OtherKin: Tranquility (2 page)

"I said your
name three times. I thought you slipped into a coma standing
there." He glanced at her hand, and she realized she was clutching
the invoice like a life preserver. She relaxed her grip. "Are you
okay?" he asked.

Terrific. She
was just great. Caught between her brother, Marcus, and a man her
body seriously wanted—even if her mind knew it was a Bad Idea—and
stuck working a job she didn't want, she was juuuust dandy.

She smiled.
"I'm fine. What can I do for you?"

He handed her a
sheaf of papers and grinned sheepishly. "I, uh, found those in one
of my drawers. I think they're tax papers."

Morgan was a
really wonderful man, but his powers of organization were sorely
lacking. "I'll file them for you."

"Thanks." He
started to walk away, but then turned back. "Oh, and can you give
Roane a ride out to Mr. Hogan's house? He needs to take a look at
Hogan's car."

Alone in the
car with Roane? "Uh. We're doing house calls now?"

Morgan glanced
to around, making sure there were no humans within earshot. "Hogan
was injured during the last Run, Scarlet. He can't even walk right
now."

"Oh." A Run was
an activity the Tranquility Pack engaged in every month. By the
light of the full moon, they shifted to wolf form and ran the
northern woods, hunting, fighting and mating. Generally allowing
their Wolven sides off the leash, so to speak. "I didn't know. Why
can't Roane just drive out there himself?"

Morgan just
looked at her.

Scarlet sighed
heavily. This was getting ridiculous. "Okay, I'll get Roane and
we'll head out."

"Thanks."

She walked over
and laid the paperwork on the desk. When she glanced up through the
glass that separated the garage from the office, it was to meet
Roane's steady gaze. She shivered. He jerked his head toward her
black SUV parked just outside the open garage doors.

She nodded, got
her light fall coat off the rack near the door and walked outside.
After Roane finished washing his hands, he grabbed a large tool
kit, popped it into the back of her car and climbed into the
passenger side. Scarlet got in and turned the ignition.

"Marcus thinks
I need a babysitter, huh?" Roane said.

"Guess so," she
muttered as she backed out of the parking space. She didn't have
the will to deny it. Roane wasn't stupid. He could figure out
easily enough why she'd taken the job at Morgan's.

"Your brother
is pretty insecure, but I don't mind so long my keeper looks like
you."

Scarlet set her
jaw and didn't reply. Silence descended on the car as they traveled
out of Tranquility and into the country. Roane wasn't exactly the
talkative type and Scarlet really didn't have anything to say.

The scent of
him filled her sensitive nostrils. He smelled of oil and automobile
and, underneath that, of man. She couldn't say why the combination
aroused her. By all rights it shouldn't have, but then everything
about Roane turned her crank. Maybe it was some strange chemistry
thing.

"Ever wonder
why your brother trusts you alone with me?" Roane asked quietly
when they were nearing the Hogan place. "You know, because I'm
supposedly so dangerous and all."

Scarlet pulled
down the gravel driveway and parked. Before she opened her door,
she looked at him. "Yeah, well, just between you and me, I don't
think you're so dangerous. Anyway, I can take care of myself."

Roane was out
of the car in a flash and stalking toward her. The sight of him
advancing on her raised every hair on her body. She retreated until
she was pressed up against the car, caged by his arms on either
side of her. Skitters of arousal and alarm ran through her. Scarlet
wanted to mask the sudden rush of sexual excitement she felt by
having him so close, his mouth near hers, his body nearly touching
her, but she couldn't.

"I'm only
dangerous to Marcus if he pushes me too far," he growled. "But I am
very dangerous to you, Scarlet." Roane dropped his head and inhaled
somewhere near her throat. "It's your pheromones, or something.
They make me crazy."

"Get off me,
Roane," she said shakily. She could feel her body heating and she
knew he could scent it on her. Wolven couldn't hide it when they
were sexually excited.

He caught her
gaze and smiled slowly, predatorily. Scarlet's heart began to beat
faster. "Marcus was stupid to put his beloved sister in my way.
First because, in his view, I'm dangerous and unpredictable, a
threat to his power." He paused and his eyes darkened. "Second,
because I want you."

She couldn't
say anything in response. He must know she wanted him back. Didn't
mean she would succumb to temptation, though.

He leaned in
and held his mouth a breath's space from hers. Roane didn't kiss
her, he just let her feel the warmth of him, scent of his breath
and feel it against her lips. He slid his hand to her waist, making
her jump a little at the contact.

Roane stared
into her eyes in a silent Wolven challenge. Scarlet averted her
eyes and let her head fall to the side in response. Roane dipped
his head and ran his full lips slowly down the arch of her throat,
to the place where it met her shoulder. There, he softly laid a
kiss. Goosebumps erupted all over her body as he lingered there.
Her body reacted to him, priming itself for him.

He let his hand
slide under the hem of her shirt and he rested his bare palm
against the small of her back. The action was intimate and
suggestive. It made her shiver in his arms. Never in a million
years would she have expected this kind of gentle sensuality from a
man like Roane.

A deep groan
rumbled up from his throat. It vibrated through her, making her
close her eyes. She was putty in his hands, helpless. If they'd
been somewhere more private she knew she'd be in big trouble. That
not succumbing to temptation thing might be just a dream.

He released her
and backed away. Scarlet opened her eyes to see him staring
speculatively at her, a satisfied-looking smile curving his sinful
lips. "I thought so," he said, then turned and walked toward the
house.

"You thought
so. What?" She called after him. "What exactly did you think,
Roane?"

"Thought the
attraction went both ways," he called over his shoulder. "Now I
know for sure."

Yep, she was in
trouble.

* * * * *

"Why did you
come to Tranquility, anyway?" Scarlet asked, fingering the neck of
her bottle of beer.

Roane had fixed
Hogan's car and headed here for a drink, since the work day was
done. She figured, why not? Roane knew she was supposed to be
spying on him for Marcus and he was aware of her undeniable
attraction to him.

She'd waited in
the car, contemplating all of this, for the hour it took for Roane
to work. When he'd returned, she'd suggested they go somewhere to
talk, somewhere away from Tranquility, away from Marcus' paranoid
eyes. So they've made the ten mile trip to the nearest town, where
the Wolven had no need to go. Here, there were only humans.

It was Friday
night and the bar was packed. They were sitting closely at the bar
ostensibly so they could hear one another, though Scarlet didn't
mind the proximity of him, the warmth of his body and the scent of
him.

It had been too
long since she'd been with a man, and this particular one worked
the last of her will to resist with every breath he took.

What she gave
him to him, just this one night? What if they slept together, did
everything she'd already done with him in her fantasies, in order
to simply slake their need? Maybe the desire would fade then, and
she could go back to normal.

"You've asked
me that before."

She nodded.
"And you never really gave me much of an answer."

"Because I'm
not a lone wolf," Roane replied, taking a swig of his beer. "I need
a pack."

"Why'd you
leave your old pack?"

"My brother and
I were both contenders to rule, dictated by the council of elders.
They decided whoever took this woman to mate…her name is Nikki and
she's a cat shifter, would attain the highest status in the pack. I
left so I wouldn't have to challenge my own brother for her."

Her brow
furrowed. "You didn't want Nikki?"

He shook his
head, "Merrick, my brother, had a kind of chemistry with Nikki.
They were meant to be mates. It was better I left." He paused and
glanced at her. "Chemistry like what you and I have."

Scarlet ducked
her head and studied the neck of her beer bottle fiercely. "So, as
a natural alpha, you came here and caused a ruckus."

"I don’t want
to be alpha of this pack. I don't know how many times I have to say
it. This was bound to happen to anywhere I went, but it was cause a
ruckus or live alone. I'd rather cause a ruckus."

Yes, he was
good at doing that. The man didn't even need to say or do anything
to cause a stir. He just had to exist.

She used her
thumbnail to peel off the damp beer label. "I believe you," she
said sincerely.

"I'm glad." His
hand covered hers. She looked up at him. "They say that peeling the
labels off bottles that way is a sign of sexual frustration."

His eyes had
gone dark, the pupils dilated. Scarlet could scent his arousal roll
off him in a wave of heated musk. Suddenly she felt like a deer
caught in headlights…or caught the hunting gaze of a predator.

"Yeah, well,
they might be right," she responded in a shaky voice.

"Really? How
intriguing." He reached out, grabbed her bar stool and yanked her
close to him.

Scarlet gasped,
feeling a rush of adrenaline through her body at his body
practically flush against hers.

He gave her a
slow, confident smile that pissed her off a little. That reaction
was drowned in the pool of her own need, however. "I want you," he
said low. "I want you in my bed tonight, Scarlet. I want you slow,
and then I want you hard and fast. I want you all night long."

She glanced
away, her breath hitching. "I want you too, Roane. More than I can
say. “She licked her lips nervously.”But to sleep with you would be
like, like—"

"Betraying your
brother?"

She nodded. But
it was Marcus' fault she was in this position in the first place.
And who was her brother to dictate with whom she slept with
anyway?

“Scarlet?" he
asked in a velvet smooth voice. She looked at him. "Fuck your
brother."

He let his face
drift closer to hers. She didn't move away, couldn't move away.
Their breath mingled, lips brushed, and then he kissed her. Her
lips felt wooden beneath his for a moment, and then she melted and
kissed him back. Every nerve in her body shot to life with
hunger.

She twisted,
leaning into him so she could feel her breasts against his rock
hard chest, and eased her hands slowly up his arms, over the bulge
of biceps, to his broad shoulders. In his arms she felt so fragile,
so small…so protected. She'd never pegged herself for the kind of
woman who enjoyed that, but she had to admit that she felt safe in
Roane's arms, and that she liked it…a lot.

Roane slipped
his hands to her waist, then slanted his mouth over hers and
flicked his tongue against her lips. Damn it. She wanted to crawl
into his lap. She wanted him to undress here right here in this
crowded bar and fuck her senseless right on this stool. God, she
craved this man on a molecular level, every inch of her body
screamed to feel his hot skin on hers, his thick cock sliding deep.
The stool would be just the right height….

She parted her
lips for him and he slipped his tongue inside. She could taste beer
faintly on his tongue, and it made her feel pleasantly drunk. They
broke the kiss, both breathing heavy

"Scarlet,
there's a hotel not far from here," he murmured hoarsely against
her lips. "No one in Tranquility will ever know." He groaned and
eased a hand between her knees. "I have to touch you."

She whimpered
deep in her throat as he slid his hand between her jean-clad
thighs, his actions concealed by the overhang of the bar and the
dim light. He found the seam where it covered her swollen,
sensitive clit and pressed and rotated, sending little charges of
pleasure through her body.

He kissed her
again, working the bundle of nerve exquisitely, pushing her toward
the fastest climax of her life. She shuddered against him. "Do you
think they know I'm going to make you come right here at the bar?"
he whispered against her lips. "Does it feel good, little one?"

She sank her
white teeth into her lower lip and nodded. "Yes."

"It's
frustrating for me. I want you naked and beneath me on a bed right
now." He pressed and rotated, pressed and rotated, making her clit
more swollen, so very aroused and sensitive. "I want my tongue
here."

She gasped
against his lips. "I'm coming," she whispered. "Oh, god, don't
stop."

"Never." He
slanted his mouth over hers as the orgasm hit her full-force. She
felt the sweet rush of her come as she came against his stroking
hand. Roane caught all her little moans and pants in his mouth.

When her climax
had eased, he let her sag a little against him. "Let's get out of
here," he whispered in her ear. "I want to fuck you till you can't
think anymore."

All she could
do was nod her agreement.

As they rose
and left the bar, neither of them noticed a dark-haired Wolven in
the corner by the jukebox, watching them.

* * * * *

Somehow they
made it into the hotel room. They sealed their bodies together as
soon as they were inside and Roane kicked the door shut behind them
and pressed her up against it. He grabbed both her wrists and
pinned them on either side of her head as his mouth worked over
hers—lips siding, teeth nipping.