Pleasure Cruise (5 page)

When she again looked at him, the man was leaning against the doorframe. His smile widened, though there was confusion in his eyes. Clare attempted her best look of outrage as she glared at him.

“You don’t recognize me?” he asked.

She frowned. What an odd question. Again, the feeling of calm and safety attempted to take over her senses. Clare tried to resist, but the feelings were too strong. Anger and fear gave over to embarrassment. After all, he’d watched her most private moments. How dare he break into her room and spy on her. Truth be told, she was mortified that he’d actually watched her pleasure herself like that.
Gawd!
She couldn’t even
think
about what she’d done with him standing there looking at her.

“If I had known you were so eager to get into my bed, I would’ve already been in it, naked and waiting for you.” The man smiled sheepishly. Clare frowned. He was trying to make jokes at a time like this? “Why don’t you drop the blanket and come here? I promise I can make you feel better than that shower ever could.”

“Drop the what?” Glancing down, she looked at the red cover and then back at him. Her body shivered, very much liking his idea. “You sick… get out before I… before I…”

“You are holding a lamp, which I presume you believe is an adequate defense.” He flashed a smile and tipped his head. “Maybe you should threaten me with that?”

“Ah!”

“I am only trying to help you. You seemed to be at a loss for words.” He waved his hand carelessly to the side, not coming any closer. His body’s relaxed position was anything but threatening.

“I am not at a loss for anything other than a phone to get your—”

“You have quite a temper. You did not seem as though you would. I rather like that, though it does not intimidate me. I have dealt with much scarier than you and I am always prepared for anything.”

Furious and irrational, Clare snarled at him. “How’s your forehead, Mr. Prepared for Anything?”

He cringed. “Yes, that. I will admit you managed a rare thing. You caught me off-guard.”

“Come any closer and I’ll catch you upside your head a second time!”

The man put his hands out and Clare took a deep breath. “You will calm down. There is no need for such hostility. I pose no threat and would rather die than see you harmed.”

The temperature in the room rose dramatically. Clare struggled to take a deep breath as an unseen force wrapped around her, this time stronger than before. It calmed her, soothed her. Her mind told her to throw the lamp at him but her body refused to move. After a few seconds of internal conflict, her mind agreed with her body. Easing her arm down, she kept a tight grip on the lamp as she stared at the man.

“See, isn’t that better?”

“What are you doing in here? What’s going on? Why do you think I would know who you are?”

She did feel better. Clare frowned, just now noticing his words were edged with a very noticeable accent. Russian, maybe? It only made him all the more appealing. Like he needed any help in the “sexiest man alive” category. Her frown deepened into a scowl.

“Oh, I get it. You think I’m a prostitute, is that it? How dare you assume that I would entertain you!” she fumed, pulling the covers tighter. Her voice was calmer than before, though she was still upset. “This is my bed and my room and you don’t belong in either of them. Don’t you dare take another step closer. Stay back!
You
are in the wrong stateroom. Get out before I call security and have you thrown overboard!”

The man lifted his hands, motioning her to be calm. “Easy, now. There’s no need to get all worked up. And I would never think you were a prostitute.”

“Stop talking. Just shut up. I’m not going to sleep with you!” Clare demanded, fighting the sheets as she looked all around. Her nerves were shattered, and it was hard to be imposing wrapped in nothing but red silk. The strangest sensation came over her, as if she knew the man before her, felt him on a primal level. By his look, he felt it too. “Where is my bag? What did you do with it?”

The man leisurely crossed over to a wooden nightstand. He looked hurt by her outburst. His tone harder than before, he said, “There was nothing worth keeping in them so I threw your bag overboard.” He nodded at a round port window, and then pulled something out of the drawer. “Well, nothing was worth keeping except for this little thing here.”

Clare’s face drained of color. He hit the power button on her purple vibrator and a light buzz sounded over the room. The look in his eyes as they moved over her silk-covered body made her think he was about to pounce. A response sparked in her lower stomach at his boldness and she was instantly aroused. Cream drenched her already moist pussy and it throbbed incessantly with its aching need. He took a step toward her and she shrieked.

“Shouldn’t I be the one calling out for help? It is my cabin that you have made yourself
at home
in. If you’re not supposed to be in here, why are you here?”

Clare’s cheeks flared red and her eyes widened. “How dare you accuse me of…? This is my room… You had no right to watch! I mean you threw my things out… you…”

He laughed, a sound that made her inner thighs tighten. “I assure you, this is my room. Listen, I’m sorry. I know we got off on the wrong foot. Can we start over?”

Clare’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t say a word. He was apologizing while holding her vibrator. The nerve of this man. The sheer boldness of his wicked words left her head spinning. She tingled all over and her treacherous body ached to know if he could deliver all that his look promised.

Braden Montgomery looked around the gaudy cabin and shook his head. Who in their right mind would decorate a honeymoon stateroom this way?

Honeymoon stateroom
, he played the words back in his mind, hardly able to contain the joy he felt inside.

He’d been told at an early age that the likelihood of ever finding that one true mate, the one who would make him feel alive again, bear his children and spend eternity with him, was almost impossible. His best friend, Dominik, had been told pretty much the same thing, just like all immortals were. Braden had been unwilling to accept that as true. He’d spent too many centuries alone on this earth resisting the call of evil to believe that his lonely existence was all there was. No, he knew there had to be more. In all his eternity, there had to be someone for him. Then, rumors surfaced in the supernatural world about the Pleasure Cruises being used as a matchmaking device. He was tired of being alone. He wanted someone by his side, sharing the world with him. Knowing he wouldn’t find his other half on his own, he took a huge leap and contacted the powers that be, putting his life in their hands. When he saw his mate for the first time, he realized just how right the powers had been.

They’d even been thoughtful enough to offer him a sneak peek at his mate. Taking them up on their offer, he watched, from the shadows, the area the powers had told him she’d be in. He didn’t know what to expect. What he found was a creature of such beauty that at first he thought he’d made a mistake—that she could not possibly be his mate.

Once he realized that the raven-haired goddess was indeed to be his wife, he then thought that she must be ugly on the inside. Shallow. Full of greed, lust, anything that would make her less in his eyes. When he scanned her mind, he found only concern for her friend, the one she’d brought with her on the trip, the one that was to be Dominik’s wife.

His mate was a human. He hadn’t been prepared for that. Humanity was a flaw to his kind, but Braden could easily overlook it. After she accepted him, she’d change, becoming a vampire like him.

After scanning her thoughts, Braden knew that his mate considered Clare to be family, the only family she had left. Kira had little concern for money, although she’d been left a good deal from the death of her parents. Money meant little to him as well. His kind amassed fortunes over centuries of living and he had more than he and his new wife could ever want or need. She did work a lot, perhaps too much. After they were married, he hoped she’d slow down, perhaps even quit. Unfortunately, she might not have a choice. Vampires in the human workforce were a hard balance to maintain as they couldn’t go out during the day. But if she wished for a career, he would not get in her way. In fact, he’d do everything in his power to make she got what she wanted. Already, his life was hers. That in itself was amusing. He’d been so reluctant for so long, only to fall head over heels the moment he was finally presented with his future.

Kira’s greatest flaw, from what he had sensed in her, was that she had hardened herself to love somewhere along the way. A thick wall surrounded her heart. He knew that she would make it difficult for him to break through. But he was determined to do just that. He’d waited too long for her to let something as small as her fear of love stop him.

There was something else when he read her. Pain. Fear. She was scared of his kind, had been hurt by them. He tried to read what happened, but the memory had been locked up tight. Whatever it was, it was bad. For that reason, he’d taken the first step and linked himself with her mentally, just enough to ease her fears and allow them to talk.

Braden had been drawn to talk to Kira that first night. Before he could stop himself, he opened his mouth and said the first lame thing he could think of. “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to East Second Street?”

It wasn’t his best line, not that he really had any, but it worked. When their eyes met, everything around him stopped. Even Kira had felt it. In fact, she’d been so distracted that she’d dropped her briefcase in a puddle.

Once their minds were joined, he entered her dreams, letting her get to know him on a subconscious level so she’d be comfortable with him. Entering the human mind was a simple trick once the connection was made. His friend Dominik had used it with Clare, though to a lesser extent. Dominik, being lycan, would use emotion more than thoughts to ease Clare’s fears. Undoubtedly the women would consider it an unfair advantage. And they would be right. As immortals they trusted their innate senses to guide them. But with humans, it could sometimes take years for them to see what was right in front of them. Neither Dominik nor Braden wanted to wait years, not after centuries of being alone.

Braden moved toward the dresser and smiled when he slid the top drawer open, revealing a mound of silky thongs. A man could get used to a woman who loved lingerie—especially if she looked as good as Kira did. Great sex was definitely going to be a perk of marriage. The woman oozed sexual confidence. She liked people to think she was more promiscuous than she really was. She even had her friend Clare convinced of it, though to a lesser extent. It was a way for her to protect herself, to keep men from getting too close. It was the same reason she worked eighty-hour weeks. If she wasn’t accessible, then she didn’t run the risk of having to get to know new people. That was one thought she left open in her mind. And it was one he hoped to ease her of soon.

He lifted a sleek navy teddy out of the dresser and let the silk of it glide through his fingertips. He could easily visualize her luscious ass showcased by the tiny scrap of material. The need to rub his stiff cock between her soft cheeks was great, and he vowed that he would before the trip was over. When he’d walked her home that night, after she’d purchased her tickets from the travel agency, he could think of little else besides how it would feel to take her from behind, to hear her cries of passion as he rode her body and to know that his seed pumped into her womb. The connection between them had been strong, so intense that it had taken all his willpower to not act on it.

Braden ran his tongue over his bottom lip, imagining his face planted firmly between her thighs. He wanted to taste her, touch her, love her the way that it was meant to be. He knew he should leave her room and wait until after the ship orientation and safety drill to introduce himself to her. Orientation felt as though it was months away instead of only an hour or so. And the safety drill? It would be torture being forced to stand in Muster Station V listening to a troll tell him how to wear a life vest and to use the raft that would keep him out of the sunlight. He was a vampire. Of course he was going to get into the covered raft. Not to mention half the ship didn’t speak troll so they’d have to wait for the intercom translation.