by Ebony Olson
I touched his face gently and pulled back from the kiss. “It's okay, Alexander. Take what you need from me.”
His pupils dilated, and I knew I'd said the right thing. He pulled away from me and flipped me onto my stomach. He pulled my hips off the bed and shoved into me with a little more force. I recognized what was happening immediately. Possession. He felt like he'd nearly lost me tonight and needed to possess me, for me to submit to his need.
My nails clawed the sheets as he pounded into me and I bit the pillow to keep my moans to a minimum as my body rose to meet his need. I wanted to be his; I wanted Alexander to own me so much that I would give him anything he asked of me if he promised to make me his entirely. And that's what scared me most.
Alexander slowed his movements as my body tightened around his engorgement. He laid his body over my back and used his fingers in my hair to turn my face to that awkward angle and kissed me hard. “I want to come inside you.”
I wanted him to, but I shook my head. “You'd have to marry me.”
“I want to do that too, Spec. As soon as you're strong enough to be my wife, I will make you mine. Please Spec, I need this tonight.”
His eyes begged for me to let him take it to that next level. I bit my lip and touched his face gently, willing him to understand. “I'm already breaking my rules letting you be inside me without protection, Alex. Until you marry me, you can't put your seed in my womb.”
He knew I always used condoms when we finally started having sex. After Alexander started sleeping around, he promised he'd use protection with everyone else and always pull out if he could have this level of intimacy with me.
His eyes looked pained by my answer, and I was so tempted to give in, to try and make up for the mess I'd made with Bay Ryder by letting Alexander have this. I kissed him gently, and he pulled out of me, his hand pulling my hip so that I rolled beneath him, and then he slid into me again. I tried to break from his mouth, but he held me there and forced me to kiss him through it. He kissed me as he brought me to orgasm and when my body contracting around his sent him over the edge, he kept kissing me as he pulled out and released his pleasure over the smooth skin of my stomach.
He kissed me for several minutes afterward until his phone rang. Alexander looked over at his bedside table before he stood, pulling me off the bed and taking me into the shower with him. The sun was rising as we washed each other clean.
Alexander hugged my back to his chest and kissed across my shoulder. “Are you any closer in your practice?” I lowered my head and shook it. Alexander didn't push it, “You'll get there, Spec. My mother was thirty before she could prove herself worthy of my father, and he met and started teaching her when she was fourteen.”
I smiled, considering. “We met when we were in primary school, Alexander.”
He smirked against my shoulder. “Yes, but I didn't realize you were a potential candidate till you turned sixteen. Once I did, I started teaching you the basics without you even realizing.”
I frowned and thought back. “The meditation you made me do before we studied together each week?”
Alexander nuzzled the back of my neck. “Remember that massage course I told you I was taking and asked you to let me practice on you?” I nodded, remembering how good he'd been with his hands. “There was no course. Mom suggested I take that approach to introduce our bodies to each other slowly, to let you get used to my power as it grew, rather than hurting you if I didn't take you till I was at full power.”
Alexander ran his hands up my body to caress my breast. I sighed, hanging my head back as his power sent sparks of electricity through me in a pleasurable way.
“I thought for sure you were done with Jeff after we spent the summer break mostly holed up in my bedroom after graduation. Did you ever tell him about us? That I was your first?” Alexander's other hand slipped between my legs. I gasped as his body grew hard against my back again.
“He didn't know it was you, though he probably suspected, but he knew I gave my virginity to someone else while he was backpacking around the world with his mates. He was screwing around, so he couldn't complain.”
Alexander turned me and pushed me against the wall, his eyes filled with sadness. “Why did you go back to him?”
I shrugged. “Our friends expected it, and you went to the capital for university. I didn't love him, but you ignited a fire in me, Alexander, and then you left me.”
“You got accepted, you could have come with me.”
“Even with the scholarship, I couldn't afford to go to an elite university. You know that, Alexander.”
“My parents would have paid for you...”
“I will not be indebted to anyone, Alexander, especially to the parents of the man I love. I made my decision.”
“Your decision got you killed, Spec!” Alexander raged. “Just like last night could have gotten you killed. Why the fuck would you allow Bay Ryder to kiss you?”
I knew it was coming after last night. He'd been holding this in for six years. I lifted my eyes to his angry, dark ones and kept my voice peaceful. “Remember the first time we were together? It was Christmas Eve. I was staying with your family for Christmas, like I did every year after Mom...” I swallowed the words and got back on topic.
“You came into your bathroom after I showered and told me I looked tense. You got me to lie on your bed still naked with just a towel to cover me while you massaged my back. You waited till I went to get up, and you took my face in your hands and kissed me with everything you felt. You kissed me till I lay back and gave you all I owned to give you.” Alexander's eyes softened as I spoke.
“He surprised me. He kissed me so intently I was blown away, Alexander. I didn't want to, trust me, the idea of being with one of his kind sickens me, but there's something about him. When I touch him, I'm not sickened, I'm curious about the way he makes me feel.” I dropped my eyes, ashamed, and Alexander took a deep breath.
“He's going to seek you out, Spec, because he feels that curiosity too. The same genetics that makes you a candidate to be my wife makes you a candidate for him as well.”
I looked at Alexander, shocked, my mouth moving to ask if I'd understood right, but my voice failed me.
Alexander smoothed a strand of hair back from my face as he took it in his hands. “He was what I am, before he was taken. And, when he realizes what you are, he's going to go to war with me for you.”
“But I love you. Shouldn't that matter?”
Alexander's eyes darkened. “Until we are married, nothing will matter. He will work to capture your heart just as hard as I have, but, where I have tried to coax you into your power gently, he will force you into it painfully if it means he can claim you.”
“Could you do that?” I asked, slightly terrified as I remembered the woman screaming in agony as she went through her first change last night. Not that I would turn into an animal, but the agony she must have felt.
Alexander gave me a wicked smile and kissed me deeply. I felt his power come alive around me, at first like a warm wind, then it picked up ferocity till I felt like I was standing in the middle of a forest fire. I tried to pull back from the kiss but Alexander held me to him, his mouth muting my whimpers. I felt a spark of something start in my chest and my eyes popped open.
Alexander’s eyes were open, watching me. I saw the question in his eyes, silently asking me permission to push further. I closed my eyes and kissed him harder.
He pushed more of his power against me, and I felt like I was being burned alive, my flesh melting away from me, falling off my bones. I screamed, and Alexander clamped his hand over my mouth. I felt that spark yawn open a little further, a soothing coolness in the center of my chest when everything else burnt with such intensity, but it wasn't enough to soothe the burn. I felt my lungs burning inside me, and I struggled against the suffocation.
All of a sudden, the firestorm disappeared. I stood hyperventilating into Alexander's s
houlder as the pain still coursed through my body. That soothing coolness stayed, it didn't recede like I expected.
“That's what he will do to you, Spec, except he won't stop when you use your safe word.”
I wanted to ask how the hell he knew about safe words, but I couldn't get my breathing under control. The world grew narrow in my vision, and eventually it all disappeared as I fell into the oblivion of unconsciousness.
Bay
I walked back to the house, furious I'd lost her. There was definitely something about Spectra Michaels that allowed my guards to let her pass freely from the property. Calin was standing on the front steps, watching his newest wife roll on the grass, finally having finished her first change. Calin's brown eyes met mine, and he ran a hand through his shoulder-length blond hair.
“I'm sorry, boss. She must have passed by during one of Serena's screams. As soon as Gina and Cynthia return, I'll find out why they let her pass too.”
“You'll bring them to me. I want to hear it straight from their mouths. In the meantime, I want to speak to Bronwyn. She recommended Miss Michaels in the first place. I want to know everything she knows about her.”
“Yes, boss.” Calin bowed his head, stepping aside while I passed and then following me into the house to go to the wing that he shared with his wives.
I climbed the stairs, Luke joining me on the landing and following me up to my study. I collected Spectra's shoes from the stairs where she'd abandoned them. It was stupid of me to leave the room to deal with business while I waited for her to wake.
“She couldn't have gotten far?” Luke looked amazed that I came back empty-handed.
“She would be here now, but I underestimated her, and I'm not dealing solely with her. She has high connections within the Nachtwelt that are not happy with my interest.”
Luke's eyes widened a little as I opened my study door and stepped inside. “Did you want me to look into these connections?”
I shook my head. Calin came into the office with Bronwyn in tow. The petite blonde woman held her head high in my presence. Calin was only attracted to strong women. “Is there something wrong, boss?” she queried confidently.
“You recommended the girl named Spectra to me for the documentation. What do you know about her?”
Bronwyn paled a little. “Did she not deliver?”
“Answer the questions, don't ask them,” Calin suggested gently.
Bronwyn swallowed and nodded. “I only met her twice. My sister was in a bad marriage, and when I asked around for extraction options, her email address was passed to me by the people who would help my sister disappear. She was good, really good, and fast. She suggested we just get a license and birth certificate to start, and that a passport would be easier to apply for later using the other documents. She hacked my sister's bank accounts and changed the details so that she was money ready at the other end.”
I tilted my head with curiosity. “You failed to mention she could access banks as well.”
Bronwyn's eyes widened a little. “I figured she'd just suggest it to you like she did me. I did warn you she didn't work for our kind. She only agreed to help me because my sister was human. I wasn't meant to circulate her name, but you were obviously in a bind, time wise.”
I nodded my head, accepting that made sense. Her anger at me showing up was evident across the bar. “You know nothing about her as a person?”
Bronwyn shook her head. “I'm sorry, boss. Our interaction was rather short and to the point.”
“Did you know she frequented Ténèbres?”
Bronwyn shrugged. “When you contact her, she organizes a meet there and she'll suss you out first. I think she's pretty tight with the bartender. He watches her pretty closely.”
Luke frowned. “Are you talking about Tommy Donald? He has the Goth bar down the wharf district.” Bronwyn nodded, and Luke met my eyes. “Tommy is a watcher. That's why she's using his bar as the office. If her gig is usually to help female victims, Tommy will watch over her and even protect her if someone tried something. It's why so few predators go to that bar.”
I nodded. “That explains the welcome I got, especially when I asked for her.”
“She can't be straight human if she's able to spot watchers as well as our kind.” Calin considered. “A witch maybe?”
“Not likely. How many of the Nachtwelt can even recognize a watcher, let alone still conduct themselves in a manner that would have a watcher protecting them? I can't even think of anything. Maybe it's just exposure that's led to her being able to identify us.” Luke argued.
I shook my head. “Not straight human. Her aura fades in and out at times, like she’s struggling to stay with the living.”
Bronwyn stood straighter, and I realized she gave off heavy military vibes. “Boss, the sun is coming up. I'll go fetch Gina and Cynthia to report if you like?”
I nodded. Calin smiled at her with pride, and Bronwyn blushed before leaving the room. Calin possessed a remarkable knack with his women. He could be stern but still sympathetic and gentle so that they never felt slighted. Yet they knew not to cross him and tried hard to please him.
“I could have used your ability with women last night, Calin,” I grumbled.
“I'm sorry, boss. It was Selena's first change, and it's important I lead them through it with kindness.” Calin was very subtly telling me his wives came before my personal pleasure, and I could understand that.
Cynthia and Gina entered my study. The two women were polar opposites in appearance and personality except for their long blonde hair and that inner strength all Calin's women possessed. “You requested our presence, boss?”
“You let a human walk off the property last night. Why?” Calin questioned instead. He asked it gently, but both women immediately cringed.
“No human crossed our paths. Just the ghost, boss.” Gina quickly answered. “She was scared but determined. We thought she was just reliving her past.”
“Ghost?” Calin queried, stepping closer. “She was incorporeal?” Both women nodded. Calin turned confused eyes to me. “Explains why I didn't see her come down the stairs, but she can't both be a ghost and a human, boss. I don't know what your girl is.”
I looked to Luke. He shook his head. “I'll do some research, but if you could find out more about her, it could help.”
I nodded and moved towards my room. “I'm due at that meeting at ten o'clock. She went to school with Alexander Williams. Try looking up his senior yearbook as a starting place to identify her.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Spectra
A phone ringing repeatedly woke me from the darkness of my unconsciousness. I blinked and saw Alexander run into his bedroom and collect the phone from the bedside table before he answered. He wore his usual jeans and nothing else and as he sat facing away from me on the other side of the bed, I cringed at the fresh claw marks gouging in his back. I sat up slowly, testing for any residual pain. My nerves felt overly sensitive, but nothing I couldn't handle.
“I can do that. I'll meet you in thirty minutes.” Alexander hung up the phone and swiveled to face me. He looked guarded. “How are you feeling?”
“I'm fine. You?” I let my eyes linger on his back.
Alexander looked over his shoulder and smirked. “I've suffered worse, and it was nothing compared to what you did.” He stood and moved to the wardrobe, pulling out a suit and throwing it on the bed. “I've got a big meeting today and need to meet someone else before that. You barely slept last night. Why don't you stay here the day and tonight as well?” He didn't look at me, focusing on changing.
I stood up and kissed his cheek before I raided his wardrobe for the few items of clothing I left here for when I spent the night. “I have something I want to do today, and since it requires travel, an early start works in my favor.”
Alexander stopped buttoning up his shirt and turned me to face him, touching my cheek gently. “If you get back after dark,
you call me. I'll drop everything to meet you.”
I smiled and nodded before stepping away to pull the long black dress over my head. I collected my boots and put them on before standing and smiling as Alexander finished his tie and pulled on the suit jacket. Alexander looked at me with his own smile. “What's that look for?”
“You look good in a suit. I rarely see you in one, so I'm enjoying the view.”
Alexander reached out and pulled me into a deep kiss. When his phone rang again, I slipped away and grabbed my messenger bag to leave. Alexander caught my hand. “Come back to me tonight?”
I felt the smile die on my face. “You know I can't, Alexander.”
Alexander's dark eyes met mine and he let me see the pain in them. “How long will you make me wait this time?”
“It's not about punishing you,” I answered softly, confused by his pain. “You know what today is and that I keep vigil for Danika.”
Alexander's eyes folded back in his head. “I'm sorry, Spec. I knew today was important for another reason but couldn't remember why.” The phone stopped ringing for a minute and then started again. “Tomorrow night?”
I blinked. “We agreed on random for a reason, Alexander. You made the rules so you could be free to do what you needed and so I wasn't targeted.” I wanted to be with him, but it took so long to get used to him not being there after he decided we needed to put distance between us.
“I meant for you not to stay every night, not for you to disappear for months on end.” Alexander lifted my hand to his chest, placing it over his heart. “I stopped bringing women back here years ago. That's why you stopped coming so regularly, isn't it? You came over and saw me with someone?”
“Yes,” I answered honestly. “I know there are other women, that you need to look like a free agent and keep the possibility open of meeting another balance who might work for you, but I need to protect myself too, just in case that possibility turns into a reality.” The chance was too high that I would never be worthy of him, that he could meet someone in the meantime who would become his balance, and what would be left for me then?