Refresh

by Suzanne Steele

  Fey scowled from where she was perched on the countertop by the mirror. Fuck it! It was time to get real if she was going to get her hooks in him. She focused on the light switch on the wall and the lights went out.

  “Hmm, that’s weird.” Reese reached over and flicked the light switch, flooding the room with light once more.

  “One more time for good measure,” Fey said out loud to the man who couldn’t hear her.

  “Damn it to hell!” Reese growled in aggravation as darkness descended again.

  “Ooh, sexy alpha male growl. I like it,” she teased. Her playful mood changed quickly when she saw the big ass goofy grin on his face as he shook the water from his razor and raised it to his cheek. “Oh, really.” She flicked the razor from between his fingers, sending it flying across the room.

  “Damn it, Mr. Fumble Fingers,” he chastised himself, shaking his head. “My fingers better be more nimble tonight when I’m making a little pussy purr.”

  Fey gasped indignantly, her eyes narrowing with purpose. As soon as he leaned in toward the mirror and lifted the razor to his perfectly chiseled face, she flicked it again, sending the razor flying across the room one more time. She certainly didn’t want him thinking it was a coincidence; ever one to prove her point.

  “What the fuck?!” he muttered, more than a little unnerved. “Now this shit’s getting weird.” He straightened and glanced around with a frown, then bent down to pick the razor up off the floor. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the ghost he always teased Wolf about had followed him home.

  Never one to believe in coincidence and always one who was driven to solve the case, he knew something wasn’t right. It was in his nature to get to the bottom of what was going on. He cleared his throat and put his hands on his hips. He felt ridiculous talking to an empty room, but something had to give. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but if you’re someone from my past that I’ve pissed off or put in prison, I’m sorry. Just tell me what the hell you want.” He stood still and listened. Nothing.

  “Bingo!” Fey said with glee. He’d done exactly what the Universe required for her to reveal herself. By attempting to speak to the spirit world, he had acknowledged his belief in the afterlife and all that goes with it. No longer did she have to stay hidden in the shadows of obscurity. She just had to pick her moment.

  Truth be told, she was in love with a living human, had been in love from the day she’d first seen him. Sadly, she had already been dead when that happened. More than once the man had saved her brother’s life in the line of duty. He had won her heart over and over again, so she would let him in on her secret in her time and not while he thought he was dealing with the ghost of a convicted felon he’d sent up the river. He deserved so much better and she was going to make it so worth his while.

  He whistled under his breath as he grabbed his keys. He looked scrumptious in jeans and a black button-down shirt. He paused before he headed out the door. “Okay,” he said as he cautiously looked around. “I’m going out on a date now. I’m bringing a girl back here later because that’s what grown-ups do. People are gonna be naked. Papa’s gonna finally get some. Do not fuck this up for me, whoever you are.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it. Why, I’m looking forward to it.” It was a good thing he wasn’t able to see Fey’s sadistic grin. This was going to be fun. By the time she was through with Reese’s date, the woman would be doing well to not be locked up in the sanitarium. Fey was a firm believer that all was fair in love and war, and she was going to show no mercy tonight.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Electra woke up to an empty bed and the sound of banging coming from a room down the hall. Was Inc having renovations done? She threw on jeans and a t-shirt and headed down the hall to investigate. It wasn’t hard to figure out which room the banging was coming from, so she knocked on the door. No response, just more banging.

  “Here goes nothing…” she muttered as she turned the knob and stepped inside where she found mayhem–and in the middle of it? Brutus. He was on his knees, banging his head against the wall by the door.

  “What’s wrong, Brute?” Her concern spiked unexpectedly for the clearly distraught man who had tears running down his face.

  He furiously beat his fists into the sides of his head. “He’s dead. I killed him.”

  “Okay, big guy. Let’s get your hands somewhere safe so I don’t end up with a black eye.” She knelt down next to him and used her own hands to stop his from their relentless assault on his skull. With his hands resting on his thighs, she wiped a tear from his cheek. Her heart ached for the hulking man who was trembling like a child. She was pretty sure this man was a killing machine, so why did he seem so devastated? Who had he killed this time to become unhinged like this? “Brute, I don’t understand,” she whispered soothingly. “Who did you kill?”

  “Inc! I killed Inc.” His body was wracked once more with sobs. It was more than she could bear.

  “What?!” Electra was taken by surprise at the near-panic that threatened to consume her at his horrifying words. He’d killed Inc? What?! He was devoted to Inc, that was obvious. How was what he was saying even possible? And why did the prospect of Inc being dead bother her so much?

  Electra took a cleansing breath and closed her eyes, pressing her palm to her forehead as she wracked her brain for some idea how to respond to the pain haunting this seemingly heartless man’s heart. She didn’t know where to begin to figure out what was going on. She placed a tender hand on his arm.

  “Hey,” she said softly. Gone was the fear and loathing she’d initially felt toward this giant of a man. She didn’t pretend to understand why, but she was certain that he wasn’t…exactly…the monster she had first thought he was. He was no choirboy, but he wasn’t completely lacking the potential for redemption. “Inc isn’t dead. He’s here in the house. Everything’s fine.”

  His rapid-fire nodding, paired with those puffy, red-rimmed, innocent eyes only made him look more like a grief-stricken child, even though she knew perfectly well Brute was anything but innocent. “I know he’s here,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “He’s a ghost.”

  “A ghost?!”

  Incredulous laughter came bubbling up from Electra’s throat like a stream of healing water washing over him. He knew she wasn’t mocking him. He also knew she didn’t really understand the meaning of the words he’d said. If she did, she wouldn’t be laughing.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing!?” Venom dripped from Inc’s deep voice as he charged at Brute like a man possessed. He grabbed Brute by his thick neck and slammed him against the wall, the movement so fast that the two men were little more than a blur moving across the room. He ignored Electra’s horrified cries for him to stop; ignored her fingers clawing at his shoulders as she tried to separate them. But Inc was undeterred. “You don’t look at her, you don’t touch her, and you don’t have sweet little heart-to-hearts with her. You do your job: protect her.”

  Brute’s eyes were wide and his face was beet red, and yet he didn’t fight Inc’s hold on his throat. He was strangely still even as his complexion became mottled as his lungs were starved of air. Electra’s hands slid from Inc’s back as she realized there was nothing to fight about. Brute would accept Inc’s decision to spare his life or not. He awaited his fate with absolute subservience.

  Inc snarled and tightened his grip. The sight of Electra hovering over Brute, comforting him, touching him, had brought his killing instincts front and center. He saw the way Brute had accepted her comfort, the way he had melted in the face of her compassion. It was all he could do not to reduce Brute to bone and ash. At the very least, he was sorely tempted to choke the life out of him. He would deal with Electra in short order, but first he would set Brutus straight.

  “Do you want to live?” he asked, his voice so low that Brute could barely make out the words. Or maybe it was just because his heartbeat was thundering in his ears.

  Brute nodded. “I…li
ve…to…serve…you…, Master.”

  “Then you need to convince me that you understand.” Brute struggled to nod, but Inc’s savage grip was too tight. Inc brought his face to within an inch of Brute’s to deliver a final warning: “You don’t touch her. You will protect her with your life, but you do not get to love her. Only I get to do that.” He shoved Brute aside and stood motionless as the giant of a man leaned against the doorjamb, coughed, and tried to regroup. “Brutus. Do you understand?” Inc asked, his voice deceptively soft.

  “Yes. I do.” Brute met Inc’s cruel gaze and nodded. “When the time comes, I will not hesitate to kill for her…and die for her.”

  In the next instant, Inc’s hand was clamped around Electra’s arm. He dragged her from the room and back down the hall to his suite. He slammed the door and it shuddered within the frame with a resounding crack!

  He was on her in an instant, using his considerable bulk to back her up against the wall. There was nowhere to look but into intense blue eyes that were darkening ominously. The irises seemed to glitter with crimson flecks, like the first sparks of a smoldering fire right before it became an inferno. The air in the room was charged, seeming to crackle with the sheer force of his anger.

  “You. Belong. To. Me.”

  “I’m not scared of you.”

  “Really.” His thumb resting on her jugular registered her frantic heartbeat and the blood rushing through her veins. “You should be.” He cocked his head to the side and eyed her speculatively. “I see the problem now. You need to be marked.”

  His erection was pressing, thick and hard, against her stomach. She bit her lip at the memory of having him in her mouth. “He thinks you’re dead, Inc. He thinks he killed you. He thinks you’re a fucking ghost.” Even in the intensity of the moment, she couldn’t stop her laughter at that last part. She shook her head in disbelief as the odd crimson light in his eyes faded.

  He raised a sardonic brow. “You think you know so much. Perhaps I am a ghost, or maybe I’m an angel–or something like it.”

  “You let him think he killed you! That’s cruel, Inc. You saw him; he’s a broken man.”

  “Cruel?” he scoffed as his hand slid around her hip to cup her bottom, his fingertips grazing the sweet spot between her legs. “Perhaps you think I would do better by allowing him to wreak havoc due to bad decisions. Do you honestly think he could have withstood the temptation of five women in this house?” His free hand moved over her ribcage to cover her breast, possessively kneading the firm flesh. “Would you want to be stranded in a dark hallway with him? The man’s unstable, Electra. I keep him in check by any means necessary. When it comes to my world and those who occupy it, I demand complete control.”

  She resisted the temptation to squeeze her legs together at the word ‘control’. She had expected to fight him tooth and nail, to assert herself in the face of his blatant display of machismo, but the moment wasn’t playing out that way. She couldn’t hope to control him any more than she could control her ragged breathing whenever he touched her.

  He gripped her ass harder and tugged her closer. His voice was a sexy rasp against her ear. “Perhaps you just need to come to grips with your dark side. Instead of worrying about my cruelty toward others, you should be asking yourself why my cruelty toward you makes your pussy wet.”

  She couldn’t deny the way her pussy tightened and warmed to his touch and his obvious desire to own her–because that’s exactly what it would be: primal ownership. Non-negotiable.

  He jerked her over to the bed and pushed her onto her stomach on the mattress. In no time, he had her clothes off and her knees shoved apart. He reached down to test her depths and make sure she was ready. He smiled to himself when she arched her back and began rubbing her pussy against his inquisitive hand. The harder he rubbed, the more frantic her movements became. She was already getting close.

  Within seconds, his clothes were off and he was close behind her on the bed. His hands landed on her hips with a bruising grip as he lifted her ass into the air. The head of his cock nudged her slick lower lips apart.

  With a roar that sounded more like an agonized battle cry, he impaled her on his cock. Seemingly out of nowhere, a gust of wind swept through the room, lifting Electra’s hair away from her face and sending the heavy brocade curtains billowing in front of the closed window. The silky strands of her hair swirled wildly around her shoulders and fluttered against Inc’s chest as he pounded away at her core. Clutching her breasts, he raised her torso from the bed until she was on her knees with her back pressed snug against his chest.

  Electra felt boneless and let him put her body where he wanted it. As they moved together, her head lolled back against his shoulder. She pressed an open-mouthed kiss to his neck and licked the salt from his skin. Once she’d started, she couldn’t stop. She mouthed his neck and tried to name his flavor. His skin was…everything: something rich and exotic, yet familiar.

  Inc tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes as she hungrily laved his neck with her tongue. She lifted her arms and clasped the back of his head with both hands, moving sinuously against him, meeting him thrust for thrust. He braced his legs against the bed and worked his hips hard, driving his cock into her even deeper.

  Inc set a punishing pace. His hands roamed her body, insolently exploring her curves and learning the velvety texture of her skin. This wasn’t lovemaking. This was a man decisively taking what was his and, yes, marking her. There was nothing good in him right now; only obsession remained.

  He clasped her jaw and angled her face so he could take her mouth. Fuck, she was perfect. As the whirlwind continued to swirl around them, he stroked her clit and groaned into her mouth. With their tongues and lips engaged in a sensual battle of wills, the orgasm took him by surprise, stealing his breath. He felt the moment she started to climax. Her pussy rippled around his length, clenching him with surprising force as she milked him dry. His cum felt like a living, breathing thing as it drenched her core and laid siege to her quivering womb.

  They fell onto the bed and he blanketed her body with his, even as his aching cock continued to pulse inside her. She was his, finally. Snarling as he bit the curve of her neck. “You had one chance to deny me,” he rasped. “But you didn’t. You want this as much as I do. When you took me inside your body, you crossed a line that can never be taken back. You will never let another man put his hands on you. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for another man’s death, now would you?”

  When he pulled out of her, she winced as the broad head of his semi-hard shaft moved against her tender flesh. He stepped away from the bed, his face a neutral mask, and said nothing. If she didn’t know better, she’d worry that he saw her as nothing more than an orifice that had served its purpose. His demeanor was cold, ruthless, and uncaring as he put his clothes back on and strode out the door without another word.

  “I hate you,” she whispered to no one when he had left the room, knowing perfectly well it wasn’t true.

  His sadistic laughter rang out as his footsteps faded into the distance. How had he heard her from that far away?

  Maybe he was dead after all. He seemed deader than dead emotionally, that was for sure. Inc was right, though: she had given her consent. Her body had betrayed her and now she was his. What she didn’t know was what on earth she was going to do about it. He seemed just arrogant enough to think that fucking her sealed the deal. But did it?

  Chapter Twenty

  “Damn it! Damn her!” Inc sent a glass statuette flying through the air and watched as it crashed into pieces like his soul. In its shattered state, it was a perfect replica of him: shards of glass that would surely wound everything they touched.

  “I will not let her go,” he growled to the empty room. His chest heaved, aching as if a fist were twisting and turning until he felt his eyes stinging at the thought of losing her. Electra was a distraction that could affect history and lives with catastrophic consequences she couldn’t possibly understa
nd.

  “You’re in love with the mortal.”

  He looked up as a single tear escaped to leave a glistening trail down his cheek. “Mother,” he breathed reverently as he lowered himself into his office chair. His mother knew him better than anyone and he respected her counsel above any other than the Almighty.

  She moved gracefully over toward her son, her long white hair shimmering as it fluttered behind her. She placed one finger under his chin, tilting it toward her. “Hmm. This reminds me of your father and me.”

  “She’s light. I’m darkness.”

  She chuckled, her voice a soothing melody in his ears. “Exactly. Then I’ve made my point, my dear. Oh, your father had the same tormenting darkness that plagues you. It’s what has made him effective as a warrior. You cannot fight the darkness in this world without it. Few angels can withstand having both forces existing within them–good and evil. You’re special that way. Always have been.”

  “She’s never going to believe she’s walked into an eternal world of good and evil. You can’t just tell a mortal, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m an angel.’”

  “I’ve always believed showing was much more effective. You limit yourself, but worse than that you limit her. She’s much more in tune than you believe. She’s the one, baby boy. Ignoring it or having anything to do with any other women will seriously damage the cause.”

  “I couldn’t have anything to do with another woman, even if I wanted to. And I don’t.”

  “You know what has to be done. Man up, or in this case, angel up and do it.” As serenely as she had entered she left, leaving strength and courage in her wake.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Reese looked with distaste at the woman sitting across from him. What was her name again? Marmy? Marna? Mandy? He didn’t know and he didn’t care. She was a superficial bimbo who had spent more time on her phone taking selfies than having a conversation, much less a meaningful or educated conversation.