Chosen One (Forever Evermore #6)
Scarlett Dawn
Chapter One
I squealed as I stared into striking navy blue eyes. Black—black!—fucking curls dangling in sexy disarray around his face. A very recognizable, gorgeous as hell face. Another damn face I had known in 2035, appearing almost identical really, to the man I had eaten breakfast with.
“Elder Merrick,” I squeaked, squirming away from him as quickly as I could, even as he froze, the blanket hardly hanging over his bare hips. His enormous chest was muscled, stomach ripped, with a smattering of sexy black hair across his pecs. His massive biceps froze over his head as he stretched. I slapped a hand over my mouth to cut the squeal off, falling, then thumping down onto the floor next the bed. “I thought your hair was blue! I thought it was fucking blue in the club! Maybe green.”
I panted, my heartbeat racing. Going to my hands and knees, quickly crawling on the standard beige carpeting, my eyes darting, searching for my clothes.
Slow words from the bed. “Blue or green?” He didn’t question that I knew who he was, which was a no-brainer to anyone who paid attention to previous Rulers, especially ones who led fucking vicious wars. “Why would…?” he trailed off. The sheet rustled, and it moved in my peripheral as I crawled quickly to the end of the bed. I grabbed the first shirt I found, not caring that it was not mine. I threw it over my head in a hurry, feeling his power, his Shifter power probing, testing me, the sandpaper feel rubbing over me roughly before disappearing. The shirt was damn enormous on me. When I stood, seeing him sitting frozen on the bed, face carefully blank, eyes hooded, at least I was covered. He stated very carefully, “I can’t feel your power.”
My lips thinned as cold, navy eyes intricately began scanning my face. “I really did think your hair was blue or green.”
He flicked an absent finger, but the movement was jerky. “I know you’re not lying.” He waited a few beats, staring hard. “Your hair’s black.”
I inhaled heavily, glancing around the room for my stuff. “It’s spelled.” I picked up my pants from the floor, my own movements choppy. “I’m Elemental,” I waved a shaky hand at him, quickly looking away when I saw his eyes flare in aggression, “and you, are so obviously not.” I ran a shaky hand over my face, then bent picking up my panties and bra, trembling a bit, wondering if I was going to die right now from this man…fuck, the man who had tasted and felt so fucking good from what I could remember of the previous evening.
Silence was precarious for a few beats before he practically bellowed, “Fucking hell!”
He tossed the blanket off himself, and I quickly averted my gaze, but it only landed on a red streak on the white sheet. Probably where we had landed last night after our bout. I saw from the corner of my eye his own gaze landing, and freezing, there.
I sucked in a harsh breath, and quickly bent, trying my best to ignore the fact that Elder Merrick—Elder-fucking-Merrick!—had taken my damn virginity, the evidence clearly visible. I grabbed my shirt and purse.
‘Shower,” I mumbled hastily, glancing around the room for a bathroom, knowing I needed to get his scent off me since I didn’t remember him using a condom. A Shifter’s sexual fluids leaving their animals—their own—scent behind. “I need to take a shower.”
He broke from his frozen state, and his massively built frame bent. He started jamming his legs down into his own black pants, jabbing a finger behind me, his voice gruff. “Behind you.”
I inhaled shakily, and turned to hurry into the bathroom, dropping his shirt outside the door once I had privacy. Quickly, but thoroughly, I used the hotel products, nothing of his personal items, to scrub my skin in a scalding hot shower.
My head hurt even worse, and the clothes I put on smelled of alcohol and smoke.
Finger combing my hair, I tried to calm myself. Putting my purse over my shoulder, I stepped back into the room barefoot, only needing to grab my socks and boots. I needed to get the hell out of here before he changed his mind, and decided to kill me, since he so obviously wasn’t for mixed-faction relations, his reaction more than telling.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, still only wearing his black wool expensive pants, elbows on his knees, running his hands through his spiral black curls, but cool, navy blue eyes peered up, trapping me. He inhaled heavily, staring for a few beats, again his gaze running over my face in an unhurried assessment. Tilting his head to the desk, he stated quietly, his voice a cool, deep rumble, “I wrote my number down for you. If you find yourself pregnant, call me immediately.”
Biting my lip, I nodded, moving to the desk and putting the paper into my purse before grabbing my socks and boots off the floor. He stood, holding a hand out to stop me before peeking outside his bedroom door. He watched through the crack, motioning for me to come over. I stood next to him, waiting, hearing someone moving around out there, and absurdly, and completely inappropriately, through my shock and dazed state, I felt a tiny fire kindle low in my gut as warmth radiated off his body.
I stared at his tense, muscled frame while he peered out the door, his pants hanging sexily on his lean hips, his rippled abs flexing the barest bit as he pivoted silently, watching whoever it was outside the door move about. The thin black line of hair starting at his navel disappeared down into the depths of his pants, my thoughts reminding me just how damn enormous he had been inside me.