Enduring Retribution e-book by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

her nose again. He only gave her a few sips, not wanting to alarm anyone with her miraculous recovery. Once he sealed the tiny opening with his saliva, he studied her. She really was very beautiful.
    Her hair had been put into a haphazard knot on top of her head, and its rich fall colors brightened against the white of the pillow. Her face was oval-shaped with brows that were perfectly shaped, arched just enough. Her nose was small and sloped with a small bump in the middle where it may have been broken once and knowing what little he did of her, probably more than that. Her mouth called to him with its fullness and shape. It begged for kisses, deep, exploratory ones, and he wanted to do just that. Her jaw was strong and stubborn-looking, which in light of recent events, was probably as true a statement as anything else. Her right shoulder was bare, allowing for the wires from the heart monitor and other equipment to do their work. It begged to be bitten. He found himself leaning down to give in to temptation and brushed his lips across hers. He moaned aloud, her taste exquisite, her breath warm. He ran his tongue along her jaw and then down the long column of her neck. He paused over her pulse. Feeling it beat against his tongue sent tremors throughout his body, centralizing at his cock. He needed to taste her, he justified to himself, so that he could find her quicker if she needed him, when she needed him, he amended. Just a taste, just to find her. Even as he bit, he knew it for the lie it was.
    His cock surged at her taste when her blood entered his mouth, his need to be inside of her blotting out everything around him. He drew deep from her, her essences filling him, completing him. He rubbed his hand hard against his cock, hoping for some relief of the sudden and overriding need to come, but to come deep inside of her. She moaned and he felt it as surely as he tasted her. Suddenly, he heard the voices just outside of her room seconds before he gave in and pulled his cock free to…he wasn’t sure what his plan had been. It was as though he had been jolted awake from a dream that he didn’t know how would end. Panting hard and aching, he sealed the wound to her throat and pulled back into the wall just as her door opened.
    “No, I don’t know who she is. As I have said numerous times already, she had no identification on her at the time we found her body.”
    Two men entered her room, oblivious to Tristan only a few feet from them. Luckily, he understood enough German to know what they were saying, as it was his second language.
    “So, let me get this straight, because if I’m hearing you correctly, you were chasing a man who had shot and killed another man and ran across this woman lying there bleeding. Is that about right? She was just lying there with nothing on her, not even a purse or anything?” The detective growled low in his throat. Tristan could feel that he hated the other man, really and truly hated him. Touching the other man’s mind, Tristan could see why. The man was by and far the most stupid man he’d ever known and quite possibly the most incompetent.
    “Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. If you want my opinion, I think that…”
    “I’m not paying you to think, you fuck wad. I’m paying you to catch the bad guys. Does this little bit of a thing look like a bad guy to you? Hell, my wife won’t go to the fucking mail box without her purse. Let me tell you what happened. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
    That’s all. Whoever you were chasing took her purse and shot her when she made a noise.
    Understand me? I want you to take these cuffs off of her. Leave the guard. Poor mite, he has her address and things so I want her safe.”
    “I…she’s my wife. I can protect her. The officer, I won’t need her. I have my own bodyguards for her safety.” Tristan stepped out of the corner and was talking before his mind knew what the hell his mouth was doing.
    Both men jerked