James, Honor - Into the Fire [The Royal Wolves 2] (Siren Publishing Allure) Read online

  Seeing Bernie she moved to him and tapped his back. Seeing him unmoving, however, she frowned and moved slightly to where he was standing. “Oh shit! Get the Medivac ready. Man down! Man down!” she screamed and saw that Bernie was out cold, thank god.

  He stood there on his feet. The only thing holding him up was a pipe that had exploded out of the wall and into his right chest cavity. “Bring in a reciprocal. I can’t get him out!” Her ax worked on the wall, sheer determination forcing her to move on harder and faster.

  Dean ran back in, a long and heavy machine with pinchers on the end in hand with Sam and Mike behind him. Reaching out Harker grabbed the jaws and said, “Out! The place will blow any minute and I will not lose any of you!”

  “You need our help,” Sam tried to argue.

  “Fuck that! Out!” she screamed and then, “That’s an order, fireman, out!” Already she was beginning the process of cutting the pipe and while Bernie outweighed her by like a hundred pounds she had something none of them had, determination never to lose another friend.

  Sam, Mike, and Dean all came out, peeling off their helmets and coughing, cursing Harker’s name as they watched another explosion light the skies, and then the fire seemed to take on a life. It was surreal what happened next.

  The flames withdrew into the warehouse. It was as if the structure had taken a deep indrawn breath, and the seasoned vets knew it for what it was and began to scream, “Back the fuck up!” With the help of the officers they began to move the gawkers and rubberneckers, demanding that they move, and move now.

  Glancing to the building Miklos frowned and then he knew what was about to happen and, scooping up the little girl, ran further from the building.

  Then, as if on cue the night lit up in a ball of flame seen all the way to Jersey. Car windows blew out, siding melted, and out of that complete chaos came a small running figure awkwardly dragging a body behind it.

  Hitting the ground again hard Miklos found himself staring up at the sky once more with the little girl perched on his chest…again. Lifting his head he watched the firefighters scrambling around and toward the two figures coming from the inferno.

  Harker fell to her knees at the first ambulance. “I couldn’t carry him over my shoulder.” Not with the five-inch pipe sticking out of his chest. She tugged off her helmet, the now dry ice-blonde locks falling in a curtain, laughably clean and pristine compared to the rest of her body. Hands shaking she dropped the helmet and pressed her hands to the filthy water-covered pavement as she tried to breathe.

  She took the oxygen as it was pressed to her face and just before the darkness consumed her she heard, “Son of a bitch, her back!”

  It was Dean who screamed and Sam looked up from where he was holding the oxygen to their commander’s face. “What the…?” “Oh shit” was the rest that was lost suddenly to the medics who were left now after Medevac took Bernie up into the helicopter.

  Just to the left of her spinal column was a large piece of glass, imbedded so deeply that they were afraid that it had connected to her heart. As fast as one could blink she was hauled up and into the waiting ambulance, and as they drove past the little girl and officer she could be seen in the back windows, just the icy length of blonde hair.

  Sitting up as the tiny woman was whisked away Miklos got slowly to his feet with the girl. Walking toward one of the ambulances he passed her off to be looked at and frowned slightly. There was a faint scent in the air, light and unusually crisp considering the fire. Shaking it off as other officers arrived on scene he quickly shifted gears and began his report to them.

  Chapter 4

  Crawling into bed in the wee, wee hours of the morning Miklos groaned softly at the aches and pains he had from his flying leap through what turned out to be a plate-glass window. Something he hadn’t realized until one of the other detectives had patted his back was that he’d had shards of the stuff imbedded in his flesh through his shirt. Had he still been wearing his jacket he likely would have been fine, but at the time he’d been a little more concerned with freedom of movement.

  Taken off to the same hospital as the firefighters, he’d had some odd forty chunks plucked not so delicately from his hide. Thankfully with being Wolf he’d heal on the surface by morning, and the underlying damage would only take another couple of days depending on his taking it easy. Given the fact he now had three days off paid leave to recover he’d be back to normal when he returned to work.

  Rolling to his back he stared blankly at the ceiling as he thought of the woman with the ice-blonde hair. She’d just been coming out of surgery when he’d been discharged. He’d gone up to check on her and ended up chatting with a couple of her fellow firemen for a few moments. She was tentatively being listed as stable, but the doctors were all being super cautious considering they didn’t know if infection would set in from the hunk of dirty glass they’d pulled from her body.

  Sighing he said a small prayer for her health and let his eyes close as sleep pulled at him. Letting out a slow breath Miklos let everything real fade away until there was nothing but…candles?

  Even though she was in a drug-induced coma, her mind was free. Lying there with a ventilation unit on, monitors over her heart, and hands strapped down to keep her from thrashing and undoing any of the five hundred stiches on her back and sides and legs, she drifted in her dreams. Her injury hadn’t been too serious. Okay well a hunk of glass missing your heart by millimeters is serious, but she was alive, right?

  She closed her eyes to inhale the fresh and clean scent, the smell of vanilla in the air making her grin. It was her favorite scent, vanilla sugar. When she opened her eyes she was in a dark room, nearly black, and all it held was a massive, beyond massive, bed, and candles burned brightly.

  Turning slowly Miklos tipped his head to the side as he looked at the dark room and the humongous bed in the center. Frowning he stepped back into the shadows as he let his gaze roam slowly over the room.

  She walked forward and touched the silk of the sheets and grinned. Everyone at her house thought she was a lesbian, that she was all about being rough and tumble, but she wasn’t. She loved silk sheets. Romance would be nice as well, if it were still alive.

  Harker took a seat on the bed and then scooted to the middle of it and lay back. Hands behind her head she closed her eyes in her dream and sighed. She knew that she could have died, that light at the end of the tunnel told her as much, and as she slept there in her coma she had time to reflect.

  Seeing the white blonde hair against the black of the silk sheets had his breath catching in his throat. Couldn’t be, he thought even as he fought to reach out.

  She wanted a life, no, correction. She wanted to live.

  Harker knew that in order to do that she was going to have to change the misconceptions about herself and was worried where that road would take her.

  She had a good life in the Fifty-Ninth. She was second-in-command and had men serving under her that liked and respected her. She wasn’t treated differently, but she knew all of that was because they all thought she was a lesbian. They all believed that her best friend, Desmonda, or Demon to her, was her lover. It was strange because they had no issue at all taking orders from and being subservient to a woman who had a woman lover but she knew, she knew that if she showed interest in a man she would lose that.

  Chapter 5

  Wondering what had put that little crinkle between her eyebrows Miklos moved forward slightly. Step by step he moved toward the bed unsure if this was just his mind reaching or if he was hoping for something more from her.

  It didn’t matter how many lives she had saved, how many times she had hauled their asses out of the fire, pun intended, it didn’t matter because if she were a “girl” then she couldn’t be as good as they were, period.

  Harker looked up when the shadow fell across her body and she didn’t hesitate, didn’t question, and just simply for the first time allowed her heart and body to lead the way. Opening her naked arms
to him she waited.

  When she reached for him Miklos eased down onto the bed slowly and moved into her arms. Carefully he leaned on his elbows over her and shivered as her cool flesh stroked over his when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Lightly he stroked her cheek with his fingertips, not surprised that the face of his dream woman was in fact that firefighter he’d briefly caught a look at.

  Leaning in closer he kissed her softly, nipping at her lips as he traced his fingertips ever so lightly down her body pushing aside the blanket she’d partially covered herself with. Dragging his lips from hers he kissed a path to her throat, dragging his tongue down her pulse, his hand a warm weight on her hip as he lifted a leg to press between hers.

  The monitors hooked up to her were beeping and binging, the ventilator working a little faster. She felt his hands and mouth moving over her body. She whimpered in her dream, a leg moving up and down his as it locked around him. “That feels nice.” She breathed and allowed her hands to move down his back, sides, and then up to his face. She didn’t want to stop. She might only be dreaming but she needed him, so badly she needed him.

  Moving his lips further down her chest slowly he nipped at her breasts gently. “You feel amazing,” he whispered softly to her before sucking a nipple into his mouth. Teasing the tight bud with the tip of his tongue he moved one hand down between her legs to gently stroke her pussy and moaned at finding her wet and much too warm.

  She moved on the bed, her body hungrily moving in her dream. However, her prone body on the hospital bed lay still thanks to the ties holding her down. She wanted to know who he was and how he could affect her so but she didn’t ask, she didn’t question. “Please don’t stop,” she whispered. It had been far too long since a man had actually touched her. Even if it was only a dream she needed and wanted it.

  Sliding a finger into her cunt he lightly bit her nipple before licking his way across to her other breast and treating it the same as the previous. Moving his hand gently he eased a second long finger into her wet pussy and stroked her tightened clitoris hidden in the curls with his thumb, alternately rubbing and stroking it. “Not going to stop,” he promised, letting her nipple go with a little popping sound.

  A hand reaching between them, she kept one buried in his hair and the other found the evidence of his need and desire, his cock so hard that all she could do was squeeze him and rub him. She bit her lip and nearly cried out when she felt just how eager he was. “More.” She panted eagerly as she stroked him with her hands. If he was ever going to make it inside of her he was going to have to stretch her slightly or it would never work. She wasn’t a virgin, but damn.

  Stroking her pussy faster as she encouraged and held him to her, he scraped his teeth lightly over her breasts, breathing slowly over her wet flesh.

  She no longer felt as if she was in a dream, but in reality. She felt his touches and her body responded to them. Nipples puckering beneath the nondescript gown and pussy wet with need she lay in her bed while her mind made love with a stranger.

  Shifting his weight between her legs he caught her hands and, lifting them over her head, kissed her as he slid his engorged cock into her pussy slowly. Biting her lip he gently rocked his hips forward until he was seated fully into her cunt. Looking into her eyes he stayed still for a long moment before sliding almost completely out and then pushing back in quickly.

  The hospital monitors screamed in alarm as she felt his cock moving inside of her vagina. She whimpered around the ventilation tube in her throat but lived in the dream. Fingers curled at her sides but in the dream she watched him with wide open eyes.

  Leaning up and into him she kissed him. Biting his lower lip she moved with him just as he moved inside of her. He had her hands trapped, but that didn’t matter. She had her legs wrapped around his waist and with the heels of her feet she pushed and pulled him deeper and harder into her weeping pussy.

  A buzzing sound yanked Miklos out of the best damned wet dream he’d ever had in his life and had him sitting up with a curse and then a bluer one as his body protested the movement. Sliding from the bed he moved to his front door and opened it. “What?” he snarled at the UPS guy standing there.

  “Mr. Jarvis?” the guy asked in an even tone. Even though he looked to be one step from peeing his pants if Mik didn’t miss his guess.

  “Wrong floor, you want to go up one,” Miklos snapped and then shut the door. Pressing his back to it he shoved his hands through his hair as he let out a breath and then, inhaling deeply, frowned at the light and crisp scent in the air. No, not the air…Lifting his arm to his nose he inhaled and nearly blew in his pants as he caught the little firefighter’s scent coming from his skin. “Holy mother of God,” he whispered, his brain clicking onto the why damned fast.

  Chapter 6

  “I don’t understand it, Doctor. Her heart monitor was just off the charts and then fell back to normal in a blink of an eye,” the young nurse said as she showed the printouts to the doctor.

  Adjusting his glasses Wilmer Fredrikson nodded. “Likely just a nightmare. Back off on the morphine and we will start to bring her out tomorrow. For now I’m going home. Page me if you need me.” With that the doctor left the young nurse who looked back at the woman lying in the bed, and when she shook her head finally she went back to the nurse’s station to begin her paperwork.

  Harker lay there, her mind wandering and needing strangely. She didn’t know who the man was that had appeared before her. She didn’t know why he had been able to make love to her in what she knew was a dream.

  Moving back to his bed slowly Miklos looked at it as though it were suddenly a nest of vipers. If he went back to sleep he knew he’d dream of her again and, with her being in intensive care, he had no idea what kind of damage that could do to her. But he needed to see her. “Shit,” he muttered, sitting on the edge of the bed before carefully lying down once more. “No touching this time, moron,” he told himself as he relaxed slowly and slid back into the dream.

  The bed was still there. So was she, but she was covered and lying on her side. She looked so sad, too, that he had the urge to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight. Shaking it off he moved closer and sat on the edge reaching out to touch her cheek. “What’s wrong?” he asked her softly, stroking back her hair.

  “You’re back,” she whispered as her brown eyes gazed up and into his face. She was trying to memorize every single aspect of the dream god before her, but everything fuzzed at the edges. “It has been too long since a man touched me in anything other than friendship. I had forgotten how nice it felt.” Sure, he was a dream man, but right now that was all she had. “I’m in a hospital, aren’t I?” She could hear the beeps of the monitors, felt the nurse holding her wrist and checking her pulse, but she couldn’t move. “I don’t feel as groggy so whatever must be wrong with me I am likely waking up from, so at least I know I’m not dead.”

  Nodding slowly he stroked her cheek over and over. “You were hurt in the explosion at the abandoned plant last night. A large hunk of glass picked your back to end its flight,” he told her softly. “They were worried for a while but if you’re starting to wake I’d guess that’s a good thing.” He smiled faintly.

  “Yeah well I make such a large target and all,” she teased gently. It was nice to be able to talk to someone after having had the most incredible sex with them. Too bad he had been torn from her arms before either of them could come to completion.

  Harker licked her lips and heard Dean telling Sam it was his time to sit with her, so they hadn’t left her alone. They all knew she hated to be alone, always. “How is Bernie?” She could handle the lies her mind told her. She needed to reassure herself that her friend and comrade was well.

  “Bernie?” he asked with a frown and then it clued in. “The other firefighter that was injured last night.” Shaking his head slowly he sighed. “They weren’t telling anyone anything last night. He was in serious condition and being watched constantly. No one was al
lowed to see him so they were all sticking close to you from what I could tell.”

  That was bad. “Thank you for telling me.” Even her own mind wouldn’t lie to her and tell her he was fine, terrific. “How did you wind up in my drugged-up dreams?”

  “Uh,” he said as he scrambled to come up with something plausible. “I’m going to plead exhaustion for the moment since you really should be awake and semimobile when I tell you the answer to that one. When you’re feeling better I swear I’ll tell you, but your dream is definitely not the place for it.” Tucking back a strand of hair he shifted and lay down facing her. “Why don’t you sleep for now?” he asked softly. “If they’re waking you up they’re probably going to bombard you with questions soon enough and you’ll need to be rested.”

  “Right, sleep is a good thing but for some reason I feel as if I have been asleep all of my life.” This soft and cuddly woman was not her, but in this dream, in this dream she could let that woman out of the pit of hiding and allow her to wallow and relish the man before her. “Will you sleep with me? If you are pleading exhaustion then you are tired. You should sleep with me while you can.”

  Smiling he nodded and moved in closer to her. “I’ll stay with you until you wake,” he murmured softly. Wrapping her in his arms he let her settle against him as she wanted and needed. “I am tired. Throwing myself out that window hurt,” he grumbled softly against her cheek. He took a deep breath that she could actually hear before letting out a low growl. “You smell like the air right after a big rain storm,” he explained when she jolted at the sound.

  Okay, she didn’t know what part of what he had just said and done to tackle first so she chose the easy one. “You threw yourself out a window? That wasn’t the smartest of things to do you know. Me, I run into burning buildings but I don’t throw myself out perfectly good windows, silly man.” Where the hell did the giggling sexy blonde voice come from? She was neither sexy nor giggly so what the hell was happening in her dreams? She was never that girly, never.