The Shadow Wolf
Page 22
After she handed him utensils, Kayla sat on the back bumper, digging into the peanut butter with a spoon as Guy sat on the backseat. She’d been given cash for expenses, and bought Guy the most expensive steaks she could find. Kayla knew the kind of hunger that could drive a Draicon mad, the kind that gnawed at your empty stomach. She knew it because she herself had felt it for days after her alpha kicked her out of the pack.
Gravel crunched beneath his boots as he got out, put the empty plate and utensils in the cooler. Kayla licked her spoon, caught him staring.
“What?”
“You have peanut butter on your lip,” he murmured.
“Oh.” She ran her tongue over the spot. His nostrils flared.
A dark sexuality clung to him. She breathed in his alluring masculine scent, troubled by her own wildness surfacing. Peanut butter clung to her finger. Against the logic that usually guided her, she touched her finger to his mouth. “Try some.”
Kayla barely recognized her voice’s sultry pitch. Guy’s eyes darkened. He ran his tongue around her finger, swirling around the slender digit.
She bit back a moan, closing her eyes as he suckled her finger. Very lightly, he nipped it.
With a slow pop, he released her. When she opened her eyes, the wild look on his face made her breath hitch. Her inner wolf responded, snarling to mate.
This was a huge mistake.
Kayla put the jar away. “We should get on the road,” she advised, hoping he didn’t hear her rapidly pounding heart.
“What about dessert?”
Mercy, what an infuriating wolf. Dimples dented his lean cheeks. He had a very sexy grin.
“All I have are breath mints.”
“That’ll do.”
She bit back an exasperated mutter as she dug into her backpack and handed him a few. Crunching the rounded white tablets, he sighed with pleasure.
“Thanks,” he murmured. “Now I’m ready.”
Shock and pleasure collided together as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
Chapter 3
Kayla had been kissed before, but never like this.
Too startled to pull away, she remained immobilized. His kiss was leisurely, sipping at her mouth. The heady taste of him filled her senses as he licked her bottom lip. He slid his hands around her nape, massaging gently. Kayla wrapped her arms about him, trying to get closer as her mouth opened under the insistent pressure of his. Guy slipped his tongue inside. Startled, she recoiled a little. He made a crooning sound, and she leaned into him. She never knew a kiss could be so intriguing and sensual, as if his tongue caressed every inch of her body.
He drank in her mouth, his tongue stroking against hers. Something more meaningful sparked between them, a connection her long-dead instincts hammered to acknowledge.
Guy seduced, teased and enticed, leading her deeper into an erotic dance. Kayla knew the dance would end with him on top of her, pushing into her body in a much more intimate joining. The wolf inside her howled to mate.
The unsettling thought of finally giving her body to a more powerful male made her see reason. Kayla pulled away. He seemed reluctant to let her go, but stepped back, his breathing slightly ragged.
“You taste like fresh air and sunshine,” he murmured.
“What the hell was that for?” Kayla demanded.
“Darlin’, I’ve been locked up for a long time. What else did you expect me to do when I see a beautiful Draicon?”
“I’m not Draicon, so keep your paws to yourself. I’m not interested.” It was a lie. Her body was soft, open, the space between her legs wet and swollen with need.
His nostrils flared. “Your scent tells me that’s a lie. Who are you if not a wolf?”
“I’m the one you won’t be kissing again. Get it?”
Guy gave her a long, thoughtful look. “I doubt it,” he murmured.
Spending five days with him on this assignment might prove more than she could handle. Kayla steeled her spine. Boundaries. They both needed them.
“Keep your distance, wolf.” She narrowed her gaze. “I’m willing to forget what just happened, seeing as you’ve been imprisoned, but don’t try it again.”
His burning blue gaze seared into hers. “Can’t make any promises, darlin’. Seeing as I can’t forget that kiss. And I doubt you will, either.” His voice grew husky. “And next time, I doubt I’ll be able to control myself, so if I were you, I’d think twice about sticking anything in my mouth. Get it?”
When they climbed into her car, Guy didn’t talk, didn’t even look at her.
His attitude didn’t bug her as much as that kiss did.
The kiss had caressed each raging nerve ending. Kayla had dated, but she was still a virgin. She always felt something better was waiting in the wings.
She hoped it wasn’t Guy, because she suspected he could coax awake her long-dead wolf.
That was a bad idea, because awakening her wolf meant awakening the deadly gift she hated…
The drive from Florida’s central coast to Fort Lauderdale’s airport felt endless. Kayla kept sneaking glances at her passenger.
Beard stubble framed a full mouth that was both cruel and sensual. His nose was straight and his cheeks were hollowed. A well-defined six-pack showed beneath the tight T-shirt as he hung a muscled arm out the window. His body was definitely made for hot loving, as her friend Denise would put it.
Guy stared out the window as they headed south. A strong breeze blew his ragged hair back. When she depressed the button and began rolling up the windows, he finally spoke. “Don’t.”
The windows rolled back down of their own accord. Shock punched through her. “They didn’t tell me you were a telekinetic.”
“Darlin’, there’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.”
After a few moments she put a CD in the player. “What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s a CD player.” She showed him how to work the knobs.
Two lines furrowed his brow. “What the hell kind of music is that?”
“Blues Traveler. The best blues rock there is,” she grated out.
“They sound worse than when the demons tortured the were-cats.”
Instead of taking offense, she felt only morbid curiosity. “I can’t imagine being locked up there for even a day.”
“Try thirty years.”
Kayla’s breath hitched. “How did you survive?”
“You learn to do what you must.”
“What was it like? Did they always mistreat you?”
“You don’t want to know,” he said softly. “I wouldn’t tell someone like you.”
She bit her lip. “You mean a werewolf who lives as a human.”
“No, a female like you.”
“Oh, you’re one of those who think because I’m a female, I’m a wuss.”
Now he did look at her. “No. I just think females should be protected and never have to hear about prison life. If you were mine, I’d shield you from that ugly reality.”
“I’ve seen plenty of ugly realities and I’m not yours,” she shot back.
He gave a slow smile, making him look sexy and dangerous. “No, you’re not. But I can change that.”
The man was wickedly handsome, with a hard body made for long nights between silk sheets. Her heart was beating far too fast. After what she’d endured from Dell and his pack, she’d sworn to never trust another Draicon male. But something was different about Guy. She just couldn’t phantom why he was different.
Then his smile faded and he turned back to the window again. As if he’d regretted his words.
Guy felt shaky as a newborn.
It took all his hard-won control and courage to leave prison. As tormenting as it had been, it had been his home for thirty years. Being on the outside made him queasy.
And what if he screwed up and had to return? I’d die first, he vowed.
And now Kayla. Damnit, he didn’t need this.
Her scent aroused his desire. Only
by keeping the windows down, his head stuck outside like a damn dog, could he endure it.
He reasoned she stood at about five feet ten, six inches shorter than him. Jeans outlined lush curves, and her black polo shirt showed high, firm breasts. Her sea-green eyes sparkled like sunlight on the ocean. She was more attractive than beautiful with her tip-tilted nose and oval face.
But it was that mouth that made his water, a rosy pucker of wet pink that begged for kisses.
Sex, yeah, he wanted sex after thirty years of forced celibacy. Maybe sex would take the edge off. But he couldn’t give her anything more than his body. Not him, the Draicon who once trusted, who now cared only about himself and surviving.
Every wolf for himself.
Vaguely he wondered what he would win. His own need for self-preservation or the instinct driving every male Draicon to protect and cherish his destined mate?
This mission changed from the moment his lips touched hers. Kayla seemed oblivious. Guy wanted to laugh at the irony, because in her obstinate insistence in abandoning everything Draicon, she’d failed to see the obvious.
Kayla frowned. “What are you looking at?”
You, darlin’. Guy shrugged. “That device you call a CD player. That’s not music.”
He leaned back, closed his eyes. Suddenly Madonna blasted out of the speakers.
“‘Like a Virgin.’” He shot her an amused look. “Kissed for the very first time.”
“No, it’s a virgin touched for the very first time.”
“Just as I suspected,” he said softly. “Never been touched.”
Oh, man, he loved the lovely pink flush tinting her cheeks. Kayla stared at the road.
“We have to get to the airport. I booked two tickets on the afternoon flight out of Fort Lauderdale.” Her voice cracked slightly.
“There’s always later tonight,” Guy said softly. “I’m a man of stamina. I can last all night long. I can make it very pleasurable for you.”
Kayla jerked her gaze back to the road, but he caught the scent of her arousal. He nearly moaned at the tangy aroma.
“I don’t like wolves,” she muttered.
Okay, down to business. First he must find out what happened to make her distrust their kind. He rubbed his jaw. “So tell me, why did you leave your pack?”
She glanced at him from beneath those long dark lashes. “I didn’t like Dell, my alpha.”
He frowned. “Dell? The Dell Anderson who runs the pack near Pittsburgh?”
When she nodded, he went on, “He’s the one I’m delivering Brianna to. He hired you.”
“No, a man named Tristan contacted me and promised me money.”
“I should have known,” he muttered. “Tristan isn’t a man. He’s an immortal, a Phoenix, the son of a bitch who sentenced me.”
Her breath hitched. “You can’t deliver this little girl to Dell. He’s a cold, heartless bastard. Brianna needs a loving, understanding family. Damn, Guy, giving her to Dell’s pack is like throwing her to…”
“The wolves?” Guy shook his head. “My job is to help you fetch her and bring her to Dell. Period.”
“You’re a heartless bastard yourself,” she said through clenched teeth.
The words shouldn’t have stung so deeply. He, who didn’t care about anything or anyone, found himself craving her understanding. Guy nearly laughed. Understand? How could someone like Kayla understand the hell he’d survived?
They rode in silence for a while until he finally spoke, the words forced from his throat. “That’s what prison will do to you, sunshine.”
Kayla drew in a deep breath, pulled her hair free of the ponytail and tossed the band into the back. “This is all wrong. We’re stuck together for the next few days, so let’s start over.” She thrust out a hand, keeping her eyes on the road. “Kayla Morris. International Courier.”
Her palm was soft as velvet and just as warm. “Guy Laurent, Draicon.” He gave her a thoughtful look. “Kayla. The Draicon who isn’t a Draicon, who likes Blues Traveler.”
He waved his hand and her CD resumed playing. Kayla gave an appreciative smile. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” he said softly. “Just remember I’m not such a heartless bastard when it comes time.”
“Time for what?”
“You’ll see.”
Chapter 4
In less than nine hours, Guy had gone from a demon prison to a luxurious hotel in the verdant mountains of Île de Sangier’s capital. The contrast was enough to scramble anyone’s brain cells, Kayla thought.
Yet the Draicon seemed indifferent to all of it. He acted as if it were nothing to fly first class and be chauffeured in a stretch limousine to a five-star hotel, when his former bed had been concrete. She’d wanted to immediately get Brianna, but Guy insisted on visiting the hotel. “I need intel from Bernard first, Sunshine. You don’t walk into a possible war zone without knowing the hazards,” he’d told her.
In his room, they poured over a map. The suite, like the hotel itself, boasted of luxury. There was a fully stocked wet bar, small kitchenette, a wide-screen television and two large sliding doors that overlooked a garden with ferns, palm trees and brilliant pink bougainvillea.
As she leaned over the table and traced the route to the southeast coast, Guy brushed a hand over her arm. He definitely was not indifferent to her.
Kayla jumped at the current sizzling between them. Her nipples hardened to tiny pearls. Barely banked heat smoldered in his blazing blue eyes as he glanced at her shirt.
She retreated to the table’s other side. “I meant what I said earlier. I don’t like werewolves.”
“That makes no sense. You’re a werewolf.” Guy frowned. “What happened?”
Iron bands squeezed her chest. She needed emotional distance. Getting close to anyone was bad news. When you got close to someone, they had the power to hurt.
“My father was executed by the Kallan. Afterward, my mother left the pack, and I was asked to leave, as well.”
“But why would your alpha ask you to leave because of something your father did? That goes against pack law.”
She took a deep breath. “I asked the Kallan to terminate my father.”
The blank look of shock on his face didn’t surprise her. “Why?” he asked bluntly.
“I sensed my father planned to turn Morph by killing my mother. Dell didn’t believe me and neither did my mother. But the Kallan did, and his authority supersedes any pack alpha’s. My mother was four months pregnant, but she left the pack. Right after, Dell ordered me to leave. He didn’t tolerate anyone going over his head.”
Guy looked stunned. “How could you sense what your father planned?”
Because I have a gift I hate.
“I just did,” she whispered.
Her mother detested her afterward. Memories stung like scorpions as she recalled her mother’s cold look, sunshine glinting on the gold heart-shaped locket she always wore around her neck. Kayla’s gift to her, with her initials carved on the front.
This way you can always have my heart, Mama.
Her mother had removed the necklace, and declared the locket was headed for the trash. Then she turned and walked out of her life.
“Son of a bitch, how old were you?”
“Sixteen,” she muttered. “Someone had to act the adult.”
You weren’t an adult, sweetheart. Damn it, you were just a baby.
The words were like a soft whisper in her mind, yet he hadn’t spoken. He came to her side, picked up her hand, his calloused palm warm. Guy began stroking her skin.
“Sixteen,” he murmured. “How the hell did you survive on your own that young?”
She wanted to surrender to his calming caress. It had been so long since she felt the soothing contact Draicon used to comfort. Wolves used nuzzling and touch to communicate. In her contact with the human world, she kept everyone at a distance, even her dates.
Kayla had forgotten how powerful a simple touch could be.
Guy murmured softly. She inhaled his delicious scent, ready to succumb to temptation. Ancient instincts urged her to mate, to give her body to this male….
Her eyes flew open. Kayla jerked away, her breathing ragged. Her inner wolf howled in disappointment.
Well, hell, get used to it, she told herself. You’re not Draicon anymore.
“I’m part of the human world now, adapted to them.” Kayla walked toward the sliding glass doors. “I met Jack and Denise, who gave me room and board in return for working at their courier business. I did that and went to night school. Then when Jack and Denise wanted to cut back, I bought the business from them, kept them on as employees and expanded internationally. I’m good at getting into risky places.”
If she failed on this job, her business would tank. Denise and Jack needed the income. No longer Draicon, Kayla found being in the human world equally challenging. She had people who relied on her just like a pack did.
But humans could be kind, as Denise and Jack were. Her blood ran cold at the thought of turning a little one like Brianna over to the uncaring Dell.
“Listen, Guy,” she said urgently, turning back to him. “I know what it’s like losing everything. You can’t give Brianna to Dell. He’s not the nurturing type. She’ll need to feel safe.”
His expression shuttered. “Let’s concentrate on finding her for now. We’ll have dinner with Bernard and leave first thing in the morning.”
Staying here overnight with Guy was a bad idea. The sexual feelings he aroused threatened everything she’d worked so hard to achieve. Guy triggered a switch to revive her long-gone wolf.
Draicon had betrayed and abandoned her when she needed them most. Yet this savage, wild wolf connected with her sexually. She didn’t understand why. All she knew was long-dead instincts flared to life around him.
“When exactly were you telling me this?” Before he could reply, she lashed into him. “Look, Laurent, you may think this is your own personal ticket to freedom, but I have a lot at stake here. It means working together, sharing info, compromising.”