Chapter Five

“Lucca, let’s be reasonable.” She was sitting on the couch in his bedroom sipping another one of those shakes that were supposed to help her while she stared at the dark blue accent wall behind his bed.

Why was she staring at the wall? It kept her eyes off his massive bed and his firm ass. Yes, she needed to get her priorities straight, but the more time she spent with him, the higher he rose on her list.

Who was she kidding her list went like this.

1. Don’t die

2. Strip Lucca

3. Get him on the bed

4. Tie him up

5. Have her wicked way with him

6. Run like hell afterward

The last one was negotiable, but all the others weren’t. At least, the shake was tasty and filling.

“You need food along with that shake.”

Honestly, the male was no fun. “Lucca I’m dying you're supposed to give me anything I want, and I don’t want food.”

“Problem number one.”

Damn did he have a list of his own? Was tying her to the bed part of it?

“You keep thinking you’re going to die. That stops now. We’re going to find a way to save you. I need you to believe me.”

“Come here.” She lifted her hand and stroked down his arm. “There was a spot on your armor, I wanted to get it off.”

His lips perfect for kissing came up in a frown while his blue eyes pinned her to the couch. She laughed; she couldn’t help herself and when his lips quirked; she knew she was fighting a losing battle.

“I’m no knight. I’m an assassin, a killer, a mercenary for hire. I’ll never be accused of doing the right thing.”

“You keep telling yourself that.” Her fingers threaded through his hair a sigh left her. It was as soft as she thought it would be. Her fingers tingled as if his hair was sending little erotic shocks through them as a way to say hello.

“Menace you’re already wrecking my world.”

“That’s why you call me menace.” She lifted up to kiss his cheek as he leaned over her. He turned his head, and she kissed those lips loving the silken feel of them and the hardness beneath them.

She sank back on the couch and grinned up at him. His blue eyes were pinpricks of desire, and his pants couldn’t hide the erection he was sporting.

“I wonder if you’re as needy as I am right now, menace.”

Oh, hell no. She ran, but he was getting quicker; he caught her without breaking a sweat. He sat on the couch placing her o

n his lap.

“How would I know how you’re feeling? You have no obvious spots to check, or do you?”

His warm breath was blowing in her ear as he spoke, she was fidgeting trying to get away even as his lips came down on her pulse point making her pussy flood. His hand played with the hem of her shirt before he went underneath it and up her body.

“What do we have here?” His hand flicked over the hard bud of her nipple that he could feel through her bra. “I think you may want me menace. I wonder if I’m wrong?”

He moved his hand and flicked the other nipple. She bit her lip to keep the moan wanting to escape buried within her.

“Hmm, I’m still not sure. There must be a way to know if you want me. Like the way you keep exciting my cock and not coming through for it. Should I do that menace? Excite you and then leave you.”

His fingers traced down her body making her breath come out in hard, needy noises. He stopped at her jeans, then he undid them. She should run, pull away, remember that there was no room for a male in her future, even if he was her mate. She couldn’t move. Her eyes were locked on his. The blue of them swirled and shifted capturing her even as his hand went down the front of her pants.

“What’s this, menace?” His fingers flicked her clit making her rear up as a desperate moan tore from her.

“You like that?” He did it again a little harder this time.

She was going to lose her mind. It had been forever since she was touched but to be touched by him was a pleasure she never knew before.

His hand went down a little further until he was at the seam of her pussy. Please, she was begging in her head if he stopped leaving her hot and needy only to walk away she would hurt him. She wouldn’t have a choice.

He dragged a finger over her until it penetrated her.

The soft scream of desire that came from her was almost his undoing. He shook as he added a second finger. She was so tight after all this time that he thought he was going to explode and embarrass himself before her. He should stop leaving her high and dry, but he couldn’t he needed to see those violet eyes bright with passion and replete with satisfaction that he caused.

Her nails were digging into his arms. She tried to pull away, but she couldn’t. When he pulled his fingers out of her and plunged them back into her, her back bowed, and her screams became louder. Her pussy gripped around his fingers, and now she was begging. She didn’t care what she looked or sounded like, she simply needed him. The closer she got the louder she yelled until she broke. Pleasure poured over her demanding every bit of energy and concentration as it took over her body and threw her around in a sea of waves she didn’t know existed. Still, he was finger fucking her riding this high with her until finally her body fell over the cliff and she free floated eventually coming down.

“Lucca…” Her words caught in her throat.

He gave her such a gentle kiss that her heart stuttered. Something had happened between them, but all she would call it was something, to put a name on it may trap her forever.

She curled up in his arms and stayed where she felt protected. They would have to move this moment couldn’t last forever.

His hand stroked her cheek, and she knew it was time to come back to reality.

“I didn’t—.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll just walk funny for a couple of weeks.”

She gasped. His deep laughter bounced around the room.

“Oh, you.” She smacked his chest.

“Go take a shower menace. You smell like sex; I don’t know how much more I can take before I lay you on the bed and dive between your legs.

She flushed her cheeks were hot, and her eyes were so bright that she could feel them. The smile on her lips wouldn’t be tamed. She jumped up and ran to the bathroom because why walk when you could run.

*~*~*~*

“I thought you’d never come.”

“You made it clear that you didn’t want me around.”

“That’s not true… Maybe it was true, but I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know. How is your mate?”

“She’s dying. How do I help her? How do I save her life?”

“If I could give you the answers I would.”

He finally turned his head to look at Dante, his oldest brother. He was standing in the doorway casually leaning against it.

“What did you do to your hair?”

“You didn’t think I was going to let you get a badass cut and leave me behind.”

He threw back his head and laughed. Family, why had he tried to run away from that?

“Something is after Tempest.”

“I think you’re doing the right thing. Start at the beginning and as close as you can get to that is the cave.”

“What if I need…” He stopped; he was an island.

Dante’s laughter peppered the room. “You’ve never been an island, Lucca. We all need each other. Why do you think that the family stays together?”

“If I lost all of you?”

“You would be broken. We would be broken if we lost you.”

Broken that made sense. There were times he felt that way knowing they were so far away.

“Tell Tempest your big brother says hi and make sure she drinks those shakes.”

He disappeared.

His big brother? He never calls himself that unless he was trying to get a message across. He was telling him something he would simply have to decode it.

“I thought I heard voices.” She was standing there in a towel with her skin glowing and a smile on her face. “Mine,” his inner beast growled.

“My oldest brother, Dante, was here, and he wanted me to tell you he said hi. You’ll meet him, eventually. He likes to be super-secret.”

“I better take a shower.” He stopped to kiss her on his way into the bathroom.

She turned staring at his ass as he walked away. A soft sigh left her lips. I am in so deep; she shook her head. Life was supposed to be easy when she woke up. This curse tearing her apart would be over. There would be no reason to kill her because there was nothing left on the Earth to protect.

He stepped into the shower the desire to beat his head against the wall was overwhelming. How did he run to the past to escape his future only to run directly into her?

The water ran down his head as he closed his eyes and fell into his beast. He was a fighter, a killer; his people had always been some of the worse in the universe. This was what he had inside of him. Sure, he had an animal that was so handsome that it would make you sell your soul for a chance to touch him. In the end, it was this bruiser, this killer who scared him, and he had claimed Tempest as his.

Would he have to kill himself to keep her safe? Would his death save her, stop all the madness? Was Dante correct, would his brothers be broken if he died or would their bond keep them from the madness that would try to take them over?

He didn’t have any answers to these questions. It had taken every bit of strength he had not to put is fingers in his mouth and suck down her essence. The minute he did that he knew that he wouldn’t give her up. He couldn’t do that to her. They would go back, find out what was killing her, and then he would kill it.

His heart beat slowed as he thought about her being safe. He wanted to see her dance in the sun and dive into the water. He wanted to see her eyes shine and know that her world was fine. He could do that for her before he had to let her go.

He nodded that was the plan. He would make sure that she would be safe then he would let his menace go dance in the light, and he would slip back into the shadows, even if his beast didn’t like it.