Laurann Dohner: Fury

Her gaze lowered to his pelvic area, unable not to look at the male she found so appealing, and she gasped. She moved before she thought, gripped his slightly engorged cock, and worked the painful looking bands down the shaft. She tried to be gentle but Jacob had tightly wrapped a thick piece of rubber around the man’s penis a few times. She managed to work it loose and threw the offensive thing away as soon as she got it off. Her fingers gently massaged the reddened skin before she realized how inappropriate the action was. Her gaze lingered there, realized that, even mostly soft, he was impressive. Blood flow had been painfully constricted and prevented from reaching the shaft.

“That son of a bitch,” she muttered, cursing Jacob for doing such a horrible, vicious thing. Her cheeks warmed when she realized what she’d done. More embarrassment slammed her when she realized how her body responded to touching him, even just to remove the offensive implement of torture. She’d been handling his cock.

416 growled. Her gaze flicked up to his face. He watched her with dark, furious eyes. She realized she cradled him still inside her palm and released his cock quickly. “Sorry! I had to remove it.” She glanced down at his appendage and saw the line where the rubber band had injured him was still red and angry looking. “I’m sure it will be okay.”

She hoped so anyway. Jacob had obviously done it to hurt 416. If left that way too long, lack of blood supply to his cock would have done severe damage, but of course that bastard had planned to kill him. It would be a horrible crime to disfigure such a sexy guy. That thought made her want to groan and made her more aware that her body responded to the naked male sprawled in front of her. She mentally shook that line of thought away, couldn’t afford to go there, and needed to stop looking at his bare body.

She bit her lip, thinking hard about how to get them out of the mess they were in. She needed to be free to leave work after her shift and get the data she’d stolen to her handler. Her gaze flicked to the dead guy once more. He lay there, bloody, on the concrete where she’d left him, the cause of his death obviously the blunt-force trauma from pounding his nose with the kit. She’d experienced pure rage to do so much damage. It could be mistaken for damage from a fist. Her gut twisted.

“Shit. I can only see one way out of this.” She met 416’s angry gaze. “I’m sorry about this. I have no choice.” She hesitated, wanted to tell him who she really was, why she had to do something horrific to him, but didn’t dare. What if he tells them?He could.He has no reason to trust anyone who works here. I’m safer if I just have him assume the worst.

416 had been certain Ellie would never harm him. Panic jolted through him from head to toe when she apologized to him for her intent. He tried to move but his body refused to budge. He could move his eyes, blink, and swallow. A few growls had come forth but he couldn’t talk. Does she plan to kill me now?Then why did she take out the technician who attacked me?

Anyone but her , 416 thought frantically, worried he may die helpless, on the floor of his cell. He inhaled the clean scent of the woman who never failed to stir his body. Ellie always came to him sweetly, her touch gentle, and her gaze kind when she’d taken samples from him. She’d been the only human he’d ever met who gave him warm, honest smiles, and he’d even looked forward to the times she entered his domain. He’d trusted her not to hurt him. She was the only person who could walk inside his cell without him tensing up in anticipation of dread, pain, or humiliation.

He saw fear lurking in her beautiful blue gaze as she stared at him and it wrenched his heart just a little. He’d purposely never threatened her or snarled as he did the other technicians who approached him. Until today. The idea of terrifying her had made him feel regret. It would have ended the smiles that he’d grown to appreciate when she’d begun working there. It hadn’t been long. He had no concept of time but she hadn’t been a part of his life until recently.

His body started to respond to her presence when his cock twitched. It made him suffer pain, throb from whatever the male had done to him, but the movement he felt made him hope that the rest of his body would recover soon as well. Ellie did things to him, made him long to touch her blonde hair and press his nose against her throat to inhale her wonderful scent. He sometimes dreamed about her under him, naked, with him free from his chains. He longed to touch and taste every inch of her body, to hear her voice and learn everything about the woman who fascinated him on every level.

The sound of her voice had always been music to his ears. He wanted to see her smile, learn her laugh and a hundred questions filled his head that he wanted to ask her to know more about the woman who had captured his soul. Her skin appeared unbelievably soft and smelled so good, too good. But now she had stated that she planned to harm him.

It was the worst kind of cruelty and painful betrayal roared through him. He also felt shame at what she’d witnessed. She’d saved him from being raped by the dead male but knew of the suffering he’d taken, the indignity of the human’s cruelty. It pained him to know she’d never look at him again without that image lurking inside her memories. It hurt him on many levels and enraged him. They’d even managed to take away his fantasy of her ever regarding him as a sexual male.

He snarled again in an attempt to scare her, to prevent her from doing whatever she planned. His body refused to work, his limbs unresponsive, but he knew he wouldn’t kill her even if he did manage to break free. He’d just throw her away to a safe distance past the line to prevent the temptation of following what his instincts demanded. He wanted her in ways he knew weren’t possible for a prisoner and his captor.

He watched her rise to her feet and move out of his line of view. When she’d turned him onto his back, it blocked his view of the dead man. He tried to turn his head but couldn’t. He heard her though, smelled her, and heard strange noises. What is she doing?

He had no clue but he dreaded it. All the humans were cruel. They showed no mercy. It still stunned him that she’d killed his attacker—for two reasons. First, she had done it to stop his assault and second, she wasn’t a big woman. She’d taken down a male. He may have misjudged the female. He’d believed her soft, delicate, but she’d attacked a fully grown male in a wild and brutal assault. His heart raced. He tried desperately to move his limbs but they remained unresponsive.

“You’re a worthless bastard. I hate you. I want you to know that,” Ellie hissed.

His mind accepted her words, pain gripped him, but he wasn’t stunned by it. He’d known everyone who worked inside the testing facility considered them nothing more than breathing flesh to abuse. Why he’d thought she’d be any different had been a mistake on his part.

Stupid and unforgivable. Fury gripped him and his finger twitched. He moved his mouth, a silent snarl trapped inside his throat, and promised he’d get even with the woman for fooling him into believing she was different.

“You’re a worthless bastard. I hate you. I want you to know that.” She just hoped that wherever Jacob had gone after death, he could still hear her. She wanted him to know what she thought of him. She wasn’t sorry she’d killed Jacob. It messed with her mind but she figured she’d get over it soon enough. He didn’t deserve her guilty feelings.

Ellie cleaned the kit, studied it, and didn’t spot any traces of Jacob’s blood. The case had dented but she doubted anyone would notice that fact right away. She hid the bloody tissues she’d cleaned it with inside the kit. She had to touch his body and grimaced as she tugged his pants down more to fully expose the condom he’d put on to leave no doubt of his intentions.