Beast Denied (5 page)

“Come on, Naomi. You know we have to investigate if there’s even the slightest threat to our wellbeing as a community.” He inhaled, his chest expanding. “Right now I need to connect the dots. Cover all the bases. So just tell me what the fuck happened.”

She swallowed, knowing that he was right. They had to be careful, of course they did. But the knowledge didn’t exactly make her feel any easier about spilling her intensely personal business to him.

She sensed his growing impatience, but it was hard to find the words to explain without seeming like she’d deliberately been on the trawl for casual sex. Which, of course, she had.

Damn.
Devil and the deep blue sea.

“You said you’d spoken to Nathan. You told him about what happened?”

His jaw went tight, but he gave a sharp nod.

She fought back the resentment at having her personal life discussed and dissected, but if she didn’t talk to Tynan, she might have to answer to Caleb or, heaven forbid, the Council of Principals. Considering her grandfather, Enoch, was a pack elder, she didn’t relish that one bit.

Double damn and blast it. She couldn’t think of anything quite so embarrassing as having to spill details of her private life to the Council while her grandfather looked on.

She stood, brushing past him and heading to the nook, where she opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of chardonnay. Without saying anything, she got a glass from the shelf and poured herself a very large drink.

When she held up the bottle, Tynan shook his head.

Opening the refrigerator door again, she pulled out a can of beer. She kept a supply for when Nathan stopped by, not that she was about to admit that to Tynan. That
definitely
wasn’t anyone else’s business. But when she noticed Tynan’s expression darken, she knew he had already started joining
those
particular dots.

He all but scowled at the beer. “I’ll pass.”

While he headed for the nearest sofa, Naomi took the lasagna from the microwave and popped it on the counter. Her appetite was well and truly ruined now.

She chose the opposite sofa from him, holding the glass between her hands while she stared down into the alcohol. “The men were there when I arrived, sitting at the bar. I found a table, and the waiter came to take my order. A few minutes after that, they came over.”

“What made you notice them when you arrived?”

They were both hot as Hades.
“Most of the people there were older, I suppose.”

“What did they say? When they came over?”

“Asked me if I was waiting for a friend. I said I wasn’t. That I’d had a long day at work, which was true, and just wanted to unwind.”

“And then?”

They started undressing me with their eyes.

“Then we started chatting.” She rolled the glass between her hands. “They told me their names—Derek and Malcolm—said they were in town on business.”

“What else did you talk about?”

“They asked me what I did for a living. Did I live locally. That kind of thing. Small talk. I told them details like that were off the menu for the evening. Repeated that I just wanted to kick back for a while.”

“Did they tell you anything about where they lived? Where they were based?”

“All I know was that they were down from London on business.”

Tynan leaned forward, his eyes hard. “Did they ask any questions that made you feel uncomfortable? Anything that had your antenna buzzing? Think, Naomi, even if it doesn’t seem like much. Was there anything off about them?”

She thought for a moment and shook her head. “They just seemed regular. I knew they were humans, of course, but there wasn’t anything that made me feel uneasy. Except…”

His eyes turned positively flinty, and he leaned forward. “Except what?”

It was hard to put into words. “One of them, Derek, was quite intense, not laid back like the other one.”

“Intense how?”

She shrugged. “It was something about the way he looked at me, I suppose. But it really wasn’t even that. More of a feeling. He had this energy that was…extreme.”

“Shit, Naomi.” He scrubbed his hand through his hair, making the dark mass of it even more unkempt than usual. “What the fuck were you thinking? Didn’t that send out any warning signals?”

She rolled back her shoulders. “No, actually it didn’t.” And it should have, she realized, but she didn’t need him and his hard-ass chastisements highlighting her stupidity.

He squeezed his eyes shut, his nostrils flaring when he sucked in a breath, the signs of a man tempering his frustration. “Okay. Then what happened?”

She kept her eyes on his, determined not to be made to feel stupid, uncomfortable or in any way ashamed of what she’d done. She was the only one who had permission to do that. “They asked me if I wanted to party.”

Again those nostrils flared.

For some reason, it annoyed her. “As it happens, that’s exactly what I wanted. So we went up to their room. We had a couple of drinks, Malcolm told some jokes. Then… Derek started coming on a bit strong.” She fought to keep her voice steady, but there was no disguising the tremble in it. “It unnerved me, and I panicked. That’s when I decided to leave.”

“And they let you?” The low tone was more ominous than if he’d barked at her. “Just like that?”

“They didn’t like it. Tried to…change my mind, but I pushed Derek back really hard, and he fell against the wall. I think he hit his face, because I saw blood, but I didn’t stick around to find out.”

“Shit,” Tynan repeated. He stood and began pacing again. “Where the hell did you put your brains last night?”

“Don’t start on me again. You can’t tell me you haven’t tried things. Made mistakes.”

“That’s not the same, and you know it.”

“Do I? Really? Okay, maybe it’s different for women, I get that. But it shouldn’t be. We should be able to enjoy sex for its own sake without having to defend our decisions, or be made to feel guilty about them.”

“It doesn’t work like that. It’s about keeping safe. You didn’t know those guys, and as it turned out, things could have been damn dangerous. What if you hadn’t been able to fight them off? What then? Thank God you’ve got more physical strength than most women. At least that gave you the chance to get away. Likely the asshole was too busy nursing the damage to his face to take off after you.”

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Her head was beginning to spin watching him pace back and forth. “Sit down. You’re making me edgy.”

“Wanting a fucking threesome,” Tynan snapped. “Picking up human men in a goddamn bar, for fuck’s sake.”

Propelled by fury, Naomi snapped her glass down on the side table and almost lunged at him. “You damn hypocrite. How many times have you gone into a bar with the express aim of picking up a woman for sex?” She stabbed him in the chest. “And before you start harping on about it being different for women, I’d strongly urge you to reconsider.”

She made to stab him again, but he grabbed her wrist. “If you want to experiment? Fine. I’ve got no damn problem with it. But you’ll do it in a safe environment, somewhere where you won’t have to run off into the night with your clothes half-off.”

“Oh, will I? I’m so pleased you have no problem with my wanting to experiment. I’ll sleep easier knowing I have your blessing.”

“And what the hell do you think you’re playing at with Nathan? It’s not going anywhere for either of you. You’re wasting your time if you think—”

“What the hell has my playing with Nathan got to do with all of this?” Naomi wrestled her wrist from his hold. “And for your information, I don’t think anything. And if I’m wasting my time, it’s mine to waste. What gives you the right to barge in here and start laying down the law? Nobody controls my life anymore, Tynan. Nobody.”

Her breath hitched on the last few words, but she rolled back her shoulders and raised her chin. “I run things the way I want to, and if I make mistakes, I take responsibility for them. I don’t need you or anyone else laying into me or trying to save me from myself. Hell. Some people are so bloody holier than thou, it’s frightening.”

“Meaning me?”

“There’s nobody else here giving me grief.”

His jaw moved, his sensuous mouth flattening into a long tight line. His gaze, burning with a potency that made her throat ache, never left hers. “After that stunt you pulled last night, I’d say someone has to save you from yourself.”

“And you’re just the man to do it.”

His nostrils flared, and he stepped forward. It made her want to take a step back. “This is fucking bullshit, Naomi. We’ve been in each other’s lives far too long for you to expect me to just walk away from this.”

“You walked away before.”

Oh, damn and blast. Where did that come from? She hadn’t meant to speak the words; they’d just flown from her lips.

Tynan’s throat contracted, his hand going to the back of his neck. “I should never have taken you to the moor that night. It was my responsibility to protect you, but instead…” He rubbed his neck, a pained look on his face. “Shit. It was my fault. I was too rough with you.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Naomi crossed her arms over her chest, unable to listen to him deliberate on her lack of maturity that night. “I knew exactly what I was doing going to the moor with you. So don’t take it all on yourself and act like some martyr.”

“Then why did you run home without talking to me?”

She remembered shifting, flying across the moor and praying he wouldn’t chase after her. Mortified, all she’d wanted to do was get home and away from him.

“There was nothing to say, was there?”

“Plenty from where I was standing. But you refused to see me when I came by your place, wouldn’t let me try to make things right. I had no damned option but to leave you alone. But I never walked away, Naomi.”

She hadn’t refused to see him. She hadn’t even known he’d called. Her father had likely taken care of that. He’d never liked Tynan—or any of her friends—and would have turned Tynan away had he come calling. In that moment, Naomi hated her father even more.

A small glimmer of hope that Tynan might have wanted her broke through the painful memories. She was about to tell him how stupid she’d felt for acting so immaturely, how her father had been the one responsible for keeping them apart, but he placed his hands on her shoulders.

“What happened between us was a mistake,” he said, shattering her fragile hope. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens to you now.”

Gently, his fingers kneaded her tense shoulders, but it was the tightness in her throat that needed a salve.

It was a mistake.

Her hand flew to his chest more by instinct than design. She didn’t want him this close, didn’t want to feel his breath on her cheek, his hands on her shoulders. Mostly she didn’t want the words that drove a knife into her aching heart.

It was a mistake.

Against her palm, his heart beat strong and steady. She had to fight against the desire to drop her head against his chest, to wrap her arms around him and simply hold on. To tell him, convince him, that it hadn’t been a mistake. Never a mistake.

Except she couldn’t, because deep inside, she realized that maybe it had been. If it had never happened, they might have remained friends. But even as the thought brushed through her mind, she knew it could never be that simple. That she could never be friends with Tynan and not want more. So much more.

His thumbs brushed against her throat, slow and easy, rekindling all kinds of need long ago buried and now resurrected with spectacular force.

While she knew it was asking for trouble, her gaze moved to clash with his.

Oh, damn it to hell. His eyes smoldered with a green-gold hue, and the intensity she saw there shot heat deep into her core.

He lowered his head, and his mouth touched hers. Hot, insistent, yet with a fluidity that stole her breath. Her already stuttering heart banged against her rib cage, desire thundering through her, demanding she meet, and match, his unrelenting possession. She opened for him, her tongue clashing with his.

When his arms banded around her, a warning came from deep inside her that she should put an end to this, push him away. But he pulled her closer, and she felt the press of his erection, making the temptation to grind herself against him impossible to resist.

It was wrong, the warning said.
They
were wrong.

It was a mistake
.

His words crashed around in her mind, making her heart ache. Despite the consequences of their disastrous liaison, she had never truly regretted it. But he obviously did, in which case, what was he doing kissing her like this?

She knew she should push him away, tell him to go to hell. And she would. In just a moment. One…more…delicious…moment.

It was a mistake…mistake…mistake…

Summoning every ounce of willpower, Naomi pushed at his chest and came out of his arms so violently, she almost toppled back against the sofa.

She steadied herself. “You’ve got a damn nerve. I didn’t ask you to kiss me. I didn’t want you to kiss me. You lecture me on who I have sex with and then grab me like a piece of meat?”

He stared back, a ferocious light in his eyes. “But you damn well asked for a whole lot more than a kiss when you put yourself out there like that piece of meat, offering yourself to any man who cares to take up the invitation. Maybe I just wanted to sample what seems to be on offer to all and fucking sundry.”

Her hand itched to slap that infuriating face. “Well, it might be on offer to all and fucking sundry, but that doesn’t include you.” Exasperated, she marched to the door and hauled it open. “You need to leave.”

He took his time walking toward her. “And you need to stop hanging around in bars and picking up men.”

While she fumed, he breezed past her and out into the hallway.

Naomi gritted her teeth and slammed the door hard behind him.

“Arrogant prick,” she shouted at the closed door.

Stamping back into the living area, she grabbed up her wine and threw it down the sink. She felt furious, edgy and…horny, damn it. He’d gotten her all heated up. And all it had taken was a kiss. A blow-your-socks-off, panty-dampening kiss.