Del waited in the parking lot while Zak secured them a room at the Stop & Sleep. She probably should have gone in and stood next to him, added to the whole marriage charade. Zak was right. It was their best cover if the coyotes caught up and started asking around about them. But she couldn’t pretend. Not when every single female organ in her body wanted to consecrate a marriage that didn’t actually exist.
To distract herself from it all, she crept back to the Jeep and checked the contents of the wrapped cloth she’d stashed there earlier. When Zak had pulled over to pump gas that first time, she’d wedged it between her seat and the doorframe. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it tucked inside her sock when he’d manhandled her to the car in the first place.
She unwrapped it now and frowned at the tiny statue. A rudimentary carving of a man’s body with a lion’s head. No bigger than a large clothespin and covered in years’ worth of dust and clay build-up, but even so, it looked important. The intricacy of the symbols and etched markings were definitely old. Older than the rest of the items they’d unearthed over the last few weeks. And Georgia had prepared her, told her what to look for. She was glad for that or she might have missed it wedged so hard into that dark crevice.
Zak would have a fit if he knew his own aunt was the driving force behind her taking this job. She decided to save that little nugget for future use. Who knew when she’d need to throw him off his game. And if he was behind these attacks… No, she didn’t really believe that anymore. She never had. Zak Armsford was dark and dangerous but not to her. Never to her.
Her heart pounded as she thought of what it might mean to bring the statue home to Fort Jericho. To its history. To her own family. To her future. According to Janet, this statue had the power to end the decades-long feud between Armsford and Santoni by naming the Santonis as the true and rightful heir to the packland borders of Fort Jericho.
Her own mother would have a fit but she’d made her peace with it. Her own father had made a blood pact to abide by this statue and then dishonored it by killing Zak’s parents before the statue could be found. Del couldn’t live with that legacy any more than Zak wanted to. And she was willing to dethrone her own family in order to set things right.
Georgia had secretly helped research possible locations but still, it had taken almost seven years to get a viable lead. Del had hardly believed the luck when Janet came to her with new information regarding a map and a dig site. The legend of there being proof of a rightful heir was a childhood bedtime story, nothing more. But after frustrating months in the desert and digging the biggest hole she’d ever seen, she’d actually found it.
She’d hoped turning it over to Janet might get her mother off her back long enough to gain some control over her future. To get her life back—finally—and stop being groomed and forced into the leader of a turf war she wanted no part of. If the Santonis no longer ruled over Fort Jericho, maybe Vie Santoni wouldn’t put so much pressure on her daughter to be a perfect debutante. An impossibility at this point, anyway.
But last night, in the low light of her tent, she’d compared the symbols to a dusty text and deciphered enough of the message—and the family name inscribed within it—for herself. With that, everything had changed. No wonder the pack elders had demanded a blood pact all those years ago. Now, she would have to deliver the statue all right. She just had to find a way to keep it from Zak, Janet, and everyone else long enough to do it.
Zak was already suspicious. She’d have to be careful around him. Maybe his low opinion of her—entitled, pampered rich girl—would work in her favor. He’d never suspect her of something so mysterious and covert. That was his arena.
A noise in the parking lot to her left made her jump. Quickly, she re-wrapped the tiny statue and shoved it back down into the small space beside her seat. The sound came again and she slid out of the car and crouched behind it.
Scrape.
She crept toward the noise, weaving in between the scattering of parked cars, as it came a fourth time followed by the sound of a car door closing. Then footsteps. Del scooted left and crouched behind the bumper of a pickup three cars down from the Jeep.
As she watched, a girl, no more than Del’s age, with stringy, bleached-blond hair streaked in faded blue crept away from an old, battered Chevy to Zak’s shiny, black Jeep and knelt beside the driver’s side door. The girl squinted at the lock, picking at it with a tiny pointed tool and pushing hard. It slipped and scraped along the Jeep’s paint leaving a shiny white scratch in its wake.
Del snorted. Zak was going to be so pissed.
But then the girl’s brow furrowed and she dropped the tools, instead lifting the handle and easing open the unlocked door. She slid inside and slipped underneath the dash, yanking and fiddling with a handful of wires. Del straightened, suddenly panicked. She’d forgotten to lock the door and now this local criminal was trying to steal their car. The statue!
Del rounded the truck she’d hidden behind and ran. The girl was too wrapped up in work to even notice. “Oh, no you don’t.” When Del got close enough, she grabbed a scrawny ankle and pulled. Hard.
The girl fell onto the pavement on her butt with a hard thud and winced, her expression contorting into pain and then again to fury. “What the hell?!”
She scrambled to her feet and Del backed away, bending her knees just in case. The girl didn’t look more than ninety pounds soaking wet but you just never knew.
“That’s my car, genius,” Del said.
The girl sneered and pointed to the logo imprinted on the card hanging from the rearview. “Your name is Low Cost Rental Company?”
Del shrugged. “It’s a family name. What are you doing boosting cars in broad daylight anyway?”
The girl huffed. “You think this shit is easier when it’s dark out? Those locks are hard enough to pick when I can see them.”
Del rolled her eyes but paused when the girl glanced away and she caught sight of the dark purple bruising along her jaw. Her temper cooled and redirected itself to whatever lowlife had done that to her. “What’s your name?”
The girl’s chin came up defiantly. “Ashley.”
“I’m Del.”
Ashley eyed her coolly but Del sensed the uncertainty behind her convincing act. “You going to bust me?”
Del shook her head. Cops were not going to benefit either of them. “Not today. You going back home to whoever gave you that?” she countered.
Ashley crossed her arms. “Not today,” she echoed without missing a beat.
Del smiled.
The bell at the motel entrance dinged and she spotted Zak headed this way. Whatever this girl’s deal, having Zak find her trying to boost his car would probably not end well.
She looked back at Ashley and summoned just enough of her cat to the surface to reshape her eyes and produce a convincing snarl. She got in Ashley’s face and added, “But if something happens to this car, you’re the first person I’ll hunt down. Now, Go!”
Without needing to be told twice, Ashley turned and ran.
Chapter Seven
“We can come up with a safe word if that makes you feel better.”
Del glared across the tiny room at Zak who grinned back at her. He’d planned this, the scoundrel. Letting her loiter in the parking lot so he could secure the single room with the most prominent furniture in it being the giant four-poster bed.
“Nothing is safe with you,” she said, “Regardless of any word.”
“You give me way too little credit.”
“You give me way too much,” she muttered, turning away before he could see her heated cheeks. She’d accidentally let herself imagine them actually sharing the single mattress. Undressing and slipping between the sheets together. The image was even better than every fantasy she’d ever had about him as a teenager.
But it was still just as forbidden. Maybe more so now that they were grown adults. With adult-sized consequences. Santonis did not mix with Armsford ever. Growing up, she�
�d heard that phrase just as much as “sit like a lady” or “don’t play in the dirt.”
Now, all she could think about was “mixing” with Zak Armsford and a totally different sort of “dirty.”
Shoving that thought aside, she poked her head into the small bathroom and was pleasantly surprised to find it not hideous. Doris hadn’t steered them wrong. She’d also been the one to plant the seed that name-dropping her would guarantee them the room with the biggest bed. She owed Doris a serious ass-whooping should they meet again.
Zak was waiting for her when she stepped back into the bedroom. Shirtless.
“What are you doing?” she asked, half-panicked and more than half-aroused. The sight of his sculpted abs and hard chest kicked her pheromones into instant overdrive. She couldn’t even try to hide it. The scent instantly filled the air between them and gave her away. Maybe she’d get lucky and he wouldn’t breathe.
His smile twisted into a knowing smirk. “Testing the waters.”
“Don’t bother. The waters are frigid.”
He inhaled deeply and then sighed. “Your scent suggests otherwise.”
He took a step toward her and she squeaked, holding up her hand to stop him. “We can’t— You’re not— Why are you doing this?” God, she couldn’t even form a coherent sentence.
She probably needed to get out more. That must be it. The sight of a shirtless man after so many weeks in the desert was baking her brain.
“Because I want to,” he said and took another step. “And I’m tired of pretending I don’t.” He said it as if it were as simple as that.
Alarm bells went off in her head even as her mouth went dry. She couldn’t find words to protest as he stalked closer. His broad shoulders and muscled arms were within touching distance by the time he stopped. She bit her lip, struggling to keep her gaze on his instead of roaming his muscled body. It would only make it worse, drinking in what she could never have.
“Zak,” she began but he cut her off.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said at dinner. About taking what we want. About making our own decisions without family obligation to stifle us. If I could have made any decision back then it would have been you.”
His admission caught her off guard. The words sank in slowly. “Me?”
“Yes. Beautiful, prim and proper Delilah Santoni. You were utterly untouchable then but now… well, for tonight, we’re both here. And there’s no one else in this room but us. I want you, Del. Let me show you how much.”
She swallowed hard at his open admission. “What if I don’t want it?” she asked but even she could hear the lie in her voice. And smell it on the air. Damned traitorous lady-parts.
Zak’s eyes glittered with the challenge in her lie. “You know me. A caveman. The fight only makes it more exciting. I won’t force you, Del, but I know you want this too.”
His voice raked over her, silky and sharp and made her shudder. She’d suspected he loved it when she argued. She also knew she didn’t have much fight left in her when it came to Zak Armsford.
Zak must have known it too when he yanked her hard against him. He wrapped his arms around her, and cheese and crackers, it felt so right. The strength of him, the warmth of his chest against hers, she forgot everything else. The statue, the turf war that awaited them both in Fort Jericho, a lifetime of bad blood between them. None of it mattered now.
Almost none of it.
He trailed his fingertips down her arm and she closed her eyes as goosebumps rose where he touched. She sighed and felt him stiffen against her, every plane and part of him hard as a rock, including the erection that now pressed against her lower belly.
Her thighs ached and she felt the wetness seeping through her panties. She knew he could smell that too.
He bent closer and she didn’t back away this time. “Princess, I can’t stop myself much longer. And I don’t think you want me to.”
“I don’t want you… to stop,” she said, breathless with the effort.
“Finally, she admits it,” he said and before she could answer, he bent low enough to trail a kiss along the hollow of her throat.
She moaned, unable to hold it back.
“More proof,” he murmured and continued his trail of kisses along her collarbone and up the side of her jaw until nipping at her ear.
She grabbed him, her nails digging into his arms, hanging on for balance. “As long as it’s clear this is a matter of convenience and simple needs—” she began.
He nipped hard and she jumped, pain and pleasure equal parts as the sensation washed over her. “Actually, that’s not clear at all. Not when this has been building in me—in us—for so many years,” he said, his breath hot against her ear. “You were all I thought about back in high school. I wanted you so much it hurt. I’ve wanted you every day since then too. Is that clear enough for you?”
His hand slipped down to cup her breast. His thumb flicked over her nipple, already taut through the fabric, and she jumped. Slowly, he peeled her shirt off her and let it fall to the floor beside them. When he reached for her bra, her heart thudded loud enough to make him pause. She stared up at him and his brow rose. A challenge.
She didn’t stop him from unclipping it and letting it fall beside her shirt. For a moment, she stood in front of him, bared from the waist up as he studied her. She was hyper-aware of the way her nipples hardened to tight peaks underneath his scrutiny. She flushed to realize her own body had given her away.
“Well, maybe there’s some of that for me too,” she admitted. Need ached inside her, coiling in her belly where his hard length still pressed.
He growled and he pulled her against him again. His hand brushed her hip and then dropped lower to slip inside the leg of her shorts and up to her soaked panties. Her breath hitched as his thumb traced the edge of the fabric.
“Why don’t you just do us both a favor and admit that you want me? That you want this just as badly as I do, princess.”
“Fine,” she gritted out, caught between irritation and desperation. “I want it.” Oh, gods, how she wanted it.
Through the wet fabric, his thumb rubbed hard circles. Lust shot like a bullet from her belly straight to her wet center. “Mmm. Not sure I’m convinced.”
“God, you’re such an ass,” she panted and he chuckled, a low, sexy sound that only made her wetter. Her knees weakened and she clutched harder at his bare arms for support. She was going to lose her mind if she didn’t do something. “Okay, fine. Yes, I want you. I am losing my mind over it right this minute. If I wait any longer, I might explode. Is that what you want to hear?”
“That is exactly what I want to hear.” His thumb stopped its circles. He didn’t wait for permission before shoving the fabric aside and driving a finger deep inside her. “Explode,” he whispered.
She moaned, not even caring he’d forced her to admit the very thing she’d taken pains to keep from everyone. Especially him. Vaguely, she knew she’d regret it later, but right now, all she wanted was for him to keep doing what he was doing.
Zak didn’t disappoint. He cupped her ass and with the other hand, stroked her. She threw her head back in ecstasy, the pleasure rocking her until her knees gave out. Zak caught her without missing a beat and she barely had time to register the movement before he had her horizontal on the bed. His hand was magic. Heat built fast until it coiled like a ball of fire between her legs.
“Let go, princess,” he whispered and she might have scowled at that but then, as predicted, the heat inside her exploded and she went soaring. A long moan escaped her.
Zak’s lips on hers brought her back down and she kissed him back lazily until his hands roamed up to her bare breasts, his thumb flicking over her taut nipple. Just like that, need returned all over again.
“I need you now, Zak,” she managed, writhing underneath him. “Inside me.”
“Music to my ears, baby.” Zak slid off her and stood long enough to shed his pants and the rest of her clothes. When he loo
med over her once again, he’d already sheathed himself with a condom and she swallowed hard as she drank in his massive girth.
He lowered himself over her and she felt the hard length of his cock pressing against her. With his hand on her hips, he pushed his way inside her, an aching fullness that made her walls stretch to accommodate his hugeness and then clench in pure pleasure.
He moaned, thrusting hard until he was completely buried and pausing there, eyes closed, teeth clenched. “Holy shit, you feel good, princess.”
She answered by thrusting her pelvis up, urging him to move. He did, slowly at first, but then pumping wildly. Faster and faster. His breaths came in hot, labored bursts as he worked himself over her.
“Holy hell. This pussy is even better than I fucking imagined,” he breathed.
She was driven hard against the mattress at the force of his thrusts until soon her climax built again and all she could do was let it take her. The top of her head hit the wall as the momentum of his thrusts sent her sliding
“Don’t stop,” she pleaded, hanging on tight.
Liquid heat built inside her, building and burning until it eclipsed everything but the feel of his cock slamming into her. The slap of his testicles against her ass as he slid in and out. With a final thrust, the tension exploded a second time into fireworks of release. She cried out in pleasure as her walls clenched tight around him with the intensity of her climax.
Above her, he gave a guttural growl as he came, riding the wave right alongside her.
When they’d finished, he slid out of her and rolled sideways until he lay beside her on the mattress. His labored breaths matched hers but as the fog of lust cleared, her heart pounded for another reason. Post-sex Zak Armsford was a stranger to her.
The glow of her two orgasms wore off, quickly replaced by awkward silence and uncertainty. Was he going to get up and walk away, pretending it never happened now that he’d gotten what he was after? Would he expect her to do the same? Did she want to?
Guarded By The Alpha Page 4
