Enthralled

by Lora Leigh

  There was a reason why Breeds hid in Europe now. A reason why they were loath to allow their government to know who they were, or where they were.

  Because there were those who had come out of the facilities so changed, so traumatized that they simply were not the same. And none of them could remember what had caused the trauma to their minds, or why they may have forgotten certain passages of time during their stay.

  That was what awaited her if Devil had her removed from Lobo’s protection. She would be without resources, and unable to reach her family. A sitting duck, so to speak, for those determined to destroy her.

  “No, Katie, I’m certain Devil doesn’t mean any harm,” Khileen argued behind her as they reached the house. “Maybe he just likes you. I bet as a little Breed he pulled the pretty little Breed girls’ ponytails just to get their attention.”

  “Stop defending him,” Katie demanded. “I’ll deal with him myself rather than following his example by going to others.”

  “He’s in his study. I saw him go there earlier,” Khileen informed her with all apparent helpfulness as she headed into the house. “He might have mentioned paperwork at breakfast this morning.”

  She had missed breakfast, Katie thought furiously, because she’d been up half the night aching for a man who didn’t even care that she had no place else to run to.

  “Well, be careful,” Khileen advised as Katie strode angrily toward the hall leading to Devil and Reever’s offices. “He has a mean bite, I hear.”

  “Well so do I.” Especially since she’d begun allowing her fangs to grow and shape correctly after the news of her genetics had been revealed.

  She was only barely aware of Khileen stepping back as she neared Devil’s office. She’d finished focusing on her friend. Nothing mattered now but the man who was becoming a threat to her existence and the need burning inside her that was threatening her control.

  This couldn’t continue. She could easily stay the hell away from him if her arousal offended him. It would hurt, but her family’s safety was more important. If she were taken and forced into the testing facilities, then her parents would do anything to have her released. No matter what it did to their lives or their safety.

  And that she simply couldn’t allow.

  Her own safety aside, she refused to see her family threatened because some damned Breed male was offended by her lust for him.

  A lust he caused.

  She wouldn’t have it.

  * * *

  How did it go?” Cassandra Sinclair opened the door to her guest suite to allow Khileen Langer into the room.

  She was one of the few women Cassie had met that she actually identified with. Perhaps it was the black hair, blue eyes and similar features.

  They could have passed for family members.

  Khileen was also generous natured and loving, though, attributes Cassie found she herself didn’t possess in quite the same quantity.

  “Just as you said it would.” Smiling, Khileen propped her delicate hands on her hips as she braced her legs apart.

  Dressed in jodhpurs, a cool white sleeveless top and riding boots, the other girl looked ready to enjoy a day riding across the desert. In no way did she look the part she played so often, that of Cassie’s confidante, and one of a few rare friends. But, Cassie had found, Khileen tended to give in to the same lovingly placed manipulations and gentle nudges that Cassie herself often found hard to resist.

  “Excellent.” Cassie moved to her desk where she shifted through several papers until she found the small wireless mic and receiver she’d hidden there earlier.

  Flipping the antenna down to connect with her father, she waited until he answered the call.

  “Cassie?” There was concern in his voice. It was rare that he didn’t worry whenever Cassie convinced him to accompany her on one of her little “adventures.”

  “When is your meeting with Mr. Reever?” she asked him.

  “I’m waiting outside on the patio attached to his office,” he answered her, the growl in his tone attesting to his irritation.

  “Keep him out of the office. Ms. O’Sullivan is at the Devil’s doorstep at the moment.”

  “You have to be related to Jonas Wyatt,” he all but snarled.

  “Well, he did help a bit in raising me,” she reminded him with a fond smile. “And you know, I’m prone to adapt to certain instruction quite well.”

  There were many instances when she’d been forced to stay at the Lion Breed compound in Virginia while her parents fought to ensure her and her brother’s safety over the years.

  “Don’t remind me,” he retorted, though she could both hear and feel the love he held for her. “Lobo isn’t so happy at the moment, either, that we’re questioning his protection of this girl.”

  “As long as we get the desired results, then he’ll be okay with it later,” she promised.

  If they didn’t accomplish what she had come here to do, then there would be problems. It was those problems that had convinced her father to do as she asked.

  “Let’s hope,” he grunted. “I have to go, he’s stepping into the office.”

  They disconnected.

  Turning back to Khileen, she saw the other girl watching her, a frown tugging at her brow.

  “Do you ever get tired, Cassie?” she asked softly, with far more compassion than Cassie thought she had the right to.

  “Tired?”

  “Of trying so hard to hide from what you’re trying to hide from?”

  “And what do you think I’m trying to hide from?” She had to force the amusement and unconcern into her tone. What had this woman seen that no other ever had?

  “Yourself,” Khileen answered softly, surprising her. “You’re hiding from yourself, Cassie. I was just wondering if you were tired of it yet.”

  Khileen turned and left the room then, not bothering to wait for an answer. It was a good thing, Cassie thought, because she didn’t have one.

  FOUR

  Devil narrowed his eyes on the young woman that stepped into his office before closing the door with careful emphasis behind her.

  The long spiral red curls that fell around her head and down her lithe, toned body should have reminded him far too much of Lobo’s stepdaughter for the reaction that immediately knifed through his body.

  He’d never had a sexual interest in Khileen, no matter her harmless flirtation at times. If only he could feel the same brotherly affection toward her Irish friend.

  Emerald eyes flashed with fiery anger, immediately rousing the animal instincts that surged through him. As though all the human and animal dominant qualities he possessed were immediately awakened, his body tightened, tautened until he was all but jumping from his chair and dragging her to the floor to fuck them both into exhaustion.

  And doing so wouldn’t take a lot of effort. Push the gauzy little skirt she wore over her hips, tear what was sure to be sexy, silken panties from her body—all could be accomplished in less than a second. In the next heartbeat, he could be buried, full length, inside her.

  “Why do you dislike me?” Delicate hands curved over her hips defiantly as she glared across the room at him. “What have I ever done to you to make you want to see me dead?”

  His brow lifted. “Little girl, if I wanted to see you dead, it would be easy enough to accomplish,” he informed her.

  Dead wasn’t exactly what he wanted, and that was what pissed him off.

  “Little girl?” her eyes widened then narrowed suspiciously. “Are you so terrified of seeing me as a woman that you can’t even acknowledge the fact that I am one?”

  Bingo. Give the girl a prize for getting the answer on the first try.

  But he snorted instead before resuming his seat behind the wide desk scattered with files and reports.

  “Why don’t you go plan a party or a shopping trip with Khileen,” he suggested, injecting just enough mockery in his tone to piss her off further. “The adults on this ranch have to actually work.”r />
  That was a little low, he admitted, but God help him, he had to get her out of his office before his cock managed to burst past his zipper and the instincts driving him to possess her overcame his determination not to.

  Shifting the files around, he picked one from the desk, any one, he wasn’t even certain what he was staring at, waiting for her to leave.

  Instead, her scent moved closer.

  “Why are you allowing Lobo Reever to know that you’re displeased over his decision to allow me to stay here?”

  She stomped to the desk, but she didn’t stop at the front of it as she should have. Hell no, she moved right beside it.

  Her pretty hands braced against the top of the desk within his sight, her delicate, oval nails drawing his gaze.

  “You haven’t answered me,” she reminded him.

  “I don’t owe you any answers.” But he laid the file aside before leaning back in his chair and staring back up at her. “You should leave this office now.”

  “Should I?” she snapped. “Not before I know what your problem is.”

  She wanted to know what his problem was? Did she really want to know?”

  Before he could stop himself, before she could avoid him, he came out of his chair in a surge of motion, gripped her arm and jerked her to him before wrapping his arm below her ass and lifting her to the table.

  In the space of a second he had her legs spread, the denim covered length of his cock pressing against her sex as he leaned closer, and he was slowly forcing her to lean back on the desk.

  “This is why,” he snapped, staring into her widening, darkening gaze. “Because all I can think about is fucking you. That makes you a danger to this ranch and everyone in it.”

  “No, it makes you a danger.” She had to force the words past her lips.

  “But I’m not just visiting,” he reminded her. “You are.”

  Her lips parted to argue, to say more; rather than allowing her to do so, he shut her up in the only manner at his disposal.

  His lips covered hers.

  His tongue pushed past her lips, tangled with hers, and the swollen heat that filled it began to throb, pulse and fill both of them with a heady, spicy taste.

  What the fuck—

  It was supposed to be a rumor.

  The swollen tongue and the earthy spice of a mating aphrodisiac that filled the kiss—

  The inability to stay away, to resist the taste he could give them both, the pleasure that could be had—

  Fuck.

  Shock filled him, wrapped around his senses, but did little to dim the flames searing his flesh and the hunger raging between them. Nothing else mattered. Nothing mattered but touching her, feeling her, holding her to him with his hands and the addictive taste of his kiss.

  And she did like that taste of their kiss.

  Her lips surrounded his tongue with each stroke between them as he mimicked the act he was desperate for.

  Groaning under his kiss, crying out with each taste of the mating hormone spilling onto her tongue, she met his hunger with her own, then forced the flames higher.

  And only then, as his tongue pressed against hers, daring her to take a deeper taste of him, did he realize that the addictive taste of spicy heat wasn’t just coming from him, but from this too delicate, far too tempting little Breed as well.

  Leaning into her, feeling her slender knees grip his hips, nothing began to matter but touching more of her. Of jerking her top over her head and ridding her soft flesh of it.

  Tasting her again, and tasting more of her. Kissing her deeper, harder, locking her to him in ways that would ensure she never attempted to escape.

  As though reading his intent, her arms lifted from his shoulders just long enough for him to pull the top over her head and toss it somewhere beyond them.

  God, was he really going to fuck her here? On his desk?

  Could he think of any better place and time than here and now?

  Jerking back from her, breaking the rising hunger of his kiss, Devil stared down at her, shocked at his own actions, his own thoughts.

  He’d never, not at any time, taken a woman without first ensuring both their comfort and their pleasure.

  “Please.” The soft plea that fell from her lips stopped him from pulling away from her.

  Breathing roughly, forcefully, Devil stared into the darkening green of her eyes and her flushed, pleasure-filled expression before he allowed his gaze to drop to the lace-covered, hard-tipped curves of her breasts.

  God, what was he doing?

  Smoothing along the side of her body, his hand moved to where her skirt had fallen back from her flesh to pool at her hips. Once there, he did the unthinkable. Did exactly what he was certain he could keep himself from doing.

  His fingers curled into the lace band of her panties and pulled them down her thighs.

  The scent of her feminine flesh tore past his veil of control and left him helpless against the hunger clouding his brain.

  Easing his body back, forcing his hips from the soft flesh of her pussy, he pulled the panties from her legs before dropping them to the floor. He hooked his arm beneath her back and eased her upward into his embrace.

  “You shouldn’t have come here.” The groan surprised him, the words tearing unbidden from him.

  Loosening the snap of the bra at her back, he eased the straps down her arms before dropping it, forgotten, to the floor as well.

  “This is why you want me to leave,” she accused him, staring back at him with hurt, emerald eyes.

  God yes, this was exactly why he wanted her to leave. Because he couldn’t keep his damned hands off her.

  “Fucking dangerous,” he groaned, lowering his lips to her shoulder and licking the fragrant flesh there.

  Damn, she tasted good. So fucking good.

  It was all he could do to keep from raking his teeth across that tender flesh, from marking it, staking his claim in a way no man or Breed could mistake.

  Licking, kissing his way down as he laid her back along the desk, Devil came to the firm, rising mounds of her breasts, to the ripe, pebble-hard tips of her nipples.

  He couldn’t resist them.

  He didn’t want to resist them.

  And he was within a second of tasting them—

  “Hey, Devil, you in there?”

  * * *

  Katie froze.

  Her eyes flew open, her gaze meeting Devil’s as horror began to wash over her.

  What was she doing?

  “Just a minute, Graeme,” he called back, his body taut, tight with lust as he seemed poised on an edge of control and teetering her way.

  “This is important, Dev,” the faceless Graeme called back. “One of the mares is acting freaky and there’s some dude out here asking about some Irish girl. Have you seen an Irish girl?” Just enough mockery filled his voice to assure them that Graeme had denied knowledge of her but was concerned.

  Who the hell was Graeme?

  Devil jerked away from her as though it had taken the last measure of strength he had. And in the next breath he was lifting her from the desk.

  “Get dressed,” he ordered, his voice low. “Get to your room. Don’t let anyone outside the house see you and don’t make any calls until I find you.”

  Katie nodded, though she doubted he saw her as he quickly straightened his clothes before striding to the door.

  Jerking it open, Devil stepped into the hall, opening the door no farther than necessary as she quickly dressed. Seconds later, Katie slipped out as well and raced to the guest room she’d been given.

  Stepping inside, she could see that the curtains had been drawn, blocking so much as a hint of the late afternoon sun or anyone brave enough, or lucky enough, to get a view.

  Closing the door behind her, Katie curled into the large wingback chair next to the door, wrapped her arms across her breasts and stared into the darkness of the room.

  Would this be her life from now on? Running? Hiding? Always search
ing for safety and never being certain it existed?

  She couldn’t imagine such a life for herself. Because that life would mean leaving the Reever ranch and leaving the Breed whose eyes seemed to stare straight to her soul and whose touch could make her forget everything but her need for him.

  She’d never known a connection to another person as she felt with this Breed. She had never wanted to be with another person, not just sexually, but just near him, as she did with Devil.

  For the first time since she’d learned exactly what she was and how she had come to be, Katie began to regret it. Because the very fact of her creation could very well be exactly why Devil was fighting the desire between them so hard.

  Perhaps he simply didn’t want a woman whose life, whose very existence came with the kind of problems that hers would come with. He could want a nice, normal woman who would present no problems and no additional dangers to his own existence.

  She could understand that.

  The hell she could.

  No nice, normal woman could ever tolerate a Breed male. They were arrogant, dominant, forceful, and so damned aggravating they made a woman want to kill at times. She knew exactly what they were like. She’d been dealing with them since she was sixteen years old during her first training year with the Breed Security Network.

  Breed males were always certain they were right. They rarely, no, they never, at any time accepted that a woman, whether she was Breed or human, could survive without a male’s protection, and they were prone to prove it in a variety of ways.

  They were peculiar, particular and perverse.

  And she had a very bad feeling she might well be falling in love with one.

  * * *

  Graeme, secure the grounds,” Devil ordered quietly as he watched the Jeep rumble from view, the high-range camera mounted on the top pointing back at the grounds.

  It had been pointing forward when the vehicle stopped at the gates.

  “They’re secured,” he answered, and Devil knew if Graeme said they were secured, then they were damned well secured.

  The Lion Breed was one of the few recessive Breeds Devil had known with actual Breed traits. He’d arrived six months before with nothing more than a change of clothes in a small pack, a knife and a sense of security weaknesses that had immediately found favor on the estate.