I squealed as I stared into striking navy blue eyes. Black—black!—fucking curls dangling in sexy disarray around his face. A very recognizable, gorgeous as hell face. Another damn face I had known in 2035, appearing almost identical really, to the man I had eaten breakfast with.
“Elder Merrick,” I squeaked, squirming away from him as quickly as I could, even as he froze, the blanket hardly hanging over his bare hips. His enormous chest was muscled, stomach ripped, with a smattering of sexy black hair across his pecs. His massive biceps froze over his head as he stretched. I slapped a hand over my mouth to cut the squeal off, falling, then thumping down onto the floor next the bed. “I thought your hair was blue! I thought it was fucking blue in the club! Maybe green.”
I panted, my heartbeat racing. Going to my hands and knees, quickly crawling on the standard beige carpeting, my eyes darting, searching for my clothes.
Slow words from the bed. “Blue or green?” He didn’t question that I knew who he was, which was a no-brainer to anyone who paid attention to previous Rulers, especially ones who led fucking vicious wars. “Why would…?” he trailed off. The sheet rustled, and it moved in my peripheral as I crawled quickly to the end of the bed. I grabbed the first shirt I found, not caring that it was not mine. I threw it over my head in a hurry, feeling his power, his Shifter power probing, testing me, the sandpaper feel rubbing over me roughly before disappearing. The shirt was damn enormous on me. When I stood, seeing him sitting frozen on the bed, face carefully blank, eyes hooded, at least I was covered. He stated very carefully, “I can’t feel your power.”
My lips thinned as cold, navy eyes intricately began scanning my face. “I really did think your hair was blue or green.”
He flicked an absent finger, but the movement was jerky. “I know you’re not lying.” He waited a few beats, staring hard. “Your hair’s black.”
I inhaled heavily, glancing around the room for my stuff. “It’s spelled.” I picked up my pants from the floor, my own movements choppy. “I’m Elemental,” I waved a shaky hand at him, quickly looking away when I saw his eyes flare in aggression, “and you, are so obviously not.” I ran a shaky hand over my face, then bent picking up my panties and bra, trembling a bit, wondering if I was going to die right now from this man…fuck, the man who had tasted and felt so fucking good from what I could remember of the previous evening.
Silence was precarious for a few beats before he practically bellowed, “Fucking hell!”
He tossed the blanket off himself, and I quickly averted my gaze, but it only landed on a red streak on the white sheet. Probably where we had landed last night after our bout. I saw from the corner of my eye his own gaze landing, and freezing, there.
I sucked in a harsh breath, and quickly bent, trying my best to ignore the fact that Elder Merrick—Elder-fucking-Merrick!—had taken my damn virginity, the evidence clearly visible. I grabbed my shirt and purse.
‘Shower,” I mumbled hastily, glancing around the room for a bathroom, knowing I needed to get his scent off me since I didn’t remember him using a condom. A Shifter’s sexual fluids leaving their animals—their own—scent behind. “I need to take a shower.”
He broke from his frozen state, and his massively built frame bent. He started jamming his legs down into his own black pants, jabbing a finger behind me, his voice gruff. “Behind you.”
I inhaled shakily, and turned to hurry into the bathroom, dropping his shirt outside the door once I had privacy. Quickly, but thoroughly, I used the hotel products, nothing of his personal items, to scrub my skin in a scalding hot shower.
My head hurt even worse, and the clothes I put on smelled of alcohol and smoke.
Finger combing my hair, I tried to calm myself. Putting my purse over my shoulder, I stepped back into the room barefoot, only needing to grab my socks and boots. I needed to get the hell out of here before he changed his mind, and decided to kill me, since he so obviously wasn’t for mixed-faction relations, his reaction more than telling.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, still only wearing his black wool expensive pants, elbows on his knees, running his hands through his spiral black curls, but cool, navy blue eyes peered up, trapping me. He inhaled heavily, staring for a few beats, again his gaze running over my face in an unhurried assessment. Tilting his head to the desk, he stated quietly, his voice a cool, deep rumble, “I wrote my number down for you. If you find yourself pregnant, call me immediately.”
Biting my lip, I nodded, moving to the desk and putting the paper into my purse before grabbing my socks and boots off the floor. He stood, holding a hand out to stop me before peeking outside his bedroom door. He watched through the crack, motioning for me to come over. I stood next to him, waiting, hearing someone moving around out there, and absurdly, and completely inappropriately, through my shock and dazed state, I felt a tiny fire kindle low in my gut as warmth radiated off his body.
I stared at his tense, muscled frame while he peered out the door, his pants hanging sexily on his lean hips, his rippled abs flexing the barest bit as he pivoted silently, watching whoever it was outside the door move about. The thin black line of hair starting at his navel disappeared down into the depths of his pants, my thoughts reminding me just how damn enormous he had been inside me.
Inhaling sharply, I physically shook my head against the quiet onslaught of unfathomable sexual tension building inside me. With a soothing breath in, I glanced way the hell up when I didn’t hear anyone out there anymore. My lips instantly thinned, seeing him staring down at me silently, his lids hooding his gaze.
Too late, he had gone completely still.
He could probably smell me, my arousal…for him.
Gradually, a black brow quirked.
Blessedly, he didn’t say anything.
After another moment, he opened the door wide for me.
I ducked under his arm—his bulging bicep—and glanced slowly about the room, a living room, listening closely, trying to ignore the heat probing my back. A quick assessment told me whoever had been out here, the friend he was sharing the suite with, was in what was probably a bedroom across the living room. I moved on silently trained feet, moving quickly through the room, but I paused when the noise got louder from the other room. I instantly twisted in a flurry, swiftly placing my back to a dividing wall between the front door and small kitchen area, able to hide my smaller frame when I heard the door start to crack open.
Elder Merrick’s eyes quickly averted from me, where he leaned casually against his doorframe, arms crossed, even as he crossed one ankle over another.
“Oh, you’re up!” And…I recognized that voice now that I knew the association. It was Elder Jacobs. Christ, could it get any damn worse? “Good, I was worried I was going to have to wake you. Check-outs in a half hour.” Which meant it was 10.00. “And if you’re wondering, since you disappeared last night after I asked you to stay, all four seemed to be getting along well. I think the Kings’ mandates they spend the weekends together is paying off.”
I kept my breathing shallow, not making a sound, realizing instantly he was talking about the Prodigies, and that Elder Jacobs had been spying on them last night.
“That’s an improvement,” Elder Merrick stated, his voice still gravelly, speaking calmly. If I hadn’t been so drunk last night, and he hadn’t been so drunk last night, slurring as he had been, I probably would have recognized his voice immediately.
I heard a thumping sound, like Elder Jacobs was tapping his doorframe, his voice slightly clipped. “Which, you would have seen for yourself, if you would have stayed.”
Elder Merrick grunted. “You got me drunk.”
“Which I thought would keep you around to help me watch them, but instead, you disappeared.” A pause. “Your overnight guest is gone, isn’t she?”
My lips thinned, and I saw Elder Merricks eyes narrow a bit. “You were spying on me, too?”
“No.” A bored, but slightly humored tone. “Once I came back after seeing they were doing fine together…well, it’s not like these walls are made of steel.” A pause. “Christ, she had a pair of lungs on her.” As my cheeks flamed bright pink, he mumbled, “I guess I should be grateful it wasn’t fucking animal sounds this time. I remember a particularly…lovely…woman, a cougar Shifter, that you were with that one time—”
He cut him off. “I don’t need the reminder, thank you.” Black brows rose. “Unless you want me to recap when you were with that one water Elemental a few years back.”
“That’s not necessary.” His tone was disgusted. “Fuck, I didn’t need that aide-mémoire. It’s like it’s scarred permanently in my mind, anyway.” He made a huffing shaking sound, and Elder Merricks lips twitched. “At any rate, like I said, check-outs in a half hour.”
It sounded like his door started to close, but it stopped abruptly, and sounding annoyed, he asked, “How much is torn up? It’s my credit card on this room.”
I had to remind myself to breathe shallowly as I recalled Queen Rucker’s speech about Shifter-on-Shifter sex, and the dominance war that occurred between powerful Shifters.
Elder Merrick cleared his throat, and then shrugged a negligent shoulder. “The room’s fine.”
Baffled words. “A weak one, huh? You don’t normally go after those.” Another silence as my eyes closed, his voice turning utterly amused. “Don’t tell me she was a bird or a rabbit?”
“Fuck off, Jacobs,” Elder Merrick muttered, running a hand through his hair, making a shooing motion at him and lifting off his doorframe. “Go do whatever you have to so we can get out of here.”
Jacobs laughed outright. “Well, I’ll know by what we eat tonight.”
Elder Merrick’s middle finger flew as he grabbed the door handle.
More chuckling ensued, but I heard the door close, his mirth somewhat blocked.
Inhaling heavily, I tried not to freeze when navy eyes flashed directly on mine, his gaze dazing.
I averted my eyes and silently moved the last few feet, unlocking the door just as quietly and slipping outside.