He nods as if understanding it, as if he gets how I feel and how hard it is to not look at him the way any sane human being would. And that’s bad too because I don’t want him to be all understanding and nice. I want him to threaten me and put things back on an even keel so I can keep myself separate from him.
It’s never out of my mind that I am here for him, that eventually he’ll take me and that I’ll be his woman or whatever it is that he intends. Part of me hates that, him, and yet another is attracted to him and curious about what it would be like.
I’m going nuts. I must be, because who looks at a man who could kill you and wonders about what his body would feel like, look like, taste like.
“I need to hate you, and it’s so hard because I am not stupid, okay? You’re right. I know you’re right. You could have walked away and left me with those animals and I’d be in a very bad situation right now. It scares me that I could be dead and Daddy would never know…but it scares me more to look at you and know that you saved me,” I admit, finally saying what I don’t want to.
Acknowledging that he’s my savior isn’t easy. It’s a shitty way to look at a guy who will never let me have my life back, and yet it’s true. He saved me, and through him I get to live. Not the life I had, but what the hell does that matter when, in reality, I could be dead right now and rotting in a shallow grave? Or be pig food?
Jesus! My imagination, I think, scowling at the notion that he’s right yet again. I really need to stop thinking and talking so graphically.
Wylder smiles at my admission, and I shiver when he strokes a finger over the skin at my shoulder, the light touch at odds with what I expect from him.
“So, stop thinking, Danny.”
“But—”
“No buts. Just stop thinking. Answer me this, what would you do or say to me right now if I’d asked you on a date and we were here, just two people trying to get to know each other?”
Shit. I don’t want to play this game at all. I haven’t wanted to think this way at all because if this was just us, a man and a woman getting together, then I would probably be all awkward and giggly because I’d be attracted and—
“Tell me,” he pushes, running circles over the ball of my shoulder.
“I’d be nervous,” I say softly, breathing deeply to dispel images I don’t want to see.
“Why?”
“Because you…you’re good-looking and probably the ideal man. If this was just a date, I’d be nervous about saying or doing the wrong thing.”
Wylder keeps stroking me, oh so softly, and the tingling surge of heat that hits me almost steals my breath. It’s been so long since I felt anything approaching arousal that it sends me spinning when I feel my nipples peak against the soft lace of my bra.
“Pretend that’s exactly what this is, then. Because isn’t that what it is, Danny? It’s just you and me here, baby, and I’m trying to get to know you,” he murmurs, watching my breasts with eagle-eyed intensity. “I’d be nervous too.”
I snort and he chuckles.
“What a crock. You probably see every woman as a done deal.”
“No, I don’t. I usually only go for an easy lay and move on, but if I’d have asked you out the day I saw you, I’d have been like a fish out of water. You’re not easy in any way, baby, and I get that, which would make things harder for me. I’d need to impress you and make you like me.”
His words weave a picture that has my natural curiosity sitting up to take notes, and I turn to him, still nervous but needing to play this out suddenly.
“Would you lie?”
“No. I’d just try to steer you in the right direction and make you so hot for me you wouldn’t care about anything else but being with me. I’d keep looking at you like you’re the sexiest woman alive, and I would definitely tell you how damn sexy it is that you have a small rack but an ass that I could spend hours tasting.”
“I don’t think that’s first date material, Wylder,” I say, blushing deep red.
He chuckles at that, but his eyes are blazing while he keeps up the light stroking, his finger traveling down my arm slowly.
“I told you I don’t do dating,” he teases, making me smile.
No, I do not see Wylder doing anything as tame as dating. With this man, it’s all about the grand prize, and as far as I can tell, he doesn’t scratch the card to win the lottery, just breaks into the bank and takes it.
I pause again, this time totally unprepared for what I feel because it becomes clear that with me Wylder has not acted to script. He’s had me for five days now, almost six if you count the flight time when he first took me, and yet he hasn’t laid a hand on me.
Any thug, any monster, would have tied me down, pinned me, and taken me. Any man who looks at me as a possession, just a body, would have raped me by now.
Not him. No, he’s been eating with me, talking to me, treating me with respect. Oh my God, he’s dating me, I think dazedly. Wylder is so dating me, and I don’t even think he knows it.
I fight a smile at that and bite my lip as happiness rushes through me. Good God Almighty, I think. I think I may have just gotten one over on the big bad wolf himself, and he’s so unaware of it that it’s hilarious!
“Why are you smiling?” he asks suspiciously, making it all the sweeter.
I shouldn’t mess with a madman, I really shouldn’t, but it’s just so freaking awesome.
“I take back what I said about this being our first date.”
He frowns.
“I told you I don’t date.”
“Oh, but you totally do, Wylder. We’ve been on…” I mentally calculate our meals and grin. “We’ve been on nine dates if you count the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners we’ve eaten together.”
Another frown turns into a scowl of recognition, and I laugh out loud, tickled beyond belief.
“That’s not—”
“It so is! It is. Think about it. You eat with me, you talk to me, you tell me about yourself and your family. Wylder, face it, you’ve been dating me for days and you didn’t even know it,” I crow.
Why I’m not afraid of him right now is not something I let myself think about. I just let go for once and enjoy the moment for what it is, an easy day free of the horrors I’ve been building in my head.
Wylder scowls again, giving me a filthy look, and stops touching me as if burned.
“Bullshit! I eat with you because it’s easier and I can keep an eye on you. All I want is for you to have sex with me and be my mistress.”
Cold water could not ruin the moment more, but instead of letting him see my dismay, I cling to my superiority in the moment.
“Okay, Mr. Thug, so are you saying that eating with me and talking to me have not been your way of seducing me?”
“So fucking what!”
“So? So, that is what dating is, genius. Men take women out and do the whole dance because they want to get them into bed. You think all dates are about falling in love?” I sneer, laughing at his look of discomfort and denial.
“This is all bullshit.”
“Nope, this is the great Bear Wylder, lord of the underworld, dating me just like a normal guy because he wants to get in my pants.”
He blushes, and I want to laugh again, only restraining myself because he’s started pacing and looks ready to freak the hell out. Priceless.
“So, is this it, then?” he asks, stopping abruptly to turn and give me a sizzling look.
“What?”
“Is this whole song and dance over, then? Because I gotta tell you, Danny, my fucking cock is not happy with this dance. You ready to fu—”
“God, you are such a pig,” I yell, springing up to throw my hands in the air.
The grin returns, annoying me to death, and he saunters over to grab me, pulling my hips into his to let me feel how hard he is. I blush like a virgin. I can’t help it and gasp when his mouth hits mine, tongue shoving home without preamble.
The kiss is wet, hard, and a show
of dominance that steels my breath and sanity. I should push away, but it feels so good I can do nothing but moan and keep still, absorbing the skill he uses.
His tongue spears in, deep, flicking and lapping at mine. I taste him, spit and coffee and the whiskey he’s always sipping on. It’s so good and…dirty. He kisses me dirty as if telling me with one motion that nothing between us will be clean or neat.
I revel in it and kiss him back before I can think, and it is good. It’s slippery and wet and messy, unlike any kiss I have ever had. We kiss until my lips are numb and I can’t breathe. He stops, pulling away to draw in a breath, and smiles down at me. Triumph.
“I’m going to make you come so much you won’t ever want to leave. I’ll eat you out until you’re a dripping, swollen mess, so soft inside that my cock won’t make it all the way into you before I come.”
Everything beneath my navel clenches and goes tight, the sudden onset of arousal so swift I can’t do a thing but gasp and see the picture he’s painting in vivid color.
It’s so real I can see his mouth on me, feel his tongue slipping through my flesh.
“You like that,” he purrs.
No, really, I shouldn’t, but he knows, damn him, and just gives a grind of his erection into my stomach before stepping back and nodding.
“This is good. You can stay out here for a while if you want, walk around a little. Just don’t try to leave. I have guards posted around the property, and there are traps all over the perimeter. I’d sure hate for you to step on one, babe. Those suckers can take off a limb.”
He strolls away, leaving me slack-jawed and gaping, the sound of his merry whistle resounding in my head. Christ Almighty in heaven, I think I’m in deep shit with this madman.
Chapter Six
Wylder
“I’ll do it, son, but if things go bad, it’s all on you and your agency.”
I breathe out silently as relief hits and lean back in my seat, nodding at Wolf. I’ve been on the phone with Jon Bright for over an hour now, and after jumping through hoops, I have finally managed to convince the man that allowing a shipment through is the only way for my team to get evidence to take down the Irish and the Mexicans.
It hasn’t been easy. I knew it wouldn’t be, after that phone call with Danny. The woman is hot and smart but she’s no actress, and I had to fight not to cringe at her tone.
I’ve made a note to myself never to trot her out in front of my associates, just in case she can’t handle the heat. Fuck, I know she can’t handle the heat.
“Understood, sir. I wouldn’t ask this of you but for the fact that you’re going to be family and it would kill Danny if you get hurt. This way you keep your own nose clean and they won’t try to pull you in further. Besides that, I don’t have enough on these bastards to put them away indefinitely. My superiors have buried me and the team deep, but even now, it’s not easy to gather what we need. We’re still relatively low on the totem pole.”
“Tell me about it. I’ve had an agent deep in the Korean’s for a year, and the little shit is still running petty errands.” He sighs.
Well, now, isn’t that interesting.
“So, Jay is coming back sometime next week, and I’m leaving it to you to bring him up to speed. That man will grill you, son, hard. He loves his little girl more than life itself, so don’t expect an easy in,” he warns.
Wolf grins at my scowl, and I flip him off before assuring the man that I have the balls to stand toe to toe with Danny’s father.
And I do because, contrary to what she may believe, she’s with me for life, and that includes getting married and making things appear as they should.
Eventually her family will cop to that I’m not what I seem, but by then, she’ll be mine and I won’t have to think about the repercussions until they come along.
“Okay, son. You keep her safe and happy, and I’ll let you know when they come at me.”
“Thanks, sir.”
I end the call with a groan and slam a whiskey while Wolf grins and rubs his hands together. The fool is over here on the excuse that he needs to have my back, but I know he’s just hiding from Mom and that wild woman he’s taken to heel.
I snort at my wording because while I am having hell with Danny, Wolf is being cut off at the knees by Lori. Poor bastard. The life of a family man is hard, I tell ya.
“So, the shipment goes through. What then?”
“Then we keep going until we get Ariston involved. It’s just a matter of time before he smells the money and tries to muscle into the operation,” I say, satisfied with the way things are working out.
“He’ll try to have us removed to take over the whole thing, you know,” Wolf points out.
Yeah, I know. I’m counting on it.
“And then we’ll have him, son. We’ll have that fucker good.”
Wolf doesn’t look convinced, and I can’t blame him. We’ve been at this for so long that sometimes I wonder if it will ever end the way I’ve planned it. But it has to because Figo Ariston has always been my mark, ever since I decided to wade into the murky depths of this world and deal in things that have dirtied my hands beyond repair.
I don’t regret it one bit. In this world, there are those who do and those who die. I do. I do it all, and in the end, I know that I may not come out whole but I will win.
I have to.
“I hope so. Mom and Pop are shitting down my throat about Lori and that woman…”
I laugh at his look of fear because I’ve been over there a few times, and God help me, I’d have left her to Noni and run like hell if she were mine.
“I sometimes wonder if things would be different if we weren’t the way we are.”
Wolf snorts and rolls his eyes because I’ve asked him the same thing a hundred times over the years and the answer is pretty moot. Nothing would be different, because the truth is that this course, this path I am walking, was set out for me a long time ago and nothing I do or could have done would have changed it.
I was always meant to be this man I am. I was always destined to see Danny and know she was mine, just like every other man in my line has known the moment they saw their woman.
You’re probably confused, so I’ll get it all out there and maybe you won’t hate me as much once you know. Generations ago, one of my descendants, a Norse Viking of old, is said to have lost his true love when his village was raided.
The story goes that he was so overcome with bloodlust he spent months tracking the men who killed her and systematically slaughtered them and their families.
Pop tells it like it’s a big achievement or something, while I just think how fucked up it is to go that nuts over one chick. At least I did until I saw Danny. I never believed in the story or what Dad told me happened later.
Apparently, this guy was so broken when he was done he went to a witch, an outcast he’d been cruel to over the years, and begged her to curse his descendants.
It didn’t go that way, because she was so filled with anger she cursed him instead to live a long life and watch his offspring find true love. A love he’d never have again.
I don’t believe in that shit, about some family curse where every Wylder will find love once and be ruined for anyone else. I didn’t believe it until I saw Danny and couldn’t stop thinking about her.
I didn’t even believe it when I spent two years keeping an eye on her and her movements. Hell, I don’t believe it now. I really don’t. But if I did, I wonder what would happen if I let myself feel more than lust.
I don’t want to. I’ve seen what ‘true love’ can do to someone, and I will never let myself go that deep that I ignore the pitfalls of it.
True love.
I snort again because true love has shaped the last years of my life and made me into a criminal who will likely be behind bars or dead when all is said and done.
Unless I plan for it all, as I have been doing, and hope that God sees me through it despite how messed up I am.
“
But we are who we are, and we’re these men for a reason, Bear. Don’t forget that,” Wolf growls, reminding me of things that I don’t want to think about.
The grief is long gone, swept away by time and a vengeance that we will have, no matter how long it takes us.
“I wish the women hadn’t been involved. It’s harder to handle the dangers when I have to think about Danny too.”
“You’re telling me, man. Ma knows the score, and yet she’s still giving me hell about Lori.”
“Dude, you locked her in the freaking cells in the basement,” I point out, not laughing because, as funny as I find his difficulty with Lori, it sucks that she’s being subjected to that.
“What did you want me to do? I caught her trying to run. Twice. I’ve talked to her a million times and tried to point out how dangerous it would be if she escaped, not just for her but her family, and you know what she said? Nothing! She spat in my face and tried to knee me in the balls.”
I do laugh then because out of the five of us, Wolf is the one who can’t deal with conflict. The man either grunts or talks like an old woman. And he’s a horn dog when it comes to sex.
I don’t think he’s been without it this long since he turned seventeen and bloomed into a man, the asshole. He’s a slut, honestly, even worse than Lyon, who screws a different woman every night.
“How are things with Danny?”
I smile at the question and recall last night when I brought her down for dinner, her first foray into the rest of the house after the phone call. She was so nervous around me it was cute, and I almost tore a hole through my pants when she blushed and averted her eyes from mine.
I’m a sick bastard, but I really, really enjoy seeing my woman all shy and submissive around me. It tells me that she’s feeling things she doesn’t want to, and that gives me hope that I will have her, because, yeah, she’s mine and I am keeping her for as long as I live.
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