Forbidden Temptation

by R. L. Kenderson

  If only she had someone to talk to about stuff. Situations always seemed brighter after she vented. But she couldn’t vent her problem to said problem. That never worked out well. Therefore, she—no, they needed a distraction. They needed to do something that would take their minds off of ripping each other’s clothes off and get Sawyer’s mind off this whole mate business. If Memory Sawyer could meet Amnesia Sawyer, she was pretty sure he would literally punch some sense into himself.

  She laughed out loud at the thought of the two Sawyers meeting.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Kenzie jumped. She hadn’t heard the door open or Sawyer enter.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “That’s okay.”

  “So, what were you laughing about?”

  She looked him up and down. “Just thinking about what it would be like if the now you met your former self, your memory self.”

  He tilted his head to the side. “Why is that funny?”

  She shook her head and smiled. “Too hard to explain, but trust me, it is.” She swung her legs off the bed, remembering that she needed to be on guard against this man. “Did you need something?”

  He looked down at his feet for a moment before meeting her eyes. “I just wanted to apologize about what happened downstairs. I didn’t mean to push you or make you uncomfortable. This is all very difficult for me.”

  Kenzie immediately felt bad for him. She was being a little selfish in this situation. At least she still had her memory. She stood and walked over to him, making sure not to get too close or to touch him. She had sympathy for the man, but she wasn’t going to sleep with him. “I’m sorry, Sawyer. I forget that this all must be really hard for you.”

  He sauntered over to the window and looked outside. “It isn’t easy. That’s for sure. My instincts are telling me one thing, but you’re telling me another. I feel a little like I’m being pulled in half here.”

  She huffed out a big breath. This wasn’t fair. It was difficult to keep her distance when all she wanted to do was comfort him.

  She walked over to Sawyer to stand beside him and look out the window. She held up her hand behind him for a second before she decided it would be okay to touch his back. “I know I already said it, but I really am sorry. I don’t mean to confuse you or hurt you in any way. I’m simply doing what I feel is best for me. If—no, when you get your memory back, I know you’ll understand. In fact, you’ll probably thank me.”

  He turned his head toward her and gave her a look full of skepticism.

  She couldn’t help but smile. “Trust me.”

  “You already said that.”

  “Said what?”

  “To trust you.”

  I did?

  Oh, he was referring to when she had talked about him meeting himself.

  “Well, I might not give in to your manly charms, but I wouldn’t do anything to wrong you either. Despite our normal dislike of each other, I don’t think either of us hates the other. We just don’t get along.” She turned to face him. “I would never want harm to come to you. I’d probably laugh if you tripped and fell, if I’m being honest”—she laughed—“but I would never stick out my foot and cause you to trip. Does that make sense?”

  He turned to her and shrugged. “Sure.”

  He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes, so Kenzie gave in to temptation and hugged him. She braced herself in case Sawyer made a move on her, but all he did was hug her back, and she relaxed.

  It felt good to be in his arms, and despite it being a friendly hug, Kenzie knew she couldn’t get used to this either. As much as she liked Amnesia Sawyer, the sooner Memory Sawyer returned, the sooner everything could get back to normal. And since Memory Sawyer would recall everything that had happened when he was Amnesia Sawyer, she could rub it in his face about how right she was about everything.

  “What are you smiling about down there?”

  She pulled away enough to look up at him. “I’ll tell you later.”

  He raised one eyebrow.

  “I promise.”

  She looked out the window to see that it was snowing, and she got an idea. “Why don’t we go outside? I’m pretty sure no one is watching the house, but we’ll go in the backyard. The fence, the cloudy sky, and the snow will do a good job of hiding us from the neighbors. Wouldn’t want anyone calling the police and telling them we broke into my brother’s house.”

  Sawyer’s face grew serious. “Why don’t we ask a neighbor to use their phone?”

  “And who are we going to call? I don’t have anyone’s number. The only number I have memorized is the local Chinese food place by my apartment, and that’s because it’s an easy number. And cell phones aren’t listed in the phone book. Plus, I’m pretty sure you and your fellow sentinels use burner phones anyway. I was kind of relying on you to remember their numbers, stud.”

  He looked chagrined. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. It’s not your fault. We’ll get out of here eventually. Let’s go outside. We can build snowmen, make snow angels, and have a snowball fight.”

  He shrugged. “Why not?”

  She stepped away and took off. “I’ll race you to the door,” she called out behind her.

  The sound of Sawyer’s laughter followed her down the stairs.

  Saxon sat back in his seat and rubbed the area around the wound on his shoulder. He hated this.

  He was sitting in a meeting with his fellow cat-shifters and the wolf-shifters, talking about how to catch Gerald, and he felt worthless. They were all making plans and setting up shifts while he would have to sit at home and do nothing but heal. Like he’d said, he hated this.

  “Saxon.”

  He swung his head to look at Vance. “Boss?”

  “I want you to go visit Zane today. Make sure he’s doing okay. Let him know what’s going on here.”

  Saxon swallowed his protest. He had just left the infirmary. He really didn’t want to go back. Worse was the look of sympathy on everyone’s faces. No one wanted to be left behind.

  “Sure.”

  Vance nodded and turned back to the group. “Everyone know what they’re doing?”

  After a chorus of yeses all around, the meeting broke up.

  Camden slapped Saxon on the shoulder as they exited the room. “Don’t worry, man. You’ll be back with us in no time.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know.” It didn’t help him feel better today though.

  They all made their way outside and got in their vehicles. Saxon got in his car and headed for the infirmary. The twenty-minute drive only gave Saxon more time to stew, and by the time he arrived to visit Zane, he was on edge. He needed to make this visit short.

  Saxon marched to Zane’s room and knocked on the semi-open door.

  “Come in.”

  Saxon entered. “Hey.”

  Zane perked up when he saw it was Saxon. “How ya feeling?”

  Saxon shrugged his injured shoulder. “I’ll live.” He nodded toward Zane. “As will you, I’ve been told.”

  Zane chuckled. “Yeah. Hurts like a motherfucker though.”

  “I hear ya.” Saxon pulled up a chair to sit next to Zane’s bed. “Gerald is an asshole. That’s for sure.”

  Zane gave Saxon a questioning look. “I’m guessing that’s why Vance sent you. To keep me up-to-date?”

  Saxon sighed. “Yeah, but there’s not much to tell. Phoenix is safe with the vampires, but Gerald is still on the loose.”

  “Phoenix got away?”

  “More like rescued.”

  “By the vampires?”

  Saxon nodded.

  “Well, that’s good, I guess. Is that why she’s with them?”

  “Partly. She asked to go to the Guardians’ compound, and Vance didn’t fight her. I think he thought she had been through enough and needed some downtime before getting back out in the field.”

  “Do you think Gerald did anything to her?” Zane asked.

  “God, I
hope not.”

  Phoenix had been through enough during her lifetime. She didn’t need Gerald adding to her trauma.

  “What is Vance’s plan?” Zane changed the subject.

  Saxon filled Zane in on what the cat-shifters and wolf-shifters were doing to find Gerald. They had put out feelers to his friends and associates. They had been checking out places he might go, and they had set up a grid search. Also, they had let shifters in the neighboring states know to be on the lookout for Gerald.

  Zane looked down at his hands. “So, the wolf-shifters were there?”

  Saxon cocked his head. “Of course. Now that Damien and Payton are together, there’s no way that they wouldn’t be involved.”

  Payton, their alpha’s daughter, had recently been mated to the new alpha of the Minnesota Pack.

  Zane laughed awkwardly but wouldn’t look up at Saxon. “Right. Of course.”

  “Zane.”

  Zane looked at him, almost embarrassed.

  “Just because Damien was there doesn’t mean Isabelle knows that you’ve been shot.”

  Zane cleared his throat. “Right, right. I’m sure that’s it.” He leaned his head back against the bed and closed his eyes.

  Kidnapping Phoenix and shooting Zane and himself were not Gerald’s first offenses. Before that, he had attempted to kidnap the alpha’s children. Another sentinel and human friend had been mistaken for Vaughn and his mate, and Damien had intercepted Payton’s abduction and rescued her. Damien had taken Payton somewhere safe, and right before his phone had died, he had called a friend to deliver a message to Vance to let him know that his daughter was safe. That friend had been Isabelle. She had gone to their alpha’s home, but with Vance stashed away in a safe house, Zane had been the only one there when Isabelle arrived. With orders to keep Isabelle with him until Payton was heard from, Zane and Isabelle had slept with each other. But once Payton had been found, Isabelle had packed up and gone back home.

  Saxon hadn’t realized that Zane had been so affected by her.

  Poor sap. Just another strong male brought down by a female.

  Saxon didn’t understand it. Pussy was pussy. He liked women as friends and respected them as individuals, but there was no way he was ever going to let one affect him like this.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Saxon asked.

  Zane opened his eyes and stared straight ahead. “No.”

  Oh, thank God.

  Not only did he not want to hear about how much Zane liked this female who had up and left him, but also this was definitely not Saxon’s area of expertise.

  They sat in silence for a little longer, and Zane’s melancholy over this chick made Saxon’s restlessness come back tenfold. The walls were starting to close in on him. He really needed to get out of there and blow off some steam.

  “Well, I’d better go.”

  Zane looked at him. “Sure.”

  Saxon stood and almost sprinted for the door. “I’ll see you later?”

  “Later.”

  That was all Saxon needed to hear before he was out of there.

  Once he got to his car, he opened his phone and pulled up his Contacts. He scrolled through until he found the one he wanted and hit Send.

  “This is Rayna.”

  “Hey, it’s me.”

  “Saxon? Long time no hear.”

  “Yeah, I’ve had some stuff going on. Are you busy today?”

  “No more than usual.”

  “Do you have plans for lunch?”

  “I didn’t before, but I do now. I can take an early one if you want,” she said.

  He could hear her smiling through the phone, but he still didn’t feel relieved. That would come later.

  “Your place. Thirty minutes?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  He closed his phone without saying good-bye and took off for Rayna’s apartment.

  Once there, he knocked on her door.

  It swung open a second later, and Rayna grabbed his shirt to pull him inside.

  Her long blonde hair was up in some sort of bun-like thing. He grabbed for her hair tie and yanked it out as she pushed his jacket off his shoulders and then pulled on the button of his jeans. Her human eyes were bright with sexual excitement.

  This was exactly what he’d come for.

  No sweet words, no promises, no I love you, and no kissing. Just straight-up sex between two sexually charged people.

  He pushed her toward the living room as she unbuttoned his shirt and kissed his chest.

  When they reached his destination, he turned her around. “Hand on the back of the couch.”

  She bent over and arched her ass toward him.

  He shoved her skirt over her hips and around her waist. “You want this, don’t you?” He grabbed on to her panties and nylons and yanked them down to her ankles. He could smell how aroused she was.

  “God, yes. It’s been too long.” Rayna looked over her shoulder. “Fuck me, Saxon.”

  Saxon finally smiled as he drew his already hard cock out of his underwear. “Yes, ma’am.”

  He grabbed her now loose hair and thrust his way inside her wet pussy.

  “Oh, yeah,” Rayna wailed as Saxon pounded into her.

  She was one of the few women he had in his Contacts list for the sole purpose of sex. Even in this day and age with women’s sexual revolution, it was still hard to find females who wanted only sex. There were a lot who thought that was all they wanted, but they’d usually end up pushing for a relationship once they’d had sex more than once.

  Saxon was getting close, and he could feel Rayna getting tight around his dick, indicating she was almost there, too.

  “Please come in me, Saxon. I need it. I need it.”

  Saxon let go of Rayna’s hair and wrapped his fingers around her chin and neck. He leaned close to her ear. “You like that, don’t you?”

  “God, yes. Please,” she begged.

  What Rayna liked was the barbs in his penis. She just didn’t know it. She just thought he was a sex god. Sometimes, it paid to fuck a human woman.

  He shoved into her two more times before he exploded inside her.

  Rayna was right on his heels and screamed as she came.

  Saxon let go of her neck as he tried to catch his breath.

  Slowly, his heartbeat evened out, and the barbs in his cock receded. He withdrew from Rayna’s body and shoved his penis inside his pants. He pulled Rayna’s skirt back down over her hips and helped her stand.

  She picked up her underwear and pantyhose and went into the bathroom before coming out with them back in place. She turned around and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. “I don’t know what it is about that dick of yours, but when you come, it gets me every time.”

  Saxon smiled at her. He loved being a cat-shifter. “I don’t know either,” he lied, “but that’s why I come here.”

  Her lips tipped up in a satisfied smirk. “That’s why we work well together, I guess.” She patted his chest and took a step back as all sexual play left her. She looked down at her watch. “Well, I have just enough time to grab something to eat. You can see yourself out.”

  “Yep. I’m going to use your bathroom, and then I’m outta here.”

  She picked up her coat, put it on, and grabbed her purse from the chair next to the couch. “Okay. Until we meet again. See you later, Saxon.”

  “Bye, Rayna.”

  Soon, she was out the door, and Saxon sighed with relief. He’d gotten what he wanted. Rayna had never failed him in the booty-call category, but he always worried that she would want more. Yet, in true Rayna fashion, she had walked out the door as soon as their business was over. Hell, she hadn’t even asked him to lunch.

  Saxon grinned and walked toward the bathroom. Yes, he had gotten exactly what he’d wanted.

  Chapter Eleven

  PHOENIX ROLLED OVER for what felt like the fiftieth time. She couldn’t sleep.

  She’d thought that she would pass out the minute sh
e laid her head on the pillow, despite it being daylight outside. Not that anyone could tell with how dark the house was. The vampires had blacked out all their windows, so no sunlight could come through during the day, but she was pretty sure her body knew it was daytime, and daytime meant awake time. Who cares that she had gotten little sleep since she was kidnapped? Stupid internal clock.

  The thing was, if she didn’t get some rest, she wouldn’t be of any use to anyone. She might view herself as resilient, independent, and just as tough as her male sentinels, but unlike a man, she could admit when she had a weakness even if it was only to herself. And being tired was a weakness.

  She had tried everything she could think of to try to fall asleep. All her usual tricks had failed, which she didn’t understand because she was exhausted.

  She flipped back the covers, swung her legs off the bed, and pulled up her nearly naked, except for her underwear-clad body, to head for the bathroom. She avoided the mirror as she went to inspect the medicine cabinet. She hated looking at her nude or almost nude form, but the only thing she’d been given to sleep in was some flimsy nightgown. Lexine must have someone to impress with her lingerie. Phoenix did not, and she preferred nothing to something that was supposed to show off her assets. She knew it probably wasn’t rational, but the nightgown made her feel...girlie.

  She shuddered at the thought.

  The medicine cabinet revealed what she had already known would be there—toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, lotion, and painkillers. No sleep medicine. She shut the door with a sigh.

  Now what?

  Maybe if she found something more sensible to wear, she’d be able to fall asleep. Although being naked was a step up from wearing lingerie, it was only one step up.

  She put on the jeans and sweater that she’d been given earlier and exited the room. The hall was dark and quiet, except for the LED lights illuminating from the walls. Everyone had gone to their rooms after their meal downstairs.

  Phoenix made her way down the hallway, past the staircase, to the east side where all the Guardians kept their rooms. She continued until she got to the end where Dante’s room was. Right before she knocked, she thought she heard a noise, but when she turned around, no one was there.