Touch If You Dare

by Stephanie Rowe

  “Reina? You okay?”

  Jarvis’s image vanished from her mind. “Yeah, yeah, fine.” What was she doing fantasizing about Jarvis? She had no time for personal pleasures, and even if she did, Jarvis was bad news. Even his friends looked at him as if he were tainted. She had no time to be doling out comforting hugs to men who were three slaps and a tickle from going over to the dark side. She had a sister to save, an assassin to harvest, and investors to recruit, after all. A full schedule.

  “Excuse me. I’m late for a meeting and can’t wait any longer.” A man shoved his way to the front of the line.

  He was tall, well-muscled, with short dark hair and a gorgeous double breasted suit. His eyes were dark and hooded, as if he were hiding secrets no one wanted to hear about, and a small scar marred his left cheekbone. He was money, he was elusive, he was danger, and he was raw male. He was exuding so much sex appeal she felt her own body tighten, and all she could think about was Jarvis. His hands on her body, running all over her—

  “Oh, dear lord,” Trinity whispered, her voice throaty and rough. “I need to find Blaine. Right now.”

  The man held up a pair of virility balls. “Who’s helping me with these?”

  “I am.” Natalie stepped up to the counter.

  The man’s gaze fell directly on her full and gorgeous breasts. He swore under his breath. “Isn’t there anyone else who can assist me?”

  “No. Just me.” Natalie’s pulse began to throb visibly in her neck. “My name’s Natalie Fleming.”

  He gripped the marble counter, his tanned forearms flexing. He was muscular and corded, almost as much as Jarvis…

  Oh, crap. Why was she thinking about Jarvis? But she couldn’t help it. Her mind was in the gutter big time, and it felt wonderful. She could practically smell that dark, woodsy scent he carried with him. His skin hot to the touch, stretched taut over his muscles… “Trin? Are you feeling weird right now?”

  Trinity was bracing herself on one of the counters, and her face was flushed. “You mean like, if Blaine were here, I’d rip off my clothes and ride him ’til the sun went down, even though the room is packed with about a hundred strangers? That kind of weird?”

  Reina’s lower belly was throbbing, a deep, rhythmic pulsing that was the same as she’d experienced that moment when Jarvis had had her pinned beneath him, his weight heavy, dominating, so male. “Yeah, like that.”

  Trinity wiped her hand over her forehead. “Is it the virility balls?”

  “No, they only work on Dullets. Humans with no magical ability.”

  “You’re dangerous to my self-control,” the man said to Natalie, dragging his gaze off her breasts. “I need to shut it down.”

  “Shut what down?” Natalie breathed, her voice so throaty that Reina felt her own thighs begin to ache.

  “Sex.” He shifted restlessly, as if he could barely contain the energy rushing through him. “I can’t kill any more women with sex. I’ve been celibate for three months, and I can’t hold off much longer. It’s got to change.” He set his hand on Natalie’s and ran his fingers up her arm. “And you’re making it harder. My God. You’re captivating.”

  “You kill with orgasms?” Natalie echoed, her voice trembly.

  “Holy shit!” Trinity gripped Reina’s arm. “It’s the Godfather. I heard he was in town.”

  Reina rubbed her palm over her belly, trying to ease the tension. “The Godfather? The man who has orgasmed over a hundred women to death?”

  “Yes,” Trinity whispered. “I’ve heard he has such an effect on women that they can orgasm simply by being in the same room with him. Of course not everyone is susceptible, but as long as she’s within kissing distance of some dirty thoughts, a woman’s got no chance against him.”

  Jarvis flashed in Reina’s mind again. This time he was naked and hard. He descended toward her, his eyes intense and dark. Then he took her in a devastating kiss. His mouth was demanding and hard, a warrior who would throw her up against a wall and take what he wanted. But his arms were cradling her, protecting her, giving her safety even while his lips were so hot and—

  “I heard it’s worse if he touches you,” Trinity said.

  “It is?” Reina realized Godfather’s fingers were trailing down Natalie’s arm, touching her bare skin. They were leaning so close to each other. A sex murderer and a girl on the edge of a deedub death? Holy crap. Reina grabbed her sister’s arm. “Nat! Get away from him—”

  “Let go of me. He’s a client.” Natalie jerked her arm free and sent Reina slamming back against a bookshelf. Boxes of chocolates tumbled down on top of her.

  “Reina!” Trinity raced over. “Are you okay?”

  “We have to stop her.” Reina shoved a box off her. “She’s going to think she can survive his orgasms and die, just like how my mom tried to get it on with a succubus on meth.”

  Natalie’s attention was riveted on the Godfather. “I’ve never tried to lower a man’s virility.”

  His mouth was inches from hers. “Try,” he whispered.

  “Yeah, okay.” She gripped his balls in her palm. “Eat.”

  He slipped the chocolate spheres in his mouth as Reina scrambled to her feet. “He’s Magick, Natalie, it won’t work on him. You can’t make him less dangerous.” Was he Magick? He had to be. No ordinary human could orgasm a hundred women to death, no matter how sexy he was.

  The Godfather shot an annoyed look at Reina, and she felt her insides melt. Suddenly, all she could think of was how it would feel to have Jarvis’s lips working their way down her spine. Over her hips. On her belly. Then lower, and lower. He would slide his tongue inside her, and—

  Trinity fell to her knees with a groan. “We’ve got to get Natalie.”

  “I’ll get her.” Reina closed her eyes and willed herself to think of Jarvis’s haunted eyes. Of the monster within him. Of the trepidation that clawed at her gut when she saw him watching her. Her body went ice cold, and the relentless sexual need consuming her eased enough for her to access her raw fear of the man who was about to kill her sister.

  Grasping onto that terror like a lifeline, Reina sprinted across the room and jerked Natalie out of the Godfather’s grasp. “Get out of my store,” Reina ordered him. “Now!”

  “No.” The Godfather vaulted over the counter and headed right for Natalie. “I’m taking her.”

  “Yes, take me.” Natalie started struggling and Reina knew she wouldn’t be able to hold her for long.

  “Natalie! Don’t do this!” Reina felt her own muscles begin to tremble, responding to the vibes he was giving off. One more minute, and she was going to drop to the floor in an orgasm and be screaming Jarvis’s name while a beast carried her sister off into the sunset.

  Her sister was going to die, and there was no way she could save her. She felt it in her heart, in the depths of her soul. This man was her sister’s fate. Augustus didn’t matter anymore, because her sister’s time to die had just arrived.

  ***

  Jarvis had about one second to commend himself for tracking Reina down so efficiently, and then he caught the scent of arousal. Instinctively, he went for his sword. After one hundred and fifty years at the merciless and not-so-doting hands of Angelica and her apprentices, a room that smelled like sex was a room that meant pain, torture, and women who thought foreplay meant jabbing toothpicks in his nuts.

  “Jesus.” Nigel came to a dead stop beside him. “It feels like the Pit of Sexual Pain and Pleasure.” He white-knuckled the doorway. “I’m already traumatized enough by bad sex. I’m going to have nightmares tonight.”

  “I hear you, buddy.” Jarvis surveyed the room and saw the women were down on their knees behind the counter, hunched over like they’d just been sucker punched. Shit. Was she hurt? “Reina!” He tore across the room, shoving his way through the men crowding the door.

  One was leering at Reina and Trinity like they were pole dangers in a seedy bar, and Jarvis slammed the butt of his sword into the bastard’s head as h
e went past. “Learn some manners,” he snapped as he vaulted the counter and landed beside the girls. “Reina. I’m here.”

  She looked up at him. “Jarvis?”

  He froze, shocked by the raw lust in her eyes. Jesus. No one had ever looked at him with such raw, unabashed, pure wanting before, especially not Reina. His body responded instantly, and he started to reach for her. To haul her against him and kiss her until—

  His fingers brushed the ends of her hair, and the sensual feel of her silken strands shocked him back into awareness, and he jerked his hand away. No one would use sex as a weapon against him. Ever.

  “Bye, bye,” a woman’s voice sang out. “Love you all!”

  Reina paled. “Natalie.” She tried to lurch to her feet, and Jarvis caught her arm as she stumbled.

  He could feel the heat of her skin as she fell against him. The woman was oozing pheromones worse than a leopard in heat. He immediately released her and stepped back, needing space, needing distance from the almost unstoppable urge to throw her down right on that floor and lose himself to the passion she was emanating. Who in God’s name had made her so hot? And why was he responding like this? Women tried to seduce him all the time, and it never worked. But now? Jesus. All he could think about was how her hips would feel under his palms. What her lips would taste like. “What the hell have you been doing?” he demanded. “And who got you in this state?” Because he had a very strong urge to behead that bastard right here. Right now. Twice.

  But in complete lack of reciprocity, she managed to restrain herself from unzipping his fly, and instead she was running out the door.

  “Natalie,” she shouted. “Get back here! God, Trinity! Help!” She misted out of sight. Instant vanishing.

  “Shit!” He’d lost her already. Was that her weapon? Turn him into a giant hard-on so he couldn’t think, and then bail on him? If he wasn’t so strung out by the blood rushing to his lower regions, he’d be impressed with the success of her plan. No woman had the ability to get him to think about sex. None except Reina, apparently.

  Jarvis crouched beside Trinity. She was still hunched over, exuding sex as thickly as Reina. But it wasn’t turning him on. He actually just wanted to keep his hands off her, which was how it should be. Him, in control. Woman, not. “Where’d Reina go?”

  She pointed out the front window. “She went after her sister, Natalie. They must be on the street outside. Bring them both back, Jarvis. Please!”

  “I will.” He shoved his way through the men, who were now clamoring for assistance and yelling some shit about virile balls.

  Jarvis reached the sidewalk just as Reina appeared across the street, directly in front of tall, suited man and a well-stacked gal who had to be her sister, Natalie.

  “Nat!” Reina lunged for Natalie, who sidestepped Reina and flung her to the side. Reina crashed into a parking meter with a thud that made anger rise fast and hard inside Jarvis.

  “Hey!” He bolted across the street, sword out. No one messed with the people in his life, and Reina was his, both because she was the best friend of Blaine’s woman, and because he needed her help.

  He swept Reina off the curb, tucked her against him, and then grabbed Natalie’s wrist. Her eyes were glowing too brightly and her skin was hot. Too hot. Almost reminded him of Blaine’s, but he wasn’t buying that this chick was made of fire the way Blaine was.

  Hell, no. This woman exuded sex on a level he’d never run into in his life. But it couldn’t penetrate the ball of hate that surrounded him. Immune as always. Except for that moment when Reina had looked at him. He’d felt that, and in a big way. Didn’t like it. But at the same time, it felt good as hell to feel like a male.

  “Hey.” The man stepped up, and his eyes were flashing. “She’s mine.”

  “You don’t get to have her.” Reina braced her hand on Jarvis’s waist, then she waggled her fingers at him. Death powder spewed out and hit the guy squarely in the face, but nothing happened.

  Well, hell. Jarvis had seen Reina drop Nigel on his artist-boy-ass with that powder, and this guy hadn’t blinked. Who was he?

  Natalie ripped her arm free of Jarvis’s grasp with strength he wasn’t prepared for (hadn’t he learned not to underestimate women by now?). “I love you, Reina, but I have to do this.” She lowered her shoulder and charged.

  The intent on her face was clear. She was going to hurt the woman he’d come to recruit. The woman who had, for the first time in his life, turned him on with real, honest-to-God desire. “Screw that.” He whipped his sword around and butt checked the handle of his sword into Natalie’s head. She dropped instantly on the pavement and didn’t move.

  Oh, shit. Women didn’t usually like when you knocked out their loved ones. “Uh, sorry, Reina—”

  But in an entirely unexpected turn of events, Reina looked at Jarvis with utter relief on her face. “Thank you!”

  As she knelt beside her sister, Jarvis felt like the king of the world. Yeah, he’d saved the girl. Rock on. He grinned and cheerfully levered the point of his sword at the other man as he reached for Natalie.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Jarvis said. “Leave.” His fingers twitched on the sword. “Or stay and fight. I’d be down with that.” Well, not really. He had a feeling that if he let go a little bit, he was going to lose it all. But that didn’t stop the hate monster inside him from wanting to engage.

  The man glanced at Natalie, then eyed the sword with its black, glowing blade. He inclined his head in capitulation. “I defer.” Then he turned and stepped into a limousine that was waiting by the curb.

  The sleek silver car roared and then slipped out of sight around the corner.

  Jarvis sheathed his sword. “Okay, Reina. Let’s go.”

  “Hey, sweetie,” Reina said softly.

  He stiffened at the tenderness of Reina’s voice. Women who spoke like that were never to be trusted. Sword up, he turned sharply, only to see she was stroking Natalie’s cheek, cradling her the way a mother would hug a small child.

  His sword dropped at the tenderness of the moment. There was no guile in that embrace. Simple, pure tenderness. For a moment he was too shocked to do anything but stare. The corners of Reina’s mouth were tight, tears were glistening in her eyes, and her shoulders were shaking. With relief? Agony? Terror?

  He took a step toward her. Wanting to help her. To ease her pain. He had a sword. He could kick the ass of anything that was scaring her. He was good at that. Really good.

  “Hey, Natalie,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “It’s going to be okay. I’m here for you.”

  The pain on her face was soul-deep anguish. It was so different than the pain when a warrior got his foot spliced by a half-demon succubus. It was real, worse, so deep he could almost feel it in his own gut. He reached out to touch her, not even sure what he was trying to do—

  Then something hit him in the back of the head and he was out.

  Chapter 5

  Reina looked up as Jarvis teetered forward and toppled over, landing beside her with a thump. For a second, she was too surprised to move. Seriously, it wasn’t every day that a towering hunk of manliness went belly-up on Newbury Street for no apparent reason.

  Had the sight of female bonding been too much for his scarred and tortured soul to handle? A late afternoon sugar crash? Or was it some Pavlovian response to something Angelica had drilled into him? Not that it mattered. Even the tall, dark warriors harboring undefined black souls were supposed to always be on their feet and ready to defend, preserve, and protect. “Um, Jarvis?”

  She patted his unresponsive cheek, then she noticed the five pointed pink star protruding from the back of his head. “Jarvis!” She threw herself over his inert from instinctively, trying to protect him.

  She knew who carried pink stars. She knew who killed with pink stars. She knew who assassinated with pink stars. Please let me be wrong. Cautiously, so ridiculously terrified of what she might find, she sniffed.

  Rotten bana
nas.

  “Hello, my dear,” a well-cultured male voice drifted over the afternoon air.

  She scrambled to her feet, and there he was, less than ten yards away. Augustus. Not Good.

  The world’s most well-decorated and highly sought after assassin was every bit as scary as she’d thought he would be. At least two inches over the five foot mark, his skin was crusty, and a half-smoked cigar was dangling from the left side of his mouth. A tattered cowboy hat was askew on his balding head, a few gray hairs were protruding from his chin, and his purple velvet slippers seemed to be a sign of impending insanity, which was never a good thing when it came to professional killers.

  He smiled, a thin, nasty smile that would have made the nearest cockroach run for cover. “Reina Fleming, I presume.”

  He’d come for her? “Oh, I’m so sorry. Reina died ten minutes ago. You just missed her.”

  But in a horrifically unfair state of affairs, the ultimate bad boy had enough brain cells to realize she was lying. “I heard you wanted to kill me.”

  “You did?” She’d gotten her assignment less than two hours ago. If she was still alive to text after Augustus left, she would let her boss know that his impenetrable safeguards had been violated… hmm… had Death himself leaked the news? Was he setting her up to fail?

  Of course he was. That would be just like him, wouldn’t it? Hadn’t he told her that he was far too complex for a linear, simplistic assignment? Anyone with the ability to comprehend the blatantly obvious would know that she had no chance against Augustus, so if Death had sent the ultimate black sheep after her, then it meant he was trying to get her fired in the most permanent way.

  Men could be so despicable sometimes. Weren’t women supposed to be the ones who were plotting, circuitous, and resourceful, and men were simply supposed to put their heads down and charge? Hello? Had someone failed to copy her on the gender reversal memo?

  “Of course I know you need to kill me,” Augustus said. “Do you think I would dominate my esteemed profession if I didn’t have an extensive underground network of people willing to betray others to keep me alive in return for a payoff so paltry it insults their intelligence?” He ripped open his black satin shirt to reveal an unexpectedly well-muscled chest and a black tattoo in the shape of a chicken over his heart. “I’m busy, so I thought I’d make this easy for me. We’ll do it Old West style.”