by Laina Kenney
He gave her keys back and brushed a gentle finger over her trembling lips. He wanted another sweet dangerous kiss, but he didn’t dare. His wolf was too close to the surface and he would push for more, push when she needed him tender and caring.
So he turned and left, closing the door carefully behind him.
He walked through the darkened streets to the pickup point without fear, but he couldn’t whistle now. Walking away from her was the hardest thing he had ever done.
* * * *
Maressa leaned against the cool wood of the door and touched her fingers to her mouth. Her lips were still tingling and her blood was on fire for the man who had rescued her then left her at the door with the single hottest kiss she had ever experienced.
She shook her head and blew out a long unsteady breath. She wasn’t sure if she was glad he had stopped or annoyed that he had more control than she did. Her system had gone off the deep end with nothing more than a kiss. But what a kiss. Her body was still humming, flushed with residual heat from one kiss.
She was aching for him, for more of whatever he would give. She almost moaned out loud. If he could do that with a kiss, what could he do if he really put his mind to it?
She shivered.
Maressa walked up the stairs in a daze and returned her sister’s wave without really noticing. It was only when Bliss gave a jaw-cracking yawn that Maressa snapped out of it and stopped.
“Bliss, it’s after midnight. Put your books away and get some sleep or you’ll fall asleep in class tomorrow.”
Bliss grinned but her long blonde hair was straggling out of its braid and her eyes were drooping. “For a minute there, I thought you were just going to walk by without giving me trouble for staying up late. But that would be crazy and totally out of character for you. What’s going on?”
Maressa’s hand went to her mouth again and Bliss perked up.
“O.M.G.,” Bliss breathed. “I have never seen that look on your face. Did you kiss someone? Did he kiss you back? Oh. My. God. Spill already!”
Maressa could feel her face heating.
“It was nothing,” she tried to say, but she choked on the lie and Bliss pounced.
“No way, Maressa, it was something. Some fine thing,” Bliss announced in an awed voice. “I can tell by your face he was amazing. Your eyes are a dead giveaway. You look kind of dazzled.”
Bliss grabbed Maressa’s hands and before she could do anything, Bliss was dancing her around the room in a wild careening waltz. Maressa tried to pull her hands away but they were spinning so fast, just like they had done as girls.
“Blissy, no,” she tried, but ended up laughing too hard to get the words out.
They whirled and spun until finally Bliss let go and Maressa stumbled back and fell onto the couch. Bliss dropped into the big wing chair and wrapped her arms around her sides, still laughing.
“Mari’s got a boyfriend, Mari’s got a boyfriend,” Bliss sang out and Maressa sat up.
“You can’t call me that. You can’t call me Mari. What if someone heard you?”
Bliss sat up, too. “It’s okay, Maressa, relax. That was long ago. Nobody will be looking for us now. No one knows our names, no one knows we even exist. It’s been years.”
Maressa closed her eyes and sagged back against the cushions.
“I can’t relax, Bliss. We can’t relax. We have to stay careful, keep our heads down, and stay out of trouble. No one can ever know.”
“But—”
“Bliss,” she sighed and her sister quieted.
“Yeah, I get it. I guess I was so happy to see you happy that I didn’t think. And I’ve got all the trouble I can handle just getting ready for finals. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too.”
Maressa was sorrier than her sister would ever know. Bliss stretched and went down the hall to her room and Maressa curled up on the sofa. She wouldn’t be able to sleep yet in any case.
Maressa felt a pang of sadness at the tired look on Bliss’s face. She had tried so hard to make a normal life for her sister after their wild midnight dash to escape the man who had killed Bliss’s father and Maressa’s beloved stepfather. Now she wasn’t so sure she had succeeded. She was proud of how far they had come from the two scared girls riding a bus across state lines, but they had a long way to go yet before she could even consider applying the word “normal” to their lives.
In fact, if she really thought about the events of tonight, the attack outside the bar had startled her far less than being kissed senseless by a hot guy, and that was a sad state for any twenty-nine-year-old woman to admit to.
At one time, as a carefree college student, she had been fun and experimental. Her life had changed in a heartbeat when she had witnessed her stepfather’s murder.
While the murderer had been occupied with searching the body, Maressa had crept up the back stairs. She had grabbed her tip jar full of cash, bundled a sleepy teenaged Bliss into her warmest coat, and dragged her through yards and gardens in a heart-pounding run until they could board the first bus for anywhere. Two days later, exhausted and hungry, they were far from Chicago and Maressa was applying for a job at Todd’s bar.
Maressa knew that her stepfather had been involved in a very serious business deal at the time of his murder, something very secret. She had no family to run to, no adults she could trust to take care of Bliss. Too many of their neighbors were her father’s business associates, and Maressa had no idea why he had been targeted. She wasn’t taking any chances with Bliss’s life.
As a precocious nine-year-old, Maressa had been enchanted with newborn Beatrice from the start. Running home from school to see the huge smile of Bliss’s face just for her was always the highlight of Maressa’s day.
That brilliant smile still was the highlight of her day, she thought, but that time would soon be ending. Bliss had almost finished her degree, and she would probably want to move out and be on her own.
Maressa sighed and laid her head on the pillow. If Bliss wanted that, Maressa would find a way to cope, but just the thought made her sad. Her life was changing again, and there was nothing she could do but stand back and watch.
Chapter 2
Ives walked into the bar the following night just after it opened. He wanted to talk to Todd about security before Maressa started work.
The first thing he saw was Maressa sitting at a table with the police officer related to Todd sitting far too close to her. Ives didn’t like the surge of black jealousy that clawed and grabbed him by the throat. With a deep burning in his gut, he started forward.
It was more than obvious that the policeman wanted her. He didn’t look at her like he would look at a case. He was far too focused on her. She wasn’t a random victim to him at all. To Ives’s mind, there wasn’t a man on the planet who wouldn’t want her, but she wasn’t encouraging the man’s interest.
Ives’s beast settled a little at that realization and his steps slowed. For whatever reason, Maressa wasn’t looking at the policeman as a man, the way she had looked at him last night. He would kill to have her, and if she looked at any other man with that hint of surprise under the pleasure in her eyes, he just might have to. But not tonight.
In the moments it took to reach their table, he had calmed enough that he wasn’t in imminent danger of assaulting an officer.
When Maressa noticed him standing there, her eyelashes fluttered and her cheeks flushed a beautiful pink.
That was welcome enough for him. He pulled out a chair and sat.
* * * *
Maressa couldn’t quite relax while speaking to Don. She was supposed to be off work and home sleeping, but she was so jumpy she couldn’t sit still. Bliss was trying to study for an exam and Maressa was driving her sister crazy, pacing and cleaning in their little apartment, so she finally gave up and went back to the bar.
Todd wouldn’t let her work, but Don had arrived and she had jumped at the chance to distract herself from thoughts of Ives by talking about
the events of last night and going over her statement.
She didn’t know why, maybe it was the French accent or that lean athletic body, but Ives was the sexiest man she had ever met. One kiss and he was all she could think about.
Last night she had tossed and turned, her body burning for more of his incendiary touch. She had never reacted that way to a man before, even her long-ago boyfriend who thought he was the hottest thing ever. If she was honest, she was a little put out that Ives could walk away so easily.
Then he was beside her and her body responded with a flash of heat that burned in her cheeks and made her thighs clench on a rush of wetness.
She frowned at her reaction, but she couldn’t get control of it. When he pulled out a chair and sat close beside her, the warmth of his skin made her want to melt into his arms and never leave.
She noticed distantly that his head was much higher than hers. Beside her two oversized attackers last night, he hadn’t looked very tall, but he was still a lot bigger than she was, and his hard-muscled frame looked like the perfect resting place after a long hard…day.
He was so gorgeously male that she couldn’t help but fantasize about squeezing and biting those perfect pecs.
“Is that how you remember it, Maressa?”
The use of her name pulled her out of her little fantasy. She flushed and turned her wandering attention back to Don.
Don’s eyes flashed to Ives and back to her. She tried a smile but it fell flat. She didn’t want to hurt Don’s feelings, but she couldn’t keep her attention on him with Ives sitting beside her. It was impossible.
She looked at Ives and his slow hot smile made her female parts flutter with need. He looked at her like she was the sexiest woman on the face of the earth and her body reacted by melting like lava.
Ives couldn’t possibly know where her thoughts had wandered, there was no way, but somehow some part of her was sure that he knew. She wanted him in a way that was new to her, body demanding and almost out of control.
Don cleared his throat.
“Maybe I should come back later,” he said, looking at Ives again.
Maressa pulled herself together.
“Thanks for all your help, Don. I really appreciate it.”
“Sure,” he said and stood. “I’ll drive back around when the bar closes, just to make sure you aren’t being pressured by some other guy tonight.” He laughed a little, but his eyes were hard on Ives.
Maressa struggled for an answer that wouldn’t give away her growing need for the silent man beside her. She didn’t want Don to feel bad, but any attention from Ives would be more than welcome. In fact, the way she was feeling, she would have to be careful not to pressure him.
After Don left, Maressa sighed and finally turned to Ives.
“Your name is not on the schedule to work today,” Ives said.
“Then why are you here?” she asked, and then realized that it sounded like she thought he would only ever come to the bar for her. The words made it sound like she thought he was focused on her alone, like he was stalking her or something and she didn’t want him to think she was thinking it. “I didn’t mean—”
“I understand. I was going to come to your house later to see you. I needed to be sure you were not suffering because of last night.”
She twisted her hands together to keep from reaching for him. She was suffering, but not in the way he meant. Her body was a mass of contradictory sensations and heated wishes, and he was the cause.
“But first, I was about to speak with Todd concerning security matters here at the bar.”
She rolled her eyes before she could censor the action.
“Todd is all about security,” Maressa said. “He’s already strict and he’s already going crazy about last night. Don’t encourage him.”
“You could say that after last night? You were about to be attacked. You might have died in that alley and we would not be having this conversation.”
Maressa bristled at his tone. “I could have handled them,” she said, and then wondered if it was true. “Maybe.”
“Not without injury to yourself.” His white teeth snapped together. “They were twisted up with lust and violence and the stench off them was enough to sicken me. They are the kind of men who would have enjoyed causing you pain. They wanted to do so.”
“They didn’t get the chance.”
“And that is why they are still alive.” His eyes reflected the light oddly.
Maressa pursed her lips. “You have a very primitive idea of justice. You would have them die for jumping a woman?”
“You. I would execute them for hunting you, for targeting you.” He pushed a hand through his thick hair. “No, I will be honest and that word is too clean for what I would do. I would tear them up until their families could not identify the pieces. I would annihilate them and wipe their foulness from the earth. It would be a duty and a pleasure. The world does not need such men.”
His eyeteeth gleamed like pointed fangs in the low light.
Maressa should have been afraid at his blatant statement, his aggressive tone and posture, but something in her gloried in the fierceness of his declaration.
She had escaped terror once before with her younger sister in tow and for many years she had been both caregiver and protector. She had grown into the role, until she was used to it, but sometimes she just wanted to let down her guard for a moment and enjoy life. She wanted to stop searching every shadow for a threat if only someone else would stand guard for a while.
Her deep need frightened her and she squared her shoulders.
“You’ve got the wrong idea about me. I don’t just sit around waiting to be rescued. I have a life and I can defend myself if I have to.”
“I see that in you. I even admire it, but you should not have to. If a woman cannot walk down the street alone in safety then warriors are failing in a fundamental way,” he said and against her will, her heart melted.
She dared to lay a hand on his arm. The muscle was rock hard under her palm.
“I didn’t have to defend myself last night. You were there,” she said. “You were there.” She couldn’t quite understand it.
His warm hand covered hers and lifted it to his mouth for a lingering kiss. She was trapped by the power of his gaze and by the feelings crashing inside her.
“I want to always be there for you.”
He touched her hand, only that, but her whole body flushed and yearned for him.
His eyes glowed from within, a blue so dark it was almost black.
What was he? Surely no normal man could make her crave hot sweaty sex with just one touch? She didn’t think of it even once on a normal day. She was just too busy and too tired by the end of the day to have the energy left for fantasy.
But there was something about him, how he focused all his attention on her. Or perhaps that slow sideways grin that suggested that he was a man who liked women, who liked sex in all its varied forms that boosted her libido into overload.
He wasn’t a muscle-bound gym rat. He was lean and strong and the most masculine man she had ever met. She couldn’t begin to explain why her nerve endings rioted in his presence.
He was gorgeous, features clean and strong and elegant, but there was nothing feminine about him, and it made her feel more feminine in a way that was unfamiliar.
She tried to back off, to analyze what was happening to her, but his lips were full and firm on her hand and the brushing of his mouth over her knuckles caused a tiny shiver of desire to run straight up her spine. He turned her hand over and studied it.
“I thought of you last night,” he whispered into the palm of her hand and the sentiment was echoed in her heart. She felt the connection between them like a living presence, tiny, newborn, but there.
She didn’t want to confess, but the words were forced from her soul.
“I did, too. I couldn’t get any sleep.”
The admission shocked her, scared her, but beneath it was a glo
wing warmth that she couldn’t fight. It might not amount to anything in the long run, but there was some chemical bond linking them together.
He smiled and put her hand to his cheek. He was a strong man asking for her affection, and she couldn’t withhold it any longer. She stroked his cheek and leaned closer to rest her head on his shoulder for a moment.
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes and she pulled away again. It touched her, reached too deep inside too soon and she didn’t know how to handle it.
“You are beautiful,” he said.
“I’m not.” She wasn’t. She never had been. He only thought she was because she was the only woman in the bar so there was no comparison right now.
His low laugh made her realize that she had spoken those words aloud and she pulled back, embarrassed.
He took her hand again, pressed it to his chest. Maressa felt the heat of his body, the hard beat of his heart.
“If you were any more beautiful to me, my heart would stop.”
She could feel its deep steady rhythm calling to her. She wanted to feel that rhythm inside her body, wanted to lie down for him and pull him to cover her. The thought sent a thrill down her spine.
“Maressa.” His deep voice and killer accent made her name sound gorgeous, sensual. “I do not want you to have any mistaken beliefs about how I feel. It is not some random woman I want.”
He wanted her. He had practically come out and said so and her stomach jumped in excitement.
“I could walk into a room filled with women and find you with my eyes shut. I could find you by scent or by touch or by sight. I could find you by the way your pulse speeds up when I stroke your cheek. If you open your eyes, I think you will see that I speak the truth when I say that everything about you is beautiful to me.”
“The truth to you,” she said in protest.
“Exactly. It is the truth to me.”
His words were absolute, and a little spark in her soul believed. He certainly made her feel beautiful, a feeling she had long forgotten, if she had ever felt it before. She had dated through college, had some experience, but there was no comparison between Ives and the college boys she had known. He was a man in the best sense of the word, and she found that she hardly recognized herself around him. He was different from anyone she had ever met.
