by Croft, Nina
Crap, he was doing that, I-can-smell-your-arousal, thing again. She hated that, really hated it. He should keep his nose out of her personal space. Besides, he couldn’t really smell her, could he? She gave a surreptitious sniff and nothing. “Believe it,” she snapped.
“I agreed to see you because my receptionist said you wouldn’t leave unless I did. But I’m rather busy, so say whatever it is you have to say and perhaps I can get on with some work.”
“I want to understand why you’re marrying Sophia.”
He gave a completely over-the-top sigh. “We’ve been over this, though granted you were rather inebriated at the time so you might not remember.”
“I remember. I just don’t believe you. I saw you together. You can’t stand her touching you.”
He pursed his lips and considered her. “Okay. I’ll tell you something, but I want this to go no further. My family isn’t to know.”
Sounded interesting. “Go on. Your secrets are safe with me.”
“Of course they are.” Was that sarcasm in his voice? “It’s not as if you don’t tell Julia everything. Well, this time, you can’t.”
She frowned. “I told you I won’t. I’m capable of keeping my mouth shut.”
“I’m marrying her for business reasons. We’re coming up to a big vote regarding the direction of the company. She has shares I need. She wants to get married—”
“Why?”
“That’s her business. Maybe you should ask her, though I don’t think you’d be her first choice for a girlie chitchat.”
No, probably not. Did she believe him? She wasn’t sure, but it sort of made sense. “Don’t you want to marry for love?”
He gave her a long, cool stare. “No.”
“Why?”
“Jesus.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Do you never stop asking ‘why’?”
“Sometimes. Not often. I’m just trying to understand.”
“Has it occurred to you that it’s really none of your business?”
“Briefly. But you made it my business when you kissed me. You know, I came back with the intention of getting you out of my system once and for all.”
He’d been looking away, somewhere over her left shoulder, and now his gaze shot to her face. “I’m in your system?”
“Well, I’d rather hoped not any more. I was going to see you, prove there was nothing between us, and move on.”
“Move on?”
“Find a nice man, get married, have kids…”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. Lissa followed the movement and wished she hadn’t. She didn’t want him to think she was checking out his groin. Even if she was. In fact, did it seem a bit bigger than it should? That bulge couldn’t be normal, could it? She swallowed and peeped again.
“And now?” he asked dragging her mind from the entirely inappropriate contemplation with the size of his penis. Huge she reckoned.
She nibbled on her lip while contemplating the best way to explain. She decided honesty—up to a point. “Are you aware I’ve had a crush on you since I was twelve?”
Shock flashed across his face. Obviously, though Julia had told him as much, he hadn’t believed it.
“You pretty much ignored me and I thought that it was a nice, safe crush—you hardly noticed me.” Except for when she wasn’t looking, when according to Julia, he’d stared. “So I could indulge in a few fantasies—”
“Fantasies?”
“You don’t want to know.” Actually, from his expression, she guessed he did want to know, but she wasn’t telling him. They were definitely private. “So yeah, I had a few harmless fantasies, a few impossible daydreams about you. Until that last night, when I gave into the temptation to get you naked. Not because your sisters dared me, but because I wanted you. I thought just the once. But I should never have done it because afterward I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”
He scrutinized her as if fascinated, and her brows drew together.
“Hey, how did we get on to me? We’re supposed to be talking about you and The Evil One.”
His lips curved into a quick grin at the name, but then it was gone. “We’ve finished talking about me. You’re much more interesting.”
“I am?”
“Yeah, tell me more about this crush.” His voice had gone low and husky, and she’d gone hot and shivery. Behind his eyes, the darkness shifted. She knew she should be questioning him further about this business deal with Sophia, but her brain wouldn’t seem to stay on the subject. Instead, she trailed her gaze down over his long, lean body.
Oh yeah, it was getting bigger.
Suddenly, the no-sex thing seemed stupid. What was the reason anyway?
…
Lissa had been infatuated with him? Well, she’d done a bloody good job of hiding it.
But not anymore.
She was staring at his groin, and he really wished she wouldn’t. She might deny it, but the air was perfumed with the musky scent of her arousal. She couldn’t hide that from Wolf, and it was driving him wild. Finally, she raised her head to look into his face, her pink tongue peeked out to slide over her lower lip leaving it gleaming with moisture, and the banked fires in his belly roared into life.
He tried to remind himself of the no-sex thing, but it wouldn’t stick in his brain. Probably something to do with the fact that his brain had sunk down and was now inhabiting his cock, which was telling the rest of him what to do.
He suspected she was tempting him on purpose, not that it made any difference.
Just a taste. Christ, when had he thought that before?
He moved in close against her, and she held her ground so his body brushed against hers. His desk was behind her, and he placed his hands on the curve of her ass and lifted her, settling her down on the smooth wood. When she didn’t protest, he pushed her farther onto the desk, nudging her legs apart with one knee, so he could step into the V formed by her thighs.
His arms went around her, his hands slid down over her back to grip the firm cheeks of her ass and pull her tightly to him. His cock had been getting hard since she’d entered the room, and he pressed himself against her.
“You were saying…?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. His head swooped down, and he took those succulent, pink lips, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and tasting her as he’d been starving to do since the party. Her hands came up to grip his shoulders, one sliding into his hair to drag him down against her.
Without breaking the kiss, he skimmed his palms over her thighs, then lifted them so she wrapped her long legs around him, and he ground his cock against her core. She whimpered words of need against his lips, and his mouth slid from hers to drop kisses over her cheek. He burrowed his head against her throat, breathed in the warm, spicy scent of her, and knew he would never get enough. She was his. Forever.
The thought made him go still. For him, forever probably wasn’t very long.
What the hell was he doing?
He concentrated on his breathing, counting each breath until he had the will to release his hold on her. Reaching behind, he loosened her legs from around him, and stepped back from between her thighs.
“Please,” she whispered, the need clear in her face.
His balls ached, and his pants felt too tight. He wanted her, but he had to prove, if only to himself, that he could control this. It was becoming obvious there was a connection between them; he wanted her with a desperation that was way beyond normal desire. But first he needed to understand whether it was merely him going through a temporary crisis, or some weird werewolf shit that wasn’t going to go away. He didn’t want to involve Lissa in his crap, but maybe he had no choice.
She reached out a hand to him. He stared at it for a moment, before turning away. After crossing the room, he poured them both a drink, placed hers on the desk next to her, and swallowed his in one mouthful.
He put down the glass, proud that his hand was steady, then sank into his seat.
&nbs
p; Sanity returned to her face. Hopping down from the desk, she smoothed her clothes, picked up her glass, and retreated to the other side. She sat in one of the chairs facing him, sipped her drink, and studied him.
“So,” she said, “where do we go from here?”
Straight to hell, he was guessing.
Chapter Ten
Lissa lay on her bed, wrapped in a black, fluffy robe, staring at the ceiling and contemplating buying a vibrator. A big one. A Daniel-sized one, XXL.
She squeezed her thighs together and wondered what the chances were of getting one delivered in the next five minutes. Two cold showers and her body still ached with need. She wanted him so badly it hurt, like an ache in her belly that wouldn’t go away. With a little luck, Daniel was feeling as bad right now.
Today, she’d gone to see him to clear things up between them. Instead, she found herself flailing around in increasingly muddy water.
In some ways, the whole marriage-of-convenience thing made sense, but she couldn’t shake the feeling there was more to it than that. Her instincts screamed that Sophia had some sort of hold over him. Maybe she was blackmailing him. But what could he have done that was so bad?
He’d told her he needed to think and that he would get back to her. Would he? Or had they been meaningless words to get her to go away?
It was nine o’clock and the sun was low in the sky when her cell phone rang. She picked it up, her heart thudding loud in her ears. It was a message from Daniel, and she frowned as she read it. Apparently, they needed to meet and talk, but somewhere private—Lissa presumed he meant away from Sophia but maybe that was wishful thinking. He told her to wear something sexy, so maybe this was it and he was going to admit he really wanted her, not Sophia. And he’d given her directions to a park outside London where apparently he had a cottage and that he’d meet her at ten thirty.
Excitement warred with caution. Why did he want to meet in such an out-of-the-way location? Was it to make sure no one would find out? “No one” as in Sophia. Or was there something specific he wanted to show her, maybe the real reason he had to marry Sophia.
She leaped to her feet and scrabbled in the drawer until she found some black lace panties, like she’d worn that first night with him, though she wasn’t sure he’d remember. Over those, she pulled on cropped jeans and a cut off pink halter top that revealed her midriff and added heeled sandals that showed off her gold toenails. A touch of mascara and a little bit of lipstick and she was ready to go.
How would she get there? Maybe head for the main road and pick up a taxi?
She was running down the stairs when Julia came through the front door.
“Hi,” Julia said. “I thought I’d order us some pizza.”
“Can’t,” Lissa answered. “I’m going out.” She waved her cell at Julia. “I got a message from Daniel. He wants to meet me out of town.”
Julia frowned. “Out of town? Why?”
“He says he wants to show me something, but I have no clue what. I went to see him today. We talked. He said he had a lot to think about but he’d be in touch. And he was.” She couldn’t hold back the grin.
“Hurray,” Julia said. “So where are you meeting him?”
Lissa flicked on her phone and read the directions aloud.
“That’s miles away. How are you getting there?”
“Taxi, I thought.”
“They won’t drive you that far unless you order one. You can take Buffy if you like. So if you argue with Daniel, you won’t be stranded or have to beg a lift home.”
“Buffy?”
“My car.”
“Ah. You named your car after a vampire slayer?”
“Yeah.” She pulled the keys out of her bag and tossed them to Lissa. “Here, just be careful with her—she’s my baby and I love her.”
…
Daniel sat in the booth at the back of the bar and sipped on his beer. He’d arranged to meet Joe and wondered whether it wasn’t a huge mistake.
He hadn’t gotten to know any of the pack well, hadn’t wanted to like them, or identify with them. But the truth was he was one of them, and if that meant he was inherently evil, he’d just have to suck it up.
After the change, he’d waited, expecting that he was going to turn bad. Everything he’d seen of the pack at those first meetings had led him to believe they were evil. Then they had killed Babs, and he’d known it for sure.
But there were good people in the pack as well, some changed by accident, some because they were needed for a scheme of Ethan’s, others for revenge. There were even a few who had risked the change because they loved a werewolf.
Joe was one of the oldest in the pack. He survived by keeping a low profile and showing no sign of strength, though Daniel suspected that like him, Joe was far stronger than he appeared. Ethan had an unfortunate habit of slaying any who showed signs of strength—he claimed it was pack law—there was only room for one Alpha.
Two men entered the bar, and a hush ran through the clientele. There was nothing obvious, but an aura hung about them. He presumed the same aura hung about him, too. They went to the bar first, got drinks before heading his way, and he studied the second man.
Pete was tall, slender, with short dark hair and a scar that pulled up the corner of his mouth in a perpetual sneer. He’d gotten it from a silver knife wielded by Daniel’s very own fiancée, Sophia. Punishment for some perceived wrongdoing.
Joe was medium height, with light brown hair and brown eyes and unassuming in appearance. He was by far the scarier of the two, and his power coiled around Daniel’s, tasting, testing. Finally, Joe nodded and sat down. Pete slid onto the bench beside him and around them the conversations restarted, if a little more subdued than before.
“So, how does it feel to be engaged?” Joe asked.
“Fucking crappy,” Daniel replied.
“Well, I don’t envy you your choice,” Pete replied with a grin, his hand coming up to stroke the scar on his cheek.
“Choice? I don’t believe there was any choice involved.” Daniel took a gulp of his beer and wondered how to approach the subject. “Thanks for coming.”
“You said you needed some information.”
“I want to understand a few things…things about the pack. About being like we are.”
“Werewolves you mean? Don’t tell me you still can’t say the word. No wonder you have problems accepting your wolf.”
Daniel shifted in his seat. “I’m getting there.”
“Good, we need people like you. People who will stand up to Ethan.”
“You have to be joking. Stand up to Ethan? If I did that, I wouldn’t be engaged to marry The Evil One.” He grinned as he remembered Lissa’s name for Sophia, but his grin faded quickly. Part of him wished he could open up and divulge his plans for eventually “standing up” to Ethan, but he wasn’t quite ready to extend that level of trust.
“Maybe not, but Ethan lets you get away with far more than the rest of us.”
Daniel could feel a frown forming on his face. “He does? I don’t see either of you engaged to the sweet and lovely Sophia.”
“That’s Ethan keeping an eye on you. He doesn’t trust you and believe me, with anyone else that would have been a death warrant. There’s some reason he keeps you alive.”
“I’m doing valuable work for him.”
“You are? Maybe we need to talk about that sometime.”
“We?”
“There are a few of us who get together occasionally, talk about things. How they are, how they could be. Maybe you’d like to join us.”
So there were others unhappy with the way the pack was run. For the first time in an age, Daniel felt a flicker of hope. Maybe he wouldn’t have to take any more of the drug, turn himself into more of a monster. With the help of others in the pack, perhaps they could take down Ethan and Sophia. “I’d like that.”
“Good, so what can we tell you?”
“I want to know about the mating thing.”
>
“The mating thing?” Pete asked and the amusement was clear in his voice.
“Shit,” Joe said. “Don’t tell me you actually think you’re mated to Sophia?”
“No.”
“Thank God for that. Not that it’s any better if you’re mated to someone else right now. Sophia will slaughter them. I take it, it’s someone from the pack.”
“No. A human.”
Joe gave him a long, searching look. “Man, you are in shitloads of trouble.”
Daniel tried to appear unworried. “Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps this is a figment of my imagination and this mating stuff is a myth.”
“It’s no myth. It’s real all right, but I’ve never heard of it happening with a human before. So what do you want to know?”
He shrugged. “Just what happens, I guess. How does a wolf know he’s mated?”
“Well, it’s never happened to me, thank God.”
“Why thank God? Is it such a bad thing?”
“Maybe not in certain situations but I reckon it would be one more thing for Ethan to hold against you. I’ve seen wolves who have lost their mates, and it’s not pretty. So what’s happening with you?”
Daniel thought about the question. “This is going to sound a little…” He couldn’t decide on the word, silly, stupid, fucking crazy. “Freaky,” he finally settled on.
Joe’s lips curled into a wry grin. “And has anything that’s happened to you since you were bitten not been ‘freaky’?”
“Maybe not. But except for the first few months, I’ve always felt in control.”
Those first months had been hard, physically and mentally. The first shift had been agony as though his very self was being torn apart. Ethan had told him it was because he fought the change; if he would accept it, the change would become easier. And it had. He wouldn’t exactly say he’d accepted, but he no longer fought and the shift to wolf had become second nature, as natural as breathing. Unlike many of the weaker pack members, he wasn’t at the mercy of his wolf, could change at will, and except for when he was driven by the full moon, he could keep Wolf locked tight inside.