Seduction

by Laxmi Hariharan

  “Eve, the dragon alpha, Leana the mayor, and Zach, the leader of the Elysians, have arrived.” Logan turned to leave. “They’re waiting to meet the two of you. I’ll just tell them and Vance you guys need a little more time, okay?” The door shut behind him with a soft snick.

  Neo didn’t take his gaze off her face. “What happens when you heal someone? Does it hurt you?” His dragon snarled, pushing him to go to her, take her out of there, and keep her where she would be safe. “Tell me.” He was fast reducing to a nervous wreck. He, the rockstar known for his screen presence, the Bureau’s star undercover agent who had never lost his poise in the face of a fight. He set his jaw. Patience. He needed to give her time to speak. To tell him everything. It was the only way he could figure a way out of this mess.

  She hesitated. “I transform whatever is malignant.”

  “So, the darker the stain, the more light you draw down and balance it out. Until the light outshines the dark?” He frowned, trying to make sense of what she was saying.

  She nodded but didn’t meet his gaze.

  No, that wasn’t all; his instinct told him there was more. “But each time you do so, it forces you into the light, makes you less of this world. Each time you heal someone, it pushes you into the psychic realm and out of your body, right?”

  One side of her lips turned up, but her eyes were shadowed. Her fingers threaded through the heavy strands of hair hanging over one shoulder in a gesture he recognized as nervousness.

  “Each time I heal, I feel free, like I am one with the light.” Her face glowed. “It’s the most amazing sensation.”

  “But you’re also afraid that you might lose yourself to the light completely and never come back?” He wasn’t even sure how he’d guessed that, but he just knew.

  The expression on her face was confirmation enough.

  “That’s what happened on the stage earlier, when you shifted to your unicorn self to push him away?” A shudder of fear ran through him. She’d transformed and used her power to save him. She was not a warrior; her powers were made for something so much more important—to give people a chance to mend their broken bodies and souls. The realization rippled through him.

  She raised her eyes to his. The silver in them shined with an emotion he couldn’t quite place? Pain? Grief? Regret? His heart squeezed. She looked so lost. So lonely.

  He wanted to tell her she’d never be alone again, not as long as he was alive. Where had that thought come from? Why were all these feelings pouring through him and twisting his insides? Why did he feel like he was on borrowed time?

  “Unicorns are at the highest stage of evolution. We are on the threshold of the physical and the psychic planes.” The color faded from her cheeks.

  It only confirmed what he’d already guessed. She was in danger. What he’d seen earlier was just the beginning.

  “It’s why Igor won’t let go of you.” The pressure in his chest grew, and his throat burned. It felt like he’d been shown a future he couldn’t have, one that was bleeding away from him in front of his eyes.

  She swallowed. “He wants to mate with me, to absorb the light through me.” Her head hung down, and her hair fell over her face, hiding it from him. “He wants to become the lord of not just the dark but also the light.”

  A cold feeling crawled in the pit of Neo’s stomach. “It’s also why he tried to break me, why he also wanted to absorb the fire of my dragon. He wants to control all the elements in nature.” The full realization of Igor’s plan sank in.

  Her shoulders hunched. “He’s been seeking out different species and experimenting with them. He absorbs their energies and uses it to reprogram his genetic code. He grows more powerful by the day.” She looked like she had lost all hope. “It’s why my grandmother promised me to him. It was the only way to stop him from coming after the rest of my clan.”

  The band around his chest tightened. “It’s not fair.” The words were torn out of him. His throat hurt.

  “One life for the rest.” She threaded her fingers through her hair. Her back grew rigid. “It’s not a bad deal, Neo.”

  “It’s a fucking stupid deal,” he roared, surprising himself. Anger pumped through his blood. “It makes no sense, and you know it.”

  Color slid from her cheeks. Her skin had gone impossibly pale. She looked like a gust of wind would blow her over.

  The need to yank her to him, to mark that skin and claim her as his grew. He knew instinctively that would only piss her off even more. He was a dominant shifter, but she was no weakling either. He’d seen the power of her unicorn form. Her strength came from deep within, one that drew from the elements itself. The push-pull of his emotions made his head hurt. He tightened his fingers into fists.

  Her lips trembled. “Igor killed my parents. If I don’t mate with him, and give him access to my light, he will harm more of us.” She folded her arms over her chest and thrust her chin out. “I must return to him to save what’s left of us.”

  “You ran from him when he came for you. It’s clear you don’t want him.” He had to protect her. He couldn’t let her sacrifice herself like that. She was his. His. He closed the space between them, not caring he was crowding her.

  “I lost my nerve. I won’t make that mistake again” Her cheekbones stood out in relief, her dark-blonde hair streamed silver around her face. “I must return, before he comes back for me. Before he hurts anyone else.” She held his gaze. She was scared of the future, yet she wasn’t letting up. She was magnificent.

  “You attacked him, to save me.” He wanted to hold her close. Tell her he’d always be there for her.

  He pushed aside his emotions.

  “I did what anyone would have done in those circumstances. I couldn’t see an innocent bystander being caught in the crossfire between me and my…mate.” She swallowed.

  His dragon thrashed against his skin. He narrowed his focus on her, his claws sliding out from his fingers. How dare she call anyone else her mate. She belonged to him! He didn’t care how irrational his thoughts were. All he knew was he wasn’t letting her leave that room without acknowledging whatever was happening between them.

  “So, you’d have done this for anyone, and you accept that Fae as yours?” His dragon pushed at his skin. The scent of dragon smoke seeped into the air.

  He leaned in so his chest brushed her breasts. Pinpricks of pleasure swept over him, arrowing for his groin. He grew hard. His erection thrusted into her waist.

  Spots of red flushed her cheeks, and her chin quivered.

  Good. Pure male satisfaction heated his blood. He wanted her to feel what she did to him, to sense that gnawing, growing hunger inside him that was tearing him apart. His pulse thudded. His nerves tingled. The need to simply take what was his grew, until it was a living, breathing thing that swept aside all other rational thought.

  The silver in her irises bled out until her eyes looked like clear pools of light.

  He fully expected her to try to step away—either slide back on the bed, or sideways out of the door. If she’d gone he wouldn’t have pursued her. He’d have put this down to an insane attraction, to the fact he’d found someone who could have been his mate, but it hadn’t happened—too bad.

  Instead, she surged up and ground herself on his arousal.

  Her hips cradled him, her nipples pressing to his chest. Waves of gold stormed those clear mirrors of her eyes. He drowned in them.

  “You think I don’t feel the chemistry between us?” She made a fist of those delicate fingers. “If I don’t return to Igor, he will not only slaughter my people, he’ll come back and kill you and everyone in this city.” She punched his chest—the chest she’d just healed. “How do you think I can live with myself if that happens? Have you ever thought about that?”

  It was as if he was caught up in another tsunami, only this time it wasn’t his life he was fighting for, it was hers. It was so much more agonizing.

  His dragon went still, quivering with nervous energ
y. His chest grew heavy. His heart felt like it would shatter.

  He raked his fingers through his hair. “You’re right. I am being incredibly selfish in only thinking of you. Of us.”

  She shook her head. “There is no us, Neo.”

  10

  Trinity

  Neo glowered at her from across the table of the conference room in the headquarters of the Mayor of Bombay.

  After their altercation, he’d walked her there without saying anything to her, without touching her.

  It made her feel like he’d abandoned her. Which was stupid. She’d made it a point to draw the lines between them. She’d all but told him that she was off limits and unavailable. And he was only following her wishes.

  In fact, he’d been very polite, letting her walk ahead of him into the room, pulling out her chair for her. She had a feeling he was doing it just to set her teeth on edge. Just so he could get back at her for her earlier words.

  This was getting to be a habit, her trying to get him to ease off by saying the first thing that came into her head, then regretting it when she did succeed in pushing him away. She couldn’t recognize the woman she’d become in the few hours she’d met him. Her emotions were all over the place. The up and down of moods she seemed to be going through was exhausting.

  The width of the table separated them, but there was no dodging the nervous tension that came off him in waves.

  He folded his arms over his chest. He hadn’t bothered to change, and the crumpled, sweat-stained T-shirt molded to the planes of his chest. It outlined the ring that threaded his left nipple, reminding her of just how intimate she’d been with him.

  Heat flushed her face. She almost regretted what she’d said to him…almost. Except the thinking part of her brain insisted she’d done the right thing, that it was best she cut off any possibility of a relationship between them. There was no future for them, right?

  Then why did she feel so horrible? Why was her heartbeat still racing like it had a life of its own and didn’t care what the reality was…which was that she had to get away from him fast? Why was she still reacting to the emotions that bounced off him?

  The scars on his face stood out vivid against his dark-brown skin. He tipped his chair then raised those broad, muscled forearms and placed them behind his back.

  The action drew her attention straight to his biceps.

  Oh yeah, he was preening for her, making sure he got back at her for what she’d said. She couldn’t resist checking him out from beneath her lowered eyelashes.

  Her nerve endings tingled. There was no fighting this insane attraction to him. It also made her little angry with herself. “Do I really have to be here?” She twined her fingers through her hair.

  It was like when he was in the same space, she couldn’t look anywhere else. He was a black hole for her attention. She desperately needed something... anything to distract herself.

  His lips twisted. “I know you are in a hurry to leave and get back to your people, but you brought the Fae to this city, so it’s best you share what you know with the alphas firsthand.” His tone was surly.

  Right.

  The leaders of the clans were so not going to be happy with what she’d done. Not to mention this angsty, moody alpha dragon shifter was quite pissed off with her, too. Not that she blamed him. She’d come on to him, turned him on, then brushed him off, again. She was turning out to be an epic tease. She squared her shoulders and met his angry gaze head-on.

  His eyebrows drew down, and he glowered at her. His lower lip pushed out in a pout.

  It only made him seem hotter. Sexier. She resisted the urge to fan herself. “Uh, perhaps you should open the window?”

  He smirked. “What? Can’t take the heat, babe?”

  A ripple of anger snaked down her back. That don’t-care rockstar persona of his was back. She gritted her teeth. It made her want to challenge him, to take him on. To grapple with him, and tear off his clothes and...that low fire simmering in her belly flared to life again.

  His nostrils flared. His irises grew darker. His dragon was stalking her, and not bothering to hide it either.

  Damn the man. He could sense her inner battle. He could scent her arousal, she knew it without a doubt.

  She so had to get her thoughts together before the others arrived. She needed to seem calm, collected...right! Her insides were churning at the thought of facing the alphas. Not to mention that she was still so damn tuned in to him. If they kept this up, the others would sense the chemistry between them as soon as they walked in. Yeah, like they could hide it if they had even tried? A bead of sweat trickled down her throat.

  His gaze immediately latched on to the tiny movement. Damn shifter senses. He followed the drop as it slid down between the swell of her breasts.

  Her nipples hardened.

  The sexual tension between them deepened.

  She moved around in the chair, trying to make herself more comfortable. Her sensitive nipples brushed against her shirt. She bit her lips.

  “Don’t worry, they’re not that bad. Besides, I’ll make sure to back you up,” Neo said.

  She narrowed her gaze. “You sound like you mean it.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” He rubbed his jaw.

  “I hadn’t expected you to help me, not after…”

  “Not after you broke up our nonexistent relationship earlier?” He set the chair down on all four legs with a thump.

  She flashed her gaze to him. “Yes, exactly. We can’t do this.” She gestured to the space between them, trying to sound flippant and not succeeding in the least. She just sounded desperate.

  “I have news for you.” He stood and placed his palms flat on the table, then leaned across. “We are already doing…this.” His face was serious—his eyes sparked, his jaw clenched.

  She couldn’t look away. Her stomach flip-flopped, and her pulse sped up. She had a sense that things had already gone too far, that though she’d tried to hold back, somewhere in the past few hours she’d crossed an invisible line. The strange thing was it didn’t scare her. She was exhilarated. She wanted to throw caution to the winds, to not care about what Igor could do to her clan.

  What was she thinking? She couldn’t just abandon them, not now. Only one way out. She had to leave, right away.

  She jumped to her feet so fast her chair toppled over. She turned and raced for the door, only to come up short.

  Three people entered. The door was wide enough for the trio to walk in side by side, which they did, as if neither would concede ground to the other, or perhaps they considered each other equals.

  Six eyes surveyed her. She glanced from the amber brown of a woman with an air of fragile assertiveness, to the taller woman in the center of the group with a regal bearing. To her other side was a man whose pale-gray irises took her in unblinkingly. His skin was smooth and could have been carved out of marble.

  The newcomers were distinct. They had very different features. Individually, each of them were clearly dominant in their own way, but together they made the air in the room vibrate with aggressiveness that was like a living, breathing wall between them.

  The hair on the back of her neck rose. “Alphas.”

  It was too late to leave. She just had to see this through, that was all. She strode back to the table, righted her chair, and dropped into it.

  There was a low murmur of voices, and she knew without turning that Logan had come in with Vance. The doc stalked around to the far corner and leaned a hip against the windowsill.

  Logan moved past her to take the chair at the foot of the table. The three alphas took up the chairs at the head.

  The sight of Logan and Vance’s somewhat familiar faces did nothing to calm the noise that buzzed around in her head. This was an interrogation, she had no doubt about it. There was no reason for her to feel nervous. She rubbed her sweaty palm on her jean-covered thigh. Yeah, she’d brought Igor to the city, but she was going to make good her actions, as soon as she got o
ut of there, right?

  She raised her hand to push back her hair. Her fingers trembled, so instead, she rested her hands in her lap and wrung them.

  There was no way any of the others would understand why she had come here, what she had done. They were alphas; they had more in common with Igor in their status.

  Her stomach lurched, and her knees weakened. She wasn’t going to be sick, was she?

  “Breathe…”

  She looked up.

  She’d been so far gone in her own thoughts, she hadn’t noticed Neo had walked around the table to her. He slid into the vacant chair between her and the alphas. His broad shoulders blocked them from her sight.

  Her thoughts whirled in her head, even as a part of her was surprised he’d sought her out.

  His arm snaked onto the back of her chair. He leaned in close enough for his body heat to wrap itself around her. He peered into her eyes. “You are a strong, dominant woman who pushed back the Fae Lord himself. You are unique, Trinity. Just because there is no one else like you, doesn’t mean you need to always hide, to conform.”

  She heard his words as if from a distance. A roaring sound filled her head. Her chest tightened. She had to get out of there. She pushed against him, tried to shove him away.

  The next second, his face filled her eyes, and his lips closed over hers. His teeth bit her lower lip.

  Goosebumps rose on her skin. Heat streaked to her core, and just like that, she became aware of her surroundings again. Became aware he’d taken her hand and placed it over his heart that beat strong and steady.

  “I have you.” His voice rumbled over her skin.

  She raised her free hand and gripped his shoulder. She dug her nails into his T-shirt, into his flesh. She must be hurting him but couldn’t bring herself to loosen her fingers.

  “You back now?”

  “Yeah.” She hissed out a breath.

  He brushed another kiss to her forehead. At the same time, he circled her wrist and tugged it with just enough pressure that she let go.