Temptation Rising (17 page)

“I was drunk. Too much champagne.”

He growled. “Liar. You were aroused. Just as you are now.”

“You’re a jerk!”

“You’re addictive.”

Rome licked her neck, let his fingers drift farther until he touched the moist heat of her mound.

Her breathing was ragged. “Why are you doing this to me?”

Nipping at the soft skin at the nape of her neck, Rome closed his eyes to the sensations washing over him, the need, the hunger. It was bigger than anything he’d ever felt, consuming him with every second he was near her. His dick ached to be inside her, to claim her.

No!

No. Rome did not claim any female. He did not believe in the joining—the Elders’ philosophy of one true mate for every shifter. The desperate need and undying hunger they predicted when that mate was finally found were myths, something they’d made up to romanticize the dark sexual hunger of the shifter species.

Rome had that hunger. He had that darkness within him. It was living and breathing, coursing just beneath the surface every day of his life. His sexual cravings were tame compared with the majority of other shifters in the tribes. Still, they were darker than most humans were accustomed to. He felt that darkness swirling through him now, threatening to overtake him, to pour out onto this woman.

She moved slightly and his fingers slipped between her velvety folds.

“I don’t know why this is happening,” he admitted through clenched teeth. “It just won’t stop.”

He brushed over the tightened nub of her clit and she moaned, relaxing in his arms. Applying the slightest pressure, he toyed with the nub, loving the tiny sound of her muted cries in the otherwise silent room.

“I can’t stop touching you. Wanting you.”

“I don’t want this,” she whispered but parted her thighs ever so slightly in contradiction.

“You can’t help but want it. Neither of us can.”

“No.”

“It’s not going away.” It wasn’t, it was getting stronger.

Tracing his finger along the slickness of her vagina, he found her entrance, pressed one finger hungrily inside. She bucked, her head falling back onto his shoulder. Rome kissed the line of her neck, nipped her skin, pushed another finger inside her and moaned.

“I want you. Right here. Right now,” he growled, pressing his thick arousal into the crease of her bottom.

“No,” she sighed, her heart beating wildly. “No.”

Her words drowned in the sound of someone knocking at her door and Rome cursed. She pulled away from him then, glaring at him as she pulled her robe closed tighter.

“I’m saying no, Rome. And I want you to go. Now!”

“This is not over,” he whispered. “You can’t just will it to go away. I know, I’ve tried.”

“It is over! Despite what you’ve convinced yourself of I don’t want you touching me that way. It’s inappropriate. I want to keep my job.”

Rome rubbed a hand down his face. “Your job’s not in jeopardy. But your life may be.” The minute the words were out he regretted them. He hadn’t wanted to scare her. Fear would most likely lead to carelessness, and he couldn’t afford for her to be careless about her safety right now.

“What? Are you threatening me because I won’t sleep with you?”

He grit his teeth so hard his jaw almost cracked. “No. That’s not what I’m saying.” Rome took a deep breath, cursed again at the persistent knock at the door.

“I have to get that.”

“Who is it?”

She’d already walked past him toward the door. “If I said my boyfriend would that make you leave any quicker?” she said over her shoulder.

“Not at all. He’d be the one leaving,” Rome spoke as his cell vibrated on his hip.

“You’re an arrogant—” The rest of her remark was lost as he read the text message.

Rome looked up to see she’d opened the door. An older woman was standing there, holding a cat in her arms.

The cat spotted Rome and hissed, baring its teeth, arching its back in defense.

Kalina gasped, jumping back away from the door.

“Calm down, kitty,” the old woman crooned. “Kalina, she’s not going to bother you. I tell you that all the time. You’re probably scaring her.”

But Kalina wasn’t listening. She was already moving deeper into the apartment, putting the couch between her, the door, and the woman with the cat.

“Mrs. Gilbert. Ah, what can I do for you?”

“Kitty and I heard yelling,” the woman said, eyeing Rome suspiciously. “We wanted to come over and make sure you were all right.”

“I’m, ah,” Kalina stammered and looked at Rome. “I’m fine.”

Rome cleared his throat and took a step toward the door even though the cat was still hissing and narrowing green eyes at him. “Everything is just fine, ma’am. I was just leaving.”

“You were, huh?” the woman said, still giving him the stink eye. “Well, you go on and leave. I’ll just stay a few minutes.”

Rome gave her a tight smile as she stepped into the apartment and he stepped out. On his way the cat took a swipe at him with its small paw. Rome only glared at it a second before the cat shrank back into its owner’s arms.

“Oh my,” the woman said holding her cat closer.

“Have a good day,” he said. “I’ll see you soon, Kalina.” He looked at her one last time before turning and walking down the narrow hallway.

Again Kalina gasped. Not because of Mrs. Gilbert’s cat, but because Rome’s eyes didn’t seem the same.

“You should watch who you let in here,” Mrs. Gilbert was saying as she closed Kalina’s door. That cat of hers was still making noises but didn’t dare leave Mrs. Gilbert’s arms. Kalina kept her distance, her chest filling with an unfamiliar feeling. Not quite fear, but definitely anxiety, like something was about to happen, something she wasn’t sure was good or bad.

Chapter 11

“What’s so urgent I had to drop everything and come over here?” Rome had left Kalina’s apartment when all he’d wanted to do was drag her into that bedroom and drown himself in her for the next few hours, or days.

She’d definitely be safe in his arms. He wouldn’t have to worry about the Rogues or why they were hunting her in the first place. As long as she was with him, she’d be all right. And the reason that was so important to him, well, he didn’t have to think about that. Not right now.

They were in X’s condo, which looked exactly as it had the first day he’d moved in here. The furniture was dark, contemporary, and sparse. X always said he didn’t need anything but a bed, which he rarely used for reasons Rome still didn’t understand.

High ceilings and crisp white walls made everything they said echo as if they were in a huge auditorium. The floor-to-ceiling windows were fitted with custom-made room-darkening blinds that always stayed closed. The entire place made Rome feel like he was in a hospital or a morgue, it was so still and sterile. Watching X’s large body move through the place so mechanically only made the scene more dismal.

“I had a chance to scan that disk Bingham gave you at the party,” X began in a dour tone.

He immediately had Rome’s attention. Last night after their run-in with the Rogues and their recuperation at Rome’s place, Rome had given X the disk to run through the FBI’s virus program and spyware. He had most of the same technology on his home computers, but the FBI could also crack any encryption that may have been put on the disk. Besides, X had more experience with computers and such than Rome did. Whatever was on the disk, X would make sure it was clean and ready for Rome’s perusal.

The investigation into his parents’ murders had been a long-harbored vendetta for Rome. As his two closest friends, Nick and X had joined in the search a long time ago. The Assembly knew nothing about their quest. Dragging a hand down his face, Rome sighed. “What did you find?”

“Nothing traceable. It’s old, mid-1980s I’d say. The information was encrypted with a fairly simple code.”

“Did you break it?”

“You know he did,” Nick said, coming from the kitchen with a bottled beer in one hand. “There’s not a code in this world X can’t break. Which is truly baffling considering how little attention he paid in school.”

X didn’t even spare Nick a glance. It was old banter between the two. Nick had been a straight-A student, Rome following right behind him with only a few B’s sprinkled in for good measure. X, on the other hand, had never liked going to school, hated the confinement of the classrooms and stern teachers in their private school as well. It still amazed Rome that he’d entered law enforcement, landing solidly in the FBI, and seemed to enjoy it.

“I did, but I thought you’d like to be the first to go over the information. It looks like more journal entries from your father. I didn’t feel right reading them before you.” X moved to a wall that surprisingly held three photographs, black-and-whites of the mountains and oceans. They were crisp and simple, just like everything else in the apartment. But they were the only pieces that looked like they held some personal link to the man who lived here. Rome didn’t bother to ask X why. Each of them—the three shifters who had long ago forged an unbreakable bond—had secrets and demons. The best part of their relationship was that they knew when to leave well enough alone; they didn’t push one another, asking for answers the others couldn’t or weren’t willing to give. They simply accepted who they were and lived their lives accordingly. Not many could do that, especially not with the pasts they all shared.

Behind the middle portrait, the one with the huge plume of smoke spewing from a mountaintop, was a wall safe. X’s large fingers moved nimbly over the dial until there was a clicking sound and the door popped open. Reaching inside, he retrieved the disk and handed it to Rome.

For quiet seconds Rome just held it. Then he spoke. “Baxter said my father kept lots of journals. He had them all over the house, each pertaining to a different subject. His work at the corporation, his thoughts on the forest, his childhood. Whatever was in his mind he put into words on paper.” Looking down at the disk, he felt that a piece of his father was here, right in this room with them.

“This may give us more insight into what was going on with the meetings they were having,” X said, moving to the fully stocked bar in the corner.

Nick swallowed a swig of beer. “We already know what the meetings were about. They wanted to create some type of democracy, a government for shifters here in the States.”

“A judicial system,” Rome added.

Nick frowned, looking as if the paint on the walls held more appeal. “A system that wasn’t going to work because Rogues don’t give a shit about being democratic.” It was no secret that while Nick was all about helping Rome find the killers, he didn’t agree with what his parents as well as Rome’s were fighting for. Nick knew they were a separate species; he’d grown up experiencing that separation in one way or another so he’d never forget it. And he’d never feel easy about trying to mix with the humans.

“We have to start thinking along those lines, Nick,” Rome said, already knowing where this conversation would lead. But it didn’t matter. He was Faction Leader and it was up to him and the other FLs to come up with ways the shifters could better co-exist in this land. In the jungle it was fine for the tribes to hide, to take shelter beneath the thick canopy of the rain forest. But here, in the city, it didn’t make sense. If they wanted to live here, to build families and businesses, to prosper in this place, they needed to stand together. They weren’t fully human and they weren’t fully animal. They were different so it stood to reason that they needed a different type of government to protect their secret and ensure continuance of the race.

“I believe in creating our own government here, a hierarchy that will hear the differences and hopefully work them out without us fighting on the streets like animals.”

Nick chuckled. “Look around, Rome. We’re not the only ones fighting in the streets. These so-called humans are killing one another without any help or instigation from us. They’ve been shooting and fighting and dying on these streets long before we showed up.”

“But not by our kind. I know we can’t change their world, their ways, or their government. But we can monitor our own.”

“That’s naive,” Nick countered, finishing his beer and putting the bottle on the giant slab of marble that served as a coffee table.

“You sound like the Rogues,” X said quietly, rubbing a hand down the back of his bald head. “They don’t think we can act like anything but animals, either.”

The last of Nick’s semblance of control broke. It was a war within him. One side told him every day that they were different, tainted somehow. And the other—the one Rome and the other stateside shifters wanted him to see—insisted that even with their differences they could co-exist peacefully. It always saddened Rome to see his friend in this fight.

Nick stood quickly, glaring down at X as if he were ready to fight him. “Don’t fucking compare me to those pussies!”

X didn’t bother to stand but glared right back at Nick. “Then stop acting like a victim like them. Yeah, we’re a different species, so what? It’s time we move past that and make our mark on our own.”

Tempers were rising—well, Nick’s was. X was easily bated even though he and Nick had experienced their share of disagreements in the past. Rome, as always, was the peacekeeper.