Forbidden Temptation

by R. L. Kenderson

  “Fucking whore.”

  She had no idea what he was talking about, and she didn’t even get to ask when he bit her other nipple with just as much force.

  This time, a whimper escaped her.

  Gerald jumped from the bed and threw her shirt together over her chest. “I’ve been waiting for years to get my mouth on your goddamn tits, and now, you reek like a fucking vampire. You walked around all high and mighty, too good for anyone, but you spread your legs for a fucking bloodsucker. Fucking vampire whore. God, I can’t even stand the smell of you.”

  She had never had sex with a vampire, but she had let Dante feed from her, and she had drunk some of his blood in return. Of course, there was the orgasm that he had given her during the feeding, but they had never had sex.

  At this point, she would have welcomed Dante into her bed a thousand times if it meant that Gerald wouldn’t touch her.

  “Dante is ten times the man you are.” She meant it, too.

  This had earned her a slap across the face and a fat lip to go with her two black eyes and her bruised and bloody nipples before he’d put her gag back in place. But at least he hadn’t touched her again. In truth, he had mostly ignored her since then, which was a huge relief. He had slept most of the day and spent a lot of the night planning who-knows-what. She couldn’t imagine he had any allies left.

  But now, he watched her as he approached the bed, and she knew her reprieve was over.

  “Hey, vamp whore. I have to step out and take care of some business.”

  This would be her opportunity to get away.

  He smirked. “Don’t even think about it, cunt. I have someone watching the room. They won’t hesitate to shoot your pretty head off if you try to leave.”

  With that, he spun and left the motel room. Apparently, he still had a few friends out there. Maybe he had hired humans to do his dirty work again.

  Phoenix waited a few minutes until she heard his vehicle leaving before trying to break free of her binds. She might not be able to leave the room without getting her head blown off, but she didn’t have to wait here like a sitting duck. She could plan her own attack against the traitor, including calling for backup. Dumbass had left the motel phone. For someone trying to take over the pride, he wasn’t the brightest.

  She started working on getting her hands loose, but she was completely exhausted. She hadn’t slept at all the night or day before, even while Gerald had been sleeping, because she had worried that he would try something. Maybe if she rested her eyes for a minute, she’d have more energy to get free.

  When she awoke, she saw that she had lost several hours. Shit.

  Gerald could be back at any minute. She’d wasted way too much time sleeping.

  Since she hadn’t been able to get her hands free before, she tried a new strategy. She began working on pulling the dresser closer to the bed with her legs, and then she felt it. It was a tingle deep inside her, a hum in her blood. She actually looked around the room, expecting someone to be there, but she was alone.

  The feeling grew, and soon, she was able to figure out what it was.

  More importantly, who it was.

  Dante.

  It was coming up on the end of the second night in the quest to find Phoenix, and Dante was feeling helpless. They had struck out the night before, and it looked like tonight was also going to be a bust. He hated that the sun restricted him. He wanted to keep searching. Dante had even lowered his blocking a little in hopes that Phoenix would feel him and, in turn, make her emotions stronger.

  Right now, they were searching hotels and motels all around the Cities, but it was probably hopeless. If Dante were Gerald, he would’ve hightailed it out of town.

  “We’ll find her, man,” Hunter said from beside him.

  Dante had told Hunter he could work on this alone, but Hunter had insisted on helping Dante.

  Truth be told, Dante appreciated any help he could get.

  “Thanks, but I’m—”

  “Dante, what is it?”

  “I can feel her.” Dante looked at Hunter with amazement. “I can actually feel her.”

  “Is she scared?”

  Dante chuckled. “More like pissed.”

  “What are you waiting for? Let’s go get her.”

  They were in an area with a cluster of cheap roadside motels, and it took Dante a couple of minutes to pinpoint Phoenix’s location. He hadn’t even been sure if that was where she was at first, and he hadn’t wanted to assume.

  The two vampires exited the vehicle and scouted the area. The only thing they found was the motel attendant playing video games at the desk and one family fast asleep on the other side of the motel. Hopefully, breaking Phoenix free would be a relatively quiet ordeal, and no cops would be called.

  When he located the room Phoenix was in and noted the absence of any vehicle, he hoped it was a good sign that she was alone.

  The curtains were pulled on the room, but once they got close, the vampires could smell the distinct scents of two cat-shifters.

  “Ready?” Dante asked Hunter.

  “Ready.”

  Dante kicked open the door and was greeted with the sight of Phoenix tied up on the bed. The look on her face and the feeling in his blood of her relief hit him at the same time. He smiled at her to reassure her even though he wanted to rage about her bruised face. Then, he looked down and saw her mangled shirt.

  Dante saw red. He was going to kill the fucker for what he had done to her.

  Dante moved to free Phoenix when he heard a vehicle outside. Hunter had closed the motel room door behind them, so Dante looked out the window.

  It was Gerald.

  “Hunter, untie her while I go take care of this asshole.”

  Phoenix tried to shout something under her gag, and Hunter yelled out his name, but Dante was on a mission.

  The motel parking lot was scattered with lights, so he didn’t have the cover of night to keep him cloaked. Dante had to move fast if he was going to get the jump on Gerald.

  Gerald parked far away from the room, probably in case someone spotted his vehicle, before he stepped out of his SUV and grabbed stuff off his seat. Gerald had his back to Dante, so Dante calmed his raging nerves and walked quietly toward the cat-shifter. But it was as if Gerald somehow sensed Dante, and he spun around.

  Not wanting to lose Gerald, Dante charged forward. He wanted to destroy the shifter, but he had promised Vance that he would bring the criminal in alive, so Dante’s goal was to incapacitate him.

  However, Dante never even got the chance to try.

  Gerald hauled his ass back into his vehicle, started it up, and drove out of there as fast as it would take him.

  The only thing Dante could do was note that Gerald was still driving his own SUV, going by the license plate, and the direction the automobile was going. He’d had almost had Gerald. It was a huge setback and a major disappointment.

  “Dante! Dante!”

  Dante swung around just in time to catch Phoenix, who had made a flying leap into his arms.

  She wound her arms and legs around him and held on for dear life. “We have to get out of here. Gerald has someone watching the room. He’ll kill you. Gerald said he had a gun,” Phoenix pleaded with him.

  Dante smoothed his hand down her hair. “Shh...it’s okay. We scouted the area before we went to your room. There was no one. Gerald lied.”

  Her body relaxed in his arms. “What a dickface,” she muttered.

  Dante couldn’t help but smile. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  “Yes, let’s.”

  He expected her to drop her legs and walk on her own two feet, but she turned her head and rested it on his shoulder instead.

  Hunter exited the motel room and shook his head. Nothing there to help them figure out Gerald’s plan.

  Dante walked toward Hunter and dug his keys out of his pocket, which wasn’t easy with a female cat-shifter wrapped around him. Once he reached his prize, he threw them at
Hunter. “You drive.”

  Hunter grinned at Dante and Phoenix, and Dante scowled in return. This wasn’t what it looked like. Phoenix was just grateful that they had rescued her. Relief was pretty much all he could feel from her blood.

  They reached the vehicle, and figuring it was easier, Dante got in the backseat with Phoenix. “Phoenix, you need to buckle up.”

  She sighed but slid off his lap into the next seat. As she put on her seat belt, Dante noticed she wasn’t wearing anything but her ripped shirt.

  Dante leaned forward to take his jacket off. He sat back in the seat, ready to offer it to Phoenix, when she leaned over and put her head in his lap, so he draped it over her.

  He fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed Vance.

  “Vance speaking.”

  “Hey, it’s Dante. I got Phoenix.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “A little beat up but okay.”

  The cat-shifter sighed with relief. “Gerald?”

  “He got away.” Dante gave Vance their location and the direction Gerald had headed. “Sorry that we didn’t get him.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up. He’s not your responsibility.” Another sigh. “He’s mine. I’m just glad you found Phoenix.”

  Dante glanced into the front of the SUV. “Look, we have just enough time to get Phoenix to you before the sun comes up. Do you have a place where we can crash for the day when we get there?” They wouldn’t have enough time to get home from Vance’s after they dropped Phoenix off.

  Phoenix twisted her head and looked up at Dante. “I want to go home with you.”

  “Hold on, Vance.” Dante moved the phone away from his mouth. “What?” he asked her just to make sure that he had heard her correctly.

  “I want to go home with you.”

  Dante began to feel panic coming from her, so he didn’t push. “Um, Vance, Phoenix wants to come back to the compound with me.”

  “Okay. I guess as long as she’s protected. With Gerald still on the loose, she’s probably safer with you.”

  Phoenix, upon hearing Vance through the phone, rolled back over and visibly relaxed.

  “Thanks, Vance. Keep us updated.”

  “Will do. Thanks, Dante.”

  Dante hung up the phone and stared down at the female in his lap. Despite their blood connection, he had no idea what was going on with her, and he was baffled that she would rather be with him than with her fellow sentinels.

  In the end, it wasn’t his job to figure her out. All he could do was keep her safe, and at this point, he would die before letting her get hurt.

  Chapter Eight

  KENZIE STOMPED HER foot on the kitchen floor. “I am not doing this again. Change back.”

  Sawyer, who stood in front of her, tilted his head to the side.

  “Don’t play dumb with me, cat boy. I know you understand everything that I’m saying. You can change back and get your own breakfast. I am not catering to you all day again.”

  When she had woken up that morning to see Sawyer sleeping beside her, still in cat form, she had been relieved. And perhaps­...perhaps she had been a little disappointed. Not disappointed that he was still on her bed, but disappointed that he was still a cat. But that was beside the point because she didn’t want him to be naked in her bed. She didn’t want him in her bed at all.

  Keep telling yourself that, Kenzie.

  However, now, she was done. She didn’t want to wait on him like she had yesterday. He was not just a cat. He was human, too, with hands that had ten fingers and were capable of getting their own food. He should be making her breakfast this morning.

  In response to her demands, Sawyer went over to the dog bowls and sat down.

  Kenzie felt herself getting riled up, but she had a feeling getting angry wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. If he had been the size of a regular cat, she would’ve thrown him outside in the snow, cold be damned. But there was no way she could lift him, so she settled for the next best thing.

  “Fine. You want to stay an animal?” She walked over to the pantry to search for what she was hoping to find. A little bit of luck was on her side. She snatched the canister from the shelf and grabbed the can opener from the drawer. Once the container was open, she turned and walked over to Sawyer and his empty dish. “Then, you can eat like an animal.” She dumped the can of Alpo in the bowl.

  Sawyer looked up from the food to her face, and she snickered. She then spun around to grab her human food to take to the other room. Despite her anger, if she stayed and watched Sawyer not eat, she would start to feel sorry for him and probably share her breakfast.

  However, she didn’t make it far before a very human, very male, and very nude body pushed up against her, pinning her against the counter.

  He pulled her hair off her shoulder and leaned in next to her ear. “I’m sorry. You and I got along so well when I was cat yesterday that I thought it would be easier this way.”

  She relaxed a little against him as some of the fight left her. “Well, it’s not.”

  She felt this chest shake as the sound of a chuckle came out of him. “You sure know how to fight dirty, giving me dog food.”

  She shrugged. “I couldn’t find any cat food,” she said, knowing it would have been equally unappetizing to him.

  This time, Sawyer released a full-on laugh, but he didn’t move. She knew she should push him away, but, damn it, he felt so good against her. And even though he held his lower body away from her, she just knew that he was hard. She was going to have to duck and run if she didn’t want to see Sawyer in all his glory. She only had so much restraint.

  Sawyer stopped laughing and stepped closer, letting her know she hadn’t been wrong. He was fully aroused, and she felt all of him against her back.

  She sucked in a breath and didn’t move. Almost as if it were happening to someone else, Kenzie waited for what would happen next.

  He leaned down and rubbed his mouth and nose along her neck. He paused by her ear. “Can you ever forgive me?”

  At that point, she was so turned on that she had forgotten she was ever mad. “Y-yes.”

  “Good,” he whispered. His lips moved down her neck again. When he got to her shirt, he reached up and pulled it aside.

  Fully expecting the soft touch of his lips on her shoulder, she shook with arousal when he opened his mouth and sucked lightly on her skin. “Oh God.”

  He lifted his lips. “You can call me Sawyer.”

  Without giving her a chance to mock him about his cliché joke, he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her away from the counter. He resumed his attention to her neck and shoulder and let his other hand slip down inside her pants and underwear. He didn’t even take the time to tease or prepare her. He kicked her feet apart, put his hand between her legs, and slipped two fingers inside her. As always, he knew exactly where to touch her.

  She lifted her arm to grab his neck as she let go of her resolve and leaned her body back against his. “Oh God. Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.” She heard the words leave her mouth, and her sensible side wanted to smack some sense into herself. But the other part of her said, this wasn’t sex.

  She could keep the line drawn between them even if that might be a lie. Plus, it had been so long since she had come from someone touching her besides herself. There hadn’t been anyone since...Sawyer.

  And as he rubbed that magical part inside her, she understood why there hadn’t been another man.

  Kenzie was very sexual, and a big part of that was because she was able to achieve orgasm easily. She’d always felt bad for women who couldn’t climax from sex—or even worse, women who had never had an orgasm at all. It was easy to like sex if you got off on it almost all the time. Because of this, it shouldn’t be any wonder that it felt good when Sawyer touched her. But it was. It felt ten times as good as when anyone else had ever laid a hand on her, even serious boyfriends.

  But she refused to give too much attention to this phenomenon. She
was already blurring the lines of their relationship. Instead, she focused on the pressure building inside her. It felt so good, and she was oh-so close to coming, but she just needed one thing. It was as if Sawyer had trained her body like Pavlov and his dogs, and she could be irritated with him later.

  But right now, in the moment, she barely panted out the words, “Bite me.”

  Sawyer pulled her tighter against him. “What, baby?”

  “Bite me.” She dug her fingernails into his neck. “Bite my neck. Please. I—”

  She didn’t get to finish her sentence because Sawyer did exactly as she’d commanded.

  He bit down on her bare shoulder, and the pleasure and pain sent her flying over the edge.

  “Oh, fuck,” she called out as she came so hard that Sawyer had to hold her up or let her fall.

  After her body calmed down and her senses returned, she felt Sawyer release her neck, and his fingers slowly slipped from her body. They left a wet trail on her stomach, but she didn’t care. Her body was too sated to give a crap.

  Sawyer twisted her around to face him. She had been prepared to tell him thank you or say something else nice to let him know that her body appreciated his attention, but she was stopped short when she saw the intensity in his eyes.

  He was really the most attractive man she had ever met. He might not be the most attractive man in the world, but to her, he was.

  She reached up to touch the day’s growth of beard, slightly amazed that it had grown even though he was a cat. She had never seen Sawyer with anything but a clean shave, and it was just another side to his sexiness.

  She knew she needed to shut down the situation, but before she could say anything, he kissed her, and all the passion that she had seen in his eyes was poured into his kiss. He licked his way into her mouth, his hand gripped her hair, and his other arm pulled her close.

  Knowing that Sawyer wanted her was the most potent aphrodisiac ever, and despite her earlier orgasm, she was ready to go again. Kenzie put her hands on his chest and brushed her fingers down over his torso and pelvis until she reached his groin. She wasted no time fisting his cock and pumping it in her hand. She wanted to touch him again before his memory returned.