by Meg Ripley
He chuckled as she dropped herself unceremoniously into the passenger’s seat and crossed her arms in front of her chest. The movement drew his attention and he couldn’t help but watch the rise and fall of her breasts as her breath came quicker. For an instant, an image of her naked, grinding on top of him flashed through his mind, but the image that appeared next wasn’t what he expected. He saw her on his back as he flew through the sky, stretching his iridescent wings. She held on tight, but they both knew she didn’t have to; he would never let her fall.
He shook his head, trying to banish the unrealistic image from his mind. It wasn’t possible; humans were terrified and judgmental of everything they couldn’t understand. There may be something unique about her, something he’d never sensed in anyone before, but ultimately, she was human and she would be no different. And why the hell was he even entertaining such ridiculous thoughts? Did he really want her to know what he was, even if she wouldn’t go running in horror? The answer that came to mind surprised him. He barely knew her, but he wished he did, and he wished she wanted to know him in the same way.
He settled into the pilot’s seat and tried to push every thought from his mind. He took the helicopter off the ground and tried to focus all his attention on the view in front of them as they flew higher and higher. Still, he couldn’t stop more questions from flooding his mind.
“Why do you find the ocean so fascinating?” he heard himself ask the quiet woman next to him a few minutes into the flight.
She turned to him, seemingly surprised by his question. “You don’t see it? The ocean is so beautiful, yet its beauty is deceptive. It could destroy everything, but it has the power to lull everyone who sees it into thinking it’s something it isn’t; something serene. That contradiction makes it captivating—a beautiful, terrifying force of nature.”
She was really that enthralled with the ocean? He’d thought that kind of wonder had dwindled long ago with the beginning of the information era, the age where nothing was magical or inexplicable anymore. Of course, he’d done a great deal to bring about the end of magic and mysticism. He couldn’t even count the number of witches he’d hunted and eliminated; all those wretched men and women who used their mystical knowledge to kill and destroy.
****
The remainder of their flight passed in silence, both of them turning inward, though he had no idea what thoughts were running through her mind. “I’ll drive you home,” he told her as they stepped out of the helicopter.
“That’s okay. My car’s just a few streets over.”
“Then I’ll walk you to your car.”
“You? Walk? I can’t imagine you’d be content with something so mundane,” she teased.
“I think I can manage for a block or two. After that, I might have to take flight to avoid utter boredom.”
“Suit yourself.” She motioned for him to lead the way, and he did, back inside the hotel and down to the building’s front lobby. Even at the later hour, there were still plenty of people moving around—not surprising in Sin City. With every set of eyes on them, they left the building. She looked up at him when they stepped outside and her lips parted like she was going to speak, but she turned away seconds later and started down the street.
“I’m hosting a dinner tomorrow night,” he told her when they reached her car. “Join me?”
“I don’t know. I appreciate the offer, but—”
“I promise, no helicopters,” he teased.
“I’m just not sure this is a good idea.”
She was on the fence. So much of her wanted to say yes, he could see it in her eyes, but just like before, something made her hesitate. And while he couldn’t bring himself to take her like this, he could use the desire radiating from her to sway her decision.
In one, swift movement, he leaned in, pressing her back up against the door of her car, as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her hard against him. It took her by surprise, and her lips parted in response. A growl threatened to escape his throat as he swooped in, covering her mouth with his and feeling her soft lips beneath his.
Fuck, he wanted her; every fiber of both his beings wanted her. He wanted to tear her clothes off and make every inch of her body his. He’d never felt so starved for sustenance, as if her body was what he needed to survive and he’d been deprived of it for far too long. His hands shook with his restraint, desperate to ignore the tiny sigh against his lips as she moved her hands to the back of his neck, twining in the short hair there. He couldn’t help but to glide his tongue along the parted seam of her lips, but she opened for him further. Was she insane? She was terrified of flying but not of the beast who held her in his grasp?
She pressed her body closer against his, molding her soft curves to his hard frame, making his cock throb painfully. Damn it, he didn’t care that they were on the side of a busy Vegas street. He wanted her naked. He wanted to feel her bare skin against his. He needed to taste her, to sample every inch of her with his hands, his tongue…his teeth. The thought made him pull back fast, gritting his teeth against the arousal that pounded through his veins.
He needed to run, to fly, to do whatever he had to do to get out of there, but instead, “Have dinner with me,” slipped from his lips. He wanted to tell her to strip her clothes for him, to spread her legs wide so he could feel her velvet heat sheathing him. He knew she was on fire. The scent of her arousal filled his nostrils and drove him mad.
“Okay,” she whispered back as she lunged upward for his lips, and she sighed quietly as their tongues met.
He felt it like never before. Not once in as long as he could remember had he fought so hard to keep it locked inside. Her quiet sigh, the feel of her lips against his, her intoxicating scent; it was all too much.
He needed to get out of there or else he was going to regret what happened next. He wasn’t going to be able to leave until he’d touched and tasted every inch of her; until he’d found his release deep inside her, right there in the public’s eye. And he knew he didn’t have enough control to be gentle. She’d hate him by the time he was finished, and the only thing worse than trying to keep the beast locked inside was imagining the look of loathing on her face afterwards.
He pulled away and she whimpered quietly at the loss, looking up at him with blue wildfire in her eyes.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ava,” he whispered and then he left. He didn’t have a choice. A few more seconds and he wouldn’t have been able to walk away.
“My name’s Hope,” she whispered when he was several yards away, probably so quietly that he wasn’t meant to hear it.
He did, though, and as he tested the name on his tongue, and he liked the feel of it. It suited her. He breathed in and out deeply as he strode back toward the hotel, but he didn’t stop when he reached the front lobby. Instead, he continued right past, walking along the busy street with just one destination in mind. He needed to get away from her. Though he’d only spent a few hours with her, he was already certain she was unlike anyone he’d ever met—and he absolutely should have ignored her that first night on stage. He should have chalked her up as nothing more than an attractive magician’s assistant and gone looking for a boring, everyday beauty to warm his bed.
Cade needed to stretch his wings and soar far away from everything; needed to fly high above the clouds and miles away from anything that resembled humanity.
He continued to walk along the city’s streets, feeling cramped in his own skin. Ten minutes passed, and he started to run. Twenty minutes passed, and then thirty. His legs had the ability to move so much faster, but he couldn’t give them freedom to run full-stride. Finally, he saw his destination up ahead—Red Rock Canyon National Park. There would be no one around this late at night and no streetlights lit the area, leaving it black enough so no one who happened to be nearby would be able to see him. He could see, though. Even his human eyes could see clearly in the dark.
He stepped into the blackness and closed his eyes. Within seconds, he
could feel it happening. It had taken years for him to perfect making it come at will, but it was second nature now. And this time, with that part of him already so desperate to come out, there was no effort. By sheer will, he felt his human form give way to something so much more; to power unlike any human body could contain; to scales like armor, so much stronger than thin human flesh. And to wings that could carry him faster than any human legs could.
Heat filled his massive body and he could no longer be still. He took to the skies, waiting for the familiar relief to wash over him. But though his body no longer felt constrained, his mind was no more free than it had been a moment before. As he soared above the clouds, her image was there in his mind. Even like this he couldn’t escape the woman he barely knew.
Chapter 5
Hope stretched languidly beneath the soft cotton of her bed sheet and then proceeded to spend the next several hours tossing and turning. Cade’s image plagued her no matter how much she moved restlessly about her bed. She had been hell bent on staying away from him in the beginning, and as she’d lay there wide awake in the middle of the night, she seriously wished she’d listened to herself.
There was something different about Cade Stryker. He was unlike all the other men she’d met. Sure, she hadn’t met too many billionaires over the years, but even so, it wasn’t just his money or his frivolous lifestyle that set him apart. He had the opportunity to take what he wanted—twice—and he resisted each time. To her chagrin, she’d wished he hadn’t.
She concluded he wasn’t interested in her in that way, but every fiber of her body told her otherwise. She could see it in his clear green eyes and feel it in his touch. And there was something else; she could sense it radiating from him.
Passion rippled through her body as she remembered his hot skin against hers. Even through their clothes, his heat had touched her, so hot it baffled her. So why had he held back? If he wasn’t interested in a lowly magician’s assistant in the first place, then why had he asked her to dinner? The questions had rolled around in her mind all night, in between fiery images of what could have happened; of what part of her desperately wished had happened.
The moment she opened her eyes, the same questions bombarded her once again, but she tried to push them from her mind—at least long enough to make her morning cup of coffee.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Lexi greeted her from the kitchen table.
She glanced at the clock and then did a double take. Was it really almost noon? Apparently, her body had made up for the hours of sleeplessness. “Morning, kiddo.”
“Hot date last night?”
“What makes you think that?”
“The fact that you didn’t come home until after three in the morning was my first clue.”
“Yeah, sorry.” She felt like she was apologizing to an overprotective parent. It was almost comical.
“I’ll forgive you this time, but next time, call if you’re going to be home late.”
“I’ll do that.” She smiled dryly as she poured a cup of coffee. Lexi must have brewed a pot for her when she got up. And as she took the first sip, that confirmed it. The coffee was lukewarm at best and tasted like it had been sitting there for hours.
“Sorry, I thought you’d be up a whole lot earlier,” she offered with chagrin. “So…where were you?”
“Um, I was on a date, I suppose.”
“I knew it! So, who’s the guy?”
She was silent for a moment. If Lexi was this excited she’d had a date, she was going to go through the roof when she discovered who she’d been with.
“This must be good. Spill it, Hope.”
“Have I ever told you how pushy you’ve gotten?” she teased. “Alright, the guy happened to be…Cade Stryker.”
“Holy crap!”
“Yeah.”
“So, when are you seeing him again?” she asked without missing a beat.
“I don’t know, Lexi. He asked me to some dinner tonight…” It was a charity dinner. Cade wanted her to join him as his date for a public function. Didn’t he realize the media would be there? Maybe that was the point. Maybe his interest in her had stemmed from a need to further his public image, making him more likeable by bringing some poor, young woman to his expensive gala.
“Don’t even think it. That’s just ridiculous, Hope.”
“What’s ridiculous?”
“I don’t believe for a second this guy’s inviting you to dinner as some show of charity.”
It was a little odd. If he’d wanted that, he could have chosen from a slew of women who would have been salivating over the opportunity to spend time with the infamous Cade Stryker. There would’ve been no reason for him to bother with the one woman who’d shot him down the first time they met. Even so, did she really want to spend the evening in front of every journalist in the city? By tomorrow, news of her “relationship” with Cade would be plastered all over the newspaper.
“Who cares what anyone else thinks,” Lexi interrupted her thoughts like she’d been able to read exactly what was going through her mind. It was amazing how well they’d come to know each other in such a short amount of time.
“Maybe I don’t want to be known as the next floozy drooling all over one of Vegas’ most well-known billionaires. I’ll look like nothing but another gold digger.”
“Just keep your mouth closed and no one will know you’re drooling,” she teased. “Hope, you’re always telling me I have to do what’s right for me. It’s time you took some of your own advice. Besides, if you happen to get a bit of publicity, you can use it to advertise the show and Adam will owe you big time. Is that such a bad thing?”
“I suppose not.” Though, she wished at the moment, the thirteen-year-old standing next to her would act more like a teenager and less like a wise, old woman.
“So…do you need some help getting ready?” Lexi smiled brightly. The girl was going to be a makeup artist one day, or a stylist to the stars.
“You want me to start getting ready at noon for a dinner seven hours from now that I’m not even sure I’m going to attend?”
“Of course not. I want you to go shower so I can start getting you ready for a dinner you are going to attend seven hours from now.”
It was funny how eleven months ago, Lexi had been too nervous to say more than two words at a time, and yet here she was, spouting opinions and issuing orders without a moment’s hesitation. Still, there was no sense in arguing at this point. She’d figure out how to let Lexi down later with the news she wasn’t going to the charity dinner. So, without another word she stood up and grudgingly walked down the hall to the bathroom for a shower.
Twenty minutes later, she sat down at the kitchen table since it was the only room in the apartment with good lighting, and Lexi pulled up a chair in front of her. She was armed with an entire tool belt of makeup, nail implements and hair tools, and she looked like she was itching to get started. Hope reached for the container with her contact lenses, but Lexi swiped it out of her hands.
“Seriously? You’re going to wear those ugly things? I’m sorry, Hope, but I’m going to have to veto this one.” She tossed the container onto the kitchen counter and sat back down opposite her and got to work. Jeez, the kid could really be pushy when she wanted to be.
Only a few moments had passed when Lexi held out a small hand mirror to her. “What do you think?”
Hope peered into the mirror and was immediately caught off guard by the blue eyes staring back at her. She knew they were beautiful. As far back as she could remember, people always commented on how lovely her eyes were, and how they were an exact copy of her mother’s.
Her father had told her often enough after her mother died. He’d told her she had the same eyes that would bring nothing but pain and anguish to everyone in her life. As soon as she could, she’d covered them up with the chocolate brown contacts and had worn them ever since. No one but Lexi had seen her eyes in a very long time—well, no one but Cade. The damn sand in he
r eyes had forced her to take out her contacts, and if she hadn’t been so overwhelmed by the stupid ocean and annoyingly-gorgeous man, she never would have let him see her like that.
“So, are you going to tell me what you think, or should I take your stunned silence as a bad sign?”
“You did a wonderful job. I just don’t think—”
“Too bad. You’re not going to ruin my makeup job with those ugly things, so just suck it up. Your father isn’t here, Hope, and he was just plain wrong. After all the times you told me to ignore everything my stepdad said, it’s time you took some of your own advice, and you know it.”
How was she supposed to argue with that and not sound like she’d been feeding Lexi lines for the past year? She could clearly remember how broken Lexi had been when she first found her curled up behind her building. She’d felt an affinity for her immediately because she could relate to the young girl’s plight like no one else could. She remembered leaving home, hitchhiking from South Dakota to Nevada, just trying to get as far away from home as she could. The hunger and the cold, the vile people; she could remember it like it was yesterday. Lexi had a similar rough time as a child, yet she’d made so much progress in the past year. Hope couldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.
“Alright, fine.”
“Good, then let’s get to your hair. I saw the most beautiful hairstyle in a magazine a few weeks ago. I thought it would be perfect on you—elegant, but not overdone.”
God, not that, too. The shimmering, silver wig she wore day in and day out was just as much an escape from her past as the contacts were. Like armor or a cloak, it allowed her be strong and confident. It let her be someone so different from the girl she’d been when she left home. How was she supposed to stand there with Cade Stryker as just Hope?