“I’m doomed, I think I should become a nun,” I smiled trying to lighten the mood.
“We’re both going to hell, but at least we will be there together,” Larissa said grinning.
“Not anytime soon though,” I joked halfheartedly.
If we didn’t catch this killer, it might be sooner than later.
Twenty Two
The next few days were difficult, but we’d managed to settle into a routine of sorts. My coven worked out in the morning together as we always had, while Ryder and his men disappeared to wherever it was they went to during the days.
Communications were short and kept to a minimum. I trained with Ryder and Zahruk who seemed to be his second in command. I’d even managed to hold a tea cup in the correct way. Who knew there was an actual right way to hold a flimsy little china cup? Today, I was being instructed on how to dance. By Ryder himself.
Ryder had said to pick out something suitable to dance in, so I was relieved when Larissa showed up holding an ice blue dress and shoes. It was backless and soft, not something I would normally wear, but I was limited on choices. I slipped into it and stared at my bare feet.
I slipped on the matching shoes and decided to leave my hair down and slapped on some light make-up. Zahruk knocked and opened the door and nodded, before offering his arm so we could head to the room in which we’d be dancing in.
Adrian had never wanted to dance, the other night couldn’t be considered since all I had done was move my feet while he had held me. I’d been too stunned to do much more than that. I just had to train for one more night and then I’d been promised we’d be allowed out, even if only for a few hours. Adam and Larissa had both begged to go to the Guild’s Samhain party.
I peeked around Zahruk’s wide shoulders to watch as several couples twirled around the dance floor. Surprisingly Adam and Larissa were one of those couples. I smiled as I watched them glide smoothly to the music and wondered how I could have missed the relationship. They looked happy together, complete.
“Coming in, or do you plan on hiding behind me all day?” Zahruk said with a wide grin that lit all the way to his vivid blue eyes.
“I don’t dance—not like that anyways,” I mumbled looking around the faces, stopping when I realized I was looking for Ryder.
I stepped forward into the room and everyone stopped as the music halted. Zahruk herded me towards a set of chairs that had been set up. I was told to take a seat and watch. Easier said than done as Claire and Ryder came in smiling together from where I had just entered the room myself.
Ryder was dressed in the casual clothes he normally preferred, white long sleeve shirt with low slung jeans. His hair was wet as if he’d just come from a shower, his eyes flickered to me briefly before going back to Claire’s perfect chocolate depths.
Claire gave me a haughty look before she said something to Ryder as he allowed her to curl up against him and the music started up. I swallowed down the foreign feelings that rushed up and fought to control my mind. Why should I feel anything if Ryder had his mistress in his arms and they were currently dancing slowly to music?
I bit my lip and looked away from the happy couple to the door as more of Ryder’s men walked in wearing white T-shirts and jeans. Muscles and tattoos pulsing against their bulging bronzed perfection showing through them. I almost bit my lip off as Adrian and Vlad walked in close behind them.
What the hell were they doing here? I sunk lower in my chair trying to become one with it. No such luck. Adrian walked over and sat beside me as Ryder detangled himself from Claire’s clutches, leveling a glare on us.
“We need to talk Fancy Face,” Adrian said without looking at me, as he watched the couples still dancing.
“No we don’t.”
“I need to explain why I did this, so you can make peace with it,” he continued.
I watched as Ryder’s men gathered in a corner pulling out folding chairs and sitting in them, some were straddling them while others pulled out two and sat in one while kicking their feet up. Were they expecting a show? Great, more people to witness my disgrace.
I watched as Ryder came over and held out his hand while Claire did the same to Adrian. I stood meeting Adrian’s turquoise gaze while I accepted Ryder’s hand and allowed him to pull me across the floor to stand between some of the couples that had paused for us to join in. He placed his hand on the small of my back. His other held my hand as we waited for the song start. We didn’t have long to wait.
The music started even as the butterflies played with my insides, his eyes locked with mine as the song started up slowly. David Cook’s The Time Of My Life came on, the music filling the room around us. I stumbled when he moved and apologized until I caught the smile on his lips. “I can’t dance Ryder. You never said anything about dancing when I signed the contract.”
“Take off your shoes,” he countered, already releasing me and bending over to take his own footwear off. I watched him as others did the same and eventually I ignored the brilliant blush that crept up to my cheeks and did the same, stepping out of the borrowed strappy heels.
Ryder smiled and I stared at him, he was shockingly beautiful and ethereal. Like a lion, you wanted to touch him but knew by doing so he’d consume you, body and soul. I swallowed and held my hand up for him to take it.
“Put your feet on mine Synthia,” he said quietly, aware that everyone was watching us.
I exhaled and obeyed him, knowing his men were watching us, as well as my coven. When the song restarted he carried us both, his hand once again on the small of my back. Rubbing it softly as his fingers settled against it. My heart raced from his touch, the deep desire in his eyes made it flip-flop as he swept me around the room until everyone else faded away, leaving us alone inside the room.
I smiled as I looked down to see our feet together. Nervous at being so close to him and doing something I had only ever done with my father. It had been the last thing we’d ever done together. But with Ryder, it was intimate, sending heat flooding through me. I looked back up with the smile still in place to catch him staring openly in wonder at me. “What?” I asked growing self-conscious.
“You’re very beautiful Syn,” he whispered tenderly.
I swallowed and tried to repay the compliment but thought better of it and lowered my eyes. The butterflies had left, but in their place were a million reasons screaming that I should be running, that I was treading on dangerous ground with him. When I looked back up he was frowning softly as he watched the emotions playing upon my face.
“Not used to getting compliments, are you?” He said moving us closer together until my body was completely flushed with his.
“No,” I replied honestly.
“I scare you Syn, make you feel things you’re afraid of admitting to yourself.”
I met his eyes and refused to answer him. He already knew I was turned on by his touch and I wasn’t going to draw it out for him. I lowered my eyes and then turned them over to where Adrian was dancing with Claire. “Why is he here?”
“Because they will be attending the Engagement Ball and we can use all the help we can get right now to keep Arianna safe. I won’t take chances with her.”
“Where is she? If you guys are getting married I’d think you’d be dying to be together already. I know I would be….well with…” I was tripping over my tongue and his amused smile told me he was enjoying it, “If it were me Ryder, I’d want to be with you.” I watched his smile fade and then I replayed what I had just said. “That came out wrong.”
“I’d want you close as well Synthia,” he whispered close to my ear. “Maybe I should ditch her and take my chances with you.”
“That wasn’t how I meant it at all,” I squeaked even as he smiled wider.
“And what if I did?” He asked still smiling.
“Well then I would say you are crazy.” I asked and watched his smile fade away to the normal wicked grin.
“You think someone would have to be crazy to wa
nt you?”
“Well, you yes. Because you don’t like me remember? I’m sarcastic and stubborn and those are just a few of the things you don’t like about me, I should start a list—to keep track.” I said softly.
He did the last thing I expected him to do. He threw his head back and laughed while still moving us around the dance floor without missing a step. I had to remind myself to breathe. Smiling was one thing but watching this man laugh took years off of his face and replaced him with a rogue who was irresistible and his laughter was contagious.
Everyone inside the room was watching us closely. Those who had been dancing had moved from the dance floor, the song had also changed and yet I’d been too wrapped up in Ryder to notice anything. His touch and the sound of his laughter had instantly made my body flood with heat, it was unacceptable.
He growled seductively, pulling me out of the panic before I could get too deep in to worrying about it. His eyes narrowed on me, his body pressing further against me. “Come with me tomorrow night Synthia,” he said huskily.
“Where?” I asked even though I shouldn’t have. I would have been attending the Witch Guild event tomorrow if I hadn’t been under contract. I’d cleared it for Larissa and Adam to go since I had no reason to keep them from attending the only holiday the Guild celebrated.
“An event my club is throwing, just something small,” he replied smoothly but his grin had come back with blinding affects.
“Posing as Arianna?”
“No Syn, as yourself.”
I narrowed my eyes on him carefully thinking over everything he had said. I had to be missing something. “Why would you want me to come as myself?”
He narrowed his eyes, his lips drawn back from his lips. I was walking in uncharted territory here. He’d never really been kind to me, hell we weren’t even friends, more like enemies with slightly twisted benefits. He could choose from any woman he wanted and he was choosing me? Or maybe I was reading too much into this, maybe he wanted to take me somewhere private and kill me. It was the more likely scenario.
He leaned in close again, his hot breath fanning on the hollow column of my neck before lifting to my ear to whisper. “You’re doing it again, over thinking, over analyzing everything. My club in action would better prepare you for the ball. It’s a win, win situation Syn.”
I shivered as his lips pressed against my ear as he inhaled deeply before moving back to where I could read his face. “No tricks?”
He smiled, but it was all teeth, “No tricks, just us, being who we truly are.”
“No using your powers on me,” I swallowed with the memory of how they felt.
“Not unless you ask me to and then I won’t hold back.”
I blinked and made a mental note to under no circumstances ask him to use them. I tilted my head thinking of what else I needed to ask but I was coming up blank. “This is for research only.”
“No Syn, this is to get you to let go. You keep struggling to control everything around you. It’s impossible. Well, unless you’re me. Think you can handle that? One night of letting loose, just being yourself and not this tough shell you show off to everyone else?”
“I’m not a shell and I don’t try to control everything,” I narrowed my eyes, “Okay, so maybe I do try to control things. The unknown can get people killed Ryder, if I lose control people die in my line of work.”
His lips turned down as his eyes narrowed, “Mine too, I still allow myself one night to—well one night to let loose and be myself.”
He’d hesitated, Ryder never hesitated. “If you tell me when you will end the contract between us, it doesn’t have to be a date, but it has to be a time frame Ryder. If you can give me that, then I will give you one night of just being myself.”
He tilted his dark head and stopped dancing. I stepped off his feet and watched him as he held out his hand to shake on it. Or so I thought until he gripped my hand and brought it palm up to place a gentle kiss in the soft flesh, “It’s a deal.”
Oh sweet baby Jesus, what the hell had I just agreed to do? The blood in my body was draining to one place and it was as good of excuse to use as any. When I was around Ryder, I spoke gibberish and my brain was located in my neither region. I had to get away from him and fast, before I did something I would live to regret. You didn’t sleep with a man like Ryder and walk away the same woman you had been before. If I gave in, things would change inside of me, forever.
I turned in time to watch Adrian storm from the room, Adam following close on his heels. Larissa stood silently watching them leave as I did. Ryder’s men closed in around us and I wondered at what I had just missed.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Glorious mind fuck, she’s addictive. It makes my mind go to places that it hasn’t even fathomed before. She denies me, while denying herself. She’s growing weak. I can feel as she trembles against me, her walls coming down slowly even as she struggles to keep them up. The scent of her need makes me want to pull back the delicate petals of her flower and devour it, consume it, fuck it.
She’s a drug, a virus in my system that needs to be eradicated. Nothing about her makes sense, she’s a walking contradiction. She isn’t what they say she is. I’m old enough to know the difference. See the difference. Yet, unable as I am to figure her out—or why her blood calls to me—why? Why should it? If she is what they say she is, the only thing that should respond to her is my cock and yet my mind is on her. Every. Fucking. Minute.
When she came to my room, glorious with need I wanted to take her, make her need my cock more than she needed to breathe and yet I couldn’t. I want her to come to me of her own accord—strange for me, as I take what I want without guilt. Without remorse.
She isn’t human, not even fucking close. It’s driving me crazy inside trying to figure out what she is. I can feel her hunger, as if something is struggling to get out from under her skin. I can smell her need, raw and unmasked with a desire so fucking hot it makes my cock throb to be buried in her sweetness.
I smell her need, sweet and addictive. She’s young, her mind works differently than my own, I need to fuck her—hard. She needs to validate why she should, stupid. Fucking just is, but I don’t think fucking her would be the same as Claire and she was simply food. Syn wouldn’t be, she’d be so much more. I can feel the draw, her body calling to mine as animals do in heat. I’d fuck her like an animal, raw, hot and fucking hard.
She made me lose control—again. She shook my hardened exterior and made me want her, impossible feat for someone of my age and hers. It shouldn’t have happened, wasn’t in my plans. She wasn’t in my fucking plans. And yet when I am alone, the only thing I see in my head is her, listening to the hungry noises she made while she dry fucked my cock.
Those red fucking full lips, hard to miss when she speaks, the glorious fucking things they could do—will do. I want to fill her, slow, deliberate, deep, her juices sliding me in further, her spine aching from the fullness of my cock and she succumbs to it until she can take no more, oh but she will, she will take it all, filling her thirsty need to fuck. The electric blue fire that lights in her eyes, I want to watch it as it takes me, feeding my beast, I want to feel her swollen flesh pulsing around mine as she comes for me over and over again, hear those fucking noises as she explodes on my cock.
Maybe I should drain the life from her, watch it recede from her eyes and end this before it goes further. She’s an unknown, unpredictable and yet something inside of her is struggling to grow and I find myself wanting to cage her just to watch her fucking struggle and overcome it. She’s a puzzle box and I want to take her apart and watch as she puts the pieces back one by one until she is whole again. Why does she draw me in? I’ve been with thousands of women and wanted to keep none.
None of them drew me like she does. She’s quicksand and I am treading into it, quickly. Maybe it’s the brand above the worthless one on her neck, maybe it has clues to what she is, or why she attracts. She doesn’t even know it’s there
. Fucking puzzle box. Addicting.
I want to hold her hands above her head and feed her inch after glorious fucking inch of my cock, watch her eyes as she takes me inside her body hungrily, greedily. Her mouth opening to gasp, as she makes those sweet intoxicating sounds that drive me insane with the need to turn from noises to screaming as I fuck her until she trembles and gives me what I want—her unrefined lust. She’d be magnificent in hunger, wild and unimaginable. She is making me violent with lust, unfed Fae—fuck! I shouldn’t be feeling anything for her, I’m here for one reason and one reason alone. She thinks I’m less than I am. I’m so much fucking more. Deadly is an understatement, when I reveal what I am—this world will never be the same again.
I almost had her, her eyes watching me as I fucked Claire, she wanted to be her, wanted me to use her soft supple body instead to slake my unending hunger on. It took everything I had to keep the beast from going after her as she tore from the room, scared, fucking scent flooding my mind. Claire didn’t even satisfy. She left me cold, unsatisfied, useless flesh that takes any of my men anytime. She’d been convenient before, not anymore.
Syn is scared. She should be fucking terrified. I want her and nothing will stop me now. Not even her newly risen love, if he gets in the way he will really go to his grave, I own him now. Another fucking pawn, on my growing board. His supposed death broke her, I intend to pick up those pieces and use them to get inside her beautiful fucked up mind.
She knows there is something different about me, but she’s smart enough to keep it to herself. Smart, because I’d have to snuff her out before she’s had a chance to live. Living, she hasn’t even fucking begun to live. She’s so locked in her fucking past that she doesn’t even see the way everyone watches her. She’s as clueless as Arianna, who will never become anything more than a fucking means to an end.
Tomorrow night, mmm she has no fucking clue, but tomorrow she will be mine if only for the night. It won’t be enough to sate the hunger I feel inside for her, but it will be enough to brand her skin and mark her as my own. Then no one can question who she belongs to. She’s mine. And I will have her in every fucking way possible, until she becomes a problem. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Until then, I plan to take her until she only knows one name—mine.
Fighting Destiny Page 20
