Temptation Rising

by A. C. Arthur

  “We’ve had the discussion about sexual harassment before, Mr. Reynolds. And again, no means no.”

  “Call me Rome. It seems highly unusual to refer to a prospective lover so formally.” He would be her lover—Rome knew this as surely as he knew his own name. There was something pushing them together; whether it was just circumstances or something more, he couldn’t really tell. And didn’t really care at the moment.

  “What? You … we—” She stopped, took a deep breath, then released it in what could only be construed as a barely restrained manner. “You are the boss and I am the employee. We are not now, nor will we ever be lovers.” She jerked away from him and heat soared through his body.

  The challenge was clear, and the beast within acted quickly. He was across the seat in seconds, grasping her at the nape of her neck, pulling her to him until she was half sprawled over his lap. She glared at him, her lips parting in surprise just before he claimed them, swiping his tongue across them in one swift stroke.

  “Tell me no, Kalina. Say no and I’ll stop.”

  Her body shivered in his arms as he pulled her bottom lip into his mouth, suckling until her palms were pressing against his chest. His mouth opened over hers and he plunged into the kiss with all the fierce desire he had inside.

  It had been months since he’d had a woman. Of course it had been his choice. Shifters were known for their insatiable and sometimes dark sexual desires. They were created to breed, and if it wasn’t fighting for survival that occupied their minds it was most likely the sexual hunger that ate at them on a daily basis. Rome hadn’t wanted anyone in particular for weeks, and so he hadn’t taken anyone. Not until now, not until Kalina.

  Everything about her appealed to him on a level he’d never ventured before. It was strange and yet it felt right. His mother would say fate. To be safe Rome was classifying it as opportunity. Her body was luscious, his hands slipping down her bare back to cup her plump bottom. She sighed, moaning into their kiss her pleasure at his touch. He lifted her leg, adjusted her until she straddled him completely, then let his palms knead her ass, his fingers grazing in between until the heat of her pussy tickled his fingertips.

  “Say no,” he whispered.

  She should have kneed him in the nuts again. Her teeth could clamp down on his lips and draw blood. Memories of the night she was sexually assaulted sifted on the outskirts of her thoughts, reservations at being touched intimately by a man warring with the sweetest sensations he was arousing in her. She could give in to the fear, to the dark hatred she harbored for the one who’d dared to touch her without permission.

  Or … she could just sink into this feeling—this foreign reaction to a man she barely knew. She could let the memories of the last time he’d touched her commingle with the heated dreams she’d had of him in the days since. And she could enjoy.

  It wasn’t something she did often, not normally having much in her personal life to enjoy. But this, his touch, the husky rumble of his voice in the dark interior of this truck, did something to her, pushed her to be what she’d never thought she could be again.

  A woman.

  In the moments since she’d been closed in with him Kalina had felt sexier than she had in her entire life. Her body hummed with anticipation. The way his eyes raked over her said sex, pure and simple lust that was now dripping from his every kiss, each touch of his hands along her bared skin. The tips of his fingers grazed her center through the thin material of her dress, and she sucked in a breath. That action lifted her breasts, had the tender nipples scraping along his chest. With erratic breathing and fingers that seemed to operate with their own intentions she gripped the lapels of his jacket, pulling him closer as she opened her mouth to his kiss.

  Delving deeper she let her mind clear of all doubts, vowing to take, for once in her life to simply take. When his hands moved past the material of her dress to touch the bare skin of her bottom she hissed, arched her back, and sighed.

  “You can’t deny me, because that would be like denying yourself,” he whispered, his lips fanning over the line of her neck as her head fell back. “Did you wear this hot little dress for me? Did you want me to see it and die from wanting to touch you?”

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Do you want me to stop?” Sharp teeth nipped at her neck, sending spikes of desire straight to her core, now creaming at his silent command. As if he’d known that would be her reaction, his fingers slipped past the thin barrier of her thong, traveling along the dampened folds that opened to her desire. The second he plunged a finger inside Kalina’s world changed. Everything she thought she’d known about pleasure, that she’d taught herself through mechanics and imagination, crumbled. What he was doing, this seemingly simple touch, proved all she’d known was drastically wrong.

  “No,” she panted.

  “You want more?”

  Her breath came quicker, her body inflamed by his touch. “Rome.”

  “Yes,” he replied, his finger thrusting deeper, then pulling back.

  She whimpered at the loss, pressing herself down on him immediately. “Don’t stop.”

  His chuckle was hoarse, rumbling through his chest as he pushed back inside her. “You don’t want me to stop. It’s okay, I don’t want to stop, either, baby. You’re so wet and so ready for me. I want to feel you, taste you.”

  And she wanted whatever he had to give. Or at least she let herself believe she did. Right now it only mattered that he continued to give her pleasure, that his fingers continued to move inside her, pushing her to a pinnacle she’d longed to reach.

  Her back arched further as she rode his hand with vehemence. It felt too good to stop, the journey toward that exciting edge too enticing to ignore. And so she traveled, with eyes closed, mouth opened to release each sound that tore from her instinctively. She held on to his shoulders, her breasts moving with the motion, tender and eager for his touch. He was saying something, murmuring words to her that sounded X-rated and highly inappropriate for two people who barely knew each other and who worked together, but aroused her just the same.

  “That’s good, baby. You want more?”

  “Yes.” She let the answer tumble from her lips without a second thought and moaned as he pulled out one finger and inserted two more.

  It was tight and intense and her body shuddered with pleasure. She bit on her bottom lip, praying for sweet release before she drew her own blood.

  “So hot and wet for me. I knew you would be.”

  “Please.” She was begging, her heart hammering in her chest and the persistent need clawing at her.

  If she could just get there, if her feet could finally fall from the edge where she’d tumble into ecstasy, she’d be okay. She’d regain her composure and get back to business. But until then, until that moment, she was lost. Purely and simply lost in Rome’s touch.

  Those sharp teeth of his tugged on a nipple and she screamed. He was driving her insane with need, heat engulfing her as if she’d walked through an inferno and unfortunately survived.

  With persistent thrusts he milked her. She rode his hand, loving the feel of him filling her. And then she was there. Absolute weightlessness encircled her, bursts of light filling her as she tumbled free.

  For endless seconds she seemed to float there, her head lolling forward to rest on his shoulder while she struggled to catch her breath.

  The next thing she comprehended was his hands at her waist, smoothing down the material of her gown on her thighs.

  “You’re home,” he whispered, kissing her temple.

  She nodded, acknowledging that she’d heard him. He’d said she was home. The SUV had stopped moving, and distantly she heard the door opening, felt a tepid breeze entering the interior.

  She was home.

  But home suddenly felt very different.

  Chapter 6

  “Sabar’s gonna kick your ass.”

  “Shut up, Chavez.” Darel snarled, keeping his attention on the road as they drove t
hrough the city. They were headed back to headquarters, to check in, give the details of the night, and, yes, to get their nuts handed to them by Sabar.

  There was no excuse for what happened tonight, none whatsoever. That’s the way Sabar would see it. The man was an animal—literally and figuratively. He had no feelings, no reactions except angry and angrier, deadly and deadliest. He was the walking devil if you believed in such an entity.

  Darel did. His mother had believed in Heaven and Hell, a Supreme Good and a Supreme Evil. She died when his father lost his temper and ripped her throat out. No wonder Darel was a little on the off side. Just the type of soldier Sabar had been looking for.

  He’d worked for the leader of the Rogue shifters since he was sixteen, after he’d killed his father. An eye for an eye was Darel’s claim to fame. Sabar said he’d liked that about him.

  After tonight, there was no telling what Sabar would think of him. There was a semblance of hurt at that thought, if he was prone to take feelings seriously, which he was not. Or at least he tried not to be.

  “You gotta laugh, though.” From the backseat of the jeep Chi, a six-and-a-half-foot-tall Asian-looking shifter, chuckled. “You had her and you let her go.”

  “I wasn’t the only one who had her,” Darel corrected.

  “Yeah, but you’re the one in charge,” Chavez pointed out.

  It was true, he was Sabar’s lead enforcer. It was his job to supervise all missions directly assigned by Sabar. This mission in particular was beyond special. Sabar had given specific orders. Find the woman named Kalina Harper and bring her to him—unharmed. Darel had no idea what Sabar wanted with her and didn’t dare ask. He was told to do something, he’d had every intention of doing it—and then something happened.

  Not something, someone.

  “Where’d he come from and why didn’t either of you warn me he was coming? We were so caught up in her, he could have snapped all our necks without us doing a damn thing,” Darel yelled, jostling his passengers in their seats as he took a hard left turn doing eighty miles an hour.

  Chavez shrugged. “We didn’t scent him.”

  “And why was that?” They should have scented him. He was a high-level shifter, one of the shadows with a reputation that preceded him. Roman Reynolds might walk in this world as a human attorney, but in their world he was so much more. He was one of the shifter leaders, a strong one handpicked by the Assembly. He took his job seriously, hunting Rogues with a fierce calmness that scared even the most studious of Sabar’s soldiers. Darel wasn’t afraid, he just wanted to be prepared when the son of a bitch Faction Leader was on the prowl.

  “Because we were all too busy scenting her,” Chi added, his usual laughing voice echoing throughout the interior of the jeep. “And damn, she smelled good.”

  None of them denied that. She had smelled good, aroused and primed. The scent had hit them each at the same time, drawing them to her like metal to magnets. Darel had instantly grown hard, his dick pressing painfully against his thigh each time he inhaled. They could take her together, he’d thought, before turning her over to Sabar. They’d done it before and it was so good. In fact, the three of them preferred it that way. Working together for the last few years had made them as close as brothers, bonding them in ways that weren’t normal or acceptable in the eyes of humans. But they didn’t live by human rules or moral codes. They didn’t live by those of the Assembly, either. They were on their own, as Sabar told them often. They were the true leaders of this earth, so whatever they did had no consequences; it was their right to live above all other life-forms.

  Darel had no problem adapting to that way of thinking. If he was hard for that little trick Sabar wanted, so be it. He’d have her. Then she’d go to Sabar.

  “You get her address yet?” he asked Chavez, who was pushing buttons on the iPad he kept in the glove compartment.

  Chavez was a computer geek, hacking his way into any and every system to get whatever the Rogues needed. That’s why Sabar kept him around. Otherwise the beefy, slightly confused shifter had no real purpose.

  “Got it!” He smiled at Darel.

  “Fine. Put it in the GPS and let’s go.”

  “Yeeee hawwwww!” Chi yelled from the backseat. “We’re gonna party tonight!”

  They were gonna party all right, Darel thought to himself. And Kalina Harper was going to be the main attraction.

  * * *

  There was something about Kalina Harper.

  As Nick sat in the backseat of the limo parked at the top of her street, he watched Rome climbing out of the back of the truck, cradling the woman in his arms as if she were an infant and not a full-grown, exceptionally attractive woman.

  He’d been surprised to see her at the function, even more surprised to see Rome shuttling her out of the ballroom with a look of pure rage on his face. From what he could surmise there’d been some kind of trouble. The stench of Rogues in the building gave him a partial indication of what that trouble was.

  But Kalina Harper was an anomaly.

  What was she doing there? And why was Rome hovering over her like she was to be protected at all costs?

  * * *

  Opening the door himself, he waved off Eli as he attempted to get out to see what he wanted. Nick didn’t need the guard, he just wanted to stand here, to look at the building where Rome had taken Kalina inside. There was something going on here, something in the air that had him and his cat on instant alert.

  Nick walked slowly, feeling the bunch of muscles just beneath his skin. He wanted to shift, to run through the night and find his prey. But he wasn’t in the jungle, hadn’t been there in far too long. Memories from his past picked at his brain, and he fought them back. Nick didn’t go back. He’d promised himself a long time ago that there was nothing in the past worth traveling backward for.

  But tonight, the sounds of the city street, the lingering danger and scent of female arousal in the air, had him wondering if that promise was really meant to be broken.

  * * *

  “How did you know where I lived?” she asked the moment she slipped her key into the door and he entered her apartment behind her.

  “You work for me, remember?” He talked as if he hadn’t just brought her to an amazing climax, his tone neutral—like they were just co-workers.

  The simple fact was they were something more. He was the object of her investigation. This attraction wasn’t going to work for them. In fact, it was probably going to make her job a hell of a lot harder. So maybe him acting as if nothing happened in the truck was a good plan. Hell, she didn’t know what plan was good or bad at the moment. She’d messed up so royally tonight, she didn’t know how she’d backtrack by Monday morning.

  The one thing she did know without a doubt was that being in the same room with Rome right now was destroying any coherent thought she could muster. Taking a deep breath she put her purse and keys on the table then turned to bid him good night. But he wasn’t there. Moving through her small living room, she entered the closet-like space that served as her dining area. He was at the window, looking out.

  “What are you doing in here?”

  “Shhhh.” He turned to her, bringing a finger to his lips. “Maybe you should pack a few things and come stay with me.”

  It was eerily quiet, the dimness of her apartment cloaking them while slits of moonlight peeked through the open slats of her mini blinds.

  “What? Are you crazy? Who’s out there?” She was at the window instantly, looking out to what seemed to be the quiet street. “They didn’t follow us.” Assuming the “they” she was talking about were the three goons from the party.

  Not that she could know for sure, since she was obviously preoccupied during the drive over here—another feather in her cap to make the DEA want desperately to hire her.

  “Something’s not right,” he said, but he didn’t look at her. Instead his gaze moved around her apartment like he was trying to find something. He didn’t seem to miss a spot.<
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  It was strange and not the nightcap she’d had in mind when she’d left for the evening, watching Roman Reynolds, the hotshot attorney and drop-dead-gorgeous bachelor of the year move about her apartment. But she did watch, did wonder what was going through his mind as he wandered around. He looked almost predatory the way he opened the hallway closet, moved to the bedroom, opening that door, the bathroom, the kitchen. He was thorough in his search, quiet and focused and scaring the hell out of her. “Look, everything is just as I left it. Maybe you should go, Rome.” And maybe she should take a couple of those anti-depressants the therapist was convinced would help her recover. A nice dreamless sleep would probably do her a world of good, especially tonight when things hadn’t happened the way she’d planned.

  “Not until you’re safe.” He spoke as if that was a no-brainer.

  He was in the living room now, looking around again. His broad body appeared strangely out of place in the modestly decorated space, her space. Kalina instantly felt claustrophobic. There wasn’t enough air in here for both of them to breathe. He didn’t belong here with her; she was used to being alone. Her temples throbbed as a headache made its debut. Dammit, at this rate she was going to have a real nervous breakdown, just like the one the therapist predicted.

  “I’m fine and I definitely think you should leave. Now.” He was making her edgier by the minute.

  As if he hadn’t heard a word she said, he kept moving and talking. “There’s something…” His voice trailed off. “Lock the door behind me,” he said suddenly, pushing past her.

  She didn’t move but looked at him, their gazes locking. For a second, just a split second, she would’ve sworn there was something different about his eyes. The color changed, the shape. Or did it?

  “You sh … should go,” she managed to say even while the look he was giving her had heat flowing instantly through her body, prickles of alertness creeping along her skin.