Carnal Secrets (15 page)

She wished she could say that his power and his subtle dominance wasn’t a turn-on, but it damn well was. It promised safety, security, and sexual satisfaction she’d never before experienced. His tone might have been reassuring, but his mischievous expression was anything but. “Kent might not like it if I—”

Her friend and boss waved a hand dismissively. “I’m totally fine with it. No need to worry.” Traitor.

Satisfied, Nick nodded at Kent and then turned back to Shaya. “I’ll be waiting on the chair over by the reception desk. When you’re done, we can leave.”

He was gone before Shaya could say anything else. The entire time she worked, he watched her. Watched her with eyes that missed absolutely nothing—eyes that hid nothing of his need for her. For once, Paisley wasn’t hovering over her while she worked. That would have been a good thing if Paisley wasn’t instead spending her time flirting with Nick. But Shaya wasn’t surprised by the blonde’s behavior. Nick’s quiet confidence, total self-assuredness, raw magnetism, and calm assertiveness tangled together to create a package that would appeal to any female.

In the past, Shaya had been with dominant male wolves, but their dominance didn’t even come near to equaling Nick’s level. Also, they had been nothing like him. Whenever there had been a problem, it had never been their fault—oh no, it had always been someone else’s fault. Dominant wolves could be like that, too proud and egotistical to ever admit to any weakness. But apologizing wasn’t really weak, was it? It took strength to admit to having been wrong, to admit to having made a mistake. And Nick was strong enough, man enough, and adult enough to be responsible for his own actions, to accept blame and to apologize. And he had.

Similarly, her past partners had tried to bully her into giving them their own way. Shaya might be a submissive wolf, but she wasn’t weak-minded, and she had a backbone as steely as—or even steelier than—any dominant wolf. Rather than respecting that and treating her as their equal, those partners had felt that her being submissive meant that she shouldn’t have her own mind, and they had tried to domineer her.

Nick, on the other hand, was totally different. Sure he
expected
things to go his own way and he
expected
to be obeyed, but he didn’t become angry with her when she resisted. Instead, he coaxed her and subtly exercised his will—accepting her wishes while still working to get his own way, not being put off whatsoever by her resistance. He gave her the space to be her own person. She hadn’t expected that.

The second she was done with her client, Nick was on his feet. Then, of course, her sixty-two-year-old client noticed him. “Is this your man?” Vivien chuckled and gave Shaya a knowing smile. “I didn’t think they made them like that anymore. Someone that masculine will make any woman feel feminine. Look at those broad shoulders and that devilishly handsome face. You’re lucky. But then, so is he. I hope you intend to treat her right,” Vivien said to him as she went to the reception desk to pay. “She’s a special girl.” Nick’s smile had the woman blushing.

“I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I have to have her. I won’t stop hounding her until she’s all mine.”

Vivien turned to Shaya, smiling, and forced a tip into her hand. “Oh, I like him. If I was forty years younger…” She sighed dreamily as she walked out, making Nick grin.

“I mean it, you know,” Nick said to Shaya quietly when she came close. “I won’t stop all this until I have you.”

Her voice was low and strained. “You can’t make up for what you did. You can’t fix it.” She was surprised when his grin didn’t falter.

“Prove it.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t fight me on trying to fix it. Show me it makes no difference.” He held out his hand, but whereas with anyone else it might have been an invitation, with Nick it was a challenge. Shaya had never been one to back down from a challenge. Besides, what harm could it do to have lunch with the guy she wanted with every fiber of her being and who could get her horny with just his very presence? She was so fucked.

You wish you were being fucked
, teased that daring part of her.

Now’s not the time for your shit
, she responded sharply.

Hesitantly she placed her hand in his, and she received a smile filled with approval and pride as he interlaced their fingers. She would bet he could get people to do anything just to receive that rewarding smile. After Kent handed her purse to her, Nick led her to his Mercedes and opened the passenger door. Just then she hesitated, wondering if allowing him to make them spend time together was really worth her pride at not turning down a challenge. She was effectively helping him with his cause to wriggle his way into her life.

The sensation of a thumb brushing over her chin snapped her out of her thoughts. Nick’s expression was gentle, but there was no room for compromise when he spoke.

“In the car, baby.”

A shiver wracked her body at the natural dominance in his tone. Making it worse, he skimmed his nose along the curve of her neck, inhaling deeply, and followed it up with a lick that almost had her knees buckling. But she had to make him believe his efforts were making no difference, she reminded herself. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t true—she
had
to make him think that so he would leave sooner rather than later, because he
would
leave. Knowing her legs weren’t going to hold her up much longer, she slid onto the passenger seat. He gave her another of those rewarding smiles.

They drove in a companionable silence, although occasionally he would look over at her and wait for her to meet his gaze as though he wanted to make sure her mind wasn’t elsewhere. It surprised her that although Nick had a strong, imposing personality and could be quite intense, she didn’t find his presence suffocating. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was trying so hard to keep him at a distance, Shaya might have felt relaxed around him.

Arriving at the diner, Nick possessively shackled her wrist with his hand and kept her to his side as they strolled toward the entrance. The physical contact served to further uplift his wolf’s typically dark mood. She gave him an odd look and tested the strength of his hold. When his grip didn’t slacken, she sighed in surrender—as if indulging him was the easier thing to do in this instance. It was.

Once they had placed their orders with the waitress, Shaya spoke. “What did you do with your morning?”

Nick sat back in his seat opposite her and folded his arms across his chest. “First Derren and I went for a run in our wolf forms through the woods on the edge of town. After that we took Bruce for a walk in the local park. Then we had some fun losing the two wolves that the Nazi has following us.”

Inwardly, Shaya shook her head in wonder at how even when he sat, he maintained a powerful stance—head up, chest out, gut sucked in, feet wide apart. Then what he’d said penetrated, and her eyes widened. “He has people following you?”

Nick shrugged one shoulder. “I’m a stranger on his territory. He wanted to know what I was doing here.” He saw no need to worry her with talk about the game preserve. As long as the humans believed she was one of them, she was safe.

“Maybe he’s worried you’ll help the rebels, organize them and make them into a proper pack. Will you?”

“No. I told you: you’re more important to me than being in a pack.”

“You expect me to believe that you don’t miss being Alpha? That you don’t miss your old territory and your family and friends? Your mom and sister have come to visit, but your brother’s still back there.”

Nick raised a hand. “Three things. One, I never wanted to be Alpha. Two, my family is important to me, but so are you. Three, I don’t have friends.”

She double-blinked in surprise. “What do you mean, you don’t have friends?”

“Exactly what I said.”

“Then what’s Derren?”

“A pain in my ass. I told you, I don’t like company—except for yours, obviously.” He truly did enjoy being around her. His wolf, too, enjoyed it, even to the extent that he relaxed slightly when she was around.

A shifter who didn’t like company…Yeah, that was definitely a new one. “You do know that’s weird, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “I was never what you’d call social. But when I came out of juvie…I just didn’t feel like I could relate to other people. Derren, sure. But the others…they spent their teenage years going on dates, attending proms, and sneaking out to parties. I spent those years trying to stay alive in prison.”

Her wolf growled at that idea, not liking it any more than Shaya did. He had spoken so matter-of-factly—there was no sense of him feeling sorry for himself, and that just made the whole thing even more heart-wrenching for her. “I’ve heard stories about what those places are like. Is it as bad as the stories say?”

“Shifter juvie centers are inverted communities where the mayors are sick-minded prison guards who have taken your rights away and have total control of your life. But it’s not just them you have to worry about. There’s what you might call a ‘prisoner code’—break that, and you can be killed by your own kind. Fighting becomes a survival tool. The center that I went to…it wasn’t interested in rehabilitating us, wasn’t aiming to help us become well-adjusted adults. All it did was breed anger and hate and a hunger for vengeance. On the other hand, it’s a place that will teach you how to be street-smart, how to survive in the worst circumstances.” He gave her a grim smile. “Like I said, I don’t have pretty stories to tell you.”

“Maybe I still want to hear them.”

“So you can have more reasons to try to keep me away?” He shook his head. “You’re too important. I have to have you.”

“You’re sure this isn’t simply pride, stubbornness, and possessiveness talking? After all, it comes with being an alpha and the mating urges. I mean, you almost attacked Dom—” She stopped as he leaned forward and put a finger to her lips.

“Don’t say his name, Shay. You don’t know how hard it was not to kill the flirt.”

She might have snapped at him for that comment if she hadn’t noticed a hint of pain in his eyes. The idea of her with Dominic had hurt him, she realized. Not just pricked at his possessive instincts. It had hurt him. Maybe she shouldn’t have cared, but then she remembered that Nick hadn’t dated anyone since first seeing her. He hadn’t even sought comfort from another female when he thought she was with Dominic, despite that pain and what must have felt like betrayal. “He’s just a friend. That’s all he ever was.”

“I know. Your old packmate, Ryan, assured me of that.”

“Ryan?”

“I saw him with the flirt at a club one night. I think Ryan was worried that I was going to attack his packmate—which I was—so he told me the facts in an effort to instill some rationality into me. Ryan then said he’d hate to hurt Shaya’s mate, so if I could leave the flirt alone, that would be great. Still, hearing you say his name makes me want to bite you.” To mark her, remind her that she didn’t belong to Dominic, she belonged to him. “I think you’d like that.”

Blushing and stifling her smile, she snapped, “Fuck you.”

“What, you mean right now? In front of all these people? I guess I could.”

She slapped his arm, and he laughed. Eager to change the subject, she said, “You need to make some friends. Whether you like company or not, it’s important to have friends.”

“Why would I want friends when I have you?”

“You don’t have me.”

“I will. Do you want to know what makes me so sure of that? Because no other situation is acceptable to me.” His life had been a dull time without her. He didn’t want to go back to that. Even arguing with her made him feel alive. It was the strangest feeling to have his wolf in a bright mood, but that was what she did to him. “Nothing you say or do will make me give up. Like I said, you’re too important to me. The sooner you accept that, the happier we’ll both be.”

The resolve in his tone and expression practically petted her wolf. Their food came then, and it seemed that Nick’s interest in chatting was over. With any normal person, it might have been because he was ready to tuck into his meal. But Nick wasn’t normal, and apparently what he really wanted was to up the level of sexual tension between them. If he wasn’t feeding her and then watching her chew as if riveted by the movement of her mouth, he was holding her hand and fiddling with it or nipping at her palm. In between all that, he would reach over and play with stray strands of her hair or snatch some of her fries, knowing she didn’t like to share her food. Then he tried playing footsie under the table, but after she lost her patience and stomped hard on his foot, they just ended up playfully kicking each other instead.

Shaya had been shocked to find that she was actually enjoying herself. She spent more time laughing and smiling than blushing, which was no small thing, given the filthy thoughts traveling through her mind. Of course that smile faded somewhat when they walked to the car and found a human guy with cold eyes and a cocky countenance waiting there with two other males, his hateful gaze trained on Nick. She recognized them as some of the human extremists from the other night.

She wasn’t surprised when Nick easily held the leader’s frosty gaze, not in the least bit intimidated. Nor was she surprised when he stood in front of her slightly in a very protective move. Derren seemed to appear out of absolutely nowhere on Nick’s other side, as expected. What
did
surprise her was that rage was radiating from both Nick and Derren. Sure, the humans were cruel and prejudiced, but this…this rage had a different source.

The human smiled at Shaya, creeping her out. “It’s clear to me that you’re Nick’s girl. What’s not clear to me is whether or not you know he’s an animal.”

“Being a shifter doesn’t make someone an animal,” she replied. Her wolf bared her teeth at him.

“Oh, so you’re a shifter groupie.” The humans all laughed. “There sure are plenty of them roaming around.”

She was about to correct him and declare that she was a half-shifter and proud to be, but then Nick took her hand and squeezed lightly. She understood the signal: He didn’t want them to know in case they targeted her. Neither did she but, dammit, this jabbed at her pride.