Take Me (25 page)

She ran up to him in only her undies and couldn’t keep from wrapping her arms around his waist. “Do I still have a job?”

His brow furrowed. “What?”

“Well, you said it’s just me now...and so I figured that meant you and Julianna weren’t...you know...” She blushed brightly.

She might not have noticed the tension in his body if she hadn’t been touching him. But she was touching him and so she felt it when his back stiffened. His eyes looked over her living room to see the dozens of packed boxes filled with candles, linens, vases, and all kinds of goodies.

He looked back down at her. “Keep working on it. We’ll throw a party once I win the presidency.”

“Great idea!” Already her mind went to work with the idea. She could add some more masculine colors to the room and could stream drapes across the ceiling. It would bring more of “Dom” to the room.

“Sweets?”

Her eyes flew up to his. “Huh?”

A small smile was on his lisp. “I lost you for a minute there. Keep working and I’ll see you tonight.”

She knew her eyes were bright with excitement and she didn’t even bother to hide it. She let him see it. Then she leapt onto him, wrapped her legs around his waist, and kissed him.

When he finally left, his eyes were dark with
the look.
Their wonderful scents lingered around her house and especially filled her bedroom. Unless she washed her sheets, which she totally would not do for a while yet, she’d smell Dominic when she went to bed.

Today was going to be a good day.

Or so she thought.

It was roughly five hours later that shit hit the fan. Felicity had to admit she didn’t see it coming.

Felicity was on the internet doing some furious shopping to find the right color drapery for Dom’s presidential party when a car pulled up outside. She didn’t think anything of the car; she did have neighbors after all.

But she distinctly heard Graham’s voice cut through the air like a knife. “What the hell are you doin’ ‘ere?”

Graham was some kind of Irish or Scottish, Felicity didn’t know which but apparently when he got angry the accent grew heavy and he lost H’s in the battle.

“Get ‘er out of ‘ere!”

Silence followed. Silence that had Felicity wishing she had fancy tinted windows so she could see outside. The boarded up window thing she and many others did worked great for the daytime, but not so great at night when she could actually go outside comfortably.

There was a strange sound. Felicity pressed her ear to the front door and listened carefully. Was that...sobbing? Just as she was finally considering opening the door a brisk knock sounded right at her ear.

Wincing as her ear throbbed, Felicity opened the door.

Then her jaw hit the floor.

Helena Blackmoore stood on Felicity’s porch. She wore a form fitting black satin gown that fell all the way to the ground and was held up over one shoulder. The fabric rolled in waves and it looked truly beautiful. Of course, Helena was a beautiful woman with thick dark red hair, piercing blue eyes, and delicate, feminine features.

Felicity straightened and didn’t have to look at herself to know she wore a pair of old jeans, a ratty t-shirt, and couldn’t look anywhere as lovely as Helena did even if she wore a fancy dress.

“May I come in, Ms. Shaw?”

Felicity blinked, too stunned to speak, and then stepped aside to allow her in. Before she closed the door she saw Graham and one of her
were
guards, Thomas, having some fierce words with each other.

Felicity leaned on the door as she turned back to Helena. Her eye twitched at seeing such a stunning woman inside her rundown apartment. It’s not like she didn’t keep it clean. In fact, since she had such a small space she had to keep everything ultra-organized else she might go nuts. But she had yet to clean up the pile of wood that had once been a kitchen chair in her kitchen/dining room. It’s not that she’d forgotten about it. On the contrary, every time she looked at it she saw the image of Dominic looking stunned sitting on her kitchen floor and she couldn’t help but giggle.

Helena looked like a goddess standing in a garbage heap. What was she on the way to a freaking ball? Felicity’s defenses rose sharply as Helena’s sweeping gaze took in everything while giving nothing away.

Finally, she turned in a soft swish of fabric. “Dominic was here. You’ve fucked him.”

“Excuse me?” Felicity couldn’t have heard what she thought she just heard.

Helena’s eyes were watchful. “I can smell him. Do you forget that I was his
bruid
for hundreds of years? I know what his scent smells like and he’s all over his place.”

Felicity crossed her arms. “What do you want?”

Helena smiled and it reminded Felicity of a cat that had just pounced on a mouse. “Seeing as you’re fucking my mate I thought it wise to meet the woman face to face.”

A flicker of unease flew through Felicity. “He’s separated from you. It’s final. You are no longer his
bruid.”

Helena shrugged, not denying it. Her sharp gaze fell on the large open box on the floor and Felicity stiffened. It was the centerpieces for what would have been Julianna and Dominic’s table.

“You’re planning their mating ceremony?”

“I was.”

A thin eyebrow rose. “Was? You were fired then?”

Felicity frowned. “No, now what do you want? If you wanted to come here and see me then fine, you’ve done that. I’d like you to leave now.” Felicity opened the door and waited.

Helena slowly walked to the door. As she reached it, she paused. “You see, I guess, I’m just a little confused then. I thought you were planning Dominic’s mating ceremony. It’s only, what, less than a week away now? It’s happening the day after his big election, I believe.”

“You’re lying and I want you to go now.” Felicity’s hand squeezed the door handle.
Please
be lying. He said he chose me.

Graham’s spoke, his voice back under control now. “Come on, Helena.”

Helena gave him a small smile. “I would just like to leave this with you then, Ms. Shaw.” She reached into the small purse she carried beneath her arm and took out a colorful piece of paper. It looked like a page torn out of a magazine.

“I don’t want it,” Felicity said. She heard the tension in her own voice. She knew, just knew, that whatever was on the piece of paper would ruin her. Would ruin everything.

Helena shrugged and let the paper fall to the floor. She swept out of the house and Graham muttered an apology before closing the door behind her.

Felicity stared down at the slip of paper for several minutes. A woman like Helena would not come out here if she didn’t have something she really wanted Felicity to see.

The paper was folded into a square the size of a business card. The corner facing Felicity showed what looked like a woman’s hand wearing a diamond bracelet.

A burning pain grew in Felicity’s chest making it hard to breathe. Slowly, she sank to her knees.

Maybe it was nothing and in a few minute’s she’d be laughing about this. Maybe Helena just wanted to get a rise out of Felicity as a bad joke.

Or maybe what was on the paper was enough to ruin everything between her and Dom.

Felicity grabbed the paper and unfolded it in quick movements. The picture on the front sent a wave of pain straight through her heart. She gasped and let the paper drop as if it singed her hand, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from it.

Her vision blurred, and then anger boiled inside her. Anger the likes of which she’d never felt before and it was all for the bastard Dominic Blackmoore.

Chapter 16

Dominic stared at his brother Vas and couldn’t keep the furious expression off his face. He was always so good at controlling himself, but not now.

“I’m losing?” he repeated.

Vas nodded and pointed to the piece of paper he’d slipped across Dom’s desk. “The numbers are in from both sides,
weres
and vampires. They’re favoring Zeke.”

Dom stared at the chart. It had a bar graph with two bars. One for Zeke and one for Dominic. Zeke’s margin was greater by fifteen percent. Fifteen percent of nearly anything else was not a great number, but in terms of votes, Dominic was screwed. He would lose if these numbers didn’t change. He’d already spoken out that he’d reform the mating laws. What else did the bloody people want? This campaign should be simple. Everyone knew he was ready to take over his father’s position and rule as he had—steadfast and sure.

“Did my motion for reforming the mating laws not change this at all?”

Vas grimaced as he leaned back in his seat. He pulled out a silver flask covered with a leather handle and drank deeply. “Those numbers were polled after you came out about that, brother. It doesn’t look good.”

“Zeke is mad and everyone knows it. I don’t see how anyone with a logical mind could vote for him. Especially the
weres.
They’ll be the devastated ones. All those woman in danger.”

He’d lose. He’d lose to a fucking...mad man. The thought sent such anger through him that he couldn’t escape it. He slammed his fist onto the desk again and again.

“Hey, I didn’t say I agree with it but it’s true. Rumors are flying that people are afraid you’ll be too much like your father. Looks like people want some change around here.”

Dom’s dark eyes landed on his brother. Vasilius hated his name and thus preferred the shorter, more to the point nickname Vas. His brother had a face many found hard to look at, or if they did look then it was with morbid curiosity. It had even taken Dom a few months to get used to what his brother looked like now. He hadn’t always looked like this, but a bad past with a crazy woman had ruined him in many ways. Vas never spoke about what actually had happened to him.

Eight years ago, he looked fine. He was dating a nice vampire named Claire then a few days later, he’s covered in ragged scars that distorted his face, and the woman was no longer talked about. At all. His family pushed and pushed him, but he’d never talk about it. Dom had even privately enlisted Grayson to investigate the matter but Claire was nowhere to be found and no one seemed to know what had happened.

Vas was the most closed-mouthed about the subject. He would leave if anyone so much as mentioned her name. Now he worked with Grayson and was a tech guru. He helped with some of the bodyguard jobs to blow off steam, get paid, and get out of the house. He lived the life of a recluse and damn well never left his computer for long.

Dom’s whole family was fucked, including himself, and he still loved them more than anything.

“They voted father in consecutively and they know I’m running on his same campaign. Why do they want change now?”

“Because of Zeke. The man’s different. They want reforms and change, brother. They
know
they’ll get it with him, but with you.” He shrugged to let his words hang in the air.

“I want a team sent after Zeke. I want him dead.”

Vas nodded. “I’ll arrange it, but he’ll be hard to kill.”

“I have five days until the election. Get it done now.”

A soft knocked sounded at the door then Julianna stepped inside looking fresh and impeccable as always in a fitted white dress that demurely fell at the knee. Her eyes found Dom’s then darted to Vas and what could only be described as pure fury swam in her eyes.

Vas stiffened then gave a mocking smile as he dipped his chin to her. “My lady,” he said, his voice filled with sarcasm.

She jerked her gaze back to Dom’s and in a flash the fury left her gaze. “I’m headed out for some errands. Do you need me for anything tonight?”

“No, not until tomorrow. We have a campaign ball to attend at the Kensington’s.”

She inclined her head then turned to leave.

“Goodbye to you too,
my lady
.”

Her head swung around so fast at Vas’s taunting words it was a wonder her neck didn’t snap.

“You—” her words shook.

Vas cocked a challenging brow. “I...what?”

Her mouth moved but no words came. Then she closed the door softly behind her as she left.

“What was that about?” asked Dom.

Vas shrugged. “We didn’t get along. She didn’t much like being fetched when she tried to get away from you. Why is that anyway?”

Dom glared back down at the numbers of failure taunting him. “Why’s what?”

“Have you fucked her?”

Dom shook his head. “Always crude, Vas, and no. I haven’t.”

“She’s your
bruid,
isn’t she? Seems to me like you’ve been spending more time with this Felicity everyone’s been talking about.”

Dom stiffened but refused to let Vas rile him. “Just because I have to mate with Julianna doesn’t mean I want to spend my time with her.”

Vas laughed low and slow. “She that bad?”

Dom shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any interest in her.”

Vas stood and took another swig from his flask. “Two women wanting you and you only choose one. You could have both of them, at the same time.” He groaned in pretend ecstasy. “Just think of it, brother; tied up, bound, at your mercy.”

Dom’s gut clenched at the thought of Felicity and Julianna together with him. “I don’t think so.”

Vas’s phone beeped and he checked it with a frown. “I gotta go. I’ll get a team on Zeke, but I can’t make any promises.”

Dom stared at the gap in his chart.
He was going to lose the race
.

“Do whatever is necessary. I want him dead.”

Nodding, Vas left Dom to his thoughts.

Striding to the warming oven, Dom pulled out a glass of heated blood and drank it down in three gulps. He waited for the blood to take effect, for his body to relax, but it didn’t happen. He was too amped up from the stress.

He was facing the biggest election of his life against a lunatic alpha. He had to mate with a woman he didn’t know or care to know. He was in---

His thoughts cut short.

Was he? Could he be?

His heart pounded. A thick knot formed in his throat making it painful to swallow.

He looked over the railing to the fireplace below where he’d first seen Felicity Shaw walk into his study. She’d walked in here strong, but nervous and beautiful. She’d taken his breath away and filled him with a ravenous need he’d never felt before. In under an hour, he’d kissed her and had been ready to take her on the floor.