What seemed like hours later Catori couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. She’d resorted to her old habit of sitting out here and trying to obtain some of the peace that the ocean seemed to bring every once in a while. She wasn’t sure of the time. She only knew that she was tired enough to get a few hours of sleep without having a nightmare that relived the day she’d found outabout Red. She welcomed the sleep and managed to move her numb ass off of the lounge and into the house.
The morning would be here soon enough and she was certain that Kane Taylor would be at the warehouse facility at zero six hundred. Most of the construction was done with the new office spaces, armory, security fences, pier upgrades, an extremely large maintenance bay, attached hangar, training areas, team bunkhouse, communications electronics suite, briefing room, and a state of the art operations control facility. If she worked enough hours tomorrow then maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t have to sit out here staring into the darkness until exhaustion overtook her.
*
“Cat,” Red’s deepvoice called out, the raspy coarseness of it sending shivers over her skin. Was he really here with her? Catori’s eyes fluttered open and sure enough, he was situated above her with his sexy crooked smile and blue eyes. His blond hair was tousled and the fiery highlights could be seen even in the golden hued lighting coming from her bedside table. Something told her this wasn’t real, yet she couldn’t stop herself from reaching out with her hand and gently placing her palm directly on his whiskered cheek. Would he disappear? “Cat, I’m still here.”
A sob rose up inside of Catori’s chest because she knew that he wasn’t. Red was gone but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t take these special moments when he chose to appear to her. He lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers, so softly and so tenderly that she could hardly feel it. There was a reason for that, but she pushed that thought out of her mind. She would be greedy just this once.
Using her tongue, she traced his lips…knowing them from memory. The fullness of his mouth was engrained on every part of her skin. He used to explore to his heart’s content, always making her beg for more. Catori moved her head to the side, wanting to feel the heat from his mouth on her neck. It was there, she just knew it. Discarding all thought, she abandoned herself to his memory, his touch, his being.
Red caressed the side of her breast and his calloused fingers brought with them a trail of fire. Yes, she could sense everything he was doing. Catori opened her eyes to see him dip his head and felt her nipple enveloped in the moist heat of his mouth. Nothing had ever felt so pleasurable and she arched her back, trying to receive more. He loved nibbling on her, yet he wasn’t doing that. She strained for that slight erotic pain that he liked to give.
“More, Red. I need more.”
“I’ll give you whatever you want, Cat.” Red smiled lovingly and he once again dipped his head, her abdomen recognizing the blazing trail of his tongue as he went lower. It felt like he was becoming more real with each stroke, caress, and kiss. This couldn’t end. She felt alive and loved. She wanted to stay in this realm of existence forever. “That’s right. Feel me.”
Red separated her legs and situated himself in between her thighs. His masculine form was suddenly unclothed, revealing his contoured chest. Catori didn’t care how it happened or why. She ran her hands down his biceps, loving how solid his muscles were underneath her touch. His sun-kissed skin seemed to glow and she traced the hard lines of his flat stomach to where a sensual V led into the treasure that she sought.
“Are you ready for me, Cat?”
“Red, I need you now more than ever.” Catori wrapped her legs around his waist, trying to draw him near. He wouldn’t move but instead stared down at her with a caring smile. Shewanted to take control and memories flashed through her mind with the battle of wills they used to have, making them laugh like children. There was no laughter now…just intense need. She had to take the lead. “Let me ride you. Let me take control.”
“Even using your claws wouldn’t convince me to let you do that, Cat. Do you remember? Do you recall how we used to wrestle on this bed until the sheets were tangled?” Red gradually lowered himself until Catori felt his cock slowly enter her. He stretched her wide and the slight burn almost caused her to have an orgasm right then and there. “Are your claws out? You know I like it when you scratch my back.”
Pleasure filled every pore of Catori’s body as Red gently thrust in and out of her. He leaned his head down once more and she swore his teeth bit into her nipple like he used to do. A cry of pleasure escaped her lips, and when she tried to hold him in place his gentle laughter filled the air. She wanted to be on top, to take control.
“Claws, Cat. I want to feel your claws.”
Catori felt helpless, for she tried to do what Red said but her fingers couldn’t get a firm hold on him. She looked up and saw the love in his eyes. It overwhelmed her and she wanted this…needed this…to be real. As if her desire for something more triggered a switch, her legs were suddenly on his shoulders, allowing him to sink farther inside of her. He was one with her.
“You will always be mine, Cat.” Red continued to pump in and out of her with a force that took her breath away. “Touch yourself. Show me that you’re mine.”
Catori moved her hand in between them, gathering her cream with her middle finger and rubbing it over her sensitive clit. She cried out at the intensity of her stroke. His blue eyes remained fixated on her, although it felt as if he saw everything that she was doing. He could, couldn’t he?
As if Red was surrounding her, every part of her body felt touched. Her nipples were pulled and her breasts were embraced. His lips brushed against her neck as the heat of his body blanketed her. The throbbing in her clit intensified and she pulled her hand away when it felt like his fingers had replaced hers. Over and over he stroked the engorged flesh until her breath caught in her throat and tingles rained down over her body. Her sheath contracted around his cock as he slowly continued their climb to that ever beautiful precipice.
“Kiss me,” Red whispered, his voice unexpectedly near her ear. “Kiss me goodbye.”
“No,” Catori replied harshly, not wanting this to end. She turned her head to the side, blocking out Red’s attempt at farewell. She wouldn’t let him leave now. “I need more of you.”
“Then don’t let me go…”
Catori awoke with a start and sat straight up, looking frantically for Red. Sunlight streamed into her bedroom window, shining its unwanted rays on the tangled and twisted sheets of reality. He wasn’t here. She’d have sworn differently and could still feel his keen presence. Fuck. He had felt so, so real. She placed her cool hands to her flushed face, trying to bring some sense of sanity back. So much for no nightmares, although she wasn’t so sure she would qualify that dream as one.
Glancing at the clock, Catori cursed at the hour and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She didn’t have time for these nightly hallucinations. All they did was make her more exhausted than she already was. She walked to the bathroom and quickly turned the knob in the shower so that the water spray came out hard enough to take a layer of skin off. She would work herself solid today and maybe join in the drills that Kane Taylor would ultimately have the team do. A difficult physicalworkout would exorcise the demons that haunted her at night…because he certainly hadn’t been her husband.
Chapter Twelve
‡
Catori walked intothe new location of Red Starr HRT, lifting up her sunglasses and using them to pull her hair out of her face. The place wasn’t pretty, but they hadn’t had the time to complete all of the offices and functional areas to her demanding standards quite yet. The large abandoned warehouse facing the pier with an attached hangar had basically started out as a tin L-shaped room of about one hundred and twenty thousand square feet.
Catori had the contractor build three separate reinforced concrete vaults to house the armory and secure the server farm and the operations room. The operations room was a multi-tiered auditorium that resembled a Star Wars command facility with all the large screen displays and banks of computers serving all the cells parsing various incoming intelligence feeds. Inside the armory there were separate areas divided by floor to ceiling cages and racks of weapons, ammo cans, and heavy-duty safes twice the size of an upright freezer. Along the right wall was the team’s gear and enclosed in their own cage were large lockers containing all of their tactical and safety gear. The secure server farm required a satellite uplink and encryption gear to link the Siprnet. The entire suite was served by a four-ton air conditioning system that kept the computers comfortable at a constant sixty-five degrees and, as always, the ubiquitous twoseparate X08 locks with signature cards on the vault door to ensure two-person integrity.
The security system that she’d had installed would allow for keycard access to most of the training areas and the offices. The high security areas required retina scans and class three NSA approved combination locks to open and keypad sign in and out procedures once those areas were occupied each day. The entire complex, including the pier and hangar, had a twenty-four hour onsite armed security staff monitored and supervised by offsite federal contractors. It looked like security had set aside the lanyards with the small ID tags to disperse to the arriving support staff and the team when they arrived next week.
The bunkhouse was ready to receive the team and the contractors had completed the indoor small arms range. As for the offices, she’d set up six separate ones closer to the training areas for the team members. She doubted they would get much use; however, she wanted them to have an area away from the support staff to do whatever administrative work that might be required.
