Obsession (14 page)

“Yes, I did. You’re a good opponent, but I do not like to lose.”

Her mouth quirked. She truly did like Raphael, who didn’t make her feel small or belittled, but equal.

A soft chirp came from his cell phone. Raphael fished it out, examined the screen. “I must take this. Stay here and make yourself comfortable.”

As soon as he left, talking on his phone, she wandered over to the bookcase. Perhaps there was something here she could use later. Jessica skimmed the titles, memorizing them. All the discs were video games. Odd. She took Raphael for a sleek, urbane businessman who liked riding horses and playing cowboy. Not a geek like her.

Jessica picked up one and read the label. She stared at the label and felt her jaw drop.

As he entered the room, she whirled around. “You have a first edition version of Gnome Wars?”

Raphael crossed the room and removed the box from her hand. “It still had bugs to work out of the beta.”

And then the realization hit her like a hard slap to her cheek. She stared at him with the awe of a fan meeting a famous celebrity. “You don’t have it because you’re a collector. Holy goddess! You
invented
Gnome Wars.”

Replacing the case among the others, he gave a modest shrug. “I like playing games. I’m good with computers.”

Good? The Lupine was sheer genius. “Do you know there are collectors who would pay up to half a mil for a rare, first edition copy of this game?” She plucked the case from its nest and waved it like a flag. “It’s the most popular game around. All the gnomes, the guy locked in the cage, how valiantly he fights them off and the nasty Mage taunting him from beyond the cage bars…how he ever gets free is a mystery I’ll never know. I only got to Level 4. Never had a chance to try to ascend to a higher level. Life interfered.”

Jessica held out the box like a magick wand. “You invented this. I can’t believe it: You’re the inventor of all the Gnome Wars games. You’re a superstar on the internet.”

Raphael regarded her with a wary look. “Your point is?”

“I love these games. Or used to.” She set the case down carefully, as if it were fragile glass. “They got too violent for me, and too dark. Especially when I got to Level 4 and the wolf in the cage got attacked by the gnomes who kept eating his flesh…”

Her voice trailed off as Raphael’s jaw tensed. He clenched his fists and then folded his arms across his chest. So defensive. Barricaded from the world, just like Rogue, the hero of Gnome Wars the hero he’d created…

She stared at him for a long moment and took a wild guess. “You know something about Gnomes. Real ones.”

At his brief nod, she continued. “You know because you’ve run into them before, just like Rogue.”

His mouth curled into a bitter smile. “How correct you are, little Red. I needed little imagination when it came to creating that story board. I merely relied upon my own experience.”

His own experience. Jessica’s heart turned over as she remembered the game’s haunted, tormented hero. On impulse she hugged Raphael. He stiffened. Jessica leaned against him, inhaling his scent. Her palms flattened against his back and she felt rough patterns beneath the smooth cotton of his shirt.

Very gently, she pulled the shirt free from his jeans. Mute, he stood there, muscles locked with tension as she ran her fingers beneath the fabric, exploring his back. Knowing what she would find, and hating it.

Because this, unlike the game, was real.

Emotion clogged her throat as her fingertips gently explored the rough indentations and ridges of old scar tissue. Jessica pulled away and looked at his defiant expression. “Take off your shirt. Please.”

His mouth twisted, and he started to speak, as if to say something sarcastic. Then he unbuttoned the shirt, tugged it off shoulders gleaming and well-defined with muscle.

Raphael turned and she saw his back.

She stuffed a fist into her mouth. Dear goddess. Seeing was worse than feeling it.

She wanted to vomit, but managed to hold back the nausea.

Jessica reached out and traced a scar with her index finger. Dozens of them crisscrossed the tough muscles of his back. Deep gouges, as if a creature with sharp teeth had gnawed upon him over and over. Her finger dipped into the slight cavity of one scar and she shuddered, imagining the horrible pain and the helpless rage he’d felt. The wolf in the cage in Gnome Wars had howled in agony and anguish, his pack destroyed, his females and young slaughtered as he desperately tried to free himself. And then the Gnomes tortured him, laughing as they attacked, the wolf’s howls turning into screams…

Remembering the game, Jessica’s throat closed up.

When he turned around, surprise flickered in his gaze.

“Why are you crying?” he asked softly.

“Because who would do such a thing? How can anyone be so cruel?” Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks.

He traced a tear with the edge of one thumb. “I would ask the same about someone who would abandon a precious, redheaded little Lupine on a cold doorstep in Michigan.”

“I survived. But you…”

“Did as well. We are two tough Lupines.” Raphael wiped away her tears. “Don’t cry. It doesn’t hurt me anymore. It is only scar tissue.”

“It hurts me to see you like this. I’d like to find those Gnomes and blast them to the netherworld. Only I’d use real grenades.”

Raphael smiled. “My champion. Jessica.” His voice deepened as he stared at her mouth. “Jessica.”

As her lips parted, she hungered to kiss him. Needed him, wanted him badly. Kissing him would erase the horrific images she remembered from playing Gnome Wars, the sense of despondency she’d felt for the hero, who’d struggled and fought and screamed his pain and anguish.

Raphael lowered his mouth to hers. Jessica closed her eyes and wrapped her fingers around his wrists as she tasted him. His beard and mustache felt slightly abrasive as he kissed her. Raphael nipped at her bottom lip, then stroked his tongue across it. He tasted like sin, chocolate and sex.

With a small sigh, he released her. Smoothing back her hair, he gazed down at her, his expression unreadable.

The kiss had been exquisite, almost tender amid the passion, but something dark and dangerous swirled in the depths of his eyes.

Jessica pulled away, rubbing her swollen mouth. He’d stamped himself upon her, leaving her normally logical brain muddled.

Raphael went over to the wet bar, opened the mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. He handed it to her. Grateful, she gulped it down and wiped her mouth.

“You have a delicious mouth. Very sexy,” he murmured.

Taking the water from her, he finished it. She watched, fascinated, as his strong throat muscles worked. Then he wiped his mouth with the back of one hand and tossed the bottle into a recycle bin.

“Much as I’d like to kiss you again, I must cool down.” Raphael’s mouth twisted. “You are quite tempting, Jessica.”

“Then tell me what happened. How did you end up under the Gnomes’ control?”

Raphael’s expression shuttered. “Telling you that, more than a cold shower, will calm my lust.”

She joined him on the sofa, curling one leg beneath her. Raphael stared at the far wall. “I am a pureblood alpha and headed my own pack in northern New Mexico, near Chama. It was a small ranch, not as large as this, but we had cattle and sheep. Like J.J., ranching for me was a lifestyle, more than a business.”

“Your real business was creating video games.”

He nodded. “I have a knack for programming and the money allowed me to care for my people and give them comfortable lives. However, my brother Angelo grew envious of my wealth and my status as pack leader. He constantly complained my parents always sided with me, always favored me.”

Silence draped between them as Raphael stared at the far wall, as if remembering. He didn’t like family, she recalled. Pack was more important. And she suspected this was why he felt that way.

“Angelo felt cheated and angry because the usual succession is the alpha’s eldest son becomes the next pack leader. But our father realized Angelo had a crucial flaw. He was weak, and craved power for power’s sake. So Father appointed me as his heir to stabilize the pack as a temporary measure when he wished to retire. I created video games, brought income and increased our numbers, making our pack the strongest and largest in New Mexico. Father decided it was best I ruled permanently. Angelo was infuriated. I gave him much responsibility to make up for it, but it wasn’t enough. Then I caught him trying to seduce a Lupine I’d taken as a lover.”

Raphael’s expression grew stormy. “Britney was more than a casual lover. I threatened to throw him out. Our parents, whom I had brought over from Italy, insisted I honor blood before my pack. Family was everything. So I let it go.”

Staring down at the brown fabric of the couch, he stroked a finger over it. “Angelo eventually convinced me to take in a Lupine in need of shelter. It was autumn, growing colder, and the male was cold and hungry. I did not trust him, but my parents begged me to listen to Angelo, hoping to mend the rift between us. I did not realize this stranger would gain my brother’s trust. The male Lupine used the access code Angelo had given him to gain entrance to the lodge where my warriors slept. Then the stranger released an army of Changeling Gnomes. They can shift into inanimate objects and be carried in luggage, transported easily. The stranger released the Gnomes, and the Gnomes slaughtered my pack while they slept, including their mates and young. A few managed to escape.”

Jessica stared, feeling sick. “Oh my gods. You were set up. By your own brother.”

His mouth gave a cruel twist. “Angelo was promised power and to take over the pack by the stranger, but he was the first to die, along with my parents.”

Jessica put a hand on his forearm, feeling the tensile strength and the rigid tension in his muscles. “I’m so sorry, Raphael. You must have fought like a demon.”

He drew away. “I tried, but one alpha against more than two dozen Gnomes with teeth like a shark’s can do little. My beta, Graham, managed to kill several before he himself was killed. I was captured, locked inside a cage in an abandoned animal testing facility and tortured. Those of my pack who managed to flee did, and the ranch was burned to the ground.”

“How did you break free?”

Another twisted smile. “My captor left me for dead in the cage. I broke free, but would have died from thirst in the desert. J.J. was passing by and rescued me.”

He gave her a searching look. “That is the debt I owe J.J.”

“The Gnomes?”

“They left, along with my captor.” Raphael’s breathing grew ragged. “I have spent seven years searching for my captor. I did find the trail of the Gnomes and called upon Xavier, the Crystal Wizard, who rules over them. He locked them away in the demon prison. But every time I grew close to flushing out that bastard who directed them to kill my pack, he slipped away.”

Raphael fisted his hands. “I have vowed to never stop searching for him. My people deserve justice.”

Then he reached out, and fingered a lock of her hair. “He had the most unusual hair, the same color as yours. I’ve seen few Lupines with this color hair.”

As his fingers dropped, her stomach pitched. Jessica’s heart thudded hard. “I suppose there are others out there with the same hair color. Maybe this person who hurt you dyed his.”

“True.” Raphael’s jaw tensed as he stared at the wall, as if remembering. “I will never forget his face. He called himself Julius Caesar, but I will find him.”

She knew the answer before he even uttered it. “You sure about that? And what will you do if you find him?”

“Not if, little Red. When.” Raphael’s smile grew grim. “I will find him, and destroy him.”

Chapter 9

She’d sensed Raphael was a dangerous Lupine, a deadly wolf whom one never wanted to cross. But seeing this side of him, the honed edge of him that wanted to kill, made her nervous.

Jessica knew he’d caught her red-handed, but why was he willing to help her? Did it have to do with the red-headed man he sought to destroy? Maybe he was methodically going through every single red-headed male Lupine to eliminate the possibilities.

Instinct warned her against sharing any information with Raphael. Maybe it was better that the Lupine in the database had zapped them before Raphael dug deeper.

She had to keep secret any further information she uncovered from now on.

His delicious aroma of spices and pure male wound around her, a tendril of scent that held great allure. Perhaps he wanted something. Information. Information he’d seduce from her.

Raphael rolled a shoulder and walked over to the desk, studying the shattered laptop. “I can bypass the security system set up in the database. I’ll have to use another laptop. Perhaps the one J.J. bought for you.”

So can I.
She’d memorized the passwords and every move he’d made.

“When? Can we try now?”

He glanced at his watch. “I must return to the main house and supervise the delivery of the trailers for the rodeo. You’ve done enough work for today. You will accompany me back to the main house.”

Good. She could work alone. But Raphael caught her expression and shook his head.