Smashed (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8.5)(11)

Face to face, we stared into one another. My amusement faded. The musky wolf scent of Shaz reached inside me to a place where my best memories dwelled. It made me ache for the woman we both shared.

“Last chance to change your mind,” I said, but my gaze had fallen to his throat, and I had no intention of allowing him to make that call.

Shaz didn’t speak. He sat frozen but willing. I reached for him first with a gentle pulse of power. An invisible touch, it elicited the response I sought. Shaz’s breath quickened and he relaxed.

Just a few inches separated us. As close as we were, we didn’t touch. Not yet.

There was a brief space of time where I considered forcing my way into Alexa’s thoughts, making her watch this. It was a cruel idea but one that might encourage a response from her. I didn’t consider it for very long.

The energy flowed between Shaz and me. An erotically charged force, it wrapped him in a cloak of sensuality. If there’d been a shred of resistance left in him, it vanished then. He leaned forward in mesmerized wonder, entirely under the influence of my thrall.

I laid a hand on the side of his face, ensuring his gaze never slipped from mine. Then I slid it up into his hair where I grabbed a handful of soft platinum.

We were fantastically close. I could have kissed him without moving. At one time I had done just that. But it would only take things down a path Shaz was reluctant to walk. Forcing him was not an option. Despite what he might think, I had immense respect for him.

He stared at me with wide, eager eyes. He leaned into my touch, enjoying the tight grip of my hand in his hair. Arousal surrounded him like a puff of smoke. Wisps of it reached to taunt me, testing my control.

With my free hand, I traced a finger over the vein in his neck, feeling the pulse throb beneath the surface. Already I was impatient for the moment when I would spill Shaz’s blood. I longed to have that heady wolf nectar racing through me.

There was only one thing missing. Alexa. With her between us, Shaz and I moved in tandem, anticipating the other’s actions and moving to accommodate. We worked as a team, a natural ebb and flow of power with her acting as the conduit between us. It was magical.

I felt her absence in a poignant way. Finding an echo of my emotion mirrored in Shaz, I jerked myself out of my moment of self-pity.

With more aggression than intended, I tugged Shaz’s head to the side and fixated on the glorious expanse of his neck. The sound of his heartbeat grew louder in my ears. His excitement encouraged me.

Unable to resist the urge, I pressed my mouth to his warm flesh and dragged my tongue over the surface. The clean, salty taste of him unleashed a torrent of desire within me that the human victims from hours ago had failed to do. The ghost of Alexa’s wolf took notice of her mate and pawed at my insides.

Shaz let out the breath he’d been holding in a long, gratified sigh. I took advantage of his lusty response to me and teased him with a slight scrape of fangs. He shuddered and groaned, flooding me with erotic energy that I happily swam in.

There were so many places I could take this wolf if he would only let me. It wasn’t the first time I’d imagined such things. His ferocity and virility made him a very desirable partner. One like Shaz couldn’t truly be victimized. He was much too fierce for that.

Finally I decided that I’d driven the energy level high enough. Needing to extinguish the flame that threatened to burn out of control, I bared my fangs and bit deep. Shaz stiffened and gasped. Blood bubbled up around my fangs, and I withdrew them to capture it with my tongue. The rush of drawing on both his arousal and his blood had my erection straining against my pants.

Sucking at the wound resulted in Shaz slumping against the back of the couch. He slung an arm around my neck, holding tight as I swirled my tongue over the bite.

Jenner’s sudden return shattered the moment. He strode into the room clad in only sweat pants, running a comb through his short hair. He stopped short at finding us locked in a forbidden embrace. The surprise on his face was fake. I knew he’d felt it the second I called the power to enthrall Shaz.

We broke apart. Shaz leaned as far away as he could get, given the tiny amount of space he had on the couch. Licking the blood from my lips, I moved away, to the recliner chair that was my favorite.

“Sorry for the interruption,” Jenner said though he was far more amused than apologetic.

“Sure you are.” I shot him a venomous glare.

Ignoring me, Jenner fetched the laptop from the kitchen table and took it into the spare bedroom. What a bastard.

I studied Shaz, feeling like I should say something but not knowing where to begin. For a long time he sat there in silence, staring unblinking at the coffee table.

“Why doesn’t she want to be here with us?” Finally he spoke though he didn’t look my way. “What could possibly keep her from being where she belongs?”

I considered the best reply, settling on the truth. “Shaz, you can’t take it personally. It’s fear that keeps her away. Fear of me, of what I did to her. And fear of what she’ll do to you. Only time will heal that wound.”

“How can that possibly happen? Too much time apart will break you both down. It’s happening already. We are the ones who keep her balanced. I can’t stop asking myself why she’d rather be with him instead.”

Shaz sat stiffly, his shoulders slumped. This whole ordeal was giving him a complex. If Alexa didn’t come to her senses soon, she might very well cause irreparable damage.