A. Arthur - Passion's Prey

“Don’t,” he said through clenched teeth. “You and I are the same.”

She should have been afraid, suspected a normal person would be. But since she’d never had any real claim to “normal,” that didn’t include her. “I’m not like you.”

He stared down at her for a long time, his dark eyes almost absorbing her in their intensity. His bald head glistened, beckoning her fingers to touch and explore just as she’d done when they’d had sex. She grabbed a handful of the comforter beneath her instead.

“You can get off me now. Playtime is over.” It was so much easier to be flippant, to act like he was having absolutely no effect on her. When the truth was—and up until now Caprise had always prided herself on confronting the truth head-on—Xavier was making her feel things she just wasn’t used to.

“This is not a game,” he told her sternly.

“I’m back at Havenway safe and sound. Seth plans to guard my every breath for the next millennium so there’s no need for you to act like my personal bodyguard.”

“I’m not finished with you.”

He’d said it so matter-of-factly, like it was something she should have known and if it wasn’t he would make sure she did. Caprise didn’t know why that both irritated and turned her on. The irritation was slightly conquered by the intense look in his eyes. It was like a storm there, brewing steadily; Caprise had to wonder what would happen when it finally exploded. When everything this shifter kept so bottled up would erupt. Better still, she wondered if she would stick around to see the results.

“Look, I can face the truth. That’s the type of person I am,” she told him. “So here it is, last night was a shock to both of us. But it happened and today’s a new day. Can’t we just move on?”

“I can’t” was his reply.

To Caprise the admission almost sounded tortured. As if X really meant what he’d said but didn’t like it any more than she did. Her cell phone picked this exact moment to chirp and before Caprise could even think about going to retrieve it, X was up off the bed.

“Well, if I’d known that was all it was going to take,” she quipped in a much lighter tone than she was feeling.

He grabbed her purse and unceremoniously dumped its contents on the bed. As soon as she saw the phone, Caprise reached for it. He snatched it just an inch from her grasp.

“Who the hell is this?” he yelled into the phone after he’d answered.

Caprise held her breath. She’d been receiving text messages for the last two or three days, but never had she received an actual call.

“Whoever you are I’ll find your ass. If you’re smart you’ll stop dialing this number. If you’re stupid I’ll slit your throat the moment I see you.”

X pressed the OFF button so hard Caprise thought he would break the phone in two. When his gaze returned to hers she saw something she’d never seen before. No, she’d seen it before and had taken that warning by running so fast she didn’t even know where she’d finally stopped. Today she had no place to run. X stood in front of the door he’d broken into. There were two windows on the opposite side of the room but they looked like they belonged in a mental institution—too slim for any human or shifter to slip through, but just big enough to offer some sunshine and fresh air.

No, this time, Caprise realized she’d have to stand and face the beast staring back at her.

“If you know who that is that keeps calling and texting you I’d advise you to tell me right now,” he said in a tone so tight, so lethal she actually shivered before straightening her back.

“No,” she said, taking a nervous step toward him. “That’s my phone and whoever calls or texts me is my business.”

“Don’t play with me, Caprise. This is serious.”

“It’s my business, Xavier. I didn’t ask you to get involved and I’d actually prefer if you didn’t.” She reached out a hand for the phone.

Her limbs didn’t shake although she felt like she wanted to. Inside her cat paced, watching to see what would come next. It was eerily drawn to the cat within X, the beast that had warranted his swift eye-color change. Caprise pushed back, daring her cat to make a move. She’d kept her other half on a tight rein all these years; she wasn’t about to stop now just because he was around.

“Someone is threatening you,” he said, his voice a lower timbre than it had been before. “I don’t like it.”

“It’s not your concern,” she replied quickly.

He took a step toward her and she had to demand her feet remain still. Lifting her head to stare up at him she said, her voice just a tad lower in compromise, “It’s no big deal. I can handle it.”

His gaze searched hers for what seemed like endless moments. Then he did something that shocked and confused her. X extended a hand, touching the edge of her chin softly with one finger. The very motion looked awkward on him, yet felt surprisingly soft and whimsical to her. Then he spoke and awkward took another turn.

“I’m leaving for Sedona in three hours. Come with me.”

Why had he asked her that?

His conversation with Bas had ended with the Mountain Faction Leader mentioning that Felipe Hernandez, a former lieutenant in the Cortez Cartel, had clammed up tight and wasn’t talking to anyone. Bas and his guards had captured the drug runner while he was overseeing a shipment in New Mexico. Rome and Nick were both sure Hernandez could tell them how their parents had been in contact with Julio Cortez years ago. And if that contact had led to the betrayal of the shifters.

“Maybe you could persuade him to talk,” Bas had said after explaining that Hernandez was basically choosing to die of hunger and deprivation instead of telling Bas and his team what they wanted to know.

There was a hint of sarcasm in the man’s voice when he’d made the suggestion, and everyone knew sarcasm was Bas’s first language. But in the prickly mood X was in he’d taken it as an instant challenge.

“I think I’ll do just that.”

After a brief hesitation Bas had chuckled. “I’ll have a room ready for you.”

“Make that a suite. If that bastard Hernandez is staying in luxury, I can, too.”

“Whatever, man,” Bas said, still chuckling as if he didn’t really expect X to fly to Sedona to question the drug dealer.

Even when he’d hung up X wondered why he’d been so eager to get on a plane and go himself. That reason came to him the moment he closed his eyes. Her eyes stared back at him, dark, mysterious, enthralling. In the recesses of his mind he could hear her voice, whispering his name. Just a whisper; she didn’t scream it out loud at the moment of her climax as so many women had done before her. No, Caprise wouldn’t give in that easily. She’d said it but only so she could hear it. The fact that X picked it up was a testament to the strength of his shifter senses, or a need that he didn’t even want to explore.

He’d thought about her from that moment up until the second he stood in front of her bedroom door punching numbers into that stupid keypad. The entry doors to Havenway were all on a computerized lock and also had sensory alarms that tripped if the doors were opened without using the authorized codes. X had programmed them all himself. As for the bedrooms, he’d told Nick that keypads with separate pass codes weren’t safe enough. They needed a backup just in case—exactly as he’d done—someone decided to hack the code. All he’d had to do was put in a series of commands that would effectively delete the prior coding; any hackers worth their salt could do it in about five minutes. X did it in two.

When the door swung open and he saw she wasn’t in the bedroom, he’d been about to curse. Then he picked up her scent and the cat within calmed. She was still here.