Rock Star Romance: Dan (Contemporary New Adult Rockstar Bad Boy Romance) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 4) (39 page)

****

Alexandra woke up slowly, aware of a dull, aching
pain in her arms and legs, particularly her right leg. She felt hot all over,
and so exhausted that she wasn’t even sure why she was awake. She groaned,
turning onto her side, and realized that she was not on the ground anymore.
Alexandra gasped, opening her eyes, as the last moments before she lost
consciousness flooded back into her mind. She remembered the wolves
dispersing—and then the sight of a huge brown bear, its eyes golden in the
moonlight, hovering over her.

When she opened her eyes, Alexandra’s confusion
deepened. She found herself on a bed, small but comfortable; she was naked, which
sent a new jolt of alarm through her brain, but as she sat up, she realized
that part of the reason she was undressed was because at some point while she
had been unconscious, someone had attended to the gashes and punctures on her
arms and legs—she saw ugly black medical thread and bandages marking some
unknown doctor’s ministrations. Throwing the blanket off of herself, for the
moment heedless of her nudity, Alexandra saw that her left leg—the one that
hurt the most—bore a brace at the ankle, tightly wrapped.

The sound of a door opening made Alexandra yelp,
her hands fumbling for the blankets, pulling them up to cover her nudity as she
looked around in panic. Her gaze fell on the doorway to the small room she was
in, and Alexandra’s grip on the blankets tightened convulsively as she saw a
man stepping through the door. He was tall—easily over six feet—with a lean,
muscled physique that was not concealed by his sweater and jeans. The man’s
sandy blond hair was cut short, maybe three or four inches long, brushed back
from his forehead. Hazel-gold eyes widened at the sight of her awake, and the
man opened his mouth, though no words came out for a span of several fluttering
heartbeats. “Where am I?” Alexandra asked, the words leaving her lips all at
once. The man took a step back, licking his lips and glancing around the room.

“I’m sorry,” he said, a faint accent on his voice.
“I thought you were still unconscious or I would’ve knocked.”

“Where am I?” Alexandra repeated, looking around
the room. She could see part of what she assumed was the same forest she had
been lost in through a small, bare window. The man cleared his throat.

“You’re at my house,” he said. “Are you in pain? I
have some pain pills if you’d like one—the…doctor mentioned you’d probably be in
pain.” Alexandra shifted in the bed, uncomfortably aware of the fact that she
was naked underneath the blanket. She was in pain, but being naked in the home
of a strange man was a slightly more pressing issue, somehow.

“Uh—ah…do you happen to know where my clothes
are?” The man relaxed slightly, his lips twitching in an almost-smile.

“I’m sorry,” the man said, leaving the door open
behind him as he came further into the room. “I can let you borrow some
clothes; they had to cut yours off. The blood, you know.” Alexandra swallowed,
nodding.

“I’d like some clothes first,” she said. “And then
probably one of the pain pills, if you’re feeling generous.” The man chuckled.

“It’s not generosity,” he told her, moving to a
dresser in one corner of the room. He opened one of the drawers and took out a
pair of soft-looking, faded flannel pajama pants and a tee shirt. “The doctor
wrote a prescription for you, so they’re yours.” The man carefully tossed the
clothes onto the bed, giving Alexandra another quick smile. “I’ll go get the
pills and something for you to drink. Be careful getting dressed; you don’t
want to pull your stitches or injure yourself.” Alexandra nodded, watching as
the man walked in near-silence out of the room.

When she was once more alone, Alexandra climbed
slowly out of the bed, every movement sending a new wave of throbbing pain
through her body. She steadied herself as she stood cautiously, one hand on the
headboard of the bed, and slowly—slowly—Alex shook the flannel pants out and
slipped them on, swaying slightly as she balanced her weight on the better of
her injured legs. She tugged the tee shirt over her head, wincing as the
movement sent new painful jolts through her.

By the time the man came back into the room,
Alexandra had sagged, sitting heavily on the edge of the bed. “Here,” he said,
approaching her slowly and extending the plastic pill jar towards her. “What’s
your name, by the way? I wasn’t able to put that information in at the urgent
care clinic I took you to.” Alexandra smiled weakly, accepting the pill jar and
then the bottle of water he extended towards her. She read the label:
hydrocodone.
Well, at least I won’t feel like a truck hit me,
she
thought.

“Alexandra,” she answered. “Alex.” She popped open
the bottle and shook one of the pills out, glancing up at the man. Questions
still swam in her mind: how had he discovered her? Where was she? What had
happened to the bears? “You?”

“Sasha,” the man said, sitting down in a chair a
few feet away from her.

“What happened to me?” Alexandra tossed a pill
into her mouth, the bitter taste of the medicine coating her tongue for just a
moment before she washed it down with water, swallowing with difficulty. “I
remember a bunch of bears…and then nothing.” A look like guilt flashed through
Sasha’s hazel-gold eyes, and he glanced away before meeting her gaze once more,
steadily.

“I found you in the woods—probably only a moment
or two after you passed out. I brought you to a friend who runs an urgent care
clinic in town, he patched you up. I thought you’d probably prefer to spend the
night here, instead of waking up there.” Alexandra shrugged.

“Probably would have been just as confused either
way,” she said, shifting on the bed. The man had seen her naked; he had to
have, in order to have put her in the bed. She couldn’t discern any sense that
she’d been violated—but then so much pain throbbed and shot through her body
that Alex thought it would be hard to separate out one particular pain from the
rest. “What happened to the bears?” she asked, glancing at Sasha again.

“They…dispersed,” he said. Alexandra frowned.

“You didn’t kill any of them, did you? And how did
you find me?” The story didn’t add up. Sasha glanced away again, and
Alexandra’s heart started beating faster.
Oh God. He’s some kind of axe
murderer. And like the idiot I am I just took a fucking pain pill. Shit, shit,
shit.

“The bears aren’t dead,” Sasha said quickly. “It’s
been a long night for you. How did you come to be in the woods?” Alexandra
scrubbed at her face, trying to think. Her stomach had been empty when she took
the pain pill; it seemed like it was hitting her all at once, making her brain
fuzzy, making her tingle all over. A wave of nausea swept over her and the room
spun slightly as Alexandra tried to sit up, to lean against something.

“I—I was trying to get to Waynesboro,” she said
slowly. “My car overheated…I broke down in the woods and tried to find my way
back to town.” Sasha nodded and rose in a quick, fluid movement. Alexandra
thought—feeling curiously separated from the real world as the opiate began to
take effect—that she should probably be afraid, and yet she wasn’t.

“Did you have anything packed? Stuff you might
want?” Sasha was only inches away from her, and Alexandra tried to focus on
him.

“Suitcase,” she said absently. “I had…a job
interview. Shit, I’m probably not going to make it there, am I?” Alexandra
slumped against the bed, feeling as if all of the bones in her body had turned
to jelly. “I think I left my phone,” she said as an inexorable wave of sleepiness
washed through her.

****

Sasha watched Alexandra as she slept, wrapped in
the haze of the painkiller she had taken. He was glad that the pill had taken
effect so quickly; otherwise, the story would have unraveled. He closed his
eyes, trying to breathe shallowly so as not to take in too much of the woman’s
scent. If he did, he knew he would be doomed. As the scent of the woman’s fear
had receded, more of her natural scent rose up—and the mingling of vanilla,
sandalwood, and spice that made up her pheromones were enough to drive him
wild.

Sasha clenched his teeth, remembering the woman’s
car. It had been easy for him to track it down, once he had her scent. He’d
followed her trail through the woods, taking advantage of the early-morning
light and the strength of her smell lingering on the ground, along the trees
she had brushed against. The rest of the clan had checked in through the
night—verifying that the woman he’d saved was at his house, that she’d been
patched up. There was no need for Alexandra to get a rabies shot; Sasha and the
doctor alike had been able to smell that the punctures and bites bore no trace
of the virus.

Sasha had retrieved Alexandra’s suitcase, along
with her phone and its charger. The scent of her inside of the car had been
overwhelming.
Does she even know how good she smells? Probably not.
Sasha opened his eyes at the sound of a faint murmur from the woman in his bed.
That had been a mistake; but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to put her on
the couch to recover from the attack. But now—now her scent would be on his
sheets, his pillows drenched in it. It would be inescapable. Already Sasha
could feel the tug of her pheromones.
She isn’t a shifter,
he reminded
himself firmly.

She didn’t know about his clan, she didn’t know about
his dual nature; her pheromones marked her as strictly human—she wouldn’t be
able to understand. She couldn’t possibly be his mate. It didn’t make any
sense. And yet, she smelled as though she should belong to him. Even carefully
seated across the room from her, Sasha found it next to impossible not to get
up, climb into the bed with her, and rub himself all over her to mark her with
his own scent, to alert any other bears that she had already been claimed.

Alexandra stirred, and Sasha sat up in his seat,
watching her intently. Her eyes opened after a moment and she groaned,
burrowing into his pillows as if she didn’t quite want to wake up. “How do you
feel?” he asked. Alexandra started, and turned her bright-eyed gaze towards
him.

“Well,” she said with a sigh. “I feel faintly
nauseated, a little achy, and like I have some kind of bizarre hangover.” She
gave him a weak smile and looked at the window. “Shit—have you been sitting
there all night?” She sat up. Sasha suppressed a groan at the sight of her ample
breasts pressing against the fabric of the shirt he’d loaned her.

“It’s no big deal,” he assured her, smiling away
the fatigue he could feel gnawing at him. “I have a couch I could have slept on
if I’d wanted to.” The problem was that he hadn’t wanted to. He had wanted to
stay in the room with her, breathing in her scent and watching her sleep. Sasha
stood; he felt like he needed to move around, do something. “Do you want
something to eat? I think I have some crackers if you think it’d settle your stomach.”
Alexandra shook her head.

“I think it’ll pass on its own,” she said. She
looked at him for a long moment. “The story you told me—it doesn’t make any
sense.” Sasha nipped the inside of his bottom lip. He sat back down.

“What doesn’t make sense about it?” Sasha reached
his mind out to the other members of his clan; he knew he should have
anticipated questions, but he had been so caught up in the moment that he
hadn’t considered an excuse.

“The bears. A normal guy doesn’t just roll up in
the midst of a bunch of bears and walk out without a mark on him.”

“They had started wandering away,” he said. “I saw
them leaving you. Must have lost their curiosity.”

“But—but don’t bears often eat carrion? Or…”
Alexandra frowned. “It just—it doesn’t make sense. What happened?” Sasha
sighed. There was no way around it; even drugged, she was too sharp. He thought
of something—the only way out of the situation. He had sensed her response to
him. In spite of her instinctive apprehension when she had seen him for the first
time, Sasha knew that Alexandra was attracted to him; he had caught the shift
in her pheromones, signaling the beginnings of arousal.

“I think it’s probably too fresh right now to
think about very much,” Sasha said, making his voice as soothing as possible.
“You should rest up. I’ll give you the gory details later.” Alexandra frowned
again, but as Sasha stepped towards her, he sniffed—and caught the elusive
scent of her flicker of arousal. “You can stay here for as long as you need,”
he told her, moving slowly—slowly—closer. “I called someone to tow your car to
the shop in town, and I got your things for you.”

“That was very thoughtful,” Alexandra said,
licking her lips. “Thank you.” Sasha sat down at the edge of the bed, his gaze
traveling over the lush curves of her body; he couldn’t help himself.

“I hope I don’t scare you,” he said quietly. “I
swear, Alexandra—I have no intention of hurting you in any way.”

“I guess…” Alexandra glanced away from him and
then met his gaze once more. “I guess if you did I’d be dead already, or at
least not neatly stitched up.” She smiled slightly, and her scent washed over
Sasha in waves.

Are you doing this to distract her, or because
you can’t stand not to have her?
It didn’t matter. Sasha leaned slightly
closer to Alexandra.

“If you’re scared, tell me to stop, and I will,”
Sasha told her. “Any time. You can even tell me to leave.”

“It’s your house though,” Alexandra said. Sasha
caught the bitter tinge of gunpowder fear—but his sensitive nose also picked up
the rising current of arousal threaded through her warm, spicy scent. It was
enough to drive any man wild; he could feel the ursine part of his mind pushing
him forward.

“Still,” Sasha said, pushing back the urge to rub
himself all over her with an effort. “If you tell me to stop, or leave you
alone, believe that I will do it.” He held her gaze for a long moment.
“Even—even if you don’t say it, I’ll know if you don’t want me to continue.”

“Continue what?” Alexandra’s voice was full of
confusion, but he could sense her body warming up, more of the delicious smell
of her arousal threading through her scent. Sasha leaned in towards her
carefully and brushed his lips against hers.

“You have to know you’re damn near irresistible,”
Sasha told her, his voice deepening into a growl. He swallowed.
Now is not
the time to lose control. You have to get her on your side first. Then…then,
maybe she can know about who you really are.
Sasha deepened the kiss
gradually, letting his hands carefully trail over Alexandra’s body. He kept his
senses at their peak, searching for the slightest hint that she was hesitant,
that she didn’t want him to continue. But as his tongue swept across her lips,
Alexandra opened her mouth, and the scent of her arousal intensified.

Sasha’s arousal felt like hot lead in the pit of
his stomach; he had never felt as drawn to any woman he’d been with as he did
with Alexandra. “Irresistible?” Alexandra murmured against his lips, not quite
breaking away from the kiss. Sasha growled lowly, cupping her breasts through the
fabric of the shirt he’d given her. Her nipples stirred, hardening into firm
little nubs as he rubbed and gently kneaded her flesh.

“Mmm,” Sasha moaned, shuddering lightly. He broke
away from Alexandra’s lips, looking into her eyes. “Remember. Any time.”
Alexandra nodded, her eyes darkening slightly with lust. Sasha leaned in once
more, his hands falling down along her ribcage, seeking the hem of the shirt.
He tugged the shirt upward, and Alexandra moaned against his lips, obediently
raising her arms over her head.

Sasha carefully pulled the shirt up, guiding it
along her arms and trying to avoid the stitches and bandages. He broke away
from Alexandra’s lips to take in the sight of her body once more; he had seen
her before, when he had laid her down in the bed. The sheer fact of her nudity
hadn’t moved him then—he and the clan, in their transformations, spent plenty
of time naked. But now, with the scent of her arousal filling his nose, the
knowledge of her desire threading fire through his brain, Sasha felt his nerves
tingling with a reciprocal flame.
She doesn’t know it,
he thought,
but
she’s mine. I just have to convince her.

He cupped her breasts, bringing them up to his
mouth, and Sasha closed his eyes as he kissed every inch of each mound,
claiming first one nipple and then the other with lips and tongue. Her skin
tasted salty and faintly sweet to his tongue, both like and unlike that of any
woman he’d ever been with before. Alexandra moaned out as Sasha’s tongue
flickered against each nub, pitching and arching slightly in his arms. Sasha
let his hands fall down along Alexandra’s sides, reaching for the waistband of
the pajama pants he’d loaned her. Alexandra shifted, and the scent of her
fluids rose up to meet Sasha’s nose. He groaned, a crackle of heat rushing
through his veins. He wanted to bury his face against her slick folds, to
devour her whole.

Sasha steadied himself, pushing down the animal
impulses as he caressed and teased Alexandra everywhere. He moaned against her
skin, pushing her gently down onto the bed as he tugged the flannel pants down
over her hips. Sasha shuddered from the need to hold himself back, to keep
control of his animal nature. He breathed slowly, letting one hand stray down
between Alexandra’s legs, to cup her soaking wet pussy. Alexandra moaned,
pushing her hips down in an instinctive movement. Her fluids flowed against his
palm, coating his fingers as he slithered them up and down along her slick
folds. “I want to taste you,” Sasha murmured lowly, nuzzling into Alexandra’s
neck.

“G-go ahead,” Alexandra said, her voice breaking
as she twisted and writhed underneath him. Sasha chuckled, stroking and rubbing
her slowly, finding her clit by touch. Alexandra shivered, her legs tensing,
her arms winding around his shoulders.

Sasha kissed her hungrily, stroking her even as he
trailed his lips down along the column of her throat, past her collarbones, and
along the line of her not-quite-flat abdomen. Sasha nipped sharply at the curve
of her hip, spreading her legs gently. The scent of her fluids, her arousal,
was too much to bear; Sasha could feel the desire humming and buzzing in his
veins. He took a deep breath to keep his human mind in strict control and
buried his face against her soaking wet folds, nuzzling and licking.

The sweet taste of Alexandra’s fluids coated his
tongue and Sasha moaned against her drenched flesh, pressing his lips against
her more firmly. He flicked his tongue up and down along her labia, barely
missing her clit, slurping her fluids up eagerly. She tasted just as he thought
she would—and Sasha’s determination to make Alexandra his intensified.

He held himself back, carefully paying attention
to every sound that left her lips, to every shift of her scent, every movement
of her body; heedless of her injuries, Alexandra pitched and writhed underneath
him, moaning out, seemingly unable to even feel the pain that her movements
were likely causing. Sasha told himself that he would find another
opportunity—soon—to tease her the way he wanted to, to draw out their
lovemaking. Once she had agreed to be his mate, he would take all the time he
possibly could with her. For now, however, he flickered his tongue against her
pleasure center, sucking and licking as he felt the tension mounting in her
body, as her fluids flowed more freely onto his tongue, coating his lips.
Alexandra cried out, her back arching off of the bed as every muscle in her
body tensed and relaxed in spasms, and Sasha rode the wave of her orgasm,
lapping up her fluids, sucking as much of her sex between his lips as he
possibly could while his tongue worked her pleasure center.

When she shivered, sagging against the mattress,
he slowly pulled away, giving her clit a final, lingering swipe of his tongue
before lifting his head back from the depths of her thighs. As Alexandra panted
and gasped, sprawled bonelessly against his bed, Sasha stood unsteadily,
quickly shucking his clothes; he had to feel her skin against his. He had to
hold her in his arms. He had to make her come like that again—and he had to get
relief of his own.