Seducing a Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Five (7 page)

He tugged at her nipples with his forefinger and thumb while keeping his tongue busy on her torso.

She squeezed her eyes closed harder and fisted the coverlet again. An orgasm coiled in her belly, rising closer and closer to the surface.
So much. He’s barely touched me and I’m about to come.

“You are stunning,” he said, nibbling his way closer to one of her hips.

Oh God. Oh God.
She moaned and flexed her toes.

“Every curve. Every exquisite inch of you.” He moved to the other hip, licking down the stripe of cream. “Is mine.”

Mine.

His?
Her mind swirled at the possible meanings, but Alex didn’t give her long to contemplate.

He crawled between her legs and pushed them apart. “This gorgeous wet pussy,” he said as he slipped a finger between her folds, “is mine.”

“Please, can I open my eyes?” She wanted to see him. Wanted to see his face.

“Yes.” Tanned perfection.

Two of his fingers slid inside her and she clenched hard, rocking her hips to drive him deeper. That smile that made her knees weak curved his lips. “Eager aren’t we?”

She whimpered and nodded her head. “I need…”
You.
Julianna couldn’t say it. She bit her bottom lip as he curled his fingers inside her, grazing the edge of her G-spot.

She did need him.

Her mind was awash with various plans to convince Alex to come back and see her again. If she was
very
careful, she could pull off having a boyfriend without her father finding out.

Julianna’s gasped for air.

Alex grazed her G-spot again as he pulled his fingers from her and pushed her thighs out a little further. He crawled forward, dropping lower, the closer he came to her face.

She swallowed. The heat in his gaze warmed her blood.

He captured a nipple between his lips again and tugged, letting it go slowly before moving to her mouth. He just couldn’t stay away from her breasts and she loved it.

Julianna wrapped her arms around his neck and slid her hands into his thick dark hair. He growled into her mouth and plunged his tongue deep, wrestling with hers. Sugary. Sweet. And, oh-so-divine. She wiggled her hips, trying to urge his erection into her aching sex.

His arms tightened around her shoulders and he drove into her with one thrust. No warning. No easing in.

“Alex!” Her world shattered. Heat seared through her. She’d been so close. Julianna panted for air as her orgasm exploded from her core. She tightened around him, milking his length.

He drove in and out. Pushing her higher and higher. Alex slowed his pace. “So beautiful. I could watch you come all night.”

She caught his mischievous gaze as her mind floated into that foggy place where her body could exist in pure bliss.

He slid in and out of her slick sex.

Another orgasm built, curling itself around her insides until a sheen of sweat covered her from head to foot. Alex pushed, bringing her just to the edge, then backed off before she could leap off.

Julianna moaned. Torture. Pleasure. He was mixing everything together. How could a man be so intuitive? Her heart raced in her chest. She strained for breath and finally he sped his pace, giving her what she needed.

Fireworks shot from every nerve ending in her body. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing more than a gasp came out.

His arms contracted around her, stiffening. He came a few moments later, a sexy growl rumbled from his chest as he pumped into her, finishing off whatever energy she might have had left.

He let his body drape over hers for a moment, nuzzled her ear, and then slanted his mouth over hers, claiming it with a long, deep kiss.

Alex slowly rolled to her side, pulling her along with him. He matter-of-factly tucked her against his side and into the crook of his shoulder. “Perfect fit.”

Was he talking about the sex? Or how their bodies seemed to be melded together as one?

Julianna glanced up at his face, surprised to see him staring straight back at her. Most men she’d been with were well on their way to falling asleep moments after sex.

His steely gray eyes burned with a fire that made her insides quiver all over again.

“How long do you need before we start round two?” Alex winked and gave her that cocky little smirk she was growing to love.

Love.

That was a terrifying thought. Or was it? It should’ve been. But right now, she just wanted to bask in everything Alex.

A
lex took in the long
, lush glory of Julianna’s body. He couldn’t imagine a scenario in which he’d ever feel like he had enough of her.

The magick had been whipping and whirling around them all night, and more than once, the words of the ancient mate spell had been on his lips. There had to be a way to tell her that they belonged together without just grabbing her and chanting the words.

Her trust was hard-won. He couldn’t push her yet.

“Are you sure you want to start round two so…fast?” She settled her ass into his groin and likely had no idea what it would do to have her wiggling against him like that. Or maybe she did know.

“Fast?” He rolled over to look at the clock. “It’s nearly ten at night. I feel like I’ve been extremely patient.”

Her giggle sent a jolt through his body and he traced a finger up the side of her ribcage.

She grabbed his hand. “You’re going to wear me out.” Julianna glanced at him over her shoulder. “I’ve never had this much sex in two days in my whole life.”

Alex pressed his lips to the back of her neck and nipped at the soft flesh there. “Clearly, your other boy toys were doing you an injustice. I would never be so neglectful as to let entire days pass without making love to you.”

A shiver shook her. “Never?”

He kissed her shoulder, up to her jaw, and turned her around to face him, kissing flesh until he found her mouth. Alex nudged her legs open and pressed the tip of his hardening cock into the folds of her pussy. “Never.”

She reached for his erection and he groaned.

Magick gripped his insides and squeezed. He bit back the words of the bond spell one more time.

He couldn’t.

He had to.

Alex rolled her onto her back and took hold of her wrists, pinning her naïve gaze with earnest hope. “I mean it. I never want to stop being with you.”

A sheen of tears built in her eyes and she bit her lip. “I wish you never had to leave.”

“There is a way…” He met her lips with an insistent kiss. Alex would say the spell, be deep inside her, and make her doubly his. Forever. It was just that easy, wasn’t it? “But it’s not something I take lightly.”

When she blinked, a solitary tear rolled down her cheek, and her body tensed beneath him. “Don’t say it, Alex. Please, don’t say it.”

The magick curled around him, drawing him forward and inward. He couldn’t stop. “You think I mean marriage, I know, but just give me a minute to explain.”

“Alejandro Sureda, what the fucking hell are you doing?” The familiar voice froze every muscle in his body.

He looked up at the door. Maggie.

Julianna screamed and scrambled out from under Alex, dragging sheets around her body. “Get out of here! I’m going to call security.”

Maggie stepped in front of the desk, where the phone sat, and from the hallway, a large black semi-automatic weapon came over her shoulder.

Donovan had the gun leveled at Julianna, as he moved into the room. Then, Andrea VonBrandt’s blonde head followed, similarly looking down the barrel of a large gun.

Alex jumped in front of Julianna. “No. Mag, stop this.”

He held his arms wide, with Julianna clawing at his back. “Alex, how do you know these people? What the hell is going on?”

Maggie shook her head and kept coming into the room.

He glanced between Donovan and Andrea. “You’re not going to shoot me.”

“The hell we won’t. Sleeping with the fucking enemy.” Maggie’s jaw tightened. “I should have known.”

“Enemy?” Julianna went slack behind him and over his shoulder, he saw her retreat, pulling the sheets with her.

The movement under his knees unbalanced Alex and he fell forward, off the bed.

Donovan had come around one side and was advancing on Julianna.

Alex scrambled up, trying to get between his barrel and his mate’s head.

“Don’t move, Miss Rossi.” Maggie’s tone was even, disappointed. From the hallway, two more guns appeared, attached to Dani Davis and Hannah Li, followed closely by Niko Lupescu, all out of their hotel uniforms, and clad in black. His heart dropped into his stomach.

Everyone
.

They were all aligned against him.

Against Julianna.

He drew in a ragged breath and stepped toward Donovan until the cold barrel of his gun hit Alex in the chest. “You shoot her, and I will tear every single one of you to pieces.”

“I’m calling security.” Julianna pulled the sheets off the bed and began to walk around the edge of the bed, but Andrea met her, gesturing with her gun.

“You move one more step, Rossi, and I’m going to paint these walls with your intestines.” The VonBrandt enforcer had a slight Texas twang that made the threat sound almost benign, but it stopped Alex’s breath.

They really did think she was the enemy.

“Everyone stop.” He stepped in front of Julianna, backing her away from Andrea and Donovan. “She is not the enemy.”

“The hell she isn’t,” Dani spat. “She’s a Rossi.”

“She’s not even his daughter.” Alex pointed at the LA enforcer. “She can’t be. She’s human.”

“Everyone stop talking about me like I’m not in the room,” Julianna yelled in a tone that shook Alex to his core. “Mr. Sureda, if you don’t tell me what is going on, right now, I’m going to have you all thrown in jail.”

His heart sank. He heard the edge in her tone. Her walls had gone right back up, where they had been the first time he met her. Alex turned to find angry tears in the corners of her eyes, and her arms crossed in front of her, holding sheets around her body. He tried to reach for her, and she backed away.

“Your father,” he sighed. “We’re here trying to find your father.”

Her brows wrinkled in a pained echo of the tears. “We?”

He dropped his head. “Yes. This is my team.”

“So… You seduced me to learn more about my father? Or find out where he is? What?” Tears flowed like rain, dropping onto her hands, clutched over her breasts. “No, tell me. I want to give you what you need so you’ll…leave me the hell alone.” Sobs broke up the rhythm of her words, but her face remained strong.

“Let me explain.”

“I don’t want you to explain.” Julianna gripped the sheet tighter. “Well, here’s what I know. My father isn’t here. I don’t have access to any of his information.”

“We know he isn’t here.” Maggie’s tone was still hard, and the other wolves rearranged themselves behind Alex. He could feel them moving, but couldn’t take his eyes off Julianna.

Her back was straight, her chin up, and the tears sailed along unknown pathways, while she seemed otherwise unaffected. “Then you know as much as I know.”

“You don’t understand, Mag.” Alex whirled on the group. “She’s not protecting him. He is a bastard to her. If you had just given me time—”

“You could have…fucked it out of me?” Julianna’s voice broke. “Nice tactics. Whoever you work for, you should be ashamed of yourselves.”

The air in the bedroom seemed to swell with everyone’s anger, but Alex ached inside. He wanted to punch through a wall. Why hadn’t Maggie just trusted him?

“We never intended for him to have sex with you,” Niko piped up.

Julianna scoffed. “Nicholas. I see you were in on this. And Danielle.” She backed up a few more steps until she was almost against the back wall of the bedroom. “Is there anyone on my staff who isn’t in on this?”

Alex shook his head and faced her. “You don’t understand, Julianna. I truly believe that you don’t know what your father has been doing. You can’t.”

“If she doesn’t know, then why is she protecting him?” Andrea asked.

“She’s not protecting him!” Alex raised his voice, wishing he had the alpha resonance. No one was listening to him. Not Julianna, not Maggie, not the team. No one. “She’s protecting the hotel, the employees. She knows her father is wrapped up in something bad, and she knows about last week, about the penthouse.”

“The penthouse?” Julianna met his eyes. “How do you know about that?”

“We were the ones in the gunfight with your father,” Maggie said, her voice softening a bit. “We lost two of our friends, and your father lost three of his security people.”

A sharp inhale made Alex take a step toward Julianna and reach for her. She sat down, hard, on the bed, and he touched her shoulder. Unexpectedly, she didn’t pull away, just stared at the wall.

“I didn’t know.” She swallowed hard. “I mean, I assumed. But I didn’t
know
.”

“Didn’t you have to clean it up?” Maggie’s incredulous words were closer and Alex found her almost directly over his shoulder. “We assumed that was why he had his daughter running the hotel—so she could clean up after his messes and protect him.”

Julianna shook her head. “Maybe ten years ago, when I was still his favorite. Maybe that’s what he wanted from me. But…I never would have done anything to help a criminal.”

Alex stroked her shoulder and sat down. Absently, she drew the edge of her sheet over his naked crotch and he took her hand. But her whole body was slack, like the life had gone out of her.

“You’re not a criminal.” He stroked her palm, but got no response. It was almost like she’d checked out of life. “We’re here because some of our family members were taken by your father. Some of them were killed, some were… He’s not a good man, Julianna.”

“I know that.” Her words were so soft, he barely heard them. “I know that.”

“We know he’s doing the same thing on his island that he was doing in Guadalajara thirty years ago.” Maggie knelt beside Alex and put her hand on Julianna’s knee. “If you really aren’t helping him, then we need you to help us.”

The hand he’d been holding stiffened, then retreated.

Julianna hugged herself and nodded, pulling the sheet up and over her shoulders, around her body more completely. “I was always afraid he was doing something truly criminal.” Another tear wound its way down her cheek. “And if he is, then I have a responsibility to my employees to protect them and this hotel as their livelihood. If I can do anything to help you put him in jail, then I will.” She stood and looked Maggie in the eyes.

Alex reached for her, but she evaded his touch, and she followed Maggie out of the bedroom, dragging the sheets behind her like the stoic princess he’d assumed she was when he first saw her.

The Julianna who sighed beneath him and looked at him with love in her eyes was gone.

He wasn’t sure if he would ever see her again.

J
ulianna blinked away
the tears forming, and hurried from the room, following the tiny woman who’d only moments ago been threatening her life. She sucked in a deep breath and ducked inside the closet as they passed. Helping this woman…these people…
Alex’s people
was all fine and well, but she wasn’t about to do it naked.

She couldn’t believe it’d all been a lie. He’d been using her to get close to her father. Nothing had been real. It couldn’t have been.

Julianna yanked the tail of the sheet in behind her and turned the lock on the inside of the closet door. A nice little addition she’d added for emergencies.

“Ms. Rossi.” Maggie pounded on the door, her voice acidic and tired.

She dragged a breath in between the sobs and gathered what little control she had left. “I’m going to get dressed, unless you’d rather I parade across the hotel lobby in a fucking bed sheet.” Julianna curled her fingers into her palm until her nails bit into the skin. “I’ll meet you in the lobby outside the room in a few minutes. Tell them
all
to leave. I’ll help you, just get out of my hotel room.”

“I can’t leave you, Ms. Rossi.”

“Get out!” The scream left her throat before she could choke it back. Her body slid down the length of the door and she curled up on the floor. The tears she’d been holding released, burning trails down her cheeks and pooling on the cold marble floor.

Feet shuffled outside the door and Alex’s voice rumbled something incoherent before he leaned against the door.

She knew it was him. Something in her could feel his nearness. Sobs shook her. She’d let him matter. She’d let herself care.

“They are leaving, Julianna,” he said slowly. “I’m so sor—”

“Get out, Alex!” She wept through the words.

The warmth that followed wherever he was left with the sound of his receding footsteps.

Julianna was alone. For a brief moment, she’d let herself believe that she might not have to be alone forever. Her father ruined everything, even when he wasn’t present for the collapse.

She cried a little longer. Until the tears slowed and sobs that shook her core subsided. Then she picked herself up off the floor and slid into one of the sexy little dresses she’d packed. It was black and had a high neck, probably the most form-fitting item she owned, but at least it kept her cleavage out of sight. She could change as soon as she got back to her apartment suite. For now, it would have to suffice.

Julianna slipped into a pair of black stilettos, ran her fingers through her unruly curls, and then unlocked the closet door. She pushed it open, half-way expecting—maybe hoping—Alex would still be standing there.

He wasn’t. It was better that he’d done as she asked. Easier.