Black Ghost Runner Read online

  “There are people after us. Because I used you to get money, they think you might know something about us.”

  She looked up from the papers. “You mean there are more like you?”

  He looked across at her. “What, you think I was hatched on a rock?” He spread the papers. “Now, I have given you a new identity. Better than what you got on line, so here is a birth certificate, a driver’s license from Ohio, and some credit cards.”

  “Wait, who is after you? Better still, who is after me?”

  Noble took a deep breath and ran his hand through his long hair. “Sometimes it seems easier to ask who is not after us. Right now, you are lucky. A rich mogul from Europe that is trying to take over the world is after us. He thinks if he could live forever, always young, it would help. He has had a bunch of doctors and scientists trying to clone his body parts so that if any of them wear out, they can replace it easily. He is looking for vampires, werewolves, and shifters. Mostly, his people have been convinced that there really are not any of these things in the world, but any time he gets a hint, out go his hunters. They get paid a lot to hunt, so they want to keep their job. They don’t care if they believe, they just want to hunt and get paid. They have hurt many innocent people and if they get their hands on you, they won’t care that you can’t tell them anything. They will hurt you, and then to keep you from telling anyone what they did to you, they will kill you.”

  Beth felt her knees grow weak. She pulled out the chair from under the table and sank down carefully into it.

  “But I really don’t know anything. I have some guesses, but you scare the hell out of me.”

  “I know, Beth. I have tried to keep it that way to protect you, but we can’t undo what has already been done. Let me show you what I have done for you.” He spread some of the papers. “This house is in your name, and paid for. You inherited it from an aunt, your last living relative, who wasn’t that old. She died in an accident in California. There is a new jeep. I know you like those, so it is next to the house. You paid for it from your Aunt’s insurance. Here is proof that the insurance company paid out.”

  Noble was pulling out more papers, some looking older with folded wrinkles. “You have had a checking account for two years at a local bank. Pretend to know the locals. In this small folder, there are photos and bios on locals. Memorize them, then burn them in the fireplace. Make sure you stir the ashes. Hunters look through ashes to put pieces together.”

  He went over to the kitchen counter. “Here is your cell. It still has your aunt’s phone number. You just hadn’t the heart to wipe it off. There are a lot of others including Chief George, because you do study Indian History. You will notice some Indian Artifacts in the house. Get to know them. Make sure you know where you got them, then get rid of the evidence.”

  Beth was sitting there in a daze, studying all the paperwork, looking at the keys, examining the cards. What was he doing for her—or to her? “How long do I stay here?”

  He smiled. She thought it was the first time she had seen this expression. His face was too good to look at with that smile. “Hopefully, for as long as you want. You have enough money in the bank to decide when you want to go to work. The University has a branch close by with a good section on Indian History. You might want to get involved, but stay away from studying shifters.”

  He turned, heading for the door.

  “Wait.” She rose up, hanging onto the table.

  “Believe me, Beth, you don’t want me to stay.”

  “But I have a thousand questions.”

  She heard the sigh even though he had his back to her, hesitating with his hand on the door. “On your cell are three doctor’s phone numbers listed. One is for an ob-gyn. If you call it, you will find that he has had to close his office and is referring his patients on to another doctor’s office. I will call you back as soon as possible after you call that number. Don’t use it unless it is an emergency. If I’m not close, I will have someone else who will check you out. Study your papers. Remember to stir the ashes.”

  He was out the door without looking at her. Beth realized she did not want him to leave. She hurried towards the door running out on the porch, but stopped. She began to let her mind work. What was she doing?

  * * * *

  Noble’s intentions were good. He had meant to protect her, to set her up in this safe house, then to leave. He had warned his family about her. He had asked for help in watching her. They were all aware of the hunters belonging to Artur Milton Brighton the Third, an Austrian with too much money, yet not enough sense, who was looking for immortality.

  He meant to try to stay away from her, although in marking her, he had made her his, so the draw was constant. He would have been able to get on the bike. He could have left if she had just stayed in the house. For a moment, the sweet pine air had washed her smell from his nostrils, as he stood at the bike to check the saddlebags. Then he heard her come out on the porch.

  “Beth, go back inside. You don’t want this.”

  * * * *

  Beth stood there, just a step out of the open door way thinking about what he was saying. She also thought about what she was doing. She felt a pull towards him. She felt a need that she couldn’t explain to herself. She knew she wanted those strong arms around her. She wanted to see those eyes change color. She also knew that that, like facing any feral animal, she wasn’t afraid of the wild in him. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, at least not in the sense of mortal wounds. He might hurt her heart or leave a bruise or two, but he wouldn’t damage her beyond repair.

  Beth felt her nipples tighten, then felt the heat spread between her legs. That had never happened before except a couple of times when reading a really hot book. It had never happened with a man, so why with this one when he wasn’t even touching her? Here she stood wishing he would come back to touch her.

  Beth got her wish—suddenly she heard him moan. With a movement that was almost too fast for her to see, he was upon her. She was in his arms. He was moving her backwards into the house. In the low light, just before he brought his lips down to her neck she saw the golden eyes. She was lost, yet somehow serene, not worried.

  “Noble, wait! Let’s go upstairs and do this the right way.” He was holding her so tight she couldn’t move, feeling him huffing against her skin. “Come on, Noble, it will be better this way. We both want this…upstairs.”

  Beth felt the bars around her slowly loosen as if he dreaded to release her. She waited, breathing in slowly, trying not to resist or excite him further, letting him find his own way. The bad part was that her body was so excited by the heat of him. She was talking softly, as much to herself as to him.

  “It’s okay, Noble, relax, we can do this together. We both want this. We want this to be tender. I know you won’t hurt me. I know that you can tell that I want you. You can tell by the smell of me. I won’t run, since you won’t hurt me. This will be good for both of us. That’s right, let go, but lead me up to the bedroom.” She felt his arms release her finally, so that she could look up.

  His eyes were what she expected, entirely gold with the black slits in the center. He was breathing deeply. She thought part of it was to take in her smell. Beth was aware that she was sensing his odor. It was becoming stronger and it was enticing, like deep woods shortly after a heavy rain with rich dirt and leaves dripping. There was a male undertone—good clean sweat, like that from hard work, also something like a clean animal when you petted them.

  Beth knew then that it was all of him that was turning her on, exciting her, making her actually wet between her legs. She had to get him upstairs before they ended up on the floor like a couple of dogs. Wait, wrong breed.

  She reached up, rubbed her hand over the stubble on his jaw, and began to hum. She had no idea what song, just soft notes to relax both of them as she moved him backwards toward the stairs. At last, he understood or got enough control of himself to know what to do.

  He
reached down and put an arm under her knees, bringing her hand up against his chest with his other arm behind her back. His strength was amazing as she grabbed around his neck to hang on while he took the steps, two at a time. Quickly he was at the top of the steps, then into the room. He actually threw her towards the bed.

  Thank goodness his aim was good as she tumbled across the large bed, almost slipping off the other side before she caught herself. Beth sat up on her heels, watching him as he began to strip out of his clothes. He hopped on one foot to another, dumping the heavy shoes as the clothes.

  Wow, he was beautiful. Beth was amazed. She had seen the pictures on muscle magazines, yet here was one right in front of her. Her thoughts went elsewhere because there was a large rigid male tool pointing right at her. She knew what it wanted to do to her. She licked her lips looking up at the golden eyes as he slowly came up to the bed, getting onto it on all fours.

  “Noble, let me take my clothes off.” She backed from him off the bed, careful not to look away, keeping eye contact, reassuring him that it would all be okay. She was grateful when he stopped, but she heard the growl of warning from his chest.

  Beth didn’t step away from the bed as she slipped her shoes off like he had, dumped her clothes behind her, not caring where they went. She finally stopped when she was down to her bra and panties. She knew they were going to make love or whatever you might call the sex that was going to happen, but she still felt some hesitation, some bashfulness about getting naked at this moment.

  Again, she heard the rumble from him. His eyes seemed to glow. She tossed her long hair away from her face and placed a knee on the bed to start to go to him, but he suddenly had her. She was beneath him, on her back, pinned to the bed, his weight over most of her.

  Beth had two problems—she was fighting herself so that she wouldn’t fight him, and she was fighting the emotions she was feeling that made her just want to open her legs and let him have whatever he wanted.

  She didn’t think he would shift all the way. She really believed he wouldn’t hurt her, though he might accidentally hurt her in the animal form. He wasn’t entirely in a human form right now. She could see his eyes, could hear his breathing with the rumbling in his chest.

  Beth reached her hand out slowly to his head. He turned his face into her palm. She didn’t move. She was shocked when she felt his tongue on the center of her palm, sending a warm tingle to her stomach.

  She tried to keep quiet, but her body trembled in anticipation. She wanted him, more than she had ever wanted any man before. She hadn’t had that many experiences and they had not been that exciting. Right now, she wasn’t thinking of anything but the anticipation of what was going to happen, what she wanted to happen.

  Suddenly he turned, lifting up one of her feet to bring it to his face. She lay still, feeling that to resist would give him the wrong message. He was the Alpha she was the Beta bitch, so she would cower to let him do what he wanted. He smelled the foot, then he had her arch in his mouth. She felt his rough tongue move across that arch. She couldn’t help but clench her toes downward, yet she didn’t pull away.

  The hot tongue on the underside of her arch sent shivers upward on the inside of that leg. Beth sucked in deep breaths. God, that felt so good. What was he doing, tasting her? He was hanging onto that leg with hard hands. He began to move his mouth upward on the inside of her leg. When he got to the round part of her calf, he ran his tongue back and forth until he found something he liked, then sucked hard. She knew he was drawing the blood below the skin. She would have a mark there tomorrow. The feeling of that hot mouth right now was sending a message that was blocking out all sane thoughts, giving over her body to natural responses.

  By this time, he had the leg high, placing it over his shoulder as he moved his wet mouth inside her knee, then down the inner thigh, taking time to taste to sample every inch as she heard him rumble deep within his body. Beth became aware that she was mewing in response. Now he was at the juncture of her leg, and she heard a deep heavy intake of breath. He smelled her deeply, her womanhood, the moisture that was slipping from between the folds of her female core.

  Finally, he did something that made her move and flinch. Of the men that she had made love with, or rather had sex with, none of them had gone down on her. He was burying his face between her legs. He stopped only long enough to tear her cotton panties, ripping them in pieces. He was lapping her, pushing her lips apart with his tongue, the rough tongue moving up one side then down the other, exposing her tender lips as he pressed her legs apart.

  Beth felt herself slipping into an erotic blindness as heat caused contractions in her stomach and thighs in response to the wicked tongue. She was no longer thinking, but doing only what nature had built into the female body to answer when the proper male body required retaliation. She was using her leg muscles to push her cunt into the face of the mouth that was devouring her, sending her to a pulsing wall that she needed to fall over soon.

  He latched onto her swollen clit that, calling it to attention and sending her above that wall. She groaned as she soared. She trembled as she reached an orgasm. Through her fog of pleasure, she heard his growls of approval as he moved up her body.

  Beth understood that sex with Noble was not going to be tender, but she was sure that when it was over, she was going to feel sated. He was over her now. She looked down between them and saw the large erection that was near the juncture of her legs. She felt she wanted it, even if it might be a hard fit.

  Beth felt the burn as he tore the bra off without unfastening it. Next time, naked all the way. He had lowered his head to her neck. She felt his mouth close over her neck and shoulder as he held her down. She felt him reaching down to work the large head of his erection against her core, where he found the opening immediately. He pushed once, stretched as the head went inside, then held still. She felt his teeth on her skin where her neck met her shoulder. The hot pulse of his hard male staff was inside her only a few inches. He then rose up a little, drew out, and flipped her over.

  Noble took a firm grip on her hips and pulled her up on her knees. He placed his legs between hers, forcing them apart. He was in her with one hard push, all the way. She let out a yelp from the pain of stretching, then he withdrew and slammed back in. She moaned in pleasure as everything inside her welcomed the intrusion. It was as if her body was incomplete, but now fulfilled. She felt her inner muscles clench the hard member moving within her. She welcomed the swift deep penetration. She felt his sack swing against her needy clit as he pulled out to pump back repeatedly.

  He had moved one hand onto her shoulder, holding her head down into the covers, while the other held her hips high. Sometimes as he pushed into her. He lifted her knees from the bed. Beth whimpered, grateful to be filled all over with him inside her, his hot sweat on her back, his smell permeating her lungs.

  Beth felt another orgasm building—stronger, so much stronger. She knew he was also reaching his peak. She was pleased they were going to come together. Pleasure was what she felt as all of her body tightened up when he pumped his seed deep inside her. The orgasm exploded upward through her body, then they both fell forward, down together on the bed.

  Beth wasn’t sure how long it was before she was aware and able to move. She couldn’t move much, because he had her pinned down. He was still inside her, flaccid, attached with his legs wrapped around her. His arm along with part of his chest was over her back. When she turned her head to look at him, he had his head turned towards her, but he seemed to be asleep.

  Her arm, trapped under him, was starting to ache. She tried to pull it back. She saw that his eyes were open and he was looking at her. His eyes were normal.

  “Beth, I am sorry. I tried to warn you.”

  “Please, Noble, don’t apologize. I encouraged it and it was amazing. You know, you ruined me for sex with any normal man.” She smiled at him. He rolled a little bit to release her arm, returning her smile.

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nbsp; “Beth, this is wrong. There is always the risk I could lose control and shift.”

  “Noble, you won’t hurt me.”

  He rose up and brushed his hand over the teeth marks on her neck. He shook his head as he got out of the bed, moving towards the open door into what she could see was a bathroom. It was not long before she heard the shower running. Shortly after she heard the toilet flush, which reminded her that she needed that facility.

  By the time she used the toilet and took a quick shower, coming out with a large towel wrapped around her, Beth found that he was dressed, ready to leave.

  “Remember, stir the ashes. Only in real emergencies, call your doctor.”

  “Well, at least it is the right one. Ob-gyn. I think I need to go into town to get the morning after pill.”

  He was climbing down the stairs, but stopped and turned to look at her. He shook his head. “You are going to hate me. You aren’t pregnant because you aren’t in heat.” He went on down the stairs.

  Beth was there for only a moment while his words soaked in. She was down the stairs as fast as she could, holding onto the large towel wrapped around her as he was heading out the door.

  “Oh, no you don’t. Ever since I met you, I have been given bits of information from men that don’t answer my questions. You must be related to Chief George. What do you mean, you’re not in heat.”

  Now he was out at his bike, his long legs reaching over it. Beth put her hand on the grip nearest her before he got his hand on it. He finally looked at her.

  “What are you talking about, am I now changed, did your bite make me a werewolf or something?”

  He looked at her a grinned. “I’m sorry, Beth. No, even human women have times when they are going to get pregnant and times when they are not. Shifters sense their partner’s life cycles, so what we did last night won’t lead to creating a baby, but we aren’t going to put you in danger again. I’m sorry I interfered with your life, so it is best if we keep apart from now on and you try to forget our relationship.”