Dark Nights Dangerous Men
Page 59
“I don’t remember.”
He chuckled as his hands drifted down her arms, pausing when he reached the handcuff.
With a sound of surprise he lifted his head to meet her darkening gaze.
“What’s this?”
She made a sound of disgust. “Your pain-in-the-ass friend was afraid I might try to escape again.”
“But the locks…” His gaze narrowed as he belatedly remembered she’d escaped before. “How the hell did you get out of here?”
She rolled her eyes. Like she knew?
“I just walked out.” She shook her arm, making the handcuff rattle. “Get this off me.”
A slow, wicked smile curved his lips. “I think we should leave it in place for now.”
A treacherous heat flared through her body. “Don’t tell me you’re kinky?”
“Desperate,” he corrected, his smile fading as his eyes smoldered with a naked hunger. “I need to be inside you, ma chère,” he said with blunt honesty. “My cat needs to know I haven’t lost you. Say yes.”
Ashe shuddered at the simple plea. She found it oddly erotic to know just how much he wanted her. It gave her a sense of power that she rarely experienced.
“Yes.”
He hissed, as if he was caught off guard by her ready capitulation, and then with a slow motion he was pulling open the ends of the sheet.
She forgot how to breathe as the night air hit her skin, her heart pounding as his fingers gently cupped the small firmness of her breasts.
“Beautiful,” he muttered, stroking his thumbs over the hard points of her nipples.
Ashe knew she wasn’t beautiful.
Her own mother had lamented the thick dark hair and prominent nose that Ashe had inherited from her father. And then there was her body that was too skinny, and her skin too pale.
But beneath his predatory gaze she felt beautiful.
Snarling deep in his throat, Raphael turned her until his lips could stroke down the sensitive scratch marks that were nearly healed on her back. His touch sent jolts of shocking arousal through her, but she made no effort to pull away.
In this moment she needed him as much as he needed her.
Turning back to face him, she boldly ran her free hand over his chest, astonished by the satin smoothness of his skin. He was completely furless. A perfect bronze velvet draped over steel.
Enjoying her exploration, Ashe barely noticed when Raphael gently arranged her against the pile of pillows, careful to keep her shackled arm above her head. Not until he bent over her to capture a nipple between his teeth.
She moaned as his tongue teased the sensitized tip, tormenting her until she was moving restlessly beneath him. Good lord. She’d never gotten so hot so quickly.
It was as if his touch had a direct connection to her libido.
“Oh, yes,” she moaned, arching upward as his lips traced the curve between the mounds of her breasts before moving to the other aching nipple.
Her fingers impatiently threaded through his hair. The satin strands brushed her skin, only heightening her pleasure.
“Do you like that, ma chère?” he breathed, his hands skimming over her hips and down her thighs. His touch was searing hot, matching the molten heat flowing through her veins.
Tugging at her nipple with the edge of his teeth, Raphael eased his hand between her legs and sought the moist heat.
She grasped the strong column of his neck, hanging on for dear life as he stroked his fingers over her clit, finding the sweet spot of her pleasure.
She was falling into a whirlpool of sensation that bordered on pain, it was so intense.
“Raphael.”
Easily sensing the raw edge of need in her voice, Raphael lifted his head to nuzzle his lips just below her jaw.
“I have you…ma chère,” he softly soothed. “I will always have you.”
She shivered as her hips instinctively lifted to press more firmly to his caressing finger.
“I know.”
He lifted onto his elbow and peered deep into her wide eyes. “Are you ready for me?”
For a long moment she merely gazed into his beautiful face. With his golden hair tumbled over his shoulders and the muted light playing over his stark features he looked barely civilized.
Feral.
Her lips parted, her breath coming in short pants.
“Yes.”
His mouth covered hers as he rolled to settle between her parted legs and impale her with one smooth thrust. He swallowed her cry of pleasure as her hips left the mattress and her nails scored down his back.
Yes. God, yes.
She grasped the headboard as he plunged in and out of her, always careful to keep his weight off her stomach.
It was swift and raw and exactly what she needed.
She was being consumed by Raphael and she couldn’t make herself care. For this one priceless moment she wanted to be overwhelmed. She wanted to belong to this man on the most basic level.
Thrusting his tongue between her willing lips, Raphael fucked her with an increasing intensity. Ashe clutched at him as the pressure built to a looming crescendo.
She was perilously close.
“Raphael.”
“I know, ma chère,” he muttered against her mouth, his body pressing deeper.
Her breath came in jagged gasps as the pleasure tightened and spiraled toward a shimmering point. His strokes quickened, sinking him deep in her. At the same time, he angled his head to bite the vulnerable curve of her neck.
The pleasure/pain hit a critical point and her entire body tightened. For a breathless moment she hovered on the edge, then with explosive force the bliss shattered through her and she was soaring through paradise.
They lay in dazed astonishment for a long moment, Raphael groaning as he emptied his seed. Ashe held him tight, savoring the rare moment of absolute peace.
At last Raphael gently pulled out, cradling her face as he spread delicate kisses over her flushed cheeks.
Boneless, Ashe watched in silence as he reached into a side table to grab the key to the handcuffs. Removing the steel bracelet, he gently kissed the red mark that circled her wrist before covering both of them with the quilt.
“That was…” She released a shaky breath. “Amazing.”
He pressed a lingering kiss to her lips before pulling back to regard her with a searching gaze.
“Why did you leave the bar after I told you to stay?”
“Why?” She met his accusing gaze with a frown, her sense of contentment swiftly fading. She might be slowly accepting that her life was now tied with this male, but that didn’t mean she was ever going to follow orders. “Because I don’t appreciate being held captive.”
“I was trying to protect you,” he growled.
The rasp of male possession made her frown deepen. Okay, this was something that needed to be nipped in the bud.
Raphael had the sort of alpha personality that would ride roughshod over her if she didn’t take a stand.
“A protection that wouldn’t have been necessary if you hadn’t gotten me caught in the middle of your gang war.”
He stiffened, his brow furrowing in confusion. “Gang war?”
“That man obviously thought I was with you and wanted to make a point.”
“We are Pantera, not a gang,” he said. “And we certainly aren’t at war.”
“Then why was that lunatic shooting arrows at me?”
He held her gaze. “I don’t know, but it’s you they’re after.”
A chill inched down her spine. “That’s ridiculous. I’ve lived here all my life without having people trying to kill me.”
His hand moved to lie gently against her lower stomach. “You weren’t carrying this.”
She studied his grim expression, the chill spreading through her body.
“My baby?”
“Our baby.”
“But…” She licked her dry lips. “No one knows I’m pregnant.”
He ar
ched a brow. “No one?”
She shrugged. “My mother, but she wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“Not even if she was drinking?”
She flinched as his words hit a nerve. Her mother was notoriously chatty when she was sitting on a barstool. There wasn’t a person in town who hadn’t heard when Ashe had her first period or when she’d been stood up on prom night.
Thankfully, people had long ago started ignoring the increasingly incoherent woman.
“Who listens to a drunk?” she muttered.
“You might be surprised.” The edge in his voice suggested he’d spent more than a few nights cross-examining an unsuspecting, inebriated fool. “Anyone else?”
She chewed her bottom lip, knowing the question was important. “My doctor.”
“Local?”
“Yes.”
“When did you see him?”
“Two days ago.” Her lips twisted in a rueful smile. It seemed a lifetime since she’d walked into the small clinic believing she was suffering from a bout of the stomach flu. “He called earlier today with the results.”
“Time enough to share the information.”
She frowned. “With who?”
He caught her chin in his fingers, forcing her to meet his determined gaze.
“Until we can find out, I need to get you to the Wildlands.”
“The Wildlands?” She shook her head in disbelief. Until a few hours ago the name had been nothing more than a place in legend and myth. Now he wanted her to leave her home and travel there? “I can’t.”
“Ashe, it’s the only place you and our baby will be safe.”
“But—”
Her protest was drowned out by a sudden thump on the door.
Chapter Six
SENSING Bayon standing in the hall, Raphael muttered a curse as he leapt off the bed and headed toward the dresser.
Yanking open a drawer, he removed a pair of gray sweats, pulling on the bottoms before tossing the matching top to Ashe.
It was three sizes too large for her, but it did fall to her knees, providing a small amount of modesty.
It would have to do until he could send someone back to the hotel to pick up her suitcase.
Pulling open the door, Raphael stepped aside to allow his fellow Pantera to enter the room, his cat keeping a watchful eye on the male to make certain Bayon didn’t stray too close to his mate.
No doubt sensing Raphael’s unease, Bayon remained close to the door, his pale green gaze never straying from Raphael.
“Glad to see you back, mon ami.”
Raphael grimaced. He was still reeling from the combination of shifting despite being away from the Wildlands and the shock of being yanked out of his animal form.
“I assume you were the one to trance me?”
Bayon nodded with regret. “Sorry I had to put you out. You were too hyped for me to convince you to return to human and I needed to get you away from the kill.”
Raphael waved aside the apology. Although it was rare to use the words of power that would force a Pantera back to his human form, he knew his cat would never have allowed his friend near.
“You did what you had to do.”
Bayon folded his arms over his chest, his expression grim. “The obvious question, is...why did I have to do it?”
“Damned if I know.” Raphael’s memories were hazed by the surge of adrenaline that had gripped him from the minute he’d realized Ashe had left the safety of the bar. “I was tracking Ashe when I caught sight of the stranger.” His voice thickened with fury. “When I realized he was trying to skewer her with an arrow, my cat took over.”
“Did the stranger do anything to you?”
Raphael arched a brow. “Do?”
“Shoot you with a poison arrow?” Bayon asked. “Cast a spell? Use a secret military weapon to force you to change?”
He snorted at the moronic questions. “It didn’t have anything to do with the stranger. I changed when I came close enough to feel Ashe’s aura.”
Both men glanced toward the silent woman standing in the center of the room. Instantly she held up her hands in a gesture of innocence.
“Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t do anything.”
“Could it be the child?” Bayon suggested.
Raphael frowned, considering the precise second he’d shifted.
As he’d sprinted across the dark street there had been terror that he was going to be too late. And a blinding fury that anyone would try to hurt his mate. But his last memory was the sweet smell of lush land and female magic.
Ashe’s scent.
“I’m not a medic or a philosopher,” he at last said with a shrug. “All I know is that my cat decided this female was mine at first sight and it wasn’t going to let anyone or anything hurt her.”
“Maybe the elders have some idea,” Bayon muttered. “We need to get her home.”
“My thought exactly.”
“Wait,” Ashe protested. “This town is my home, not the middle of the swamp.”
Glaring toward Bayon, who parted his lips to demand Ashe’s compliance in his usual blunt style, Raphael moved to stand directly in front of her, his finger brushing over her too-pale cheek.
“Is it truly your home, ma chère, or somewhere that you live?”
“I—”
“The truth.”
Their gazes locked, her dark eyes revealing the lonely, wounded child who’d been unwanted her entire life.
Until she’d walked across his path.
Now she would never, ever be lonely or unwanted again.
Cupping her cheek in his hand, he prepared to convince her just how desperately he needed her, when Bayon made a sound of impatience.
“I hate to interrupt, but this touching scene will have to wait.”
Raphael glared at his friend. “Are you deliberately trying to piss me off?”
“It’s in my job description.”
“No shit.”
Reaching into his back pocket, Bayon held out a scrap of material.
“Here.”
“What’s this?”
“Open it.”
Raphael’s sensitive nose curled at the stench of rotting flesh and something else. That same ‘wrongness’ he’d smelled on the humans entering the hotel earlier. With reluctance, he flipped aside the folded material to reveal the patch of skin cut into a perfect six by six square.
He hissed in shock.
Not at the fact that he was holding a slab of flesh. He was a predator who’d just ripped out the throat of a man.
But at the sight of a brand that portrayed the outline of a raven with wings spread in front of a full moon.
“Where did you get this?”
“I returned to dispose of the body,” Bayon answered. “This was branded on his lower back.”
Beside him Ashe gave a gasp of horror. “Oh my god, is that his skin?”
Raphael flinched, wishing he could protect her from the darker side of his nature. Christ, it was bad enough she’d had to witness him tearing apart a man just a few feet away from her without having to endure the gruesome prize he held in his hands.
Unfortunately, this brand changed everything.
“The Mark of the Shakpi,” he breathed. “This is—”
“Impossible?” Bayon took the word out of his mouth. “Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around.”
Ashe cleared her throat, struggling to hang on to her severely tested courage.
“What is the Mark of Shakpi?”
“It’s an ancient legend that speaks of the origin of our people,” Bayon answered, his flat tone intended to bring an end to the conversation.
Of course Raphael’s stubborn mate wasn’t going to be intimidated.
“And?”
Raphael took charge of the story. “The legend claims that the bayous gave birth to twins,” he said, sharing the oral history that every Pantera learned while still in the nursery. “Opela was able to call upon the magic of the land,
eventually creating the Pantera. Her sister, Shakpi, grew jealous of Opela’s love for her children and tried to create her own children to rule the Pantera. The children twisted the magic, using it for evil, and Opela had no choice but to have her sister imprisoned.”
Ashe frowned. “Imprisoned in the swamps?”
He shrugged. “No one knows where she was sent.”
She gave a slow shake of her head. “There are a lot of stories about the bayous.”
“Only one that our people believe.”
“So you really think some mythical woman has escaped from her secret prison and is now going around branding her personal Robin Hoods?”
Did he?
Raphael glanced back down at the branded skin, a primitive fear lodging deep in his gut.
A part of him wanted to laugh it off as an old wives tale. As Ashe pointed out, there were a dozen stories that came out of the bayous.
But he didn’t laugh.
He wasn’t human. He was Pantera. A creature of magic.
And the fact that this brand was discovered when their people were unable to breed…well, it had to mean something.
“It’s one explanation,” he murmured.
She pressed a hand to her temple, as if her head was throbbing. “I really have fallen down the rabbit hole.”
Raphael gave a short, humorless laugh. He felt exactly the same way.
Six weeks ago he’d been a respected diplomat for his people, in absolute control of his life.
Now he was mated to a human, expecting a child, and growing increasingly convinced his people were being hunted by an evil, ancient goddess.
Yeah, that was one hell of a rabbit hole.
Giving a shake of his head, he thrust aside his rising panic and turned his attention to Bayon.
“The most important thing is to keep Ashe and our babe safe,” he announced.
“Agreed,” his friend swiftly agreed. Then they both froze as that now-familiar scent drifted through the open window. “Raphael.”
“I smell them,” he rasped.
Bayon pulled a gun from the holster at his lower back, his eyes glowing with power.
“Get her out of here while I distract them.”
Raphael didn’t bother to argue. Not only would it be pointless to try and keep Bayon out of a fight, but his duty was to protect Ashe and the child she carried.