Obsession (4 page)

“It’s only for a week. You can put up with her for seven days.” J.J. “Jeremiah” Taylor leaned back against his leather chair.

Put up with her? Yes, something would definitely be
up
while she visited. He thought of Jessica naked, rebellious, standing before him and daring him to act upon his wildest fantasies.

He had plenty of those. He’d vowed all those years ago to never have sex again until he found The Monster. After seven years of self-imposed celibacy, he had many fantasies involving females and sex. He was a healthy male Lupine, after all. But his heart still belonged to his beloved Britney, lying beneath the earth in New Mexico.

Soon as he’d recovered from his wounds after J.J. had found him, Raphael had returned to the facility to bury her. He became determined to remain celibate, honing his focus on finding the Lupine responsible for her death.

And then he’d seen Jessica, her wild red hair blowing in the cool Colorado air, eating a peach. Juice had flowed down her chin, dripping to her chest. Her mouth had been red and wet and sexy as hell.

It had taken all his restraint to avoid tossing aside the peach, and licking the sweet juice off her mouth, running his tongue down her throat and opening her shirt to bare her breasts…

Raphael paced back and forth like a caged wolf. He pulled out his cell phone and consulted his calendar. The rodeo they were hosting at the ranch would pull together Skins and Lupines from all over the state. Aiden Mitchell’s pack was even coming from Montana to compete in the bull riding, barrel racing and bronco busting events.

“The rodeo is this week. The timing of Jessica’s arrival is quite inconvenient.”

“Relax. You’ve got all the details covered. Aiden Mitchell is arriving Friday with his pack to provide extra security. You’ve got Hank and Stephen working on guest lodging and bringing in the extra trailers and arranging for parking. We have an outside vendor handling ticket sales. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Nothing except a redhead who might prove a very big distraction.

“You have only been mated a few weeks, my friend. Do you think it is a good idea to bring the red-head here when you should be spending private time with Alexa? Siring your heir?” Raphael paused. “You must make arrangements for the future. I will not be here with you forever.”

The realization left his chest hollow. He’d cherished his time with J.J., but despite the fact they were best friends, his destiny lay elsewhere. He was a pureblood alpha and needed to rule. He served as J.J.’s beta because he owed J.J. for saving his life in the desert. As much as he cared deeply for J.J., Raphael hated being in debt to another.

I am an alpha and I need to reform my own pack. But I will never forsake our friendship. I owe you my life.

“She’s Alexa’s friend and wants to visit. I’m not going to deny Alexa her friends.” J.J. watched his beta. “Mind sitting down? This is a valuable Oriental carpet and you’re tearing a hole in it with your pacing.”

“I will replace it.” But he sat, not in the matching leather chairs before J.J.’s desk, but on the desk itself.

A subtle, but powerful signal sent to his alpha.
I am not your inferior. I hold the same level of power as you, even though I do not yet have my pack reunited.

To his credit, J.J. didn’t react, only watched him with the same steady regard. They had an agreement. Raphael stayed on at the ranch, guiding and helping J.J. until the time came for him to leave. That time had seemed long in coming until recently, when Raphael finally located the last survivor of his scattered New Mexico pack. And now he suspected that he was closing in on the final link—finding The Monster.

Rumors surfaced about a Lupine with a star-shaped birthmark drifting through New Mexico, a man who asked about using forces of dark magick. But no one would aid him. The Lupine seemed powerless.

Raphael instinctively knew it was The Monster. He’d tried to find him for the seven years he’d been with J.J., but his arch enemy had vanished.

But now a lovely distraction named Jessica Tyrell was arriving. His blood surged hot and thick. He would have her, he knew it in his blood and bones.

Finally, all the pieces of the mosaic fell into place. But he must use caution.

“If it is The Monster, you know what I must do, my friend.”

J.J. sat up. “Rafe, from the day you came here and helped me form this pack, I knew you wouldn’t stay. I won’t stop you if you’ve decided it’s time to leave. Just level with me. That’s all I ask.”

But he could not tell his best friend everything. “Why is Jessica Tyrell coming here?”

“She wants to visit Alexa.”

“And? Did she ask about anything else?”

J.J. drummed his fingers on the desktop. “She has a big project she’s working on. Tracing her family history. She asked to access the alpha database of Lupines.”

Ah, now that made sense. “Did you give her permission?”

His friend frowned. “I told her to let me know what she needed, and I’d search for the information. You know as well as I do, Rafe, that database is restricted to alpha Lupines only.”

Raphael locked gazes with his friend. “I will level with you about Jessica. I sense she is big trouble.”

“Trouble because she makes you hot and bothered?”

How well J.J. knew him.

“She is a beauty. A dangerous one with a mouth on her.”

He wondered, late at night alone in his bed, exactly what that mouth could do. Jessica, on her knees looking up at him, those wet, perfect lips around his…

The fax machine atop the sleek black credenza began to beep and whir. J.J. turned and grabbed the paper. His expression tightened as he handed it to Raphael.

“For you, from Mercedes, alpha Lupine of the Santa Fe pack.”

Raphael read the fax and his stomach clenched. “It is him, then. He still calls himself Julius Caesar. He wears a dark wig, but still has that marking on his neck. Star-shaped.”

J.J. picked up a Mont Blanc pen from the desk and tapped it against the wood. “Find him, Rafe. He’s one fucked up bastard.”

“He is more than that,” Raphael said quietly. “If he finds someone to help him harness the dark arts to gain power, he will become lethal.”

Bleakness entered J.J.’s gaze. “I saw what he did to you.”

“If not for you…” Raphael couldn’t finish. Emotion clogged his throat.

“I found you. You saved yourself.”

“My friend, we both know I would have been bleached bones in the desert by now if you hadn’t chanced upon me.” Crushing the fax in one hand, he felt the ancient Lupine call to shift and run with the moon. Fangs bared, powerful muscles working, the bloodlust to destroy his enemy pumping through his veins.

“Go find him and kill him, Rafe. Before he murders more innocents.”

“Not quite that easy, my friend. Julius is clever. He moves constantly to avoid detection and he blends too easily with the Skin world.” Raphael’s mind raced over the possibilities.

J.J. nodded. “Do what you must. I’ll give you whatever you need to track down that bastard and tear him apart.”

A car screeched to a halt on the gravel drive outside. J.J. went to the window and glanced out. “Jessica just pulled up in a taxi. Damn.” The alpha frowned and ran a hand through his hair. “I told her to call and we’d pick her up at the airport.”

“That one will not wait. She has no patience.”

Jessica Tyrell, she of the bright red hair, the fiery spirit. Raphael felt something long cold and dead inside him flame to life.

He joined J.J. at the window. Jessica climbed out of the taxi. A sudden breeze teased her waist-length corkscrew curls. Standing there in the bright sunshine in her plain black jacket and trousers, she suddenly resembled the wild, fierce and proud Celtic warrior queens of legend.

Do not immortalize her, or put her on a pedestal. She’s dangerous.

Very much so. That hair…

He’d only seen hair on one other person. The very thought of The Monster made heart burn bright with revenge, even as his blood stirred at the sight of the lovely Lupine.

“I’m waiting on an overseas call. Tell Jessica I’ll be down to greet her properly when I’m finished.” J.J. glanced at the wall clock. “Probably about an hour.”

“Of course. I will greet her, and help her with her luggage,” he told J.J.

The alpha caught his arm. “Hold on, Rafe. I trust you, and love you like a brother, but Jess is Alexa’s best friend. Don’t get ideas. Ideas of the male kind. She’s off limits.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Because I am technically, and only technically while I remain on the ranch, your beta?”

“Because I don’t want Jess to get hurt. She’s wild and carefree, and she’s very dear to my mate. “

“I would never hurt her,” he promised.
Unless she begged for me to do so…

Before J.J. could issue more restrictions, he hurried from the office and went downstairs, out of the main house. Jessica was reaching inside the taxi for something. Black denim stretched over her generous bottom. So nice and plump. He adored women with big butts in tight jeans.

His body reacted, growing stiff and making his own jeans tight. Think of something else. Oh the wicked fantasies of what he could do with Jessica’s lush bottom…

Baseball. Think of baseball. No The Monster’s laugh, as his minions ate through your flesh…

His erection shriveled as if someone immersed it into icy water.

Jessica straightened and turned. For a moment, awareness flashed in her gray eyes. The air between them crackled with sexual energy.

Raphael slowly smiled. “Hello, Jessica Tyrell.”

She stepped back, as if afraid of him, or the chemistry flaring between them. “Hey there, tall, dark and sarcastic. Nice to see you again. Pay the man. I forgot to get change.”

“Say please,” he told her.

Learn the word, little one, for later, when you are naked in my bed, you will say it many times exclusively to me.

Jessica’s mouth flattened and her eyes narrowed.

“Say please or pay him yourself.”

Her lips moved in a pouting whisper. “Please.”

Raphael paid the taxi driver and added a generous tip. As the man removed Jessica’s suitcase from the trunk, she ducked back inside the taxi, then climbed out and slammed the door shut. The driver thanked him, climbed into the taxi and sped off, spitting gravel beneath his tires.

Amused, he looked at Jessica slinging her purse over one shoulder. “What did you say to the man? He looked quite terrified of you.”

“He was a smart ass. Said he’d forgo the fare if I gave him a peep to see if my curtains matched my drapes.”

Anger burned through Raphael. “The insolent ass.”

She shrugged. “I can handle guys like him. I have experience. Told him if he didn’t shut up, I’d call his wife.”

Surprised, he watched the departing taxi. “And how did you get her number?”

Jessica tossed him a cell phone, which he caught. “He was stupid enough to leave it on the front seat while he was getting my bag out of the trunk.”

“You stole his phone.”

“Borrowed. He tried to pinch my butt when I was climbing into the cab.”

The thought of the driver touching Jessica filled Raphael with rage. He crushed the cell phone in one fist, opened his palm and let the pieces fall to the ground. “You were told to stay at the airport and someone would pick you up.”

She shrugged. “I never listen. And I was in a hurry to see my girl.”

He caught a very delicate scent like sharp snow and ice. The scent of a lie. But why?

“You didn’t want to be alone in a vehicle with me after J.J. told you to expect me to pick you up at the airport. The thought of me being your chauffeur scared you,” he guessed.

She bristled. “I’m not afraid of anyone, especially not you.”

“Good.” He smiled darkly and she swallowed hard.

He reached for her battered, wheeled suitcase, which looked as if someone had used it as a speed bump in a NASCAR race.

“I can carry my own luggage.” Jessica sidestepped him and lifted the handle of the suitcase to pull it forward.

The handle came off.

A bright flush tinted her cheeks. Raphael lifted the suitcase by the remaining strap. He took the broken suitcase handle from her and as their hands touched, she shivered. Her eyes darkened.

Oh this week would be hell…

“Allow me.”

As he led the way to the house, the screen door banged open and Alexa rushed outside, down the steps.

A wide smile touched Jessica’s lovely mouth. She looked so pretty and happy it tugged at his heart. What would it be like if she looked at him like that?

For a wild moment he indulged in a fantasy.
He finally ruled over his lost pack and Jessica bounded down the steps to greet him. He swept her into his arms, carried her up the stairs to their bedroom and made love to her long into the night…

“Alexa!”

The two female Lupines collided together and hugged tight. Raphael hauled the suitcase to the porch and hovered in silence as the females talked madly. Over the past years, he’d learned the art of listening, for it allowed him to assess and analyze before acting.