He stood as Stephen spread the blueprints on the small table by the window. They bent over it, heads together as they pointed at different spots and whispered. I lay on the bed, facing them with my arm pillowed under my head. I let them do their planning for about a half hour.
“You do know I can just walk you through the front door, right?” I said to no one in particular. They both turned to look at me. I sat up and faced them. “Does he know what you look like?”
Wyatt paused at my question. “No, but a few of his followers might.”
“Who cares about them? He doesn’t allow many people at his home, and from the sounds of it, these are people he wouldn’t want near Sandy.” I stood and walked toward them, and my heart skipped a beat at the thought of Sandy. “Sandy’s not a part of this, is she? You won’t hurt her, will you?”
Wyatt opened his mouth, and by the look on his face, he was going to shut me down, but Stephen cut in. “No, she has no idea what her father is up to. We will not hurt her, I promise you.”
I stood there absorbing the fact that I was discussing my best friend’s father’s murder. “Are you sure there isn’t another way? Sandy may hate her father, but his death might break her.”
Wyatt rubbed my arms, sadness in his eyes as he spoke. “I’m sorry, babe, there is no other way. He has to be eliminated. Sandy won’t be hurt, and if it helps, I can ask Leo to send in a therapist after everything to help her adjust.”
“I want to be there too afterward. She’ll need me.” His hands on my skin were making it hard to focus, but my love for my prickly, bitchy best friend held out.
“When it’s safe.” He nodded at me. “I think having you close will help.” He turned me toward the blueprint and Stephen.
“What do you suggest?” Stephen asked.
I smiled at him and looked over the blueprints. “Sandy and I haven’t gotten together in a few days—well, ever since the coffee fiasco. I can just call and tell her I want to introduce her to my new boyfriend.” I wrapped my arm around Wyatt’s and leaned into him as I gazed into his eyes. “She won’t be able to help herself. Her nosiness will override her father’s wishes. I’ll tell her we are nearby and want to stop in. She’ll jump at the chance to try to steal you away from me.”
“So we drive up to the house, just like that?” Wyatt asked skeptically.
“Not just like that.” I snapped my fingers, agitated at his attitude. “A quick phone call to Sandy and then we can go up. She’ll have our names on the approved list in seconds and be waiting at the front door.”
“How will we make sure her father is at home?” Wyatt asked, acting superior in his maleness.
I let go of his arms and pulled out my phone, then sent a quick text to Sandy.
Hey girl, your dad home today?
“What the hell did you just do?” Wyatt tried to grab the phone from my hand, but I twisted away just as Sandy’s reply chimed.
Gah yeah, and I can’t go out because he says he needs me home today...save me.
I furiously tapped back. I was hoping I could stop by, want to intro you to my new BF
Wyatt hovered over my shoulder. His hands settled on my hips, and his breath moved the strands of hair at the side of my face, but he waited with me for a reply.
You have a new best friend? WTF? Of course, she would never think BF meant boyfriend coming from me, the girl who never had a boyfriend for longer than twenty-four hours.
Not best friend, BOYfriend. I want to introduce him to you. Can you get us in without your dad knowing?
“A little bold, don’t you think?” Wyatt whispered but kept his hands on my hips rather than grabbing for my phone.
“Just wait,” I replied, and as I suspected, she texted back.
Already have your +1 on the list at the gate. How long will you be? Daddy’s been holed up in his office all day and told everyone not to disturb him, no worries there.
“Told you.” I smirked. “How long will we be?” Wyatt’s hands squeezed my hips as he placed a kiss on my neck.
“I’m not happy with what you did, but tell her an hour. It will give us enough time to get what I need and check in with Leo’s guy.” He kissed my neck again and turned back toward Stephen who was rolling the unneeded blueprints.
About an hour or so. See you then. I added a smiley face emoji and a boy/girl kissing emoji before I hit send.
“Okay, we have an hour.” I turned to find Stephen gone and Wyatt prowling toward me.
“There’s a lot we can do in an hour.” He growled as his hands dived into my hair, and his lips crashed onto mine. My hands flew to his chest, my phone forgotten as it slipped from my hand. His heat radiated through the fabric, almost scorching my skin, but I didn’t care. I scrunched the fabric in my hands until his jeans released the hem. I didn’t take the time to remove it. I simply ran my hands up underneath, finally feeling his skin, tracing each dip and valley of his chiseled chest and abs. A slight whimper escaped my throat at still having layers between us.
Wyatt released my mouth, ripped his shirt over his head, and helped me with mine before we fell onto the bed behind me. His lips followed his hands down my neck as my legs fell open, making room for him in the one place I needed him. Impatience had him pulling the cups of my bra down rather than reaching around to divest my body of it. The act was so hot, I stared down my body, watching as he took each nipple into his mouth. He worked his magic, bringing me to the brink of explosion before backing off and peppering kisses down my body. My panties were already soaked through, and I hadn’t even gotten my pants off yet.
He scooted down and buried his nose between my legs, taking a long drawn-out whiff of me through the layers.
“I love how much you want me. I can smell your need through the denim.” He looked up at me from between my legs, and I could have orgasmed right then. “Don’t you dare.” He growled, his dragon’s eyes looking at me. “You will not come yet.” He reached up, flipped the button loose, and quickly unzipped them. He let his fingers graze the top of my mound, teasing my slit as he pulled my pants off. He ran his hands up the inner sides of my legs, back to the one spot I was ready to beg him to touch.
He leaned up, running his nose up my slit on the outside of the lacy underwear I had put on that morning, thinking of him. His tongue followed, licking slowly, and I bucked my hips off the mattress. I tried to reach down for him, hating this slow pace. “We only have an hour.” I panted, hoping to spur him into action.
“Keep those hands away. Like I said, we can do a lot in an hour.” I wiggled beneath his hands, but he placed one of his on my lower abdomen, effectively holding me still. His other tugged my cream-soaked panties down, exposing my freshly groomed girlie bits to the cool air in the room. His warm breath blew across my clit seconds before he wrapped his lips around it and sucked. That’s all it took for the first explosion to burst behind my eyes. He lapped at the juices I felt flow out, humming in satisfaction. The vibration set off another mini-quake, which radiated up to my womb.
This time when I reached for him, he let me pull him back up my body. “I need you, please.” I fumbled with his jeans, my hands still shaking from the aftermath of my last orgasm. He reached between us to release himself, his knuckles grazing me in the process, eliciting a hiss of breath from me. How he removed his jeans after that, I don’t know, but his cock was hard and pushing at my opening seconds later.
“Are you absolutely sure?” He paused. “There’s no going back after this.”
My heart swelled at the fact he would even ask, let alone hold off his own pleasure to make sure it was what I wanted. I wrapped one leg around and lifted my pelvis at the same time, forcing him farther into my canal. “Absolutely.”
With that word, he released his hold and began moving, slowly at first until he could fully seat himself inside. He was bigger than anyone I had been with, but the feeling of being stretched set off a wildness inside me I had never felt before. I wanted him to move, fast and hard and now. I wra
pped my arms around him and scraped my fingernails down his back until I reached his glorious ass. I grabbed and squeezed as I contracted my inner walls, hoping he would get the hint.
It must have worked because he began pounding into me. He pushed himself up on his arms, cradling one under my knee to raise my leg and open me further to him. As he kept my leg trapped, he leaned down and latched onto my breast, then sucked and licked as we both worked toward release. He growled and bit down on my nipple, sending sensations straight to my core before releasing it. He let go of my leg and moved so that his elbows and arms were on either side of my head, his chest against mine and his eyes gazing deep, the glow of his dragon there with him.
“Mine.” He roared as his body went rigid with his climax. I felt something inside me snap, and emotions that weren’t mine flooded me. I wrapped my arms around him when he collapsed against me, and tears flowed down the side of my face as the overwhelming feeling of happiness and completion filled my body.
“Do you feel that?” I whispered, my throat constricting with not being able to calm down.
He turned his head and kissed my tears. “Yeah, wow. It will take a little bit to let it settle. Good thing we still have a good half hour.” He rolled to his side and took me with him, wrapping me in his arms. “It’s the bond solidifying. It allows us to feel what the other feels. It’s how I’ll know when you need me even if you don’t reach out with the mental connection.”
I lay there and closed my eyes, trying to talk through my head at him.
“What are you making that face for? It’s not that bad.” He chuckled.
I let out a sigh of frustration and pouted. “I was trying to talk with my mind.”
He placed a kiss on my temple. “Oh, babe, the telepathic connection won’t be complete until you wear my mark.” He snuggled my hair.
“Well, then mark me.”
“I can’t yet. We don’t have the time. When I mark you, it will send us into a frenzy of sex. It’s called the mating frenzy and was designed to help the procreation of our race.” He took a breath, and I cut in.
“You mean I’ll get pregnant when you mark me?” My voice wobbled. I wanted to be his mate, but I was not ready to be a mother yet.
He laughed from deep within his belly, a laugh that vibrated the whole bed. “No, you don’t have to. We have different ways to prevent that, but it does give you the drive to have sex as much as we can after the initial marking. It calms down after about a week, or so I have been told.” He hugged me close again before getting up and moving into the bathroom. I heard water running, and he came back out with a warm washcloth. “We should get cleaned up. Drago is happy and calm now. Our scent is on you, so no other shifter will even think to touch you.” He gently cleaned up the mess we had made before handing my clothes back to me. “Now we need to discuss what is going to happen after we get into your friend’s home.”
I just wanted to roll over and curl up for the rest of the afternoon, but I got dressed and sat at the table next to the window. “Okay, what’s the plan?”
Wyatt sat across from me and outlined what he planned to do once I got him inside. My job was to keep Sandy in the living room, and he would excuse himself to use the bathroom. I had shown him on the blueprints where her dad’s office was and where the guards were usually placed. The plan seemed simple enough.
“What about after?” I asked, unsure how we would leave before someone found him.
“I’ll come back and say that work texted, and I need to get back.” He grabbed my hand across the table. “We can scrap this plan if you are nervous or scared. Stephen and I can come up with something else.”
“No, I’m good. I’m just worried about Sandy and how she’ll feel when she realizes her father has been killed. I hate that I can’t be there with her when she does.”
“As much as Drago and I would love to just rip him apart, Stephen thought about that.” He pulled a vial from his pocket. “This will make it look like he had a heart attack. His death will be ruled a natural cause.”
I nodded at him, feeling a bit better even though I had just agreed to be an accessory to the murder of my best friend’s dad—a secret I would have to keep for the rest of my life or lose Sandy’s friendship for good.
“Okay then, let’s do this.” I blocked my doubts and put trust in my dragon. I would deal with the emotional confusion later. I still had a lot to learn about this new-to-me world, but in my soul, I trusted Wyatt and his plan. I had to.
22
Wyatt
The cold wind that whipped around me as we rode toward Valmyre’s estate should have calmed my raging hormones, but the warm woman wrapped around me on the back of my bike kept my motor revved. I tried to box those feelings up so I could focus on the task at hand, but the need to ensure her safety in all aspects continued to be my number-one priority. Drago was settled in a corner of my mind, satiated for now and happy we had finally acknowledged our mate. Even his need to mark her had subsided as soon as we had physically claimed her. I took a curve fast and felt her arms tighten around me. If I hadn’t been able to feel her emotions, I would worry she was scared, but I felt her excitement hum through our mating bond, so I gave it a little more gas as we came out of the curve.
I slowed when we got close and turned into the private neighborhood. We stopped only to give our names to the guard. He checked his list and waved us through the first of two gates. I was a tad bit worried on whether we would make it back through both before someone found Valmyre’s body. This was one time I wished we had a vampire on the team. Their ability to glamour would come in handy. There was no use wishing for what we didn’t have. I drove slowly through the expensive neighborhood and pulled up to the estate entrance.
This guard was a little more thorough, asking for our ID and then handing them back.
“Hey, Nat, twice in two weeks. I think this is a record.” He smiled, trying to flirt with her.
I held myself still, waiting for her response.
“Hey, Pat. Yeah, Sandy can’t leave, so I decided would come to her. I want her to meet my boyfriend here.” She hugged me from behind.
“Ahh, well, congratulations and enjoy your visit.” His flirty nature left, replaced with his guard face as he waved us through the open gate.
I slowly rode up to the overpowering mansion and stopped at the bottom of the steps. They led to the front door, which stood wide open, with a tall, leggy blonde standing with one hand on a jutted hip. I am sure many men would find her sexy. I already found her annoying and hadn’t even met her yet.
“Took your ass long enough,” she said to Natalie.
Drago and I both bristled at the haughty tone she took with her. I watched as she descended the steps, walking in her heels like she was born in them.
“Who is this tall drink of yumminess?” She purred toward me, putting her hand on my arm and running her fingertips along my bicep. My skin crawled at the contact, but I held my tongue and shrugged her away as I wrapped an arm around Natalie’s shoulder.
“Sandy, this is my boyfriend, Wyatt. Wyatt, this is my best friend, Sandy.” Natalie beamed at me.
“And how long have you been dating?” Sandy pointedly asked. “You haven’t mentioned anything to me about him.”
“Not long, but I knew when I saw him that I could trust him.” Natalie stood on tiptoe to kiss my cheek.
“Really? Well it’s a good thing I wasn’t with you when you met him, or our roles might have been reversed.” She put her friend down while she tried to make another pass at me.
“I doubt that. Everyone else in the world disappeared when my eyes landed on Natalie.” We hadn’t discussed our backstory before we came, so I played it vague to let Natalie take the lead. I looked lovingly at her, giving her friend the cold shoulder and blatant not-interested stance.
“Well, come in. Nat, you can tell me all about how you met, over drinks.” She walked ahead of us giving her overly round hips an extra sway, almost tipping over on
her six-inch heels. Even if Natalie wasn’t my mate, I would never be attracted to her. Her nastiness radiated from her overly tanned pores. She was a typical spoiled rich girl who expected all men to fall at her feet. Everything about her screamed fake, from her overly processed hair to the layers of makeup and upper-class prostitute clothing, to the enhanced chest barely held in by her dress.
Sandy took a seat in an expensive-looking high-back chair. Natalie chose the comfortable couch next to it, so I sat next to her and tucked her beneath my arm. I didn’t notice any guards inside the house when we arrived, and Natalie had told me the only other guard she ever saw was the one outside Valmyre’s office.
“What can I get you?” She directed her question toward me, completely ignoring Natalie. My ire for this woman grew with every breath she took.
“What do you feel like, babe?” I asked Nat, allowing her to order first and showing Sandy my only concern was Nat and no one else.
“I’d love some coffee. Does Mona have any more of the specialty blend I tried last time?” Nat asked Sandy.
“Coffee? You want coffee? We should be having champagne to celebrate the end of your years-long dry spell.”
Drago surged forward inside me, done with this woman’s insults. I clenched the fist not around Natalie at my side, trying to keep him under control. Natalie simply laughed as she replied.
“Sandy, quit being overdramatic. Yes, I want coffee. I am not a big fan of champagne, especially before lunch.” She didn’t seem to be bothered by this woman’s attitude.
“Fine. I’ll go check since our staff seems to all be taking a break at the same time.” She huffed and walked out of the room in a fit.
Shadows and Sorcery: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 291
