Page 52 of Black Bay Defender
“Oh, yeah?” He grinned and then immediately groaned as she squeezed him.
“Oh, yeah.” She pulled him, maneuvering him to the bed before she pushed him onto it. A second later, she was making quick work of his clothes, stripping him bare with an impressive level of efficiency. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Everything about Lark impressed him.
Standing between his spread knees, her eyes moved hungrily over the jutting length of his erection before they flicked up to his face. “Are you feeling brave, soldier?”
He raised a brow. Was she thinking what he was hoping she was thinking? He cleared his throat gruffly. “Yes, ma’am.”
Grady’s breath caught and held as she knelt. Her hand gripped the base of his cock firmly, and with a final look from those sexy-as-hell eyes, she took him into her mouth.
A shout left him before he could bite it back, his hips threatening to leave the bed. He fisted the coverlet below him and vaguely heard the sound of seams snapping, but he couldn’t look away from Lark and what she was doing to him. Her mouth was wide around him, her hand gripping him. Just the sight was arousing, but what he felt… Holy shit. It was incredible. He could feel the fangs against the roof of her mouth running over the top of his cock while her tongue stroked firmly along the bottom, and that suction – he’d never felt anything like it. There was no way he was going to last.
“Lark,” he groaned in warning, panting hard as he reached for her. But instead of pulling away, she took him deeper. “Fuck!”
His balls tightened, lightning shot down his spine, and his body went as taut as a bowstring. His release was explosive, his shoulders coming up off the mattress as his heels pushed into the floor. And Lark, she was watching him. Her glowing eyes trained on his face as she sucked him dry. He almost came again. And hell, when she crawled up over him, a sexy little smile on her lips, she could have asked anything of him and he would have done it. She could have asked him for the moon and he would have found a way to get it for her.
“I love you,” he blurted. “I love you so much.”
Her palms skated over his pecs and her wet heat settled on his groin with a little wiggle that made him suck in a sharp breath as his cock eagerly responded. Her chin rose a notch and the smile of a seductress curved her lush lips. “Show me,” she breathed.
So he did.
Grady lay propped up on his side while Lark lay beside him on her belly, her head pillowed on her crossed arms while his hand traced the tattoo on her back. All the Beasts seemed to have them in various designs. Hers was the silhouette of birds done in black ink, flying in a spiral pattern that resembled a tornado. The smallest point of the funnel began at the base of her spine, while the top spread across the width of her shoulders.
That wasn’t the only tattoo she and the other Beasts had, though at least the birds had been inked by choice. The other was a QR code just under her arm that the lab she’d been raised in could scan for their records. While Lark hadn’t, most of the others had tried to ink over theirs and Grady certainly couldn’t blame them for wanting to be rid of the reminder. Christ, they hadn’t even had names. Just serial numbers. The scientists hadn’t considered them people. They’d been seen as nothing more than specimens to study.
Just the thought had his anger rising and he stilled, examining the feeling for a moment, but it wasn’t that unnatural, all-consuming, red haze. A normal level of aggression, he decided, felt in response to a loved one’s pain. Good. That was good. Though he’d still like to wring Anne Dietrich’s neck. The geneticist should be thanking her lucky stars that Black Bay needed her. Of course, that need would soon be coming to an end considering the Resurrection soldiers were on their way here.
But he wasn’t the only one who had a beef with her. He’d have to get in line, and his claim to vengeance was insignificant compared to Lark’s, Kong’s – all the others.
“What are you thinking about so hard?” Lark asked sleepily.
Not wanting to spoil the moment with the darkness of her past, Grady answered, “Tattoos.”
“You want to get one?” She propped herself up slightly. “Erik is an amazing artist and great with a needle. He’s done all of ours.”
The guy who’d done the mural behind Lark’s bed. Grady had met him briefly when he’d stopped in to visit Lark while she was in a coma. The man had serious anger issues but there was no denying his talent.
“I used to have a tattoo,” he told her. He twitched his head toward the inside of his metal forearm. “A bone frog.”
Her brow scrunched. “That’s to honor a fallen soldier, right?”
He nodded thinking of the teammates he’d lost through the years and a twinge of sadness went through him.
“Do you want to get another one? I’m sure Erik would be happy to do it for you.”
“I might.” He shrugged up a shoulder. “Maybe I’ll have him do two tattoos for me.”
At her look of inquiry, he pointed to his pec. I’m thinking about getting a Lark tattooed right here. Maybe with a viper protecting it.” Just like the one she’d shown him at the shooting range.
There was such wonder and joy on her face that Grady’s breath caught. Grinning, she scooched a bit closer. “Because you’re mine?”
“Because I’m yours.”
Her smile was radiant and contagious. “We’ll have to design your signature for me.”
“Yeah?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Because I’m yours too.” She kissed him deeply for several pounding beats of his heart. Their lips were still clinging as she said against his mouth, “I love you, Grady Carter.”
