Seduction's Shift

by A. C. Arthur

  “I don’t know what this does, but this one, yes!” she yelled and turn to face him, holding a black tube in her hand. “This one does something to your skin, it causes this stimulation, a sensitive-type hum that, I don’t know. It just drove me crazy.”

  Nick pushed away from the wall and walked to her. He took the tube from her hands and felt his own smile spread wildly. It was exactly what she’d said, a lotion that caused stimulation, sexual stimulation.

  “You used this at the spa?” he asked, wondering now about her full-body massage and whether it was a male or female who’d given it to her.

  “Yes! And it felt fantastic!” With both her hands free she tucked her hair back behind her ears on each side and licked her lips.

  Nick almost groaned.

  “Alexi, that was the masseur, he said it would make me and you feel good. So I asked if I could try it first. He put it on me and I felt like … like I feel when I’m with you.”

  He didn’t know what to say first. Didn’t know what part of that sentence he wanted to address. “You had a full-body massage by a man?” That was probably the most important issue.

  She nodded. “I was apparently very tense,” she said with a shrug.

  “Tense, huh.” Nick’s teeth clenched. “And where did he put this lotion for you to sample?”

  “He rubbed it along the backs of my thighs at first—”

  Nick instantly saw red. “He did what?”

  Ary frowned. “He was giving me a massage as we talked about the product. I was already on my stomach so he rubbed the lotion on the backs of my thighs. When I told him I liked how it felt, he capped the tube and sold it to me.”

  “And what else did he do? What else did you let Alexi do to you, Ary?”

  She took a step back from him. “You’re an idiot!” she yelled. “No matter how many times I try to ignore that fact, you keep forcing it into my face.”

  Moving across the room, Ary began scooping up her items and tossing them into her bags.

  “I asked you a simple question,” he said.

  “You’re accusing me of doing something wrong. Well, I didn’t. I was enjoying myself for once.”

  “You didn’t even tell me where you were going. I came home and you weren’t here. The least you could have done was left a note.”

  “Oh, really?” she asked, spinning around to face him. “Is that the least I could have done? Well, tell me this, Mr. Delgado, did you leave me a note this morning telling me where you were going? When Rome called here looking for you and I foolishly told him you were at work but obviously you weren’t, a note would have been beneficial. Or is that just a rule I need to follow?”

  “I go to work every weekday morning” was his tart reply.

  “And what else? You come and go as you please and don’t say a word to me about anything. But I’m supposed to sit here and wait for you or document my every step?”

  “I’m supposed to be protecting you.”

  “But you’re not supposed to be fucking me!” she yelled back. “Either you’re my protector or you’re my lover. Choose which one and act accordingly!”

  “Stop yelling and calm down,” he told her, moving over to grab her wrists, shaking them until she dropped the bags she’d slipped there to carry away. “You’re twisting my words.”

  “No. I’m telling you how I see things.”

  “I just want to know where you are at all times. Is that so bad?”

  “I’m not a child and I’m not some pet you need to keep on a leash. I’m a woman.”

  “You’re my woman, Ary! My mate! Therefore, the thought of some other man rubbing your thighs is not acceptable.”

  She pulled away from him, stumbling back onto the chair then quickly pulling herself back up. “Don’t tell me what’s acceptable. I’ll do what I want, when I want, and neither you nor anyone else is going to stop me.”

  “I’m your mate!”

  “You’re an ass! Just like my controlling father and the rigid household I grew up in. You want to bark orders and dictate my every move and thought. Well, dammit, I’m sick and tired of living like that. I won’t live like that again!”

  When she stalked past him this time, her shoulder bumped his chest. Nick was the one to stumble back.

  “Fuck you, Nick Delgado!” she yelled as she hit the steps, not with a run, but a gentle stomp that said she was spitting mad.

  Nick stood for a moment, watching those same legs he’d just admired minutes ago disappear up the spiral staircase. When the door upstairs slammed, he cursed. Picking up the tube of lotion from the floor, he slung it hard across the room until it bounced off the patio glass and twirled back to the middle of the floor.

  Sitting down heavily on the sofa, he put his face in his hands and sighed. Maybe Rome was right about the rules to the mating game being drastically different.

  Chapter 20

  “Did you give it to her?” Sabar asked Norbert.

  “Yes. Yes, I did,” Norbert stuttered.

  Sabar wondered how this man was so great at his work. The research he conducted at George Washington would have required him to make presentations before investors to receive funding. With all the stuttering and sweating he did whenever he was asked a question, the investors should have been instantly turned off.

  They were at the safe house, the brownstone where Sabar lived. He’d wanted to keep a close eye on the development of the new drug and its first test dummy. Norbert would be returned to the warehouse in Virginia, where his lab and sleeping quarters were located, along with the Rogues assigned to keep watch over him there. Darel would stay at the brownstone with Sabar and the test dummy.

  “She’s a looker,” Gabriel said, licking his lips. His beady eyes opened wide to trace up and down the length of the half-naked female who lay on the bed.

  “She’s young,” Darel added.

  “She’s a test dummy,” Sabar told them both and pushed past them so that he was now standing right beside where her body lay on the bed.

  The room was dark except for the small lamp on the table next to the bed. The walls had been painted a lighter shade than the thick hunter-green carpet that lined the floors. No other furniture had been put into this room, so Sabar had designated it the test room.

  “You stay here and watch her,” Sabar told Darel. “I want a report in the morning on her every reaction.”

  Norbert had already begun shaking his head. He stood at the end of the bed, wringing his ashen hands so that they made a chafing sound with each motion. “Maybe I should stay with her just in case something goes wrong.”

  “You’re going back to the lab to mix more of the drug. If something happens, Darel will take care of it,” Sabar said in no uncertain terms.

  Norbert put his head down while Darel nodded his agreement. “I won’t leave her.”

  “Yeah, I’m gonna stay, too,” Gabriel said, rubbing the female’s thigh, then down to her knee and calves with trembling fingers. “I’ll make sure she’s just fine.”

  Sabar slapped his hand away. “You’ll keep watch and that’s it. Get him out of here first!” He ordered Gabriel toward Norbert.

  “We shouldn’t rush the drug. I’ve never worked with it before. And the cocaine we used was pure. She could d-die,” Norbert told Sabar nervously.

  Sabar had covered the space between himself and Norbert in about two seconds, pulling the man’s face up to his by yanking his collar and lifting him off the floor. “You listen to me, ass brain, I call the shots around here. So when I say produce the drug, that’s what the fuck I mean! Now get back to your job before I cut off your horny little dick and feed it to you for supper.”

  Norbert paled, rightfully so, at Sabar’s threat and his strength. The chemist fell to the floor after Sabar released him, only to be yanked up again and dragged out of the room by Gabriel.

  When they were alone, Sabar clapped his hands together and looked at Darel. “This is it. This new drug is going to bring us a big steady payo
ff.”

  “What about the deal with Slakeman? His office has been calling all week. You want me to handle that?” Darel asked.

  “No.” Sabar shook his head. “I’ll handle him for now. If he doesn’t cooperate, then you can do your thing. Right now, she’s your number one priority. We can’t move up in the ranks without some serious pull around here. A new drug will give us that.”

  Darel nodded. “Cortez won’t be happy.”

  “Cortez is the past. By the time that bastard figures it out he’ll be dead.” Sabar touched the female’s face with blunt-tipped fingers, lifting one eyelid, then the other.

  “And what about the Factions? They’re hunting us now.”

  He wiped his hands on his pants and continued to stare down at the female. “Good, let them hunt. When I’m ready for those fuckers, they’ll get exactly what’s coming to them.”

  Darel nodded again. Something he’d been doing a lot lately. “Gabriel knows where the Faction Leader lives. You want him to sit there?”

  “I want him to stay with that fool-ass chemist for now. We’ll deal with the Faction Leaders and those female cats they’re hiding later.” He definitely had not forgotten about them. He had a personal score to settle with Kalina. And the other one, the curandero, well, she would die for being so stupid and to prove his point about the jungle cats.

  Sabar laughed as he left the room. Darel didn’t.

  His mood was somber as he looked down at the still body in front of him. She didn’t look that old, maybe twenty at the most. Her skin was dark, like his. Her nails were fake and long and colored a hideous black that made everything about her appear dismal. That shouldn’t have been a problem for him, but Darel didn’t like it for some reason.

  He remembered Kalina Harper, remembered the way her scent had permeated his senses, making him need and hunger more than he ever had in all his life. Every female he’d taken since then had been a substitution for the one who’d gotten away. He didn’t know the curandero and didn’t really give a damn about her one way or the other. But if he got the opportunity again, he was fucking Kalina, no questions asked and damn the consequences. She owed him that much for embarrassing him when he’d tried capturing her for Sabar weeks ago.

  There was a sound, the sheets rustling as the body moved. Darel moved closer, picking up one long braid in his hand and rubbing his fingers over the textured hair. She moved again; this time the wisp of a bra she wore slipped and one dark nipple was revealed. His mouth watered. Her eyes remained closed as he reached out to rub a finger over the puckered nipple. His hand hovered there for what seemed like endless moments, lightly touching her as his dick grew harder.

  She stirred again, this time lifting a hand to clasp his wrist. Darel’s eyes moved to her face, saw her eyelids flutter open to reveal smoky gray eyes. She didn’t smile at him, but Darel didn’t need smiles. She did, however, press his hand closer onto her breast. He obliged by squeezing the palm-size mound tighter. She made a sound that vaguely resembled a moan. And Darel lowered his head, took the nipple between his teeth, and bit down. Her back arched, and he sucked her entire breast into his mouth with force. Ripping the material from her chest, Darel gorged on the next breast, then pushed past the thin panties and cupped her mound. She moved beneath him as if she were trying to give him more.

  He wasn’t turning it down. Pulling her bottom half off the bed, he pressed a palm to her back and bent her over. Her body was so pliant that, whatever he did, she obliged without a word. If he’d stopped to really pay attention he would have noticed that she moved like a rag doll or that from her mouth a steady stream of white foam bubbled. But all Darel saw were plump ass cheeks that he readily separated with one hand while his other hand unzipped his pants and pulled his erection free.

  In the next instant he was buried deep inside her, feeling the warmth and tightness of her core grabbing him tightly. It was a good thing shifters were immune to human diseases such as sexually transmitted afflictions and cancer. Because Darel didn’t know anything about this female. He didn’t know her name or where she came from, nothing. Right now it didn’t matter. As he closed his eyes and slammed in and out of her wet pussy, the face he saw was of a lighter complexion, with hazel eyes that turned golden when she was in cat form. He twisted his hand in the long braids of the female he fucked, but his fingers felt the short silken strands of another.

  Her name echoed in his head, her scent filtering through his nostrils. He pumped harder and harder, not giving a damn if he was hurting the female beneath him. He lifted her legs, planted her knees up on the bed, and continued to pound deep into her core until his head fell back and he roared as his release pumped deep inside her womb.

  Pulling out of her once he’d finally caught his breath, Darel turned his back and pushed his still-hard cock back inside his pants. He was taking deep breaths, trying to steady his thoughts as well as his heart rate. His cat was wild, ready to break free and do some serious damage.

  And apparently so was someone else.

  He felt her nails on his shoulder and turned to tell her not to touch him. What he saw when he looked into her face rendered him speechless for a few seconds.

  The long braids seemed frayed at the ends, giving her a wild look. Her eyes bulged like the retinas would burst right out of the sockets. Now he saw the foam, trailing down her chin. She raised her arms again and clawed his face with her nails.

  Darel grabbed her wrists, pushing her back so hard her body flipped over the bed. She bounced up again and took one leap that landed her right in his face once more. This time she opened her mouth and bit him on the shoulder. His cat—already raging just beneath the surface—broke free. His clothes ripped as muscles bunched and stretched and he fell to the floor. When he stood again and looked at the woman it was through the eyes of his cat. The thick heavy scent of sex lingered in the room, along with another acidic stench the man couldn’t name.

  He didn’t have time to examine it any further, as the female lunged for him once more. Her arms moved quickly as a war cry was wrenched from her mouth. She wanted to harm him, to kill him if she could. Her eyes looked frantic, filled with fear and defense. Without recourse the male cat came up on its hind legs swiping at the female, with one heavy paw ripping the side of her face off.

  With blood spewing all over the bed and the carpet, the female continued to come at him. She seemed to feel no pain as she charged him again. He doubted she had a clue she was fighting a jaguar and not a man. The cat used its body to block her this time, ramming into her so hard she crumpled to her knees. With a deep roar, the male turned, quickly latching its massive jaws on the back of her neck and locking. She whimpered and thrashed beneath him for longer than she probably should have. His teeth sank deeper into her skin, piercing her skull. There was a series of cracks; the body beneath him seized and shivered, then finally went limp.

  The cat pulled away from her, pacing back and forth in the room. It was a clean kill, and yet the animal felt a strange rising inside. Its flanks heaved with its motions, blood dripping from its sharp teeth. The door opened and the cat turned to the sound, ready to pounce again if necessary.

  But it was only Sabar standing in the doorway, an eerie gleam in his cat eyes.

  Chapter 21

  Ary refused to cry.

  He wasn’t worth it.

  The bastard.

  Instead she paced the floor. Pulling an elastic band from her pocket, she gathered her hair into a ponytail and continued walking the length of the room she’d been using in Nick’s house.

  Nick’s house. Nick’s rules.

  She should have known. Her heart pounded as her cat pressed for release. It had been a couple of days since she’d been able to shift and run free. In the forest she ran daily. In the city she didn’t think that would be possible. In which case she was going to slowly lose her mind. Nervous energy bubbled inside her, coupled with the irritation of her conversation with Nick. Correction: That hadn’t been a conversation.
He’d made demands, puffed his chest all territorially, and barked orders just like her father used to do.

  Her teeth bared in rage, claws emerging from her fingers. She wanted to scream. No, she wanted to run.

  Finally unable to stand the four walls that seemed to be closing in around her, Ary opened the door quietly and slipped out. Nick was still downstairs—she could tell because his scent was like a lure to her own. Her body instinctively wanted to go wherever his was. But she resisted, moving with the customary quiet of a cat through the kitchen and to the front door. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed Nick standing out on his balcony, a cool breeze sifting through the open door, causing the curtains to billow in its wake. Ary flipped the lock and slipped through the door without another glance back.

  She took two steps before being grabbed by the arm and turned around so fast her neck almost snapped.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Ezra, the shifter guard assigned to Nick, said in a stern voice.

  Ezra and Eli were twins, both about six feet tall with coffee-toned skin. They both had green eyes, the color of creek water, with brownish tints around the edges. Their hair was cut low and left to wave on top. With large builds and lethal stares, they could intimidate in both jaguar and human form. The only difference between the two, which Ary had noticed the first time she’d seen them at Rome’s house, was that Ezra wore a diamond earring in his left ear. Eli had no earrings as far as Ary had seen.

  “I’m leaving,” she answered him finally, trying unsuccessfully to pull her arm from his tight grip.

  “Not without Nick,” Ezra told her.

  “He’s not my keeper!”

  Ezra laughed. “No, he’s your mate.”

  “That’s a load of bull, too,” she quipped.

  “Say what you want, that’s the way it is. I’m not letting you leave without him, or without him telling me to do so,” he told her seriously, tightening his grip on her arm.

  He looked like one of those men on the television who wrestled with his tight T-shirt on and jeans belted at his waist. His arms were huge. Trying to break away from him was futile.