Judgement 8 (Subject Alpha #1) Read online

  He swallowed and tipped his head. “There was a storm.”

  I nodded, taking another sip of the soothing hot liquid as I waited for him to carry on. I stilled when he didn’t. “And?”

  He gave me a lopsided grin and a pitying gaze. “You . . . well you kinda blew up Reid’s digs.”

  I squinted at him mid-blow. Was he having me on? “What?”

  “You really don’t remember?”

  I shook my head, my body growing cold with unease and I took another gulp of tea to counteract the chill seeping through me.

  He glanced towards the door. “A storm came . . . for you.”

  I choked on the tea when it trickled down my throat then forced its way back up and dribbled down my chin. “What do you mean, for me?”

  “Buggered if I know, sugar. All I do know is a storm came and it tried to fry the hell outta you and Reid.”

  “Oh my God! Reid!” I jumped up, my heart stilling as my stomach plummeted in terror, but Jonah grabbed my hand.

  “It’s cool, Elina. He’s okay. Got you both out of there. Everything is okay.” He grimaced, showing me a vast amount of his teeth as his face contorted. “Well, his apartment isn’t really . . . o-kay.” He drew his words out, his grimace deepening into a wince.

  “Oh my God.” My heart sank as a ball formed in my throat and I dropped back into the chair. “His pictures.” Jonah lowered his eyes as tears sprung in mine. “Oh. Jonah, what have I done?”

  “Hey.” He reached across the gap between us to take my small hand in his huge one. “This is not your fault!”

  “But . . .”

  We both turned when the door opened. My pupils melted as they came to rest on a hard, sweaty, panting, hard, sweaty and heavily panting Reid.

  My jaw dropped, my brows shot upwards and a funny sound left me as my eyes raked over his firm body. His grey sweat top clung to his damp chest, his nipples stood rigid on the mounds of his pecs. His abs protruded through the thin material, each sculptured rise and fall causing my mouth to fill with saliva. His trim hips were sheathed by thin black sweat shorts, his thighs rock—fucking—solid. Shit, even his knees made my womb weep. But it was the sheer power radiating from him that made my thighs tremble.

  I swung my eyes back up, slowly of course, until they came to rest on the furious steel of his. I gulped. And then I gulped again. His glare made me cower and I realised he was panting due to fury, not his morning run.

  I dropped my eyes, concentrating on the white towel that was looped around his neck, each of his strong hands holding an end. “Hey.” How stupid? Hey? Hey?

  He didn’t return my greeting as he strode to the fridge, opened it and grabbed a bottle of water. Jonah smiled at me, well actually he winced again when Reid remained silent and walked out of the room.

  My heart hurt. Jonah grabbed my hand again. “Sugar. This isn’t your fault. At all.”

  “Yes it is.”

  “Elina,” he said, but I shook my head and stood up.

  “Thank you, Jonah.” I smiled.

  He shook his head in exasperation. However, he held his tongue when I walked away.

  Reid stood with his back to me, leaning on a desk with his fingers splayed as he looked over some papers scattered in front of him when I quietly slipped through the door to Jonah’s office.

  He knew I was there but he didn’t turn to greet me.

  “I’m sorry.” My voice was quiet but I knew he heard me. “For your home . . . your pictures.”

  He hesitated, swallowing noisily. “They’re just pictures.”

  “No,” I whispered as guilt tore through me. “They’re memories. Snapshots of loved ones when the mind sleeps.”

  He spun around so fast I instinctively took a step back. He stepped into me, pinning my back to the door as his huge body loomed over me. I squeezed my eyes closed, not wanting to witness the grief in his.

  “My mind never sleeps, Elina. Never. It was programmed so it could never sleep!”

  His fury was choking me, his hard body pressing me harder into the door. I felt his hands thump the wood either side of my head as he leaned into me further.

  “Look at me.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want to see,” I whispered.

  His breath flooded my face, a smell of sweat and cigarettes assaulting my senses, and bringing my body to life with the closeness of his. “See what?”

  A tear slid free and I gritted my teeth, hating its liberation. I didn’t want him to witness my weakness. I wanted to be strong. It wasn’t that I was scared of him. Far from it. It was that I wasn’t scared of him that scared the living shit out of me.

  “Your hatred . . . for me.”

  I opened my eyes to find him even closer, the silver glint in his eye darker than ever.

  “You think I hate you.” He pushed against me and my mouth fell open when he pressed his erection into my belly. “Little—girl,” he finished, with a growl that poured lava into my veins. “Does my cock feel like it hates you?”

  I shook my head, unable to structure words and thoughts.

  “The only thing I hate is how you affect me, Elina. How you make my cock beg when your tight little body devours my resilience.”

  Okay, this was new. My tight little body? “My ass is flabby, Reid,” I blundered stupidly, my nerves once more embarrassing me. “You really don’t wanna see . . .”

  He swallowed my words when he pressed his mouth over mine. No, that was wrong. He chewed them up and spat them down my throat when his tongue thrashed against mine and his lips bruised my own. He grabbed my hair, tilting my head back painfully so he could deepen the kiss and open me further for his consumption.

  A growl ripped up his throat when I whimpered, my body pliant in his hold. I fought back, snatching his hair in my fists as I pulled him into me, my hunger insatiable and my thirst unquenchable.

  He cupped my bottom with one hand and lifted me, his strength holding me as he hooked an arm around me and I clamped my legs around his waist. He swung us around and in one long stride, lowered me onto the edge of the desk, his mouth still attacking mine.

  I shivered when he rubbed his erection between my thighs, my t-shirt rising to my hips so just his shorts and my knickers provided a barrier between us. Shamelessly, I pressed against him, my body sending shots of pleasure into my brain when his cock massaged my clit.

  He groaned when my arousal dampened his shorts, heating his cock through the material. He broke the kiss and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, his enhanced sense of smell picking up my unique scent of sex.

  “Fuck.” He moaned as he dropped his face into the crook of my neck, his tongue darting out to taste me. “You smell delectable. Tell me, little girl.” His eyes opened and locked onto me. “How wet are you for me?”

  Well, I didn’t think he was talking about my mouth, otherwise he would have got a completely different answer. “Why don’t you find out?”

  His eyes widened but his lips twitched and he licked them as if he could already taste me on them. He tipped his head to one side slightly before he slowly lowered to his knees.

  I couldn’t take my eyes away from his as he kept them trained on my face, but his hands gripped the inside of my thighs and he slowly pushed them open. I struggled to stay upright as my hands fell to the table to support myself. Shit, I couldn’t even breathe when he drew in a deep breath, his chest heaving as a shiver tore through him.

  “Oh God,” I huffed when he dragged his finger straight up the crotch of my knickers, my pussy throbbing in need for him when he slowly stroked over my clit.

  “Sopping,” he disclosed smugly, knowing what he was doing to me. “So tell me.” He looked up at me slowly, playing the game I was growing fearful of. “How good do you taste?”

  The hunger in his eyes encouraged my inhibitions to fuck off as I licked my lips and quirked an eyebrow. “Why don’t you . . .”

  “Reid!” Jonah banged on the door, making us both freeze. “We’ve got company.”
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  He moved so fast I had to grip the edge of the desk to steady myself when his huge body caused a backdraft.

  “Stay here!” he barked before he shot out of the room, leaving me staring at the door in a daze.

  What—the—fuckety—fuck? My burning body was not appreciative of the sudden halt to proceedings. I cringed, ashamed of how I had so easily, once again, surrendered to him. Slowly I moved my thighs back together and pulled down my t-shirt, yanking it over my knees.

  What the hell was I doing? This was way too dangerous. For Reid. After what I had done to his home, I knew my time was up. I couldn’t understand what had happened. I’d been in storms before and they’d had no effect on me. So why now? Why all of a sudden was I cursed to the elements? It didn’t make sense. But I knew one thing. It was dangerous. I was dangerous to those around me. Next time it might not be a building that was destroyed because of me. It might be a person. And that was something I wouldn’t ever be able to live with.

  It was time to leave.

  I SLIPPED THROUGH THE door, pulling it quietly closed behind me. Heated voices came from the opposite door. It was ajar and even though I couldn’t see anyone, I recognised Reid’s deep tone.

  “She knows better than to send you here!” he hissed angrily. My body froze at the fury in his manner; it wasn’t just looks and actions that Reid could take you down with, his voice was another weapon he used to build fear.

  A smug laugh caught my attention. It wasn’t Jonah, yet it was familiar. “She has every right. You made a deal, McCallum.” I presumed he was talking to Reid and that was his surname when Reid growled back.

  “Yes, we made a deal, and sending her lackeys to my friend’s house was not one of them!”

  “You have something that belongs to her, and until the exchange is made, Janice will keep sending her lackeys to make sure you don’t forget it.”

  I grabbed hold of the wall when Janice’s name was spoken. Something crumbled inside me. That was why Reid refused to let me go, he had made a deal with Janice. A deal that included me as an exchange. How stupid! How fucking stupid was I? Of course, I had a huge bounty on my head, who wouldn’t be tempted by that? Greedy or not, it would entice the most honest to succumb.

  I realised then it was Ruben’s voice I had heard. He was Janice’s right hand man, and also her fuck buddy. Although he had hit on me many times, she had never believed me when I had tried to tell her what he was like. Well, either that or she wasn’t bothered.

  “And Janice is aware that the exchange will take place on my terms, when I am good and ready. You need to remind her of that otherwise I can quite easily revoke our deal!”

  Ruben scoffed, a small chuckle accompanying his smugness. “She said you’d say that. She also said to remind you that she has something of yours, McCallum. You seem to forget that.”

  I jumped when a thud shook the wall under my hand. “If she has so much as touched a hair on her head, I will walk in there with nothing to lose, and I will slowly and efficiently kill every single one of you in the most painful fucking way possible.” Another thud. “Is that clear?” Silence and then another thud. “IS THAT CLEAR?”

  Ruben mumbled something I couldn’t hear.

  “Get him out of here!” Reid spat.

  Shit!

  I scurried along the hallway, taking the stairs as silently as possible, two at a time. I needed to get out of there. Whatever Janice had, it was enough for Reid to hand me over for. My stomach hurt when the picture of Petra, his wife, filled my thoughts. What if Janice had her? Was my life any more important than hers? No. That was a simple fact. Janice was my mother, therefore this was as much my fault as anyone’s. If I had allowed her to test and play with me until she had found a perfect creation then no one else would have been dragged into it.

  Unfortunately I was a coward. I had tasted freedom, a break from the constant pain, and as much as I liked Reid, I wasn’t willing to give up my life for Petra’s. And besides, he had been the first to betray me by striking up a deal with Janice.

  How could he kiss me like he did knowing he was going to hand me over to once again become a lab rat? How could he look at me with heat in his eyes when I was just a bargaining tool to him? And why, if I was to die anyway, did he save me from the storm, ruining his physical memories in the undertaking?

  “The exchange will take place on my terms, when I am good and ready.”

  My stomach twisted when his words echoed in my head and I hunted around the room I had woken in for some shoes. I was such a fool. Reid was just like any other man. He wanted the conquest of fucking me before he was finished with me.

  “You stupid little girl!” I chastised myself as I swiped at a forbidden tear when it rolled free. I scoffed when I realised I had subconsciously used Reid’s pet name for me. Another tear fell, causing me to growl and pull myself together.

  Why did everyone use me? Was I such a bad person? The only family I’d ever had was Janice. The only friends I had made at school had all been lost when I turned twenty-one. Even Rowan moved on to my best friend when he gave up looking for me, quicker than I liked to accept.

  I was more alone now I had left Judgement than I had been before. I screwed my eyes closed and shut down my mind when Lettie’s sweet round face emerged in my head, her wide eyes breaking my heart.

  I sighed in relief when a pair of Converses appeared under the bed when I moved a large woolly jumper out of the way. They were around six sizes too big but I found some extra socks and stuffed them into the ends, pulling the laces as tight as possible. I knew I would find unwanted attention running down the street in an oversized jumper and big floppy Converses, but I didn’t care. I needed to go. Now.

  Luckily Jonah’s house was fairly old and had windows that slid upwards, making my escape easier. I was used to slipping my body through tight spaces.

  I couldn’t believe my luck when I climbed out and found a drainpipe directly to the side of the window. “Way to go, El.” A smile erupted and I chuckled to myself. These handy props only usually came in movies, never in my personal dramas.

  Clamping the pipe between my thighs, I slid down in one fluid motion, the plastic squeaking under my bare skin, but another grin lit my face when my feet hit the floor without any injury.

  Taking a look around I discovered what looked like an ordinary housing estate; all the houses had front porches and square lawns. It was ironic really. I’d always dreamed of living in the simplicity of a little estate, nattering over the fence with my neighbour, a cup of tea in my hand as our kids played together. And now I was running away from the very house I’d pictured a long time ago.

  Deciding left was best, I took off running. I made it all of two gardens before a whoosh hit me and my face found soil, my body slapping the grass with a heavy thud.

  “Bloody hell, Jonah!” I snapped. “Are we fucking magnetised?”

  He chuckled. I wanted to belt him one. “Sorry, sugar.”

  “No you’re not!”

  “No.” He laughed as he pulled me up and hoisted me over his shoulder. “I’m not really. What the hell are you doing?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t tell me it isn’t Halloween? I was going trick or treating!”

  He laughed harder as he took generous strides towards the house. “Well that’s good, ‘cos Reid most definitely isn’t gonna treat you for your Houdini act.”

  “Oh, I know all about Reid’s little trick!”

  He remained silent, his body stiffening under me. Oh yeah, he didn’t expect me to know.

  “Just remember,” Jonah said quietly as he took me back inside, “it’s Halloween and Reid’s anger is just a mask.”

  “One of many I have no doubt,” I replied just as quietly when Jonah planted my feet on the floor in front of a simmering Reid. No scrap that; he was boiling. Apparently monsters did show up on Halloween.

  Fucking wonderful.

  HE PEERED AT ME, his usual pure grey eyes resembling granite, the deep ferocity o
f anger exposed to me through his irises.

  Well I was angry too. “I bet it was like watching a money bag run down the road, wasn’t it, when I took off?”

  He stared harder. Jonah had buggered off, leaving me alone with The Hulk. Inside I was trembling but I kept my shoulders straight and my eyes narrow.

  His brow furrowed as his eyes swept over me, down to my toes then back up. “What the fuck are you wearing?”

  I gave him an unconcerned shrug. “I’m setting a trend, although maybe I should have worn something with arrows!”

  “Were you born this irritating or is it a skill of yours?”

  My mouth popped open. “Are you always this fucking aggressive or do you just not care?”

  His face darkened as a cruel smirk twisted his lips. Even being an arsehole he was too God damned beautiful. I decided right then, if I ever made it as Prime Minister, I would declare every single obnoxious good-looking man to be imprisoned in a chamber below my bedroom. Of course, it would have to have direct access so I could dish out appropriate punishments every now and again.

  I swallowed and took a step back when he took one forward. I narrowed my eyes, making sure he saw I was impervious to his attempted manipulation. “You think I’m fucking aggressive?” I gulped at the way his tone lowered when he growled out the last two words. He stood in front of me as I refused to budge back any further. “Or are you actually wondering if I fuck aggressively?”

  Oh—dear—God! My womb screamed in delight, my nipples and pussy clashing as one hardened and the other softened. I was panting, the restriction in my throat concerning my lungs when I tried to talk and all that came out was a humiliating wheeze.

  However, his smug smirk cleared my airway. “I don’t give a flying fuck how you fuck Reid, all I am saying is that I think you are a fucking arsehole.” I smiled inwardly, patting myself on the back for taking control of the situation. Let him suck on that!

  He nodded slowly, my eyes dropping to watch as his tongue leisurely ran along his bottom lip, moistening it. Eventually a genuine grin broke his seriousness and he clicked his tongue. “Now you’re just asking for it.”