by A. C. Arthur
“I don’t know” was the only reply she could come up with. And surprisingly, it was the truth. She didn’t know why she’d had sex with X when sex had been the farthest thing from her mind since she’d made her way back to the United States. No, to be even more honest with herself, sex hadn’t been what Caprise had shied away from—intimacy was. And what she’d shared with X wasn’t intimate, it was basic and good. Damn, it was good.
“So let me get this straight. You and X were at a club together and then you had sex. Rogues appeared, then you ran away to his house and had more sex. Does that sound about right?”
“The facts are there. But let me fill in the blanks because you’re going to find out anyway. I’ve been working two nights a week at Athena’s. I dance there because I haven’t heard back from the school about getting a job dancing or teaching or whatever. X was there last night and he saw my routine. I don’t know, I guess he got turned on, and when I came off the stage he dragged me back to my dressing room. Then he smelled Rogues and things got all crazy.”
“And you ended up in his bed again?”
Caprise frowned. “Why do you keep going back to that point?”
Ary laughed. “It’s a pretty hard point to get past. No pun intended.”
Caprise could see she was enjoying this way too much. “You’ve been around Kalina too long. Speaking of which, where is she?”
Ary shook her head. “Don’t try to change the subject. She’s in some training meeting with the newly hired staff. I don’t know if she really likes the new duties of being First Female of the Stateside Assembly, but it’s keeping her plenty busy. And now back to you and X and the Rogues. I know he’s been investigating the club. We actually saw the girl who was killed there at the morgue.”
“That’s the girl they think he murdered?”
“X would never murder anyone, especially not a female. That’s not what shadows do,” Ary said adamantly.
It took valiant effort not to roll her eyes. “He’s a man, Ary. He was born in the states and raised here. So he’s visited the Gungi, that doesn’t make him a part of the tribe.”
“You’re wrong. The Gungi is in our blood, no matter where we’re born. Topètenia are from the Gungi and will always return to their home in times of need. Isn’t that why you went there when your parents died?”
Caprise opened her mouth to speak then clapped her lips shut again. She took a steadying breath and clenched and released her fists. “How did you know I went back?”
“I saw you.”
“I didn’t come to the village. I stayed away.”
Ary shook her head. “I left the village every morning to visit Yuri. I saw you one morning. You stayed on the western side, down by the river. I recognized you because you look like Nick, even in cat form.”
Shit. The Gungi probably hadn’t been a good place to hide anyway. Yet Caprise had been drawn to the forest regardless of what her mind thought was best.
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“It wasn’t my place. Besides, I had no contact with your brother so I had no way of knowing he was looking for you.”
“And you figured he’d dumped you so why speak to his sister.”
Ary didn’t reply.
“Sorry. I’m just agitated.” She sighed and laid her head back against the headboard. Hearing her cell phone chirp from across the room in her purse where she’d left it just made her mood worse.
“Agitated because you slept with X or because you don’t have an explanation for why?” Ary asked.
“Both,” she replied quickly.
“Sometimes there is no explanation. Things just are the way they’re meant to be,” Ary stated.
Caprise didn’t like the sound of that, but her temples throbbed now and she figured that was a sign that she’d done too much talking. Ary, in her quiet, know-it-all sort of way, had taken the unspoken hint and left her alone.
On the floor Caprise’s phone went off again. Without preamble, a low growl sounded in her chest. She wanted to curse, but hissed instead and stomped into her private bathroom to change. The last twenty-four hours had been a complete headache for her. She could only hope the next hours would prove better.
* * *
When Caprise stepped out of her bathroom she wanted to scream. Her day was getting worse.
“The next time I tell you I’ll take you home, I want you to wait for me to do just that,” X said from across the room where he leaned against the wall beside her dressing table.
“I’m not under your command” was her retort. She almost told him to get out but knew that would be futile. “How’d you get in here?”
“I told Nick those access codes were bullshit. I cracked it in two seconds,” he replied simply. “You can’t lock me out just because you want to.”
“I can and I did. But since you clearly want to act like the animal—”
Her words were cut off as X moved across the floor with lightning speed. In the next second he’d grabbed her wrists, pulling her arms up above her head. With the barest push he had her flat on the bed, his strong body pinning her down.
“Don’t,” he said through clenched teeth. “You and I are the same.”
She should have been afraid, suspected a normal person would be. But since she’d never had any real claim to “normal,” that didn’t include her. “I’m not like you.”
He stared down at her for a long time, his dark eyes almost absorbing her in their intensity. His bald head glistened, beckoning her fingers to touch and explore just as she’d done when they’d had sex. She grabbed a handful of the comforter beneath her instead.
“You can get off me now. Playtime is over.” It was so much easier to be flippant, to act like he was having absolutely no effect on her. When the truth was—and up until now Caprise had always prided herself on confronting the truth head-on—Xavier was making her feel things she just wasn’t used to.
“This is not a game,” he told her sternly.
“I’m back at Havenway safe and sound. Seth plans to guard my every breath for the next millennium so there’s no need for you to act like my personal bodyguard.”
“I’m not finished with you.”
He’d said it so matter-of-factly, like it was something she should have known and if it wasn’t he would make sure she did. Caprise didn’t know why that both irritated and turned her on. The irritation was slightly conquered by the intense look in his eyes. It was like a storm there, brewing steadily; Caprise had to wonder what would happen when it finally exploded. When everything this shifter kept so bottled up would erupt. Better still, she wondered if she would stick around to see the results.
“Look, I can face the truth. That’s the type of person I am,” she told him. “So here it is, last night was a shock to both of us. But it happened and today’s a new day. Can’t we just move on?”
“I can’t” was his reply.
To Caprise the admission almost sounded tortured. As if X really meant what he’d said but didn’t like it any more than she did. Her cell phone picked this exact moment to chirp and before Caprise could even think about going to retrieve it, X was up off the bed.
“Well, if I’d known that was all it was going to take,” she quipped in a much lighter tone than she was feeling.
He grabbed her purse and unceremoniously dumped its contents on the bed. As soon as she saw the phone, Caprise reached for it. He snatched it just an inch from her grasp.
“Who the hell is this?” he yelled into the phone after he’d answered.
Caprise held her breath. She’d been receiving text messages for the last two or three days, but never had she received an actual call.
“Whoever you are I’ll find your ass. If you’re smart you’ll stop dialing this number. If you’re stupid I’ll slit your throat the moment I see you.”
X pressed the OFF button so hard Caprise thought he would break the phone in two. When his gaze returned to hers she saw something she’d never seen be
fore. No, she’d seen it before and had taken that warning by running so fast she didn’t even know where she’d finally stopped. Today she had no place to run. X stood in front of the door he’d broken into. There were two windows on the opposite side of the room but they looked like they belonged in a mental institution—too slim for any human or shifter to slip through, but just big enough to offer some sunshine and fresh air.
No, this time, Caprise realized she’d have to stand and face the beast staring back at her.
“If you know who that is that keeps calling and texting you I’d advise you to tell me right now,” he said in a tone so tight, so lethal she actually shivered before straightening her back.
“No,” she said, taking a nervous step toward him. “That’s my phone and whoever calls or texts me is my business.”
“Don’t play with me, Caprise. This is serious.”
“It’s my business, Xavier. I didn’t ask you to get involved and I’d actually prefer if you didn’t.” She reached out a hand for the phone.
Her limbs didn’t shake although she felt like she wanted to. Inside her cat paced, watching to see what would come next. It was eerily drawn to the cat within X, the beast that had warranted his swift eye-color change. Caprise pushed back, daring her cat to make a move. She’d kept her other half on a tight rein all these years; she wasn’t about to stop now just because he was around.
“Someone is threatening you,” he said, his voice a lower timbre than it had been before. “I don’t like it.”
“It’s not your concern,” she replied quickly.
He took a step toward her and she had to demand her feet remain still. Lifting her head to stare up at him she said, her voice just a tad lower in compromise, “It’s no big deal. I can handle it.”
His gaze searched hers for what seemed like endless moments. Then he did something that shocked and confused her. X extended a hand, touching the edge of her chin softly with one finger. The very motion looked awkward on him, yet felt surprisingly soft and whimsical to her. Then he spoke and awkward took another turn.
“I’m leaving for Sedona in three hours. Come with me.”
* * *
Why had he asked her that?
His conversation with Bas had ended with the Mountain Faction Leader mentioning that Felipe Hernandez, a former lieutenant in the Cortez Cartel, had clammed up tight and wasn’t talking to anyone. Bas and his guards had captured the drug runner while he was overseeing a shipment in New Mexico. Rome and Nick were both sure Hernandez could tell them how their parents had been in contact with Julio Cortez years ago. And if that contact had led to the betrayal of the shifters.
“Maybe you could persuade him to talk,” Bas had said after explaining that Hernandez was basically choosing to die of hunger and deprivation instead of telling Bas and his team what they wanted to know.
There was a hint of sarcasm in the man’s voice when he’d made the suggestion, and everyone knew sarcasm was Bas’s first language. But in the prickly mood X was in he’d taken it as an instant challenge.
“I think I’ll do just that.”
After a brief hesitation Bas had chuckled. “I’ll have a room ready for you.”
“Make that a suite. If that bastard Hernandez is staying in luxury, I can, too.”
“Whatever, man,” Bas said, still chuckling as if he didn’t really expect X to fly to Sedona to question the drug dealer.
Even when he’d hung up X wondered why he’d been so eager to get on a plane and go himself. That reason came to him the moment he closed his eyes. Her eyes stared back at him, dark, mysterious, enthralling. In the recesses of his mind he could hear her voice, whispering his name. Just a whisper; she didn’t scream it out loud at the moment of her climax as so many women had done before her. No, Caprise wouldn’t give in that easily. She’d said it but only so she could hear it. The fact that X picked it up was a testament to the strength of his shifter senses, or a need that he didn’t even want to explore.
He’d thought about her from that moment up until the second he stood in front of her bedroom door punching numbers into that stupid keypad. The entry doors to Havenway were all on a computerized lock and also had sensory alarms that tripped if the doors were opened without using the authorized codes. X had programmed them all himself. As for the bedrooms, he’d told Nick that keypads with separate pass codes weren’t safe enough. They needed a backup just in case—exactly as he’d done—someone decided to hack the code. All he’d had to do was put in a series of commands that would effectively delete the prior coding; any hackers worth their salt could do it in about five minutes. X did it in two.
When the door swung open and he saw she wasn’t in the bedroom, he’d been about to curse. Then he picked up her scent and the cat within calmed. She was still here.
He looked about the room, saw the completely feminine things she possessed, and wondered about this side of her. On the tall dresser that stood between the only two windows in the room there were dozens of small glass bottles, in different shapes and colors. They all contained fragrances that either irritated or incited X’s senses. There was an abundance of jewelry, earrings, bracelets, watches. It all appeared very feminine and very unlike the idea he’d had of Caprise.
She was guarded, that was for damn sure. And that didn’t really bother X because he had his own shields in place when it came to dealing with females. But there was something else about her he couldn’t quite put his finger on, something that made it impossible for him to walk away from her now.
He was still standing there when she came out of the bathroom, surprised to see him. Their exchange had been as was usual for them, except it felt like they weren’t alone. There were spectators this time, two very intense and hungry cats, interested in what was unraveling between the humans.
She fought everything he said, everything he tried to do. No matter which way he tried to approach her, it didn’t matter. It was as if she lived for moments just like this. When her phone rang, X was instantly on guard. He remembered last night’s text and had run the number through reverse lookup before leaving his apartment. Nothing showed. A more advanced search would take twenty-four hours so he wouldn’t get the name of the person the phone was registered to until sometime tomorrow. Nobody had spoken when he answered, and that pissed him off. He wanted whoever was on the other end dialing her number to say something, just one word so he could give them the cuss-out of their lifetime. But they didn’t afford him the pleasure. Instead he’d issued a threat, one he had every intention of carrying out when he found out whom he was dealing with.
Then out of nowhere the question had tumbled out of his mouth. X, of all people, knew once something was done there was no taking it back. Oddly enough, he really didn’t want to take the invite back.
“Why would I go anywhere with you?” she asked, her eyes narrowing skeptically.
He decided to try another approach with her and didn’t demand that she do what he asked. Instead, he asked in a lower voice, “What else do you have to do? Rome’s not going to allow you to go back to Athena’s.”
There was no way X was going to allow that, either, but he figured she’d swallow that comment a lot easier if it were coming from the FL.
“He can’t keep me from my job,” she protested. And in a move he didn’t anticipate she reached out, grabbing her cell phone from his hand.
X conceded and didn’t use his force to get it back. He could have, but thought it might be best to pick and choose his battles with Caprise from now on. She was hiding something, that much was evident, and until he found out exactly what, X wanted to keep her close. The only way to do that without having to hog-tie and gag her was to be as cordial as he could manage. Which wasn’t really his best act, but something told him the end would totally justify the means.
“There’s something dangerous going on at Athena’s. It’s better if you’re out of the line of fire.”
She looked worried as she turned away from him to put her
cell phone on the dresser. “Look, I came back to DC to get my life back on track. If I can’t dance, I can’t do that.”
The last was spoken softly, again, as if she really hadn’t meant for him to hear it.
“It’s not safe, Caprise. You have to understand we’re only trying to protect you.”
“I don’t need any protection,” she said, spinning around to face him once more. “I’ve done a pretty damn good job of taking care of myself for the past five years. I can handle it now.”
“Can you, Caprise?” X took a step closer to her; the distance was beginning to make his cat a little edgy. “Because I’ve got to tell you, every time your phone rings or beeps you get this look in your eye.”
She tried to turn away from him. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m being straight with you because I figure you can respect that since you’re all about facing the truth. I’m not trying to lie to you about what’s going on and why you need protection. So you should think long and hard about coming clean with me.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” she replied when her gaze came back to his.
“You don’t,” he agreed. “But you owe it to your brother to not jump back into his life only to get yourself killed.”
She was about to say something else but X held up a hand to stop her. His patience—what little of it he possessed—was quickly growing short. Inside, his cat was making a low growl, insisting on touching, tasting, feeling once more. X, however, did not think that was a good idea.
At that moment Caprise completely disarmed him by sighing so deeply he thought for sure tears would follow. Her right hand went to her right hip, where she rubbed absently. He’d been around a lot of females in his time and while Caprise Delgado was definitely unique even beyond her DNA, he figured he could tell when a female was about to break down.
Of course he was wrong. Caprise would never cry. Not over something like this anyway. But for just a moment she did look completely defeated, as if the right decision just could not be made clear. As if on cue to torment her further that damn cell phone chirped once more.