by Anne Marsh
That wasn’t her fault, and she shouldn’t accept the heaping helping of guilt Nael was shoveling her way. She couldn’t shut out his words, though, the stark images pounding away at her mental barriers.
“He’s living with that thirst every day. You could stop it. For good.”
“How?”
“How?” Something hot and savage flashed in those dark eyes. “You have to bond with him, Nessa, body and soul. You let him in. You love him.”
Zer was right. This wasn’t something you could force. Not something you could demand with a blade. Fortunately for them both, Nael was a master seducer. This was what he was good at. So he gave his verbal seduction of Nessa St. James his all—and he told her how lonely and dark and saveable Zer was. He knew human females. She wanted the other male, but she was pissed at him for putting her into this predicament. “He’s wrong if he thinks otherwise, and you’re the only one who can make him understand that. I need you to go to him.” I need you to bond with him.
He let her go and stepped forward onto the landing, hand primed to pull the door to the balcony open. His feet were deadly silent on the club’s plush carpeting. She hesitated beside him, and he extended her shoes to her, the impossibly feminine red stilettos dangling from his fingers. “You take these. You give him hell.” Heaven. “He’ll listen to you, because you’ll make him.”
She stared at him. “He’ll listen to me?”
“Now,” he urged, sinking to his knees beside her, sliding the stilettos onto her bare feet. The delicious warmth of her skin seeped into him as he wrapped his hand around her ankle. Believe me. “He needs you. You can save him, Nessa.”
She licked suddenly dry lips. What if she didn’t want to save Zer? What if she wanted to save herself? Nael must have read her indecision in her eyes, because he reached out a hand toward her. Dropped it when she took a step backward.
“He doesn’t want me, and I’m not a party favor he can pass around to his friends.”
She was too special for this shit. Briefly, anger flared at his sire, who was this close to the fuck-up of a near-immortal lifetime. Tamping it down, Nael sought words. “Then show him how wrong he is, love. Show him that he’s not walking away from you.”
Her eyes closed briefly. Snapped open. “At what price?”
He pressed a kiss against the soft skin of her calf, reluctantly sliding his mouth away. “Nothing that you can’t afford, love. In exchange, you’ll have Zer right where you want him. Eating out of the palm of your hand.”
Zer was a powerful predator, one that could never really be tamed. But she could make a difference, and Nael was willing to sacrifice everything on that chance. If Nessa St. James could save his sire, Nael would make damn sure she did.
He stood gracefully, backing away from her. Opened the door.
Even without the silent warning vibration of his vidphone, Zer would have known it was midnight. Stillness and anticipation swept through the club as the dancers pulled back, clearing the way. Above him, Nessa St. James stepped out onto the balcony, wrapping her hands around the glass and chrome railing. Silently, she stared down at his brothers, a living, crimson flame. The wicked scrap of a bodice cupped her breasts like a lover, and Zer itched to be beside her, to stroke his fingers over that agitated expanse of skin. Soothe her. Arouse her.
Midnight. Time for her to choose someone else.
Forcibly, he pulled his gaze away from her, scanning the crowd. One of his brothers was about to be handed salvation. Vkhin’s cold, hard face watched them both, arms crossed over his broad chest. The brother blocked access to the stairs Nessa had just ascended. Only male getting up there now was Nessa St. James’s new mate. Lucky bastard.
Zer squelched the thought.
If Nael had done his job, she’d be ready. She’d know what the Fallen could offer, would have been seduced by whichever dream called her name. In theory, she could demand to walk out that door. He simply didn’t plan on letting her go until she’d given him—them—what they wanted. What they needed. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from drinking in the sight of her hair and eyes one last time. She was like the sweetest of chocolates, begging to be unwrapped. God, the unknown brother was a lucky bastard.
The soft curve of her breast rose and fell, a feminine tease framed by the blood-red corset. Nessa St. James wasn’t calm, and she wasn’t pleased about her circumstances, no matter what that serene face of hers promised. She was liquid heat waiting for the right match. The right male.
He strode out into the empty center of the dance floor. The Fallen nearest him melted away, giving him the respect they owed their sire. He didn’t deserve that respect, but he’d make it right for one of them right now.
“Nessa St. James.” He came to a halt dead center, crossing his arms over his chest, and stared up at her. He’d picked a fighting stance to make his declaration.
“Choose.”
He didn’t do fancy words. He figured that about covered it.
She had four hundred Fallen staring at her. One of them had to be the one for her.
Instead of looking his brothers over, however, she was looking down at him. One hand clamped on the railing in front of her, she didn’t look nervous. No. What she looked was damn mad. At him. His eyes narrowed. He sought out Nael, but the brother melted back into the shadows.
“You want me to choose?” Her voice was smooth and cool, all professor, but he didn’t miss the low, husky note. Yeah, something—someone—had her riled up good. When he’d ordered Nael to make sure she showed, ready to choose, he’d said no-holds-barred. Now, he wondered if he should have been more specific. She was gunning for him, and he didn’t know why.
“Yeah, professor,” he drawled. A whisper of sound rose from the assembled Fallen, a symphony of leather and steel. “Here’s your court, waiting for you. You pick one of my brothers, and he’s going to treat you real nice.”
Those dark eyes narrowed. He glared back up at her, trying to force her compliance with the sheer strength of his will.
“Let me see if I’ve got this right,” she said, striding back and forth on that narrow slip of a balcony. The lush roll of her hips promised sweet, hot sex. A male could lose himself in that body, but it was the scent of her soul, the delicious tease of her aura, that had the room leaning toward her. Zer bit back a growl. Focus.
“You need me to choose one of you,” she continued. That lethal gaze of hers raked the room, and he swore the temperature rose. “Just one of you. And you don’t care who I pick.”
That wasn’t strictly true. Hell, he hoped she’d go for Vkhin or Nael, because he knew how hard the soul thirst rode both his brothers. Dead or locked away in the Preserves—either way, they all knew that neither male had time to spare. Still, ... “You do the choosing,” he acknowledged. “Stop talking about it, and get on with the picking.”
He didn’t like that smile.
“One favor,” she said. “In exchange for one soul.”
“Right. You need a roll call, or do you see your man?”
He needed to know who she’d chosen, needed to see her in the arms of his brother. Then, his work here was done, unless the brother chose him to witness the bonding. Christ, he hoped he wouldn’t be called upon to do that.
“All right.” She stepped right up to the railing. Leaned forward, until her arms rested on the chrome. “I’ve made my choice.”
Conflicting emotion pounded through her, obliterating logic. Part of her wanted to slam out the door behind her, tell his high-and-mightiness what he could do with his devil’s bargain. There was no way he could force her to do this.
She kept losing her way, though, in the white-hot blaze of desire running through her.
Dancing, all she’d seen was Zer, watching her. And, all she could think about was what happened in the elevator. How good he’d made her feel. Had she ever experienced a thrill like that before in her life? Could she really walk away from that electric current between them?
Hell. No.
>
Her eyes narrowed. He’d said the Fallen had to find bond mates. So she’d take him. Nael had said she could have Zer eating out of her hand. She was tired of being alone. So she’d choose him and see how he liked having his whole life upended. That little move wouldn’t be one he’d have anticipated in this sensual battle for dominance they had going on between them.
“You,” she said.
The crowd reacted with a deep inhalation, like the ocean sucking out of a bay right before a tsunami hit, exposing the wrecks and rocks and sunken bits that the water had concealed for so long.
Zer froze. Yeah, he didn’t like being hunted, either.
“I choose you,” she said.
His head snapped up, that ice-cold gaze locking on hers. She should have been afraid. After all, she’d just invited the room’s biggest predator to make an all-you-can-eat meal out of her. But this didn’t feel wrong, damn it. So she said it again. “I choose you, Zer. You want me to take a bond mate—I’ll take you.”
Stepping back through the door, she slammed it behind her, because the petty gesture was satisfying. Leaning back against the wall, she dug in her pretty new heels to wait. She gave him ten—twenty—seconds, tops.
This wasn’t the plan. Hell. The crowd parted around him, moving away. Ceding him the ground because he was the victor in a battle he’d sworn he wouldn’t fight.
Disbelief. Anger and shame. Damn her, he’d taken what belonged to one of his brothers. The reaction of the crowd around him only made him feel worse. Loyal to the bone, most of them were. He would have welcomed a blade in his back, though.
It wouldn’t be forever. Couldn’t be.
“She picked you.” Vkhin’s voice gave nothing away, the brother himself hidden within the shadows of the stairwell
“Yeah,” he answered more sharply than he’d planned to.
“All right.” Vkhin stepped aside, leaving the way up the staircase clear.
Christ. He’d never allowed himself to fantasize that he’d be the one climbing these stairs. Not tonight. Not ever. He didn’t deserve her, and it was damned sure that she couldn’t possibly be his soul mate. He was soulless, and they all knew it. He was the root cause of their Fall, and there was no way he should be the one to pull the first get-out-of-jail-free card.
Before he could start the climb, Mischka reached out and laid a hand on his arm. Brother shouldn’t have brought her here, but no one kept Mischka out. Not when she wanted in. “Treat her right.”
He looked down at that pale hand. Knew Brends was within an inch of pounding him into the ground for the touch. Did they all know he was an animal? “I will,” he growled.
“Right,” she insisted. “You take care of her. And”—she paused, sliding her hand away—“you let her in. You let her close. Don’t shut her out.”
“She’s not my soul mate.”
“Why not?” She stared at him curiously. Brends drew her back against his larger body, and she nestled there, fit into the larger shape of him, his large hand stroking down the length of her dark hair.
“Because she’s not.”
“You don’t know that,” she pointed out. “Not until you’ve bonded with her.” Her beautiful face flushed. “And fallen in love with her.”
He didn’t do love. He wasn’t capable of it. All he had to offer Nessa St. James was safety and protection and whatever damn favor she’d set her heart on. He knew he was tricking her into bonding with him, that emotions were riding her hard and she’d have regrets in the morning, but he didn’t care. He’d been bred to be ruthless, and he’d accepted that side of himself long ago. He needed her mind, and he needed it now. Her body was just a delicious bonus.
“I don’t do love,” he said out loud. Mischka just looked at him, and he read the regret on her face loud and clear.
“Too late.” Brends’s hand dropped to her shoulder, his thumb rubbing a small circle against her bare skin as she spoke. “You made her choose, Zer, and she chose you. She was someone’s soul mate, and she chose you. You make this work,” she said fiercely. “You have to make this work.”
If he didn’t do love, he damned certain didn’t do happily-ever-after. So how could he tell Mischka what she wanted to hear? He couldn’t be anything other than what he was.
“She won’t regret,” he promised, giving his words to the other male. He hated moments like this. He wasn’t a goddamn poet, and they all knew it. He wouldn’t let his brothers lose the advantage of this soul mate, either.
He had their backs.
And that was going to have to be enough. Because he couldn’t have—didn’t want, he told himself—love and happily-ever-after. He’d seen Brends. Whatever that male had with his soul mate, maybe it was worth having, but Brends no longer left the club to fight without looking back. Part of him fought now to go back to Mischka Baran, and that part of him was vulnerable.
And Zer sure as hell couldn’t afford vulnerable.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Nessa met Zer at the door, but he wasn’t letting her take charge. She’d set the scene, and now he’d damn well finish it, and she’d learn the price of teasing one of the Fallen.
“You should have picked someone else, baby.” He strode over to her, knowing what she saw coming for her. He was cold to the core, bred to be a warrior and a killer. He wished he could be the gentle lover she deserved, but she’d made this bed for some reason of her own, and now she was going to have to lie in it. Her eyes flickered over his face, searching for something. Whatever it was she wanted, she had him now. He’d either be enough for her or he wouldn’t, but there was no going back on this bargain.
Slowly, he settled his hands on her shoulders, mesmerized by the contrast of his large, dark fingers resting on those pale, bare shoulders. That corset was a wicked sin, a walking present he couldn’t wait to unwrap. When he’d picked it out, he’d fantasized about slipping open the buttons, one by one, tasting all that white skin it concealed, but he’d known those were fantasies. Not going to happen. Now, she’d handed him the keys to the treasure, and all his good intentions had flown out the window.
Closing his fingers, he pulled her closer. She didn’t resist, but she didn’t make it easy, either. She swayed slightly on those ridiculously high heels, and he didn’t know if it was from desire or fear or some other all-too-human emotion. He’d find out, wouldn’t he?
When he had her body flush against his, he stopped. He met her gaze and paused. She was waiting for something—waiting for him.
“You want this?” Taking her hand, he placed it against his chest. “You sure about this, baby?” He wanted them skin to skin. Now. But he figured he’d better give her one more chance.
She didn’t look like she appreciated his gentlemanly qualities, and damned if he understood where they were coming from, anyhow. “You want me to choose someone else?” She eyed him. “Oh, wait. You made that perfectly clear, didn’t you? Anyone. I was to choose anyone else. Anyone but you. News flash—” Her fingers curled into her palm as she shoved him away. Tried to. He wasn’t going anywhere. “You’re the one I want.”
His cock definitely liked the sound of that, springing to life for her. Growing harder. Never mind that he’d been impossibly aroused ever since she’d stepped out onto that balcony, finally ready to make her choice.
At the sound of someone else coming through the balcony door, she stepped away, taking the delicious heat of her body with her. He could still taste her soul, though. Anger. Arousal. Heat. She was a delicious cocktail of human emotions.
“You want out of this arrangement you forced on me?” she asked sweetly.
He couldn’t read her eyes, got only a swirl of heated, confused emotions now from her aura. She was driving him crazy, and she didn’t know it. Did she?
“Yeah. I do.” And he did, didn’t he? He wasn’t good enough for her, and that meant she wasn’t going to be his soul mate. She couldn’t give him back his wings, and that’s what he had to have from her. So she needed to pick anot
her male. A decent male. Her eyes narrowed, as if she could read his mind.
“I could pick him.” She strolled around Zer, laying a course for Nael, who had just returned through the balcony door. Nael, who looked like a male who saw a train wreck coming but couldn’t figure out a way to move his ass off the tracks. “Is that what you really wanted me to do, Zer? Why’s he here with us?”
Christ, she really didn’t know. Didn’t know about the witness required by the bond. Or that, if they were really being honest, Nael was his keeper, his lifeline to sanity. Nael was there to make sure Zer didn’t go off the deep end.
Instead, she reached up and captured Nael’s mouth with hers, her lips moving gently over his. Her tongue licked along the closed seam of his brother’s mouth, and that mouth parted. Opened up and let her in.
His beast growled a warning as her lips explored the other male’s. “Nael,” he bit out, but Nael threw up a warning hand. Not touching her, except with his mouth.
“You want me, Nael? You going to let your sire here watch us?” she asked, the throaty little murmur doing unspeakable things to Zer’s cock. This time, she wrapped a hand around the back of Nael’s neck, her fingers gently stroking the exposed skin. Pulling him down to her. Brother went, too, dark lashes drifting shut over those too-old eyes of his.
She kissed Nael deep and hard, until Zer pulled her off him.
He’d spent the minutes since he’d climbed up here with a raging hard-on, imagining what her nipples would look like when he freed them from the sinful fabric cupping them, how they would harden in his hands. Now, the only thing that stood between him and his fantasies was the thin satin fabric of her corset—and Nael.
“Too late for second chances, baby. You’re getting no one else, not tonight.” Wrapping a hard arm around her waist, he swung her effortlessly up into his arms.
Kissing Nael had been a revelation. Not bad, not unwelcome—just not Zer.
