Feral (6 page)

Jenny didn’t comment. She didn’t know anything about sex toys. She’d heard about parties where women got together to buy those kinds of items, sort of like Tupperware parties, only kinkier, she supposed.

Noah guided her farther down the hallway. “The art center is over there. It’s for body painting and whatnot. I’m not skilled in that regard, but I appreciate art. That’s why I included a museum on this floor, too. It’s filled with erotic and supernatural-themed paintings and sculptures.”

He didn’t take her to the museum. He turned around and headed toward the blood bank. She slowed her steps.

“Come on,” he coaxed.

Shoot. She moved forward. Lagging behind wouldn’t earn her the check he was supposed to give her tonight.

He opened the red-splattered door, and she wished he didn’t have such a strong hold over her. Between the money and her attraction to him, he’d snared her but good.

He ushered her into a cavernous room with sofas and chairs, occupied by groupies being fed upon. Jenny noticed that some of the players were more theatrical than others. A man with tousled dark hair and hypnotic green eyes sucked ravenously on a woman who actually looked as if she was in a trance. Her skin was almost as pale as his, and her head flopped back, exposing the column of her neck.

“This way,” Noah said, taking Jenny in another direction.

They came to an area with tiled floors and rows of claw-footed bathtubs. It was creepier than she’d imagined.

More fake vampires.

Dressed in Gothic garb, they leaned over the tubs and poured thick red liquid from antique pitchers, drenching naked groupies.

In another area was a row of shower stalls for the bathers to rinse their skin after their experience ended.

Jenny stayed close to Noah, which did little to ease her discomfort. He’d created this setting for his club, and it looked like an erotic remake of
Psycho
.

The female groupie in the first tub was climaxing. She had her hand between her legs, stroking herself while she took her bath. The vampire dousing her with blood was female, too, and remarkably beautiful, with a shapely figure and long, fiery auburn hair. She glanced over at Noah and smiled.

“That’s Sienna,” he said.

Curious if they were lovers, Jenny asked, “Do you sleep with women who dress up as supernaturals?”

“No.” He put his mouth close to her ear. “They don’t make good prey.”

“Not like me.”

“No one is like you. You’re my sexual ideal.”

“Matt said that I have the upper hand.”

“Who’s Matt?”

“My cousin. He was at the fund-raiser. The man I was talking to before you approached me.”

“Why does he say you have the upper hand?”

“Because of the lengths you’re going to in order to seduce me.”

“Hmm. That’s interesting. So is he right? Does it make you feel powerful to know how badly I want you?”

She looked at the bloodied activity in front of her. “Not at the moment.”

“I wonder if you’ll feel powerful when you’re strapped to my bed. Or when—”

She cut him off. “I want to go now.”

“Go where?”

“Home.” She needed to breathe, to get away from him.

“All right.”

She spun around to face him. “You’re going to seriously let me go?”

“Yes.”

“And give me the check?”

“Yes,” he responded again. “But you’re going to go home and think about this place and me and the scenario you want to create for the second floor.”

The voyeurism. “I don’t have that kind of imagination.”

“Sure you do. I’ll bet by tomorrow morning, you’ll have all sorts of ideas about what you’d like to see.”

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Sienna’s groupie heading for a shower stall. “It won’t involve vampires.”

“But it will involve somebody.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. You’re tripping me up.”

“So I am. Come on. I’ll take you out of here.”

Once they were in the hallway with the blood bank door securely closed, he handed her the check.

She didn’t thank him, but he obviously didn’t expect her to. The strings he’d attached to the money were tugging hard and deep.

When she got home that night, she stripped off her clothes, climbed into bed, and pressed a pillow between her legs, with Noah and his club swirling in her mind.

 

 

 

The following afternoon, Jenny worked her butt off, and she enjoyed it. She’d always thrived on running the rescue, but today she felt an exhilarating sense of freedom to go along with it. This place was hers to keep. No more worries about losing Big Cat Canyon.

Her only concern was Noah. She couldn’t stop obsessing about him. She’d even fantasized about the voyeurism scenario, just as he’d said she would. But if she knew what was good for her, she would never return to his club. She would never see him again or talk to him or—

Her cell phone rang and she checked the screen.

It was Noah.

She struggled to ignore his summons, or better yet to push the “End Call” button, but she did neither. Within seconds,
mere seconds
, she lost the battle and answered with a customary, “Hello?”

“Sweet Jenny,” came his reply. “Where are you?”

Her heart clamored to her throat. “Alone in my office.”

“I’m alone in my apartment.”

At this midday hour, she pictured him the way he looked without the special effects. But he was wild either way, and his seduction ran deep.

“Have you been thinking about me?” he asked.

Lying seemed futile. “Yes.”

“I’ve been thinking about you, too.” A shot of silence; then, “What about the voyeurism scene? Any ideas about what you’d like to see?”

She should hang up now, before she went too far, but she tumbled further into his seductive trap. “Yes.”

“Tell me.”

She gazed out the blinds of a small paned window, where daylight scattered in front of her eyes. “A couple.”

“What sort of couple?”

“I’ve been imagining specific people.” She’d actually based her fantasy around real-life lovers. “The man with the tattoo and his groupie.”

A smile sounded in Noah’s voice. “Oh, that’s good. They like being watched. I’m sure they’d be glad to perform in a private setting for us. So . . . what would you like to see them do?”

“I—” She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“Don’t be shy. Just tell me whatever it is.”

“I want—” She stalled again.

“You want what?” he pressed.

She didn’t answer.

He persisted. “Jenny?”

She blurted it out. “I want to see her do to him what she was doing in the Shifter Bar.”

“You want to watch her give him head?”

Her heartbeat tripled. “Yes.”

“How do you want it to play out?”

“What do you mean?”

“What sorts of details have you envisioned? Do you want him to be fully naked? Half-clothed? Should he be standing? Sitting? Should she be kneeling in front of him? Or would you rather have both of them in bed, with him straddling her face? There are lots of ways it could happen.”

Jenny squeezed her thighs together. She was getting warm down there. Far too warm. “I pictured him sitting in a chair beside the bed, with his jeans undone and his legs spread.”

“What about her? How did you imagine her?”

“Kneeling on the floor, like she was at the bar.”

“Is she clothed?”

“No. He made her strip before he told her to get on her knees.”

“So there’s a bit of domination involved? That’s perfect, Jenny. Not only were you influenced by what you saw in the Shifter Bar, you’re utilizing things you saw in the dungeon, too.”

She rocked forward. Her panties were getting damp. “I also imagined him giving her instructions on how to pleasure him. To start off slow, then go deeper. I pictured him tangling his hands in her hair and looking down at her while she follows his commands.”

“Were you touching yourself when you dreamed all of that up?”

“Yes.” She’d been under the covers with her eyes closed, creating desperate longings. “I thought about it last night, soon after I got home. I tried to stop myself, but I couldn’t. You’d already planted the seed.”

He planted another one. “You should touch yourself right now. You should do it again.”

She wanted to, but she made an excuse, trying to produce a semblance of reason. “I’m holding the phone.”

He didn’t back down. “Put it on hands free.”

She made the switch. She got up and closed the blinds, too. Dizzy with need, she said, “I can’t believe I’m going to do this with you on the other end of the line.”

“That’s what makes it so exciting.”

She undid her khakis. “It makes me feel forbidden.”

“I like that word.”

At the moment so did she, but she was also deep under his spell and all mixed up. She slid onto her chair, grateful that he couldn’t see her, yet wishing he could.

“Talk to me. Tell me exactly what you’re doing.”

“I’m sitting at my desk, tugging my pants and underwear down.”

“What a visual. Sweet, sweet Jenny with her cunt exposed.”

Heaven help her. “I’m unbuttoning my blouse, too. And unhooking the front of my bra.”

“Are your nipples hard?”

“Yes.” She drew a ring around one of them with her finger, making the areola pucker. With her skin tingling, with her mind on Noah, she moved her hand down and pressed it between her legs. “I’m going to do it now.”

“Go right ahead.”

She opened her nether lips and they glistened beneath her touch. “I’m already wet.”

His voice caressed her. “Such a creamy girl.”

Was she ever. She rubbed in little circles, spreading the warmth. Lost in the sensation and sealed in her own juices, her clit popped out.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“You. Doing bad things to me.”

“How bad?”

“You’re restraining me, like you said you would do.” While he listened, she made submissive sounds and envisioned being strapped to his bed.

“It scares me,” she said, relaying her newfound hunger. “But I like it, too.” In her fantasy, she was willing to let him tie her up. But in reality, she knew that she should stay away from him.

Still, she let herself dream, immersed in how hot and rough and carnal he was.

“Come for me,” he said.

An instant inferno erupted in her belly, and she lifted her rear and thrust her hips, strumming hard and fast.

She moved in a carnal rhythm, rubbing her clit with one hand and using her other hand to push two fingers inside.

With Noah quiet on the other end, she gasped and went into spasms. She thrashed in her chair and bumped her knees against the desk.

Afterward, she blinked through the haze, the final shudder zinging through her blood.

“Jenny?”

She grabbled to right her clothes, fumbling with buttons, hooks, and fabrics that wouldn’t behave. “Yes?”

“I’m going to arrange the voyeurism scene, and when the time is right, I’m going to restrain you, too.”

She couldn’t think to form a response. He’d given her barely a moment to breathe, let alone deal with an affair she shouldn’t be having.

“Okay?” he prodded.

Overwhelmed, she agreed, allowing him to lure her back to the club and become part of his strangely erotic life.

 

 

 

In the middle of the night, Noah awakened in a state of confusion. He hadn’t dreamed since he was mortal. But he’d just had one that involved Jenny, and it wasn’t even sexual. He could’ve dealt with that. In fact, he would’ve welcomed it.

This was something altogether different. In his dream, the magic stones the Seminole called
sapiya
had been hopping around on the ground and talking to him about Jenny.

He frowned into the dark. According to their message, he was supposed to show Jenny the beast that was inside him, to let her know the truth. Only the stones didn’t explain their reasoning. They just kept insisting that he needed to do it.

Of all fucking things.

As a child, he’d been taught to respect the
sapiya
, because if you didn’t, they could turn on you, if they so desired, and create bad magic. The way Noah saw it, he was screwed either way.

He stayed awake contemplating his dilemma, and by morning he was pacing his apartment like the caged hybrid he’d become.

Agitated, he grabbed his keys and headed out the door.

Twenty minutes later, he sat across from his accountant in the other man’s high-rise office. In this environment Coyote was Stanley Truxton, a young, clean-cut CPA. But he was actually a shapeshifter, the same as Noah. Only Coyote was a trickster who wore a fake mask at the club instead of shifting into his half-animal form.

“What’s going on?” Coyote asked.

Noah explained the details of his dream.

“Wow. You’ve gotten yourself into quite a predicament. Are you going to do it?”

“I don’t know. But what damned difference does it make when you go around spouting that the rumors are real and claiming to have proof?”

“Don’t turn this around on me. You know darn well that I only do that to have a bit of fun. Besides, hardly anyone at the club takes anything I say seriously. Most of the groupies think I’m a dweeb.”

“Because you are.”

The accountant laughed. “Isn’t it a kick? A clever guy like me being a dweeb?”

Noah rolled his eyes. “I don’t even know why I’m confiding in you.”

“Who else are you going to talk to? A brainless werewolf or a flower-pollinating fairy? Or better yet, how about one of those snappy alligator shifters? Personally, I wouldn’t trust those creatures as far as I could throw them.”