Venice Heat (16 page)

After some time, he helped her from the water and found towels for them to dry off. He took her hand, and they laced fingers together to move into the house.

“Are you going to leave me alone in my room?” she asked.

“I thought you might like to share my bed.”

A chill raced over her skin, and all she could manage was a nod. They padded farther along the hall to the master bedroom, and Shae thrilled at the king-size bed. She climbed up, but before she could get very far, Eiji had crouched behind and kissed the backs of her thighs. He worked his way up to her ass cheeks and sucked the skin there. She keened in pleasure.

“Eiji, you shouldn’t.”

“You know how much I want it.”

“I’m not telling you no.” She climbed higher on the bed and turned over, raised her legs, and spread them so he could see her weeping pussy. “What does that word mean?”

“What word?”

“The one you said outside.”

He seemed hesitant to tell her.

She played with her breasts and lifted one to lick her nipple. A burst of air blew from his nostrils as if he had a hard time not attacking her. “
Goshujin-sama.
My master.”

She laughed. “You’ve got balls. So you want me to say, ‘Please stop, Master?’”

His fingers curled around her ankle, and he gave it a tug. He bent down and licked a tiny spot, which sent shivers along her legs, straight up to her apex. Her core muscles clenched. Eiji had a big appetite for sex, but the changes occurring in her increased hers as well. She could match him, no doubt. Could there be a greater synching between them when she was fully wolf?

Shae ran her fingertips across her breasts and down over her belly. She stopped at her pussy and then dipped one finger inside. Eiji’s breath seemed to hitch in his chest. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth.

“I don’t want you to stop,
Goshujin-sama
. I want you to make me scream.”

Eiji didn’t flinch at her butchering his language. The very fact that she’d tried appeared to send him over the edge. He landed on the bed and thrust her legs up higher. Her pussy gaped, and he ground his erection into her heat. She fell back against the pillows and shouted his name. He took her over and over, the friction and his weight above her driving her insane.

He yanked free and flipped her to her belly. Fingers buried in her wet pussy, then wet and entered her ass. She clenched her teeth together and arched her back. When he drove into her rear opening, she lost her breath. He lay across her body and eased deeper. Shae couldn’t raise her head or open her eyes. Eiji laced his fingers with hers and seated his dick all the way to the hilt. She gasped.

“I can’t,” she panted.

He pulled all the way out and then drove in. Her head grew light. He murmured words in her ear, but she wasn’t sure if they were English or Japanese. Their bodies drew apart and came together. He fit so snug she thought it too much, but she didn’t want him to stop.

“Eiji, Eiji,” she chanted.

“Tell me I’m the only man who can have you like this. Say it.”

She moaned. He thrust deep and pounded against her ass. She struggled for breath. An orgasm came just close to cresting, and she buried her face in the pillow.

“Say it.”

Shae turned her head and looked back at him. His eyes had gone pale, and white strands tinged his hair. Tingles of awareness zipped along her arms. An overwhelming ache to belong to him in every way imaginable came over her, until she couldn’t bear to resist him. This wasn’t like what Darryl had done to her. She didn’t feel violated or swept along in a direction she didn’t choose.

“You’re the only one, Eiji. I’m yours.”

He pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her, pinning hers to her chest. With their lengths sealed together, he continued to take her nonstop, and she dropped her head onto his shoulder, eyes shut, tears streaming down her cheeks. All she wanted was to give in to everything he demanded, to belong to him, heart, body, and soul.

Eiji thrust deep and held himself inside her. She gasped at the warmth spreading in her abdomen. He licked a tear from her cheek and touched his forehead to hers. They stayed in that position for a long while, and later stumbled to the bathroom to wash off the remnants of their lovemaking.

* * * *

Shae woke up and found the bed empty. Over the last few days, she hadn’t ventured far from Eiji’s arms. He made love to her several times a day, sometimes rough, but often gentle. He spoke to her words that were instructive and soothing. He never explained why, but she sensed he prepared her mind and the awakening wolf within her to accept the change when it came. Terror struck so hard she found it difficult to breathe, and then extreme peace, like nothing mattered except being with Eiji. All of it confused her, and she longed to run, to hide. Stubborn determination kept her from that plan, but it also kept her from fully accepting her fate too.

She tossed the sheet aside and stood, then padded to the bathroom. After a quick shower and brushing her teeth, she went to find Eiji. She found him on the terrace doing his morning exercise. Shae leaned against the doorframe watching him perform those fluid movements that she’d seen few others aside from his own nationality do so well. He raised both hands in front of his chest and pushed out while releasing a sharp breath. A half turn, and his leg shot out at lightning speed to kick an invisible opponent. She imagined whoever it was would be dead or have crushed bones.

Eiji wore
gi
pants and no jacket or shoes. She admired the way his muscles flexed and the light sheen to his skin from his workout.
Damn, he’s sexy. How am I going to give him up?
A sharp pain struck her somewhere in her chest, and she chose to ignore it.

“Good morning,” she called, and Eiji turned his head to glance her way. He didn’t lower his leg, yet he kept complete, unwavering balance. Shae smirked. “Showing off?”

“
Ohayou
.”

She knew the word for “good morning” and didn’t question him about it. “So what are we doing today? I mean other than fucking like bunnies.”

He frowned, and she laughed. She enjoyed seeing the disapproval in his expression from her choice of words. Despite the look, she knew Eiji accepted her for the way she was. He didn’t try to tell her how to speak. Although he had tried to teach her more Japanese over the last few days, which made her wonder if he harbored hopes she’d go back home with him.

“We need to work on you learning to center yourself more. We’re running out of time.”

She waved her hand. “The full moon is still two days away, and you said turning is the most natural thing in the world.”

He moved to grab her hand and brought it to his lips. A tremor raced down her spine. His piercing eyes arrested her. “You pretend not to be afraid, Shae. I know you are scared. I’m not going to leave you.”

She looked away. “You know what I am, or rather
who
I am.”

“I can’t change it.”

“Change what?”

He raised her chin and kissed her lips, then entered the house. She followed. He’d used that cryptic way of speaking before, and it pissed her off. At first she thought he had just forgotten some words, and she also knew in the Japanese language, they used far fewer words to express themselves than English speakers, but Eiji meant something else. She was sure of it.

She grabbed his arm to pull him back, and desire licked her flesh at their contact. Her heart sped up. Lately, the feeling between them had intensified. “Explain it to me so I understand, Eiji!”

His gaze swept over her body, and her temperature rose. Her nipples pebbled, and moisture started between her legs. He sighed, but she saw the need in that dark gaze that could go so pale when they made love. She found she wanted it to happen now.

“I’ve marked you.”

“What!”

He pushed hands through his hair and paced away. “I didn’t mean to do it. It happened when you opened yourself to me while we were in bed. After I realized, I pulled back.”

“But you said that can’t happen until I’m fully wolf, and I have to want it!”

He looked at her. She dropped onto the couch and ducked her head. She had wanted it. She’d wanted to belong to him and nobody else. That’s why she couldn’t stand the thought of leaving him.

“We’re not mates, are we?”

“No, we aren’t. We can’t until you change, but…”

“But what?”

“I expect Darryl to find us sometime today.”

“What? Why?” Panic set in.

Eiji spoke in that infuriatingly calm voice that, at the moment, grated on her nerves. “He will have felt his connection to you weaken. He will know what it means, and he will come for you.”

She sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. “Then we have to be ready. Do you have any weapons in this house?”

“Don’t worry.”

“Don’t tell me not to worry. I
am
worried! I’m not letting him take me again, Eiji. You don’t know what it’s like to have someone in your head, controlling what you think and what you feel.” She started searching through drawers and closets without his permission. “Besides that, he’ll probably bring all his people, and you’re fine as hell—you look awesome as a wolf—but you’ll need backup, and I’m it.”

He leaned on the back of the couch, arms folded over his chest, and a rare smile lighting his handsome face. “I like my odds.”

She grinned. “You better, or I can kick your ass too.”

Before he answered, she looked past him and spotted something over the mantel. “Cool, is that real?” She took down the sword and unsheathed it. The blade gleamed.

Eiji strolled up behind her and brought his arms around her. “This is a katana. Do you know how to handle it?”

“Swing and don’t miss?”

He began instructing her, guiding the movements of her hands, the balance of her weight in her legs. Shae had handled knives, even short swords, but the katana was much longer. At first she found it awkward, but determination to remain free while helping Eiji made her work hard. She’d give anything to have her own weapons, left back at the house in her car, but she would make do.

“I don’t like waiting. We should go find him.”

Eiji shook his head. “On the chance he will wait until after you change, we need to stay here.”

“I can stay calm.”

“I don’t want to risk you.”

They stared at each other, and she thought she saw something warmer than concern in his gaze. If he had marked her, it meant he opened himself to her as much as she’d opened herself to him, didn’t it? She dared not ask, especially since she still didn’t know if it would lead anywhere.

“Eiji, you said I can’t remain a rogue wolf. Why not? You are.”

He removed the sword from her aching hands and re-sheathed it, but he didn’t place it back on the mantel. The fact that he trusted her to use it said a lot, and she appreciated that.

“You have a little more protection because I’ve marked you. Any shifter you meet will pick it up and know you belong to me.”

She glared at him.

“However, a single female wolf shifter is a lure for many different kinds of shifters, not just our kind.” He seemed to think about how to make it clearer. “You are a sweet dessert that they will all want to taste and then possess.”

She shook her head. “What, will they smell it on me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” She’d been kidding. No one had ever told her these kinds of details.

“Without a mate, wherever you go, you will have men coming after you trying to mate with you.”

Shae clenched her hands at her sides. “By force?”

Eiji took a step toward her, but she stepped back.

“This is why my family—”

“It’s their nature.”

“You mean ours, don’t you? The nature of rape?”

Something blazed in his eyes. “No, the nature to make you submit.”

“Fuck that.”

She marched into the bedroom and started going through her suitcase looking for something to wear. The clothing she’d worn over the last few days lay bundled together in preparation for repacking them.

“Shae, I don’t make the rules.”

“No, you just exploit them.”

“I didn’t force you.” The clipped, biting tone angered her all the more.

“How do I know that?”

He snatched a blouse from her hands and tossed it on the floor. The next instant she found herself flush with the wall and him pressing so tight against her air couldn’t squeeze between them. Shae’s body lit on fire, and try as she might, she couldn’t get the stupid thing to calm down.

Eiji breathed in deep through his nostrils. “You’re telling me I’m making you feel what you feel now?”

“Get off me, Eiji.”

He shifted his hips, bringing his hardening cock in contact with her belly. She bit off a moan. His torture continued with a nip at her bare shoulder. Her pussy throbbed.

“All the times you opened your legs, I made you do it? And when you said, ‘Don’t stop,
Goshujin-sama
,’ that was me and not what you desired?”

She cursed him under her breath. “I said let me go.”

He held her a little longer and then backed up. Shae went about packing her things, and when she went to lift her suitcase from the bed, he edged her aside and did it for her. She hated how she lusted after the bastard.

“Just…just sit it over there in the corner,” she snapped.

He made no comment but did as she asked. For the rest of the day, they didn’t talk much. Eiji cooked while Shae practiced with the katana. She refused to let him show her by touching, so he instructed with words alone, and at the end of the day, exhausted, she fell into bed. Eiji stood in the doorway, and she felt his eyes on her. She rolled over.

“Are you coming in?”

He strolled forward and kicked the door shut, and then lay down next to her. Shae wanted to keep arguing, to tell him he was wrong, but she settled into his embrace, and just like he said she would, she spread her legs for him to feel his shaft sink deep inside her heat.
Damn you, Eiji, for making me love you.

Chapter Eleven

A noise woke Shae from her sleep, and she discovered whatever it was had awakened Eiji first. He stood at the door with his hand on the knob. He wore pajama bottoms and no shirt, and she rolled silently to her feet and slipped on a pair of shorts and dragged a T-shirt over her head. The katana lay on the carpeted floor beside the bed, and she caught it up and unsheathed it. She smelled them now, Darryl and his boys, and if the distinctive scent were any indication, they were already inside the house.