by Elle Thorne
“Got a moment?” Dane said to Gavin. Pulling him aside, they went into the hallway.
“You know who they are? The Romanoff family?” Dane asked him.
At the blank look on Gavin’s face, Dane continued, “They run the East Coast. Word has it they are mobbed up.”
“Well shit,” Gavin exclaimed. Seemed he couldn’t get much more out than that while he processed facts. “Guess Vax might not appreciate it if I act too… untoward with them.”
Dane laughed. “Guess not. And since I’d take your back, safe to say we’d both be looking for a new position elsewhere. And I’m pretty sure we’ve burned a few bridges, which would make it hellishly worse.”
Gavin chewed his lip. “Go get Layla. Tell her I need to see her.”
“On it.”
* * *
“Where are we going?” Layla asked Dane again, for what seemed like the millionth time. The man had the same communication skills as Gavin. She couldn’t get shit out of him. “I’m not going with you if you don’t tell me where we’re going and why.”
“I told you. Gavin needs to see you in Tiero Tower Two.”
“That doesn’t really tell me anything.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I just follow orders.”
Since when did I become a ma’am to Dane?
“Dane. It’s me. Layla. What’s up with the ma’am crap?”
“Just being polite to our guests. That’s Tiero policy, being polite to guests.”
“I’m not a guest.” She panted, trying to keep up with his long legs. “Slow down. I’m not a guest, I’m an employee.”
Is he behaving like this because Gavin and I had sex? Oh my God. Maybe it’s because Gavin bonded with me.
That shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter to her friendship with Dane.
“You’re pissing me off, Dane.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am.”
She was going to make Gavin pay for this. She’d bet Gavin had told Dane to treat her differently. This sucked. Totally sucked. Now she was back to feeling the way she had felt at her father’s home. Like a damned princess that couldn’t be human, couldn’t be joked with.
She fumed all the way to the eighth floor of Tiero Tower Two. She had nothing more to say to Dane; she was going to take this all out on Gavin. She was going to kill him for making her feel like she was a porcelain doll.
She’d worked her ass off to prove herself at After Dark. And she enjoyed working. She liked bringing in money and paying for her own things. She liked being responsible. She liked having a schedule. She liked that she could be held accountable for her deeds or misdeeds.
Dane stopped in front of a door and whipped out an electronic key. He slipped it into the slider, and, when it clicked, he held the door open for her. She stormed inside, her eyes only for Gavin. By this point, she was seeing things in shades of red fury.
She drew up short.
Oh.
No.
“Daddy?” The word came out of her with as much grace as a bullfrog could be called graceful when it croaks.
Her father. In his suit. In a cage.
Her brother, too.
A bunch of the Romanoff security team.
She whirled around, her eyes finding Gavin, her glare piercing him. “Why is my father being held captive?”
She spun around again, back to her father. “Why are you here?”
She looked at her brother. “And you?”
She waved at Romanoff security. “And all of them?”
Her father frowned, as if she’d asked the silliest questions ever. “You vanished, princess. I had to find my baby girl.”
A half-smile made its way to Gavin’s face.
She snarled at him then turned back to her father. “Do not call me that.” She jabbed her finger toward the cage while looking at Gavin pointedly. “Let my father go.”
Gavin nodded to Dane, who nodded to the guy with the key.
One click and the door swung open.
“Is there something you’d like to tell me?” Mikhail Romanoff frowned at her.
She’d always be his baby girl, Layla knew this. But she’d be damned if she’d be called a princess ever again. She was a grown assed woman.
“L-like what?” What could he be referring to? She felt sixteen again, and as if she’d stayed out after curfew.
“You’re coming home with us.” Her brother John stepped forward, grabbing her arm.
“No way.” Layla jerked free. “I have a job here.”
“No sister of mine will do menial labor, working in a club as a glorified waitress.”
So that explained the note. It was from someone who knew her brother. Someone had been keeping tabs on her. That’s how they knew to come here for her.
Her father turned to John, a frown of consternation on his face. “Don’t be so quick to judge. You may have been born with money, but your grandfather loaded boats on the docks in Russia more than a century ago. You would do well to remember that. His mighty hands were calloused. I fear your mother has put her silver spoon ways in your mind.”
John puffed out his chest, straightened his spine. “She’s going with us. That’s the end of that.”
Gavin stepped forward. “I don’t think so.”
“You don’t?” John, who was taller and huskier, went for Gavin, lunging.
With a swift move, faster than her eye could process it, Gavin had her brother on the floor and a weapon to his forehead.
Their father idly watched.
John turned an accusing look on Mikhail Romanoff. “Aren’t you going to help me? How can you let him do this to me?”
“You should never take on someone you’re going to lose to without the right arsenal. His arsenal is skill in fighting. That’s self-evident. What’s yours? Analyzing stock. We all have our strengths. That wasn’t yours. Salvage your pride and recognize why he doesn’t want you to take your sister away.”
“He’s territorial. He’s proving a point.”
“Is that it?” Mikhail looked at Gavin.
Gavin shook his head. “Not exactly.”
Layla wasn’t going to tolerate this. She wasn’t chattel. She was no one’s property. “Who do you think you are?” she snapped at her brother, then turned on Gavin and put a finger on his chest. His hard, muscular chest that she couldn’t get enough of.
Oh, for goodness’ sake.
She knew her fox was pushing those thoughts into her mind.
Stop that right now.
She didn’t want her fox to stop. Hell, she could barely stop herself, but right now, she had business to take care of.
She riveted her sternest look onto her father and Gavin. “I’m leaving. You two go on and discuss me as if either of you has a choice in the matter.”
Layla turned on her heel and left the room. Behind her, her father laughed.
Chapter Fourteen
“She’s the exact replica of her mother. Is it any surprise I fell in love with Miriam?” Mikhail Romanoff smiled at Gavin.
Gavin could have sworn it was almost a conspiratorial smile. What the hell is that about?
“You’re just going to let her go off like that?” Her brother harrumphed.
“John, relax. She’s managed to make it this far. Who knows what she’s been up to, but it looks like she’s fared well.”
Uh, oh. Time to tell some truths and bring some things into the light.
Gavin cleared his throat. “Not totally.”
“What do you mean, tiger?” Mikhail turned his way. “What’s your name?”
“Gavin. Gavin Castro. When we found her, she was being kept captive by a couple of mangy wolf shifters. They were going to make her compete in an underground fight. To the death.”
Mikhail’s face turned red, his chest puffed out. “Where are these wolves?”
“They’ve been eliminated. The rest of the ring, the mastermind, is being looked into by our friends, the Nielsen twins of Houston. They’ll update us as soon as the
re is something worth reporting.”
“You’ll update me? I’d like to be a part of the retribution.”
“Retribution isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.”
“Yes, I know. I’ve heard of your situation. Your brother. I’m sorry it transpired.”
Gavin nodded. He wasn’t going to open that wound right now.
“So, what kind of name is that combination, Gavin Castro?”
“An Italian father and an Irish mother. Father’s a white tiger, distant relative of the Tiero. Mother’s a panther.”
“And you didn’t ask for permission for my daughter. Since we are on the topic of permission and trespassing.” The Romanoff alpha raised a brow.
Here we go. “I didn’t. I didn’t know her last name until she indicated you were her father.”
“That’s an insult to our family.” John unbuttoned his suit jacket.
“I don’t have a quarrel with you,” Gavin stated. “I’d like to keep it that way. If you lay another hand on your sister or try to disrupt what we have, I will have a quarrel with you.”
“I-I—”
“Quit posturing,” Gavin snapped at John. He’d begun to get on his nerves in a big way. “A few months at boot camp would have served you well.” He was done with John. Unless John started some shit.
“I need to go make things right with Layla.” Gavin took a step toward the door. “Mister Romanoff—”
“Mikhail.”
“Mikhail, if you’d like to avail yourself of Tiero hospitality, I’ll make sure Vittorio Tiero, we call him Vax, is aware you are here. He will come visit with you personally.” Gavin turned to Dane. “Take care of the Romanoffs, please.”
Gavin needed to brief Vax on matters, but, first, he had to iron things out with Layla. Else there wouldn’t be as much to brief Vax on because Layla would have dumped him.
She wouldn’t do that, would she?
Chapter Fifteen
Gavin didn’t bother calling for Layla. He could scent her. He could scent her anger. He knew she’d be here. She loved Sanctuary as much as he did. Sanctuary calmed him and his tiger. Of course, it would be the same for her.
He could also scent her salty tears of anger.
Once inside Sanctuary, he checked to make sure no one else was in there. He could scent no other, no one who would disturb them.
He shifted into his tiger and leapt onto the tallest boulder, where she’d found him before.
She was there. In her arctic fox form, a beautiful, pure-white, sexy, delicate-featured seductress.
He initiated syncing up. She accepted, her black eyes inquisitive, and even a little hurt. Maybe more than just a little.
I was hoping you hadn’t left. He nudged her with his head. He was so much larger than her it worried him he’d inflict pain.
Layla nuzzled his chest, her fox head going beneath his chin, fitting perfectly.
Where would I go? Her voice was colored with emotion, but not all of it was sadness.
Who knows with you? But you’ve got a streak in you, call it independence, call it pride, it makes you unpredictable.
Oh, and you’re predictable? She reached up and nipped his throat, sinking her canines into the tender part of his neck. She released and licked the spot.
Okay, she had a point there. He was far from predictable.
It only counts as couple bonding if we’re having sex when you do it, he said, a smile in his syncing tiger voice.
Is that right? she responded, a smile in her syncing fox voice.
* * *
Layla shifted into her human form, still tucked beneath Gavin’s tiger head. She relished the feel of his fur and wrapped her arms around his thick neck.
“I don’t regret you bonding with me one bit. I only hope you can open up to me. If you can’t, then the bond, this…” She waved her arms around, indicating the two of them. “This is all a waste. I won’t settle for being anything but an equal. I’m not a princess.”
He shifted quickly, and, suddenly, she was in his lap, her arms wrapped around him.
“You’re not a princess. You’re a fucking queen. You’re my fucking queen.” He lowered his head, his lips taking hers with force. “And speaking of fucking…”
He growled his need for her.
It was Layla’s turn. She wasn’t going to be the only one bonded.
She pushed Gavin toward a rock that was the perfect height for sitting on. She was all take and no give. She would take the man who’d bonded her and make him hers in the best way she knew how.
Unzipping and unbuttoning his pants, she reached inside and pulled him out.
“Fuck. I love this side of you.” Gavin’s voice was sex-husky, erotic, and a total turn on.
He reached out, his hands cupping her breasts, his thumbs teasing her nipples in the perfect way that had her soaking her panties.
She moaned. This was supposed to go a whole other way, and, with one touch, he had her moaning like a cat in heat. The seductress in her awakened. Layla pulled away, teasing him, cupping her breasts, offering them to him.
When he reached for her, she pulled even farther away. “Not yet, sexy. This is my show.”
She pushed him backward and climbed onto his lap, her skirt hitching up almost around her waist. She pushed her panties aside and poised, her heat just above the velvet-textured mushroom head of his magnificent cock.
She let out a small sigh as she lowered herself on him, his fullness stretching her. She took a second to let her channel accustom to his girth then she began to writhe on him, rocking her hips, moving her body, enjoying the way he filled her, feeling the aphrodisiac of being in charge and not letting him take control of her.
He was the man she needed, but she needed him on her terms, too. She fucked him slowly then raised her body and began to pump herself on him, allowing him to raise his hips in tempo, their bodies slapping, the sound juicy from her wetness drenching his cock and sliding down between their bodies.
The aphrodisiac of their scent, their sound, and the ultimate sensations passing through her were sending her over the edge.
She wasn’t sure she could hold on much longer, and she wanted him to come undone during her first orgasm, before things became so tangled, so unraveled she couldn’t control her thoughts.
She leaned close, licking his chest, following a trail of salty sweat up his neck.
“Ah, shit. Damn. Layla. You’re making me crazy.”
She sucked on his neck lightly while she tightened her muscles around him. His cock filled her so completely she couldn’t tell where he ended and she began.
With a low roar, Gavin grabbed her hips and thrust. She felt the heat of his orgasm and let go of her control, feeling wave after wave taking her.
Now. Or she’d lose it completely if she had another orgasm.
Layla leaned forward, sinking her teeth deep into his neck.
“Ahhh.” His exclamation of surprise was followed by a grunt of pain. She licked at the wound, savoring the flavor uniquely Gavin.
“You sexy sly thing. You bonded me.”
“You’re mine, Gavin Castro. Forever.”
“No doubt.” He grabbed her hips, thrusting even deeper as his heat shot up into her.
Chapter Sixteen
The next day, Gavin and Lyla were lying on his bed in his apartment. She’d more or less given up on going back to hers.
“Dad’s leaving today.” A sadness crossed her face.
“Say whatever you want, you’ll always be his little girl.”
“I know.” She pouted, and a part of Gavin’s heart melted.
“We can go see him whenever you want. Okay, little fox? I promise you this.”
She smiled, but the sadness didn’t go from her eyes completely.
“Tell me about you. About your brother.”
He raised a brow. “How’d you know about anything involving my brother?”
“Dad mentioned it. I guess he thought I knew. I tried to play
it off, but…”
“You’re hurt because I haven’t discussed this with you yet. I swear I was going to tell you as soon as possible, Layla. It’s been crazy. You know that.”
She nodded.
He told her the whole story. He tried to keep it brief and his voice platonic. He recounted the lieutenant’s decision that ended up with all of them but him and Dane dead. He told her how his brother hero-worshiped him and joined Sigma Eps.
Lastly, and he tried to cover it as briefly as he could, he told her about how his father wouldn’t talk to him now that his brother was dead.
She was happy he wasn’t taken to court and sad about his father and his brother.
Gavin nodded.
“You don’t like talking about it.” She ran her hand over his short hair.
“You understand, don’t you?”
She nodded. “We never have to bring it up again.”
And that was just one of the reasons why he loved this arctic fox of his.
Epilogue
Days later…
A driver waited outside, while Layla and her father said their good-byes.
She was a swollen, red-eyed, crying mess. Beautiful still, but a mess.
Gavin stepped away to give them space. He almost ran into John. Gavin wasn’t going to let her brother bait him. He turned away. He’d successfully avoided him the last three days, so he could deal with ten minutes until they loaded up and drove off.
“Gavin.”
Damn. There was no escaping now.
Gavin turned his way, not saying a word.
John took a deep breath, cleared his throat. Cleared it again. “I owe you an apology. I acted like a bratty piece of shit. Sorry.” John held his hand out.
This was a turnaround. Gavin shook John’s hand. “Accepted. I’m sure you were under stress.”
“Nah, don’t go excusing my behavior. Just… thank you for accepting my apology, and welcome to the family.”
Gavin nodded. “Thanks. Really. Sucks to have family not on your side.”