Wild Dream (10 page)

“With difficulty.”

“Have you ever thought of just letting Olivia go?”

“Many times.”

Christian scrunched up his face. “What are you two idjits talking about?”

“Love,” Vincent said with a smile.
 

Christian backed away, lifting his crossbow to rest casually on his shoulder. “Oh, hell no. I want no part of that. I thought Vin had lost his mind, but I understood it because he’s always had a thing for Olivia. But you, too, Linc?”

Lincoln threw up his hands in defeat before letting them fall to his sides. “I didn’t go looking for it, little brother. She walked into my life, and I had to have her. There was no thinking, just...acting on a driving need, an overwhelming hunger to hold her in my arms.”

“You two are bat shit crazy to let women into your lives with what we do,” Christian said as he positioned himself at the open door to look out.

Vincent flung wide the sliding cage door. “The Chiasson name must live on.”

“Good luck with that,” Christian said sardonically.

Lincoln exchanged a look with Vincent before he turned his head to Christian. “Why are you so against falling for a woman?”

“I might not have witnessed Dad finding Mom, but I heard his bellow, heard the anguish and the agony when he found her dead body. I’ll spare myself that, thank you very much.”

“You don’t think you could keep your woman safe?”

Christian snorted. “I think the things we hunt will take us all eventually.”

Before Lincoln or Vincent could respond to his remark, they heard Beau’s shout from outside. Christian aimed his crossbow through the tall steel doors on rollers.

Lincoln and Vincent used the ladders on the walls to climb on top of the cage. Solomon was the first to burst into the building with Kane right on his heels.

Solomon turned and lunged at Kane. The wolves circled each other until Solomon had Kane positioned in front of one of the cages. He attacked again, backing Kane into the enclosure. When he was fully inside, Lincoln threw the door closed.

The iron and silver mixture of the cage would keep Kane locked away until the full moon had finished its cycle.

Vincent smiled at Lincoln as he snapped the lock in place. Lincoln looked down at Solomon and was surprised to find the eldest LaRue standing next to the second cage.

“You don’t have to,” Lincoln said.

The silver wolf simply regarded him with yellow eyes. Lincoln jumped to the ground and walked to Solomon. The werewolf was so large he stood almost eye to eye with him.

“Thank you,” Lincoln said. “I owe you a debt. Call it in anytime. I’ll be there.”

“We all will,” Vincent said as he joined Lincoln beside Solomon.

Solomon nodded his head in understanding. It was Vincent who opened the cage. Solomon went to the back and lay down on his side.

“We’ll be back at dawn,” Christian said.

Vincent locked the cage and walked out behind Christian. Lincoln remained for a moment and turned to Kane. The wolf was near rabid in his attempt to get out. It was horrific to watch, and he couldn’t imagine what Solomon was going through observing his brother.

Lincoln glanced at the silver wolf. Solomon was watching Kane silently, and most likely would all night. The duties of both families kept them apart, but Lincoln understood the bond of blood. No matter what, Solomon would be there for Kane, just as Lincoln was there for his brothers and Riley.

And Ava.

He turned on his heel and closed and locked the door behind him. Lincoln faced the house and lifted his gaze to the second floor. Ava was waiting.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Ava showered and got into clean clothes. After all she had been through she should be exhausted, yet she couldn’t sit still. She paced the floor of the bedroom waiting for Lincoln. Every creak of the stairs brought her to peek out the door to see if it was him.

She was more nervous than she had been when interviewing at her law firm for a job. She wrung her hands, her mind going over every scene she could think of with Lincoln. She could just come out and tell him she wanted him. Or she could wait for him to make the next move.

Or she could...

Her heart missed a beat when she recognized the sound of his footsteps coming up the stairs. He walked the opposite way of her room, to his. Olivia had made a point of telling Ava where Lincoln’s room was.

The sound of his door closing made her jump. Most of her life she had sat on the sidelines or buried herself with studying or work. This trip to Louisiana, back to the beginning, had reset things.

She wasn’t the same woman who had gotten off that jet. She thought differently, felt differently. Acted differently.

Lincoln dared her to face her feelings for him. He pushed her to experience the fire between them, and he let loose a raging need for him within her that would never diminish.

Ava refused to wake up the next morning with any more regret. No longer would she push people away and keep them at a distance. She had discovered something precious and rare in the bayous, and she couldn’t –
wouldn’t
– let it go.

She opened her door and stepped into the hallway. For just a moment, she hesitated. Long enough to square her shoulders. Normally, she would have some kind of plan in place for what she would say, but with Lincoln, she couldn’t think straight.

When she reached his door, she heard the water from the shower. Instead of knocking, she tested the handle and found it unlocked. Ava walked inside and quietly shut the door behind her. The bathroom door was ajar, steam rolling out in waves. Her footsteps were quiet on the rugs and wood floors.
 

Her heart was hammering, but not in fear – in excitement. In anticipation.

In yearning.

She took in the scene of him through the shower doors when she reached the doorway. Ava stopped and smiled while watching the water sluice over his thick muscles and tanned skin. Suddenly his movements stopped, and his head jerked to her. His smile was inviting and daring. Ava pushed down her shorts as he opened the shower door.

She jerked off the rest of her clothes and hurried to him. His large hand closed around her arm to pull her against him. He spun her around and pressed her against the cool tile.
 

“What took you so long?” he asked.

Ava laughed and wound her arms around his neck. “Close the shower door and kiss me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a wide smile as he reached behind him to close the glass door. “I thought you’d be asking for more.”

“Oh, believe me, I want so very much more.”

“Really?” he asked and ground his hard cock against her. “How much?”

“Everything you have.”

“No more running?”

“No more running.”

The conversation ended as he took her mouth in a scorching, searing kiss. Her fingers delved into the long locks of his hair as he deepened the kiss. Her skin sizzled from the heat of the water and the feel of his hard body. She groaned when he slid a hand between them and cupped a breast, stroking his thumb over her already rigid nipple.

Ava clung to him as he kissed down her body before kneeling before her. She looked down at him to see his bright blue eyes filled with desire. She couldn’t believe she had found someone like Lincoln, or that she had almost let him go. That wasn’t a mistake she was going to make again.

His hands stroked over her stomach and hips before caressing down her legs. He leaned forward and kissed the inside of each thigh. She gasped, her hands slapping against the tile in a futile attempt to remain standing as his tongue licked her sex.

“Lincoln,” she whispered in mindless need when his tongue found her clit and began to tease it mercilessly.

Her body was already on fire for him, and it didn’t take long to send her to the edge of an orgasm. Without his grip on her hips, she would have been a puddle on the floor.

He licked, he laved. He tantalized, he aroused.
 

He stirred, he seduced.

Ava was barreling toward her climax when he pulled away. She cried out, needing the release only he could give her.
 

His body covered hers again. She opened her eyes to see him watching her. The need, the longing she saw in his blue depths made her stomach flip. He wanted to claim her, and Ava wanted to be claimed by him, to have his brand on her so everyone would know that she was his...and he was hers.

As soon as he bent and palmed the back of her thighs, Ava grabbed his shoulders. He lifted her, keeping her legs wide until he was standing straight.

He glanced down and smiled. Then he lowered her, allowing her back to slide down the tiles. The thick, blunt head of his arousal brushed against her sex. She squeezed her legs in a vain effort to try and wrap them around his hips, but he held her steady.

The feel of him entering her, slowly, caused the breath to lock in her lungs. Ava sank her nails into his skin as he stretched her, whispering her name as he did.

He released her legs so she could wrap them around his waist. The desire was undeniable, the decadence unquestionable.

The pleasure blissful.

She kissed him, letting her hands roam over his back. The feel of his muscles bunching and shifting as he thrust inside her only heightened her senses.
 

Lincoln couldn’t hold her tight enough, could get close enough to her. Need rode him hard, but so did the hunger to imprint himself on her in a way that she could never forget.

Or think of walking away from him.

He thrust deep within her, in time with their kissing. Her tight, slick walls pushed him closer and closer to the edge of oblivion.
 

No woman had ever wrapped him in such knots before, but it only made him want to keep her by his side. She was smart and stubborn, beautiful and tenacious. She was the woman for him, and he was prepared to do whatever it took to convince her of that.

Lincoln turned them so that the water sloshed her back. She ended the kiss and opened her eyes. He could drown in her amber eyes.
 

She leaned her head back to wet her auburn locks as he pumped inside her. The way she tilted her hips sent him deeper, making her moan low and deep. When she straightened, she blinked the water that ran down her face out of her eyes and tightened her legs.
 

The look of sheer unadulterated need on her face shoved him over the edge. He had been holding on with an ironclad control to prolong her pleasure, but she had destroyed it, shattered it all with just a look.

He pushed her against the wall again and increased his tempo to thrust harder, deeper. Her soft moans turned into cries of pleasure.

Ava could feel the tightening low in her belly, could feel the tension building as Lincoln took her higher and higher. She let herself go, gave up every ounce of herself to him. The look of pure satisfaction in his beautiful blue eyes with his long dark hair slicked to his head was an image she would always hold within her.

The world exploded in a bright light when the orgasm hit. It carried her high, swept her deep. And it mended her broken world.

She was coming down from the high when Lincoln shouted her name and buried his head in her neck. Ava held him tight as he pulled out of her before he climaxed.

For long minutes they remained locked in each other’s arms, the hot water cascading on them. When he lifted his head, Ava smiled and wondered how she could have survived another day without Lincoln in her life.

He kissed her softly, gently as he released her legs until she stood before him. Without a word, he grabbed the bar of soap and began to wash his seed from her stomach.

When he finished, Ava took the soap and washed him from head to toe, lingering over the impressive length of his cock. She reached for the shampoo when the soap had been rinsed from his body.

He closed his eyes and smiled contentedly as she washed his hair, allowing her nails to lightly scrape against his scalp. She took her time because the outside world and all the horrors that awaited them were kept at bay while they showered.

All too soon the shampoo was rinsed, and Lincoln shut off the water. He opened the door and grabbed a towel. Instead of handing it to her, he began to dry her himself.

Ava’s eyes watered. He cared for her as if she were precious to him. As if she mattered as much as she dreamed she could with someone special.

As soon as he finished with her, Ava stepped out of the shower and found another towel. When she turned back, Lincoln stood outside the shower with his arms out waiting on her.

They shared a laugh. Ava never knew drying someone off could be so much fun. He didn’t let her finish. Instead, he lifted her in his arms and carried her to bed.