Vice (Fireborn Wolves Book 1) (10 page)

If there was anything that Gerty could have said to make her desire Kyle more, she couldn’t think of it. As the princess of her people, Laina understood the demands of external expectations and how they could easily extinguish the flicker of light someone carried in their soul.

Laina allowed her eyes to drift around the enormous room, noticing for the first time that there were no pictures or mementos. No family portraits. No snow globes from trips to Lake Tahoe. Kyle’s bedroom might have been staged for a photograph. “This home wasn’t built until recently when they built the club, right? Where was home before this?”

“We’ve followed Kyle and Nate from New York to LA, Wyoming, Minnesota, South Carolina. We move when they move. I think Kyle wants to stay here this time, though.”

“Why do you say that?”

There was a long pause and Gerty seemed to choose her words carefully. “Just a hunch. I sense he’s tired of being a rolling stone.” Laina helped her make the bed, closing her eyes when Kyle’s deep woods scent wafted up from the billowing sheets. “Plus, this is the first time he’s demanded separate living quarters from his brother.”

“Gerty,” Laina said, desperate to put aside the fear Silas had instilled in her, “have you noticed a change in Kyle the last couple of weeks?”

“What kind of change?”

“You know, not acting himself, wanting to eat things he previously disliked, doing things he normally wouldn’t do.”

“Only when it comes to you.”

Laina dropped her arms to her sides and stared at the old woman.

“I’ve never seen him so smitten.”

Opening her mouth to protest, her mind went blank, her wolf reveling in the idea that Kyle might be as interested in her as she was in him. She stood, speechless, as Gerty plugged in the vacuum cleaner but hesitated to turn it on.

“You should enjoy the magic of this moment, dear,” Gerty said softly. “Arthur and I had a similar courtship. Not everyone experiences love at first sight. Life is short, passion is fleeting, and love is a risk worth taking.”

Laina snorted. “I think it’s much too early to use the word love in the same sentence with Kyle and me.”

Gerty smiled until her rheumy eyes were lost in the folds of her face. “You’re probably right. Guarding your heart is the sensible thing to do. Like I said, I’m an old woman. Don’t listen to me.” She turned on the vacuum and got to work.

F
or the next week
, Laina fell into a routine with Kyle. She’d wake him to work with Milo in the morning, then meet him again at the end of the day. To her wolf’s dismay, Kyle took her request to maintain a professional distance to heart. She found his door closed in the morning and his conversation, although open and friendly, completely appropriate for mixed company.

Milo thrived on the routine. Since she’d come to Hunt Club, the mastiff hadn’t destroyed anything but the daily chew toy Kyle gave him for that purpose. Laina would care for the dog during the day, in between helping Gerty with her chores. The housekeeper had become her good friend.

And reluctantly, she had to admit, so had Kyle. After walking Milo in the evening, it had become a habit for them to stay up until the wee hours of the morning talking about anything and everything. His favorite food was Korean barbecue. He’d played baseball until the tenth grade when he’d sprained his wrist. He spoke French and just enough Spanish to survive in an emergency. And he was completely addicted to HGTV.

She’d shared things with him too, those things she could share. He knew she liked to drive fast and loved the beach but hated the sand. She’d rather eat a steak than a slice of chocolate cake and spent a summer in Europe with her parents before they were killed. He knew she was a sucker for animals and gave an unholy amount of money to the ASPCA each month. Only on this night, a storm had moved in, and the thunder and lightning had cut their usual walk and post-session talk short.

“Are you tired?” he asked. It was nine o’clock and she wasn’t eighty. Sherlock Holmes, she was not, but it was obvious he was giving her an out if she wasn’t interested in his company without the excuse of Milo.

“Not yet,” she said. With the full moon in her rearview mirror, her wolf’s voice had quieted, and she could be in Kyle’s presence without the aching need she’d felt before.

“Come on. I want to show you something.”

He led her to the back of the house, to a room with floor-to-ceiling books, saddle-brown leather furniture, gold fixtures, red tapestries, and a shiny black baby grand piano. “It’s a beautiful library.”

“What do you like to read? Let me guess…” He tapped his chin and studied her. “
Jane Eyre
.”

She snorted. “Why would you say that?”

“Jane breaks out on her own, would do anything for a friend, makes a life for herself. Seems like a character you could relate to.”

“I like your thinking, but I’m more of a Mary Shelley fan.”

“Oh,
Frankenstein
?” He knit his brows.

“She published it anonymously, you know, because no one in 1818 would read a book by a woman. But the entire tale is a work of feminism. It’s a warning about what would happen if a man tried to create life without a woman.”

“Hmm. I never thought of it that way. So that’s you, then, the feminist Frankenstein. A doctor no less.” He sat down on the piano bench and started playing a simple, plodding version of Bach’s Prelude in C.

“How about you? What do you read?” she asked.

“Financial reports, the
Wall Street Journal
, legal documents.”

She giggled. “What do you read for fun?”

“It’s been a long time. Maybe I’ll pick up
Frankenstein
.” He stopped playing and a heaviness settled over him that made her heart ache.

“I know what it’s like.” She slid in next to him. “I buried myself in school and work for years. It starts as an escape. It’s safe. There’s routine. But eventually it takes over and that’s all there is.” He frowned at her. “I say we make a pact, right now, to do something fun every day for as long as I’m here.”

The corner of his mouth curved toward his ear and his eyes twinkled. “Deal.”

She threaded her fingers and stretched them over the keyboard. “Fun thing number one, I am going to show you what this bad boy can do.”

“The piano? You play?”

“My parents insisted all three of their children suffer refinements that included music. I chose piano.”

He scooted to the end of the bench to give her room.

With a deep breath, she positioned her hands and allowed her fingers to dance across the keys, playing Mozart’s Piano Sonata 16. She was cheating, she knew. As a werewolf, she was endowed with unnaturally fast speed and agility, which made the finger positioning far easier for her than it would have been for him. But she held nothing back, showing off to her full potential, at one point, leaning her head back to smile cheerfully at his awestricken face. By the time she finished what she could remember of the piece, he’d stood up and was staring openmouthed.

He slow clapped through her final note. “Take a bow, Laina. That was truly extraordinary.”

She shrugged. “I try.”

His laughter faded to an expression far more serious. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m training your dog.”

He shook his head. “It’s a travesty.”

Before she could respond that she rather liked him and his dog, his phone rang.

“Nate. He needs me in the club. I’m sorry but I have to go.”

“The fate of an overachiever.”

“Thank you for the entertainment.”

With a few cordial words, he left the house again, looking tired and empty. Milo jogged to the closing door and whined. “Come on, boy. Let’s go to bed.” The dog turned and followed her.

As she topped the stairs, her cell vibrated in her back pocket. Silas. “You need to finish testing Kyle. You’ve been there too long. If he’s Jonah, he’s pulling you in deeper, clouding your judgment.”

“I will. I haven’t had a chance. The man works constantly.” She chewed her lip. “He passed test number one. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Get it done, Laina, or I’m pulling alpha on you.”

She ended the call, knowing what she had to do.

* * *

“
I
walked
and fed Milo for you,” Laina said when Kyle finally walked through the door just after nine the next night. It was the first time he’d ever been late for a session. “He couldn’t wait. He’s already curled up in his new crate.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry I’m late. Important meeting. I couldn’t leave.”

There was a time she might have chastised him for not doing his duty as a pet owner, but she’d come to believe Kyle would never miss a walk with Milo on purpose. He looked positively beaten.

He poured two glasses of Scotch and handed her one, then led the way outside to the pool deck. He slumped into a chaise lounge and stared up at the moon.

“Rough day?” she asked, taking the chair beside him. It was a beautiful fall night, every star visible in the clear sky.

“Our online magazine subscriptions are flagging. The analysts say we need to do something to break through the noise, gain some publicity,” he murmured.

She waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. “And you don’t want to do that?”

His eyes shifted to hers and he shook his head slowly. “I don’t want to talk about it. I know it’s late, but will you just sit here with me for a while? Your presence is… grounding. I’m beginning to think it’s some kind of drug.”

“I’m a drug?”

He closed his eyes. “Lately the only time my life seems real is when I’m with you.”

She took a fast sip of air, her heart warming at his words. She could relate. As she leaned into the cushion of the deck chair, she felt safe and relaxed. A breeze coursed over the pool, the heated water lapping foggy against the fall night air.

“What were your parents like, Laina?”

She raised her eyebrows, surprised at the question. When she didn’t answer right away, he added, “I’m just curious what a nuclear family is like when they all live together.”

The question made her sad somehow, made her remember Kyle was raised without a mother. “My mom was a botanist. I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t something growing in our house, trees of all types, green plants, flowers. But it wasn’t just plants… she grew people too. She had this softness about her that brought everyone around her to light, especially my father. Dad was a lawyer. Not the grandiloquent type you see leading class action suits on TV, but a taciturn professional with a narrow focus on a specific niche of corporate tax law. Most of the time we thought he was lost inside his head. Until my mother was in the room, and his face would grow younger, his smile would come alive, and I’d see it.”

“See what?”

“The love. The connection that cuts through all the bullshit in life, exposes you for who you really are, without your job or your money, right into your soul. Love looks right through you and loves you anyway.”

He inhaled sharply as if she’d surprised him. “I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed that.”

She bit her lip. “Now that they’re gone, I get a glimpse of it now and then with my brothers. It’s a different kind of love, but there’s a permanence that comes with family.”
And with pack
, she thought.

“Yeah.” He nodded slightly, brows knit, face tight. She wondered if he had that with Nate. For some reason, she doubted it.

“We made a pact, Kyle. We said we’d do something fun, every day.” She smiled roguishly at him.

He groaned. “I’m not sure I have the energy for much fun.”

“I have an idea.” She looked at the water and up at the crescent moon. “How about a swim?”

His gaze drifted to her and he arched an eyebrow. “Isn’t it a little cold?”

Laina stood and pulled her sweatshirt over her head, her white lace bra barely visible in the sliver of moonlight. “Pool’s heated.” She unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down her legs, toeing off her shoes and socks.

He set down his drink and swallowed hard. “What happened to keeping things professional?”

“As far as I can tell, we are both off the clock.” In nothing but a bra and a stretch of lace, she rounded the pool and dove in, the warm, clear liquid undulating over her muscles. Breaking the surface, she smoothed back her hair with both hands in the glow of the underwater lights.

For a moment, he didn’t move, just stared at her from his pool chair, his gaze drifting to the place where the surface of the water lapped over her nipples, purely visible beneath the wet, white lace. His eyelids lowered to half-mast and his fingers moved to the cufflinks of his shirt. He stood and removed his jacket.

“Laina, we’re too old for games,” he said from the shadows. “I’ve respected your request to maintain a professional distance despite wanting you every minute you’ve been here. If I dive into that water, it won’t be just to swim. Tell me now, if you want me to walk away. I can’t pretend I don’t want you. Not tonight.” His voice was firm and strong. No one but Silas talked to her in that tone, but Kyle’s voice had a much different effect on her than her brother’s. Her wolf woke up. The inside of her skin warmed where her inner beast pressed toward him, then rolled onto her back, whimpering. This was more than vice; it was submission.

She saw a flash of white as his shirt fell next to his jacket. He was undressing. She owed him an answer.

“I want to see you,” she said.

He stepped to the edge of the pool, the sight of him making her hiss through her teeth. Her eyes darted to his reflection in the water, the subtle moonlight behind his head. Water, reflection, no aura. Test two and three passed. This was Kyle, and she wanted him. She couldn’t even blame it on the wolf. Her human side was just as interested.

“Come in,” she said, her voice husky.

He dug his thumbs into his briefs and pulled them off. She stared at him in all his glory for a moment, breathless from the electric charge that pulsed through her. He jumped into the shoulder-deep water and waded across the pool. As his fingers found her waist and his thumbs stroked between her navel and bottom rib, his gaze raked over her face and settled on her lips. He pressed her against the wall of the pool, the only sound the movement of the water around their bodies and the soft current of his breath. He lowered his face toward hers.

“There’s something you should know about me,” she whispered into his mouth.

“Hmm?”

“I’m strong, really strong. And I like it rough. If something I do hurts you, you have to tell me.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “You won’t hurt me, and I won’t hold back.”

His lips crashed down on hers, tongue diving into her mouth as if staking a claim. She let him in, her hands finding the back of his head, gasping for air as they repositioned to go even deeper.

She hitched a leg over his hip, his erection pressing into the thin wet lace between her thighs. The weightlessness of the water and the grip of his hands helped her wrap the other leg around him without effort. Their mouths melded as she hooked her ankles behind his back. He ground his thick length against her, the ridge where his shaft met the head reaching just below her navel.

He cupped under her ass, his massive erection circling against her belly. Hand coasting up her ribs, he squeezed her breast through the wet lace of her bra, thumb coaxing the nub to a hard peak. His touch traced the lace under her arm and to the center of her back where he unclasped her bra and paused from kissing her, panting heavily, to toss the wet lace aside.