Hot and Haunted by Megan Hart, Saranna DeWylde, Lauren Hawkeye

a word.
    Anthony said her name, just that. She stopped him with the brush of her lips on his. She tangled her fingers in his hair and held his mouth to hers, then moved her lips along his jaw to nip at the sensitive spot below his ear. She could feel him getting hard through his jeans, and she rocked herself against him.
    He said her name again when she nibbled at his throat, but when she pushed his shirt up to get at his belly, all he could manage was a sharp sigh. She knew his body so well already, yet each time seemed new when she explored his skin with her mouth and hands. His nipples pebbled under her tongue when she licked them, and gooseflesh rose on his skin. When she pulled open his button and zipper to slide her hand inside, to take his erection in her hand, Anthony stopped her.
    “What about him?”
    “I’m not with him. I’m with you.”
    Anthony said nothing.
    “We can talk about that if you want,” she said, stroking his length. “If you think it matters, Anthony. But, I can tell you, it doesn’t. It really doesn’t.”
    Again, he put his hand over hers, though this time he let her keep moving it up and down. “Does it matter to him?”
    She paused to look seriously into his eyes. “No. I don’t think so.”
    “It would to me.”
    She smiled a little. “I know. I’m not asking for forgiveness. Just understanding.”
    There it was, right out there, and she wasn’t sure what he’d say. But Anthony nodded after a second, his hand still on hers as it stroked him. He grimaced a little, though not with pain.
    “I understand. Hell, I wish I didn’t. But I guess I do.”
    She kissed him again and tugged his bottom lip between her teeth. Anthony laughed, low. His hips pushed upward, her hand trapped in the front of his jeans and capable only of the smallest range of motion. She needed him naked, and fast.
    Together, they worked to get themselves free of their clothes. Kissing, hands moving, his fingers found her heat and slipped inside while his mouth kept her gasp from being too loud. Anthony slid his mouth from hers to take her nipples, sucking one at a time. First gently. Then harder, flicking each with his tongue until she writhed beneath him. Her hips rocked. She ached for him. His thumb pressed her clit as he fucked his fingers inside her. Then, his cock.
    So good. Always so good. He moved inside her, and not even the hard metal bed of the pickup could detract from that pleasure. Lira hooked her heels around his calves to urge him deeper. Faster. Harder.
    But Anthony didn’t give her what she wanted, not at first. No, damn him, he insisted on easing his cock in and out of her. Teasing her with the tip before sliding in all the way. Adding a twist of his pelvis against her clit that had her hips bucking upward, trying to maximize the sensation.
    “You’re making me crazy,” she whispered.
    Anthony laughed. “I know.”
    So she gave herself up to it and let him do what he wanted. Slow, slow, and sweet. It went on forever, and above her, the stars seemed to move across the sky. She closed her eyes, ignoring the stars to focus instead on the tension curling and twisting inside her.
    When at last he started moving faster, she came in a series of shuddering ripples, over and over, one orgasm leading directly into the next until she couldn’t keep track. Everything had become sensation.
    Everything had become love.
    He kissed her hard when he came. His final thrust sent another shock wave of climax through her, and his kiss swallowed her gasp. Forehead to forehead, her fingers threaded through the sweat-damp hair at the back of his neck, he slowed and stopped. Still inside her, Anthony opened his eyes.
    “Only this,” Lira said hoarsely. “And nothing else matters.”

 
    Chapter Five
    I N FRONT OF them, a mountain rose. Set into it was a set of garage doors. Inside them, cool air, carved stone walls, long corridors, and closed doors, and a welcoming party consisting of . . . a little girl on