She raised her arm again and quietly rapped her knuckles against the wood.
No answer.
He was probably sleeping.
She hadn’t seen Dante since he left her room. Since Dante had healed her sore nipples and she had been able to get dressed, she had gone downstairs to join the vampires in their meal earlier. When she had arrived, she’d found herself a little nervous to face him since he had sucked on her bare breasts, but then she’d been a little relieved when the others explained he had gone to do some work in his office.
She should probably be nervous now, but the desire to sleep had won the battle over nerves.
Phoenix tried the knob and was a little surprised when it turned. For some reason, she’d thought it would have been locked.
She poked her head in and whispered, “Dante,” as his familiar smell washed over her.
When there was no response, she tiptoed in the room, using the small amount of light from his clock radio. She called out his name again, so she wouldn’t startle him as she shut the door behind her. But when she got close to his bed, she saw it wouldn’t have mattered. It was empty. She turned on the lamp next to his bed and looked around. He wasn’t in the room at all.
She briefly considered trying to find him, but the compound was large, and she just plain old didn’t feel like it. Instead, she walked into his closet and rummaged around his clothes until she found what she wanted—a basic white T-shirt.
She put it up to her nose and inhaled. It smelled of detergent, and even though it was clean, she could still detect Dante’s cinnamon scent. This was exactly what she needed. A small part of her realized that she should focus on why she needed it, but she was too tired to care.
She shucked off her jeans and sweater, threw them into the corner of the closet, and pulled the T-shirt over her head. It reached mid-thigh on her, covering way more than that stupid nightgown had, and she smiled.
Next, after she left the closet, she circled Dante’s bed, trying to figure out which side he slept on and which side he didn’t, but it looked like he was a whole bed sleeper, going by the rumpled covers. She turned off the lamp, and then—in a move she would probably be shocked by tomorrow but was too weary to consider right now—she drew back the covers and slid under the side farthest from the door, bathroom, and closet.
She rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in the pillow, breathing in Dante’s comforting cinnamon scent. Within thirty seconds, she was out like a light and dead to the world.
Dante glanced up at the clock and threw his pen on the desk. If he wanted to be functional at all when night fell, he had better get some sleep before then. He hadn’t slept much the last few days. He had promised Vance Llewelyn that the Guardians would take the night shift, so the cats could put more men out during the day to look for Gerald, and they wouldn’t have to split up.
Dante stacked the papers he had in his hands into a straight pile off to the side and pushed his chair back with a sigh. He knew he was dragging his feet, but he had to face Phoenix sooner or later.
The more he had sat in his office and thought about it, the more he’d wondered if she’d be uncomfortable around him. Yes, she had been the one to ask him to use his saliva to heal her wounds, but he felt like he still should have said no.
He stood, pushed his chair under his desk, and turned the light off at the door. He exited, closed the door behind him, and took his time going to his room. Despite the quietness in the air, he expected Phoenix to jump out at him and tell him he was an asshole.
When he reached the top of the stairs leading to the bedrooms, he saw Phoenix’s door was shut. He considered knocking to see if she was okay, but he couldn’t see any light coming from underneath her door. It would be best to talk to her after she had gotten some sleep.
He snorted at himself. He was turning into a pussy...over a pussy...cat.
He laughed out loud at his lame joke. It was official. He needed to get some sleep. He was overtired and overthinking. Instead of turning toward Phoenix’s door, he took a right.
He definitely needed sleep. First, he felt like he was being watched. Ridiculous since he was in the compound and surrounded by security. Then, he swore he smelled Phoenix as he walked toward his room, but it didn’t make sense.
Now, I’m going crazy. “Dante, quit thinking about Phoenix and go to bed,” he told himself.
He opened his door, and the scent of sunshine got stronger. Yep, undeniably crazy.
He closed his bedroom door, but he didn’t bother turning on any lights. He hadn’t changed the layout in all the years that he’d lived here, and he knew where everything was. He entered his closet long enough to strip off all his clothes and throw them in his hamper.
He got into bed, closed his eyes, and settled down to sleep when he felt movement beside him.
What the hell?
He slid his hand over and up onto what was obviously a female hip. He leaned toward her and inhaled. “Phoenix?”
“Mmm...” was the only response he got. She moved closer to him, and the next second, the rhythmic sound of deep breathing followed.
Well, that explained why he’d smelled her. At least he wasn’t crazy.
He looked over at Phoenix’s outline. And that solved the problem of whether or not she was uncomfortable around him.
Lexine Harlow watched Dante’s room from the crack in her doorway, stunned. She didn’t understand why he liked that shifter. Lexine didn’t have a personal problem with shifters in general. It was just this particular one. She dressed like a homeless man and had a surly attitude.
What does Dante see in her?
Lexine had seen the way that he looked at the female. Something she had never seen when he looked at her.
Lexine watched for a few more minutes, waiting for Dante to kick Phoenix out at any second. When it was apparent that it wasn’t going to happen, she closed her bedroom door and leaned back against it. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her racing thoughts.
She was hurt, angry, and shocked all at once. Lexine had been in love with Dante for five years. Five years, she had tried to gain his attention. Five years, she had waited in the shadows while he fed and fucked other females, and she never said anything.
Lexine never felt threatened by the other females, despite the rumors she’d heard. Dante never acted cocky or bragged, but Lexine had heard things. She’d heard from more than one female that Dante fucked like a god and was hung like a horse.
But since he had never brought these girls home to the compound, Lexine hadn’t pushed for more. She had been biding her time until he’d realize that he was supposed to be with her.
Now, some shifter female he’d known for less than a month was in his room. In his bed.
Why? Why is life so unfair?
She was a good vampire. She was a great Guardian.
She deserved to be with Dante.
Suddenly, Lexine felt like she couldn’t breathe. She sprinted from her room as silently as possible, so as not to wake anyone else. She wanted to go outside and run until her lungs burned, but since it was daylight, she went to the basement and headed for the workout room. As she walked, she pulled her blonde hair into a ponytail.
As she rounded the corner, she ran into Sterling.
“Oomph.”
Sterling reached out to steady her, his gray eyes filled with concern. “Lexine, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. What are you doing up?”
He shrugged and whipped the sweat off his short tan hair. “Couldn’t sleep. You?”
“What?”
He raised his brow.
“Oh. Yeah, I couldn’t sleep either.” She stepped around him. “Excuse me.”
“Lexine?”
She turned and noticed that Sterling had the concerned look on his face again.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
She was so upset and brimming with emotions that she considered telling Sterling everything, but she hadn�
��t even told her twin brother, and he was the one she was closest to. She opened her mouth, but the only thing that came out was, “Yeah. Nothing that a little workout won’t fix.”
Sterling nodded and left Lexine alone.
Alone with nothing but her stupid broken heart.
Chapter Twelve
KENZIE PUSHED THE oven door closed with her hip as she set the baking sheet on the counter. With nothing else to do around the house, simply waiting for her brother to come home, she had decided to do a little baking. She had lucked out that her brother had all the ingredients she needed to make chocolate chip cookies. She guessed she had Anna to thank for that.
Sawyer was downstairs in the basement, shooting pool alone. She had played against him earlier, but he’d beaten her twice, and that was when she’d decided she was done. Clearly, his memory loss had not affected his pool-playing skills.
Kenzie moved the hot cookies to the cooling rack and then placed the next batch on the baking sheet before shoving it in the oven. While she waited for the cookies to cool, she went into the living room. It’s a Wonderful Life was on TV since it was the time of year to play Christmas movies. She perched on the arm of the couch since she planned to get up again once the timer went off.
The movie was just getting to the part where George realized that he wanted to live again. She wondered what her life would be like if she experienced an alternate reality like George, like maybe one where her mother hadn’t died. Perhaps her life would have gone in a different direction.
Then, her thoughts turned to Sawyer. Vaughn had once told her that something had happened to Sawyer when he was younger to make him the way he was. Vaughn had never told her what Sawyer had gone through, saying it was Sawyer’s story to tell. Obviously, Sawyer wasn’t talking. She had to wonder if Sawyer’s life would have been better or worse if he hadn’t experienced whatever he went through when he was younger that made him hate humans so much.
Kenzie straightened her spine. “Oh my God.” Alternate reality.
She didn’t need to wonder what it would be like for him to experience it. They were experiencing it...right now. Sawyer had no idea what had happened to him in the past. This Sawyer was basically what Sawyer would have been like if things had gone differently for him.
Instead of It’s a Wonderful Life though, Sawyer and she were more like that movie, The Family Man, with Nicolas Cage. Unlike when James Stewart’s character, George, got to go back to his happy family in the end, Kenzie would be like Nicolas Cage’s character, Jack, where he got to see what it would be like to have a family, but in the end, he had to go back to being all alone.
Would Jack have been happier never knowing what it would have been like to get married to his college girlfriend? Or was he grateful that he’d had the chance to know how things could have been different? Going by the fact that he hunted down his old girlfriend at the end of The Family Man, Kenzie assumed the latter.
Sawyer was never going to change. He was always going to dislike her simply for being a human, but if she were honest with herself, she would admit that she wished things could be different.
Sawyer’s amnesia was her metaphoric guardian angel. This was the only opportunity she was ever going to get to be with Sawyer, and even if it only lasted for one day, at least she wouldn’t have sat back and wasted it. Yeah, he might hate her once he regained his memory, but the Memory Sawyer already did, so she would be no worse off there.
As long as she protected her heart, everything would go back to the way it was before. She would just tell him, no bite marks and no actual sleeping together. This would only be about sex.
Kenzie shot off the couch, quickly turned off the oven in the kitchen, and marched down the basement stairs. When she reached the bottom, she saw Sawyer sinking a ball into a corner pocket.
He was graceful, a beautiful specimen of a man, and a strip of skin showed between his T-shirt and jeans.
She wanted to lick it.
She headed for him, full of determination.
Sawyer noticed her and uncurled from the pool table. “Hey, Kenzie. Are you—”
He stopped talking and watched her arm sweep the remaining balls, including the cue ball, into the pool table pockets.
“What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she stalked toward him with one purpose.
“I wasn’t done—”
She cut him off by grabbing his shirt and pulling him down, so she could kiss him.
Sawyer stood frozen for a second before throwing the pool cue aside, growling, and reaching for her.
After that, things went crazy.
As if Sawyer were afraid she would change her mind, he grabbed and attacked her like a caveman. He gripped her ponytail and tilted her head, so he could take her mouth at the angle he wanted.
It was silly because she had been scared that he might change his mind, too. She had been fighting him off for the last few days, and now that she had decided to have sex with him, she had been afraid he wouldn’t want her anymore.
Sawyer yanked his shirt off so fast that she barely felt his mouth leave hers before it was back again. He unzipped her sweatshirt and pushed it off her shoulders before jerking her T-shirt over her head.
She wasn’t wearing a bra, and when the cold air hit her breasts, her nipples puckered. Sawyer’s frantic actions slowed as he dragged both hands down her body. After gently circling her nipples, he continued down her abdomen, and when he reached her pants, the caveman was back. He literally ripped the yoga pants right off of her. He wrenched the front down, and the seams gave away at the sides. Knowing how eager he was only fueled Kenzie’s desire.
Now with her being completely naked, Sawyer picked her up and set her on the edge of the pool table. The cold of the wood shocked her bare ass, but only for a second because Sawyer flicked open his jeans, and his beautiful cock popped out. Long, thick, and ready.
Sawyer seized her hair again and wrapped it around his hand. She thought he was going to kiss her, but he didn’t lean toward her. Instead, he pulled her head back to expose her throat. She had to put her hands down on the table behind her, so she wouldn’t fall over. From the new angle, all she could view was his face and upper chest, and not being able to see what was going to happen next was freaking hot.
With his free hand, he boosted her butt just enough to bring her closer to him, pushed his way in between her thighs, and then—holy fucking shit!—Sawyer was inside her.
Just knowing that she was finally having sex with him turned her on so much that she thought she was going to come, and they’d barely even started.
She tried to bring a hand up to touch him.
“Arms down,” Sawyer commanded as he pounded inside her.
She tried to move her eyes down.
“No. Just feel me,” he said, giving her a couple of extra hard strokes before he resumed his previous rhythm.
Kenzie closed her eyes and simply felt. She would listen to him this time, but next time, she was going to touch him all over. And on the tail of those two thoughts, she came. And came. Her orgasm seemed to go on forever.
When her senses began to return to normal, she noticed that Sawyer had stopped moving.
She opened her eyes, and Sawyer tilted his head down until he looked into her eyes.
“Are you ready?”
“Ready for what?” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
“For me to come inside you and make this pussy mine.”
She moaned and tightened around him.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
He lifted her off the table, and at first, she was confused. Then, he brought one knee up and laid her down with him over her.
With a hand still in her hair, he kissed her again as his thrusts became more wild. He pulled back, and she was excited that she was going to get to watch this man come. She wanted to see him break apart as he came inside her. She was getting wet again from just thinking about it.
Right b
efore he reached this climax, he tilted her head to the side and bit her shoulder.
She didn’t get to see him orgasm as she shattered around him again so hard that she was pretty sure she also now had amnesia.
Kenzie picked up her clothes from where they were scattered on the basement floor. She put on her shirt and sweatshirt, but when she got to the yoga pants, she held them up in the air. “You owe Anna new pants.”
Sawyer pulled his T-shirt down over his head and turned around to look at her. “Who’s Anna?”
“My brother’s girlfriend,” she said, letting her arm fall to her side.
Without the pants in between them, Sawyer’s eyes dropped to the nude bottom half of her body. His eyes hooded, he stalked toward her. He yanked the article of clothing out of her hand and threw them to the side. He wrapped an arm around her, drawing her close. “I will buy her a dozen pants if I get to be inside you again.”
Kenzie sucked in a breath. She was already primed to go, even after two orgasms.
But they needed to discuss some things first.
She put her hands on his chest to try to create some distance. “I would like that to happen again, too. But no more biting my neck and no sleeping together. Actual sleeping.”
His brows drew together. “What?”
“You heard me.”
Sawyer sighed. “Okay, I will go along with the first one, but what if I want to take you in the middle of the night?”
“Then, you can wait until morning.”
He gave her a we’ll-see-about-that look but didn’t say no. “Whatever you say.”
“Thank you. Now, we’d better go upstairs. I left some cookies in the oven, and I need to find some new clothes.”
“You can just stay naked.”
This time, she gave him a we’ll-see-about-that look.
He shrugged. “What? A guy can dream, can’t he?”
Chapter Thirteen
KENZIE SHOVED SAWYER’S arm off her waist, exited the bed, and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. After the water was warm, she climbed inside.
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