by Meg Ripley
He took a step forward, bridging the distance between them, and he settled his hands on her hips. She didn’t pull back; she just continued to stare up at him with eyes like icy fire. He never would have guessed that a stroll along the beach would get him so thoroughly behind her defenses, but it had.
He could feel the fire deep inside and he fought to hold it back—not the desire he felt for her, but something else: the beast inside him that threatened to take control. He prided himself on the mastery he’d developed over that side of him, but with Ava, it was overwhelming. It was as if it wasn’t just the man who wanted her, but the dragon, too; something he’d never experienced with a woman before—not like this.
He knew she wasn’t going to resist. She wanted this—at least, most of her wanted this. He could see that some small part of her whispered in opposition, but desire was drowning out the sound.
He could see it and hear it, and as much as he wanted to ignore it, as much as the beast inside him raged against it, he couldn’t. He wanted her—God, how he wanted her—all of her. When the hell it had begun to matter to him, he didn’t know. Since when did he care if a woman had doubts lingering in the back of her mind? Never, damn it, but he did now.
Cade stepped back, trying to take control, silently cursing himself for his foolishness. Her body swayed toward him in response, confirming he’d been right. He could have had her; he could have had every naked inch of her. Instead, he took a deep breath and turned away. He had to, even though he knew it was the last thing he wanted to do. He needed to put distance between them; to get as far away from her as he could before he lost the tentative grip he had.
He started slowly along the path they’d been walking a moment before. It took her a split second to recover, but she fell in step next to him and he could already feel her distancing herself once again. Good, he thought. He needed her to keep her distance.
But Cade couldn’t leave it alone; not entirely. “So, there really isn’t anything to your story outside of work?” he asked before she could withdraw completely. He needed some part of her; her mind, her body or her soul…something.
She shook her head. “What about yours?” Exactly the question he’d been expecting. “What are you going to do with your life now that you have…well…everything?” Okay, that wasn’t the question he’d been expecting at all.
“I suppose I don’t know.” It wasn’t the truest answer, but it wasn’t altogether a lie. She wanted to know what he was going to do with the next fifty or sixty years of his life, and he knew the answer to that. He was going to continue doing what he’d been doing, making more and more money until he had so much, no one could ever stand in his way. Of course, he’d eventually have to become more low-key than he’d been in Vegas, withdrawing from society entirely to keep his secret. It had never been a problem before the age of television, news and social media, but it was becoming impossible to stay out of the public eye these days.
In the long run, though, as for his grand scheme? He had no idea. There was only one goal he’d had in mind: the same goal that had been at the forefront of his mind for centuries. He’d been tracking her all this time, but to no avail. Nevertheless, one day, he would find her, the woman who’d done this to him, and he’d make her pay.
It wasn’t the duality of what he was that made him so angry. Hell, Cade had been this way for so long, barely more than a child when it happened, that he couldn’t remember which form was truly his. It was the endlessness of what she’d done. He’d prayed for death so many times, watching everyone around him come to their natural end, but not him. He continued on endlessly, always alone, knowing he always would be.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ava’s whisper broke into his thoughts.
There was empathy in her tone. She understood his plight—at least, she thought she did. She knew what it felt like to be directionless, and he wondered how she knew. There was no point in pursuing the answer, though. She wasn’t going to give him that. So, he abandoned the subject, focusing on random conversation that wouldn’t put her on edge.
Before long, he could sense her wall coming down as they continued to stroll further down the beach. She talked about her early childhood, her work now and the waitressing jobs she’d had before landing the gig with Adam Natas. She even shared the secrets behind a couple of tricks she had learned early on—not that he wouldn’t have been able to figure them out on his own.
Cade told her about the places he’d been, leaving out the fact that the last time he’d visited some of those places had been more than a century ago. He couldn’t believe how easy she was to talk to, and how it seemed she’d begun to feel that same ease in return. There were things she wasn’t saying, like what filled the missing void between her early childhood and her first job as a waitress in Las Vegas. He couldn’t blame her, though. It wasn’t like he was being upfront about the details of his own life.
He thought that he should turn around and take her back. Though he wasn’t keeping track of time, at least an hour must have passed since they’d started down the beach. But he didn’t want to turn around. Right then, he would have been happy if the beach stretched on forever. He would have been content to continue walking side by side with her until she’d shared everything; not just because she was a mystery to him, but because the more she talked, the more he genuinely wanted to know her.
He froze, mid-step, as that last thought ran through his mind. Since when had he wanted to know about her for any reason other than satisfying his curiosity? He didn’t want to get to know the woman; he simply wanted to solve the mystery, didn’t he? No human had ever been more than a passing amusement, so what the hell was it about this woman that made her so different from the rest? What made even the beast in him threaten to take over just to have her?
“I need to go home, Cade.” She stopped suddenly, too, and looked up at him with beautiful blue eyes full of panic. It was for the best, even if too much of him didn’t want it to be true.
“Alright.” He turned and started back the way they’d come, though his mind warred with itself every step of the way. He didn’t want the evening to end, but at the same time, he needed it to. By now, he should have known everything he wanted to know about her, and he should have had her naked and writhing beneath him, satisfying the last of his curiosities. Instead, he’d resisted the urge to have her, and every question she’d answered had only fueled the need to know more.
So, now what? Should he take her back home, drop her off and never think about her again? And why was she in such a rush to get home anyway? He didn’t get the feeling she just wanted to get away from him. It was something more, but what was it?
“Why are you in such a hurry?” he asked when they were about thirty yards from the helicopter.
“I just…don’t like to be out too late, that’s all. I guess I’m not much of a night owl.” Her steps slowed as they neared the helicopter. “Why the hell couldn’t you be like normal men? You know…walking…driving? I have to find the one guy in the whole state of Nevada who prefers to fly around in a tin can,” she muttered under her breath as she climbed into the helicopter.
He chuckled as she dropped herself unceremoniously into the passenger’s seat and crossed her arms in front of her chest. The movement drew his attention and he couldn’t help but watch the rise and fall of her breasts as her breath came quicker. For an instant, an image of her naked, grinding on top of him flashed through his mind, but the image that appeared next wasn’t what he expected. He saw her on his back as he flew through the sky, stretching his iridescent wings. She held on tight, but they both knew she didn’t have to; he would never let her fall.
He shook his head, trying to banish the unrealistic image from his mind. It wasn’t possible; humans were terrified and judgmental of everything they couldn’t understand. There may be something unique about her, something he’d never sensed in anyone before, but ultimately, she was human and she would be no different. And why the hell was he even
entertaining such ridiculous thoughts? Did he really want her to know what he was, even if she wouldn’t go running in horror? The answer that came to mind surprised him. He barely knew her, but he wished he did, and he wished she wanted to know him in the same way.
He settled into the pilot’s seat and tried to push every thought from his mind. He took the helicopter off the ground and tried to focus all his attention on the view in front of them as they flew higher and higher. Still, he couldn’t stop more questions from flooding his mind.
“Why do you find the ocean so fascinating?” he heard himself ask the quiet woman next to him a few minutes into the flight.
She turned to him, seemingly surprised by his question. “You don’t see it? The ocean is so beautiful, yet its beauty is deceptive. It could destroy everything, but it has the power to lull everyone who sees it into thinking it’s something it isn’t; something serene. That contradiction makes it captivating—a beautiful, terrifying force of nature.”
She was really that enthralled with the ocean? He’d thought that kind of wonder had dwindled long ago with the beginning of the information era, the age where nothing was magical or inexplicable anymore. Of course, he’d done a great deal to bring about the end of magic and mysticism. He couldn’t even count the number of witches he’d hunted and eliminated; all those wretched men and women who used their mystical knowledge to kill and destroy.
****
The remainder of their flight passed in silence, both of them turning inward, though he had no idea what thoughts were running through her mind. “I’ll drive you home,” he told her as they stepped out of the helicopter.
“That’s okay. My car’s just a few streets over.”
“Then I’ll walk you to your car.”
“You? Walk? I can’t imagine you’d be content with something so mundane,” she teased.
“I think I can manage for a block or two. After that, I might have to take flight to avoid utter boredom.”
“Suit yourself.” She motioned for him to lead the way, and he did, back inside the hotel and down to the building’s front lobby. Even at the later hour, there were still plenty of people moving around—not surprising in Sin City. With every set of eyes on them, they left the building. She looked up at him when they stepped outside and her lips parted like she was going to speak, but she turned away seconds later and started down the street.
“I’m hosting a dinner tomorrow night,” he told her when they reached her car. “Join me?”
“I don’t know. I appreciate the offer, but—”
“I promise, no helicopters,” he teased.
“I’m just not sure this is a good idea.”
She was on the fence. So much of her wanted to say yes, he could see it in her eyes, but just like before, something made her hesitate. And while he couldn’t bring himself to take her like this, he could use the desire radiating from her to sway her decision.
In one, swift movement, he leaned in, pressing her back up against the door of her car, as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her hard against him. It took her by surprise, and her lips parted in response. A growl threatened to escape his throat as he swooped in, covering her mouth with his and feeling her soft lips beneath his.
Fuck, he wanted her; every fiber of both his beings wanted her. He wanted to tear her clothes off and make every inch of her body his. He’d never felt so starved for sustenance, as if her body was what he needed to survive and he’d been deprived of it for far too long. His hands shook with his restraint, desperate to ignore the tiny sigh against his lips as she moved her hands to the back of his neck, twining in the short hair there. He couldn’t help but to glide his tongue along the parted seam of her lips, but she opened for him further. Was she insane? She was terrified of flying but not of the beast who held her in his grasp?
She pressed her body closer against his, molding her soft curves to his hard frame, making his cock throb painfully. Damn it, he didn’t care that they were on the side of a busy Vegas street. He wanted her naked. He wanted to feel her bare skin against his. He needed to taste her, to sample every inch of her with his hands, his tongue…his teeth. The thought made him pull back fast, gritting his teeth against the arousal that pounded through his veins.
He needed to run, to fly, to do whatever he had to do to get out of there, but instead, “Have dinner with me,” slipped from his lips. He wanted to tell her to strip her clothes for him, to spread her legs wide so he could feel her velvet heat sheathing him. He knew she was on fire. The scent of her arousal filled his nostrils and drove him mad.
“Okay,” she whispered back as she lunged upward for his lips, and she sighed quietly as their tongues met.
He felt it like never before. Not once in as long as he could remember had he fought so hard to keep it locked inside. Her quiet sigh, the feel of her lips against his, her intoxicating scent; it was all too much.
He needed to get out of there or else he was going to regret what happened next. He wasn’t going to be able to leave until he’d touched and tasted every inch of her; until he’d found his release deep inside her, right there in the public’s eye. And he knew he didn’t have enough control to be gentle. She’d hate him by the time he was finished, and the only thing worse than trying to keep the beast locked inside was imagining the look of loathing on her face afterwards.
He pulled away and she whimpered quietly at the loss, looking up at him with blue wildfire in her eyes.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ava,” he whispered and then he left. He didn’t have a choice. A few more seconds and he wouldn’t have been able to walk away.
“My name’s Hope,” she whispered when he was several yards away, probably so quietly that he wasn’t meant to hear it.
He did, though, and as he tested the name on his tongue, and he liked the feel of it. It suited her. He breathed in and out deeply as he strode back toward the hotel, but he didn’t stop when he reached the front lobby. Instead, he continued right past, walking along the busy street with just one destination in mind. He needed to get away from her. Though he’d only spent a few hours with her, he was already certain she was unlike anyone he’d ever met—and he absolutely should have ignored her that first night on stage. He should have chalked her up as nothing more than an attractive magician’s assistant and gone looking for a boring, everyday beauty to warm his bed.
Cade needed to stretch his wings and soar far away from everything; needed to fly high above the clouds and miles away from anything that resembled humanity.
He continued to walk along the city’s streets, feeling cramped in his own skin. Ten minutes passed, and he started to run. Twenty minutes passed, and then thirty. His legs had the ability to move so much faster, but he couldn’t give them freedom to run full-stride. Finally, he saw his destination up ahead—Red Rock Canyon National Park. There would be no one around this late at night and no streetlights lit the area, leaving it black enough so no one who happened to be nearby would be able to see him. He could see, though. Even his human eyes could see clearly in the dark.
He stepped into the blackness and closed his eyes. Within seconds, he could feel it happening. It had taken years for him to perfect making it come at will, but it was second nature now. And this time, with that part of him already so desperate to come out, there was no effort. By sheer will, he felt his human form give way to something so much more; to power unlike any human body could contain; to scales like armor, so much stronger than thin human flesh. And to wings that could carry him faster than any human legs could.
Heat filled his massive body and he could no longer be still. He took to the skies, waiting for the familiar relief to wash over him. But though his body no longer felt constrained, his mind was no more free than it had been a moment before. As he soared above the clouds, her image was there in his mind. Even like this he couldn’t escape the woman he barely knew.
Chapter 5
Hope stretched languidly beneath the soft cotton of her bed sheet an
d then proceeded to spend the next several hours tossing and turning. Cade’s image plagued her no matter how much she moved restlessly about her bed. She had been hell bent on staying away from him in the beginning, and as she’d lay there wide awake in the middle of the night, she seriously wished she’d listened to herself.
There was something different about Cade Stryker. He was unlike all the other men she’d met. Sure, she hadn’t met too many billionaires over the years, but even so, it wasn’t just his money or his frivolous lifestyle that set him apart. He had the opportunity to take what he wanted—twice—and he resisted each time. To her chagrin, she’d wished he hadn’t.
She concluded he wasn’t interested in her in that way, but every fiber of her body told her otherwise. She could see it in his clear green eyes and feel it in his touch. And there was something else; she could sense it radiating from him.
Passion rippled through her body as she remembered his hot skin against hers. Even through their clothes, his heat had touched her, so hot it baffled her. So why had he held back? If he wasn’t interested in a lowly magician’s assistant in the first place, then why had he asked her to dinner? The questions had rolled around in her mind all night, in between fiery images of what could have happened; of what part of her desperately wished had happened.
The moment she opened her eyes, the same questions bombarded her once again, but she tried to push them from her mind—at least long enough to make her morning cup of coffee.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Lexi greeted her from the kitchen table.
She glanced at the clock and then did a double take. Was it really almost noon? Apparently, her body had made up for the hours of sleeplessness. “Morning, kiddo.”
“Hot date last night?”
“What makes you think that?”
“The fact that you didn’t come home until after three in the morning was my first clue.”
