Exquisite Breath of Darkness

by Candice Stauffer

  Not wanting him to know how easily he’d upset her, she purposely blocked her mind, her thoughts, from him. She tried to go about her day and forget it, but with each passing minute her anger and frustration grew. Eventually she felt obsessed with negative thoughts of him. What was so important that he’d left without giving her a proper kiss? Did he have another woman? Was it Teresa?

  ~ Two ~

  IT CAME FROM out of nowhere. One second Joseph was listening to Larissa, his VP, explain why the hotel needed to immediately hire more housekeeping staff, and the next he was experiencing a sudden premonition of danger, danger involving Mia. He couldn’t see her, but he could feel her. She had entered the building, and she was ticked off.

  Mia being upset with him wasn’t shocking. He enjoyed riling her now and then. And he was pretty damn good at finding just the right buttons to push to get a rise out of her. This time, however, it was no game. She was beyond furious. Caught up and being battered in a brutal storm of dark, tumultuous emotions, she was determined to hunt him down and, if he was reading her right, tear him to shreds. Obviously, whatever he’d done, it was far worse than a poke or a status change.

  “Did you hear me, Joseph?” Larissa asked in an impatient tone as she leaned across his desk and waved her hand in front of his face. “Joseph?”

  Paying no attention to Larissa, he expanded his mind and reached for Mia to examine her thoughts a little closer. “Damn it.” He couldn’t find anything but extreme rage, and there was no discernible reason for it.

  “Excuse me.” Larissa scooted back in her seat.

  The rage had to be caused by the morphine. Although Mia had been attempting to wean herself off it, at times she simply didn’t have a choice but to take it. Without it, the pain she suffered because of an aggressive form of bone cancer was too excruciating. Mia understood that the morphine caused her to be engulfed in bouts of uncontrollable rage, but she didn’t fully understand why. She believed it was some type of allergic reaction. Her lack of knowledge of the truth was partially his fault.

  When they’d first met, she hadn’t seemed to know she was lycan. She had been orphaned at a young age and raised by humans in various foster homes and group homes, and she’d never taken the form of her wolf. At first Joseph had believed her wolf was too weak to fully manifest because of the cancer, and he’d considered bringing it up on several occasions. However, after learning of her hatred for certain immortal beings, mostly vampires, he thought perhaps it wasn’t a matter of her not knowing, but rather of her being in denial.

  The denial might be helping her cope emotionally, but physically it was putting her in danger. Morphine and other narcotics were poisonous to those of lycan blood. It drastically altered their brain activity, and over time morphine would cause a lycan to go insane with murderous rage. They would kill again and again just for the pleasure of doing it.

  If he was correct, right now her lycan side was incensed and completely in charge. She was a powerful, deadly predator on the hunt and a serious threat to anyone unfortunate enough to stumble between her and her prey—which just happened to be him.

  “You need to leave, Larissa.”

  “What?”

  “You need to leave.” He needed to get her out of his office for her own protection. Handing her the staff schedules they’d been going over, he stood up. “We’re done.”

  “No.” Irritation flashed in her eyes. “I’m sick and tired of trying to track you down to take care of business. I never had to chase Teresa down. Ever since you’ve been back this place is being run straight into the ground. I’m not letting you off the hook. We aren’t even close to being finished.” She waved a stack of invoices in his face. “We haven’t even started going through these yet.”

  Joseph paid no attention to her protest other than to take her arm, lift her out of her chair, and say, “Later.” He didn’t have time to argue with her. “Teresa was never your boss. You were in charge. You never had to go through her for anything. And we are done when I say we are done. And for now we are done, Larissa.” He led her to the back entrance to his office.

  “We are done when you say we are done? I don’t think so. What do you think you’re doing?” The defiance in her voice let him know that getting rid of her wasn’t going to be easy. She was naturally stubborn and bold. It was why he’d chosen her to be his second in command. “I don’t need your help to walk, Joseph.” She yanked her arm out of hand and then turned and walked back over to his desk.

  “I said we’re done.” Joseph was monitoring Mia as she walked past the front desk, giving no regard to the receptionist who had attempted to stop her. “You’re leaving.” Mia’s thoughts were jumbled. They didn’t make any sense at all. No matter how deeply he examined her thoughts, Joseph still couldn’t figure out what had spurred her temper. All he knew was that she was mad as hell. Using his mind, he prevented the receptionist or any other person from pursuing her or attempting to stop her. “Right now, Larissa. You need to get the hell out of here.”

  Her entire body visibly stiffening, Larissa glared at him. “I know.” She took a deep breath and released it with a hiss of irritation. “I’m not deaf. I heard you.”

  She was moving, but too slowly and in the wrong direction. He had to get her out of his office before Mia walked in. He caught Larissa’s shoulder to stop her.

  She spun around and pointed her finger in his face. “I sure hope you don’t think that just because I’m a woman you can put your hands on me. I won’t tolerate it.”

  Joseph released her immediately. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. But you need to leave right now.”

  Clearly annoyed, she shook her head and made a ‘screw you’ face at him. “Whatever.” And then, once again she moved in the wrong direction, toward his desk.

  The woman had absolutely no sense of self-preservation. Joseph had never felt so totally overwhelmed with desperation and fear. If he didn’t get Larissa out of the office before Mia walked in, his VP would very likely be seriously injured.

  He was mentally kicking himself in the ass, hard. He’d known Mia’d been bothered over the way he left her earlier, and he’d planned to make it up to her later. When he’d felt her partially withdraw from their mental link, he’d allowed it because he’d been preoccupied, taking care of business matters with Larissa. He should’ve seen Mia’s retreat from him as the warning it was. He should’ve pushed harder to monitor her thoughts more closely. “You need to leave, Larissa. Right now.”

  “I told you that I heard you. I’m not deaf.” She glanced over her shoulder. “You don’t have to keep saying it. I heard you the first ten times you said it.” Head pounding, he watched as she picked her phone up. “I just needed to get this.”

  Turning around to face him, lifting her chin, she stared into his eyes. She looked as if she’d like to throw the phone at him as she waved it his face. Truthfully, he didn’t blame her for being mad. “If you need me for the next two weeks, don’t bother calling. I’m taking off for the weekend, and then I’m on vacation. You can deal with the housekeepers threatening to quit because there’s too much work for them.” She turned and walked toward the front door.

  “That’s fine. I hope you enjoy your vacation.”

  Larissa turned and frowned at him. “Whatever.”

  Joseph felt Mia’s hand resting on the doorknob as she hesitated just outside his office. Moving with blurring speed, he got in front of Larissa. “No. Use the back entrance.” Larissa shook her head defiantly. “Go out the back now.” He used a powerful compulsion Larissa wouldn’t be able to defy.

  Normally, to avoid exposing the existence of his kind, he wouldn’t have used his supernatural power carelessly in front of or on a human he spent a great deal of time with on a regular basis. This time he didn’t have a choice; he knew Mia was attempting but failing to regain control. As soon as Larissa walked out, Joseph waved his hand to lock the back door so she couldn’t come back in.

  As he turned
around, Mia opened his front office door and slammed it behind her. “What the hell have you done to me, Joseph?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The instant he looked into her eyes he realized that it wasn’t rage at all. He’d misread her emotions. It was lust. Hot, wild lust was burning in her eyes.

  “Do you really think I’m going to allow you to stand there and play dumb with me?”

  “Mia.” Joseph said her name in a soft, soothing tone, hoping to get through to her. “I didn’t do anything to you.”

  His attempt to calm her failed. The energy she was exuding was that of a wild predator preparing to sink its teeth into its prey. She was being driven to madness from lust. It shouldn’t have shocked him, but it did. Since meeting her, the unexpected was the rule. She was trouble. He liked trouble. A lot. But this, this was way beyond the unexpected.

  Her gaze went from the chair Larissa had been sitting in, moved to the back door, and then locked onto the hand he’d used to lift Larissa from chair. And then he realized she’d lifted her chin and was scenting the air.

  “Mia.” He once again lowered his voice, hoping to use it to bring her out of the ‘predator stalking its prey’ mode.

  “You were in here alone with Larissa.” Her voice was a low, threatening growl. She stared down at his hand. “You were touching her.” She looked up to meet his gaze.

  “No.” Realizing she was jealous, he grinned like a fool. His reaction was an obvious mistake, considering her extreme level of frustration.

  “Why are you smiling? Are you having fond memories of her?”

  That brought a frown to his face in a hurry. “Of course not.” Attempting to appear as casual as possible, he crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned his hip against his desk. “That’s crazy. What would make you think that?”

  “Crazy?” Frowning, she narrowed her gaze onto his, her teeth chewing her bottom lip as if expelling pent-up fury. “What are you trying to say, Joseph?”

  He shook his head. Damn it to hell. “Nothing.” Two thousand years of life experience had just failed him. It had been happening more and more every day ever since he’d met her. Any fool would’ve known better than to make such an enormous mistake with an already infuriated woman. The best way to encounter crazy was to call a hormonal woman crazy. Though he hadn’t actually done it, he knew that was the way she’d taken it. “I wasn’t calling you crazy.”

  “Oh … gee, Joseph. Thanks. You’re too kind to me.” To most her upturned lips would’ve been mistaken for a smile, but he knew better. She was snarling, baring her teeth at him. “I don’t know how I would survive without you. I feel much better now.” And she planned to use those teeth on him.

  Yeah. Right. He shoved a hand through his hair. He knew better. In fact he feared she was about to take her wolf form. Suddenly realizing just how close her wolf was to the surface, his swallow was quite audible. She definitely didn’t feel any better. If he was right, she was about two seconds away from making herself feel better by seriously fucking him up and possibly other people if she managed to get out of his office.

  Maintaining an appearance of calm to avoid triggering her predator attack instincts, he started to work out a plan. He needed to gain control of the situation, or rather gain control of her, without harming her. His best option was to grab her and shift with her to someplace with no one else around. With a thought, he locked the door through which she’d entered to prevent her from running out when he made his move.

  Obviously hearing the click, she glanced over her shoulder. In a slow motion, ‘holy shit, she’s possessed by utter evil and going to kill me’ sort of way, she turned her head to him and pinned her gaze onto his. “Aw, Joseph, you’re such a silly man.” Laughing at him with evident satisfaction, she took a small step toward him. “But I assure you I won’t be the one attempting to run away like a frightened little girl.”

  Fear, true fear, gripped him, and his pulse skyrocketed. “That’s good. I wouldn’t want you to be frightened of me.” His dragon began to stir restlessly, pacing back and forth deep within his soul. He’d been going against his nature, his need to take possession of her body and soul, for the past six months as he’d courted her slowly and given her more time to accept him and what he was.

  “You won’t be thinking it’s good when I get my hands on you,” she vowed.

  Clearly, her statement was meant to be a threat, but he heard it as a promise of hot and wild carnal pleasure. “I wouldn’t be sure of that.” Normally his dragon wouldn’t have become agitated unless he was engaged in some type of battle, but its edginess had nothing to do with his dragon wanting to fight and everything to do with heightened arousal caused by her aggression.

  Joseph’s dragon reacting in this way was strange; in fact it had never happened during his entire existence since he’d not yet found his destined mate. No matter how much he wanted Mia to be his true mate, she wasn’t. As in the past, his dragon should’ve remained aloof even though she was aroused and he was aroused. He figured it was because he had been fighting an ever-growing need for her, for her body.

  Regardless of why it was happening, it was far more than a bit unnerving. It was downright alarming. Normally, even in the heat of battle, Joseph had control over the dragon’s nature, but he could feel it slipping away. And that was dangerous. He could kill her. Not from the act of sex. Oh, no. He would make damn sure the sex was superbly satisfying, but with his dragon so aroused and fighting to dominate the situation it was likely he would lose all thought to the passion and attempt to take her last mortal breath to replace it with his immortal breath. For his destined mate it would ensure their eternal union. For Mia, it would ensure her eternal demise.

  He narrowed his unblinking eyes on Mia, devouring every lush, curvaceous inch of her feminine beauty. He ached to feel her soft skin against his, to cradle the weight of her full breasts in his hands as he buried his hard, throbbing cock deep inside her hot body.

  For one terrifying second as she stood there laughing at him, it seemed impossible for him to keep his dragon, the darkest and most dangerous portion of his essence, from making a move to take possession of her. His cock, hard and heavy with raw lust, throbbed angrily. For the first time in his existence, he had reason to fear he would lose control of his sexual urges. He fought to rein them in, fought the urge to rip off her clothing and slam into her; luckily, years of discipline made it possible for him to remain in command.

  He could smell the adrenaline surging through her bloodstream, causing her heart to pound too quickly. He could easily hear it from several feet away. Or maybe it was his; he couldn’t tell. His plan to grab her and get her the hell out of there was far from perfect. If she shifted into her wolf form, he was going to get badly torn up. Still, it seemed to be his best option.

  Uncrossing his arms, he took a step in her direction, his movement setting off her predator instincts and kicking them into overdrive as she watched his every move. He’d never seen her wolf front and center, so powerfully incited.

  Flames burning in her eyes, she kept her gaze locked onto his. “Tell me what you did to me, Joseph.” She was trembling. Not from fear. Not from morphine. In fact, he couldn’t detect any morphine in her body at all. She was mad as hell and sexually frustrated, but anger and frustration weren’t what were spurring her. Something else, something far more powerful, had roused her wolf.

  He wasn’t sure what she believed he’d done to her, but he knew that, whatever it was, it was bad. Normally, simply asking would’ve been the easiest way to proceed, but it wasn’t an option this time. She was struggling for control, and he sensed she wouldn’t believe he didn’t know. Asking would push her over the edge. Hoping to figure it out, he expanded his mind and reached a little deeper in her mind than ever before.

  Shocked by what he found, he almost withdrew from her thoughts. Her mind, her body were a burning caldron of lust. She was desperate for relief. Her flesh burned. Her body ached. It couldn’t
be—she didn’t even know she was lycan—and yet, it was: she was in heat. As a result, her body was in a constant state of arousal. Her mind was confused. Her thoughts were centered on Joseph because in her mind no other man could ever give her the relief her body demanded. While that was good, it was also bad because of the timing. She didn’t have any way of knowing why she was suffering. But it was good her focus was on him. It was the sort of thing that brought a smile to man’s face.

  “It’s some sort of a spell, isn’t it?” She took another step him. “Isn’t it?”

  “No.” A one-word response wasn’t enough, but as taken aback as he was, it was a miracle he’d managed to find his voice to say that.

  “Playing stupid doesn’t suit you. Don’t you dare think for a minute you can lie to me!” Mia lifted her chin boldly, and her turquoise eyes blazed with fury as she stared into his eyes. She was so damn hot. Her long, dark blonde curls were disheveled. Her skin was just slightly flushed. “I know damn well what the hell you’re capable of doing with your mind!”