Forbidden Addiction (Forbidden, Book #4)

by R. L. Kenderson

  She was at the end of their street now and couldn’t see any other vehicles parked outside besides Analeigh’s. Lexine mentally high-fived herself, feeling like something was finally going her way.

  Lexine drove past and parked a block away among a group of trees that partially hid her car. She put on her black cap, black sweatshirt, and leather gloves. Then, she made her way through Steve’s neighbors’ backyards until she reached the back door to his garage. The fool never locked it. Lexine listened for sounds on the other side, hoping that maybe the two of them were still sleeping. The darkness beyond the windows was a good sign.

  After waiting several minutes, Lexine felt it was safe enough to go in. She opened the garage door just enough to slip inside. As she approached the door to the house, she listened intently. She could be wrong, but it sounded like there was a rhythmic smacking on the other side.

  Lexine practically rubbed her hands together in glee. They were fucking, and she couldn’t have asked for a better distraction. It was even better than if they had been sleeping.

  Once again, Lexine turned the knob without any trouble. The idiot didn’t lock this door either.

  She entered the dark galley kitchen and tiptoed toward the back of the home. The house was ranch-style with the kitchen and living room in front and the master bathroom all the way at the end of the hall in the back. Their sex sounds grew louder as Lexine got closer. Hopefully, Analeigh and Steve would never hear her coming.

  When she got to the bathroom, Lexine went inside. Steve’s home was older, built before en suite bathrooms had become really popular, and she hoped one of them would come in there to clean up after themselves.

  She searched the mess on the bathroom counter for Analeigh’s perfume and sprayed herself with it, hoping the post-sex haze and the fragrance would cover up her scent. Then, she hid behind the door to wait.

  Lexine really wanted to bust in on them fucking, but she wasn’t dumb. Even though she was a Guardian and had training, it was two against one. She wasn’t going to risk ruining her plan because she let her feelings overrun her common sense.

  That was how she’d ended up in this situation in the first place. If she hadn’t agreed to the gang’s plan to try to separate the shifters and the vampires, in her hopes of getting Phoenix away from Dante, she never would have gotten involved with this group. If she didn’t make this right, Dante would never see her as a romantic partner.

  Lexine listened as she heard the squeaks of the bed frame speed up, the headboard making an almost constant bang against the wall. She heard a male groan and then nothing. It seemed Steve was a selfish lover, as she hadn’t heard any female moans.

  “Sorry, love. I’ll get you next time.” Steve’s voice floated into the hallway.

  “That’s okay. I’m good.”

  Lexine made a face at the back of the door, betting that Analeigh was lying. But whatever; it wasn’t her relationship.

  “I’d do it right now, but we’re supposed to meet everyone in less than an hour.”

  Lexine’s ears perked up. Could everyone be the everyone she’d come to know? Were they planning something tonight? Was Lucas going to call her and quiz her again? Shit.

  She quickly took out her cell and made sure it was on silent before Lucas did call her, alerting Steve and Analeigh that she was in the house. Her phone was on vibrate, but even that could be heard, so she switched to silent.

  She cursed herself as she put her phone back in her pocket because she almost missed Analeigh respond, “I’d better grab a shower then. You made quite a mess on me.”

  Lexine tried not to gag or picture what Analeigh was talking about. And she really hoped she wouldn’t accidentally touch anything organic in nature when she took Analeigh down.

  She heard Analeigh in the hallway, so Lexine slowed her breathing as best she could so as not to be heard. Analeigh flipped on the light in the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She let her robe slide down her shoulders just as she looked up into the mirror and saw Lexine behind her.

  “Shouldn’t have crossed me, bitch,” Lexine hissed as she put one hand over Analeigh’s mouth and her other over the front of her neck, squeezing Analeigh’s pulse points.

  Analeigh clawed at the gloves around her neck and made a high-pitched muffled sound, but soon, she collapsed against Lexine as she passed out. Lexine gently laid her down on the bathroom rug, so there was no noise to alert Steve that something was wrong. It was hard because she really wanted to drop her, letting her fall on her face and break her nose.

  Lexine grabbed a clean washcloth on the shelf behind the toilet and got it wet. Thankfully, Steve thought Analeigh was in the bathroom, getting ready for the night. Lexine washed the area behind Analeigh’s knee to make sure it was clean because she didn’t know what the two of them had done in the bedroom.

  Then, Lexine bent over and sank her fangs into the area, aiming for the popliteal vein. It was a relatively large, deep vein, so it was easy to quickly feed from, although a very unusual spot to do so, which was why she’d picked it. She needed to do this fast, and she needed a spot where Analeigh wouldn’t obviously look. Even with the healing properties in their saliva, it could be difficult to heal a wound one hundred percent. It also helped that the area was on the back of her body. When Analeigh woke up and inspected herself, she probably wouldn’t think to look there.

  Lexine quickly took just enough blood in order to sense and get a read on Analeigh before she withdrew her fangs. She didn’t want to take any more than she needed because she didn’t want Analeigh to guess that she’d lost blood.

  Lexine closed the bite mark, taking as much time as she could spare to heal it as completely as possible. Then, she put soap all over the back of Analeigh’s knee to hopefully wash off her scent. There was a chance Analeigh wouldn’t remember seeing Lexine in the mirror, so she wanted to remove all traces of herself if possible. Lexine used the washcloth to remove the soap and threw the wet cloth on the counter. For added measure, she sprayed the same perfume she’d sprayed on herself earlier on the back of Analeigh’s knee. Then, she turned Analeigh over onto her back and threw the discarded robe over her.

  Lexine stood and turned on the shower, so Steve would think his girlfriend was in there and to help cover the sound of her footsteps. Then, she headed for the bedroom to seek her next mark.

  She made her first mistake as she entered the bedroom, expecting to see Steve lying on the bed. She should have checked the same behind-the-door hiding spot she’d just used, but instead, she looked around the room and stood there, confused that she didn’t see him. She hadn’t heard him walk past the bathroom.

  She looked at the closet right before she heard the door shut behind her, and an arm wrapped around her throat and another around her waist.

  Fuck.

  Apparently, she hadn’t covered her presence as well as she would have liked to.

  Even though Steve was a male, he didn’t have the fighting experience that Lexine did. He expected her to try to wiggle out of his grip, but Lexine put her chin down, wedging it between her neck and Steve’s arm. Then, she took the arm around her waist and bent his thumb back until it either broke or went with her. Once she pulled the lower limb away from her body, she used Steve’s own height against him. She pushed her butt into his body and leaned over, and Steve started to lose his balance. Then, she flipped him over until he landed on his back.

  Steve made an oomph sound as all the air momentarily left his body, and then he moaned.

  Lexine lifted a booted foot to smash into his face, not caring that she wasn’t supposed to leave a trace of herself here, and brought it down on him. Except he moved, and she only got his collarbone instead. It made a satisfying crunch as it landed on his clavicle, and Steve bellowed with pain.

  Her second mistake was assuming that, since he was in pain, he wouldn’t be able to fight her as strongly. But rather, he seemed to up his ante, his injury pissing him off in the process. He grabbed on to her ankl
e with his good hand and pulled her leg out from under her so hard and fast that she landed on her back, hitting her head. She groaned as she saw stars.

  Steve quickly crawled over her and wrapped his fingers around her throat. Even with one injured side, his uninjured side was squeezing hard enough that her vision started to dim.

  “Fucking bitch. You should have just left us alone,” Steve said as he squeezed harder.

  Then, out of nowhere, Lexine heard a roar, and Steve was ripped off her body. She rolled over and started coughing as she tried to regain her breath. Her throat burned as she sucked in air, and she knew it would take a few days to heal.

  When she finally felt like she had enough air in her lungs, she paid attention to her other senses and realized who had saved her. It was Sterling. Her blood link to him was open, and he was pissed.

  She quickly turned to see Sterling in a sitting position with his legs crisscrossed over Steve’s waist. Sterling slowly choked him out with both hands around Steve’s neck.

  Lexine tried to get to her feet, but her legs were unsteady, so she half-crawled, half-walked as she rushed over to Sterling. She grabbed on to Sterling’s hands. “You can’t kill him!”

  She couldn’t let Sterling take a life in defense of her. She’d gotten herself into this mess. She could not let Sterling take this on his conscience. But he was in a daze and ignored her.

  “Sterling, you can’t kill him,” she said again. She went around to Sterling’s back and tried to pull him away. It was like trying to move a house. Think, think, think. She had to do something.

  She bit Sterling on the ear and shouted, “You can’t kill him. He’s knows where my parents are. They’ve been kidnapped.”

  That finally seemed to get through to him, and he let go of Steve. Steve slumped over onto his side, but at least Lexine could see his chest rising and falling.

  Sterling jerked his body out of Lexine’s embrace.

  She briefly glanced at his face, and the anger there almost had her cowering in the corner. But Lexine still had a mission to finish. She wasn’t going to let Sterling stop her.

  She rolled Steve to his back, and since he already knew she’d been there, she leaned over and drank from his neck. She took more than she had from Analeigh because the asshole had tried to kill her. Something she hadn’t even been planning to do to him. She wasn’t here to see him die. She’d only come for his blood.

  When she was done, she licked the wound closed but didn’t bother healing him. When he woke up, she hoped the fucker’s neck hurt as much as hers did.

  She sat up to see Sterling watching her.

  “What the fuck is going on?”

  “I COULD ASK you the same thing. How did you find me?” Lexine asked, trying to deflect Sterling’s question.

  He didn’t answer her question, just like she hadn’t answered his query.

  “Why did you drink from him? And what’s up with the unconscious female in the bathroom? When did your parents get kidnapped?”

  He could see a look pass over Lexine’s face as she realized that he wasn’t going to let this go.

  Lexine had snuck out of the house before everyone else was up, so he had tracked her here. When he’d come upon her lying on the floor as some asshole tried to choke the life out of her, he’d seen red. And, if she even thought about lying to him, she was going to regret it.

  She sighed. “I need to be able to track him and the female in the bathroom. The rest, I’ll tell you once we get out of here. It’s not safe.”

  She stood up and started to leave the room, but Sterling clasped her wrist and didn’t let go. If Lexine needed to track the asshole, then Sterling was going to be right there with her. He picked up the male’s arm and struck him on the inside of the elbow. As he took deep pulls, trying to take as much blood as possible in a short amount of time, he felt Lexine trying to break free of him. He tightened his grip. There was no way he trusted her not to flee once he let go. When he took enough, he dropped the male’s arm and stood. Sterling spit on the male’s chest before walking out of the room.

  Sterling then dragged Lexine into the bathroom where he did the same thing with the female, minus the spit. She hadn’t tried to kill Lexine. At least, going by her lack of injuries, he doubted there had been any sort of struggle.

  Once that was done, he and Lexine left the house through the backyard to get to their cars. Sterling had parked his SUV right behind her car when he pulled in.

  “How did you find me?” she asked again, pissed.

  He couldn’t believe she was the one who was pissed. He’d just saved her ass back there. “I tracked you.”

  “How?” she demanded, yanking on her arm but giving up when she realized he wasn’t going to let go.

  “I put a GPS on your car.”

  He could see the wheels turning in her head, and she was angry with him for tracking her car.

  “Okay, that got you to this location. How did you find me in the house?”

  “Your phone.”

  “You asshole,” she said as she tried to fight off his grip.

  He pushed her against the side of his SUV and pressed his body against hers. “I’m the asshole? You are obviously up to something, but you won’t tell anyone or ask for help. You almost died tonight, Lexine. If I hadn’t tracked you here, you would have died. And you’re angry with me? I don’t think you have that right.”

  She lifted her chin. “I don’t think you have the right to track me down. I’m going to make sure you never do that again.”

  He shook his head. “You and your stupid pride. You can’t even admit when you’re wrong. And I’m sorry, honey, but you can use a different car and you can turn off your cell phone, but you can’t get rid of your blood. And, if that’s what it takes to see that you’re safe, then that’s what I’m going to have to do. And seeing as how you drank enough for both of us tonight…” Sterling used his hand that wasn’t holding on to her wrist to bend her head to the side.

  He expected her to fight him even more, but she didn’t fight him at all. It was like all the fire had left her body. It was one thing to take her blood when she was mad and getting in his face, but with her like this, he couldn’t do it. He felt too much like a predator, and she was his prey.

  He let go of her wrist and used his vehicle to push himself away from her.

  He couldn’t understand what happened next or why it happened, but Lexine flung herself at him. She beat on his chest with her fists as she started sobbing. Sensing that she needed to get this out, he let her use his body to vent her frustration.

  It went on for some time until she collapsed against him, and the same arms that had hit him now burrowed into his back as she buried her face in this chest. Without hesitation, Sterling wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair over and over.

  She sniffled against him a few times, but the crying seemed to have stopped when she looked up into his eyes. He expected to see sadness and vulnerability there, but instead, he saw raw heat.

  She had never looked at him that way.

  “I’m still mad at you,” he told her.

  “I’m still mad at you, too.”

  That was enough for him to let go of her and back away again, except she grabbed on to his shirt and pulled him down to kiss her.

  He knew he should end this, but while she had vented her feelings, his were still brimming on the surface. How dare she scare him like that. Didn’t she know how much—

  She bit his lip, and Sterling lost what was left of his self-control. He pushed her back against the side of his SUV and took her mouth. He cupped the back of her head and pushed his tongue inside her mouth. She moaned against him, which only made him kiss her harder.

  He wanted her so badly, and apparently, she felt the same because she unbuttoned his jeans and pushed her hand in to grasp his cock. He reached under her sweatpants and cupped her bare ass. He ground his cock against her as much as he could with her hand still enveloping him.

 
He wasn’t sure who did what next. All he knew was that they both went from dressed to Lexine wearing only one leg of her sweats while his pants were pushed around his knees. Lexine grabbed on to his neck and jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. Sterling pushed her butt against the vehicle and thrust inside her.

  Neither of them seemed to care that they were outside where anyone could walk or drive by. The big trees only blocked so much, but at the moment, it didn’t matter.

  They were in a frantic rush. There was no other way to describe it, except as him pounding into her over and over again.

  She dug her nails into his back and ass and told him, “More,” and, “Harder,” as if he even thought about slowing down.

  Then, she moved one of her hands to the back of his head and pushed it into her neck. “Do it, Sterling.”

  He kissed her there and sucked until she moaned, but he didn’t do the one thing he was dying to do. He couldn’t forget the way she had just stood there earlier.

  “Do it, Sterling. I want you to. I want you to fucking bite me. Take my blood. I want to be inside you, the way you’re inside me.”

  Fuck if those weren’t the most erotic words ever spoken to him, and Sterling struck. He hesitated for a moment after his fangs were inside her neck, but she moaned so loudly and clenched her pussy around him, so he knew she had been truthful when she said she wanted it.

  He sucked on her as he thrust inside her.

  “Oh my God, I’m going to come,” Lexine said into his ear. “Oh, please, don’t stop. Right there. Oh, fuuuuck,” she cried out as she convulsed around him.

  Sterling withdrew his fangs and licked and sucked on her neck while he waited for her orgasm to finish. When he could tell that she was nearing the end, he pushed inside her once, twice, and three times before he came in a rush, too.

  He withdrew from her body and set her feet down on the pavement. He kissed her again as he slid his hand between her legs and pushed two fingers inside her, so he could feel himself there. She was wet with his cum, and he pushed it further inside her. He used the rest to rub over her clit, and she clutched his shirt and gasped into his mouth.