by Nocturne
Dominic’s dangerous offer confused her. He’d proposed it, then left her alone in the bedroom to “sleep on it.” Make love with him and she could return him to prison. Love, not sex. Men like him didn’t make love. They fucked. They did it because it was in their blood, and sex gave them strength.
They did it for money as well. Shame burned in her cheeks as she remembered. Hiding her real identity with glamour, the gold coins spilling from one trembling palm into a more calloused, masculine one. His palm was broad, with a distinct scar slashed across it, as from a knife wound.
The sex had been worth the gold. She’d lost her virginity, accompanied by several orgasms. He’d been tender and gentle and yet passionate, guiding her untried body through a maze of sexual delights.
And then he’d left her shivering in the cold gray dawn, the stain of blood on the sheets as proof to her stepfather that she could never be the pure and innocent bride he’d promised to deliver to his powerful rival….
Dominic Farrell. Her first lover and now her prey.
Her few sexual experiences afterward were shameful and secret, conducted in the cloak of darkness, hurried fumblings under the sheets. They were so emotionally painful that Alex resolved herself to celibacy and solitude. She didn’t need a man. Pleasure would come later, when she finally settled down on her own land, with her own little cabin and the freedom to run wild and not have to account to anyone.
And with the wizard’s potion, she could move freely among populations. She’d never have to hide behind a pall of glamour. No one would ever call her ugly again.
But first, she had to capture the wolf.
Pulling a pin from her hair, Alex went to the gun cabinet by the wall and saw her pistol stored there. A minute later, she picked the lock and tucked the weapon into her waistband behind her back. The special ammo used for taking down paranorms went into her jeans pocket. She returned to the chair just as a familiar scent wended through the room.
It teased her senses, making her body alive and aware. Alex closed her eyes. He was vibrant and sexy. Getting him to accompany her back to prison would be a bitch. A blade between the ribs had worked with past escapees. But the thought of marring his perfect flesh sickened her.
Being lovers… another more tempting option.
“I brought you breakfast. Eggs, bacon, toast and tea.”
A tray rattled on the cocktail table. Alex shook her head. “I’m not hungry. And I’m not as stupid as Persephone.”
She felt him settle on the chair’s arm. “Ah, you’re up on your mythology. The seeds Hades made her eat so she’d be trapped in hell.”
“I know what it means for you to give food to a woman.” Alex opened her eyes to his amused expression.
“Among my kind, feeding a woman declares a male’s intent to mate with her. However, you need to eat.”
He broke off a piece of toast. “Open wide.”
She needed her strength. Alex opened her mouth. Dominic slid the bread into it, and as she closed her mouth, he traced the curve of her bottom lip. Heat flared in his gaze.
A memory surged… lying in bed before they’d first made love, Dominic tracing her mouth. “You have such a tempting mouth,” he’d murmured, before kissing her the first time.
Now he brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “Eat your food. Regain your strength. You’ll need it, with all the things I plan for you.”
Heat curled low in her belly at the deep timbre of his voice. She fought to free herself from the sensual snare. She had to think of the most boring, ordinary tasks to avoid tumbling into his sensual trap. Housework. Scrubbing a floor, mopping it.
“Have you thought about my proposal, Alexandra? Are you thinking about it now?” A challenge, a whispered promise.
“Read my mind because you’re such an expert.”
Alex raised her chin, challenging him. She felt him delicately prod her thoughts, a velvet stroke inside her mind. And to her surprise, she heard him laugh there.
Dominic’s mouth quirked. “Intriguing. An ordinary mop and scrub brush, used on certain parts of your body, a gentle stroke in the right places… I can make things… interesting.”
The image flared with brutal clarity. Dominic slowly rubbing alongside her naked backside with the brush, its bristles scraping each nerve ending to erotic awareness as his fingers caressed her between the legs…
He was good, oh, so good. Slamming a barricade down on her thoughts, Alex changed the subject. “Tell me, Dominic. What’s your beef with the wizard? Land dispute? Not enough turf in Oz for both of you?”
Dominic sat back, his mouth a tight slash. “He’s been trapping and caging wild wolves, supposedly as a tourist attraction, but he tortures them to lure me into his lair. He’s trying to trap me because he wants my blood.”
Her heart pounded loudly. So that’s why the wizard wanted him. “Why? Some kinky longing to be a vampire?”
“Just a few drops of incubus blood sexually charges a man for weeks.”
“Old Belaramos has trouble? No Viagra this far north?”
“The little blue pill doesn’t do what my blood does.” Dominic tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers trailing down her neck. “Make a man irresistible to any woman.”
“I’m not finding you irresistible. Maybe your blood is low on the incubus platelets. Better get a checkup.”
“You say one thing, but your body says another, Alexandra.” He leaned closer, his nostrils flaring, his mouth wide and kissable and oh, so sexy. “Your breathing has increased, and there’s a lovely, delicate flush tinting your pretty cheeks right now. Your legs are clenched tight as well.”
Alex sputtered, loosened her legs. Bastard.
“I can wait. Anticipation has a certain reward, as does patience.” He playfully tapped her nose.
As he started out of the room, she called out, “You, patient? You weren’t enough to stay in prison to do your time. Not enough to stick around to see what happened to all those virgin Fae females you seduced and abandoned.”
Cold fury burned in his eyes as he turned back. “I never seduced any Fae females.”
“Not what the judge said when he sentenced you to prison.”
“I was framed for political reasons.” His mouth was a tight slash. “There was only one Fae female I took into my bed. She sought me out and paid me.”
Eyes of ruthless blue bore into her. “The experience was immensely pleasurable and a novelty, although she was innocent and inexperienced, she harbored a wild passion I’ve never found in Fae, which is one reason I avoid them. Why settle for cold hamburger when the finest filet mignon is always available?”
A shiver snaked down her spine. Dominic couldn’t know that very Fae sat before him. She was just one of the many women warming his bed, lost in a blizzard of one-night sexual encounters. Dominic wouldn’t ever remember the most beautiful Fae in the land, who’d sought him out to lose her precious virginity so important to the rival Fae king.
Paid him to have sex because she desperately wanted her first time to be magic, no matter what the circumstances. He’d murmured to her in bed, praising her beauty… their whispers in bed that of young lovers with a future ahead of them. Dominic had opened her palm and spilled the gold coins back into it. Because he promised to return for her, promised to bring her to a magick land filled with its own beauty, where she could stay with him forever.
“And you never bothered to find out what happened to that young Fae after, did you? Because you don’t care. You love them and leave them, disposing of them as if they were scraps.”
Ice glittered in his blue eyes, making them so cold that she shivered. “I went back after making arrangements with my pack for her arrival. I did not know she was in trouble. And the moment I did, I was seized, arrested and sent to prison after a mockery of a trial whose outcome was set the moment I was brought into court.”
He went back for her? Alex clenched her hands so tight that her knuckles whitened. Lies, it was a
ll lies. Dominic had never returned. She’d waited, hoping and watching from the window. Until two days later, when the maid finally showed the sheet proving her virginity to her stepfather, and he’d taken her away….
Dominic said those things to appease his own conscience, if the wolf even had one.
“You’re such a saint.”
“No, far from it. But I’m not a beast, Alexandra. My ways, and the ways of my pack, are foreign and strange to some, but they suit us well.”
She leaned back. “Your pack is known for its sexual exploits. Public sex, spankings, bondage.”
“By others who fear us and don’t understand. Each member of the pack fully accepts the rules. Those who do not are free to leave without consequence. But this is their home, our home, and it’s a safe haven.”
“For the males, yes. But the females—” Alex shook her head “—they’re treated like sex slaves.”
“We revere and honor our females.” Dominic sat on the chair’s arm, tipped her chin up with a finger. “Just as you would be revered if you were to stay.”
She sputtered. “Stay?”
“A warm home, security and respect, Alexandra. Not a cold cabin where you would forever be lonely.”
“Free,” she challenged.
“There is great freedom here in being among those who understand.” Secrets shadowed his expression.
An odd hope fluttered through her, but Alex silently laughed as she realized how unlikely that would be.
“Here? Your pack is comprised of dangerous rogue wolves. None were ever accused of a crime, but they were all tossed out of packs because they’re rule breakers.”
Tension turned his jaw to granite. “Rumors and gossip. Every single member of my pack was homeless and alone. Michael was tossed out, yes. Because he lost an eye in a vicious fight protecting his alpha, and for his loyalty, he was banished, no longer considered whole. He came here and met Carla, his mate, who’d been left orphaned. All my people have found acceptance and a place to belong.”
Dominic thumbed her chin, his gaze intense. “You, too, could belong here, Alexandra. We’d make a good pairing.”
The odd longing surged with vehement force. Somewhere she could relax and be herself, not worry about her looks or being judged.
Fifteen acres in Colorado looked less attractive. Solitude was wonderful, but was she embracing it the rest of her life? She was still young. Maybe somewhere, someone would want her, despite her ugly appearance.
But if she had the wizard’s potion, she would never be ugly again. Her stomach twisted at the idea of what she had to do to get it.
And if Dominic ever saw her real face now, he’d be repulsed, just like the men in the bar.
“I don’t need anyone. I can do perfectly fine on my own. And I’m not the pairing type. Certainly not in a pack where females are expected to be submissive to their males’ sexual whims.”
“Don’t mock what you haven’t tried,” he said in a silky voice. “They’re quite content and their mates keep them far too busy and pleasured in bed.”
He turned her toward the window. “Look.”
Outside, two wolves scampered across the meadow, coming to a halt just before the lamppost. The smaller gray wolf turned and snapped at the larger one. He nipped her hindquarters and she whined.
Suddenly the wolves shifted into human form. The male wore an eye patch and had a firm, trim body. The short-haired blonde was petite and seemed frail. Both were naked. “Michael and Carla, his mate,” Dominic said quietly. “He’s disciplining her for disobedience. I ordered Michael to punish her when she went beyond our borders against my express orders. Watch.”
Michael pointed to the lamppost. Carla closed her eyes, bent over and grabbed the post. Alex cried out in shock as the male began to slap Carla’s bottom.
Outraged, she jumped up. “Hey, stop that!”
Dominic’s fingers clasped her wrist. “Do not interfere. But watch.”
The ecstasy on Carla’s face gave Alex pause. Her moans of pleasure, not distress.
Michael stopped spanking his mate. Then the werewolf slid a hand between her legs. When he pulled his fingers free, they were glistening.
“She’s very aroused,” Dominic mused. “Now, she is ready.”
Shocked, Alex stared. She enjoyed the punishment?
“Very much so,” Dominic said softly, reading her thoughts. “I ordered Michael to punish her, but the means of punishment was up to him. He could have inflicted something on her that she did not like. But this will give her less reason to stray far from home, knowing such pleasure awaits her at her mate’s hands.”
Silently Michael pointed to the ground and Carla dropped to all fours.
Carla raised her reddened bottom in the air, her legs slightly spread. Michael stood, proud and straight, behind his mate. He had a heavily muscled body, and his long, dark hair spilled down past his thick shoulders. His erect penis stood out stiffly. Alex’s breathing hitched as Michael ran his hands down the small of Carla’s back, between her legs and then knelt behind her.
Carla threw her head back and cried out as Michael eased into her. Hands on her hips, he began to thrust hard and heavy.
Dominic leaned closer, his warm breath feathering her blushing cheek. “Look at them. Wild in their passion. Losing themselves in each other, so caught up in their pleasure, the world ceases to exist. This is the essence of my people, Alexandra. Come, be with me and know the erotic passion of completely losing your inhibitions.”
Desire clenched her body, making her hot and tight. Alex fisted her hands, her breathing heavy, her heart thudding heavily in her chest. It was an extremely private moment, yet, she found herself caught up in the sheer sensuality of their lovemaking, Alex felt no embarrassment. It seemed totally natural. Carla’s clear submissiveness did not appear humiliating, but oddly freeing.
When the couple collapsed together, shivering on the ground, she turned to Dominic. Expecting him to look aroused and wanting, she was stunned to see him regard her with a tender look.
Then he slid off the armchair and nodded, walking away. Jeans riding low on his lean hips, Dominic had a graceful swagger. Watching him sent all the blood rushing to her groin.
She buried her head into her palms, disturbed by the wash of sexual need.
Chapter 5
Bracing his hands on the windowsill, Dominic stared out at the meadow. After witnessing Michael and Carla making love, Alex had walked away, muttering she needed time alone to think. He’d let her go, needing time himself to think. Belaramos was out there, watching, waiting. Wanting his blood, and his head probably. Ever since the wizard arrived six months ago, he’d gunned for Dominic and anyone close to him.
Safeguards and strict rules protected the pack’s more vulnerable females. He had one more female to protect, although Alexandra would balk at the thought. A crooked grin touched his mouth. The woman intending to capture him was an enigma. Intensely private and wary, she reminded him of a beautiful, wild wolf whose pack had abandoned her. Pitiful, in a way. So alone.
Except Alexandra would hate pity. She’d stick a dagger between the ribs of anyone who tried.
Dominic rubbed the back of neck. Such a feisty, fierce warrior. Such a mystery.
The smile dropped. Such hidden pain. What had happened to her?
This obsession with the world’s best bounty hunter proved dangerous. It caused him to forget his ultimate responsibility to his pack. Made him think about nothing except her wet, red kissable mouth, soft and pliant against his.
The fire burning in her green eyes and her indomitable spirit raging with passion tempted his jaded self. Blood surged through his veins, hot and thick, as his wicked imagination envisioned Alexandra on her knees before him, that delicious mouth sliding over his erect cock.
He would have her naked beneath him, those lovely, firm thighs spread wide, her sex glistening pink and ready.
Sex was life to him, gave him strength, but he controlled everything.
Except with Alexandra. He knew he trod on dangerous ground and could lose everything important when it came to her. His pack. His freedom.
Dominic knew the pack wanted him to settle, to have a mate who’d be meek, calm and submissive. Alexandra was far from meek and submissive. Could she fit into his world? She’d never learn to follow orders and would always have that independent streak he cherished.
First he must open her eyes to the bare truth. He thought of all the mirrors in his secret room, the mirrored hallway, mirrors she would not want to look into. If she were strong enough, her belief in herself would cement her to him.
If not… Alex would run and he’d lose her as he’d lost others. A quiet pain twisted his heart at the thought.
The delicate scent of Alex, gardenia and ice, laced through the air. Dominic drew it deep into his lungs. His incubus blood fired, ready for sex with the fiery bounty hunter.
She occupied his thoughts as he headed for his study. The thought of her lying in his bed, her wide green eyes heavy-lidded with desire, her scent flooding his nostrils, made him wild. He found himself alive for the first time in years.
Ice splintered his heart as he glanced out the large picture window.
Alexandra was on the pathway leading through the meadow.
He caught up with her just by the fence.
“Where are you going?” Dominic struggled to keep his voice even, keep the raging fear at bay. If Belaramos got a shot at her again…
“I have to test this ankle out.”
“Don’t stray off the path. It’s neutral territory and lined with magick that will protect you against the wizard.” His protective instincts flared. “I’m coming with you.”
Defiance snapped in her clear green eyes. “Stop telling me what to do. You’re not my master.”
“We can change that,” he said silkily, taking her hand.
The electrical charge crackled between them. Dominic’s pulse beat fast. Desire smoked her green gaze, then she looked at him fiercely, as if denying the attraction.