by Eva Chase
CHAPTER 2
Ren
I WOKE up with a muddy feeling behind my eyes and velvety fabric against my cheek. Neither of those sensations felt right.
Blinking, I rubbed my forehead. The room around me came into focus. It still didn’t make much sense.
I was lying on a four-poster bed in an elegantly decorated bedroom. Thin sunlight drifted in past the brocade curtains on either side of a wide window. The bedframe, as well as the dresser and the vanity by the walls, looked like mahogany, polished to a shine. Gold flower patterns glinted on the mint-green wallpaper.
The bedspread under me was actually velvet. The soft pile darkened under the pressure of my hands as I pushed myself upright. A sweet lilac scent drifted up from it.
Sweet. The memory rushed up of the arms catching me, the cloth over my nose and mouth. My pulse stuttered. I touched my face as if I could pull that moment out of my past. Make it not have happened.
But it had happened. Someone had grabbed me and knocked me out. And brought me here, wherever here was. Apparently my kidnapper had a lot of money and a decadent taste in furnishings.
I patted my pockets. My phone was gone. At least my clothes were all still on and in order. I didn’t feel any unexpected aches or pains. No reason to think I’d been manhandled other than that initial assault.
At least so far. Who knew what my kidnapper had planned for me next?
Muscles tensed, I pushed myself off the bed. The window appeared to be at the front of the house. It looked out over a suburban street. A wide lawn led down to the road, and a large Victorian home stood on the far side, maybe a hundred feet away. There was another house in view to the left, beyond a thick hedge. I didn’t see anyone moving in their windows or outside, but the sun had just risen over the horizon. I might get a chance to yell for help later.
In the meantime, I treaded across the floorboards to the vanity, looking for a letter opener or hairpin or anything else reasonably stabby. The drawers revealed only pots and tubes of various makeup powders and creams, a brush and a comb, and a mirror in a silver case that was smaller than my palm.
Footsteps sounded outside the door. My hand stuffed the mirror in my pocket automatically. Spend a few years thieving and it becomes an impulse. I shoved the drawer closed and backed toward the window.
The doorknob turned. There was no click of a key or scrape of a deadbolt. I hesitated despite my thudding heart. The door hadn’t even been locked? I hadn’t bothered to check, I’d been so sure it would be.
The door glided open. A guy I’d never seen before strolled into the room. I was sure of that, because if I had seen him before, even years ago, I definitely would have remembered him. He was the most gorgeous human being I’d ever set eyes on.
A sleekly muscular body, at least a few inches taller than my five-foot-nine, filled out his fitted dress shirt and slacks. His face was sleek too, with deep indigo-blue eyes and a topping of spiky black hair. The only feature that marred its perfect symmetry was a small scar that nicked his left eyebrow, but somehow that only made him look more perfect. An earring gleamed in his right earlobe—a tiny sapphire stud that matched his eyes.
He stopped a couple steps into the room and offered me a crooked grin. A flutter raced through my chest.
Holy hell. I’d been knocked out and carted off into some stranger’s house. This was not the time for melting panties, Ren.
And yet they were melting. My heart was still thumping, but it wasn’t entirely fear now. The quiver running through my nerves felt more like eager anticipation.
What the hell was wrong with me?
And was it my imagination, or was the guy staring back at me just as avidly?
“Welcome to my home,” he said in a jaunty, melodic voice. “I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. I promise you, kidnapping isn’t my usual style. I was hoping to speak with you in your own territory. My assistant got a little... overenthusiastic.”
He cut a glance toward the doorway. I had seen the guy standing there before. It was Cheekbones, from the bar. My shoulders stiffened.
But after all his swaggering in the bar, he now looked totally deflated. He shuffled over the room’s threshold and dropped to his knees, bowing his head.
“I am so sorry. I overstepped.”
“By a huge margin,” the first guy said dryly.
“By a huge margin,” Cheekbones leapt to agree. “It was completely my fault. I wasn’t even supposed to talk to you. I— Again, I’m sorry.”
“All right,” his boss said with a flick of his hand. “Get going. I’m sure she doesn’t want to see your face any more than she has to. You can get started with your new job.” He turned back to me with that slanted smile. “I’ve assigned him to cleaning duty for a month, which seemed to make sense, considering what a mess he made of things.”
“I’m confused,” I said. “I— So you didn’t mean to kidnap me?” It was a little hard to wrap my head around that idea.
“Like I said, not my style. I’d have told Leonard to bring you back to your home if I’d known where that was. Since I didn’t”—he motioned to the room—“I tried to make you as comfortable as possible in the meantime.”
He hadn’t come any closer, still giving me plenty of space. But he was standing between me and the doorway. I wet my lips.
“So, if I wanted to, I could go home right now?”
The guy’s eyebrows lifted. “Well, of course. Be my guest to stop being my guest.” He sidestepped to open the way to the door. “We’re only a half hour from Brooklyn, and there’s a train station a ten minute walk down the street. But maybe you’ll consider accepting my hospitality for a little longer, now that you’re here and all? I’ve been waiting a very long time to get the chance to talk to you.”
I’d already crossed half the room. At that comment, my body froze up. I stared at him. “What do you mean? You said that before: that you wanted to talk to me. Talk to me about what? Who are you? Why were you—and your ‘assistant’—poking around in my life at all?”
“Let’s take those one at a time, starting with the simplest. My name is Marco. Pleased to meet you.” He dipped his head in a playful half bow. “I’d like to talk to you about pretty much everything, but maybe starting with what you’ve been doing for the last sixteen years. And do you really have no idea why I’d be interested?”
Marco said the last bit lightly, but his indigo gaze held mine intently. That shiver of anticipation ran through my nerves again. Randomly I found myself wondering what one of those agile hands would feel like tracing over my skin—
Okay, Ren, mind out of the gutter. You’ve known this guy exactly five minutes, and you can’t even be sure this whole kidnapping thing was really accidental.
Other than the fact that I believed him, right down in the core of me, for reasons I couldn’t explain. He wouldn’t lie to me, my gut said. How the hell could I know that?
None of those reactions answered his question, though. “No,” I said. “I haven’t got a clue. This isn’t some kind of birthday prank that Kylie set up, is it?” It seemed awfully elaborate—and freaky—even for her.
Marco shook his head. “No. Definitely not a prank. I’m just trying to make things right.”
“With me? But I’ve never met you before. I’ve never even seen you before.”
“Haven’t we met? Your name is Serenity, isn’t it?”
I hadn’t thought I could tense up any more than I already was. It turned out I was wrong. My back went completely rigid.
No one used that name. No one had used it except my mother, in the quietest whispers when I was sick or drifting off to sleep, in as long as I could remember.
“My name is Ren,” I said. My voice came out in a rasp.
“Short for Serenity,” Marco said. “You don’t need to hide it with me. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Why would he say that? My thoughts were spinning. I pressed my hand to my forehead. Marco stepped toward me.
His expression softened. As I dropped my hand, he raised his to touch my cheek. My pulse hiccupped, but with the urge to lean into his touch, not to pull away. My skin tingled beneath his fingers. A rich, spicy smell like cinnamon-spiked coffee wafted off of him. Delicious. My gaze dropped to his mouth.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “What did she do to you, my Princess of Flames?” he murmured. “How has she shut you away?”
“No one shut me away,” I said. “I’m right here. Who are you talking about?”
“Your mother. It had to be her. To protect you, of course, but—”
I jerked back, my eyes widening. “What do you know about my mother? How do you know anything about her?”
Marco looked just as startled by my outburst as I felt. “You could say we ran in the same circles a long time ago. I’ve been looking for her just as much as you.”
The hope that had started to bubble up inside me burst. “Then you don’t know where she is now.”
He frowned. “No. Don’t you? Ren, I think you’d better—” He drew in a sharp breath and summoned his earlier jaunty tone. “I’m being a horrible host. All this talk over breakfast time and not offering you a single thing to eat. I’ll bring something up for you. Why don’t you take a moment to clear your head? It seems we have more to talk about than I realized.”
He lifted my hand to give it a peck on the back. The brush of his lips left my skin burning. Then he swept out of the room without waiting for my response.
CHAPTER 3
Marco
LEONARD, the idiot, was hanging around in the hall. “What are you doing?” I snarled as I strode past him. “I told you to get started on your cleaning detail.”
He hurried after me, looking bewildered. “I thought you were joking about that, Marco.”
“Oh, really?” I spun on him at the top of the staircase. “Did you also think I was joking when I reamed you out for going up to my friend in there and trying to investigate on your own? Not to mention dragging her out here against her will? Or did that part, at least, sink in?”
Leonard cringed. With anyone else, he would have blustered back, but I knew he was a coward at heart. He crumbled in the face of a stronger authority.
Unfortunately I hadn’t been around to exert that authority last night. Track the source of the magic as closely as possible, I’d told him. I’ll take over from there when I make it up from North Carolina. Apparently those instructions hadn’t been clear enough. My New York lieutenant had gotten it into his head that I’d be impressed if he brought the girl in on his own. Because kidnapping was obviously the perfect way to rebuild the trust that had been so brutally lost.
But she didn’t seem to remember there was anything to rebuild. She’d responded to me—I’d caught her reaction, that immediate draw toward one’s mate. The same thing I’d felt the second I’d laid eyes on her. And, God, what a beauty of a mate I had. The smell of her, sweet and tart at the same time, when I’d leaned close to her... It’d taken all my self-control not to lower my lips to hers, to find out if she tasted just as good.
She wasn’t ready for that. She wasn’t ready for any of this. Her body had responded, but her confusion had been genuine. She didn’t even recognize what I was, and I was pretty sure she didn’t know what she was either. My Princess of Flames, without a clue she was anything other than an ordinary human being. You couldn’t get much more absurd than that.
And now I had to try to explain it to her on top of justifying my lieutenant’s unfortunate kidnapping tendencies.
I glowered at Leonard a little more, but really, the fault was at least half mine for picking him for the job.
“The other alphas will be on their way,” I said. “They could arrive any minute. So now that you know I’m not joking, please find a lamp to dust or a toilet to scrub.”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.” Leonard bobbed his head and loped away. Maybe he could learn. I didn’t enjoy hearing my underlings simper, but it was better than them running around half-cocked—and fucking up the most important moment in my life so far.
I headed downstairs, picking up the scent of frying sausages and scrambled eggs from the kitchen. Lindy, who took care of this house during the long periods when I was situated elsewhere, had known we were going to need breakfast even if I’d forgotten. She was sharp enough that she’d probably already made enough for guests.
Under the sounds of sizzling oil and a spatula tapping the pans, a creaking reached my feline-sharp ears. I stopped, turning my head to zero in on the noise.
The back parlor. Someone was trying to jimmy open the window from outside.
First kidnapping and then breaking and entering. This really was shaping up to be a fantastic day. I sucked in a breath.
“Leonard!” I shouted, making for the front hall. “I’ve got another job for you after all.”
Ren
What did she do to you, my Princess of Flames? How has she shut you away?
Marco’s words echoed in my head. I leaned it into my hands where I was sitting on the edge of the bed. My mind hadn’t stopped reeling since he’d walked out the door. Which he’d left open, so I guessed I was allowed to leave if I wanted to. I just didn’t see how I could when there were so many questions I needed answered now.
How had he known my mother? Why did he think he knew me? How had he found out my full name? What was so important that he’d tracked me down—that his “assistant” had thought it was worth kidnapping me over?
Why did I feel the urge to walk into his arms every second I was near him?
A yelp from outside broke through my whirling thoughts. There was a thump and a grunt, sounds of a struggle. I was already on my feet hurrying to the window when a familiar chirpy voice, hardened with anger, carried through the glass.
“Let me go! And you’d better let Ren go too. I know you took her in there. You freaking assholes. I called the police! They’ll be here any time now.”
Kylie. What was she doing here? I dashed the rest of the way to the window.
Kylie’s neon pink pixie cut flashed in the brightening sunlight. Marco’s assistant Leonard had tackled her to the ground with her arms pinned behind her back. She squirmed against him, still yelling threats and insults even though her face was pressed against the grass. Marco stood over the two of them. His mouth moved, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying to Leonard.
A chill washed over me. Marco had claimed the kidnapping was accidental, but he did at least hire guys who thought that kind of behavior was a-okay. What if he hurt Kylie—or worse?
I yanked up the window and kicked out the screen. Then, in a blink, I’d leapt onto the ledge and vaulted myself out into the air.
The wind rushed past me with the exhilaration a good jump always brought. Like a surge of power I could almost grasp hold of before it slipped through my fingers. My body hunched over, braced for impact. I hit the ground with a thunk that rattled my bones but didn’t break any. I’d done worse.
When I scrambled to my feet, Marco was staring at me with those intoxicating indigo eyes. He glanced from me to the window and back again. Then he laughed. “If you wanted to come down, I do have a perfectly good staircase.”
I ignored the quip. Leonard had frozen to watch what was going on, but he still had Kylie jammed against the lawn. “Don’t hurt her,” I said. “Let her go. She’s my best friend.”
Marco arched an eyebrow at me. “I caught your best friend attempting to break into my home.”
“Because I caught you dragging Ren off to do who knows what to her,” Kylie snapped back. She managed to tip her head at an angle so she could meet my eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. Physically speaking, at least. Emotionally... My confusion had faded behind that sharp scrabbling feeling in my chest, which was getting stronger every second Kylie lay pinned on the ground. Leonard was only following orders. I
glared at Marco. “I said, Let her go. She was only trying to help me. You can’t blame her for that.”
Something shifted in his eyes as he gazed back at me. A deeper heat than before collected between my legs. It really wasn’t fair that this dude could make my panties melt with just one look, even when I was totally pissed off at him.
At least he listened. He raised his hand. “Leonard, that’s enough.”
He spoke smoothly and evenly, but his assistant jerked back as if Marco had barked the order. Kylie shoved herself upright, swiping at the bits of grass clinging to her tank top and bleached cutoffs. The second she was on her feet, she grabbed me in a hug. I squeezed her back, feeling steady for the first time since I’d woken up.
The sensation didn’t last. Marco cleared his throat. “Can I ask your friend exactly how she found us?”
Kylie drew back, but she kept one arm slung around me protectively. She was half a foot shorter than me and wiry besides that, but I knew how fiercely she could fight if she had to.
“I was coming to the bar to meet up with Ren,” she said. “And I saw your guy here stuffing her in the back of a car. She was obviously unconscious. He drove off before I caught up, but I got the license plate. From there...” Her lips curled into a smirk. “Let’s just say I know people who know how to get into the right databases. And traffic cams are awesome.”
Marco’s gaze flicked to the traffic lights at the end of the long suburban block. He shook his head, looking almost amused. Kylie really did know people—lots of people. Pretty much anything you needed, she could find someone who could do it. She’d racked up a lot of favors over the years.
Believe me, I don’t even like most of ‘em, she’d said to me one time, halfway through a bottle of cheap wine. But it’s better getting in with people and knowing how far you can trust ‘em than never knowing what they might be up to.
