SizzlingInsanity (5 page)

Stupid! Why had she let him get so close? She wriggled,
trying to get her legs free, but he had them pressed against the wall with his
lower body. She was trapped, helpless. Panic started to overwhelm her. Then he
leaned forward and took her mouth with his. The panic was quickly overtaken by
need. She tried to resist him. It worked for all of thirty seconds before she
relaxed back against the wall, her tongue tangling with his, her resistance
completely melted by passion.

Connor cupped her breast, squeezing it lightly. There was an
answering rush in her pussy as cream moistened her folds.

Expertly, Connor plucked at her nipple until it was standing
stiff and firm against the T-shirt. Shelby whimpered and tugged at her
still-bound hands, wanting to touch him. The feel of being captured only added
to her arousal.

Connor moved his head back, staring down into her face
intently.

“Who do you work for, Shelby? Who sent you?”

What? Why was he asking her this now?

Her head fell back with a groan as he forced his large thigh
between her legs, lifting her slightly in the air so her toes just brushed the
ground. The heat from his thigh burned her pussy.

“Connor,” she groaned, needing more.

“Tell me, Shelby. I’m not angry at you, sweetheart. They
were using you. It’s them we want. Tell me who you’re working for and I will
take care of your every need. Tell me.”

“No one,” she groaned, telling the truth. “Just me. All me.
I want that bastard dead.”

Connor’s gaze froze and he glared down at her. Shelby looked
up at him in confusion as he stopped playing with her nipple.

What was happening?

Reality seeped through and she realized she was practically
humping him, begging him to take her. What the hell was she thinking?”

“Let me go,” she demanded, disgusted by how breathy her
voice sounded. “Now!”

“I don’t like being lied to, sweetheart,” Connor said in a
low, dark voice. If she hadn’t been so angry, she might have been afraid of the
fury in his gaze, the cold promise of retaliation. “The next time you lie to
me, you’re going over my knee and I’m turning that ass bright red.”

“Let. Me. Go.” She spat the words out through clenched
teeth, matching him glare for glare.

He stepped back and it was only the wall behind her that
stopped her from disgracing herself and falling into a heap at his feet. She
leaned back, trying to catch her breath. Her body still ached, wanting more.
Even her wolf protested.

The wolf wanted Connor, badly.

But Shelby was in charge, not her wolf, and as she gained
some control over her body, she began to realize exactly how stupidly she’d
behaved.

“So you don’t hurt women, but you rape them?” she spat out,
staring over at Connor where he now leaned against the opposite wall. Cade
stood between them both, just watching.

Connor’s eyes flashed to an amber color, his wolf shining
through. His stare made her want to submit, to lower her eyes. Her wolf
whimpered, but not in fear, in heat, in need.

“Sweetheart, there’s no way in hell I would ever rape you. I
could smell your arousal, so don’t even try to pretend that wasn’t consensual.
You were grinding your pussy against my thigh. You were practically begging me
to take you.”

Humiliation welled up inside her. He was right. What kind of
slut was she? She had never reacted to another man like this.

“Just let me go,” she snarled. “I am never going to tell you
what you want to know.” She already had, but they didn’t believe her. That was
their problem. Obviously they thought she was some lackey, following someone
else’s orders.

Let them.

She wasn’t telling them another damn thing.

Connor straightened and his power filled the room, nearly
bringing her to her knees. Damn, his wolf was strong, maybe even stronger than
Sawyer’s.

“Connor,” Cade said in a calm voice. “Let’s go. We could all
do with some air.”

She stared at Connor’s chin, unable to meet his gaze. With a
growl, he turned and unlocked the door, storming out. Cade turned to her.

“I couldn’t tell if you were lying or not,” he said,
watching her.

Shelby lowered her face, letting her hair fall forward, not
wanting to give him any clues.

“Normally, I’m very good at detecting a lie. But your heart
rate was already elevated and your pupils were dilated with arousal.”

She kept her breath steady.

“See you later, Shelby.”

“Come any time,” she said sarcastically. “I’m bound to be
here.”

She raised her gaze when he didn’t say anything. He was
staring at her questioningly.

“Of course you’ll be here. Where else would you be?”

He turned and left, the door locking behind him.

Where else indeed?

Cade nodded at Dylan as he moved into the other room. “Keep
watch over her. I’ll come back to relieve you later.”

“I’ve set things up so she can be watched from anywhere.
I’ve emailed you the link, you can log in through your tablet. I thought I’d go
upstairs so I can keep an eye on the security cameras at the same time. Plus,
the internet is faster up there.”

Cade looked at the locked door. He’d prefer to have someone
close by, but he knew she wasn’t going anywhere.

He nodded. “Go. Give me two hours then I’ll log in. I’ll
keep watch overnight.”

Cade walked through the house to the gym where he knew his
brother would be.

Sure enough, there he was, T-shirt stripped off so he was
wearing only jeans, pounding at the boxing bag.

Cade strode over and held the bag, waiting until Connor had
exhausted himself.

“Fuck.” Panting, rivulets of sweat pouring down his face,
Connor stepped back and leaned over, his hands resting on his knees. “Fuck.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much where that scene was heading.
Toward a good fuck.” Cade grabbed a hand towel, throwing it toward his brother.
Getting the cleaning spray and another cloth from the cupboard, he wiped down
the punching bag.

He refused to use the gym; he didn’t trust the humans to
wipe the machinery down after they’d used them.

“I damn near lost control of the situation, Cade. I was just
going to play with her a bit, seduce some answers out of her, instead the
minute I got my mouth on hers, my brain retreated and my dick took over.”

“Understandable.”

“What?” Connor stood and looked at him incredulously as Cade
handed him a bottle of water. Sam kept his gym well-stocked. “Understandable?
You’re the one who’s always telling me that emotions have no part in our job.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t feeling particularly emotionless when
I was around her. Watching the two of you together, it was hot. If things had
progressed any further, well, I don’t know that I could have stopped myself
from joining you.”

“Fuck, I was relying on you to be the sensible one.”

“You like her.”

Connor stared at him incredulously. “Like her? Hell no, I
don’t like her. She’s got a mouth like a sailor, she’s temperamental and a
liar. Why the hell would I like her?”

Cade sat down on a bench as Connor paced.

“She’s also brave, smart, and hot.”

“Being hot should have nothing to do with this,” Connor
replied.

“But it does. Despite the fact that she knocked you out
yesterday, as soon as you saw her, you wanted her again, didn’t you?”

Connor stopped pacing and braced his feet apart, hands on
his hips as he stared at the ground.

“Yeah, I want her but I shouldn’t go near her again. We
should let the others watch over her.”

Denial swelled in Cade, thick and heavy. “No.”

Connor glanced up at him in surprise. “What do you mean, no?
We can’t think straight around her—that means that we shouldn’t be the ones
questioning her. She’s got some kind of hold over us.”

“No one else touches her,” Cade growled possessively. He
sure as hell wasn’t turning her safety and care over to someone else.

“Cade, you’re not thinking—”

“We use it to get to her,” he said abruptly, thinking fast.

“What?”

“Like you just said, we seduce the answers out of her. She’s
attracted to us. I don’t think she has much experience. So we use that.”

“Were you not just in the room? My so-called seduction
techniques didn’t work.”

“Because you were taken by surprise. Next time we go in with
a game plan and we stick to it.”

Connor didn’t look so sure. Truthfully, Cade didn’t believe
his plan had much merit either. They would be lucky to keep any part of their
brain functioning around her. But no way was he letting anyone else close.

“You really think this will work?”

“It’s either that or we try to intimidate her. Threaten her
or her cousins.” That didn’t sit well with him.

Connor grimaced. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

“Then we try seduction first. Only problem will be telling
whether she’s lying or not. When she’s aroused, it’s difficult to tell the
truth from a lie.”

Most werewolves could detect lies using certain unconscious
cues like a widening of pupils, a quickening of the heartbeat. Unless the
person was a very good liar.

“You think she could have been telling the truth before?”
Connor asked incredulously.

“Maybe. I don’t know. Either way she’s going to tell us
everything she knows.”

* * * * *

Shelby looked at the toilet then at the camera then back to
the toilet.

How the hell was she supposed to pee?

Sighing, she curled under the blanket, shivering a little.
The temperature in the room was a little chilly. At home, her cousins usually
had the fire on for her, despite the fact that they rarely felt the cold.

Her bladder tightened and a spasm of pain raced through her
stomach. There was no way she could hold on. It was obvious they weren’t coming
back. She had at least hoped they’d bring her some food. Shelby had a fast
metabolism, she had to eat constantly to keep up her energy.

Groaning, she sat up. Holding the blanket in front of her,
she moved over to the toilet. Damn, this was humiliating. Using the blanket to
give her some semblance of privacy, Shelby sat on the toilet and let herself
relax. She supposed it was the one bonus of having no underwear on. She glared
up at the camera, refusing to cower in embarrassment as she peed.

Holding the blanket against her chest with one arm, she
reached over for some toilet paper, took care of her needs then stood before
flushing the toilet and washing her hands in the basin.

Shelby wrapped the blanket around her and shuffled back to
the bed, wishing they’d given her some socks to protect her feet from the
freezing floor.

The light switch didn’t work, so she couldn’t even plunge
the room into darkness. No doubt that was on purpose. How the hell was she
going to get out of here? She was basically locked in a box, something she
tried not to think about or it would send her into a panic.

But that was exactly what the room felt like. Now that
Connor and Cade were gone, the walls seemed to be crowding in on her.

She shut her eyes, breathing deeply. This was no time to
panic. She had to think. Things were not going to end like this. She would get
free and she would get revenge for the mother she never got a chance to know.

The mother who Sam Garrison had callously murdered, as
though she was nothing but an animal to be slaughtered and cast aside.

Her mother had told Shelby’s uncle that she was going to see
Garrison. Hours later she’d been discovered in the forest with her throat slit.
Garrison had killed her and left her to rot.

He deserved to die and she wasn’t about to let this setback
stop her.

* * * * *

“Damn it.” Cade stared down at his tablet. He got up from
his chair and knocked on Connor’s connecting bedroom door.

There was some quiet cursing then the door opened and Connor
glared at him. “It’s 1 a.m., what do you want?”

“Sorry to wake you, sleeping beauty. Go back to your
snoring. I’ll go take care of our guest myself.”

“Fine.” Connor slammed the door and Cade turned away,
counting silently. It took to the count of six before the door reopened.

“What did you say?” Connor demanded.

“I said go back to sleep. I’m going to take care of our
guest.”

“What do you mean, take care of her? What’s wrong with her?”

“Take a look.” Cade handed over his tablet. “I’ve been
keeping an eye on her and she’s been shivering nonstop for the last hour. I
don’t like it. I’m going down to check on her.”

He grabbed a spare blanket from the closet.

“What do you suppose is wrong with her?” Connor asked,
following him out of the room and down to the basement.

“I don’t know. I’m not a gynecologist.”

“What?” Connor asked in confusion.

“You know, a female doctor.”

“Christ, you think this is a female problem?” Connor sounded
horrified.

Cade shrugged and opened the door. Connor stepped in behind
him, locking it. Not that it looked as though Shelby was capable of going
anywhere. She was huddled under the blanket, only her nose and the top of her
head showing. Every so often a shiver would rack her body.

Cade moved over to her and pushed the blanket away from her
face, worried she was having trouble breathing.

“Her skin is freezing,” he said with concern.

“What? How can that be? It’s not that cold in here,” Connor
exclaimed.

“I don’t know. Her lips are kind of blue and she’s not
responsive.”

“Here.” Connor pushed him aside and placed his hand over her
forehead. He frowned. “She’s cold as ice.”

“Think it’s a trick?” Cade asked. She was intelligent and it
could be a ruse to make them let down their guard. Except how had she managed
to make herself so cold? What if it weren’t a trick? He couldn’t take a risk
with her health.