Protected by Conan Wolf (Magnificent Beasts, #3)

by Calin, Ana

  “Power.” I whisper while she ponders. She snaps her fingers.

  “Yes, that’s it.”

  “Especially since the werewolves,” I say, eyes on the mountain contours. “Ever since Drago first set foot in this hotel and laid eyes on Arianna I felt like, I don’t know, like immortality entered town and banished death forever.”

  “Hold your horses. There is no talk of immortality for Fated Females.”

  “Fated females have to be immortal, especially those that werewolves have imprinted on.” I walk away from the window and lean against the bedpost, looking down at Princess who’s taken a seat on the bed. “Can you imagine Drago without Arianna? He stares at her like an adoring puppy. You and Nero are another example. You haven’t been together long, but—”

  “Only one day, officially.” A blissful smile lights up her face.

  “Only one day, but he already loves you deeply. He’s been waiting for his own ‘The One’ for centuries, how do you think he’d feel if he lost you in fifty years?”

  “I guess he’s living too strongly in the Now to think about that, and I don’t fear death, Janine.”

  “Probably because you feel deep down there will be no death for you, not now that a werewolf has imprinted on you.” Then it hits me. “Such a sad idea, if you think about it.”

  “Sad?” Princess reacts. “Why would immortality be sad?”

  “It’s sad that a woman’s salvation from death should be only through the love of a man. It’s unfair, too.”

  “First of all, we don’t know for a fact that’s how things are, it’s just speculation. Secondly, what is there to live forever for if not for love?” She grabs my shoulders, fixing me with those caramel eyes that go beautifully with her red locks. She is becoming more beautiful by the day. “Janine, if you felt about a man the way I feel about Nero, you’d see the world in a whole new light. Everything makes sense, the sand on the beaches, the clouds in the sky, the cool feel of rain on your face. It’s like every experience in your life has led up to this moment, to this man, to this love you feel.” She shakes her head, her hands dropping off me. “I wish I could explain it better.”

  The feelings I read in her face, the bliss, the joy, the selflessness, they’re fascinating.

  “I’m happy for you, and envious at the same time,” I whisper. “I wish I could feel all that. At least for a moment.”

  “I wish it for you as well. It’s the most exquisite experience you can imagine.”

  Need engulfs my heart. I’ve been alone for so long.

  “Now,” she says with a girlish grin, as if she’s been dying to ask me all along. “Nero has sent Conan to be your bodyguard, how sexy is that? Doesn’t he, you know, make you feel something out of the ordinary?”

  I hate admitting it, but her enthusiasm breaks down my walls.

  “I like him. He is—” I look for the word. “Quite a specimen.”

  “Quite a specimen? The guy is downright awe-inspiring.”

  “And fear-inducing.”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t find all that sexy.”

  “Listen, before you get all excited that three best friends will end up mated with three hot werewolves,” I say with grit in my voice, “let me tell you I’m not as crazy about Conan as you were about Nero, or Arianna about Drago. He’s a magnificent beast, and I’d fuck the daylights out of him, but that’s far from love at first sight or anything of the kind.”

  Princess keeps smiling. “Believe me, after you’ve fucked him, you’ll want more and more. That’s how it began for Arianna and me, too. Remember, Arianna found Drago insanely attractive in the beginning, but she didn’t fall in love at first sight. She didn’t even want to sleep with him because she was afraid she’d be too needy afterwards, but it was him who fell for her like a madman. I was crazily attracted to Nero, too, but love didn’t hit me like lightning. It was off-the-charts sexual attraction at first.”

  “It’s off-the-charts sexual attraction for me, too. If I were to act purely on my desires, I’d sweep everything off my desk and open my legs for him right there. But...” I bite my lip, my cheeks heating up. “I’m afraid he’d reject me.”

  Princess frowns, making room for me to sit with her on the bed. “Why would he do that?”

  “Because he’s not attracted to me. He looked at me so coldly I might as well have been a piece of furniture. Plus, he said he wasn’t interested in imprinting.”

  “When did he say that?”

  “While we were waiting for you and Nero to arrive. I asked him if I was a Fated Female. He sniffed at me a few times, and said I was, but didn’t show the slightest interest.”

  Princess’s frown deepens. “Hmm, I wonder how come. Don’t all werewolves naturally and instinctively want to imprint on a woman, find their mate?”

  “I don’t know, but Conan said he was a soldier, not a lover. He steers clear of any kind of feelings in order to remain a good fighter. Detached and cold. And I don’t think I’ll be the woman to change that.”

  CHAPTER II

  Janine

  I thought it would be days, but weeks pass as we prepare for the trip to Venice. I draft an official response letter for Lorenzo under Nero’s supervision, which we have to send through post, and which buys us more time. But then the communication moves to e-mail, going much faster. We agree that Lorenzo and I will meet at his palazzo in Venice in three weeks’ time—yes, a palace.

  At first I’m relieved, saying to Nero when we gather at his house for dinner, “That’s a good sign, isn’t it? If he’s not in a hurry to meet me, doesn’t press for things to happen right away, then—”

  “It’s not a good sign at all, it’s a bad one,” Conan interrupts. My eyes shift to him. He’s sitting between his brothers Drago and Achilles on the other side of the table, a beast with muscles like boulders compared to them. A brute among his beautiful brothers, with his hard features and the scar running down the side of his face.

  “Did you hear what I just said, Miss Kovesi,” he addresses me, waking me from the daydream of his large rough muscles against my body. I shake my head.

  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “Yes, you looked rather distracted.” God, what a shame. I take my hand to my cheek, looking down as he speaks, trying to hide the blush.

  “It means Lorenzo Piovra is taking more time to prepare,” Conan says. “He probably didn’t expect you to accept his invitation, or he didn’t expect that Nero, the alpha protector of this town, would let you travel to see him. The more I think about it, the more I believe he was just looking for a pretext to pick a fight with us. But now that you agreed to go to Venice, with nothing but one bodyguard—his longtime rival no less—he needs to go over the details of his plan.” His eyes fill with red fire. “Probably make it more wicked.”

  “Agreed,” Nero says from the head of the table. “Which means we have to be prepared, too. I still don’t understand how his invitation reached Janine on the very day you became her bodyguard, Conan, but I’m sure it wasn’t a coincidence.”

  “We’ll find out the truth about all that,” I say, getting a grip and raising my chin. I’m Janine Kovesi, a strong and independent woman, I won’t break under the weight of lust for a magnificent but cold beast. “That’s why I’m going to meet Lord Piovra. But we should probably think up an escape plan in case all he wants is to trap Conan—because that’s my theory; that he only used me in order to get to him. I think he somehow knew the pack wouldn’t let me travel to Venice without him.”

  “I don’t agree,” Conan intervenes. “Even if getting me to Venice was his plan from the start, because there I would be on his territory, the research and lab analysis showed that the letter did indeed travel here from Italy, so he must have sent it ahead of time.”

  “Like I said, too many open questions and only one way to answer them all, namely my accepting his invitation.” My eyes stay on Conan, but I address the others. “I have an idea how to keep Conan out
of danger until we gauge Lorenzo’s motives and intentions.”

  Everybody at the table stares at me, focused.

  “I will speak at a conference on the Cote d’Azure two days before the meeting in Venice. I get tons of invitations a week to speak at conferences, Conan knows. I think the location of this one is perfect, close to Venice so Lord Piovra can’t refuse meeting me there. I can confirm my attendance tonight. That way Lorenzo, Conan and I won’t have our first meeting on Piovra territory.”

  “I like that idea,” Nero said.

  “So do I,” Conan adds, and I sit to attention against my best wishes. He sits like a big soldier between his brothers, staring me in the face, and the skin on my spine tingles. “You are a brilliant woman, Miss Kovesi, I have to tell you that.”

  “Thank you,” I mutter and look away. I don’t want him to think I’m overly moved by his first display of appreciation.

  All the while we put together the details of the plan I’m hyper aware of Conan’s eyes watching me. Get a grip, Janine, this doesn’t mean he wants to kiss you and make babies.

  But back at the hotel I still can’t help squaring my shoulders and prancing like a rookie model whenever I feel him staring at me. I’m usually busy with work and guests, always in my stiff two-piece suits, all cold and business-like, but a few times I do put on dresses, secretly wanting to be feminine and enticing for him.

  Conan watches me from dark corners, seemingly without even blinking, even while talking on his phone. I can’t know whether he likes what he sees or not, I only know he’s doing his job, and he’s doing it well.

  As time passes my desire for him grows, until my body is basically screaming for him. He’s been my bodyguard for almost five weeks now, always watching me, breathing down my nape. Stalking me, but not the way I want him to. God, I need him, I need his big dick inside of me.

  I manage to masturbate once, my back turned to the camera he installed in my room, careful with my moves so that he doesn’t understand what I’m doing if he watches. But it doesn’t relieve much of the tension. By the time we’re together on a plane to France my hormones are killing me. And when we reach the hotel in Nice and Conan asks for a double room for us both, making it clear he’ll be sharing mine, sweat breaks out on my back.

  The concierge’s eyes dart from me to my huge scarred guy and back again, his thoughts clear in his long face that reminds me of a stuck up butler—a business woman and a muscle bound beast that don’t share a last name; he probably thinks I’m cheating on my official guy with this one, especially since Conan bribes him to keep his name off the record. I can feel the concierge’s questioning stare on my back as we head for the elevator.

  The moment Conan pushes the door open and we walk into a fabulous room on the tenth floor, the floor-to-ceiling windows open and the sea breeze blowing through the white drapes, my need for him overflows and becomes painful. I drop my handbag, turn on my heel and confront him.

  “Why, Conan? Why not take the room next door, like back home in Darkwood Falls? Can’t you imagine what the concierge thinks of me now? He knows I’ll be speaking at the conference, he knows who I am.”

  “First of all, I did it because we’re not on our own territory anymore. Here danger could creep from every crack in the wall.”

  I look around and slap my hands on my thighs. “This is a five star hotel, there are no cracks in the walls.”

  He ignores my mockery. “Secondly, I wouldn’t worry about our good old concierge. He’ll be having a good time by himself thinking of you and me under the sheets together.”

  “Say what?”

  He looks me up and down as if he just noticed me. I’m wearing a tight tank top with the top of my black lace bra slightly visible above the hem; luckily I still have a light cream jacket over my shoulders, even if it’s open, because it was cold on the plane. My usually perfectly styled blonde bob is now messy from the way I slept on the plane, and all I’ve done to style it was run my fingers through it on our taxi ride here.

  “You’re looking sexy today,” Conan says like he’s simply announcing the weather. “And I think you are his type. The concierge’s.”

  “Oh really? And what type is that?”

  “Sassy. Plus that you’re softer after a plane flight, your hair isn’t perfect, your clothes don’t make you look like you’re as off limits as the Queen, and your eyes are too tired to be cutting through men. That scares guys usually, but today the dosage is just perfect.”

  “Wow,” I whisper. “So you can see things in women after all, we’re not just pieces of furniture to you.”

  “No, sometimes you’re roommates. But don’t worry, we’re only gonna be sharing a room for two nights. You’ll be on stage at the conference tomorrow, then in the evening you’ll meet Lorenzo. By nightfall you’ll be too tired for my presence to bother you in any way. Then we’ll be out of here.”

  He heads to the windows and pushes them shut, drawing the drapes back together. I watch his back as his arms work, beautiful muscles snaking under his white T-shirt that stretches across the width of his shoulders. I catch a glimpse of his strong jaw as he looks to the side. It’s the side with the scar. God, I find it so sexy it’s almost sick.

  “Okay, maybe I should just be straight-forward with you,” I finally say.

  “Yes, maybe you should.” He moves back to the bags, and hunkers down to open his, his jeans stretching over his muscular legs. I lick my lips.

  “Ever since you came into my life I haven’t, you know, I haven’t been able to....” I freeze when he looks up at me, those reddish irises piercing.

  “Yes,” he nudges when I don’t continue.

  “You know what I mean, don’t make me say it.”

  He stands back up to full height, slowly, my head moving up as he does. God, it’s been five weeks, and it still doesn’t cease to amaze me how this beast looks. The short sleeves of his white T-shirt stretch tight around his bicep, his pectorals bulging. And the face, oh my God, that brutish but handsome face. An image of me straddling his face hits me, and I rub my thighs together where I stand.

  Conan catches it. Damn it. I can see his nose sniff gently, and I know he caught the scent of my arousal. Jesus, strike me dead now.

  “You need a man,” he says.

  “It’s been a long time.” I look down and move to my own bag, working on it to avoid Conan’s gaze. I’m so fucking mortified.

  “Before you came into my office and said you’d be my bodyguard,” I continue as I open my bag and sift through my things for my toothbrush and face creams, “I had a life, you know. A secret one, but a life.”

  “There was a man?” Wait, was that an edge to his voice? I stop moving and look up at him standing like a statue in the dying twilight filtering through the white drapes. I lift my chin, deciding to give him the truth. I won’t let my lust for him make a blabbering schoolgirl out of me.

  “There were men. It’s no secret to you or your brothers that back when the serpents ruled Darkwood Falls and forbade us women to see guys from other towns I’d go out on business and conferences and have one night stands.”

  He takes a step closer, the denim tightening over his powerful thighs. I watch him as he hunkers down, bringing his face close to mine.

  “And it’s those one night stands that you miss?”

  God, he’s so close that I can inhale his scent. He smells of virility and rustling fires.

  “I miss the excitement, the adrenaline, the intimacy.”

  “Intimacy?” He cocks his scarred eyebrow. “What could be intimate about a one night stand? Intimacy is sharing yourself with another being, living with each other as one, in one body. In my book that’s something you build up to.”

  “Well, what do you know.” I cock an eyebrow back at him. “The big tough warrior teaching me a thing or two about relationships.”

  “Two of my werewolf brothers have known love, with your two best friends, and I have a line to their emotions. I can understand
through their experiences, even if I don’t feel the emotion myself. It’s like when you tap into the emotions from a book.”

  I sit on the bed, now having the higher ground. I place my hands beside my naked thighs, the hem of my jean shorts biting a little into my flesh. Damn, I should have worked out at least for a few days before I left Darkwood Falls with him. What was I thinking, Cote d’Azure, of course he would see more skin from me than back in the rainy woods that we come from.

  “Then I guess I don’t have to explain more. Ever since you came into my life you have been monitoring my every move, you have cameras in my room and my bathroom, and I couldn’t even, you know, take care of myself at least.”

  “You could have told me when, and I would have given you some privacy.”

  “You mean I should have told you when I planned to masturbate, so you could make room for it in your schedule?” I burst into laughter, but Conan stares at me like he doesn’t know what’s funny or embarrassing about this.

  “So what are trying to tell me,” he says after I’ve managed to stop laughing, now battling with a hiccup. “That you’d like to go out and find a guy to hook up with?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s out of the question.”

  Okay, this is my chance. I force myself to take it, because it feels awkward beyond belief. “Then maybe you could, you know, scratch my itch.” Blood fills my cheeks right after I’ve spoken the words. I can’t believe I’ve actually said it. I’ve actually, oh God, I actually just came on to him.

  Conan stands slowly, dominating the room with every inch of his height. My grip on the edge of the bed tightens so much that my knuckles hurt.

  “I understand your needs,” he says in a far gentler tone than I expected. “I’m sure there are sex shops in Nice, we can go, you know, shopping, if you like.”

  “You mean like for a dildo?”

  He nods, his usually brutish, reddish eyes softer than usual. He bends down to his bag and sifts for neatly folded new clothes. “You did the right thing, telling me. I am your bodyguard, and I do invade your privacy, I’m aware of that. We should be able to discuss these things openly.” He gives me a careful glance, as if choosing his words with care. “Like friends, if you want.”