Chosen by Sin

by Virna DePaul

  Like the other females there, Jes’s calculating gaze had swept the room, evaluating the males one by one, trying to find the likeliest source of pleasure. When she’d swept her gaze right past the slick good looks of O’Flare to land and stay on Dex, his heart had thundered and his dick had swelled, pushing against his jeans to get to her. With a knowing smile, she’d strolled up to him, surrounding him in the sultry scent of perfume underlined with something wild and tropical…something that called to his beast.

  “A night of passion,” she’d offered. And he’d been tempted. So tempted. But he’d been working and then shit had started happening, including Wraith getting shot and Lucy being drugged. He and Lucy ended up back in his hotel room after the entire showdown. He’d been exhausted, and had almost forgotten about the sexy vamp. Almost.

  Hours later, he’d awoken in his hotel room to find Lucy missing. Someone had blipped in and whisked Lucy away, and every clue had pointed to that someone being Jesmina.

  Dex had been pissed. All he could think about was retaliation. But when he’d realized Lucy was not only safe but had gone with the vamp of her own free will, Dex’s anger morphed into its true form—lust.

  That lust was still crawling through his veins, even after the two days he’d spent tracking down the vamp. Yeah, Jesmina had done what she thought would help Lucy, and Lucy had been all for it as he’d found out later, but he still wanted answers. And maybe to scratch that itch. But it was a lust he couldn’t afford to give free rein, not without revealing its intensity or letting it distract him from what was most important—his job and ultimately, his revenge against his bastard of a grandfather.

  “Lucy’s exactly what I look for in a bedmate,” he gritted out, even though it was complete bullshit. “Beautiful and compliant.” Those two words accurately described Lucy. But equally true was that Lucy was more like a sister to him than a lover. Still, she needed someone to help her with the feline heat and since she wasn’t willing to let anyone else touch her, that left Dex. Sex was the only way to alleviate the writhing agony feline heat put the werecats in. But although the idea of Friends With Benefits might attract some, he knew the truth. He hated that Lucy had to have sex with someone she wasn’t in love with. Their bodies might get into the act, but their minds were elsewhere, making for a vacant experience.

  “Sounds quite boring, if you ask me. And given your initial question, you think the same thing or you wouldn’t be here.”

  He smiled tightly. “My question wasn’t a statement of intention. You approached me in a crowded bar and asked me if I wanted to fuck. I declined. I haven’t changed my mind. I’m just wondering if you ever really wanted to fuck or if the reason you came on to me in the first place was to get to Lucy.”

  Her eyes narrowed into angry slits before her expression smoothed. She laughed. “Well, there’s gratitude for you. So typical of a were. Although I didn’t use that turn of phrase, it’s as accurate as any. And as you’re no doubt aware of by now, I helped Lucy get the information you and your teammates were in dire need of.”

  It pissed him off that she was right. Thanks to Jes, the Para-Ops team had solved their last case. “The question is why’d you help us?” He stalked toward Jes, crowding her with his body until she was forced to look up at him. He traced her cheek, his blunt-tipped finger rough against her skin. He was far too aware of her skin’s silky texture, which made him want to press his lips against every part of her. “Somehow I don’t think it was out of the kindness of your heart.”

  She shivered and stepped back. He clenched his fists to stop himself from reaching for her. Contrary to what he’d implied, resisting her invitation hadn’t been easy. He’d wanted to fuck her since the moment he’d seen her. He still did.

  But it was more than that.

  There was something about this female.

  Something about the way she’d watched over Lucy while the rest of them had been dealing with Wraith’s assaulter and tending to Wraith’s wound.

  Something about the way she’d talked about her own friendship with a wraith that she hadn’t been able to save.

  Something about the way she looked at him as if she could see inside his very soul.

  Whatever it was, Dex wanted to know her on a personal level that had nothing to do with sex. But damn if he was going to let her see that.

  “You’re the one who asked me to hold Lucy for you when the wraith got shot,” she pointed out. “I tried to tell you I had information relevant to the felines, but Lucy was the only one who listened. So I gave her the information she asked for. C’est tout. That’s all.”

  Abruptly, she turned away from him and walked across the street. She pushed through the glass doors of her luxury hotel and strode toward the lobby elevators.

  Dex easily kept up with her.

  The night they’d met, she’d told him she lived in France, but despite her faint accent, she’d never spoken French before. It was sexy as hell. More importantly, it revealed she was off balance. Clearly on the retreat. Why? Because she didn’t trust herself to keep her hands off him? Or because she was attracted to him in more than the physical sense, as well? Why else would she be reneging on the offer of pleasure she’d made?

  As she waited for the elevator to arrive, he crossed his arms and leaned casually against the wall, ignoring the uneasy way the reception staff was staring at them. “That’s all, huh? And it had nothing to do with trying to get your claws into me? Tres shame,” he mocked.

  She was looking increasingly annoyed now. “You’re attractive, were, but not that attractive. In fact, to answer your question, no I don’t want to fuck. Not anymore. The fact that you and your teammates were so clueless has left me cold.”

  Despite her words, he didn’t buy it. Perhaps his instincts were wrong, then. Perhaps she wasn’t actually running from him, but rather resisting him because she knew it was the surest way to get to him. Her tact was working and he suddenly found himself quite willing to play along. “Is that a fact?” Now it was his gaze that traced the contours of her body.

  Who cared what her motives were? She wanted him and he sure as shit wanted her. “I have an exceptionally good sense of smell, and what I smell isn’t just bullshit, but a female who still wants to be fucked really bad.”

  “Oh I never said I didn’t want to get fucked,” she taunted. The elevator arrived with a soft ping. As the door slid open, she stepped inside and turned to stare challengingly at him. “I just don’t want to fuck you. So why don’t you—”

  Her goading finally got to him. With a hand against her shoulder, he lightly shoved her further into the elevator, relishing the way her eyes widened with shock. He was just about to step into the elevator with her when someone called his name.

  “Dex!”

  He immediately recognized the voice and cursed.

  Jes, who was now flushed and breathing hard with lips pressed together and jaw clenched. But for a second, just one second, he thought he saw disappointment flash in her coal-black eyes. “Looks like your girlfriend’s here,” she said.

  “Damn it, she’s not my girl—”

  “It was kind of you to come to my defense, Lucy, but unnecessary, I assure you,” Jes called over his shoulder.

  “Don’t be so sure of that,” he said darkly.

  The elevator doors closed, but not before Jes waggled her fingers in a mocking gesture of goodbye. “Au revoir, Mr. Hunt.” When she was gone, Dex fought the conflicting needs to punch the wall and grin.

  Jes was right. Compliance was boring, especially in bed. The vampire had a mouth on her and a spirit to go with it. Despite his misgivings, he’d love to experience what that mouth and spirit could do when they were horizontal. But obviously, his chance to experience it tonight had passed.

  With a growl, he turned toward Lucy, the pretty little feline mage he’d come to care far too much about.

  She momentarily paused as he glared at her, but she tilted up her chin and strode toward them. “Dex, I told you
she was just trying to help me. Help us! You shouldn’t have come after her.”

  Dex closed his eyes in disbelief. “Goddess help me,” he muttered.

  Lucy punched him in the arm. His eyes popped open just as she muttered, “Oh stop it.”

  Things certainly had changed. A few weeks ago, no one, let alone a small feline mage, would have had the nerve to punch him so casually. He’d obviously given Lucy the wrong impression about him. Still, as he stared at her, several uncomfortable feelings washed over him. He actually had to catch himself from shuffling his feet like a kid.

  He suddenly felt like a guy whose ex-girlfriend had just caught him with his current girlfriend. No, worse than that. Like a guy whose wife had just caught him in the sack with the mistress he was about to leave said wife for. In other words, he felt crappy. Nervous. Guilty and unsure.

  And that was bullshit.

  Forget the fact that he didn’t do nervous or guilty, let alone uncertainty.

  Lucy was his part-feline teammate and temporary lover until she found someone else to help ease her sexual heat. She wasn’t his ex, his current girlfriend, or his wife. Their arrangement was for practical purposes only and no feelings or promises had been exchanged—well, except for his promise “to be there” for her sexually when she needed him, which wasn’t a vow of fidelity or love.

  And the vampire? He barely knew her. Yes, he’d been instantly attracted to her, but he’d been attracted to a lot of vamps, and by the way she’d so easily manipulated Lucy, this one obviously equaled trouble.

  So why did the idea of the two of them seeing each other just now have him so freaked? Why did the fact they’d previously double-teamed him, and not in a good way, make him want to alternately shake Lucy and fuck Jesmina senseless?

  Rather than dwell on questions he didn’t want to answer or feelings he didn’t want to feel, he bent down, getting right in Lucy’s face, and gritted out, “What the hell are you doing here? I told you to stay at the hotel.”

  “Since when do you order me around, Dex?” she asked quietly. If their teammate Wraith, the once blue-skinned, hazy-eyed ghost, had asked the question, it would have sounded bitchy. From Lucy, however, the question seemed merely…quizzical. But despite the modulation of her tone, Dex saw her tremble. Some small part of her was having to force herself to keep eye contact with him.

  Something perilously close to betrayal squeezed his heart. Was she simply feeling guilty because she’d sneaked out of their hotel room to meet the vamp, or did she actually believe he could hurt her? Both, he realized. Immediately, he straightened and took several steps back. It was as if the newfound distance between them alerted Lucy to his thoughts, for she followed him and laid a hand on his arm.

  Dex moved away again, forcing Lucy’s hand to drop. Normally, he hated the idea of Lucy suffering, but right now he didn’t care.

  The others were right. He needed to stop treating Lucy like a child. Only, in so many ways, that’s what she reminded him of. She was so small and kind and innocent. Hell, she’d been a virgin the first time they’d done it. But she wasn’t as helpless as he’d thought.

  She was just like everyone else. She’d played him for a fool. And not just within the team, like O’Flare had once fooled Wraith, but with a vamp she’d just met. “This doesn’t concern you, Lucy. This is between me and Jesmina Martin. Jes,” he emphasized. “The stranger you decided to trust. The vampire you went off with alone, despite what happened to Wraith at that bar. Remember?”

  With each word he spoke, his tone got harsher and harsher. He knew he had to get control of himself. Despite his better judgment, he’d ended up caring about Lucy, but she wasn’t his to protect. And of course he didn’t care about Jesmina, so why give anyone the impression that he did?

  Yet his body was itching to get into the elevator and go after her.

  Get the hell out of here, his mind urged.

  No fucking way, the rest of him shouted.

  One part of him was being especially vocal.

  Lucy stepped right in front of him and placed her hand on his arm, her gaze comfortably steady now. “You like Jesmina, don’t you?”

  Well, shit. Lucy really did have some balls on her. “I want to fuck her, Lucy. I don’t have to like her to do that.”

  Her mouth quirked. “But you’re fucking me, and something tells me that’s going to get in the way of you fucking her. I thought you just wanted to yell at her, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? If you want her, Dex, talk to her. I can take care of the heat myself—”

  Dex shook his head. “I made you a promise, Lucy. I’ll be here for you as long as you need me. No matter how pissed off you’ve made me, that hasn’t changed.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you promised, Dex. If there’s something between you and Jes… If she’s someone you can care about, even love…”

  Yes, he’d definitely given her the wrong idea about him.

  He covered the hand she still had on his shoulder with one of his, then gently lowered it to her side. “You don’t get it, Lucy,” he said, his voice serious. “I like you enough to help you. To sleep with you. It’s certainly no hardship for me. But I don’t do love. I don’t love anyone. I never have and I never will. As long as you understand that—as long as you don’t interfere with me and Jes again—we’ll be okay.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  FBI Director Kyle Mahone stared at Special Agent Leonard Walker, the new head of the Bureau’s Los Angeles office. He wasn’t sure why the President had promoted Walker over Mahone’s objection, but he’d tried to look at the bright side of things. At least the belligerent agent wouldn’t be knocking on Mahone’s office door anymore—not from across the nation. It was the first time in years Mahone had left Washington, D.C. for Los Angeles, but he’d had to take his newly formed concerns to this man. Granted, he still outranked Walker, but given the President’s faith in him, Mahone had to give Walker considerable leeway when it came to running his own office—no matter how much it pissed him off.

  “Let me get this straight,” he said. “You don’t see anything remotely disturbing about the fact that three shape-shifters have been killed in the last month, each murdered by other shape-shifters who’ve immediately confessed with clearly prefabricated accounts of self-defense?”

  “A rash of murders isn’t evidence of whole scale fratricide, Mahone, which is what you’re implying.”

  “Except for felines, shape-shifters are the most unified Otherborn. Shape-shifters killing other shape-shifters have been virtually unheard of, yet the national incidence of such murders has tripled in the past month. According to my sources overseas, it’s nearly quadrupled in France, with London coming in a close second. Plus, in at least half of the killings, there’s been evidence of dark magic and satanic rituals involved.”

  “Shape-shifters have always been the hardest Otherborn for us to track, especially when it comes to mortality rates and criminality. As they integrate themselves more and more into society, it’s reasonable we’re discovering more about them, not all of it pretty. In any case, confessions, even ones claiming justification, mean less backlog for us. As for the other, maybe they’re just getting sloppy about hiding their true religious leanings.”

  And maybe you’re just being lazy, an idiot, or a bigot, Mahone thought, none of which were anything new. But he refrained from saying so. He had more important things to do than try to talk sense into Walker. The first thing on his list was to make sure the debacle that had been the Para-Ops team’s last mission was wrapped up as neatly as possible. Then he’d be able to deal with the situation with the shape-shifters and, oh yeah, the Goddess still threatening to bring forth Armageddon.

  “Have all the requisite reports been filed with the various local agencies?”

  “Not yet, but soon. Damn shame about how that last op ended up,” Walker said slyly. “The Para-Ops team wasted time in L.A. when they could have been doing real good somewhere else.”

  “Real good” m
eaning something that benefited humans, not vamps or felines. “Somewhere else” meaning anywhere away from Walker’s jurisdiction. Mahone recognized the subtle taunts and smiled tightly. “Don’t worry about my team, Walker. The President is pleased with the work they’ve already accomplished. When the time is right, each and every one of the Para-Ops team members is going to get the recognition he or she deserves.”

  “Of that, I have no doubt.” Walker’s tone was so smug it made Mahone bristle.

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “With all due respect, Director Mahone, it means your so-called team is getting smaller and smaller as we speak. Knox Devereaux and Felicia Locke are too busy protecting themselves. From what I hear, the wraith and her human boyfriend are also on hiatus. Your team is proving what I’ve always known to be true—ultimately, everyone looks out for the people who matter most—themselves. It’s why the War started in the first place, and it’s why peace can never last. I know it. You will, too, eventually.”

  Mahone stiffened. Fed up with Walker’s threats, he leaned in close to him. “My team is committed to keeping peace, with each other and within this nation. If you interfere, I don’t care how well you’ve fooled the President—I’ll take you out of the equation myself.” Before Walker could do more than bluster, Mahone whirled and stalked into the office he was using as his temporary headquarters. He slammed the door shut, then raked his hands through his hair.

  Damn, he was getting soft. That someone like Walker could get to him so quickly proved it. He knew it was because Walker’s taunts had hit home—it didn’t look good for him or the team that they’d wasted so many days chasing after Natia’s phantom suspects. The falsification of feline rapes also hadn’t helped their cause to promote peace between humans and Otherborn—already there were a growing number of humans ready to believe the worst about Otherborn again. Pockets of protestors were organizing, and Mahone knew they’d soon be sought out by the Quorum.