by Dannika Dark
“Not entirely true. Now you have each other.”
“It’s not like we’re going to elope.”
He stood up and selected a wine bottle from the table behind him before returning with a glass in the other hand. After he uncorked the bottle of red and filled his crystal goblet, he sat down and held a pensive look as he took a large swallow. “How well can you focus on your job when you are separated? What if I send Raven to the Bricks for a solo job? Do I have to worry that Christian will follow? And if I send Christian away to Bulgaria for another month, will you pine for him? Buy plane ticket and fly to him?” Viktor finished his drink and then poured another. “And what if one of you dies? That is always possibility.”
You could always rate Viktor’s anger on a scale based on how many words he dropped from his sentences.
My shoulders sagged. “Then we’ll have a nice funeral. Anyone here could die. Do you think Claude doesn’t care deeply for Gem just because they’re not sleeping together?”
Gem turned pink.
“And what if Wyatt dies?” I asked.
Shepherd lit up a smoke. “Party at my place.”
Wyatt gave him the finger without looking.
“Give us a chance,” I said. “If it doesn’t work out, you can always use us as the example of why no one is ever allowed to fall in love and work for Keystone again. But please, Viktor, please don’t scrub our memories and toss us out. You know what that’ll mean.”
“As you have broken one rule, who is to say you won’t break the next?”
Christian reached for the wine and took a swig from the bottle before answering. “The only rules I seem to recall are that we have to protect one another, and that includes not discussing each other’s gifts outside this house. The second is that we eat together, and we’ve all broken that rule a time or two. The third is no shagging. I’m not saying the rules are worthless, but they’re hardly the glue that’s keeping this group together.”
“You forgot the fourth rule,” he said, locking eyes with Christian. “No sensory exchanges, no juicing, and no feeding.”
“Aye, and that’s a bendy one, isn’t it? Niko’s shared his light a number of times to heal Raven, and what about Shepherd taking away Wyatt’s pain when he hurt himself that time?”
“That was for healing, not pleasure. Am I to assume you two have not shared blood for pleasure?”
I grabbed the bottle and wiped the rim. “Maybe it’s nobody’s business what bodily fluids we share. The purpose of your rules was to avoid creating an environment of addicts, and I think we have enough self-control.”
“Don’t ask us to do something that’s against our nature,” Christian said. “Everyone at this table has instincts that are unique to their Breed. What’s natural to one is not to the other, but you can’t force rules that discriminate against our Breed.”
“Is it not true that anything can become an addiction?” Niko offered. “Sex, love, alcohol, cigarettes, sensory magic. At what point is it just to restrict one another?”
“When it interferes with work,” Viktor answered.
I took a swig from the bottle and stood up, no longer able to sit still. “It hasn’t interfered. You run this house like you would a pack, but we’re not Shifters. Well, not all of us. But we follow these rules even though it might go against our nature. I don’t know what else to say, Viktor. I can’t sugarcoat what we’ve done. Keystone is where I belong—it’s where Christian belongs. But I also can’t keep this relationship a secret.” I circled behind my chair, resting my hands on the back. “If we were the kind of people who didn’t give a damn about rules, we could have come up with sneaky ways to circumvent them. Like charming anyone who saw something between us or running off and winding up on your shit list. Maybe I don’t have a big tattoo on my chest of Christian’s head, but I’m head over heels for this fanghole.”
Christian looked over his shoulder at me and smiled. “Isn’t she a dandy?”
I glared. “Get serious before I cork your fangs.”
Wyatt and Shepherd shared a look.
Christian and I weren’t very convincing as lovers, but I wasn’t going to sit in his lap and feed him grapes just to prove a point.
Viktor rose from his seat. “I will have to sleep on this.”
“Sure,” I said, relieved that it wasn’t a hard no. I caught his arm and stepped close to speak privately. “I really do love him. And I love Keystone. Please don’t make me choose.”
We silently watched Viktor shuffle out of the room barefoot, and I chuckled quietly that he was still in his swim trunks after all.
Wyatt wagged his finger at us. “No doing the nasty in the hot tub. It’s brand-new, and I haven’t had a chance to enjoy it yet.”
“Are you two insane?” Blue crossed over to Viktor’s chair. “This whole time?”
Christian grinned at her. “Jealous?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Wyatt leaned in and gave her a sexy smile. “I’ll keep you warm at night.”
“I’d rather date a toaster.”
“Now that’s hardly fair. These two can hook up, but we can’t have one night of unbridled passion?”
“File a complaint.”
Claude stood up and swaggered behind Wyatt’s chair. He puffed out his chest as a devilish grin flashed across his face. “I knew it. Nothing gets by me.”
Blue shot him a look. “Well, thanks for filling me in, amigo.”
I leaned on my chair. “Do you think Viktor will boot us out?”
Niko rose and placed his fingertips on the table. “Viktor looks out for Keystone as a first priority, but I have faith that he’ll weigh your request with careful consideration. Otherwise he wouldn’t be taking time to think it over. I wish you two the best no matter which choice he makes.”
“Thanks. We’re gonna need it. Especially if it’s door number two.”
“A memory wipe,” Gem said grimly while untwisting her hair from her topknot. “That means you won’t just forget Keystone, you’ll forget each other.”
Shepherd finished his cigarette and stamped it out on a gold candle plate. “Why didn’t you just keep it a secret? Wait until it fizzled out and went on with your work? Why mess with a good thing?”
Christian pushed his chair back and then stood beside me. “This is the good thing.”
“Yeah, I get it.” Shepherd rubbed his stubbly jaw. “I could have run off with the kid, but sometimes a man’s gotta stand up for what he believes is right.”
Niko sighed. “Yes, but the crux of the matter is that we might lose two of our own.”
Wyatt’s shoulder’s sagged. “Which means more work for us.”
Claude smacked him upside the head. “Don’t listen to Wyatt. He was born without a soul.”
Wyatt scooted his chair back, forcing Claude to move. “Well, I’m on my way to enjoy the hot tub before these two defile it with all their Vampire fluids.”
Gem sprang up. “Me too. Well, not because of the fluid thing, but because you bought us a hot tub!” She pushed in her chair and looked at me. “So is that the real reason you’re always wearing that necklace? Because Christian gave it to you? That’s so romantic.”
I essayed a smile, feeling Christian’s eyes on me.
He glanced down at my tank top. “Where is it?”
I rocked on my heels. “Funny story.”
CHAPTER 29
While everyone resumed their late-night soak in the hot tub, Christian and I ventured upstairs to my bedroom. He took a seat in the desk chair while I changed into a pair of sweats and a tight shirt with long sleeves.
“You should have been a writer,” he muttered.
I sat on the bed and put on a pair of socks. “What do you mean by that?”
“You’re the queen of cliff-hangers. Are you going to tell me about your necklace or keep me hanging for another century?”
I flipped my hair out of my shirt and crawled across the bed to face him. “Now it’s your tu
rn to get cold feet, and it might make you regret that tattoo.” I sat cross-legged and stared down at his bare feet. “Crush hired a bounty hunter to track Fletcher.”
“Don’t be telling me fibs.”
“He barely had enough information to go on.” I scratched my nose and then tucked my hair behind my ears. “The price to hire a good one is steep, so he borrowed money from a loan shark. Not just any loan shark, but Breed. This guy’s a lion Shifter and runs the operation with his brothers.”
“Is he stark raving mad?”
“He probably couldn’t get that kind of a loan from a human.”
Christian pinched his brow. “I told him to let it go, that we had everything under control. I didn’t give him any details, Raven.”
“I know. All he had was a basic description and something about lamb shanks.”
Christian held his hands in a prayerlike gesture. “And how much does he owe?”
“That’s where it gets messy. General—the loan shark—wants one million. That’s not what Crush owes, but you know how these guys operate. I gave him a large advance, and because I got it so quickly, he decided I could easily get my hands on more.”
Christian leaned forward and leveled me with his eyes. “And am I to guess that the money came from Lenore?”
“Yep. And now I owe her a favor.”
Christian flashed his fangs and looked away.
“It’s too late to do anything about that now. She wasn’t exactly fond of a payment plan.”
“And the necklace?”
“The only way I can get that much money on short notice is an auction. I weighed all my options, including asking Viktor.”
“No, that would have been a mistake.”
“Which is why I ran out of options. I know it’s not what you imagined when you gave me that necklace, but let’s be honest—you didn’t buy it for me. You bought it for her. I can’t keep something you bought for another woman.”
“You could have asked me for the money.”
“A loan like that isn’t like borrowing fifty bucks. That’s not the way I want to kick off our relationship. And to be fair, I didn’t know where our relationship was heading when all this was going down. We were in the middle of an argument, and I was still pissed at you about my father. Besides, money is the number one reason for couples splitting up, and I don’t want money to drive a wedge between us. Not now, not ever. Neither of us likes being in anyone’s debt. Anyhow, this makes more sense. The necklace is worth a lot of money.”
“It was yours.”
“No, Christian. It never was. Even if she doesn’t want it, the necklace still belongs to Lenore. You gave me your heart. That’s all I need. Not a sparkly gem around my neck. Especially not one meant for someone else. Someday you can give me something meant for only me, but right now I need to save my father. I transferred his debt to me, and if I don’t pay the loan shark off, he’ll go after Crush. That’s how these guys operate. Are you okay with this?”
He leaned forward and laced his fingers. “Aye. Your da is more important.”
“I’m not saying he’s more important than you, but he’s more important than a necklace that I didn’t earn. I don’t think you really want it either. You should have sold it years ago, but you didn’t. You gave it to a woman you barely knew to get it off your hands. So we should do something good with it—something that matters.”
“When do you owe him?”
“By Saint Patrick’s Day. Everything’s going as planned. Lenore’s assisting with the auction, but since they won’t open it up to outside parties who haven’t gone through their approval process, she has to put her name on it.”
His eyes flicked up. “For what? Another favor?”
“No. Sixty percent.”
“Sixty!” He sat back and gave me an incredulous look. “That fecking whore.”
“Do you think we can get two and a half million?”
He shook his head. “The papers it came with are long gone. It depends on who’s there. Collectors like to be notified in advance so they can make the trip from the far corners of the world. Not everyone appreciates the value of some antiques. An item is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.”
I reached for the watermelon lip balm on my bedside table and ran it over my lips as I fell into my thoughts. What could we possibly do to alert buyers in a short amount of time? “Maybe Wyatt can put out the word on the black market. It’s a long shot since this isn’t an illegal trade, but maybe it’ll attract a few interested parties.”
“Do you know the date of the auction?”
“No. Lenore is supposed to let me know.”
“When she does, let me know. I’ll have Wyatt put up the notice straight away.”
“Thanks for understanding.” I fell back on the bed.
“And why would you think I wouldn’t?”
“Because elders love telling you what you’re doing wrong.”
“Ah, so I’m an elder now, am I?”
“Can you light a fire?”
“I’ve been told.”
I snorted as he got up and went to the fireplace at the foot of the bed. After opening the flue, he put wood on the grate and got a fire going with a little tinder and kindling.
The candle I’d left burning on the bedside table stopped flickering, and the flame lengthened into a tall ribbon of light.
I gazed up at the ceiling with a heavy heart. “This could be our last night together if Viktor orders a memory wipe.”
A luminous glow brightened the room, firelight suffusing the walls and reflecting off the lattice windows.
Christian stood up and gazed down at me with awareness burning in his bottomless eyes. Tingles awakened me as he slowly unbuttoned his pants and took them off. His black boxer briefs were tight and sexy. I imagined he must have been quite the street fighter in his early days judging by his magnificent body. And yet the only time I ever saw him working out was when he was practicing fight maneuvers with Niko.
When he pulled down his underwear, his cock sprang free. “’Tis a shame you took off those tight little shorts.”
“I thought you liked a woman who covered things up.”
“You know why I don’t like those little wrappers on candy? Because they get in the way of what I want.” He reached for my sweats and slowly pulled them off, exposing my big white panties. “Jaysus wept. Those are the biggest pair of knickers I’ve ever seen.”
“Got them on discount. You don’t like?”
He climbed over me and snapped the elastic. “You could fill these with helium and enter a parade.”
“Should we do this in here? Someone might—”
“They’re downstairs.”
“What about a hotel?”
“A hotel is for whores,” he said, stroking me between the legs with his dexterous fingers.
My breath hitched as I felt the most pleasurable sensation. “We could put a blanket in the back of the van.”
“Sweetheart, we would do so much damage that they wouldn’t be able to repair the axle.”
Christian’s lips grazed my inner thigh, and his hot breath felt sinful. I sank into the bed, the sheets swallowing me like quicksand. When his fangs lightly pricked at the juncture of my thigh, I moaned with need. I tunneled my fingers through his dark brown hair, my Vampire nature begging him to taste the desire coursing in my veins.
The log snapped in the fireplace and made me jump. Christian hooked his fingers beneath my panties and pulled them off.
“Damn these infernal clothes,” he said, looking up at my long sleeve.
“It’ll give you something to work for.”
He knelt at my feet and lifted one of my legs before propping it over his shoulder. Christian kissed my ankle while petting my inside thigh. There were so many things I wanted him to do to me that my imagination couldn’t keep up.
“Show me how you can pin a man with your legs.”
Not one to turn down a challenge, I hooked
my other leg around his neck and locked my ankles, pinning him to the bed and tightening the gap between my thighs where his head was. While his face turned blue, he shifted his head and slid his tongue in deep.
I cried out from the unexpected sensation and relaxed my hold. Finally having him here, in my bed, was hotter than I could have imagined. Christian showed no mercy as he pleasured me. Flushed with desire, I fisted his hair as he did things with his tongue that set my body on fire.
My heart raced.
I couldn’t breathe.
When I neared climax, he suddenly flipped me onto my stomach. I turned my head to the side, feeling his hands stroking my ass. A ripple of excitement snaked up my core with a single spank.
“You’ve been a naughty girl,” he scolded. “Parading that wolf in front of me.”
“He’s just a friend—”
Christian ripped my shirt up the back, and I closed my eyes. “Do you know how jealous I was, watching the way he touched you? His hands on your body where only mine belong.” Christian’s mouth landed between my shoulder blades, and his tongue slowly traveled up to my nape as he swept my hair to the side. “And you looked ravishing in that tight dress. Miles of skin, no bra, and that sweet little arse just begging for me to touch it.”
I lifted my ass.
Christian pressed his hips into me and hissed. “You’re a bad girl, Miss Black. Did you kiss him?”
“Almost,” I admitted.
He parted my legs, his mouth against my ear. “Confess. Tell me every detail of what happened between you two.”
I was about to burst, the need for him overriding all rational thought, including lying. “He was naked.”
“And hard?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
Christian wedged his hard cock between my legs, resting it against the wet folds that ached for more of him. “This hard?”
“No,” I whimpered.
“And then what did he do?” Christian nipped my earlobe, and I was certain he’d drawn a drop of blood by the way his body shuddered.