by Sarah Marsh
Dori felt the oddest uncomfortable flutter in her chest region as she watched Halle’s lower lip quiver and her eyes begin to well up with tears. She could have sworn she almost felt the need to hug her—she must have been PMS’ing or something as she certainly wasn’t one of those “touchy feely” fairies.
“Shh, of course, you can, pet. Halle, look at me.” She waited until she had Halle’s undivided attention as she was about to drop some tough love on the perky little shifter. “Why should the Universe, or why should I for that matter, fight for your Happy Ending if you aren’t willing to do the same? This shit is tough, and true love can be a vicious bitch sometimes, but you need to suck it up. Consider those tears a down payment on your Happy Ever After.”
Halle took a minute to no doubt absorb the invaluable lesson that she’d just given her. The girl wiped at her huge green eyes, and when they flashed in defiance Dori knew she was ready for another crack at it.
“Viktor is just trying to do what he thinks is best for you, but I know exactly what will break him.”
“What?”
“Bare ass and a challenge, my girl. He’s got a solid lock on his self-control against your flirting, but if you flash a little more skin and then challenge his manhood? Well, honey, I haven’t met an alpha male yet who will let that invitation go. Plus—the sex will be super-hot,” she said with a wink right before she left in a poof of magic.
****
Pandora arrived home and almost landed on top of her mother in the living room, now eating her bowl of popcorn.
“Hey, that’s mine. I busted my ass putting that in the microwave!” she said as she snatched the bowl away with a hoot of victory.
“Honestly, darling, no wonder there’s a rumor going around that you were raised by demon wolves.”
They both settled in on the couch in front of the viewing crystal to see if Halle would take her advice. When the little shifter got a determined look on her face and ran upstairs to change into another one of Viktor’s shirts that she’d pilfered, Dori knew the fireworks were about to commence.
“Ooh, she’s going for it.” Her mother squealed in delight and clapped her hands. “Honestly, this is so much more exciting than reality TV!”
“This better work because they’re running out of time,” Dori said as she felt that tingling of her magic deep down in her chest. She closed her eyes and quickly checked on the internal timeline she had for Viktor and Halle.
“What in the hell was that?” her mom asked, with a freaked-out tone in her voice.
“What?” Dori said in a distracted voice, and when she opened her eyes again her mother was staring over her shoulder at her wings like she’d never seen them before.
“What were you just doing? Your wings were glowing and vibrating. I’ve never heard of fairy wings ever doing that.”
Glowing and vibrating? Dori had no idea there were physical manifestations when she used the deepest of her magic, but then again, she’d never done it in front of anyone before. One of these days, Pandora was going to have to push her mom to tell her more about who her father was. She still had no idea who or what he had been.
Every time she brought it up, her mom quickly shut the conversation down. But things were getting weird, and maybe if she knew what kind of power her father had possessed, she’d be able to master her own magic better. That and maybe her mother could stop worrying that she’d burn out and fade away every time Dori got lazy and manifested a Starbucks latte instead of driving to the mall.
Chapter Eleven
Four days went by, and Viktor was beginning to worry that his self-control wouldn’t hold out much longer. Gerald and Molly still hadn’t found a safe haven to stash Halle that Conrad’s goons didn't have access to. It seemed as though the Coven Master wanted her back something fierce, as he’d spared no expense in bribing all manner of beings to be on the lookout for the runaway leopard shifter. Conrad had put a five-million-dollar bounty out on each of them, and while Halle’s was extremely specific about her being intact and unharmed, the price on Viktor’s head was dead or alive.
How touching.
Regardless, it had meant that the last four days had been spent in close quarters, neither of them able to leave the safety of his warded home. Molly had brought some clothes for Halle to wear, but the vexing female still spent most of her time looking delectable in his shirts, and though he had no proof, in his mind she wore nothing else underneath. They spent their time playing games, reading and watching movies, but he could see that her inner cat was beginning to get twitchy to go for a run. He’d caught her more than once standing in front of the large window in the library, staring longingly at the woods behind the house. Viktor couldn’t stop himself from sending Gerald to the witches to purchase extended warding that would protect the forest behind them. It would cost him a small fortune, but something in him needed to take care of this woman, no matter the cost.
Halle had fallen in love with his library, and they sat and talked for hours about their favorite books, but she was constantly touching him and flirting with him. In a bid to distract himself from her physically, he decided he’d have to do something he normally didn’t do since she’d already told him so much about her own life. He’d have to talk to her about himself.
“So,” he began as he settled himself in the chair beside her, “you’d said that you have an older brother. Is he mated yet?”
“Nah, Tavin is a hopeless romantic, much to my dad’s frustration.” She smiled as she spoke of her brother, and it was clear she was quite fond of him. “He refuses to mate any females in the pard, or anyone else my parents have suggested. He’s convinced that the perfect woman is out there, just waiting for him.”
“And how about you?” he asked softly. “Do you believe in the perfect mating?”
Halle paused for a moment, and this was the first time that Viktor got the feeling that she was censoring her thoughts with him, and he didn’t care for it at all. He wanted to know exactly what she was thinking and feeling. Perhaps it would make him feel less confused about the nature of his own odd feelings since she had arrived in his life.
“I think I do,” she finally answered. “I mean, I know a lot of people get lonely and settle for someone who they think they can love, or that they know will be a good partner. But I’d rather be alone than not be with the one who makes my heart sing. My cat will settle for nothing less.”
“I was married once, before I was turned,” he said quietly, not making eye contact with Halle. He was scared at what her face would reveal in regard to his news. If she was jealous, then it would seem his attraction was reciprocated and he would have no more excuses to fight it. Even worse, if she didn’t seem to care at all, he was afraid the disappointment would crush him.
So much for not letting anyone in.
“Oh.”
Viktor silently thanked the gods when he dared a peek and saw the spark of anger that lit up her shifter’s eyes before she got her emotions under control.
“What happened to her … after—after you turned?”
He knew in his head he would have to tell her the story of his turning when he’d opened this line of conversation, but thinking it and telling it were two very different things. Would she judge him and hate him after this, just like everyone else did?
“I was plucked from the battlefield and kept for many years as a blood slave by my creator. When she finally feared that I was getting too old to keep her sexual interest, she turned me. I had endured so many horrors within the coven and my hatred had grown so much, that as soon as I’d woken in my new life I destroyed her and her people in my bloodlust and anger.”
“Did you go back for your family?”
“I had become the monster every mortal feared.” He finally looked up and was surprised to see the tenderness in her face. “I couldn’t risk harming them, and things were so different back then. My wife had been told I’d been killed in battle, and she had remarried to provide for our son.”
“That must have hurt you.”
“I could not blame her for it.” Viktor hadn’t thought about his wife Lelaina for centuries. It had been so long since both she and his son had passed. “The Roman empire was a harsh place for a woman without the protection of a strong man. We had married young, just like most did. I was fond of Lelaina and I loved my son, but I was content they would be taken care of in my absence.”
“I can understand that I guess.”
“I was filled with such rage that I was unable to control, I spent years tracking the last of Melisandre’s coven. I was unfit to be around any living being, especially mortals.”
He couldn’t hide the shame in his confession.
“Of course you were enraged. It was awful what was done to you, Viktor. What was taken from you could never be forgiven.” Halle reached out and placed her hand on his arm, causing him to look up at her once again.
“Do not mistake me, Halle.” His pride was pushing him to tell her everything, whether it was self-sabotaging or not. “I’ve done all the horrible things in my life that others whisper about me. Terrible, unforgivable things. My soul will never be rid of their taint.”
She just stared into his eyes, her stubbornness matching his own.
“The fact that you just told me that shows me exactly what type of man you are now Viktor. No one is without sin, but it’s how you choose to live your life now and the man you’ve become that matters to me.”
He was stunned at her words. Deep inside Viktor had been certain that confessing his past to Halle would be the thing that had her fleeing him in disgust. How did she have so much faith in him? He’d spent so many years believing he had no future, that his sins had condemned him, that when he was presented with the possibility of one—he’d been left speechless.
Chapter Twelve
Thank the Gods for Gerald’s impeccable timing.
“Sir, the warding at the back of the property has been completed as per your request,” the brownie said as he stood in the entry to the library with a curious gaze towards them. “Miss Halle is safe now to shift and run in the woods.”
Halle’s eyes immediately left the small man who’d interrupted them and zeroed in back on Viktor.
“You did that for me?” she asked as a huge smile lit up her face, and suddenly Viktor would have paid any price those criminal witches had asked. He’d give his entire fortune up to make this woman smile like that at him.
All he could do was nod at her like a complete and utter moron.
“Can I go now?”
When he nodded once again, she jumped up in a squeal and ran for the veranda doors as she began to undress.
Viktor just stood and stared off after Halle as her bare golden skin bounced along in the sun. Finally, Gerald’s throat clearing got his attention and he looked towards the brownie, who was now motioning him out the door.
“Perhaps you should follow and make sure she’s safe?” His bushy eyebrows moved up and down to exaggerate his point.
“Oh yes,” Viktor agreed as he quickly strode out onto the patio just in time to see her shift seamlessly into a beautiful, graceful leopard … and then roll in the grass like she was a golden retriever.
He almost laughed at the ridiculously content expression that was on her kitty face by the time he’d walked over to her. She was purring loudly and walked over to butt her head up against his leg.
“You can run in the woods, Halle. Just don’t roam too far,” he said as he stroked her silky fur and scratched behind her ears before she bolted away from him into the tree line.
He gathered her discarded clothing and folded it, then sat in a chair on the patio, using his vampire hearing to keep track of her as she played in the trees and the brush. Viktor was still amazed at how easy it was to open up to her. He’d talked more about his life to Halle in the last four days than he’d shared with anyone in over a thousand years. The woman certainly did like to talk. But the most difficult thing had been the constant arousal that he had to deal with every time he looked at her, or smelled her, or heard her voice. Each night he had lain in bed imagining her in the next room while he stroked himself to ease the pressure. But as soon as he’d come, all it would take was a sniff of her scent or the sound of her voice and his cock was ready for her again. It was madness, and her teasing and flirting were wearing him down.
When she finally lollygagged out of the forest an hour later, he could tell she had enjoyed herself. She stopped right in front of him and shifted back into her skin, complete with a sexy, bold smile that she hadn’t given him before. Viktor just stood there, taking the beauty of her in. He wanted her to see the appreciation in his gaze before he handed her clothes back to her.
“That was wonderful, thank you, Viktor,” she said as she dressed. Her voice was huskier than normal, and he wondered if the rumors about shifters being aroused after they changed forms were true. She smelled beyond amazing with the wild scent of the wind and the earth clinging to her skin, and it was all he could do to take a step back and escort her back through the library doors without touching her.
Viktor had a lot of thinking to do.
He decided to do it alone in his office while Halle was upstairs cleaning up, but hard as he tried, he couldn’t get the radiant sight of all that bare golden skin out of his head.
This is ridiculous! I am acting like a hormonal teenager.
The bottom line was that Halle would be a weakness his enemies could exploit. She could get hurt. He’d be a fool to get involved with her—no matter how good she smelled.
It’s settled then. I’ll simply keep my distance until I find her somewhere to go.
Viktor had heard Halle’s little feet come back down the stairs a few minutes ago, so he went back to the library as that’s where she spent almost all of her time. He looked up as he walked through the entryway to the large room and had to do a double-take when he saw Halle halfway up the ladder at the bookshelves, her bare thighs peeking out from beneath his shirt once more. He shifted his stance as his cock filled and his imagination began to run wild with all the things he wanted to do to her. When Halle looked back over her shoulder and a small seductive smile crept over her lips when she saw where his gaze was riveted to, his control finally snapped.
“What are you playing at here, Halle?” he said, as he watched her climb back down the ladder and he went to the bar to fix a drink. “Are you looking for someone to scratch an itch? I’m not exactly the kind of man your type usually looks for.”
He regretted his words instantly as the look of desire on her face quickly turned into hurt, and then anger.
“You asshole!” she spat back at him. “You want me just as much as I want you. Do you think I go around throwing myself at just any man? Dori said you’d be stubborn, but this is ridiculous.”
“Dori? That crazy fairy from the bar?” he asked suspiciously, “What does she have to do with you trying to seduce me? Is this some kind of spell?”
That at least would explain the odd protective feelings and his overwhelming need to touch Halle, but what would a random fairy have against him?
“No, this isn’t a spell, you idiot!” Halle seemed furious now that he would accuse her of doing something so vile and needy. “You’re lucky I’m even considering having sex with someone like you!”
That statement flared up his temper and along with it, the last shreds of his self-control disappeared. Before she could blink he had her pinned against the wall, his left hand wrapped around her wrists, holding them above her head. There was a second of panic in her eyes before he felt her muscles relax beneath him.
“Considering it, kitten?” he whispered low in her ear as he leaned in close. “I could’ve had you bent over every piece of furniture in my house a dozen times over in the last five days if I’d wanted and you would’ve loved every second of it.”
Chapter Thirteen
He could feel her pulse beat wildly at that statement, and by the sweet scent coming f
rom between her shapely legs, Viktor was pleasantly surprised that she seemed to be even more turned on by his dominance. But she wasn’t quite ready to submit to him yet. He saw her swallow hard and try to get her breathing under control.
“I think you just talk a big game,” she answered back in a low voice. “You’ve jumped every time I touched you.”
Saucy little minx. She was still challenging him, was she? Perhaps it was time to give her what she was looking for, to hell with him trying to do the right thing.
“Well, then let me grant you your wish … although you may get more than you bargained for, little one,” Viktor said as he took his free hand and slowly trailed his palm up along the outside of her thigh.
He had to hide his delighted surprise and stifle a groan when he got to her hip under the shirt and found that she wasn’t wearing any underwear. He let his fingers tickle lightly across the skin at the top of her pelvis, knowing it was driving her crazy. He could already feel the increased heat coming from her pussy and knew she would be soaking wet when he finally reached his goal.
“My, my, aren’t you full of surprises, kitten. If I’d known you weren’t wearing any underwear this entire time, I would’ve abandoned the pleasantries to have a taste of this delicious little puss days ago,” he said, right before he closed the space between their mouths and kissed her hard and deep.
Viktor was lost at the first taste of her in his mouth. She kissed him back with just as much passion, and he knew that this was going to be a wild ride. His cock was already leaking at the thought of sliding inside her wet heat, but he wasn’t going to last long this first time, and he wanted a taste of her honey before that happened. He released her wrists and picked her up with a firm grip on her generous ass. He couldn’t wait to feel it cushion him as he fucked her hard from behind. Curves like hers were made for a man to enjoy.
One hard push had the chess board on the table in front of the fireplace tumbling to the ground, and he gently laid her down in its place. He met her eyes as he took her shirttails in his fingers and tore the garment open, leaving her golden, tanned skin bare to his hungry gaze. The contrast of his pale hands against her skin was mesmerizing. She was utter perfection. Her hair spread wildly against the dark table top. She was biting her lip as his hands reached up to palm her breasts. They fit his hands perfectly, and when he softly rolled her nipples between his fingers, the moan that came out of her was music to his ears.