Opal (Rare Gems Series Book 4) (7 page)

“
Mister Fleming? We’re finished.” Fletcher nodded and handed the cleaner an envelope. He had no idea what they did with the bodies they took from here weekly, sometimes nightly, and didn’t care so long as he didn’t have to deal with it. When Fletcher walked into his lair, he could see that someone had even made his bed. He was standing under the hot spray of his shower when something else occurred to him.

Blair Henson would know where he was.

~~~

Opal
wanted the building, more than she thought she’d want anything in the future, but there was no way she could afford it. When the realtor asked her if she wanted to see the upstairs apartment, she almost told him no, that she’d had enough suffering for one day, but nodded instead. What the hell, maybe someday, right?
Sure
, she thought,
and I’ll learn to fly
.

She was nearly to the top of the stairs behind the man when she had a sudden thought.
Could
she fly? Probably not. She had been studying up on being a vampire, and so far most of the things she’d read about were things she could also do as a wolf. They couldn’t fly either.

Just
that morning she’d tested to see if her wolf was still there, and when she had taken her, she ran for nearly two hours in the woods behind Sloan’s house just to be free. It had made her feel normal again, like the person she’d been before. A person who didn’t have to drink blood to live.

“
There are four rooms up here. The last owner used it as his office work site. I do believe that he has left behind a great deal of the equipment as well as some boards. We were going to toss them out when we cleaned up, but my secretary thought someone who bought the building may have use for them.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “Your sister said that you make a line of jewelry?”

“
Yes. I have a large selection of fine work.” She never really knew what to say to people about what she did, so she quoted the business line that her sister had put on her cards not long ago. Opal knew that she could go on for hours about a piece if someone asked her, but to tell them about what she did was hard for her. “Did my sister explain to you that I was only looking right now?”

He nodded and frowned.
She could almost see his mind working. No sale, no sale. She really didn’t know why Sapphire had set this up, but it was really nice to dream, she supposed. But after the mall…well, Sapphire might have thought a stroll for what she could have would help.

The equipment left behind was several large drawing boards, a huge desk that she would love to have her grandmother refinish
, and several long hardwood tables that she could have used now. But Opal only ran her fingers over the marred surfaces and wished she had the money. Maybe in a few years, she told herself, and wandered around the room for another ten minutes before she looked for the realtor. He was in the main part of the lower floor on his cell phone. When he closed it, she smiled at him.

“
I have two other buildings to look at after this. Not with your company but others.” She was babbling, and he nodded and frowned again. “Is there something wrong? I mean, if you’re upset about showing the building to someone who can’t afford it, I can understand, but I think it’s more than that, right?”

“
No. Yes. It’s just that…as the owner of this building, I just assumed that I was helping you with some renovations. I thought you needed me to make some recommendations as to what you needed. I think you have a good head on your shoulders and more than likely know better than I what you want. It was…I’m not sure why I was asked to come here and show you around, but as of early this morning, I was told that the building was in your name. However, I must confess, I didn’t know you as Opal Crane.”

The bastard
, she thought. Sloan had done this. She nodded once and told the realtor that she’d be out shortly and asked him if he’d give her a moment. He nodded again, then turned to her and handed her the key. He told her that it was hers and if she didn’t mind, he wanted to go back to work. She let him. What good would it do to take her anger out on him?

She thought about calling
Sloan. Telling him off would have given her so much pleasure, but not really much in the way of satisfaction. She wandered around the entire building again before she left. Sitting in her car, she wondered what the hell she was supposed to do now. Opal Crane indeed. She wanted to use a crane and drop him from it as soon as she saw him again. But as much as she knew that she wanted to hurt him, she also knew that she couldn’t.

Starting her car
, she made her way to her sister’s house. Everyone she knew would be out of the house and doing either their job or something that took them from the house. Opal drove directly to her little shop. Parking around back, she pulled out her keys and went inside. The sight and smell of it always made her feel just a little better.

She had
over three hundred orders to fill from the show in New Orleans. After making sure that her area was neat and orderly again, she had to place orders for more of the supplies that she’d sold out of, and some jewels and chain to finish others that she’d already started. Her boxes also needed to be unpacked and the contents put in their proper places. It was already becoming more and more difficult to have enough room to work and sort her things. When the orders she’d just placed started to come in, she was going to be hurting.

It was nearly one when she started on some of the orders.
She was just finishing up the first stack she’d pulled out when the door opened behind her. Opal figured it was one of her sisters and told them to hang on. But when her chair was jerked around, she shifted so quickly that her breath caught between her human and the wolf. The man standing there with his back pressed firmly against the door looked as startled as she was.
Sloan should know better than to startle a shifter
. She could have killed him.

“
I’ve been trying to reach you all day.” She growled low at Sloan. “You’ve been blocking me, and I was…Christ, you scared the shit out of me. Is that the way you normally meet someone? Like the mail guy? Do you shift like that when he knocks on the door to give you a letter?”

What do you want?
He nodded and pointed to the chair, and she nodded once. Her wolf was still pissy, and she wanted blood. But he sat down, put his hands on his knees, and stared at her
.
He was looking like he was as calm as they came, but she could feel his fear and wondered about it.
I asked you a question.

“
So you did. I’m simply waiting on my heart to beat at a normal pace and my entire body to…. Did you not like the building?”

Opal sat
down and tried her best to ignore him. There was something extremely appealing about him right now, and she couldn’t put her finger on it. Watching him carefully, she ignored his question as he had hers. But his laughter startled a low growl from her again, and she glared at him. “I was just thinking about something. And seeing that you didn’t strip down, I had a sudden thought. Are you naked? I mean, when you shift…I see your clothing and I can only assume that you’re naked. I don’t suppose I could persuade you to shift back to a woman and show me. I’d very much like to see you now.”

His voice was like a purr, a soft stroke across her skin. She yawned hugely and laid down. Of course
, he knew that she was naked. Like he said, her clothing was in shreds all over the floor. But when he stood up and began taking off his belt, she stood as well.

“
I can’t shift. I can do a great many things, but shifting isn’t one of them.” The belt hit the floor, and he opened the fly of his pants, then pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it on the belt. “Are you going to shift back for me, Opal? Are you going to go from that amazing wolf to human and let me lay you over this desk and eat you? I haven’t yet, you know, and the thought of tasting you has me as hard as stone.”

I want you to leave here.
He sat down and pulled his boots off one at a time and stacked them neatly by his clothes. Then he stood again.
I’m not in the mood for your crap today, Sloan. I have a ton of orders to do and you’re in my zone.

“
I’d rather be inside of you. Of course, we could go back to our house. I think taking you on the bed would be fun, but not nearly so much as eating you right here would be.” He stood before her, naked, now having taken off not just his pants but his boxers as well. She felt her body respond to him, and when he fisted his cock and moved slowly up and down it, Opal also knew that he could smell her. And as much as she disliked this man, he did give her incredible orgasms. But her wolf wanted him more than she wanted him the hell out of her life.

She moved along his legs
, and when Sloan moaned, her wolf growled low…not one of warning this time, but of pleasure. When he sat down again, his cock right at her level, she thought about licking him and decided that was just too weird. Instead, she licked his thigh and nearly cried out when he moved her face to his cock.

“
Just a lick. I want to feel you. Wrap that tongue around me and let me feel you. Taste me, Opal, please, I beg of you to taste me.” She lapped at his cock and wanted more. His body tasted of heaven. Her wolf moved to his thigh again, but instead of licking him, she sank her canines deep into his thigh and tasted his rich blood. Sloan sat very still after putting his large palm over her head just behind her ears.

Opal expected him to knock her away
, and try as she might, her wolf would not let him go. The harder she bit down the more he rubbed his hands through her fur. When she jerked her head, knowing that she was scarring him, he only growled a little but let her mark him.

As soon as she
’d had enough, her wolf let him and her go. Opal looked up at Sloan and into his pain-filled face, then at the wound she’d given him. She ran her fingers over the forming scar before looking at his face again.

“
I didn’t know she was going to do that.” He nodded but said nothing. “Are you pissed at her? At me? I really did try to make her stop.”

“
I know you did. And no, I’m not upset with either of you. She was marking me the same as I did you.” Opal nodded but didn’t move. “I want you. Now more than ever, I want you. Will you let me drink from you?”

“
Yes.” He lifted her up so that she was standing with him. Opal looked into his eyes to see if he truly wasn’t mad. She was nearly as tall as him, but she always felt so tiny when he was near her like this. His cock, full and hard, slid between her legs and she could feel him at her core.

“
Do you have any idea how terrified I was that I couldn’t reach you?” She shook her head and started to ask him why, but he continued first. “The thought that someone could have taken you, hurt you, made me insane. I never even thought to look here for you. But I was going to the woods behind this house when I saw your car. All sorts of things ran through my head, and when I saw you sitting there working, I never thought that you’d shift. Christ, you’re beautiful as a wolf, more so as a woman.”

“
You’d be rid of me then. If someone were to kill me. Wouldn’t you like that?” He paused and stared down at her for several seconds. “You don’t want me any more than I do you, right? I mean, wouldn’t that just simplify things for you if I were gone?”

“
I don’t want you to die.” She turned away from his words, but he pulled her back. “I don’t want you to die, Opal. I’m not even sure that I want to be apart from you for more than an hour. I need you.”

“
I know. You need me or you’ll die.” She moved away from him, and this time he let her. She sat up on her desk after moving back some of the smaller pieces. “But we both seem to enjoy the sex, and I like how you make me feel when I orgasm.”

Opal had never thought of herself as sexy
, wasn’t even sure how to look that way. But she knew that he wanted her, and sat back on the big table and spread her legs. As much as it embarrassed her, Sloan seemed to enjoy the view. She just hoped that no one came into the building right now.

“
I have to talk to you about what you just said. I really don’t want you to die. And it has little to nothing to do with having to feed from you.” She nodded and ran her fingers over her breast and felt her nipple tighten. She didn’t believe him. “Do it again. Pinch your nipple until it’s hard for me.”

“
I have a vibrator. I use it sometimes when I can’t sleep. It’s sort of satisfying. Not like when you make me come, but I do enjoy it.” He stepped closer to her and then pulled her chair to sit it between her legs. “I’ve never…I don’t know what to do when we do this. I know that you want me, but I’ve no idea what to do with myself when you do this to me.”

“
What do you mean, when I do this? You mean when I eat you?” She nodded. “You’re such a wild animal when we have sex, yet you can’t say to me—the man who has come deep inside of you—what you want when we have sex. I want to hear it. Please? You’re going to have to learn to tell me what you want. Say it for me, Opal. Tell me that you want me to eat your pussy until you come.”

She wanted to but felt her face heat. When she tried to close her legs, suddenly too embarrassed to be
sitting so exposed, he stilled her legs with his hands. Spreading them wider, he licked his lips and stared at her. As he moved his hands down her inner thighs to her ass, he spoke softly to her.