by Brenna Lyons
Answering that was difficult, though Joy didn’t think she could think of anything else. “I will, Arren. Thank you.”
He disappeared with a smile and a wave.
Karl stepped down the stairs from the shuttle. “If I may be so bold, Ms. Patterson?”
“It seems to be the day for it.”
“Beg your pardon?” His brow creased in confusion.
She managed a weak smile. “Go on.”
He raised her hand and pressed his forehead to it, just as Arren had. After a whispered Xxanian phrase, he stepped back and offered his hand to help her onto the shuttle.
Joy hesitated. “What…? Arren did the same thing. What does that mean, precisely?”
Karl cleared his throat. “It means we respect your courage and strength, Ms. Patterson. What you did for Daveed—”
“What about what Daveed did for me?”
His expression said she was being a fool, though Joy didn’t understand why he would think that.
Chapter Five
Three days later
Daveed left the driver in the bunker and took the elevator up to his office suite, his mind and emotions in a riot. Who knew what awaited him? The certainty that Joy had resigned cast a pall not unlike the loss of his mother over him.
And it wasn’t illness. There is no fighting a sudden, acute illness. Joy was shot at, attacked in a building I’d assured her was secure. I wasn’t fast enough to shield her. Of course, she’ll leave.
All too soon, the doors opened on the thirty-second floor, and Daveed exited the elevator with a confident stride that belied his inner torment.
If she’s gone, I have to hide my emotions. He steeled himself for the worst at the sight of Celeste rushing toward him. I should have asked about Joy before I got here.
Stupid! It would have told Celeste too much.
“It’s so good to have you back, Mr. Raashh.” She pivoted neatly, reversed course, and matched his stride.
“Quite good to be here.” It was. Five millimeters to the left and I wouldn’t be here. If Joy had been slower or Arren hadn’t broken our seir’s orders, I wouldn’t be. “What is my schedule for this morning?” Please let it be light. Pretending his healing wound didn’t pain him was difficult enough. The uncertainty over Joy was worse.
“Mr. Rowe sent over new contracts for your signature.”
“I’ll look over them tonight.” Actually, Arren would. At eight years old, his younger brother had displayed a tremendous aptitude for business. Someday, he may be in charge of Spice Industries. That day would be a relief for Daveed.
She tapped at the screen on her tablet computer. “Ms. Patterson is setting up the presentation of the new line in conference room three. She said to let you know it would be ready for your perusal any time.”
His heart stuttered, and the healing tissue in his chest pulled and ached. “Now?” She’s here.
“Is it a problem? I can reschedule her to—”
“No.” It’s not a problem at all. It’s a…joy. A delight. He composed himself. “I was simply verifying my schedule for the day.” He was lying. It was the only reason a Xxanian would lie—to protect a female or child.
“Ms. Patterson is your only meeting today, so it is no problem to move her, if you want me to.”
Suspicion made his blood burn. “Is it? Why so light?” He suspected he knew. Damned doctors and my seir.
“Your doctors’ orders,” she confirmed for him.
Rayn, you are a damned interfering man.
Forget it. It gives me time to talk to Joy.
“Is there a problem, Mr. Raashh?”
“No. I’ll see Ms. Patterson now. Handle any calls. I do not wish to be disturbed.” He left Celeste far behind and marched into the conference room she’d indicated.
The door swung open noiselessly, revealing a lush ass encased in silk and—he was sure—nothing else. He closed the door, his primary hard and heavy behind his trousers.
Her scent was potent and alluring, and she shifted further, still folded over the table.
She wants me. She’s inviting me. If she was, Joy would be his only appointment…and not because Rayn insisted on it. In fact, it was a sure bet that Rayn would be irked that Daveed was considering such hearty exercise.
“How are you, Joy?”
****
His voice sent pleasant shivers down her spine, and Joy considered her position. She hadn’t intended to meet Daveed in such a provocative pose, but her body heated at the idea of him taking advantage of it.
He didn’t, and she turned to face him. Daveed stood, his ankles slightly parted, as imposing as always despite his injury.
His cock was hard and pressing out against his trousers. Joy licked her upper lip slowly, and he breathed in deeply.
Scenting me. He knows I want him.
She leaned back on the table, seeking something solid to support her when her shaking knees weren’t helping much. “I should be asking you that question.” Her voice was breathy and lacking the conviction she’d wanted it to carry. How can I think with his cock so ready, let alone speak?
Daveed stepped toward her, his expression solemn. “My injuries are nothing.”
“Nothing. You must be—”
Her lungs and throat seized at the brush of his fingers against the line of scar tissue on her chin.
His words caressed her lips with heat. “Yours is intolerable to me.” He traced the line again.
“Just a scratch,” she whispered. “You could have died.”
“I would willingly die to save you from harm. Any male would willingly die to save a female from harm.” It sounded like he was correcting himself.
“Not any male.” Her ex certainly wouldn’t have put himself in danger to save her.
“Any honorable male would.”
“Yes. I believe that,” she agreed.
They stood there, close enough to kiss. When Daveed didn’t make the first move, Joy’s nerves deserted her.
She motioned to the display. “The proposed line will be—”
“Is that what you want to show me?” There was nothing coy in that, nothing teasing.
Words failed her. Joy shook her head slowly.
“Then it can wait.” Still Daveed made no move toward her.
I refused him. I need to do something he can’t mistake as interest. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rose on tiptoe, pressing her lips to his.
Daveed didn’t hesitate. His arms encircled her body and drew her flush to his chest. His scent made her head spin, and Joy opened her lips to gasp.
His tongue dipped inside, and she moaned at the taste of him in her mouth. Musk and spice. She’d always thought it was cologne, but it was his natural flavor. Joy entwined her tongue with his, drinking in the potent flavor of Daveed.
He caressed a hand down her shoulder and arm. His hand angled away, and the sound of the doors locking shut followed.
He has a button to secure the doors. It wasn’t unexpected. Many corporate meeting rooms had such security features.
The sound around them muted, and she shivered in understanding. He’d also soundproofed the room.
Daveed drew back, and she stared at him blearily. He’d dimmed the lights in the room and removed his sunglasses. His eyes were narrowed, and the pupils were widened until they almost formed circles instead of slits.
He stroked at her throat, making designs with his smooth thumb. “Do you want this, Joy?”
She nodded, managing a gasped “yes” to go along with it.
Daveed slipped his hand under the shoulder of the low-cut dress she’d worn, eased the fabric off her shoulder, and massaged her bare skin. “If I do this, I am not content for it to be one time.”
Her heart thundered in excitement. “I don’t want a one-night stand either.” She blushed in the realization that he hadn’t said that. Xxanian men were a sexual lot. He could mean he wasn’t going to stop with one quick fuck but wasn’t offering a long-term relations
hip. What if Arren was wrong? Not lying but reading his brother wrong?
He cocked his head to one side. “I intend to claim you as my mate, if you have the least interest in—”
“I do.”
That seemed to surprise him.
“I’ve always believed that casual sexual relationships between coworkers or employee and employer don’t work. If you’re not in a committed relationship with the other person, it’s a recipe for disaster.” With humans, it could still be a recipe for disaster, but once a Xxanian mated, it was forever. No nasty divorce scenes.
“Are you saying you’re willing to mate with me? Now?”
“Yes.” Saying it was easier than she’d anticipated it would be.
Daveed looked around. “That would be problematic.”
Her hopes sank a bit.
His body pressed to hers. “I suggest we take the edge off of our need here and go somewhere safer to mate.”
She nodded. “Safer. Yes.” His scent drew her in, and Joy worked his tie open, then the buttons on his shirt. She had to find the source of that enticing scent.
She parted his shirt, tears filling her eyes at the sight of the healing wound. He’d nearly died for her.
“Joy?”
She pressed her lips to the line of healing tissue, and he shivered.
Daveed guided her head to one side, situating her at his male nipple. “I believe this is what you really want.”
The spice against her lips made her moan. Joy licked her lips, and he gasped. She sucked at him, and Daveed’s hand closed in her hair. She didn’t question that his musk was an aphrodisiac. And she didn’t care. Joy sucked more avidly, then moved to the other side.
Daveed drew her back, then brought his mouth down on hers. The kiss left no doubt that they were going to finish what they’d started. Here and now.
He broke away, and she opened her eyes, staring up into his. Once he had her complete attention, he started talking.
“And now, Joy, I will sample your musk.”
Her breath caught in her throat at that pronouncement. She reached for the zipper at the back of her dress, but his hands were there first. Letting Daveed strip her clothes off was a decadent pleasure, and Joy settled back, indulging in it.
The silk eased down her body, and Daveed sank to one knee, keeping pace with it. His tongue circled one nipple, and Joy grasped at the back of his head, enjoying his smooth skin. His tasting touches became sucking so avid she felt love bites rising on her skin.
He pushed her dress up her thighs, baring her. This dress wasn’t meant to be worn with underwear. She was glad that she chose it.
Daveed left her breasts, and his hot breath teased at her sensitized skin. He lifted her by the waist and settled Joy on the edge of the table, then pushed her knees apart.
The first puff over her core wrenched a moan from her. His tongue came next, more mobile than a human man’s. He traced her, inside and out, then started thrusting inside her, the slightly-roughened surface of his tongue propelling her into bliss.
Her sense of balance deserted her, and Joy reached behind her, hoping to brace herself up. The stacks of folded silk went sliding across the top of the table. She landed in the midst of it, silk tantalizing her back and thighs, while Daveed drove her toward release.
She abandoned her attempts at quiet in the realization that he’d soundproofed the room. Moans turned to pleas, then to shouts, as Joy catapulted over the edge of reason.
Still Daveed didn’t stop. He was ravenous, determined, but what he was determined to accomplish, Joy couldn’t say.
At last, he rose to his feet between her spread knees. Joy trailed her gaze to his cock, erect and weeping pre-cum already, his trousers spread just enough to allow her a peek at his hairless balls. His shirt was open wide around his chest, and his jacket was off, probably dropped to the floor. She licked her lips, wondering if all of him tasted of that hint of spice.
Daveed groaned. “Not now. If you do, I’ll start claiming you here, and this is definitely the wrong place to begin that process.”
Joy nodded her agreement. In the office wasn’t even appropriate for what they’d done so far, but that didn’t mean she was going to stop him now.
He reached out and turned her until she was bent over the conference table, her legs quaking lightly beneath her. There was a moment of stillness.
“Daveed?”
He slipped to the hilt inside her, his silk-mix trousers teasing at her buttocks as he started thrusting. One large hand closed on her hip, holding Joy’s midsection away from the edge of the table. The other closed on a breast, kneading lightly.
Joy gasped, her body rocketing toward another release. By the stars, I should have done this weeks ago.
“You’re mine,” Daveed grumbled. His thrusts came faster and harder, as if in a physical representation of that proclamation.
Her body tightened, then shot into climax. Joy was vaguely aware that she was shouting.
Daveed’s cock erupted, filling her with a glorious wave of heat. He was growling, every muscle taut against her body. He eased her against the edge of the table, then started laying kisses on the back of her neck and shoulder.
He eased out of her, then turned Joy to the edge of the table. Just when she thought he was going to kiss her, perhaps even thrust into her again, Daveed started drawing the dress up her body. He reached around her and eased the zipper up, bringing their bodies in close contact again.
“Daveed?”
“The sooner we dress, the sooner I can claim you properly.”
“At your home?”
He hesitated for a moment. “No. We’ll want privacy. Your penthouse is in the secured building. Would you mind going there?”
She shook her head.
Daveed lifted her from the table and settled Joy to her feet. He smoothed her dress down her thighs. Then he scooped up his jacket and held it up for her to ease her arms into it. Joy complied, and he buttoned it for her. She cuffed up the arms twice, and still her fingers peeked from the edges.
He buttoned his shirt, leaving the top two buttons open and the tie hanging loose down the front. Then he tucked his cock into his trousers and fastened them, blousing his shirt slightly.
Daveed held out his hand to her.
Joy glanced around at the destruction they were leaving behind. Her face heated. Between the way they were dressed and the state of the conference room, there would be no question what they’d been doing in here.
He placed his fingertips beneath her chin and tipped Joy’s face up. “We’ll be leaving on my personal elevator. No one will be in this room until we come back again.”
She nodded, though she wasn’t sure where the personal elevator might be. She’d never seen one in his office. Maybe it was a hidden elevator. Joy looked around at the walls. “Where?”
Daveed laughed heartily at her question. “There are three. I’ll show you how to access them all. But, for now…”
He strode to the far side of the room, where a Van Gough that she’d always suspected was the original hung on the wall. Daveed spoke in smooth, trilling Xxan. Then he waved her over to him. Joy made her way to his side.
Daveed tipped his head down and whispered in her ear. “Say your name and the words ‘transport now’.”
“Joy transport now.”
Another order in Xxan left his lips. Was he training the elevator to respond to her?
“Say it again, but this time, say your full name.”
She looked up at him, questioning. “My name as it is now or…?”
“My woman is quick and intelligent,” he breathed. “But I knew that. The name you will use once we are mated.”
She nodded. “Joy Raashh transport now.”
He smiled. “Again. The same words.”
“Joy Raashh transport now.”
Daveed pressed a kiss to her lips. Joy turned her head, amazed that the elevator door was halfway open, moving silently; one section of wall pulled fo
rward and slid aside in front of another.
“Anytime you feel the need to call the elevator—in an emergency or just to move about the building without going through the public areas of it, you will use those words. It is keyed to your voice, and once we have mated, I will key the interior controls to recognize your biological signature.”
He guided her onto the elevator, and the door closed behind them automatically. Daveed pressed a button marked RG.
“RG?”
“Raashh’s personal garage area. The vehicles transporting members of our nest park in a secured area.”
“Understandable.” The area her driver dropped her in at the penthouse had the same security, as did the one her driver had taken her to that morning. Was that Raashh’s personal garage? Something told her it was.
Another question occurred to her. “So, if I pushed the button now, before you’ve keyed the controls to me?”
“The elevator would lock down and summon our security team.”
“And you can’t key it to me now, because…?”
“Your biological signature will change slightly during mating. Not significantly, but a bit. It’s best to wait and not confuse the system.”
The door opened, and Daveed took her arm. Their leisurely stroll across the garage ended at a streak of what could only be a Xxanian bodyguard coming their way.
Daveed barked an order in Xxan.
The bodyguard came to a halt. He tipped his head to Daveed. “My apologies. When I saw you coming down, I thought there was something wrong.” He tipped his head to Joy. “Ms. Patterson.”
Joy wondered how he knew her name.
Her limo pulled up behind his, and her driver vaulted out. He rushed to open the door for her, looking more than a little rattled.
Daveed waved him off. “We won’t be needing you, Beel. Joy will be with me for the rest of the day. You’re relieved.”
Her driver tipped his head, though his expression said he was confused. “Very well, Daveed. Call for me if Ms. Patterson requires my services today.”
Her cheeks heated. From what she understood, she wouldn’t require his services for several days. Beel’s eyes narrowed, and he withdrew.
