by A. C. Arthur
Arousal, thick and hot pulsed through him. He could feel it settling in the throb of his dick and the pounding of his heart.
“You need a napkin. All the powder from the donut is on your face.”
Humor tinged her words as she wiped that moistened thumb over his face again, this time touching the corner of his lip. His body jerked as the beast immediately pressed forward to meet her touch. She yanked her hand back, dropping it in her lap, eyes snapping from clear to reddish brown as quickly as he could blink.
He stood before instinct took over and he moved in to push her to her back so he could climb on top of her. That’s what the beast wanted and damn if the man wasn’t struggling with the need as well.
She did the same, popping up off the couch and looking anywhere but at him.
“I am going to bed now. Thank you for the food.”
“You’re welcome.” The words were thick in his throat, or was that desire?
Tightening and releasing his fingers at his sides seemed the best he could do at restraining himself from reaching out to touch her. She’d felt his skin, now he wanted to feel hers—on her face, along her bare shoulders, everywhere. “Ah, I’ll be out here if you need anything.”
No response came as he watched her walk back into her room and close the door. Dropping down to the couch Theo closed his eyes and groaned. She was right, he should have given this job to a staff member.
Chapter Four
Heat consumed him as flames licked the walls of the mountain around him. Theo stood, naked, tired and enraged.
Blood pounded through his veins, the sound like a barrage of drums in his head. Fists tight at his sides he took the first steps, bare feet moving over jagged rocks with no qualm.
“You can’t leave.”
Her voice rang like cymbals against the roar of the fire, her words slicing through his skin like a hot blade.
“You can’t leave this place. It is your home, your legacy.”
She continued to call to him and his feet continued to move, carrying him to an unknown destination. With every blink of his eyes red rage grew brighter, stronger until it clogged his throat.
“Your father will not approve. He is the ruler of all and he will command you to return! I will see that it is so!”
Sharp pain seared his gums and razor-edged teeth broke through. His head fell back, mouth opened wide and a roar that shook the world echoed in the humid air.
Theo bolted off the couch with such force he almost toppled to the floor. Shaking feverishly, as his fingers clenched the pillows on the back of the couch and beneath him. He struggled to steady himself. Nightmares weren’t his usual forte, but when they came they brought with them all the rage, hopelessness and determination of his past.
Swinging his legs off the couch, he sat up and took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling...his head turned toward the balcony and without another thought he was standing. His hand was on the door in seconds, pulling it open. A crisp breeze seeped inside cooling his skin before he stepped out into the night. Burning along the membrane of his nostrils increased and the beast’s eyes took over.
Someone, or something, was close. The putrid scent of ripped flesh permeated the air, but as he moved to the railing and peered over, there was nothing. No human or preternatural being on the streets surrounding the hotel. Golden beams from lamp posts sliced through the dark of night for a stretch of maybe thirty feet in each direction. But he could see beyond that and there was nothing, except that stench. Maybe this was all a dream. His body was probably still lying on that uncomfortable couch sleeping the night away while all these strange thoughts ran rampant through his mind.
A whimper cut through his thoughts and he turned back to the balcony door.
She was awake.
Her face appeared as if she were standing right in front of him. Not the face the rest of the world saw, but her soul identity. The luminescent eyes against the deep hue of her skin and the soft halo of her hair. He couldn’t get that face out of his mind, even now after the nightmare and whatever had brought him out here. While she’d showered he’d wondered what the rest of her body looked like. Was her rich brown skin glistening beneath the spray of water? How about her full breasts, the ones that had pressed against him during the ride on his bike? And those long, toned legs he’d glimpsed when she’d hopped off the bike, would drops of water trickle down her thighs to rest at her core for him to taste?
Arousal gripped his body with the violence of a fighter.
His beast stretched and pressed against him as if to remind him that it was there and feeling the same draw to this woman. But Theo would continue to ignore the beast, the same way he had for hundreds of years.
Another sound came from the bedroom and he was across the floor in a flash. Instinct wanted him to bust through the door to assure himself that she was in no danger and to be prepared to kick ass if she was. The flesh stench had dimmed in this direction and when he pressed his ear to the door and closed his eyes, the rhythmic sound of her heartbeat reassured him that she was safe. His years of learned restraint and practiced control in this human body, using his human mind, had him gripping the doorframe instead of attempting to enter. But for her heartbeat, all was quiet now.
But he could feel.
The heat that had engulfed him while in his dream paled in comparison to the singeing he felt while standing here with a rock-hard dick. This couldn’t be a dream, nothing he’d ever conjured in his mind could make him this hard.
Lowering his head, Theo closed his eyes again. What the hell was going on?
Was she naked in that bed? How would it feel to be those sheets moving intimately over her body? How would she feel cradled against him through this infuriatingly long night?
He could hear her breathing as if he were lying right beside her. Slow and steady breaths as he imagined her face lying against the soft pillows. His fingers uncurled from the doorframe and trailed along the door the way he imagined moving over her skin. He would touch the line of her jaw first, then move down the stretch of her neck. He’d seen her pulse there while she sat in the back of the truck touching the pendant at her neck. He wanted to kiss her right there.
Her breathing changed momentarily. Had she turned over in the bed? Was she now lying on her back, legs partially spread in invitation? He would gladly accept. He would ease between those long legs and nestle his throbbing erection deep inside her waiting heat.
The heat.
Sweat prickled his skin.
Theo never sweated. The beast was heat.
It pressed against him again, stretching his skin with the urge to get into that room and claim what belonged to...
Theo’s eyes opened instantly.
She was not for him!
He stared at the closed door, clenching his teeth in disgust. This was not a human he could use to relieve his lustful needs. Over the years Theo had been able to find ones who could serve that purpose and allow him to go on with the life he’d chosen to live without problems.
This woman wasn’t here for that reason. They weren’t in this hotel room because Theo needed to find release before he exploded. She was a job.
And she was promised to another.
Theo turned away from the door. He went back and sat down heavily on the couch then let his head lull back. This time when he closed his eyes, he thought of going for a swim in the cool water of his pool. He thought of taking as many laps as he could until his body collapsed with exhaustion and sleep dragged him down. He thought of going for a run through the cavernous hallways of his property. He thought of drinking the hundreds of cases of gin that had been gifted to him. Or sleeping. Not a normal seven-to eight-hour stretch, but letting his beast have the sleep that could last for another century or so. Closing his eyes and leaving it all behind.
Anything, he sighed.
Any t
hought or deed he could perform to get his mind off Shola and the inexplicable draw he felt toward her, because women were dangerous. His father and his species had learned that lesson the hard way.
* * *
It was morning, the indigo sky just yielding to the light of day.
Shola pushed the bothersome sheets off her body and they again rubbed against her sensitive skin like sandpaper. Warmth had originally surrounded her when she lay in the bed after her shower and covered herself. But all too soon that changed and nothing was comfortable whether she lay on top of the sheets or beneath; they scraped her skin until she wanted to scream out in agony. It was a level of discomfort that she had never before experienced. Was it possible it was because she was in the Western World? It was no secret that they did not live like the people of the River Tribe. Maybe their sheets were somehow made of sand or some other awfully discomforting materials.
Now her temples throbbed as she lay on her back staring up at the ceiling. Confusion clouded her thoughts while impatience nagged her soul. In retrospect two weeks was not a lot of time to complete her task. Not when she had been on this path for twenty-eight years, since her birth. It started with the foods she was fed to the whispers in her ear each night as she drifted to sleep. She knew the training had been for a sole purpose—it was the who, what, when and where she’d remained ignorant of, but no more. Now she knew and still she lay here in this hotel bed like she was waiting for something...or someone.
Him.
The guard? Why? He was hired to assist her, to guard her in the way the Odò Guard would have done if she were a descendent of an oba, or from a ruling family in the small secluded village of Mobo.
Her breasts felt heavy just thinking about him. The throbbing between her legs had been a persistent hum in the hours since she’d first climbed on his bike. Lust was the name of the physical symptoms she was experiencing. Sex was the remedy for the affliction. All of which were a distraction she could not afford to indulge.
A soft knock sounded at the door and her heartbeat immediately quickened. He was just a few steps away. She pulled the sheet back over her body, tucking it around the sides like she really thought he would come into the room and try to rip it off. A foolish, yet alluring, thought to go along with all the others she conjured about him.
“Yes?” she answered after clearing her throat.
“Do you want to order breakfast?”
His voice was a low rumble that breezed over her skin. Shola closed her eyes as his simple question replayed in her mind. Her body was reacting to the sound of his voice and she didn’t like it, or at least she didn’t think that was something she should like.
“I am not hungry.”
“I’ll order coffee and juice. My other agent is on his way.”
She sat up in the bed. The other agent would take over and Theo would leave. That’s what he told her last night. That would be a good thing, a smart thing.
“I will be out shortly.”
He didn’t respond. She wanted him to because then she would hear his voice again. Shaking her head, she thrust her fingers through her hair and chastised herself for going off task again. What did it matter who the guard was? No one would be able to stop what she had come here to do.
Fifteen minutes later she was showered and dressed in beige pants and a brown T-shirt. She found leather flats in one of her suitcases and went to the mirror to comb her sometimes unruly hair. After fussing over it for longer than was normal she ended with a leather band tied around her head to hold back the curly mass. She walked to the door and paused with her hand on the knob when it occurred to her what she’d been doing. Shola had prepped for many things in her life, but never to see a man.
Chapter Five
He was the sky. The stretch that went on into oblivion. The infinite air sifting through his lungs and rippling along his skin. The freedom. The power. The legend.
“Hello.”
He’d been looking up to the pale blue sky void of clouds or any things flying among them when his head dropped and Theo turned to see her standing between the glass doors.
After being so keenly aware of scent and sound last night, how did she continue to sneak up on him? How could he be who he was and she still affect him this way?
And why did she look the way she did so early in the morning—fresh, pretty, sexy in those baggy pants and fitted shirt?
She lifted a hand and waved when he stared at her. And then she smiled, a short little smile that gave a quick glimpse at dimples in her cheeks. Had he ever seen dimples on a woman before? If so, he was certain there’d been no immediate jolt to his system at the sight, like there was this time.
“Hello,” he replied because it was lame to continue gawking at her.
“Do you know if there will be more bags coming? I am waiting for a delivery.”
She brought her arms together to clasp her hands in front of her. Small hands with unpolished blunt-tipped nails.
“We can check with the front desk. And there’s coffee and juice. I didn’t know which you preferred.”
“Juice is fine.”
He pointed to a small round table with two chairs, not sure why he’d asked the attendant to bring the tray of beverages out here this time. Probably because he’d been standing out here for the past few hours wondering about that scent from last night, but not wanting to leave Shola in this room alone to go find out what it was.
She walked from the doorway and he watched her move. Willowy steps on flat brown sandals that covered her feet, long arms swaying at her sides and a slow descent into the chair. He was certain he’d never taken the time to watch a woman walk before. His interludes with them were much more focused than that—in bed, done, maybe in bed a second time.
“Do you take your job so literally that you plan to watch everything I do?”
She didn’t look up at him as she spoke, but poured herself a glass of orange juice and then set the pitcher of juice on the table before lifting the glass to her lips to take a sip.
Hell no he definitely could not afford to watch everything she did. That would be the definition of insanity and the way he figured, he had a couple hundred years more before he reached that goal.
“Will you be meeting with your husband-to-be today?”
He didn’t have her schedule in front of him and there were definitely more pressing matters at hand, but that question had popped into his mind.
“There are many preparations to be made. Appointments I believe are set for dress fittings and other social events that will lead up to the wedding.”
The answer was given without her looking at him. In fact, she didn’t look at anything in particular as she spoke and her words sounded less than enthusiastic.
“It sounds very formal. You said your family would be here for the wedding, are they coming soon?” Because for some reason he didn’t like the thought of her being here alone.
“They will arrive just before the wedding.”
“And you’re okay with being alone? As I recall weddings normally have lots of people involved in planning and getting the final stages together.”
Theo had never been mated, or married as the humans preferred. He’d never been to any ceremonies of mating or marriage and didn’t ever intend to be present at one. The forever union of a man and woman was not something he aspired to. For one, he was so much more than just a man.
“Are you married?”
Easy answer. “No.”
She looked up at him then. “But you have a girlfriend?”
“I have a job to do.”
“And you must do this job alone. I can understand that.”
Theo had been with many human women during a part of his lifetime. He didn’t think any of them would have had the same reaction that Shola just had to his response. She took another sip and he found himself staring at
her lips on the glass again. She caught him staring and set the glass down slowly, their gazes locked.
“You are not like the guards and warriors in Mobo,” she said, her voice just a little softer.
“And you are not like any other client I’ve ever had.”
True statements on both ends. He wondered what it meant.
He wouldn’t find out, not at this moment anyway. Sirens were loud even though they were a distance away. They would get louder as they approached and he had a suspicion they would definitely get closer. On instinct he moved to the table where Shola sat. The sun was shining brightly but a gloominess had settled over him and with it came a more powerful aroma—the acrid scent of blood and death.
“Get inside,” he told Shola. “Now!”
She hesitated only a second before standing. At the same time the first enforcer cars came from both directions, screeching to a halt in front of the hotel. The scent was getting stronger even inside the room and he moved quickly, placing a hand at the small of Shola’s back to hasten her steps. She stopped and so did he as, like last night, that simple touch seemed bigger and more impactful than even the sirens blaring outside. He didn’t have time to examine it because his communicator buzzed.
“Stay inside,” he told her and turned back toward the balcony.
“What’s going on?” he yelled into the communicator the moment he was outside again.
“They found a body. One floor down from where you are. The room was reserved under the name N’Gara. Magnum’s coming in the back right now to get you and the client out of there.”
Theo cursed and watched as more all-black enforcer cars with tinted windows and red flashing lights on top pulled up. Men and women dressed in the red-and-black enforcer uniforms jumped out, running into the building.
“What kind?”
“Human,” Bleu said. “I have more intel. I don’t think you’re gonna like it.”
Theo focused his mind. He could hear the buzz of conversations twelve stories down. A woman’s throat had been ripped out. There was blood all over the room—last night’s stench combined with the one filling his senses now. They suspected some type of animal attack but because they were most likely nonbelievers, were baffled as to what exactly and how the body ended up in the building instead of out on the streets.