Resistance Read online

  The trembling and spasms rocking her were so beautiful they pushed her right to the edge of control. His lips disappeared, his fingers left her rings. She wanted to open her eyes, to beg him not to stop, but the crackle of a zipper lowering had her breath quickening. A rustle of clothing followed. Her heart beat faster at foil ripping.

  The condom.

  Anticipation roared.

  Oh man! He would take her now. It was going to be magnificent. She knew it. She would experience the most wonderful climax when he fucked her. Oh! She could barely wait.

  Roughly, he grabbed her wrists and brought her to her feet. The cold, solid door slapped her ass and back as he pushed her against it.

  His mouth slammed onto hers, taking her in a hot and fierce kiss, like a wild man conquering the mate he wanted. His hands sifted through her hair, holding her head, and she grabbed his naked waist to steady herself.

  He impaled her. His thick, swollen cock penetrated her in one swift, brutal plunge, unraveling and melting her body until she became pressed around his hard curves.

  Erotic anguish whipped through her as he withdrew and she whimpered as he thrust into her a second time, her body instantly tightening into a fierce pleasure ball. She exploded again. Violent tremors rocked her, making her cry out shamelessly as the desperate need for him to keep fucking her tore through her. She didn’t care if the other men in the house heard her. Didn’t care if Blade knew she wanted him so badly it hurt.

  He buried himself deep and her vaginal muscles frantically stretched in order to accommodate him.

  Perfect…like he belonged to her. He withdrew and quickly pumped back into her, firm and furious, unleashing the pent-up arousal keeping her hostage.

  Pleasure pounded hotly through her veins, making her shudder. Her vagina gripped his condom-sheathed cock and milked him. Carnal need shattered her. She quaked violently within a mindless wild storm. She surrendered to him and he thrust harder and faster. She let out another tortured cry as tension snapped through her body, making her shudder and writhe in a dance of erotic gyrations.

  God! Was this possible? Having climax upon climax?

  Exploding on a guttural moan, she swiveled madly against his hips, grinding and riding the wicked tremors. She held tight to his shoulders as pleasure continued to pummel her. Within seconds, he too was crying out with a guttural groan of release.

  For a few sweet moments he held her until her orgasm ebbed. His lips brushed over hers so tenderly, she swore she could fall in love with this man. As she began freefalling into that beautiful abyss again, he stopped kissing her, breaking the magnetic connection. With a tender caress of his hand against her right cheek, he smiled warmly.

  “It can never be,” he whispered.

  Before she could mount a protest to tell him anything was possible, he withdrew from her. She almost collapsed as he moved away, his heavy breath ricocheting through the air with hers.

  Disappointment that he wouldn’t take her to his bed rankled her. He’d fucked her hard and fast and in those bursts of bliss, he’d given her something she’d hungered for—caring.

  She wanted more.

  By the time Reena regained her strength, he’d donned his jeans and opened the bedroom door.

  He left without looking back.

  * * * * *

  Three months later…

  Blade’s finger tightened on the rifle trigger when he caught the petite red-haired woman in the scope. Red was flanked by two people. A man and woman who were friends of Blade’s.

  Pull the fucking trigger. That’s why you’re here, dammit! Kill her!

  Try as he might, though, he couldn’t bring himself to shoot the redhead. It should have been easy. He’d killed people before. He’d obeyed orders. Killed men and women who were trouble for the U.S. Government. But he’d never killed a woman he’d had sex with before.

  Unfortunately, SKULL considered this woman a military object of elimination. He didn’t agree. She was more of a…nuisance to the government. A woman heading a resistance in order to get all rights back for women shouldn’t be hunted down like a dog. It was wrong.

  Three months ago, she’d been the best fuck of his life. Now he’d been ordered to kill her. He’d no idea the woman SKULL had rescued from a pleasure house had actually been the leader of the U.S. Resistance Movement. He’d had no clue he’d fucked someone so goddamned important.

  Dammit! Hell of a time to sprout a conscience.

  Maybe he could wait until she was alone? Kill her then?

  Blade frowned. The finger on the trigger eased as guilt slammed into him.

  You’re stalling, Blade. Take her down in front of witnesses. Follow your orders or there will be hell to pay.

  This was the perfect opportunity. The two witnesses would report back to the Resistance that their leader was dead. The cause would collapse. Or so the government hoped.

  Personally, he believed killing her would only make the Resistance stronger. Besides, he hated doing this right in front of people he knew. They were good people. Tyler Outlaw and his woman Laura had some rough years apart, but now they were back together. He didn’t want to cause trouble for them.

  They would just have to deal with this assassination. Just as he would have to deal with it.

  Once again his finger tightened on the trigger, but he quickly eased off as cold metal kissed his temple.

  “I don’t think you want to do that, do you, Blade.” He knew that deadly calm voice. Cade Outlaw, the brother of his ex-SKULL partner, Colter Outlaw.

  “This isn’t your concern, Outlaw,” Blade warned coolly.

  “You’re on Outlaw land. It is my business. Drop the gun.”

  The icy threat sent shivers up his back. Blade hesitated.

  “I know we’re friends, Will, and I hope you won’t hold it against me if I blow a hole in your head, but I will unless you drop the rifle.”

  And he probably would, too. Cade was just as much a killing machine as Blade. If not more. Especially if those rumors about him being a torturer during the Terrorist Wars were true. A man had to have a strong stomach to do that sort of work.

  Blade sighed and dropped the gun. From the other side of the bushes laughter erupted. The two women hugged. They were saying their goodbyes. His gut twisted as the best opportunity for carrying out his job slipped through his fingers.

  “She’s your SKULL assignment, isn’t she?” Cade asked.

  Blade said nothing.

  “You’ve been sent to kill her. Kill the leader of the Resistance. As if that will stop women from fighting to regain their freedom.”

  “She’s a marked woman. If I fail, someone else won’t,” he replied.

  “You’ve failed, Will. Tell your boss the leader of the Resistance is under Outlaw protection now. Anyone who tries to go after her will have us to answer to. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Blade replied, knowing full well the six Outlaw brothers were no match for the U.S. dictatorship that ran the country with an iron fist.

  “Good.”

  The two of them stood in silence as the Resistance leader waved goodbye to her friends before she sprinted across the yard and into the meadow. A moment later, an entourage of her supporters came out of the trees edging the field. As the entire group vanished into the neighboring woods, the success of his mission disappeared and, strangely enough, relief poured through him.

  Sure, he’d lost an opportunity to kill her. And yes, there would be hell to pay when he reported his failed mission. But at least he could live with himself tomorrow. That is, if Cade didn’t kill him.

  “The highway is about twenty miles to the east. Drop the keys to your vehicle and start walking, Will. Rest assured if you’d been anyone else, you would be dead. Consider this a favor. You owe me one. Big time. Just remember what I said. If I ever see you near her again, I will kill you and your body will be buried somewhere on Outlaw land where no one can find it. Buried with the others who crossed us. You know very well I speak the t
ruth.”

  Blade was a smart man. He knew there were dead bodies buried on Outlaw land. Hell, he’d helped kill those men and buried some of them himself. This was the time to clear out.

  He nodded and slowly unclasped the key chain he wore at his belt. He pulled his keys from his pocket and let them go. They fell with a jingle into the tall grass.

  “I’ll remember that,” he said to Cade.

  “You do that. Now go before I change my mind and kill you.”

  The area between his shoulder blades prickled as he started off toward the east. He half-expected Cade to shoot him in the back. He certainly deserved it for getting this close to almost killing a leader who represented freedom to all women.

  The same woman he’d once helped rescue from the Pleasure Palace when he’d been on assignment with Cade’s brother, Colter. A woman who hadn’t been able to keep her hands off his men after they’d taken her to a safe house. Hell, she’d been pumped so full of sex drugs, she’d been quite the hot fuck. He cursed at the memories of the heat. Of her red, tangled hair. Her cheeks flushed pink with excitement as he’d gotten out of bed and stood beside her in that bedroom. He’d enjoyed the teasing glint in her eyes as she’d cupped her breasts and practically dared him to make love to her.

  He still couldn’t get the sweet echoes of their slapping flesh out of his mind as he’d entered her tight vagina in one solid plunge. Her aroused cries lingered in his mind and the awesome way he’d convulsed inside of her had shaken him right down to the tips of his toes.

  After fucking her, he’d gone outside, craving cold air to chill the fierce desire of wanting to take her again. But when he’d come back into the house with the full intention of bringing her into his bed for the night and fucking her until they were both senseless, she hadn’t been in his bedroom. Hadn’t been anywhere in the house. She’d vanished.

  Fuck! At the time, they hadn’t known she was a member of the Resistance, let alone the leader of an enemy of the government. But she’d been willing. Willing and wanting and orgasming all over the place with a group of men who’d been desperate for a female.

  The Pleasure Palace had done a number on her, that’s for sure. It was a wonder she’d pulled herself together and returned to the Resistance. Most females, once on sex drugs, couldn’t get off them. They were highly addictive. They’d been designed that way. To hook and keep the females as virtual slaves in the pleasure houses. If a woman escaped, she would crave the drugs to the point of near death and return to the place that supplied her, looking for more, plus the sex.

  Apparently Reena had beaten those seductive drugs. She was tough, sexy and totally out of his league. Besides, she was damaged goods. She would need a man or men who were caring and patient with her and who would accept her desire for freedom for all women.

  He could never be that man. As a SKULL assassin, he had too much blood on his hands. He didn’t deserve happiness.

  When he cleared the nearby tree line, he sighed in both frustration and relief. Relief because he’d been stopped from making a moral mistake. Frustration for the leader of the Resistance, because her troubles were only beginning.

  * * * * *

  Blade slipped away into the horizon and Cade sighed in relief. Blade wouldn’t be back. At least not any time soon. He was a smart man and understood that what Cade said, he meant. Cade would have killed Blade if he hadn’t dropped the gun, despite their friendship. It would have sent a strong message to SKULL to back off the leader.

  Unfortunately for the Resistance, Cade was on a similar mission. Only Cade’s orders didn’t come from SKULL.

  His mission—capture the leader of the Resistance, the woman they called Red, and bring her into the government safe and sound. Too bad Blade being here had screwed up his plan of capturing her. He wouldn’t be able to catch the woman today. She’d have disappeared without a trace by now.

  Tomorrow.

  Tomorrow he would attempt to pick up the trail and start the hunt again. He’d capture the red-haired beauty and bring her in. He’d been told there was a deal on the table for members of the Resistance who came in peacefully. In the meantime, he’d make a large bounty for doing his job.

  He just wished he could trust the government when they assured him her freedom was guaranteed, even if she didn’t take the deal. Cade frowned and shoved his gun back into the ankle holster, then headed back to the Outlaw farm.

  Chapter Two

  Six weeks later…

  Reena “Red” Wilde topped the tree-enshrouded embankment of the winding creek she’d been following for the last half an hour. She tried hard not to shiver as sheets of frigid air blasted against her jean-clad legs and her face. The cold mid-November wind had picked up and she was grateful she’d had the forethought to slip into her late grandfather’s green camouflage hunting jacket before leaving the cabin. Thankfully she’d also donned an extra pair of wool socks before opting to put on her winter boots despite no snow on the ground—although from the looks of the sky that would change soon.

  She focused her attention on the dark-gray clouds rolling above the gnarled branches of the hardwood forest prevalent in the southern half of the state of Maine. She should have taken the weather forecast more seriously when she’d listened to her portable satellite radio this morning at the cabin.

  In her desire to reconnect with nature, she’d spent hours walking through the woods. The small, picturesque frozen ponds in the valley behind her grandfather’s hunting cabin made her breath catch at their beauty. She had admired the birds, deer and other wildlife she encountered. But in doing so, she’d ventured too far.

  She probably had another hour or more of walking before she could get back and warm herself by the wood stove. Maybe she could avoid getting caught in the snowstorm that was sure to drop a good load before nightfall.

  As if the angry-looking sky ignored her wishful thinking, a defiant snowflake twirled a taunting dance past the white mist of her breath. Another snowflake landed in her eye and she quickly swiped it away with the back of her mittened hand. Any split second of blindness was dangerous.

  Cursing the impending bad weather, she hoped her luck would hold out and the erotic throb of need wouldn’t erupt between her thighs. She was overdue. The crushing craving for sex hit at the most inopportune times. Ever since being infected with the X-virus, her life was a chaotic rhythm of yearning for sex, masturbating and then having a few days to several weeks of peace before the overwhelming need to orgasm hit again.

  The “big O” is what she needed when the cravings kicked in. A climax in order to keep from dying—literally.

  She’d end up freezing to death out here if she didn’t get her ass in gear and head back to the cabin. God, why had she let her good friend Maggie talk her into taking a couple of weeks away from her job, anyway?

  Her job. She chuckled harshly beneath her breath as she continued to gaze at the desolate wilderness beauty. Yeah right. Now that is an understatement, isn’t it? If life ever returned to a semblance of normalcy—which she highly doubted—what in the world could she write on her resume?

  Job experience: Fugitive. Leader of the Resistance. Wanted dead or alive by every bounty hunter in the United States. Wanted dead by various government factions. Wanted alive by any group of men who could catch her and screw her brains out just so they could claim rights over her and call her their wife.

  Crud.

  Why hadn’t she been smart enough to bring an entourage of her most trusted bodyguards into seclusion with her? Because Reena, or “Red” as the members of the Resistance had nicknamed her, was just plain stupid, that’s why. Well okay, aside from being stupid, lately she’d been snapping everybody’s head off due to the stress of being the Resistance leader.

  Her need for alone time—the first alone time in years—had clouded her judgment. She’d been in seclusion only two days of her two-week hiatus and already she was climbing the walls. Hence, she’d disregarded the storm warning and did her five-mile ru
n this morning, following up with a wilderness hike.

  Reena sighed and stuck out her tongue, catching a couple of snowflakes. The wetness made her yearn for something to drink. Maybe some sparkling water drawn from the ice hole she’d augured in the lake in front of the cabin. Or better yet, some of that cool white wine she’d brought in via her very heavy food-laden knapsack after being dropped off by a male member of the Resistance about three miles from the cabin.

  Women were forbidden to drive these days. There were checkpoints along most roads so it had been quite difficult to arrange her hiatus. But, in the end, everything had worked out and she’d finally gotten her much-needed solitude.

  Perhaps she should have taken a man or two along too to keep from getting bored. Now that men were returning from the Terrorist Wars, many of them were joining the Resistance. Some were prominent doctors and lawyers, and others blue-collar factory workers from the cities or farmers from the countryside. If she got her way, they would amass a large enough group to overthrow the dictatorship that now controlled the U.S., then they could start getting things back to normal…if that were possible.

  Once upon a time, she’d wanted to be a teacher, a wife and mother. But she wanted none of those things now. Even if she did get back to a somewhat ordinary existence, she didn’t have the desire to get into that kind of life anymore.

  Life now included extreme danger. Living on the edge. Not knowing one minute to the next if she’d end up with a bullet in her brain because of her vocal protests against the government, who—in an effort to quickly repopulate the country—had with the stroke of a pen removed all women’s rights, forcing them to be nothing more than men’s sexual possessions and baby-making machines.