Big Bad Billionaire (The Woolven Secret Book 1) (10 page)

Warner edged out of the room quietly, quickly, and Eleanor did the same, leaving them alone.

Yet, still, the stench of her fear turned his stomach.

Still, she held the weapon aloft as if she meant to use it.

“Don’t come any closer,” she whispered.

“I won’t hurt you, Randi.”

“The way you didn’t hurt Hector?”

“You’re the one who ended his life.
You
wiped him out of existence. That wasn’t me.” He took a step closer to her.

“Stop it. Stay where you are.”

“I can’t.” He shook his head and continued to advance on her.

“I will shoot you. I will.” She nodded, as if trying to convince herself.

“That’s your choice, but I can’t have you smelling of fear. My wolf won’t permit it.” He took another small step.

“You are making me afraid, Blake. Stay. Where. You. Are.” She dropped the gun, but lifted it again.

“Don’t be afraid of—” His words broke off in a growl. His wolf didn’t understand why she was afraid. His wolf wanted to console her, wrap itself around her and hide her from whatever made her afraid.

It didn’t understand that it was him who frightened her.

She was terrified of
him
.

He leaned forward and rested his head against the muzzle of the gun. “Do what you have to. I will never hurt you, Randi.
Never
.”

Chapter Ten

“You think I won’t pull this trigger? I will, goddamn it.” She hated the tears choking her, the heavy weight on her chest and, most of all, she hated the terror in her heart when he leaned forward and pressed his head against the barrel.

She was terrified of herself.

That she really would pull the trigger.

Because then all that made Blake Woolven would be gone. The thought was worse than knowing he was a werewolf. Worse than thinking he would hurt her. It turned in on itself, a sickly snake eating its own tail.

“I believe you will.”

His voice was still so low, guttural. She could tell the beast under his skin clawed at the surface, struggled to get to her.

“Then what the hell are you doing?” The high-pitched tinny quality of her voice made her sound weak and ineffectual. Worse, made her
feel
weak and ineffectual.

“Submitting to you.” His hands closed over hers. He held her strong and steady.

“You’ve lost your goddamn mind.”

“I’m giving you what you need to feel safe. I will always give you what you need, if you let me.”

She knew it must be a trick, designed to manipulate her. He’d make her feel like she held some kind of power then he’d crush her. Devour her.

The gentle way he’d held her when he carried her from the scene and to her room brushed at the edges of her memory. If he’d wanted to be rid of her, if he wanted to hurt her, he could’ve done it a hundred times over already.

“What if what I need is to bring Woolven down?” It was, after all, why she’d come to Aphelion.

“Then you’ll have to kill me, Randi. I can’t let you hurt my pack.”

“How would you stop me?” Part of her wanted him to threaten her, wanted him to prove he was the monster under the bed.

I’m the king of monsters.

Yet, here he stood—a monster in fact, but not in deed.

“What am I supposed to say here? That I’d rip your throat out?” His amber eyes met hers, and they glowed. “No. I couldn’t do that.”

“Stop it.” She kept thinking about him chasing her in the maze. How afraid she’d been, and then how hot. What it felt like to have his tongue lapping at her wet heat, his growls of pleasure, and what it was like to be the object of his singular intent.

“Stop what?” He seemed genuinely confused.

“Looking at me with your… wolf eyes.” Her heart thundered like stampeding horses, but with more than fear. It raced with adrenaline tinged desire.

His perfectly sculpted brow arched. “My wolf
likes
looking at you. You’re my mate.”

“I don’t want to be.” She didn’t.

Did she? To have a man—a creature—like Blake Woolven as her own… she almost couldn’t fathom it.

“Me either.” He grinned.

She kicked him, but didn’t lower the gun. “Asshole.”

“I call it like I see it.” He drew the gun down toward his heart. She fought him at first, but then he said, “I just want to look at you, instead of down that barrel. I’ll be just as dead if you pull the trigger. Won’t you let me look at you?”

His gentle tone irritated her. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to feel the things she was supposed to feel for this monster, this killer. “I thought you didn’t want me to be your mate? If you don’t want me, why would you like looking at me?” She needed something to make sense. If it didn’t, she would tumble down the rabbit hole and Randi didn’t know if she’d ever stop falling. Or how hard she’d hit the ground when she did.

“I don’t. I didn’t want anyone to be my mate, yet. Acknowledging that doesn’t mean I don’t want to look at you now that I found you.”

When he looked at her that way, even though he said he didn’t want her to be his mate, it was with something altogether sweet and gentle. It wasn’t something she’d have expected from him. Not only because of what he was, but because of
who
he was.

“If you were a wolf and could identify your mate on sight, how would you’ve felt walking in to my office and realizing your mortal enemy was your mate?”

“I’m kind of feeling it right now, but we’re not even the same species.” She shook her head slowly.

“We could be.” He smiled as if he’d just propositioned her for sex instead of offering to alter her genetic makeup.

“Keep your teeth over there,” she blurted, before she could think better of it.

“I’d never bite you without your permission.” His hands weren’t on hers or the gun anymore. They’d moved to her hips, pulling her closer. “Won’t you let me try to convince you how good it could be for us?”

She bit her lip and looked up into his eyes. They glowed brighter, like embers from a fire. For some reason, rather than being afraid, they made her so hot.

Randi’s body remembered what it felt like when he’d chased her and what happened after he took her to the ground. He’d devoured her all right, but it had been in the best way. He brought her such pleasure, such bliss, and she shivered as she remembered the way he’d dragged his teeth across her throat.

He could’ve bitten her then, changed her into something like him. Hell, if he’d asked in the moment, she might’ve said yes. Likely, she would’ve done anything to keep his mouth on her, his hands, and his delicious body grinding against hers.

Blake Woolven had done nothing to hurt her. Nothing to take anything she wasn’t prepared to give.

“I don’t want to be what you are.” She shook her head. “I’m afraid.”

“There are pleasures, my mate, only to be had as wolves.” He leaned closer to her, unmindful of the weapon she held next to his heart which could turn him to ash. Blake scraped his cheek against hers. “But there are pleasures to be had in this body, too.”

She shivered. Randi wanted this with him, but not the rest of it. She wasn’t ready. And she wasn’t entirely convinced he wouldn’t take more from her than what she wanted to give. He was a billionaire playboy who got everything he wanted.

Looking at him, she wondered why shouldn’t he?

He was beautiful, rich, and an animal who operated on instinct.

She’d never seen a wild animal abstain from something it wanted or thought it needed simply because of its impact on another creature.

But why did he want her, aside from the fact she was David Rutger’s daughter?

Evidence of his arousal pressed against her belly but, somehow, she still didn’t really believe it was for her just for the sake of herself.

Randi knew what she looked like.

She was very aware that her hair was too red, her skin too pale, her personality too loud, and her ass too wide.

Randi tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her and the gun slipped from her fingers. Neither of them paid it any attention.

“Why are you pulling away from me again? Haven’t I earned a little of your trust?” His strong fingers tenderly tilted her face up so she had to look at him.

His eyes weren’t glowing anymore. They were warm and sweet.

“I…” She exhaled. Randi couldn’t bring herself to say it. Couldn’t bring herself to bare her insecurities for his scrutiny. It was more intimate than being naked with him.

“Randi, I’ve shown you more than I have any other female. I’ve proven I won’t hurt you. Why can’t you tell me what makes you hesitate?”

“I’m know who I am. I know what I look like.”

“Good. Then you know you’re beautiful. Strong. A fit mate for an Alpha.” He nodded.

“I still don’t believe your secret didn’t have something to do with my father’s death, even if Hector Luna killed him. If he did, it’s because of for the work he did for you. I also know you’d do anything to protect your family and your company. Including making me believe that you care about me.” She looked away. “That you want me.”

He took her hand and pressed it down to the hard ridge of his erection. “Does this feel fake?”

“You could be thinking about Marchessa de la Luna for all I know.”

“Is that really what you think of me?” His erection flagged. “I don’t know how to convince you other than offering the truth. I may not have showed my hand, but I never lied to you.”

“You have to see this from my perspective. Look at me. Now look at you.”

“Yes. We fit. Hot Alpha Bitch. Hot Alpha. Matched set. Yes?” He nodded as if he were preaching to the choir.

“No. Big, bad billionaire. Fat, smart-assed ginger. No, that doesn’t work. Not in anyone’s math.” Randi shook her head.

He made her touch him again and the beast was most definitely back. 

“This is what touching you does to me.”

He nuzzled at her neck. She found her hands winding around his shoulders and her back arching to give him access to anything he desired of her.

God, she wanted him so much.

But this was so wrong for so many reasons.

“I love your hips,” he murmured. “I love that I can throw you around and it’s not going to hurt you. I love that I can hold you like this.” His fingers dug into her hips and he brought her forward, hard against him. “I know when I get you naked again, and I’m inside you, these hips will take us both to the stars.”

His words curled low in her belly and the awareness of him bloomed into a pulsing ache.

Blake moved his hands up to her breasts and pressed his lips against her throat as he spoke. “And these are the work of gods, for only in the heavens could something so lovely be wrought for the world of men.”

She giggled. “Shut up. You’re so full of shit.”

He lifted his head and she looked into his eyes and saw that he was deadly serious as his hands moved down to her belly. The rounded softness that made her feel like she was ugly. Like she was less.

“Is this your problem?”

She lifted her chin. “I dare you find something good about that.”

He snorted. “What’s bad? I love how soft you are. The way you’re made to fit with me. If a male is taking care of his female, she should be soft and rounded. Prime to be ripe with pups.”

“I’m not a brood mare.” She snorted.

“No, you’re a she-wolf in human skin. And you’re
mine
.” His hands were under her shirt now, stroking across her bare, dimpled flesh. “I bet when you Turn, you’ll be all russet and fire.”

“I’m not going to Turn.”

“Yes, you will. I won’t force it, but you’ll beg me to mark you.”

Hell, she was halfway to begging now. She stroked her palm over his erection. He was so hard everywhere.

“Show me first.”

“I’ll show you anything you want.”

“Show me your wolf. Not the pretty, noble beast that ran from the house, but the terrible one. The one like Warner. That’s in you too, isn’t it?”

“That’s our warrior form.” He studied her face. “Are you sure that’s what you want to see?”

“Yes.” She hoped seeing it would kill the desire that raged in her like an inferno. That it would rattle some sense back into her head.

His hands went to the waist of his pants.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m much bigger in that form.” He eyed her with a smirk. “I don’t want to ruin my pants.”

She licked her lips and held her breath as his trousers slid down his long, powerful legs. Randi didn’t mean to look at his cock.

No, that was a lie. She wanted to see all of him.

She wasn’t disappointed.

He was the most beautiful male she’d ever seen naked—or clothed, for that matter. Part of her wondered if it was actually possible their bodies would fit together. He seemed to be very sure, but she wasn’t.

Randi was no fainting virgin, but seeing his body…it made her doubt herself even more.

She hated the feeling.

She didn’t want it anymore, that sense of not being good enough, pretty enough, smart enough… or just being
enough
.

She wanted to fling herself into this with both feet because, throughout her whole life, she’d never felt like she belonged anywhere. Blake made her feel like she belonged here. They’d saved her. Protected her.

Welcomed her.

Even knowing she wanted to bring them all down.

The way Blake looked at her now… yeah. She wanted desperately to believe it was real.

But even if it was, so what?

Her father was dead. She was no closer to finding out who was to blame, who had to pay. So why did she have to pay? Why couldn’t she have this one moment?

“Still want to see? Or maybe you’ll let me touch you first. Make you come.”

She drew in a shaking breath. “Like the Woolven Brides of old? No. No flower. Just you. Just me. And the truth.”

He shifted.

The process wasn’t at all like what she’d expected. Nothing like what she’d seen Hector Luna endure.

His transformation looked beautiful, fluid, graceful. It was like a primal dance.

He was huge, as big as Warner. Thickly muscled, powerful. Even though his form was frightening, she saw nothing unnatural about him.