Chosen by Sin (5 page)

“Oh come on. You didn’t know?” He sat down again, still chuckling.
“Well, looks like you’ve got an edge then, sweet cheeks. Dex never could resist
your breed’s silver hair—kind of ironic, given silver is our weakness,
don’t you think?”

But only when in wolf form, she recalled.

He glanced insultingly at her chest. “I like my females with bigger
tits, of course, but there’s no accounting for taste.” He threw back the last
of his beer before standing. “We done here?”

“Quite done,” she said, barely refraining from slugging the asshole.
She slid an envelope toward him.

He grabbed it, peeked inside, and grinned. He was almost to the
restaurant’s outer door before he turned back. “You remember what I told you
about my brother, don’t you?”

Pitts had told her Dex had killed his “brother,” another Feral member.
Slowly. Tortuously. And that he’d left the gang immediately afterward. “Murder
isn’t something I’m likely to forget.” Even as she said the words, terrible
images of two specific murders flashed through her mind. Two vampires bound
just feet from her. Her parents. Left to burn in the sun.

Mama, Papa.
Je
n'oublierai jamais
. I will
never forget.

The were continued talking. “Thanks for the money. Easiest cash I ever
earned. But I won’t even bother to wish you luck. I don’t know what you’re
hoping to do with the info on Dex. Bribe him? Play hardball? Dex plays harder
than anyone I’ve ever met. Remember that.”

With that warning, he was gone. He’d wasted his breath.

She knew Dex played hardball. She’d watched him playing as he’d
restrained the misguided shape-shifter who’d messed with Lucy Talbot in that
Los Angeles sex club. But although Jesmina might look lithe and harmless next
to a bulked-up, badass, motorcycle-riding werebeast, she could play hardball
with the best of them.

Only in Dex’s case, she’d be playing hardball with tools she never
liked to use—deceit and trickery, all unspoken but still quite effective.
Of course, that was the very nature of playing hardball: you did what you had
to do, no matter what.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed Kyle Mahone’s number. She’d
taken a huge risk telling him about Dex and her intentions, but she stood by
it. Dex worked for Mahone. That meant he had to trust him on some level. Plus,
Mahone had the authority to give Jes the money she needed to keep her research
going. And although he hadn’t given her information about Dex’s medical
history, he’d known Dex carried a gold charm, which explained why she hadn’t
been able to read his mind either time she’d attempted to.

Apparently dharmire Knox Devereaux didn’t mind sharing intel about his
species with the Para-Ops team, which actually reassured Jes. Although she’d
never met him, the vamp leader was rumored to have the highest regard for
honesty and integrity. If he’d shared information with his team members about
vampire weakness, Jes was right to have put her trust in them, too. That
included Mahone.

When Mahone answered the line, she said, “I just talked to an old
friend of Dex’s from the Ferals. Everything he said tells me what I believe is
true. In order to be sure, I need to run those tests. Once I read his mind and
exercise persuasion over him, I’ll draw his blood. Since we were interrupted
the last time, I’m hoping he’ll come to me. If he doesn’t show up, I need you
to push him in that direction. If I approach him again, he might become
suspicious.”

She half-listened to Mahone’s response, her thoughts already on whether
Dex would come to her. On whether he’d still be pissed at her for taking Lucy away
from him. Whether she’d actually do what she planned—tempt him, then take
his blood before he even knew what hit him—or let him do what she’d been
fantasizing about…

Merde.
Why was she even thinking
in terms of options?

What she was about to do was bad enough. She wasn’t going to add
whoring to her litany of sins. No matter how attracted she was to Dex Hunt, she
wasn’t going to sleep with him to get what she needed.

But she wanted to.

And she had no delusions. She was always unfailingly honest with herself
even if she couldn’t be honest with those around her. Yes, she suffered from
survivor’s guilt. She also suffered from an unexpected case of lust and respect
for Dex Hunt, a male she barely knew, and the one had nothing to do with the
other. It would be easier if it did. Easier for her to see him as a means to an
end. But it didn’t. And she didn’t.

She’d seen Dex working with his team, protecting Lucy and Wraith,
putting himself at risk for felines he didn’t even know. She knew what he was.

A sexy male who’d done what he needed to do to survive.

An honorable male who pretended not to care because he cared too much.

A male who would despise her if he knew the truth.

Until recently, the term fuck buddy had never meant anything to Dex.
He’d always fucked for sheer pleasure—to receive it and to give
it—but lately other needs drove him. With Lucy, his drive was friendship
disguised with practicality. With Jes, his desire was driven by something
alarmingly primal. Not just seeking pleasure for pleasure’s sake, but more like
seeking to appease an intense, gnawing need. With each hour that passed, he had
to fight the urge to go to her. To take what he’d actually been prepared to
take when he’d pushed her into that damn elevator. To give part of himself he’d
never been tempted to give anyone else.

Physically and emotionally.

Hell, he hadn’t known what he wanted to do most—mark Jes with his
scent and his seed, or beg her to hold him while telling him everything about
her.

How was that for bat-shit crazy?

Since he couldn’t afford even a temporary case of insanity, he’d
managed to refrain from doing any of that.

Which meant for now, a fuck buddy was all he was going to be.

Still, while it wasn’t exactly torturous stuff, it wasn’t turning out to
be as easy as it should be, either—not for him and not for Lucy.

“Let go, Lucy. Let me give you this.” As Dex spoke, he pressed himself
deeper into the mage’s body, then pulled out slowly, stroking the tight inner
muscles that fluttered around him. Gritting his teeth, he forced his mind to
remain distant from the physical pleasure that was racking his body. From his
memories of Jesmina.

This was for Lucy. All for Lucy, damn it.

He’d promised to help ease her sexual heat, the heat that lasted seven
days and came every seven days simply because she was part feline. She’d
agreed, but the fact that she was fighting the pleasure he was giving her, that
she always fought the pleasure he gave her, only tortured them both. He fought
release because it would only complicate matters between them, but Lucy fought
release because she was ashamed of her body’s needs, ashamed she needed sexual
release so badly that he’d offer to help her in the first place.

Of course, he never let her get away with it. In order to function
during the day, her body needed the release that only male penetration and
climax could provide her. If he spent his seed inside her, her relief would be
even greater and last even longer. But Dex, unwilling to risk exposing another
child to the cruelties of the world, always wore protection. Always.

That wouldn’t change, even if he ended up fucking Jesmina.

Especially then.

Of course, he reminded himself, that wasn’t going to happen. Yet, once
the thought formed, so did other thoughts. Other images.

Suddenly, it was no longer Lucy beneath him, but Jesmina.

It was Jesmina’s body he covered, her thighs spread and flanking his
hips, her heat surrounding him and fluttering with dual pleasure and
resistance.

It was Jesmina who fought the pleasure he offered her at the same time
that she strained for it.

It was Jesmina who suddenly made him want to lose control, to shoot
himself into her creamy depths again and again, to take her several times, in
several different ways…

“Dex!”

Lucy’s gasp brought him back to the present and he opened his eyes to
stare down at her. Shit. He was pounding into her, stroking her breasts, giving
her not just sex but taking her. Because he wanted—needed—to take
Jesmina.

Cursing softly, he slowed his thrusts so they were once more
controlled.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “Now come, Lucy. Please,” he choked out.

Lucy’s dark eyes were dazed, but he saw the guilt that flashed through
them. It made him curse again. He hated the fact that she suffered. He felt
compelled to help her but—

“Okay, Dex. Thank you.”

She closed her eyes. Took several hitching breaths and forced her body
to relax. Within seconds, her climax took her. It was a mild one, as most of
hers were, but he knew it would give her temporary peace before she needed him
again.

He stayed inside her until the last of her tremors passed. Then he
withdrew, grimacing at the friction that made his cock jerk from sheer biology.

“I’ll be right back,” he said. He excused himself to go to the bathroom
and took himself in hand. It took mere seconds for him to get off. It took him
only thinking of Jesmina.

When he returned to the bedroom, Lucy was covered with the sheet and
laying on her side. He sat beside her and touched her hip over the sheet. “You
okay?”

She nodded. “Yes. That was—that was wonderful. Thank you.”

Dex snorted and shook his head. “It wasn’t wonderful, but it can be
better, Lucy. Far better. If you let yourself go, if not with me then with
someone else, sex can be damn pleasurable. Your orgasm can be amazing.”

She smiled thinly. “It can’t be that great since you’re able to resist
it.”

“That has nothing to do with you.”

“No? Does it have something to do with you not wanting to have a child?
So much so that even using a condom isn’t enough assurance for you?”

Her question caught him unawares, mostly because it was so spot on.
With Lucy’s steady gaze on his, Dex thought about lying, then simply shrugged.
“I can’t have children. I won’t. Not even with you, babe.” Especially with her.
He’d been ridiculed for his half-breed status. Even Knox had been ostracized by
most of his clan. How much more would the child of a half-breed were and feline
mage suffer?

“Listen, Mahone wants to talk to me about something. I’ll come back as
soon as I’m done. I know you’re heading home tonight. We can—”

Lucy shook her head. “No, Dex. I should never have let this happen
again. It’s time to stop.”

Agreement was on the tip of his tongue, instinctive and swift. But he
knew that couldn’t be right. “You need it, Lucy.”

“I’ll always appreciate what you’ve done for me, Dex, but it’s not fair
to you. You’re not into me, but you’re clearly into someone else. You should go
see her—”

“Will you stop trying to push me and the vampire together?” he snapped.

“No, I won’t. If you’re too stubborn to see what’s so obvious, then I
need to—”

He growled and did the only thing he could think of to shut her up. He
dipped his head and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

Lucy was so surprised she jerked back. He’d never kissed her, not on
the lips. The intimate contact merely confirmed how platonic their feelings
really were for each other. No thrill ran through him. No response besides
shock was triggered in Lucy. It would be so much easier if he wanted her the
same way he wanted Jesmina. It would be so much safer.

“You don’t get it, little one. I’m a werebeast, shunned by my own
people. I couldn’t even fit in with the Ferals, a biker gang of werebeast
criminals. My destiny is to be alone. I want only one thing, and that’s the
reason I joined the Para-Ops team in the first place. Mahone promised each of
us what we most wanted. You want a cure to your heat. I’m going to get my
revenge on my grandfather. Soon. For now, you’re actually doing me a favor. I
get sex with you. Get to hold a damn good-looking female without having to
worry about someone getting clingy and demanding on me.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted that adorably stubborn
chin of hers. “You can’t fool me, Dex. Jacking off in the bathroom after
servicing me is not ‘sex with me’ or something you should enjoy. It ends now.”

The little one was pushing her luck. “Never challenge a were, Lucy.
Remember what I told you before all this started. I lead. You follow. It ends
when I say it does.”

“You’re not my older brother. You can’t protect me forever.”

He got up. Dressed. “Look, I’ve got to go. We’ll talk about this later.
I don’t want you worrying. If—if me taking you without achieving my own
release is what’s got you hung up, then we’ll switch things up.” In fact, maybe
it was time to do what he’d always known he should and get that vasectomy.
Lucy’s heat cycles wouldn’t end anytime soon and if he was going to come inside
her…

“I don’t know. This whole thing, it just doesn’t seem right, Dex.”

“Let me worry about that. I’m going to talk to Mahone.” He headed for
the door, pausing with his hand on the doorknob when Lucy spoke.

“Children aren’t a curse, you know…”

He turned back to her. He thought of the child he’d been. The horrors
he’d seen and experienced in the dilapidated were orphanage his grandfather had
sent him to. He’d certainly felt cursed back then and sometimes, when his guard
was down and the memories sprang upon him, he still did. “Don’t, Lucy. I’m not
going there.”

“You need to talk about it.”

She was wrong. Talking about his past, his family, himself, was the
last thing he needed. “We’ll talk more when I get back. Just not about that.”

***

Lucy watched Dex shut the door behind him before screaming with
frustration and flinging herself back on the bed. What a mess.