Harmony's Way

CHAPTER 7

The only advantage of the hormonal therapy was prevention of conception, Harmony thought as night fully descended over Lance’s home. Because it sure as hell wasn’t helping with the arousal.

Well, the pain wasn’t there. She could feel the building hunger growing inside her without the white-hot flames exploding in painful awareness of the need. But she ached. She was wet. And she wanted nothing more than to lick Lance from head to toe.

Sitting in the open living room, Harmony tried to keep her attention on the news program showing on the widescreen television hanging on the wall across from them. Sitting cross-legged in one of the broad, comfortable chairs as she worked on her nails, she could see Lance from the corner of her eye.

He was slouched back in the corner of the couch. A large pillow rested behind his back and he held the remote with firm possession at his side.

The position gave Harmony the advantage of tracking every hard muscular line of his body. Long, powerful legs were encased in denim that did nothing to hide the absolutely luscious muscle beneath. He shifted a bit, stretching out more comfortably, drawing her attention to his thighs as they flexed. And she had no business letting her eyes wander to that area, because keeping her gaze from the hard bulge between them was damned impossible.

He was hard. His erection was like a thick wedge beneath his jeans, reaching toward his lower stomach. She jerked her gaze back to the television, but the pretty-boy charm of the newsman had nothing on the rough-around-the-edges, earthy draw Lance projected.

Within seconds her eyes shifted again, moving back to the temptation of the body stretched out in abandon on the couch.

He looked half-asleep. Drowsy-eyed, relaxed. Unthreatening. It was hard to believe this was the man she had allowed to cuff her, to gag her. The man who had kept her belt on, her pants around her thighs and fucked her to dizzying heights.

Her vagina clenched at the memory. She could feel the dampness growing between her thighs as her nipples began to press tighter against the loose tan cotton sleeveless shirt she wore with the wide-legged matching pajama bottoms.

If she sat there much longer, she was going to end up crawling up his body like the cat he called her. And God, wouldn’t that feel good. Stroking along his body, licking at every delectable inch of male flesh as she went.

“Is it working?”

His voice jerked her out of the daydream, causing her eyes to widen as she jerked her head around to stare at him more fully.

“What?” Had he known how she was watching him? Hungering for him?

“The hormone therapy.” He lifted his hand, still gripping the remote, and waved it toward her. “Is it working?”

The need to taste him was killing her.

“It’s working fine.” She nodded before ducking her head and pulling her gaze from him.

She lowered her head and concentrated on buffing her nails.

“Hmm.” The low, dark murmur had her eyes lifting as they narrowed on him.

“What does that mean?”

She expected another of those wicked smiles, or at least a heated look. He was watching her with a slight frown instead, his expression much too serious.

“You’re a strong woman,” he finally said softly. “Megan said the heat is impossible to ignore, even with the hormones.”

“What do you want me to say, Lance?” She swallowed tightly. “This isn’t a comfortable situation for me.”

“Why? You were comfortable enough that night in the bar to come home with me. What’s changed, Harmony?”

“A one-night stand…”

“Have a lot of those, do you?” he asked mildly.

“No.” She shook her head, confusion tearing through her. Where the hell was her self-control, her ability to smack a man in place with no more than a look?

She stared back at him, his scent wrapping around her, affecting her senses in a way that threw her system into chaos. Nervous awareness sizzled along her nerve endings as her breathing began to roughen and the arousal began to grow.

“So why should it be different now?” he asked her.

“You weren’t a weakness then,” she snapped, jumping to her feet as she wrapped her arms over her breasts and paced to the doorway. “You’re a weakness now.”

He didn’t move; he just lay there.

“Running away, Harmony?” he asked as though she intended to do just that.

“This conversation is pointless.”

“You can’t run away from yourself forever. Aren’t you tired of running by now?”

Harmony turned back to him, knowing she wasn’t hiding the effect his accusation had on her.

“Hiding is the only way to survive,” she whispered. “Do you believe Jonas was the only person searching for me the last ten years, Lance? Or the only one to get close? Eventually, my enemies will find me. When they do, they’ll strike where I’m weak.”

“Chemistry doesn’t bind you to another person, Harmony. Emotion binds.”

She stared back at him in shock. Emotion?

“I have no emotions,” she snapped. “Unless you count vengeance.”

“Then you have no weakness.” He shrugged. “Your enemies can’t use what you care nothing about.”

She stared back at him, pressing her lips together as she clenched her teeth on the furious words threatening to fall from her lips.

“A one-night stand does not a lover make, darling.” His smile was faintly sardonic.

“So I should just become your little bedmate and forget the danger in it?” she snapped.

His brow arched slowly. “I wasn’t asking you for sex, Harmony. I was trying to get to know you. I was pointing out how stubborn and willful you are. Not trying to find out how easy you would fall into my bed.”

“I’ve had to be stubborn. Strong,” she bit out. “I would have died that first year I escaped if I hadn’t been.”

The year Dane Vanderale had found her, broken, all but dead. He had saved her, just as he had saved her many times since.

“Yeah, there were a few notes in your file concerning that first year.” He nodded as though the information were general knowledge. “The Coyotes sent after you reported you were wounded, severely. They would have caught you if they hadn’t been diverted by an unknown team of men.”

One of the Coyotes must have lived. She had hoped she had taken them out. There had been two, merciless and bloodthirsty.

“I don’t know about that.” She shook her head firmly. “I just know I escaped. That was all that mattered to me.”

“You were fifteen years old, severely wounded and alone,” he pointed out. “Yet you survived.”

“What’s your point?”

Harmony watched Lance warily now. He was fishing for information, which meant he knew something. Something more than her file had provided for him.

She remembered well the fight between those two Coyotes. Running on nerves alone, hungry, exhausted, they had nearly taken her. Instead, she had escaped when two shadowed figures had jumped into the fray.

The knife wounds she had carried had nearly been fatal once infection and fever had set in. The wounds had been too deep, and her body too weak to fight. She would have died if Dane hadn’t found her.

He was the son of an African industrialist, a rogue and a man who followed his own rules. At that time, he had been tracking the Coyote Breed who had been sent to kill a friend of his, a young man who knew more than he should have. His death had not been easy. And neither had the Coyote’s after Dane had caught up with him.

The secretiveness of his work was imperative for him to succeed in his goal of helping the Breeds destroy the Genetics Council. If it were ever learned that the heir to the vast holdings of Vanderale Enterprises was no more than a vigilante, it could destroy all his family held. It was a secret Harmony had sworn to carry to her grave.

“How did you escape, Harmony?” He lay there asking the question as though the subject meant no more than the weather. He wasn’t demanding answers, he wasn’t interrogating her. He was asking.

“I had help,” she whispered. “Two men heard the fight. I ran while they distracted the Coyotes.”

“Why did the Coyotes say they didn’t have a scent?” A light frown furrowed his brow. “The interrogation reports stated that the Coyotes swore there was no identifying scent. Does everyone have a scent to the Breeds?”

“Yes.” She nodded slowly. “Everyone has a scent.”

“Is it unique, or can it be disguised by perfumes and whatnot?”

“It’s unique,” she answered carefully, watching him warily.

She knew where this was going and was helpless to prevent it.

“So, why would the two men who saved your butt have no scent?” He frowned as he laid the remote on the floor and scratched, rather absently, at the hard, well-muscled flesh of his abdomen.

The movement lifted his T-shirt, flashing the dark tough skin before he allowed his hand to rest there. Harmony fought to drag in enough oxygen to make her brain work again.

Dammit, she was a cold-blooded assassin, not his sex kitten. But at the moment, the sex kitten was definitely making itself known.

“I’m not certain.” She really didn’t understand the process, so she wasn’t technically lying to him. Right?

“But you have an idea?”

Harmony stared back at him suspiciously.

“Why all the questions? What does this have to do with the fact that a mate is a weakness and I’m not willing to play the sex kitten for you?”

“Sex kitten?” Wicked amusement lit his eyes then. “I hadn’t thought of that one, but I like the idea. I like it a whole lot.”

“You are not making sense.” She held her hand up to halt the words his lips were parting for. “These myriad little subjects of yours are not going together well, Lance.”

“Hey, you brought up the sex kitten thing, not me. It just happened to interest me, that’s all. Tell me.” His brows lifted then lowered suggestively. “How does a Breed sex kitten do it?”

“With claws?” she suggested in irritation.

His lips pursed as his eyes gleamed with playful lust.

“I like claws,” he whispered as he raised his hand to rub absently at his shoulder, the area next to his neck. The exact area where she had bit him. “You could come over here and show me how it’s done.”

She actually moved to go to him. Harmony stared down at her feet in alarm when she took that first step; then she stopped and glared back at him furiously.

She hissed.

Without thought, without realizing the sound was moving through her chest, she really hissed. She had never hissed in her life. Not the catlike, growling hiss that came out of her mouth now.

She stared back at Lance in shock.

“Keep that up and you’re going to make me come.” His voice had lowered, thickening with arousal as his eyes gleamed with heated hunger.

“You are insane.”

“I’m so fucking horny I’m about to come in my jeans just listening to you hiss.” He grunted in irritation. “Insanity is probably closer than you think it is.”

The pain of her arousal before the doctor had begun the hormone treatments had been horrible. Did he suffer too? She frowned, drawing in the scent of the room deeper than she had allowed herself to this point.

The smell of male arousal was intoxicating and thick. It permeated her senses, rushed through her brain, and sent her heartbeat to a thundering speed as she felt her mouth fill again with that strangely sweet taste.

“Does it hurt?” she whispered, fearing the answer. Knowing the answer.

“No, baby, it doesn’t hurt.” Lance sighed heavily. “It’s just aggravating as hell.”

And he was lying. Why was he lying when telling the truth could guilt her into giving him what he wanted? He could have easily played the wronged male and had her in his bed hours ago.

“Then why aren’t you moving?” she asked him then. “You’ve been in that same position for more than an hour. Sit up.”

She could see his erection outlined by his jeans, pressing hard against the material.

“I think I’ll just lie right here for a while.” He chuckled instead. “Did I mention I’m a little low on rest myself?”

He hadn’t slept in two days, not enough to matter. He had watched over her, protected her when she couldn’t protect herself.

Harmony licked her lips nervously. “When I was wounded, the men who fought off the Coyotes found me a week later. I was very ill.”

His gaze sharpened on her.

“They had known then about the Coyotes. They hunted them; I wasn’t certain why.” She hadn’t known then, though she knew now. “They nursed me back to health and protected me. They never told me exactly why they had no scent. But sometimes, if I’m in trouble, they know it, and they show up.”

“Does Jonas know about them?”

“The information contained in the Breed database on me isn’t everything the Council had,” she revealed. “I don’t know why Jonas has hidden the files on the few times the Coyotes actually managed to capture me, but those reports aren’t in there. Just as the reports reveal that each time I was captured, the same two men rescued me.”

“Who were they?”

She glanced away for a second before turning back to him. “I can’t reveal their names to you, Lance. Their lives…”

He held his hand up. “I don’t want names. Why do they watch you, Harmony? What do they want? What does Jonas want?”

She shook her head, a frown creasing her brow.

“Jonas wants me dead, Lance. But he can’t kill me without giving me a chance to redeem myself first. But make no mistake, he hates me.”

“Why?”

She inhaled painfully at the question.

“I killed his mother. The only person at those labs who cared anything about Jonas, besides me. And I couldn’t show him how much I cared, or I suffered for it. Madame LaRue was very possessive of her personal creation. As for why the others help me, it benefits both of us. They help me, I help them. It’s enough that they’ve been there.”

“So why tell me this much now?” he asked her, rather than pursuing the information further.

“You protected me while I slept,” she whispered. “You didn’t have to do that. You deserve to know what you’re facing.”

“You’re my woman, Harmony,” he growled. “I always protect what’s mine.”

She shook her head slowly. “I can’t belong to you, Lance. Not ever. In six months, when this is over and I’ve redeemed myself by Breed Law, then I’ll leave. If I can manage to keep my enemies from finding me that long. You can’t afford to take me as your woman, any more than I can claim you as anything of mine. Doing so will only get us both killed.”

“How much longer can you fight alone? How much longer, Harmony, before Death gives up because she can’t kill enough monsters or save enough children?” he asked as she moved to turn away from him.

“Why are you doing this?” It was a question she had fought for too long now herself. “Why can’t you just let it go, Lance?”

“Come here.” His voice gentled.

“What?”

He lifted his hand, crooking his fingers in a wave back toward himself.

“Come here,” he repeated.

She moved toward him slowly, hesitantly. He didn’t know what it did to her to be too close to him, how much he made her want. It rose inside her like a hungry beast, tearing at her soul with a need she had pushed back all her life.

“What?” she asked again as she paused by the couch.

“Touch me, Harmony.”

“I told you…”

“I didn’t say fuck me, dammit, I said touch me,” he growled. “Right here.” He thumped his chest. “Just touch me.”

She bent and placed her palm on his chest.

Heat. Harmony felt the weakness that flooded her as she went to her knees beside the couch, feeling the incredible heat of his body moving into hers. The phenomena was unlike anything she had ever known with another person. She had touched others, she wasn’t a virgin, but she had never experienced this.

“This is why, Harmony.” He brushed her hair tenderly back from her face, his thumb caressing her cheek as she stared into his eyes. “Feel my body giving to you. I’ve never done that before. As though my soul knows what you need, just as my body knows, and it gives to you selflessly. That’s why I can’t walk away. It’s why I claim you as mine, even knowing that isn’t what you want. Because that bond is already there. It was there when I pulled into the parking lot of that bar when all I wanted to do was head home. It was there the second my eyes met yours, my skin touched yours. Run away if you have to, but at least be aware of what you’re running away from, baby.”

He looked so sincere. His eyes darkening, his expression pulled into lines of worry and concern. As though he cared.

“Why?” She couldn’t stop the question from passing her lips even as the heat of his body poured through her palm. “Why do you care, Lance? I kill…”

He shook his head slowly. “What the child was forced to do is not her fault,” he whispered. “What the woman has done to survive, and then to wreak vengeance, can be forgiven. It’s where you go from this point that matters. Learning the difference between what is just and what is justice could mean the difference in your freedom or your own death. But what’s between us goes deeper than life or death.”

“It’s a chemical reaction,” she snapped, attempting to jerk her hand back.

His hand gripped hers, forced it to flatten against his chest once again as his gaze turned fierce.

“How many one-night stands have you had, Harmony? How many men have you picked up in bars and spent the night fucking?”

“Stop!”

“Answer me. Or should I answer it for you? None.” His voice lashed at her as his anger, lust and need seemed to lie in the very air around her. “You’ve never done it before. Why?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Why, Harmony?” His voice rose, trapping her in place as effectively as his hand trapped hers against his chest. His arm had come down from the pillow behind him as his free hand shackled her other wrist, keeping her in place. “Answer me.”

“I didn’t want to.”

“The truth, damn you!”

“Because their touch didn’t matter.” She tore away from him then, the memory of her first night with a man, a man she trusted, lashing at her brain.

She had forced herself to go through with it, forced herself into an intimacy she knew she didn’t want. Dane was her friend; he had helped her, had given her a place of safety to hide. His touch hadn’t sickened her, but neither had it heated her, drawn her.

“My touch mattered then.” There was no smugness in his voice as she heard him rising to his feet. “Just as your touch matters to me, Harmony. You matter to me. Hiding isn’t going to help you, or me. If your enemies find out you were here, whether you’ve been gone a week or two years, they’ll find me.”

Harmony stared back at him, her breathing rough as fear began to race through her mind. He was right. It wouldn’t matter; the Coyotes and Council soldiers still stalking her wouldn’t care. They would strike for the hell of it.

“Run now, Harmony.” He waved his hand toward the door as she turned back to him. “There’s the fucking door. Do you think it’s going to make a difference?”

“Why are you doing this?” she cried out desperately, her fists clenching at her sides. “Why can’t you let it go? Let me go?”

“Because you fucking belong to me!” he yelled back, his voice furious, his blue eyes blazing. “Mine, by God, just as much as I belong to you. Deny it. Go ahead, Harmony, look me in the eye and deny it.”

“Where do you get these insane ideas?” she screamed back, pushing her hands through her hair as frustration began to tear through her. Frustration and anger. “Why are you doing this?”

“You want to know why? Why?” he snarled. “Try this, Harmony.”

Before she could fight him, his arms were around her; one hand clasped her head, the other wrapped around her back as his head lowered. His lips, heated and possessive, covered hers as his tongue swept possessively into her mouth.

The glands along the underside of her tongue flared to life, spilling the sweet taste of arousal. Lifting her arms, she twined them around his neck, as desperate to be close to him as he was to pull her against him. Desire raced through her nervous system as her objections, her fears, were swept away.

Lance devoured her, took her kiss and gave in its return a pleasure that should never be so intense, so fiery from such a simple caress.

Tongues dueled, battled, as moans began to fill the silence of the room. Harmony strained against him, feeling his erection grinding against her lower stomach, fueling the heat building in her vagina.

This was perfect. His kiss was perfect. His lips matched hers, his tongue stroked hers in a caress too heated to deny. As though every cell of his body, every breath, every touch had been created just for her. At each point that their bodies touched, his heat sank into her, warmed her, bound her.

“No. Dammit. I won’t take you like this.”

Before Harmony could protest, Lance broke the kiss and set her carefully away from him. His hands swiped through his hair as his expression tautened with the effort at maintaining his control.

“What? What did I do?” Harmony shook her head in confusion.

“I won’t take this choice from you,” he growled, grimacing painfully. “I won’t take anything from you by force, Harmony. If you want me now, then you have to come to me.”

Lance shook his head, his frustration evident on his face as he propped his hands on his lean hips, lowered his head and shook it slowly. When he lifted his head once again, a wry smile crossed his lips.

“I’m going to bed, baby.” He sighed. “I need some rest. We have to go to work tomorrow morning. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He leaned down, kissed her cheek gently then walked away. Harmony stared at him in shock as he just walked away.

Her hand lifted to her cheek as she turned and stared at the doorway he’d disappeared through. Why had he done that? He could have had her. He was obviously painfully aroused, hungry, why walk away when he could have what would ease him?

God, he made no sense.

She growled in frustration then grimaced at the animalistic sound. Damn him, she was starting to sound like Jonas now.

“Men!” She stomped to the kitchen, certain she had seen ice cream somewhere in that huge freezer he kept in the pantry. Aggravation like this definitely called for ice cream.