Page 51 of Callen's Captive
She looked at him suspiciously.
“You’re still doubting me.”
“I’m still trying to figure you out. You say you want me, but you don’t touch me, not more than a kiss here and there.”
“Hell, Kate, I want you so bad, that I’m constantly battling a raging hard-on. Every time I look into your face, especially when you give me that teasing doe-eyed look, it’s all I can do not to strip you down and sink my cock into you.”
“Then why don’t you?” Her hand lowered until she was stroking his cock through the overalls.
He wanted nothing more than to strip her bare and throw her down on the cot so he could claim her. “God, Kate,” he said as she continued stroking him through the fabric. His cock was beyond hard, and now her scent, her arousal was driving him mad. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me.”
“I think I do,” she said as she slowly pulled the zipper down, freeing him. Her small hands, cool and silky smooth, felt so fucking good on his cock as she started pumping him. He’d explode if he let her continue.
Callen tore the overalls off, which made her falter for a second as her lovely eyes glanced down his torso. Her cute pink tongue darted out, just far enough to wet her lips. He took one very decisive step forward, the one that said she wasn’t going to escape him. Her breathing hitched, sending her lovely breasts high as she backed up a step. She’d unleashed the beast in a manner of speaking, and she looked nervous, but not afraid. Within three steps, he pinned both of her wrists above her against the wall.
“You like playing with fire, Princess?” He claimed her mouth before she could answer. She was every bit the vixen he knew she’d be as she bit his bottom lip.
“I’m not afraid of you, Callen.”
“Maybe you should be.”
“Why?”
Because I kill people, maim them, torture them, but never for pleasure, my Kate. Because I’m good at it, because my alpha requires it of me, and because I don’t know any other way to protect my pack, or to be the person you need.
Fear of letting her know who he was, fear of losing her made him want to shift and run from her, from the one person who demanded he be better than he was, the one person he didn’t want to disappoint.
“You don’t understand shifters,” he said, knowing it was a weak argument. He was a coward for not telling her the truth, but he couldn’t stand the idea of how horrified she’d be when she learned that he was the pack’s enforcer, that he was far worse than Briggs.
“Callen?” she said, the fear in her voice grabbing his attention at the same time the water around his ankles had. “The river.”
No wonder this place had been abandoned. He’d seen the watermarks at high on the walls and had ignored them. Callen sloshed his way through the water to the front door. The entire area surrounding the service station was nothing but water, a veritable ocean of black, and it was rising quickly, already at mid-calf. The building creaked and shuddered.
“What’s happening?” Kate’s voice pitched high.
“The building’s being ripped from the foundation. We have to get out of here. Grab my hand, Kate.”
“My bag!”
He threaded his arms through the backpack and then pulled her to him.
“Callen, I can’t swim!”
It was dark out there, even for him. If they got caught up in the flash flood, she could drown. Hell, all it would take was one submerged tree trunk or piece of debris to trap either one of them if they got pulled under.
He lifted her onto the counter. “Stay here.”
Callen raced into the service area where he yanked open closets and upended workbenches, searching for a rope or anything he could use to tie Kate and him together. By the time he found a tow strap hanging on the wall, the water had reached his thighs. He was wading his way through the water when the entire building lurched and tilted, followed by a loud crash.
Kate’s scream ripped through him. He rushed as fast as he could through the water and back into the office. The counter lay on its side. Kate was gone, swept out by the floodwaters.
