Harmony's Way

CHAPTER 14

Make no mistake, your games will get you killed if they involve Harmony much more. Law or no law, what’s mine stays mine.

Lance and Jonas’s conversation hadn’t been too hard for her to keep up with while she typed out her report. Lance’s final warning had shocked her though, and held her in the little office until Jonas left.

His defense of her made no sense to her. He knew what she was. He had read her file. How could he defend her so easily?

“You know, I really did kill all those people in my file,” she stated as they entered his home several hours later.

Standing by the closed door, she watched as he toed his boots off, his dark blue eyes staring back into hers calmly.

“I know that, Harmony.” He nodded as he straightened, standing before her, the lack of scorn or judgment in his expression confusing her further.

“I killed them in cold blood,” she added. “I hunted them. Tracked them. And I felt their blood flow over my fingers. And I don’t regret it, Lance.”

“I know you don’t.” His expression was somber.

“How can you just accept it?” she whispered. “You’re a sheriff. You deal in the law, you said it yourself. How can you claim me so easily?”

It made no sense. She could barely stand herself.

“A child has no defenses,” he said then. “What was done to you as a child was inexcusable. How you’ve dealt with that as an adult is more than forgivable. But you know as well as I do that the time for it has come to an end. In ways, Jonas is right. To survive, you’re going to have to learn how to work within the system.”

“A system that lets monsters roam free?” she sneered as her chest tightened painfully. “Do you know what they did to those children, Lance? Do you have any idea…?”

“Do you think you can save them all, Harmony?” He stared back at her remorselessly. “Every life you’ve taken has taken a piece of your soul. I held you while you slept, after Jonas brought you to the office. I saw the tears you shed and heard the pain you felt. Do you think you’re not killing yourself like this?”

She flinched. She had known there was a chance she had dreamed, but he had never mentioned it, never let her guess.

“I’m just one person,” she whispered. “A creation, that’s all.”

“No, dammit, that’s not all you are, Harmony,” he bit out, his hands gripping her upper arms as he gave her a little shake. “Look at yourself, baby. You don’t sleep, you barely eat. You run on nerves and sheer gut stubbornness alone. How much longer can you do that? How much longer before it catches up with you and you mess up? How much longer do you think you can avoid the repercussions of it? You will be caught. You will be arrested. And you will die.”

Harmony inhaled roughly, seeing the pain in his eyes, the determination in his face to keep that from happening.

“They are children,” she cried out before she could stop herself. “Helpless. Dear God, Lance—”

“Work within the law, Harmony,” he ground out. “You’re smart, and you’re intuitive as hell. Use those abilities to find the proof and bring them to justice. Justice does work, baby. When you use the law to your advantage.”

“While children are dying.”

“While you’re alive to put as many of them as possible behind bars,” he yelled back at her. “For God’s sake, what good are you going to do a single child if you’re dead?”

“I save as many as I can.” She shook her head desperately.

“Bullshit!” He released her as quickly as he had grabbed her. “You know yourself that this isn’t working, Harmony. It’s destroying you.”

“I don’t know what else to do,” she cried out furiously. “I can’t stand it, Lance. I can’t stand to see the pain in the eyes of children who have been abused. I can’t stand knowing I was created and used to kill even one of the people who could have saved them.”

She slapped her hand to her mouth, turning away from him as comprehension flooded his expression.

“The kills you made as a child,” he said behind her. “You’re still trying to make up for them, aren’t you?”

Her chest was so tight with pain she could barely breathe. A hard chill wracked her body and she could feel the cold icing in her soul.

“The assassinations I performed as a child, each victim fought for children and their rights,” she whispered, shaking her head at the futility of even remembering. “Each one of them. They were exemplary parents, and they fought for the children who had no parents worthy of the name.”

“And you think this is how they would want you to repay the fight they took on?” His arms came around her, as though he knew the dark, cold places that tormented her. “If you knew anything of their lives, then you know it’s not.”

Harmony fought to control her breathing, to control the dampness that flooded her eyes. She was tired, strung out from exhaustion and arousal and emotions that just didn’t make sense to her anymore.

“They died for their beliefs,” she whispered. “They suspected the Council was creating us. Information had been smuggled from the labs several times and it was brought to their attention. Before they could save any of us, they were killed. I killed them.”

She tried to jerk away from him, tried to put distance between herself and the man weakening her from the inside out.

“You were lied to and you were used,” he whispered at her ear. “You know that as well as I do. Just as you know that you were killing yourself from the inside out over the blood you were shedding before Jonas caught you. If you hadn’t been, he would have never found you.”

“That’s not true…”

“It is true, baby.” He held onto her firmly. “That’s why you’ve gone along with this game he’s playing. Keeping whatever it is that he wants hidden and trying to atone for the deaths. You know as well as I do, that you’d had enough.”

Had she? Had she somehow let Jonas capture her?

“What do you have, Harmony, that Jonas wants? What is making him so desperate that he’ll sacrifice you for it?”

Harmony knew exactly what Jonas was after, what she could never let him have: the information she had stolen from the labs the day she escaped. The last remaining proof that as of ten years ago, the first Feline Breed, created nearly a century before, still lived.

“Jonas wants revenge.” It was partially the truth. “Revenge for his mother’s death.”

“Jonas is a smart man.” He let her go slowly, allowing her to turn and face him once again. “And he’s smart enough to know the truth by now. He can read as well as I can, and the reports from the other labs and scientists on Dr. LaRue were pretty conclusive. Now, one more time, what does Jonas want from you?”

She stared around the dimly lit entryway, the shadowed living room and kitchen as she swallowed tightly.

“I can’t tell you,” she whispered almost soundlessly.

He sighed deeply as he shook his head. “I’m too tired for this, Harmony. When you’re ready to talk, let me know. But do us both a favor and do it while I can help you.”

It had never been her way to confide to anyone. Even Dane, the man who had saved her countless times over, and had been her first lover, didn’t know the truth.

Harmony stepped into the shower, adjusted the spray then leaned her forehead against the shower wall, barely feeling the heat of the water as it beat over her skin. But she felt her tears as the silent sobs shook her body with brutal intensity.

Jonas would see her dead before it was over. No matter what Lance believed, Jonas did blame her for their mother’s death. Madame LaRue had been a monster. Within the papers Harmony had hidden were the orders to kill each Breed in the labs rather than risk their discovery. It was the reason she had killed Madame as well as the five scientists under her, before escaping.

The proof she held would have vindicated her, but the cost was too high. She couldn’t betray others to save herself. If she did, then she was no better than those who had created her.

The injustice of it had never really slapped her until now. Something about this mating with Lance had changed her. Or perhaps awakened her. She wasn’t certain which. The longer she spent with him, the weaker she became, the more she needed him.

As she wrapped her arms around her chest, fighting to hold back her sobs, she realized that for the first time in her life, there was something she couldn’t make herself walk away from, and it was very likely to get them both killed. And that terrified her. Lance deserved more; he deserved better than a woman whose hands were forever stained by the blood of innocent deaths.

“Harmony.”

She gasped as Lance’s voice washed over her, then his arms surrounded her. She pushed against his hard, naked chest, fighting to pull herself together, to escape long enough to find her strength again.

“You’re killing me,” he whispered at her ear. “I hear your cries even when you aren’t shedding the tears. But the pain that echoes from your tears is breaking my heart.”

Lance stared into her shocked eyes as she lifted her head. Brilliant neon green, awash with her tears, shadowed with the pain destroying her. Destroying him. The air around him was heavy with her need, physical as well as emotional, and pulled at him as nothing else could.

Clasping her head between his hands, he ran his thumbs over her cheeks.

“I can’t stop.” She jerked as another sob tore through her. “Oh God, Lance, what’s wrong with me? I don’t cry. Death doesn’t cry.”

“Death died ten years ago,” he whispered as he lowered his lips to hers. “Don’t you know that, baby? She’s gone. There’s just Harmony now.”

He wondered if she even understood why she had chosen the name she had. Harmony. Peace. A blending of what she was and what she needed to be. The part of her that fought to make sense of her world and to fit into it.

“My sweet little kitten,” he whispered, brushing his lips over hers as he held her tear-filled gaze. “You keep trying to run from this and you keep hiding. Those scientists may have created your body, but the earth gave you life. A perfect, beautiful soul created for me alone. Just as I was created for you. We’re children of this earth, Harmony. You can’t escape that, any more than I can. Not any longer.”

He knew that running from the gift he had to hear the whispers in the wind wasn’t going to work. Her life and her future were going to depend on his ability to protect her. Not so much physically as the protection of her heart, her soul. There was too much coming together inside his mind, too many coincidences adding up and he knew the coming days would mean her life, or her death.

The wind whispered of the danger to her. He heard her name in its sighs, the keening cry of her destruction, and felt the caress of danger at the back of his neck. And the knowledge that her soul had been bonded to his for a reason. She was the other part of him. The heart he had searched for for so many years.

“I’m an abomination,” she whispered tearfully. “A killer.”

He lifted his head, smoothing his thumb over her lips.

“You’re my mate. My soul. Am I a killer, Harmony? Would the earth give me a killer for my mate?”

His lips took hers again, feeling her soften against him, tasting the heat and seductive taste of her hunger.

Her fingers slid slowly into his hair, tangling into the strands until they pulled at his scalp with a burning bite.

Lance bit at her lips in retaliation, only to take her frustrated growl into his mouth as he deepened the kiss and pressed her against the shower wall. His hands slid into the damp strands of her hair, holding her close, tugging at her scalp as she pulled at his. The effect was instantaneous.

A little rawr left her lips as she arched close to him, the bare mound of her pussy against his thigh as he slid it between her legs.

She was slick and hot, the juices of her arousal burning hot against his flesh.

“Sweet little kitten,” he repeated, pulling back from her kiss and staring into her brilliant eyes.

“Hurry,” she whispered, her swollen lips parted as she panted for breath. “I need you.”

“I need you. Your touch. Your sweet heat. The taste of you. Let me have you, Harmony. All of you.”

Harmony stared back at him, weakening against his touch. It wasn’t just the pleasure, it was the emotion in his eyes, in his expression. She felt her own defenses disintegrating. If he took her as he wanted to, then she would never be able to deny him again.

“Trust me, Harmony.” His lips touched hers again, firm and heated, parting them, stroking inside with a gentle lap of his tongue.

“I’m frightened, Lance.” The words fell unbidden from her lips. “If you take all of me, what will be left when you no longer want me?”

He stared back at her, shock reflected in his dark eyes.

“No longer want you, baby?” he whispered then. “Don’t you know I’ve dreamed of you? Heard your name whispered at my ear by the air that sustains us, and dreamed of your kiss. Sweet Harmony, I would die without you.”

His hands ran up her arms, gripping her hands and removing her fingers from his hair.

“I could use the cuffs again,” he whispered wickedly, the erotic rasp of his voice sending shivers racing down her spine. “I could dry you slow and easy and take you to my bed, restrain you, leave you helpless against my touch.”

And he would use that helplessness. He would play it. He would drive her insane with her own pleasure.

The shower shut down, and moments later she was standing before him as he ran a thick, fluffy towel over her body.

“I don’t need the cuffs.”

Lance paused as he knelt before her, a second later running the towel over one leg then the next.

“What do you need?” His voice was hoarse as he knelt before her, staring back at her. “Tell me what you need to give yourself to me, Harmony.”

Her lips trembled as she felt the tears falling from her eyes once again.

“Hold me,” she whispered. “Please, just hold me.”

The clash of emotions inside her were destroying her. The cold places in her soul seemed icy, while the heat of Lance’s body promised warmth and ease.

She wanted to touch him; she needed to. As Lance laid her back in his big bed, rising over her, his lips taking hers, Harmony was helpless against the need to feel his flesh, his warmth. Her hands moved over his chest, his shoulders. She moaned at the fiery heat of his body and writhed against him, desperate to get closer.

With every drugging kiss, every stroke of his calloused hands over her flesh, Harmony felt another part of her soul surrender to him.

“You go to my head faster than liquor,” he groaned as his lips trailed across her jaw, then to her neck. “And have I mentioned how much I love the feel of your skin?”

Harmony jerked in response as he cupped a breast, gripping a tight nipple between his thumb and forefinger as he began to work it gently.

Flames shot from her nipple to her clit—a hard burst of heat that clenched her stomach and threatened to steal her breath.

“Like that, baby?” His lips moved to the tight point. “Let’s see how much you like this.”

His fingers moved as his mouth replaced them, drawing the elongated bud in as his hand trailed over her stomach.

Her legs parted for his questing fingers as her fingers tightened in his hair, holding his lips to her breast as she arched beneath him. She fought to breathe, to hold on to her senses just a little while longer, to enjoy each touch of his fingers, lips and tongue against her flesh.

She was winning the war until his fingers parted the folds of her pussy and his thumb rasped around the throbbing bud of her clit.

“God yes,” she moaned, opening her thighs farther. “Please. Please…”

As his thumb tormented her, his fingers moved lower, sliding in the slick juices that had gathered on her bare flesh, until they pressed against the tender opening of her vagina.

Sensation exploded around her; pleasure too close to ecstasy rocked through her being. She was no longer cold, she was burning. Flames licked from her pussy to her clit, clenched her womb and then sped through the rest of her body.

As his teeth tormented her nipple, his fingers played a torturous game of seduction between her thighs. She was panting, her hips arching as ragged cries tore from her throat.

A second later she felt his fingers enter her. Two, pressed closed together, drove into the aching, saturated depths of her pussy.

Harmony screamed out her pleasure as her knees bent and she fought for release.

“Not yet, baby,” he growled, his lips moving from her breast to lick a path of fire along her belly. “First, I get to taste that sweet, soft pussy. Have I mentioned how hungry I’ve been for the taste of you?”

“I can’t stand it.” She shook her head weakly, fighting to hold on to him as he gripped her hands and pressed them to the bed.

“Stay there.” He nipped at her abdomen. “Let me love you, Harmony. Let me taste every sweet inch of this perfect body.”

Harmony watched as Lance moved between her thighs, his hands pressing her knees farther apart as he stared back at her. Brilliant dark blue eyes gleamed with male lust as he licked his lips a second before his head lowered.

Flickering pinpoints of agonizing pleasure rushed through her as his tongue became an erotic whip. It lashed over her violently sensitive flesh, teased, prodded, licked and tasted every swollen inch of her pussy.

His fingers were demons. Inside the gripping depths of her vagina his fingers probed, the tips curling to reach a spot that had her hips arching from the bed and a strangled scream ripping from her throat.

Not that it did her any good. He continued to torment her, devouring her in a sensual feast that soon had her begging, crying for completion.

“I love the taste of you,” he crooned as his finger pressed firmly into the spot that seemed to have a direct link to her clit. It sent flares of sensation racing through the little bud as she gasped, fighting to breathe amid the pleasure tearing through her.

“You still taste like honeysuckle,” he groaned. “And wild roses.”

“Please, God. Lance I can’t…” She cried out as his fingers moved again, straightening, sliding nearly free then plunging inside her in one hard, fast stroke as his tongue returned to her clit.

Shuddering waves of near orgasm raced through her nervous system, stealing her breath and leaving her hanging on a precipice of such intense sensation that she wondered if she would ever survive.

“You’re so sweet and tight,” he whispered before licking around her clit once more. “You’re gripping my fingers like a fist. Feel how tight you are, baby. Why, it’s all I can do to keep from coming when I get my cock inside you.”

His fingers retreated, then in one slow, delicious movement slid inside her again. Harmony could feel the sensitive tissue parting for him, milking at him as the sensual impalement left her shaking in her need for release.

“Again?” he whispered.

This time, when his fingers entered her, his lips covered her clit and began to suckle it erotically. Strong, heavy thrusts of his fingers inside her, a twist of his wrist, the rasp of calloused fingertips against nerve endings flaming for his touch, and she erupted.

She screamed his name. She heard herself scream his name as her orgasm exploded inside her with devastating results. Her thighs gripped his head as her pussy gripped his fingers, her internal muscles spasming violently as the final barrier shielding her soul was washed away.

Vulnerable. Defenseless. Yet as Lance began to soothe her, his fingers pulling free of her, his lips pressing gently to her thighs, her stomach, it wasn’t the weakness she felt.

For the first time she felt complete.

She watched through drowsy eyes as he came to his knees, staring down at her, his expression heavy with hunger and need, and she realized he was just as defenseless against her. He had opened himself to her from the start, and she hadn’t even realized it.

“Beautiful,” he whispered as he positioned the thrusting, heavy erection between the folds of her pussy. “My sweet beautiful little kitten.”

Harmony arched to him as he began to work his cock inside her. Each stroke drove him deeper into the clenching muscles as his hands moved along her thighs, her waist. Finally, when he was buried to the hilt, he rose over her and allowed her arms to wrap around him.

“I’m warm,” she gasped then, realizing that the bone-deep cold she had known for so long was gone.

“Very warm,” he whispered at her ear, his voice raspy, almost agonized as his hips began to move. “Sweet baby, so fucking warm we’re going to burn the house down.”

Harmony undulated against him as he paused then, settling closer against her body as he pressed his lips at her neck. Slowly, the stretching burn in her pussy eased as her muscles adapted to the penetration. She could feel him, every inch of his cock throbbing inside her, stretching her until hidden nerve endings were exposed and deliriously caressed.

“Feel us together, Harmony,” he whispered. “Do you really want to escape this?”

He didn’t give her time to answer him. Harmony bit back another strangled cry as he began to move. Long, slow strokes of his cock impaled her, burned her as she began to writhe beneath him.

She needed more. He was going too slow, torturing her with a slow, even rhythm that stroked her higher yet never triggered the orgasm burning just out of reach.

“God, you’re so tight. So fucking sweet,” he groaned at her ear. “You make me fly, Harmony.”

He made her cry. She fought back her tears as the pleasure began to spiral. Each stroke inside her, each burrowing impalement of his cock stretching her, pushing her higher, stole another part of her soul.

It wasn’t just his touch. It wasn’t just his acceptance. It was the air heavy with hunger, ripe with emotion. It was feeling his warmth, the very essence of him wrapping around her.

“You steal my soul,” she gasped, her nails biting into his shoulders as he paused, his head lifting as he stared down at her.

His gaze was drowsy, dark with sensual heat.

“Where do I end and you begin?” Her whispered cry shocked her; the realization that he owned so much of her would have terrified her if it didn’t feel so damned right.

Lance grimaced, baring his teeth a second before his lips lowered to hers. “We begin together, baby. Together. With no end.”

His lips covered hers and reality receded. His hips began to pump hard and fast, the brutal pleasure in each stroke tearing through her.

Her cries filled the night as he whispered erotic, sinful words against her lips.

“Fuck me, baby… There, sweetheart, hold me tight right there… Fuck, you’re hot. So fucking hot.”

Lance gripped her hip with one hand, her hair with the other, as his lips parted hers, driving his tongue deep as he began to fuck her desperately. Moving. Stroking. Sending her flying as she exploded.

She flew with him. Brilliant explosions of light and ecstasy tore through her as she felt him jerk against her. Her pussy clenched tight on him, holding him deep, convulsing around the hard length of his spurting cock as she screamed out her pleasure.

There. Ecstasy. Rapture. And a merging. She felt a part of him merge with her, deep inside her very spirit, and in that moment, she knew freedom wouldn’t come in leaving Lance. Leaving Lance would destroy her.