“I am not at liberty to discuss that.” Anger laces his tone.
“First you screw up your mission, then you insist you need to go AWOL. It’s not like you, Dante—”
Dante. The name fits him. Fire and ice…he is both. A dangerous name for a dangerous Fae male.
Dante’s tone hardens. “I couldn’t let her die.”
“Since when did a mere civilian come in the way of your duties?”
“I cannot tell you the reason, Commander. I know there will be consequences to fouling up my mission, but I’ll just have to deal with the outcome of that…after—”
“You have no idea how serious this is. The Elders are demanding that you come back and face trial. Do you know what that means?” Boris snaps.
“You’ll kill me as soon as I set foot back in Singapore. Even as we speak, I bet you have already sent soldiers to hunt me.”
There’s the scrape of Dante’s chair against the floor.
“I trained those soldiers. Even though the bastards changed loyalties, I expect they’ll manage to track me down. Doesn’t mean I can’t make it difficult for them.” Dante laughs. It's a harsh, cruel sound.
A cold feeling fills my chest.
This Fae, he’s lethal. A trained soldier. I’d forgotten just how much danger my life is in with him. And all because why? Because he’d almost fucked me?
His footsteps thud, and I assume he paces, back-forth-back.
“If you come back and bring her with you, perhaps there’s a chance—”
“No.” His reply is harsh, final.
“What is it about her anyway? A pretty face? A succulent pussy? I thought better of you—”
“Don’t you fucking talk about her that way.” Dante’s voice lashes through the space.
I pull back from the door. He’s angry because the other guy insulted me? My mouth goes dry. Why is he defending me? Why does he care what his superior thinks of me?
“So it is as I suspected.” Boris sounds calm. Too calm.
Fear skitters down my spine.
“You have no idea.” There’s no mistaking the sarcasm in Dante’s tone.
“I can hazard a guess, soldier, and I can tell you that you are headed in the wrong direction. Once you take this road, you are on your own.”
“No, you listen to me, Commander.” Dante’s tone hardens. “I’ve spent all my life in service of the Elders. I’ve let them dictate every part of my life. I’ve dropped everything and always rushed to them when they needed my help. This occasion, it doesn’t work that way. I need time to complete what I’ve started. Things are too delicate as it is… One wrong move and—” He swears.
“Last chance, Colonel. If you don’t turn yourself and the human in, it will not end well.”
“I am not coming. I can’t leave my mate and— Fuck.” There’s the sound of a crash, then something hits the floor and shatters.
I freeze.
Mate? Whose mate? His mate? Who is his mate? I don’t want to accept what he’s talking about.
Sweat slicks my palms.
I rub my hand against a twinge of pain in my chest. There it is again. That strange pain I’d woken up with. It’s not like heartburn, it feels more intense, more deep-rooted, as if something in my veins has been changed. As if I’ve been ripped apart from the inside and put back together all over again. I raise my arm and look at it, at the fresh pink skin. Like the skin regenerated overnight. But that’s not possible, is it?
“When were you going to tell me, Colonel?”
There’s silence, then the sound of footsteps as he paces again. “Didn’t mean for it to come out that way, Commander. But you see now why I am not able to leave?”
There’s the low sound of his swearing.
“I understand, Colonel. Better than you’d imagine.”
“Sir?” There’s surprise in his voice.
“Question is, do you understand the magnitude of what you have taken on? Not only is she human, and you know the track record of Fae’s mating with humans is—”
“I understand the dangers, Boris, but it was the only way to save her.”
“And then you are a military man.” The Commander seems to continue as if he hadn’t heard Dante. “You put your life at risk all the time. Once you consolidate the mating bond, if something were to happen to you, it also endangers her life.”
“It won’t come to that.” He huffs out a breath.
“What do you mean?”
“I…”
Dante lowers his tone, and the uttered words are too difficult for me to pick up. I lean in closer and press my ear to the door again.
“So you see…” The rest of his words are too low to be deciphered.
“I don’t agree with your plan, Colonel, but if that’s the only way out…” Boris seems relaxed. Almost bored by the conversation.
“It is, sir.” The floorboards creak, as if Dante has widened his stance.
“And you are sure there is no way in or out of the safe house?”
“She could try to scale the wall, but I doubt she’s strong enough for that.”
I set my jaw. That’s a challenge if I ever heard one. I am definitely going to have to try to get over that wall.
“Then there is the door.” Dante hesitates.
“Door?”
So there is another way out. Relief floods me.
“It leads out from the study to a hidden passage and all the way to the closest town. But the study is locked when I am not here, sir, so I am sure she won’t get to it.”
Okay, so I need to find the key to the study and then find the door and escape. A second route. It’s more of a challenge, but worth the try.
“Well, if you are confident, soldier—”
“I am, sir.”
How did he get access to a communication device? Since the tsunamis had changed the geography of the earth and leached the ground of trace elements, all kinds of comms devices have gone out of circulation.
The thoughts rush around in my head, and I try to make sense of everything I’ve heard.
His footsteps approach the door, and I make to rise, but already the door is swinging open.
Busted. My throat goes dry.
Light pours from the open doorway.
I don’t look up. His feet clad in military-issue boots come into view.
My hand shakes, and coffee spills from the cup. The drops slosh toward my freshly skinned arm. I brace for the burn—which never comes.
The drops of coffee weave away from my arm, up, drifting up as if drawn by an unseen force which I know is coming from him. I follow the arc of the drops as he raises his arm and simply sweeps them over to the side to deposit them in the bin in a corner of the room.
The cup tilts in my hand, and I am not surprised when it rights itself again. “I guess I don’t have to worry when you are around. You’ll always be there to clean up after me, to prop me up when I need it, make sure I never hurt myself again.”
“You make it sound like a bad thing.” He squats in front of me.
That scent of fresh rain and dark chocolate deepens. The ball of heat in my chest twinges.
His thighs are massive, and with him crouching like that, the muscles bunch.
I can’t stop the visceral thrill that sparks at my nerve endings. Can’t stop my gaze from dropping to that bulge between his legs. That beautiful, large erection that is outlined against the apex of his pants.
My mouth waters. My core shudders. A pool of moisture gathers in my pussy.
A low twinge of heat tugs at my belly. How can I want this man so much? He'd come to kill the very woman I'd been charged with protecting. Yet every pore in my body insists I need this man. His touch, his feel, his scent, I want to draw it all in and revel in it.
My fingers seesaw. The half-filled cup tips. He reaches out and rights it, then takes it from my nerveless hand and sets it on the floor.
“You are not making this easy for me.”
His voice yanks me
out of the sexual haze that envelops me. “Oh, yeah?” I narrow my gaze on him. “I’m not making it easy for you? You’re the one who’s keeping secrets from me.”
“How much of that conversation did you hear?”
“Enough.” I ball my fists in front of me. “When were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?” He tilts his head. His look is casual, and that’s the last resort.
Something snaps inside me.
“That you mated me when I was unconscious?”
14
Dante
My heart stutters. My insides twist. Of all the scenarios I had played with, this was the worst. I am not sure what I had planned, but it wasn’t her stumbling across the truth like this. Or perhaps I’d wanted her to.
Which is why I had been conversing with the commander via hologram and hadn’t bothered to keep my voice down.
Perhaps I’d wanted her to find out and save me the need to break the news to her.
“You don’t understand.”
“Explain it then.”
I stand up, then hold out my hand for her.
She refuses it and clambers to her feet.
Something like disappointment weighs down my shoulders. What had I been expecting? That she’d welcome this news with open arms and accept me?
She doesn’t know anything about me, obviously. All this should come as a shock to her. But still something in me insists that she should understand this is the only way out. Aren’t mates supposed to recognize each other? Hadn’t she sensed the way I had sniffed her and known it was her at the bar? That she’s the only one for me?
“You are upset, it’s understandable.” I raise my hand to place it on her shoulder.
She swerves under my arm and stalks into the room that doubles up as a study. She crosses the floor to the table and chair that’s pushed up against the wall. Of course the space is empty. She swivels around to stare at me.
“You have no idea what I am feeling right now.”
Her shoulders are so tense, she’s wound so tight that I can literally feel the anger crackle off her skin.
I rub my palm over my chest. “Believe me, I have an idea.”
She goes pale at that. “You feel it, too?”
“The mating bond?” I peel back my lips in the semblance of a smile, and I am sure there’s nothing nice about it. Or so I’ve been told. It’s a look that’s brought many an opponent to heel, caused many to flee, but this woman, she simply juts out her chin.
“So apparently it’s not a one-sided thing.”
I can’t stop the bark of laughter that escapes me. “Trust me, it goes both ways. If there had been another route…" I raise my shoulders then let them fall.
“Fae are the most technologically advanced species. Surely you could have teleported me to your doctors or something.”
I fist my fingers at my side, then begin to pace again. “When I saw you fall, I reacted on instinct. All I knew was that you were hurt, and I had to get you out of there.”
“You were stricken by a jolt of conscience.”
“Or something.” I snort. “How do I explain this to you. I saw you at the bar and—”
“And knew you had to fuck me.”
Anger curdles my gut. I ball my fingers into fists at my sides. “Then I followed you in and saw you trying to relieve your arousal.”
“And you did fuck me, with your fingers.”
This time, white sparks explode behind my eyes.
I stalk over and grab her shoulders. “Listen to me, woman. I saw you, I had to have you. Yet I left without taking you then. Only to have you appear on stage and throw yourself between me and my target.”
“I was protecting her.” She winces.
I know I am hurting her with my grip. I loosen my fingers but can’t make myself step away from her. “I didn’t know that, did I, not until I’d already hit you.” I massage the muscle I’d hurt.
Her shoulders quiver.
I know it’s my touch that’s making her react in that way. My groin tightens.
“Would anything have changed if you’d known I was going to be there on stage as her bodyguard?”
I hesitate. I want to tell her it would have, that I’d have broken off my mission midway if I’d known I was going to hurt her, but the truth is, I wouldn’t have. A more considerate man would have perhaps lied to her even. But the fact is, with the mating bond tying us, there’s no way I can keep the truth concealed from her for much longer.
The knowledge sinks in, just as I realize what this means.
I am more vulnerable to her than anyone else. If she wants, she can get to know everything about me, use it against me. She is a threat to me. And yet I can’t kill her.
I also can’t let her out of here, not until I’ve made sure I’ve consummated the bond, and made sure she’s dependent on me, enough for her to never challenge me.
“It wouldn’t have made a difference.” Her voice is flat.
“You’re right. I’d have simply found another route to get you out of the way so I could complete my mission undistracted.”
“And now?” A nerve thuds at her temple. Her chin quivers. She holds up her hands as if to ward me off, then takes a step back, and another, until she comes up against the window. Her hip brushes the wall, and she gasps. “Now it’s too late.”
I take one step forward, then another.
She gulps. “You are scaring me.”
“Good.” I peel back my lips.
“What are you thinking? Whatever it is I want no part of it.” Her fear is a palpable presence growing with every second. Tugging at my skin, sliding into my blood.
Curiously, it makes me want to gather her close and soothe her. The ball of heat in my chest twinges, warning me to be gentle with her. She’s mine, I need to care for her. Protect her. I push aside the thoughts crowding in on me.
It’s best she sees what I am. A male who has the blood of many on his hands. Who hasn’t hesitated to take lives. Who’d do it again if needed. Only first I need to satisfy this strange craving I have for her. This need to learn her every secret, to wallow in her scent, to bury myself balls deep in her and use her femininity to bring that humanness she’d touched in me earlier to life.
“It’s too late.” I prop my hands on her waist.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“You heard us talking, you know I mated with you on the psychic plane, to feed my life force into you. So I could cure you, rebuild your flesh. You are my creation now. I stole you away, I own you, and I am going to have you.”
Her pupils dilate. “You don’t mean it.” She darts out her tongue to lick her lips.
“You got your wish.” I can’t take my gaze off the glistening flesh of her mouth. “I am going to fuck you.”
15
Gia
His words are crude and filthy. My mouth goes dry, fear pounds in my veins, yet my scalp tingles with anticipation.
He fixes those brilliant blue eyes on me, and it’s as if he’s able to look past all the barriers I have put up against the world, look past it all, right into my soul. To that woman who resides inside me, the one who wants everything he can do to me and more.
My nerve endings seem to fire all at once.
“When I first saw you, I was sure you were cruel.” A pulse beats to life between my legs. “That you’d never let anything stop you once you decided on something. That you are the kind of man who’d rip apart whatever took your fancy, who’d never care for what anyone else felt.”
“And now?” He leans in even closer. So close that his breath sears my skin.
My toes curl.
His chest almost brushes the tips of my breasts. Almost. His feet bump mine. Our breaths mingle.
Moisture dampens my pussy.
His nostrils flare.
His blue eyes lighten until they resemble chips of ice. I don’t know this man at all. Yet my instincts reassure me that he will not harm me. He saved my life. He
could have fucked me right there in the bar and he didn’t.
So hidden inside is a man who is more decent than he gives me credit for knowing. It’s buried so far inside that nothing and no one can reach it. Not even me. Goosebumps pop on my skin. He is the single biggest challenge I have faced in my life. I can’t lose this fight. I can’t.
I jut out my chin.
“Now I know I was wrong.” The blood thuds at my temples. “It’s all a pretense.”
“Is that so?”
His growl tugs at my nerve endings. My skin tightens.
My heart skitters. I hold his gaze. “The way you project that you don’t care, that you are the kind of man who’ll mess with the world, who’ll kill people. It’s all a front.”
The black of his pupils seems to darken until I feel I am looking into the very depths of his soul.
My palms go damp, and I resist the urge to rub them on my thighs. “For deep inside, you really want to do the right thing.”
His grip on my hips tightens, and he yanks me up on my toes, and to him. My breasts slam against his chest.
My nipples pucker and push out. They feel so sharp, so hard that I am sure they must pierce through my clothes and tear at his skin.
My core quivers.
I want to moan at the anticipation that builds between us, that flares over my skin. Every inch of my skin seems to come alive. All my insides quiver. My feet tingle. I want to squeeze my eyes shut and submit and yet I can’t. I haven’t come this far to give in to him. And if I do, he’ll walk all over me. I know that without a doubt. He’s so damn dominating the energy crackles off him; this need to overpower, to take, fairly leaps off him.
And the worst thing is that everything in me is attracted to that.
“You are wrong.” His voice rumbles up his chest, rattling over the surface of our fused skin. It’s so deep, so snarly that moisture gathers between my thighs.
His nostrils flare. The goddamn Fae can scent my arousal.
“Am I?”
He peels back his lips, then slams his hips into the valley between my legs. “There’s nothing good inside me. Nothing you can salvage. You think you are the woman who can redeem me? Forget it, sweetheart. Others have tried and failed.”
Stolen by the Fae Page 6