Predator's Kiss (5 page)

He stood, towering over her. In his sexy towel ensemble, he was a column of brawn and masculinity, and she fought the urge to bury her face in his massive chest.

“Wait,” he said. “You need to tell me what’s wrong. Maybe I can help you.”

“Why would you
want
to help me? You clearly can’t even stand being in the same room with me,” she said, lashing out in stress. No one who looked at her in such a way could possibly like her. Only the opposite could be true. “Besides, no one does anything without getting something in return.”

“Hey,” he returned, shocked at her reaction. “Relax. I’m not out to get anything. And it’s a bit early to decide whether I like you or not. You’re on my property and I just want to help.”

“No one can help me,” she whispered, unable to look him in the eye.

He tipped her chin up and a fierce electric charge ravaged her core. For a wild, crazy moment, she hoped he’d smother her with kisses. Instead, Ryland stared at her with those penetrating eyes. “What are you running from?”

She could no longer control her lip from trembling and gave in, letting it wobble. “My biggest fan wants to make me his love slave.”

* * * *

Ryland’s head was spinning so ferociously it brought to mind the time, years ago, when he and Soren had ridden the biggest roller coaster at the amusement park. He’d thrown up for a whole five minutes afterward. He felt like doing it again.

Her biggest fan wants to make her his love slave?

No fucking way. The beast inside him was inexplicably pissed off upon hearing her confession.

For some reason, the idea of Lia Goodblood being anyone’s love slave was immensely disturbing to him.
Okay, get a grip, Snow. Find some pants and start acting like a man
. He looked away, trying to formulate his thoughts, and then looked back at her, stunned. “What makes you think that?”

She paled. “He said so. He’s been leaving me notes, you see, and he’s pretty clear. In his last one, he said ‘I will make you my love slave.’ His intentions are somewhat obvious.”

Ryland blushed. She must think he was a backwoods idiot. Okay, he’d never had a “fan” before, but he read the papers. There was always a new celebrity fighting a stalking case in the courts. He understood some of these pathetic guys lived under wild misconceptions that a millionaire ingénue loved them, but surely Lia misinterpreted something along the way. “Have a seat, Lia. Tell me about it.”

She cringed. The worried creases around her eyes broke his heart. “You promise you won’t go to the press? You won’t tell anyone where I am?”

He gritted his teeth, hating how worried she was. Hating he was so goddamn worried about her in the first place. He looked her deep in the eyes and promised. “I won’t tell a soul. You’re safe here.”

“And you and Brother Bear won’t eat me?”

As his brain was riddled with images of him eating her in a less violent way, he maintained a straight face. “No one’s getting eaten on my watch. Not even a nibble.” He held back the smile threatening to crack his face open. “Unless you ask. That’s another story.”

Lia paused, and then her face relaxed and her pink lips curled up at the corners. He had trouble dragging his eyes away from those lips, as plump and succulent as they were. Ryland wondered what it would feel like to smash his lips against hers, to be able to swallow her cries of ecstasy.

Damn. So much for maintaining his freaking composure. His stress headache was coming back.

“Your fan?” he prompted, his body tingling with delicious unease and awareness.

“Right,” she said. “As soon as my book hit the shelves, the letters started appearing.” Her gaze drifted toward his lower half and she bit her lip. “Would you feel more comfortable doing this with your clothes on? Because I would.”

Ryland had to stop himself from bursting into embarrassed laughter. “I understand. Unfortunately, all my clothes are back up at the lodge. The ones I was wearing before are sort of useless now.” He wrapped the towel around his waist tighter. As he did, he noticed Lia sneaking a peek at his chest, and then her gaze wandered back to the nether regions of his towel barrier. He kept on his poker face, but inside he was grinning like a loon. “You were saying?”

She blinked. “Right.” She tore her eyes away from his terry cloth shield. “Once my book was published, I started receiving fan mail. The letters came to my publisher and were sent on to me. I’m private and my address isn’t listed. I don’t even have a Facebook account. Anyway, I’d get these handwritten letters from people who enjoyed my book.”

“Sounds like a nice thing.”

“It was,” she was quick to admit. “Knowing your work touched someone is the ultimate reward.” Her smile of gratitude soured. “I read every one, even responded to many. And I began to notice the same name over and over again: Scott. No last name, just Scott, always in the same squared-off script. They grew more personal. More suggestive. Scott began to address me as if he knew me, as he wanted to know me a lot better. It became creepy.”

He watched as she ran an unsteady hand through her mane of hair. “That’s frightening. Did you go to the police?”

“Of course. They weren’t able to help me. It wasn’t as if this man was breaking the law. And he certainly wasn’t doing enough to get the police involved. One of the officers kindly suggested I might have to put up with this sort of behavior, you know, because I was in the public eye.”

Ryland stopped himself from cursing again. Everything about this story made him want to explode with all the swear words, English and otherwise, he’d picked up in high school.

She continued. “I asked my publisher not to forward any more fan mail. For a while, the letters from Scott stopped. That was when the press decided to make me a target.”

In order to prevent himself from muttering yet another string of obscenities, Ryland gripped the towel knot at his waist and breathed deeply. Okay, he wasn’t fond of nonshifters as a whole, but this poor woman hadn’t hurt anyone. And to get saddled with such a shitty situation was enough to send anyone running into the woods. Come to think of it, Ryland recalled seeing this woman’s pictures in a couple of rags. She was always wearing dark glasses and holding a hand up to the camera. “So the press is stalking you too?”

She nodded. “The
Examiner
, one of the papers, is offering major cash for my first interview, or any dirty tidbits about me. Reporters have been following me. Everywhere I go, some strange man pops up with a camera. I can’t go out for a coffee or to the library. One of them even followed me bra shopping.”

This time, Ryland did curse out loud, but it was more because the vision of Lia shopping for lacy bras gave him a boner.

“Once reporters started writing about me, the fan letters from Scott found their way to me again. Only this time, they came directly to my apartment. He knows where I live, Ryland.”

“You were right to leave.”

“Anyway, that’s how I ended up here. I needed to escape. I’m trying to finish my next book. I have a deadline coming up and can’t concentrate at home anymore. Between avoiding this man and running from the paparazzi, I don’t know which way to turn. I panicked. I got out of the city altogether and jumped on the first bus headed north. I didn’t even consider where I was headed. I just knew I couldn’t stay at home any longer.”

“Surely they’ll all get bored of pestering you?”

“I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “The reason I ran was because a couple of days ago I came home and found my apartment trashed. The lock on the door had been broken. My stuff was everywhere. And in the middle of my living room floor, there was a message for me from Scott.”

Ryland fought to stand upright even as his heart plummeted. “What did he do?”

Her eyes lost their shimmer as she recounted the tale, and became glazed. “He’d emptied out my underwear drawer. He took all my panties and shaped them into a big heart on the floor. In the middle of the heart was a note from him, saying, ‘You are mine.’” She breathed in and out. “I felt so violated, knowing he handled all my intimates.”

Ryland stared, as a silent fury raged through him. He was suddenly very eager to find this Scott and wring his neck. He clenched his hands, in hopes of appeasing his itchy fingers.

She continued in a soft voice. “I’m scared.”

“I can see why,” he muttered, trying to keep a calm head. “Did anyone follow you?”

“I didn’t think so. I grabbed a cab to the Greyhound station and got on the first bus I could see. It brought me to the mainland. I booked myself into a B&B, but as of yesterday, a strange man has been asking for me there. I don’t know. Maybe it’s Scott. Maybe it’s a reporter. I snuck out in the night and made it to the ferry dock. I saw there was a ferry headed to Gemini Island and I dashed on board when no one was looking.”

Lia let out a huge sigh and a tear escaped down her cheek. Ryland wanted really badly to do something ridiculous like kiss it away, but settled for sitting next to her on the bed. Against his better judgment, he put an arm around her shoulder and gave her what he hoped was a companionable squeeze. It felt too good to be companionable. She fit perfectly against him. He knew he dwarfed her, but somehow her smaller dimensions helped her ease right into the crook of his arm and shoulder. “I’m sorry about your situation.” He grunted. “You shouldn’t have to deal with such incredible asshats.”

She laughed as she wiped at a tear. “Anyway, I just need a place to stay until I figure out what to do. Could I stay here, just for a little while? I’ll pay my way.”

Oh no
. He’d been so clear about this resort remaining a haven for shifters. And this woman had trouble following her everywhere she went. He had to let her down. She couldn’t stay here.

She swallowed, and Ryland’s gaze was drawn to the delicate lines of her neck. So small, and the world was fighting to snag a piece of her. It didn’t seem fair. To say nothing of the creep who’d diddled with her underpants. What kind of sicko did that? He stared at her as a swell of protectiveness rushed through him. Shifter or not, in trouble or not, she was the prettiest little thing he’d ever seen. It would be really easy to get carried away with Lia Goodblood. So easy to lose himself in her eyes, to tip up her chin again and…

Soren’s porn movie came to an explosive end. He made a mental note to charge his brother double for ordering the sex channel and messing with his head even more. It was incredibly hard being in the same room with Lia while others grunted on TV in the next room.

Soren poked his head through the door. “So, have we finalized our plans? Is Lia bunking with me?” He smiled at Lia, his gaze dropping to the curve of her bosom.

Damn Soren. He’d always been a boob man. Not that Ryland wasn’t.

Soren winked at her. “Hey, roomie.”

Ryland vaulted off the bed and pulled Lia with him. “Nice try, Soren. Lia’s going to stay up at the lodge for a while until she’s ready to go. In the meantime, you might want to think about your own little problem.”

As Ryland led her back out of Cabin 12, he couldn’t miss the blush that still colored Lia’s face.

She must have liked having Soren flirt with her. She must have liked it a lot. Well, he was welcome to her.

As a peculiar resentment flamed through him, he damped it down. What did he care if Lia Goodblood liked his brother? The women always liked Soren. It wasn’t news to him.

So why did it bother him so much
this
one did too?

Stifling his emotions, as he tended to do so well, Ryland led her back through the woods. “We’re pretty much booked up right now, but there’s a room next to mine that I keep open so I get my privacy. You can have that one, provided you’re not planning any wild parties.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, not looking at him. She was too busy staring at the undergrowth next to the path in front of them, her eyes wide. The small bush moved, as if a tiny animal was scurrying through. As a chipmunk broke through the shrub and crossed their path, Lia jumped and clutched his arm. She held on for dear life, hyperventilating at the chipmunk, shaking so much he could have sworn a great white had just swum past.

“Lia, relax,” he said. “It’s a chipmunk.”

She struggled to catch her breath. For a tense moment, Ryland worried he’d have to administer CPR.

The woman did not appreciate wildlife. Only one more reason to remain guarded around her.

He didn’t say another word until they were back at the lodge and Marci was booking Lia into the room. As she did, he took the opportunity to warn his security team, comprised of two bear shifters and a wolf, about Scott the super fan and the reporters hounding Lia. He also told them about Floro Valdez, shaking his head the whole time. And then he stared at Lia and realized he had no idea what to do with her. All he knew was he didn’t want the world finding out her whereabouts and he didn’t want his brother even in the same room with her. In the interval, until she figured out what to do next, she could spend a quiet night at the lodge.

And when she left, he’d forget her.

Chapter 4

A couple of days later, Lia stared at her laptop screen, her eyes unseeing. She’d been reading the same passage now for at least an hour, and had only managed to type three words: her swollen nipples.

Her swollen nipples
. What about them?

She was in the middle of a love scene between Adelaide and Claudio, in her follow-up to
Love in Chains
, and was having trouble getting beyond the third chapter. It wasn’t like her to have writer’s block. Since she’d first put pen to paper, the words had flowed out of her like waters from a broken dam. And writing sex scenes was one of her favorite things to do. She always found they wrote themselves, truth be told. Once she had her characters in bed, or against a wall, or in a moonlit lake, nature took over. Writing sex was usually enjoyable and a big release for Lia as well.

However, in the two days she’d been ensconced at the Ursa Fishing Lodge, under the strangely watchful eye of Ryland Snow, writing had become a chore. Considering her looming deadline, writer’s block was not an option.