconscious after all. “Yes. And he’s built like a goddamn bull.”

One side of his mouth quirked upward. “Trying to make me jealous?”

“Is it working?”

“Yes. Now, shut up.” His hands gripped the edges of her sleeveless cotton blouse and ripped it open.

She jerked against him, but stopped trying to fight him. When his hands tugged her shorts down her hips and the lacy scrap that passed for underwear with it, she mewled.

He was on her, inside her, shoving his perfect cock deep. She was already hurtling high and hoping like hell the phone wouldn’t ring and pull her away, because she thought that just maybe he’d do it. Bring her body to orgasm.

But suddenly, something else started to happen inside her. Something that sucked away her breath, her will, left her quivering and shaken because she couldn’t break free of the grip of whatever it was thrusting straight inside her chest and mind. But the pressure in her chest couldn’t compete with his luscious assault farther down her body.

His cock stroked steadily, so fast she couldn’t lift her hips to meet the strokes, could only tilt upward to give him access as he slammed inside. Her cunt clasped around him, trying to hold him, but he was too fast, too strong. Moisture seeped from inside her, drenching his cock, her thighs, the crease between her buttocks as he hammered on.

She watched him strain above her, his cheeks darkening, his lips pulling away from his teeth in feral snarl. Then a dark heavy curtain fell over his eyes, like a crocodile’s eyelids, covering the golden brown of his irises and the gleaming whites. She saw herself reflected in the fierce black lids, saw her mouth gape in horror as she catapulted over the edge of the precipice, her body shuddering in the throes of an orgasm so strong, she knew it wasn’t just a dream.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She screamed—and suddenly she was awake. Alone in her bed, with her legs splayed, her body damp with sweat, and fluids leaking into the warm sheets beneath her.

Gillian woke again around mid-afternoon, feeling groggy and disoriented. Then she heard it, a knock at her door. She jackknifed off the bed and groaned, surprised by the delicious ache between her legs. She grabbed her robe from the back of her bathroom door and headed to the front door.

She opened it before she peeked through the peephole. A mistake.

Officer Hedron stood on her stoop, wearing sweatpants and a tee that stretched tight around his bulging biceps.

Not something she wanted to notice after her torrid dream. “How’d you know where I live?”

He smiled. “It’s a small town. A cousin of a friend was your Realtor.” His gaze swept her face, the thin robe and the bare legs beneath it. “Thought you might like to stretch your legs. Go for a run.”

Part of her daily routine, but she usually preferred running alone because it was quiet time for her. The endorphins it produced allowed her to zone out, meditate, gain her bearings and her center. If she ran with this guy, she’d be ogling muscle.

Why couldn’t she get sex out of her mind?

“I don’t know,” she said, trying to get her mind to work, but she was still sleep-fogged.

He stepped closer, raising an eyebrow and she stepped back, letting him inside. “Like what you’ve done with the place,” he murmured.

She snorted. She hadn’t done a thing with the living room. Hadn’t even thought about furniture. Her bedroom had been the first priority. Before she had the chance to take that thought back, she imagined his body, so wonderfully defined by the soft material clothing his muscled frame, naked and stretched across her sheets. She could do worse. If the taut, rounded buttocks were any indication, he’d be a powerhouse.

She tried again, her hand still gripping the doorknob. “Maybe another day.”

He turned back to her and lifted his hand, gently closing the door. “Get changed. I’ll wait.”

She liked the way he offered that gentle command. Because she sensed it wasn’t something he did often. Be gentle. Especially with a woman. Her hand closed the gap in her robe atop her chest. Her heart beat hard. She had to get some space between them or the arousal still thrumming through her body from her dream would explode and she’d be all over him.

“I’ll be back.” She hurried to her bedroom, jerked open drawers and drew out a miniscule pair of running shorts, a baby tee and socks. She’d be giving him an eyeful, but maybe that little bit of exhibitionism would take care of the reckless emotions surging through her.

After she pulled on her shoes, she headed back to the living room. He hadn’t moved from the spot next to the door. His eyes widened on her, and she saw a telltale stirring of his sex against the soft material cloaking it, before she dropped her gaze.

“So where do you want to go?” she asked.

“How about we start in your neighborhood, see how far we go?”

She gave him a curious glance, but if he’d meant it as an innuendo he hid his agenda well. With a shrug, she opened the door. As soon as they stepped onto her drive, she took off.

He let her set the pace, keeping up easily.

“Sorry if this is slow for you, but you’ve got the advantage here,” she said glancing down at his longer legs.

“I’m heavy. Nice and easy works for me.”

“Glad to hear it,” she said smiling, and opened up her stride, laughing softly as he chuckled behind her.

They ran with the sunshine hitting them between the trees that draped over the streets, running past houses where children played in backyards and dogs barked behind chain-link fences.

Gillian loved to run. She was glad she hadn’t tied back her hair because it fluttered behind her, lifting with the breeze they created as their feet ate up the pavement. When they’d made a circle, a short mile by her estimation, she began to slow, halting at the edge of her drive. His pickup, a black monster on oversized tires had no gate on the back of the bed, so she hopped up to rest, dragging in deep reviving breaths. “That was enough for me for today.”

“Want to do it again?”

“Tomorrow?” she asked, wishing she hadn’t sounded quite so eager.

“Same time?”

“Sure,” she said smiling. “So, Officer Hedron, is that your idea of a date?”

His lips curved into a smile and he glanced away. “Maybe.”

Before she could think better of it, she blurted, “Want to come inside for a drink? I have juice, Gatorade…”

“I’m not thirsty,” he said quietly, his gaze locking with hers long enough to tell her he was just as aroused as she was.

Gillian paused, and then took a deep breath. “Hungry?”

His gaze landed on her. “You move kinda fast.”

She didn’t even try to pretend she hadn’t meant it that way. “Is that going to be a problem for you?”

He leaned a hip against the truck and folded his massive arms over his chest. “Sorry about how I acted yesterday, but you surprised me.”

“Why? You didn’t know the new officer was a woman?”

“I didn’t know I’d want you.” At her sharp indrawn breath, he shrugged. “Didn’t figure you’d mind some straight talk.”

“I don’t. I’m just wondering if you’ll think I’m a complete slut if I ask you inside to fuck me.”

“Jesus.” His hand dropped between his legs and he winced as he rearranged himself. “Would you consider me a man-whore if I said let’s get it on?”

Gillian grinned—the kind of cheeky, carefree stretch of lips that she hadn’t felt like giving anyone in a long, long while. She jumped off the bed of his truck and led the way to her front door.

The walk to her bedroom was as slow as she could manage. She didn’t want him knowing how badly she wanted this. He’d think her completely desperate.

But when she crossed the threshold he was already stripping. Just as eager, just as breathless as she was.

The sight of his bared chest left her gasping. Wide-set shoulders with thick mounds of muscle on top and at the corners of his shoulders. Pecs bulging, rippling as he flexed involuntarily with the clenching of his fists. “You sure about this?”

Maybe he asked because she’d halted and her mouth was hanging open. She toed off her shoes, stripped her tight tee over her head and unclasped her sports bra before she looked at him again. A good thing, because he was naked and the lower half of him was equally ripped, equally breath-stealing. His huge, ridged cock made her mouth water.

It turned upward, as thick and imposing as the rest of him. She couldn’t wait to feel the pinch of his girth stretching her from the inside as he crammed inside her.

She shoved down her shorts and briefs and headed straight for the bed, pulling back the coverlet and exposing the clean sheets she’d swapped for the drenched set she’d woken in earlier.

Here was a more appropriate, licentious fuck. She didn’t have to feel guilty about wanting it. Didn’t have to worry about losing everything she valued, including her self-respect. She climbed onto the bed, knowing he was staring at her ass, and rolled to her back, then slowly spread her legs in invitation.

A low groan, sounding more like an animalistic growl, rumbled from him and she smiled and reached down to trace the edges of her folds.

He stomped forward, staring down at her sex, then gripped her ankles hard and pulled her toward the edge of the bed. When her legs draped over it, dangling toward the floor, he knelt between her thighs, spread her with his fingers and bent to run his tongue along her damp slit.

Gillian closed her eyes on a sigh and lifted her legs over his broad shoulders, snuggling her bottom closer to the end of the bed as he continued to lick and suck, his teeth capturing an inner fold and nibbling on it for a moment before his tongue stroked into her entrance and swirled.

She moaned and her chest rose faster with her labored breaths. Like she’d run miles. When fingers joined the teasing strokes she heard the wet sounds as her sex’s lips clasped moistly around them and she smiled because he burrowed deeper at her body’s lewd invitation, pumping inside her, stretching her with a third and a fourth finger.

When his lips latched onto her clit, she couldn’t suppress the cry he surprised from her. Thick digits continued to sink inside her, stretching her, making her cunt pulse as she began to undulate her hips, climbing toward the apex.

But then he pulled out of her, backing away, abandoning her when she’d been ready to let go. He gripped her hips hard and shoved her up the bed. His knees landed on the mattress between her spread thighs and she lifted them high, but he nudged her bottom roughly to scoot her higher. When he was satisfied, he grabbed her legs and urged them around his hips, then prodded her sex with the blunt, round head of his cock. His gaze locked with hers, his hands flattened on either side of her shoulders. When he had her undivided attention, he took a deep breath and stroked deep.

She was wet, ready, but not prepared for his size. She cried out, and then bit her lip, not wanting him to stop or even slow the forceful motions that thrust his cock deeper and deeper into her body, until his balls slapped her tender perineum.

There was nothing smooth, nothing easy about the way he made love. He powered into her, grunting at the end of each thrust, forcing an equally unfeminine grunt from her lips that pleased her primitive, primal core.

She’d feel bruised, sore, used when he was done, but satisfied like she’d never been before.

Her arms wound around his shoulders and she pressed her cheek against his hot throat, feeling tears leak from between her tightly squeezed eyelids. She didn’t know why she cried, but he forced powerful emotions from her just as he forcefully, brutally took her body.

Her bed thudded heavily against the wall, the sound pulling her away, giving her something else to think about rather than how shattered she felt, and she laid back her head, opening her eyes to meet his fierce gaze.

“Did I hurt you?” he growled.

“Yes. Please don’t stop.”

Laughter shook his chest and he hiked her legs higher around his waist and slammed harder, his strokes shortening, quickening.

She couldn’t catch her breath. And she was quickly flying apart. She raked her fingers down either side of his spine, digging deep.

He grunted again, gathered his knees closer to her, laying his chest on top of hers and resting his forehead on the mattress beside her face.

Gillian skimmed her lips along the edge of his ear, licked a trickle of sweat sliding alongside his cheek and nuzzled closer, waiting, waiting…until the tension he built with his hard, sharp strokes finally coaxed her orgasm into full bloom. She gasped into his ear, clung hard to him and gave a keening howl as it ripped through her.

His release came quickly on the heels of her own. His choked breaths and gasps adding texture to the slowing staccato of his last strokes. Then he was falling over her, wrung out, his cock jerking inside her as his breaths rattled through his chest.

When he’d recovered somewhat he came up on his elbows, a lopsided grin on his face. His large hands cupped her cheeks tenderly and he bent quickly, covering her lips for a surprisingly gentle kiss.

Gillian’s eyes filled again and she opened her mouth, touching the tip of his tongue with hers, and then sliding deeper as they pressed closer, hungry again.

When they drew away, still breathless, they both laughed.

“Don’t take this wrong,” he said, “but if all you want to do is run tomorrow, just turn me toward my truck when we’re done. Because if I come through that door, I’m not leaving until this bed’s a pile of sticks.”

“What? Are you thinking I might need some recovery time? That I can’t keep up?”

“I’m thinking I didn’t go about this right.”

“Think I can’t take it? Can’t take you?”

“I don’t usually fall on a woman and fuck her like a goddamn bear,” he growled.

“I liked it. It was just what I needed.”

He released a deep sigh and reached behind him to ease her legs to the mattress. Then he widened his legs and hugged hers between his.

She liked that he’d locked his cock between her thighs. He didn’t want to break the connection between them.

“Don’t be looking for me to be sweet to you at work,” he said softly.

She nodded slowly. “I’d be pissed if you let everyone there know I went down so easy.”

“Yesterday was stressful.”

“It was. But nothing I wasn’t expecting.”

“Don’t get lulled into thinking it’s gonna be any easier from here on out. I won’t be sticking to you like glue. I expect you to hold your own weight.”

Gillian traced a finger across the top of his upper lip. “I understand. You don’t like me being there. Probably think it’s the last place a woman should be. But you can’t help liking me, anyway. Has to be hard on you.”

He rutted his hips, driving his still partially erect cock deep. “Honey, you have no idea.”

They kissed again, with his cock sliding deeper, this time on its own because it was hardening again, stretching her walls as it thickened.

“You have the most amazing dick,” she whispered.

“It’s here for you,” he said, stroking into her again. “Whenever you need it.”

“A relationship based on mutual need. I can handle that,” she said playfully, while her gaze told him she meant it. She wasn’t looking for love. Wasn’t looking for a man in her life. But this was nice.

He nodded. “Name’s Billy, by the way.”

She arched one brow. “You or your cock?”

The corners of his mouth curled upward. “He doesn’t have a name unless you want to give him one.”

“We’ll call him ‘The Terminator’ for now. Because he’s just about killed me.”

“Now, you just got him interested again. Wouldn’t be fair to leave him like this.”

“You’re right. I’m not a cock tease. How would you like it?”

“Fuck, when you say it like that, I can’t wait to see those lips wrapped around him, but I don’t think I’ll last long, so why don’t you just turn around and hold on tight.”

He lifted off her, pulling reluctantly out of her if the soft moan that slipped between his lips was any indication. She slid her legs from under him, and came eagerly to her knees, faced toward the headboard. She wrapped her hands around two sturdy oak spokes and widened her stance, giving him a view of her soaked cunt.

“You’re so damn wet…and red,” he said, his hands cupping her ass and spreading her. “You sure you’re ready for round two?”

“Billy, you’re a dream come true. Stamina in spades. A cock—” The cock in question butted against her sex, and then sank deep. “Any girl would cry to have.”

“Anything else you like about me?” he said, wry humor in his voice.

“Anyone ever tell you that you look like Bruce Willis on steroids?”

“Hell, no.”

“I love Bruce.”

“Bruce wouldn’t give it to you like this.”

“Quit bragging and prove up, Officer Hedron.”

Chapter Four

Gabriel approached the wizard later that night. Means sat on the steps between tier one and two, talking to three other inmates whose heads were bent toward him. The men looked as though they hung on every word he uttered. Either he was a real fascinating talker, or he might be the one. Demons seduced their prey—with words, with sex.

He should know. He’d overcome Gillian’s resistance in moments. He wondered whether Billy had taken advantage of the gift he’d prepared for him but guessed that he’d know the moment he saw the man.

Satiation had a way of softening even the roughest edges.

Conversation halted as he drew closer to the group huddled on the steps. The wizard gave him a hard glare.

Gabriel gave him a slight smile, dipping his head and letting his eyelids roll down—the set that cloaked the inner demon fire banked in his eyes.

It was just a quick reveal. As soon as he blinked again, the lids retreated. If the wizard wasn’t plugged in, he’d think it a trick of the light.

Gabriel ambled past. Not looking back. He’d made the first move. Now he’d wait to see what happened next.

Then he caught a scent. Something sweet drifting through all the blending testosterone and smells from the open toilets. Gillian.

As he reached the second tier, he turned and leaned against the rail to find her. She was in the control booth, drinking coffee.

Billy Hedron stood behind her, wearing his shades, his mouth set in a grim line. When she shot his friend a glance over her shoulder, a look that said she was hyper-aware of how close he stood, Gabriel had his answer.

Gillian’s tall frame was less tense, the set of her shoulders a little more confident. She’d mated. Proved her attraction in the animal order of things. Whatever problems she bore on her strong frame, her sexuality had been reaffirmed.

Her glance searched the floor then rose to the tiers. When her gaze met his, even at one hundred fifty yards away, he could see the slight tightening in her frame.

She remembered what he’d done. All of it. She’d be wary of her unspoken attraction. And he doubted seriously she’d mentioned the dream to her new lover.

Could spell some honesty issues between the couple later on down the road, but Billy knew the score and had his own secrets he couldn’t share.

It was nearing time for the nightly lockdown, when the men would be consigned to their cells for the night. While convicts lay on their bunks and dreamed of family and home or worked their cocks in the darkness for a little sexual release, the demons, if they were indeed here, would be at play.

Gabriel stretched, his arms lifting high above his head. Then he sought the wizard again, and watched as he strode toward the showers. Something about his posture, and the quick, darting glances he made as he entered the doorway alerted him that something might be up.

He walked casually down the steps and to the shower. As he passed, he watched the man as he stood nude in front of the streaming water, arms stretched wide. Maybe he was posing for Priest, wanted her to watch the definition of his muscles as he flexed. Wanted to shock her with the art that covered nearly every inch of his back and buttocks. The tattoo was an impressive work of art, and seriously disturbing.

Skulls appeared to fly toward the watcher, spindly vines of black roses interweaving like latticework, forging upward into spikes where a crow was impaled, its wings lifted as if caught in the moment of death. A banner in the center proclaimed, “Dark Angels Rule the Night”—maybe gang related but unlike anything Gabriel had ever witnessed. For one thing, it wasn’t like any prison tattoo he’d ever seen, and he’d pored through photos taken of Means when he’d first entered prison. His skin had been free of art.

The wizard turned and braced apart his legs, his gaze lifting to the woman in the control booth as his hand stroked his engorged cock. The man was huge. No doubt Means thought the sight would shock her. Maybe interest her just a little bit.

But Gabriel knew she’d had more impressive dick earlier that day. And she wasn’t the type to react with lust to anything so blatantly carnal, so disrespectful.

“Get your dick washed and dry off,” Billy shouted as he strode by. “Lockdown’s in ten minutes.”

Billy didn’t break his stride as he passed Gabriel, didn’t acknowledge him in any way. As long as Inmate 140849 didn’t cause any trouble, he wouldn’t pay the slightest attention to him or risk letting someone wonder about his interest.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The fluorescent lights shining from the high ceiling of the barracks flickered. Gabriel stilled.

Billy cursed softly under his breath and strode toward the booth. When a crack of lightning sounded, it took four seconds to plunge the housing unit into pitch darkness. Emergency floodlights at the control booth pulsed then glowed, but didn’t reach the far corners of the building.

Shouts and gleeful laughter sounded. Fists, freed by the anonymity of darkness to impose punishment struck soft flesh. Quick, spontaneous takedowns began while officers began to shout, “Get to your cells!”

Wet sounds from a corner beside the stairs had Gabriel’s head turning, his night sight homing in on a man on his knees, his lips sliding down another’s cock for a quick, illicit blowjob in the open barracks.

Something he wasn’t interested in, so he moved on. Back to the shower, back to the wizard. He caught sight of the man slipping naked through the men crowding toward the stairs. His movements weren’t hesitant. He didn’t hold his hands in front of him to find his way. He reached out to the man in front of him as he mounted the first step and grabbed his shoulder, halting him.

Gabriel would have missed it if the wizard’s face hadn’t been in profile. His lower jaw dropped, seemed to unhinge, then he pulled the man backward, his head disappearing into his mouth. Then the wizard went to his knees, his body hunching over the man whose arms were swinging wildly behind him. Means brought him down, pulling him toward him, swallowing down his shoulders, his belly. The man’s legs jerked, and then he was gone.

The wizard shook himself and slowly stood with only a slight rounded bulge in his belly to show for the two-hundred pounder he’d just consumed. Then the demon’s head turned toward him. His grin, jagged teeth inside an overlarge smile, bisected his face like a lizard’s…or a snake’s.

Gabriel shuddered but managed a nod. One demon to another. So he had his confirmation. Now he’d have to wait and see what the hell he was doing here. An occasional feast wasn’t something Means couldn’t get somewhere else and more easily too.

No, something big was about to go down.

* * * * *

Gillian landed face first in her bed. She didn’t bother to undress, just lay there as sleep gradually took her, one limb at a time.

After the blackout that affected their barracks alone, the officers had done a headcount of the prisoners only to discover one was missing.

The place had stayed on lockdown. Dogs were brought in to track the scent of the prisoner. Armed officers bounced in the back of pickups as they headed out of the prison to comb the surrounding fields and woods.

Gillian had been stuck in the tower while the guys on her shift got to have the fun of a manhunt. As more shifts were mustered to join the hunt and other law enforcement agencies were called in, she’d watched the madhouse from East Tower, cussing while she fought fatigue.

Hours later, with no sign of inmate Adam Lawson, her shift had finally been released. The lieutenant had been edgy, snapping and threatening. Shit rolled downhill. Work would be hell for the next few days until Lawson was caught. If he was caught.

The blackout couldn’t be explained. The power had been out for only twenty minutes and came back on by itself. Worrisome all on its own. How a dumbass like Lawson had managed to plan it, or even to take advantage of it to make an escape, baffled everyone.

As she drifted off, she wondered if Billy would be back. He was likely just as destroyed. She’d only get a catnap then be up and showering to revive before heading back to the prison. God, could the day get any worse?

Then she was sinking into a dream.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Moonlight bathed the porch of the cabin. The surface of the lake appeared dimpled like an orange’s skin where moonlight touched the tops of shallow waves.

“Finally.” A soft whisper sounded from right behind her. Vlahos stood in the shadow of the doorway.

“I have a little somethin’-somethin’ now. I don’t need you here,” she said, feeling surly.

“Did Billy take good care of you?” he said softly.

“He was better than you,” she said, lifting her chin.

“Good for him,” he said, a small smile lifting one corner of his mouth. “But can he do this?”

Instantly they were both nude. Gillian’s hands went to her breasts. His gaze landed on her pussy. His hand lifted and he curled his index finger. She felt something trail between her folds, like a finger scraping.

It was a dream. If she’d secretly wanted to have her pussy scratched by an invisible finger then she wasn’t going to question it. “His cock was amazing.”

Vlahos’ gaze dipped to his own, which thrust straight from a thicket of black hair. His hand gripped the shaft and slowly pumped up and down. “Shall I prove that I can please you as much?”

“I’m tired. Need to sleep. In case Billy comes around and wants a quickie before work.”

“Didn’t think you were the kind of girl who’d play doormat to a man’s whims.”

“I’m no doormat. I give as good as I get.”

“Did he let you have the chance to give it to him or was he all over you?”

“I still ache from how good he gave it to me. I wanted him all over me.” She blinked and he wasn’t in front of her anymore.

Something long and hot slid along her folds from behind. The crown of Vlahos’ cock poked from between her legs, sliding sinuously forward and then drawing slowly back.

Her thighs clenched around him, holding him there, and he laughed, breath gusting against her cheek.

His hands lifted to her hands, still cupping her breasts, and she slid hers down to let him hold her, all pretense of resistance gone.

His fingers spread, lifting her breasts, squeezing as he eased forward and back, teasing her with shallow strokes. “Sure you don’t want more? You can have us both. Now, if you like.”

And then Billy was there, in front of her, his gaze hardening as it lifted beyond her shoulder to stab at Vlahos. “I was sleeping, bastard.”

“Thought you might like to join us.”

Billy bent toward her, his hands rising to cup her face. “Do you want this? Do you need me to be here?”

“I think I do,” she whispered, lifting her hands to his shoulders to hold him.

Billy’s arms came around her and he lifted her, pulling her from Vlahos’ embrace. “Put your legs around my waist, sweetheart.”

She wrapped herself around him, and he eased into her pussy, bringing her down his shaft so slowly she quivered and began to bounce, little shoves to encourage him to fill her quickly.

When he dropped to his knees on the floor, she groaned because he was easing his legs from under himself, stretching out on his back as he pushed her up and down his cock. Soon she was rocking with him, coming up on her knees and gliding back down, fucking him slowly.

Then a hand pressed between her shoulder blades and Vlahos was covering her back, kissing her neck and reaching around her to clasp her breasts again. “I’m going to come into your ass.”

“Yesss…” she said, although she’d never done it, not in real life. Here, in her dreams she could do the nastiest things, let go, because Billy was under her, his expression alert but approving.

Fingers slid between her buttocks, swirling on her back entrance and then pressing inward.

She tightened involuntarily, but Vlahos shushed her. “Easy, easy,” he whispered. “We’ll make this so good for you, baby.”

She whimpered but forced herself to relax, concentrating instead on the bite of Billy’s cock, which filled her so completely, so impossibly. His fingers crawled over her mound and sank into the top of her folds and began to circle her clit.

She pressed the heels of her palms into his shoulders and began to grind down on his cock and his fingers, trying to ignore the other set of fingers, three now, stuffed into her ass.

At last the fingers withdrew, then the soft head of Vlahos’ cock entered her, pushing relentlessly until the ring of muscle eased and he was inside.

She fell across Billy’s chest. His knees rose, his hips coming up and holding still as Vlahos started moving.

Gillian rolled her face on Billy’s chest. “Too much. It’s too much,” she moaned.

His fingers dug into her scalp. “You’re doing fine. Did I tell you how much I like your wet pussy? Love the way it squeezes me, swallows me all the way down? Can’t wait to see your sweet, sweet mouth take me like that.”

She pressed a kiss to his chest, surprised because she didn’t do “affection”—just fucking. But they were taking her past her inhibitions. No, she wasn’t the least bit shy about sex, about taking what she wanted, but she never really gave herself.

This was different. At least, so far as Billy was concerned. He cuddled her against his chest while Vlahos fucked her, holding himself still while the depth and strength of the thrusts coming into her ass moved her up and down his cock in tight little shoves.

Had to be driving him crazy.

“Goddamn, Gabriel. Finish it, already.”

Vlahos laughed behind her, and then she felt his hand drop between them, below her ass. God, was he going for Billy’s cock?

“Let go of my goddamn balls,” Billy said, his voice tight.

“Why? You like it.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m doing enough for you. Take what you came for and leave us the fuck alone.”

“Think she’s going to understand?”

“Keep her under.”

“Sorry. No can do. She needs to know what’s coming.”

Tired of a conversation that made little sense to her, she snarled, “Shut up the two of you. My ass is on fire and I need to move!”

A kiss dropped on her shoulder, hands swirled over the middle of her back, and then something thrust straight through her back and grasped her heart.

She screamed, reaching behind her, but Billy held her down, his hands gripping her arms hard. “Don’t fight. It shouldn’t hurt. Why’s it hurting her, Gabriel?”

“Because she’s fighting me.”

“Shhh….baby, let him do it. When you relax, it’ll get good, I promise.”

Gillian dropped her arms and slumped again, shaking as a chill slid down her spine like ice water, flowing down, then spreading outward. When the heavy weight in her back lifted, she sucked in a deep breath.

It was just a dream. Vlahos hadn’t just entered her body and sucked the life force out of her. But why then, did she feel so enervated. “Can’t move,” she whispered, nuzzling Billy’s chest.

“You done?” Billy gritted out.

“Almost,” Vlahos said, amusement in his voice. “Still want that orgasm her body’s been working on.” His cock stroked, in and out, his hands gripping her hips hard as he pumped.

And then, when she didn’t think she could take the burning stretch a second longer, he erupted in a rushed frenzy, hammering, wringing a dry, raspy shout from her.

He withdrew slowly, bent and kissed her buttocks, then padded away. The door creaked open behind her. “Tell her,” came his voice, sounding oddly hollow.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gillian drifted upward from her dreams, her body soaked in sweat. Her legs spread wide over narrow hips. Her hand rested on a hard, satin-smooth chest. She jerked her head up and stared down at Billy in horror.

Billy wrapped his fingers hard around the tops of her hips and held her to him, locked to his body by the cock still stuck deep inside her juicy cunt. “Glad to see you finally woke up,” he muttered, matter-of-factly. “Thought you were gonna sleep through the entire thing. Bad for my ego.”

She pressed her hand against his chest, and the other came up and pushed back the wealth of her dark brown hair. Her eyes blinked. Her body shivered.

“Must have been some dream. Thought for sure you were just teasing me, you were so hot for it.”

How the hell…? She quivered, wondering if she was losing her mind. “I’m burning.”

“Still sore from yesterday? I can take it easy.”

“No…my ass,” she muttered.

“Sorry, I played there,” he said, strumming his fingers over her asshole. “Thought you were getting into it.” His fingers withdrew, and a relieved sigh slid between her lips. “Look, I can stop if you like. I probably shouldn’t have done this. But you never answered my knock. I was worried—there being an escaped prisoner out there and all.”

She eased down against his chest, sighing as his arms closed around her. “You’d do that? Stop? You’re huge.”

“Nothing I can’t take care of on my own,” he said, kissing her cheek. “Been there before.”

“Don’t stop. But I’m so tired. Can’t move. Would you do me?”

“Do you?” She felt him smile against her cheek.

“Fuck me.”

“My pleasure.” He rolled, coming over her. Her legs wrapped around him because she didn’t want him slipping out. When he had her under him, fully, he pushed deeper. “You okay?”

“Better. Bad dream.”

“Tell me about it.”

She shook her head, her mouth pulling downward. “Too damn real.”

“Tell me.”

Gillian nuzzled her cheek against his. “We were fucking…”

“So far, doesn’t sound like a nightmare to me,” he drawled.

“Vlahos was there. The new guy. He was doing my ass.”

“More ‘doing’ going on. Should I be jealous he had your ass first?”

Her eyes filled, but a smile began to tremble on her lips. “He was fucking me from behind and then he shoved his arm through my back and grabbed my heart.”

His arms tightened around her, large, hard hands roamed her silky back. “No gaping hole. It was just a dream, sweetheart.”

“I know. Bad first couple of days.”

“Sorry, about that. Want to call in sick?”

Wouldn’t that be bliss? But only if he stayed with her. Like this. Bodies so close, a slip of paper couldn’t fit between them. “Just need this. You, giving it to me hard.”

“That I can do. Hold on, baby.”

Billy cursed silently—at Gabriel, at himself. Gillian looked shattered. Funny thing was, he felt the same way. He’d thought this was all about helping a buddy get his mojo on, but Gillian had gotten to him. Was getting to him now. Her snug little cunt was working his cock, giving him little sexy caresses she probably wasn’t even aware of.

He’d been in his truck, heading for home, when Gabriel appeared in the seat beside him.

Billy had gasped, his hands curling tight around the steering wheel. “I hate when you do that, man.”

“About shit yourself?”

Billy aimed a lethal glare at his friend. “I assume you have something you want me to do?”

He’d had someone he wanted him to do. All it took was Gillian’s name spilling from Gabriel’s lips and he’d turned the truck around.

Now, he was stroking into her, gliding his cock in and out, more gently than he wanted because her inner passage was hot, likely abraded from the rough sex of the day before. She liked to act tough, but she was still soft, vulnerable woman on the inside.

He came up on his hands, and she slipped hers between them, stroking his chest, plucking at his chest hair and his nipples. He growled. “Keep it up and I won’t be able to hold back.”

“I’m so juiced, I’m ready to go too. Do it. Take me.”

Billy closed his eyes, wanting to concentrate on the feel of her beneath him instead of thinking about the fear bleeding away from her pinched face. He could give her this. He could keep her safe. He’d figure out a way without letting the creatures he played with ever touch her again. Gabriel would have to find another mark. He wasn’t having her again.

She stirred beneath him, her body beginning to blend with his, meeting his strokes. He ground inward at the end of each thrust, making sure he rasped against her clit. She was shivering hard, coming apart and so was he.

With the wet sounds they made, the feminine grunts and groans that filled his ears, and the way her fingers dug into his skin as tension and friction built, he was almost there.

He paused, eased her legs from his hips and looped his arms beneath her knees, pressing them higher. “Can you take me deeper?” he asked, slamming into her.

“God,” she said, her head digging into the pillow. “Faster.”

He settled his knees closer to her bottom and hammered, sweat breaking out on his skin. When the first little convulsions began to ripple along his shaft he let go, plunging as hard and deep as he could reach until he felt as if his head were exploding. The pressure in his balls snapped and cum jetted hot, wet, flooding her, coating him inside her.

Gillian sobbed beneath him, her hands clutching and letting go, her body jerking against his until at last she lay still. He didn’t want to stop rocking against her for long moments as their breaths grew even. Finally, he groaned and sank his forehead on the pillow beside her. “Got an alarm clock set?”

“Mmm-hmm,” was all the answer she could muster.

He rolled to his side, taking her with him, still locked together at the groin. After they arranged their limbs comfortably, he kissed her lips. “Sleep. No more dreams. I’ve got you now.”

His gaze rose beyond her, to Gabriel whose ethereal form remained beside the window. Gabriel looked over his shoulder and mouthed the words. “Tell her.” Then he was gone.

A lead weight settled in his chest. Gabriel was right. But Gillian wasn’t going to believe it. And he didn’t have time, not and lose more precious sleep. They’d exhausted her as it was.

He’d tell her after tomorrow night’s shift. And he’d watch out for her. All he had to do was make it through one more night and they’d catch a three-day break. Plenty of time then for her to get used to the idea of the demons walking among them.

Chapter Five

A horse nickered softly as it passed, its tail swishing behind it. Gabriel’s glance rose to the officer astride the horse; his expression was bored behind dark sunglasses.

Wiping the sweat beading on his forehead against the sleeve of his coverall, Gabriel speared the wizard with a glare. “Might go a little faster if you actually dug that shovel into some dirt,” he muttered.

Randy Means gave him a tight-lipped smile and sidled closer. “Haven’t figured out why you’re here. Maybe you should just tell me.”

“Maybe for the same reason you are,” Gabriel said, playing it by ear.

The inmate’s smile turned into a reptilian leer. “Careful you don’t get in my way.” He sliced his shovel down, just missing the toe of Gabriel’s running shoe. “We both know what happened to Lawson.”

Gabriel snorted, pretending unconcern. “I’m not to your taste.”

Means gave a quick shake of his head, and a tic pulsed beside his eye. “I can make exceptions.”

Repulsed by his weird, quirky jerks and the memory of Lawson’s demise, Gabriel murmured, “Sounds like fair warning. But maybe I don’t want it. Maybe I just want to see what you’re going to do with it.”

“You’re here. Now. It’s no coincidence. If you’re not from the shadows, we’re not fighting on the same side.”

“Maybe I’ve just lost my way and want to go back.”

The wizard eyed warily him, then slowly nodded. “I might be able to help you there.”

“How?”

Means snorted. “Think I’m going to give it away? You’ll have to earn it. And I have to be sure which way you bend. Maybe I’ll need a sacrifice. Something to prove you’re with me.”

“I don’t eat flesh,” Gabriel said, not bothering to hide his disdain.

“Then how are you feeding?”

“Priest. She’s my host.”

“Ahhh…and there I was hoping I’d be the first to take a bite.”

“She’s mine.”

“Want to keep her that way, then you know you’ll have to give me something else.”

Gabriel’s shovel bit the dirt again before he said softly, “Another ‘escape’ and they’ll lock us down so tight we won’t be able to get back out here. You want something from this mound. I don’t think you’re willing to blow the chance.”

Means’ upper lip lifted from his teeth. “Blood, then. Not a death. Make it happen. Make it…impressive. I could use another show of strength to bind the men to us.”

Gabriel nodded. “Blood, then. Tonight.” He glanced at the men scurrying around the site, officers on horses with loaded shotguns, a white-haired archeologist directing the diggers, all prisoners, now that the heavy equipment had been pulled back. Beside the elderly man stood a woman, her dark, striking features marking her as the tribal rep to make sure the ancestors’ remains were treated with respect.

Most of the prisoners worked with shovels and short whisk brooms, clearing one site that appeared to be a garbage pile of splintered bone and crockery. Gabriel and Means dug in another spot below the crest of the hill, closer to the river.

He’d kept his eyes open for artifacts that looked out of place. So far, nothing had been recovered that didn’t fit the primitive culture. Perhaps this was a wild goose chase, and maybe the horde leaders who ruled the shadows had jumped to similarly wrong conclusions after the Spanish-Aztec sword hilt had been found. Maybe the artifact had been a localized phenomenon, specific to Montezuma’s city.

He stuck his shovel into the dirt, gave it a shove with his heel and stopped at a metallic thud.

The wizard straightened and turned slowly. His gaze went around them to see if anyone else had heard, and then he bent casually, picking up a rock from the bottom of the pit and tossing it out. “Quickly, before anyone else notices,” he whispered.

Gabriel pulled his shovel free. The wizard dug with his bare fingers in the loosened dirt. Something glinted as he cleared it.

Before Gabriel could get a close look at it, the wizard stuffed it inside the waist of his coverall, under the elastic of his boxers, and stood. He shot Gabriel a warning glance then crawled out of the pit, heading toward the Porta Potti that had been dropped beside the work site.

Gabriel cursed, knowing there wasn’t a thing he could do for now. If he alerted the staff to the find, it would be whisked out of reach. And he needed to know what it was first and how the demon planned to use it.

He struck his shovel in the soil again. Damn, it was going to be a long day.

* * * * *

Gillian woke when a heavy hand smoothed over her bottom and squeezed. Not an unpleasant way to start her day.

She rolled to her side and placed her hand atop Billy’s, and then slowly blinked her eyes open. His gaze was sliding down her body, as though reacquainting himself with all the interesting parts. She knew because he paused over her nipples before sliding to her mound. Lifting her thigh, she hooked it over his hip, a clear invitation for him to touch what he’d ogled.

His hand slid from under hers and fingers prodded her sex. “Always wake up wet?”

“Depends on the company.” She quirked an eyebrow. “Do you always wake up hard?”

His smile was slow and wicked. “He’s been remembering a thing or two.”

“A mind of his own?”

“What can I say? I’m a guy. Sexy girl beside me, and my brain heads south.”

Gillian stretched, arching her back, scraping her nipples purposely against his chest. They tightened, an electric prickle sending charges of arousal toward her womb. When his fingers swirled inside her, diving deeper, her hips began to move. “I’m gonna come quick,” she warned, biting her lip.

“Go for it. I have plans for that mouth of yours when you’re done.”

A laugh caught her by surprise. She was more than amenable to giving him his wish since she hadn’t been finger-fucked for anything more than foreplay to the main event in a long, long time. Taking turns sounded…fun.

He slid his free arm beneath her and she snuggled closer, resting her head on his shoulder and then tilting back to watch him with her eyes half-closed. His cheeks began to warm with color, his nostrils flared—to pick up the scent of sex that deepened with her arousal?

Then she couldn’t think any more about it because a gentle orgasm was beginning to build. His thumb started to toggle her clit as he stroked her with his thick fingers. Suddenly, she moaned, overcome at last, pumping against his hand.

His lips glided along her cheek. “Like that?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she said drowsily. But then she felt the nudge his massive cock against her belly and she knew what he was asking.

Time to get down to the business of blowing his “mind”.

She pressed against his chest, forcing him to his back. He pulled his fingers from her and put his arm under his head to raise it. To watch her.

Gillian straddled his thighs and bent over him. Her fingers raked the whorls of dark brown hair that furred his massive chest, tightening to tug, and then she leaned over a flat brown nipple and teased the hard little point at its center with the tip of her tongue.

His free hand clamped over the top of her head and he pushed gently, urging her down his body, and she couldn’t do more than press random kisses along his ribs and hard abdomen before she arrived at his straining sex.

He was already engorged, his cock stretching just beyond his belly button, and she marveled at the thought that she’d taken it inside her. Her fingers wrapped around his shaft, and although they were long, they didn’t meet. Her pussy clenched as she remembered how well he’d filled her.

However, he wasn’t going to let her take time to admire him. His fingers thrust through her hair and forced her head over the tip. “Let me see,” he whispered harshly.

Growling, she reached up and disengaged his hand from the top of her head and pulled her hair to the side so that he had an unimpeded view. Then she struck out her tongue and lapped along the outside of his shaft, stroking upward and swirling her tongue, closing her eyes because he tasted of sex, smelled of humid, musky man, and the taut skin stretched around his cock felt like warm satin. Suddenly, she felt ravenous.

She climbed off his thighs to kneel beside him. Billy slid his legs apart and she scooped a hand between them to cup his heavy balls. With one hand gripping his shaft and the other massaging his sac, she bent again, swallowing the crown, tightening her lips just below the ridge surrounding it to suction while her tongue swirled over the soft, rubbery tip.

“Sweet fuck,” he groaned.

Gillian came off him and met his hot gaze. She licked her lips and gave him a little smile before sinking again, and taking him deeper into her mouth. Her jaws widened as she bobbed down, her lips stretched. God, she’d never been with a man built like this. Just the thought of his massive cock had her pussy pulsing, cream sliding down her thighs.

She ruthlessly shoved back thoughts of her own escalating need and wrapped both hands around his shaft, squeezing him between them, then twisting in the moisture she’d left, pumping up and down as she took him deeper into her throat.

His thighs hardened like tree limbs, the muscles laddering his abdomen rippled and jumped.

Gillian groaned around him, sweeping her hands up while her head sank toward him, then pulling away, sucking hard, and getting into a rhythm that grew steadily faster. His cock heated with the friction of her hands. Her jaws began to ache, and she paused when she had him deep inside her and swallowed, letting him feel the back of her throat open and close around him, a caress that had his jaw tightening and his knees rising so that he could flatten his feet on the mattress and leverage his hips to plunge into her mouth. “Jesus…fuck!” he ground out.

Suddenly he jackknifed up, his hands landing on her shoulders, and he turned her, shoving her to the mattress on her belly. Again, his hands gripped her, her hips this time, fingers biting in a bruising grip to lift her ass. His cock prodded her folds once before sinking, balls-deep inside her.

Gillian came up on her knees, and flung back her head, but he was already slamming his hips against her ass, fucking so deep, so hard her whole body shuddered with his strokes. “Don’t you dare come too fast!” she groaned.

“Shut up! It’s my goddamn turn,” he growled.

She widened her legs, tilted her ass higher, inviting him to thrust deeper, relishing the slap of those heavy balls against her clit.

But he was coming, hot liquid spurting inside her as he drove his cock harder, deeper. At last, he held himself against her, jerking in spasms as he groaned, and she let out a mournful moan. She’d just missed it.

He came out, flipped her to her back and hitched up her legs beneath his arms, sliding his still rigid cock inside her. “Play with your clit. Let me finish it,” he gritted out.

Her fingers slid down her belly, into the top of her folds and she found the hardened kernel easily. As he began to pound her again, she couldn’t take her eyes off the juncture of her thighs where his glistening, reddened cock sank again and again.

“Billy…” she gasped, as her orgasm unfurled. She rubbed harder, closing her eyes tight. She felt the hard, unrelenting thrusts tunneling deep, tapping her womb, the tightening curl of her orgasm cramping her belly. And then she unraveled, shouting as she came. Darkness engulfed her and her body went limp. Billy fell over her, blanketing her with heat.

They lay like that for long moments afterward, gasping, clutching each other close. She nuzzled his neck and wrapped her arms around him. His arms came under her, and he cuddled her against his chest until the need to draw a deep breath had her pushing him away.

He relented, reluctantly, groaning as he rolled to the side. He brought her with him, still holding her.

While their breathing slowed and their caresses soothed, she realized she’d never felt so cherished. So alive. Worse, she didn’t want the feeling to seep away, which made her afraid.

He’d gotten to her.

Billy felt the tentative connection break between them. Her body stiffened inside his embrace. He slowly eased his arms from her, allowing her at last to move away. She lay on her side, faced away, while he watched her shoulders square and listened to her breaths grow even.

“I have to get ready,” she said quietly.

He knew what she really meant was that he had to leave. He should have felt relief. It wasn’t like he’d ever meant to be more than a convenient fuck for her. “We have time,” he said, stubbornly.

“Look, I can’t do this part.”

“What part’s that?”

“I can’t be your girlfriend,” she said, sounding surly.

“Why not? It’s not like I’m fucking anyone else. Are you?” He knew she damn well was but couldn’t let on he knew because then he’d have to do a whole lot of explaining. Now wasn’t the time. Besides, he was jealous. Bone-deep, snarling jealous of Gabriel’s dream-stealing.

Her breath caught. “I don’t sleep around. There’s only you. But I don’t want anything more than this.”

“So…I’m okay to fuck, but not good enough to be with?”

“Don’t do this, please.”

Billy rolled to his side, coming up on an elbow. “Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t be pissed.”

“If you demand more, I can’t do this with you anymore. I don’t have anything more to give you.”

“Tell me why. Or don’t you think I deserve to know?”

She turned slowly back. Her eyes were haunted, disturbingly hollow. “I don’t want to fall in love with you. And I know it could happen.”

He had to touch her, had to soothe the shadows in her eyes. He settled for cupping her cheek with his palm. “Tell me why,” he said, insisting this time. “Maybe I’ll understand and back off.”

She shook her head, tears beginning to well in her brown eyes.

“Tell me,” he whispered, coming closer.

“Believe me, you don’t want to know. It’d spoil the moment.”

“We’ll have other moments.”

She drew a long, ragged indrawn breath. “Billy, I’ve lost everyone I ever loved. And I’m okay being alone. I can’t ever let myself feel that much again.”

He nodded, pretending her expression, so stark and lonely, hadn’t gotten to him. “So, you don’t want to love me. Who says that’s what I want? But you’re damn well not alone.” And because she didn’t want to tell him more, and because he wasn’t all that sure he was ready to take on her pain as his own, he pulled her close, taking her soft shuddering sighs against his chest.

Maybe this would be enough. And maybe he wasn’t falling in love with her. Talk about bad, bad timing.

“I didn’t become a prison guard because I had an itch to be an inmate’s favorite fantasy, you know,” she said, her words muffled and thick against his skin.

“Didn’t think that. Even for a moment.”

“And I’m not here, after what happened because I like being sliced and diced.”

“You’re not a masochist. I get that too.”

She cleared her throat and leaned back, meeting his gaze. “My brother’s an inmate. Not here. Back in Texas. I thought maybe I could figure out what happened to him. Why he did it if I met more…like him.”

Something he already knew. “What did he do?”

Her lips trembled. “He murdered my sister and my parents. And he would have done the same to me, but I was away at college. When I saw him, in jail, it was like he wasn’t even there. Someone else was inside him.” She closed her eyes. “His gaze was flat. Soulless. And he snarled at me like an animal. Evan wasn’t like that.” When her eyes opened, they swam in tears.

“Something happen…to change him?” he asked softly, petting her cheek.

“I don’t know. But the things he did to them…weren’t right…weren’t what a human being would ever do to another. He devoured them.”

Billy shut his eyes, already guessing what had really happened. People didn’t snap. They didn’t turn. If the seed of evil wasn’t born in them, evil entered them.

She had a right to know the truth.

Chapter Six

“The Deputy Warden wants to see you.”

Gabriel was pulling on a clean coverall when the officer poked his head inside Gabriel’s cell to deliver the news. He fell into step beside the guard and made his way out of the barracks and into the main building, careful that his relief was wiped from his face. He hadn’t had a chance to slip a message to Billy since he’d arrived and he felt as if he were sitting on a time bomb waiting for the cheap watch to tick to detonation.

Kalicek was sitting behind his desk. The door closed behind Gabriel, and he glanced back to see Billy who gave him a guarded smile.

“So, Vlahos. You have anything for me?” Kalicek said. “Are there demons infiltrating the prison or is this whole operation a bust?”

Gabriel took the seat in front of his desk and let out a deep sigh. “Your inmate didn’t escape. Means ate Lawson.”

Kalicek grimaced. “Son of a bitch.”

“And he found something today at the dig site.”

Kalicek’s eyes narrowed. “Well? What’d he find?”

“I don’t know. But it was metallic. Silver. It didn’t belong there.”

“And you let him take it?”

“Not much of a choice. It was that or bust my cover. Even if I got my hands on it now, it’d be like the sword hilt. We wouldn’t be sure what it was for.”

“So we’re going to do what?” the warden spat. “Wait for him to take over the prison? Let him eat another man?”

“I convinced him that it would be too dangerous for another inmate to disappear. But he wants blood.”

“How you gonna do it?” Billy said, crossing his arms across his chest.

“I’ll have to show him some skills. Something he can put to use. But I’ll need a shank.”

Kalicek walked to his file cabinet, unlocking the bottom drawer and pulling it out. He waved a hand toward the contents. “I have a collection. Don’t choose anything fancy or he might recognize the work.”

Gabriel carefully rifled through the stash of makeshift weapons, discarding sharpened wedges of Plexiglas, nails embedded in thick slivers of soap, and chose a razor blade which was chipped away to form a point and embedded in the end of a toothbrush. “You prepared to lose an officer for a while?” he asked, lifting his gaze slowly to the two men.

“Which one?” Billy said, his body tightening. “Want me to take a fall?”

“No. I’m going to need you.” He drew a deep breath. “Priest. I want her out of here.”

“Fuck,” Billy swore softly. “There has to be another way. She can’t go through that again.”

“What’s it to be? Let her go down with a little slice that will put her out of commission for a while? Or do you want to wait and see what your wizard has up his sleeve? ’Cause I’m telling you, anyone’s who around him when it goes down is gonna be dead.”

“Do it,” Kalicek said softly. “Scare the hell out of her while you’re at it. I don’t want her back until this is over.”

Billy’s lip curled in a snarl. “Don’t do this, man.”

“What?” Gabriel said, lifting a brow. “Did you already fall for her? Didn’t think you’d let yourself be led by your dick or I never would have given her to you in the first place.”

“Gabe,” Billy said, his eyes imploring. “Not her. Please.”

“Sorry. You’re gonna thank me later. If you make it out alive.”

“You really think this thing’s gonna get ugly?” Kalicek said.

Gabriel met his glance and let him see the horror banked in his own eyes. “Hell on Earth. Fire and brimstone stuff. He’s a goddamn reptile. A cold-blooded mother fucker.” He gave Billy a quick glance, noted the tension in his body and the quiet fury in his gaze. “Kalicek. Make sure Billy here is in the tower the first half of the shift.”

Billy’s eyes widened, and he took a step toward him, his fist swinging.

Gabriel ducked under it, grabbed his arm and swung him into the wall. Holding him there, he leaned close. “You know I’m right, buddy,” he whispered harshly. “You know I don’t have any other choice.”

“Let go of me,” Billy said, his voice low and tight. When Gabriel released him and stepped back, Billy turned, rubbing his arm. “Promise me, you won’t hurt her any more than you have to.”

“I like the girl too. I don’t want to do this. You know that, don’t you?”

Billy nodded, his features still stark and taut.

“And this way, she never has to know.”

A deep inhalation lifted Billy’s chest and his gaze dropped away. Gabriel clapped his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Escort me back?”

* * * * *

Gillian finished her first round on the floor and headed to the booth for a cup of coffee. Billy had tower duty. Before he’d left he’d passed her in the hall outside the barracks, sweeping close to brush his hand against hers. Their fingers had connected, twining for just a second. “See you later,” he’d said in a low, gruff voice.

She’d smiled as she walked away, liking that he didn’t seem able to stay away. That maybe he was just as eager as she felt to make it through the shift and slide into bed together again. They had the next three days off. She bet she wouldn’t be wearing a thing for longer than it took to grab a meal the entire time.

She had wicked plans for his manly body.

The hot cup of coffee-scented sludge was a poor substitute for the warm thing she wanted to wrap her hands around.

“The lieutenant tryin’ to break you two up?” McPhee said slyly behind her.

“Pardon me?” she said, her gaze rising to his.

“Hedron doesn’t do tower duty like a newbie. The LT must have figgered out he’s sweet on you.”

“Sweet on me?” A rush of pleasure, sweet and hot suffused her body. She pulled a frown. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, McPhee.”

“I see things…” he said, pointing two fingers toward his eyes. “Hedron’s been like a bull in china shop ever since you came. Never takes his eyes off you.”

She stilled. Not good. She didn’t like the thought that her private life was so transparent, but worse, it was just plain dangerous for Billy not to keep his eyes where they belonged—watching prisoners. “I’m sure you’re wrong.”

“Right. You just keep telling yourself that, little lady. Won’t be long before we have two Hedrons walking the floor.”

“How about we drop that conversation right now,” she said, her stomach knotting.

“Want some advice?”

“No.”

“Quit. He’d take good care of you. Nice-looking girl like you should have little ones swinging on her tits.”

Gillian narrowed her gaze, furious with the grinning man. “Goddamn it, McPhee. Shut the fuck up.”

He snickered. “It’d be quite a sight, all right. Almost wish I was young enough to make a run at you too.”

She slammed her cup on the console, aimed a deadly glare his way and turned to leave, but Wilkins, another of the guards, stood in her way. “The LT wants you two to shakedown some cells.”

“Me, with him?” she said, shaking her head. “You sure about that?”

“I’m to man the booth.”

“Fine,” she said, her voice clipped. She eyed McPhee, warning him silently that their conversation was over.

“Loverboy’s gonna be jealous,” he murmured as they made their way down into the barracks.

“Why me?” she said, shaking her head. “Let’s just get this done. Got the list?”

“Yeah,” he said, holding it up. “First stop’s eleven-thirty-two, Vlahos and Ames.”

She clamped down the shiver of excitement that radiated from her belly and shivered toward her breasts and pussy. No time now to think about those sexy dreams.

Gabriel watched as Gillian Priest and old man McPhee made their way up the metal stairs. Taking a deep breath, he glanced at his cellmate and approached the cot where Ames lay on his side, reading a book.

Furtively, Gabriel palmed the shank Kalicek had given him, and then he closed his eyes and reached for Ames, felt his mind separate from his body and hover for a moment over the other man.

While delving into Ames’ subconscious, he dropped the makeshift knife on the bed, watched as Ames’ gaze swung toward him, a frown drawing his eyebrows together.

Then Gabriel was inside, punching through. He felt Ames’ gasp as he slid deep, felt his cellmate’s resistance as he forced him to pick up the small shank and cup it in his hand to hide it. And then, he strode toward the back of the cell, waiting for the two officers to arrive.

From inside Ames and from his post at the back of the cell, he watched as Priest stepped inside. “I need you both against the wall. You know the drill. We’re shaking down this cell.”

Ames shook his head, moaning, but his hand remained around the shank. I’m not gonna get burned for your goddamn weapon! he shouted inside his mind.

That’s the least of what you’re going to do for me now, Gabriel replied, keeping his tone quiet, monotone. Take a deep breath. It’ll be over in a second.

Then he forced Ames off the cot. Ames’ feet hit the floor, and he launched himself toward Priest. His arm, held close to his side, curled upward with the shank aimed at Priest’s belly.

No, no, no! Ames screamed, but Gabriel held him with an image. Priest wasn’t the one in front of him now—it was the man who’d fucked his girlfriend, the man he’d killed when he’d caught them rolling on the bed together. He stood in front of him, a leer on his face, his body naked, his cock still glistening with his girl’s juices.

Ames’ fury exploded, and Gabriel pulled back. Ames’ arm rammed toward Priest.

“Watch out!” McPhee shouted, and shoved her aside.

Ames’ arm continued forward, striking McPhee in the side and sinking deep.

Gabriel cursed under his breath and slammed his hands against the wall, turning his back because he couldn’t be caught up in the takedown.

So things hadn’t gone as planned. The woman wasn’t out of the way, but at least, he’d given the wizard blood.

Gillian had only a moment to haul herself off the floor where McPhee had pushed her. Adrenaline spiking through her veins, she whirled and launched herself at Ames whose arm was rising again to strike at the old man.

She tackled him, barely registering McPhee’s tight voice as he keyed his mike and called for all available officers.

She slammed into Ames, taking him to his back and wishing she had more room to roll him to his stomach, because he was too big and too hyped up to hold for long by herself. She straddled his waist and reached with both hands for the one holding the shank and pounded it on the concrete. But he was already rolling her back, taking her under him.

No way was she going down again. With McPhee bleeding out beside her, urgency pumped through her body. The officers rushing toward them might be too late for the two of them. She had to do this herself.

Ames’ body stretched over hers, his teeth pulled into a feral snarl. His gaze looked maddened, his pupils so tiny, she wondered what he’d taken. With both hands still wrapped around his, she shoved her chest at him, wriggled like an eel and finally got one thigh between his and arched hard, lifting him just enough to get her knee up and connect hard with his balls.

He grunted, lifted his free hand back and slammed her jaw.

Pain exploded, but she shook it off. The knife…the knife was what she had to watch. She kept her hands glued around his wrist, but he was pushing it down, aiming at her neck, and she was weakening. Two hundred pounds of muscled menace was just too much.

And then she felt something inside her shift…another rush of adrenaline? Something lent her body strength and she bucked beneath him, the heels of her boots digging into the concrete. A long, deep growl squeezed between tight lips and slowly, she forced him over, onto his back. Again she straddled him and slammed his hand against the floor, trying to loosen his grip on the shank.

In the distance, she heard the bellows of officers closing in, booted feet thudding on the metal steps, and then she was lifted, tossed to the side while three officers piled on top of Ames and at last subdued him.

She scrambled toward McPhee who lay with his shoulders propped against the wall, his hand holding his side.

“Dammit, why’d you do that?” she whispered fiercely, taking over for him, pressing her own hands against the wound to slow the bleeding.

The tips of his wrinkled lips curved upward in a weak smile. “If I hadn’t, loverboy woulda kicked my ass.”

Tears pricked her eyes, but she leaned toward him and pressed a kiss against his forehead, not caring at this point what anyone might think. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Hedron wasn’t lying. We don’t let shit like that happen here.”

She nodded, giving him a tight smile, and then looked around. Vlahos stood with his back to the commotion, his hands pressed against the back wall of the cell. The officers had cuffed Ames and were dragging him off the ground, not being too careful about how many times his head and body hit the wall and bars as they pulled him out of the cell.

As soon he was clear, more officers poured inside. They surrounded her, hands sliding under hers and pulling her to the cot on the opposite side where they sat her down. The lieutenant knelt beside her. “You hurt?” he asked, his gaze scanning the blood covering her hands.

“I’m fine. It’s not mine.”

“What the hell happened?”

“I wish the fuck I knew.”

* * * * *

Fury tightened every muscle in Billy’s shoulders and arms as he made his way at last to the barracks. He’d had to sit out the attack in the tower, listening while all hell broke loose and imagining every scenario under the sun happening too far away from him to do a damn thing. He knew McPhee had taken the shank for Gillian. He owed him big time. He also knew Gabriel had to be pissed that things hadn’t worked out quite the way he’d planned. Too fucking bad.

Gabriel was going to be more than a little angry when this was all over. Billy was going to kick his ass all the way back to hell for putting his women through all this.

But Gabriel wasn’t where his head was at right now. He had to get to Gillian and see that she was all right. When his relief had come, he’d been told the LT had her working on a report and that she’d been given the control booth for the rest of the night.

Small mercy she wouldn’t be back out on the floor. And if she was still on shift, it meant she hadn’t been hurt all that bad. But he’d know soon about every bruise, every cut if he had to strip her down in the ladies’ room, because he knew she wouldn’t let anyone know how bad it had been.

He found her sitting behind the console, staring dully through the glass at the empty barracks floor. All the cells were locked up tight until breakfast. She clutched a cup of coffee between her hands, but it was full and it looked as though she’d forgotten it.

Billy knelt beside her. “Baby,” he whispered. “Are you okay? I heard.”

She nodded without looking at him, but he saw her blink her eyes. Because he knew her pride would make her hate herself if she cried, he stood, turned his back to the floor and edged his leg close enough to rub up against her thigh.

One hand slipped from her cup and she reached under the console to slide her hand around the back of his knee. She leaned against him, an action imperceptible to an observer.

He dropped his hand and rested it on her shoulder, giving her the gentlest of squeezes.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said softly, her voice sounding hoarse.

“I won’t press. But I will know how bad you were hurt.”

She glanced up, a little smile tugging at her lips. “You’ll have to wait and see me naked.”

“Plan on it.”

Her smile faded. “I was scared out of my mind. Thought it was happening again.”

Billy closed his eyes, damning Gabriel again. “I’m sorry you went through that.”

“McPhee…Charlie…he saved me.”

“He knew I’d have his balls if he didn’t keep an eye on you.”

She snorted, and then winced. “He said just about the same thing.”

“He’s good people, even if he is a little crazy.”

“I don’t think he’s crazy at all,” she whispered. “He said there are demons in these boys, and I believe him.”

Chapter Seven

Gabriel sat on the edge of his cot, staring out of his darkened cell at the control booth on the far side of the barracks. Billy and the woman were together, Billy likely trying to offer her comfort while rage built inside him at what had passed.

He’d screwed up. Billy had every right to be furious. For choosing Gillian as his target in the first place, and then scaring the hell out of her for nothing.

Knowing there wasn’t anything he could do to ease the situation now, he turned his thoughts toward the demon he’d been trying to impress. Although the wizard hadn’t had front row seats to his little play, word had spread like wildfire across a parched field throughout the barracks, cell to cell. Ames had been dragged out, shouting that he hadn’t meant it, would never have hurt an officer and especially a woman, and that he didn’t know where the damn shank had come from.

But Means would know. He’d shown him what he could do, how he could manipulate minds. He was an incubus after all.

And he needed to feed again—on strong emotions. However, he wasn’t sure whether his old buddy would be amenable to sharing again, not after what he’d done. And Gabriel wasn’t sure he had the heart to invade Gillian’s dreams again. Maybe he’d have to look elsewhere, somewhere closer, however much the thought made his stomach turn.

A loud, low hum interrupted his musing. It sounded like the low-pitched thrum of electricity along a hundred power lines. The hairs on the back of his neck lifted, his heart thudded dully against his chest. He guessed the wait was over. Tonight, he’d learn what the demon in the cellblock had planned.

Locks popped up and down the tier. Voices began to murmur, growing louder as prisoners realized they’d been released from their cells.

Gabriel shot a glance to the control booth in time to see Billy leaning toward his mike and Gillian rising swiftly from her seat, her eyes widening as inmates flooded the barracks stairways in a quick, steady stream.

Two officers who’d been walking the tiers were running, but were quickly overcome, backed up to the rails, their own handcuffs quickly restraining them.

At the center of the barracks floor stood the wizard his arms raised, fists clenched. He’d just taken over the housing unit. Whether he intended a siege or a mass escape wasn’t at all clear.

One thing Gabriel knew, more blood would be spilled before the night was over.

* * * * *

Gillian sat cross-legged on hard concrete, her arms beginning to ache, her wrists tender with the bruises inflicted by the inmate who’d cuffed her.

Billy was seated farther down the row of officers the prisoners had captured, his gaze aimed straight ahead. He hadn’t once looked her way. She understood he didn’t want to tip them off that they had a relationship or the knowledge might be used against them.

As it was, things weren’t looking good.

She’d no sooner muttered about demons to Billy than her worst nightmares had been confirmed. When the locks on the cells along all three tiers popped at the same time, she’d stared incredulously at the lights glowing all along her console. Billy had tried his mike, but whatever that low hum was had scrambled communications coming in and out of the barracks. The phones hadn’t worked either.

Which meant they didn’t know if this break was isolated to their housing unit or prison-wide, and whether anyone outside the unit was aware they were in deep shit.

How deep she didn’t understand until the one who seemed to be in charge, the one they called the wizard began to paint a large symbol in blood that prisoners seemed eager to open a vein to provide.

Three prisoners had passed out already, their bodies turning blue, another knelt in front of Means, offering his wrist. This time Gillian didn’t even flinch when the wizard bit deep and shook his head, blood spraying in a wide arc. When he lifted his head, he dropped the man’s hand into a bucket and turned toward the row of corrections officers, a wide, inhuman grin splitting his face.

He stepped in front of Gillian and leaned over her, dragging in a deep breath through flaring nostrils. “Fear, my favorite perfume,” he murmured. Then he reached for her, grabbing her by the hair, and dragged her in front of the line.

Her panicked gaze caught Billy’s for a second before she forced it away.

The wizard let go of her hair and lifted a foot, jamming it against her chest and forcing her on her back. Then he set both feet on opposite sides of her hips and sat down, squatting on her body. “Are you afraid?” he said, in an eerie, gloating tone.

She didn’t answer, knowing he could see her trembling and hating herself for letting him see. But she’d only seen pure evil like this one time before, and things hadn’t ended well. She’d lost her whole family in a single hour.

He bent over her, his long tongue snaking out, and she turned her head to the side, grimacing as he licked the side of her face. Her gaze locked with Billy’s who couldn’t maintain his stoic mask. Pure, raging fury reddened his face. Then his gaze rose, his eyes closed.

Means’ tongue plunged into her ear before sliding back into his mouth. His head tilted toward Billy. “Ahhhh…”

His wicked, leering smile broadened and Gillian shivered beneath him.

“Doesn’t like that, does he? What will he think when I take you, here on the floor? Will he watch? Will he get hard when I fuck you?”

“Means!”

The voice was one she recognized. From her dreams. Vlahos stomped toward them, his hands curling at his sides. “She’s mine.”

“Yours? Only if I say so. But you have proven useful. Tell me, incubus, can you fuck her with your mind right here? Might prove entertaining for the others to watch. She’ll writhe on the floor like a snake, getting her pretty crotch all wet, and everyone will know the moment she comes because she won’t be able to withhold a scream.”

Gillian’s stomach lurched and she thought she might throw up.

“Don’t you have something more important you should be doing?” Vlahos said, sounding only mildly annoyed.

The wizard’s smile disappeared, stretching thin over his teeth as he snarled. “I do.” His glance went to the man who’d slumped beside the bucket, which was held by another prisoner to keep it from spilling. “But be my guest. Feed.”

Means nuzzled her neck, and then stood, stalking away as Vlahos reached down and grabbed her arm. “Sorry about this,” he said softly. Then his eyes narrowed on hers and a curtain of black fell over them. She opened her mouth to scream, but suddenly, she wasn’t in the center of the barracks any longer.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She was back at the lake, standing on the shore this time. Vlahos’ arms surrounded her, and she began to squirm against him, lifting her bare feet to stomp on his.

He pulled her closer, so tightly she couldn’t breathe. “Stop. Stop now. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“And I don’t have time to fill you in on everything. Billy,” he said, tossing the name over his shoulder.

Billy walked up to her side, his expression starkly haunted. “Do as he asks, Gillian. Stop fighting.”

“I don’t understand. Did I pass out?”

“You’re awake and still in the barracks, but I brought you here to talk,” Gabriel said. “Means expects me to feed and expects to see a show. He wants you humiliated to prove his power over the other guards to his helpers.”

“And are you one of them?”

“He’s here to help us,” Billy said, glaring at Vlahos. “But he’s also the one who flipped Ames. Gabriel wanted you out of the cellblock before any of this went down.”

“You knew I was going to be attacked?”

“It was for the best.”

She shook her head and shook off Vlahos’ hands to confront them both. “What McPhee said, about there being demons inside the men, he meant it literally?”

“Yeah,” Billy said.

Her gaze clung to his. “Are you one of them?”

“No. Strictly human.”

“But you’re in my dream, too.”

“Because Gabriel brought me to talk to you. We don’t have much time.”

Gabriel lifted his hands and stripped away her clothes with a wave.

She closed her arms over her breasts. “Can they see me like this?”

“No, but your body will be reacting. It has to or Means will know I’ve conned him.”

She shook her head and backed away. “I won’t let you do this. I don’t care if the bastard kills me, but I won’t let you rape me in front of them all.”

“Then I won’t, but Billy will have you.” Vlahos turned his back.

Billy reached for her. “Dammit, Gillian. I don’t like this either.”

“Sure you don’t,” she scoffed. “You both planned to tag team me from the start, didn’t you?”

The tightening of his jaw was all the answer she needed, and she spun on her heels and began to run.

But Billy was faster and took her to the ground, raising her arms above her head and pinning her with his heavy body. “Don’t fight, baby. Please, I know this is wrong, in so many ways, but don’t fight. I love you. I’ll do whatever I have to keep you safe.”

“Don’t you dare give me your goddamn cock,” she sobbed.

“My fingers then, just enough to get you off.”

“Jesus,” she said, already feeling warmth pour over her skin. She aimed a glare at Vlahos’ back. “You’re doing this. You’re making me want this.”

“I’m only making it easier for you,” came his muttered response.

“Goddamn you both,” she said, closing her eyes. Which was a mistake because Billy was kissing her now, his lips softening over hers as he coaxed hers to move against him.

Then his fingers were slipping between their bodies, sliding over her mound, slipping between her folds, circling his pads over the hardening knot of her clit.

He lifted his head and gazed down at her. “I lied about a lot of things, but never this. Not with a single touch or kiss. I meant everything, Gillian.”

Tears slipped down the side of her face. “When my brother went on his rampage, I was afraid some of that madness might be inside me too. I didn’t want to feel too much.”

“Evil was never inside you. Not even inside him. He was gone before the demon killed your family. You need to know that.”

Her breath hitched. “Like Means?”

“Yeah, he didn’t come into the world that way. But whatever his crimes, he didn’t eat people whole before his skin was possessed.”

A dart of arousal stabbed toward her womb. “Jesus, we’re talking about demons, and you’re getting me hot. What’s wrong with me?”

“A little help from Gabriel is all.”

“Is that how you got to me, Billy?”

“Only in the dreams. Everything outside of it was just us.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, baby. It’s good between us. If I let go of your hands, are you going to clip me, or will you let me suck on those puffy nipples until you come?”

“Guess you’ll have to see.” She fisted her hands, lifting her chin to remind him she wasn’t happy about any of this.

He slowly released her, but she kept her fists beside her head, and he scooted down her body and opened his mouth around one of her breasts. And then she was moaning, writhing beneath him as heat curled tighter in her belly. His fingers plucked and rubbed her clit, his mouth suckled hard and amazingly, she was almost there.

His head lifted. “You know what has to happen next, don’t you?”

She shook her head.

“You have to let Gabriel feed because we need him strong.”

Vlahos approached as she groaned and turned her face away.

He bent over her head. “Suck her clit now. Make her come. I need it all, buddy.”

Billy lurched up and knelt between her thighs, prying them apart and bending low. His tongue fluttered against her clit and she bit her lip.

God, it was too much, too much. And then her back arched off the ground and she was groaning.

Vlahos placed his hand in the center of her chest, and then shoved…his hand sinking into her. She screamed, coming apart and horrified at the same time, her legs twisting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And suddenly, she was awake. Vlahos poised over her, his hand not inside her but pressed against her chest.

Low, ugly laughter surrounded her and she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Nice,” Means said. “Very nice. After we bring her through, I’ll have to taste me some of that,” he said, kissing the air.

Then Vlahos grabbed her shoulder roughly and flung her toward Billy.

She came to her knees and settled beside him.

He leaned into her for a moment, and then straightened away.

Just long enough to reassure her, tell her she wasn’t alone.

Winded, trembling, she lowered her head, afraid like she’d never been in her whole life. She knew the truth now about her life, about her world. And she was surrounded by a web of lies.

If she lived through the night, if she was ever free again, she didn’t know where that left her.

Gabriel inhaled deeply, a heaviness settling inside his chest. God, would this night ever end? Gillian was shaken by what she’d learned, terrified by how truly vulnerable and helpless she was. He might be a demon, but he understood how a human heart worked. She’d needed to believe she was strong and could overcome anything.

As a demon fighting to keep the balance between the land of the living and the shadowlands on the other side, he shouldn’t be feeling so conflicted. Sacrifices had to be made, but he’d hate to lose her, hate like hell to lose his friend as well. However, he wasn’t certain he could help either one of them without compromising the mission.

He had to get that artifact from Means.

Squaring his shoulders, he headed toward the lizard that’d just completed painting a picture on the floor. It was a circle with triangular points surrounding it. At the center was a crude rendering of a creature’s face with a broad snout and a tongue shaped like a dagger. Because his unit back in San Antonio had been studying up on Aztec glyphs to try to the decipher the message on the side of Spanish sword hilt they’d recovered, he knew he was looking at a representation of the Aztec Ring of Flames, with the sun god Tonatiuh at its center.

Means set aside his brush, one of the tools he’d stolen from the dig site, and lifted the sleeve of his coverall. Wrapped around his wrist was a silver cuff, inlaid with semiprecious stones and crystals, and with a large blood-red crystal cabochon at the center of radiating rings of etched flames.

“Might want to stand back,” Means said, a grin beginning to slide across his face. Then he bent and dipped a finger into the remaining blood inside the bucket and held it above the cabochon.

One drop slid onto the stone. The drop disappeared, melting into the crystal.

Around them the humming grew louder, the air began to move, building until it whipped around the barracks floor like a cyclone.

Then a pinprick of bright light burst in front of Means, expanding instantly, tearing at the fabric of this dimension, opening a gash of bright intense light and heat. The wizard laughed gleefully, and reached into the tear, pulling back the edges with his hands until it opened wide, revealing another place, another world inside.

Darkness lay in wait, moonlight filtering through the gash to touch the floor of the barracks.

“Quickly,” the wizard shouted. “Anyone who wants to come with me, step through!”

Murmurings sounded all around them. The prisoners shifted on their feet, exchanging glances, a few, namely the ones the wizard had befriended, stepped eagerly forward and climbed through the rift.

Gabriel stood, his hands clenched at his sides, unable to warn them what awaited them. It sure as shit wasn’t freedom. But he needed the cuff and had to get close enough to Means without being jumped by his minions.

He stepped closer to Means and touched a jagged edge of the portal, then grasped the burning rim and opened it wider, smiling across at the demon. More prisoners, stepped forward, ones not quite so eager, but with jaws sliding tight as they stepped through the gaping hole to the other side.

A dozen entered, many more hung back, their expressions stating their unease and disbelief.

The wizard shook his head. “Once it closes, you’re stuck here.”

But no more stepped forward.

With an angry growl, Means stepped in front of the portal.

It was now or never. Gabriel lunged for him, gripping the cuff and slinging it away, then shoving the demon through. Means’ body dropped to the floor as the demon slid from his skin to land in a heap on the other side.

Without looking back, he dove toward Billy.

“Left pocket,” Billy shouted, and came up on his knees, launching himself forward to crash at Gabriel’s knees.

He dug his hand into Billy’s pocket, wrapped his fingers around the cylinder, pulled it out, and then biting off the clip, he tossed the explosive inside the portal. “Get down,” he shouted to everyone around him.

The demon on the other side, clad in slick blue skin, caught the grenade and lifted his arm to throw, but it exploded in a flash of heat and light that engulfed the barracks.

Gabriel ducked his head as heat flamed outward, and then was quickly snuffed away. When he looked back, the portal winked out, but rumbling began to ripple beneath the flooring, spreading outward like the epicenter of a small earthquake.

The barracks lights flickered out. Dead silence engulfed the room. The emergency spotlights above the control booth flashed on, and he had his first glance around.

Jagged edges of concrete rose in concentric circles, like ripples on a pond. Men knocked off their feet by the blast and the subsequent inter-dimensional shift slowly picked themselves up.

Gabriel turned back to the row of officers. Billy had flung himself over Gillian and was rising on his knees again. She moaned, lying between rings of rubble. Everyone was covered in cinder dust but otherwise seemed unharmed.

Then shouts sounded from outside the barracks and men rushed in, dressed in ERT helmets, carrying shields and Tasers as they flooded inside.

Gabriel slumped on his knees on the ground and placed his hands behind his head, surrendering. As soon as the commotion cleared, he’d search for the cuff. His mission was completed.

Chapter Eight

Gillian rubbed her wrists while her gaze scanned the conference room. She wasn’t sure why she’d been invited. She wasn’t part of the operation the men surrounding her kept mentioning.

But Billy was. Seated between Gabriel Vlahos, who apparently wasn’t a prisoner at all, and Deputy Warden Kalicek, he related the details of the undercover sting.

At the center of the table lay the silver object that had apparently been the key used to open a doorway into the demon’s dimension. She understood that much anyway. Most of the rest of the discussion went right over her head. Not because they talked in any secret code or military acronyms, but because her mind and body were numb. This much she did know. Nothing was as it seemed.

Kalicek really was a Deputy Warden, and when the first rumblings and disappearances had started, he’d contacted his brother in San Antonio, who had ties to a special unit that hunted demons and searched for portals in order to protect humans.

Billy wasn’t a prison guard, but had been brought on board to work the housing unit that seemed to be at the center of the rumblings. Because they needed someone even deeper on the inside, they’d brought in Vlahos, a demon, someone who could “walk the walk”.

She shuddered at the thought that he’d touched her, even in her mind. She’d seen what remained of Means, understood he was a “skinwalker”, a demon who’d stolen the body of a human in order to hide among them. She wondered what sort of creature Vlahos really was, and whose life and soul he’d stolen to live among the humans undetected.

Billy’s hand slid over her clenched fist.

She didn’t force it away, accepting his comfort. For now. Just a few more minutes and they should have it all wrapped up. Then she could go home, bathe until the dirt and scent of fear were gone from her body, and then sleep for a week.

She’d never felt so weary or so lost. At last, it had finally sunk in that she’d been transferred here, not so much for her sake to get over the attack at Bentonville, but because she was an attractive female, and a demon had to do what he had to do in order to fill his appetites.

And everyone in the room knew she’d had sex with Vlahos—and with Billy. They knew she’d been an eager participant, an eager “host”. She’d been a complete fool.

Her job here was over.

Everyone stood, preparing to leave. She guessed they’d wrapped up but she’d missed it. She stayed in her seat, not wanting to call attention to herself until everyone else had gone.

“Let me take you home,” Billy said quietly, letting go of her hand and rising.

She shook her head. “I have my own wheels.”

His gaze settled on her face and she wiped her expression clear of emotion. “I’m tired. I just want to get some sleep.”

“Billy, if you’ve got a minute—”Gabriel said, nodding coolly toward her.

They’d fucked. He’d fed off her emotions. Now, he treated her like a stranger.

She was fiercely glad about that fact. Giving him an equally impersonal nod, she turned to Billy. “Looks like you’re not done here anyway.” Then she left, walking stiffly from the room, through a crowd of men she’d never met. More of the team from San Antonio who’d been observing the prison through the security system’s cameras from afar.

Thank God, they couldn’t see into her mind.

Which got her wondering if they could. She shivered, hoping they just hadn’t been all that interested in Gabriel’s sly trysts to care.

The drive home was over before she knew it. She must have been on autopilot, because it seemed liked she’d just slammed her car door shut and was suddenly there. She went through the everyday motions—picking up the paper in the driveway, unlocking her doors and slinging her bag and keys on the counter, stripping as she headed toward her bedroom, turning on the faucets to get the steam going and spilling half a bottle of bubble bath in the swirling waters before she looked at herself in the mirror.

Her body was a mess. Bruises from McPhee’s rough shove to the floor marked her knees and one hip. More bruises encircled her wrists and smudged the side of her face from where Ames had hit her jaw.

Her hair was straggling from her bun, mostly down, and she slowly reached up to remove the pins and rubber band, wincing at a dull ache that throbbed in her shoulder and her scalp.

The bathwater, so hot her skin tingled when she submerged her body, soon eased her aches. She drifted, exhaustion pulling her under. Just a quick doze, then she’d drag herself out. The cooling water would wake her.

A hand cupped her chin. Warm lips gently smoothed over hers.

Her eyes shot open to find Billy sitting on the edge of the tub, bending over her. She jerked back and hit her head against the tile. “What are you doing here?” she said, her voice tight. “And how the hell did you get in?”

Billy’s chest, still clothed in blue, rose around a deep sigh. “Had to see you. Make sure you were okay. I knocked.”

“I didn’t hear you.”

“I got worried and picked the lock.”

“Not something they teach you at the Academy.”

He shrugged, the casual gesture at odds with his dark expression. “I’ve picked up some unusual skills along the way.”

She gritted her teeth against the urge to scream. “As you can see, I’m fine. Now, get out.”

“I can’t. Not until we talk.”

Her blood pressure spiked, pounding against her temples. “Is that a euphemism for have sex?” she said acidly. “Because I can tell you right now, I’m not up for it. I want to sleep.”

“I’m leaving today.”

A deep ache seeped into her chest, which angered her. She was not going to miss him. “Have a safe trip,” she bit out.

“Gillian, enough,” he said, anger flaring in his eyes. “I’m not leaving until we get things straight between us.”

“I don’t think that’s possible. You used me. Both of you did. And every man in that room, hell every man in that prison knows it by now. You have no idea how that makes me feel,” she said, her voice roughening toward the end.

“I think I do,” he said evenly. “You’re a proud woman. You’ve survived a lot of heartache. This can’t be easy for you.”

“Well, I certainly don’t have an ounce of pride left.” She drew in a big breath and let the rest of her anger spill out. “I don’t have goddamn job—because there’s no way in hell I can ever look those men in the face again. I don’t have control over myself or my own destiny. Everything’s changed.”

Billy’s eyebrows rose. His hands tightened around the rims of the tub. “You can’t close the door and pretend everything’s as it was. I know. I’ve been where you are. When the Marines buddied me up with Gabriel, my whole view of the world was turned on its head. Upside down. And there was no going back.”

“Thanks for letting me know it’s going to get so much better,” she said bitterly.

“I’m sorry.”

She jerked her head down. “All right, you’ve had your say. Would you leave now? Please?”

Hands plunged under the water and he lifted her in his arms.

Gillian gasped, her fingers clutching his shirt. “We are so not doing this,” she said, feeling another flush of anger flood her body. Then she began to wriggle inside his embrace, her legs scissoring violently.

Billy cursed softly, nearly dropped her, then hiked her higher in his arms. “Don’t know how else to get you to talk to me,” he said, grunting and turning to take her through the doorway into her bedroom. “Now, I don’t want to hurt you, so stop fighting me.”

“Too late. I have the bruises to prove it. And maybe, I want to fight—to kick the hell out you!”

He dumped her on the mattress and stood with his fists on his hips, which only managed to make him look more intimidating. His broad chest was rising and falling fast. His face was reddened, his lips clamped into a narrow line.

And for some perverse reason, arousal stirred deep inside her, pricking her nipples into taut little buds, sending those dangerous little darts of excitement toward her belly where they curled around and around her womb.

She jackknifed off the bed and flew at him, her arms swinging, her hands smacking his chest, a fist connecting with his jaw.

Billy took it, opening his arms and holding them wide while she gave him her best shots. She hit his solid jaw again and pain radiated up her arm and she stumbled back, cupping her hand.

“You through?” he said, and she didn’t miss the humor edging his deep, rumbling voice.

She stomped her foot. “Completely! With you. With all of you. Get the fuck out of my house.”

He dropped his arms, dragged in a breath and blew it out in deep, long sigh. His shoulders slumped. “All right.” Turning on his heels, he walked steadily out of her bedroom.

“All right?” she croaked.

He halted at the door, not looking back. “It’s what you want. I’ll go.”

“And you believe me?”

The glance he shot over his shoulder was dark, annoyed, watchful…

“You said you loved me,” she said, wishing she could take it back because she knew she sounded needy and pathetic. And she really was still furious with him. But, Jesus, he couldn’t go.

He turned and leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his massive chest. “I do love you,” he said softly.

She shrugged then realized she was still naked, with clumps of suds sliding down her skin. “Then how can you just leave me?”

“I wanted to ask you to come with me. Part of that conversation you don’t want to have.”

Her eyes filled, blurring his image. His arms dropped and he strode forward.

Then she was in his arms, crying against his chest, clinging to his solid frame.

Those powerful arms closed tight around her, then loosened so that he held her as though she were fragile, breakable. “Shhhh…it’s gonna be okay. I promise,” he crooned against her hair.

She shook her head. “I don’t see how.”

“You’ll get through today, and the next. And when you wake up scared, I’ll be there. You can thump me however often you need. I’ll fuck you until you can’t remember your name, much less the fact you’re still mad at me.”

She sniffed. “Promise?”

His chest shook beneath her cheek. “Want me to start right now?”

Her body was way ahead of her heart. She nodded, scraping her cheek up and down.

He bent, and once more he was carrying her, lowering her to the mattress.

“I don’t want to see Gabriel ever again in my dreams,” she said, reaching out to him.

“Can you manage to be polite when we’re at work?” he said, lying on top of her, fully clothed.

She blinked. “I’m going to be working?”

“Only if you like. It’s all cleared. We can’t be on the same team, but they want you. Gabriel recommended it.”

“I don’t like owing him a thing,” she said, frowning.

“You don’t. It’s payback for what he took from both of us. But I wouldn’t have agreed if I hadn’t thought you could be an asset. Have to warn you though. It’s not an easy job.”

“Or particularly safe?”

“No. I wouldn’t mind at all if you wanted to stay home and eat bon-bons all day.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I’d just get fat. Besides, I like being in the middle of the action. But I like the thought that my family didn’t die for nothing even more.”

They fell silent for a moment, and then Billy’s gaze sharpened. “Have we talked enough?”

“You’re the one who insisted.”

“Never claimed to be particularly smart,” he growled.

She raised her chin, gave him an equally quelling glance. “Make love to me.”

“Giving orders?”

“Since you just admitted you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed…”

He shook his head. “I’m gonna have to watch everything I say around you or it’ll come back to bite me in the ass.”

“I’m not spiteful. Just impatient. And Billy…” she said softly, “I’m very, very wet.”

His eyelids dipped, a small masculine smile stretched his lips. “Sure you’re up to it? You’re covered in bruises.”

“There are a few places that could still take a pounding.”

He snorted and kissed the tip of her nose. “I meant it, Gillian. I love you.”

She knew he hovered over her, waiting for her to say it back. They’d had a very strange courtship, and their lives would no doubt get stranger and darker in the days ahead. But she couldn’t imagine being without him. She bracketed his rugged face between her hands. “I love you too.”

Then they both went to work on his uniform, starting to unbutton it, then both getting annoyed with the process. Fabric ripped, buttons popped, clothes sailed to the far side of the room, and then he was covering her, his large body settling gently over hers.

She opened her legs, inviting the insistent nudge of his cock.

He found her entrance and shoved inside, not stopping until he was balls-deep.

Her breath hitched and her mouth opened around a moan that didn’t stop as he began to move.

“Tell me if I hurt you.”

“You’re hurting me. So good. Please don’t stop.”

“Don’t know if I can ever take it slow and easy with you, baby.”

“I’d be disappointed if you did.”

He planted his elbows in the mattress and cupped her cheeks between his large hands, fingers gently threading through her hair. “You don’t know how good this feels. You’re so damn wet.”

She smiled, breathing hard as he began to stroke faster, building heat and a delicious ache that obliterated any thought of twinges and pulled muscles in her body. “Doesn’t seem to take much. I hear your voice, catch a glimpse of your body, and I’m ready for it. Good thing we won’t be on the same team or we’d be sneaking off every chance we got.”

“We could make dates to meet in the locker room.”

“The ladies’ room,” she said, leaning up to nip his chin. “Less traffic, I’m sure.”

“We’d have to do it standing up.”

“I could straddle you on the toilet.”

“Now, that’s a romantic image.”

“I don’t need romance. I need this,” she said, lifting her hips to meet his strokes. “God, harder, Billy.”

With a quick kiss to her lips, he reached down and thrust his arms under her thighs, and then straightened, kneeling on the bed and dragging her hips upward. When he began to stroke again, she had a view she was sure would be burned forever in her memory—his powerful muscles rippling along his abdomen as his cock surged inside her, his biceps flexing as he jerked her forward and back.

She watched the long column of his cock, slick and red, tunneling in and out, and wondered what he saw behind his half-lidded gaze. Whether her body pleased him half as much.

And because she could never be shy with him, she drew his hard, feral gaze as she cupped her breasts, massaging them, plucking her nipples and then tugging them into short, pink stems that quivered each time he hit her with another sharp thrust.

Then she skimmed her hands downward, over her belly, sliding down to massage her folds which were stretched tight around him, pulling them upward to expose her clit to his glittering gaze, then circling it with one fingertip until her back arched, her eyes slid closed, and she was moaning—a thin high-pitched sound broken by the furious, frenzied strokes he delivered.

His shout sounded above her, and he halted, his body jerking as warm spurts of cum flooded her channel. He fell over her, resting on her body, his sweat coating her chest and belly as he shuddered against her.

She wrapped her arms and legs around him and hugged him close, sliding kisses on his moist cheek and shoulder, then snuggling her face into the corner of his neck.

They lay like that, entwined, as close as two people could get, until he lifted his head. “You have to let go so I can slide out. I’m crushing you.”

Gillian smiled, suddenly so tired she could barely keep her eyes opened. “I can’t move.”

His hands reached behind him and unhooked her legs to slide them down. Then he rolled to his side, bringing her with him, their bodies still locked together. He lifted her thigh over his hip, and his hand lingered on her ass. “That was the sexiest thing I ever saw.”

“Liked watching me touch myself?”

“I think I’d like to watch you make yourself come.”

“Really think you could and not take over?”

“Good point. You might have to cuff me to the bed,” he admitted with a wry grin.

“Then I’d be tempted to see how long it takes for me to make you come.”

“Guess we might have to wait until we’re old and gray. Maybe by them I’ll have learned some patience.”

“I don’t want you to change a thing.” She closed her eyes, and then opened one to peek at him. “You said—when we’re old and gray. Sounds like you think this might be a permanent thing.”

“Did I skip the part where I asked you to marry me?”

She stared at him with both eyes wide. “Really?”

“Don’t sound so thrilled,” he said, irritably.

“If you think about it, we haven’t known each other very long.”

“I know I’m moving fast. But I want this thing nailed before we get to San Antonio.”

“Afraid I’ll change my mind? Or that I might not be as creeped out by Gabriel as I claim?”

He shook his head, opening his mouth. And then gave her a sheepish look. “I don’t know.”

“Billy, I never wanted him. He did something to make me want him, every time.”

“But he kept you aroused enough to be vulnerable to me. I was supposed to keep you primed. Happy in between.”

She didn’t like hearing that said so bluntly, but she wasn’t a coward. Wasn’t prissy about sex or her own desires. “You did your job well,” she said between tight lips.

“It wasn’t a job. Not after…not after I was here. Inside you. It sure as hell wasn’t work.”

“And I didn’t feel dirty. Never felt used. Not by you, anyway.”

Billy clamped a hand on her hip and brought her closer. “He won’t have you again.”

She lifted one brow. “What if he or one like him needs a booster?”

“They’ll have to suck their own goddamn cock.”

Her lips crimped, and then a laugh slipped out. “Not an image I wanted in my head. Can they do that?”

“God, Gillian, I didn’t know you’d be this damn stubborn. Just say yes. I know you want to.”

“How come you’re so sure?”

“I’m here, aren’t I? You couldn’t let me walk out that door.”

He had her there. Her gaze dropped beneath his. “You’re right. I couldn’t. When you started walking away, I felt like my heart was ripping out of me.”

“Then it’s yes?”

She shrugged. “Okay.”

“Again, you’re not sounding enthusiastic.”

“I’m not sure I like that you think marriage will ensure my vow to you.”

“It doesn’t have a thing to do with that. I want a ring on your finger.”

“A brand on my ass wouldn’t work better?”

When his eyebrows lifted as though he was considering the thought seriously, she shoved his chest.

He fell back and she came over him, straddling his hips, his cock cramming deeper because he’d been lengthening inside her as they spoke. “I don’t need a brand or a ring to know who I belong to. The only cock sliding up inside me is yours.”

“Then how about you marry me because you want to, because I love you and you love me?”

She brought her knees against his sides and lifted fractionally, squeezing her inner muscles to pull at his cock as she came up. “I’ll think about it. Later.”

His hands clamped around the tops of her hips and brought her down and held her there, unable to rise again.

She squeezed again. “Let me go. I need to move.”

“Not until you say yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know I will. Why bother to ask me in the first place?”

“Dammit, Priest, do you always have to be such a hardass?”

And because his cock was stretching, filling her and her body was juicing nicely, she said, “All right. Yes, yes, yes! Now let go!”

Instead, he lifted her off him, and forced her to the bed on her belly. Just like before, he grabbed her ass and brought it toward him, shoving her legs open with his knees, and plunging deep inside her.

“I wanted to go slow. Wanted you to fuck me this time, but see what you did?” he said, his voice tight with fury.

She didn’t mind. And she wasn’t even the littlest bit scared. Not of his enormous power or the way he mastered her body so easily.

Billy was hers. All hers. It only took a little male outrage to get him going. She’d remember that and use it every time she needed him to make it hard and quick.

“You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Did what?” she gasped as he hit her with sharp, jarring thrust.

“Never mind. Can’t think anyway.”

“Brain rushed south again?”

“My cock’s thinking just fine.”

She giggled and wiggled her ass, which only earned her another fast flurry of delicious thrusts. Her laughter grew and she flung back her head, relishing every stroke.

That’s when she saw him, his body shimmering in the shadows near the bedroom door. Gabriel.

She didn’t mention it to Billy and hoped the incubus had been there long enough to hear all her complaints.

Gabriel smiled and blew her kiss, and then faded away. So, she wasn’t all that mad at him. And maybe, someday, she wouldn’t pitch a fit when he needed to feed. She had all the love in the world laboring furiously behind her. Love enough to share.

About the Author

Delilah Devlin dated a Samoan, a Venezuelan, a Turk, a Cuban and was engaged to a Greek before marrying her Irishman. She’s lived in Saudi Arabia, Germany and Ireland, but calls Texas home for now. Ever a risk taker, she lived in the Saudi Peninsula during the Gulf War, thwarted an attempted abduction by white slave traders and survived her children’s juvenile delinquencies.

Creating alter egos for herself in the pages of her books enables her to live new adventures. Since discovering the sinful pleasure of erotica, she writes to satisfy her need for variety—it keeps her from running away with the Indian working in the cubicle beside her!

In addition to writing erotica, she enjoys creating romantic comedies and suspense novels.

Delilah welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and e-mail address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

Tell Us What You Think

We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can e-mail us at Comments@EllorasCave.com.

Also by Delilah Devlin

Altered States: Unleashing the Tiger

Arctic Dragon

Desire: Garden of Desire

Desire: Prisoner of Desire

Desire: Slave of Desire

Ellora’s Cavemen: Jewels of the Nile I anthology

Ellora’s Cavemen: Seasons of Seduction I anthology

Ellora’s Cavemen: Tales from the Temple III anthology

Fated Mates anthology

Jacq’s Warlord with Myla Jackson

Jane’s Wild Weekend

Lion In the Shadows

My Immortal Knight: All Hallows Heartbreaker

My Immortal Knight: All Knight Long

My Immortal Knight: Love Bites

My Immortal Knight: Relentless

My Immortal Knight: Silver Bullet

My Immortal Knight: Uncovering Navarro

Nibbles ‘n’ Bits anthology

Ride a Cowboy

Silent Knight

Sin’s Gift

The Pleasure Bot

Witch’s Choice

Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.

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