A Stranger’s Touch (8 page)

Her release set off his orgasm. It flashed through him in an intoxicating, powerful wave, snapping the tight grip he had on his self-control. His seed burst from his cock, flooding Roxi’s channel, and the wolf howled his ecstasy as he broke through Donovan’s defenses.

He couldn’t hold back the shift. It ripped through him, partly transforming his bones and flesh. His jaw turned into a muzzle and his teeth grew large and sharp. The man in him struggled for control. His body hadn’t yet shifted, but it was only a matter of time before the wolf took over completely.

Even without the full shift, Donovan could only stare, horrified, through his own eyes as the wolf sank its teeth into Roxi’s shoulder.

Claiming her as his mate.

Chapter Six

Pain burst in Roxi’s shoulder. She arched her back while waves of release crashed through her, mingling with the stabbing ache to form a miasma of sensation that set off a second orgasm. Her scream echoed through the room, filling her ears so she barely heard the door slam against the wall.

“Oh my God!
Get off her!
”

The answering snarl resonating in her ear was positively feral, and Roxi turned her head—only to get an eyeful of black fur and yellow eyes, along with sharp white teeth glistening with blood.

Her
blood.

Oh fuck.

The room spun around her. Instinctively, every muscle in her body clenched against the perceived threat. She clamped down on Donovan’s cock and fisted her fingers in the sheets as she struggled to remain upright.

“I said, get off her!”

The sound of glass breaking startled Roxi out of her panic-induced numbness. She managed to rock back just far enough to see Leann holding the neck of a vase that had once been a gift from Roxi’s mother. Now only the top third remained, its jagged edges indicating it had met a violent end.

Donovan growled. He withdrew from her pussy and slid off her. Roxi scrambled forward, nearly toppling off the edge of the bed in her rush to figure out what just happened. She turned and lifted her head in time to see Donovan’s gorgeous face shimmer from within the furry muzzle of a…
wolf
?

No. No fucking way.

She shook her head but refused to close her eyes. Instead she watched, dumfounded, as Donovan’s broad chest once again became sleek and sprinkled with a light dusting of dark hair, instead of being covered in a pelt of fur. The transformation looked painful. Furrows formed on his forehead and around his eyes. He doubled over at the waist as his bones reshaped themselves into the firm, masculine body she’d been admiring only minutes earlier.

“Fuck me,” Leann murmured. “I’m calling the cops.”

Donovan touched the back of his head. His fingers came away slick with blood, and Roxi figured she knew what must have happened to the vase.

But that was the only thing she understood. The rest of the questions spinning in her mind whizzed around like a tornado, and she couldn’t decide which to voice first. Her mouth moved but no words came out.

Donovan shook himself, as though waking from a bad dream. Sweat matted his hair to his forehead and trickled down his temples. His chest was slick as well, and a rivulet of blood ran from the back of his head down to his neck and over one shoulder.

Seeing the blood made her shoulder throb in remembered agony. She turned her head as far as she could to stare at the wound. Her stomach heaved at the sight of the deep bite mark and the blood that poured freely over her skin to seep into the white sheets on her bed.

“The cops are on their way,” Leann announced from the doorway. She’d traded the broken bit of vase for a large butcher knife from the kitchen. “Don’t even think about trying anything, asshole! I’m not afraid to use this thing.”

Donovan lifted his head but paid no attention to Leann. She might as well not even have spoken, since he didn’t seem to have heard her. Instead, he locked gazes with Roxi. Her heart skipped a beat and lodged in her throat, making it hard to breathe.

“I’m so sorry.” Donovan’s hoarse voice boomed through the room.

Roxi shrank back. “W-what are you?”

Sirens echoed from the street below them. Donovan lifted his head and glanced at the window behind Roxi. He gritted his teeth. A muscle pulsed in his jaw. “I have to go. I’ll…” He took a deep breath, as though considering what he was about to say, then seemed to make a decision. “I’ll explain everything, but not now.”

He grabbed his clothes, pulled them on in less than ten seconds flat. All the while Leann watched him warily from the door. She made no move to attack him with the knife, but she held the weapon in front of her, making it clear she had no qualms about defending both herself and Roxi if it came to that.

The sirens grew louder. A screech of brakes told Roxi the cops had just pulled up in front of the building. It was only a matter of time before they made their way up here, and when they did… God, what would she tell them? That her lover had transformed into some sort of werebeast and attacked her while they were having sex?

A sound slipped from her throat, half sob, half incredulous laugh. Roxi ran a trembling hand through her hair. She was losing her mind. That was the only possible explanation for what had just happened.

Donovan took a step toward the hallway.

Leann lifted the knife. “Don’t even think about running.”

“I can’t stay.” He held up his hands and cast another look at Roxi. His eyes were filled with sorrow. “See to it that the wound is bandaged, but don’t clean it out. If you do, you’ll just remove the healing enzymes in my—the wolf’s—saliva.”

Despite the fact that Leann was more than a foot shorter than Donovan, she stood toe-to-toe with him and waved the knife in his face. “If you think we’re going to listen to a thing you have to say, you’re delusional!”

“Don’t listen, then.” He raised a shoulder in a shrug. “But take care of her.” With that, he pushed past Leann and vanished into the hallway.

A few seconds later, the front door slammed closed and Roxi could breathe again. The air in her lungs must have been holding her upright, because she suddenly sagged against the mattress.

Leann wrapped her in a gentle hug, careful to avoid her wounded shoulder. “Shh… It’s over now. He’s gone. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Roxi moaned. Already the stinging ache in her shoulder was fading, becoming more irritation than pain. Every time she blinked, the look in Donovan’s eyes and the sheer misery on his features replayed over and over in her mind. He hadn’t meant to harm her. She was sure of it.

A loud knock on the front door made her jump in Leann’s arms.

“Open up! Police!” The knock repeated, louder this time. If someone didn’t let them in, Roxi had no doubt NYPD’s finest would break the door down.

“You better get that,” she whispered to her friend.

Leann’s brow furrowed. She was obviously reluctant to leave Roxi’s side.

“Go,” Roxi urged.

Leann finally did as she was told and Roxi breathed a sigh of relief. Her mind spun, forming a plan. She didn’t understand what happened, but she knew Donovan would never hurt her. Not intentionally, anyway. She needed to get to the bottom of this, and she had to do it on her own.

Roxi pushed to her feet, not relishing the idea of meeting a squadron of police officers in the nude. By the time Leann returned, Roxi was dressed in a fluffy pink robe. She’d tossed the bloody sheets from the bed into the hamper in the closet, and she had a magazine spread out on her lap.

“I saw him attack her!” Leann walked into Roxi’s room. Three uniformed officers barged in right behind. “Tell them, Rox. Show them what he did to you.”

Roxi forced a smile, hoping her lip didn’t quiver and give away the nervousness that fluttered in her stomach. “I am sorry, gentlemen. My friend likes those old horror movies a little too much. I am afraid she was imagining things.”

“So you weren’t attacked, ma’am?” One of the officers, the youngest looking of the bunch, squinted in her direction. The others eyed the bedroom with obvious caution, as though expecting a criminal to leap out from beneath her bed.

“Attacked?” She laughed, and the hollow sound bounced off the walls. “No. What Leann heard was some very enthusiastic sex.” Heat crept up her cheeks. She hoped that would lend her story a bit more credibility. “We were just role playing.”

“Role playing?” Leann’s indignant screech made Roxi wince. “You can’t be serious! What exactly where you acting out?”

“The story of Little Red Riding Hood.” She smiled again, and this time the mirth was almost entirely genuine. “You walked in right at the good part.”

The young officer cleared his throat. “The good part, ma’am?”

Roxi nodded. “Yes. Just when the big bad wolf was eating me.”

* * * * *

Four hours later, Roxi stripped and carefully placed her clothes inside the small locker Brad had provided for her use. The gallery didn’t have a locker room, per se, but Brad had converted an old storage closet into her personal space. She had complete privacy here, which was rather ironic considering she’d spend the rest of the evening on full display.

She turned to look at herself in the small magnetic mirror she’d hung on the inside of the locker door. The wound on her shoulder was covered with a white bandage, but she’d seen it an hour ago. Just like Donovan had promised, it was healing nicely. She’d been able to make out the shape, too—a perfect bite, like a brand on her skin. It would certainly leave a scar.

Roxi shuddered. Donovan had marked her. For as long as she lived, she’d carry the reminder of him with her everywhere she went. The thought should have frightened her. Angered her, at the very least. Instead, there was something comforting about knowing Donovan would always be more to her than a passing one-night stand. She smiled at that. She’d wanted something meaningful from her time with him. Something permanent. This wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind.

A tingle ran through Roxi’s body at the memory of Donovan’s hands and mouth on her. She hadn’t been lying to the cops—not entirely, anyway. Leann had interrupted the most incredible sex of Roxi’s life. Not that she had a whole lot of experience in that department. Before Donovan, she’d only been with one other man.

Well, more of a boy, really. They’d both been nineteen the year she graduated high school. She’d lost her virginity to Stavros that summer, and afterward they’d spent nearly two weeks exploring each other’s bodies. Under his unskilled hands, she’d learned what made her hot, what drove her crazy, which moves made her cry out in pure, intoxicating bliss.

But she hadn’t taken another lover since. Not because she was shy, or because she didn’t like sex. Quite the contrary, or else she wouldn’t have been working at Moderne. But showing her body to strangers and letting them touch her was one thing. Being close with a man, giving him not just her body, but her heart and soul, took a lot more courage.

Well, she’d done it. She’d opened herself up to Donovan in every way, and he’d…
bitten
her.

Her breath caught as a flash of memory danced across her senses. She vividly recalled the feel of Donovan’s cock moving inside her, his howl of pleasure as he came, the way his orgasm set off hers. She remembered, too, the exact moment his teeth sank into her flesh. There’d been something so primal and animalistic about that bite. Yes, there’d been violence in the act, but she didn’t feel attacked. She felt…protected. Cherished. Wanted.

Roxi shook her head and slammed the locker door closed. “Roxana, you are being an idiot.” She knew it, too. Her mother would have a fit if she knew Roxi had barely escaped her most recent romantic encounter and now sported something akin to an animal bite.

She frowned as she walked out of the changing room. Was that what Donovan was? Some sort of animal? She’d seen him transform from a wolf into a man, but she couldn’t trust her senses to relay what really happened. Maybe she’d been in shock after he bit her, and her addled mind had conjured something for her to focus on. Or maybe—

“There you are!” Brad clapped his hands together. He stood on the other side of the harness and beckoned to her. “Come on up. We don’t have much time before the doors open.”

Roxi scanned the room, but she and Brad were alone. Her pulse picked up speed. “Where is Donovan?”

Brad pushed his glasses up his nose and sighed. “I don’t know. He didn’t show up for his shift and he’s not answering his phone.”

Disappointment settled like a ball of lead in her stomach. Her hands went to the belt of her robe but her gaze dropped to the floor. Donovan had never missed a day of work. Was he avoiding her? Would he come back? Would she ever get an explanation for what happened that afternoon?

Leann had been furious that Roxi had chosen to cover for Donovan with the cops. After the officers left, Leann had let Roxi know exactly what she thought about her decision, and her tirade wasn’t gentle in the least.

Roxi sank her teeth into her bruised lower lip. Had she done the right thing? It seemed she never knew where Donovan was concerned. She could only follow her gut and hope it didn’t lead her astray.

“Up you go, Roxi.” Brad beamed a smile at her.

He was cute, in a misunderstood-artist kind of way. Tonight he wore a black turtleneck over plaid pants. His fashion sense left a lot to be desired, but she trusted him. The first few weeks she’d been at Moderne, he’d checked in on her hourly just to make sure she was comfortable. If she wasn’t, he’d adjust the straps, loosen the restraints—whatever it took for her to remain up there for the rest of her shift.

If Donovan wasn’t here to protect her from overzealous groping hands, Brad would make a suitable replacement. She didn’t know him well, but she knew he cared about her. He wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her while he was here.

“All right,” she agreed, climbing into the harness. “Let us do this thing.”

Brad’s hands didn’t linger on her skin. He was quick and proficient in his movements. She appreciated his speed and professionalism, but she missed Donovan’s tender touch, his smooth caresses and the heat in his gaze as he looked at her.